Spyro Takes Shape

Spyro got the full treatment on this one.

Clean pencil first, then wave after wave of marker until the wings, the horns and that cocky little smile all came alive.

Pencil to color

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Finished

Purple dragons will always have a home in my sketchbook.

Two Birds and a Plumber

March 10 was a marker marathon. Three pieces, one day, and two of them were the same bird drawn two completely different ways.

In the afternoon I worked on Mario in bright greens and yellows, then moved on to a dark winged bird that ended up flying over a fiery yellow sky. That night I couldn't let the bird go, so I started it again in bold black ink with just a touch of green and finished it two days later.

Mario in green

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Finished

The bird, take one

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Finished

The bird, take two

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Same bird, a totally different mood.

Drawing the same subject twice back to back is one of the best exercises I know. You learn something new every time.

Kupo!

A little moogle to brighten up the week. I started with a few loose blocks of color, found him hiding in them, and then let him get loud.

By the end he had his own comic book burst behind him, shouting his favorite word.

Finding the moogle

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Finished

Kupo! That is all. That is the post.

Sonic in Marker

Sonic, done my way. I started with an explosion of loose marker color and let the speed come out of the chaos.

Over a few days I kept pulling him forward out of the background until he finally broke through, grinning like he always does.

Out of the color storm

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Finished

Gotta go fast, but the drawing still took its sweet time.

Wings of the Sun

A winged warrior crowned in feathers, with a blazing sun keeping watch over her shoulder.

I sketched her out loosely, tightened the linework, then let the color take over. The feathers were the real fun on this one, every single one of them got its own shade.

From sketch to color

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Finished

I could draw feathers all day. Some days I basically do.

The Hero and the Horned One

March 1 was all about a matching pair. A pink haired hero with sword and shield, and the horned shadow that waits behind him.

The hero started as a clean pencil drawing, then I went in with markers layer by layer until the armor and the blade had real weight. The horned one went the opposite way, starting with loose blue lines and then getting flooded with reds and purples until he looked properly menacing.

The hero

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Finished

The horned one

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Finished

Put them side by side and they tell a story on their own. That was the whole idea.