11/01/2020

New year and new blog header

Happy (and belated indeed) 2020!
I know I'm late to the party, but this being my first post of the year, I wanted to cheer you all anyway!

First thing you may have noticed is that I have a new header. About time!
It's of course my own art of previously displayed Don Quirixote of Manchae Prime and his faithful Sancho Panzer ;)

It's been ages since I haven't drawn anything. I didn't dare to go fully digital, so I first penciled it old school style:

Well, this blog is called the way it is called for some reason!
The same about ink:

For some reason Ctrl+Z didn't work here
You may also have spotted the windmills in the back ;)
I kept it simple, didn't want to overdo the thing. Less is more. I'm no Russ Nicholson and there's no point in pretending so :P

Though I considered the idea of using acrylics to colour it, I finally favoured the digital art approach, as I also wanted to remember how this stuff is done. So let's go.

The basic scan
 From the background to the upper layers...

Slowly colouring it

Hmm. It's too simple. I should have added more stuff. Dammit, I knew it.
The final art, just as you should be seeing it above right now
It's kind of a comic or cartoon style, but I hope that bright colours will work fine. Of course I could (and should) have elaborated it more; I should have blended the back layers, added more variation to sky and earth, worked the characters differently... You can name the things I could have done better. But as an exercise to get my mojo back I declare myself satisfied. More than enough. If I just could spare some time to keep practising I guess I could improve my skills, but for now it will have to do.

I'd like to keep up updating the blog and retouching things here and there. So you may still see some changes!



34 comments:

  1. That is great!

    Now if only you had a comic series you could apply this talent to...

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Haha, I would love to rescue my comics and stuff. Some day I will!

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks! I don't know if it's good, but at least it's been fun!

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  3. Nicely done, I like that scene!

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    1. Thank you! I tried to choose something viewers could easily relate to and say 'oh, sure, this is that Quixotesque blog' :D

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  4. Replies
    1. Thank you! I think I really should do more of this :P

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  5. Ace work!

    Might actually change mine as well ^^

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    1. Thanks! Changes are good from time to time (Tzeentch approves). I felt like I should have done this ages ago!

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  6. It's great to see the work you've put into this, a sort of behind the curtain view of it all.
    Brilliant!

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    1. Thanks! I'm of course pretty rusty, but I've enjoyed thoroughly the whole process!

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  7. Nice looking header!
    Best Iain

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! This blog really needed some fresh air :D

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  8. Love it! It definitely captures the feel of your blog.

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    1. Thank you so much! That was the idea, to get something you could identify, I hope I got the vibe!

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  9. Feliz año a ti también. El dibujo mola .

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    1. ¡Gracias! Estoy oxidadísimo, pero me apetecía hacer una cosa así :)

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  10. Como siempre, para flipar.

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    1. ¡Muchas gracias! Echo mucho de menos dibujar, así que un proyecto pequeño y limitado como este me ha venido muy bien :)

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  11. I love how you showed the evolution of the new banner from sketch to finish. As an newbie illustrator I'm fascinated by the process that most take for granted. Even before reading your blog I knew that was a Don Quixote-like character. A picture as they say, is worth a thousand words :)

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    1. Thank you very much! I of course do not pretend to be a pro, just wanted to get back to the pencils once again so much!

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  12. Stop questioning yourself, the artwork looks great!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I really miss drawing, I really wanted to do some kind of small, standalone project like this :)

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  13. Oh wow, that is a great new header Suber and it suits your blog so well.

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    1. Thank you! Well, I hope it looks properly personal :D

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  14. Replies
    1. Thanks! The blog was in dire need of some renovation, I thought it was the most logical step :)

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  15. Mantiene el espíritu. Echo en falta al beakie.

    Feliz año.

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    1. Jaja, el beakie ha cumplido servicio fielmente durante unos años. Pero de verdad que no descarto que vuelva en el futuro ;)

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  16. Replies
    1. Thank you so much! I'll be back to minis soon (I hope!)

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  17. Wonderful new header. I really dig that very spanish theme. Muy impresionante!

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