Tag: sketches

Corveil Warm-ups + Site Updates | October 9, 2026

Posted on October 9, 2026

Realized I drew Corveil more than once this week for some warm-ups – so, here they are!

First is a line drawing from Wednesday. There are a few things I’ve been meaning to explore updating in Corveil’s design – mainly his hair and eye color. He originally had dark brown hair and blue eyes, and for a while I’ve been drawing him with either dark or light brown hair, and amber eyes. The amber eyes have stuck around for a while because I have a lore reason for him having them, but I’ve been thinking of changing them to either yellow-green or blue-green for various reasons. This one shows yellow-green.

I rather like this sketch, I wouldn’t mind cleaning this one up to something more presentable sometime.

This is practice warm-up I’ve been fiddling with this week. Tried the blue-green eyes here.

The other thing I felt like practicing with this one was jumping into painting instead of focusing more on the lines first. That’s how I used to draw more, before “rediscovering” how I apparently do enjoy drawing with lines over the past year or two, haha. But sometimes I like to draw with this other method too, and see what results. I started this one on Tuesday, and added more to it this morning as today’s warm-up.

It’s still an enjoyable method to me, but it takes me longer to arrive where I want to (compared with figuring out some of the construction with lines earlier on), and it lacks the personality I think better comes through when I start with a line sketch now.

Even just the expression, his intended personality shows much more clearly in the first sketch at the top of this post, compared with the painting practice. These are both also construction drawing from imagination practices.

Site updates

Also, some site updates! It’s not enough to warrant a full “site updates” post, but I wanted to jot it down somewhere for myself.

It’s mainly typography-related:

Sketch: Skeletor and He-Man from “Masters of the Universe” | June 20, 2026

Posted on June 20, 2026

Drawing of Skeletor impaling He-Man with the shattered remains of the Sword of Power. — Skeletor and He-Man

Saw the He-Man / “Masters of the Universe” movie on Friday, and it was such a fun romp! I’m not very familiar with the source material – I haven’t watched the show – but I went in expecting a campy good time. It delivered on this, and more, as I constantly felt the budget for this movie felt much higher than what I would expect for a movie of this scope. Which was an absolute treat for an audience-member, but it made me concerned for how this movie might perform at the box office – as while I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, it felt very niche.

Initial sketch of Skeletor and He-Man. — Initial sketch.

The standout for me, though, was Skeletor. I know nothing about this character, but hearing the voice actor’s performance in cinematic theaters was an unfathomable delight. The VA’s performance reminded me of a niche character in Guild Wars 2, called “Mad King Thorn,” who is a trickster, jokey character that is vaguely demonic (he’s associated with the game’s version of “Halloween”). To me, this performance was a mix of a more “unhinged” version of Mad King Thorn, combined with a more “unhinged” version of Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas – or, more accurately, Danny Elfman’s portrayal of the character. Danny Elfman can do wonderfully spooky yet appealing things with his voice, and much of the creative choices used for Skeletor’s voice reminded me of several aspects I love in both Danny Elfman’s voicework and singing, along with the VA for Mad King Thorn.

In-progress sketch of Skeletor and He-Man before adding color. — In-progress sketch.

I appreciated the vaguely flirtatious direction Skeletor was given when referring to He-Man in the movie, haha. The little sigh of longing he does after mentioning He-Man’s thighs was comedic brilliance, the actor has wonderful timing. I want a playlist of only Skeletor’s lines to listen to while drawing, haha.

Oh! Speaking of playlists – I was also shocked by how strong the soundtrack is. It is a very modern take on both 80’s themes, as well as older rock/electric guitars from that era. I was very interested in seeing who the composer was during the credits, and learned it is Daniel Pemberton. Who is also the composer for Project Hail Mary – my favorite sci-fi movie I’ve seen this year so far – as well as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse! I don’t recall the score for those Spider-Man movies too well (I’ll also admit ready bias toward Danny Elfman’s scores for the Raimi Spider-man films), but I remember enjoying the score for Project Hail Mary while watching it in the theater.

I enjoyed He-Man’s score even more, though. It’s a standout to me! I was listening to it while drawing this sketch, haha. Oh! Let me link the playlist here. Give it a listen, you might also enjoy it!

I’ll add it in the full post:

Arquel Brush Test | April 9, 2026

Posted on April 9, 2026

Colorful drawing of a masculine figure with his hair tied back. A trio of horns adorns each side of his head. — Arquel brush test

I was playing around with some brush settings last week. This is one of the color tests (the other is Corveil, of course – I’d like to see if I can make him more presentable at some point).

Earlier version of the previous drawing. — Earlier version

Reaper Sketch | March 10, 2026

Posted on March 10, 2026

At the tail-end of formatting the Duskbirds zines – indulged briefly earlier with some imagination-drawing anatomy-practice with my sylvari reaper. I think I’m slightly more comfortable drawing torsos from imagination now.

I need to do more neck studies in the future.

Hannibal and Will Warm-up Drawing | February 11, 2026

Posted on February 11, 2026

Drawing of Hannibal reaching for the back of Will's head, as Will dispassionately takes a bite from an unspecified bit of meat from his fork. — Will and Hannibal Warm-up drawing

I enjoyed season 2, episode 10 of the “Hannibal” tv show for all the wrong reasons, but it’s been a refreshing reminder for how much I love dark fantasies, haha. I knew I’d have to do a small drawing of them at some point.

This is from memory (another drawing from imagination practice), so I don’t expect the likeness to be precise – though I was thinking of the actors’ portrayals (Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelson). My hope is it conveys the “feeling” of their characters, even if the likeness isn’t precise. I’ve been really enjoying the actors’ performances, especially during season 2. This show has been a delightful, slow-burn for me – I almost didn’t continue it after the first initial episodes in season 1 – but the show really rewards you during the second season for sticking with it. I’m very glad I’m finally getting around to watching it after so long!

I’m still within season 2 (I think just finished episode 12 the other day). This show has been sort of fascinating me for how much it was able to get away with. I can’t believe it was a network television show. I question whether they would be able to shoot this show today.

I’m really glad it exists. I learned afterward that this show was cancelled in its third season for poor ratings, and even though I love it, I can understand why – it is so niche and unapologetic in its show creators’ interests. I really admire and respect this level of dedication to staying true to their vision. It almost feels more like an art house or indie production than a network show.

Wider crop of the previous drawing. — Slightly wider cropping.

It’s giving me much to ponder about the type of art I want to do and express.