Firefly Ang

Over a month ago, I asked my Facebook followers to make some requests. I asked them to suggest any fictional character put their own spin on it if they wanted, and I would draw it.  I was able to complete one before getting very busy.  I'm still fairly busy right now but I will do them when ever I have some extra time.

This suggestion comes from Elaine, who suggested that I illustrate Ang from Avatar: The Last Airbender as a member of the Firefly crew. This was a fun one.

I figured if Ang lived in the Firefly world then his clothing would consist of a mix of the old west and modern day styles, like the rest of the characters. I thought it would be cool for him to wear a duster because it would flow in the wind when he's bending air. Plus, the top of the duster kind of resembles his robe from The Last Airbender cartoon.  I also gave him a bandanna that he could wear around his face, like a bandit. My thoughts were that the planets in Firefly were usually pretty baron and dusty so he'd need to protect his mouth and nose while using his powers, as it would kick up a lot of dust.  The rest of his costume is more modern. It's basically just  jeans and a t-shirt with boots, much like the other members of the Serenity crew.

I decided to take some time and color this one in Photoshop. I've been feeling like I need to improve my Photoshop coloring skills a bit. Of course, I've done coloring in Photoshop plenty of times but it feels like I do it differently every time  Sometimes I have to figure out a good formula or the right tools to use again. So, I'm hoping if I spend some time and use the suggestions as practice I can develop a good formula for my coloring process and stick to it every time.

Mauron the Magnificent

This Sunday I'll be participating in my first ever Dungeons and Dragons game.  I decided to take some time and illustrate my character, who I've named Mauron the Magnificent.  Mauron is a bit of a snake oil salesman. He travels the country side selling various potions and trinkets that may or may not be the answer to all of life's problems.  He's also a wizard of sorts. During his travels he acquired a magical amulet that allows him to create frighting illusions to scare off any would-be attackers.

Magneto Wedding Officiator

I'm taking Suggestions again, over on my Facebook page.  This Time I'm asking for suggestions based on fictional characters. Last time I just did quick pen and ink drawings of each suggestion but this time I'm going to spend a little more time on each drawing to exercise my art muscles a little. I feel like I've been getting a little rusty in certain areas and I figured this would be a fun and challenging way to get some practice in.

This first suggestion comes from Michael Kwan.  His suggestion seems to be based on the recent news that actor Ian Mckellen would be officiating Patrick Stewarts wedding. Of coarse, Ian Mckellen played Magneto in the X-men along with Patrick Stewart but Patrick Stewart is probably more famous for his role in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Michael chose to go with the less obvious suggestion that Magneto be officiating Captain Picard's wedding rather than the Magneto officiating Proffesor X's wedding.

I decided to challenge myself a little by drawing the characters in a more comicbook fashion which has made me realize that I need to brush up on my anatomy a little. I've gotten so used to illustrating more cartoony characters that I've sort of lost touch with how all the muscles connect and work together.  Rest assured, I'm already doing some figure drawing sketches to fix that problem. I've got to be the best!

On to the next one. I think I might add some color this time too.

More Caricatures

I recently completed another caricature/portrait.  I hesitate to say that they are fully a caricature because I don't exaggerated the features as much as I could but I wanted it to be more of a cartoonish portrait.

This one was done for my friend Dylan's Mom and her husband.  We stayed with them in Washington last year for vacation and they had asked me if they could commission me for a portrait.  I decided to do it for free since they had been so hospitable.  Unfortunately, it took me a little longer than expected to get to the drawing as I had some more pressing projects to complete but they understood completely.  

 The inks were done with my usual tools, A Pentel brush pen and some Copic multiliners for the finer details. The color was done with some Prismacolor markers and I added some minor shading with some Prismacolor color pencils.  I recently purchased an assortment of skin tone markers so I was excited to give them a try. I'm hoping that I'll have  some opportunities to play around with the markers a little more and get better at using them.  There's something about using the traditional means of illustrating that is a bit more relaxing and satisfying than doing things digitally.

Caricature Gift

My Girlfriend wanted to do something special for a friend's birthday, so she decided to get an authentic Jeff Morin caricature done of her friend and family.

The illustration was done on an 11 x 17 inch vellum bristol board.  A Pentel brush pen was used for all the line work. Then I used some Prismacolor markers for the base colors, except for the skin-tones. I used a few Copic sketch markers for those. Only because I don't have any skin-tone Prismacolors other than peach which is a horrible color for skin it's more of a glowing orange.

All the shading and highlights were done with some Prismacolor colored pencils, by coloring on top of the base marker color.

I hear the recipient was very pleased with her gift.