Watercolor/Sharpie Character Paintings

So, I did these for my concentration for my AP Art class. I knew going in that the AP graders would hate it and that it's nothing close to real "art," but I didn't really care. They're drawn with Sharpie, and colored with watercolor. Every picture is an original pose with no reference, save for Wolverine, and parts of Rorschach. That being said, here they are. I actually don't even like the majority of them, mainly because I was a lazy bastard so many of them are the product of rushing to meet a deadline, thus resorting to either lazy poses, weak coloring, sloppy style, or a combination of all three. You'll probably be able to tell which ones they are. Anyway, here ya go:

Cervantes (Soul Calibur/4)
One of the ones I like, even though I essentially did the entire thing in a night.

Young Link (Majora's Mask)
I wanted to do Young Link, mainly because he's one of the most underrated characters of gaming in my opinion. I went with Majora's Mask, since that's my favorite iteration of him and the most rarely seen.

Wolverine
One of my favorites, though I feel like a cheater since all I did was copy an existing pose and stylize it.

Rorschach
Although I like it, the general consensus has been love or hate. I experimented with the rain effect by dripping the watercolor, and that will make or break the picture for people.

Ganondorf (OOT)
I originally intended to do a Wind Waker Ganondorf, as that's my favorite incarnation of the character, but when this moment appeared in my mind, I knew it's what I wanted to do; the epic moment before his transformation into Ganon. I have mixed feelings about this one. In some ways I feel like some of the awesomeness was lost with the color, as I don't think I made him stick out enough.

Big Boss (MGS3)
Though I like how the end result turned out, this one is a personal disappointment to me. Big Boss is my favorite character in all of video games, so I wanted to do something truly epic with his picture. Unfortunately, I consistently had problems getting a satisfactory pose that BB was worthy of, and when I had to meet a deadline, I settled with a cheap face shot. To make myself feel a tiny bit better, I tried to mimic Shinkawa's style, though I think I only slightly succeeded.

Link (OOT)
Possibly my least favorite. This was turning out to be one of my best with the pencil sketch. I was a little too liberal with the Sharpie, making it lose some of its awesomeness. Then my teacher demanded a colored version and it turned into this mess. It's plain, ugly, and rushed in my opinion. An amazing picture that decreased massively in quality with each step towards completion.

Kratos
Don't really know how I feel about this one. Still trying to decide if I like or don't like it. Eh.

Samus
Another disappointment, and other contender for least favorite. I wanted to show Samus' unmasked face without turning her into cheap eye candy by doing the Zero Suit route, which is what I've seen the majority of people do. I wanted to show the inherent tough/awesomeness of Samus, while still showing her as a woman. This one is like Big Boss, in the sense that I settled for less with one of my favorite characters of gaming. Had I more time, I would've used an entirely different pose, and it could've looked amazing. But, everything in this picture is sloppy and lazy. The armor doesn't even look like it fits together because I so hastily drew it, it lacks detail, the coloring is primitive, and, ugh.

Deadpool
Eh. Another one I colored in one night. Can you see what I was trying to achieve with the weird abstract background? Me neither.

Unnamed Work in Progress (Corel Painter XI) I sketched it on paper, and then started coloring on Painter. It's not even close to being finished, but I suppose it kind of shows where I am at the moment. The arms and/or hands look a bit unnatural to me, so those are going to be redone. But yeah, it's like one tenth of what the final product will be. I don't know much about Painter, but I'm certainly going to add shading, lighting, and a rougher coloring style that compliments my sketch style.

Wow! I'm in love with your style. I'm a huge fan of a more messy/detailed style, but only when it's done right. I think you pulled it off rather well.

I only have a couple complaints: One being that Young Link looks like an adult. His face and muscles are too defined to be a child's. My other complaint is the proportions of some of your characters are wrong. For example: OoT Link's legs are too stubby.

Other than that, I love your drawings. Water colors are so hard to use, but you did a great job! My favorite is Ganondorf. He looks menacing and desperate at the same time.

Also, your Samus isn't showing up. It just links me to your Kratos image.

Hey, you're from VGchat! How ya doing? Nice work, btw. Big Boss is my fav.

Fantastic.
Im digging your stile.
The Wolverine and Rorschach the most.

If I had any crits it would be on the YOUNG LINK.
Next time if you are going for a young kid or another young link, id suggest rounding out his facial features a bit more. He looks like he is older, strong jaw, hard looking eyes. A little roundness would bring out that youth you are looking for I think.
Thats it tho...Keep plugging away with your style. Keep us updated.


EDIT: I just noticed KeeSomething said the same thing about the Young Link. Wasn't trying to be an ass about it.

Oops, I suppose I should clarify on Young Link. My original intent was to draw Young Link, yes, but I was ultimately aiming for an older, more matured Young Link, which is one reason why I chose the Majora's Mask equipment, since that's what he would have, it being his most recent adventure. But yeah, that picture is actually my depiction of a bridge age between Young Link and Adult Link, so his older features were intended to a point.

