In an attempt to catalogue ‘effort versus style’ I’ve drawn the same elephant in different styles, in order of effort. In this illustration a sketch is the easiest and takes the least effort, while a digital painting is a lot more effort.

Still, in some cases lineart requires more work then a digital painting. It depends on how detailed and clean the lineart needs to be.

I’m capable of more styles then these four (or technically three if you don’t count the coloured lineart). But this illustration is meant to simply show the difference.

Creating a new character is a lot of fun, especially when you’re dabbling with a comic-version of yourself. You do have to give yourself a set of rules. One of those rules is something I refer to as repeatability (I’m sure there is another much more suitable word ;). You have to be able to draw and repeat the character relatively easy, in different poses and in different settings. Character design sheets (that show your character from different sides and poses) are very very handy.

So, version 1 of the character design of ‘Co’. I’ve chosen one of the sketches on my character design sheet to play with.

A simple sketch on paper

I often start out character design sketches the old fashioned way: Pencil on paper. I then photograph the paper. I only need the reference, not the detail that scanning provides.

The first digitized character design

For now I like the sketched version, and I’m trying out different ways of digitizing it. Expect more versions in the future :)

For the 2011/2012 Aniway school agenda I was asked to make an illustration. I chose ‘space opera’ as my theme (with blue as my assigned colour).

I’ve not done any space related pictures before, but I love astronomy so this was definitely an assignment I was looking forward to diving into. I examined how nebula looked and how our planet and atmosphere look from space and then created a fictional planet and setting.

I also created a backstory fitting with the space opera theme. The space opera genre within anime is often based on a fight or flight theme. It can span decades, where the protagonists are in a constant struggle with aliens (often of the mysterious type). I created the character of the young cadet who sees the planet he grew up on destroyed. He’s shocked, angry and sad and he (of course) wants revenge!

Close-up of the young cadet’s face

Depicting the aliens was tricky at first. They had to be easily recognizable as enemies. Smooth metal spaceships just didn’t work, so I went for the insect-like approach (it’s been done before, but it works :)

Alien insect-like spaceships

Classic portraits and still life paintings can be very intriguing with all the symbolism they often contain. I’ve tried to make a portrait that feels like a still life, including some symbolism.

Portrait of decadence

I tried to make the portrayed lady a picture of pure decadence. A powdered face, fur, a Persian cat and an elaborate flowered (Purple Oleander) and ivory boned wig with a poor bird (Green Honeycreeper) captured solely to complete her appearance. I wasn’t going for a specific time-period, though there are ladies of decadence in every day and age ;)

I especially enjoyed painting the Persian cat and the Honeycreeper. I’ll definitely draw more animals in the future :)

A detailed shot of the Honeycreeper