Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hiya everyone! Sorry it's been more than a month. Things just kept piling up, really. Work rush, Christmas shopping and all the usual things just kept me utterly busy. Plus the PSP is working again so there was some major tinkering there. To be honest, I'm slowly rethinking my previous stance on the PSP vs Nintendo thing... but only to the point of balance. Slowly, though.

Also just came back from Adelaide. Had to pop back midway to get some work done and then head back to meet up with family and grandmother. Very nice, I have to say, seeing as asides from paying for a dinner treat or two, I didn't really have to do anything at all. Reading Dawkin's God Delusion, playing PSP and DS games, watching Foxtel in a surprisingly cold Adelaide climate... bliss. Definitely worth it to meet them all too, as it's been a while since I saw the rest of my family. I collected my ton of anime figurines from mum as well.

Mum's had a little health concern for us, though, what with her internal lump. Just had surgery and we hear it's all clear and benign. Hopefully it remains all clear and recovery is quick.

Anyway, at least one person noted my absence and demanded an update (in return for ONE measely photo?) and I guess I needed to get back on the horse. The first pic is something I was mulling over throughout my trip and finally tried to put to paper. That tree is supposed to be a willow, by the way. I used the airbrush style of painting and let me tell you... that took me at least 4 hours. My fingers were sore from the pressure used to colour some of those bits. I'm not doing that again anytime soon. I have to say it didn't turn out TOO bad.

Speaking of hard to do... the 2nd pic took me hours as well to draw (because I used my tablet) and colour. This was mainly because I wanted it to look like one of the figurines mum sent over. Japanese craftmanship has me in awe, although I wonder if that robe is removable. I've read about some other figurines that have different 'layers'. Thanks, mum. It's a lovely figurine.

The last 2 were sort of warm-up pics. The first is a tribute to Kiwi in Le Gardenie by the Malaysian artist Ben. Brilliant artist, and definitely something to aspire to. The last pic is just something I mucked up to prove that I could draw with just a pen (that means no erasing). Not too good as I was still stretching after a long period of no drawing.

Alright, I've got to see what else needs to be done pre-New Years. Hopefully I'll have time during my break to do more sketches (asides from studying for tests immediately after the break).

Enjoy the heat, Australians. It's going to get worse.

Did you get that thing I sentcha?

Asides from the sudden update, you would probably be wondering about the title. Well, that's Harvey Birdman for you... a somewhat strange cartoon not as funny as Yugioh the Abridged series (that you MUST see) but is not without its charm. But why the long absence?

Well, things have been busy and slow at the same time. My PSP suffered a fatal crash in my quest to tinker with it and now there is but one slim chance of redeeming it at the risk of my friend's unit. That sort of kept me down for a few weeks. That and preparations for my office's dinner function last week. Not to mention that it's hot, muggy... and I'm irritable from lack of sleep. And vague work objectives.

But I had to get something out, I was sitting on a few drawings. One was a carry-on from the last update, using a similar style (pic 2). Inspired, once again, by the currently-stalled Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It features my little zashiki warashi (oh, she's REAL hot...) with her little friends. I wonder if I should consider doing another one of Chiri-chan. As if that pic wasn't enough, I just had to do one of the stalker girl, Matoi-chan (pic 1). What does it take to get a chick that hot to stalk you (besides an Enya-kit of sorts)?

I blather on... I should also mention that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has caught my attention even though it won't be out this year... and will only have a very slim chance on being on a console I own (fingers crossed, my darling DS who hasn't ever failed me once unlike my red-headed-stepchild PSP). Jedis are incredibly impressive. Meantime, I have FFXII: Revenant Wings. Now that is a very interesting game, although it could be better.

Alright, I'll leave you to your jibblies now.

Halloween 07's a'comin

oooOOOOOooooo.... Spookytime's almost here. Sigh. Unfortunately I couldn't complete a decent Beanie Man vs Chainsaw Dave pic in time. I have been a bit distracted by a few things: my new PSP and the awesome anime 'Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei'. Well that and the fact that I just couldn't get a decent thought on paper that had that chilling Halloween feel about it. I even borrowed a heap of Mignola's Hellboy comics to inspire me, but it was just too hard.

