My Art Archives - Page 49 of 53

February 2, 2015February 1, 2015

Female Orcs and Dwarves Sketches

This month I have been drawing a lot – scratch that, a LOT – of women and female bodies. This is thanks in large part to the Superhero Ladies sketches I’m doing this month. Here are just a few of the finished ones.

However, drawing these awesome ladies got me thinking, “I need to draw non-human ladies. Like elves – “

Oh I already did that.

But then my brain went, “Wait! What about female ORCS?”

I looked into it online and found possibly some of my favorite webcomic pages on the subject, from “Orcs vs. Feminism.”

My favorite realization from the artist of this series is “Holy crap there are NO female orcs!”

So I was like, “Well what can I do to draw lady orcs for the world?”

Turns out my imagination was one step ahead of me.

There’s a work-in-progress comic starring my elf character, Auxaton (I talk more about his story in this blog post). In it, Auxaton meets a half-orc named Burnt. His dad was a human and that made his momma – Fern – a lady orc.

But I hadn’t drawn her yet UNTIL NOW:

fern the female orc sketch — It’s an unfinished sketch, but still wanted to share it.

She was actually my first try drawing a lady orc, and I found it fun.

Once I finished this, I went, “What other race in fantasy typically doesn’t feature women?”

The first race that came to mind: Dwarves.

So…

I think the reason ladies aren’t often shown as orcs or dwarves is because there’s this assumption that orcs and dwarves are muscular, tough, and battle-hearty, which are traits not often paired with women.

In actuality, this is bogus. I run an entire blog called The Women Warriors Project to feature women in history who have fought in wars, as commanders, soldiers, or queens. Women like Nzinga Mbandi, Queen Padmini of Chitor, Bat Zabai, Hsi Kai Ching and Hua Mu Lan. And yes, these women actually existed, and lived, and fought, in our history.

If women can fight and be tough in history, why can’t they be fighters in fantasy?

While fantasy literature has been relatively good on this in recent years, comics are still sort of playing catch-up to this notion. Thankfully, in webcomics like Looking for Group, they’re featuring more lady orcs and lady dwarves. I think we need more of this.

Know any comics featuring these little-recognized badasses? Leave a comment below!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

“Jamie Roberts Explores a Temple”

This is a sketch I finished yesterday, to practice making stone textures in pen. I feel like I somewhat succeeded, but I still need to practice illustrating depth. For example: that sculpture of the goddess is supposed to be sitting in a recess in the wall. I don’t feel like I did a good enough job of showing how deep the recess is. It could be fixed with tones, though, probably.

Oh, let me explain what this sketch is showing:

Jamie Roberts, the figure in the foreground, is approaching the entrance to the abandoned temple/city of Kinyaht. Kinyaht is entirely underground except for the entrance, which is covered in sculptures of the Goddess.

In their mythology, the Goddess created the World, and when people and creatures die, they return to an otherworld called The Way. In this mythology, the easiest way to get to The Way is through caves and going underground, so some people got together and built Kinyaht, an underground temple.

By the time Jamie and her friends find this temple entrance, though, it’s revealed that no one has been in Kinyaht for over 500 years…

I’m looking forward to developing this environment further, and practicing more backgrounds, landscapes, and environments. It’s something I want to get better at.

Thank you for reading! I’ll see you tomorrow with a new post.

January 27, 2015

Superhero Ladies eBook: Coming Soon

There’s no review today (I’ll have a new review for Review Day Tuesday next week).

Instead, I wanted to give you an update on my Superhero Ladies series of sketches.

I already wrote post after post about them, even one featuring Malarkey Maddie, a superheroine sketched for the series.

Well the good news is, there are now 31 sketches done, which is more than enough for the eBook!

I still have to spot check quite a few of them, but I can show you some of the finished ladies in the series.

And here are some snapshots from my camera of some of the looser, sketchier ones.

superhero ladies sketch series by kelci crawford — This one was actually named by one of my Twitter peeps. Thanks, @JN_Monk!

That last one is a trans girl because I realized towards the tail end of this project, “Crap! I could have incorporated more trans girls in this line up!” I’ll see if I can muster up at least one or two more, because I want this collection of characters to be diverse and inclusive, just like ladies IRL.

Although that reminds me of how I was going to add at least a few magical girls in this line up, as well, but in the end I really only got one. Oops.

I have to give a HUGE shout-out to the Random Superpower Generator and the Superpower Origin Generator, because without either of them I would have been so stuck on this project.

The next step with this series is to make a sketch or two more, touch them all up, and then format them into an eBook so y’all can get a copy of this awesome collection for yourself!

I’ll announce when the book is ready.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 26, 2015January 27, 2015

Johnson & Sir’s First Book: An Update

Johnson & Sir are getting their first book soon!

How soon?

Well, I originally said they would be printed and ready by January 31st. I’ve been talking to the folks who will print the book (who are the same folks that printed the book edition of Validation), and I have pretty much everything together.

However, I’m fixing some formatting errors before I send the book off to print. I want this book to look its best, darnit!

But that means the book won’t be available on January 31st.

The latest the book will hit the market is February 13th (and yes, that IS a Friday the 13th. No, I’m not superstitious about it).

You can still pre-order a copy, so I can reserve a book JUST FOR YOU from the printer (because I like you, reader, and you are awesome). It’s $10, and that price includes shipping.

I’ll be taking pre-orders up until February 13th. After that, the print run is going to be small, like less than 25 books, for conventions and online orders.Completely tangential, I remember working with an old editor and he threw out the suggestion of having me print 1000 copies of a book, because depending on the printers, printing large quantities like that actually makes the per-issue cost cheaper.

But I said to him, “What the frick am I going to do with 1000 copies of a book?!”

Because you don’t realize how large of a number 1000 is until you actually see it. I saw what 1000 books looked like (thanks to my time as a former librarian), and…I am still not ready for that kind of commitment.

Hence, why I’m keeping the print run small. Small quantities are much more manageable, and then I’m not overwhelmed by books.

Plus, it makes owning the books for you much more special, knowing that you have one book out of 25, rather than one book out of 1000. It’s a lot more personal.

And I like personal.

Ok, tangent over. Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll support Johnson & Sir! I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

The Absurd List Exercise

A few years ago, back when I lived closer to Columbus, my big sis wrote this, in permanent marker, on a dry erase board.

We have never been able to wash this off, so nearly ten years later, we still have this list tacked to the refrigerator, and it makes us laugh.

Seeing this inspires me to try a new idea as a warm-up writing exercise.

The exercise?

Make an absurd list.

It doesn’t have to have a theme like “What to Do When I Grow Up,” but if it helps you get your silly gears going, then go for it.

So I just did my free-writing list of “What to Do When I Grow Up,” and this is what I came up with:

Learn to Cook a Unicorn
Speak Cat
Shave my eyebrows
Lint-roll the dog
Make a sweater for the Eiffel Tower
High five Adolf Hitler in the face
Fly with the owls
Stretch my toes into Nickelodeon slime
host a Dalek tea party
Put sunglasses on Shakespeare’s dead body
arm wrestle the sun

The fun thing about the Absurd List is that it gets your creative muscles moving, and that means you’ll be more receptive to ideas and suggestions, whcih is always a good thing in creative work.

Share some of your absurd lists in the comments below!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.