Travis Can Draw?

Warrior Design 3

2009-11-20T00:30:00.005-05:00

I've taken another little break from posting I was busy setting up a new computer. I think the last post was an overreaction attempting to make her look more feminine. I look at it now and it just seems silly that her armor is so skin tight. The plating on her torso actually conforms to the shape of her breasts. That's a little too close to Batman nipples for my comfort. I mean seriously who would greenlight these? The jewels were an attempt to make a connection between her and the sword. Now as I look at it they seem superfluous. The conclusion I came to is that in both posts the "armor" fits so close to the skin that it doesn't feel like it provides protection. My solution is...............layers! So even though I went with less metal armor she still feels more protected to me. I think it's because the materials appear to be thicker and there's so much more layering. I'm sure she's wearing a bunch of chain mail under there too so she'll be fine. I like it.

Warrior Design 2

2009-11-11T20:56:00.006-05:00

So right after I put up the last post a friend called me up and I had him take a look at it. I started talking about the character and he said something like, "Wait a minute. That's a girl!?" I then looked at it and said , "Wait a minute. That's not a girl!" If you've checked out previous posts you'll see I tend to add somewhat masculine features to many of the girls i draw. I have no idea why.

I forgot to mention in the last post that I purposefully bulked her up. I figure if she's really a warrior she should have a frame that's capable of swinging that big sword around. She should also have armor that's functional and it should look like it's actually protecting her. The problem is if I stick with this idea 100% I will get some one who is unidentifiable as a female which I don't want. So I don't want this but at the same time I don't want this and I certainly don't want this.

Anyway these pics were my attempt to make her more feminine. As you can see I couldn't figure out what to do with her hair.

Warrior Design

2009-11-08T22:34:00.017-05:00

I'm really in the mood to make something lately and I'm thinking about working on a fight scene. I don't want to spend a bunch of time planning stuff out right now as I'm afraid it will kill the spontaneity and my desire to see this thing through. At the same time I want my character to look cool so I'll probably do a few passes on the design. Here's my first stab at something. I like the idea of a female warrior with a big sword (original I know). Her outfit's not working though. She looks like a female warrior going to the prom or something. Actually she looks a little like Chun Li yea?

After some frustration with working on the character I thought it might be fun to just jump to the sword. I'm pretty pleased with it. I like the idea of rounding the top off instead of giving it a point. I think it suggest that a sword this big would most likely be used for chopping and not stabbing. There's a jewel in the hilt hopefully that means there's going to be some Lion-O action going on.

Here I took another stab at the character. You can see i pretty much scrapped everything but the physique. This feels more like a step in the right direction. I like the idea of a light weight armor. I would still like to get more variety in materials. Maybe I can add more cloth and mix up the armor with some areas chain mail.

Man With Stick

2009-11-03T23:59:00.002-05:00

Not much to say about this one. Here's a naked guy with a stick.

There's Nothing In My Hand

2009-10-20T00:16:00.002-04:00

Here's a quick sketch for the night.

The Most Awkward Expression Ever!!

2009-10-14T18:26:00.003-04:00

Man I have to start mixing things up or else I'll have nothing but a blog full of women with awkward smiles. This started out waaay different. This lady was happy, she had a pretty face, and a natural smile. I wasn't satisfied though and I kept tweaking it. Her expression became stranger and stranger until I gave up. Now that I'm looking at it with fresh eyes I almost like this better than what I had originally intended. I imagine now that she's looking up into the sky witnessing a first encounter with another life form. She's thinking to herself, "Stay optimistic they will bless us with new technology and knowledge of the cosmos." When really deep down inside she knows they're just warming up the space probe machines.

The Slightest Smirk

2009-10-13T22:15:00.004-04:00

Branch and Leaf

2009-10-12T23:28:00.004-04:00

I haven't painted in a little while so here's a little something. This is my first time using Gimp to paint so it took some time for me to find settings that I could work with. It was a slow awkward start but once I got in the grove there were no problems.

Don't Look Up!

2009-10-11T00:05:00.003-04:00

This pretty much became a mixture of a cat and a snake. No forget that this pretty much became a picture of a large cat with a snake's head. I started out wanting to make this a mixture of creatures but then got lost in a number of the reference pictures I was looking at. Oh well it's still not shabby.

Rockabilly Man

2009-10-09T19:57:00.003-04:00

I was inspired by this video I saw a couple of weeks ago. I was going to look into this and find out what exactly is going on with this rockabilly movement but I think I prefer not knowing.

