Briddick and Ruki

Two characters from my D&D worlds.

Anguy the Archer

Anguy the Archer. “Cartoon’d” and inspired by the Game of Thrones.  If you know me then you’ll know I’m not a fan of the books or show. Basically because I’m a sucker for fantasy heroes and GoT has made it clear that all men die…even heroes. And that’s a bummer. However, the Brotherhood without Banners, in some way, is heroic. At least in their own eyes. And I like their similarities to Robin Hood’s merry men. So I honor them in art. In my own way.

Little Legends : Character Sketches

Some more posing sketches from Little Legends. He's carrying a katana 'cause you can never be too prepared.

Little Legends : Color and Line Work Exploration

Some color and line work options for Little Legends. Not final design. Still exploring the character design.

Little Legends : Character Design : Ricky

Readdressing the main character of Ricky's design.  The first pass of the characters wasn't allotted much iteration time and I thought this guy deserved a little more attention. His design will dictate the direction I take the rest of the characters as well.  Especially the kids. The first thing I wanted to focus on was a shape language that would determine the ease of animation by streamlining portions of the design.  Eventually variation took over.

 

And this was a Chuck Jones phase.

The Drawing Lance Pitch : Little Legends

Recently I threw together a pitch for a children's show (or animated short) for Nickelodeon's open submissions earlier this year.  I based the pitch material on Drawing Lance, and it took me a few weeks to get it to a decent enough spot for submission.  Which is why you haven't seen many comics go up on www.drawinglance.blogspot.com.

When I first started my comic Drawing Lance it was supposed to be about a group of buds adventuring around a game table. Their modern personalities coming to the surface of the game characters. While I sort of pull this off, most of the initial concept was neglected in favor of 3 panel beat comedy strips.  I revisited this idea with the pitch.

In this iteration, I take the personalities of my friends and I and install them in tiny, child versions of ourselves.  The core concept of the show would be to address the trials and tribulations of growing up as a weird kid.  All the frightening experiences of youth, like first kisses, lunch room food fights, pop quizzes and proms would be played out in the kid's weekly D&D-like campaign. Wherein they find the courage and solutions to their little problems.... making them legends in the real world as well as the fantastic one.

Saw I'm calling it Little Legends.

Below are the first few revised character designs of Attar, Henklestout and Ebelnard. Our heroes of Drawing Lance.  The first draft of the kids lineup follows, along with a study of the wizard's, er... study.  And the first half of a short adventure.  (i'll post the rest of it soon enough.)

I would like to flesh this out even further and build a real, legit cartoon show.  This means that Drawing Lance will probably be retired so I can focus on new adventures.

(it's just kinda the Sandlot. I wanted something simple and recognizable for the pitch)

Regina

Revisited this drawing of Regina to add some color.

Conan the Barbarian

The Brave Companions

...who are only three but will grow in numbers. Let their adventure be told.

And be told it shall, only at...

DRAWING LANCE

check out the newest comic strip by clicking the link

Digital Sketchbook: Regina 02

Digital Sketchbook : Regina

Regina is a cantankerous Amazon warrior from the off kilter fantasy novel "In The Company Of Orges" by A. Lee Martinez. 

Sketchbook : Character Design : Hell To Pay

There are a few things I think about constantly.  Star Wars, Wolverine and usually some roguish story clip like (in this instance) Snake Pliskin's "damn all to hell" attitude.  Whether it is the aspects that I would desire to change or those things that make them up that I really like, these type of things are churning in my brain.

So what would you get if you mashed up a mercenary Jedi warrior forced into a timed death event with an exposed cybernetic hand that had 3 short lightsabers installed in the knuckles?

I don't know, but it sounds awesome!

Character Design: Drawing Lance: Irontooth & Kobolds

Here are the newest character designs for my webcomic Drawing Lance!  

You may have seen a few sketches of these guys grace my other social networks, but I can finally call them done here!  I noodled over Irontooth for quite a bit. Two of the most troublesome details were his wolf skin cloak, which was just a bit ungainly in his reverse design and a possible goat skull tattoo on his face.  The skull proved difficult because it obscured a lot of his face and distracted from the acting I wanted to get across. So I nixed it. In hindsight I wish I had just put the tattoo on a different location of the character, but maybe he'll receive it later in the story...

