Sketch 275/365: There We Go!

Ahhhhh….that’s better. A sketch I’m actually happy with. Only took four days. This sketch also marks a monumental point as it’s officially the 3/4 mark in the year! That’s right, Sketch-A-Day 20-XIII is 75% complete as of this sketch of Malicen. Sketch date: 10/02/13 Filed under: 20-XIII Tagged: character design, comic art, heritage, pencil, Sketch

Sketch 274/365: Lost Cause

Hoo-boy, sometimes you just need to know when to concede and stop trying to save a sketch. Something I totally ignored on this one of Malicen. Ordinarily I would have scrapped this sketch and started over for the daily sketch posting but it was getting late and I was too tired to start over. Let’s …

Sketch 273/365: Month End

Between the previous sketch and this one it’s a rather weak ending to an otherwise fantastic month here on The Sketch Side. While personally disappointing, I know I have off days and I accept that sketches like these are going to happen. Just keep pushing forward Sketch date:09/30/13 Filed under: 20-XIII Tagged: comic art, heritage, …

Sketch 272/365: More Design Work

Just another loose sketch trying to figure Malicen out. Sketch date: 09/29/13 Filed under: 20-XIII Tagged: character design, comic art, heritage, pencil, Sketch

Sketch 271/365: Did You Take My Wings?

Just a quicky of a wingless variant of Malicen. Sketch date: 09/28/13 Filed under: 20-XIII Tagged: character design, comic art, drawing, illustration, Sketch

Sketch 270/365: Framework

Malicen was never meant to be a big bruiser type character. He’s fit and powerful but should still be trim. The framework on the body is getting there, but I can probably still lighten the load a bit more. Sketch date: 09/27/13 Filed under: 20-XIII Tagged: character design, comic art, drawing, illustration, Sketch

Sketch 269/365: Scaled Soul Patch Too

Another head study. reduced the size of the scales on the forehead. added some in a soul patch arrangement on the chin. Thinned the face out a bit again too and brought the pointy ears back from much earlier sketches…unless I can nail the ears perfectly I don’t think they will be a trait I …

Sketch 268/365: Bangs, Scale Plates, and Topknots

I thought maybe I’d play more to the dragony appearance with a gruff jaw and some scaly plates across the forehead… Sketch date: 09/25/13 Filed under: 20-XIII Tagged: character design, comic art, head study, illustration, Sketch

Sketch 267/365: Wing Option

Not all half-dragons are created equal… I like the over-sized forearms and claws. I like the dragon horns from the back (plus they come in handy in the story). The wings however I’ve been back and forth about. I like them. Having them large enough to be feasible to suspend disbelief that they could actually …

Sketch 266/365: Harumph!

Quick sketch. Since there’s going to be so many of these please forgive me if at any point they don’t have any special blurbs from me. Sketch date: 09/23/13 Filed under: 20-XIII Tagged: character design, comic art, drawing, heritage, illustration, malicen, Sketch

Sketch 263/365: Winning Shot

Combustia lines up for the winning shot in this game of high stakes...marbles. Looks like Cyber Fox will be cleaning the bathrooms for the next YEAR. It may not seem bad but, ya know...Meat Hook.

Day 20 of the CBC Artists' Alley Sept Drawing Challenge was to have two of our heroes competing against each other. After a few scrapped ideas I'm pretty happy with this one and I hope you are too.

Week 3: Day 20: Competing Against Each Other

Sketch 262/365: Hero Down

Breakneck: Gahh!! My leg!!!!

Cyber Fox: Friggin wuss...

Day 19 of the September Drawing Challenge is to have one hero injured with the other protecting. Cyber Fox doesn't seem too sympathetic the to speedster Breakneck whining about a little broken leg. Can't imagine why.

Week 3: Day 19: One Injured, the Other Protecting

Sketch date: 09/19/13

Sketch 261/365: Rude Awakening

After a long day all Meat Hook wanted to do was catch a few Z's in between missions. It's bad enough that the couches in the break room are so small but Breakneck decided to make thinks a little worse with a most mischievous but friendly prank.

Week 2: Day 18: One Pranking the Other

Sketch date: 09/18/13

Sketch-A-Day 260/365: Big Trouble

"Damn it, St'eve! Quit screwing around!"

The CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge brings us the task of having a duo of our choice Taking on a Giant-sized Foe Together for Day 17. Alien St'eve and Meat Hook may be in over their heads with this gargantuan sized bit of trouble this time around though. Especially since St'eve seems more interested in the creature's flossing habits than, ya know, actually stopping it's rampage.

Week 3: Day 17: Taking on a Giant-sized Foe Together

Sketch date: 09/17/13

Sketch-A-Day 259/365: Oh No Panda!

Here we are at Day 16 of the CBC Artists’ Alley September Drawing Challenge. We’ve officially crested over the hump of the halfway point and while the challenges are becoming more involved they are in turn becoming more aggravating to complete, though more enjoyable when accomplished.

The challenge listed for Day 16 is Fighting Each Other. For this challenge I pitted Alien St’eve against Great Panda and as you can see it isn't going well for Panda. I guess he’ll think twice before raising his voice to Shade again in the future. “Tell St’eve something, Panda…Panda ever watch any hentai?”

Week 3: Day 16: Fighting Each Other

Sketch date: 09/16/13

Sketch-A-Day 258/365: Again With the Ears?!

Day 15 and the start of Week 3 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge required us to choose any two heroes from Week 1 and draw them arguing with each other. For this challenge I went with Great Panda (since he got the shaft last week) having a heated disagreement with Shade. She probably made fun of his ears again, which is kind of silly coming from a girl with a ridiculously metal hat.

Week 3: Day 15: Arguing

Sketch date: 09/15/13

Sketch-A-Day 257/365: Rule 63: Cyber Vixen

Bringing Week 2 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge to a close is the good old Rule 63 of creating an Opposite Sex Version of one of our heroes. I've managed all week to not have any repeats so that each hero of mine gets equal time but after the poor representation that I gave Cyber Fox on Day 8, and because I think he was my most popular hero from Week 1, I had to give him a second showing and bump Great Panda out of the line up for the week. My apologies to the Great Panda fans though I hope this drawing of CYBER VIXEN makes up for it.

Week 2: Day 14: Opposite Sex Version

Sketch date: 09/14/13

Sketch-A-Day 256/365: Meat Hook's Got Ya

The challenge for Day 13 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge is to draw one of our heroes Performing a Rescue or Doing Some Heavy Lifting. Today I chose to use Meat Hook, though not in the heavy lifting role. Instead we have him performing a rescue, as difficult as it may be to see. I didn't manage my space very well so you can't see the large meat hook he carries is hooked onto something (a building perhaps? or the side of a large bridge?) and I slacked on the background which would have either a street scene several stories below OR just a bunch of water and maybe some boats, depending on what he has grappled onto with his meat hook. Despite my laziness and space management issue I think the pose of each figure and the action of the chains and garments can allow enough suggestion to support the claim that he's performing a rescue. :P

Week 2: Day 13: Performing a Rescue

Sketch date: 09/13/13

Sketch-A-Day 255/365: Here to Help

It's CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge Day 12. Today's challenge is to draw a hero from week 1 Busting Through a Wall. Well, the obvious choice here would be to use the Big Bruiser but I haven't done too much along the lines of obvious choices so far this week so why would I start now? I only had time for a quick sketch on this one but here we have Alien St'eve busting through a wall tentacles an all...one brick at a time. So relax, it may be a while...and it may be creepy as hell, but Alien St'eve is here to help!

Week 2: Day 12: Busting Through a Wall

Sketch date: 09/12/13

Sketch-A-Day 254/365: Deepest Fear

It's Day 11 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge and today's challenge is to draw one of our heroes from Week 1 Cowering in Fear. Now, don't get me wrong here, but cowering doesn't seem like a very heroic thing to do in my opinion. Be that as it may a challenge is a challenge and for this one I chose Combustia as my victim hero du jour. I hope you enjoy a look inside the deepest fear of this hero. It's the stuff the nightmares are made of!

