[Art] Cam's Drawings (Another character added July 3, 2008)

[CameronCN]

I was sort of putting off starting an art thread here until I had a "perfect group" of pictures to put up. That's not going to happen, so here are some random drawings from the past week or so that I'm proud of.

(Click for the full picture.)
A panel from the latest page of my comic. I always do these rather involved drawings, which I then have to shrink down, crop, and disfigure with word bubbles...sad. Anyway, this is an uncropped version for your enjoyment.


Another panel from the same page. I was on a roll, and this one had to be cropped quite a lot in the end.


My fursona, so to speak. Looking rather stressed...guess I was unconsciously reflecting my mood at the time.


I was just doodling the other day and this guy popped out. He makes me think of an anthro Captain Jack Aubrey (from Master and Commander.)

All sorts of commentary is appreciated, even the lame kind. 

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Jack Aubrey amuses me.

And yes, it's some excellent work there - and a shame to have to crop it. I appreciate you giving us access to the pre-cropped versions.

[James StarRunner]

We need more miscellaneous drawings! Maybe even non-miscellaneous ones too!

[Zedd]

Neat pics you have Cam

[King Of Hearts]

oh that is simply lovely use of ink.

[CameronCN]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

I keep intending to draw some nice, stand-alone artworks, perhaps with color (gasp!), but right now my comic is pretty much eating my soul absorbing all my drawing effort. But even for that I need to do some independent drawings soon, because I need to do some character designs--I've got new characters appearing in three pages and I don't even know what they look like yet. XP

[CameronCN]

Some designs for upcoming comic characters...

Now I like the character trope of the insanely powerful jerk with a heart of gold as much as anybody, and Remalion here could be said to fit into that description. Any resemblance to InuYasha, any of the Cubi from DMFA (especially Abel), Q, Bartimaeus, etc., is entirely coincidental. I'll work on fleshing out his profile later, though don't expect to see much of it, as he's also the comic's resident mysterious person...

Also, spots! For those of you who like spots, that is. I'm not much of a spot person myself, but it seemed to fit. Also note he has a very different physiognomy from any of the other characters I've ever made. He actually has a chin. A manga chin, but a chin nonetheless.

EDIT: Oh, and his name is Remalion. Minor detail that.


A bit more of a bit player than the above. He's nicer, though. He's also got an unusual name: Per. It's Norwegian.

[WhiteFox]

Your hatching is awesome. I love it. However, around the neck and cuffs it looks like there's a stripe motif that took me a minute to recognize as something other than shading. if you left the patches betwen the strips blank white, it'd give the collar enough definition from the rest of the fabric.There's a very powerful sense of surface to the image. In some places, the hatching blends in with the folds of the fabric, though, mostly the torso. You do a wonderful job on the hair, it looks so silky. I'd suggest paying more attention to the fur pattern on his face and arms. Is that shading, or does he have stripes? Kinda hard to tell.

BTW: I'd put a little width on it to make him look more masculine. Course, manga rarely does this.

Does he have a name? Feels weird talking about him without knowing who he is.

What did you use to ink this?



Seeing both lenses on the same side of his face is really strange. I'll chalk it up to your style tho.

If he's in the same comic, does he get a manga chin too?

[CameronCN]

Your hatching is awesome. I love it. However, around the neck and cuffs it looks like there's a stripe motif that took me a minute to recognize as something other than shading. if you left the patches betwen the strips blank white, it'd give the collar enough definition from the rest of the fabric.There's a very powerful sense of surface to the image. In some places, the hatching blends in with the folds of the fabric, though, mostly the torso. You do a wonderful job on the hair, it looks so silky. I'd suggest paying more attention to the fur pattern on his face and arms. Is that shading, or does he have stripes? Kinda hard to tell.

Ah, the limitations of hatching. I certainly could have made the spots on his fur and stripes on his tunic bolder, but I didn't want them to get too distracting, you see. It's hard balancing out the need for different things to be prominent working in such strict B&W (I never use grayscale, you notice. It'd solve the problem, but I hate it.) I must admit that I'm thinking the spots may have to go because they're so easy to misread, and I'm not sure how to fix that. I could have made the hatching more carefully arranged on the tunic to avoid that blending you pointed out, but that would have taken too long. You see, my latest rule is that I try to be a little bit sloppy, that way I actually finish drawings. 

