I've only just begun to draw with pen and ink, so there aren't many pictures here at the moment. More to come, I promise.
11/25/01 - Dave - One more picture of Dave Grishin. The photograph I used for reference was of Brendan Fraser in the September 2000 issue of GQ Magazine. I'm not thrilled with the right-hand side of his face, but overall he's not too bad. 10k.
Peter Xiang - I realized, about three or four weeks into my Mage game, that I'd used the Wade-Giles romanization of my character's name (Hsiang Ho). This was mostly because I'd pulled his family name from Larry Gonick's rendition of the founding of the Han dynasty, and Gonick spelled it that way; unfortunately, that's really not the best way to go about rendering Chinese names into the Roman alphabet. When I started trying to put together Ho's brother, my brain clicked over into Hanyu pinyin... oh, well. Meet Xiang Yu, more commonly known as Peter Xiang. Ho's older brother, youngest judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 13k.
12/1/01 - The Progress Of A Work - One of the reasons why I took so darn long to start drawing in pen is because I take forever to draw anything halfway decent in pencil. If I manage to pull that feat off, I get reluctant to cover it in ink. Yesterday I started on another picture of Yu, with his brother in it. The initial pencil attempt .... did not work. I scanned it to show a friend to ask for advice, and wound up improving it, scanning each step of the way. There's still more than a few problems, but considering that the original was a Hennessy ad in GQ, I think I did fairly well adapting. Here, have a look if you like:
The crummy initial pencils, 11k.
The revised pencils, 19k.
Final pencils, 24k.
The inked version, 34k.
Just so you know: I am never doing a patterned couch again without some form of electronic or mechanical assistance.
1/7/02 - Aunt Hua - Ho doesn't just have an older brother, he's got a whole family. Sooner or later they'll all show up on the Characters Page, but right now they'll have to settle for ink appearances one at a time. This one's his father's second sister, Hua, who had the acute misfortune to be my test subject when I got a new set of Rapidograph pens. Her hair will not thank me for it. 44k.
Uncle Fang - Another of Ho's relatives. This one is his father's youngest brother, the family reprobate, Uncle Fang. Also known as Victor Xiang when the occasion calls for it. 57k. Oh, and speaking of Fang...
The Sproglet Pictures! I'm afraid I went on a minor manga kick since Christmas 2001. Given what I know of Fang's personal history, he seemed the most logical character to practice on. Here's some shots of Fang as a wee sproglet. They're my initial attempts at mimicking manga style. You Have Been Warned.
Young Fang - Due to one thing and another,
Fang wound up being put forward as a possible student of the Beijing School
of Opera at the age of fourteen. The whole process was immensely unnerving,
as far as he was concerned.
One - How could you not trust a face like this?
Two - Please oh please oh please tell
me I didn't just say that about the interviewer's daughter. . .
Three - Ow! Dad! Quit it! I said I was
sorry!
Four - Aw, I didn't really wanna stay in Beijing
anyway. . . now if Mom would just stop crying. . .
And, because I have been busy but not necessarily improving to any great degree, here is a headshot of Fang as an adult. Plus my first (very) clumsy attempts at colouring such an image. The headshot is 8k, and the colour figure is 42k.
1/12/02 - Mounted Archer Not everything on the ink page is a character of some kind. Here we have a pottery archer on horseback; the original sculpture dates from the Han dynasty. There was no bow left with the sculpture, more's the pity. 27k.
1/18/02 - Oops. Even busier! For the record, The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression, by Gary Faigin, is a true wonder of Western civilization. I spent some time combining it with How To Draw Manga tonight. As usual, Fang is the subject. His hair seems to have mutated with age and translation to a new format. Oh well. For your edification, a few moods:
The Happy Smile
The Spooked Smile - to really fit in properly with
manga art, there ought to be a sweat bead on this, but I'm not going that far
yet
The Ingratiating Smile - aka The Smile for the Immigration
Officer, or possibly The Smile of a Man who is Wearing Giant Green Contact Lenses
In An Effort To Look Kawaii and is Therefore About To Develop A Migraine
I Know Something You Don't Know
Cough Medicine
Bwah? - Oh, come on. YOU come up with a better caption
for this one.
1/20/02 - Scribbles! I have a tendency to scribble in my notebooks in class, especially when it's a class I don't enjoy. This is just stuff from a recent class of mine, done in the margins of my notebook, plus one attempt at an ElfQuest MU* character design - an ancient Go-Back named Tovi. They're from 2001. (I'm serious about this being scribbles.)
One (10k)
Two (9k)
Three (15k)
Four (6k)
Tovi (23k)
Temper, Temper - I have absolutely no idea where this image came from. It's definitely Fang. It might be something to do with an idea I'd had about one of his previous incarnations, but honestly, I'm not sure. 29k.
1/26/02 - Another colour experiment. Today we show what happens when Fang's first date in his new country gets canceled. The big version is 47k, the small version 19k. Make yer modem happy either way.
1/31/02 - Lunge - Sometimes you just have to give up on knowing why and draw what comes to you. The original was a Jhane Barnes ad in November 2001's GQ magazine. This is. . . well, obviously it's related to the Temper, Temper image, but . . . I didn't know where that one came from either. Just have a look. The black and white version is 29k, the colour one 30k.
2/2/02 - Wet - Another attempt at the manga look. This time, Fang got rained on. 29k.
2/9/02 - Fall - Inspired by a tennis player in the 4 Feb. 2002 issue of Sports Illustrated. I like to think I'm getting better with the colouring. 32k.
3/4/02 - Grin - I didn't bother with colouring this time. I was trying to get one of Fang's favourite facial expressions right. My impressions on this one alternate between 'oooh, you nailed it' and 'honey, the Ugly Art Fairy sneaked in while you were inking and stole your original picture'. 8k.
4/8/02 - Uh-huh - I was at FilkOntario 2002 this year and fell to sketching while other people were singing. (Not a filker, can't really sing, was visiting friends.) This is one of the pictures. Those of you familiar with Fang may have heard a comment or two on my part about Spandex and Fang's fondness for it ever since he discovered the bike shop. Unfortunately, our lad not only discovered Spandex, but Spider-Man at the same time. 33k.
Strictly speaking, these should probably have a page of their own, but right now there's only two. New pages will happen later. These are the beginnings of my experiments in Chinese brush painting, thanks to a gift my parents gave me - Chinese Brush Painting: A Beginner's Guide. I desperately need an instructor, because right now all I have is that book and a postcard of one of Xu Beihong's paintings on a hanging scroll in the Smithsonian Institution's Sackler Gallery.
The book said that it's considered acceptable to begin learning by copying the work of a master, so I really do hope you'll forgive me for, well, copying that postcard. While this one looks awfully like the painting The Emperor's Colt, it's a different painting altogether - the one in the Smithsonian is simply titled 'A Horse', and there are other differences. Mine, however, is only a poor imitation. 31k.
There is also this one, which I did because the book suggested that it it would be a good thing to practice traditional subjects like bamboo as well as working from the images of other painters. 39k.
Pencils Gallery -
Pulp Survival List - Proof That I
Am Insane
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