Thank god for Zetsubou Sensei (if only I was a woman...). I mean seriously, that guy is totally cool in an emotionally depressed gothic sort of way. Well, as a guy, I can say I love every one of his twisted students, from the stalker, to the recluse to the anal retentive demon. So deliciously flawed and yet so perfect. Anyway, that anime had splices of chilling scenes and one of the ending theme ones really got me inspired to do Pic 2 (rough sketch) to Pic 3 (final version). Oh, that absolute look about her. I only wish I could capture it as it was in the anime. Tell you guys what. Go look it up in Youtube. Worth the watch, especially the 2nd OP (from ep 4 onwards).

Asides from that, I've also been enchanted with some of the ARIA soundtracks. Brings memories of a scene I saw during Minifest this year with the entire Venice-like town flooded, but in a serene way (not like the floods disasters). It was a very pristine and calm scene, that accompanied with the angelic music really heightens the mood. Anyway, I tried to do something similar and work a bit on my shadows. Spent ages on her hair. I do realise the background's a bit weird.

Alright, hope you guys have a safe but spooky Halloween. Especially those of you living alone at the moment. If you want, I can try to come up with some chilling tales to get you into the mood.

The Return

Alright, settle down, men. Geez, don't get all excited.

Yeah, it's been a while hasn't it? Busy busy busy. I had to go do site visits: a military base. That was pretty damn cool, if I do say so myself. It's a pity I didn't really SEE any shooting going on. Just heard them, although I caught a peek at some mortar training.

Well, at least work's toned down recently. I haven't had to ship off to Sydney yet for my training so I'm a bit happy. I got myself Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, which is a barrel-full of fun if you have a LONG stylus. I wish I had a DS Lite... but then again I also long for the sinful (but oh-so-not-gamer-oriented) PSP. Ah, decisions.

Alright, I've abandoned that colouring style I mentioned last week. I just can't keep up with it and I'm way too messy. I prefer the cell-shaded style anyway. So a week or so back, I popped up pic 1 to compare the difference. That's not to say I haven't learned anything from that other style. I realise that sketching using an airbrush stroke is a lot closer to what I would get using a pencil, which is close to what I'm looking for. Therefore, the method is pretty idea for that purpose which I used to cough out pic 2 and 3. Add some cell-shading and highlighs for pic 2 and there you have it. But I'm still working up to some horror-themed works come Halloween.

Side note: I actually gave a company presentation on my Masters thesis and did some sketches to spice it up. Fortunately it gave the result I wanted: I got a fair amount of laughs on a dreary Friday morning and became a centerpiece of conversation. I'll also note that this isn't the first presentation that has employed my 'handicrafts'.

Oh yes, Ying2. I must insist I receive a mailing address. Otherwise I will be forced to take drastic actions. How drastic? You don't want to know. Happy Birthday, by the way.

New Art Style

Hello, poppets! How have you been?

Ah, Manifest? It was awesome as always. Definitely like going with friends this time round. You know, on the walk back from Melbourne Uni I like to reflect on Manifests past, and compare what I was then with what I was now... nostalgic.

Anyway, didn't enter the art competitions seeing as there wasn't one (except Iron Artist, which I can't yet). However, some people were very impressed with some of my drawings (but on Sunday the whole room was filled with professional artists! I was totally overwhelmed by the difference in our levels). What I did do was participate in the huge Suzumiya Haruhi Hare-Hare Yukai dance-off (I'm hidden somewhere in the back). No, I didn't do the main competition, but Melbourne's trying to kick Sydney's ass at the size thing. Saw some really funny anime like Lucky Star, Seto no Hanayome and Sumomomo mo momo. Didn't get to see that many good action ones though. Got addicted to wasabi peas and had some nice fish in the nearby restaurants.

Going back to work afterwards was a terrible pain. And then sis came down the next weekend so that kept me totally deadlocked. We had a good time, though (except for that horrible movie Superbad). Ate at many a good restaurant and discovered some great dishes. Fun, but in the end kept me pretty busy (work helped wear me out too).

