Ballpoint Sketches and Weblog Awards

First and foremost...this blog has been nominated for 2011's Black Weblog Awards! Whoever nominated me, thank you sooooo much and please leave a comment so I can know who nominated me. I'm nominated for Best Gaming and/or Comic Blog of 2011. Please, take like 2 minutes out of your day to vote for the Illuminate Darkness Experiment (its like on the 2nd page) right here. This is my first nomination, and I want to make sure that I do it right and hopefully come out on top!!

I haven't really been doing a lot of 'sketching' really as of late. I used to do it all the time back in school during lectures...or group meetings....or whenever I was just stumped taking tests. Bad student...bad, bad student. I still got my A's and B's though. Anyways, here's the first sketch that I did, with a standard Bic ballpoint pen. I call this one "Music to My Melody":


This next one is of an Egyptian Goddess chilling in the Nile....or somewhere around there. And yes I know that her tattoo isn't Egyptian inspired (more like aztec inspired), but I liked it and decided to roll with it:


I swear, someone at Bic should really give me a lifetime supply of ballpoint pens considering how often I run through those.
Always gotta keep that pencil moving....or pen in this case.


Without Wax,

Ballpoint Madness!!

With me doing my webcomic more often than doing anything else, I kinda hoped that my other art wouldn't suffer since I wouldn't be concentrating on it as much. But that doesn't mean that I still can't sketch and keep that pencil pen busy. So with that said, here are a couple of sketches that I've recently done in the past couple of days. And as always, clicking on the pictures will allow you to see them in higher resolution.

Dr. Doom:


Boba Fett:


Venom:


Green Lantern:



In other 'webcomic' news, I was informed earlier this week that my comic Redux Deluxe has yet again been rejected to join another webcomic community/collection/network/whatever else. The reason I got this time was that "Redux Deluxe is not currently what we are looking for in a webcomic". I'm not going to be judgmental about other comics that apparently they are interested in, so I'll leave it at that. All I can say is that this is only making me strive to make Redux Deluxe even better than what I originally conceived. But it means absolutely NOTHING if no one reads it. So please, take a second to drop by my little webcomic, add it to your RSS feeds or subscribe to it, and vote for it so that others can see what everyone else has been passing up on. Thanks for the support!!


Without Wax,

What I've Been Up To

Its kinda hard to keep up with my promise to myself to draw more often...but I have...I really have, promise. Its just that what I've been drawing recently doesn't look like much of anything. I think for a while, I'm going to take a long break from doing huge drawings and illustrations and concentrate on much smaller ones. That way I can do more, practice more, and just get more done. And now that my excuse is out of the way...

I don't have much of anything new to show. But since I knew that was going to happen, I started to color one of my older drawings using some new techniques and stuff that I've picked up from here and there. And right now, I just started, so it probably doesn't look like much, but hopefully this practice will pay off once I start using what I know and applying it to newer stuff.

You may remember this picture from a couple of months ago...its the Captain America that I did using a ball point pen. I want this to look kinda old and weathered, so we'll see if that works out when its done...if not, oh well, no harm in trying I guess.

Ballpoints and WebComics

First off, let me apologize for that piss poor previous blog post. I've been extremely lazy lately when it comes to blogging. The whole point of this blog was to meet other artists and chronicle my progression, but if I don't blog about it...then what's the point? With that said...onto some new drawings!!

This first one was done for a drawoff. The topic was Captain America and the medium was ballpoint pens only. I love drawing with ballpoint pens cause it gives a texture that pencils just don't. The BAD thing about it though, is that pens (Bic pens anyway) tend to blot when you use it for extensive amounts of time...and it gets very messy and can mess up your drawing if you aren't too careful. It happened twice on this picture, and I left it alone before it happened again. The shading technique I used is crosshatching...which basically is the only shading technique I use with ballpoints.



