Pencil Drawings in a More Realistic Style

For those wondering, I haven't forgotten about "The Unfinished Comic", I've just been quite busy the last few days, and haven't had the opportunity to put any time into the project. While I catch up on the artwork for page 1, I thought a few readers might be interested in some of my other work. These are some pencil drawings I've done over the years in a more realistic style, mostly for the purpose of practice and my own education.


A Pretty Face 2003-2004

If you are a comic book artist or an illustrator yourself, then you already understand that there is a big difference between drawing a female face and drawing a female face beautifully. This may seem counter-intuitive since we see beauty every day, and know in ourselves what we consider to be attractive qualities, but it is actually quite a bit more complicated than that. How do you get better at it? PRACTICE! I've spent years and executed at least a hundred drawings like this one, trying to get a handle on just what needs to be there, and how it needs to look. If anyone asked, I'd say I still need at least a few more years practice, and I think I will still be answering that in a few years.

Serpent Warrior 2004
This drawing is completely "from memory". That is to say that I drew it from an imagined image rather than from a physical model or photograph. It's far from perfect, but upon rediscovering the drawing a few years after having filed it away I was quite impressed with the realistic way I'd handled the cast shadows, especially on the out-stretched hand. I couldn't have managed that without the expertise I got from drawing from reality and photographs as often as possible.


Boxers 2008
In spite of years of practice drawing the human body, I still struggle often with anatomy particularly because I'm a stickler for accuracy and it frustrates me when I can't quite get proportions and anatomy right, so I practice drawing it as often as I can manage. In my more recent practice pieces I've been looking for opportunities to work on shading and texture, and I've taken a preference for drawing figures in motion. I wanted to do a masculine drawing with muscles visible and in action and this pair of boxers based on a photograph I found somewhere or other was perfect for that. It also gave me a chance to study the way cloth interacts with the body which is a pretty complicated affair and another thing that I have always struggled with as an illustrator.


For more of my comic book like artwork have a look these:
No Pain, No Gain pencil comic book art
No Pain, No Gain inked comic book art
No Pain, No Gain coloured comic book art