Friday, March 28, 2014

Process


Here's another drawing for my current RPG commission. I thought I'd throw in a work in process scan to give you an idea of how I go about making pictures. I drew this in pencil on a piece of bristol board. Mostly, I just blocked in the shapes and tried to get the anatomy of the beastie right. I don't start thinking about details until I start inking. In this case, this critter was described as a chameleon, able to change colors like an octopus, and in the game it's practically invisible. This is not easy to draw, and I haven't managed it, really. Black and white isn't really conducive to this, but it did give me the idea for the skin patterns while hiding in tall grasses. I ink with a brush these days, which is still kind of amazing to me. Inking with a brush used to seem like voodoo to me, particularly when I would look at people like Berni Wrightson (who drew his astonishing Frankenstein illustrations with a brush). Necessity drove me to brushes rather than the crowquills I used to favor and now I'm completely comfortable with them. Practice makes perfect, I guess.


Anyway, this was fun.





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Thursday, March 20, 2014

More Creatures


Here are a some more creatures for the RPG commission I'm working on right now. I'll have more of these pretty soon. The top one is another feathered dinosaur, though one that's more overtly a dinosaur. The other is a giant flea. Insects are insanely fun to draw, especially fanciful ones where I can cut loose. The first drawing is entirely brush and ink. The big bug is brush and pen and Pitt pens. Both are on Bristol board.



I'm trying out Patreon as a means of funding my blogs. They don't have a widget yet, so this link will just have to do. If you like my writing and if you'd like to support Krell Laboratories and Christianne's Art and Comics, please come on over and pledge. Thanks.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Feathered Dinosaurs


These are a couple of illustrations for a role-playing game. The brief on these describes newly-discovered feathered dinosaurs. I love drawing dinosaurs. I kind of love drawing birds. Creating creatures that are an amalgam? Ooooh yeah...

Mind you, the ten year-old me would have pitched a fit because I was "doing it wrong," but I remember reading Julian May's Warm Blooded Dinosaurs sometime in the early eighties which disabused me of my King Kong-influenced prejudices. In any event, these are almost purely brush and ink. Sume-e ink on plate-finish Bristol board.



I'm trying out Patreon as a means of funding my blogs. They don't have a widget yet, so this link will just have to do. If you like my writing and if you'd like to support Krell Laboratories and Christianne's Art and Comics, please come on over and pledge. Thanks.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Frankenstein and The Creature




This is a sketch card for one of my Patreon backers. The backer requested a drawing of Frankenstein and the Creature. I tried to stay away from the cinematic versions. This is more Shelly by way of Wrightson and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. I definitely wanted the good doctor to be wearing some kind of Regency-period outfit, because that era was a high point of men's fashions.







I'm trying out Patreon as a means of funding my blogs. They don't have a widget yet, so this link will just have to do. If you like my writing and if you'd like to support Krell Laboratories and Christianne's Art and Comics, please come on over and pledge. Thanks.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Exile Page 12

The Exile of Natalie Rios by Christianne Benedict and Rachel K. Zall

As usual, this was much delayed by real-world obligations, but relatively safe for work for a change. Not even any bad language!

 This is substantially different from what Katie wrote for this page (and the next two, for that matter). The content was all there in the script, but it was arranged in a way that would have been very difficult for me to draw. I asked if she minded if I re-wrote parts of this then bounced it off of her. She was more than receptive to my ideas. This is the way collaboration works, and Katie has been a complete joy to work with.

The first panel is mostly Pitt pens, while the rest is brush and ink. Plus lots of white-out and digital corrections. More than I would like.

The master post for the Exile with all pages is here.




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Monday, January 27, 2014

Tyrion Lannister



I struggle with likenesses even when I work from photographs (as I did on this drawing), so I'm surprised at how much this actually looks like Peter Dinklage. This was drawn as a gift. Brush and ink and Copic markers on Bristol board. Original is 4" x 6-1/2".


Friday, January 17, 2014

Edgar Allan Poe


This is a sketchcard I did for one of my Patreon backers, who asked me to draw Edgar Allan Poe for him. I'm well aware of the fact that Poe was deathly afraid of cats, but I didn't want to draw ravens. Too obvious.

Brush and ink and Copic markers on Bristol board.





I'm trying out Patreon as a means of funding my blog. They don't have a widget yet, so this link will just have to do. If you'd like to support my art, comics, and movie reviews, please come on over and pledge. Thanks.