Post-Minifest 07

Greetings after a long period of nothing. It's just been that kind of time and despite still being unemployed I've been up to my neck with things to do. These include seeking employment, binge drinking (well nothing compared to last time), midnight eating and Minifest.

Well, some birthday greetings to: Kiao, Laura and Dad. Perhaps I shouldn't divulge these names, but if privacy issues are sought I'll just deny everything. The drinking and midnight dinner was because of two of the mentioned birthdays. Ah... I'll need to get back to the gym after all that, which I have after the considerably long but eventful Easter break. Strange that despite how much I hate it, after a few days off I kinda feel a bit lax. The vast chocolate consumption could have something to do with it.

Anyway Minifest on Saturday was a blast despite being the small-scaled version of the main thing. Didn't watch much screenings since I'd seen most of it already so instead I wandered around and watched the many events: AMV screenings, sushi eating contests... stuff like that. Attended two drawing classes to improve on my body and mecha skills... but as you can see that kinda didn't work out too well. The 5th picture was drawn during the mecha class while the guy was explaining the details and giving pointers. It was my attempt to remember Evas. The last pic was drawn during the body drawing class. Totally wrong, but there's a reason why I had an inkling to draw it. I'll get to it. The 4th was a mecha I tried to come up based on some of the advice gained and a composite of stuff I remembered from my cousin's hobby. Turned out ridiculous. Seriously!

So Iron Artist was on again. Look... I tried to get some practice done beforehand but I ended up not doing it so when I was at Minifest I was really lacking practice and during my brief warm-up I knew I was in no shape to compete. So I didn't. Anyway, as always the competition only used pencils and had to comprise a theme of: Peppa-chan (Manifest mascot... a cute girl), gaming and Antonio (Oztaku mascot... an octopus). Competition was insane but the final judgement went to the professional artist they seeded into the competitors. Seriously... you should see his sketch of decided soft-H. I knew I made the right decision to stay out of it, but it did somewhat inspire pic 6.

The rest of the stuff: Pic 1 is of Sakura Kasugano, mostly because I've been reading Street Fighter Legends of late and find the story very amusing! Pic 2 just came to me while I was listening to Billy Joel's 'For the Longest Time' song, which has some special memories. Pic 3 is somewhat inspired by Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club, although it doesn't really look like her. Episode 10 is the best so far!

Random Scribbles

Just a quick post to put up some stuff that I've accrued over the past few days.

First is something I just had to draw today... one of Bleach's (told ya the characters were kinda easy to draw) poster boys Kuchiki Byakuya. Flash of inspiration of sorts. The second crappier thing is based on a discussion with a friend about women's eyewear and how I don't quite like the huge sunglasses look. Hides too much of the face. Anyway, it looks terrible but it was meant to illustrate a point is all.

Jealousy!

Wow... seriously. Have you seen the work of professional artists much? How could you NOT be jealous? This time round it's the artist of No Pink Ponies (http://nopinkponies.com/). You can, no, SHOULD check his deviant work via the link from the comic. Insane isn't it? He's even got the attention of Adam F**KING Warren (professional comic artist... has drawn for many series that I love)! How fantastic is THAT? Geez... what does a guy have to do to get to that level, huh?

Anyway the obvious answer is lotsa training and tallent. Lacking that but wanting to flex and grunt as any male should, I set to work to see just how far behind I am. Yup... pretty damn far. Anyway...

What we have here is another attempt at colouring (simplified sketch dramatically) with a new twist in the shadowing. I can't recall what exact method I used but now the shadows aren't all... blackish. I admit this is much more appealing although some regions you just can't see the shadows at all. Anyway, still need to figure out how to blend it in but I think the answer is going to come out as multiple layers of shadowing again. Sigh... still can't do that. I've appended the B&W picture so you can see for yourself what was done to it... roughly. I should start doing backgrounds (as in proper sketches) as well... one day.