Week 2: Day 11: Cowering in Fear

Sketch date: 09/11/13

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Sketch-A-Day 253/365: Coming Through!

Day 10 of CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge. Holy crap, 10 days and still going! WooHooooooo!!!! (ahem) The challenge for day 10 was to choose one of our heroes and draw him/her/it Getting Somewhere Fast. Since I used the obvious choice of my speedster Breakneck for yesterday's challenge I didn't want to repeat him in back-to-back Week 2 challenges. This of course presented a bit of a dilemma; how does a non speed-based character get somewhere fast? After pondering for a while I opted to go with my (multipurpose) Weapon-Based Hero Shade. I already speculated the various methods of Shade using her specialized jingasa and now transportation can be added to the list. Albeit using the jingasa as a street sled would only be practical; a) in the winter, b) sliding down rooftops, or c) if she were based in San Francisco. 

Week 2: Day 10: Getting Somewhere Fast.

Accomplished.

Sketch date 09/10/13

Sketch-A-Day 252/365: Zigged Instead of Zagged

Day 9 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge is to draw a hero from Week 1 either Defeated or Victorious. After very short consideration I opted to go with... DEFEAT! There's nothing better than a comic hero suffering some kid of defeat. I mean, we expect the villain to lose, but when the HERO loses...it's a learning experience. Something for the hero to rise up and become stronger, faster, better. In today's case my Speedster from Week 1, Breakneck, learned that he should of zagged when he in fact zigged. That's the problem with moving so fast though. The faster you go, the harder it is to judge those turns.

Wall-1 Breakneck-0

It's been a loooooooong time since I've done a background with a piece, and even back then I wasn't all that good at it. It's clear to me that it's something I really, really need to work on. The faux perspective, the complete lack of straight-edge use of any kind...but hey, it was a necessity for the gag and at least it's funny. :)

Week 2: Day 9: Victorious or Defeated

Accomplished. And someone get Breakneck an ice-pack.

Sketch date: 09/09/13

Sketch-A-Day 251/365: Truth of a Hero

Week 2 of the CBC Artist's Alley September Drawing Challenge draws upon the 7 characters we've created and progresses beyond simple character creation. The challenge for Day 8 was to pick one of our heroes and draw them in their civilian identity. The ideas were jumbled in my head...Meat Hook as a big burly butcher? Great Panda? Shade? In the end I went with Cyber Fox's alter ego. A double amputee which lost his legs from the knees down after a violent and seemingly random attack by street thug hooligans on a subway platform on his way home from work. Forever confined to a wheelchair, until he puts on the Cyber Fox armor gifting him with the ability to walk and the power to make his city safe once again.

This challenge ended up being a lot sketchier than the designs from Week 1 and I kind of made his head too big in addition to a few other proportion errors. Oh well. It's a learning process after all :)

Week 2: Day 8: Civilian Identity

Accomplished (sort of)

Sketch date: 09/08/13

Sketch-A-Day 250/365: Weird Looking Hero: Alien St'eve

Day 7; the final day of character creation for the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge. The challenge calls for a Weird Looking Hero: Alien, Deformed, of Physical Oddity. This one took some time but in the end, I had a cyclopian tendril armed alien named...St'eve. In his language his name roughly translates into "warrior of righteousness".

Week 1: Day 7: Weird Looking Hero: Alien, Deformed, of Physical Oddity.

Accomplished.

Which also means Week 1 is complete!!! WaHoooo!

Sketch date: 09/07/13

Sketch-A-Day 249/365: Creature Themed Hero: Great Panda

Day 6 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge is to create a Creature-themed or Aquatic Hero. I went back and forth on this one, originally I was going to combine the two and make a blow-fish themed hero, but ultimately the panda won out. I wasn't sure if the challenge was calling for an anthropomorphic style character, or just a creature based...like Batman, Catwoman, and Spider-man. I decided to go with the latter and created: Great Panda! A panda motif on a crime-fighter's suit, complete with twin metal bamboo battle staves.

Week 1: Day 6: Creature-themed or Aquatic Hero

Accomplished.

