Swap Challenge - Reboot

Because Brian got so far behind with his weekly submissions, I suggested we reboot so he doesn't have so much of a backlog of homework (tally to date: Ken - 3, Brian - 1). Meanwhile, I drew a detailed sketch of my X-Men team (Cyclops, Iceman, Colossus, Cannonball and Siryn) demolishing a Sentinel. The sketch is on 60 lb. 6.25" x 8.5" 30% recycled paper, but I am going to add a second Sentinel and complete the finished part of Week IV on 80 lb. 18" x 24" 30% this weekend.

For Week V Brian has suggested we do fake beer/sports logos. I have some ideas and it should be fun, but I was really getting into a figure drawing groove over the last month or so...

Swap Challenge III (er, IV)

I just finished my half of the third Swap Challenge between my friend Brian and me. However, instead of doing this week's topic (a dream team of five Marvel mutants for our own personalized X-Men), I was inspired by a book I am reading ("Hornblower and The Hotspur" by C. S. Forester) to leapfrog to next week's chosen topic: pirates. And since Brian has only completed the first challenge to date, leaving him three projects due by the end of this week, I feel no remorse (haha). My team of five mutants will show up at the end of Week IV instead.

I sketched it out in the car while I was between appointments at work in Rhode Island, and spent today inking, shading, coloring and photographing my work. This week I am most pleased with the work just before I colored it. Sometimes I feel that just the black and white is best, and that when I color it, some of the drama is sapped out. This is why I always take photos at several stages of my progress. Feel free to confirm or refute my color theory (pun intended).

 

I am not thrilled with how his right leg turned out (it looks quite awkward to me), and the sea chest looks a bit off, but I laugh every time I look at my scribble of "The Birth of Venus" in the painting on the shipboard cabin's wall!

Swap Challenge II - Thor

Here is my entry for Swap Challenge II. In honor of the film's U.S. premiere we agreed upon "Thor" from Marvel Comics. I chose to draw the classic version of the character. I worked on the sketch for this project during the week anytime I happened to be goofing around online, and I moved the arm holding the hammer several times. I did the rest of the work today (Sunday) in front of the television (during "The Amazing Race" and "Celebrity Apprentice"). Tools were the same as last week's, except for the following: the paper was 60 lb. Strathmore (premium recycled).

I feel like I phoned it in on the figure's pose, but the coming week's subject (the third and final one in a row featuring characters from Marvel Comics) is for each of us to draw an action scene with our five favorite mutants from "The X-Men". Stay tuned! And of course, feel free to comment.

Swap Challenge I

Here is my contribution to "Swap Challenge I", the first of many drawing exercises that my friend Brian & I are doing on a weekly basis until one of us tires of it. He is drawing Marvel's Thing for me, and I drew Marvel's Darkhawk for him.

I used a regular #2 pencil to draw the figure, and then inked it with an 08mm Prismacolor Premier pen. The dark blue is a brush pen marker, and the colored pencils are Prismacolor Blue Slate PC1024 and Lilac PC956. The red I used for the visor and the chest emblem is a Pigma Micron 05mm. The final work took about three hours to finish.

I'm not a very good inker (I need a lot of practice, which I never seem to do), and often I feel that my coloring takes away from the initial drawing. Two things to spend a lot more time on for future Swap Challenges...