Life Drawing

The local art groups decided to get together and offer art classes for the local communities of Kings County, N.S. Tonight they sponsored a life drawing class and I got to attend. There was such a good response that they're thinking of making this a regular thing. Let's hope so, I can really use the practice. I did 8 hours a week of life drawing at college and my art skills went down hill quickly when I graduated. I've greatly improved since then and it was a great joy to find that I took to life drawing like a fish to water.

It took a few tries to get back into the swing of things, so I'll spare you the warm-up drawings, but here are the rest of the sketches that I did.

This was a 5 minute pose that I drew too quickly. The waist is too long but overall it's not bad
I switched to a 3B pencil and it adversely affected the line quality. That blob on her shoulder is supose to be her right hand
I switched to a charcoal stick and filled the whole page on this one. There is some distortion caused from scanning the image in two parts and putting them together in Photoshop. The image on the left is a quick sketch I did with a 2B pencil


This time the woman was lying directly opposite me, causing a lot of foreshortening. I just couldn't get the hand right, so I started over again. The second time (on the right) I did the hand first and then fit everything around that. Still not perfect but it looks much better.

We switched to a 10 minute pose and the instructor put a strong light on the subject. This is the best of all the sketches since I had the time to do it right.

The final sketch of the night was a 15 minute pose with a strong light like the last one, but it didn't come out as well. The odd angle of the left leg threw me off a bit. This was also a fill page drawing and combining the two haves in PS once more distorted the image a bit.

I drew a small thumbnail in the corner before drawing the full size image but I should have paid more attention to the anatomy. Getting the pose right in the thumbnail can help you to avoid mistakes in the finished drawing. I'll have to be more careful next time.

Well, that was my first life drawing class in 5 years. Not bad for being so out of practice. I hope they'll keep this going. I'll let you know if and when we have another session.

LBG vs NNN 6

I'm continuing to redefine my art as I do each page. There are many background elements I could have done without for the rough draft, but I felt they added something to the art. Do you like seeing the semi-finished art or should I go back to the very rough blue pencil drawings?

I guess the nun decided it was a better idea to call her friends then to fight alone; unfortunately for the biker girls. However, it will take time for her friends to arrive and the biker girls just need to get through that door. Can she fight them off now that she's thrown away her weapon?

LBG vs NNN 5

I seem to be adding more detail to the characters, but these are still quick sketches. The character designs aren't finalized, so they will likely look different as the comic progresses.

One of the advantages of doing the whole comic rough first is that you can develop your art style and the look of the characters as you go along and then go back to the beginning and use what you learned when putting in more detail. The art will therefore be more consistent throughout instead of changing from beginning to end as it does in my regular webcomic.

LBG vs NNN 4

I though I'd make it easier to see the art by using a black pencil. The lines need to be blue when doing a sketch so you can redraw over the lines easier, but for now you can see my rough sketches.

Up until now the Biker Girls have been dominating the encounter, but that is about to change as they need to deal with the first Ninja Nun. However it is three to one (4 to 1 if you count the traitor) and they're riding motor bikes. All the nun has is a broom.

Check out this video of a Nunja fighting off attackers with just a rake. Maybe the fight is not was one sided as it seems.

LBG vs NNN page 2 & 3

I did two pages today. In page 2 we are introduced to the Mother Superior while on page 3, the abbey is under attack. I wanted to get into the action right away without much exposition. I'm not sure how much exposition you really need but some people like to have some context in which to set the scene.
Let me know what you think of the story so far and if you want more background for the story. Readers of this blog will get more information then anyone else so consider yourself special for reading this.

Sketch of page 1

Here are the pencils for page one. It's in blue-line to make it easier to ink. I can send someone the full-size version if you want to ink it. I'm going to do a bunch of sketches before I finalize anything.

Comment below if you have any suggestions or questions.

LBG vs NNN project

Here are a few character sketches for my new comic project, "The Lesbian Biker Girls verses the Nighty Ninja Nuns" (LBG vs NNN)




This idea just popped into my head as most ideas do, but for some reason it hit home harder then some of my other ideas. The story reminds me of "Macho Women with Guns", a pen and Paper RPG from the early 90's, so I'm going to use that source material as background for the story.

The story is set in an alternate future where most of the male population has died off and the women have taken control of what's left of society. The few men that are left are of low intelligence and lacking in moral-fiber, which is a problem for the woman.

Understandably, lesbianism is common place now, but still frowned upon by the Church. The Macho women who have taken control and the religious groups who want to restore order to the world are constantly at odds, which is where my story comes in. My graphic novel will deal with one of the many conflicts that take place all over the world in this time period.

I plan on drawing the roughs over the next month or so, and see that happens after that. If anyone wants to help ink or color the pages let me know. I would like to be able to publish this book and any help getting it done would be welcome.

Social Media

Today it's all about easy to digest content and socialization. Blogs and Twitter allow you to get the message out about what you are doing. Facebook allows you to create fan clubs that people can join and comment on your material. YouTube can show people what you are up to. Actions speak louder then words, so a visual presentation is more powerful then just writing about it.

If you want people to support your activities, you need to join the conversation. Go to where people are instead of hoping they come to you. People are very cynical these days and money is tight. People need to know you and understand what you're about. You Tube is a good way to get your face out to the world and show some of the projects your working on. Social activities like Blogging and Twitter allow you to talk to people in a comfortable environment. TalkShoe is great for talking directly to a lot of people at the same time (you can use it like a party line that anyone in the world can join).

People have been so bombarded by ads that they just tune them out. You need to advertise in a more friendly open method these days so people can feel comfortable with your message. Shouting and shoving things in peoples' faces just doesn't cut it any more. It's a brave new world out there and you need to embrace it or be left behind. The choice is yours.

Comments For the ARW Epilogue

And so it ends where it began. Hopefully that will give everyone closure on the story. Sad to see it end but I'm on to bigger and better things now.

I used a few picture references when drawing these panels as you can probably tell. I wanted this page to look nice since it will be the first page people see on the site from now on. I may change it in the future but that won't be for a long time.

I used a real cat to draw Racheal's eyes in the last panel. I worked on them until they looked natural. I think I made them too natural looking. I'm worried that people can't even tell they are cat's eyes now.

I guess it's time to say good bye - but not for long. I hope you'll all come visit me over at my new webcomic, http://www.dungeonlegacy.com I'll be blogging there along with the comic, so no more loading in a separate page just to read the blog. The Comic will have it's grand opening on September 1, 2008, so come join me then.

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Comments For ARW Page 500

It's all over except for the epilogue. A weird ending to a weird comic.

I'm not sure if it's clear, but in the third panel Racheal has reduced her hand to the size of a cat paw in order to get it under the eye lid. Once there, she enlarged it again and extended her claws; destroying the eye and the creature.

It was kind of fun redesigning the characters as they return to the way they used to be before wearing the tokens. Ann is going to suffer the most since she's lost her power to fly. New recruits like Slara, Racheal, and 'bunny' will be happy to return to normal.

There will be an epilogue on Wednesday and then this comic will close for good. Despite the huge number of people coming to view the comic in the last fer weeks, only a couple of people (and maybe it's all the same person) had anything bad to say about it. Not that anyone had anything good to say, most of them were pretty quiet.

Note that the comic is being hosted on a new site because the old server was over loaded. I'll keep this site as a mirror site. I'll switch over completely when my old site account dies. No need to pay for a site that's hosting a dead comic.

Comments For ARW Page 499

Is this the end? Well, Monday is the last comic, so it's going to end one way or the other. Whether it's a happy ending or a sad ending is the real question.

I think I did a pretty good job with the posing on this page. I like how Racheal is slumped in Ann's arms in the second panel.

Ann finally gets to kiss Racheal. She's probably been waiting a long time for this. Too bad it might be a goodbye kiss.

Hard to believe ARW is ending soon. After working on this for over three years, I'm finally ending the story and moving on to other things. I hope my next story will have a more general appeal then this one.

ARW is about being weird and doing whatever I want. Dungeon Legacy will be about writing a good story and telling it through pictures. I'll do what I can to do things right this time.

Comments For ARW Page 498

Out of the frying pan and into the elemental creature. Racheal just can't get a break. There is only two pages left to this story. Is everything going to end badly? Find out on Friday.

