So much happening

Let's just not go there... So much to do so little time to sketch let alone finish something. First we have another monster Pelquin! >.< () and I get an automatic win cause no one else made a submission. I'm trying to work with the brush pen more.

 

Then I've got Yona the main character of the comic I'm very slowly working on. The pic on the left is how he starts out, then he lets loose a bit and relaxes enough to not do up every button. He is Nix's contact so those two are kind of the main characters of this story. The inking on the right didn't work with me again brush pen... as a mental note if you screw up a little take a two minute brake and calm cause if you keep going that's what happens. Grrr..

Creepy and Cute

Argh babies are so hard to draw! >.< Why did I write a baby into my next comic... Making a "shark person" baby look cute and still have enough shark traits to easily distinguish it's species it even harder. I don't know what that blob behind Mako is in the first pic...  it started out as an air supply in his tank but then it looked dumb so it morphed into a plushy blanket thing. The hands gave me a run for my money even though i was photo referencing and all... Babies... argh... more practice.

 This is the Ophidos from the Cloudscape Monster Alphabet...  Vote for your favorite on the website! I figured this one is one of those that looks almost normal but does something fantastical... maybe like the Cactus Cat... eheheh.

Something Fishy Something Fluffy

Getting some practice in with the Pantel brush pen and man it ain't easy. First I got some more character drawing of Nix from my future comic project. Is his shirt too... gangster or womanizer? I want him to be casual but interesting on land when he wears clothes... I totally messed up the cross hatching on this picture... with the brush pen there is nothing that can be done in a hurry while you're half paying attention.

Another monster for the Cloudscape Monster Alphabet. Vote for your favorite Nys Stead starting tomorrow on the website! This is like a cross between an an ant eater, a moose, and a giraffe... not quite what I first had in mind... I wanted to make something majestic... why did the moose get mixed in there?

Back on Track

And I think I did rather well on this one. I hate to admit that patience is key. So I redrew Link cause I messed up on the other one and I took my time outlining it and low and behold it turned into one of my best outlined images.  So as a mental note... take your time and don't rush!

 And then I degrees with a quickie... my pens are really running dry and it's definitely not good for outlining.  Maybe it's the next monster in the Cloudscape monster alphabet, depends what the word is...

Long Time No Post

Sorry about that, lots of stuff happened in August and then I've been a little slow to get back into to this. Funny thing is... you don't draw for nearly a month and you start to see the decay in your work. I haven't lined anything in nearly two months and I am not impressed with how much my hand has already lost what it had learned so it's back to practice practice.

First we have a little fan art of Link on a Deku Shrub. I want to do a proper picture of this, there is far too many things wrong with this... the hands, his eyes... messed up on outlining a lock of hair... and i think on top of it all my pen was running out of ink so the line quality sucks.

 Next one was a lot better, used the brush pen to get some nice variation in the lines and the microns on the face so I don't mess it up. I like Nagas they are fun to draw and there is sort of a contest on DA for Naga pictures so I thought what the heck, why not. 

And She Lives

Yay I had work!!! >.< Unfortunately that also meant I had no life... and I will continue to not have one until Cos&Effect is over. Everyone who's into alternative fashion and costume making should come out to this convention, it will be amazing! If you want just a taste of the con the Cos&Effect Crew till be out at the zombie walk this weekend ask them for a free pass for Friday night and you shell receive!!!

In the last 2 weeks I got to touch my sketchbook... amm twice.... so here is what I have... one is my entry for Hatebeast for the monster alphabet... it's tough competition this time around so vote for your favorite.

 Next I got to outline a picture I did earlier when I was working on self portraits. Now I'm thinking of doing a colouring book with a bunch of stuff and this will be one of them.

Self Portrait

Well I'm not a big fan of pictures of myself cause I think they look silly, possibly also cause I have a tendency of making silly faces, but here I am in need of a profile picture for the Cloudscape website, lucky for me they prefer a drawing then a picture. It's a rather perfect likeness, it feels like I eat paper sometimes at how quickly sketchbooks fill.

