Sketching for February '13

Yes, it's been a little while, and I'll be honest, this post probably wasn't worth the wait. Various things either prevented me from sketching, or just made me not feel like doing so much last month. This is not to say that I didn't, or that I sketched a lot of junk (well, yeah, a bit), just that I didn't get as much done as usual, and certainly not as much as in January (about the same amount as December, maybe slightly more). I also didn't really focus on anything, and discovered that the focus I did on arms a few months back was probably a waste of time because I've forgotten how the darn muscles go in the forearm, again (why do I have so much difficulty remembering this - I need to come up with a mnemonic or something. Seriously.

Outside of sketching I've been working on another book cover (It's actually pretty much done now), I recieved my copy of the Doctor Who Anniversary Special that I did a spread for, and it turned out looking far better than I was expecting at such a large size. The book has some wonderful work in it, both written and drawn. I was plesantly impressed :). In other news, I have family in town, so this month is going fairly slowly too. I'm really going to work on improving things somewhat once they leave as I've clearly been slacking since about November, and there's really no excuse for it. OK, on to the sketches...

An interesting aspect for February is that I've compiled almost everything I drew. The only stuff I left out were things that didn't scan well, or that I was interrupted while drawing and never got back to. There's not a "Sketch fail" section as there usually is as the quality band in which the work mostly fell was pretty close. There are failures, and I'll point them out, but nothing so bad as to get an image to itself. As with the previous couple of months there's nothing drawn directly from a reference - this is something I really need to work on.

For the free sketching the guy in the lower Right (with the white highlights) is a bit of a failure. there's something really off about his face, but I'm not sure what. Maybe the perspective is off, maybe the lighting. Whatever it is it's all a little wonky. Yes, that's Solid Snake in the middle (or maybe Big Boss), it's not a terribly exciting rendition, but at least it's probably recognisable. The success of the month is the woman in the bottom centre. I really like that sketch, it just came together quite nicely.

After the fairly successful torso sketches from last month most of these are pretty disappointing. Also, see what I mean about the forearms? Yuck. Still, progress of a sort is being made - I should be able to draw a half decent figure without reference in about 8 years or so. More anatomy studies will be happening throughout this year though, so by the Blog's 4th birthday I hope to be able to more consistently draw things such as hands and feet (right now it's random as to whether I can draw them successfully, or even bother trying).

After the failure with the guy I commented on in the first image I decided to concentrate on some facial features. it wasn't a focus or anything, I just did a few sketches one morning. I think I pretty much understand the basics here, but I have some difficulty drawing eyes on the far side of the head when I have no reference, or eyes from more extreme angles. Something to work on. I'm really happy with the mouths though. Oh, and I didn't lie about reference - that ribcage was drawn from memory. I think it's a little off; I'm only seeing 18 ribs and there are supposed to be 24. Also, the angles are off somewhat. Darn.

And that's it. Really, not much stuff at all. I am planing to have a couple of extra posts before the end of the month, but one of them may fall at the beginning of April. Time will tell if I succeed.