I'm not sure it really works to put a translucent water elemental over a gray background. You can see it clear enough but it doesn't really stand out from the background.

Horese is being absorbed by the creature in panel three. Is that clear or does she look like a slug or something? I tried to do something weird looking but I'm not sure it worked.

I found out why page 497 didn't work. I ran out of memory. Only three pages short of finishing the comic and I run out of memory. What are the odds. Fortunately there were a few pictures I could downsize (I don't know why I uploaded them so big in the first place). There should be enough room to finish the comic now.

I've been doing crafts with 6-12 year olds this week. It's hard to keep the young ones occupied while keeping the older ones in control. It helps that most of them are girls and thus interested in doing crafts. The boys tend to just want to get it done and move on. There is one boy in the group that is creative and a couple of girls that are not, so there are exceptions on both sides.

Comments For ARW Page 497

Oh no!, Not Racheal. Anyone but Racheal. How is she going to get out of this one? Oh, well the comic is ending but it can't end with Racheal's death, can it. Check Wednesday's page to find out.

I really wanted this battle to be more chaotic but I didn't want to spend a lot of time drawing a bunch of characters that were just there for dressing. Oh well, the story's moving forward at least.

Didn't really do anything special today. Kept the page simple and got it done quickly. I don't want this comic to go out on a whimper so I'll try to do better on the next page where the battle really ramps up.

I'm having a problem getting the page for 497 to work, not sure what the problem is. I'll try again in the morning.

Comments For ARW Page 496

And so the final battle begins. Who will live and who will die? We will soon find out because the casualties will begin Monday.

With all the background details and multiple characters in the last panel, I though I wouldn't be able to get this page done until later in the day but I managed to sketch it fairly quickly and kept the details simple.

It's hard to make different sized characters look right in perspective. For example, Ann is much bigger the Brihena and so looks closer to the camera even thought they are almost beside each other.

Still working on the 30 Day challenge, which involves creating interesting content on the web. My new blog is at http://howdraweyes.qarf.com It's all about looking at the details when drawing, starting with the eyes. I'll try to put up content when I can, at least once a week. I really want to improve my art style and this project should help me do that.

Comments For ARW Page 495

Racheal seems to be the only one who is enjoying herself. Why does she get the easy job? What is she doing any way? She is actually trying to tear through a wall of paper to get to the other side. Only a cat would do something like that.

More gaming goodness. Georgena is searching though the mud for a key, Bunny is doing some platform hopping, and Wanda is pulling a chain to activate a switch or open a door. What a weird collection of ideas.

After doing all those multi-character panels, these one character per panel pages are easy to draw. Even though this is the first time I've drawn these characters in full animal form, the drawing went fairly quickly. It took a while to get Wanda's perspective right as I'm not used to drawing a 3/4 overhead view of an animal. I had to break the design into basic shapes and try to figure out the perspective that way. I still don't think I got it quite right, but it's better then it was.

Someone mentioned my comic on Something Awful in passing on Saturday and I got over 800 hits in one day. So far I've been getting over 100 hits a day. Someone else said they loved how weird my comic was (yeah, a positive comment at last) and I got another 400 hits yesterday. Great, my comic is becoming popular just when it's about to end. Hopefully people will want to see my new comic and I'll be able to build an audience there.

Dungeon Legacy is a much better concept then ARW but not as weird; although, I'm thinking of adding some weirdness, can't have it getting too dull or predictable. I'll be starting on Dungeon Legacy full time starting September 1, 2008. I was hoping to get more pages up before ARW ended but I was really struggling to get organized. I should have some time over the next couple of weeks to finalize the story before September. I'm going to start by improving my art style.

I've started a new blog at How Draw Eyes, which is designed to practice the little details like eyes that can really improve the overall look of your characters. The name comes from the fact that many people don't bother typing "to" when searching for an article on how to draw eyes. Unlike many articles of this type, I'll be looking at all aspects of design not just the ones I personally favor. If you're interested in learning to draw or improving your own art style, give How Draw Eyes a look. There isn't much there yet but I'll be updating the site over the next few days and in the weeks ahead.

Comments For ARW Page 494

That's eight girls down, four more to go. I wonder what challenge Racheal is facing? Can't be worse that what anyone else is facing, can it?

