For years I've been drawing fantasy creatures and so I have done a few more sketches of classic fantasy creatures like werewolves and vampires and am also part way through drawing a medusa drawing, which I need to ink it and complete it, so that I can scan it into the computer and colour it with some fantastic layers from Photoshop or maybe Gimp, I haven't decided yet.
Right now I am still focusing my efforts on some of my graphic novel pages and ideas for new pages, so that I can tie it all together and I'll show some sketches another day for that. but right now, lets take a look at some of my current fantasy creature sketches.
Now I haven't quite got my scanner working at the current time, but when I do, the drawings will look better, but for now, I've had to use my web cam and you can't fit all the sketch in fram, so I've tried to show you a couple of different parts of the sketches below, first up is werewolf head that I sketched and inked, I just wanted the side profile view, so that I could try and practice the long nosed dog like head of a werewolf, I think it turned out well, better with more practice.
Now, the other thing I did that I was quite pleased with was sketching a gargoyle and that was on the spur of the moment, after someone requested it on my youtube channel one day, so I quickly sketched a Gargoyle drawing and it looked ok and I sketched it in the typical crouching pose that we remember from the gargoyle statues that adorn many buildings around the world, I do have a gargoyle drawing tutorial planned, so look out for it.
I took 4 web cam photos of some of the parts of the sketch that I couldn't take a shot of all in one, so you see the following parts of the gargoyle a bit closer now....
Medusa is a classic greek monster that I always used to draw back as a kid after seeing Ray Harryhausens Clash of the Titans, always loved his stop motion creatures as I always tried to draw them. Medusa here has all the elements of the 70's Clash of the Titans that I wanted to keep, just have to finish off the inking, so that I could scan it in the computer for some cool computer colouring, this is not the first Medusa drawing I've done and it won't be the last as I've had a few requests to do a drawing tutorial, so I may opt for either a video one or one right here with the step by step pictures.
Again I've done 4 web cam shots to show all the parts, such as the head and the serpent like body with the classic rattle snake tail end, so you can see the main Medusa design elements I wanted to achieve.
I may show an update in the future about these drawings and any drawing tutorials that I come up with.
Also I'm trying to set up a mailing list so that you can sign up and be made aware of any blog updates such as new drawing tutorials and also a free ebook which you can download and read, I'm aiming for the angle of the ebook to inspire artists with fantasy art, I'll keep you posted!
The last week has been a movie madness week where we rent some movies and even buy the odd DVD that looks interesting, but since I am an artistic type I can't watch a movie straight without having to get my sketchbook at the ready to sketch some ideas down and with the movie Avatar I was certainly inspired to draw some quick creatures and other sketches and this does mean that I have to watch the film a second time and force myself not to draw and sketch whilst trying to follow the movies story and visuals.
Sometimes what I sketch may be just random ideas and other times I am inspired by the films so much that I find myself sketching and not taking any notice of the movie at all and my wife says "well there's always another time to watch it" and I think yeah I'll buy the damn DVD so that I can watch it when I don't get the buzz for some sketching.
There are only 2 examples that I will show you of my quick sketching time and the first one below is almost like an alien sketch with the claws as the hands, I'd almost thought of making them wings but the pencil had a mind of it's own and decided on making them just arms with a one claw on each.
The lower body was inspired by some kind of insect, so you can tell that my mind wandered whilst watching Avatar, because there wasn't any insects really in that movie, but that's the beauty of being inspired to draw, it allows you to draw what you want and let your imagination take over.
Another sketch I did was this Spider sketch, I was fascinated by the smooth alien markings on the Na'vi skin and the riding beasts almost like horses and thought what if a spider had a smooth shell like surface on it's back, although I didn't get to the inking and the colour stage I already have the purple and blue colours in mind that will blend together, I'll have to finish it to show you what I envisioned with it.
Spiders are quite easy to draw once you know that they usually have eight legs and a fat hairy body, you can pretty much do anything with them design wise, make the legs longer and more bonier, add ridges on it's body, hell you could even sketch in some wings.
I'd recommend trying to sketch whilst watching a good movie or after watching one, it's really up to you, but quite often it's the Sci-fi and Fantasy movies that really inspire you to draw some cool ideas and concepts.
I'm starting to day on this blog with a journal of the things that I am drawing and sketching and so I thought I would try and show a few sketches and other drawings that are currently works in progress that I have decided to try and finish, today marks the day that /I take this blog seriously and start to publish at least a new post every single day for the rest of my life.
