End of the Beginning

I started this art blog as an experiment. As I've stated before, I wanted to find other artists and maybe start a social thing with them and yada yada yada. Everything doesn't succeed, and this is one of those non succeeding things. So, my art blog as you know it is done. I'll just chalk this one up to a failed experiment. Nothing that I set out to do was accomplished...except for one goal. My purpose which is clearly stated in my profile, is to 'transform this beyond a hobby'. And I've done that.

Since I've been on different art forums and art pages, I've read what others have been doing and researched how they've gotten their exposure. I'm taking my art to the next level by starting and completing my graphic novel. I've found a publisher that is willing to distribute my work, just as long as its done in an orderly fashion....which is definitely great. My first 'book' that is going to be published is my unofficial sketch book and should be availble soon for purchase if any are interested. And then from there, my graphic novel will be published with hopefully many more works to follow.

It can't be stressed enough how much some of your encouraging words, and especially the ones from my girl have greatly helped. I was on the verge of shutting this site down and giving up hope and just go back to sketching in my book privately. But through here, I found an outlet, a publisher, and hopefully an audience. So I guess, you really do find yourself through failure...which doesn't make this a complete non success.

And because this is an 'art' blog, I felt obliged to share one of my quick sketches. This is of Venom from Spiderman, and took at around 20 minutes to do. Its all practice for the major product that's coming soon.


-Charles

As Quickly As It Starts...

You ever started something and then realized later that this isn't exactly what you thought it would be at all? Thats how I feel about this blog. I started it really because none of my artwork belonged on my social blog, so I thought I start a new one where I could meet other artists and network with them and talk about different things whether it be techniques, publishers or whatever. Turns out, thats not really how it works...

I've seen several professional artists on blogger, and I've been by their sites many times, commented, asking for help/feedback, and recieved absolutely nothing in return. I've been looking for social art rings and illustration/comic author rings to no avail. I've joined several art sites, including Deviant Art, which I realize only really caters to people who are a.) already professionals, b.) who draw nothing but fan art or c.) people who draw or photograph nude people. Thats it. There's no section there really for someone who's just looking for direction in finding what to do or how to meet other artists of similar backgrounds looking for the same thing. Someone suggested to me that I start my own social thing, but that takes ALOT of time, and I dont want to start something where it would be just me in it and no one else....cause that's not much different than this blog right now.

I mean, it started off good, but as I've noticed, I've had like only 7 different people visit my blog in like the last 2 weeks. Thats it. So, unfortunately, I think this little 'experiment' is coming to an end. In about 2 weeks time, I'm going to officially close this blog, as well as my memberships to other 'art sites'. It was a good idea, but lacked in just about everything. I'm not going to go back to posting my art on my other blog either, because it doesn't belong there...I'm just not posting it anymore. I'll still do it from time to time.

And with that said...I guess I'll post this. These are the steps that I went through to make my profile pic. Yeah, not to exciting. But enjoy anyway.



-Charles

The Works While They Were "In Progress"

I used to post my artwork on my other blog, but it didn't belong there...it just felt weird to talk about randomness, then post artwork, then talk about more randomness. And going through the archives of my blog, I found the rough drafts of some of the pictures I posted on here. I always post the finished (or close to finished) products up here, so I decided for a change of pace to post what they initially looked like before I actually finished them. Yeah, granted some of them are much further along in the finished stages than you probably wanted to see....but I'm kinda iffy about letting people see my stuff before its starting to come together. Oh, and I apologize for the resolution and picture quality. These were taken before I had a scanner...with a digital camera. And in the words of Erykah Badu: "Keep in mind that I'm an artist...and I'm sensitive about my shit...."


No Named Character

This is my anime inspired one that I posted a while back. I know that you're supposed to finish the penciling first before you finalize things, but I get impatient and want to see how it comes together. Plus when I'm inking, I find myself adding in alot of detail that wasn't there before. So here you can see that I basically have the head down, but I haven't added any detail at all to his chest (or the open 'scar'), and he doesn't even have a right hand.

Okay, now you can see that I added some more cables, outlined his left arm, added a right arm (finally!!) and inked his chest.

And the Final.


Ninja

Here is a picture of my ninja before I started adding the background. I initially was going to keep it like that, but it looked too basic for me.

And the 'Final'. You know, I pretty much uploaded it when it was 'complete', the only thing thats really different is that I decided to start adding a background...which isn't finished yet.


