Today, adding to the diversity of both geography and biology hereby represented, I give you Moritasgus! the Celtic/Gaulish god associated with the Greco-Roman Apollo, often called upon by those in need of healing, and bearer of a name that means either "Great Badger" or "Sea Badger"*. I decided to just go ahead and make him a Sea Badger. (duh.)
His lady-friend's name is Damona, and the snake/hand combo is her little shout-out (based on the only remaining bits of a cult-statue of her at a healing spring shrine). I'm also particularly fond of the hand, because I basically want to be Hellboy when I grow up. No one draws like Mignola. Seriously. But sometimes, for the sake of exercise, it's fun to try! Anywhoo, my buddy Kait gets the credit for suggesting this badger-licious dude. :D
In other news, I'm getting super jealous of people who have Cintiqs/Wacom tablets. I definitely love drawing on paper, but it would be so much fun to color stuff and have it look all nice and clean! Dammit, just add "art school" to that ever-growing list of things I would do with a few extra years of life and a few (hundred) thousand more dollars. Being an autodidact is only fun to a point.
Dear artists who have no idea my blog exists: how do you learn about/how to use all of the different tools and media available? Trial and error? A really good book I don't know about? Watching livestreams of other people drawing? (that last one is, admittedly, fun, awe-inspiring, and intimidating as heck) School? Workshops? Having cool friends?? I have no idea. That's why I just doodle on the paperzz.
That being said, I have learned a lot about texture (I did an exercise that I will not force upon you) by looking at a bunch of Edward Gorey art and drawing buildings, sidewalks, badgers (heh), etc, with all the different types that I can sort of figure out how to emulate. That's been a huge help.So if you, too, are wading through teaching yourself how to improve your drawing, I highly recommend that as an exercise. Plus, who doesn't want to spend a couple hours looking at Edward Gorey drawings? Even if you're easily depressed, he drew happy cats and stuff. It's not all*** little kids getting run over by carriages.
Oh, look! See?
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| Edward Gorey's "Cat Aerobics" (for those of more delicate constitutions) |
Though, frankly, this is the stuff that's more my speed:
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| the cover to Edward Gorey's "The Other Statue" |
In other, other news: Grad school stuff is all turned in (!!!) and I'm heading down to P-town tomorrow. Haircuts, Christmas, and hangin' with all my buddies are all in my near future.
*or even, perhaps, as one source suggested**, "masses of sea water"
**hopefully I am reading this correctly
***though, um, mostly