Chudan no Kamae

Welcome everyone, to another installment of daily sketches.

As I said previously today's sketch turned out to be another martial arts sketch. And yes, it's another kenjutsu sketch. This time of the most common sword stance known as Chudan no Kamae. This is also the first stance taught students. It's another example of how the basics in martial arts 'are' the higher level techniques.

It teaches proper hand placement, and sword gripping. It also teaches you proper ma-ai (combat distance) and so many more principles of kenjutsu.

I have a few more kenjutsu sketch ides in my head, so don't be surprised if you see more in the future.

As usual, free version of ArtRage on my MacBook with my Bamboo tablet.

See you all tomorrow.

My, What Big Eyes You Have

Welcome to this Tuesday edition of ninjaboy's sketchbook. I'll be your host, ninjaboy. Today's piece was done after listening to another chapter of a popular audio book (I'm not going to tell you what it is, you'll have to guess). And in this scene one of the male characters has undergone a rather dramatic change. Physically and emotionally.

And he goes to see the girl he cares for greatly, and who cares for him too, but is ultimately only using him to make herself feel better.

He's trying to explain what he's going through, and at the same time is tormented by his newfound knowledge about her former boyfriend and his family. And what that means in regards to his tribe.

It was actually a really cool scene, and I would love to draw it out. But that would take a lot more time than I currently have.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it. It was created using the usual suspects. Free edition of ArtRage, my MacBook and the Bamboo tablet.

Next drawing will probably be along the lines of martial arts again. Or it may be a fan-pic. Who knows.

Update: After posting it I noticed that it appears as though he's trying to choke her. This is not the case. He's reaching out to hold her head between his hands. I just happened to catch him before his hands were safely upon her face. Yeah, that's the ticket. I draw faster than he can move. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Jodan no Kamae

Hi everyone, welcome to a new week. Since I don't have a scanner at my disposal right now, I decided to do a new sketch today instead of doing more working on the logo some more.

And as such, today's sketch was inspired by an anime I have been (slowly) watching called Bamboo Blade. So far it's a really fun series that holds my interest greatly.

As you can tell it's about a Kendo club and of course hilarity and drama follow suit.

If you are interested in Kendo it's a fun anime to watch as the bulk of the series' first episodes are all revolving around the exercises that beginning students practice to get the basics down.

The show makes me want to grab my bokken and practice the limited kendo and iaido skills I have.

As usual this was done using the free version of ArtRage on my MacBook and my Bamboo tablet.

Anywho, hope you all enjoy the sketch and I'll see you next time.

Wasn't I supposed to do something yesterday...

Hi everyone, happy Easter weekend (if that's your sort of thing).

Yeah, obviously I didn't get a sketch posted yesterday, but I decided to put the time in doing the sketch into working on the logo some more.

In the meantime, here's a drawing pulled freshly from the way back machine. I did this as a thank you to a co-worker for letting me read the first book of Runaways. Pencil on coverstock. Probably from around, oh 2004 or 2005. I think.

I'll be back posting more new sketches next week. I promise.

Anyway, enjoy your weekend and I'll see you all back here on Monday.

Your Future Isn't What You Thought It'd Be

I did a drawing of a character from a popular book series. Can you guess who it is.

This one's for you Jess.

Tetsuoooooooooooo!

Hi there everyone.

Sorry for the no-post yesterday, but I'm actually working on a design project for a family member so I decided to use my lunch break for that instead of posting my sketch a day drawing.

When I'm done with the designs, and I get permission, I might post them here for you all to see.

But now on to today's drawing. When I awoke this morning and was walking to the car, the grey skies and somewhat cool temperature caused me to have a wicked case of the deja vu. Suddenly, and without warning, I was whisked away to my 15th birthday in Anchorage. It was a rather interesting day. My family did try to make it fun for my brother and I, but a combination of the weather and other life factors, our energy and demeanor started to reflect the skies above us. But I did get a rather significant comic, or rather manga, that day. I walked out of Bosco's Comics with the first issue of Akira.

I was already a fan of the anime, but I really wanted to dive into the manga. It was fantastic.

But oddly enough, every time the skies are a particular shade of grey, I think of that manga.

So here is a sketch of Tetsuo. Not as he appears in the first issue of the manga, but I wanted to draw him as a badass. So there.

Done using the free version of ArtRage on my MacBook and using my Bamboo tablet.

See you all next time.

Kusarigama Attack!

Today's sketch was really a long time coming. I go by ninjaboy, but for some reason I hadn't done a ninja sketch for the blog.

Well, that has been remedied.

Plus I wanted to do a ninja sketch because I was hooked up with a wicked-cool sketch of a ninja by one of my favorite comic book artists/writers. Stan Sakai. I really wish I could have been there to meet him in person. But some awesome people were able to get me a sketch.

Thanks so much!

Today's sketch was done with the marker tools in the free version of ArtRage on my MacBook and my Bamboo tablet.

Friday Double Shot...

Well, what do you know. I managed to sneak in two sketches today.

The first is of the last character I played in a D&D game. As it was a long time ago I don't remember his name, or really many details about him other than he was a Halfling Thief who was armed with a rapier.

I do remember having a lot of fun with the character, so I decided to try my hand at sketching him today. It didn't really turn out the way I wanted to so I decided to do one more.

The second was originally intended to be a sketch of a female warrior-mage to make up for yesterday's digital shortcomings. But instead she ended up a woman in period clothing. Who knows, she may actually be magical.

It was also another experiment with playing around with colored paper/backgrounds and using white as an accent/highlight color.

I'm actually pretty happy with the way this one came out and will probably do more like it in the future. Both female drawings and color experiments.

They both were created in the free version of ArtRage on my MacBook using my Bamboo tablet, as usual.

Have a great weekend everyone.

It's a Kind of Magic

Good evening everyone. I have to make this quick this evening.

I'm looking forward to playing Diablo 2 soon as a very kind soul is going to be lending me the capabilities to play the game tomorrow. As such, I decided to draw a magic using chick. Too bad I barely had time to rough out this sketch, and as such I left out any indication that she might be using some form of arcane arts.

So I ended up with a girl in revealing clothing, who possibly threw something at a person(s) off camera. Maybe it was a water balloon and this is the beginning of an awesome water fight.

Maybe it's a vicious battle for survival.

We may never know.

Adam Warren was a big inspiration for her face, and how to lay it out. You should all check out his book Empowered. It's one of the funniest 'funny books' I've read in a long time. Big props.

This was done using the free version of ArtRage on my MacBook and my Bamboo.

See you all tomorrow.

April, the First

I had some co-workers show me an April Fools Joke they found incredibly funny. Since I don't play any MMO games, a few of the jokes were lost on me. But one of the jokes was really funny. Especially the third video on the page.

I haven't played Diablo since the first one back before I moved down to Seattle after high school. I had a lot of fun with it, but I never finished it.

The only part of Diablo 2 I've experienced is the AMAZING soundtrack.

But this character, the Archivist, has a really great design and honestly it's making me want to play the game. I actually wish it were a real in-game character (crossing my fingers).

So here's my quick rendition of this sad, confused and bewildered adventurer. I actually would love to flesh this out and make a more finished piece out of it. Perhaps someday.

As usual this was done on my MacBook with the free version of ArtRage and using my Bamboo tablet.