An Elf Warrior

Spending the weekend working on this Elf Warrior sketch was a learning and fun project.

After completing 1/2 of the sketch, I shared it with friends to see what they thought. Having a second set of eyes that see in a different perspective always helps.

Drawing elves’s is new to me. I had partial experience watching a small portion of the movie “The Lord Of The Rings.” Long story short, after seeing Gollum for the first time I wasn’t feeling so passionate about watching the full movie.

My Linux buddy (a trusted Lixux Moderator and Linux Administrator) thought that this sketch looked very close to the character Legolas from the movie “The Lord Of The Rings.”

My best friend of 13 years plus liked the sketch, complimented the work I put into it at 1/2 point and I was relieved. Kudos to him as it was he that taught me that “two heads are better than one.” This concept has saved me from wrecking havoc on life many times with things.

Using a Derwent 8B pencil I was able to create 1/2 of the sketch. Done in a hard back 11 x 14 sketch book. A investment from Blick that has well paid for it’self.

Last year I spent a little time on sketching people and it was a good experience. From the encouragement of my friends and online artist’s that I communicate with I was inspired to step out of my comfort zone and learn more techniques and develop new skills.

The reference photo (the picture below) that I used to study this character I found on Pinterest.

Just finished this Elf Warrior yesterday and I’m glad I stepped out of the comfort zone.

The light source is coming from the left side of the picture. I’m thinking that I should have made the dark portion of the eyeball in the Elf’s left eye take up a little more of the white space. However; this was practice. We all have to start from somewhere when we enter into learning new techniques and applying new practices.

If I’ve practiced anything at all here it’s that I was able to get my darks dark and my lights light. That’s the first rule in creating art. Once you’ve got your values right then everything else will fall into place as you learn.

Have a great rest of the week and don’t restrict yourself to staying where you are. Stepping out of your comfort zone can teach and show you things that you didn’t know you had in you.