Gotta Heed the Call

Posted Dec 25, 2011, 2:43:10 AM UTC

 

My contest entry for the Dragon Ball Forever (deviantART) traditional media contest, "Hunting for the Dragon Balls."   I rediscovered my love for pen work while I was on the road with my husband, so it may actually turn out to be a godsend that I wasn't able to use Photoshop.    (Yes, once-upon-a-time I was a pencil-and-ink artist, and did mainly pencil drawings like my portrait of Goku and ink drawings like this one.)   For this piece, I wanted to avoid a lot of the common traps for the theme - Goten and Trunks, dinosaur chases, etc. For me, the most memorable part of "hunting for the dragon balls" was in the first series, when it truly was an adventure.   I've often wondered if Goku and Bulma, once their lives got turned upside down in Dragon Ball Z, ever missed those days when it was primarily the two of them, adventuring together to far-flung places, finding dragon balls in the most unlikely spots. With that in mind, I decided to draw an adult Goku and Bulma high on a mountain top, drawn by the dragon radar to the Four Star dragon ball. (Only one of the stars is visible in the image, however, as most of the ball is nestled in foliage. This was intentional - the theme is "hunting for the dragon balls" not "OMG LOOK THE DRAGON BALL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PIC." ^^; )   I didn't want the viewer to try to place this anywhere in the canon timeline, so I've intentionally pulled their outfits and Bulma's hair style from different parts of the canon. It's a speculative, "what if" sort of work - had things been different, would they have adventured together again? Or would it have remained a good memory from their childhood?   This was done on manga paper from Manga University - I've had it around literally for years but never used it, so I gave it a shot for this piece. It's actually a wonderful drawing surface to work on - beautifully smooth and white without being overly bright. The pens are Pigma Sensei and Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens in varying tip sizes. I've used a combination of stippling, hatching, crosshatching, blocking and irregular lines to do the toning/shading on this piece.

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Comments

  • Dec 25, 2011, 7:03:22 AM UTC
    Actually, I REALLY dig your use of ink in this picture. Some people go over board with it but this balances out nicely Smile
    • Dec 25, 2011, 8:17:23 PM UTC
      Thanks! I still go back and forth on things I would/might/could change on it, but overall I am happy with how it came out. Smile
      • Dec 26, 2011, 12:29:23 AM UTC
        I think you should leave it and make any changes you're thinking about to new ones. Sometimes it's good to have art as a work in progress, but sometimes it does more damage than good. I've 'touched up' old art before and 9 times out of 10, I either ruin it, or find that the original had more impact cause I had that... spark when I drew it. Sometimes you can rekindle that spark but generally it's best to move on. Unless you're going to colour it. That's another story though Smile