Sketch Diary: Planning fan art ideas - Howl's

I have a tough time doing fan art of any kind. It's tough for me to borrow someone else's ideas like that. But I see the value in it, for my own growth, for showing my love of other artists characters and to draw people in to also check out my originals. So I'm working on some fan art projects like this one for Howl's Moving Castle. I think I could make most of them work except the bottom right is too similar to a still shot from the movie, though it is a beautiful scene. I'll probably do another set of these to flush out an idea. I want to do my own thing while paying tribute to characters I love and the creators that made them. I'll let you know how that turns out hah.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Cuddle birds

Birds are difficult for me so I used a reference for this drawing. I like how cute and snuggly they look together.

I have one night a week where I'm working on digital drawing (using my wacom) and I want to build myself a schedule of doing drawings like this, from reference, one night. Maybe another night I do freehand ink, another iterative style practice. It's difficult to keep up with drawing, nevermind trying to take it to the next level, while working full-time (let's be real, it's more like 50+hrs a week). But I think making incremental change is the way to go. And I do best with realistic schedules.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Gesture with staff warmup

This was supposed to be a warm up page of gesture drawings but I started fiddling with it too much. Wasn't a solid gesture to begin with so I'm not surprised it came out weird. Looks like something I drew 10 years ago lol.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Inktober Day 26 - Freehand ink of Aragon

I love watching movies with great scores in the background while I draw and The Lord of the Rings always fits the bill for me. This was a freehand (no pre sketch in pencil or anything) drawing in ink using a brush pen of Aragon. It's a bit wonky lol and I didn't feel like inking in all of his hair... still fun though.

with love - M

Sketch Diary: Lips iterative practice

This was a good challenge and I ended up needing to look at references for ideas on some of them. That first one, top left, is definitely my go to look. But I'm a big fan of the middle one, second row, and of the bottom left one, last row.

with love - M