asterisk: pirate gesture drawings

There’s other drawing that I’ve done aside from the New Year’s Drawing Challenge.  I attend costumed gesture drawing workshops.  Here are some 5 minute poses that I took to a more complete marker rendered finish.  Cheers me mateys!!

day 7: another swordsman

There’s something cool about wielding swords.  I blame it on Conan and Voltron.  Day 7 done.  Until the next drawing, cheers!

day 6: Everybody loves Kung Fu Elvis…. or I hope they do

One thing I liked about pre 90’s era anime were pompadours.  I liked the tough guy connotation behind it as a kid.  Anyways, today’s sketch is an homage to that and inspired by Elvis’ fascination with the kung fu kick.  Deep down, the guy wanted to be in a shaw brothers flick.  I spent a little more time on this drawing and added some tone to it in photoshop.  Until the next drawing, cheers!

day 5: tokusatsu hero

One of the reasons for this New Year’s Drawing Challenge is to draw the stuff that I like drawing.  It’s one of those things that artists can spot in another artist’s work: whether or not they had fun with the drawing.

I remember times when art directors and other character designers would call me out on designs I added in my portfolio because I thought it was something they’d want to see.  They said it looked labored and lacked the life that the other designs in my portfolio had.  And they were right.  It took me a long while to figure out what friends meant when they said a drawing was “me.”

For those wondering what that means: I still remember Mark McDonnell asking me in his gesture drawing class about what I had to say about the pose.  I had to take his class a 2nd semester to sort of get an idea of what he was talking about.  But yeah, it means to take ownership of the drawing because it encompasses everything you have to say about the subject/topic/character.

Back to the actual drawing challenge.

One thing that I have a soft spot for are shows like Voltron, Ultraman, Guyver, Kamen Rider, and Power Rangers.  It’s a guilty pleasure of mine.  It’s something about dressing up like a robot and ripping apart monsters that I can’t get enough of.  Anyways, today’s challenge is my homage to that genre of Japanese Pop Culture.

I decided to add another action pose to a layout page in my portfolio from last month/year.  The other drawing I added next to the page, previously, lacked the action and life of the other poses.  It was a vague pose and did nothing for the character.  So the pose I drew today told more about the character and complimented the other 3 drawings/poses.  Still, there’s much that needs to be change/revised/etc.

So until next time, cheers.

day 4: gunslinger

Got inspired to draw a gunslinger as I was looking up photos of Clint Eastwood’s character Blondie from Fistful of Dollars for reference for a design I’ve been working on.  I remember my storyboarding teacher referencing Sergio Leone’s films for their staging and composition so maybe I’ll watch those movies since I have more downtime.  I’ve never been into westerns, so it’ll be interesting to watch these films.

Biggest issue with this drawing is definitely the fun.  Perspective is something I always need more work on as well as props.  Learning never stops.  Until then, cheers!