Muse and Mischief

I’ve loved art since I was little. I used to have a picture of me at 4 or 5 holding a drawing of Optimus Prime and Megatron fighting. My mom was impressed because she could actually make it out amongst the scribbles. I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design for my freshman year of college and that was practically heaven.

Being around so many artists was just a constant loop of creative energy. I got some of my best ideas there. I swear by their life drawing classes. Alas, it was crazy expensive and I couldn’t finish out there, but I did finish my art degree. Over the years I haven’t been as diligent with honing my craft, but lately I am getting back into the rhythm of regularly creating. 

So I am taking a little journey through some of my old sketches and newer ones. I am particularly proud of this first one. 

This was a sketch I did while killing time at a Barnes and Noble. It had been years since I was in art classes and even longer since I had done actual life drawing. Something took hold of me though and I sketched this in pencil and then layered it with ink in about 15 minutes. I love how even through the rough nature of the line work I can still see a lot of detail.

I’m especially proud of the detail work on the subject’s face because faces have always been difficult for me. One thing I took away from this sketch was that it doesn’t have to be perfect when you start, it can be a mess of scribbles that you can fashion into an image. I guess it’s a lot like writing a novel, the first draft can be as messy as it needs to be because you can always refine it. 

This one started off as a random doodle in a sketchbook app on my iPad. After I got the outline of the form I realized that the stylus I was using would allow for finer detail and I wasn’t able to zoom in, so I decided to play with color. I had a lot of fun using the color to shade and highlight the form to give it some dimensional weight. I hadn’t taken a look at this for a while, but I think this is something worth exploring in a larger piece. 

I was working on sketch ideas for the cover to my Novella coming out in November and came up with two concepts. This was the first that I roughed out and decided to do a stronger drawing of. What I liked about this one was that very symbolic of the themes in the story and the general emotional tone. I like that the candle is almost burned down, but still holding on. Ultimately this was what I chose to use as the final design. 

The second option for the cover was something that I think was very visually appealing and was a strong contender for the cover. What I really like about this design was the simplicity of it. There is plenty of detail, but even though it takes up half of the page it still feels minimalist. 

This is one I did back in July as a concept sketch for the setting of my third novella which I just call “The Camp” right now until I find a better title. I chose not to get too much detail in it since it is still early and I just wanted to get a sense for the world I saw in my head. It’s almost there. Honestly I think it needs to feel a little more bleak. 

My last sketch to share today is one I did of a setting in my first novel that is currently with Beta readers. I like how it turned out and I think I might do some more drawing of the setting from different angles to get a good sense of the space.

Well this concludes the little journey through some of my sketchbook. Next time I hope to have many more sketches to share as I continue to practice my drawing muscles.