Now things are slowly settling down and I've taken up the table to try learning that thing I meant to do, which is colouring. I picked it up from http://www.mangarevolution.com/tutorials.php which was pretty helpful. However, my skills are still horrible and I need to either be patient or do things better. Ugh. So the 2nd pic was my first try at the new airbrush and multi-layered shadow that they recommended. The first one was something I tried to do using inks first (they generally recommend colouring before outlining). Both are pretty dang sorry excuses. Still, that's another card done for my pal.

I've got some ideas about drawing my Manifest experiences as a comic but I've been too busy to do that. Also, I've got a presentation coming up for my work so I reckon I could spice that up with some pictures. Heh heh...

Manifest 07 Approaches!

It's almost here and none too soon! Manifest 07! Excitement. A weekend drenched with anime so intoxicating I can only hope that I forget about the troubles of work and life in general. I'm even taking the afternoon off just so I can attend (don't worry I pulled overtime working late and during weekends the past few weeks). Lots of stuff waiting for me when I get back, but at least for a few days it'll be bliss.

So practice... needed to practice. I needed some ideas but I found that I'm now quite reliant on inking again to get a cleaner look. My sketches are a bit too messy and hard to erase out.

First pic, was something my cousin suggested I try tonight... a high-tech ninja that became like a mutant-ish with some little techie stuff here and there. However, I've got some room to play with this idea as I was thinking if the swords could link up a la double lightsabers and maybe he could pull some flap things from his back with his hands to act as gliders or something.

Second pic, a naughty one based on a girl I happened upon during web searching. Won't state source.

Third is an attempt to practice drawing Haruhi because I expect that she will be a key point in earning me winning points in any art competitions during Manifest. There's a big Hare Hare Yukai dance off going on and I reckon Haruhi and Peppa-chan (the mascot) will have a great time pushing Kyon about.

Either that or a 300-themed sketch... that would be funny too. I shall determine based off my experience at Manifest. Here's to a good one again!

Man, I just want to sleep...

Ugh... so tired. Now that probation is virtually over I'm feeling the pinch. Deadlines for projects that are impossible to meet, software that decides to commit suicide or to spew out garbage despite carefully scrutinising the inputs. The whole works. Working overtime and popping in during weekends despite being advised not to.

Yeah.

Anyway, at least I have Manifest 07 to look forward to. I really hope I can get Friday off early since I've been working overtime these past few days. It's one of the only things keeping me going. Still, I don't seem to have time to practise my drawings. Not like practice would do me good... I just can't seem to get anything out. And I still haven't decided what to focus on for the festival.

On one hand, Pani Poni Dash was introduced last year and I love the cute yet busty girls plus the strange things they are involved in. To that extent, I am fascinated with some of the expressions involved, including the blank 'Maho' expression on Himeko the ahoge girl to Rebecca's priceless expression in the Bugyo episode.

On the other... we've got that big Hare Hare Yukai dance on this year (I haven't practiced!) that I'm sure will win me points if I can draw the mascot dancing to it. Hmmm... that seems the safer bet and I do like Nagato a lot. Dance is pretty quick and hard to draw though. Would be nice to draw an exasperated Kyon.

Anyway, Chainsaw Dave makes a return. It was supposed to be a build-up towards Halloween, with another grand drawing stashed somewhere that never got completed. Chainsaw Dave now features contrast. Will he ever be coloured? Who knows?

And the last was something whipped up quickly afterwards. Could have done better. Will keep with the B&W sketches and inkings until at least after Manifest. I've found a site that has some good tutorials on how to colour that I might work on later, but definitely not while I'm this busy. Plus, I need to design more cards when the opportunity arises.

Sick Week

Oh, man... what a week. That flu or cold or whatever sure knows how to get back and forth.

Let's just say it was tremendously busy and leave it at that. A huge pressure to finish things and not enough time to do it. Add to it general misery from getting sick again and that's roughly it. Rubbing your eyes when someone else has touched your stuff = stupidity.

