John's older stuff in sketch book!

Some of my Older Stuff

Page 1 - 20k - 6/11/95 - first drawing in 10 years

Page 2 - 39k - 6/13/95 - second drawing in 10 years

Page 3 - 43k - 6/14/95 - a couple of quick sketches

Page 4 - 51k - 6/15 to 6/19/95 - sketches of real people

Page 5 - 67k - 11/21/95 - sketch of real person

Page 6 - 8k - Little surfer dude for my surf the net page. I know, this ones really tacky...

Page 7 - 35k - My first _ever_ attempt at air brushing (besides practice lines and dots). Damn, but an air brush is hard to learn to use!

Page 8 - 78k - My second ever attempt at air brushing. Thought I'd try a simpler graphic this time, and actually use real air brush paper so the masks would stay stuck down! It shows orange in the scan, but it really gradiates from yellow to fire engine red.

Page 9 - 18k - 12/30/95 - Oops haven't drawn for a couple of months... This one turned out just OK IMHO. :(

Page 10 - 28k - like this one, a succubus... Makes up for the last one.

Page 11 - 25k - A real quick sketch I did from a photo. The original is very small and so the hands are kinda screwed up since they were so tiny.

Page 12 - 40k - Hey! I found some old coloring pencils and tried a color japanimation character. I only had pink, brown, and yellow pencils, but I managed to make a decent skin tone out of it. The tone is a little better in the original than in the scan though. The pink shadows in the flesh toned regions are much less visible in the original. I am happy with this one since this is the first time I've ever used colored pencils to actually _draw_ anything with and I managed not to completely screw it up!

Page 13 - 2k - A background I made for MotoNet. Brightened up the forground color a bit to make sure everyone could see it.

Page 14 - 65k - A little mixed media action here. I was requested by the guys at work to do a drawing of Aurora (greek god of the dawn) so I drew her up in pencil, colored that in with colored pencils, then scanned it in and set it against a picture of a sunrise I took in Florida last year. I am having some problems scanning in colored pencil as the colors (especially flesh tones) seem to get washed out in the process so I had to go back in Photoshop and use a little air brush action on the flesh tones.

Page 15 - 31k - I went to dragon Con here in Atlanta a few weeks ago and saw that everyone was using markers to color things, so I went out and bought some. Here are my first two attempts. I just copied some anime faces I saw on the net and set about to color them. Took me a while to figure out that markers can actually blend.

Page 16 - 73k - Some people have asked about technique, so here is an uncleaned and un-inked version so that all the shaping lines and ovals can be seen. My next normal step would be to ink the lines I want to keep and then to erase all the temporary pencil lines. Stay tuned for a cleaned up and colored version of this. Comments, suggestions?

Page 17 - 67k - Here are the versions of the same image. The first (76k) is from my sketchpad after the initial drawing. The second (65k) is the start of coloring after transferring the lines to a piece of Bristol Board by using carbon paper. The last is the final colored piece. This is the first complete, original drawing I have tried to do with colored markers. Some colored pencil was used for blending and shading as well. Oh, BTW, I did a crappy job on the right hand and arm, oh well... It was a wierd body position but I will try harder next time.

Page 18 - 70k - Here is a final, colored version of page 16. Colored on Bristol Board using Prismacolor markers.

Page 19 - 46k - Here is a quick 15 minute sketch I did in the airport waiting for my plane to board.

Page 20 - 68k - I drew this guy from a photograph... Can you tell me who it is? Hint: He was an actor in Star Wars. I am _trying_ to get to where my drawing actually _looks_ like the person I see. Answer: droF nosirraH

Page 21 - 34k - Just a face, but I like the way it just floats on the background...

Page 22 - 71k - Just a face... Practicing from photos...

Page 23 - 75k - Just a face...

Page 24 - 32k - SHI... (The comic book character)

Page 25 - 28k - Just another face (and upper torso)...

Page 26 - 63k - Just another (very happy) face... Hey, I think I'm finally figuring out how to scan these in so that the pencil gradients are represented fairly well...

Page 27 - 60k - Just another beach babe (full body)... pencil

Page 28 - 30k - La Fem Nikita... pen & ink - I like this one... Scanning kinda hosed up some of the fine cross-hatched lines in the shadows.

Page 29 - 56k - Vampirella. Not very happy with this one, I'll try it again later... pencil

Page 30 - 53k - An interesting expression... pencil

Page 31 - 102k - An elven male portrait. I _like_ this one!... pencil