Oh, Virginia!
Ninja June 1st, 2007
My internal clock is ticking way off. I went to bed at 5AM. Luckily, I managed to get some sketching in! Since my return, I’ve been listening a lot to the Dresden Dolls and am looking forward to Amanda’s upcoming solo album. I had the song, Mrs. O stuck in my head, and this is what I came up with.
Now when I draw in Illustrator, I go sans sketch and work solely with the pen tool. But this time, I wanted to get my hands dirty and do some traditional pencil sketching. Besides, my wrists don’t hurt as much this way. Alritey, so I start with a very rough, very crappy pencil sketch.
The image is inspired from this one line: “With our hairdryers aimed heavenwards and 50-foot extension cords, you really have a way with words.” The girl is wounded and reaching out for the hairdryer. The cords are all tangled on the ground and wrap around her legs. I originally planned on giving the girl Amanda’s signature striped socks, but then thought it’d visually interfere with the wires. The perspective on the extended hand is so awful—looks like a bit of knobby ginger. But I’m just blocking out the basic position.
I redrew the hand. I’m not entirely happy with this position either.
And indeed, I get my hands dirty!
For the girl’s face, I looked in the mirror and took some cues from my own, but this image is not intended to be a self portrait (her eyes are vasty different from mine). Hi, that’s me up there. I like challenges and trying new things, so I set out to draw an emotion that I haven’t drawn before. Scared and vulnerable (hence all the white space in the wide eyes). Typically, my portraits are candid (and of other people). It’s strange to act this emotion out in front of the mirror. Haha, I’m not even sure of what I look like when I’m scared. It’s even harder to hold the same position. And on a side note, my hair is almost always in my face, because I’m trying to grow it out for locks of love. =) I need it to be elbow length before I can donate it. I’ll be happy when I can finally chop it all off!
The eye patch part came from Rei of Evangelion.
I later changed it to a smaller bandage once I saw this image from the Hanuka brothers. I love the perspective of this frame. It’s so dramatic! Simple, limited color palette. All the shadows and sneakers lead the viewer’s eye to the center of the image. It’s just really brilliant and kind of disturbingly beautiful.
Here’s my pencil sketch of the face. I’m feeling iffy about it, but I figured I should just go with it and see what I end up with.
During my lunch break at work, I scanned in my sketch and blocked in some color in Photoshop.
Later on in the day, I was waiting for my print job and decided to digitally “ink” the hair. I wanted her hair to be rich and black like Wonder Woman’s (so black that it’s a bit blue, well purple in this case). I don’t like the lines of the digital ink, so I’m probably going to ink it by hand later. A bit of trivia: the blood stain on the gauze is in the shape of Australia.
Alritey, time for bed! Good nite!
=),
Ninja
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