Floating heads
Digitally painted sketches of 3 original character headshots (left to right: Ian, Andy, Bruno) over a brown background. Each character is lit from their front left. Ian is a Latino man with light freckled skin, blonde hair tied into an unkempt ponytail, and a large white scar running through the left side of his mouth. His face is knit into a scowl so deep that his jaw is clenched. Andy is a black woman with dark skin, no hair or eyebrows, and an unreadable deadpan expression. Bruno is a Sicilian man with tan skin and black hair, including a short, well-groomed beard. He's smirking, but it reads more as confident than smug.
For me, drawing people takes a lot of time and effort because I have to look up references and agonize for hours about whether everything looks right. On the other hand, painting an already-drawn human is a chill and weirdly brainless activity. All I have to do is flesh out a structure that's already been established.
I've been way too tired to draw lately, so I pulled out some old ref sheet headshots to paint instead. I really like thinking about how the drawings should translate into 3-D structures, and it's just fun because it adds a layer of believability to the whole thing. Some general thoughts about these clowns:
- Ian's features are interesting because he would look young for his age if he wasn't varying levels of angry all the time, but he is, so now his face is just stuck like that forever. He has a lot of history that I keep meaning to talk about here, but one thing that's funny to me is he started out a lot lankier and sharper but has rounded out over time as he's gained weight.
- Speaking of lanky, Andy has taken over that job and is doing great at it. I love her face structure, and it's fun to draw because there's never any hair to cover it up. Also, if you know me at all, you'll know I love drawing thick, expressive eyebrows, so it's been a fun challenge getting her to emote without them.
- Bruno is just friend shaped. That's all. He always needs to look a little cocky, but in an endearing way, so I enjoy figuring out how to telegraph that even in something boring like this.