sometimes you just gotta sketch Captain America as a stripper, you know?
It was that or throttle someone. It's been one of those days. On balance, I think channelling/distracting/amusing myself by scribbling Cap and sundry as characters in Magic Mike was the healthy call....
... Why am I even doing words? You're not listening.
... Standing back and looking over this now, it occurs to me that all got rather crotchtacular on me, there. Whoops.
JOLLY GOOD.
Uh, that's (vintage) Jarvis on the left, because James D'Arcy is the shiz. Also, frikkin tall. Although possibly a skosh shorter than what I've made him there, oh well. (Hopefully I don't have to ID the others.)
There's rambling art-type process backstory, for anyone interested in that kind of thing, which frankly I wouldn't blame you if you weren't, but: for various logistical reasons, very recently, I finally got off my ass and bought baby's first graphics tablet. And it turns out it's about the most fun you can have on your own and sober and various other qualifiers that we shan't go into at this time.
But of course I needed something to do to get the hang of the assorted things and what-does-that-do and to just play around with - all my art heretofore has been strictly analogue, the more dimensions to exist in the better - without having to work on something I have to make come out a certain way and so become frustrated with screwing it up. And the MCU characters are great, as is all the fanart of them all that people do. They're particularly attractive (yes duh) to artists, I think, because the visual aspect of these characters is so rich and deliberate; the people at Marvel have been extremely consistent in their visuals in casting and the translation of a medium where the images are carrying 80-90% of the information of the story.
So these characters are a natural draw (hurbluhdurr) to experimenting with different styles and techniques of virtual art while trying to incorporate the very distinct visual cues of character and personality. Also contributing to the opportunity to play around with different styles is my enjoyment of AUs, once again introducing the challenge of translating the precise visual cues of each character into that specific, uh, vocabulary, I guess. (Magic Mike is, I confess, not that tricky in that regard; just drawing ripped dudes with their tops off is not the lofty artistic challenge I may be trying to present this whole thing as. Let that be a clue: it's not a lofty artistic challenge. It's just a super fun project for when I have time, and I'm half-accidentally learnin' stuff on the side. Learn by doing ripped dudes with their shirts off!)
Processes/techniques practiced so far include paper-drawing and then scanning in basic templates of the individual different characters to work off (like fashion templates), so that I have a basically neutral pose for each one, that still evokes their personality and attitude. I noticed, when I first started looking at people doing fashion template drawing, that they will sometimes directly trace poses from photos, which feels like cheating, and it IS, and it's GREAT! Who the hell wants to get hung up on working out poses and proportions each time you want to get on with designing gorgeous clothing things?! But, since I was wanting to give my Proper Drawing that wouldn't make my college life drawing teachers cry a long-overdue workout (I'm misrepresenting my teachers there for dramatic effect; they wouldn't cry, they'd just get insouciantly louche and sarcastic at me), I first worked out the templates, then scanned them in, cleaned them up into simple wireframe, and then overlaid them on the closest photos I could find to the pose, to check the proportions. They were mostly okay, or close enough not to make crying things happen. Like so:
But, drunk off the fashion template concept and clearly just regressing to playing dress up with paper dolls, I ran with the idea of working off those templates while figuring out costuming and whatnot, without having to think of a new pose each time, and how that pose is affecting the lie of the clothes etc, and also have all of them in proportion to each other for height reference. (Those poses up there were done off the templates, nothing specific to Magic Mike but the outfits. I'm going to have to check Jarvis's and maybe shrink it a smidge, that really does look too tall. - "Cheating!" bleats my inner Fine Arts training. YES, HAAHAHAHA AND YOU CAN'T STOP MEEEEE) (Thus far, I've done templates of Cap, Nat, Bucky, Sam, Peggy and Jarvis, because Cap's subset are my favs. If I get to the point of becoming impatient with the lack of variety, I'll expand to others. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll expand to Thor. HEIMDALL!)
Which functions like a half-draft, and having worked out the styling and visual design blahdiblah I want to use and whatnot, I can go and draw up the actual image of the AU. Presumably this one will involve the guys doing something flamboyant, half-naked and butt-wiggly. Not sure yet; like I said, this was no-don't-throttle-that-person-it-isn't-worth-it therapy. This particular AU is the third run at this process I've taken; I haven't got past the template-design step yet because I'm still trying to get a handle on how to make it work in a way I'm satisfied with.
The other two attempts, with other AU ideas, I drew straight on the templates - clothing first, because that was what I was figuring out, learning how to get different effects and textures and so on. And when I got to the heads/faces, I became immensely frustrated, because there was just no relationship between them and the bodies I was trying to draw them on. All the zooming in and zooming out for facial detail completely destroyed any sense of proportion relative to the bodies, at least as my brain is accustomed to judging it - on a piece of physical THING that stays the same size and which I can always see all of, and keep perspective on, no matter how much I narrow in on whatever part I'm detailing.
The first attempt, I ended up completely overworking - which was good practice as I was also learning how to render complex skin texture and shadowing - and the second I got cranky and and contrary, which ended up with me switching to a deliberately clashing style to the one I'd used on the clothing, which while good practice and kind of amusing, was visually janky and unsatisfying.
Hence this new intermediary step, of a quick full-figure sketch over the template (as displayed above; the siena line colour being the traditional indicator of Preliminary Sketch, though admittedly not usually laid over greyish/blackish purple. Or lurid blue movie title lettering, come to that), which the "proper" draft sketch will work off. That way at least I've conceived the whole figure in relationship and proportion, so this time once I do get to detailing the face it shouldn't feel so horrifically disconnected from everything going on below the neck. (That's the first time I've done both Sam and Jarvis, which, if it looks like I just gave up on Jarvis halfway through, would be why - and actually may be why he's registering as slightly too tall, his face might be a little bit too long. Hm. Well, this would be what drafts are for, hooray for stages of problem-solving \o/)
So, depending on mood, time, energy, inclination, inspiration, and probably a hundred other ineffable variables, I may or may not ever get around to actually doing (hurr) these guys as stripping hotties, and/or a whole other host of generic AUs and canon fusions. I'll probably keep posting stuff here as I go (if I do go); hopefully, it'll at least be good for a laugh, for anyone who might need it. Because, sometimes, you have one of those days when you just gotta sketch Captain America as a stripper.
... Why am I even doing words? You're not listening.
... Standing back and looking over this now, it occurs to me that all got rather crotchtacular on me, there. Whoops.
JOLLY GOOD.
Uh, that's (vintage) Jarvis on the left, because James D'Arcy is the shiz. Also, frikkin tall. Although possibly a skosh shorter than what I've made him there, oh well. (Hopefully I don't have to ID the others.)
There's rambling art-type process backstory, for anyone interested in that kind of thing, which frankly I wouldn't blame you if you weren't, but: for various logistical reasons, very recently, I finally got off my ass and bought baby's first graphics tablet. And it turns out it's about the most fun you can have on your own and sober and various other qualifiers that we shan't go into at this time.
But of course I needed something to do to get the hang of the assorted things and what-does-that-do and to just play around with - all my art heretofore has been strictly analogue, the more dimensions to exist in the better - without having to work on something I have to make come out a certain way and so become frustrated with screwing it up. And the MCU characters are great, as is all the fanart of them all that people do. They're particularly attractive (yes duh) to artists, I think, because the visual aspect of these characters is so rich and deliberate; the people at Marvel have been extremely consistent in their visuals in casting and the translation of a medium where the images are carrying 80-90% of the information of the story.
So these characters are a natural draw (hurbluhdurr) to experimenting with different styles and techniques of virtual art while trying to incorporate the very distinct visual cues of character and personality. Also contributing to the opportunity to play around with different styles is my enjoyment of AUs, once again introducing the challenge of translating the precise visual cues of each character into that specific, uh, vocabulary, I guess. (Magic Mike is, I confess, not that tricky in that regard; just drawing ripped dudes with their tops off is not the lofty artistic challenge I may be trying to present this whole thing as. Let that be a clue: it's not a lofty artistic challenge. It's just a super fun project for when I have time, and I'm half-accidentally learnin' stuff on the side. Learn by doing ripped dudes with their shirts off!)
