How To Create Your Own Avatar Character Part 2 – The Body

Yesterday I showed you how to draw your own Na 'vi character head. The Na 'vi are the alien beings from the movie “Avatar” Today we are going to draw the whole Na 'vi character, body and all. This exercise gives you an idea of how you can combine the human form with features from other life forms to create a whole different life form that looks convincing (the Na 'vi are a combination of human with slight cat features). These new life forms could make for interesting comic book characters.

Okay, I always start with simple shapes, it makes it easier to see how the drawing will work. I start with the head shape and then draw shapes for the other body parts. The body and legs of the Na 'vi are a bit longer and slimmer than humans. This gives them a sleek catlike look.



Now you want to start making the necessary changes to the head and body by sculpting out the shapes.




Now that all of the shapes are sculpted we start putting some details like muscle, eyes and hair in.



Now lets put on some clothing. The Na 'vi don't really wear a lot of clothing so this part is fairly easy. I forgot to add the tail so I added it here.




Once all the line work is done you can make your drawing come alive by adding some shading. The Na 'vi has stripes all over their body so I add them during the shading stage. Now your Na’vi is done.



I did this drawing fairly quick so it's not really the quality I usually do. I hope you had fun doing these Avatar drawings the last two days.

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Check out my comic book characters art videos.

My Hugh Jackman Wolverine Drawing

My Martian Manhunter Painting

My Three Jokers Painting

Painting The Scarlet Witch

How To Create Your Own Avatar Character Part 1 – The Head

In this post I continue with my obsession with the movie “Avatar”. This time I going to show you how to create a Na 'vi, the alien beings from the movie. The Na 'vi are actually a mixture humans and cats so when creating a one you have to keep that in mind. By learning how to draw the Na 'vi you could come up with your own mixture of human and something else to use as one of your comic book characters maybe.

We will start with just drawing a Na 'vi head. The first thing you want to start with is the shape of the head. This shape will be something like an oval, but you can modify it as you see fit. Below are some shapes that can be used.



This next image shows the head shape I came up with. The one thing to keep in mind is that like cats there is a wider space between the Na 'vi's eyes so the head shape should allow for that.



Now you want to give the shape a little more detail so that it looks more like a head. Lets also add the neck and shoulders to this head. I will also put on the ears, which you will notice is a bit higher on the head than they would be on a human head. Also notice that they look more cat like as well.



Now lets start roughing in the facial features. The Na 'vi have big cat shaped eyes and as I mentioned before there is a bigger space between them than on humans. The nose starts wide at the bridge, but only gets a little thinner as it comes to the tip. Also the nose doesn't protrude like a human nose it is almost flat as it comes down to a cat like nose tip. The mouth is much more human like.



Okay, lets put on some hair and line in a little more detail like the eye balls and neck muscles.



Now that the features are all mapped out we can do some shading to make the drawing come alive. The Na 'vi also have stripe like designs on their face and bodies so when you are doing your shading don't forget to put them in. And there you have it, a nice little Na 'vi character that you created.



You can see a video of how I did this drawing by clicking this How to Draw Your Own Avatar Character link. Tomorrow I will do a whole Na 'vi, body so check back then.

If you like this post bookmark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.

Check out my comic book characters art videos.

My Hugh Jackman Wolverine Drawing

My Martian Manhunter Painting

My Three Jokers Painting

Painting The Scarlet Witch

She Hulk Commission Stage 3

I have added the oils to the background with a yellow glow surrounding the She Hulk graduating out to a dark green color. This represents gamma radiation coming from her. Plus it gives the painting a more dramatic feeling. After this dries I will start working on the figure.

While I wait for this to dry I’ll be working on the Green Lantern vs Sinistro commission.

If you like this post bookmark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.

Remember if you would like to have a painting done of any of your favorite comic book characters let me know by e-mailing me at mbridges54@gmail.com.

If you would to know how I do my paintings check out my How I Do My Comic Book Superhero Paintings video.

Green Lantern Commission Painting Stage 3

Okay, now I’m doing the oils. I start with the background because that will affect the color of Green Lantern and Sinistro. The background is still a little flat, but I will add more detail on the background when it dries.

At this point I think the painting is coming along pretty good. I will e-mail it to the buyer once I get the details on to see what he thinks.

I just got a commission to do the She Hulk so I will be posting that here also.

If you like this post bookmark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.

Remember if you would like to have a painting done of any of your favorite comic book characters let me know by e-mailing me at mbridges54@gmail.com.

If you would to know how I do my paintings check out my How I Do My Comic Book Superhero Paintingsvideo.

Green Lantern Commission Painting Stage 2

At this stage I want to see what is what so I use flat colors to separate all the objects. I’m using acrylics at this stage because I want this to dry fast so I can get started with the oil paints.

I plan to have a slight glow around the Green Lantern and Sinistro, but I had forgot while I was doing the background and had put the background upon part of the figuresuntil it hit me about the glow. That is why the glow around the figures look so strange.

Next I will add the oils to the background so watch out for that.

If you like this post bookmark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.

Remember if you would like to have a painting done of any of your favorite comic book characters let me know by e-mailing me at mbridges54@gmail.com.

If you would to know how I do my paintings check out my How I Do My Comic Book Superhero Paintingsvideo.

My Three Jokers Painting

I am working on a painting titled “The Three Jokers”. This painting features Heath Ledger, Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero in their portrayal as the Joker. I will be showing this painting as it progresses at my Superhero Portraits website. I also have my Heath Ledger Joker painting up for sale there go check it out.