But thanks, guys. It's always nice to hear criticism, good or bad. And KeeSomething, I fixed the Samus link, much to my own dismay. Also, yeah, I'm not too fond with some of the proportions. I've always been a weird artist because I've always thought I'm "cheating" if I don't draw the entire pose with absolutely no reference and off the top of my head. That's changed lately, as I've been using premade poses, but changing them and adding my own character onto them. Guess I should upload some more recent stuff.

Originally Posted by maian

Oops, I suppose I should clarify on Young Link. My original intent was to draw Young Link, yes, but I was ultimately aiming for an older, more matured Young Link, which is one reason why I chose the Majora's Mask equipment, since that's what he would have, it being his most recent adventure. But yeah, that picture is actually my depiction of a bridge age between Young Link and Adult Link, so his older features were intended to a point.

But thanks, guys. It's always nice to hear criticism, good or bad. And KeeSomething, I fixed the Samus link, much to my own dismay. Also, yeah, I'm not too fond with some of the proportions. I've always been a weird artist because I've always thought I'm "cheating" if I don't draw the entire pose with absolutely no reference and off the top of my head. That's changed lately, as I've been using premade poses, but changing them and adding my own character onto them. Guess I should upload some more recent stuff.

I use to do that as well. And to some extent still find myself doing. But When you see what successful artists do, and simply artists you like, you will find that using references is almost entirely what gets them to where they are.

Look at Alax Ross. Awesome awesome painter. But is a big user of references taking pics of people in costume and lighting them.

Haha, that's exactly the realization I had. I use a pretty cool site now called posemaniacs (www.posemaniacs.com) that has hundreds of premade anatomical poses that you can rotate. Typically, I can find something I like on there, and if all else fails, I take a picture of someone taking the desired pose. This achieves far better results. Unfortunately, I haven't done much art lately so there's not much I can really show. My recent stuff certainly is better though.

Thanks for the link. Ive actually been looking for something like that for a while so I can use it for quick references.

One of my best friends from College is one of the lead conceptual artists over at Bungie (Making Halo games)
And he swears by reference for everything. He has a HUGE collection of things, from vehicles, guns, backgrounds, landscapes, poses. It's the only way to go. The more reference the better. Plus the more you use it the better you will be at drawing things from memory.

Your friend is a concept artist fort Bungie? Seriously? That's...amazing. Concept art is something I would absolutely love to do, except I'd have to improve my skill by like, 999,999 times. Regardless, I'm learning. I recently acquired an Intuos 2 tablet, and I'm going to start teaching myself how to use it efficiently. I have Corel Painter XI as well, so I want to reach the point of being able to create really masterful pieces of art digitally.

Here's my first project on it thus far. I sketched it on paper, and then started coloring on Painter. It's not even close to being finished, but I suppose it kind of shows where I am at the moment. The arms and/or hands look a bit unnatural to me, so those are going to be redone. But yeah, it's like one tenth of what the final product will be. I don't know much about Painter, but I'm certainly going to add shading, lighting, and a rougher coloring style that compliments my sketch style.

Your friend is a concept artist fort Bungie? Seriously? That's...amazing. Concept art is something I would absolutely love to do, except I'd have to improve my skill by like, 999,999 times. Regardless, I'm learning. I recently acquired an Intuos 2 tablet, and I'm going to start teaching myself how to use it efficiently. I have Corel Painter XI as well, so I want to reach the point of being able to create really masterful pieces of art digitally.

Here's my first project on it thus far. I sketched it on paper, and then started coloring on Painter. It's not even close to being finished, but I suppose it kind of shows where I am at the moment. The arms and/or hands look a bit unnatural to me, so those are going to be redone. But yeah, it's like one tenth of what the final product will be. I don't know much about Painter, but I'm certainly going to add shading, lighting, and a rougher coloring style that compliments my sketch style.

I really like your style! Rorschach and Cervantes are my personal favourites.

Thanks! Updated the first post with my Corel Painter work in progress. Might update later with some of my better sketches. Probably not. Any criticisms?

Well, I'm glad you clarified in your introduction that some of them were done very rushed, because some of them definately look like they were done out of haste, late at night or so to be turned in for grades. Not blaming you at all. Overall, they still don't look too bad. Some just more muddy than others.

I'm so glad I didn't take AP art for that reason but majoring in Illustration at my art college has taught me it sucks when you put off works.

I agree with you totally. Young Link is less depicted in artwork, esspecially the majora's Mask one. Though that one I think has the most muddy paint in the back... watercolors can be dangerously evil when rushed. Just about the WORST thing to do rushed, really hahaha.

Nice job though, for the most part. I can see you really could do some really really polished stuff if you sat down and were patient and had no deadline.

Heh, I pretty much agree with everything that you said. The problem was, a lot of the rushing wasn't even necessary, had I been a better worker. But I really, really am a lazy bastard, and many a class was spent thinking of possible ideas for paintings, but ultimately just dicking around. Kind of disappointing. But it's good to know that underneath the muddyness, people think that some kind of skill is in there.