A backlog of sorts

I was going through some old file folders on my computer (which is a funny thing to say, considering I've only had this computer for a semester and a half) when I came across some year old images I never posted. I dont know why I never posted these. (I mean, besides the fact that I didn't launch this blog till the summer, and I drew these in the spring.) A little, lying part of my mind continuously insists that I've posted at least the Ziggy Stardust pictures somewhere on the internet. Because I can invision the backstory that goes along with it in type. Hmm. :/

I was going through a phase (and I sorta feel like I still am) of drawing the character's heads too small for their bodies. Or maybe, more accurately, their bodies too big for their heads (as I draw heads first). The girl on the left is Maria, a character from Ordinary Citizens. I didn't quite get her right. And it looks like her upper body (esp her shoulders) is too high up. On the right is ... oh, thats right, I never did pin down her name. Well, she's a character from a dream I had. Involving what could only be described as "X-Men meets Battlestar Galactica meets Falling Skies." 

A "disney" styled sketch of Adeline. From the internet serialization that I write. I mean, this isn't at all the right style, or what she even looks like, but it was fun to draw. 

Aaaand, the Ziggy Stardust story. So, up until a year ago there was a sister site/ competition to NaNoWriMo, called Scriptfrenzy. Scriptfrenzy took place over April (instead of November), and involved writing a 100 paged script in the month. It was a fun little adventure, one I found far more productive than NaNoWriMo, which introduced me to very useful tools like Celtx. They had featured on their site a little "random plot generator" that spun like a slot machine in a video-game and pulled up very, incredibly nonsensical plots. Except for the rare times that it didn't.

I saved all the silly plots that I believed I could do something with (using screen capture and a pictures folder) - eventually using one idea to graph out a Mid-grade story, one to create a massive project (involving a comic, an illustrated book, a collection of poems, a play, and a novella), and the other to draw 3 characters and no story. The first two ideas are on the back-burner for now (they're actually really good ideas!) the last one... is never gunna happen.

But it did involve Ziggy Stardust, a dim-witted but incredibly hansom pool boy, and Ziggy Stardust's #1 Fan. And how, together, they had to save the world. Or was it universe? Either way, they had to save the day and it was going to be utterly ridiculous. I even rocked out a new style for the story. Alas, it was never meant to be.

Some Sketchbook Sketches

I know I didn't mention it before, but this past weekend I participated in the Global Game Jam! (yes, that is the game I worked on). There were a handful of sketches, but for the most part we just jumped RIGHT in. It wasn't like there was a whole lot of time for concept art either. 

None of these sketches relate to the game, but I did one or two during the Game Jam (whilst on my breaks). 

Like this one. I did this before we divided up into teams. I'm still on a monster kick, so there's a pseudo anthro owl, a gryphon head, a mutant pig with wings, and the face of a beluga whale. Beluga's are cute, in that slightly terrifying way. Though I think most water creatures are terrifying. Even mammals like dolphins or whales. 

Right before the Gamejam started I was playing around with some of the Sponsor's games (namely Doll Divine – yes, sometimes I am a seven year old girl) and got an interesting idea stuck in my head. No, its not about clothing or dress-up. Its about dragons. Which is perfect, after all, I've been on this weird monster thing this whole month. So the above 3 pages of sketches was me trying to get one of the main characters right. I have this vision that the whole comic will be Miyazaki in theme (beyond his style because thats just something I cant replicate - hello lawsuits!); mostly in terms of the story. 

And more sketches! These too, were attempts at getting the style right. I think I've got it nailed (which is nice) and can extend it to the rest of the characters, male, female, old, young, etc. 

But, as life would have it, I haven't had much time to devote to plotting and scripting. And this new idea is coming into direct conflict with that other, equally fun Idea I've been toying with for the past semester and a bit. Because I very well know, I cant do more than one story at once. I can do them separately: as in one week work on story A, next week work on story B, following week back to A; but at the same exact time? OVERWHELMING. So... there's that. And then there's the client work myself and my team have been doing. NOT to mention the 2 weeks I've been sick. 

Yes. Sick. Like, out for 1 and 1/2 weeks because of Flu. Come back a week later and work, feeling healthy. Go to Game Jam the following week of good Health, come back with a Head Cold and AHHH Sinus PRESSURE! I think Vancouver hates me.

A Promise is ... (part 1)

Remember how, in the beginning of this month, I promised the rest of the new year sketches? Yeah? Well here they are! Apparently there were FIVE. 

A little sequence I did for a ... weird, not fan-comic that's been rattling around in my brain since I first drew the character. The panels are out of order, which is why there are numbers next to them. 

Some dot-eyed characters. Having fun and such. The woman at the bottom is Elanor. I think the style could easily be transfered on the other characters. Maybe instead of Crime Noir it could be more art deco? Hmm. Something to try. Also: the two characters at top are The Familiar and Gemon - and though I think The Familiar is perfect, Gemon isn't. He looks too boyish. And he's more the "tall, dark, hansom" type. Or, at least, thats what he likes to believe. Cause The Familiar is WAY taller than him.

I was having a darn hard time trying to get the character right. Yeah, I was trying to redraw my Not-Loki, but, as I didn't have my computer up, nor the original sketches, he wound up looking like Roderick the Dentist from my never-finished story "Blackguard." He really does. Though it might have something to do with the fact that I generally draw only 2 guy faces. "The Villain" aka pointy chin, and "The Hero" aka, square chin. Everyone else is just a variation of the two. 