I also received a commission to do a Green Lantern painting. I will be showing that painting in progress here so stay tuned for that. Speaking of commissions I have a new Comic Book Characters Commissions website that showcases the comic book character commissions I have done. I am always open to do commissions so if you would like to have something done e-mail me at mbridges54@gmail.com.

I am back and this blog is off and running.

If you like this post bookmark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.

If you would to know how I do my paintings check out my How I Do My Comic Book Superhero Paintingsvideo.

Review Of My Art At Life In The Fast Lane

I want to give a big thank you to Deborah Petersen over at Life in the Fast Lane for a great review she did about me and my art. You can read the post HERE.

The review is basically about my surreal artwork which I just moved from this blog to it's own spot at http://myartquest2.blogspot.com, but I also wanted to give my thanks here.

Thanks Deborah so much for the review, I really appreciate it.

Splitting The Blog

After careful thought I have decided that I will split this blog into two different blogs. This one will be for my comic book character art and the new one will be for my surreal art. That way you can enjoy the style of art you like best.

Putting My Art On stuff

I am putting my art on stuff, like t-shirts, tote bags, messenger bags, hats, maybe even mugs. I’ve had a Café Press account for a couple of years, but haven’t done much with it. Now I think its time to put it to work and let it help me in my quest to make a living as an artist. So, now I’m asking you to help me in my quest to make a living as an artist. Here are some items I am selling, if you see something you like I hope you will buy it. Clicking on an item will take you to that art pieces Café Press store.



If you see something you like, help me in my quest and buy it.

I also have some auctions running on three auction sites. You can see these auctions by clicking the links on my sidebar title “My Auctions”. Check them out and if you see something you like, please make a bid or buy it and help me in my Quest.

You Can Now Buy My Posters With PayPal

You can now buy the poster prints you see here with PayPal. At the bottom of the image in the sidebar titled “This Weeks Print for Sale” you will see a PayPal “Buy Now” button. Just click it to purchase the print. Within the posts titled “This Weeks Print for Sale” you will find a “Buy It Now” link. Click it to purchase the print. I think this will make it easier for people to buy my prints. So, buy my prints.

New Commission

I have started on a new commission. This time it's a character based on the lady that having the commission done. She wants to see herself as a jungle woman who she's calling Diva, kneeing next to her pet white tiger.

Below is the concept sketch and what I have put on the canvas so far. I will try to post the step by step of the progress of the painting.

Click the images to see a larger version.

This is an original character created by the wanting the commission.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Print For Sale on the sidebar.

Comic Book Character Commission Finished

Well, The comic book character commission painting I wrote about here is now finished. I didn't get to put up the steps of doing this painting like I intented to, but here is a look at it from the start to the finish. Click the images to see a larger version.

This is an original character that the guy I did the commission for created.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Print For Sale on the sidebar.

How I do My Comic Book Superhero Paintings

For those who are interested, here is a video on how I create my comic book superhero paintings, which I call my superhero portraits. I hope you enjoy it.

Please leave a comment. I would love to know what you think good or bad.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Print For Sale on the sidebar.

My Most Recent Commissions

I wanted to take this time to share with you some of my most recent commissions. Like I said before I do two types of art, surrealism and comic book superhero paintings. Although I really like doing the surreal stuff the most, it just seems that my comic book superhero stuff is the best selling right now. Anyway, here are my most recent finished commissions. Click the thumbs to see the larger picture.

Remember I am also available for commission work. If you want something special that is uniquely yours let me know. .

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Print For Sale on the sidebar.

Working on Comic Book Superhero Commission

I have started on the new comic book superhero commission that I talked about last week. Below are the character I’ll be doing, the reference photo I’ll be working from and the sketch I have done. The name of the character is Sharise. I will be posting the progress of the painting here.

This is an original character that the guy I’m doing the commission for created.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s Print For Sale on the sidebar.

Ebay Commissions Helping In My Quest

I had a commission auction up on Ebay that ended Sunday. To my surprise a guy that I had just finished a commission for won it. In fact, I haven’t even shipped the finished piece to him yet. Added to that is another guy contacted me to do a commission for him. We are working out the details now. He lives in London. You can check HERE to see the ended auction.
I also recently sold a poster print of one of my newer superhero portrait paintings. Below is the painting.

Click to see larger image
Buy It Now

What I’m going to do is have a different poster print here for sale each week starting with this one. This print is $30 with a shipping charge of $8. The print is 16”x20” on high quality photo print paper. It is expertly made by FinerWorks. If you would like to buy this print just click Buy Now below the image. If you would like a smaller or larger size let me know and we’ll work something out. And as the title of this post states I am also available for commission work. If you want something special that is uniquely yours let me know.

My Art Blog Introduction

Hi, My Name is Michael Bridges. With this blog I hope to accomplish two things. One is to get my name and art out to a larger group of people and two is simply to make money from my art. I do two kinds of art styles.

Click to see larger image

Surrealism, which is my real passion and gives me the most pleasure to do. This painting titled "Portrait of Salvador Dali", is one of my surreal paintings. Salvadore Dali is my favorite artist and the reason I started doing surreal art.

Click to see larger image

Superhero paintings, I really like doing superhero paintings because it's a challenge to change a photo of some model into a believeable painting of some superhero. This painting is of Supergirl and one of the first I did of the superhero paintings, which I like to call superhero portraits.

For this blog I will be concentrating on my comic book superhero artwork. You can see my surreal work at http://myartquest2.blogspot.com. I will be posting items for sale here such as prints, posters, original art, t-shirts and other stuff. I will also be showing some works in progress. So keep coming back to see how I'm doing in my "Quest to Make Money as an comic book superhero Artist".