Expanding outwards

I was pretty happy to have met 100 pageviews on my blog already after a just over a week of posting. I've been drawing more and more lately, though it's mainly in the form of crappy doodles, but it's still practise and that's what matters! Every aspiring artist should learn to continuously draw, no matter what gets at them.

I've kind of realised that I draw too many people standing in the same pose. I focus more on the character themselves than on their posture or how they sit, how their fingers sit, what they do with their feet, etc. I feel I gotta push from this box. I did a quick speed paint tonight, took me maybe an hour, an hour and a half? I did redo it once but this time, I focused less on the characters and more on where the characters were:

This is meant to be two characters, Oakley and her brother Michael (I didn't pick this name, it's part of a roleplay about the rise and fall of Atlantis I'm in with a bunch of people). In this situation and context, the worst has happened and they are floating away from the aftermath in which Atlantis is burning. Every Atlantean has a power, where Oakley's is her armour and Michael's is multi-vision (he can see in multiple sights, such as x-ray vision, heat-sensory vision, night vision, etc) but each power has a consequence. Michael's is eventual blindness from his normal sight and Oakley's is loss of memory and identity. In this picture, I imagine both character's have overused their powers and they've started to feel the sting; Michael's eyes are white and he cannot see Oakley properly and she cannot remember who or where she is. I kind of liked the sketch, so I decided to colour it. 

I was a little irked to stick it in during the day but I wasn't confident enough to play with dark colours to get the night effect. And I'm not good with ocean to begin with. But, I think I did pretty okay for a speed paint. 

Next time, I want to go all out with a background. Perhaps set it indoors, focus more on a book shelf or a bed. I'm not sure, but I just want to break free from this comfort zone and surprise myself!

And to celebrate my 100 pageviews milestone, let's include some small paints that I had saved on my computer!

To the left is meant to be a steampunked version of Simon from Gurren Lagann, something I never plan on finishing (it was for an art competition that I never entered). To the right is an old character of a friend that I haven't drawn in a long time.