The other one is a mixture from a dream of these lizard like people called Basalisks that can assume different appearances by just "shedding" their skin making them perfect assassins... this coupled with playing Assassins' Creed Brotherhood meant I had to draw him in something like that although in the dream he never wore anything like that nor is it related to any Basalisk myth. Of course it was kind of a fail. The picture gets progressively more terrible as you go past his waist. I need to go back and examine clothing in manga, I have a fair idea how to outline the unclothed bits but not the clothes... You can expect that in my next post.

Hair/face Practice

I was trying to get some more practice in for hair so I was doing heads with different hair styles... I was also aiming for sort of different facial features... I mixed up on the face on the bottom left one.

Then my next monster submission... it may look cute but this is an Ekkisbird... it could be vicious... We really need everyone to vote! The creatures are supper cool and if people could just peek at them and vote that would help a tone. Also there are now some write up about wining monsters that can be found here.

Disproportionate doodles

These were done over the course of Summer Festival that happen yesterday, they are less then perfect to say the lease as I had to stop often to man the table and was often distracted by so many other things. Over all a very good event! Had fun, sold lots a stuff and meet some new people.

First I have some dancing robots of sorts... not great at all... definitely needs research if you are trying to make things dance.

And the second was more of a quick sketch for a dress idea that was based on origami... I'll probably make it some day.

Artist block

I hate it when I stare at a blank paper and my mind goes blank. Last week I put together a script for a short story based on the characters I've been putting up and I was really focused on it that I finished writing it in two days but then my mind went blank for drawing for like the rest of the week. What I should have done is forced myself to draw... but I got lazy I suppose. So that is why there has been no updates. But I'm back.

First I've got my next monster for the Cloudscape Monster Alphabet. If you haven't voted last week well you should!  This is a Degyt!

I was looking up fashion illustrations the other day and it sort of stuck with me, I like turning flowers into people... more like I like turning them into girls in ridiculous outfits. It was interesting trying to do something that is black... I need to experiment more as to where to put shines so that it's all readable. With this one I drew in the shines and then inked around them I'm not confident enough to just go at it.

Monster time

Fist we have the monster from the Cloudscape Monster Alphabet please help by voting on monsters or contributing submissions, it's lots of fun. This one even comes in clolour... hahaaha

 Then we have a monster from the story I'm developing still, this will be a problem... I'm not sure I'll be able to draw them as creepy as I want them to be, I'll have to try and find reference for that too.. hmmm.

Too Many Characters...?

Well it was about time for the other main character to show up... I love this picture actually, Yona (in the back) looks like he's about the throw his book at his older brother. I imagine the conversation was something or another about how Yona is wasting his time and effort in something to do with science and understanding when everyone is focusing on how to get rid of the pesky invaders. I haven't decided on hair colours but I do kind of like the way the black hair looks, I'm just not sure I want Yona to have black hair too. Maybe I'll tone it dark but not black.

 Next we have two of the people that were asked to join this research team that Yona is also a part of. I screwed up the perspective, she was supposed to be down further on the page to make it look like she was closer to the camera while he was in the background... oh well, I'll try again. Also her face is a little screwy, grr. Lia is a robotics expert while Anthony is one of the engineers.

Character Designs

I'm really into this story even though it may consume my life, just as a warning... Ok so here we have some more characters from the story. As I'm writing this I'm starting to wonder just how many characters is too many for a long form comic?

I've even started having names, it's getting advanced now. This is Mako a young shark person. I think I'm mostly getting the hang of this cross hatting the shadows... I just need to start pushing my values which has always been a problem of mine.

 And this is Morgan, a human, I know how boring but they exist in my story rather prominently so I better draw them too. That ridiculous thing he is holding in one had is a snorkel mask and the other is a harpoon... mental note use reference of real objects, may the gods help me when I get to drawing his boat.

