A Drawing A Day #5 - Octohelmet

Had an idea, tried it out quickly. Like it. Consider this a study or a preparatory sketch. A bit different again; some more imaginative drawing this time with a sci-fi/fantasy/horror theme.

If I do something with this then I'll definitely take time to get symmetry on the relevant parts of the helmet and a non-symmetrical, but balanced arrangement of tentacles. This is just a quick, idea sketch.

A Drawing A Day #4 - Cats

Wanted to do more animals, but wanted to do first hand. Ended up trying to draw our two cats. The challenge was to catch the essence of cat whilst they were on the move (restless because they wanted to go out). I got the outlines and then filled them quickly. Quite like how the full cat outline/silhouette turned out and wouldn't mind trying the cat outline combined with a patterned (wood grain? Paisley?) fill.

A Drawing A Day #3 - Jekyll/Hyde

I've recently listened to a BBC abridgment of 'Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, partly due to a desire to discover/rediscover some Sci-Fi/Fiction classics and partly because of one of my favourite Lego Minifigures 'Mr. Good and Evil'.

I couldn't keep away from the Lego for long, so here's a drawing of some. It was actually quite a challenge because if you get the proportions wrong, it doesn't look like a Lego man anymore - we're all so familiar that we almost 'know' the correct proportions. Anyway, there are definitely some incorrect proportions here but...

Colour next...

Polar Express

Obviously Chris Van Allsburg's own illustrations are sumptuous beyond description, which may be why I felt inspired to have a go at my own quick-ish drawing after reading the book for the first time the other day.

Finished this one today and thought I'd push myself to do a bit of background - something I can't usually be bothered to do. The drawing was done from my own photo of Chinese Government Railways Steam Locomotive 4-8-4 KF Class No 7 which is kept at the National Railway Museum in York.

Have already made amendments (the front wheel, the light cast by the lamp) to the drawing since posting this but this is it as a rough, quick sketch and shade:

Thoughts for next time: use better paper and a greater range of pencils.