A Rare Moment

Where I dont upload any pictures. I've been on a lack-of-doodles slump and I would like to blame it on the fact I dont have a sketchpad at the moment, but that's never stopped me before. I can draw on anything so long as it holds a mark (and can preferably be scanned into a computer). I will however blame it on stress, work, and writing. These days most of my doodle time cedes to the aforementioned.

---

All this aside, I had some thoughts on why artists & creators tend to be their own worst critics. Its something that most people who are friends, family, or even just co-workers of creators should be blatantly aware of. As soon as we put some art work, story, or game in the world, where people can interact, view, or play with, we doubt ourselves. We brace in anticipation of harsh criticism. Why did I do that? We ask. Why did I write that story like that? Why did I think I could write at all? Why did I post that picture, didn't I know it wouldn't be received? Why did I think I could make a game? (or in most cases, help make a game).

Its true, in one of the eternal perverse struggles of a content creator, we desperately desire an audience for our work. We want people to read our stories. To view our art. To play with our games. We starve for an audience, and some of us (myself included) yearn for critique. Not criticism, mind you. Not trolls or vitriol, not hatred or anger. As much as we want fans, we mostly want peers. People who understand the form we toil in, who we consider at the very least our equals. Its more than validation (thought its a bit about validation, especially if we feel we are impostors in a form we admire if not adore) its about getting better. If all you have are fans, how can you improve? You need the guidance of those who came before you, who shape the craft. That is, after all, why meet-ups, workshops, and classes exist.

We put ourselves out there because we must. Art cannot exist in a vacuum. Even when we believe ourselves impostors; even when we believe our work is paltry, pathetic, worse than an imitation, we ask others to view it. And we can be our own worst critics because we know how to battle ourselves. We know how to be harsher than the average consumer. We know all the faults, flaws, and mistakes in our work. Because of how close we get to what we create. When you surround yourself in your work, delve deep into the creative process, you become blind to what you're doing. All you see, throughout your struggles to create what your mind designs, are what you do wrong. So when you put it out into the world (despite the crushing self-doubt and needless anxiety – the desire to be viewed trumping even the greatest fear) the finished product is never right. Its merely as good as its going to get.

We struggle to see the created work as a whole.

---

My personal mantra has recently changed from "do it because you have no mental choice" (like write or draw, two compulsive habits of mine I've fed and nourished from childhood) to "fake it till you make it." It stems from my recent foray into the "real working world" – something that I find a bit too silly to take most days. For some bizarre reason, people want me to create art for them – and will pay me to do it! Are they blind? Crazy? Artistically challenged? Obviously, the answer to all of these is a resounding NO. These companies are run by smart, capable people who actually like my work. WHAT??? WHAAAAT???? I find myself asking. Because its hard to get over being an artist. Its hard to see past all the flaws to the good. But you have to fake-it-till-you-make-it. Thats the only way to improve; the only way to make it in this "real working world." Because, I believe you'll find, everyone else is doing the same.

More Fan Art (F'Art)

After watching Thor II: The Dark World my friends and I all agreed we would love to see a sit-com tv show with *just* Loki and Thor living together in an apartment. In my mind, they would be unable to return to Asgard, and would have to find a way to survive in New York without any discernible work skills. 

The following morning I had a prologue, an opening title sequence, and the two character designs. I even have the beginnings of a plot and the Big Bad. It wouldn't be a tv show, though, it would be a web comic. Once I finish with Billie VS season 2 (and go on my season long break) I might take a crack at the fan-comic. I mean, it really should be done, even if its not done very well. 

What does the fox say?

I swear that if everyone isn't sick of that song yet, then I'll eat my flying pig. Thats right. You heard me. Actually, I think Stone Henge is probably my favorite of Ylvis' songs.

Just doodling with color. Sometimes I like to remind myself I'm not that bad of an artist :). 

Fan Art

If you haven't been listening to Nightvale then get thee on it! Its a great free podcast about a strange, Lovecraftian inspired town. Not to mention, its a satire! Also: Kill La Kill is balls to the walls crazy - so much so that I find myself forgiving it for its grievous costume design and unbelievable boob jiggle/ exploitive shots. 

An itty bitty thumbnail

Though it took me a good while fussing around with color, I think I finally like the near-finished version of FarStar.

I don't know if I've ever admitted this, but sometimes color just doesn't do what I want it to. And I know, the buildings on the bottom of the page totally disappear into the background and it needs to be fixed. Thats why this is the "near-finished" version. I'm beginning to fear how fast my art projects go. They seem to be getting faster and faster, and I cant tell if I'm getting more efficient at my own style, or if I'm just getting lazier and worse at creating poster pieces.

I am currently working on posters for the CDM's game exhibition, which inspired me to do FarStar. Unlike FarStar, I'm not automatically dumping the sketches into Illustrator and vectorizing them. Instead I'm coloring them in photoshop because its quicker, and then getting feedback from the exhibition curators/crew/staff. Maybe I'll get to put the process work online! (But I wouldn't hold my breath.)

Far Star

There's something about Art Deco/ Futurism/ Propaganda posters that are both beautiful and sinister at the same time. I just love it. Anyway, started working on my NaNoWriMo cover because if there's one thing I *do* finish during NaNoWriMo its the cover. And I cant start writing till Nov 1st anyway.

The tagline is going to be something like "you know you're safe when we're in the skies." I dont know whether or not I'm going to take it into Illustrator next or... who am I kidding. I'm definitely going to take it to illustrator, and when that's done, add a texture in photoshop. 

The downside is I'm taking on more project loads than I think I can manage. I have my e-series (no compensation for that), my two part time jobs (nice compensation from that), and now a 10+ day / moonlighting/ nigh time project! If anything I might miss the first week of NaNoWriMo and just cram for the rest of it. :P 

Battle Girl

I'm pretty sure anyone over the age of 20 being called "girl" is ever so slightly demeaning. But thats the trend, so who am I to buck it. I kind of like how home-made Battle Girl's costume looks. Like she's wearing old high school P.E. clothing. With a leotard underneath. In fact, BG is wearing a yoga top and pants over thick tights and the top portion of a leotard. Which seems to be more clothing than one would want as a wanna-be superhero. Perhaps its cold in the city BG likes to protect. 

I also made a little Battle Girl Lego figure because, why not? :)

A bit of Champagne

Well... if that isn't interesting. Apparently the cintiq I was working on not only had a too-warm filter (leaving the colors looking redder than they do now) it also painted the background grey. -__-

Anyway. I was watching the trailer for the new Frozen movie (not impressed at all) and was inspired to return to a rather old story. And by rather old I mean "I came up with it sophomore year of high school."I never went very far with the story because I could never figure out how to write it, and how the story would be paced. After watching the Frozen trailer I knew how to fix it. I had to change the very character of the heroine. At some point in time I hope to get around to writing the story. Or at least drawing parts of it. I cant do it now, because of the Second Season of Billie VS (WOO!). But I think I'll carve out some time (when I find said time) to at the very least plot the story.

Billie VS NDAs

When I said the other day, that I had little to show, I was mistaken. I have little I *can* show. Now that I'm working contract jobs, most of which with NDAs, I have tons of work and less that I can put online. At least, not until the projects are publicly announced.

Yep, Billie as Rosie the Riveter is being coloured. I threw in Gideon looking miffed and at some point in time will get around to finishing the colouring. When I find time.  

Billie VS The Early Days

Pen Sketches FTW

Wow its been a couple of months, hasn't it? Not to say I haven't doodled (cause I totally have) there's just so little worth showing. Today was the first burst of artistic inspiration I've had in a long while. I'm not going to announce anything big or such like; I just will admit I may be toying with a ancillary comic for Billie VS. Like most things, I dont know what will happen till I get beyond the planning stage. I do know I've planned the second season (YAY!) and have started writing (onto the second episode!). Which is all pretty exciting, really. I love the way things are shaping up for the Billie VS story/ universe. Adding in a comic might be a great idea. OR I may not have any time for it :( ... Only the future will tell. 

Concepting Sketches at the Game Jam

Some pre concept sketches and concept sketches from the game jam. I thought it would be fun to upload the work I did in my sketchpad as well. 

Before we had characters or even a basic story/ mechanic, I had doodles of women. What kind of style would I go in? What kind of face shape? And even what kind of body. I (secretly) wanted to do the ghost at the top. In fact, I think I might go ahead with the idea, even if its just to a proof of concept stage (or a low-res flash comic). But I need some more time to work on it. To flesh it out, create a bible and a world, and to plot.

Once I figured out what style I wanted to draw in, I set about finding what character shape to use. She could be younger, older, or heavier. I also concepted the world background, as per Andrew's specifications (based off of Scott Pilgrim VS the World, mostly). 

During the animation process (low res) I got stuck on the jumps and on the kicks, so I went to the sketchpad. So many tiny sketches. Fortunately, I think I got it mostly right. :)

GRMJRM

The inside joke amongst my project group is spelling Game Jam as GRMJRM. So there's that. I wanted to upload the link to our game! YAY! It was created in a 48 hour span, so take that into consideration when you download and play it.

I'm glad I did the game jam. I had tons of fun animating. But now its back to work on Pix to the Nth Dimension. Creating sprite sheets in illustrator some more.

Late in the game I realized...

By the time I got to animating the last sprites (the hardest as Sam's hair kept changing) I realized it would have been easier (and possibly less cliche) to have her be brunette. Alas. Too late.

Sam's brown haired sister, Maggie

Initially, when I started the jam, I came with an idea rather than a mechanic. This is one of the problems with being a writer and not a game designer. I think in terms of story first, gameplay second. Games are (and should be) built gameplay first, story second.

But I really wanted to do something unexpected. To discuss "strong female characters" in a larger frame. Of course, thats what novels and essays are for. But I wanted to talk about how one of my favorite movies, The Secret of NIMH stars an incredibly strong female character. Despite her timidity and fears, she goes on an adventure to save her family. Its the perfect metaphor for what I believe.

We use strength as a gendered term, implicitly. Especially when we frame strength with physical feats. Strength is masculine. But it doesn't have to be. When we talk about strength, we should speak of strength of character. What makes a character strong? I have a theory. Its not about cutting their hair and joining the army (masquerading as a man, naturally). Its not about being a body builder or an archer or competing in a sport not designated for your gender. Its about the things you believe in and those you hold closest – and the lengths you are willing to go to protect/defend all that you hold dear. Its not about being perfect, flawless, and unemotional. Its about being flawed and complex, realizing these faults, and overcoming whatever demons/ problems you face regardless of them.

What makes a good strong character, is a character who, despite their faults, succeeds. Who faces insurmountable – even magically improbable – challenges and at best, wins, at worst, survives.

Samantha Torne

I think I should have suggested "Samantha DANGER" but... too late. They've already got the title screen done. :/ .

With less than 30 minutes left, I unfortunately didn't get around to animating the villains/ monsters. It would have taken me about an hour to vectorize the characters, yet alone animate them. :( . Instead I did a short hand cheat and grayscaled our heroine. This way it looks like she's battle depression. In an cliche, not at all accurate way.

The idea of the game was (and still sort of is) the main character, Sam, must battle her inner demons, LITERALLY. (Within herself, no less). (Well... not within herself like her hearts and organs or anything, more metaphorical self.) (It looks like a city.)

Some of the baddies included:

The "Angel" (and the "Demon" never got drawn). She has to fight the ideal of the Madonna/Whore complex. The idea is these baddies are things a girl faces IRL. This could also represent "Purity." 

I know its cliche to use greyscale as depression, but there you have it. It was the easiest to replicate, as its just Sam without color. I just finished compiling these in half an hour, so at least we have something for her to battle. 

The "magazine girl". Aka the perfect version of herself she could never be. Unfortunately for this version, the collision points would change (minorly) but enough to cause heartache for the programers. Plus, I would have to redraw her entire illustrator model. 

The "final boss" monster character: Sam's perception of herself on a bad day. Call it "Bad Day" Baddie. Thats about all I have. Unfortunately I never got around to vectorizing and animating any of these baddies. But it sure was fun to animate. I think I could start calling myself a character designer. 

game jamin

Of course, every time I leave the jam to go to sleep, I wind up singing "We Jammin." Even if there's no music playing at all. Not that I'm leaving the game jam, we're in the middle of it still. The thick of things, so to speak.

I was lucky, this morning I came in and my teammate, Lawrence, had his brother come in to help with art. WHEW. So he's working on backgrounds (hiphiphorray) and I'm working on sprite animation. NOTHING BUT SPRITE ANIMATION.

I kind of love it.

