Needed to get something uploaded

Nothing new to report. Just wanted to upload something so I can link it somewhere else.

Two sketches: first is a witch vs zombies scene that was heavily influenced by this very simple but very nicely drawn pic of a witch fighting off pumpkins. I really didn't pull this one off and at one point ruined the perspective but I'll leave it here so I can learn from it. Second sketch is taken off my Guild Wars monk character cursing a silly assassin. Head disproportionate, messily coloured and costumes not exactly following original design.

Quid Pro Quo, Tit for Tat

Questionaire

Layer One: On The Outside
Name: CWY aka BeanieMan aka Baron Crovax
Birth Date: The maximum square root in a year

Current status: Unemployed and Single... sadly
Eye Colour: Brown
Hair Colour: Black enough
Righty or Lefty: Right-handed, unlike those devil-lefties

Layer Two: On The Inside
Your Heritage: Proud Asian Banana
Fears: Things that I cannot achieve due to my overwhelming weaknesses and inabilities
Your Weakness: Low willpower, irresponsibility, physically weak and horrible mentality
Your Perfect Pizza: Meaty... possibly with seafood

Layer Three: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Your Thoughts First Waking Up: 'I need to get to the bathroom'
Your Bedtime: Late and whenever I like it
Your Most Missed Memory: Probably high school. Good 'fellowship' friends, close family and a very special bit that remains a secret forever.

Layer Four: Your Pick
Pepsi or Coke: Ginger Beer
McDonald's or Burger King: KFC.. coz I hate McD. They have crappy burgers and overcharge
Single or Group Dates: Single dates means less competition from the male offensive but focused pressure from the female offensive. Probably single is still better.
Adidas or Nike: Both are crap
Tea or Nestea: Nestea... sweeter
Chocolate or Vanilla: No particular preference
Cappucino or Coffee: Whichever's sweeter

Layer Five: Do You...
Smoke: Can't... asthma
Curse: All the F**KING time
Take a shower: Sure. I defecate regularly too. Thanks for asking
Have a crush: Probably not
Think you've been in love: Sadly... yes
Go to school: not anymore
Want to get married: Hmmm... succumb to my diseases alone and bitter... I think marriage isn't a bad idea
Believe in yourself: Hell no
Think you're a health freak: Hell no

Layer Six: In The Past Month
Drank alcohol: Copiously? Yes
Gone to the mall: Kinda
Been on stage: No
Eaten sushi: I've had one of those rolls. Don't think it counts as sushi.
Dyed your hair: No

Layer Seven: Have You Ever...
Played A Stripping Game: Nope. I'm grotesque enough not to be asked
Fit In: Not really. Other people have tried to but I always screw up.

Layer Eight:
Age You're Hoping To Be Married: Anytime before I die... preferrably while sex is still important to me.

Layer Nine: In a Girl/Guy
Best Eye Colour: I wouldn't care even if flames shot out of their eyes
Best Hair Colour: I wouldn't care even if it was the colour of vomit
Short Hair or Long Hair: Short hair's cuter... but again I am not going to be fussy because of this

Layer Ten: What Were You Doing
1 Min Ago: Reading webcomics
Hour Ago: Playing Guild Wars
4.5 Hours Ago: Watching Heroes
1 Month Ago: The same as above
1 Year Ago: The same as above but crying over my stupid thesis also

Layer Eleven: Finish The Sentence
I Love: meat, anything related to manga and anime and video games
I Feel: tired
I Hate: my weaknesses
I Hide: my genitalia
I Miss: Foo Chook Kin (it's a food item)
I Need: Money and women.. and superpowers

Okay, I normally don't do these kind of things but because it was personally requested and I can't say no to a lady... I acquiesed. I know how the game is played. Info is paid for by info. So there you go. No pic uploads today, but I might come up with some if I can spare the time to prepare for Animania this weekend. Doodling Contest!

I thought I didn't have to take tests anymore...

Hola, senors and senoritas. Especially the senoritas. Welcome back to the people who have just returned from a short trip to Japan. I hope your journey was fruitful and that you enjoyed the entire experience.

Man, it's been a busy week. Still actively seeking employment and being evaluated by all these companies. I thought I didn't have to sit for any more tests but here I am, waking up early and dressing smartly to go for these bizzare tests here and there. Some online, too. Well, at least there's free candy, and it's still probably better than actual employment itself. Still, we gotta do what we gotta do.

Anyway there's been fairly little time to come up with any new drawings. However, I did manage to sit down and come up with more Ouran fanart. Man, is this series great! I've dedicated two pictures (Pic 4 and Pic 5) to the Low-Blood-Pressure King Kyouya, specifically taken from Episode 17. Gotta love that glower. Pic 6, oddly enough, also comes from that episode and features Renge in a different attire. Better do your homework, kids! You'll notice that I'm slowly getting better at shading despite terribly shaky mouse hands. This is due to a new technique I've learned using Masks on different layers that allow me gradients of darkness and lightness. I quite like it, really! Still, some are terribly bumpy and jagged because I still haven't mastered the mouse (and mine's not the best quality either). For Renge, I intended to put some lighting in, but I just gave up after colouring the two Kyouyas. Generally the 'Magic Wand' allows me faster flat colouring, but shadowing still takes a lot of time and I still don't quite know where exactly should the shadows apply.

The first pic is something I came up with while at Minifest that I didn't upload previously. Sometime between certain events, if I recall. Pic 2 is Nagato Yuki from the Melancholy of Haruhu Suzumiya (that dancing anime!). Uh... I really wanted to colour this but after doing three pictures I couldn't bring myself to do one more, particularly since the picture itself is a bit off and I wanted to maintain my Ouran fandom. Pic 3 is a rough sketch of Adelle Nahashid from the manga Pilgrim Jager that I'm reading currently. The story is somewhat 'Priest'-ish and the art is fantastic (Mami Itoh, I believe, draws). A tad bit complicated but I love the gore.

Alright I've spent way too much time reporting this. This was meant to be a 'welcome back' in addition to a 'ahhhh... nobody's been nagging me for sketches for a while' note to the readers. Au revoir, mates.

It's Renge's turn!

Hot on the heels of the previous update.. it's Renge's turn! You know what? I've changed my mind... Haruhi is nice and all but who can beat the manic behaviour (and oh, so Otaku) of Renge-chan! Therefore my new Ouran favourite is the high-powered-motor-queen herself, Renge Houshakuji. Gotta try to capture that bit where she's going 'Moeeeeeeeee......!' Anyway got just the flower for the background from my mum's camera skills.

As for the other two... the first is just something I was experimenting on: pouting. Then I added in a dragonesque fellow to bulk it up. Need some consumate Vs there somewhere. The second is based on a (highly risque lesbian pirate themed) webcomic Boobs Ahoy. Um... not that there's anyone like that here but if you're the objectionable type don't bother.

Hooray for Haruhi!

Hooray for Haruhi and in more than one case. Haruhi from 'Ouran High School Host Club' and Haruhi from 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'. Both excellent in their own way, but Ouran's Haruhi has actually pulled my from my sci-fi fantasty genres into the realm of shoujo stories with reverse harems!

Anyway, feeling a bit adventurous, I've come up with another coloured comic. Good news is I've found an excellent way of colouring the comic that is really easy! See? I've even had time to try double-layered shadowing and putting one of my mum's pretty photos from Japan in the background. Not too shabby but it has it's drawbacks, e.g. demands on cleanliness, which I lack generally. You'll note that the sketch has several flaws too that I only realised when I was inking. Anyway definitely made colouring easier.

If I can think of anything to draw after this I'll try to get them uploaded.

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.