February Theme: Zodiac Girls
New month, new theme; in this case, a maddeningly specific one! One of my major goals over the next couple of months is to start assembling a portfolio of children’s illustration, so I wanted to draw kids. Going with the zodiac theme – first western, then Chinese zodiac, then who knows what to fill out the last couple of days – to provide an interesting focus. Just girls because… yeah, I don’t really know. Because.
February 1: Aries
Aries are supposed to be adventurous, enthusiastic, impulsive; very independent. A couple of places I looked associated them with fire and the colour red. Off for an adventure!
This girl looks quite a bit older than I’d intended her, but hey, the entire point of this exercise is experimentation and practice, so I suppose [...]
February 2: Taurus
Taurus: patient, practical, stubborn.
Oh god this looks so anime. I thought I scrubbed that out of my style years ago. Goal for tomorrow: not so anime.
February 3: Gemini
Gemini, the twins. Intellectual, lively, cunning.
Just watched His Girl Friday, now kind of missing history month. Painting girls in fedoras to scratch the itch, but that isn’t relevant to this blog. Home again, should scan those images I had to take webcam shots of tomorrow. That last sentence doesn’t parse too [...]
February 4: Cancer
Cancer – emotional, protective… also, they’re crabs. When I started off by giving the Aries and Taurus girls horns, I wasn’t thinking about crabs. So she gets two little head nubs and pointy hands, because whole crab claws petting a kitten would just be downright creepy.
Crabs, man. I should have thought about [...]
February 5: Leo
Leo can be generous, loyal, and confident, but also bossy and domineering. Also, much easier to depict than a crab.
February 6: Virgo
Virgos are shy, intelligent, and analytical. Also, I’m a virgo! Virgo power! (Seriously, though, I’m too messy to fit the “meticulous” part.)
Total rush job today, super pressed for time, did this from sketch to final in like 20 minutes. I blame the weird feet on that. Also just realized I [...]
February 7: Libra
Libras: romantic, easygoing, peaceable. Playing more with the idea of scales than with the actual personality, I’ll admit. Not my strongest effort, but as the irritating announcer guy in DDR says – “There’s always a tomorrow!” (Except he says it in that sing-songy, mocking way. I hate that guy.)
February 8: Scorpio
Scorpios are determined, forceful, compulsive, and much easier to deal with than crabs because at least scorpions have tails. Credit to Mike for the hairstyle idea, tho!
February 9: Sagittarius
Sagittarius: optimistic, jovial, careless. Decided to go with just the horse tail instead of an all-out centaur.
Still playing with ages, styles.. I’m really happy with this one.
February 10: Capricorn
Capricorns are practical, patient, and reserved.
I think this girl looks way too old, despite her enormous head. You live, you learn.
February 11: Aquarius
Aquarius, the water-bearer. Friendly, independent, contrary. Trying stranger and stranger things with feet, because if I can’t experiment here, where can I experiment?
February 12: Pisces
Pisces: Imaginative, sensitive, unworldly. Here lies the end of the zodiac! Tomorrow, the Chinese zodiac begins!
I kind of hate this one but at least it looks like a kid and not an adult with an enormous head and tiny feet. The part of Pisces apparently played by Kate Beaton’s potato-shaped younger self.
February 13: Rat
Rat: Intense, tenacious, shrewd. First day of the Chinese zodiac! I have no idea if the Chinese character on her chest is accurate or, if it is, if it’s done at all decently. Apologies in advance to anybody who can actually read it, unless it’s totally correct, in which case I REGRET [...]
February 14: Tiger
Tiger: unpredictable, rebellious, impulsive.
I’m mostly doing these in order, but I figured that, given the cheerfully coincidental circumstances, I’d skip forward to Tiger just for today. Happy Chinese New Year! I apologize once more for my probable botching of the culture!
Trying to make the kids look younger, and less anime. Think I’m [...]
February 15: Ox
Ox: calm, patient, steady.
Back in order! Still working on making the kids younger; I think this one is adorable.
February 16: Rabbit
Rabbit: gracious, elegant, reserved. I’m one! I am not, however, a prettypretty princess. Seriously, where did I get this apparent fixation on bunnies and tea parties?
February 21: Monkey
Monkey: quick-witted, flexible, self-assured.
Rubik’s cubes are hard to draw. I would have put more effort into it if this were, you know, not just a silly daily drawing. And it weren’t 3 AM.
February 22: Rooster
Rooster: neat, conservative, practical.
An odd one, since I’m only drawing girls and roosters are by definition male, but it’s a girl with a massive birdtail, what do you want from me?
February 24: Pig
Pig: sturdy, patient, hardworking.
And thus ends the Chinese zodiac! I think I’m gonna spend the last four days of the month taking a second shot at a few that I’m not as happy with as I’d like. Gotta kill the rest of the time somehow. Also need to decide on next month’s [...]
February 25: Rat Redux
To close out the month, now I’ve exhausted both zodiacs that I’m aware of, I’m redoing a few images that I think I can do better another go ’round. First up is the rat – I liked the concept and the outfit, but was less than fond of the execution. This one’s much [...]
February 26: Horse Redux
The second redo! I liked the drawing for the horse, but not the idea. I mean, why baseball? Running makes far more sense.
February 27: Pisces Redux
Went for the full-out mermaid look for this shot – was farther than I wanted to go with animal traits, but the weird little limb-fins on the original were just strange.
February 28: Tiger Redux
And here ends the month of zodiac girls! I actually really liked the original tiger, but I wanted to do one that was a little more generic and less Chinese New Year-oriented. (I’d been planning to redo Cancer, but couldn’t think of any way to make it less stupid. Dumb crab.)
New theme [...]
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