Speed Sketching

I'm in a class called Speed Sketching for Sequential Art this quarter where I'm doing 90 minute illustration challenges in class and thumbnailing comic pages. So far it has been a massive challenge and a lot of fun. Prof Shawn Crystal gives a topic at the beginning of each Thursday class session, and we have to research reference, come up with a concept, and then draw and ink the piece of art... all in 90 minutes. I'm not used to being under the gun like that, so this has been a little daunting for me. But this exercise is helping me discover that I can function under pressure and still come up with some decent stuff. It's giving me the confidence to work faster and more decisively on other projects too. I think this quarter is going to turn out to be just what the doctor ordered for my working process. Here are the first two images. I'll be posting the rest as the quarter progresses.

The first topic was Calvin and Hobbes. I decided to have Calvin imagining Hobbes in a slightly different way than usual to fit the theme of a tiger trainer. I'm fairly happy with the outcome although there are lots of things I would have done differently if I had had more time.


I was completely unfamiliar with the cartoon series Avatar, so this one scared me a little. But after doing some quick research on one of the computers in the classroom I came up with this idea for a layout and action. I didn't know what age the characters were supposed to be, so you Avatar fans please forgive me for making them too old. I really like the piece and I'm concidering doing a tighter version of this one if I can find the time. Thanks for taking a look.