Sketchdump 10-21-11

So I basically wore myself out and didn't realize it until now. I took a legitimate (or as some hacks would say, legit-o-mite) week off, if you didn't know. Not that I'm known for taking vacations anyway, this holiday was still different from all others that I can remember in recent years. And by that I mean, with my books finished, and my convention schedule clear, I did precisely jack.

No sketching. No writing. No nothing. Just sat around and collected my thoughts. And only then did I come up with some of the things I've got to share, here:



When I finally did want to do some drawing, I found that I couldn't... It was too hard. So Matt suggested I draw a trombone. And then some other people suggested I draw the ferrets. The above are my best attempts at both, working only from memory. Hey, you try to get a trombone and a pair of ferrets to stand still long enough for a decent portrait... I dare you.



Then I thought I'd draw my hero, Charles, being dead. Actually, I started this when Brendon said, "Hi guys, no more show. Going on tour now. Seeya bros!" and only this week went back to finishing it.



Then, because I haven't stirred up any controversy lately, I played off of some research I'd done on the Occupation of Denmark during World War II, and drew Caj in a Nazi uniform. Not sure if I'll be using the story that I came up with for this image come January, but it's a good possibility.



And then, playing off of the Disney sketches I'd been doing of Nita for the animation I've been working on during my free hours (wait, what free hours?), I thought I'd switch gears from my would-be Baen-Shee book to my would-be Book II of VARULV, and throw some of the attributes of that style into Keni, in the image above. I very much like the results...



And here's just a quick sketch of Keni's "werekitty" form. I watch way too much Thundercats. Shut up.



Similar experimentation with the rest of my VARULV cast produced equally good results. Kjell and Stig looked the best in my first attempts to modify the style in which I could potentially be drawing them. I keep these two sketches and their accompanying notes handy in my workspace, to use as reference.



More modified breakdowns. Male/female head models again tweaked with a slightly Disney-esque style, or at least, some things I've taken away from doing animation in the style again.



Nita sketch. Warmup for...



This was actually mostly done in ink. Kate got me some pens for my birthday and I had to try them out this morning... now I'm itching to go to Michael's and pick up some fine brushes to test the liquid pencils Matt got me, and perhaps add shading to this.

Vacation's over, but it's been good to take a break... even when it comes to the creative stuff I love to do. So now there's really nothing for me to do except get my ass back to work..!