Some Fan Art

Its totally true too. I've never seen a popular male actor with such a weak chin before. (Its probably because of his cheekbones. Yeah. Its his cheekbones.) And Benedict Cumberbatch definitely pops his collars and wears high scarfs in his roles because he looks like a giraffe if he doesn't. 

Every time my mother would walk past by my computer and see my background (its totally Sherlock, guys) she'd say "what an ugly man! Why is he on your background?" Every. Time. Its hard to explain that its because he's such a fantastic actor. It really is.

Not-Quite-So-Productive

I was on the Cintiq all day today (like, no joke, from 9 when I got into the project room, till 5 when I left - factoring in the 2 hours off for lunch) and thought I'd been more productive... apparently not.

(I must confess, I did this on sunday...)

Yes! This drawing! I have returned to it because a) I'm a sucker for punishment, and b) I REFUSE TO GIVE UP. Whats different? Well, for starters, I cleaned up the lines. Stuck with a more neutral/ less punchy background color, and colored all of it in flats first! This time, this time I WILL SUCCEED. 

ACTUALLY A PLACEHOLDER IMAGE! MWAHA, MWAHAHA

So, dragons/ lizards. I dunno what it is, but I'm on this strange fantastical/ lizardy creatures bent and ITS FANTASTIC. (and apparently awfully punny.) Anyway: I spent most the morning drawing/ coloring a different drawing (on the same photoshop document) but am not showing it because PLANS. PLANS for children's book/ comic/ game of some sort maybe. And they're ligit plans too. So... yeah. I'm gunna have to be a bit more secretive with it till stuff happens. :( 

Totally unrelated note: did you know there's not "Little bunny foo foo" ipad/ app games? Like, of all the weird nursery rhymes that could so totally be gamified, why not "Little Bunny Foo Foo?" (I was totes singing the song on the weekend because I'm an adult. Riiiiiiight.)

A classmate of mine. Demanded (demanded I tell you! with promises of matting and framing and posting it all over the interwebs!) that I draw a pic of him. I'm not at all done... need to add shadows and stuff. 

And last but not least, a Venutian girl. Venetian? ... No... An alien from Venus. Like a Martian but not from Mars! Right. Pseudo Disney styled cause thats how I roll. I've been reading too much comics, methinks. I just felt like drawing a superhero story...

Aaaaand that was my not-quite-so-productive day. Stay tuned for more in the next week!

A redraw of sorts

Greg Land's original cover

So, this is my take on this cover on Escher Girls. I felt I had to redraw it, not because of the shiny melon boob, but because of the silks. It took me FOREVER to figure out that Nightwing is *supposed* to be restrained. Which he doesnt look. Because of how the silks "hold him". So, I did my best. 

I mean, LOOK at that. The silks are just free floating everywhere. They're not even HOLDING his leg. And you expect me to believe with that look of disgust that he's not kicking the ever living life out of red cape there? His hands are contorted in pain/ struggle, his muscles bulge, and yet he's not even properly restrained. If the silks were that loose, he'd be able to at least swing a punch. Look at that fist! He wants to! UGH. 

My redraw. Apparently I have problems with layout.

I cant promise its genius or anything, but I tried to fix the tension on the silks. I figured they could still be free floaty and magical, so long as they were taunt where they wrapped around his body. 

I also changed the perspective on the woman because she's facing the viewer which makes NO SENSE. Its not as seductive as I think it was supposed to be. (I'm making tons of assumptions here). But she comes across as the villainess seductress, the way she's smile/ pouting and restraining Nightwing, and how she's caressing his face (and look at that hand on his thigh!)... But none of that comes across in the original. She's too far away from him. There's this lack of tension between the two of them (not to mention the horrible lack of tension in the silks). And, of corse, she's facing her body away from Nightwing and towards the reader.

the underdrawing. See, boobs!

So her shiny melon boob is gone. Its not my fault the character has all these flowing silks over her body. If she didn't have the cape thing you could totally see side boob. But thats how it goes. I also changed the hand she's caressing/ gripping his face with, because it makes MORE SENSE. Yes, it takes away your view of her boob, but now she looks in control. 

Dragons, Doodles, and Color

I guess I forgot to mention its the start of the new semester (yay!) and we've all be assigned Project Groups. I'd love to ramble on and on about our project's here, but this is a sketch blog. Not a project blog. Instead, I'll be rambling sporadically on the school provided blog instead: Patricia Extraordinaire! (which was totes going to be my new screen name/ nick name once I moved to The Big City... but only halfway panned out). 

 So... sketches... I've got a couple still from when I was back in Georgia that I havent uploaded. These (on this post) are new. I've been experimenting with colouring (as I said yesterday ... or was it the day before?) and just all around doodling. I have some cool doodles in my sketchbook too - but these were all drawn in the computer today. Obvs the dragon is a work in progress. The other two women busts are just doodles.

I did some pretty rad (and by pretty rad I mean super duper rushed) concept colour sketches for our Project Client. But, sadly, I cannot upload them because of NDA's. Which is all cool, cause I like being all professional and industry and such. But you dont get to see how kick-butt I am at concepting.

Painting myself it seems

I was just experimenting with painting (after skimming through one of Micah's art magazines over christmas, I saw a "how I paint" that was actually fairly informative). My team members decided it looks like me. (Except it doesn't.) The problem I have is on the photoshop page the colours are less yellow. :/

Darn you color calibration!

New Year Sketches

Well, so, technically only 10 or so of the sketches are from the new year (drew them all in one night WUT!) and the rest are from december but WHATEVS.

Sketches ahoy!

I've got 5 sketches more but I think I'll only upload 3 more tomorrow when its not quite so late at night :/ .