Pirate Captains and Black Flags

I really meant to be updating this blog more frequently than I have. Quick updates: Billie VS Season 3 will begin "airing" on March 10th (or thereabouts). I'm still working at the mobile game company, and I've been getting better at UI art/ implementation.

We've been watching Black Sails in lieu of other shows (Sleepy Hollow wont return till next season, I've given up on Agents of Shield, and American Horror Story has finally wrapped up). There was a brilliant moment in episode 3 where Captain Flint gives this look that speaks volumes. Just, one simple look. SO GOOD. I decided I HAD TO DRAW IT.

Step 1: Take a Screengrab of the episode.

Murder. Thats what I'm thinking. MURDER.

Step 2: Start Drawing! (Using bad shadow blocking).

"haha wut" indeed

Step 3: Draw on top!

Yes I do constantly write notes to myself as I draw

Step 4: Keep drawing!

This is what happens when you draw at 11:30 at night

Step 5: Dont stop no matter how wonky the drawing looks!

Its a good bit closer, but still OFF

Step 6: Yeah, that looks too wonky. Start over, the next day. On lined paper. In Pen. Completely from memory. 

I knew I had to draw the picture without the reference

Step 7: Trace during lunch!

(Get called out during lunch)

Things are still not quite right...

Step 8: Tweak like crazy until the drawing looks like you think it should! THEN ADD COLOR.

Definitely murder

Step 9: Be happy with the final result UNTIL you look at the original image. Wait - he had a cut on his nose? And his hair goes round all the way on the top of his head - and *not* flat? UGH, I'll re-draw this tomorrow :P

I do appreciate his eyebrows are more dramatic in my drawing, and his eyes a bit bigger (I like the cartoony style!) but all in all I'm quite happy with the way Captain Flint turned out. 

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. 

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. 

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?

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. 

Female Doctor Who

So, my facebook friends are fairly aware of an ongoing conversation about who we'd like to see play Doctor Who next. We are in general agreement that Tom Hiddleston should be the 12th, and that Idris Ebla should be the 13th - but a friend suggested that it would be interesting to for there to be a female Doctor Who. As, according to him, nowhere in the cannon does it say he has to be a white male. He just *happens* to be that. Then, kismitly, I stumbled upon this article: Helen Mirren As Doctor Who?

And I got really excited, because I finally had an image of what a Female Doctor Who could look like. Older (as in, over 30), bad-ass, and, in Helen Mirren's case, hellava curvy.

... and then I decided I'd prefer Tilda Swinton as the female Doctor Who, for reasons I cannot explain. I think she'd make a ballin' doctor but its not quite the statement it could be if Helen Mirren were the Doctor. Cause Helen Mirren is CURVY. Tilda Swinton has that androgynous look that I think is FAN-FRICKIN-TASTIC but... if there were to be a woman doctor, shouldn't at least the FIRST one be all curves? I dunno, I really dont. I'm super conflicted.

Anyway, mini-ramble aside: I spent the next two days drawing sketches and looking up reference photos for what I think the Tilda-Swinton Doctor would look like.

Work in progress. I want to color it.

Oh, yeah, and you're not mis-reading anything - I've already started beating away at a basic plot structure for a "mini-series"/ Sir Arthur Canon Doyle Sherlock Holmes styled story involving this not-doctor-who and her not-companion; in which our not-doctor calls herself The Master (which, I am totally aware, is a villain in Doctor Who). Once I'm done with the posters (2, I think, this one, and then one of The Doctor looking right at us) I'll work on her companion.

Sherlock Doodle.

I was doing homework (project work actually, 10 images down, 50 more or so to go) when I got that "eff it" urge and decided to open a new photoshop document and play around with faces. I've been doing this in class more and more (in fact, I'll put them up as well) and its been a fun experience. I want to learn how to draw a larger variety of face shapes (not that I'm currently doing that either) and I've been experimenting with drawing from shadows rather than from lines (I know! I'm the line girl!). I ended up doodling Sherlock. Yes, I did tweak Benny Cumberbatch's weak chin, I just don't know how to get about drawing it, and I personally like defined chins.

I think its more correct to say this is my interpretation of Benny Cumberbatch's Sherlock. And yes. I do call him Benny. What kind of horrible name is Benedict?