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This next topic is important to me though. I've decided I'm going to restart my webcomic, Redux Deluxe. I know like only 3 people read the few strips I had before, but hopefully now I can get alot more people to actually take like 3 minutes out of their day to check it out. Its about this kid named CJ who has to move because his parents got new jobs in another state. And its about him meeting new friends, transitioning and learning life lessons...yada yada yada. I decided to make this for two reasons...one, because I love the idea of webcomics. Its great, and some people (very few) actually make their living off of successful webcomics.

And secondly, there is a distinct LACK of webcomics geared toward minorities. And when I say LACK...I can count on one hand how many I know of, with two fingers held down. Yeah, its that serious. I mean, if there can be all these webcomics about videogames, drinking, college humor and all of that, we can at least have a few more good ones that represent minorities. And it was for that reason alone that mine isn't going to have vulgarities and profanities in it. And if it does have profane language, it will definitely be masked so its still appropriate. So please, if you have the time, click on my link on the right for Redux Deluxe, or click this link provided: Click Me!!



I really hope to have this updated regularly with once a week at first then up to twice a week. Please read, support, leave comments, tell your friends, and all that jazz!!! Much appreciated!

Snuggle Bear

I had to tweak my blogger template a little (read:I made a completely new template that resembles my old one very closely) because I kept getting BX errors everytime I tried to move and adjust something on my blog. So, hopefully, this one will be much cleaner and easier to work with, but there's still alot of kinks that I'm working out.

You all know the Snuggle Bear right? You don't? Well, this should help...


Well, I just made a random sketch a while ago of this skeleton in a cloak hoodie thing, and I wanted something to spice the picture up with because it was looking rather boring, and out came this. Disturbing and crude I know. The sketch was done with a Bic ball point pen using crosshatching, and then I just did some things to it digitally just to add to it.

Here's the original sketch:
And here it is again with some digital tweaking:


I'm not happy at how the bear came out, I might go back over it with stippling, but hey...it is a sketch, and its not supposed to be perfect.

This is what happens when I'm bored and there's a pen and paper lying around...

Deluxe My Redux Please!!

Some of you know that I had a short stint as a webcomic artist for my own comic, Redux Deluxe!. Well, unfortunately, it ran into a little road block and had to be put on a hiatus, but I will return to it and make it better than what I had previously intended. If you're not familiar with the story (which frankly, no one is really) its about this 10 year old named CJ who has to up and move from his neighborhood and school to a new neighborhood because his dad got a new job. And basically it just chronicles his adjustment, the relationship he has with his parents, his crazy ass neighbors and people he goes to school with, and much much more (that end part sounded cheesy as hell...). This is a sketch I did for a rough of the cast that I wanted to create, and many of the characters are bound to change. This otherwise probably wouldn't have seen the light of day, so I decided to post it here.


Oh, and if you want to check out the comic site, please do so. Its located here:

Sketch Dump

I haven't really been posting artwork lately all that much, mostly because I've been working on some other things, art projects, and writing code for website layouts. Fun stuff, huh? Anyways, since I really haven't posted anything art-wise recently other than my MLK sketch, I thought I'd stop by with a quick art dump of the random stuff I've been sketching as of late. All the drawings were done with a normal Bic ball point pen...and most of them were done in my brand new sketch book which was so graciously supplied to me by the best girlfriend in the world. Hope you enjoy...and as always, clicking on the pictures makes them bigger.


And this is the full promo poster that I made for a project that I'm working on...thought I'd might as well post that too...



And here is another picture of characters from that project.

Free At Last...

"An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sketch done with a Bic pen using crosshatching.

-Charles

Coming Soon...

I've been slightly frustrated as of late with artwork...and I was going to take a brief hiatus from drawing, when something dawned on me. An idea jumped into my head, and it just 'clicked'. I can't say specifics as of yet, because its still a work in progress and in the planning and development stage, but I'll definitely let you know when things are up and running. But until then, you get the teaser for the promo...

1up to the Next Level...

So...I've been busy coming up with new sketches and doing research and yada yada...and somewhere in there I found time to learn how to use this open source painting program. The more I use it, the better I get...which makes that picture in my last post and my avatar look so...I dunno....juvenile in comparison. I've been trying to learn different techniques and getting better at it, as well as drawing so that its conducive to being edited digitally.