As of so far I have: Walking, Running, Idle, Punching, Kicking, and Jumping (from and standstill). Next is Jumping (from a Run) ... and possibly a "Hit" animation (when the character gets hit) but after that it's onto HI RESOLUTION ... and villain animations. SO MUCH WORK. SO LITTLE TIME.

iamagamer Game Jam!

Been SUPER busy. The end of the term is coming, like, in two weeks so its MEGA CRUNCH TIME. I've been finishing off hi-res assets for Pix's vertical slice, animating characters in 2D Toolkit (a Unity plugin), applying for internships, interviewing for internships, AND writing Billie VS. My life feels like it might just flatten under the weight. 

Which is why, though maybe a bit ill-advised, I'm participating in a game jam this weekend. WOO! It'll be a much needed break from all these legitimate demands. Though in preparation for the game jam, I've been working double time to get all my actual work done BEFORE the weekend. 

Right, onto the game jam. So Dr. Kim Voll (my prof) decided to host her own game jam, with the sponsorship of local game studios and the school itself, called "iamagamer." Her idea is to create game jams centered around inclusion, with a social perspective in mind. By that I mean, games that focus on, or are lead by, characters who are atypical. PoC or LGBTQ or differently-abled ... etc. For her first jam (this one) the focus is a bit broad: simply games built around female characters. All because of a barrage of ill-timed articles with the theme that more or less, female characters didn't sell games or make good games. 

Today I started sketching some potential female characters. It feels SO good to just draw for kicks and giggles. SO GOOD. I miss drawing for fun. Anyway, I quickly realized that the majority of the female characters I drew were either: monsters, aliens, geometric shapes, anthros, or ghosts. I can tell you why, too. Because I want to avoid, at all costs, easy sexualization of the female characters. It might be silly or inescapable, but there you have it. 

Forgot to mention!

Great news! Billie VS The Unseen launched last week Sunday! Which is fantastic. Just saying.

Billie Morgan

I've been wanting to draw Billie in this pose for a while now. I just transfered the reference picture from my cell phone to my computer yesterday – which was why I spent a good portion of this afternoon drawing and painting this. I think it took about 3 hours in total. I'm not too sure when I started. Sometime after lunch.

I like drawing Billie in confident poses. She's supposed to be a Hero. She possesses all the required traits: stubborn, head strong, opinionated, leaps-before-thinking, is often times in over her head, refuses to back down... She is undoubtedly a fun character to write. Well, she'll be more fun once I get her through this season's emotional turmoil. Just because she can kick physical ass doesn't mean she can kick emotional ass. In fact, like a good hero, she's quite bad at emotions. Like disappointment, failure, heartbreak, loss... Oh Billie. You're going to hate me before we're through the first season. Yet alone the second and third.

Doodles and BennyBatch

Dont you love how internet fans can be so informal with celebrities they've NEVER met? Cause I do :). I used to care, but then I realized, its not like I'm ever going to meet anyone even half famous, so why worry about fan nick-names? Though it does mean admitting I'm fan enough to know this stuff. I never thought I would be one of them! (... one of us... one of us... one of us...)

I admit, I was actually just doodling body types. I have a range of characters I *haven't* drawn (or in the case of FemDocWho – who I haven't drawn the full body of) and I had about an hour before projects let out. I like to attempt to vary up my body designs. I'm not too sure how successful that is. At least in faces I think I'm getting better.

And then BennyBatch appeared. I know he doesn't *actually* look like that, but I was NOT looking at reference pictures. This is how my MIND visualizes him. And thats an approximation of his hairstyle in Star Trek: Into Derpness. All I kept thinking, whole movie long was: DAT VOICE. 

Also, if you haven't given Fall Out Boy's new cd a listen, you TOTALLY should. I've been listening to it non-stop. My personal favorite is "Young Volcanoes." 

Pix-Specific Blog has Launched!

I will still be uploading sketches to this blog, but I must admit it may be less frequent than usual. Which means instead of 2 to 3 times a month, maybe once a month. And probably as a large doodle dump. As we kick off the more artistic phase of the game making process, I'll be drawing more of Pix than anything else. Not that I wont be doing other things. I tend to need stress release – which comes in the form of not-project-related-art. PLUS I still have a few projects to finish (like FemDocWho).

