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It's been quite a while since I've used deviantART at all! I've not really doing much 'art' recently, which is largely why.

I never really practice drawing at all... For some reason, it seems tedious just thinking about it and I never know what to draw.
However, I'm going to be releasing MARDEK 3 soon, and with it, I want to include some developer commentary and walkthrough sort of thing, which will include pages about each character and how I came up with them, what their purpose is in the game, etc.
I wanted to include drawings of the characters on each of these pages, but my lack of skill is in the way, so I finally tried drawing for once and came up with these...
The last time I really tried to draw faces like this was several years ago, and they looked even more creepy and embarrassing than these ones! So I can see how I've improved, but I do find it odd because, as I said, I never practice. It makes me wonder if merely *observing* is enough to improve even if you never actually put a pen to a page and properly practice. Hmm.

Anyway, since I'm not really used to drawing faces, or anything really, I'm aware that it shows in these and I think I just need to practice more to improve.
I find it interesting and rather nice though how as I went along in the two days in which I drew all of these (or was it one day...?), a sort of distinct 'style' started forming. I got more used to drawing eyes and noses and mouths in a simplistic, stylised way (which is ideal for me; I'd rather that than having extremely detailed and realistic drawings, just because it's quicker).
I've always wanted to come up with a style for human faces that let me draw them quickly and expressively, yet they still looked okay and not all the same, but not cartoonishly different either...

Ideally, I'd like to draw full-body versions of these characters, but, uh, one step at a time! I can't draw human bodies for toffee.

Uh, these are characters from the MARDEK series, anyway. If you played the other two chapters, you should recognise some of them, though there are others that are only from chapter 3. Some are better than others; some I'm really pleased with, others make me want to redo them (which I may do for the final versions to be included with the commentary thing). They are, going from left to right, top to bottom:

- Mardek, as he appears in chapter 3, wearing silly armour with an M-shaped visor. He looks unintentionally like Robocop, I realised while drawing him here, and I realise that his skull doesn't go far back enough so it looks odd. His face looks rather cartoony for some reason, which wasn't particularly intentional...

- Deugan, from chapter 2, who looks a bit miserable and fed up for no good reason. o_O

- Emela, from chapter 2. This is by far my favourite drawing on the page, for some reason, yet it was also the first one that I did (so much for improving!).
The expression I was going for was a sort of meek, shy, nervous sort of thing; someone who lacks confidence, and since I am like that myself, I like people who are similar and that may be why I like that so much (I actually find the expressions on many of the other faces annoying!).
Of course, I also like the shape of the face from an aesthetic stand-point; I consider it a relatively attractive drawing of a female or something... but not in a lustful way? Hard to explain...

- Vehrn, the paladin. He's supposed to look smug and arrogant or something.

- Zach, a mercenary (and, of course, token minority!1)... I tried twice to draw him, and both looked wrong. I can't help but get a 'thuggish' feel from the sour look on his face here, and I'd want to redo it to get a more appropriate expression.

- Steele, from chapter 2. He's meant to look like a rugged bad boy who's also a condescending bully. I had in mind typical Action Heroes.

- Donovan. He's supposed to look like a calm but confident leader type... yet also sort of regal. Originally, his appearance was based on my own (I have long hair and a silly beard thing), but eventually he drifted further away from myself and, uh, he's not like me in terms of personality in the game and I don't look like that, either!

- Sharla. This was a hard one to do, since I wanted to do a girl's face that looked like she'd be shy, quiet, and inoffensive, yet sort of pretty but not 'sexy'? I don't think I did very well with it though...

- Elwyen. She's supposed to look flirty and sort of full of herself, thinks she's beautiful, extroverted personality, etc. Her design is also based on 'nymphs', apparently.

- Gloria. She's supposed to look sort of... not exactly beautiful, or something. 'Average' in terms of attractiveness. She's also meant to look like someone interested in things like herbalism and witchcraft and Wicca and psychics and crystal therapy and so on... and I do get that impression from this image, though I don't know if others would! o_O

- Meraeador, who's in his late twenties but he looks like a little boy here! I really want to redo this one.

- Enki. He's supposed to look sort of middle-aged, rugged, 'suspicious'; the kind who might doubt everything you say and have some kind of cold confidence about him?

