To Watch or Not To Watch

Man of Steel is in theaters here too, right now.
From the comments I've heard, it's... not horrible, but not that good either. Decent amount of action, which was something of a flaw in the Brandon Routh movie.

Anyway, I intended to see this in theaters, but now I'm iffy. I kind of want to, but....

On the drawing: It's something of an adaptation of the formal wear costume. Also, legs are kind of large; I could fix that digitally, since I think the pose and shape are otherwise okay, but eh.
Not terribly accurate, I wasn't really going for that; For a proper drawing I'd really want to double-check the anatomy and work on  the shield design a bit more.

I had a pretty good Superman build for DnD, using Ardent from CPsi.

Elan
Monk 1/Ardent 19

Guardian Mantle as primary. pick Physical Power, Freedom, Law, Fate, Time later on. 

Feats:
1st: Overchannel
3rd: Practiced Manifester
6th: Psionic Meditation
9th: Extend Power: Saves on flight a lot - you'll only spend 33 PP on flying all day long.
12th: Quicken Power
15th: Mind over Body
18th: Expanded Knowledge: Psionic True Seeing. (sorta open)

Why this is Superman?

• You fly along all day long
• You have super-speed, thanks to Hustle, Freedom mantle, Temporal Acceleration and Teleport, Greater.
• You can see and hear through walls and long distances thanks to Clairvoyant Sense
• You can survive both in deep space and the bottom of the ocean, thanks to Iron Body. With Mind Over Energy,
  you can even withstand swimming in lava, or the heart of a star, technically.
• You can put yourself in the line of fire, thanks to Anticipatory Strike & Greater Teleport.
• You can survive any hit, thanks to Anticipatory Strike + Timeless Body. Even the 1d2 crusader punch, or Pun-pun smite.
• You can, albeit for a short while only, grapple Colossal critters reliably. 
• You can stop an oncoming train, thanks to Immovability
• You can SAVE PEOPLE thanks to Guardian mantle's power.

Am I Feeling Blue, Again?

Mmdunno. I just wanted to paint in a single tone. I did start out trying some pose sketches, but ... So, Yeah.
I actually used some layers when working here... one of the issues right now is, even if I become accustomed painting with Graphire, I still need to reaquaint myself with all the other tools available with digital work - layers, various modes, effects, filters, tools and such.

I kind of like some of the shades happening there. I'll likely do some more monochromatic sketches in (wait for it...)
THE FUTURE!

...Um.

I need to sleep.

Foreshortening sketch

Mm... I did some sketches using this practice tool, noticing I'm kind of slow - 30 seconds is not quite enough for me.

When I finished, I drew this pic. Inspired, I presume, by the various extreme angle shots among the model pictures.

It has some potentia, if I had an idea of where to take it. I guess. I've been, actually, kinda-sorta, studying.
Also got some writing done yesterday. But, all in all, I haven't really done that much. I want to get more done each day.

Sketchbook Again. Blue Ballpoint Pen.

Watching painting in Youtube, doodled with a basic ballpoint.

The key here, is the chin-mouth-nose thing in the top middle picture, really. Everything else is incidental.
The lines looked and felt better live, they're kind of dead in here.

Mostly all wrist movement. I want to move my elbow and shoulder more, really. I have some rather interesting doodles in another page, too... I really wasn't thinking while doing these. Just doodling while watching videos.

I like the feeling of drawing with a ballpoint pen fine. Still... Mm... I feel I'm missing something. Maybe it's just, it's getting kind of late and I'm sleepy or... maybe it's something... I don't know. I'm losing coherence. Coherense?

Uh, I Have a Sketchbook.

I'm trying to stick to the funny title capitalization scheme.

So.... Sketchbooks!

I have one active sketchbook - not a showcase sketchbook, just the one with all sorts of strange scribbles. I haven't scanned anything from it before this, I think.

This is a character. I'm not sure what, but sort of a... post-apocalyptic steampunk thingy. Three-four sketches I've done over the years, this one I chose to scan, just because.

So... and such. On a whim, I purposefully left the spine in.

The blade is some sort of a monster/mecha slaying taser thingy. The character is eithe carrying some sort of a  generator/battery, or have a specialized organ producing the electricity.

Definitely in a drawing mood right now. So, I'll do at least some of that, then.

