On Gnomes

FANTASY CHARACTERS used to be my forte in high school. I moved away from them in college since the art classes I took encouraged practice by drawing life studies. I hope that I can apply what I learned in coursework to fantasy characters- a friend of mine asked me to sketch out some characters for a high-level D&D game he wanted to run in December.

So I took a shot at the Gnome character. Having no real idea what 'Gnome' meant in D&D terms, my first attempt was a look very similar to David from the children's tv show David the Gnome, which in turn is very similar to a garden gnome. (Blame the crap quality of the picture on my camera phone since my scanner isn't hooked up yet.)

Tee hee! Cute lil guy, but not what a D&D Gnome looks like. After a little more guidance from my friend, I came out with the second attempt, which is something I'll work on and color:

Dragon, finished archive drawing

I started this drawing maybe 2 summers ago, but it was only a rough sketch when I found it last week. I took some time and fleshed him out a little more, and now he looks a little more like what I was going for initially. That's a flower sketch in the upper right... it's a sketchbook with random drawings everywhere.

Life drawing

Life drawings... a.k.a., proof I need to practice life drawings more and bring my glasses to these sessions.

Flower Fairy

You can tell that I was really reaching for material when I sketched this this morning. I try to limit my cheesy flower fairies.

Turtle

A turtle inspired by my chopstick rest that's now happily sitting in my zen water fountain. It's a little stone turtle with a flat back that matched a pair of stone chopsticks that have sadly passed on from this world. Turns out stone isn't the best material to use for chopsticks... but it's great for chopstick rests!

Lynn

A sketch from the archives- this was done a while ago, back when I still went to a story reading group. Admittedly, I didn't attend the group for the stories- but rather, for a 2 hour session of model sitting. Eventually, I drew everyone there at least twice and decided to spend my Friday nights in other ways. I'm thinking I might go soon, though, since I haven't been able to stretch my portrait sketching muscles lately.

Gargoyle

Gasp. Two updates, two days in a row. Unprecedented.

The ugliness of this gargoyle is also unprecedented.

Laine

My first successful attempt at drawing out Laine, my Jedi character from a Dawn of Defiance rpg I'm involved in. I'm happy. Especially after many weeks of hiatus from drawing.

Girl in a fur coat

... reading a book on her iPhone. Didn't really feel inspired to finish this; perhaps later.Also, you'll notice there's a tiny figure on the bottom right.. oh well, it's a sketch book.

Dragon 2

Dragon-ish

Quick one from this morning. Happy Valentine's Day.

Year of the Ox.

... and in this drawing blog's case, it's the year of the minotaur.
First few attempts focused on the fantastical image of a minotaur.. with a bit of the cartoon-y. I started using a blue pencil to sketch then go over with graphite to draw the actual lines. This sketch was done over the break.
Consider next a more realistic view of the minotaur... where one might actually place a bull's head on a human body. The focus of this sketch was the face and getting a bull's head more realistic- working off a photo, obviously. Sketch also done over the break.
Various sketches- one of a bull, one smaller of the body of a minotaur- trying to see how the whole body might look. This sketch as well, over the break.And finally, one last sketch from today- mixing a bit of the more real aspects of a bull. Having some time off from drawing minotaurs, I found this one a bit lacking and certainly looking a bit more cartoon-y than I desired.

Bed Head

I hate it when I wake up with bed head in the morning.

Or is it, "I hate it when I wake up with hoof foot in the morning"?

Wildebeest... rhino

This guy took just a minute or so to sketch out. I don't know what he is. You'll find that that's a common theme here on this blog.

"What is it?"

"F*ck all if I know."

Horny? I think so.

D&D Character: Reita 1

Well, I can't say that I've been very active in the art scene lately... contemplations of the future aside, I can't keep my mind off of other personal matters.

In any event, this is a very quick character concept for my tiefling warlock. I'm contemplating coloring this, but find that the sketch is lacking something... originality, perhaps? Coloring might be fun but clearly just for practice. It has been really long since I attempted using a Wacom, and well, that's what this blog is for!

Comments always welcome.