The elf girl is just something... I've realised I was losing my ability to draw eyes properly so trying to work around it I came up with a stiff character that I just built the setting around. The last was an attempt at coming up with a comic of sorts. Just thinking how I'd go about drawing a strip showing the horrors of going to the gym (I should start putting in more dialogue as well). Anyway... a bit bland (should have more expression... maybe a heart or something at the girls) and just couldn't convey the horrors of a male locker scenario (for a male... obviously it's not that bad for a female). Why, oh, WHY can't they keep themselves to themselves? Ugh. Side note: panels are totally skewed. I need to use my drawing board to draw proper ones next time.

Poor quality

Once more I am hit by the need to come up with something new so I just wanted to draw up this new character design. That's the three images of this unnamed person with huge sideburns apparently.

Anyway I was trying deperately to get the pose and stylings of Ulqiorra. The eyes, not so bad... the perpetually sad look is cool but I just couldn't get the style right. The hair just seems wrong and I'm still mixed about those dang sideburns. Anyway... the suit's okay.

Last pic is also a continuation of something I'm experimenting with, i.e. mixing pencils with inks (it didn't work out a while back because I was scanning as Black and White instead of Grayscale) while using a blue pencil to do the preliminary outline. I've also tried using a green highlighter to colour a few parts but I've learned something: poor quality highlighter gives weird looking results.

Further regression

Frustrated at my sketches, I tried to come up something more in hopes of suddenly striking the thing I was missing. No such luck. I just can't figure it out.

Anyway it's too messy.

Nothing else to add.

Regression

Man I'm too tired to colour anything so I'm regressing back to pencils as mentioned last post. I'm finding difficulty in even drawing things right with pencils, as you'll notice some pretty weird shaped heads among this bunch.

In order, the pics are (1) Roronoa Zoro from One Piece... probably my favourite character; (2) another 'fairy' with hopefully the right costume. I must note that the costume is actually that of a ballet princess kinda thing, e.g. Princess Tutu. It's not a 'fairy' in any traditional sense; (3) Wolf bandits based on some character design I suddenly recalled from someone's sketch in one of the conventions last year. It wasn't exactly matching, as the real sketch is more Sesshomaru-style but I just wanted to get the wolf thingy on the shoulders; (4) Dr McNinja. Okay at this point I realised I was losing it and promptly stopped.

Nothing exciting but something to put up anyway.

Belated Birthday Greetings

Happy belated birthday, sis! Sorry the online dedication took so long but colouring your picture while experimenting on 'light' sides turned out to be more than I could reasonably handle. That and it's been a tiring week and I had a huge drinking session yesterday night (3 'shots' of alcohol including Vodka and Tequila). Anyway be happy with your picture dedicated to the untold amounts of wealth you will soon garner and the fact that you're one of the first to be coloured at all. Ignore the crappy shading and lighting because I can't afford anything better than a cheap mouse (See the zig-zags on the shadows? That's an unsteady hand at work).

Aaaanyway, that's probably the last coloured pic I'll be working on in a while. They tend to drain a lot of time and effort from me and generally don't tend to look very nice. Well... maybe I can put a few more out but definitely nothing ambitious.

Well, I've done an okay sketch of a gothic lolita coat+corset combination (Pic 1) that a friend brought to my attention. Tres cute, one would have to say but apparently I've been so out of practice that I kinda screwed it up. I need to find a green marker so I can get better shading (another tip from 'Blue Zombie').

Pics 2,3 and 4 were meant to be coloured but I lost the impetus fairly shortly. Momentous task, I assure you. If I ever get the mood to revisit them I might be tempted to add some colour but I wouldn't hold my breath. Pic 2 is (yet another) pretty girl spotted on the trams last weekend sporting one of those bizzare 'I <3 whateva' shirts. Cute, but hard to appreciate in a crowded tram carrying groceries. Pic 3 is of a character called Rouge from the series "Powerstone" ages ago. Sometime during the week I was reminded of that anime and the charmingly proportioned madamoiselle so I thought... fairly easy to colour... why not try lighting with her? Didn't get that far, obviously. Pic 4 is your (you guessed it) Sakura from the mind-blowing-after-a-year-of-crap-fillers Naruto series (props to my pal who first introduced me to it) in her new regalia and slightly matured form. Mmm.... if it wasn't for her deformed right hand I'd probably try to colour her. Oh, well... maybe I can redo it. Can't believe I haven't drawn Naruto characters before this.