I want moar sketchbooks. A couple for different purposes.
I'm kinda feeling like wanting to do art for a living right now. I'm sure the feeling will pass.

Blue.... Swimmer?

Insert Smurf Joke Here.

Very doodly. but, I had fun, so that counts. Limbs are kind of long on purpose. Anatomy is correct only accidentally.  Hands are sketchy, feet are... not there, actually.

So... painting in OpenCanvas. Still fun. I had some trouble with the too-thick outline. Also, some things are just problems arising from the fact I was just doodling on a single layer instead of doing something  reasonable. No reference, obviously. It would look better if there were. Also, the composition is crap.
It's essentially an exploratory digipainting, figuring out the textures one gets using different tools in oC.

I may do some sort of a painting timelapse thing at some point, I think that might be interesting.

Rant:
One of the things I'm noticing --- no, what I'm being reminded of, when I look at the pros doing their thing, is that I'm really really lazy. Also, a bit impatient. All  that hand-crafted detail... Well, it might actually be entertaining to do at the time, but I just don't have the patience for it, when I'm trying to get an idea out. Sure, I'll make use of happy accidents, may suggest some detail, but it's all really incidental. Possibly coincidental.
End Rant.

Next... Animation, Pencil or more OpenCanvas. Hm.

This is really random - except it ties into my YouTube watching, but....
Good animation spotted in:

• Bounen No Xam'd
• Soul Eater
• Darker Than Black
• FMA: Brotherhood
• Full Metal Panic

Aaand quite a few other shows. Thing is, though, there's also a lot of bad animation about. 

---ing ---ing ---ing

Yeah, so I'm in a weird head-space right now.

I became fascinated with the Pen tool. in oC, and ended up just doodling in large part. I think the bottom right image has close to the correct arm fold I was looking for.

In upper left, I just wanted to draw thicker arms for some reason, and... when the drawing was otherwise done, I didn't like the background, so I drew a bunch of lines there.

I was somewhat interested in the top-right, bottom-left poses, although I don't think they're all that interesting, but... mm, yeah, poses. something interesting in the armor down-left.

Huh, I think both top characters could be something Burroughsy.

So, the pen thing - or possibly a chiaroscuro thing. I like the, um, strength in using strong black and white. It can, obviously, get rather tricky at spots, but when it works... well, I like it. Frank Miller was doing Sin City when I was at an impressionable age, I guess.

What's next? Maybe something more paint-y. Or maybe it's animation time.

Oh, and this video on youtube was, um, rather badass.

Nnng Posin'

So yeah. 

Mm... Never got this to quite work. I don't think it's tightened enough to count as nude, either. I would have drawn in some gear, if I'd ever gotten it to work the way I wanted to.
Arg.

Anyway, this was bad enough I switched to tinier gesture poses. The, um, rule of the thumb, just the silhouette should be interesting in and as itself. You can see some of that in the earlier GD sequence thumbnails.

1/4th of A5, at 150DPI or so.

I'm watching some of  Sycra's Art Videos on YouTube. Mmdunno. Getting my feet wet with oC + Tablet combo.

Keep Posin'

Man, watching all this drawing and animation makes me want to re-read Bakuman. My brother bought the first few books when he was visiting, too.

This is an actiony pose. Not that interesting either, but not.. um, there's proportions and everything.

Animation: Shoo Fly was also one of my favourites at newgrounds - it has that indie/flash charm to it -- I mean, without a doubt, there are better animators about, but I'm mentally more cognizant of the effort put into it.

I'm putting in some work with my tablet - an endeavor which is sure to be of use at some point. Even if, my graphire is apparently even worse than the new-fangled cheapo Bamboo tablets. Oh well, I can always go for scanning traditional media...

Studying my failures: Pose

So... I wanted to draw a boring pose on purpose, since besides the Uncanny Valley, pose is a large part of the problem in this image. I ended up having fun, though, and while there are failures, there are also fun lines in this picture. Plus, I haven't posted anything in a while, so...

Oh! I recently ran into some very interesting youtube videos, including pencil tests animated by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Or this clip of Masakazu Katsura drawing Zetman. Also, these pencils from DieBuster.

All in all, way too many to link. Still, wonderfully inspiring.

Giving Up Today, On Purpose

Yeah. Today is not a good day. I will start from zero, tomorrow.