The People's Princess

The second sketch for someone on tumblr! Crystal was requested by sistervenom, who is quite possibly the biggest fan of her out there. I love her design, especially the hairband. I'd asked Jamie before whether it was a physical band or just markings on her hair, as it varies so much depending on the artist, but the general consensus seems to be band. So there you go!

Excalibur

Please view this in the larger size, as blogspot makes the smaller version look super dumb! I recently opened myself up for sketches on tumblr and got requests for some really cool characters. The very first one to pop up in my inbox (from bovineblood-beast) was Faiza Hussain, AKA Excalibur, the young Muslim doctor from Captain Britain and MI:13. I loved that series and really liked the character, so it was fun to have an excuse to draw her.

Sensationally footless

This was supposed to be a full body picture but I drew her too far down on the page. Oh dear.

Mohawk Storm Appreciation Post

Tonight I doodled and all of a sudden Mohawk Storm appeared because I absolutely love this look for her and wanted to see how I'd draw it. So, um?

oh dear

Well, I got about this far with my manta rays...
...when my almost-eight-year-old tablet promptly shat itself and has been misbehaving ever since. I believe there is something tablet-shaped under the Christmas tree, though, because - like a 6'4, dark-haired, male Emma Frost - the Mr somehow knew.

But I mustn't dally on white lingerie. I doodled this horrible thing just now:


If you haven't been watching the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes series, you really should be. It had Mockingbird. In a cartoon!

Updates and apologies

Sorry for the severe lack of updates to my Marvel Alphabet! I've succumbed to a complete loss of motivation for it. I got so wrapped up in an acrylic painting that I'm still working on that I've moreorless abandoned it (at least for a while). I may get back to it, but at the moment my priorities are on commissions and my website.

Did I say website? Oh my!

http://www.jenrichardsart.com
I have plans to add more to it, like a blog specific to the site to document my process, but for now it acts as a portfolio for all those whales and dolphins I like to draw. I am however trying to branch out into other marine life (it's not like I lack the reference photos) - whenever I set out to draw something that isn't a cetacean it stills ends up being an orca most of the time, so here's a quick outline I just penciled that I'm about to start attacking with my tablet:

Couldn't sleep, must doodle

Quick sketch of Namora and some (rather poor) butterflyfish.

J is for Jessica Jones

I keep going back and forth on whether or not I prefer the sketch or the coloured version, so here's both.
I like Jessica a lot, but hot damn does she need a new costume if she ever gets back into the spandex. White all over! Unsupported boobs! Horrifyingly impractical! I should stop trying to apply logic to superhero costumes!

Achieving the impossible

Well, they did it somehow. Marvel has created a universe in which I like Hank Pym, AND Janet, at the same time. The new Avengers cartoon has been awesome so far, I dig the style and can't wait for more characters to turn up. Like Mockingbird. Who is in it. Best series ever.

Anyway, so apparently thinking about how I like the Wasp's design in this led to a weird mishmash of styles. I don't even know.

G is for Gorilla Man

Namora was obviously my favourite Agent of Atlas, but Gorilla Man came very, very close. He's cool as hell. Bonus for being the first gorilla I've ever drawn.

C and D are for Cloak and Dagger

Holy hell. I drew a pair of feet.

B is for Beta Ray Bill

Wow, these first two have been really underwhelming. I promise I'll do something that isn't a static bust next time, but I drew him at the bottom of the page and couldn't fit a body in. Beta Ray Bill is a favourite of mine though, and the badass my fish is named after.

I give it a week

I haven't really had the motivation to draw any characters for a while, I've been on such a cetacean kick. Last night I suddenly had the urge to do a thing and fell back on my two favourites: I've actually gone off every picture I've ever drawn of them so I tried to make up for it... I give it a week before I hate it all over again.

Back to the whales with me!

This is a Witty and Creative Title

I drew Bucky as the Winter Soldier about three years ago, and a friend saw it recently and gave hugely positive feedback even though I thought it was a pile of bollocks. But it did make me want to redraw him to see how my style had developed in that time, which is quite a lot.

I swear I'll do something with legs and feet soon!

Apologies.

Tigra!

Look, I have no excuses. My line of thought was "Hey, I need to draw some manly men because all I've drawn lately are women, and Nick Fury is manly as hell!" but then a scene from early West Coast Avengers popped into my head and wouldn't go away. Oopth.

the post-HeroesCon blah

The lead-up to HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC last weekend completely zapped any motivation I had to draw because I was going nuts getting my new Mockingbird costume finished, which can be seen here. Hooray! The convention itself exceeded all my positive expectations to become my favourite con experience ever, so I'd recommend it to everybody. While there I met and hung out with some of my favourite comics people and felt wildly inspired to draw regularly. When Chris Samnee tells you to draw, you freaking draw! I picked up Christos Gage and Mike McKone's Avengers Academy this week, which is a GREAT read and has a very sinister twist that has sucked me right in. I like Maddy/Veil's "powers" - she basically vaporizes herself - and she seemed fun to draw so I started doodling.

More late night doodling

Quick sketch of Mockingbird. I wish my scanner wasn't such a dick to pencils. Oh well!

Sketch pencils: my lost love

It's been a looooong time since I had a set of decent pencils (I had a kickass Derwent set I wanted to bring across the pond with me, but they wouldn't have survived being in the luggage), so I picked up a new tin recently and am in love again. I would tear through so many 9Bs drawing orca after orca like ten years ago, but I want to work on faces and people some more. My friend and fellow costumer Tia is the perfect Kitty Pryde, so she was my first victim. Muahaha! (Sorry Tia.)

Namora sketch

Boy what an imaginative title! Figured it'd be nice if I posted sketches of things here before I coloured them. First time drawing Namora, but she's pretty cool and it's an excuse for me to draw fish and render more water. Whoohoo!

Avengers ladies assemble!

After struggling with an art block lasting almost five months, I finally managed to stop scribbling over everything I hated in my sketchbook and start getting on with it. A new scanner and a very motivating partner helped. I've always been terrible at drawing women so I began churning out a bunch of kickass heroines (debatable in the case of Wanda) as practice. Yeah, I don't know either. Anyway:

Ms. Marvel!

The Wasp!

She-Hulk!

The Scarlet Witch!

I am totally working on something else though: