100-Day Project: Faces (9-16/100) – comic book character portraits

I’ve been working on a comic book for some time, and am finally making progress on a manageable, short version of it. So, in service of this 100-day Project, I’ve double up a bit and have made some character portraits to use as reference as I go along. I’m still not sure this is the best style to complete the comic in–either for expression or for speed. But you need to know what people look like in order to simplify, I suppose.

First up we have Ute, a sort of old lady immortal werewolf character, smoking her pipe.

Photoshop portrait of an elfin old white woman smoking a pipe
Ute detail, photoshop, 7-28-2020
Photoshop full body drawing of an elfin white woman smoking a pipe.
Ute, photoshop, 7-28-2020

I followed a character painting tutorial to complete this, and while it’s still a colored-in drawing and not a painting, I like it.

Next, here are the portraits I was talking about above, focusing on characters in the story I am currently trying to make a comic about, in order of appearance. Meet Ajax, the main character. He’s a psychic alien mechanic and micro-manager.

Photoshop painting of an adult man with a serious expression and a blue scarf.
Ajax, photoshop, 8-2-2020

Gada has the second most important role, I think. She’s sort of a space elf mechanic and pilot and usually fairly easy-going.

Photoshop painting of a space elf woman with elaborate earrings..
Gada, photoshop, 8-2-2020

Alan is also a psychic alien, but was raised on earth.

Photoshop painting of young man with a cowlick.
Alan, photoshop, 8-3-2020

Mary Augusta is a human being but not raised on earth, the is the capatain of the space ship this story takes place on. (or should we say in, if it’s in space?)

Photoshop painting of a serious young woman with long hair and a pink hair slide..
Mary, photoshop, 8-3-2020

Engineer Mel has worked on the ship longer than anyone and forgets what it is like not to.

Photoshop painting of a space elf dressed for industrial work.
Melbert, photoshop, 8-3-2020

Keo is tasked with, but not in charge of, doing everything on the ship not related to business or life support.

Photoshop painting of a space elf with shoulder length hair and an underbite.
Keo, photoshop, 8-3-2020

Finally, here is a character who I feel needs to be there, but doesn’t really have a name yet. Any suggestions? I don’t want to just call him “Tank” that’s like calling someone “clerk” or “postman”.

Photoshop painting of serious young man with lighting scars and a green cap.
Tank, photoshop, 8-3-2020

The bad news is I still have to design four more characters and make the entire comic. The good news is that I am almost finished with the rough page layouts, and can then commence with the penciled comic pages. Pretty exciting!

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