More smear from the pens than I’d like; probably should have let them dry better. Still gridded, but I went faster this time. Less perfecting of the underdrawing, more ink sketching. Results are mixed, and certainly need work, but best not to turn each exercise into a major production. They’re concept sketches, not finished works; nobody needs pressure in their own sketchbook.
Cuddles shading needs work, but I’m mostly happy with the proportions, aside from Kate’s arms. The hair and face went sideways on me, but at least all the features are in roughly the right places. Still tough to offset and foreshorten when my brain recognizes the symmetry of the object, if not the perspective. I think her pants are my favorite part.
The donkey’s name was Cuddles. She was ten feet tall, including the ears, and her black-and-white hide suggested she might have held up a Holstein cow in some dark alley and was now wearing her clothes.
Ilona Andrews, Magic Shifts