So anyway... I haven't been doing much drawing for the past few weeks. Well, the first two I managed to squeeze out last week, but just barely. There was a youtube clip showing the process used to create a Looking For Group webcomic (http://www.lfgcomic.com/) that I thought I would imitate (in Pic 1) but it turns out I am nowhere near the level of proficiency. Halfway through I realised what I was doing was completely wrong and it got really frustrating so I just fudged it.

Second one was partially something drawn to accentuate action and to use the cool little 'smudge' tool you get on photoshop. Does a very nice impact. I really wanted to increase the violence in the picture but lacked skills. Also should have used speed lines on the leg.

Anyway I'm experiencing a complete lack of skills at the moment. I can't seem to draw anything right and I'm feeling a bit frustrated as Manifest is less than 2 weeks away. I certainly can't compete on a decent level if I'm only at this level, so I tried to do some sketches and they just turned out all wrong.

My poker buddy (http://www.pokerpostings.blogspot.com/) came along and requested I do a set of drawings that could be set on card faces. Now, I'd seen that done on Pani Poni Dash (check the 2nd ending sequence) and was thoroughly impressed, especially the artwork done on the Tarot cards. I really tried to imitate it and get something nice but as you can see... I'm really shit at the moment. Still, nothing wrong with me re-doing the above cards when I get better.

Alright, I've got chores to do and then I'll keep practicing. I bet the competition will be stiffer this year, so I can't let up.

Projects and Seminars

Man, have I been busy. More so than when I was doing my Masters (which isn't saying much), but definitely busy. Going into the office during weekends and working late nights - busy. Thing is, there's been many things going on.

First thing is that I finally got around to going out with my old postgrad group for our get together to celebrate my new career and basically to congratulate the numerous new doctors among us (and those who will soon become ones). Somehow, drunken karaoke got involved and I seem to recall a butchered Bohemian Rhapsody somewhere. Frightening.

After that I had to push on one of the projects I was working on as I had to attend a Green Building and Design course the past 2 days. As cliche as it is, I have to admit that there were lots of cool engineering stuff and it was interesting to meet new people out of the office. Now I've got to go back to the huge pile of work that's been building up while I was gone.

So anyway, that's what I've been up to and therefore I had some drawings backed up. The first was recently drawn as my attention was turned to a new anime that stars Samuel L. Jackson, Afro Samurai. As was mentioned in Family Guy, Samuel's in EVERYTHING now. Geek films and anime included. First episode was definitely mind blowing in terms of animation, and the story looks promising although a few bad voice coordinations, some very weakly-done characters and definitely some bizarre plot holes.

Second pic was something I was working for over a week. Seeing as it was drawn and coloured entirely on tablet, it was a big undertaking, although I did delay it because a lot of the time I just couldn't dedicate myself to it. Now, it has been mentioned that my drawings tend to depict scantily clad women a lot, and this is no exception. To that, I have to say... I am a single heterosexual male... scantily clad women in suggestive positions are second nature to me. That said, the idea was a 'Desert Rose'-like character of a female sniper with her shirt off due to the desert heat... but the view angle got wrong and then I just felt I needed to put other stuff in to flesh it out. The background was intended to be much better but in the end I became sloppy. I realise now that an area of improvement is definitely my backgrounds.

Third pic was something for my friend's Discount Politics website, that I hadn't been contributing for ages. A funny take on a recent article that the Australian Prime Minister was polled as being 'rattled'.

The final picture was drawn a while ago, and many have asked me questions about it. Now, the thing you need to understand is that a subset of anime deviants like me are quite fond of anthropomised (spelt right?) animals called 'furries'. A subset of 'furries' is 'scalies', referring to the more reptilian of the species. Felicia from Darkstalkers is a prime example of a furry, although catwomen are slowly being accepted outside of the category. Now that I've lambasted you with otakuness, I'll just mention that while surfing Phoenix Wrong videos on Youtube (hilarious stuff!), I came upon a very hypnotic Dragon-Girl (literally... not the Asian metaphorical one) dancing to a Gorillaz song. Really cute, so I wanted to try my hand out. Besides, it's interesting to come up with a green-skinned girl once in a while, with those little marks.