Processes/techniques practiced so far include paper-drawing and then scanning in basic templates of the individual different characters to work off (like fashion templates), so that I have a basically neutral pose for each one, that still evokes their personality and attitude. I noticed, when I first started looking at people doing fashion template drawing, that they will sometimes directly trace poses from photos, which feels like cheating, and it IS, and it's GREAT! Who the hell wants to get hung up on working out poses and proportions each time you want to get on with designing gorgeous clothing things?! But, since I was wanting to give my Proper Drawing that wouldn't make my college life drawing teachers cry a long-overdue workout (I'm misrepresenting my teachers there for dramatic effect; they wouldn't cry, they'd just get insouciantly louche and sarcastic at me), I first worked out the templates, then scanned them in, cleaned them up into simple wireframe, and then overlaid them on the closest photos I could find to the pose, to check the proportions. They were mostly okay, or close enough not to make crying things happen. Like so:
But, drunk off the fashion template concept and clearly just regressing to playing dress up with paper dolls, I ran with the idea of working off those templates while figuring out costuming and whatnot, without having to think of a new pose each time, and how that pose is affecting the lie of the clothes etc, and also have all of them in proportion to each other for height reference. (Those poses up there were done off the templates, nothing specific to Magic Mike but the outfits. I'm going to have to check Jarvis's and maybe shrink it a smidge, that really does look too tall. - "Cheating!" bleats my inner Fine Arts training. YES, HAAHAHAHA AND YOU CAN'T STOP MEEEEE) (Thus far, I've done templates of Cap, Nat, Bucky, Sam, Peggy and Jarvis, because Cap's subset are my favs. If I get to the point of becoming impatient with the lack of variety, I'll expand to others. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll expand to Thor. HEIMDALL!)
Which functions like a half-draft, and having worked out the styling and visual design blahdiblah I want to use and whatnot, I can go and draw up the actual image of the AU. Presumably this one will involve the guys doing something flamboyant, half-naked and butt-wiggly. Not sure yet; like I said, this was no-don't-throttle-that-person-it-isn't-worth-it therapy. This particular AU is the third run at this process I've taken; I haven't got past the template-design step yet because I'm still trying to get a handle on how to make it work in a way I'm satisfied with.
The other two attempts, with other AU ideas, I drew straight on the templates - clothing first, because that was what I was figuring out, learning how to get different effects and textures and so on. And when I got to the heads/faces, I became immensely frustrated, because there was just no relationship between them and the bodies I was trying to draw them on. All the zooming in and zooming out for facial detail completely destroyed any sense of proportion relative to the bodies, at least as my brain is accustomed to judging it - on a piece of physical THING that stays the same size and which I can always see all of, and keep perspective on, no matter how much I narrow in on whatever part I'm detailing.
The first attempt, I ended up completely overworking - which was good practice as I was also learning how to render complex skin texture and shadowing - and the second I got cranky and and contrary, which ended up with me switching to a deliberately clashing style to the one I'd used on the clothing, which while good practice and kind of amusing, was visually janky and unsatisfying.
Hence this new intermediary step, of a quick full-figure sketch over the template (as displayed above; the siena line colour being the traditional indicator of Preliminary Sketch, though admittedly not usually laid over greyish/blackish purple. Or lurid blue movie title lettering, come to that), which the "proper" draft sketch will work off. That way at least I've conceived the whole figure in relationship and proportion, so this time once I do get to detailing the face it shouldn't feel so horrifically disconnected from everything going on below the neck. (That's the first time I've done both Sam and Jarvis, which, if it looks like I just gave up on Jarvis halfway through, would be why - and actually may be why he's registering as slightly too tall, his face might be a little bit too long. Hm. Well, this would be what drafts are for, hooray for stages of problem-solving \o/)
So, depending on mood, time, energy, inclination, inspiration, and probably a hundred other ineffable variables, I may or may not ever get around to actually doing (hurr) these guys as stripping hotties, and/or a whole other host of generic AUs and canon fusions. I'll probably keep posting stuff here as I go (if I do go); hopefully, it'll at least be good for a laugh, for anyone who might need it. Because, sometimes, you have one of those days when you just gotta sketch Captain America as a stripper.