INSPIRATION TO DRAW

SO, THIS PAST WEEK, I'VE BEEN INSPIRED: 

I have been drawing like crazy.  Inspired by the fact that my novel is getting published and knowing my contract asks me to contribute to advertising or promotions, I decided I would work on some preliminary illustrations to go with the novel.  Below, I am presenting the 6 drawrings I've come up with so far.  I don't know if the proportions are right on some of the people, but I was practicing on faces primarily, and I don't think they are too bad for a first effort and a little practice.

An Ambush Ant

Above, you see an ambush ant, a very annoying and troublesome creature common to the land known as Frosomia.  They are a hive species, and the major prize for Frosomia for many of the races is to create a cost-effective and more permanent means of killing them.

A Kunjelic Warrior, Possibly a knight

I tried to draw a large, male kunjelic knight.  The part I struggled with the most was his gut and chest.  I can do muscular and fit, and sometimes, as you'll see below, females, but I'm still working on getting those little eccentricities like having a big stomach, and being strong.  I like particularly how the beard turned out, and how I learned on this one to age his face and make it less smooth and even.

Not Sure, but I like this for Drinna, kunjel girl 2

Here, I tried to draw a picture of Drinna, from the novel.  I like the freckles and the smile.  I think I made her ears and eyes too big, but they seem to work okay.  When I look at this picture, I am rather proud of the sort of friendliness and toughness she seems to convey.  She seems both relaxed and confident, as well as intelligent.

A Gremlin, A Vicious

Here is a growling, snarling, or maybe smiling gremlin.  I'm not really sure.  This was my...third drawing in this run so far.  I mixed parts of a cat, a monkey, and maybe a person together to form this image.  I have trouble with drawing the eye on the left (its right eye), and so I took its left eye and reversed it and pasted it back in, to make a symmetrical face.  The mouth was an enraged monkey's.  I'm still trying to figure out how to do the ears.  Ears are my bane so far.

A Japal, what kunjels ride

Here is the picture I started out with at first.  It's the picture of the creatures the kunjels use to ride on.  I'm not sure I'm satisfied with it.  It looks too much like a mule, so I might replace this with something a little more camelish or horsey.  Besides, it doesn't look different enough.  I want the coarse hair, but more I want it to be a unique animal.  But, at the time I finished it, I was so satisfied with just putting it on paper, that I continued and did the ant and the gremlin.  Then, at work, during a break, I drew the girl you see below.

Kunjel Girl 1

This is the first really successful drawing of a female from the front, and one of the first successful drawings of a fantasy race from the front that I have ever done.  Using random pictures from the internet, put this together.  Her eyes are based off a cat's.  The ears and the nose were the parts I thought most difficult to draw.  But I didn't go overboard with details there.  Again, there're a few minor details I would go back and fix.  Her neck's a bit too long, and well, another thing I might fix.  However, I really like this picture.  I'm learning.