Sketch date: 09/06/13

Sketch-A-Day 248/365: Elemental Control Hero: Combustia

Day 5 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge and all is well. The fifth challenge is to create a Sorcerer, Psychic, or Elemental Control Hero. I went with the elemental control and despite my daughter forbidding me from doing so (because she's doing the challenge as well) I went with the element of FIRE! Admittedly I made every attempt to abide by my child's wishes; I even did a little thumbnail of an electricity based character! However, since electricity isn't really an element (earth, wind, fire, water) and is classified as a quasi-element in the form of lightning...I kind of resorted to what I had an idea for. The result is the character Combustia! I initially wanted to call her Hotspot but there's the whole Teen Titan/DC character thing with that name going on. It's bad enough she stands a good chance of getting plenty "nice Rule 63 Human Torch!" comments.

At any rate, the hardest part of this character was coming up with an outfit. I mean, she's fire. Fire burns clothes and stuff. For decency purposes I gave her something to cover up her woman bits-n-pieces though. Hope you enjoy Day 5's Combustia!

Week 1: Day 5: Sorcerer, Psychic, or Elemental Control Hero

Accomplished

Sketch date 09/05/13

Sketch-A-Day 247/365: Speedster: Breakneck

Challenge List

Day 4 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge is for a Speedster or Giant/Miniature Hero. I opted for the Speedster and created the character Breakneck. His uniform provides protection and increased aerodynamics, has goggles to keep high velocity dirt, air, or the occasional bug from blinding him. A respirator to aid in breathing at extreme speeds, a head fin for stability and steering, and a reinforced neck area to keep his neck from being snapped from the force of airflow, especially during high speed pinpoint turns.

Week 1: Day 4: Speedster or Giant/Miniature Hero

Accomplished.

Sketch date: 09/04/13

Sketch-A-Day 246/365: Weapon-Based Hero: Shade

Challenge List

Day 3 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge was to create a Martial Arts or Weapon-Based Hero. I have to start off by saying this has been my least favorite design challenge so far of the three and I really struggled coming up with something that wasn't just a direct rip-off of an existing character (that I know about), wasn't an overly used weapon, and was non-lethal. In the end I ended up with Shade. A martial arts and weapon-based character. She wears a specialized (and oversized) jingasa crafted from an unknown metal. Due to its size and sturdiness Shade can use the jingasa as a shield, a blunt melee weapon, or a projectile. In retrospect I think I watched way too much Sunday morning Kung-Fu Theater as a kid. Regardless, I hope you enjoyed today's challenge sketch!

Week 1: Day 3: Martial Arts or Weapon-Based Hero Challenge

Accomplished.

Sketch date: 09/03/13

Sketch-A-Day 245/365: Technology Hero: Cyber Fox

Challenge List

Day 2 of the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge was to create a Technology Hero: Gadgets, Battle Armor or Robotics. For this challenge I created a character called Cyber Fox. He uses a cybernetic battle armor providing enhanced strength and equipped with a myriad of offensive and defensive capable weapons along with the usual enhanced spectrum vision/scanning, targeting, yadda yadda yadda...

Week 1: Day 2: Technology Hero: Gadgets, Battle Armor or Robotics Challenge

Accomplished.


Sketch date: 09/02/13

Sketch-A-Day 244/365: Big Bruiser: Meat Hook

Challenge List

So I decided to go ahead and give the CBC Artists' Alley September Drawing Challenge a shot and combine it with my 20-XIII Sketch-A-Day Challenge. The challenge today was to create a Big Bruiser. For this challenge I created Meat Hook. He's around 8-ish something feet tall and aptly named for his large three digit hands (meat hooks). For fun I also made the literal butcher's meat hook as a weapon for him. So no, those aren't horns coming out of his shoulders, its the dual hook of the over-sized meat hook holstered to his back.

Week 1: Day 1: Character Design: Big Bruiser Challenge.

Accomplished.

