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!