Now on with the daily journal....
Sketches are my best ways of getting my ideas down, but also to get a feel for what I want my fantasy worlds to look like and to also get things in order to show on this blog....
Right the esketches below are works in progress and some are still a bit sketchy, so here goes....I used my cheapo digital camera, so you can see a slight blur on some, oh well, next time I'll fire up my scanner and scan em in.
This one is sort of how I wanted it to be, a demon creature appearing out of the mind of a young girl, don't know why or how, but it looked cool when I drew it, I hope to use this as a cover to another comic book project that I have in the works, the trouble is I've got lots of big and small graphic novel projects going on that I am finding it hard to concentrate on them all, must focus on one project at a time eh?
This pencil and ink drawing sketch was just a random demon creature as most times I get obssessed with drawing tentacles and other weird creature parts, that look quite cool when you draw them in contrast with an almost humanoid type body. Heavily inspired by some of the Resident Evil creatures here with this one so who knows how I might re-draw it and re-design the idea.
A Flaming Skull art concept sketch that I am developing for another project which involves a lot of skulls, interestingly enough I haven't done much shading lately with my art and I used to excel in it, so I'll do a
shading tutorial soon on how to shade effectively and that should be a good blog post.
One of the things that I always think about when I'm sketching everyday is that everything should be archived and used, because if you don't use a piece of art for anything then why draw it in the first place? I like to draw the best possible ideas and I always try to think how I could use them, if not now, but in the future for some new project.
Any ideas on what I could show you how to draw, go on request a drawing lesson and see what I can come up with.
Working hard on a couple of childrens books, to which I will not reveal the characters or any sketches at this point until I'm near enough publishing the thing, but it's a classic childrens book, one of them is for under fives which will be minimal words, but more emphasis on the pictures and that art that will tell the story more, I've often been interested in making a childrens book and until recently I thought I couldn't do it, but there is such things as self publishing on great publish on demand sites such as Cafepress, Lulu and Creataspace to name a few that I thought yeah just go for it.
I suppose the last few years I've been fooling myself into thinking that I have to have a normal job, but that hasn't made me happy at all, you've got to have dreams to aim for in life because we are all on a short life lease if you think about it, average age expectancy is around 70 years, but anything could happen in between that time, so do things now to try and do the things that you want to achieve in life and don't worry about rejection and all that scared to get up in front of other people nonsense and shout what you're doing. Just get on with it and see if it works, that's my motto now!
The other projects that I am still trying to get together are a couple of graphic novels and these are coming along slowly, mainly because I am a perfectionist in the art of graphic novel creation and plus I do want to colour them too which will take more time, I did plan to have one of them published by the end of March, but that didn't materialize so I'll just say watch this space....
The above web cam screen shot is of a fantasy world castle scene that I did for a three part drawing video lesson series on how to draw a fantasy world, it is intended as the first part of a three part series on drawing different fantasy scenes and you can view the full article here - Draw Fantasy Worlds with the 3 videos to see how it turned out.
Also if you do read this blog regularly when I update it that is! you'll know that I've increased my Youtube drawing video output as I now do them every week, around four to five or maybe more videos a week, that will hopefull inspire you to draw your own fantasy art stuff and I still welcome video requests, in fact I'll put them to the front of the queue to create, because I'd like to help out with any drawing problems or just to make a video that will inspire you to draw something of your own.
Lastly I would like to know if any of you have drawing projects that you are working on, that you wouldn't mind letting us know of, it'll be nice to know that I'm not alone trying to break into the world of fantasy with my own books and stuff, you can leave your comments below and I look forward to your replies.
Drawing a fantasy creature I did three drawing videos and so here I want to expand on it with more thoughts on the drawing process together with the videos. Drawing a fantasy creature is as much about tapping into your imagination as it is about seeing other artists work and gaing some moments of inspiration from them.
The videos below are in three stages of a drawing, first sketch, development sketch and almost final pencil sketch, the thing to remember when drawing naything is that you draw in stages,nothing should be directly drawn in detail at the beginning, because you should really get into the habit of planning a drawing first and seeing where it goes.
