pete here // west coast rising character sketches

HEY. Look, I'm still alive. Can you believe it? Cause I can't, I'm stunned, quite frankly. The spring semester is drawing to a close, but I've managed to still find time to draw, a few sketches each night - no more than 10 minutes each.

And I think I've finally found the baseline for my style, which excites me. I've been trying to refine and fix it up for a long time now, and I think I'm finally figuring out what it is, exactly, than I'm looking for. The sketches below are in a timeline fashion of how my sketching has progressed over the passed few days, in regards to the style I'm hoping for.

Right now, don't...even bother looking at anatomy, please. 8|; I know Percy's anatomy is absolutely wonky and horrific, I know, I know. I'm just trying to find a groove that I'm comfortable working in, so right now body proportions are the thing furthest from my mind. Like. Seriously. Furthest thing from my mind.

I'm making next week my anatomy week - for the remainder of this week, I'm focusing on refining stylistic details because, ultimately, for me, those stylistic details are going to be what dictate how I choose to draw a character's anatomy and body proportions. Does that make any sense? It makes sense in my head, but seeing it typed out, it makes no sense. Idk. I'm tired.

ANYWAYS. Remember, these are in chronological order in regards to when they were sketched, and I spent only 10 minutes on each. I sit there with an egg timer, and at 10 minutes, I flip to a new page. Because if I don't, I'll end up working on one sketch way too long, and not getting anywhere. The more I do, the better I can refine little details here and there.

Yeah. Idk if that makes sense, BUT IT MAKES SENSE TO ME AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS. ...I guess.

Percy~ I really do love her and I think I mentioned this in my last post, but I really do wish she appeared in book one of West Coast Rising more frequently. But yeah. First [acceptable-ish not really] sketch drawn, about a week ago.

Sponge, second [acceptable-ish not really] sketch drawn, 4 days ago. Drawing him kills me, because it means drawing dreadlocks, and while I love dreadlocks, I hate drawing them. But it was this sketch that I finally felt as if I was getting the hang of drawing 'em, and how to style them for him in particular.

Third sketch, draw two nights ago, and way way way way more acceptable in terms of what I'm looking for in my sketches - this is the first sketch in a LONG time that resembles what I see in my head when I think of my characters. Honestly, when the egg timer dinged on this one, and I took a chance to really look at it, I was pleased. Idk why, but I felt like this was the baseline for my style, and so now I'm trying so desperately [& hopefully not futilely] to recreate this style, or at least continue to advance it.

We'll see what happens, I suppose, in regards to style. Practice makes perfect - I just need to make sure I keep up with it. I know that as soon as I stop drawing again, I'll get rusty, & have to start from scratch. So I'm trying to do at least two quick sketches a night before bed. 8| We'll see how that goes, especially when finals come rolling around.

BUT YEAH.

I updated.

:| I know. Soup's arts are way better than mine, I know, I know. Hopefully, though, I'll get myself up to her level. Eventually. For now though, I need to crawl into bed.

Hopefully it'll be less than a month when I update again.

Until next time (づ.｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ ❤

- Pete

soup \\ sketch DUMP

Well, this is a mini sketch dump. I hit about halfway through the semester, and yet I'm only about a quarter of the way done with the 100 drawings 8| ;;; This is not good.

This is also the first post of April. Bad us. Bad.

Anyway, here's a continuation of the characters from my previous post (link to it here). There are no previous sketches because those were done by my co-author :> I redrew them for the sake of the rewrite, and because.......I wanted to.

Really need to tweak that back arm. It's kind've...not working well with the spear. To relationship counseling they go.


I love the profile heavy-lidded man eye. Seduces me every time. And to think, I almost started all over with this picture.

I don't care that the plot in Sherlock Holmes sucked. Give me RDJ and Jude Law and pre Edwardian fashion any day. Men in uber crotch pants? Cheese and rice. Those don't look good on anyone, and yet here I went and drew them.

This is supposed to be...underwater. It's hard to tell, but uh. She's trying to pull him up. I thought to add bubbles to insinuate water, but then I should add Ariel and shell bras and a lobster conducting an under the sea orchestra.

So, you know how I feel about that.

Btw, anatomy is off. Yes. My head is also off. Your head is off if you thought this was something other than what it was.

This pictures sucks in small size. As you can tell, I haven't finished it. I never finish anything, as stated in my first post. And they aren't underwater, the wind is just...blowing up.

Take that, Newton.

Anyway, that's all for my mini dump. I've been noticing a particular trend recently where my drawings are looking skywards. It's so symbolic that I'm embarrassed for myself.

As of this moment, my co author and I are about 40k into this book, which is pretty good. We're trying super hard to keep it as close to 100k as possible, but as of press date, our previous chapter was eleven pages. Over 6k words. Holy fish paste.

Status updates as we go. Now I have to check and see if the hot water is working yet, because when you're sick and pathetic, a hot shower is just the thing to boil out all the mucus from your throbbing sinuses and soothe your aching eye sockets. It sort've sucks when the water heater goes out. And you haven't showered since Sunday afternoon. Kind've really sucks.

That's all for nao.

pete here // one lowly character sketch

So man.

I am seriously not having an easy time getting my drawing. Idk what's happened to me, but it's just not coming as fluidly as I want it to come. I've done a massive amount of sketches the passed week, but there's only one I'm going to post here right now that I feel even remotely confident about. And when I say "remotely confident" I mean I need to post something before Soup decides to hurt me.

I've actually done far more writing than drawing this week, so all my sketches are just quick character sketches for characters in my story. The one I've decided to post here, this evening, is my character Persephone - AKA: Percy - from the story I've been working on most recently, West Coast Rising.

I secretly love Persephone - she's one of my favorite characters in the series. Sadly, she doesn't have too much of a role in West Coast Rising - her role becomes more prominent in subsequent books. If I, know you, *finish* the subsequent books. Apparently, I have writing ADD. Or at least that's what Soup and Ick say. I don't know what they're talking about. *shifty eyes*

But yes. This is my...contribution to the blog for right now. I really want to post more, like a giant, massive DUMP of sketches, but at this point, I seriously just don't feel comfortable in the direction my style is going. 8| I just need more practice.

Practice, practice, practice.

...Practice.

..........Yeah. I'm starting to fall into a kind of style I'm comfortable with. I think. It needs a lot more refinement, but I think I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

We'll see.

BUT YES.

I updated. Only one sketch, I know, but better than nothing.

- Pete

soup \\ evolution of a character

This is an epic post. I'm so completely embarrassed to be posting the old versions of these characters that I oughta just go live in a corner after this.

Wait, I already do.

Anyway, I'll be posting three sets of three characters. One was drawn in '06, the proceeding is drawn I think in '08, and then the final version is '10. Sorry for the craptastic picture quality on the third. Po' boy college students 'n all.



I wasn't kidding. Embarrassed.


When we went over our characters, we took off all the unnecessary stuff that was only there in the first place for glam purposes. Realistically speaking, this is more logical, and more natural. Less is more.


Same outfit, I just........was too lazy to draw the blouse. ;;;; Oh, and I took it down even further. Stripped down. Minus the 'stripped' part. Though it's pretty close.


Oh dear god.


He wouldn't bother with all that outfit vomit from the earlier picture. I'm surprised he even bothers to put on panties sometimes.


His foot needs a-fixing, I realize that. And just pretend, like in the previous picture, he's standing on an invisible rock. Or someone's back. Also, don't tell him this, but his knife seems to be getting smaller and smaller.


No comment, please.


Personality TOTALLY revamped. From a jerkface to an emo. I'm very serious. This is serious business here.


Thank you, life drawing class, for teaching me how to draw moobs. Thank you.

That's it for me. I'm soooo far behind on my 100 drawings that it's...actually funny. Funny the way you run right smack into a glass slider door funny.

Not that I've ever done that before.

Yeah.

That's all.

pete here // no sketches tonight. kinda.

Just an explanation and apology for why there aren't any. I'm going through midterms right now, and basically haven't done anything not pertaining to exams, I'm sad to say. But my final midterm examination is on Thursday, so after that, I hit Spring Break, and basically just one big long fantastic week of no required scholastic assignments. All the studying I do will be at my own free will, on my own time, and yeah.

Some come Thursday at approximately 1800hrs, I'll be drawing again, and hopefully by Friday, I'll have some sketches to post.

I've got a bunch of character sketches I want to do for Solaris's story and some other unnamed stories and I'm just really excited about it. 8] I've had a bunch of stories in my head + a srs revision to Solaris's story that has me practically giggling with sheer delight. You can ask Soup. I sent her a txt message the other night practically squealing over it.

Yah.

But anyways.

Just so this post isn't entirely useless.

(Lawlz, the lines are so shaky cause my hands have got the quivers and twitches and shakes cause my blood sugar is low. I should fix that. By eating. Which I think I shall. ...Eventually.)

So yeah. Okay. Back to studying. 8| The vast majority of my life is spent studying, I've come to realize. No wonder I'm still single. Crazy, y0.

- Pete

soup \\ fashion sketches

I'm all about fashioooooon and color coordination and complimenting the body. I don't have any new sketches (I've been suffering from some severe mental retardation recently and the lack of sleep has been eating away at my bodeh and I've been drinking profusely--which is profusely for me, not profusely for the regular person my age, or probably profusely for anyone). SO, here are some old sketches, dated back from OMG2006!!! I did a lot of these when I was a senior in high school.

High school.

Man.

Feels like light-years ago.