Spiderman

And here is my Spectacular Spiderman. I was still in the process of inking his right shoulder, and like the previous picture, I was going to leave it like that, but it looked a little too basic for me. So in the 'final' version of it, I added the webs in the back as well as the spiders within his web...and I think it came out better that way.

The Final. I think it looks much better with the webs and spiders.



Dragon

This one here is of my dragon. I was just doing the initial outlining. I knew I wanted to add scales to him, but I was trying to think of a way where I could do the illusion of him being covered in them without actually drawing them. Yeah...didn't work out that way and I had to do the whole thing.

And the Final. I actually made the dragon longer than what I was planning on doing at first, but it worked out. As you can see, I had to 'scale' the whole thing, plus do stippling for the wings so they didn't look flat in comparison. Also, I added spinal horns and gave him snake-like markings. This one, actually came out pretty well. Not 100%, but decent.



Transformers

And finally we come to one of my favorite ones...the Transformers. Looking back at it, alot of things went wrong in this picture. I'm not going to point them out though, because I don't want your eye to be focused on those. But as a whole, it came out decent enough.

I was fairly done with it. I still needed to ink alot of Optimus Prime and Galvatron's arm in the foreground. Galvatron's shoulder needed more detail as well...

Here, I added more detail to Optimus Prime so he didn't seem so 'flat'. I also added the Autobots insignia on his shoulder too as well as more detail to his chest. Oh, and the 'lens flare' to Galvatron's hand too.
'Final' Product.


-Charles

Wither Away

This is one of my newer, unfinished pictures. For some reason a little while ago, my drawing style shifted into pictures that actually have some meaning, other than just stuff I see and think to myself "hey, that looks like something that would be cool to draw". But recently, I had to go back to my old way of drawing, because my graphic novel would never get done.

So anyways, this is supposed to be a picture of a figure who's withering away, or eroding. His head is hollow, and you can see debris flowing freely from it because he's withering away due to alot of different reasons. And his hand (and shoulder) is also deterriorating and seeping up his arm until his whole existence will to go back to the form from which he orignally came. Deep huh? Also, I wanted to show that he has different levels and that he is made up of more complexities than from what you see with the naked eye, so I kinda drew him as an 'exploded view' of different puzzle pieces that all come together to make him whole. As for his head, you can see this pencil outline that I drew at the top that's supposed to go on his head, but I think I'm going to remove it because it doesn't flow with the rest of the picture.

Like I said, its a work in progress, so several things might change or be added when I'm actually done with it. I tried to use different techniques too...like stippling for the hand, shoulder and the debris from the head, as well as some simple comic metallic shading here and there. As always, uploaded through Picassa.


-Charles

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman!!

I love Spiderman (but I'm starting to hate the Spiderman movies...). Spiderman was the first comic book that I ever read...and I loved the artwork that was made my Eric Larsen when he had a brief stint as the artist for the comic. I thought even then that his style of Spiderman and how he drew him made him so cool looking. This is a picture of Spiderman that I drew a while ago and was contemplating on adding more of a background. But I think that if I did, the web would get lost in the lines somewhere, so perhaps later on.

Nothing too spectacular (terrible pun...) about the picture, other than this is the symbiote Spiderman, with his classic red and blue costume underneath. I was thinking about creating another Spiderman picture, but its still in the 'thinking' stage right now. The usual routine...Picassa..."I'm Feeling Lucky" blazay blazay.

I want to post newer things, but I can't as of right now, cause I'm using most of my free time doing sketches and prelims for my graphic novel. I'll definitely post some things on that when it gets more to a completed stage.



-Charles

The Return of the Ninja

This one of the early drawings in my sketch book. At first I just created the anime style ninja with no background, but it seemed rather flat to me, so I was going back to it and adding the background. The background I chose was a traditional japanese themed dojo set at night. I'm still working on it, and penciling it in whenever I have the chance, but since I have artist's ADD (or ADHD...whichever it is) I can't focus on one drawing at a time. And since that I'm starting the rough pencils and characters for my graphic novel, I really haven't had the time to go back to this one...but I will. Overall, I'm glad how it turned out...I made him muscular without him looking too beefy, which is usually what happens when I draw male figures. I don't draw too much anime stylized stuff...so this one was different for me.