Alright, busy days ahead and I've just made a huge post. Be catchin' ya'll.

Wow... Sakura became hot...

Man, have you seen the recent Naruto Shippuuden episodes? I mean... what happened to Sakura during that time skip? How did she get so hot? Maybe it's the maturity they've added to the character or perhaps the animators are just better at it... or maybe it's a combination of both. Either way, that fight with Sasori? Niiceeee...

Because of that hotness, I came up with the ditty that is Pic 2. Drawn and inked with fine line pen and then coloured. Took a LOT of time colouring, I don't mind telling you. I rather like the effect because my shadow layer was changed to a 'darkened' type instead of leaving it as 'normal' as I usually do. Seems to turn out somewhat better. I think I got the flesh colour right on that one too. You may recognise that scene from the anime... but my Sakura is slightly deformed (and therefore less hot as compared to the original).

Before I came up with that one, though, I had to do some practice runs as I was rather rusty and tried colouring by 'dissolving' layers. First pic is the result. Somehow it's not that bad a result.

Other than that I've been horrendously busy checking essays, proving equations and getting a pile of work at the office. Not much time to do much sketching and not much time to take note of anything else.

Transformers needs more... Transformers

Hiyo from the late side. I bring new pics!

First some general activities: I saw Transformers on Wednesday. I have to say while the movie was pretty good, the outing itself was more enjoyable than the movie. Had a nice workout followed by a good dinner and dessert. My sentiments have been voiced by Scott Ramsoomair of VG Cats, but generally Transformers is a decent action movie that is severely lacking as a Transformers movie... the main problem being the triviality of the Transformers in the movie. I liked the many references to 80's cartoons and the original plus the compulsory geek-references, too... but I really was hoping for some really direct ones other than spouting 'More than meets the eye' a few times. Starscream's original voice would be nice. Optimus having his mouth-guard on all the time would be nice too. You could probably call this a G.I. Joe meets Transformers movie that's more the former but the latter got the credit (incidentally there ARE comics out on this premise).

Other than that it's been a fairly decent and 'bleh' worthy week.

I've had some requests come in too. My pal finally sent me one of his pictures which I convereted into Pic 3. Took me HOURS to do and I was experimenting a bit on the shading. Took several sketching iterations too as I was really keen to do this entirely by tablet instead of hand sketching and scanning the drafts. Overall, I quite liked my base sketch which involved a fair amount of shadowing. The flats are nothing spectacular and the shading is slightly off... however, the background and foreground 'smoky' atmosphere with the silhouettes and lights behind is rather nice. The drawing is supposed to reflect his newfound hobby of poker so that he can use it on his own blog or banner or something... I'm not sure yet.

The first pic... the no-nose girl... was a rather rushed experiment on shading using a brush with different flow rates. Not so good so I didn't bother to give her a nose. The second pic, the little raindrops was a request from my mother as she wanted something to add to her presentation that she'll be giving around some countries. I hope they'll serve her well and not get her fired. I tried to cover a range of expressions, assuming she would have some good news and a fair amount of bad news to present. I doubt she'll use many of them, if at all... but mothers are quite the encouraging lot, aren't they?

Anyway gotta sign off. Enjoy 'em

My favourite scene

So I managed to get something out over the weekend. No drinking session tends to be conducive to that. It allows one to sit down and consider going to see Transformers on your own or trying to clear your anime collection backlog.

Anime won... something about saving money. Anyway, 2 pics to test out some stuff. The first is a girl that's partially inspired by Pani Poni Dash, an anime that takes over an hour to watch for one 1/2-hour episode because of all the notes that explain the otaku references within it. So as not to come of as a pedophile, this combines the pink/blond hair of Rebecca Miyamoto, that little ahoge and the chest size of some of the other students. The colouring I tried to base on this Chugworth Academy book I picked up from the local comic store (trying to go against the Harry Potter crowd). So sad that the main site has been down for a while. Anyway hope the book helps me decide on how to colour web-based pictures.

