"American Gods" Portraits

Something else I've read in college is Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods. I was actually introduced to it by seeing a clip of the tv show, and so I wanted to read the book before I saw any more. Obviously these drawings of the character Mr. Wednesday are based on his portrayal in the tv series. Surprisingly these drawings were also from memory. I guess the actors and writing are just so memorable that they're good to try to draw.
When she saw her birthday card, one of my Mom's comments was that she was happy I was branching out into more humanoid drawings. This was part of my practice for that.

More Class Doodles

More miscellaneous doodles from class. The first is directly inspired by the character "Bonejangles" and another skeleton from the Tim Burton film Corpse Bride, which I only just saw last year. Watching it was partially inspired by the fact that I took a class called "Western Concepts of Hell in Literature" last semester.
The other drawing was actually done in Western Concepts of Hell in Literature. I think my professor must have referenced the tortoise and the hare, so I decided to draw a fusion of the two animals and finally put this long-standing rivalry to rest. It turned out more adorable than I expected.

Spider-Man Doodles

These drawings are of Spider-Man, specifically the version shown in Spider-Man: Homecoming. They are also from memory and were done during class. I wanted to try out drawing Spider-Man's eyes with his new lenses.
But the last two drawings are of a concept I had for Doctor Octopus. I wanted to do the same thing for him that Spider-Man: Homecoming did for the Vulture. So I kind of made him an evil Captain America counterpart the same way Vulture is an evil Iron-Man counterpart. To that end, his suit is Hydra gear, and his metal arms are improved versions of Bucky Barnes' mechanical arm. I wanted to give them a different look from any other Dr. Octopus arms, and this fit perfectly. (During their first fight I imagine Spidey saying, "Okay one metal arm was cool. Four is just- it's just kind of tacky. Especially when you already have two!") They telescope out, and are connected to that big helmet sprouting out of the back of his head. The helmet not only makes his head look more like an octopus, it gives him more of an alien appearance. It also looks ridiculous, like his hair from the comics.
If I could do one thing differently, I would want it to be the mask. It still looks a little too like Vulture's. I don't know how I'd do it, but I'd want it to be more like a soldier or surgeon's mask. I wanted him to be scary, like the new Vulture, so I tried to make him look like something from a horror movie. I didn't quite get it, but the idea is there.

The Return

Alright, so I'm back. I haven't been doing much formal drawing because college has kept me pretty busy, and I haven't been posting anything recently for the same reason. But you can be certain I've at least been doodling this whole time. Most of it has been outside of class, but not always. But what really made me want to do this again was hearing from my friends and family that they would like to see more of it. So here it is!

Because most of these drawings are doodles or practices, not a lot of them will be original at all. I just wanted to practice something fun, not spend time thinking about originality. These drawings were kind of miscellaneous, which is why I'm posting them together. All three of these drawings were done from memory. The first two pictures were drawn just before and during class respectively. As you can probably tell the top one is a doodle of Wednesday Addams from the classic "Addams Family" comic strip. It is by no means exactly like the original drawings, but it's definitely recognizable. She was one of my first doodles I did waiting for Calculus to start. Originally I gave her a much more neutral expression, but I decided it just wasn't her.
The not-so charming character in the second picture is "Rorschach" from Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen. I actually read Watchmen here in college for the first time, and this was about the right age for that. Anyway Rorschach is the easiest character to draw, so I drew him a couples times and this was the one I wanted to share.
Finally, the third drawing is of Bob Parr, or "Mr. Incredible" from the greatest superhero movie of all time, PIXAR's The Incredibles. I re-watched it recently in response to the trailer for Incredibles 2. I've done better drawings of him with a physical reference, but I wanted to share this one. I'm still not good enough to duplicate the style they use.

God is good. He has protected me all throughout my college experience and even divinely intervened on my grades. It is because of Him I'm trying to get this done tonight. Praise Him. God's will be done.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mommy! Hermione was the hardest to draw and I didn't even do that much of her hair! You can't really see Ron's freckles, but they're there! Do you know what "All is well" is from?

Digital Animation

It's done! Until now, all the work I posted here was on paper, but this one is my first full digital animation. This incredibly short video was made with Adobe Animate, which you may expect has much less of restriction on frame rate than Windows Movie Maker. It's not the most complex or beautiful animation, but like many things on this blog it's a start. There's not that much to say about this one because of it's simplicity. I'm not that good with digital drawing yet, so the simplicity of the image was intentional. This was an exercise in determination. Because it didn't feel like much at the beginning, I wasn't as eager to finish it. But once I got in the thick of it, it seemed so much more fun to finish. New and different technique, same old process it seems. Well, no need to divert from the pattern now. Praise God!

The Correct Hallway

I have some trouble with proper perspective. Often different sections of one drawing will each work on their own but not all together. So I decided to use that when I came up with this idea. I may not know exactly how to do perspective correctly, but I know tons of tricks for how to do it incorrectly. You may recognize the character from one of my earlier drawings, but it's not really essential to getting the feeling of this picture. I didn't use any references for the drawing except the image in my head, but I'm fairly certain the image in my head takes inspiration from Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951) and surreal artwork. In my head, the checkered office floor is red and white.

I'm almost exactly three weeks into college today. Often my experiences walking alone around the grounds and empty classrooms (especially the few times I've been out after dark) have been almost dreamlike. I feel like I'm simply watching myself get from one place to another, without the ability or desire to alter my course. And the only one willing to get on the ride with me is God. Of course, that's not entirely true, but it often feels that way in the circumstances. So I used that dreamlike feeling to create this drawing.