Anyway, the alcohol is still coursing somewhere inside me so I reckon I'll stop here. Remember, kids! Drink responsibly (and not like me or my other drunken buddies).

The new era marches on!

Man, oh man. Once you're on the path of discovery, you just can't stop. Even though I'm groggy from lack of sleep, I just HAD to keep testing out this new-fangled technique.

So I put to test two things: Inked vs Sketched. Apparently inked (the girl with the tattoo) produces cleaner lines than sketched, which sort of helps in the colouring process a bit. However, because the inked lines aren't quite as thick, it gets very hard to colour 'within the lines' so to speak. Nevertheless, sketched (the guy) does have a sorta 'rough' look and generally doesn't really suffer too much in terms of quality.

So what else have I been playing with? Following some tips here and there I played with multiple layers, whereby I can afford to be sloppy in colouring certain places if I wanted to, because the next layer will just cover it. I found some advice on creating a 'whitening' layer whereby the entire layer is just filled white and the opaqueness is fiddled with to produce a slightly more human-like tone instead of the ghastly pink I'd have to deal with by default. Really cleans up the rough lines too. Oooh... and backgrounds too! Those little circly things that darken outwards. LOVE those, but will maybe experiment with other styles in the future.

One more new thing... SHADOWS. A new layer which I use to liberally smear black paint all over. Another change in opqueness and VOILA! It's freaking fantastic, although I still find my efforts severely lacking the quality I'd imagined. The girl was my first effort in shading, which turned out rather crap. The guy enjoyed a little more even shadows, therefore looks a bit more presentable.

Overall, pleased that I've learned a new skill. However bummed that I have to use a mouse to colour seeing as I'm TERRIBLE at using a mouse! Bummed that there's no shortcut I could find as of yet, too. Still... balance the two and I'm still pretty happy.

Edit: Word balloons! Wow!

Dawn of a new era

Harken, ye to the dawn of a new era! Yea, let it be known that after many years of mucking around with pencils, coloured pencils, inks and a shonky scanner, I have finally done it. I have taken my first step into colouring.

First of all, the picture may be a little familiar to you all. It is the 'geisha' girl drawn AGES ago. There is a reason why I picked this picture: it was the simplest to colour.

Seriously... I was following the tutorials kindly provided by the artist of the webcomic Blue Zombie (http://entity.comicgen.com/tutorials.html), which, by the way is a good read itself. Yes, so I was following the steps up to the point where I had to create lassos around the regions I wanted coloured. Oh-kaaayyyy... I tried it on a more complex picture and got REALLY frustrated. Then I found this 'Magic Wand' thingy that could select some regions to be coloured. At first I thought that was pretty neat but rapidly realised that it wasn't all that smart and often selected the WRONG region! Here I thought I could bypass all the tedious lassoing around but in the end I had to concede that it was FAR preferable to do that then to tinker with that infernal wand!

So that took hours of frustration. I had to look for a simpler pic and you can't get simpler to colour than this pic. Next, I fumbled my way around the infernal lasso commands and all that layer stuff... WOW! That took at least an hour... but in the end we bear witness to the FIRST ever COLOURED picture on this site.

There you have it. The one and only. And it will stay that way if I have any say in this.

I'm off to sleep. That took WAY too long.

