A radical change today, both in subject and work! You've seen that I've been keeping a slow pace for a few months. You know, real life events and rest of boring stuff. I hope that things will begin to come back to normal in the next weeks (whatever "normal" means these days!).
While I haven't been able to paint as much as I would have liked, I've managed to draw a little bit again. I didn't have much materials, but my old reliable pencil and a ballpen were all I needed.
The initial sketch isn't that much impressive, so I think I'll show the final result first and then I'll go through the step by step:
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Old school drawing
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The story behind is quite short. I've been out of home for work and wasn't able to travel with minis and paints. But I just couldn't stay idle. So one day I came out with this doodle on a tiny notebook:
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You can tell the pic is mine because there is a lamp in the back. Unintended treadmark
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That day I didn't have any regular A4 sheet of paper at hand, but I found this huge A3 calendar in the office and I said to myself: "hey, I've never worked on such a big paper, let's give it a try".
So you know, Fortune favours the bold (or, in my case, the fool). I got the A3 to the hotel and started with the pencils:
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You can't really see a damn thing, I don't blame you
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Oh, some more definition
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Hmm, close enough to the idea
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I always used to work with some technical pens of different line widths, but I didn't have any, so I used a ballpen. Fortunately working on a A3 means I didn't have to be too afraid of different line widths, as I could work better with such a large area.
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And there we go!
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Slow progress day by day
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Ballpen for scale. That's the tool I used
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Now I think you can finally get a glimpse of the composition
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I was so scared of screwing it all with the sky that I left it for the end
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Oh, different hotel, so different table
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Final shot!
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I won't claim I did anything original or good. This was simply my way back to drawing after long years of not having touched a pencil, and a way to fill in lost hours between hotels while working far from home. As soon as I got my eye on the A3 calendar sheet I knew the kind of project I wanted; something crowded, with one main action to focus on and maybe another one on the back. I was of course heavily influenced by the illustrations of old by mighty Tony Ackland or Tony Hough (Not that I'm claiming to compare to them, of course!!) and so I tried to fill everything. You know, horror vacui and all that.
Well, I was enormously rusty, but all in all, I'm happy of having met the pencil and pen again. It provided me an enormous amount of joy and relax, and that's all I ask of the hobby!
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Maximum resolution I can provide!
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Now that I'm back home again I'm going back to regular minis and stuff. I don't know if I'll draw again anytime soon, but I'll let you know if that happens!
This is really good! It reminds me of some of the old D&D and Warhammer art. I wish I could draw that well!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! Well, it is kind of a naive art, but after so many years not having touched a pencil, I'm happy with how the whole experience turned out :)
DeleteBeautiful piece of artwork Suber, the sort of thing I've seen in many a rulebook over the years, so well done, and great you found something artistic to do while you had limited resources.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Well, that's surely my inspiration, those books of old, I fancied doing something like that. I would love to get back again not only to pencils, but digital art too, but I'm afraid it's kind of a difficult task nowadays!!
Delete¿Qué puedo decir…?, pues lo primero es sentirme decepcionado, sólo es una ilustración, ahora quiero ver el cómic completo, conocer la historia de ese caballero bretoniano, cómo ha llegado en verse en semejante embrollo, ¿sería un caballero andante en busca del Grial…?
ReplyDeleteSinceramente, me encanta, me recuerda a aquellos pequeños folletos de 4-6 páginas que regalaba GW en sus tiendas, con ilustraciones maravillosas, que miraba embobado durante horas, imaginándome qué historia escondía esa ilustración.
Enhorabuena por este trabajo tan bueno, ojalá te animes y publiques mas cosas de este estilo.
¡Muchas gracias! No me veo volviendo ahora a ponerme con un comic, pero la verdad es que la experiencia de volver a dibujar ha sido fabulosa, tenía muchas ganas :D
DeleteWhat a fantastic art!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I know it's not that much, but I enjoyed every second of it, so I'm super happy :D
Delete100% oldhammer taste... really lovely work!
ReplyDeleteThank you! That was what I looked for, the vibe of those books. I know this is a puny attempt, but the whole point was just getting to draw again, so I won't complain :)
DeleteReally a great idea, transformed into a great oldhammer-flavored drawing!
ReplyDeleteWe like crowded compositions too, and we particularly appreciate how the scenes are linked together by goblins looking in different directions and calling each other. The fact that on the right side only a part of the troll can be seen and that there is a goblin turned backwards lets the imagination enrich the scene beyond the edge of the sheet... And everyone can imagine their own story: it seems to us that this was the beauty of the old illustrations that inspired you.
Have you ever shown your other drawings on the blog? How about a future post with your previous masterpieces?
Thank you very much! I tried to rescue that particular flavour of crowded illustrations with tons of crazy details everywhere. Horror vacui! :D
DeleteIf you have a look at the "Illustrations" label (https://oldschoolworkshop.blogspot.com/search/label/Illustrations) you can see my previous works. They are mostly an unfinished WH40K comic, but I also have some oooold art with acrylics or even my doodles from the time I tried to learn how to use Photoshop (accent on "tried to"). Have a look! If you can't find the stuff just let me know and I'll try to provide better directions :)
te ha quedado muy bien, mis dotes de dibujo apenas llegan para dibujar la palabra dignidad en una hoja XD
ReplyDelete¡Gracias! Tenía muchas ganas de volver a dibujar, había pasado muchísimo tiempo y lo echaba de menos. Me encantaría volver a coger ritmo, pero lo veo complicado :(
DeleteGreat looking oldhammer illustration, I always make sure I have figures to at least prep if I have to stay away from home, I even have a box in the car in case I'm stuck somewhere for work waiting!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thank you! I spent a few months abroad and I didn't really have the chance of travelling with minis; the case was already severely overweight! But I did what I could :D
DeleteSuber - what a wonderful, rich illustration. I am really glad that you haven't let travel and other worldly BS interfere with your creativity.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love your textured style of drawing. It's like looking at a tapestry!
Thank you very much!! To some extent it was a no-brainer. I simply knew I wanted to take the pencil back and the general idea of the composition popped out by itself. So it was much of an organic process in which I let myself go, it was an enormously relaxing and joyful thing to do :)
DeleteThis is an excellent post Suber. I love how you showed the progress of the drawing bit by bit. As someone who aspires to one day draw well, I really appreciate the thought process behind the artwork. And needless to say ... what a great drawing. So, so, so much detail. Wonderful work!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! It means a lot, I´ve seen your art and it's so awesome!
DeleteVery brave of you to attempt such a large undertaking for your first foray back into drawing. I like it though, so much to look at and so much going on in this image. I think the poor knight is doomed.
ReplyDeleteI haven't picked up a pencil to draw proper (Outside of simple scribbles for my son when he was very young and a budding artist.) in well over 10 years. I think the plaguebearer that is my avatar here is the last effort?
Thank you very much! This was one of those things I was really eager to do again. You know what are these things and the issue of dealing with the lack of free time! The plaguebearer is yours?? Wow, you should definitely get your pencils back on a paper!!!
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