So, this first picture is a picture that I was drawing for someone really special. At first, I was going to just draw it and leave it in just black and white in pen, but then I thought "I could do so much more with it...and really take my time with it and make it a million times better...", so thats what I'm doing. I thought about not posting it....but instead, I'm not going to post the final version which has ALOT more going on.

So, here's the initial ink that I was going to give her:

And here's the digitally colored version:

Much better right??

This next one was a sketch done with a Bic ball point pen that I did and was going to leave it at just a sketch...but then decided that I could make it look better than a sketch with color. I kind of like the sketch too because of the simplicity of it.
And here's the colored version:

And finally, here's another picture that I'm working on. I call him Mr. O'Lantern...or Jack on a first name basis. I just drew it to draw something that I normally don't draw, and as an excuse to test out new techniques and stuff. Its closer to final than the version I've posted, but I just want to post the whole thing when its 100% done:

Or if you're really impatient, you can get a preview in my blog banner. ^^^ I guess I can post the steps for that one, cause even though it looks rather simple, alot of thought went into it.



-Charles

Analog in a Digital World

Its no secret that all of my pictures and artwork are done strictly by hand. I thought that was cool, and it had this 'old school' traditional feel to it. Then I've been to several other artists' blogs and seen their drawings on different internet forums and sites, and just about everyone was using Photoshop, Adobe this, Illustrator that...and all of these computer programs that really enhance their artwork. And by comparison, mine all looked so unfinished, amateurish, and just mediocre. But, unfortunately since I'm just 'starting out' in this art thing, I don't have damn near +$700 to drop on an editing program. Then I did some research and came across an open source program called Gimp....

Its cool, not very user friendly at first (cause it doesn't tell you ANYTHING) but after doing some research, and playing with it until almost complete meltdown and angry confusion and irritation (thanks babe for putting up with me) I made some sense out of it. I colored my blog avatar, which was black and white at first. Yeah....that's cool....still looks plain...and then I decided to move on up...

This here is a sketch I did with a Bic ball point pen (my new favorite sketching tool...get on it!!). I was content at just leaving it at a sketch and moving on. I thought it looked fine the way it was, but it could look better. So, let me take you through the art process...

Looks cool right? Yeah, I think I got a handle on crosshatching too...since I started doing it, like what....3 sketches ago? This was one of the pieces that I was gonna put in my sketch book. I thought about doing nudes, but I think I'm gonna stay away from that for now...maybe in the (crossing fingers if successful) next sketch book.
Here, I started coloring it...very sloppily too might I add. Color combo looks cool...diggin the blue swim suit...
And here I cleaned it up a little bit. Liking the color combination, and added the background. Looking good...but it looks really really flat and dull...like clip art...
I went a little crazy with the bathing suit, but I like how it turned out. I just gave it a light blue light reflection and a purple undertone so the bathing suit doesn't look as flat and gives it some character. It looks...pearlescent. Thats the word I was looking for. The skin is still looking flat though...
Here, I added some skin shadows and lights. The contrast between them is very stark though.
Here, I shaded the highlights of the skin to make them look more smooth, and added purple-ish tones to her hair to make it stand out more and fit the color pattern. The background looks flat, but its cool. This isn't the final version though...the final went to my Girl who was very patient with me, and so I gave her the very best version which isn't posted here. Why isn't it posted? Cause it would loose its 'specialness' if everyone saw it, thats why. But you get this version though...

In this one, I overlayed the original sketch over it to darken the lines again so it would stand out. I think the final makes the sketch version look so pale and boring in comparison.

Now that I'm sorta familiar with the coloring process now (this was officially my second coloring, the avatar was the first...), I think I might color alot more of my artwork.


This taught me two valuable lessons...
1.) Drawing with a mouse is fucking hard, and I don't like it AT ALL
2.) I need a Wacom tablet ASAP

...guess I'm not looking too amateurish now though, huh....



-Charles