Post-Wastement

Hiya again everyone. Remember the promise that I'd do SOMETHING to commemorate (right... I'm sure there's a few Ms in that word) the Chinese New Year that I was not in attendance this year? Well here it is. I shall call it 'Pigs Playing Mahjong' after the celebrated 'Dogs Playing Poker' which I believe was originally called 'A Friend in Need' or something like that. Whenever I hear about the FEASTS that everyone else is having in this season, my stomach gets that bit more rumblier. Okay, a LOT more.

I mean seriously... these people don't even EAT that much. Yet me, the one who puts it away is now on a decidedly stricter dieting policy. Where's the justice?

Anyway, it's not all bleak. Yesterday night I had a good time playing poker at a friend's place. Poker and chess... what a combination. No, I didn't win the pot, but it was all in good fun. I got lots of alcohol from it though. More than what I'd usually drink in a year, in fact. While I managed to walk back safely (or so it would seem... perhaps it's a 6th Sense scenario?) I really felt the effects late last night, when I couldn't even lie down for fear of the world spinning around. Thank goodness there were chips and pizza. Nevertheless, I got the compulsory gambling during Chinese New Year thing done anyway.

Okay, some of you must be scratching your heads wondering... why the heck is this dude drawing FAIRIES again? Am I still hung over? Possibly... but a recent conversation has revealed that someone still has a thing for fairies. Just... fairies of the kind I have no idea about. I could be totally going on the wrong path for this. The fairies in question could be those half-naked buffed freaks of nature that pass for ancient lore. I have no idea. Nevertheless, devoid of ideas I just thought... why not? Let's see if I can get closer to the original intent.

Edit: Just added that whimsical picture of the bubbles. Just for the heck of it. Yup. For the HECK of it. Nyah!

Magnum Opus!

Okay so it may not really BE the best thing you've seen in your life, but it took me hours to come up with the idea and even longer to draw it. HOURS! All at a friend's behest, mind you, but I thought I'd do something to really stretch out my current level of skills.

So there we have it, the culmination of it all. I tried to put into practice everything I've gained from reading countless comics and mangas into a simple page with no dialogue. Slightly better perspectives than my last full page effort. More comic elements although I really had some troubles figuring out how to do action lines and all that (I always took them for granted in the comics). Some seriously sloppy bits here and there. However, the panel placements are pretty dang cool if I do say so myself.

So... Chinese New Year, huh? I haven't done a sketch to commemorate that. Maybe will do one later if I'm not totally exhausted. Well hope it's been a good one for you. Foodwise it's not been tops this year but that's mostly because I'm drafted into that healthy lifestyle thingy. Yes, I'm still whinging about it. Blah to you! Nevertheless I managed to pop into the city to chase away bad spirits with all the clanging of lion dances (but no fireworks because of fire ban). Nevertheless I'm glad I got to meet up with my family and friends in my last visit to Malaysia, which I couldn't do last year.

And what about Heroes, huh? Imagine someone who is so addicted to cartoons and anime watching that... er... mostly shadowy-dark series. Oh... the fantastic non-use of superhuman powers. I won't lie to you, people. I expected a lot more confrontations. Still, Hiro is pretty dang cool and thus the major character in the comic.

Awrite... I'm outta here. Exhausted as heck!

Ah, screw it...

You know... my last post was such a downer I thought I'd spruce things up a bit.

So, talking to a friend about something on Dilbert's blog brought up thoughts of how men would love the company of robotic women... and so I tried to capture the essence that is prevalent in numerous anime out there.

Okay, now you can get happy.

So it's Valentines again....

Greetings, my fellows. I am back.

Well, I've actually been back for quite a while already. A week to be exact. However, I've been busy with personal matters and also sick like a warm-nosed puppy for a while. Coughing, fever, flu and all that jazz. Also, I've been abstaining from my usually large amounts of food in favour of a 'healthier' lifestyle which just means more misery...

Anyway, there's probably heaps to discuss about my month away but I shan't get right into that yet. Better to illustrate it in a post dedicated to itself.

