Friday, May 10, 2019

ROCKET RACCOON Ink Drawing & Process


    Hello! In the excitement of waiting to see the latest Marvel Studios film, Avengers: End Game, last week I drew & inked this picture of everyone's favorite "trash panda," Rocket Raccoon! Let's take a real quick look at my steps making the illustration.


    While trying to decide if I wanted to do a "finished work" featuring the scrappy space hero, I looked up some reference photos from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The rough sketch above is my attempt to get a feel for Rocket's shapes, overall form, essential details & his personality. This image is from a more solemn moment, but I decided I wanted something a bit more fun.


    Here, we have another little exploration drawing. Though he's popular from the current movies, Rocket has appeared in comics & animation plenty of times before & I wanted to explore a more "cartoon" or "comic booky" style of the character. But I didn't just want to copy all of the great artists who have drawn the character. So, while looking at the film stills, I also referred to characters from cartoony franchises (specifically the Sonic the Hedgehog video games & animated sequences.) I put all of that into my head like a blender & this is what came out.


    After that, I decided I did want to do a finished illustration of Rocket in a "hero pose," & broke out the blue pencil to sketch a teeny, little thumbnail sketch. I was totally thinking of current comic interpretations of the character while looking at Sonic characters when drawing this one. I wanted that energetic feeling they give off.


    I marked off a space of 8x10 inches on a piece of Bristol board paper, roughly sketched out the major shapes & lines of movement & then started adding details. At this stage, I tried the keep that cartoony quality in mind, while blending it with what I was seeing in reference from the films. I think this led to a more "realistic" pose & proportions, while still capturing the vibe I was looking for fairly well.


    I then began inking with Faber-Castell PITT artist pens & a Pentel Pocket brush pen.


     I let myself get real "brushy" with the areas of fur, while still attempting to control the lines & portray volume & mass. I used the PITT pens for the majority of the outfit & other details.


    After a couple of marks with a white ink pen for corrections, I was done. There you go! A finished Rocket Raccoon! This is a photo of the finished piece. The version at the top of this post was then scanned, touched up & had its levels adjusted a little bit in Photoshop.





    I hope you all get to see the new Avengers movie! It is truly something unique. My head is still spinning a week later! I'm still thinking over whether I will take some time to color this one or not. I'll probably end up putting it in the shop for sale, if you are interested in owning original Rocket art. Until next time, God bless, you guys!

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Easter 2019


Happy Passover & Easter to you all! Galatians 1:3-5 says, "May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen."
It's Incredible! Mark 15:38 says that when Christ died on the cross, "...the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom." This means that "...I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, nor rulers. neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) Because He didn't stay in the tomb, but came back to life!
God’s Love, Christ’s Sacrifice & Victory over death & the presence of the Holy Spirit mean we are no longer separated from Him by sin or hardships or fears or ANYTHING. If we are saved, we are His, adopted & protected- Loved. We are NOT ALONE! No matter what happens we can turn to God. No matter what we’ve done, or what we fear, we can turn to God- who never leaves us or forsakes us. He is our ever present help. We can speak directly to Him, listen to Him, Trust in Him, Live & Rest in Him. Nothing can ever separate us again!

God Bless you all!