Days of Shades

I have a so-far unused deviant art account that didn't have an avatar picture, so, since I didn't get much traditional sketching done this week*, I drew a me for it.



I don't think I've drawn comic-me since college or shortly thereafter. Not much has changed -- my hair's in a bun more often. If I refine it I might add mitts, since the reynaud's thing is kind of a big deal, and make the pencils stuck in the bun more obvious (My bun is usually held up with only one stick, but it is still a handy place to stash extra pencils. Or would be, if I didn't promptly forget about them).

I'm not sure I'll keep the pointy ears. They were a random addition in college because I was struggling with whether or not to draw my limb-length discrepency. I decided not to, on the basis that it would just confuse people or make them think I'd screwed up the drawing, and then figured, heck, if I can zap away defining features in my comic-me, I could add things, too. Also that one kid in middle school told me I had pointy elf-ears once.

EDIT: I forgot the most important thing! I sketched it straight onto the computer! And I think I'm going to spend the money from the painting commission on a tablet (extra incentive to start the darned thing).

*Well, I drew a motorcycle. It made my cycling buddy freak the hell out, because she was sitting next to me at the D&D table while I drew it and she thought I'd gone over to the darkside.

I was down in southern Oregon the first week of October visiting the grandparents, and we went to see Great Minds Unplugged, an awesome accoustic rock cover band which just happens to consist of my third cousin and my second cousin once removed (I think? Dad's cousin, anyway).



This is the kind of drawing I do a fair bit of (musicians from life). I normally I wouldn't even count it as part of the challenge, but I tried to pay more attention to on-the-fly composition, which ties in nicely with my practice with multiple figures.

Bonus You-Can'-Take-Me-Anywhere Moment: Midway through the set, Matt put on his capo and said "Well, now I have my strap on..." and I said "But it makes it SHORTER!" because the opening was just so bloody obvious. (Did I mention we were at the concert with my parents and grandparents?) After he got done chiding me for my gutter mind (and Grandma stopped hammily pretending she was totally innocent and had NO IDEA what we were talking about), Chris, who's about my age, choked out "I love my family!"

This isn't locked to just the opt-in sketches filter because I want everyone to know how cool GMU is. I'm related to awesome people of awesomeness. Check out the videos on their site. If nothing else, you've probably never heard classic rock covers done with cajon and melodica before.

I actually drew this week!

For some reason my writin' beta and I started discussing Mass Effect characters and hats, and we both immediatly pictured Thane as the sort who sports a fedora. So. Lizard alien assasin. With a fedora.



But, you say, that's not very creative at all! It's just a character you copied from screenshots and a hat! Right you are! So the next bit is still someone else's IP (thanks, D&D), but I drew it from a verbal description.



The DM has informed me that it is a 'chuul' and I shall please stop calling it The Lobsterpus.

It was a week of hats!

For some reason, several of my practice-people demanded fedoras, so I gave them all fedoras. To be fair.




Most of these were drawn during game night. The tiny guy flying backwards into the pillar was a skeleton Maeve turned with particularly enjoyable results.

Then there was a Mass Effect sketch, where EDI got a hat.



(It's hung over her holographic projection using fishing line, in case you're wondering).

On the writing front, this week's chapter of the oh-lord-did-I-just-admit-to-writing-fic was all action, which is totally out of my comfort zone. I have the feeling that I either blew it or hit it out of the park, and I'm leaning towards the latter.

I may have leveled up as a writer. I wonder if I can spend my skill points on plot?

I was going to say that writing was the one thing I made last week which did not involve hats, and then I remembered that a helmet was actually a key plot point. HAT WEEK CONFIRMED.