Instead, I'll go back to the matter at hand, which is another lonely Valentines day. Geez, how many have I had already? Agh, I really hate this day. The only thing good about it is being able to delve deep into Charlie Brown comics. Yeah, that always cheers me up on this day. I had a lot of trouble coming up with the 'Special' comic to be drawn today after the decidedly more 'romantic' one last year. Well, I scratched and scratched for hours and then decided to screw it all and just crap out something. Ugh... looking at it you wouldn't believe how much time went into designing and drawing it, but I swear it wasn't an easy task.

The perspectice is ALL WRONG. The tyres are just pathetic and really... it's either too messy or too much empty space. Sometimes I'd like to blame my inability to colour these pictures but I know it's just my ineptitude. The only saving grace is the result of using this new coloured pencil lead (yes! I actually found some!) and inks for this.

Anyway you can interpret this as however you wish. I don't suggest putting any brain power into it. Happy Valentines Day to those who have anything to be happy about.

Happy New Year, Ya'll!!!

Happy '07, Everybody!

Excuse me but I'm a little drunk. Just celebrated the new year with my li'l malty friend here and had all the ceremonial shouts and oaths at the past and new years. So I got thinking that maybe... just maybe... I should upload something.

Well, the first two pics were made via an online request at a site. The nature of the site is VERY risque (so I shan't divulge), but the model was such that I couldn't resist coming up with some sketches, and since I didn't really 'push the boundaries' that much, I thought it safe to include these pictures on my blog for your enjoyment. I'm happy to say that I had a favourable response for at least one.

Anyway... let's forget that and reminisce about the year '06. Ahh, what a year. I completed my Master's thesis which took many years of blood, swear and tears. A big achievement, to some, but personally I didn't think it was that big a deal. Certainly had its fair share of pain and suffering, but generally it has been a good experience and I have met many people and shared that pain and suffering with them. Also had an enjoyable time being a tutor all those years, and I hope the classes I conducted were as fun as they were for me (especially the one where I was drunk).

Of course, '06 had a very bad moment where my passport and bag was stolen, which led me to a strike a while back. Ah, that was pretty bad, but honestly now I consider it just another bump in the life path. Certainly has inconvenienced me to no end, but I don't think it's worth it to bear that grudge forever.

What else can I say about '06? Watched lots of good anime, learned to cook some really fantastic meals, ATE a lot... and drank a lot (man... have I gotten large), made heaps of good friends, said goodbye to a few. Definitely a year to remember (except for the painful bits). I attended a lot of anime festivals (relatively): Minifest in March-ish, Animania in July-ish and Manifest in September-ish. Participated in a few drawing competitions and won most of them (Yay!). Thoroughly ENJOYED the anime conventions though, and I look forward to attending them in '07 (even a job won't stop me, I reckon!). Met lots of interesting people there, including some REALLY talented artists whom I haven't spoken to since... ah, Cest La Vie.

So... what's up for '07? Lots, I'd have to say. I'm travelling home in early January for a month, after which I shall return to Australia with my new passport to complete my Permanent Residency (I hope!). After that, God Willing, I shall take my biggest step into adulthood and look for a job. Well... that's a frightening perspective, but one to face eventually. Well... who knows what the future will bring, right?

To all those who have been keeping up with my blog, Happy '07! Hope this new year brings lots of new opportunities. Thank you for following my progress through life (and not commenting too much about my shortcomings as well as bizzare leanings) and I hope to keep you entertained for a while, yet. My heartiest congratulations to all you have achieved in the past year and may those successes follow you into the new. Okay, now time to sing Auld Lang Syne (or however you spell it).

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, y'all!

Hey-hey, kids!

First of all, since it's not Christmas yet, I should wish my deepest congratulations to the newly-wed couple. Whoo boy. I'm really sorry I couldn't make it, but I know that the excess of food left in my absence won't go to waste. I eagerly await news on how the wedding went.