So the first video - First sketch is about laying the foundation of the drawing and seeing if it will work, I like this stage of drawing very much because, you can see how you're drawing and also you are building up the key elements of the art and that to me can be done with quick sketching or a more focused approach. The whole idea of drawing something is so that you'll be happy with the results and that you yourself drew it and can be proud of it, so plan your sketches out and if that means sketching small draft sketches on a scrap of paper beforehand then do so.
Often when I do these videos I'd prefer you to follow drawing them or really just watch to see how you draw them, because when I talk over the drawing process, it's hard to convey my thoughts all in one 3 to 4 minute video, the idea with the first sketch is like a sculpture, building a wire frame of the drawing and you go from there....
Watch the starting video....
Video 1 - Fantasy Creature Drawing
Now the second stage of the drawing process,the development sketch is really to work with what you've got and build upon the previous sketch, I prefer to darkenpencil lines and strengthen the figures or the form and structure of the creature so that I have a clear balance of the creature.
In this second drawing step I usually fill in some more details of the creature, such as muscles and other lines to suggest more muscle form and even other details like skin folds and creases and a slight bit of shading, once this step has been completed, the next part is to shade in the key areas that you want and make the drawing look more clearer.
Watch the second video...
Video 2 - Developing The Creature Drawing
In the last drawing video of drawing a fantasy creature we have to define the creatures form even further by adding shading and darkening the pencil lines even more and I did this sparingly as I didn't want to overwhelm the creature art too much with huge dark areas, you could do what you want with your creature art, but I preferred to have some sort of light source, even though the creature was probably in a darksewer as suggested by the water surround it, almost like it's just emerged from the filthy sewage water.
At the end of the video I'm happy with the result, although it's not a prefecly finished and polished piece of pencil art, the idea is there for finishing another day...
Watch the last video....
Video 3 - Creature Shading
I hope this drawing lesson/tutorial helped you in drawing your own fantasy creatures.
Any other drawing tutorial requests I'd be happy to help?
Sketchfu is an online software program tool that you can draw some cool stuff online and share it with other people, while it is almost Microsoft Paint basic, it does have a special use that I like about it, and that's to sketch quick random notes or ideas online and share them with people who care.
When I said basic, don't be put off by this, because there are some fantastic examples of Sketchfu and some of them are real masterpieces in their own right, take this Avatar sketchfu, which is just amazing, best to watch it at it's highest speed of 256. Sketchfu has certain given me a real interest in this program as before I'd orginally dismissed it as a basic Microsoft paint program, but what you can do is build up layers of colour to almost sculpt and build piece of artwork and that to me is truly amazing from a free program.
I highly recommend you check out this free drawing software tool, Sketchfu is amazing and while you are there, take a look at others art, it's excellent!
When you're bored, drawing is the best time for your creativity to come out of hiding, because being bored means you have the time or else you wouldn't have got bored in the first place, so if you are at work, then ditch it for an hour and start to draw, lets face it, if your work or real life job bores you, then drawing seems like the better option.
So what do you want to draw? you could draw anything that pops into your head, a fantasy creature,a fairy or a knight in shining armour, it's up to you to entertain yourself whilst sketching away at your desk, so start with what you really like to draw first and work backwards into what you have trouble drawing, trust me this is a great idea as you start off drawing what you are familiar with, you can then start to draw with your beginners confidence on your difficult subjects.
I tend to have trouble drawing imaginary details on swords and shields and that's why I heavily plan intricate designs out well in advance, so that when it comes to drawing the permanent pencil lines in, it looks right, that's the way of the ninja artist!
Also instead of using your imagination, why not use your surroundings as inspiration and start to sketch what you can see, this is a good option as you can draw anything in your room or house that seems like a good idea, I like to draw wooden things like chairs and unites, because often there is the wood grain which I love to draw and have fun with that,similar to drawing trees with all the bark that is like sketching random lines of flaky bark.
The people around you or on a walk about is another great idea, quick sketching like this can really be a boost to your artistic skills, as you are drawing from life you can pick up great body poses and stuff from life that is happening and in a daily motion captured forever in your sketchbook.
Drawing when you are bored can happen any day, not just at work, at home is an ideal option, because you are relaxed and in a comfortable surrounding (usually) I tend to chill out and watch a movie with a sketchpad on my knee to capture and ideas or even listen to some music that will help give my sketches energy and jazz up some new ideas on the paper.
Try drawing when you are bored and see what results you can generate, you'll be surprised at what drawings you can achieve when you put your mind to it.
