Well, I’m not much of one to be doing art. I last picked up a pencil to draw about 18 years ago (1998, to be exact). I was in college and taking Art 101. I was told back then I had talent, but my interests were (and still are) in computers. Most of my “art” today is digital, but it’s mostly layering from output from other programs (3D Studio Max) for my book covers (I’m too poor to afford a real artist to do them for me).
But I bore easily, ran out of projects I wanted to do (normally, I write, but motivation for that is lacking at the moment), so I decided to revisit my college art days. I dragged out my art supplies (I’m a pack-rat) and sat down today to draw.
In preparation of this day, I grabbed a few (thousand) screen shots and after a challenging elimination period that took a lot longer than it did to draw the thing, I decided on a rare grab of my Asura Ranger, Quiptie as my first actual pencil drawing in way too long to think about. Yes, your Asura ranger will strike this pose with a longbow, but the glance lasts about 1/4 of a second and you have to position the camera just right and, well, I figure you can figure it out if you want a screenshot of the same thing.
I then picked up my 11X14 drawing pad (18 years old as well) and my pencil (18 years… Well, you get the idea) and sat down to draw. Once I was done an hour or two later, I grabbed my camera and took some quick shots.
This is the result.
A disclaimer: I DID run this through the GNU Image Manipulation Program (because it kittens the word “kitten ”?) after taking the picture both to crop it tot he correct size and fixing the reflections from the pencil graphite. The image also came out with darker edges, which don’t appear on the original (but looks kinda cool, IMHO), so this is only an approximation of what it looks like.
This was just a check to break the rust off of my art skills and see if I still had any chance of doing the thing justice. I got some grey drawing paper and will do another one (probably of the same shot) in charcoal and chalk – which is much more my thing. So consider this a preview. The next one, I’ll be taking a lot more time and care on it.
Feedback (good and bad) is encouraged and appreciated!
