Ralph Contreras, Author at RSC Arts

Warrior Woman Unleashed: First Sketch for the New Year

Pencil Sketch of Scarmother Vrynna by Ralph Contreras

Drawing Scarmother Vrynna from Legends of Runeterra

Here’s my first drawing for 2020. It’s a pencil sketch of a cool image I found on Pinterest. I just had to draw this awesome Warrior Woman. Pinterest has become my go-to for image references and inspiration for my artwork.

The original image comes from a collectible card game called Legends of Runeterra. I had’nt heard of it, but from what I found the artwork is amazing. The character I drew is named Scarmother Vrynna.

I had fun with this quick sketch. Just using a cheap 0.7 mechanical pencil I bought from a dollar store and drew. I aim to enjoy the creative process more and try not to worry about always being perfect. Guess this is my 2020 New Year’s resolution, Create Art Today.

Create Art Today

Here’s my new mantra for 2020 “Create Art Today” Simple and to the the point.

Artistic Surprises: Discovering Zapata in a Christmas Sketch

Sketch of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Rebel by Ralph Contreras

Exploring Latinx Heritage: Drawing Zapata on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! This Christmas Eve I felt like drawing something different. I searched Pinterest for some inspiration. What I found was an image of a Mexican revolutionary. I thought this would be fun to draw. I’ve been feeling a pull to create art with some Latinx cultural influence.

After sharing the sketch drawing on Instagram, one of my followers pointed out that the photo looked like Zapata, a famous historical figure from Mexican history.

I went back and looked at the reference image, and it was a photo of Zapata. Emiliano Zapata was a Mexican revolutionary, a guerrilla leader during the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920. I had no idea when I chose the picture to reference for a sketch drawing.

I used a blue pencil for this quick sketch drawing. I forgot that blue pencils don’t erase easily, at least for me. This figure came out a little stiff, but for a sketch I still like the way it came out.

Character Design: Sketching an Athletic Afro-Latinx Heroine

Afro-Latinx Heroine sketch by Ralph Contreras

Character Sketching: Creating a Street-Level Fighting Hero

Here’s a quick practice character drawing I did last night. I didn’t use any photo references for this drawing, just what I could imagine in my mind’s eye. I feel like the proportions are good. I wanted to draw an athletic female who is a street-level fighting hero.

I really wanted to draw her as Afro-Latinx like Rosario Dawson or Gina Torres. I also tried to add some emotion to her face. The drawing has my drawing style too. There is no character name yet, but I have some fun story ideas for her.

Sketching Solitude: The Melancholy of an Astronaut’s Smoke Break

Pencil sketch of an Astronaut on his smoke break by Ralph Contreras

Drawing Inspiration: The Take Me To Your Leader Challenge with an Astronaut

Here’s a pencil sketch of an astronaut on his smoke break for the Take Me To Your Leader Tuesday challenge. The Spaceman was drawn with my trusty Pentel Mechanical Pencil. I wanted to give him a melancholy look like he was ready for the day to be done.

Thanks to Marshall Lee and Scott Serkland for coming up with this fun weekly prompt challenge. They started the challenge on their YouTube channels. The challenge is to draw an alien and post it on your social media with the hashtag #TakeMeToYourLeaderTuesday.

Mastering Hand Drawing: The Journey of Practice and Progress

The Art of Practice: Diving into the 2,500 Drawing Challenge Starting with Hands

I’ve learned of this great challenge to help strengthen my drawing skills. The 2500 drawing challenge. The goal is to do 2,500 drawings in a year; 250 Hands, 250 Feet, 500 Legs, 500 Arms, and 1,000 Heads.

The challenge was created by a group named Drawaholics Anonymous. I don’t remember how I found out about the challenge, probably on YouTube or Instagram.

I pulled out my handmade sketchbook I made myself this year and started with the hands part of the challenge. I found a bunch of good hand images to draw from on Pinterest. Here are the first 15 hands I’ve drawn. I can already see my drawing progress from hand #1 to hand #15.

I feel that this challenge is a good one for me. How about you? Have you ever taken on the 2500 challenge? I would like to hear about anyone else’s experience with this or any other great challenges.

Inktober Fun: Ash and Pikachu in Quick Ink Sketch

Ink Sketch of Ash Ketchum and Pikachu by Ralph Contreras

Capturing the Joy of Ash Ketchum and Pikachu in a Lightning-Fast Ink Sketch

Here’s a quick ink drawing I did for the prompt of Ash for Inktober. It’s Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon anime with his best buddy, Pikachu. I did this one really fast with my Pentel ink brush. So it didn’t come out as refined as I usually try to draw. I approached this like I have most of this year’s ink illustrations, I went straight to inking without a pencil sketch drawing.

For this illustration, I tried to have a more cartoony feel. Ash has large, exaggerated eyes, and I have thick and simple contour lines. This is the 1st time I’ve drawn Pikachu, he looks a little off, more like a teddy bear than an electric squirrel. I had fun with this one though, it was a great inking exercise with a fun subject.

Embracing the Majesty of Overgrown Realms with Inktober

Ink illustration of a silhouette figure confronting overgrown plants by Ralph Contreras

Inktober Adventure: Confronting the Overgrown with a Character Silhouette

Continuing my Inktober catch-ups, here’s my illustration for the prompt Overgrown. I immediately imagined a crazy bean stalk wall that was impossible to see through. I decided to create a silhouette of a character looking at the towering, overgrown wall. By doing this, I was able to keep the focus on the character while still being able to show the immense amount of the plants. It was a fun challenge.

I used my new LePen Technical Drawing Pen for this illustration. So the contour ink lines are all the same thickness, but the plants in the illustration were still diverse, with a lot of different shapes and sizes. This helped to create a sense of depth and made the inking feel more alive. I think the variety of plants also helped to create a more interesting composition, rather than having everything look the same.

Colorful Creativity: Drawing a Dragon with a Multi-Color Ballpoint Pen

Dragon Ballpoint Pen Illustration by Ralph Contreras

Exploring Depth and Detail with a Multi-Color Ballpoint Pen and Hatching

For the Inktober prompt of Dragon, I wanted to try something very different for me. I wanted to try drawing the ink illustration with a ballpoint pen. That’s with no pencil sketch to start with, just a ballpoint pen. But not just any ordinary pen, I used a multi-color ballpoint pen I bought at Dollar Tree. It had four colors, black, red, blue, and green.

The whole illustration was done with hatching and crosshatching. I started with a base shape of green hatching marks. This formed the bust, wings, head, and horns. Then I switched to black ink and added the face structure with shadow-hatching lines. This really gave the illustration some nice depth. Then I used the red and blue for the Dragon’s eyes.

I’m very happy with the way this ballpoint ink illustration turned out.

Game of Thrones Art: Jon Snow Inktober Adventure

Jon Snow Ink Illustration by Ralph Contreras

Letting Loose: Embracing Imperfect Proportions with Jon Snow Illustration

Ok, I’ve fallen a little behind on Inktober again this year, it seems like that’s as much of my yearly tradition with Inktober too. I’m playing a little catch-up. Here’s my inking illustrator for the prompt of Snow.

For Snow, I wanted to do something fun. Being a huge fan of Game of Thrones, I decided to ink Jon Snow. I went straight to inking on this illustration using a 102 Hunts nib with no pencil sketch. The proportions are a little off. Jon Snow looks a little older, a little chubbier, and in deep thought. But I had fun getting the fuzzy look of the fur with hatching.

I’ve been having a good time with this year’s Inktober. It’s great to just let loose and not worry about being perfect. That’s how I approached this ink illustration of Jon Snow for the Snow prompt.