Closeup preview of some work in progress.

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?Current Music:?
NEDAJ - State of Mind [Full Album]

Skull and teeth studies from my Leuchtturm A6 sketchbook.

Animal teeth and head angles are some of the most wildly challenging things to draw, so I try to keep my characters' anatomical structure fresh in my mind by doing a lot of "x-ray" and 3D-rotated sketching as you see here.

I usually start out without reference, since it forces me to dig into memory for how something (teeth or skull dimensions) should look. I'll sketch a bit with very light erasable lines, then look at a skeletal reference to see if I got it right. I then make adjustments as needed before fleshing it out.

Posted in 300dpi to my Patreon Sketch Collection last year.

?Current music?: Яблоня - Т​е​н​ь с​р​е​д​и т​е​н​е​й / З​в​ё​з​д​н​ы​й з​в​е​р​ь / Н​а​д​л​о​м [tape cassette]

Morning sketch loadout, with ??????? - ???????? ????????, the first Dungeon Synth album I ever heard.

Been keeping my phone in another room while I work in my sketchbook lately, only listening to music on old walkmans I refurbish. The focus and satisfaction I get from drawing this way is pretty remarkable.

When I first began drawing in highschool (the time between when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the Sons of Aryas) I still used a CD+cassette stereo, listening to black metal and techno mixtapes from friends. Yeah, we had Kazaa and mp3s, but it was on a shared family computer in the living room, and we didn't have a CD burner yet. CDs were preferable, but tapes were WAY cheaper and still abundant.

Not having too much control over the music was essential for developing focus in those beginner years. Letting an album take me on a journey with no song shuffling or skipping pushed me to imagine stories accompanying the music, forming audio-narrative associations with the clumsy but earnest drawings I was making at the time.

Do you struggle with focus on your craft, but don't have enough isolation to work in silence?

Try listening to physical media next time you work. If digital is all you got, get in the habit of resisting the urge to skip or select tracks. Listen to an album as a complete work of art from start to finish, OR pick a playlist/streaming station and STICK with it - no channel flipping! - until you're done working for the day.

I guarantee you'll see improvement.

One of my many sketches done for a comic page, only to end up getting unused when I chose a better pose/angle that fit the scene.

I never truly discard drawings that get edited out of the book. They always go into the archive of hundreds of other unfinished things, just in case I have a use for them in future images.

?Jeff van Dyck - Beautiful Blade?

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GOINGL LIVE NOW on the SideScrollers Youtube Channel

I have been invited to a debate by Shad M Brooks (Shadiversity on Youtube) on the subject of AI imagery. Normally I ignore internet bloodsports, but I respect Shad greatly for his educational videos on medieval weaponry, which I've found very enlightening whenever I need to draw melee fights.

But, his veneration of HERETICAL ICONOGRAPHIES wrought by the cybernetic hands of ABOMINABLE INTELLIGENCE cannot go unchallenged. Shad was once a noble Knight of the Pen, and it is not too late for him to yield to Imperial Truth, and renounce this Techno-Diabolist CHAOS.

As a veteran Artifex Inquisitor of the Imperium of Man, I accept the challenge,

?May Imperial Justice account in all balance.?

A panel from yesterday's finished comic page inks.

? Aura Merlin - The Enigmatic Gael ?