DC Sketch-A-Day for August..

[TaoofthRaven]

This is a challenge I've given myself for the month of August. At the beginning of the month I chose 31 DC characters not overly drawn (no Superman or Batman), and assigned one to each day. The goal was to sketch/draw the assigned character, no matter how quick or bad the sketch is, and to simply get SOMETHING out. The point is to basically get myself over the fear of messing up which causes me to procrastinate and put off drawing for the "perfect" conditions...sometimes for weeks at a time. Since I'm at the halfway mark I figured it's ok to share. Keep in mind, I AM aware of many of the mistakes I've made. I need a lot of work on anatomy, perspective, shading, etc and I've only really started coloring with these pieces. Much of this has been about experimenting and rebuilding my relationship with my art, to just get something out and posted to my FB page every day. So with that in mind constructive criticism is welcome.


Nightwing- DC01 (Drawn on Kindle Fire)

Superboy- DC02

Green Arrow- DC03

Bat Woman- DC04

Kilowog- DC05

Animal Man- DC06

Aqualad- DC07

Black Adam- DC08

Red Tornado- DC09

Supergirl- DC10

Beast Boy- DC11

Clayface- DC12

Dr Fate- DC13

Aztek- DC14

Black Canary- DC15

"Robin"- DC16

[Singular]

Nice job, especially considering the speed at which you are producing. This is a good exercise. Soon, creating these characters will come second nature to you. Then you will be able to fine tune them.

[TaoofthRaven]

Thanks Singular, that's the plan. Next month I plan to go back to my fundamentals with hopefully more endurance and focus.

[ehoeveler]

'Clayface ' my fave. You are on fire! Singular is right - with the constant practice you're well on your way to
nailing these! Looking good already. Thank You, E

[jenn_iam]

I second this statement!!!

Nice job, especially considering the speed at which you are producing. This is a good exercise. Soon, creating these characters will come second nature to
you. Then you will be able to fine tune them.

Keep this up... you already are demonstrating a strong level of complexity in drawing the dynamic postitioning (poses) this is good... and much used in the Comic/Graphic Novel world... Perspective will come with practice... You are not far off on anatomy actually... some here and there.. just be consciencious when you are doing the muscle sinew.. and what you miss in placement will be less noticable...

Dont be afraid to stay sketchy...
In fact, when I do exercises like this.. I like to do my motion lines (something that shows how my character fountation pose / movement will be) on one page...
then I do the structure (framework - circles, boxes etc) on a tracing paper layer.
Then do detail on another layer of tracing paper... and so on and so on.

Obviously in most cases, these layers are sketch very lightly, and on only one layer of paper... but for practice purposes / developing the mind to muscle memory... the layer method is helpful to me... as I can keep them and go back to view my progress in comparison, the more I do.

But no matter what - Keep it up!!

[TaoofthRaven]

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the encouragement and constructive criticism. I've had to sacrifice a bit of sleep but I'm doing my best to stick with this challenge. Thanks again.

[TaoofthRaven]

Almost there. With this post I'm 27 down, 4 to go. Then on to the next challenge...soon as I figure out what that'll be.


Guy Gardner- DC17


Black Lightning- DC18


Martian Manhunter-DC19


Zatana- DC20


Arsenal- DC21


Blue Devil- DC22


Wally West (new 52)- DC23


This one was a rush job; Killer Croc- DC24


Raven (new 52)- DC25


Simon Baz- DC26


Scarecrow- DC27

[ehoeveler]

All so cool! Let me suggest that you post only 3 or 4 at a time - the whole stack is a bit overwhelming. Thank You, E

[TaoofthRaven]

Thank you E, and my apologies. After this post only 4 more pieces to go.

[ehoeveler]

No problem, my friend! Just post the remaining four in
a separate thread, OK?

[TaoofthRaven]

Well I did it...here is the final 4. I know it's a bit overwhelming, but I only posted them together like this because I didn't wanna start numerous threads for this single exercise. I did these, one each day, over the month of August. I thought that it would be less confusing and that it'd make more sense seeing them collectively as a whole. I wanted to know if I myself, or anyone else, saw progression and what not...well that was the point anyways. Sorry for the difficulty; here's to pushing forward and doing my best.


Lobo (new 52)- DC28


Harley Quinn (Suicide Squad)- DC29


Static Shock- DC30


Doomsday- DC31

[ehoeveler]

At least you separated them a bit - thanks for doing that! Number one of the last four is awesome but they look mostly finished - actually I like 'em all. What medium are you using? Thank You, E

[TaoofthRaven]

All but the first piece are done in my 12 IN by 9 IN sketchbook, penciled and inked using a mixture of microns and copic pens, then colored with Prismacolor and gray-tone Copic markers. I also used colored pencils in a few. I know they look rushed...because well they were. I didn't even erase sketch lines in most of them. The goal was to just get something done to the best of my ability in whatever amount of time I had that day. Thanks.