If any readers are gamers they will likely get some of the references in the panels. I'm sure many people have come across those annoying block puzzles in one game or another.

Brihena is more goat then ram in this picture. The better to break the walls down. This is the first time you get to see her in full animal mode.

Slara would probably do better in full monkey mode but since she was the last to change, it will be some time before she'll have control over her powers, that's assuming she even survives the confrontation ahead.

A may need to do page 501 as an epilogue so that people know what happens to the survivors. I need to give some closure to the story.

I'm going to try to get a nice wallpaper done today and offer it to anyone who donates $2 or more. I really need to start making some money.

Comments For ARW Page 493

The girls are on their way. What other crazy challenges are they going to have to face? Each challenge is designed so that only that girl's special abilities will allow them to make it through.

I thought all these complex backgrounds would take a long time to draw, but this page was finished much quicker then expected.

The blades in the third panel are designed to allow a small rodent to run around them but a snake would be cut in half and a bird couldn't dodge around them.

The rod in the forth panel requires someone who can grip it tightly and the hole is too small to fly into.

The air tube requires someone who's small and agile enough to fly through the holes as they are pushed through the tunnel.

The Sequential Artist's Pub is tonight at 10 PM EST. I'm going to try to call in on the Shoe phone and hope that I can get a clear connection. The connection has been bad in the past but if I shut down everything on my computer except the talkshoe window I should be able to get a clear connection. It should be an interesting talk if they use the discussion topics that have been suggested so far.

Comments For ARW Page 492

Horese is jumping hurtles. What trials with the others face in their respective tunnels? I'll just say that each trial will be based on each girls individual powers.

Since there is only one character per panel (except panel 3 which has two) I had more room to work on the design of the characters. I like how kat-rin looks almost as good on the page as she looks in my head. I really surprise myself sometimes. I've always wanted to be able to draw the images I have in my head and now I can. Wow!

Panel 4 is designed to show how small Horese has gotten. She now has a smaller pony/colt-like body and the background expands around her, showing her loneliness and isolation. At least thats the effect I was going for.

I like Horese's curves in panel 5. Sometimes the pen just moves the right way when I keep it loose. She is also in mid-transformation which is interesting as well.

In panel 6 those red/orange hurtles are rising out of the floor requiring someone who is fast and a high jumper. There is also suppose to be a barrier coming down from the ceiling to prevent anyone flying over the hurtles (i.e. Penny). I thought about that when I designed the challenge but I forgot to draw it in.

The next few pages will show the girls moving toward the center chamber and then the big fight will begin on page 496. You don't want to miss it.

Comments For ARW Page 491

Seems that the girls aren't so indestructible after all, but what about the tokens themselves? They must have survived somehow or the twelve wouldn't be around today.

I put in a few different versions of the girls in this page since these are the precursors to the current lineup (except for Horese, of course). I kept the colors the same so it would be easy to see who's who, but there is no reason they would look the same at all other then having the same base animal.

I wanted to show what happens when the girls are hit by the creature but I didn't have the time to figure it out. I'll do a better job when the girls fight the creature in the present.

I created this picture for the Art and Story Big Contest. The idea was to hand draw a cartoon using three random news headlines and three random items. The panel boxes were only 2x2" which added to the difficulty of designing the page. I had some fun with this even though it was a challenge.

My news stories were:

New evidence of danger to the atmosphere
Writer completes game show history book
Ukrainian leader poisoned

The items were:

A Coffee cup
A Club
A Space Shuttle

Comments For ARW Page 490

The token war? Is that when people throw game pieces at each other? Somehow, I don't think so. I suspect the weapons used were a lot deadlier then that.

I put a lot of work in the first panel, but not so much in the others. The backgrounds in the middle panels are just gradient fills. Since this is a flashback, I figured I didn't need a real background. The idea was to just show what was going on. I didn't have a background in mind anyway.

Notice the two holes in the wall in the first panel. I wonder what those are for. All will be explained soon.

The 30 day challenge starts today. This is a marketing challenge where you try to sell a product on the Internet in 30 days. Every day you learn something new about marketing and by the end of the 30 days you'll have a much better idea of how to sell to people on the Internet. Even if you don't make a sale, you'll still learn a lot of valuable tips that will help you in the future.