As I will be Pix focused I've created a Pix-Art Blog! I'll be updating that much more regularly *(ha!) or so I hope. So bookmark that into your web browsers and come see what I, at Unclickable Studios, have been drawing. 

Short and Sweet

We launched our project blog!

Unclickable Studios

You know you want to click on it.

In other news: Billie VS will launch on BWN, first week of June! BE SURE TO TUNE IN. Its going to be an exciting ride. (Though I am sad to announce, as of last season Big World Network has switched to subscription standards, which means 3 dollars a month for unlimited access to the site and all its stories.)

What's going on?

Well sketching has pretty much fallen by the wayside. Not to say that I don't sketch. That would be like saying I don't eat. They're both a fundamental part of getting through the day. Its just that I haven't sketched anything half decent. I think I scribbled a spaghetti line with a number three pencil the other day. And possibly drew a couple (or dozens) of eyes in the margin of my brother's English assignments. Still, nothing worth posting.

What is worth posting is my progress. Though I wont be sending in the episodes till May (and they wont launch on the website till June) I have written 4 episodes of Billie VS. Which is EXCITING. A) because I finally got off my lazy butt and started writing again, and B) its proving to me that plotting BEFORE writing makes a great deal more sense than not.

Even though the plot has changed a touch. Just a minor bit. I turned the Big Bad from a single character to an entire organization. Oh Person of Interest, what you do to my stories. This, however, means the next couple of episodes I had plotted are now going to change. The upside: I only plotted up to episode 6. Downside: before I write PAST episode six, I have to return to outlining the plot. :/

What this has taught me: planning surprisingly works. Writing well is hard and I don't like how my narrative voice sounds. Self editing will be my saving grace. And even after the initial inspiration has died and the story sits stagnant, if you have all your planning easily available and are willing to modify on the go, writing isn't as difficult as it appears.

Good News!

No – GREAT news! I know this is about two weeks late, but I've been busy. Plus I only just ran the idea by the team. I was afraid if I posted everything they'd be all like "NO! NDA!!!" But we dont have a client next semester. We are our own directors.

At some point in time I suspect we'll get the Official Project Blog up and running (and then I will create a tangental ART Blog dedicated to the project) but till then I'll just continue updating news here.

WE'RE MAKING A GAME!!! (wooooooooooooooo!)

Who knew, right?

Long story short: for the past month we (Unclickable Studios) have been working after projects to create an Executive Summary, Business Document, and Dragons' Den Pitch on our own project for next semester. Two weeks ago – Friday – we pitched to the Dragons Den and received the green light on our project.

We decided to be as open with this as possible - so we'll hopefully be updating weekly, if not daily, about our progress. In an effort to garner more fans / wide appeal / buzz about our project, we're going to start (eventually) putting our name out there. As in, going to events/conventions, making swag, bombarding forums and blogs and facebook. And I have taken up the role of tie-in comic maker.

Remember that post where I said I couldn't show the image because I was uncertain about if it would happen? Yeah? Well this was it. :)

THIS

Well its HAPPENING. I'd been planning on doing a comic for the game whether or not we ever got around to getting a green-light and making it. But now that we ARE, I have good reason *to* make the comic. So I will. :) Especially since I've been bogged with writing (SO MUCH WRITING) I haven't really devoted much time to comics these days. It'll be fun!

I am story developer and character designer on the game after all.

Character Sketches

I've burnt out of the original steam I had for the new story idea, but fortunately it wont stop my progress. Its just going to go a bit slower. I ran into some hiccups in terms of story. I dont think the cast of characters is strong enough, but then I realized its because the rest of the cast (sans the main two characters) get so little screen time. Not good. Characterization occurs best when in conflict or conversation with more than one character, after all.

So I'm spending more time on fleshing out the WHOLE cast - and writing more scenes with them in it. I focused so much on the COOL parts of the story (Billie, the main character, and her job) that I neglected the important part - how she relates to her friends, her peers, and her day to day life. Once I get that hammered away I believe the story will have better locomotion. After all, plot only makes sure there's a structure for the story, its the character interaction/ conflict that drives the story.

Sherlock Holmes

I've been watching "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on Youtube lately. I saw just one too many gifs with Jeremy Brett's Sherlock and I decided enough is enough! I MUST WATCH IT. And I did. ITS FABULOUS. I love Benedict Cumberbatch's turn as Sherlock, but its not Sherlock. I now believe Jeremy Brett is Sherlock. The Great Detective personified.