Second pic is something that came to me over the weekend. I was browsing through the old titles and stumbled upon my Eureka 7 lot and I recall how fond I was of that series. Of particular note is when Renton uses the Nirvash (a giant surfing mecha) to save the free-falling Eureka (who has damaged hair and skin at that time due to contact with the Skurve (or Skab?)... or whatever it was called... thus making her look rather boyish. I reckon I drew her more attractive hairstyle numerous times before). Definitely one of the most enjoyable moments although not as emotionally charged as when Renton snapped and massacared a troop of enemy mechs (and soldiers). Anyway, I tried to capture that moment, although my angle is a bit off and not quite as dynamic. Still, I like the depiction of the earth far below... all of this is done in mid-air. Ahhh... I wish I had time to watch that again.

I'll get to the commission requests in time. Not today. Too tired.

What a week...

Phew... it's been quite a week with some deadlines to be met and some generally tiring activities. 'Spelunking' within a very interesting mechanical services tunnel within Melbourne, writing reports and helping proofread some documents. Wolfed down some ChocoChurros (www.chocochurro.com.au) and attended some free drink functions and several seminars. I've also kept at my tablet as you can see.

It's a good thing I have this weekend to put my feet up because next weekend I'll be having a huge get-together to attend (and to pay for) a soiree to celebrate my new job and to congratulate some of the newer Doctors among my old postgrad group. Looking forward to it, but generally dreading the financial hit, especially from the alcohol consumption. I still need to see Transformers, though!

Alright, these two I squeezed out this weekend. The second pic is based off my sister from her visit to Japan recently. I hope it's 'realistically coloured' to her liking as she has made that comment recently. I spent ages trying to get the patterns down and messed a bit with that hedge behind. I really need to start drawing more interesting stuff behind my main stuff. I'm pretty happy with the shading on this one as I've reverted to using a darkened copy of the flats, adding a hidden mask and slowly removing bits.

The first pic was done after to put some relief on the sheer number of women I've been drawing recently. A cool one with wings. Tried something newer with the background but I really should have added more of a 'curve' effect to the lines. Hard to do, really... but at least my sword is straighter in this one. Wings a bit messy, but I reckon it looks pretty nice like that.

Alright, it's late and I've listened to my anime OST collection for quite a bit. Got quite a bit to do tomorrow so I'm signing off.

Bleh work and some pics

When you see a mid-week update you're definitely scratching your head in puzzlement. Nothing to panic, it's just the frenzy of having a new toy to play with, that's all. More stuff to put up as I try as hard as I can to master sketching on the tablet. Hard to get straight consistent lines that seem quite easy via inking. I guess I'll start doing more of that once I get frustrated enough with the tablet clean-sketching.

The second gray-goth-girl was drawn first. I once saw a brilliant Youtube video forwarded by my friend (Who has just arrived in Australia. Welcome!) (www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBIOq4P2Llg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Exanga%2Ecom%2FHlK4Rl%5FM3KURA) detailing a very cool way of sketching via tablet. You'll note I tried to emulate the cloud effect as well. Anyway, this was another attempt as using rough lines to sketch without outlining it to give a 'clean' feel.

The first pic was drawn today. My cousin who is another tablet-buddy was working on his own piece of a girl and her mecha. I couldn't be arsed designing and colouring a mecha so I just settled for some boat-like floaty things. It was at this time I realised how bloody complex those floating ships you see in the Final Fantasy series are to create. Ah well, imagine a cheapo-Protoss sort of design. I'm also still working on skin tone. At present I'm balancing between just a simple 1-shade or doing multiple layers with different tones. It's quite hard to figure out how to apply the tones but the end result is usually very nice. For instance the flesh should have stronger pinkish hues and maybe some white to denote shine.

You may have noticed that I'm slowly departing from my usual set of colours as well. Originally I used the 'web safe' colour set which is pretty limited and gives a pretty dull skin tone. Experiment, experiment, experiment.

Work has been tough. It's a constant roller-coaster ride from being treated as a Wunderkind to being the Dumkopft (how do you spell that?). Quite frustrating. At least I get to watch Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy at the gym again.

