Pokémon GO

Last Sunday, I decided to jump on the Pokémon GO bandwagon (which is uncharacteristic of me; I tend to be a very slow about jumping on bandwagons).  Personal tendencies aside, I'm very much enjoying playing the game and figured it would be fun to draw all the Pokémon I've caught so far.

Yes, it's an embarrassingly small number; I'm working on that. And of course, after I had drawn this group, I caught a Clefairy, so I had to add it, too!

I know this game is in hardcore fad stage, but I hope it sticks around once the initial hype dies down. It's a fun idea and has a lot of positive qualities to it!

onward and upward,

Bethany

May '16 sketchbook

Oh man, this month has been insane! We closed on and moved into our new home last Friday and are in the midst of unpacking, arranging, and home renovation projects! Not surprisingly, my sketchbook is a bit of a jumble; fan art, comics, studies, random forest creature doodles, and even a few rough church sketches. I've also been posting more regularly on Instagram, which I'll talk more about next week! Till then, I hope you enjoy this hodge-podge and have a good weekend!

onward and upward,

Bethany

Doctor Who, Sketch_dailies, and not giving up

I've been following the twitter Sketch_dailies challenge for awhile now and this week, one of their topics was Doctor Who, which happens to be one of my favorite tv shows ever. Now, I don't normally participate in Sketch_dailies, but how could I pass up a chance to draw the Doctor?

After giving it some thought, I decide to draw the Fourth Doctor. I used to watch reruns of the old episodes before the show rebooted (yes, yes, I know that sounds very hipster of me), and I saw a lot of the Fourth Doctor episodes. It seemed a fitting tribute.

I pulled up some reference on Google and drew this.

It wasn't terrible, but I just wasn't satisfied with it. I've been working on my cartooning/simplification skills and this drawing felt bland. So, I tried again.

This one is a little better, but I really didn't like the head-on pose. It's hard to make a face look like it has shading and dimension when it's viewed head-on. I considered scrapping the whole idea at this point, but I decided to try for a third time. I change to a three-quarters view, which involved re-envisioning the hat angle *shudder*, and finally ended here.

Even though I still have to suppress my flaw seeking urges, I pretty happy with how this one turned out. It has a nice, stylized look, but still feels like the Fourth Doctor (who, btw, is kind of hard to draw).  I submitted it to Sketch_dailies, and only cringed slightly when it showed up on my twitter feed. 

The moral of the story is that sometimes, you need to keep trying until you're satisfied with what you create. This isn't always the case; sometimes you have to be ok with "good enough" and sometime you have to scrap an idea all together. But, there are plenty of times when you do have that really great drawing buried inside you and you just have to get the bad ones out of the way before you find it. So, whatever it is you're working on, make sure you aren't giving up on it too early an that you've really done your best. You'll be amazed at what can happen. ^_^

onward and upward,

Bethany

Bulbasaur Illustration

Last month, I started playing Pokémon for the first time!! (I'm making up for missed opportunities as a child.) Jon has a smart phone now, so he was able to download an emulator for me. Anyway, it's super fun and I now have a totally valid excuse to make Pokémon fan art!!! Yay!! ^_^  And since I chose Bulbasaur as my first pokémon, he seemed like a good place to start.

I've been wanting to try collage in illustration for awhile and this seemed like the perfect chance to experiment. Most collage illustrations tend to call a lot of attention to the individual elements used and lack visual depth. My goal is to combine the magazine pieces with watercolor to create something that's a little more blended. I still want the magazine pieces to be recognizable, but not so much so that they take away from the subject matter as a whole.

 

Needless to say, I have a long, long way to go before I feel really proficient in this technique. There are so many options to explore and I'm still really slow at the process. But I'm excited about all the possibilities this medium holds. And at the chance to make more Pokémon art! ;-)

onward and upward,

Bethany

Bonus Post: Deku Link

Currently battling off some sort of allergy/cold thing, but here's a picture of Deku Link from Majora's Mask I did yesterday for Sketch_Dailies on Twitter. 

onward and upward,

Beth

Journey

Jon and I finally took the advice of our friends and played the game Journey. Wow, such an incredible experience! It's completely different from anything else I've ever played; more like an interactive art piece than a game. The visuals and music are stunning and the actual game play is fairly relaxing. (Except when you're trying to avoid large, mechanical dragon-fish.) I was so inspired, I even did a few fan art sketches! Crazy, I know.

So, if you own a PS3 and are in the market for something unique, artsy and therapeutic  Journey is the game for you!