As usual, uploaded through Picassa..."I'm Feeling Lucky"...the standard affair.

-Charles

Robots in Disguise

I used to love some Transformers. Scratch that...I still do. I remember back in the day I had the Constructocons who would all transform to this bigger robot, Devastator a-la Voltron...too damn hot. I wanted Starscream because something about his treacherous Brutus ways just gets me. Well anyways...

This picture is of Optimus Prime and Galvatron. And for those who are kinda low on the Transformers lore, Galvatron is the 'new' version of Megatron created by Unicron (okay the geekiness factor is starting to show...) Check the animated Transformers movie to get your game up. Anyways, I love both characters, so why not do a pic with them both in it? Even though 'technically' the picture isn't finished yet. I still have to do the shading on Galvatron's arm thats in the foreground, but I've just been too lazy to go back to it. I will though eventually. No stippling here, just using parallel lines for shading and all that jazz. This one took a while, and I think this was the picture that initially start killing my pens.


Well anyways...the one up top is the rough scan, the one below is the edited one compensating for exposure through Picassa with the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button....standard fare by now. If anyone knows of some good AFFORDABLE art software, please hit me up, it would be greatly appreciated.



**The two pictures in color are not my drawings, those were pics taken from the web**


-Charles

Pieces of a Man

This is a drawing in which I decided to draw more of a picture about something other than just figures in action poses and manga or something else like that. I had this one up as a banner on my other blog for a while until I decided that my pictures didn't belong there and I needed another avenue for my art.

This picture is supposed to depict that this guy, this man, is made of a bunch of little things that come together to define him. And that when you think you see all that makes him up, if you look closer, there are smaller pieces that make up the larger ones (which is supposed to be symbolized by the larger hexagonal piece above his hands). Also, just going about day to day things withers him away, which explains the 'erosion' effect and the hexagon pieces that are missing from his chest flying by his hand.

I used ALOT of stippling in this picture, and it took alot to get the hexagons just right, even though they didn't turn out that way. There are alot of places where I'm not happy how the whole thing turned out, but as a whole, it works. Anways...mechanical pencil, then .25 mm, .35 mm, and .5 mm pens were used. Picassa...'I'm Feeling Lucky'...you know the usual.



-Charles

Unleash the Dragon

This is a picture I drew a while back of a dragon. At the time I was going for a more Asian inspired dragon and less 'realistic', hence the stylized smoke coming from his mouth and flames...and the semi goatee thing he has going on. Don't really know why there's a goatee or why there are in eastern dragon depictions...but whatever...just threw it on anyway.

When I was finished with it, it looked rather plain, then I thought to myself, it would look cooler if he had scales....So I drew those on as well as the snake-like markings on his back. Then the wings looked awkwardly drab, so I stippled them to give them at least a little texture. I think all things considered, I was happy how it turned out. And the usual...Picassa...'I'm Feeling Lucky'...but this time, I resized it so it won't be as big. For one, it took a while to upload the other pics, and two, it should be easier to see the whole thing while still being large enough to see detail.


-Charles

The Notebook Sketch

I remember drawing this in 2nd year during one of my most boring-est classes. I used to sit right up front in Digital Logic Design, and doodle and sketch in the front cover of my notebook. I used to draw faces of the people in my class, my professor making funny faces, and this picture right here. In hindsight, I should've been paying more attention in class...maybe I would've gotten higher than a C+. But anyways...its just a picture of a comic book-like figure...nothing special...and definitely nothing on the level of some of these professional's blogs I've been looking at as of late, which made me even question why I'm posting my amateur stuff at all...but that's something for another day.

Nothing really major worth noting about this picture...except the 'original' which I drew in my notebook, was done entirely in ball point pen and I feel came out looking better than this one did. No pencil sketching first, just straight Bic pen...and I feel it lost a little something when I tried to copy it a little bit to my 'official' sketch book.

Oh, and as always...uploaded through Picassa, the 'I'm Feeling Lucky'...you know the drill by now.

One of My First Completed Works

Well, that title isn't true really...I've completed alot of drawings before this one from conceptual to completion, but this is the first one that I did when I actually started to take drawing seriously.



The picture is supposed to be this character that I made up (I was thinking about using him for a project I was doing, but later scrapped the whole idea) who's supposed to be a cyborg kind of...which explains the mechanical hand and his chest cut open to reveal that he's metal underneath. Its kind of anime inspired a little, I was watching some anime movie and was surprised at all the intricate animation and detail, and then this picture just popped into my head.