Okay back to holiday mischief, after constant prodding for more sketches. Well, I stopped using plain pencils and did some inking again for these bits, so it's much clearer. Takes more time and geez, if there's a mistake I can't be bothered to go through the process of cleaning up. Bleh. I should break out and use my new ink pens, but gotta try to finish off the old ones first.

Anyway, I tried to come up with some Christmassy themes. The first one that came impulsively, was the rambo-santa-esque design (pic 2), oft depicted in South Park. Bleh, I know. It's so much like the other stuff I draw: some protagonist in the front with some baddies looming behind. Rather boring.

So I tried to think deep and I remembered this tale I'd forgotten a long time back. That little match girl. You know... the one that froze to death. Grim, huh? Anyway, I kinda messed up a bit and decided to work beyond that mistake to create a 'gritty' feel with all that 'messy' lines here and there. Kinda gives the 'undefined boundaries' that you get from an incandescent match, I hope.

Finally, a last picture that I invite you to read into on your own.

Anyway. Merry Christmas again. Enjoy the new year!

Australia is on FIRE!

Heyo everyone!

Man, is it hot! It's so hot Australia is LITERALLY on fire. Huge pieces of it, too. It's as if the whole place underwent spontaneous combustion. The sky looks as if a volcano had erupted, even in a place that is relatively far away from the actual fires. Well, the firemen have their work cut out for them and we all respectfully salute their valiant efforts. Incidentally you should pick up the 'Firefighter! Daigo of Company M' manga if you can. It's brilliant writing and really gives a whole new light to firefighters.

So, what else has been happening? Well, I've been to the ballet performance of Swan Lake. You know... there's a reason why that's the epitomy of ballet. This year I was seated pretty far away, so I couldn't get any close-up views but a more panaromic one of the entire performance. Ah, the talented... Also attended a Christmas party at which vast quantities of alcohol were consumed and friendly poker games were won. Even got a look at that newfangled Wii! Generally things were good, but I'm having lots of difficulties getting home in time for my cousin's wedding. Vexing, indeed.

Anyway, let's briefly run through some of the pictures. I'm really sorry but some are terribly messy and even uncomplete. However, there is quantity. I'm finding that using the mechanical pencil and 2B pencil method of sketching tends to generate fairly messy pics. I'm also not very happy with shading using the 2B pencil, especially when it's scanned... but it does the job I guess. I need to start going back to blue-pencil and inking.

The first three are a continuation after the last post. What can I say? It was a bikko frenzy that has gone now. Still, there's a huge amount of art on her out there, and I was just putting my own style out. The first one's my own fairly original concept of her browsing through some music titles. I must admit that in retrospect that 'peg-leg' I gave her is REALLY ridiculous. I should have drawn a proper crutch, except I don't know how to.

The fourth risque pic is inspired by one of the sequences in the OP of xxxHoLiC. Now, I haven't really seen much of the series yet, and that bizzare style of LONG people seems to put me off... but the music at the start and end are REALLY catchy. Plus there's that risque duo (they're minor characters) really made me stop and really want to draw them out. Of course, if you look around there's probably better art somewhere, but... I tried.

I've also included one I've done on Zero Louise (pic 6), from the anime Zero no Tsukaima. Cute as heck, but too short! It was great fun watching, though. My sketch doesn't do justice to the real anime (none of them ever do! You should know that by now!) so really... go watch it. Anyway, between Bikko, Maru and Moro, and Zero Louise, which do you think would be something I should work on? I get the feeling that if I should ever sneak into an anime festival again, I'd like to leave one (or more) of these characters lying around in the art room.

The fifth and last pic are just some experiments I've tried of different angles. The fifth resurrects some old characters I'd created when I started (more than a year ago) to try a top-view of some action scenes. The last one was supposed to be a bottom-up view... and I did like it enough to want to try adding in more grand backgrounds with giant spaceships, ruins and all... but I got sidetracked and lost interest. There you go... unfinished.

Well that's it. Let's see how things develop. Might think up a story to commit to paper one of these days.