fanart / new bike!

[astridv]

I had Monday off so I drew this Ward character study because feelings, sigh. The lineart is marker/ink brush, coloring is colored ink with a layer of pastel on top for the highlights.
I have a couple more sketches as WIP, just the lineart, and I'll probably use them to experiment more because I haven't got that coloring technique down yet. I used to work a bit with pastel crayons in college and found it a lot easier then. Maybe crayon is just tricky in portraits; anyway, I find it super hard to control. I had to do quite a few adjustments in PSP. But I want to start with a dark wash and then add lighter layers; it seems appropriate, thematically.

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In other news, today I decided I will (ta-daaa!) buy a new bike. I realized I have been having this one for over ten years, which explains why it's become so crappy and sluggish. I did some quick math: this bike must have about 25,000 km under its tires. All my previous ones have been stolen within two years, so I never had to deal with an ageing bycicle. And I always got to buy the new one with the insurance money from the last one, so technically I haven't spent any money on a bike since 1994 or so.
I'm very much looking forward to this!

Comments

[yhlee]

I don't know the character since I don't watch this show, but I like the starkness of the portrait. :) Very dramatic lighting.

[astridv]

Thanks. It's a very dramatic time in the show and I wanted that to bleed into the art.

[ratcreature]

This looks cool. I like how it's sparse yet still recognizable. And the black/red combination is suitably dramatic yet ominous.

[astridv]

Glad you like it. Yeah, I like the black/red combination; I'll probably do one or two more using the same color scheme.

If he broke away from Hydra already, I'd happily use a different background color. C'mon Ward, get your damn act together!

[domarzione]

Quick sketch or not, this is quite lovely in its spareness. It's probably unintentional, or no more intentional than how reality puts it, but there's a hint of Frank-Grillo-as-Brock-Rumlow here, the coloring and the sort of world-weariness that comes with the burden of doing the ugly things nobody has the guts to do to make the world into something more appealing.

[astridv]

Actually yeah, that' unintentional. The coloring was more influenced by Ward's place in this whole mess, and the state of his mind. (Also a mess. ;)