As an aside, how can a 50 year old look so good? Makeup, right? Makeup and 1980's television resolution.

I think I'd like to ramble on and on about what makes Sherlock Holmes' character so attractive to so many people over so many generations, but thats a LONG ramble. Another time, I suppose. Though I will end on this: Jeremy Brett was Freddy in My Fair Lady! What the what – right?

Writing by the seat of your pants

Now that I think about it, anything "by the seat of your pants" sounds like a weird thing. It probably means the car cushion or something, historically. But its still a odd thing to say. Where, exactly, is the seat of my pants? Not the seat of me, or my butt, but of my pants.

Pictured: seat of your pants (Credit: Morguefile.com)

Anyway, I've come to a good realization. Not very startling. Just stumbled upon it this month. As I have been chipping ever so diligently (might I say, even obsessively) at the new series for BigWorldNetwork.com, I've been forced to think about what I learned from my last, not so stellar season/ series.

In general, I tend to write by the seat of my pants. I get a vague skeletal structure to work off of, a great cast of characters with tons of conflict to drive the story, and some sort of fantastical/mysterious element (I like fantasy and I think "mystery" is compelling) to keep it fun. Then I set out to write as my fingers so fall. Its not a bad practice, as so much as misguided. For a personal, novel length project, it can work. But for a weekly updated e-series, not so much. Which was my first mistake with Adeline.

Originally Titled "How Adventure Bit A Polite Society Lady in the Arse"

I had a silly idea, written down on 5 pages. Inspired by "Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists" no less. It was meant to be just goofy fun. I wasn't even going to do anything more with those 5 pages, besides let them sit on my computer to be forgotten. But then one fateful day, while reading one of the multitudes of webcomics I read, I stumbled across a banner for BigWorldNetwork. It looked like a webcomic, actually. In my never-ending quest for more webcomics to read, I clicked on it - to discover it was an e-series! Now, slightly curious, I clicked on the submissions tab and discovered they really didn't have much of a policy besides "submit here please."

Which I did. I took Adeline, an idea I wasn't too particularly attached to that had 5 pages of an intro episode, and sent it in with an introductory email. I figured, what the hell, right? If they like it, it could be a fun experience. If they dont like it, no harm done. Color me surprised when they liked it. The only problem was I didn't have anything planned, like, at ALL. I just had the intro to an odd-world, a reluctant heroine, and an idea about Pirates. Essentially, I wrote by the seat of my pants. And the story paid for it. Because I never was enamoured with the idea in the first place.

NOT my plot (Credit: Morguefile.com)

Oh sure, I boned out a plot, but it was flimsy and ill-fated at best. Each part fell into place after the current episode was written. Word of advice: DONT DO THIS! Its a BAD IDEA.

The second season was better in some places and worse in others. I didn't even have a vague theme to work with this time. At least the first season was Pirates! The second one I came up with in the middle of projects, furiously scribbling out my ideas on an expansive white board. I know everyone has their own method for brainstorming and inception, but I tend to do it in a linear fashion: as in, I write out every last thought, be it stupid or genius in sentence/ paragraph form. It works for me.

something like this, but with much more words

In the end, Season 2 suffered from a lack in character arcs, a flimsy story, and a rushed ending.

-----------------------------------

This time around I fully intend to do this better. Again, not right, but improved. I'll learn from my last series and plan, actually plan. Thing is, this e-series spans (from the looks of things) a couple of seasons. It requires specific episodes to set up very specific plot points – while balancing multiple sub plots, characters, and Big Bads. I've been using two particular tv-series to model off of. Well, I use "model" liberally. I figure this style of writing is more the intersection of where novel meets tv-series. We'll see how this all pans out, but I have every intention of creating a sturdy skeleton to work off of before diving into the language and style of the story itself.

Frozen and other Animations

Was looking at "Frozen" artwork. Some claim it isnt the real artwork - just really high quality fan work - but I find that hard to believe. Well, not that hard. It would explain why each bit of art looks exactly like previous Disney properties. Its still... rather depressing. "The Snow Queen" is one of my all-time favorite fairytales - though I always forget to add as a caveat "except I ignore all the religiosity within the tale." But maybe thats because I owned the abridged version when I was a kid. 

