Hell yeah I like to draw yo! But no, seriously, I've been drawing my entire life. I remember drawing a horse and painting my grandmother's red truck when I was only four. I am seriously not lying when I say that even as a little kid, I was a far better artist than my dad, who can't draw to save his life. Also, observational drawing especially has always come naturally to me, to the point that as a child I wondered why most people have such trouble with it. I've gone to two art schools, that being in my Primary Education mind you. These were a Middle School called the
F.A.I.R. School [
Fine
Arts
Interdisciplinary
Resource School] and the Perpich Center for Arts Education, which is an Arts High School.
I usually draw in a manga-like style, although I'm pretty versatile and am capable of drawing in whatever style I'm challenged to. Here's some of my stuff:
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This is an older piece, although I did it relatively recently. It is a portrait of one of my characters, as most of my art pieces are. The character seen here is Lulu, and she is one of the first characters I ever made, although she's gone through a lot of evolution over the years. She was intended to be an OC for One Piece, and the Girlfriend of Rustrom, who is the first character I ever made, and one who I am still evolving [he was called Hisoka for the longest time, and was part Japanese and part Italian, but I eventually changed it when I realized that the concept didn't really work that well with what I wanted out of him, so I made him Indian.]
Here's a more recent piece, and one that holds a special place in my heart:
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The demon you see depicted here is actually a depiction of my inner darkness, and for years, I could literally feel a mass of negative emotions inside me that I pictured as this thing. It evolved over the years, growing increasingly more menacing. Essentially, it was my attempt at drawing the most frightening monster I possibly could. What I ended up with was a four armed, winged, giant, horned demon with a spiked Stegosaurus tail topped with a spiked mace ball. It's basic form was based on a Tyrannosaurus Rex, with the two reverse S legs, long, swinging tail, and what I imagined as being leathery, reptilian skin. This is a somewhat dated pic, and my concept for this thing has changed somewhat since then. I now imagine it as being much larger, with pitch black skin adorned with bright blue or purple tribal tattoos completely covering it, and an almost mist-like black gas composing its body, kind-of like the Balrog from Lord of the Rings [who I'll note, was the other main inspiration for its form]. So, just out of curiosity, how scary do you guys think this thing looks?
Anywho, movin' on, here's a character I actually based on a real Historical Figure:
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He's kind of obscure, so many of you won't have heard of him, but his name is Diogenes of Sinope. He was an obscure Greek Philosopher and one of the founders of the Cynic school of Philosophy [I don't support Cynicism, but I do like some of his other stuff]. The man was homeless, living in a pot on the street, and essentially surviving by begging, panhandling for money and food, and messing with the other philosophers and many of the local officials. There is a famous story of Alexander the Great himself approaching him and saying, "Ask for anything and I shall give it to you."
Diogenes, who was laying down at the time, lounging around as he usually did, casually replied, "I ask you to step aside. You're standing in the light."
Alexander the Great of course was the most powerful man in the world at the time, and could have easily had Diogenes killed with no one even objecting to it, and yet Diogenes was willing to essentially blow him off. It showed that the man was genuine, and had balls of steel. Remember, Alexander was known for having a God Complex and being legendary for his extreme arrogance and vanity. Still, he let Diogenes live, and walked away a bit wiser. The moral of the story was that Alexander the Great had worked hard his entire life, had everything a man could possibly dream to possess, and yet Diogenes, who had nothing, was the happier man. Anyway, this character is obviously an Arrancar Bleach OC based on him [virtually all of the Arrancars are named after historical figures, mostly architects, inventors, and scientists]
Next up, here are two similar characters, both of them young homeless girls, although I went in completely opposite directions with the two of them:
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The first one, the long haired girl, is named Kichi, and was created as an attempt by me to challenge myself by creating a character completely opposite to my personality [I use these characters in Online Forum RPs]. She was created for the Manga and Anime series Needless, and I gave her the power of Intangibility. Now, looking at her picture, I realize it was a bit minimalist on the body, but remember, these are essentially character templates, and I use them mostly for developing purposes, and will usually create them with the full knowledge that I'm going to just replace the design I just made soon after.
The second character is one who is far more developed, farther along in that process, and that shows in the detail I put into her. Her name is obviously Marcella Gruelle, who is actually named after a real person, and also based on a famous toy that is connected to her. Marcella Gruelle was the daughter of the creator of the famous Raggedy Ann doll, author Johnny Gruelle. The real Marcella Gruelle became famous for dying when she was 13 due to a smallpox vaccine that she was forcibly given in school. Since then, she, and the Raggedy Ann dolls, have become symbols of the anti-vaccination movement [again, like with Diogenes of Sinope's founding of the Cynic Philosophical school, I don't support the Anti-Vaccination movement, I just used the character].
Marcella was intended to be the main character of a Pokemon Fan-Fiction I plan to write that tells the story of her life as a homeless person, how she got that way, and the adventures she goes on with her friends. For the most part though, it will be an extremely graphic commentary on modern societal failings, as Marcella gets the nickname "Rag Doll" because she got raped on a regular basis by her parents as a child, and as a defense mechanism, would retreat mentally into her mind, so that her body went completely limp, essentially turning her into a living rag doll. Eventually she kills her parents, Theodore "Teddy" Gruelle, who is the Castelia City Police Chief, and her mother, Barbara "Barbie" Gruelle. She lives in an abandoned Warehouse where Castelia City's homeless essentially made a shanty town where they all help each other and form a tight knit community. Throughout the fix, they fight a gang, the local police, and even a corporation. The fix ends where most begin, with Marcella starting her pokemon journey like most trainers do. Feel free to tell me what you think of that concept anybody.
And then, here's a character I've been trying to develop for quite a while now, and am still not quite done working out:
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This character here is Imre, who is an Ogre I originally conceived for a LARP group I'm a part of. I wanted him to be a warrior who specialized in axes, an idea I got from Gimli of the Lord of the Rings series. The second picture seen there is my design for a Great Axe he could possibly use. Essentially I wanted it to be extremely functional, meaning it would have to be as effective as possible as a weapon, while at the same time, looking incredibly cool. So I was essentially straddling those two things when I designed it. I got a lot of inspiration for the design from Gimli's axes, as well as some other work I've seen. Then, back to Imre, when I designed him, I was very conscious of trying to differentiate between him being an Ogre as opposed to a Troll. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but I've always thought of Ogres as being bigger, smarter, and stronger, while Trolls, although smaller, are far more numerous, and are also more predatory and vicious, in addition to being faster, more nimble, and in general the more intimidating of the two.
And saving the best for last, here's my most recent work of actual Observational Drawing. This was drawn with one of my teachers serving as a model, and so the woman you see here is a real person. I kind of rushed it because she wasn't that used to this kind of stuff, I was limited on time, and because I didn't want to make her sit still for too long, but it took me roughly 20 minutes to do this:
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So guys, after seeing all this stuff, what do you guys think of my work? I realize that all of them are in black and white and that they're all portraits, except for the ax design. I have other stuff, but for now, I think this is good.
