Phantom and Christine Facial Designs

Seeing as I have no time to set up my easel and paints, yet having the art itch, I decided to start on the drawing I plan to do after the Panda Leopard. Its going to be digital and a scene from Phantom of the Opera, one of my favourite books and movie (the one based off the musical).
I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with the Webber version or the original Leroux's book version... ...Nah! I'll go with the original description, he needs some love and I've hardly seen any fan art of him. I must say I do like the 'skull' face version better. Don't get me wrong, if I had to choose I wouldn't be kicking the half-face one out of bed, yet, as a character, he isn't as interesting. Also, he never seemed that tragic, and the deformation wasn't that bad, not bad enough to be monstrous. I suppose the make-up would have been too much for the musical/theatre stage.




The scene I plan is the moment when Christine has just taken off his mask...yep, that iconic over-done scene (ha!), so she's been designed too. The first is a bit too childlike for my taste, I know she's supposed to be innocent but I still don't want her looking like a 12 year old. The second was the exact opposite, too mature and a little cold. That design would have suited Charlotta rather than Christine. The last is a better version of the first, widening the eyes and giving her a forehead.
As for the Phantom (or Erik as he's more commonly referred to in the book) was pretty much the same. I start by drawing a basic skull outline and then deciding how to exaggerate it. For some reason the second head looks more Voldemort than Opera Ghost. In the end I loved the forth one, after some thinking ( I liked the second for a while, despite the Voldemort alarm beeping in my head). His long face makes him look more miserable (just like that saying "Why the long face?") and not too obviously skull-like.

Panda Leopard: Part 4 (Preparing for Paint)

*sigh* Sometimes I hate living in my small flat, there is hardly any room to do traditional art, and this is only A3 size! I'm literally crammed in my living room between a cupboard and a small table that has to have the lamp and phone thrown off it for any room. Its terrible to work in. I was only able to do a basic background before my concentration was broken by someone trying to sell electricity door-to-door. I have so little time its frustrating, especially as I'm starting a job this week.

Ranting much? Anyway, at least I know the masking fluid works. Wasn't sure how it worked as there was NO instructions on the bottle (thank God for the Internet). Such a nerving moment when I went over the figures in paint.

Quick Bunny Sketch

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Captain Wolfsbane

With no graphics tablet (it died on me a few days ago) and very little energy to do any quality sketches because of a lack of sleep, I decided to do some quick sketches, most of them pretty much just stick men. I decided to spend some more time on a random rough sketch from a previous sketch book. Random number generator gave me Page:35 which turned out to be the page were I quickly drew some characters inspired by Watership Down back in March. I chose Captain Wolfbane for this sketch. He looks a bit Efrafan I have to admit...

This was done with a thin Sapian colour pen. I like the texture on the body but wish I'd done the background less chaotic and distracting.

Panda Leopard: Part 3 (Sketch)

Ironic timing. My graphics tablet has died on me so its lucky I was planning to do this traditionally or I would be twiddling my thumbs until a new one was delivered, getting my art fix with little sketches.

Oh well, This is the sketch on the canvas paper. Of course it's going to be covered in paint so I didn't go into detail. Thanks for a taxidermy for their brilliant antelope/deer poses! It really helped with getting that Ibex pinned.
I am wondering if I did the figures too big (note, I cropped the canvas to show the main figures, the total thing is more than double in length with a mountain landscape,) for in the thumbnails they were smaller so the Panda-Leopard fitted completely in.

Joker-Bat

This is basically quick experimenting with shading using greens, with all brushes set to 100% opacity (only the layers can have their transparency reduced, yet I only did that for the veins in the wings.)

I was watching some of "The Batman" episodes and up popped the one with a Joker-Bane (Season 3 Episode 6). Basically Joker had stolen the chemical thing that makes Bane a walking mountain of muscle. He looks pretty gross, admittedly, but it got me thinking "Why wouldn't he steal something like that?" and "If he could steal that what else could he steal to make himself more kick-ass!?" I was thinking if Joker stole Dr. Langstrom's serum for turning into Man-Bat then he'd have lots of advantages over Batbreath! Plus he'd look awesome!

I don't know why I based him off a Silver Haired Bat, they just looked a bit chipper to me. Yet, moths being the Silver's main food source, it seems to only guy in Gotham to worry about Joker-Bat would be Killer Moth.

Panda Leopard: Part 2 (Thumbnails)

EDIT: 5th October:
The results are in from Deviantart.com where I asked my watchers what they thought was best.
6 Votes for: The Hunting Scene in the Mountain
2 Votes for: The Sunset with man on the horse and the blue profile.
1 Vote for: The Cub
0 Votes for the Head Shot.

This is good as I liked the Hunting Scene most. Just had to make sure my judgement wasn't off. It has turned out its a good thing I've decided to do these traditionally as my Graphics's Tablet has died on me and I have to wait for a replacement.
Here I forgot to take away the lines to indicate the spine of the book... oh well! A basic hunting scene from the book. Caesar hunting Ibex in the mountains.

The turning point of Caesar's life. As a cub his mother and remaining brother was killed in a forest fire, leaving him to fend for himself with little survival training. Here, young Caesar is sitting on a fire-ravaged ground (burnt grass, charcoaled tree stump)

Caesar and his human master, a young Indian man, going/coming back from a hunt.

These last two are just simple portraits.

Panda Leopard: Part 1 (Research)

< Research sheet composed of sketches for reference later on.







Getting out a copy of "How to Draw Manga Vol.36 : Animals", by Hikaru Hayashi, out I scanned the diagrams of a leopard and panda to compare the body shapes. Laying them on top of each other and lowering the transparency will allow me to quickly plan out the design of this hybrid creature. The rough sketch in the middle was a rough sketch I did last year.

By designing the creature this way made it a lot quicker and meant I could see what works and doesn't accurately. I think the first one (top left) is the better shape overall, though the tail needs to be longer.








Now, with that all out of the way I can start Thumbnail designs in Photoshop for quick colouring and adjustments. Above I have lines indicating where the book spine is and the division of back and front so I can base my design around that.