I first started out with the pencils to get the basic idea, from the outlines to where I kind of wanted the picture to go. Then I drew the basic outline of the body using a .35 mm pen just to give thickness to the outline. And for the intricate details, I used a .25 mm pen. All of the hair was done with the .25 mm and I used it for the shading as well on the right 'metallic' hand and chest plate. Not many other techniques I think were really used, unless you want to count the 'quasi stippling' I did close to the left hand. And for those that don't know, stippling is a technique that is used to create pictures or images using dots or short strokes. I was just playing around with it here, but in my later drawings, I used it for shading and texture, and it made things more intricate. And as always, I used Picasa to scan my pictures and edited it just a tad, by making the picture slightly darker to adjust for my scanner's tendency to wash pictures out.



Materials Used:

• Acid free, medium weight, lightly textured 50% recycled sketch paper
• #2 0.7 mm BIC mechanical pencil
• 0.35 mm art pen
• 0.25 mm art pen
  
• Picasa 3

-Charles

Charles's D'avid

I drew this picture in like 25 minutes, so that's why it looks a little rough. I've decided to do different drawing techniques other than just pen and ink.

This picture I call D'avid, sorta a take on Michelangelo's David...except he's african american. Well anyways, I know David is a statue...a full body statue at that minus the arms, but I can't sculpt. And I was going to draw it full body, but I know some people are uptight about art and nudity. 'Ewww...why is he drawing naked people??' And for the record, drawing naked people has no say on their sexual orientation, its just that the human body is drawn all the time and considered to be a great specimen to sketch, male or female.

Anyways...I drew a rough outline first, then shaded in everything else. I need to work on my muscilature, because I don't want to make every male figure I draw look like a gladiator.

Materials Used:

• Acid free, medium weight, lightly textured 50% recycled sketch paper
• #2 0.7 mm BIC mechanical pencil
• Picasa 3

I think at the moment, I still prefer pen and ink, because they take longer and I can do so much more with it.

Self Portrait Pt. 2

So, I finished the self portrait. I'm actually kind of happy how it turned out, especially considering that I haven't done a realistic drawing of a person in quite some time. I still have shading work to do if I want to get back to how I used to be. I'm not a fan of charcoals, but I guess I could learn to incorporate other forms of markings in my art other than just pencil. So, the first pic is the raw pic without Picasa retouch.

The same materials were used as I previously mentioned. I went back over a couple of lines and shadows to make them more pronounced. Even though I'm not a fan of the technique, I did do some very light smearing using my drawing hand to kind of mesh the pencil marks together so they don't look as obvious. And the final product kind of makes me look like a criminal you see on TV when the police do their composite sketches.


I also used the same Picasa technique as before, clicking the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button, which pretty much evens everything out and makes the sketch look darker. I would love to draw more faces and ultimately full figures, because I know I'll get tired of drawing myself soon, but the influx of people willing to model is relatively zero to none. Well whatever, so is the life of an aspiring artist.


-Charles

Self Portrait

So, if I want to officially start a new art blog, then that means I can't slack at all when it comes to my drawing, sketching, or whatever. Recently I found an art book that I had back in high school that I've used maybe 5 times. So, I decided to use that one for all of the rough sketches that I plan on doing and creating for the time being.

I decided to do a self portrait, sort of. Most of the drawings that I do are just in pen and ink, so people don't think I can draw realistically at all...they just think I do comics, anime, or other stylistic stuff. Well, fact of the matter is, I started out doing shading with pencils, then working my way up to still life, then people...it wasn't until I started using color that my focus changed....and then I found out about inking. Well, anyways, I'm a little rusty at this, so I decided to do a quick sketch to see how rusty I really am.

Clicking on the picture will show it at increased resolution. I also did a little photo manipulation in Picasa. I just clicked the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button, and it auto-adjusted everything for me...aka, darkened it a little. The first pic is the raw scan, the second, the manipulated one.

Materials Used:

• Acid free, medium weight, lightly textured 50% recycled sketch paper
• #2 0.7 mm BIC mechanical pencil
• Picasa 3

I know its not 'pure' to do a drawing of this nature with a mechanical pencil, but that's just what I had available.

Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions in the comments section.

-Charles