Something Fishy

 I've changed my mind, the story I was developing is not developed enough to be turned into a comic so I've switched to a different story that I have more ideas for and that has a more solid plot in my head. So instead of faeries and magical creatures you get fishy people and science geeks. =} So here are some fishy people.

First we have the Shark people that don't have a name yet, you are what you eat applies almost literally to his species. I had a hell of a time trying to make him look like he was flicking something back. Originally I wanted him to flick a toothpick at the screen but every time it ended up looking more like he was making bunny ears or quotation marks  in the air and totally ridiculous.

 Next we have Enzo, one of the main characters and he's a different type of fishy person (again no name for his specie either)  but their kind are telepathic and are capable of manipulating the state of mater of things around them, like turning water to a solid or ground to liquid. I'm contemplating them not having clothes... it all depends if I can figure out something for them to wear that makes logical sense and doesn't look ridiculous... loincloths are so out.

Monster time!

Got another entry for our fun Cloudscape Monster Alphabet. Everyone please vote for your favorite A letter monster! Today's entry is of course with B, Babithy! I had lots of fun with this one, and I like the way the cross hatching turned out. Once Wed. rolls around he'll be a candidate for the name of Babithy, everyone pass the word along even if it's just to vote or if you want to put in your own monster.

Another picture of the Faerie King from the story I'm trying to develop. That thing going off the page is a spear... bad planning.... bad posing too... moving on, I like his head, but that's about it unfortunately. Grrr.

Concepts for maybe upcoming comic

Wow, I'm in the pickle stage... >.< At this stage you think you know something but in it's misplaced confidence that makes you do stupid mistakes. Like a cucumber being pickled, it tastes sour but if you don't let it stay more it won't last and it'll just go bad. My inking is full of blah this post.

This one is not so bad. Toying with a mist like element is kind of fun.

This is just painful, really I only finished it cause I promised myself to finish it and it's got so many mistakes that it's only up here to say I did something... but improvement is not the word for it. This was supposed to be a preliminary idea for the Fairy King and Queen of my story but I've got kinks to work out for sure.

More learning from other artists

If only I didn't get caught up in the story and end up reading every one of them in the process of finding a person to do a picture of. Well here's two more pages from three different artists, I'm getting the feel for more manly faces, I'll try my own tonight while at the Cloudscape meeting.

First one has one of the guys from Cat&Dog by Fujii Mitori and the image at the bottom is from Maigo by Honeron Ken. Practicing more hair styles... not more to say about it.

 The kissy couple is from Hyper Love Power by Hiiro Reiichi, I think I'm starting to be on the right path with the hair. The seme has a black shirt on and I like the way it was done as far as the inking with the very dark darks instead of using screen tones. We'll see what I come up with tonight!

I'm starting to realize that most of these authors are male or at least have male names... and it's mostly been shoune ai/yaoi and such that I've been flipping through... I'm not sure why I was  under the impression that this genera was populated by female artists more so... I suppose female mangaka are still not that dominant unless you go into shoujo.

Promise I didn't die

I just had a deadline last week that sort of ate all my time and then a lovely BBQ on the weekend, so needless to say the computer was either not available or I had already stared at it for the last 18 hours and didn't wish to do so any longer. But here we are, I will resume and I will manage my time more wisely so that last minute deadlines like that stop creeping up on me.

This week I've been using reference... and OMG the difference it makes! OK, reference is maybe not the right word cause I was replicating images or trying to, I'm just using it to build skills not to sell, it's like fan art. So I am planning to continue, I'm just going to do Mangaka that I like for a bit till I get it how I like it and then I'll try doing my own characters again. Today I'm working off Nangoku Banana's stuff, the names of the manga are by the characters. I am trying to focus on the hair but also the use of cross hatching. First off the first picture has a guy, a real guy!!! My guy's faces are far too girly even when I'm trying to a supper top sort of character. So there will be more Guy guys around here soon. Then bottom right of second page is my usual style of guy but I was trying to practice his hair and drawing people with their mouth open. It shouldn't be as hard as it is.

