Tab Tries to Bargain & A Look Inside My Sketchbook
From the Sketchbook:
Every week I’m going to include something from my sketchbook. I’m not always going to go into this much detail about my process. But I want to share it with you at least once so you know what you’re looking at. (Every artist keeps a sketchbook a little differently.) For as far back as I can remember I’ve always kept two sketchbooks at a time. One “good” sketchbook and one “bad” sketchbook.
The thing is, neither of these books is actually bad or good. They just embody different parts of a process. The bad sketchbook is for playing around and figuring things out. The good sketchbook is a place to take those ideas, polish them and make them final. I don’t ever remember learning this method from anyone. It’s just the way I’m comfortable keeping a sketchbook.
I draw with whatever in these “bad” sketchbooks and that usually means ballpoint pens. I’ve been thinking about beetles for some reason lately and was toying with different designs. The little guy in the middle on the left caught my eye. I like that the outer shell could make the shape of a soldier’s helmet. He seems unamused by his lot in life. You can see I plucked him out and started to refine the idea of this character more on the top right.
My good sketchbook is full of “finished” art more like this. This guy is based off the idea of a rhinoceros beetle. I felt like there was a lot you could do with the two protruding spikes they have. I decided to be more anatomically accurate than the initial sketches and give the guy extra arms like a real bug. But that left me trying to figure out what to do with them all! I always try to get in a character’s head when I pose them like this, so I made him hold his spear with two hands and salute with one. I thought about making him salute with two hands, but it doesn’t read very well. I imagine this guy was built for fighting, but is stuck guarding some castle fruit cellar where he will never seen any action. You can see I also thought about making him fly and I made the choice to exclude his wings from this final piece. I’m not sure if this character is to scale of a human or an actual bug, but I wanted his spear to be kind of flimsy like a twig either way. (He’s not taking his job very seriously.) Finally, I upturned his toenails like how actual medieval armor could be to add some whimsy.
I don’t like my color. I never have, but in an effort to always be professional I’ve trudged forward with using it whenever I get the opportunity. (I have gotten better over time.) These beetles come in a variety of colors, but I had a bunch of warm brown and red Copic markers lying around so I just went with those. Voilà! It is done!
I’ll share another character from my sketchbook next time. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!