The Third...

Some better samples of what I can do with the tablet. A Kill Bill-like picture (note how hard it is to draw diagonal lines like the sword on the tablet) and one of my earlier picks coloured.

You'll note that I absolutely LOVE the grass and leaf pattern you can do with your paintbrush. Brilliant stuff!

Another era approaches...

Well here we are again. Let's see... the first era was actually scanning and then uploadin my sketches onto a blog of sorts. The second was to actually get a little more sense into my scanner settings, i.e. not all just black and white. I guess you could lump in some inking and sketching with coloured pencil prior to inking into that era. The third and most recent one was adding colours into my sketches.

Now... we come to the latest era, that which is now possible thanks to the arrival of several gifts from Japan courtesy of my kind sister, mother and father. Behold, the might of the WACOM Graphics Tablet! (Dun Dah Dun Dah DUN!) Yes, my little poppets, this is probably the firmest step into professionalism I've ever taken. You've heard me complain about not having a tablet for years and years and years (even though I've never really seen one, less use one) and how it's quite a bother without one. Well, now I do and I have to admit it's a brilliant piece of technology and it'll take some getting used to. As you can see, I'm still very very rough at it. At this point of time, if the work is crap I can no longer blame the lack of tools because frankly, I've got everything a pro-artist has (more or less). I just need to get good with them, or to at least figure out how to use them properly. Well... maybe I can still complain about my computer monitor size.

There's a whole torrent of things to learn. Different brush strokes, getting used to the tablet layout and everything else in between. I still can't get my head over how brilliant the gadget is and how it must have taken years to even get to that stage.

So we have some very rough pics, some drawn immediately after I installed the machinery so really rough as guts. So far, I can still say that drawing on paper and scanning produces much cleared and more defined lines so if I want to do a really nice clean piece, I'll stick to pencil and inking. However, if I want to do a rough sketch followed by colouring over that... I'd use the tablet. Colouring will be done entirely on this though... it's SOOOOOOO easy. Absolutely fantastic stuff.

Along with the tablet I've gotten Bleach DS 2nd, some figurines of Kurosaki Ichigo (I'd much prefer Kuchiki Rukia... but Bankai Ichigo is still nice), some utensils and I've still got other things coming along. Gonna have to visit the post office quite frequently.

Anyway, a big thank you to the parties involved in getting me the tablet. I hope my skills can improve now that it's not as constrained as before.

Could YOU work without your voice?

Man, was I ever sick last week. Coughing, flu-like symptoms and sore throat. Combined that left me voiceless for the entire week. You'll never imagine how hard (and funny) it was to try to do my job as an engineering consultant without my voice. Well, most of the week I managed a very raspy sound so that was the funny bit. I swear, you could do standup solely on the basis of a raspy voice. Anyway, I didn't do any uploading because the week was pretty filled with sickness and I was generally groggy from the lozenges I was choking down. It's amazing how some have anasthetic in them that leaves the mouth a numb. I'll file that bit of knowledge somewhere so I can figure out how it's done later. It could become useful.

Nevertheless, I did have a backlog of pictures that I had done previously or one or two I did while I was sickly. I was waiting for some photos from a friend so I could do his commission but he was a bit slow so I'll just get these up first. There's more, but I'll get to that later.

Not much I want to say about these pics. The first is a tribute to the gorgeous artist who does Dresden Codak (http://dresdencodak.com/). Unbelievable artwork spanning a huge page that seems to delve into philosophical and scientific ideas that just flies right over my head. It's like Cat and Girl (http://catandgirl.com/) with insanely good art... and a little bit more science. The second and third... I probably did out of boredom trying to actually have something worth uploading. The last was something that came to me about trying to put a little bit more humanity to some of my characters. That means having those little spontaneous poses every now and then and really, it's really quite refreshing to see a girl push her hair back. Hard to explain... sort of makes them more real rather than just standing stiff. It's quite hard to do and I definitely need to work on it.

Anyway there's another post coming up. In it I describe the new era that I shall be embarking on with regards to sketching...