Kami's Sketchbook of Doom'd Goodness (Now with a Speedpainting!)

[Kamikaze Echoes]

Aww, a newb posts her first sketchbook. So I've been lurking for about a week now and I've finally mustered up the courage to post something. So I offer to you all my sketches from most of January in one very large lump sum. Yeah... In the past week, mostly since being introduced to this site, I've been trying to do less pretty. I do a lot of pretty and, well, it just doesn't always work. I've also been working on anatomy and perspective, especially forced, more.

A Short Guide
1. A femme fatale I started in a lecture class. We'd been watching Double Indemnity and talking about the creation of the femme fatale character in cinema and this was born. Hooray? (Last Monday.)
2. Theresa Njira, a mage character made from a roleplaying game with my friends. Ended up not using her this time around, but maybe something else, with a bit of tweaking. Her shirt bears the title to a song by The GazettE (yes, they spell it just like that too). (2-3 weeks ago.)
3. More of Theresa, including an alternate hairstyle. I considered giving her dreads for about a minute. (2 weeks ago.)
4. Even more of Theresa, as well as me attempting something more dynamic than what I usually do. (2 weeks ago.)
5. Random sketch inspired by the lyrics and sound of "Missed Me" by the Dresden Dolls. (2 weeks ago?)
6. A full page succubus bust. I... don't really know why it exists. Meh. (2-3 weeks ago?)
7. A Keeper of the demon realm. I was working on some sort of plot for no apparent reason. It might have spawned that succubus, now that I think about it. Anyways, it has telekinetic powers and good hearing. That's about it. Yup. (Last week.)
8. A random guy. I do those sometimes. That's about it. (Last week.)
9. A sketch done in the same vein as #5, except to "Girl Anachronism" by the Dresden Dolls. (2 weeks ago?)
10. I don't often draw real people and I vowed to try it with a drawing class swift approaching. Here's my attempt at Gackt, former of Malice Mizer and currently a solo artist. (3 weeks ago.)
11. A fox girl done with the femme fatale. I found I kind of like sketching sexy ladies and I'd never really done it before. (Last Monday.)
12. More attempts at drawing a real person! This time, it's Aoi from The GazettE. This one turned out much better, though his skin was paler than some of the lights that were on his face. Any advice on how to deal with that in the future is much appreciated. (3 weeks ago.)
13. Antonin, an imp prince to go along with that demon world type plot I mentioned. That's about it. (Last week.)
14. A very random fae. I have a friend who gives most characters what I affectionately call Crazy Hips. I figured I'd take a stab at it on the bottom of a page. I really didn't expect it to turn out as good as it did. Forgive his broken spine and just say he's incredibly flexible. He's sensitive about it. (2 weeks ago?)
15. Anamaria Voluska, the mage I ended up using for the aforementioned roleplay. She's ganked a quote from FLCL: "You know I hate the sour kind." Not much else to say about her. (Last week.)
16. Ana at her laptop. She's practically glued to it. (Last week.)
17. A back view of Ana, mostly to show her hair. (Last week.)
18. My first sketch of Ana. (Last week?)
19. Finally, my first concept for the Keeper. He's since become something much less important and completely expendable, but I can't quite remember what... Something combat based... (Last week.)

And there you have it. None of my other posts should be nearly this big. I swear. I'm sorry for the smudginess. I'm totally going to work on that one day.

[Kamikaze Echoes]

I've decided to do this week's COW and am currently working on all that colorful goodness. So, I present you with a wip. Hooray?

[Kamikaze Echoes]

Right, more sketchiness. For my drawing for animators class, we have to keep a sketchbook of observational figure studies and drawings. So, in my experimental animation class, I did some quick pose studies of my two friends placed conveniently right in front of me. Then I thought, "Hmmm, they could be at some form of round-table... Becca should try an MMO... Like Ragnorak Online... Well, she was a Healer/White Mage in that pixilation we did... Let's make her a priest! I think it's a priest... Hey, wouldn't it be amusing to make Mike a knight? Like... a chaotic knight?! Bwahahahaha!" And so this sketch came to be. Mike ended up as a paladin, which I'm not entirely sure exists in RO, but it fits his personality better. I didn't have references for the characters' outfits, as I was supposed to be watching films about paint on glass and sand animation. So yeah. RO-inspired versions of Mike/TheChaoticKnight and Becca, who doesn't have an alias here as far as I know. Yup.

By the way, I ended up not finishing last week's COW. Maybe this week... Or even this week's CHOW... Hmmm... More sketches at a later date.

[Kamikaze Echoes]

Since I don't seem to be scanning (or sketching when it's not for class) much lately, here's a quick sketch I did of a head when I finally figured out what was up with PS and why it kept giving me dots instead of lines. Just a random generic character and an attempt at shading that didn't quite work out. Also me trying to work on fewer layers. I tend to put every little thing on a different layer so I'm trying not to do that so much. I think it goes skeleton, sketch, shading...

[Kamikaze Echoes]

I just did a "speedpaint" in Photoshop. It wasn't fast at all (1-1.5 hours) but I did do it completely digitally, from sketch to "finish". It's not really done though. The hair needs work, the skin need blues and reds, the lips are just wonky... But overall, I'm okay with it. I did it all digitally, I used the fewest number of layers I've ever used for a nearly completed piece, and I didn't use a reference. Still, I think I like Painter better for something this quasi-real.