A friend on Dreamwidth reminded me that #NaArMaMo (https://naarmamo.dreamwidth.org/profile) is coming up next month: making one art per day for a month, even if it's a ten second doodle.
I wish there were prompts, since I feel I'm more creative when I have a restriction, no matter however small, but the concept fits well with my art learning, so expect some stuff from me here :)
Starting off #NaArMaMo with Best Girl: #SonicPrime's Boscage Maze edition. And of course, I made it #SonicTheComic Amy 😊
Ran out of time to do shading on it, unfortunately, but at three hours this may be the longest I'll spend on any single day's draw!
Today's #NaArMaMo: Six Puppycats, after I saw a friend posting about them earlier today. 2 hours.
#NaArMaMo for 3rd August.
I really don't know, I didn't sleep well okay? 😂
About 60-90 minutes, plus a bit of time on cat studies beforehand.
#NaArMaMo for 4th August, and hello to #WritingWonders from my art/fandom account where I'm learning to draw, for today's prompt:
Share art, pics (face claims) and/or mood boards of one (or more) of your side characters.
It's Carla again, because why not! One of the big drivers for me to learn to draw has been so I can draw my OCs, so it's nice to have these two projects match up today! I don't think I quite got her cheeky grin quite right, and I seems to always age my characters up—need to practice teen faces clearly!—but I'm pretty pleased that this at least captures roughly how I imagined her.
1h10 for the face, plus 30 mins for the quick extra poses. More on Carla on yesterday's post: https://mstdn.social/@kapellosaur/110824837850702441
#WritingWonders 3 Aug: If your favourite side character had a theme song, what would it be? … I've no idea! I'm an odd girl who doesn't listen to a lot of music. But I named Carla yesterday, who's the sort of teen who acts like nothing is serious but is very much so under the surface; who believes in something bigger than herself but doesn't care for attention or power; who'll flirt with anything that moves, though is probably acespec. And she's stealthy. I will take song recommendations, haha
#NaArMaMo for 5th August.
I played Worms WMD with @djnrrd and co on his stream yesterday, and was reminded how I used to create my own assets for Worms Armageddon in the 1990s. The options for WMD are less comprehensive but you can make a "hat" for the team, so… it's more STC Amy today :D
#NaArMaMo for 6th August.
I expected Boom to be the first character I'd draw again from my dimension-hopping trio of OCs (see https://speedlines.stctp.zone/@kapellosaur/110651395751410134 ) but today I was in the mood to draw Slash! (And while I'm stating their names, the third character is Thud.) This is possibly her origin story, because her design suggests to me that she's from a sci-fi universe.
Attached: 1 image Hi! Here's a dimensional portal-jumping trio of warriors. Or troublemakers, depending on their mood. My favourite is Boom on the left; I haven't figured out a name for the other two, or the team yet!
#NaArMaMo for 7th August.
First week done! Today I had no ideas (and limited wakefulness), so I used a random word generator which gave me "ghost", "news", "rocket", leading to GHOSTS IN SPACE:
#NaArMaMo for 8th August.
Sonic studies! A collage of my efforts: three from reference from Elson, and one from Corona. With a couple from imagination and a quick render of those to finish up. I feel like I'm getting a better grasp of his spines after this!
#SonicTheComic #practice #sketch (2h30 including the studies)
#NaArMaMo for 9th August.
Another face study: it me!
I think I was happier with the sketch than the pencils on this, so I included that too; it captures my face shape better, I think, even though the pencils were literally drawn on top. I guess it's the phenomenon that you always lose some looseness in the render, something for me to work on perhaps!
#sketch #selfportrait #krita (1h total)
#NaArMaMo for 10th August
Pushed for time tonight. A very quick sketch of a character generated using https://www.character-generator.org.uk/, which I've seen #Drawfee use and has always looked fun! How they can bust out a character in 15 minutes on that show is bewildering to me.
"Vicki Rodriguez, 24:
A colourful software developer from India is obsessed with envelopes. She usually wears purple trousers. She always carries a magic bean. She is striving to redeem herself after pushing a fox off a cliff."
#NaArMaMo for 11th August.
Slightly different tact today: it's a #WIP! I wouldn't usually render before finishing my pencils, but for the sake of this challenge I wanted to so that I had something that sorta looked like a finished piece. What are #BeeAndPuppyCat looking at? I will finish this on another day this month :)
#NaArMaMo for 12 August.
Last night I had a very vivid dream, featuring a set of old railway tracks running off the edge of a precipice, off of which the train would have to jump across a series of floating islands to reach its destination. I decided to draw that for today's challenge.
#krita #FloatingIsland #fantasy #landscape #DreamLog (2h30 spent)
#NaArMaMo for 13 August.
Finished the #BeeAndPuppyCat piece! So that's what was going on. How did Toast get in there anyway?
#NaArMaMo for 14 August.
Resetting a bit today after feeling like I was getting increasingly involved each day so far. 30 mins of skull practice, with before and after from memory for comparison.
#NaArMaMo for 15 August.
I've been to and from London today (still on the train home!) so it's a sketchbook photo tonight. Today I learned that drawing on a train is hard, but I think I retained some of the Sonic shape knowledge from the other day. Also I had no eraser, so, hand studies after I screwed up the first attempt XD
#NaArMaMo for 16 August.
I used the quick character generator again (https://www.character-generator.org.uk/) which gave me this lad:
"Stella McCarthy, 18, merry history student:
Stella McCarthy is a merry man from Toronto who can only speak [while] wearing a mask. He looks exhausted. His top quality is that he is particularly polite. He is striving to redeem himself after stealing an ice cream."
I got noir vibes from this one, and decided to follow my heart on it!
#NaArMaMo for 17 August.
This is a secondary character from my first novel, The Order of Fire, named Bethan Fenrin. Here she is sneaking into a military camp to cause Problems.
#NaArMaMo for 18 August.
Some fanart of #SonicTheComic tonight, or more specifically of @sonicpodcast's Dave's 1990s teenage fanfic that he has been torturing Chris by reading in their Patreon feed. It's #TheEndOfMobius! (2h40)
#NaArMaMo for 19 August.
Random character generator again! https://www.character-generator.org.uk/quick/
"Lorhainne Hamilton, 18, forceful solicitor
A forceful solicitor from Western Europe is obsessed with light sabres. People often compare her to a wild animal. Her biggest fear is losing her sight. She must use her talent for writing to heal the people around her before she can work on her own problems."
#krita #character #drawing (1h40)
#NaArMaMo for 20 August.
A #background today: spaceship interior at night.
(I didn't track time on this one but #krita reckons about 3h)
#NaArMaMo for 21 August.
Oh hey, it was Thud's ship all along! The portal looks ominous though; where have I seen that before?
(Previous picture of Thud: https://speedlines.stctp.zone/@kapellosaur/110651395751410134)
#OC #krita #drawing (3h on top of the background from yesterday)
Attached: 1 image Hi! Here's a dimensional portal-jumping trio of warriors. Or troublemakers, depending on their mood. My favourite is Boom on the left; I haven't figured out a name for the other two, or the team yet!
#NaArMaMo for 22 August.
A one-hour reworking of my 12th August piece, incorporating the things I learned from the backgrounds and composition drawclasses. Mostly a larger and more clearly signposted focus point, and sharper lines near the focus point. I think it's an improvement?
#krita #FloatingIsland #fantasy #landscape #DreamLog #MastoArt
#NaArMaMo for 23 August.
I went to a #LifeDrawing class, for the first time in person! We got given A2 paper, a backing board for it, and a pencil with eraser.
There were about two dozen people drawing and one model who was well lit on a small stage.
We did 10 1-minute drawings first, then the instructor suggested a 5-minute negative-space-only pose followed by a 10-minute negative-space-and-shadow. We finished with two 20 minute studies.
And yes I'm counting this as today's piece of artwork, I haven't got any art left in me!
#NaArMaMo for 24 August.
Another scene from @DemonTomatoDave's teenage Sonic fanfic from the 1990s, as read on the @sonicpodcast patreon streams. I may have taken some artistic liberties…
#SonicTheComic #SonicFanart #KnucklesWasPink #TheEndOfMobius (1h15)
#NaArMaMo for 25 August.
This is @djnrrd's cat Orko, a regular on his twitch streams.
Likes: getting food.
Dislikes: Snarf getting food too.
#NaArMaMo for 27 August.
Decided to attempt rendering myself as a #SheRa character, so I'm some kind of ... skating word-mage?
Was going to just do a waist-up pose but then I remembered that skates are one of my identifying features, oooops. Not sure about the arm ... rings? but all the character in She-Ra seem to have something shiny on them XD
#krita #SheRaFanArt (2h30)
#NaArMaMo for 28 August.
Time To Conquer Earth! It's #PowerRangers' 30th Anniversary today, so I decided to draw a companion piece to the one I did in May, this time with the villains!
Previous piece: https://speedlines.stctp.zone/@kapellosaur/110487592640547873
Timelapse video: https://speedlines.stctp.zone/@kapellosaur/110969176965104768
#PowerRangers30 #RitaRepulsa #LordZedd #krita #MastoArt #sketch #fanart (2h40)
Attached: 1 image It's Morphin' Time! Six one-hour reference sketches from the title sequence of #PowerRangers season 1, plus another couple to collage them with a Zordon. #sketch #drawing #art #krita #fanart
#NaArMaMo for 29 August.
I asked Mastodon what I should draw tonight; @spankyworks and @Euan said "something with a CRT TV as a head", "and long legs", and "wearing a cowboy hat".
This clearly signposted horror to me, so I went with a style inspired by #Drawfee's Julia Lepetit (https://www.instagram.com/julia_lepetit_illustrates/)
#krita #tv #monochrome #horror #MastoArt (1h45)
#NaArMaMo for 30 August.
Back at the #LifeDrawing class this week, and this time I tried to draw bigger, using both sides of the A2 paper.
The middle three poses were drawn in a style the instructor suggested, a series of lines imagined as the contours a drip of water would take down the form (or up it, in the second one). I hated this one! I could see one person in front of me making a recognisable figure and gesture with like five lines across the five minute period, whereas I drew something that looks like it should be in a horror film 😂
I think I was having a bad art day in general; I didn't remember until the final 15 minute pose (bottom right) to actually do the gesture first before going in with any kind of detail, even outline. Still, looking back at last week's I don't think I remembered to do that at all. So, progreeeeess?
I wouldn't usually post gesture drawing practice either but this is my art output today so it counts for the NaArMaMo challenge XD
#NaArMaMo for 31st August.
Some people* might be a bit cautious about a portal that's opened up out of nowhere. Boom, on the other hand, takes a specific detour from her cloud bouncing to jump right in.
*Slash and Thud, above, on the 6th and 21st of August
Aaaaaand we're done with #NaArMaMo! Back to making my silly drawings at a more leisurely pace, though I hope the habit of picking up a pen or pencil every day will at least partly stick with me. I think the main thing I've got out of this is that my inking has sped up greatly and maybe even improved, which makes rendering less daunting. I've also had a chance to try more styles because there felt like less pressure to get it right when it's just one day out of 31.
I've also identified a lot of things I struggle with, which is super useful when I'm doing practice because I'm paying more attention to those bits as I sketch!
Kathy Murdoch 
Morg
Yamiyume
Dave Bulmer