Things start to get hairy—Wrapping up my 2019 posts

Oh those pesky split ends. You condition and condition, but nothing seems to work. 

I decided I wanted to start drawing hair on my figures. I was already doing that thanks to Wolverine, but that isn't exactly normal hair. Here we have a great wealth of it, on Chloe Grace Moretz in a frame grab from Let Me In. Done as another exercise in controlling edges, as well as just realistic painting in general. I put dozens of hours into this one, and got so burned out I couldn't bring myself to finish it. Was dreaming about hair and about painting it.

Here's the progression from pencil to pretty near the final image. I was filling in all the black (with a pencil) and suddenly was all like "What the hell am I Doing??! This would be so much easier in Photoshop!" Also, I cringe to see how off I got the shapes in the beginning. But careful observation gradually brought it all in line. 

And now a little burst of Fafhrd. I tried to draw him above but it didn't look right, so I grabbed some Anthony Kiedis ref (that's who I based Fafhrd's face on). No split ends here no sir—smooth and silky!

Yeah, I neglected to put hair on these, but really I was trying to work out a chin configuration. I like the one at the top that looks like the prow of an icebreaker.

But here I squared it off for some reason. I think that ship's prow chin was just looking a little too caricatured for my taste. But then Fafhrd is always a bit caricatured.

Cleanup, and slightly modified the jawline. A bit more prow-like, without being ridiculous.

... And color.

Now THAT'S some hair!! Also facial expression. My God, what's going on in here? Is it still my blog? *Checks* Yep. Wow.

Adjusting...

This is more what it looked like in the photo, but it looks too weird. I think I like the middle version, though the teeth are much better here. That eye just came down too far though.

Grandpa Fafhrd?

What a shiny head you've got! And a Mona Lisa smile. And big ears.

I suddenly remembered I used to do figure drawings and stuff.

This looks like a Pre-Raphaelite head with 70's feathered hair and a ridiculous giraffe neck. Hey, I'm trying to stretch out and do some different things here.

... And this my friends was the last thing I drew in 2019. I no longer agree with what I wrote there, those figures aren't really tight and rigid. A little awkward maybe. But I was starting to draw a full-page composition with 2 figures interacting. Squaring off to fight perhaps, or maybe—dancing? I don't know. Hey, it's 2 figures interacting! That's getting pretty high up in the levels of complexity! Maybe I should have started a little higher, thought about what they're doing and why, who they are maybe. You know, story. Ah well, there's something to work up to this year, right?

Well, I had a blast doing these daily catchup posts of my art from last year. It was fun and even enlightening taking a good look at them, more-or-less in order, and writing about them like this. I haven't done much art this year yet—a few things, but I won't be posting them for a while. I hate to say it, but after this ridiculous wealth of daily posting, my blog is going to sink back into inactivity for a while. A bit of feast and famine.

So with that, this is Darkmatters signing off for now. But I will be back. I promise.