Slump Breaker

I'm pretty good at being rational when it comes to bad things that happen to me. But every now and then, I can be pretty hard on myself for making mistakes or not doing something I know I can. Case in point: Last night while Issa was watching TV I decided to sit down and sketch a new project out. After about an hour I had nothing but blank paper with a lot of eraser smudges. I was at an artistic block. I had the pose (or some semblance of it) in my head, but I just couldn't put it down on paper. I was soooo frustrated... it seemed the more I tried to just work through it, the worse it got. I just couldn't nail the pose down. So I took a breath, and ran through an old drawing technique I learned in my drafting/life drawing classes. 

There's many ways to draw a person. Some people are able to just lay down the lines of the body and clothes, a lot of people draw basic shapes like squares and ovals and lay down detail over the framework... but last night I went a step further... I can't remember the name of the technique, but we used to use it in life drawing. It involves taking your charcoal/graphite/pencil and essentially scribbling the pose from the inside out. You dont focus on the contour whatsoever. Instead, you're trying to get a sense of mass and volume of the body. Needless to say, It took one try to nail it down. 

The original sketch is in the top left corner. after nailing down the pose I outlined the contour, then drew a bigger version that I scanned and am now working on digitally coloring. In her right hand is a bat that I'll make more apparent as you can't really see it from the angle it's at. I'm happy with my perspectives in the right leg and arm as well as the silhouette. I can also feel the weight and power in her legs, which is something I was trying to push. At this rate I can't wait to see the finished product. 

The idea for this drawing came from a character in the popular game, Team Fortress 2, which I have recently gotten attached to. While on a late night session, I started thinking: "Hey! I love the style of the characters in this game!" then... "Hey! There aren't any girl characters!" then... "Hey! I like to draw girl characters!" then... "Hey! I should draw some of the characters in the game... as girls!"

So I chose the scout as I like how animated he is and thought I could get a pretty good pose out of it. I almost wish I could finish working on this instead of going to work today... but I got bills to pay... Hope you like it!