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. ;_____;