I was in a pretty chill place a couple weeks ago - I'd completed all my pages for Murder Most Mundane, and my laptop was in the shop being fixed. So I had a little window of free time and nothing online to distract me. So I used the time to finally experiment with certain mark making techniques that I've often touched upon but never really felt like I've made anything with.
I've been thinking back to some of my inspirations who aren't based in comics. Ralph Steadman, Egon Schiele, Goya, Henry Moore - even musicians like Trent Reznor or Tchaikovsky. All these creative minds produce (or produced) very accessible art that stays with you, but are also pretty complex and multilayered, on a technical level. I probably sound super pretentious, but whatever. Their influences for their art obviously come from more than just the industry they work in - I think that's important if you don't want to work in an echo chamber, which is easy to do when everything online tailors to specific buzzwords.
I love comic art (obviously) on Instagram, but as a lot of my searches for artists and subjects fall into certain categories like #geek or #popculture, the algorithm just wants to show me memes from comicbook movies all the time. I have to go out of my way to look for different types of comics or visual storytelling, and luckily I know other alternatives and where to search. I should probably just forget about Instagram and make a Pinterest board for inspiration.
Actually, upon re-reading this post, these last paragraphs have nothing to do with drawing Wolverine in feral mode. But the point I think I'm trying to convey is that as someone who wants to work in comics, I don't want to dig all my inspiration out of the same, readily available pidgeon-hole resources online.
So I set myself a week long project to make something based on this. I also wanted to make something using my new giant sketchbook that I've been using to make roughs. It's my favourite thing right now. Working on big, shit paper really allows you to let loose, because you just don't care if the paper is ruined. Therefore you're less likely to hesitate and just make the lines that you want, regardless if it looks good or not. It's also really easy to erase pencils off.
Naturally, with wanting to mix sketchy ink lines and splats with crisp ruled lines, Wolverine seemed like the obvious subject. He's one of those characters that I always come back to sketching, and I think it's just that he has so much to offer. He's short and muscly, his face angry and covered in wrinkles and lines (which his healing factor would actually prevent from happening blah blah blah) and he has some of the coolest weapons ever. The ways in which he uses his claws allow for some great body language, with lots of good poses and contorting, flexing etc. Plus, there's something cool about this perfect, untouched metal, contrasted with oily hairy flesh, with bones and veins and imperfections. I always picture Wolverine having short claws, but having enough strength to throw his insanely heavy skeleton around. Imagine the momentum he would gain if he ran and jumped at you. Every swing of his fists would be like swinging a mace, regardless if his claws were popped or not.
Anyway, after a couple of sketches and wasted pages, this was the most satisfying pose. Some good flexing in the arm and the thigh, a satisfying fist, depth, and a good feel of movement.
Though the head sucked. I attempted something but it didn't work out. I ended up redrawing it.
Next up - another sketch. Since this paper was crappy, it wasn't going to take ink very well - something I learnt from some Murder Most Mundane prelim work. It's perfect for sketching because you feel so free and able to capture so much energy in the lines, but that's it. I simply took it to the window, and traced the pencil outline onto Bristol Board paper.
The main thing that always happens with my work is I always lose something from pencils to inks. Some sort of energy that the pencils have never gets translated properly. So this time, I took some liberties with the inking, and focused more on the mark making as a gesture, than focusing on trying to nail form with slow lines. It kind of worked. The fist for instance, has the feeling of knuckles under flesh under fabric, but I made the lines in a quick fashion, whereas the claws were done with a ruler. The faces' form was the same process, but small marks to make bristles and hair etc.
Marks are easier to make with a dipped ink pen, like I used here. Fine liners are great for precision and details, but for overall outlines and shapes, the fact that you can create a weight difference in line with the dipped pen's nib puts a whole new dynamic into the drawing.
I also went into it with some white acrylic, though I might use Tip Ex or Whiteout next time. I find acrylic to be a bit translucent. It worked out pretty well though - I wanted to try it out for hair and for correcting mistakes on the arms.
And here it is. Got some nice splashes of paint in there over the inks, used a brush to bring out the wild hair, and made some creases in the cloth. I went over the right arm a little too much with paint - but i tend to overwork things like that, so that's just another learning curve. I'm going to put a huge sticky note on my desk that just says "OK, STOP NOW".
Scanning this is was a pain in the ass. There were so many shades of grey in between the black and white, and I didn't want to adjust the layers too contrasty.
I decided to colour it, as I had some lighting ideas I wanted to try out, namely on the face. You can see however, that I also fully darkened the left side of the chest. I originally wanted to ink this, but I chickened out, as I has made some cool marks with the pen, and I didn't want to risk overworking it again. I was also concerned that it would ruin the stubble on his face, but it worked out.
There's a couple things going on here that I wanted to try out, and it they were pretty successful. For starters, the highlights on the dogtag and the claws, I think was pretty successful.
The other is the soft gradients in general. Simple gradients, that are just one step up from flats, seem to compliment the inks best. No details get lost, and you're left to just deal with the highlights and secondary lighting, such as on the left knee and right arm and shoulder.
The face worked out just fine, too. I didn't add any lighting marks on the inking as I wanted to focus on expression. Again, those soft gradients really give a feeling of form to the face, which is something I've been trying to nail for a while. Those eyes, too. They were originally going to be lighter, but that wouldn't work into the lighting rules the piece sets. But darker, shinier and redder seems to equal "crazy".
All in all another semi-successful project. I definitely want to mess around with inks and paint a lot more though. And that's it. I don't know how to end this post. Bye.
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