Comic-Con Warm-up

I'm heading to the San Diego Comic-Con at the end of this month, and one of the activities I'm eagerly anticipating is attending a real sketch book session. I'm also working on compiling a little sketchbook to take down that I can trade for other artists' sketchbooks.

So with that in mind I've been trying to fit in the sketching when I can. Here's a little of what I did last night.


I drew this bit below from the drawing jam on Shakira on the drawingboard.org. It don't look too much like Shakira, but in this case, I wasn't trying to do a caricature or get a likeness.
This face looks like Raven Symone. Ah well.

I've been trying to nail this expression that my wife does that I call "duckface". It's basically just pouting, but it kind of looks like a duckbill. I think I finally nailed the expression here, although my wife looks nothing like this.
The highpoint of sketching last night. The Lemur's okay, but I love how this girl's face below turned out. Very loose and energetic, although I messed up because she's underlit everywhere except for a shadow under her chin. Bad habit.

She's also got a unique expression--part duckface, surprise and sadistic delight.



I love eagles and hawks. I get super stoked when I draw one that even turns out okay.

My boss has a copy of a collection of art by Stephen Silver. I've been looking it over quite a bit lately and I've been keen on how he renders some of his sketches. He usually lays in some large flat areas of color with marker or colored pencil and then layers strokes of colored pencil over the top to add texture, define form, and accentuate the core shadows. He also renders things frequently with a rim light which is also cool.

A couple of my sketches here have attempted to do the same thing, but this one is particularly easy to see as an example of what I'm talking about.

Tags: Comic-Con, comic, comicon, Comic-con, sketchbook, session, sketchbooks, sketchbook sessions, Shakira, , drawingboard, drawing board, Raven Symone, Lemur, marine, ogre, eagle, hawk, bowler, Stephen Silver, Stephen, Silver, rim light