After settling on a rough layout, the drawing phase began. I used reference of an eagle so it wouldn’t come out looking like a turkey or worse. Drawing the main character I used the inside-out approach, building from a loose gestural drawing, layering form and internal masses, aiming for volume. Of course, I end up covering it all in clothes anyway. Half the time I’m drawing purely for my own amusement.
Still messing around with the icon thumbnails, this time to get a bit more breathing space around the figure.
I actually like the full figure more than the bust, but since I wanted to put in a lot of detail and rendering I had to make a tough call, despite it having more potential for a cool drawing.
Working from inside out and putting on some clothes. Decency first! Keeping it pretty blocky here.
Finally drawing over the placeholder icons, again trying a new layout, plus a chunk of time on the face and hand, which I used photo reference for. I’m sure I’ll end up completely useless, unable to draw without reference. This is the beginning of the end for me.
At this point, it’s pretty much all there. From here it’s only a matter of refining, staying with it until I’m either happy or completely frustrated.