Lack of Productivity During Spring Break

Alright. I've fallen behind again. In the process, I reveal to the world the horrible, self-depreciative nature of my frustration when I reach wall in my work.

So, the first image. The bottom-left signifies the beginning of a challenge from a fellow artist to try drawing without relying so much on a rough outline or sketchwork of the final product.



It seemed like a good thing to try: Something that I've turned into a crutch is my need to sketch out a whole body and figure before adding any details to it. The figure often looks like a low-polygon computer model, staggered in some awkward position. As a result, my drawings tend to be static and lacking in flow.

Taking up the challenge would mean trying to draw with just a pen. Unerasable, permenant pen. For someone like me who has trouble transferring the images in my head onto the paper in nothing but properly-executed pen strokes, this...became a problem.

The majority of the pages where I attempted this are filled not with images, but self-hatred for my HORRIBLE, REPULSIVE FAAAAAAAILUUUUREEEEE.

FEEL FREE TO SKIP THE NEXT FIVE THUMBNAILS! :D

We now resume the normal flow of the world.

So, that's that. :D Those two pages probably add up to 2 actual images to my total count.

Eventually, I cooled off, and took another shot at it, and the results were pretty good. Maybe, during my five earlier attempts, I wasn't breathing, or hunched over in such a way that my brain was oxygen-deprived, causing me to become enveloped in ALL-CONSUMING RAGE.

Because I came out with some nice stuff for the next few attempts.

Also, Kubo Tite in the next image. The stuff in the upper-left was done without a reference photo of him, but Kupo Tite the cursed moogle spawn in the bottom-left was made with a reference photo. Ignore the child-stealing vampire with the disproportionate body.


Between the last image and this one, I started writing up material for a new story involving magical swords. So this was design brainstorming. When drawing, I tried blending the "no figure sketching" with my usual process. Pencilwork has thus been left in the drawings after they were inked.

And more brainstorming.

This was plain doodling. Played with drawing a hand grasping something, in a close-up.
What bothers me is how phallic the tube looks.

More design brainstorming for that story I mentioned.

Between that drawing and this one, I purchased a used copy of "The Art of Final Fantasy IX," and after staring at the cover for a while, wanted to take a shot at using watercolors to color my pictures.

I think I got some nice results.

Sure doesn't keep the paper from warping, though. Gotta do something to stop that...


SO YEAH. That's that, for now.

11 drawings in this update.
This brings me up to 84 drawings total. 282 more to go.

...Aaaaand I SHOULD have 88 drawings by now. I'm behind by 4 days.

Uuuuugh. ;_____;

Taking Advantage of Freedom

Long, long-overdue update. Lots of pictures, and many count for multiple days. My drawing time was broken up and rationed sparingly in lieu of assignments piling up.

That aside, we begin with a boy flying on top of a giant bird. (Or a tiny boy riding on a normal-sized bird's back?) I had a lot of fun with that upper-left corner. The kid kind of reminds me of Chuckie, from Rugrats.
The next drawing is a direct product of Jet Grind Radio's title screen music, "The Concept of Love." Both characters were drawn up on different days, so we have two drawings here. I sure do enjoy using ink washes for transparent visors.


And hand studies, even when, well, I should probably be focusing on more than just hands in the alarmingly-few studies I work on.


And we've got a monster that probably can't eat anything because of the placement of teeth in its mouth -


And robots, a Casshern ripoff, and the soundless musical uses of a broom.


Another two-day image...Top was one day, bottom was another. Pumpky and Straw Man's relationship feels familiar to me. Oddly familiar.


And a handful of faces. This...this is probably another way that I go about venting during bad days. KAWAII DESU DESU DERP DERP derp derp...


And another two-day split: Playing with bodies, expressions, and poses.


And another split: the Igor ripoff in the upper-right, and the seashell, were from one day, while the rest was on another.


Another split: All but the origami monster were drawn on one day, and then the origami monster followed on another.


And then one last day split: Monsters, possibly of the RPG variety. Everything but that serpent, the doll, and the little knight where drawn on one day. I'm pretty proud of the hourglass and candle monsters.


Well, let's total this all up... 17 drawings, in this batch. Brings me up to 72 total.

31 days in January, 28 in February...59 plus the 12 days gone by in March thus far...Equals 71.

Yeah, that should be about right, I think. o_O

So that puts me one day ahead, covered up through March 13th! Sweet.

So with 72 drawings total, I've got 293 more to go.

(...Even if my math is wrong, I'll still have a surplus of drawings, so it ain't all bad. Although, I really need to figure out a standard method to counting the drawings I do. Something's iffy about the way I'm doing it now.)