A Batch of Bartimaeus

[tealin]

So last night was Life Drawing, which more often than not ends up being an excuse to draw my own stuff. As I had just finished Ptolemy's Gate the day before*, it was (understandably) the subject of my distraction. I scanned these at work so they're kind of streaky, sorry.

Kitty, Angry - Ooh, she's angry a lot. You can see a rejected drawing underneath her arm.
Kitty, Afraid - She's afraid a little less frequently than angry but it does happen. Her outfit is kind of based on the cursory description of a black tunic and trousers during the summoning scene. Not very imaginative, I'm afraid, but it's good for action stuff. This was drawn over the gutter of the newsprint pad, hence the line and shadow. Hands = uck.
Nathaniel - All (well, mostly**) grown up. Managed to make him look slighty less like Mr Stroud than how I see him in my head ... not easy.
Nathaniel Ushers Kitty to the Car - and eventually the theatre. I like Kitty here; Nathaniel's pretty bad but there's no way to edit him out and still have the vaguest clue what's going on.
Ptolemy - I like everything but the face.
Kittyblob - Uhhh ... I can't really say too much about this without giving away an important part of the book. To be safe: this is Kitty's self-image constructed with awkward coordination. Yeah. That seems vague enough...
Pyramid of Slime - Bartimaeus doesn't have enough energy to maintain a physical form beyond that of a bit of slime, but he still has the dignity to at least pull himself into a pyramid ... of slime. (The big cartoon eyes could not be resis- avoided.)
Quentin Makepeace - Mad, mad mad. This one's just a thumbnail (larger than life size!) but I seem to work best at that scale (or else at life drawing scale...) I don't know where I got the idea of his hair being like that; I think there might be a character in Christmas Orange that's rotund with red hair that waves out sideways. He also looks a but like Tweedledee/Dum though without the 19th-century-caricature-of-an-Irishman face.

*In just over twenty-four hours ... it's one of those books. I took a nap afterwards. It's also one of those books.
**Yes, yes, I know, there are some technicalities here. Hush now.

Comments

[msjoplin.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I have to read that now! I bought it ages ago and forgot I have it. :S

Do you think it's better or worse than Amulet (I'm assuming it's pretty good as you read it in 24 hours :D)?

Mr. Stroud

[(Anonymous)]

Why shouldn't he look like Mr. Stroud? I've found that if I let my drawings (or usually just character perceptions that I can't draw) look the way they want, they almost certainly evolve into something else eventually.

What's even more frustrating is that the way I imagine someone to look doesn't change half as often as the way I draw them.

I've been drawing Commodore Norrington lately; for some reason, it is very relaxing.

-Kaelynn

[sreya.livejournal.com]

*laughing* I didn't slow down enough to see what this set was from, just saw Life Drawing, "Kitty, Angry" and "Kitty, Afraid" and thought I'd find drawings of a cat! Oops!

They look really good, though.

[dried-frog-pill.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh I need to read these books. I read the first one, but I haven't gotten around to getting the others.

~ Banana

[(Anonymous)]

Blob Kitty makes me implode.

MORE!

[wicked-warrior.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, sketches ^^ You can't imagine how much I learn from your sketches :)
I like how you use the simple lines of always in the faces but manage to create different features and therefore, different characters.
Great dynamism in the first two and the last one :)

[green--desire.livejournal.com]

omg your nathaniel really does look like a younger stroud. thats kind of cool though now that i think about it...damn it don't taint my own image! haha im easily influenced. I love the slime pyramid I totally pictured it with big weird eyes only one of them was on top and the other was like sliding off the end of one side in cartoon form. I pictured the whole thing as a disney movie actually, all the characters where animated drawings in my mind. weird.

[pyri-prongs.livejournal.com]

Hooray for Ptolemy's Gate, even though it's bloody depressing.

Kittyblob and slime pyramid Bartimaeus are my favourites, strangely. They're cute. Poor Bartimaeus, he's such a pompous sweetheart.

[artroomloner16.livejournal.com]

I love the Bartimaeus Trilogy! Your drawings of mandrake and kitty are really accurate, Disney seriously should hire you. anyway, i read it not too long ago and just finished the Abhorsen series. You should really check it out! i promise you'll love it, the first book is called Sabriel.

[ubersnark.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just wow.
Understand, I love, worship, and sacrifice chickens to the Bartimaeus trilogy, so seeing somebody actually do fanart (not to mention GOOD fanart) for it is...like something really, really good. Words escape me. Understand, Ptolemy's Gate is the book that made me sob and write an analysis on my LJ instead of cleaning my house for relatives coming over for my grandmother's freakin' funeral.
You = wonderful. And so does Barty the slime pyramid (cartoon eyes included ^.^).