Sketch date: 09/01/13

Sketch-A-Day 243/365: Chaos Array Logo 5

I decided to work out a new logo for Chaos Array. I love the title banner art that I've already created but it doesn't work well for an online presence with profile pictures being limited to squares or circles. As such, I have to figure out a more compact label to use. Here is the fifth and (so far) final concept design for me to choose from.

Sketch date: 08/31/13

Sketch-A-Day 242/365: Chaos Array Logo 4

I decided to work out a new logo for Chaos Array. I love the title banner art that I've already created but it doesn't work well for an online presence with profile pictures being limited to squares or circles. As such, I have to figure out a more compact label to use. Here we have the fourth idea.

Sketch date: 08/30/13

Sketch-A-Day 241/365: Chaos Array Logo 3

I decided to work out a new logo for Chaos Array. I love the title banner art that I've already created but it doesn't work well for an online presence with profile pictures being limited to squares or circles. As such, I have to figure out a more compact label to use. Here is the third concept.

Sketch date: 08/29/13

Sketch-A-Day 240/365: Chaos Array Logo 2

I decided to work out a new logo for Chaos Array. I love the title banner art that I've already created but it doesn't work well for an online presence with profile pictures being limited to squares or circles. As such, I have to figure out a more compact label to use. This is the second one that I've come up with.

Sketch date: 08/28/13

Sketch-A-Day 239/365: Chaos Array Logo 1

I decided to work out a new logo for Chaos Array. I love the title banner art that I've already created but it doesn't work well for an online presence with profile pictures being limited to squares or circles. As such, I have to figure out a more compact label to use. This is the first one that I came up with today.

Sketch date: 08/27/13

Sketch-A-Day 238/365: Hangin' Around

Another sketch inspired by the recent injury to my spine. I know this is something that's been done multiple times by many other artists and is by no means an original composition, but it sums up how I've been feeling.

Sketch date: 08/26/13

Sketch-A-Day 237/365: Totem Head: Five

The fifth and final totem entry, because something with wings is pretty much a staple among totem poles, is the mighty dragon totem!

Sketch date: 08/25/13

Sketch-A-Day 236/365: Totem Head: Four

The fourth totem sketch. I'm not sure what it is other than a skull of some sort, but it looks cool.

Sketch date: 08/24/13

Sketch-A-Day 235/365: Totem Head: Three

The third sketch of the totem series is a hellhound type creature.

Sketch date: 08/23/13

Sketch-A-Day 234/365: Totem Head: Two

The second head for the future totem pole. Is it a dog? Is it a pig? I really don't know, but I like it!

Sketch date: 08/22/13

Sketch-A-Day 233/365: Totem Head: One

Initially this started off as another What the heck am I going to draw tonight sketch with random lines on a basic head structure. When all was said and done my girlfriend noted that it looked like something you'd find on a totem pole...in a weird and twisted alien kind of way. As a result, I have decided to continue the totem head idea for four more sketches after this and will at some point later ink and digitally construct the totem pole.

Sketch date: 08/21/13

Sketch-A-Day 232/365: Caped Samurai

Samurai warrior with a cape. In retrospect it could probably pass as a samurai Batman. Totally was not my intent while sketching though. Enjoy!

Sketch date: 08/20/13

Sketch-A-Day 231/365: Minitaur

First the Minotaur, now the Minitaur!

Sketch date: 08/19/13

Sketch-A-Day 230/365: Minotaur

The fearsome part man part bull creature of Greek Mythology, the Minotaur.

Sketch date: 08/18/13

Sketch-A-Day 229/365: Plague Doctor

I constantly see various images of Plague Doctors around the old internets; cosplay, modeling, drawings, etc. I've taken a fancy to the image and just had to sketch one out of my own. Plague Doctors were awesome.

Sketch date: 08/17/13

Sketch-A-Day 228/365: Pain

On Friday I woke up to an intense pain in my back. Many many years ago I injured it working on a loading dock and from time to time, sometimes for no apparent reason, the old herniated discs decide to flare up and not work. The pain created from this is near crippling and I'm too stubborn to have surgery. On the plus side it gave me the opportunity to channel the raw feelings I was experiencing into my sketch.

Sketch date: 08/16/13