Week seven of THE DIGITAL DREAM; over halfway now :) and :( … I hadn’t touched the computer for over a week until today, instead I’ve been focused on sketching lilSOPHiE; trying to find out what she looks like.

This week, I experimented with different eyes, than randomly tried the faceless look … I now need to make a decision; WHAT DOES lilSOPHiE LOOK LIKE?

DAYS 37 TO 42

STUDY EXERCISES

DAY 37 • lilSOPHiE CHIBI CHARACTER SKETCHES
Today lilSOPHiE was: a lilCLEANER, and a lilCHEERLEADER :)

I get so much fun out of creating the poses and outfits, but I really need to start focusing on her face.

This is where digital will shine; quickly re positioning her head to play around and experiment … Might have to sketch a ton of floating heads to practice

DAY 38 • lilSOPHiE CHIBI CHARACTER HEAD SKETCHES
Had a job interview today, so didn’t do too much sketching :( But what little time I did have, I used to start practicing floating heads :)

Think I like the rounded head and chin, as opposed the pointy one.

Need to understand how to capture expressions in chibi eyes too; arghh, so many things to learn!

DAY 39 • lilSOPHiE CHIBI CHARACTER EYE SKETCHES
Half way through the challenge :)

Today I mostly played about with eyes; making them more rounded and slightly bigger; I like how they feel, but not sure which style I like best.

Might sketch them digitally tomorrow to see how they look on the computer.

DAY 40 • FEMALE CHIBI CHARACTER QUICK GESTURE DRAWINGS
Had a brainwave at work today!

I’ve been missing my daily Gesture Drawing sessions; instead sketching lilSOPHiE … but I thought – you can do both at the same time!

So I tried it today; it was really hard, but so much fun :)

I did loads of 2 minute quick gestures, using QuickPoses.com and turned the pose into a chibi character :)

DAY 41 • lilSOPHiE CHIBI CHARACTER FACELESS SKETCHES
Does lilSOPHIE have a face?

I’m toying with the idea of making her faceless … a random gesture from yesterday, where she had no face, gave me a nice feeling; so I sketched her all day today, without a face.

At Life Drawing Class, I never draw the face.

When I Pose for Photos, I never show my face.

My PaintBrushGirls, are all faceless.

I like the feeling you get when you don’t see the face … I’m just not sure on lilSOPHiE.

What Do You Think?

DAY 42 • CHIBI CHARACTER SKETCHES
Still can’t decide if lilSOPHiE has a face or not.

I got back on the computer today, and turned one of my 2 minute gestures, into a little digital sketch.

Try this … cover one of them up, and see how the faceless lilSOPHiE has a totally different feel to her, than the other one.

You only really feel it when you see them on their own.

Which do you prefer, face or no face?

GESTURE DRAWING

On day 39, I started a new thing … I started combining daily Gesture Drawing, with chibi sketching. It’s funny, I’ve been doing Gesture Drawings for a few years now, I even emailed Stan Prokopenko, from Proko.com, in 2015 asking for feedback – he said, “Start adding Structure to your Gestures.”

You can add structure by finding and adding the bean, which represents the rib cage and pelvis, I never moved on to this phase in 2015 though … I was scared. I tried it a couple times but found it so hard, I stuck with quick Gestures. Turning these quick gestures into a chibi character, is actually using the same Bean method.

I love how the Universe works, I just naturally started doing what Stan Prokopenko said to do, but when the time was right, and in a more fun way; this may end up being a stepping stone to later added more advanced structure to non chibi drawings :)

TWO MINUTE GESTURES

Instead of 30 or 60 second quick gestures, I now do 2 minute gestures over a 40 minute period.

I break the 2 minute gesture down as follows:

1. A few seconds to study the pose
2. Place a quick gesture, as if I was doing a 30 second one
3. Work out where the pinching and pulling of the body is happening
4. Place the bean onto the gesture and start added basic structure
5. All the while being self aware that I need to turn the human pose I’m looking at, into a chibi :)

So there is a bit more going on that simply turning what I see into a gesture … this squishing of the human pose into a chibi gesture sketch is what makes it so fun. You have to use your eyes and imagination at the same time, trying to capture the essence of the pose, while imagining the character :)

It’s challenging, but really so much fun. All those years spent doing Gesture Drawing are actually paying off; I can let my hand find the gesture, while my head focuses on finding the structure, and my imagination finds the character :)

FACELESS?

It was after one of these Gesture Drawing sessions that I randomly saw something. For a few days beforehand, I had been struggling to find what lilSOPHiE’s eyes looked like. The truth is, I don’t really enjoy drawing faces on full bodied characters; I get the most enjoyment from capturing the flow of the form and capturing the hair.

I always see hair as the main part of a character, I love exaggerating it; making it almost have a life of its own. Eyes and faces, I find distracting. To some extent, I find they take away from the overall pose once you draw them in; they become the focal point, taking your attention away from the whole.

After doing some 2 minute chibi gestures, I noticed one of them didn’t have a face. This wasn’t by choice, it was merely because I ran out of time. However, I liked the feel of it. I liked the way this little character had mystery and a different vibe about her than the others around her … SHE STOOD OUT :)

I started asking

SHOULD lilSOPHiE HAVE A FACE?

WHY SHOULD SHE HAVE A FACE?

WHY DO I FEEL LIKE SHE HAS TO HAVE A FACE?

DO I WANT HER TO HAVE A FACE?

I Started thinking; all my Sketches and Drawings from Life Drawing Class, all My Photos … always faceless. I don’t like drawing faces, but I want lilSOPHiE to star in a manga webcomic with her pet sidekick, Kev the Cat … but how can a lead character in a manga, not have a face?

Hmm.

So that’s where I’m at, trying to feel if she has a face or not.

WEEK EIGHT

The plan is to start doing some digital sketches next week, this will allow me to duplicate a sketch and have the same pose side by side, with and without a face to try and work out which direction I want to go in.

I feel like my heart wants to go faceless, my head says no, you must have a face, it’s the rule.

I always follow my heart, so maybe I’ve subconsciously made my mind up, my head just needs to catch up :)

Next week was all about Clip Studio Paint though … find out more, in the DIGITAL DREAM WEEK EIGHT BLOG POST.