In response I started drawing more kids-y characters. Actually, she's a character from an older story I've decide to tinker with. Why create new stories when there's so many old ones to fix?

Cover Design - Process Work

From start to rough color blocking: took me 2 hours. Then I went in and started smoothing out the color and adding details, which took another... oh, 2 hours I'd guess. I stopped to wash my dinner plates, to open a window, and then to surf the web a bit. ... Its rather awful how much the internet sucks my time. That and tv shows. I have a choice to make. Either I can be productive and make stuff, or I can watch the next 6 episodes of Person of Interest (and catch up with the recent season). Its hard! I love PoI! Its addictive. And I'm in for a doozy, as the next 3 episodes are all tied to each other (cliff-hanger style) so I cant just decide to watch one episode and stop. :/

Finished at 10 pm

Time and Other Problems

I'm not very good at keeping a time log. In fact, I dont. Keep a time log. As in, how long I work on a single project/ illustration. See, it depends. If I finish (and I use finish very loosely) within the day, then I'll have a fair idea. Because I'll have checked when I started (or maybe I started "somewhere after lunch but before snack") and I'll glance at the clock when I finished ("wow! I've been working on this for 6 hours!") But for things like, say, FemDocWho or any other massive photoshop painting project that I've recently undertaken, time becomes... less countable. Sure, if I kept an excel document it would be easy to tell, but I dont.

Why is this important? I dunno - I've been told that on my portfolio its good to include how long it takes you to complete a project. Some of my projects (that I have completed but didn't time) were made so long ago that I have no clue how long it could have taken. Was it a month? A week? A whole semester?

Here's what I do know: I spend far more time painting in photoshop than I do drawing on paper. I dont know if I'm over painting or under painting. I draw really fast. Maybe not super fast - but I can usually beat out a rough  thumbnail /illustration in under five minutes. Full, pretty looking graphite (non digital) illustrations usually take two to three hours. Sometimes even four. The massive drawings I did for Drawing III (as I like to call it, UGA liked to call it "Intermediate Drawing") took me about a week each (not including the rough - prelims, the thumbnails, and the 14 x 9s).

Making a decision or two...

... And managing not to stick to any. I was possessed (as one usually is) by an idea and began pursuing it in my nighttime hours. I'm thinking of doing a new series for Big World Network. Or something. Its been a sad dry spell for more than a couple of months - so writing anything at this point is good news. Upside: its not a comic, so I dont have to decide whether or not to stop working on TSU. Downside: I know how long my furious spur of inspiration lasts, and its very short. I know, inspiration is overrated. SERIOUSLY. But I've been staying up SUPER late trying to get all these scenes and thoughts out of my head before they get lost. Just to have a framework to go off of. Interestingly enough, I have a whole second season planned, but no first season... I'm going to have to work on that.

Anyway: I figure I'd be able to hack something out, framework wise, for the first season, and then resume writing for BWN. And include illustrations, as they seem to be working the most for me (instead of comics >.> poo poo).

I started drawing specific scenes from my night time endeavors - and discovered that the easiest way to take it from thumbnail to final product is to just trace it in photoshop and draw/color it in there. Which I'll have to do for the Not-God Loki scenes I doodled in January. And I'll have to start drawing scenes for the first season of this new idea. ... Oh, it needs a title, doesn't it? YEAH. 

One such scene. In fact, the only scene I've taken from all the little sketches I've doodled. I've got a lot more work to do on this one, but at least its started. And I really like the color scheme and character expression. Sadly, this is an illustration from the second season. I know - how can you have a second season without a first!? Easy: I'm the queen of getting ahead of myself and writing what I like to call "fanfictions of my own, unwritten stories." In fact, I think I may have more fanfictions of unwritten stories than the stories themselves. One of my friends claims that its technically cannon if I wrote it for myself, but I like to think of them as backstories (or future stories) that no one but me will ever read.

Season two, on the other hand, is cannon, I've just got to figure out how the character gets there. Where does she start? What does she do? What sort of character arc occurs? Who's the big bad - and what sort of themes does the storyline deal with? There's a lot of work ahead of me. But at least I have a clear vision of where I want to go. Its the getting there thats going to be interesting.