Sketchbook page of our 15-pound cat, Lily. I bought an inkbrush to try, and I'm loving it. Toned with watercolor and gouache.
The event log from my current game of Dwarf Fortress: adventure mode. I'm playing a dwarf covered in shields (not shown) and weapons, and yet I slew the leader of goblin bandits by throwing a giant cockroach I found in a cave.
A tribute to Mr. Brian Jacques, the man who shaped my childhood and taste in fiction. He died of a heart attack on the 5th.
In which I biff crocodilian anatomy. My excuse is I didn't have internet (and thus reference) at the time, but I guess it's kinda cool anyway.
Attempting to learn how to use watercolors again. This time I come armed with paints that are dark/rich enough to allow actual value contrast.
Aaand some more Mossflower boards, of a pretty short scene. It's a warmup for a much longer scene that will probably take me months to finish. >:)
It's a dragon breathing BEES.
I got Mass Effect as a birthday present, and enjoyed it quite a bit! Every time I saw a krogan, I wanted to draw it. This may very well be my first real attempt at scifi, haha. I discovered that guns are about the most unnatural thing for me to draw, especially futuristic ones. It kinda makes me want to practice and learn how.
It may look like the most terrifying cactus you've ever seen, but this is one of the game's monsters. Known as a Creeper, it makes absolutely no sound until it's RIGHT next to you, which is when you hear a "*tch* sssSSSsssSSS...", followed by a BOOM if you don't get out of the blast radius fast enough. This is very good at hurting you and damaging things you've built.
Many fans of the game like to joke that the Creeper only wants a hug, but when it comes over to you it realizes it has no arms and explodes out of frustration. I'd love to get a picture of a small child hugging this plush, but I'm worried that all children will probably be terrified of him. X)
And barn owls. I like how their silhouettes looks headless when they fly.
Here we have "Jim Craig" the dwarf in sorry shape. The attacking hydra (green H) is dead, but Jim is now missing his right arm at the shoulder. Fortunately all his other bits are white (healthy) rather than yellow (broken) or red (mangled).
My Captain of the Guard is an awesome she-dwarf who runs around with two swords and leaves goblins in many pieces when they cross her. And no, her name is not a Ninja Turtles reference. X)
Miners make great temporary military dwarves when a problem arises, because their mining skill determines how deadly their pick is in battle.
One of the staples of the dwarven diet is the "plump helmet," a purple mushroom of some kind. You can brew booze out of it, eat it raw, or stew 'em up.
The game also has a roguelike mode called Adventure Mode, where you take a single dwarf/human/elf and travel the full world that's been generated. Having fantastic weaponry like this fella's ☼adamantine battle axe☼ helps... though often a wielded wolf corpse is just as deadly. People have one-hit KO'd enemies by throwing mud in this game. It's awesome.
black swans and a parrot-like bird, from the (South Asian) "Islands" area.
Komodo dragon, from the same area.
Okapi, from the African Forest area.
A big lazy lion. There were also some half-grown cubs, with spots still on their legs and bellies.
And at long last, the brand-new Polar Frontier exhibit. This is the first time I've been able to see polar bears live. The filtration system had some minor glitch, so the underwater viewing area wasn't open, but the two bears in there gave me plenty of sketching material.
Good ol' brown bears and a couple bison. Such awesome animals.
This I found amusing because these fish are completely native to the area, and yet, during a zoo trip, I took some of our precious time to sketch them. Oh well.
You should look up photos of sewers sometime. Apparently there's a whole group of people who like to explore and photograph them. It's surprisingly awesome.
This is actually a Redwall character, but one that only gets mentioned offhand as a long-dead ruler. With a name like Bluestripe, I figured he would be awesome. And a fan of warpaint.
These two are going to be the main guys in my comic. Randy is a greenie fresh from flight training. He comes into conflict with "Red," who is pretty much the viewpoint character of the story. Red has lost his best friend in a recent mission, and when Randy gets assigned to his buddy's old bunk, he has a lot of trouble dealing with that. We're also going to see another (maybe both) of the other guys in their flight, who still need to be designed. I'll probably just grab 'em from the other concept sheet I drew; they don't figure into the story much.
I do have the whole thing thumbnailed out. For a "short" story, 19 pages is an awful lot. However, I'm going to be doing pretty simple coloring, so it should be manageable. Jury's still out on how much color will make it into the thing.
And old artbug has resurfaced as of late - a desire to draw a comic about WWII fighter pilots. So my Memorial weekend was (appropriately) spent devouring the subject in text and Youtube form. Who knows if I'll get a story worked out before the bug goes dormant again, but at least I can gather resources and practice drawing difficult things like AIRPLANES.
