One Longest Way

Title pulled from the lyrics to "Distance" by Long Shot Party. (Give the music video a watch. It's entertaining, to say the least.)

Anyway. Not too much to show off this time around, but I've been doing some more playing around with sharpies and some pens that my brother brought home with him from Hawaii. Eight drawings total in today's update.


This was drawn...sometime last week. A week from today, actually. I wanted to draw something to cheer up my girlfriend while she was at work, so I drew the three most important Oresoren from Tales of Legendia. What better way could there have been? The drawing itself has nice, bold lines. I liked using the sharpie for this.

Then, earlier today, I was just doodling in the bottom half of the page, but...got lazy halfway through.

Sarah from my Rose Hero storyline. I played with the sharpie again when I drew her here. I'm pretty satisfied with how she looks in this page, except...something about the way I drew her leg and hips in the drawing of her running just seems off. Like the perspective and alignment of her legs is wrong.

This was just...well, pointless doodling. Toying with the sharpie more.

More sharpie play. I just gave up on this before too much time passed - it was starting to look terrible. The first panel does look very nice, though. I feel like I managed a good sense of action in it.

Aruna from my Rose Hero storyline. I rarely draw largely, and I also rarely draw close-ups of any characters. I gave it a shot here, using the sharpie for a lot of the lines, and...it seems like it turned out okay. Nothing too stellar, especially with the shape of the hair and the proportions of the head/face, but for once, it doesn't look like something that makes me want to die on the inside.

Also, colored Aruna looks waaaay too motherly, for some reason.

Rosa, also from Rose Hero. Playing with her design and drawing large(r) again. Something seems off about her proportions, and her hands also seem kind of wonky.


Richard, also from Rose Hero. Tried the same thing with Aruna, this time with arguably better results. The sharpie is amazing.

The drawing of him standing looks particularly impressive, I think. I stared at him and thought, "Wow, this looks really good."

This was...well, this was just for fun. So many things bother me about Aruna in this drawing - her back looks like it stretches backwards too far, her arm is a bit too long, and her hair looks like a mess.

But that aside, I did have fun drawing this. I play with ideas about Sarah and Aruna in my head.

Anyhow. I seem to be getting back into drawing more regularly. It's starting to feel a lot better, somehow.

Sunshine on Summertime

SUNSHIIIINE ON SUUUUUMEEEERRTIIIIIIIIIIMEEEE~

HAHA, I'M FREE FROM COMMUNITY COLLEGE.

Title pulled from DEEN's song of the same title.

Anyway, I've got an odd variety of things to show off in this update. In lieu of school, I've taken it upon myself to begin drawing from photographs again...and then moving on to actually drawing from life. So first up are some studies...


The first of them: Nothing...too spectacular, here. I think I screwed-up on the arms for both of the women I drew here. Keanu Reeve's face is kind of weird, too. They look nice, though.

More women. I think these turned out better than that first page, save for those hideous looking hands.

I think this page is filled with fantastic things. The drawing of Yuki Kajiura on the left turned out swell, as did the woman on the right. The faces up top are all varying in quality.

HEY LOOK, COLOR. I think the only decent things on this page are the woman's face in the top-left, and the woman in the bottom-right.

SO NOW LET'S SWITCH GEARS INTO ANIMU MODE.

I realized I'd never scanned this in before, and it's many weeks old: It's a concept drawing for a character idea I'd been tinkering with for Rose Hero - Blue Adonis, complete with a terrible color scheme. It needs some adjusting.

An extension of the character concept for Blue Adonis. Design ideas for Reed.
Complete with a really awkward, out-of-proportion drawing of his head and neck in the bottom-right.

HEY LOOK, COLOR: I'd drawn-up this page with the intent of doing a flat coloring job for part of it. Here we've got Red Adonis, represented roughly in color.

I have no idea how digital coloring works, and it remains a debilitating weakness.

The top of this page was just a quick observational drawing of the space outside of one of my classes this quarter. The rest of it...well, I don't know what it is. The drawing of Sarah slouched-down pleases my eyes, though.

SO NOW LET'S SWITCH GEARS ONE LAST TIIIIME~

So, last month (or was it early this month?) I was in a Tinychat with some friends I'd made back at Sakuracon. During the course of the Tinychat, everyone decided that we should draw pictures of each other.

