An Artist Arsenal and Some Dream Character Art

I am officially decked out with an entire art arsenal. 

If you've been checking in on the blog (I know you're there.) you've probably heard me say a thousand times that I've started doing art in the sense of drawing, sketching and digital art/vector art. That doesn't mean I haven't been an artist as I've been a fiber artist (Otherwise known as a Knitter or nutty fiber artist.) since September I don't quite know what the premise of me getting into drawing was but it's happening and I've already done quite a bit. Okay truth be told I actually did quite a bit of drawing as a kid, I mean I used to draw comics (I'll show you guys one day), because I saw some kid at school doing them and I wanted to as well and be better then him as I've always been a huge comic fan, no lie that's what went through my head. For the most part they were comics related to Mario, Star Fox and Pokemon but I had some original stuff as well and they were pretty bad. At least that's what younger me thought and like a fool I gave it up. I guess I never did follow my Mum's advice on practice makes perfect, can't say I listened as well as I should of.

Regardless of all that I'm starting it back up. I've been watching my sister get incredibly good with her art as well as following quite a few artists online. (Shoutout to LeslieLuMarie again.) I've had a lot of ideas and characters in my head and in writing (I'm a writer and author foremost, this blog is evidence of that.) and while yeah I love writing i've really wanted to get my ideas visualized as well as written. I've had Annie draw stuff for me but it still didn't satisfy that urge. Well anyway I've been at it for almost a month now and I seem to be improving at rates I didn't know were possible. I'm still an amateur but hey I'm not doing bad. Annie and Mum seems to have been picking up on my new interest and I've unintentionally conned them both into letting me borrow their coloring pencils. (Which they organized recently.)

Not just coloring pencils though I was actually given my sister's old Wacom Tablet recently as well, she moved on to a new tablet (The XP Pen Star05 to be precise.) as this Wacom didn't work on her new Windows 10 computer. Though it still works perfectly on my old computer for some reason. (You can read more about that on an older blog.)

Mum handed me down some cool tracing pens, okay so these were actually the same pens (I'm not sure if they're the same exact set, they last a long time so who knows.) I used for my old comics back in the day. Got 4 sizes for 4 different line types, though I've used 3.0 for the most part. Kinda feels nostalgic using these again but I seem to have lost my steadiness when it comes to tracing, that'll take some buffing out.

Along with these gifts I've actually gotten new in my collection, a new sketchbook. Actually sketchbook is an understatement as this is so much more. I received a Mixed Media pad.

For a guy who wants to experiment in everything just for the fun of it this is actually perfect. I can do my sketching but then proceed to take it so much farther without the use of a lightbox. My current sketchbook is great but I usually have to trace it onto cardstock or trade it into my computer to do anything else with it. This is probably a familiar brand with all of you artists Canson has quite a few options when it comes to it's art pads. Whether you want an oil paint pad or a normal sketch pad they offer a lot in various sizes. Of course I went with a mix Media pad because of its reputation of being a jack of all trades. You can use pretty much everything from water color to acrylic to charcoal all except for oil paints on the heavyweight, fine textured paper that fill this pad. (60 sheets to be exact.) Because of this fine textured paper it actually erases a lot easier then my other sketchbook... which is a lifesaver because I erase a lot. (Amateur life.) Oh yeah you can actually take the pages of the sketchbook out due to the very easy separation line.

This sketchbook has actually encouraged me to give watercolor a go at some point, my sister has become a master at using watercolor and I would like to at least know how to shade and get that cool watercolor look I always see on her work. (In my own style of course.)

So yeah with all this art equipment in my arsenal I'm pretty much good to go. Im already at work on something in this sketchbook and while I'm not showing you guys yet (Gotta leave something for you to come back to, right?) I am going to be tracing over this sketch and turning it into a full art piece. It's actually mind boggling me how good it's looking so far. Before that I'm doing some practice with my lineart pens on some separate cardstock because like I mentioned before I'm really unstable when using pens for some reason. These practice sheets actually turned into full art pieces, more specifically character art sheets, because why not! I can't do practice without going full wack, I have this inability to simply practice without making anything more out of it, ohh well.

Im going to actually show you guys these because they're for the most part done except for the fourth one I'm still working on.

Yes that is indeed Aeris Eclipse again, I can't seem to resist drawing her. For those who don't know she's an original character from a story I've been brewing in my head for ages now, but you can read about her in older blogs such as https://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/03/knitting-princess-peach-finishing-aeris-art.html. Anyway I also drew two new (To you guys anyway.) characters!

For starters I'm introducing to you guys Nicholas "Cole" Bradshaw (The coolest name you'll ever come up with, just kidding.).

And Luna. (Just Luna.) No she's not related in any sense what so ever to Luna from Sailor Moon and while Luna (The pink haired one) is related to the moon in my story I came up with her before I even heard of Sailor Moon. (Didn't grow up with the show.)

These two are actually related to Aeris in the fact they're her best friends in the story. I'll probably go more in depth into their characters in future blogs (I'm trying to make these blogs more decently sized blogs instead of 50 page essays as they have been lately.). You know that feeling when you fall in love with your own characters? Yeah I think I have. These guys are like my brain children.

Closing comments is yes these are actually colored in with colored pencils, I actually really like using colored pencils as a coloring method you can add a lot of detail with them. I gotta improve a lot on my shading but I like how these came out.

Don't forget to check out my sister, who is ten times better then me at art at her blog ladyannavintage.blogspot.com She's becoming a lot more active lately with photography and art.

That's a wrap folks!