Okay! Here’s M – O batch of Alphabook characters. I really liked how all three of these turned out, so I wanted to group the goodness all together in one happy post. :) Enjoy!And in case you don't know what Alphabooks is, here’s the lowdown: Alphabooks is a blog in which all artists are welcome to draw a book character corresponding to the letter of the week. For instance, A for Aslan, B for Bilbo Baggins, etc. Feel free to check it out and participate! :)M for Mercy ThompsonMoon Called by Patricia Briggs
So although I said I was keeping these characters in an unfinished state, I got to the point with this character and thought “I just HAVE to finish her!” My approach this time was—instead of a sketchy outline—to do clean outlines with a finished “inked” appearance. And when I got to that point, I wanted to add color, and when I added color, I wanted to add details. And a background. And if you give a mouse a cookie—well, you see where this went. :P But I’m really happy I decided to finish it, and in less than two weeks two! *laughs* I know I’m slow at creating pieces (darn perfectionism!), but that’s part of the goal with Alphabooks—the more art I create and the more frequent it is, the faster and better I’ll become. And if you don’t know who Mercy Thompson is, she’s a mechanic who owns her own auto shop, has werewolves for neighbors, and occasionally get tangled up in issues with vampires and lycanthropy. Oh, and did I mention that she can shapeshift into a coyote? ;) (8.75 hours)N is for Nancy DrewThe Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
If you were to take a look at my bookshelf when I was a kid, there’d be one shelf that was jam packed with faded yellow bindings of the classic Nancy Drew mystery stories. And no, I’m not talking about the modern adaptions of the book, I’m speaking of the good, old-fashion faded books that are nearly falling apart with love and years. You know, the ones Nancy and her gang are clad in 1930s to post-war apparel and zip around in shiny blue roadsters. So in my young years I took after my mom and devoured these books and dreamed of solving mysteries like Nancy Drew (which I actually did write a story involving myself and my friend Danielle as sleuths, but that’s a story for another day. ;) ) So there was no doubt in my mind for who I’d do for the letter N. I present to you the fantastic NANCY DREW!Before I even started, I realized that it’s been too many years since I’ve read a Nancy Drew book, and in order to truly capture the essence of Miss Drew, I opened up The Secret of the Old clock (the first Nancy Drew book written) and plowed through the pages. Aaaaaand I’ll be honest--reading these books as an adult (with a better idea of what makes good, believable characters), it quickly became apparent to me that…well…Nancy and her chums were one-sided characters. Nancy was this incredible, miss perfect dream girl who was smart, resourceful, drop-dead gorgeous, “naturally athletic”, and “boasted many friends.” Hmmm…how many people do you know that have a description like that in real life? :P In stark contrast to Nancy, the villains of the story were impetuous, unintelligent jerks who couldn’t put two and two together and bumbled through scenes like complete idiots. :P Although it’s not J.K. Rowling caliber of writing, Nancy Drew mystery stories are still fun stories that you can easily read in a day (or in an hour if you’re faster than my dino-paced reading) and be amused.So, with that said, I wanted a break from the digital work I was doing and also wanted to depict Nancy in a way that seemed to be a part of her world. And what better way to do that than with ink? After all, the illustraions in the beginning of the books were all done in ink, and it was about time that I practiced a little good old fashioned inking myself. I used my trusty croquil pen, a sharpie, and touched it up in Photoshop. Hand inking was good practice to finish a piece quickly without being too concerned about detail (and if you make an accident, just go with it!) I also quickly learned that it wasn’t a good idea to drink a cup of coffee and then try and ink fine, sweeping lines with a jittery hand. Oops. :P But Nancy still turned out alright, and I’m happy with the 1940s feel that I gave her. I also really enjoyed the actually process of inking by hand—there’s something so natural and organic about applying ink to paper—very satisfying to see a finished piece appear before your eyes. Anyways, I’ve wrote far more than I should have about this piece—I hope you like it as much as I do! :) (2ish hours?)O is for OnuaWild Magic by Tamora Pierce
Alright, since I bored you to death with my Nancy Drew shpeal, I’ll try to keep this one short. If you know who this character is, you get bonus points (and a cookie!). Although Daine Sarrasri is the main character of Wild Magic, Onua is the first character mentioned in the series. In a nutshell, Onua Chamtong is a horse care tender that hires Daine on to help her drive ponies from the northern part of the realm to the capitol. She is known to be “horse-hearted” and has her own wild magic that enables her to have a special bond with horses and ponies. She was fun to draw because A.) I enjoy her character—she’s matter of fact, but a loyal friend to Daine, B.) she’s ethic, so it was fun to draw something different, and C.) it was fun to come up with a medieval fantasy costume. I also decided to use a texture to give the image more dimension while making it look more rugged and natural. I also got to practice drawing braids again (they’re tough to draw!) Overall, I’m very pleased with how she turned out. ^^ (3 hours)
