& Magazine Character Studies II

It has only been two days since my last post, but I figured I would post up another in the series I did for & Magazine for the Tinkerer's article in Issue 12. 

As stated previously, +Bryan Fazekas and I wanted to get portraits together to represent the NPC characters in the article. 

Here is the second set, and following, my commentary about their design, layout and techniques.

Copyright Del Teigeler 2015.

Again these were drawn separately and then digitally merged. 

I started with Kantner (male) and actually he was the first one that the article details, as well as the first one that I worked on. I wanted him to be big, and to reflect his taciturn nature to be straight  of face, and gruff looking. He has scaring to the side of his face from burns, and that had to be in the illustration. 

I think that his nose is his best feature from a design standpoint, and the fact that his eyes are stern looking gives him the overall feel that I was looking for. I added in the bib buttons with hammer and horse shoe motif to suggest his occupation of black smith. I am pleased with his portrait overall. 

For Grace, I wanted to go with a sort of everyday female face. Rounded but not childlike as she is probably in her mid to late forties. I am quite pleased with the hair once again, which as I reflect on this, I feel has been in past drawings my worst trait. I can only comment that I have spent a lot of time working on hair over the past few weeks, trying like mad to figure it out. Photo reference helps a ton as does the youtube videos that are out there.  

Her eyes (surprisingly) are not all that bad in my opinion, and I suppost I could have improved them a bit. To me her eye lids are good, but her irises themselves feel off to me. Maybe it is the size of the iris as compared to the overall size of the eye that is wrong. I shall endeavor to increase my skill. 

She is clothed in a simple dress with a bit of detail work at the neckline. 

Overall the two of them together look to be a decent couple. She is fair, though not beautiful and he is rugged and dignified in his pose. Having him behind her works well, and establishes him as the more dominant figure in the drawing, which given their relationship is all in due course. 

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome.