Daily Creativity: Dread Pirate Rory!

Dread Pirate Rory
“then one day he said to me, ‘I am not the dread pirate Rory'”

Continuing with the theme of mashing Rory the Dragon up with famous figures we have Rory as the Dread Pirate Roberts… though this is a mask he has been donning since his infancy.

This was done with india ink/quill on cardstock. I’m happy to go back to my roots and to pick up the quill again. The precision of the quill amazes me, it’s been so long since I have dipped my quill my reserve was dried out. I of course have a huge bottle of india ink as a back up to refill.

I suggest you click on the image to expand to see all of the cross hatching I did, I think it came out really nice.  There is something about using the traditional tools that you will never get with the digital variations.  A lot of people do this style of drawing now with a stylus and a tablet, and it’s something that I strive to master myself, but it will never fully replace ink, paints, pencil and all of the other materials.

Daily Creativity: Dragon Solo

Dragon Solo, Rory dressed as Han Solo
So in continuing with my Rory mashups tonight I give you Dragon Solo, or Rory Solo… either way, it’s Rory as Han Solo, I think he makes a great rogue smuggler.  This was done with water colors (Ink for my signature) and I’m rather pleased how it turned out.

Last week Opopanax posted a picture of her watercolors and I thought it was nifty, so I made a mental note to do the same the next time I painted because I thought it was really nifty.

As you can see I paint with watercolors in tubes, not the solid dry watercolors that most people think of when they think of watercolors.  There isn’t anything wrong with tubes or with solids, it’s a personal preference.  I think I use the tubes because when I learned watercolors (other than the plop water on the crayola set we all did when we were little) it was with tubes.  I was amazed at how much control I had with watercolors and I don’t know if its the kind I use, or just how I was taught (thanks Mrs. Jones).
Watercolor setup

You can also see my brushes, with watercolor you don’t (well I don’t) use a lot of brushes like you might when painting in oils, essentially you just change in size.  I like my bamboo bursh there on the far left.  This is originally for painting in ink, a technique that is used in asian scrolls (I love that too, lots of fun with that) but this is perfect for a good watercolor wash brush.  Next there is that tell tale crayola watercolor brush, the cheapo plastic ones. brushes Yeah, this is my favorite brush for watercolors, it tapers the best and doesn’t lose hairs like so many can.  Some of the more expensive brushes tend to not perform as well and others, are just so darned expensive.  On the far right there is a skinny detail brush, for getting in the cracks and crevices.  In the center, that’s a calligraphy pen.  I got the idea from Aurora Lee, instead of signing with paint I started just inking my signature on these watercolors, I think it comes out much nicer and it reminds me of bamboo ink painting :)

Daily Creativity: Rory brushing his fangs

Rory Brushing his Fangs
Good hygiene is important, even for little dragons. You want to keep those chompers white and sharp.

I think this will eventually become a water color, I really like how it came out and I’m often drawing Rory from the side but I really like how this from the front angle came out. I think the fur took the longest.

You will notice his pins, one if for the podcast SciFi Dig, one if a Casey’s Cadet’s badge that he got from Christianna Ellis at I think our first Balticon and the third doesn’t actually exist (yet) it’s a Flash Pulp pin, he needs one of those. For now we have stickers.

Daily Creativity: Ruby & Rory

Rory peeking over Ruby's (from Flash Pulp) shoulder as she writes in her diary.
The crew from Flash Pulp (Podcast) said they wanted Rory done as some of their characters, but I just saw Rory looking over Ruby’s shoulder while she wrote about Zombie Survival.

I’m sure we will see Rory dressed as some of the characters as we go through this project, along with some other ideas other podcasters have given me.

Daily Creativity: Rory the Pooh, or Silly ol Dragon

Rory the Pooh
Tonight I did another drawing of Rory, I never get tired of drawing the little dude. So what’s better than combining my love for the dragon and my childhood mentor, Winnie the Pooh?

I did this with colored pencils, and I had fun with the shading.  Now I’m tempted to draw Rory as all of the characters of the 100 acre wood.