Spoils of Drawing Day

Wah! I feel I haven't drawn for s long cause I've been so busy with work and event planning and my crafting. But I got some cool stuff done over the weekend as part of the Cloudscape Comics Fundraiser for Waterlogged: Tales from the Seventh Sea. We are so close to printing this great book! Big thank you to all our contributors and supporters so far! You'll get an amazing book!

So last weekend we held a Drawing Day where the internet threw ideas for drawings and a bunch of Cloudscape artists drew their interpretation of the request. If you go to the Indigogo site you can purchase one of the original drawings that came out of the event. Here are my Spoils of Drawing day!

First we had Ninja Tricycle Attack that came up in conversation while planning the event and it stuck with me so I needed to do a tricycle ninja. Copic fine liners and Pentel Brush pen for filling in the blacks. I've got a long way to go in learning how to properly shade black clothes. Need to look up more reference... any suggestions?

Next a call went out to Angela Melick for Marsupial Superhero which was too good to pass up. Several artists did this... mine turned into a bit of a knight in shiny armor deal with Sir Sugar Glider. I was just using the brush pen on this one so it has a very organic flow and fur is the best with a brush pen, once you get the hang of it.

Cloudsy Works Out was up next. To those who don't know Cloudsy along with Umbrella Girl are kind of the Cloudscape Mascots. So someone suggested to do a pinup of Cloudsy and Ta da! There is a second one done by Jonathan Dalton. This was a mix of Copic fine liners and Pentel Brush pen again. 

Last but not least and by far the best one is Bishonen Luongo. Someone suggested Canadian Anime. Then we joked that it should be a sports anime so obviously it had to be hockey and so it came that Bishonen Luongo had to be drawn. Copic fine liners all the way... I'm not good at making anime boys with facial hair but it was insisted that he has to have a bit of a rugged appearance. Hope you all enjoy and if you wish to own it they are available through the Indigogo campaign!

 

Waterlogged Fundraiser

So I thought I'd post something a little more finished, get everyone a little more interested in what's happening cause it's exciting! First let's release the sexy pirate Morgan of the Red Pelican! If you look back a few posts you'll see an earlier ink of him he's from a big story I'm working on. And most importantly he'll be appearing in the Pirate Gallery in Cloudscape's next anthology, Waterlogged - Tales from the Seventh Sea! Our fundraising campaign is going strong but we've still got a long way to go. This is going to be a hard cover book with one spot colour featuring some of the most amazing comic artist in Vancouver like Sam Logan (Sam & Fuzzy), Angela Melick (Wasted Talent), Nina Matsumoto (Yokaiden, Bongo Comics), Colin Upton (Postmodern Mini-Comics), Gabriel Frizzera, Lucy Bellwood (Baggywrinkles), Jonathon Dalton (A Mad Tea-Party), Laura Bifano, and Jeff Ellis (Teach English in Japan). Check out all the perks on our Indiegogo campaign and pass the word along!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/waterlogged-tales-from-the-seventh-sea

Next we have the finished coloured version of Full Circle which will be for sale at the Ayden Galley from May1 - June 2! Stratus is an art show featuring comic pages and illustrations from local comic artists. Come out May 3 from 7 - 11pm and meet many of the talented minds behind the work!

As a mental note, scan before framing, taking pictures of framed art leaves all sort of ghosts over the image.

Self Reflection

I find I do a lot of this, I look back at the things I've done and the things I should have done and I start to wonder if there are more of me and why on earth they don't talk to each other. Week and a half ago I was in the middle of a big project and while I was slaving away at it for 12-14 hours a day the only thing gong through my numb mind was "I should be charging more" in fact the thought was so profound that I had to stop, brake and draw it.

 I had a chance to Ink it the other day but really. I need to work on shiny black things cause it's not where I want it to be. But the hair is supper cool. So there is me and my 2 cents to my Past Self (the one standing) and Futures Self (the one cowering) and really it got me no where except for distracted. Like I said I was running on little sleep for about 3 weeks at this point (yey for back to back projects) and what does my tired mind decide to do instead of sleep... obviously keep me up till 3 or 4 in the morning sketching these little conflicts with myself. Here is another...

Because my Past Self is a Sadistic-Money-Hungry-I-Could-Care-Less sort of person, she will book back to back to back projects and then start cracking the whip. As a mental note, I should clean up sketches made at 3 in the morning before starting to ink them... things were getting wonky at the end there. And they are floating... yap... definitely finish sketches before inking. On a separate note, although hand lettering has lots of life... I'm not going to do it beyond sound FX. It's just too much...

Almost Caught Up

Wow, when it rains it pours... First I moved then I never seemed to have caught up with work since last November... hahaha. I'll bet back into this now! Sorry for the wait.

Fist we start with the newer one! I'm happy to announce this will be part of the Cloudscape Art Show called Stratus that will be opening on May 3 at the Ayden Gallery. See details here http://www.facebook.com/events/148990701925781/

This is the preliminary ink, still got lots of work before it's done, but by Monday everyone will get to see a finished copy! Started the idea while working at the Vancouver Art Gallery for Family FUSE in the beginning of March.

This one is slightly older, I did it as a Family Day poster for an event that Cloudscape was holding. It was a character building class so I was trying to incorporate as many characters as I could.

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.