Mice on the Brain

More mice! Non-stop Mice! Working on distinguishing body types and face types per each character. Next up, characters in the ROUND (front view, side view, 3/4ths view). I'm tempted to scrap a project I'm not-working on (started it last month but time got away from me again...) in favour of this. On one hand, thats me just repeating the never ending cycle of NEW IDEAS ARE SO EXCITING old ideas are so not going to happen; on the other hand cute things are always easier for me to draw. What I will do is finish scripting the project (called "Murder at the Queen Ann") and then let it sit in my script file folder (I think I have 15+ scripts by now). Then I will embark on creating a story for these mice. 

The Mice Brigade!

In my evenings I tend to watch tv with a group. Sometimes its current television, but recently its been TMNT (the 2012 version, which I realize is actually spelt out "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" but I prefer the abbreviation). The animation company Bardel does the show (which is in my city!!!) and its fairly AMAHZING. Seriously. I had my doubts, because the rebooted Teen Titans is just too sad for words (ugh, my teen-years, they hurt) but this show!!! (Also, I know because I applied to work at Bardel and ended up taking a story-boarding test, Bardel has little control over what the contracted shows entail - they're JUST the animation studio. Unless its an in-house project, all they can do is make the story/script *look* pretty, they cant make the words any better or worse.)

I ended up having some down time so I started doodling mice. The thought process went thus: what if TMNT was about four girls instead of four boys? (It would be designated a "girly show" and dropped from the network...) Then I went, "but I dont want to do girl turtles, that would be weird... how about... MICE! They're inherently girly, right?" So then I drew mice. Lots of them. Lots and lots and ... look I have about 8 pages of mice. They're ADORBS.

Obviously from my previous posts, I have a thing with mice. I think I've had a thing with them since before Ace Adventures... possibly all the way back to Texas... I blame Don Bluth/ Disney. Between American Tail, Secret of NIMH, The Rescuers, and The Great Mouse Detective, my childhood was inundated with adorable mice and TERRIFYING RATS!

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. :)

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. 

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.

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?

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.

Elves and Paintings

Been trying out a new painting style. I have to keep experimenting if I want to get better. I will NOT let anything as large as color or painting techniques defeat me! I think its actually kinda fun. Just seeing if throwing random color on the painting still works. Surprisingly, it can. WIP as it were. 

Non-Stop Doodle Express!

I think, those who know me can safely assume, if I dont update its not because I'm not drawing. Its just that I haven't gotten around to scanning in my drawings. Cause I've been drawing. As usual. TONS.

That monster kick never really went away. I kept on doodling odd-creatures and have decided that I will embark on a world building exercise  utilizing monsters as the main characters. Also: hey look! I can draw TREES. ... Other than that, thats been about it. Working hard on project work. Things I can't show :( . Foodling around with personal projects (things I wont show till they're much further along). 

A Guest Speaker!

So I went to the Project Manager workshop today. This is unusual as I am neither the Project Manager, nor usually invited to extra workshops. Especially not ones with a 12 person cap. It was fun. But as we neared the end of class I started... drifting off. I usually draw to keep my mind engaged. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but its true. Thats why I doodled all the way through elementary, middle, and high school, all the way to today. 

See, there's a difference between "doodling" and "drawing." For me, doodling is something automatic, a process I use to garner information while keeping my mind engaged. Cause if I dont, I'll probably zone out. No, not probably, definitely. I use doodling to focus. But drawing on the other hand requires a bit more focus and concentration on the art itself. And thats when I get in trouble. When the doodling turns into drawing, and I lose myself into the art work. Cause then (and only then) I'm gone and you've lost me, and I wont hear a word said or see a thing done. 

Around the end of class (5 pm) I was so done. I was tired, hungry, and functioning off less sleep than I like. Plus, its a friday. So concentration was difficult, to say the least. Inevitably, I wound up drawing our lecturer's face. Kinda. I mean, it looks mostly like him. He had a wide jaw and a formidable start to a wild-man beard. 

Have I mentioned how much I love drawing pencils lately? Cause I do. Oh so much. I cant believe what a fool I was when I was younger. Thinking I liked the precision of mechanical pencils. PAH! They dont have anything near the expression and fluidity of proper pencils. MMM. Love them.

(I might be a bit ... loopy. Wow, that was nearly incomprehensible. I apologize. I know I err on non sequitur a lot, but this was pretty bad.)

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.