I posted more exercise sketches at slothsdraw, and the result of me practicing silhouettes is actually sort of fanart, because the jumping silhouette with the city background in that drawing was supposed to be Nightwing patrolling.

Also, I'm actually surprised that I managed to do all five exercises I picked for the first week.

( pencil drawing, colored in GIMP, ca 52K, happy Roy/Dick fluff, some nudity, but no graphic sex )

On a related note, could someone explain to me what kind of pictures are commonly regarded as "not worksafe" when labeling fanart? I realize that pictures where you can see genitals would be considered NWS, but at which point does NWS start? Like, would the picture in this post already be labeled NWS by common convention, just because they're naked and kissing, even though you don't really see much of their bodies and they're not doing more than kiss? I mean, it's not what you'd consider an "adult" picture, certainly not here, but I don't think it would be in the US either, odd as those rating systems are.

BTW, are other people also still having problems with the LJ comment notifications? By now I get notified of some again, but still not of all. *grumble*

Unfortunately my scanner decided to suck today and not pick up the contrast properly, no matter how I tried to fiddle with it, so the pencil lines are a bit faint, but on the bright side you see less of the usual smudges too (I just hope it's not a sign that it nears the end of its life-cycle). Anyway, it's Nightwing/Arsenal slash, some nudity but not more graphic than the stuff you see between Roy and Grace in the comics, and rather a lot fluffier. (BTW, the pose is mostly based on a photo I got from some wallpaper site.)

For derryderrydown, because she had a really crappy week.

( pencil drawing, ca 32K, happy Roy/Dick fluff )

Here's the colored version of the illustration for cereta's Hanging Work AU:

( pencil drawing, colored in GIMP, ca 48K, Bruce/Dick slash, but nothing explicit )

I usually don't post birthday wishes, but I happened to work on fanart for the fabulous Hanging Work AU, when I noticed that it's cereta's Birthday today. So I thought it would be nice to post it today as a present, even though it's not colored yet. (The colored version is going to be posted soonish, I just couldn't finish it in time for Lucy's birthday.)

It's an illustration for the last scene in the series, for the story Aiding and Abetting III: Resolution of Claim, i.e. for this passage:

Five minutes later, he stood in front of the mirror, needlessly adjusting the sleeves for the fourth time, brushing nonexistent lint off his shoulder. Alfred had done an amazing job. The colors were more muted: the green that took up most of the body was almost black; the red that covered his shoulders and moved down his arms in stylized wings was more blood than apple; the yellow was only there in the insignia. But they were still his family's colors, still the colors he'd learned to fly in.

He felt as much as heard Batman's presence behind him, just before a gloved hand grasped his right shoulder, then slid down to the stylized "R" on his chest.

"Should I ask?"

Dick took a deep breath. "Robin," he said. "Call me Robin."

( pencil drawing, ca 56K, Bruce/Dick slash, obviously, but nothing explicit )

Oh, btw, I also made a new icon for birthday wishes. So:

Happy Birthday cereta! I hope you enjoy your present, and it's hopefully going to be finished soon.

I know I've been rather quiet recently, with no comments on comics or tv eps, but -- I was productive: I finished the NW/DD picture I've been working on!

The final inked and colored version:
( Nightwing/Daredevil (76K) )

Also, kerithwyn has written a drabble inspired by the drawing after seeing the pencils.

I finished the picture I've bee working on. The inking isn't very good (it is the first time I've inked anything with a brush in years after all), so to distract you from that *grin* I also decided to try computer coloring for the very first time. It is not as good as I'd like it to be, but I really have to do university stuff during the next days, and I know that if I don't post it as finished I'll continue to fiddle with it all of my time, because that's what has happened all of last week already.

The finished one can be found here (104K).

I've also put the pencils on my site here (100K), so you can decide for yourself whether my newbie efforts in inking and coloring have made things worse (or better).

Two point perspective sucks, three point perspective even more. Both especially when you are not trying to draw simple things like boxes or cylinders but Gotham rooftops with stone gargoyles. Foreshortening of human body parts for two and three point perspective also sucks.

Yeah, I'm trying to draw a Batman and Nightwing rooftop scene, how'd you guess? One day it is supposed to be a picture with Batman standing (or crouching, I'm not sure yet) above one of these Gotham gargoyles, gazing over the city, with Nightwing coming towards him. (And btw, it's hard to draw Nightwing in movement, because his most typical movements, at least from what I can gather so far, seem to be these jumping, somersaulting, acrobatic things.)

Anyway, obviously I suck at staying motivated while working on difficult pictures, which is why I took a break and amused myself with doing a quick close-up sketch of a Batman/Nightwing kiss, for which neither perspective, nor foreshortening, nor gargoyles were needed. It's not great and it lacks expression somewhat, but it took only a little bit more than a half hour to draw with a tangible result (opposed to the last days of work which only resulted in failed layouts and perspective sketches). You can look at it here.

I guess it's the picture equivalent to people posting unpolished snippets to their journals.

I announced that I finished some fan art. It's an illustration for Lucy's story Secrets, and linked from the entry.