I’m excited about doing my drawing again today. I suddenly see all kinds of possibilities with the current project I’m working on. I’m really happy with all the little details I’ve added. It might not look like too much of an update from yesterday’s post, but I did work on this guy for about 2 hours this afternoon. The skin looks noticeably better with lots of extra details. We also have the exposed muscle there with some new colors mixed in. Then finally I included a shadow for the face tentacles.

The primary reason I’m getting excited about this project again is that I think I want to redo a lot of the black outline to add even more detail to the overall shape of this guy. I want to do this because now that outline is standing out for me. Not in a good way. I just want to add more curves and small details as I go along the black outline.

I really think I’m just going to keep working on this guy until I feel he’s the best I can possibly make him. So that might take awhile because I think just about everything I’ve done previously I’ve completed to satisfaction, but I’ve never gone beyond that. I always think, “Hey, I think I’m done with this. Time to move on.” but now I’m going to try sticking with one thing and adding more and more until there’s nothing else I could possibly add. This might turn out to be bad. But it’s worth trying.

Today I’m trying to get back into the mindset I’ve been at for the past several months. I want to be excited and anxious to get to my drawing each and every day. Feelings that have been waning a bit for a few days now. So I’ve been going through the Rocky series of movies with a friend. You know, not just because they’re quite obviously terrific movies (subjectively, of course) but because they are also inspirational stories. An underdog that started as a complete nobody, got a lucky break, and worked hard feeling it would be his one and only opportunity to do something special. Today we watched Rocky 3.

For my daily creative work, I worked on adding some shadows to everything in this image. I also got my texture brushes working in Photoshop again. I was worried about that as I haven’t been able to figure out why they haven’t been working. Then I kind of stumbled onto a slider option that happened to fix the issue. Lucky me. So I messed around with a custom texture to add some much needed detail to the skin. I like the looks of it, but it needs more work. When I look over everything, it feels like there’s quite a lot yet to be done before I’m satisfied. And yet, I really have no idea where to begin, as a lot of what I’m doing happens to be new territory for me. I’ll just have to carefully feel my way along as I press on.

Today was the first day where I didn’t want to do anything! Of course I still sat my butt down at the computer and added some details to my alien mutant guy. But I was pretty lazy going about it. The thought even crossed my mind to get away from this picture and start on something else entirely. I think it might have to do with the fact that I haven’t really come up with an interesting plan for the details on this one. I’m figuring it out as I go along, but it’s been slow going.

I figure I’m allowed to have an off day here and there, eh? As long as it doesn’t drag on into multiple days I should be fine. Maybe I’ll do some research on dealing with off days as an artists later tonight.

I’ve known from the beginning of this year long project that this was all about me. I’m not trying to lure in traffic from outside sources by drawing things that are popular, or writing about topics that promote sharing on social media. This is a project that, at first, was just me trying to do… something. I was going nowhere with my art at the time. Now, every single day, with no exceptions, I’ve learned something new. As well as connected with other artists, each at different stages of the same year long project.

Drawing is the only thing I’ve really ever been told I was good at. For awhile there it was computer related stuff as well. However, nowadays pretty much everyone has the ability to solve their own computer troubles or figure out whatever it is that needs figuring out, thanks to Google and the wealth of knowledge that’s readily available.

So, thank you to my friends, family, and any complete strangers that go through and read my posts! Because I hardly ever feel I have anything to say worth reading!

With that done, here’s that alien Ralph guy again. This time I’ve added some starting color to the image. Nothing too special yet, but I had to start somewhere. I’m not too sure if the colors I chose are set in stone, but I at least like my choices. With Photoshop they are pretty easy to change anyways. What do you think about the colors? Suggestions, anyone?

I originally was going to draw some robot masters (the boss characters) from the original Megaman Nintendo games. Some of them are pretty awesome. The process of copying it exactly felt daunting though, so I decided to do something original. I’m glad I did.

I used to draw characters like this guy all the time. I can’t remember if I always used the same technique then as I do now, but I generally start by drawing a basic body shape followed by a couple distinguishing features. In this case; The small head, tentacle face things, and the massive arm. After that I figure things out as I go along.

I’m not finished with this guy yet! I don’t think so anyways. I would like to go over it with ink, and perhaps even add color. Oh! I have a better idea. Now that my laptop is back in action, I could copy him into Photoshop and enhance it that way.