But, here we go!!! Make sure we've all read the first post's rules before we continue on, or else!!!!


2006! I inked this and the one below with a weird pen. I don't know why, but I did.


I love his clothes. His shirt says, "Chill, man." Can I have this shirt? I'd totally wear this shirt.


Still 2006! Designs for a story, all the same character.


Anyone remember this sword from a previous post?


I still like this one. Someone in my computer class said she'd totally wear it...except for the weird stuff. So you know, everything.

loljk.


Still 2006, still designs for same character from same story. First time using copics.

Major suckage.


Yeah...half of her clothes moves with wind, the other half..............doesn't.


Used a sepia pen for the first time to create the lineless sort of effect. I'm still surprised that I got so much anatomy relatively correct for 2006 and being anatomically retarded :|


Still 06. Some emo.


Did this close to the end of 06. I hadn't intended for it to be fully all-blue, but...that's the way it came out. I was still trying to figure out how to use prismacolor pencils, but they're amaaaazing. Still my favorite coloring tools of choice.


Still 06. Sword is supposed to be made of glass. Body is about four heads tall. Art people know the joke there.


Probably about 08-09? I worked on it a little more since this upload, but my computer died and it died along with it :'[ No Photoshop on this computer, too expensive.


2009, never finished. Will never get the chance to either.


Late 09, I never finished the lineart (note the missing ear, and I never put in all the beads and boot laces and yeah).


The drawings below are done by Ick, and I colored them with watercolor pencils and copic markers.


07. That is my toe there, yes.


Sexxxxx. But pretty sex.



She was originally supposed to be holding a weapon. We sort of forgot about that part.

Anyway, that's it for now!!!

And why do all the baby daddies on Teen Mom have to be such ass hammers? Why they gotta be like that?

pete here // solaris story: character sketches

Holy cow! For the love of Peter, an update! By Pete, nonetheless! Without more than one ancient sketch! With new sketches in fact! Holy Basil Leaf, Batman! I know, this is crazy, isn't it? The fact that I'm actually UPDATING with something. I'm pretty baffled myself, not gonna lie.

Things have been pretty ridiculously hectic, not gonna lie. Midterms are absolutely slaughtering me, completely slaughtering me, to the point where I'm beginning to fall back into my old sleeping habits, fewer and fewer hours a night. Before midterms end, I'll be getting an hour of sleep - if I'm lucky. Now, on top of this chaotic amount of classwork, I've just been offered a tutoring job with a 5th grader with brain tumors. It's been crazy - completely and totally crazy.

BUT.

I've been good - for the most part. Each night, I've set aside one hour solely for drawing and sketching. And...wow, I seriously need that hour, because I've absolutely lost all style I used to have :| It's been so long since I've last drawn seriously that I've lost the style I used to have, and while I'm okay with that, I feel like an alien without a planet to call my home. So now, all I'm trying to do is find a style that, for right now, fits Solaris. I've been playing around with a lot of styles and such, so that's why the sketches below aren't really finished. Actually, only...one of them is...kind of finished. For now, these are just preliminary sketches, each of them taking 15-20 minutes each, no more. I'm trying to keep my sketches quick and short.

I would really like to go back and work on some of these some more, on my tablet, once I've refined the style perfect for them though.

There were a bunch of others, but I decided against scanning them because I wasn't especially fond with how they turned out. 8| I'm not overly fond with how these turned out, but I need to post something. SO HERE WE GO.

First off, just quick sketches of Solaris, just trying to get a handle for the best way to handle her, her body type, hair, the basics. Idk about you, but the bathing suit one down on the lower right I think turned out the best. Idk. That's just me. And I'm full of fail, so you better now listen to me.

OH LOOK. IT'S NOT FINISHED. Surprise, surprise. Sponge. I love Sponge. Not as much as Koby, but also. This is one of the ones I'd like to come back and revisit eventually and rework.

Sponge & Jackson. Just quick character sketches, 15 minutes total for the page. Sponge on the left w/the dreadlocks, Jackson on the right, being emo. With his coffee. Yup. S'about it.

A...kind of completed sketch of Solaris (left) and Joslynn (right). Whenever I see Joslynn in my head, I always see her with these massively big eyes. Eyes like...a tarsier monkey. Just big and wide and like "WAIT WHUT'S GOING ON?!?!" I...think I kind of got those big eyes working in her sketch? I think? IDK. Like I said, I fail.

Well. All this being said...

I ACTUALLY POSTED. How crazy. Hopefully I'll post again within the next seven days, butuh... That doesn't seem especially likely, not with midterms going the way they are. 8|

But it's okay. Now Soup can post, and keep you entertained. Yay! & if she doesn't, she shall feel my wrath. MY WRATH. And my wrath is fierce.

Okay. Need to study.

Until next time.

- Pete