Bi-Weekly Digital Drawing Slam: Self Portrait With Lightsaber

When I was a kid, I used to draw a lot. Mostly just drawings of Spider-Man over and over again. I don't know when exactly this fell by the wayside, but I figure it was sometime in middle-school when I discovered acting and film-making and I kinda decidedly shifted my artistic identity. 'I'm an actor and writer now!' I declared.

And so, I kinda stopped drawing. That being said, I kinda miss it. And, as a writer interested in visual mediums like film and, more applicably, comic books, I've always intended to get back into drawing for to finally write and create some form of graphic-novel / web-comic / penny-dreadful. If that's a real thing I'd like to maybe do one day, I'd better start practicing. Thus, this new feature!

It's up to you, dear readers, to light a fire under my ass merely by existing. There's gonna be a new sketch / drawring / thingy posted in this space every two weeks (I figure I'll start off slow).

This is a weird thing I drew a while back called "Self Portrait With Lightsaber." Originally I set out to do a concept drawing of the title character from an as-of-yet incomplete comic book I wrote about a modern day, Arthur Dent-ish guy who is bequeathed Space Excalibur by a Space Princess and goes off on Space Adventures. I got about halfway through the sketch and realized I hadn't drawn in years, and that perhaps it would be more educational for me to try to drawing just what was in front of me (in this case, a reference photograph of myself holding a stick). The stick became a lightsaber because, well, why not. Pew Pew.

I drew this (and will continue to draw for this feature) on the Wacom Tablet I got from my parents for Christmas last year. I really love drawing on it mainly because since it's all digital, you don't have to worry about mistakes - you've got perfect erasing power, and if you screw up the inking or colouring you don't have to start the pencil sketch part from scratch - it's all just layers and pixels in photoshop! It's kind of a travesty that I've hardly used my tablet over the past year - hence, this post and the baleful, guilt inducing gaze of my audience when I don't produce a drawring post.

Don't let me down, audience. See you all later in the week!