Since these characters are encountered in an actual D&D module I've played I wanted to be as true to their description as I could while at the same time making them easy to draw and act with. (except Ninaran! I was going for something entirely different. ;) )

The kobolds went through their own iterations.  I initially tried to drive their design toward a more typical kobold type. But I found that boring. So I looked toward something more off beat. Which lead to the fat, squat alligators with bad tempers!

Digital Sketchbook Dump

Man alive! I have not been posting very frequently have I?  I kinda hate these type of posts. Admitting my lack in posting. 'Cause I'll look back at it in a year and say "what? who gives a damn."  So I've been traveling a bit this month. A trip to Hawaii for a weekend getaway with coworkers. Florida to visit the folks. And then next week, I'm off to Wisconsin for a buddy's wedding.  

Needless to stay, it has stalled Drawing Lance, but I am working through some new character designs and strips as much as I can right now.  Need to catch up? Check it out at:

DRAWING LANCE.

In the meantime, here are a few digital sketches. 

Three of the best from the Brotherhood without Banners.  These thugs are real D&D inspired type characters!

Self Portrait. Artist's block.

Another self portrait. Inked the sketch I posted in the past.  My hair was longer and beard thicker then.

Star Wars Rebels! Inspired by the announcement of the new show of the same name.

Character Design: Irontooth: Pencil Work

Here are the final pencils for Irontooth's design.  This guy started off on the wrong foot and he felt too much like an orc than a goblin (and we all know what that's like). You can see an early draft of him HERE. After further exploration of his design I was able to drag a better set of shapes and personality out of him!  Irontooth has some classic fantasy details that make up his appearance. Like a notched battle axe, wolfskin cloak and a painted hand on his face. So he's naturally been very entertaining to draw!  

DRAWING LANCE

Irontooth is copyright WotC and can be seen in the Keep on The Shadowfell module for D&D.

Character Design: Damnakos Blackblade

Inks for the Tiefling Warlock character I made for a D&D: Encounters session I never took part in. Sad really. Damnakos had a thirst for adventure.  You can see the original sketch posting and scathing story HERE.

P.S. Last name literation will always be key to a swarthy D&D fellow.

Drawing Lance: Ninaran: Model Sheet

I don't think I ever shared this final model sheet of Ninaran. This is what I load up and work from when drawing and coloring Ninaran for my comic strip. Sometimes I include the inking file as well for best practices.

Character Design: Sketchbook: Tiefling Warlock

I wanted to go to D&D Encounters this week, but my schedule didn't allow it at all. I was super excited to check out a new live game, especially one with strangers. It adds a key, raw element to game play. Maybe next week?  Maybe.

I pulled a pre-gen and altered it to meet some game-play needs.  That's the design below, Damnakos Blackblade. Warlock. Mercenary. Thief. Lover.  Damnakos was enslaved on a draconian war sloop. His only attempt at escape left him with two less horns. The captain had sawed the characteristic tiefling crown horns from his head and tarred the stumps. Thrown in the brig, Damnakos met a Dwarf ill fated to the slave rows of the ship. They eventually did escape and have been partners in crime ever since. Jabbing each other with delusional tales of saving the other's life in escalating scenarios that may or may not have happened. Their swords pay the way. Their wit get's them laid.

Character Design: Ninaran Expressions

I've been really enjoying drawing Ninaran and exploring her character design.  Here's an expression sheet I've been chipping away at recently.  It's been very helpful in nailing down the nuances of drawing this character and you can see the odd shapes her skull takes on as I move it around. The profile is the trickiest and I noodled that one for a while trying to make sense of it. Ultimately though, I felt I was drifting away from the design just to make it beautiful. So I'm letting the shape speak for itself.  A little odd, but I like it.

EDIT: tooled around with her profile even more. The oddness got the better of me and I updated her shape.

Ninaran is a character featured in WotC's Keep on the Shadowfell module for D&D. I chronicle my experience with that game in my webcomic Drawing Lance.

Drawing Lance: Ninaran

Drawing Lance has been late to update because I've been putting some finishing touches on this girl here. Her name is Ninaran.  She is featured in the D&D module The Keep on the Shadowfell. Her purpose was that of mysterious envoy. But an envoy to what? I'd not ruin the story.  Tune in next week for her first appearance in my webcomic, which chronicles my entrance in to the &D role playing adventure world.