BTW: I'd put a little width on it to make him look more masculine. Course, manga rarely does this.

He's supposed to look a bit androgynous. I'm still debating whether or not to make him a shapeshifter to whom gender is largely irrelevant. But even if I don't, he's a bishie. 

Does he have a name? Feels weird talking about him without knowing who he is.

Er, yeah. I forgot to put it in before, but then edited it in. It's Remalion.

What did you use to ink this?

It's digital--Corel Painter. Same thing Ursula Vernon uses, which I insist accounts for any stylistic similarities. (Actually, now that I think about it, I don't have to keep protesting about that so much--my art doesn't look much like hers at all anymore...)

Seeing both lenses on the same side of his face is really strange. I'll chalk it up to your style tho.

Yeah, I have to fudge perspective to draw faces. The glasses make this obvious, so I generally avoid them (plus they are a pain to draw.)

If he's in the same comic, does he get a manga chin too?

Same comic, different species. This guy and all the other characters I've introduced so far have muzzles, not chins.

[CameronCN]

    And my cast is almost complete! This is Clatch. He's 15, has his own spaceship, wanders around doing odd jobs. That's what is traditional for his people to do--they grow their spaceships as they are growing up themselves, so they can bond with each other (the spaceships aren't sentient as such, but they are quite intelligent. Like a pet, only smarter.) Then they go off to seek their fortunes before settling down, usually on the home planet. Thus the bulk of the small-scale space traffic is handled by a bunch of semi-responsible teenagers and young men. Clatch is actually fairly level-headed, though you probably wouldn't guess from his appearance, and he's a good pilot and mechanic. I suspect navigation may not be his strong point, though--not a math person. We'll see how that plays out.

    So you can imagine his coloration (since I'm too lazy to color it), his hair is light blond (accentuated with grease), and his fur is light brown, sort of mottled and varied over his body.

[WhiteFox]

That plot has a sort of "zaney hijinx" quality that I'm usually wary of...

Of course, I prefer drama over comedy, so I'll keep my trap shut about writing and stick to the art. 

Anyway... I understand what you meant about ballancing definition with distracting amounts of black. On this one it looks like you made lighter strokes to texture the pants (and fur, and hair, where locks and edges are concerned), rather than making the folds heavier. I think the black outline for the pants gives the image  more definition, too. I think it looks better then Remalion.

He kind of looks a little unbalenced, like he should be falling forward. It seems like if we saw him from the side, his toes would be a good eight inches behind his center of mass. I usually try to fix that by keeping the angle of the knee and ankle to a minimum.

Of course, I often think that when I see legs like those. Might just be me.

Nice anatomy around the hip. I hate trying to draw that spot where the butt meets the hip on a three quarters view.

Are the cuffs of his pants above or below his heel? Stupid question, I suppose, but for some reason I'm wondering.

[CameronCN]

That plot has a sort of "zaney hijinx" quality that I'm usually wary of...

Of course, I prefer drama over comedy, so I'll keep my trap shut about writing and stick to the art. 

You don't have to worry about that with me. I couldn't write zany hijinks if I tried. No, just a little humor to make the drama go down.

He kind of looks a little unbalenced, like he should be falling forward. It seems like if we saw him from the side, his toes would be a good eight inches behind his center of mass. I usually try to fix that by keeping the angle of the knee and ankle to a minimum.

Of course, I often think that when I see legs like those. Might just be me.

Actually, it's the other way around--you have to give him an angle in the knee otherwise his feet will be forward of his body and he'll fall backwards--especially with that huge tail back there. Heck, he should probably be falling now, but I'll just ask for a little suspension of disbelief from my audience there...

Nice anatomy around the hip. I hate trying to draw that spot where the butt meets the hip on a three quarters view.

That's because it's a REALLY HARD spot to draw. I had to redraw it two or three times to get it to look decent.

Are the cuffs of his pants above or below his heel? Stupid question, I suppose, but for some reason I'm wondering.

Above. The forward part is just sagging down rather because they're baggy pants. Not that he has much of a heel anyway...