- 'A reptoid', from chapter 3. These appeared in some of my other games; they're basically 'lizardmen'. It's been a while since I drew anything dragon-like, and I'm unsure how I feel about this. I think it looks okay, but the neck and angle of the head look a bit off.

- 'Some kind of wolf', from chapter 3. In the game, it's meant to look sort of almost divine and glorious, otherworldly, but her it just looks like some mangy, flea-bitten mongrel and it looks too upset. I'm not used to drawing canines in general, so overall it looks silly, I think, and I'll need to redo it.

- Muriance, a bandit with a sort of an classical Middle Eastern feel about him. Somehow, the style of this sketch looks too different to the others; I'm not sure how I feel about it.

- Bartholio, one of the World's Saviours. He's meant to be a sort of parody of many old-fashioned Fantasy Protagonists, who are all muscly and action-oriented and handsome or something... He's basically narcissistic too, and the 'B' things on his shoulders amuse me because they're meant to represent the B in his name like he's so proud of who he is or something. I'm really proud of how this sketch turned out, apparently.

- Vennie, another of the Saviours, and a kind-hearted thief. Sort of a Typical RPG Thief in his design; he reminds me of pirates a bit, too. For some reason, the sketch of him looks more cartoony than the others, though I do like how it turned out, I suppose.

- Aalia, another of the Saviours. She's the typical staff-wielding healer princess seen in so many RPGs, and she's essentially a bubbly bimbo. Though I just drew the head and shoulders of everyone else, it seemed fitting to draw her breasts (which I'm not usually comfortable doing at all, apparently!) just because she's that sort of character.

- Bernard, one of the Saviours, but he was designed to clash drastically with the others. They're all typical RPG archetypes, but he's some bizarre, mysterious old man...
I'm not entirely fond of the sketch here, but I suppose it's passable...

So, uh, that's that! I know most people don't write such long, rambling descriptions, but I thought it might be sort of interesting for fans of the MARDEK series, and it also helped me to go over various thoughts and to analyse my own sketches. Yes. Good.

Oh, and these were drawn straight into Photoshop with a tablet... in case you were wondering.

Description
It's been quite a while since I've used deviantART at all! I've not really doing much 'art' recently, which is largely why.

I never really practice drawing at all... For some reason, it seems tedious just thinking about it and I never know what to draw.
However, I'm going to be releasing MARDEK 3 soon, and with it, I want to include some developer commentary and walkthrough sort of thing, which will include pages about each character and how I came up with them, what their purpose is in the game, etc.
I wanted to include drawings of the characters on each of these pages, but my lack of skill is in the way, so I finally tried drawing for once and came up with these...
The last time I really tried to draw faces like this was several years ago, and they looked even more creepy and embarrassing than these ones! So I can see how I've improved, but I do find it odd because, as I said, I never practice. It makes me wonder if merely *observing* is enough to improve even if you never actually put a pen to a page and properly practice. Hmm.

Anyway, since I'm not really used to drawing faces, or anything really, I'm aware that it shows in these and I think I just need to practice more to improve.
I find it interesting and rather nice though how as I went along in the two days in which I drew all of these (or was it one day...?), a sort of distinct 'style' started forming. I got more used to drawing eyes and noses and mouths in a simplistic, stylised way (which is ideal for me; I'd rather that than having extremely detailed and realistic drawings, just because it's quicker).
I've always wanted to come up with a style for human faces that let me draw them quickly and expressively, yet they still looked okay and not all the same, but not cartoonishly different either...

Ideally, I'd like to draw full-body versions of these characters, but, uh, one step at a time! I can't draw human bodies for toffee.

Uh, these are characters from the MARDEK series, anyway. If you played the other two chapters, you should recognise some of them, though there are others that are only from chapter 3. Some are better than others; some I'm really pleased with, others make me want to redo them (which I may do for the final versions to be included with the commentary thing). They are, going from left to right, top to bottom:

- Mardek, as he appears in chapter 3, wearing silly armour with an M-shaped visor. He looks unintentionally like Robocop, I realised while drawing him here, and I realise that his skull doesn't go far back enough so it looks odd. His face looks rather cartoony for some reason, which wasn't particularly intentional...

