Frost In The Air Colorized

"Frost In The Air" final

Finally got around to adding colors to this one.  This one wasn't too bad to color.  I knew from the outset that the strength of this picture would be lie in how well I could render the ice.  I know the ice isn't technically realistic in how ice would respond in reality, but given that the ice is unnatural in the first place I didn't think it a big deal.  I aimed to do everything here in very cool colors.  I considered using color holds for Frost's skin, but ultimately decided to leave it as is. 

Purr Of The Catwoman

"Kitty Purrs" sketch

I didn't notice until recently that I haven't really drawn any DC Comics characters outside of Supergirl.  That changes with this sketch, titled Kitty Purrs.  This was done as gift art for a friend.  Nevertheless, this marks my first attempt at drawing Catwoman in any form.  When I started this sketch, I had the purple bodysuit in mind.  However, I thought the costume was a bit bland, so I decided to integrate some aesthetics from the Arkham City outfit.  I also made her ears more curved than usual.

When I first started with the sketch, I drew her head and shoulder-to-shoulder width far too large.  They looked pretty big compared to the rest of her body not to mention that also made the boobs look really big.  So I basically had to erase everything from the rib cage up and redraw it, which is what you see here in the final.

In keeping with the recent trend of including easter eggs in my backgrounds, there's a few in here (some of you may already know them):  First, there's a silhouette of Batman on the building outside her window.  Beneath that are 3 claw marks, a nod to Wolverine.  Starting on the top is a modified Riddler Trophy from the Arkham City game (it's modified for space reasons).  The middle shelf has a batarang from the current string of Batman films.  The last one is a mannequin's head wearing Mileena's torn mask (a nod to the Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe game).  With putting those "trophies" in her room, I was thinking of Catwoman as more of a treasure collector.

Frost In The Air

"Frost In The Air" sketch

Mortal Kombaaat!  *Pumps fist into the air!*  If you were a gamer in the 90s, you probably know all about Mortal Kombat.  Infamous at the time for its heavy blood and violence, Mortal Kombat was one of the most popular arcade games ever.  Frost made her debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (chronologically it was MK5).  The design she has in this sketch is a variation of her alternate costume in the game.  I signed on to do this picture as part of the  Mortal Kombat Tribute Round 2.  The pose I had in mind at first was to have Frost appear to be skating towards the viewer with her hands outstretched behind her shooting out ice blasts.  However, I soon found that pose to be too tricky to execute, so I rigged up a model in DAZ Studio and used that to help me with a pose.  

Hands and feet are the bane of many artists and that remains true with me.  Getting the angle of the feet and her right hand correct were the toughest parts of this sketch.  The feet I eventually managed to cheat a bit on, but the right hand required numerous restarts and tweaks to finally reach a position that I felt was passable. 

Frost's alternate costume is very similar to this, but not exactly as it's drawn here.  Because I decided to run with the idea of her costume being constructed entirely of ice, that meant I had to leave out the sash that was on the front.  If everything about her costume was frozen, it would've looked really odd to have a piece of it frozen solid floating between her legs.  The background is my interpretation of a close up on the Lin Kuei temple.  I thought about placing mountains behind her originally, but decided the temple would be both simpler to draw and more relevant to the character.  I aim to add colors to this one very soon.

All Behind Claire Sketch

"All Behind Claire" sketch

Here is my newest sketch.  Currently titled "All Behind Claire", it's a re-envisioning of my old Claire picture (which was talked about a couple of posts below this).  The idea is largely the same, but the vision for it has changed.  Creatively, this one was a struggle to get through.  Had numerous issues with getting parts of the body to look right.  I'm still not sure about the legs, but one can't dwell too long in perfecting.  Overall, I think it's very good.

One notable difference with this version is the inclusion of the Claire-related easter eggs on the monitors  If you're not familiar with the Resident Evil games, you probably won't recognize them.  From top-left they are Mr. X (Resident Evil 2), William Birkin Form 3 (Resident Evil 2), Mutated Steve Burnside (Resident Evil: Code Veronica), and Mutated Alexia Ashford (Resident Evil: Code Veronica).  The aesthetics of the characters here are based on their Darkside Chronicles versions.  Originally, I wanted to include Nemesis and brainwashed Jill Valentine, but decided not to since neither were directly related to Claire.

I plan to color this one eventually.  For now, I'm moving on to my next sketch, a piece that will feature Frost from the Mortal Kombat series.

Essential Tools Of The Trade: Artist Easel

I've been doing art for probably 15 or so years and I never thought to buy one of these.  It's a bit cumbersome if you don't have the proper space set out for it, which I don't but I manage.  This was the best and most affordable version of the easel I found at my local Hobby Lobby (after an official Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon from their website here as well as local taxes, it came out to about $20).  Ideally, I would prefer to have a complete drafting table, but this will do for the time being.  Any of you who do any type of art should definitely consider getting one as it puts far less strain on the back from slouching over.

Some other notes: As shown in the picture, I'm using Canson Fanboy Comic Book Art Boards for doing my art.  Although you can really use any type of paper for art, I find that using boards such as this can help make pencil work and subsequent scans cleaner.  They're not necessarily cheap, so I'd suggest picking some up when there's a sale.  If you have one near you, I'd recommend checking out Hobby Lobby or Michael's Craft Store for them.

I'd also recommend using a good eraser for doing art.  The classic pink ones are fine for doing general purpose stuff, but they don't fare as well for art work.  The erasers I use are Hi-Polymer erasers from Pentel.  They're pretty good at cleaning pencil lines, though it helps to draw with a light hand.