I was looking at my portfolio recently and noticed that I didn’t have that many character designs of kids.  So I spent some time during the week coming up with a design that I would care about.  If I didn’t, it would just look uninspired and just plain boring.  After some thought, I came up with Buffalo Brave.  I drew it in pencil, scanned it in photoshop for digital inking and coloring.  Hope you guys enjoy, cheers!

PS – Buffalo Brave has a sidekick, so look forward to that

One thing that I’ve been trying to do more of in my designs is exploring options.  I’ll often get locked in on one design so much that any kind of “exploring” ends up looking too similar.  So to fix that, I’ve been trying to play with the whole design in general as opposed to changing one part of it.  After looking at these explorations, the designs aren’t as pushed as I would have liked.  I got a bit of exploration work done with the costumes and props, but I probably should have played with proportions as well.  Anyways, it’s a start and hopefully a step in the right direction.

The previous Zeus was more of a jolly looking type.  So I tried going in the direction of a Zeus that was fat but could also whip ass.  Went with a more traditional toga.  Thought it was more fitting because I drew Zeus as a heavy enforcer type.  I also shortened his hair so the crown wouldn’t be too overshadowed.  I think I explored with enough ideas to mix em up and come up with a Zeus that fits in the same world as my Poseidon design.

On a sidenote, the new year’s challenge was over over a month ago, but I finally finished my 31 drawings for it.  I probably would have finished it on time, but I became more critical of my drawings and just didn’t want to post anything just for the sake of posting.  I just wanted to post the best drawings I could have done at that given time.  That’s the only thing you can honestly ask of yourself as an artist.  Hopefully within the next few months, I’ll look at these drawings and find nothing but mistakes as it shows that I’ve gotten better with my drawing by that time.

Anyways, the whole point of the drawing challenge was to get myself to draw more human characters since I was drawing more vinyl toy characters towards the end of 2009.  Now that the weight of challenge is off my shoulders, I can move to experimenting with styles and focus on diversifying my portfolio without trying to force the issue.  So be on the lookout for more artistic growth.  Cheers.

round 3 with the Zeus design.  Approached it at another angle.  What if Zeus just let himself go?  Wouldn’t you if you basically had all the power in the world?  Designing a heavyset character is something new for me.  So it was fun and also a challenge at the same time.  Decided to go all in with the toga to see how I could make it different from what’s already been done.  Hopefully it’s a step in the right direction.

Another Zeus drawing.  This time I tried adding toga elements while still giving him pants.   Kinda like it, but not totally satisfied.  Gonna try more versions.