This is a sketch I finished yesterday, to practice making stone textures in pen. I feel like I somewhat succeeded, but I still need to practice illustrating depth. For example: that sculpture of the goddess is supposed to be sitting in a recess in the wall. I don’t feel like I did a good enough job of showing how deep the recess is. It could be fixed with tones, though, probably.
Oh, let me explain what this sketch is showing:
Jamie Roberts, the figure in the foreground, is approaching the entrance to the abandoned temple/city of Kinyaht. Kinyaht is entirely underground except for the entrance, which is covered in sculptures of the Goddess.
In their mythology, the Goddess created the World, and when people and creatures die, they return to an otherworld called The Way. In this mythology, the easiest way to get to The Way is through caves and going underground, so some people got together and built Kinyaht, an underground temple.
By the time Jamie and her friends find this temple entrance, though, it’s revealed that no one has been in Kinyaht for over 500 years…
I’m looking forward to developing this environment further, and practicing more backgrounds, landscapes, and environments. It’s something I want to get better at.
Thank you for reading! I’ll see you tomorrow with a new post.
Earlier this week, I updated my blog with the following warm-up sketch:
I then looked at it and went, “Man, I need to practice more variety in body shapes and types!”
That prompted me to sketch THIS:
Her name is Galileya. She’s an agent of a super secret organization that destroys planets and does other intergalactic missions. I want to write a story about her and her coworker, Agent Sinclair:
Agents Sinclair and Galileya
The problem is I have no story for them that has anything resembling a plot. So they’re still a work in progress.
Back to this week.
After I drew Galileya, I was like, “But man, I need to practice drawing things that aren’t people! What can I draw?”
Well, one morning my cat was on my bed, grooming herself. So I got out my sketch pad and my ink brush, and got to work:
That was tricky to do, since she kept moving on me.
I should probably just wait until she holds still, like this:
BUT EVEN THAT IS FLEETING BECAUSE CATS DO WHATEVER THEY WANT.
So I went, “Dude, I gotta practice drawing things that hold still! But I’ve drawn most of the objects around me twenty times. What’s new on Pinterest that I can use as a reference?”
I found this image:
If you took this picture, please let me know so I can give you credit!
And I went, “PERFECT! I need to practice landscapes so I don’t have crap that looks like this”:
So I took the reference image above and drew this (with some artistic license in rendering certain things):
I still want to practice landscapes and environments, though. Because
a) It would make my current comics projects even better, and
b) the projects I have in mind for the future are sci-fi/fantasy works that require a LOT of visual development and technical know-how, which I don’t have a lot of yet.
So what do you draw for practice? Let me know in the comments below! And if we keep the conversation going, I think we can find new things for us to practice drawing so we don’t get too comfortable.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.
P.S. I actually drew MORE than this stuff this week, but those other sketches are exclusive to Patreon subscribers only. If you’re interested in supporting what I do, go to Patreon! There are tipping plans for as little as $1 a month.
Also, I am aware that the Patreon page is under Christian Beranek’s name. It’s our joint effort under the umbrella of Validation. Any money raised there is split evenly between the both of us so we can both keep producing the comic.
If you want to go the more direct route or support my other work, there’s also a tip jar over at Johnson & Sir‘s page.
