Sunday, February 06, 2011

Illustration Friday: Reverse

All he wanted to do was head off into the sunset, but for some reason the unicorn went in reverse as much as it went forward.

I had a ton of fun with this drawing! I was toying around with different ideas for baby dragons and I got inspired by the dino spring rider in Chalk. There was one at the park by my house I used to love when I was little. It was the old-fashioned painted metal ones. I think it was a red horse, but I could be confusing that with the color of the slide.

So I said, "What if the dragon was riding a spring-rider horse?" Hubby replied, "what if it was a unicorn?" and instant inspiration. I sketched it in pieces in my sketchbook, merged in photoshop and then resketched it with the wacom. Not fully happy with the sketch, because the wacom wouldn't register the pressure sensitivity today. No nice tapered strokes.

I need to correct a few things, primarily the perspective on the head of the unicorn and figure out the best overlap of the mane and dragon. I will definitely color it, perhaps both digitally and traditionally. I can't wait to practice planing in color, particularly on the unicorn body, which has very distinct top/side/bottom planes.

4 comments:

Jenn Bower said...

really great sketch with lots of energy. I can just feel the tension as that spring is about to sproing back. Can't wait to see this one in color.

Hannah said...

Wonderful sketch.

sketched out said...

Hee hee, what a great idea for "reverse!" Love the little dragon character. Funny, both of our characters this week are riding or wanting to ride into the sunset.

Hey, it was great meeting you yesterday! Keep up the good work on your PB dummy challenge!

Sharon Wagner said...

Very Cute. And don't you hate that when you try to ride a unicorn with a horn and a spring!