Earlier this week, I updated my blog with the following warm-up sketch:
I then looked at it and went, “Man, I need to practice more variety in body shapes and types!”
That prompted me to sketch THIS:
Her name is Galileya. She’s an agent of a super secret organization that destroys planets and does other intergalactic missions. I want to write a story about her and her coworker, Agent Sinclair:
The problem is I have no story for them that has anything resembling a plot. So they’re still a work in progress.
Back to this week.
After I drew Galileya, I was like, “But man, I need to practice drawing things that aren’t people! What can I draw?”
Well, one morning my cat was on my bed, grooming herself. So I got out my sketch pad and my ink brush, and got to work:
That was tricky to do, since she kept moving on me.
I should probably just wait until she holds still, like this:
BUT EVEN THAT IS FLEETING BECAUSE CATS DO WHATEVER THEY WANT.
So I went, “Dude, I gotta practice drawing things that hold still! But I’ve drawn most of the objects around me twenty times. What’s new on Pinterest that I can use as a reference?”
I found this image:
And I went, “PERFECT! I need to practice landscapes so I don’t have crap that looks like this”:
So I took the reference image above and drew this (with some artistic license in rendering certain things):
I still want to practice landscapes and environments, though. Because
a) It would make my current comics projects even better, and
b) the projects I have in mind for the future are sci-fi/fantasy works that require a LOT of visual development and technical know-how, which I don’t have a lot of yet.
So what do you draw for practice? Let me know in the comments below! And if we keep the conversation going, I think we can find new things for us to practice drawing so we don’t get too comfortable.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.
P.S. I actually drew MORE than this stuff this week, but those other sketches are exclusive to Patreon subscribers only. If you’re interested in supporting what I do, go to Patreon! There are tipping plans for as little as $1 a month.
Also, I am aware that the Patreon page is under Christian Beranek’s name. It’s our joint effort under the umbrella of Validation. Any money raised there is split evenly between the both of us so we can both keep producing the comic.
If you want to go the more direct route or support my other work, there’s also a tip jar over at Johnson & Sir‘s page.
Ok, that’s it for now! For real this time!
For future sci-fi stories, you probably should practice drawing planets, spaceships, space stations,aliens, and how the world looks like if seen through a head-up display.
Don’t worry, you can totally do this.