A.K.A. "Let the Training Begin! Redux"

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While poor Sharon spent her days alone foraging for berries and mushrooms, Melee studied the blade. The road to squiredom wasn't all about being a pack mule for a more competent adventurer, and Melee would eventually be given some basic sword training so he could better defend himself during those hot situations. Since he was still a complete novice at combat, dull wooden swords are being used to minimize the severity of any injuries - Melee here isn't ready to train with the real deal just yet.

Looks like this particular training session is getting intense! Wonder how long Melee can last?

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Since a lot of recent drawings I've done have been detailing what Sharon and Melee were up to during their time apart, I knew I had to cover Melee's sword training sooner or later. After all, it was a pretty important event in his life and it gave me a chance to test my skills with a more dynamic pose. Static poses can be nice, but one can only get so far with just those. I think I did... decently here, for the most part. The legs come out a bit messy and the right hand looks a little off, but it's still presentable... right?

I like to consider this particular pen sketch to be a "redraw" of sorts of this Melee drawing that I did back in 2018. At the time, this "Day Job Doodle" series of mine (which I called "Trash Drawings" at the time) was still in it's infancy - I had only one or two pens to my name! In addition, I was still trying to shake off all of the rust I accumulated after returning from a long art hiatus, so it was still a bit on the sloppy side. And while that original drawing showed Melee in an early version of his "Squire" outfit, I decided to fall back to his old "Servant" outfit here (albeit with boots and gloves) since I consider this scene to have happened during a transitory period of his life before he got ahold of some armor and grew his hair out.

Actually had a pretty hard time drawing this picture, and I went through a lot of scraps before I got something presentable. Since this was set to be the last Trash Drawing of 2021 and because I really wanted to draw something that showed of Melee's sword training, I kept at it. And while this one... still has some pretty messy areas, I'm rather pleased with myself over how it came out - I didn't think I'd be able to make a pose like this look as okay as it does here and I'm glad I decided to give it a try.

Speaking of struggling, you want to know the area I was having the most trouble with? The face.

But what do you all think? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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Melee is property of  silvermelee, A.K.A. myself.

Part of my "Day Job Doodle" series, in which I take advantage of the quieter moments of my day job to try and create sketches worth sharing using whatever materials I can find on-site (those being ballpoint pens and cardboard scraps).

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BONUS
First Draft
I went through a lot of cardboard scraps trying to draw a version of this that wasn't terrible. Initial attempts had Melee blocking a swing from above, but the swords often blocked too much of Melee's face and the pose demanded a rather large canvas size that I knew I was going to have a lot of difficulty procuring, so I had to alter the pose and this draft was my first successful attempt at that.

I thought it looked pretty good, but it was much too rough to ink and color, so I set out to draw a second "cleaner" version and... man, I had so much trouble trying to draw this out a second time and a lot of cardboard was thrown out just trying to get that face to look just right. I eventually pulled through, however, as the final drawing can attest to. If at first you don't succeed, just keep at it and your determination will pay off sooner or later!