The Mediocre Hiatus (ha, ha)

Hm. I feel a bit stuck. I'm just wondering whether to even colour this in at all.

The first one is the original, unaltered lineart (save for some cropping, levelling and colour-balancing);

As you can see, Holmes is very distressed as he climbs up the mountain.

On this one, I've added a bit of shading (since this scene takes place at night) and shadows. 

And for this one, I've just overlayed an old paper texture over to give it a bit more colour and well, texture. I do quite like this one, although I feel it may be a bit unnecessary and a bit cheap-looking (as in, oh, she just slapped on a texture, that lazy lazybones).

So as you can see, I am a little bit stuck. It's just, I feel like something is missing -- I think it might be a lack of a definitive light source or the contrast between the darkest and lightest shades isn't strong enough or...something. And yet, when I do attempt to do that, it somehow also looks very forced and unnatural.

What do you think? *flails*

I'm using this artist for reference -- she does it so beautifully. Maybe you can look at her work and tell me what she's doing that I'm not!

More Sherlock Holmes fan-art, whee

I really don't want to go back to London. Not so much anything against anything or anyone, so much as...going back means accepting there is a responsibility for me to fulfill, classes to attend, etc. Le sigh. Have some doodles in the mean-time.

Based off a page of Edgington and Culbard's graphic novel adaptation of 'A Study in Scarlet', when Watson comes across Holmes' monograph, 'The Book of Life', and is angered by its ludicrous content.

Supposedly, Watson is probably pointing out a case in which Inspector Lestrade has taken all the credit (again), although we really know who solved it...

A scene from 'The Norwood Builder', Sherlock Holmes

I did this months and months ago, and I was looking through my folders, and realized I'd never finish it, so I may as well put it up now. There's a lot of things I'm really unhappy with (character proportions, expressions, anatomy etc. etc.) (Holmes has bendy limbs for example) thus my hesitancy to continue it.

Oh well. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Basically, I'm really obsessed with the BBC Sherlock Holmes radio plays (yup, I know, super-geek), and I thought it'd be fun to do a little visual accompaniment to a scene just for practice with angles, character expressions, gestures and whatnot. Pfft.

One of my favourite stories is the Norwood Builder. It's the absolute adorableness of the jittery, naive John Hector McFarlane (whose voice actor in the radio play just makes you want to hug him tight), the snarky dynamic between Holmes and Lestrade, Holmes' contagiously deliriously happy mood after he finds evidence to prove his theory, the brilliant denouement (with Holmes' usual dramatic flair), among other things.

(Also, I've just realized that Holmes offers a cigarette to a poor, asthmatic McFarlane. Holmes, you devil!)

Deductive Abilities Should Be Better Applied

Doodle doodle doodle...

Inspired a bit by Punch Magazine (you Brit historians should know this), and bad toilet humour. In retrospect (mind you, retrospect in this case means 'immediacy') this isn't really that funny. Sigh.

BBC Sherlock -- Ooooh, cute!

OMG! I need to fangirl about this. SO ADORABLE!

*turns off switch*

Okay, so basically I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fangirl. (Not that that wasn't obvious.) In fact, my unhealthy love for Benedict Cumberbatch stems purely from the new BBC Sherlock series.

http://y0do.deviantart.com/art/Sherlock-Visual-Novel-203366010

Basically it's a visual novel (you know, kind of like those Japanese sim games where there are some different outcomes but in fact it's just a lot of clicking and reading...um...not that I really play Japanese sim games) and it's a case set after the first season of the series. Kind of a mixing and modern take on the canon stories 'Charles August Milverton' and 'Devil's Foot'. Clever!

The art's pretty cute too! Although I'll admit they take a lot of liberties with cute-ifying.


Check it out even if you're not really a fan! If nothing else the concept of creating a visual novel like this is pretty interesting from an illustrator's point of view. I kind of want to make my own now...

WIP - "He never meant to hurt you. But he did, all the same."

A personal work, in progress. Unfortunately, it seems my drawing/colouring style has taken a turn for the 'taking-forever-to-do-a-simple-drawing' category. Consider this: I started this in July, and this is all I have managed to do so far (no, I mean I've done more frames, but this is how much colour I've put into them). I've tried to simplify my style, but it seems quite impossible.

Some background information: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wishing to be rid of the character that made him famous but also confined him to the same stories over and over, decided to 'kill off' Sherlock Holmes by having him die in the chasms of the Reichenbach Falls.

However, due to public backlash (not to mention ailing funds), he was forced to resurrect Holmes. Holmes returns after a three-year hiatus from the dead - the excuse being that he was forced to pretend he was dead in order to escape the clutches of Moriarty's henchmen - in 1894. All is well again.

My point is that I could have hardly imagined what Watson must have been feeling at the time; not only had he lost a best friend, but the reader may also know that only a few months afterwards, his wife will also die. To have to lose the two people you love most in so short a period of time is heart-breaking; to have it happen to someone with so big a heart as Watson's, the pain must have been more than he could bear. It seems that life is determined to make the best people suffer the most.

What irks me even more is that Holmes cannot contact Watson to let him know he is indeed alive and spare him the grief, for fear his attempts to contact Watson might expose him to Moriarty's henchmen, bent on revenge. However, he does still contact his brother Mycroft to ask for funds as he travels. Mycroft, knowing that Holmes is alive but Watson believes him dead, bears the burden of knowing he cannot do anything to help ease the pain.

In this scene, Mycroft approaches a visibly pained Watson, attempting to offer Watson some kind of condolence; however, Watson is having none of it. He brusquely brushes off Mycroft. Mycroft, knowing his brother is still alive, can only wonder if Sherlock fully understands the consequences of his actions.

Yes, melodramatic, I know. I would have been a good soap opera writer.

H&W - 'And it was THIS big!'

Sorry for the epic spamming. I just scanned in a shitload of stuff today and am thus feeling perky, despite lacking sleep. As usual.

Just a random doodle in my sketchbook I liked enough to scan in and colour. Haven't drawn these two in a while!

Originally it was supposed to be the two at a play, Watson excitedly gesticulating. Although I got lazy, and now it just looks kind of like he's telling Holmes how big the fish was that he just caught.

Different in that:

1. Holmes genuinely looks happy (which I rarely seem to draw LOL)
2. I always make Holmes wear black which is pretty depressing. So a change of wardrobe!

Sherlock Holmes Doodles

*sigh*

Been having an art block lately. I guess this is my attempt to overcome it.

I was initially going to draw the first scenes of 'The Illustrious Client' but it morphed into this instead.

1. Irene Adler says goodnight to Holmes. (A Scandal In Bohemia)
2. Holmes threatens 'Killer' Evans after he shoots Watson in the leg. (The Three Garridebs)
3. Watson's old war wound hurts. (not from any story)
4. The Dynamic Duo!
5. A dying Mary tries to comfort a grieving Watson. (from the BBC radio adaptations of The Empty House)
6. Watson in the Turkish bath. (The Illustrious Client)

Just let me take a swig first.

Because Prapim still doesn't want to sleep.