Woman Undressing

2009-10-08T23:49:00.004-04:00

In a way this is almost the opposite of yesterday's post. As simple as this looks it took a surprising amount of time to make. In the end I really like the idea I don't think I was entirely successful with the execution. I would have liked to come up with a more elegant solution for the arm tossing the bra. I'm really pleased with how well the shoes turned out though. Maybe one day I'll actually go back and do a cleaner version of this. It's screaming to be inked up.

She's Bad News

2009-10-07T23:09:00.005-04:00

Is she from around here?

No.

Is that her bike parked out front?

Yes.

She won't cause any trouble will she?

She is trouble! She'll punch your girlfriend and spit in your drink. She's bad news.

For the full effect you should really be playing this song in the background.

The Young Priest

2009-10-06T21:06:00.003-04:00

So I'm out of town this week visiting my folks but I brought my laptop and tablet with me so I'll still be posting. Man technology is great I still get giddy when I realize I can go anywhere in the world and as long as I bring my laptop I can do a graphic novel, make an album, or create an animated short. Am I going to do any of those things this week? No I'm on vacation!

Monster Co-worker

2009-10-05T23:59:00.001-04:00

A Cat Man's Portrait

2009-10-03T23:14:00.008-04:00

Looking back all the way to my youth I realized something. I like to draw cat people. I don't know why but I do. Check out this picture I made years ago in school.

Yea exactly a cat lady! What is a grown man doing drawing cat ladies and cat men? Well I can't do anything about that what's done is done.

Really Happy Really Running

2009-10-02T19:02:00.004-04:00

Ok I feel horrible I've missed quite a few days but I'll make up for it. Here's a weird one today highly stylized with just a touch of reality. Nope never mind there's no reality it's just weird.

Get Your Foot Off My Face Bro!!

2009-09-24T18:03:00.004-04:00

When a foot gets in your face it's time to fight back.

A Tree On a Hill

2009-09-22T22:12:00.003-04:00

I really want to keep these daily sketches from becoming painting sessions. There's certainly nothing wrong with adding a little color now and then though. I decided to post both before and after because I really like the way it looks with just the line work.

Flyer

2009-09-21T18:47:00.002-04:00

This is a really quick one. It's very simple I know but I'm probably not going to have time to get into something really cool tonight.

Loose Sketch

2009-09-20T18:16:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick sketch right before dinner. Man I'm starving!

Jogging Horror

2009-09-19T22:48:00.003-04:00

Did I go to far with that right arm?

Spaceship

2009-09-18T23:57:00.004-04:00

I had a difficult time coming up with something tonight so I looked to an item right in front of me for inspiration. It can travel faster than the speed of light and secure your loose documents.

Horned Person

2009-09-17T20:07:00.003-04:00

I really like this drawing there's a bit of sadness and beauty to the subject. I however am not happy with that opening sentence as it makes me sound like I'm trying to make "art, art". Na I'm just drawing stuff so let me try this again. I really like toady's drawing because it looks frigging cool. I can't tell if I made a male or female. It's probably a female though. I also don't know if gave him/her hair or some kind of fire/smoke emanating from his/her hair. I made this while listening to "Intervention" by "Arcade Fire". Do I think that has something to do with how this drawing turned out. Yes I do actually.

Shoulder Girl

2009-09-16T21:51:00.004-04:00

As soon as I finished this I felt like it needed some color. Unfortunately I don't feel like doing that right now. Maybe I'll do it some other night.

Woman Stretching

2009-09-15T22:32:00.004-04:00

I had fun making this one tonight it was really challenging. The left arm is bothering me now that I'm looking at it but It's not bad. The funny thing is I found myself yawning like crazy especially when I was posing.

Part Man, Part Dragon, Part Other Stuff

2009-09-13T22:56:00.005-04:00

I was all nervous that I wouldn't be able to think of anything to draw tonight and then this image popped into my head.

Flex

2009-09-11T15:01:00.003-04:00

I did this while I was waiting for my build to finish at work. It's very superheroey. I guess that's not surprising considering I'm working on Super Hero stuff all day long. The head might be a little too big and I'm not sure if the left arm is too small or if it looks like it's moving back into perspective.

Oh Computer Why Do You Hate Me?

2009-09-11T00:10:00.002-04:00

I was gone for a few days and came back to an angry computer. This unfortunately took some time to fix. Here's a quick sketch.

