First, understand that I am working with some really primitive tools.
This is the head of an animal called Syndyoceras, which lived in North America during the Miocene Epoch (I think). It resembles a pronghorn antelope, but is actually more closely related to camels and llamas, and probably had a somewhat mooselike nose. For fighting, males had an odd arrangement of horns as well as enlarged canine teeth.
First, I sketched the head with a ballpoint pen, using as a guide a photo of the animal's skull, with photos of the heads of camels, giraffes and moose as fiurther references.
Second, I scanned it. The result was the "initial sketch" (see other drawing). I was pretty disappointed in that. It was a very sketchy sketch.
The only image manipulation software I have is Microsoft Photo Editor and Paint -- real basic stuff. However, I tried using the "smudge" tool of the former to blend in the pen lines, and it resulted in a kind of charcoal/pastel/watercolory look, which I decided did not suck too much. I did a little bit of limited corrections in Paint. This is the result.
I don't have a lot of control with this primitive smudge tool, and in some areas I overworked the sketch and lost some definition. But it does not suck too much.
In the future, I hope to get better with this newfound technique, and maybe someday this first attempt will make me cringe to look at. But for now, it's not a bad start. I actually like it.
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Sta.sh
Plus, I was thinking back to when I did pencil sketches at around age 12, and I learned the "art" of blending graphite strokes for shading and such -- in other words, smudging. At first I was enamored with the new-found technique, but after a while I thought it was just kind of lazy. And you're right, it can look rather hamfisted. I might be going through the same kind of thing here, only digitally.
I'm not going to abandon the "pseudo-painting" technique entirely, but I'll play with it some more, maybe learn how to use it a bit more judiciously.
I do appreciate your comments!
I think I know what you mean. There are some details in the sketch that got lost, which I regret. The "smudging" process also distorted some proportions and details because it is so ham-handed. The "final" came out a little too horselike, and the "chin" is a little goofy.
On the other hand, I hated the scratchy little pen-mark shading in the sketch, and I kinda like the approximation of paint brush-work here.
If you chose to comment again, *jconway, may I ask you what you like about the sketch vs. what you dislike so much about the "final"? The technique? Or is the sketch a closer "likeness" to what the animal probably looked like? I am curious. (I don't have any formal training in paleontology or anatomy, or even biology since high school.)
Thanks.
I like the sketchiness of the first one - I don't think any details you'd want are lost. It's cool image, and it looks minimalistic and sharp. I've never like smudginess in drawings, I think it's ugly and generally looks ham-fisted. If you want a painterly effect, use a paint brush from the beginning. Just what think, no need to pay attention.