- Deugan, from chapter 2, who looks a bit miserable and fed up for no good reason. o_O

- Emela, from chapter 2. This is by far my favourite drawing on the page, for some reason, yet it was also the first one that I did (so much for improving!).
The expression I was going for was a sort of meek, shy, nervous sort of thing; someone who lacks confidence, and since I am like that myself, I like people who are similar and that may be why I like that so much (I actually find the expressions on many of the other faces annoying!).
Of course, I also like the shape of the face from an aesthetic stand-point; I consider it a relatively attractive drawing of a female or something... but not in a lustful way? Hard to explain...

- Vehrn, the paladin. He's supposed to look smug and arrogant or something.

- Zach, a mercenary (and, of course, token minority!1)... I tried twice to draw him, and both looked wrong. I can't help but get a 'thuggish' feel from the sour look on his face here, and I'd want to redo it to get a more appropriate expression.

- Steele, from chapter 2. He's meant to look like a rugged bad boy who's also a condescending bully. I had in mind typical Action Heroes.

- Donovan. He's supposed to look like a calm but confident leader type... yet also sort of regal. Originally, his appearance was based on my own (I have long hair and a silly beard thing), but eventually he drifted further away from myself and, uh, he's not like me in terms of personality in the game and I don't look like that, either!

- Sharla. This was a hard one to do, since I wanted to do a girl's face that looked like she'd be shy, quiet, and inoffensive, yet sort of pretty but not 'sexy'? I don't think I did very well with it though...

- Elwyen. She's supposed to look flirty and sort of full of herself, thinks she's beautiful, extroverted personality, etc. Her design is also based on 'nymphs', apparently.

- Gloria. She's supposed to look sort of... not exactly beautiful, or something. 'Average' in terms of attractiveness. She's also meant to look like someone interested in things like herbalism and witchcraft and Wicca and psychics and crystal therapy and so on... and I do get that impression from this image, though I don't know if others would! o_O

- Meraeador, who's in his late twenties but he looks like a little boy here! I really want to redo this one.

- Enki. He's supposed to look sort of middle-aged, rugged, 'suspicious'; the kind who might doubt everything you say and have some kind of cold confidence about him?

- 'A reptoid', from chapter 3. These appeared in some of my other games; they're basically 'lizardmen'. It's been a while since I drew anything dragon-like, and I'm unsure how I feel about this. I think it looks okay, but the neck and angle of the head look a bit off.

- 'Some kind of wolf', from chapter 3. In the game, it's meant to look sort of almost divine and glorious, otherworldly, but her it just looks like some mangy, flea-bitten mongrel and it looks too upset. I'm not used to drawing canines in general, so overall it looks silly, I think, and I'll need to redo it.

- Muriance, a bandit with a sort of an classical Middle Eastern feel about him. Somehow, the style of this sketch looks too different to the others; I'm not sure how I feel about it.

- Bartholio, one of the World's Saviours. He's meant to be a sort of parody of many old-fashioned Fantasy Protagonists, who are all muscly and action-oriented and handsome or something... He's basically narcissistic too, and the 'B' things on his shoulders amuse me because they're meant to represent the B in his name like he's so proud of who he is or something. I'm really proud of how this sketch turned out, apparently.

- Vennie, another of the Saviours, and a kind-hearted thief. Sort of a Typical RPG Thief in his design; he reminds me of pirates a bit, too. For some reason, the sketch of him looks more cartoony than the others, though I do like how it turned out, I suppose.

- Aalia, another of the Saviours. She's the typical staff-wielding healer princess seen in so many RPGs, and she's essentially a bubbly bimbo. Though I just drew the head and shoulders of everyone else, it seemed fitting to draw her breasts (which I'm not usually comfortable doing at all, apparently!) just because she's that sort of character.

- Bernard, one of the Saviours, but he was designed to clash drastically with the others. They're all typical RPG archetypes, but he's some bizarre, mysterious old man...
I'm not entirely fond of the sketch here, but I suppose it's passable...

So, uh, that's that! I know most people don't write such long, rambling descriptions, but I thought it might be sort of interesting for fans of the MARDEK series, and it also helped me to go over various thoughts and to analyse my own sketches. Yes. Good.

Oh, and these were drawn straight into Photoshop with a tablet... in case you were wondering.