Ninja Must Practice

Still on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle kick (no pun intended) I'm practicing the forms. This warm-up is based on an awesome reference wallpaper by Capmoreno found in Deviant Art. I did give it a few alterations. The breast-plate sort of follows the standard. Capmoreno had done his own interpretation, beautifully colored, and someone had pointed out that the collar area was different. Critics are good, but sometimes they get too picky. The original piece is simply awesome, gritty, and tending towards realism. I mean, why get so picky when the original idea is a cartoon. Artists can interpret and give anything their own "flavor" or twist. I believe that is what makes art original.  Thanks so much for the inspiration, Captain!

Turtles And Loomis

Tonight I wanted to practice some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and some expressions from Andrew Loomis' book "Fun With A Pencil". The turtles were fun and practice for something I'm planning. They were from reference, but I loosened up a bit, trying not to "copy" so much this time. They're fairly easy shapes, and great to give them character, so to speak. With the expressions, I was just exploring the lines. Other than happiness, surprise, and maybe despair, I had not tried any others. They didn't come out too real for my taste, but they'll improve with practice. Lots of face muscles involved that are not that evident. I can tell Loomis' "shorthand" all over, and its the first time I realize feel the fact that you only need a few special lines to convey emotion. I didn't render any of these too much. I wanted to do them quickly, and used very few construction lines. I'm trying to get away from the copy "vector" I take when trying on new things from reference. I'll get there, little by little. My favorites tonight were the turtles. I'm really getting to like these guys. I think there's lots of potential to give them a personal style, but I don't have them quite down yet to let go completely of the references.  Well, that is all. I hope you enjoyed them. Any comments will be greatly welcomed. Thanks for stopping by!