AfricanVoodoo's Sketchbook

[AfricanVoodoo]

the mood 

Saturday



(Art): Doodles. Was waiting for the hurricane to just go by and shut off everything but...

Sunday + Monday

Nothing actually happened. Strong winds and lots of rain yeah, but the hurricane was not that bad over where I live which I am grateful for. But Irma is going to keep on going upwards into Northern Florida and other states so I hope yall are prepared and safe (even though I believe the storm will be weakened).





(Art): Warm-ups, characters, and fast gestures. The gestures were pretty fun to do actually and I tried hard not to clump them together which worked for the top half but the bottom half is... a WIP. Honestly, I think I like doing these more than finished shit because it is so abstract and quick I don't have to think too too hard on it. I know that sounds bad but like... 




(excuse the two goofy drawings)

!!!

A new challenger approaches.

(Art): I designed another character for writer friend. The short-haired man is Karn, Sorn's older brother. Just like Sorn, he is a soldier for the Resistance, a hidden underground organization where their main goal is to overthrow a bad person leader... dude... i dunno, writer friend never go into the antagonist of his story that much. (Which would suggest there is a mystery around the antagonist but there isn't so..  and we see him in the prologue.)  

 Anyways, the dude is like... top-tier in the Resistance. He has the "Unkillable" (or something like that) prestige in the place and he is highly respected. I mean... was respected... right after Sorn and Karn disappeared, they just said "welp theyre dead lol whoops, whose in charge now?". Karn is passionate about what he wants to achieve (which can lead to tiny rants coming from him) but he is also calm and is always a "think, then do" type of person.

Here is what writer friend gave as a description for him before I drew him:

"He has a similar face shape to Sorn, but he has a sharper chin."

"His face is generally more rugged" [compared to Sorn's]

"He has short, military-cut hair"

"His eyes are really [tired looking], he's obviously sleep deprived.

But y'know Ol' classic me doesn't like to EXACTLY follow the description religiously (also writer friend has an incredibly vague idea of what his characters look like (exhibit A: the quote), which is fucking weird and he is coming up in here like "what if Steam Soul was an anime?" im like... "bitch...") . I made him look similar to Sorn but gave him naturally narrow eyes and his eyes are sunken in. I like when siblings in fiction show a resemblance with one another but also have features that are specific to them.  

I gave him a giant scar on his forehead (and another on his chin, by request of writer friend, but it is hard to see), and more stubble action than Sorn to exaggerate the "ruggedness" of his face and to show that he is truly a soldier that had to deal with a lot. Ooo, and I should make the eyebrows more horizontal to make that t-shape on the face. He is kind of fun to draw since tired and mad looking people are my favorite i suppose.

I am still experimenting with his hair since "military-cut hair" is so low you can see the flesh on the top of your head. In the sketches above, it almost looks like he actually have hair. Hmm.

But yeah anyways, if you guys have any tips for me on this then feel free to say something!



(Art): Some practice on Photoshop that I wanted to do for fun, plus I wanted to make something cool with these two. 

I like designing characters for writer friend because now I can finally fucking imagine these characters in my head when I read his book :)

Tuesday

oh no... *touches soil* something is awry...




(Art): Is it my two pages of fast gestures that were fun as hell again and it helped me find longer lines of action which is ultra helpful? No... too easy of a target.



(Art): Could it be some of my figures in perspective studies which I am getting a little bit comfortable with but there is still so much to fix with it? A bigger suspect... but the clues don't lead to this one. (i mean, those figures are from yikesville tho.)

What could it be?...

o it was random anxiety never mind, case closed.

Wednesday



(Art): Okay, these are just getting big now.



sorry, the most bottom machete is the most recent sketch, i don't want to confuse anyone.

(Art): This is Sorn's final (for now) weapon and I am learning how to put it in perspective. I feel like I am fucking it up but... I'm learning. I am pretty surprised that I actually told myself to do this, I wouldn't normally do something so... new like this so impulsively but better now than never.

Writer friend and co. liked the sword and character designs but they caught themselves looking at "no eyebrows" Sorn from the page from yesterday and it was kind of funny.

Thursday

...



(Art): My warm-ups this morning. shoes are cool.




(Art): bodies.

Friday




(Art): 

(okay the last one was an experiment to see what a six head figure would look like. i don't think i pulled it off that greatly)

Oh and I made a cardboard ver. of Sorn's weapon. I only did it so I could use it as ref for when I do need to draw the man holding the weapon. I'm not going to show it because... it looks... really stupid.

Saturday

Went to a friend's house today, it was fucking lit because I got free Moe's and a free copy of Final Fantasy X. I wasn't looking forward to coming to this friend's house because I kind of wanted to draw today but... I was home the entire week because of Irma and it was nice to just get out and see other people for once.



(Art): Warm ups and a daily reminder that head positions that isn't 3/4 fuck me up. The tunic was for a little visual library improvement.




(Art): Even more warm ups before I had to leave for my friend's house. I am noticing that I am making my torsos small again and that might be because I place the ribcage and pelvis a little too close together. I dunno, its wierd because they look like they are close together but when I try to draw them close, the torso, consequently, will look stocky and bunched up. Gotta practice and look more.

---

Overall... this week was... okay. It was underwhelming cause of the fact that only one thing happened, which was the design for Karn. Other than that, it was 1-3 page of blind exploration with drawing everyday.  

Speaking of... character designing is just... ugh, right now. There is this combination of a lack of a visual library (since I am forgetful) and this dissatisfaction with how my figures look right now that is just not making me want to do characters. I dunno what it is but the only thing I can do at the moment is to... keep on drawing I guess.