Human-ish Thing on Drapes

2009-09-03T20:59:00.005-04:00

This looks like a tired demon decided to start doing nude modeling. That left leg bothered me the entire way through. I thought I fixed it but looking at it now it still looks wrong. Maybe the angle is slightly off.

Fancy Schmancy

2009-09-02T23:49:00.005-04:00

I just kind of started sketching and let the shapes carry me where they wanted to go and ended up with this. Kind of pretentious no? What is this The New Yorker? I made this while listening to Fleet Foxes. Did that influence the sketch? No probably not. Then why did you bother bringing it up Travis? I don't know.

Disney Buys Marvel

2009-09-01T18:43:00.003-04:00

It's true Disney is buying Marvel.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/31/news/companies/disney_marvel/index.htm

Now I have an excuse to make the masterpiece that I've dreamed of forever.

"Punisher McDuck."

Hands and Heads

2009-08-31T22:33:00.003-04:00

Another day another picture. I don't have much to say about this one. Here it is a hand holding a body holding a head.

Female Figure

2009-08-30T18:06:00.002-04:00

I didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted to do with this. I did want to play with proportions and I knew I wanted to emphasize the curves in the hips. The rest I just made up as I went along.

Stuck Between a Roc...never mind.

2009-08-29T21:33:00.004-04:00

I have this idea for an animation I want to try of a guy or rock man thing. Basically it's a walk cycle where he takes these slow lumbering steps and in doing so breaks free from his rock formed feet that are attached to the ground. He reforms these feet with each step. I don't know what this would look like exactly but in my head it looks cool.

Chubby Face

2009-08-28T19:02:00.004-04:00

This is a quick one I just finished at work. Why am I still at work on Friday night? I have no idea. OK it's time to get out of here.

She Found A Coin

2009-08-27T22:25:00.004-04:00

This sketch was a surprise almost the entire way through. She was originally going to be a woman with her legs crossed pouring tea. Then her pose changed, her age changed, her race changed. The whole thing changed into this girl looking up at a coin. Even though this strayed so far from the original concept I think it turned out really well. I'm really pleased with it.

Laundry On The Floor

2009-08-26T23:55:00.004-04:00

Ok I went back and took another stab at the cloth thing and this time I used reference. It's my towel hanging out of my laundry basket to be exact. Of course the big thing that would sell these folds and wrinkles would be some light and shadows. I'll get to that later.

Robe Boy

2009-08-25T22:20:00.003-04:00

As promised I tried to do something focusing on cloth with tonight's sketch. This was done without reference and I think it shows. The head wrap thing turned out to be a mess. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with it and I think it ended up looking like a bunch of rags pasted on his head. I do like how the sleeve turned out but I think I may have over done some of the folds. I was pretty confident that I could get natural looking folds and wrinkles through pure intuition. It's a bit of overconfidence on my part reference would have definitely helped here.

Running Man

2009-08-24T21:43:00.003-04:00

I think the animator in me came out in tonight's sketch. This was fun. I particularly liked working on scribbling in all the tiny little creases and how they lay across the body. I think maybe tomorrow I might try to do something with allot of emphasis on cloth/clothing with lots of folds. That stuff is always a challenge to work on but also pretty rewarding.

Fist of Fire and Perspective Man

2009-08-23T23:22:00.006-04:00

Man it's a late night post today right before midnight it still counts! I was actually just going to post the fist but when I realized I already posted a hand a few days ago I decided to make something else. I'm pretty pleased with how the guy turned out.

Robot Nation Invasion

2009-08-22T15:57:00.004-04:00

Now that's way more like something from teenage Travis' notebook. Watch out old people they're coming for your medicine.

Torso Tree Boy

2009-08-21T21:15:00.005-04:00

I like today's sketch it looks like something you would find in an artsy high school kid's algebra notebook. He's young, angry, and fed up with this small town plus mom and dad just don't understand him. What else can he do but let out all of his emotions creating the masterpiece that is "Torso Tree Boy".

What's funny is you probably wouldn't find something like this in any of my old high school notebooks.

I was waaay into graffiti at the time.

My First Post and I'm Already Behind

2009-08-20T18:17:00.005-04:00

I took some advice from a friend and decided to follow her lead and start a daily sketch blog. So here's my first post! OK time to fess up i was supposed to start this like 2 days ago but got sidetracked. I did however do 2 days worth of sketching so here they are.

The one thing that surprised me is the drawing of the female head. It started out very feminine and along the way I think I slowly started adding masculine features. What the!? Did I give her an Adam's Apple?

I think I'll try another female face maybe a bit more feminine next time.