AfricanVoodoo's Sketchbook

[AfricanVoodoo]

Aww. Y'all are too kind!

Steeliebob: :O Thank you so much! I totally agree that I improved very much since my first post... very very much.
 
Oddly, I do not have this specific mindset where I get hyped up for drawing and getting better. I just pick up a pencil and start drawing shit. Not robotlike or some shit but I just feel the need to draw some shit. Pretty cool that our training regiments are literally just us sitting down and putting down lines. 

Chubby: So much love from me to you!! Thank you for the suggestions! I have heard of many of these people (but you did get me interested on Scott Eaton though), and I am very interested in doing the Ctrl + Paint exercises that he gives out because that might make me more comfortable with Photoshop as a program.

And thank you for giving me suggestions that helps me for my problems.

Fedodika: I took me a while to realize you were talking about the koala illustration. I actually thought you were referring to my angry characters.

Thank you for tuning in!



Summer... is.... now.

I really hope my brain doesn't fuck me up this summer and drags me back to this state of just doing nothing but watching Youtube videos like the past summers. This year, now that I have a clear vision of my future in my mind (and infinite "paper" on my very own computer), I should be able to just draw every single day on my computer or sketchbook without any problems. And I don't want to stop at just drawing.

I literally have so many things I could do this summer (projects, youth club activities, fun art contests, drawing and writing, .etc) and I do not want to waste it on... Steven Universe bingefests...

(Art): Deltoid from the back view studies... I forgot where the muscle inserted on the back so I did a quick warm-up in the morning to get a good refresher. Oh I started using hard edge square brushes because I like that better than very dirty line work sketches.





Speaking of projects, as I have said many times in this thread, my friend is writing a book right now called "Steam Soul". He wanted me to do illustrations that goes along with the text in his book (which means I need to buckle down on a lot more things other than anatomy and proportions). Considering that we are (now) Seniors in high school, this book will probably never fucking happen anytime soon but I am still here to encourage him to keep on going with his ideas.

In the meantime, I am currently designing his characters for him (which you will also see throughout the thread) which is a pain because the man doesn't have a clear idea of what his characters look like in the first place. Annoying? Yes indeed. But I carry on and design his characters for him anyways.

(Art): Three of the main characters in his book lined up together in a row. (Say hello, to my first (potential) character designing portfolio piece)

Garius (pronounced, "gar - ree - es"), the white mage and an earthbender.
Sorn, sword-wielding *almost* anime protagonist that has a constant bitch face according to all of my drawings of him.
Arron (pronounced, "(strong) R - ren"), the powerhouse and a genius that has a robot mech suit in his backpack.

 I like the juxtaposition of the characters greyscale aesthetic and the colorful box behind them. I also like how I made it look clean but it is still obvious that it's a sketch. I like that style for some reason (You can also see that style in the animal illustrations too).

  Now I do not like how they are all such pretty boys though, my friend specifically said that the characters are just normal people that decides to save the world from some crazy dictator person. So the pretty faces are not exactly necessary. When people skim over my sketchbook and see these characters, they always comment on how good-looking or how handsome they look. It's flattering that I can draw handsome looking men but that is not what the author intended. 

Like... Sorn has an eye that is slightly elongated than the other, his eyes do not have as much shine to them as much as Garius and Arron do (they look dead almost), his hair is originally suppose to be messy because he doesn't comb it in the morning (but I made his hair clean for no reason), and he is always frowning but people still find an attractiveness to him. 

Arron's eyes are very close together, has an abnormally large nose (only because he is suppose to resemble Caribbean people), bushy eyebrows and a giant Elmo mouth. But he garnered similar reactions to Sorn, people saying he looks handsome (which didn't faze me as much as the reactions with Sorn because Arron comes from a rich family and I originally saw him as a good-looking dude before designing him)

And Garius just looks like a cinnamon roll... too anime like for me really. 

  To alleviate this problem, I should go on this website Fedodika linked to on his thread called Earthsworld and it is a website that literally posts pictures of anybody. The best part is that a few of them are good-looking, a lot of them are really gross to look at but I need to start getting into facial diversity anyways so I should do some for fun. Then I can come back and see what I can do for these guys.[url=http://www.earthsworld.com/][/url]

Trust me, I like that I can make handsome/cute faces, but I don't like the "oh im a protagonist i should bee pretty nice looking right??" mindset that some fictional works do when it is not necessary at all. 




(Even the Fire Emblem community made fun of that stupid trope...)



(Art): Sorn and Garius as 19th century citizens, I suppose? I dunno what made me want to do this but I did it I suppose. I am still not satisfied at my current skill at doing character illustrations but I am certainly improving with it.

I was going to type some more but holy shit I'll do it tomorrow bye.