Working title, part 7

Only one week to go..

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Previous posts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 4
Part 5 
Part 6

Skull of moose

Because sometimes you have to draw skulls. Reference used (and still I managed to screw up those horns. Whatever).

And for those people who prefer animals with flesh and skin, here's a lion. It was a birthday card for my dad.

Tiny tiger cub in the jungle

I was asked to do some cards long, LONG time ago, so I made... one.

 Some photos of the process..

Here's the finished work of the Green bird

I gave this for my mother as a birthday present. She loves Angry Birds!

Working title, Part 6

This is it. Only one month to go!

 How's the clean-up process going? Well:

Ready:  10

WIP: 12

Undone:  0 / 22

Loooooking gooooood.

I threw one shot away because that wasn’t necessary. And surprisingly the whole animation didn’t get any shorter. It actually got longer. What the-

The animated short has a name, by the way. But I’m not going tell reveal it yet! Let’s just say that.. haha, you will be disappointed when you hear it. 

Doing some clean-up for that shot. It was one of the first shots that I animated for this project. The animation is very wobbly and the head movement doesn't look good. Back then I didn't even try to animate that carefully because I thought that I will work this out later. And now I have to deal with my past mistake and try to fix every single frame. Damn me!

And don't freak out! The ears will be added later. The bunny is not going to be bald. :)

Let's keep fingers crossed and hope that this whole thing will be finished during this month. I'm so tired that I just want it to end already.

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Previous posts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 4
Part 5 

Inking!

Stuff that I inked (or was supposed to ink). Then I said “the hell with this!” and stopped. Behold of head shots and almost-finished-drawings-of-full-bodies-and-stuff!

You know what? I kinda like the inked version more than the sketch.

Apparently that snow leopard is thinking about pie or making one... of humans!

I'm pretty sure someone has created a character that looks something like this. I'll call it "ötökkä" (= "a bug") for now on.

A bear.

A female mandrill.

I don't draw monsters anymore because I keep repeating the same ideas over and over again. Plus, I always think that every monster I create is a rip-off of someone elses drawing.

This was supposed to be a cave inside a waterfall but I couldn't draw.. well, the waterfall. Now it's just a random unfinished cave.

This was something random, never meant to be actually inked or coloured in serious matter. Just a doodle done during a break. And yes, I don't know how to draw griffins because I never draw them. And.. oh, shoot, the front legs are in wrong position, I just realised that.

Noo, more griffins! How did this happen?!

A giant kitty! Looks quite bland, though..

This sketch has been haunting me since 2011. And that is a mask that the girl is holding, not an actual animal head. Well, if it was an actual animal head, I wouldn't know what animal that is even supposed to be. Some sort of mandrill-god or something neat like that.

In case you were wondering what the lineart of NegaDuck looked like without the colours. Coloured version can be found here.

Yeah, no dynamic or very interesting drawings this time. All the work is taking so much energy right now.

Commissions 2009 – 2010

Back in the old days (haha, nearly three years ago) I did lot of commissions. They were quite cheap, about $15 per drawing (one or two character(s), digital ink, full colour, no BG) if I remember right. All of them are drawings of customer’s own character. This explains why there are sometimes bright unusual colours, extraordinary details and strange looking creatures. That’s the fun and the most challenging part of the job. You never know what you get to draw.

These drawings that I am going to show here are way much smaller than the original drawings (some of the originals are over 1500x1900 or 2000x1900 pixels large). These also have huge ugly watermarks. The reason for this is that it was part of the deal, that the customer will get the full resolution of the drawing without the watermark. If I ever wanted to post the drawing on internet, I have to put a smaller picture that has a watermark on it. This way the customer will always have his/her “original” drawing.

Please remember, that these are old drawings. I am fully aware of the mistakes and what parts should be fixed (mainly body parts, like legs etc.). But sadly I can’t go to past… Or can I?

Ranting about drawing bears

There are some animals that are hard for me to draw. Those animals usually have lots of fur that hides all the muscles and anatomy under it. Because I want to draw animals in different poses I have to know how the body of the animal works or at least what it looks like. So if the animal looks like a giant furball, that causes serious problems..

Right now my greatest enemies in drawing are these three animals:

a red panda
a binturong
and a bear.

And right now I'm having a battle with the bear. Especially the face. I usually get the eyes and the snout quite right but the shape of the head causes serious problems. Sometimes I get it right by accident. And that frustrates me because I don't understand how I made it look right. If I'm not thinking when I am drawing something right, I can't use that knowledge when I am drawing again.

I kinda think I am making the face way too complicated than it actually is but.. I don't know. Or maybe it really is so complicated. Or maybe I just don't know how to draw them properly. I feel so lost here.. Aaargh!

Sketches (reference used)..

 Then from memory..

Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT. Aaaargh!

Speaking of bears, I have to mention this guy:

This man has incredible relationship with his bears. His name is Sulo Karjalainen and he takes care and studies bears' behavior at The Predator Center in Finland. He has taken care of the bears since they were little and they think he’s their mom.

What I think is very amazing is that when Sulo is feeding (I’m talking about giving them meat, not grapes or small snacks) the bears, they don’t act hostile or possessive of the food. Even the tamest animals can quickly change when food is involved. But those bears stay calm and wait patiently. Incredible!

If you ever thought that bears are just giant furious beasts, these videos will change your mind completely. They can be loveable, adorable and calm, but only with people who know how to handle them and who they can trust. So remember kids, only professional people can do cool stuff like this!

More cool videos:

There's a Finnish document about this guy but there's no English subtitles for it (yet). If you are still interested, the document is called "Tosi Tarina: Tarinoita karhunkolosta" (2011?) (in English "True Story: Stories from the bearhole"). You can find it from Youtube.