SJV Random Drawings

[Stewart Vernon]

A few more ballpoint doodles...



The first one, kind of ended up looking like a bald man wearing a wig... largely because I didn't finish the hairline... but this one wasn't really going where I wanted it to go, so I bailed I'm mainly posting it, because after I put it down and came back to it later... I realized it kind of reminded me of some old John Byrne stuff. Mind you, I'm not saying I'm in his league here... just that something about her face reminded me of some of his older stuff. I drew her from my mind, and not using any reference.. so I *may* have channeled some Byrne memories.

[Stewart Vernon]

These two... I like more of what I got. This ballpoint doodling exercise is really paying off for me. The fact that I can't erase and the pen point isn't as fine as I'd like means my mistakes are magnified... and I'm getting a better handle on what my bad habits and flaws are.

The problem with digital drawing is, I do something... and if it looks wonky, I tweak it. OR if I pencil something and it looks wonky, I tweak it during inking... and I just keep doing the same wonky stuff over and over and spend time fixing stuff I shouldn't be doing in the first place.

So... the pen work is forcing me to do a better job with my initial lines... since I'm stuck with what I put down. I expect this to payoff in an ability to do real work faster and also hopefully cleaner/better as well. As they say, practice practice practice!




The second one in particular, wonky eyes aside, is really close to something that will be a real sketch card for my Island Dreams submissions when I begin working on the real cards soon.

Basically, I'm drastically improving my ability to draw attractive female faces by hand... without erasing a hole in the paper before I get it right!

[Stewart Vernon]

For no real reason other than Doctor Who is back later tonight and I'm tired of drawing hair... here's bald Karen Gillan!

[Stewart Vernon]

More in ballpoint... this time an almost full figure... she has been de-feeted



She's wearing "gloves" because I messed up the fingers on one hand... but don't ask me why she is wearing boxers. Those started as bicycle pants and I went wrong somehow!

This other one is just another head shot.

[Stewart Vernon]

I was semi-last-minute invited to be a guest again at the Raleigh Comic Book Show... coming up on April 23, 2017. I drew a quick L'il Spidey swinging this weekend and incorporated that into a flyer design for promotion of the show next weekend. Going to be posting this on Facebook shortly and blogging about it today as well.

[Stewart Vernon]

Another ballpoint sketch of a woman... been doing a lot of female drawings of late... need to draw some dudes again to balance the universe!



Another part of this process, I'm trying different ways to start eyes, noses, and mouths... I know how I want them to look, and digitally or in pencil I can tinker with them until I get it right... but I want to be closer to right in the first place, reducing tinker-time. I feel like I'm making solid progress in that area, though still not where I want to be yet.

[Stewart Vernon]

While I was out today, I drew some ballpoint sketches on restaurant napkins. Extra-special practice here because even if I wasn't working in pen I couldn't erase without tearing up the napkins...





While not 100% what I saw in my mind's eye, still pleased with myself in that I now feel a lot more comfortable drawing directly with a pen and without any reference for generic faces.

Also, I drew a dude!

[Stewart Vernon]

More ballpoint pen sketches of nobody in particular...

[Stewart Vernon]

Here are a couple of ballpoint pen sketches of particular people... or I guess one android and one person...

Classic Cyberman from Doctor Who:


Batgirl:

[Stewart Vernon]

I was an invited guest at the Raleigh Comic Book Show yesterday... before the show I started work on a 7x10 woman's face. Entirely without any reference, so it isn't any woman in particular. I got it mostly rendered and inked prior to the show:



At the show, I finished some tweaks and got it colored too.

[Stewart Vernon]

At the Raleigh Comic Book Show last weekend I did get one Sketch Card commission, so that was cool! And earlier today the guy who bought it shared a scan on Facebook so I can drop it in here now too...

The Olympian, from the Global Guardians (DC).

[Stewart Vernon]

Couple more small ballpoint pen sketches... One from the day after my convention appearance, so still last month... and another one from a few days ago.




These are of no one in particular, and were drawn without any reference.

I'm still fighting my tendency to want to draw the eyes too large. I'd fix it if I was penciling and then inking over... whereas I can't fix these. It's not that there's anything "wrong" with this as a style... but I'm trying to expand my ability to draw cartoony and less-cartoony... but it is hard to break my default habits to draw overly large eyes.

[Stewart Vernon]

More napkin drawings from while I was out today... they had brown napkins this time, so that's what you get!




No references here either... as in I wasn't trying to draw anyone in particular that I saw in the restaurant at the time.

[Artloader]

Hey those napkin sketches have a cool texture to them Stewart. I love the fact that at the drop of a hat you're ready to draw on whatever there is to hand . Keep posting dude!

[Stewart Vernon]

Originally Posted by Artloader

Hey those napkin sketches have a cool texture to them Stewart. I love the fact that at the drop of a hat you're ready to draw on whatever there is to hand . Keep posting dude!

Thanks... yeah, I have always meant to branch out to some other colors of paper like I've seen some on here doing. I still seriously mean to take some black paper and draw with a white gelly roll on it, but haven't thought up the right idea yet.

I'm trying to accomplish multiple things... remove some bad habits, be able to draw quicker and better, and find a style to draw some slightly more realistic faces than my normal cartoon work.

I can do better digitally, so if I was working on something to be published, there are no worries... but for conventions or commissions to be able to sell original artwork on paper, I need to keep pushing myself to practice more by hand to be able to work on the same level in person as I can on the computer.