Then I got an idea for some cute fan art of Trance and I couldn't help but do it.  The pose is referenced out of Kitsune no Yome by Nangoku Banana and the character is Quincy from Trance. Artistic cred to me about 50% I just pushed the pen around they had done all the work already.

EEP!

I'm late!!!!! NOOOOOOO! I apologize but yesterday I could hardly keep my eyes open by the time we were back from Cloudscape. I'll try to post before I leave for the meeting so it doesn't happen again.

Ok, First we have a little monster for the Monster Alphabet Challenge I'll be doing cute monsters... that's my plan, you can join in too! All I've got to say is rock is weird to outline.

Next I'm trying to develop a new comic idea, these may be the main characters. Still working on it. But as far as the inking... I need to stop beating around the bush and just do hair studies cause I'm always messing up their hair. Grrr.

 

Love and Kisses for Fishes

I love Jellyfish! They are so cute! Here's my little moon jelly hopefully he'll be turned into a pin or charm, that's what I'm aiming at for Cos&Effect this summer.

Maybe the lines are a bit thick on this one... I can't quite decide. Here's Molly giving the little jellyfish a kiss.

More People

'Cause I like drawing people and they come more easily then backgrounds here are some more people. I think I'm kind of liking the look of the thicker likes in places of shadow and that need an accent... I'll have to push those areas more and see if that is the case.

 His face is a little weird and then his proportions go wacky... grrr, and I hadn't drawn him in so long.

A little frog kissing action, I almost put her in a body suit cause her body looked so nice... but no, instead she ended up in a dress...

Oh, the big eyes!!!

This is getting to be a later and later post. Ish... today is just attack of the big big eyes.

 It's important to use reference, just winging it doesn't get you a hummingbird moth.... it gets you a buggy... with wings...

 

And then a quick something so we have colouring pages for Car Free Day that is happening this Sunday, June 17 on Main St. between 12th and 29th from 12pm to 8pm. Fun for the whole family! I'll be helping the Cloudscape table which will be somewhere close to 29th. We'll have colouring pages and comic making stuff and lots of books!

Hands up

Almost didn't get this out, not at home so I wasn't sure the scanner was going to co-operate.

First we have some hand practice, cause I can't have enough of that. I'm always having a hard time making manly hands, they end up too feminine. So I took up my trusty hand book "The Book of a Hundred Hands" by George Bridgman... it's this awesome paperback I picked up in a second hand shop for peanuts but it's got really good hand positions and a few explanations that make sense bu I've never really sat to think it through.

 

The second pic I was catching up on web comics. Trance to be more exact, it's far too pretty for it's own good and it's kind of my goal right now (this is one of the comics I was talking about in the first post). So I just felt like tormenting some random daemon character and chaining them up... =}

 Ok, that's that for the day. What I learned... hmmm... look at other people's work and try to figure out what they do that you like and then attempt to emulate it.By the way I'm keeping the inks as they are unphototshoped from now one, i think it's important to show mistakes as well as success.

Practice practice

I realize I didn't state my tools yet. Well part of the reason is 'cause I'm still experimenting. The previous post were both done with Sakura Micron size 01 pens.

This time I was playing with the Pentel pocket brush pen for this picture. It certainly has a lot of life to the lines but more difficult to control.

  I switched back to the Micron's for the second picture, going down to the 005 since her face was so small.

Overall I think the trick is not to think. It seems the more I think I will screw up the more likely it is I really will.

Made up my mind!

So here we have it. I made up my mind I needed to ink my next comic by hand. Having seen some very beautiful inked pages lately it has become obvious that I need to just suck it up and start practicing and stop being afraid of inking my work.

So I'm starting a regime. I need to ink one image a day cause practice makes perfect! I'll shear with everyone what I learn along the way, if I find awesome tutorials online, and of course I'd love to get input back from everyone out there so send me links, send me critique, maybe even send a little love once in a while cause gana need the encouragement.

Blog will be updated every second day so to kick things off here are the first two!