So that's what I did. I gave girls tiny bodies and made them look like Mii's, or emphasized their favorite names for me.

I made Harry Potter a MANLY STORY FOR MANLY MEN SUCH AS MYSELF, and also made another friend a MANLY MAN CAPABLE OF MANLY FEATS SUCH AS CONQUERING THE UNKNOWN.

Seriously, man. Eyepatches. Eyepatches just make people look cooler.

And this...this is special. That's also a man, underneath all of that.


AND WITH THAT, I'LL CLOSE THIS UPDATE.
Why the Hell haven't I started a comic yet?

Blue Bird

Update title pulled from the opening to Bakuman's anime adaption.

Just a few drawings, this time around. School's...crunching down on me with the force of a wild animal's jaws. I can't wait to be finished with all my schoolwork. ;_;

Anyhow, everything in this update is Rose Hero related.

Doodles of Aruna and Black Iris: With Black Iris in particular, I wanted to see what her design would look like if I'd tweaked it.

...because I struggle to draw the ways in which a scythe can be used in combat, despite the wealth of videos I could probably find for it.

Drawings of the protagonist, Sero. I wanted to draw him transforming into his superhero alter-ego, which prompted the in-transformation pose on the left.

The one with the off-angle foot on the right side. Otherwise, I quite like it.

More protagonists: A lineup of Sero with Aruna and Sarah. While the outfits are all about right, Sero's face and Aruna's seemingly-disproportionate legs and stature bother me whenever I see this.

But the drawing of Sarah's face in the bottom-right corner pleases me. That's the sort of look I want to be going for when I draw my comic.

More of the main cast: Richard and Rosa. Richard looks kind of strange - his shoulders seem to be sitting a bit too low, and his arms look too thin. Rosa seems fine, though. Rosa's face in the bottom-right, with that smile, is something I surprised myself with.


...Sheesh, I should be catching these mistakes before I set the ink down, shouldn't I?

Role Play Game

Post title taken from lyrics (and title?) of School Food Punishment's song, "RPG."

Well, so I haven't been on a crazy, burning-hot drawing streak...but the drawings I've produced lately have been wonderful in comparison to what I usually generate. My poses feel...looser, lighter - easier to draw.

SO LET'S GOOOOO

Just drawings while I was lounging at my college last Thursday. Started off with a drawing of Belt about to punch someone, then I drew Aruna and Rosa wearing clothes different from their usual designs.

So-so stuff. Belt looks particularly awesome, if not for the odd placement of his arm that's in the foreground.

I was browsing a CERTAIN IMAGEBOARD's anime and manga board the other day, and someone was complaining about some of their work not being accepted someplace. One particular design felt like it'd be fun drawing, so...I took a stab at it.

I'll try to forget I ever drew this.

And this started as a mish-mash of random "NPC"-grade designs I doodled...then I filled the lower-left corner with drawings of Sarah, from Rose Hero's storyline.

I liked how a lot of things turned out here. Except for the guy in the bottom-right. The underside of his chin and his hands, wrist, and arm bothers me.

SPEAKING OF ARMS. I was talking with my girlfriend the other night, and she mentioned a concept for a character, and...well, long story short, it got me drawing a girl with arms being stabbed into her body whilst surrounded by many more. Not sure if this is quite what she had in mind, but I really like how the drawing turned out.

...the problem was, it only took up half the page, so I quickly doodled Aruna in its empty half.

Just drawings of various Rose Hero cast members. All of which look fairly nice. Except for Sero, down in the bottom-left. Ignore the malformed Kyubey.

The drawing of Aruna on the mid-right is something I'm quite proud of, though.



Well. That's it for this update.

...I really should just up and draw comic pages and roll with whatever I wind-up drawing.

"The easiest way to start a comic is to just start drawing it," someone once mentioned to me...

Rumba Rumba Rumba Rumba Rumba

Post title pulled from the lyrics to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei's second season's (?) opening song.

I had a busy, delightful, and all-around interesting weekend, but now I'm back with pencil and pen in hand, screwing eeeeeverything up in a new sketchbook!

So, down to business. Four drawings in this update -

I opened up flickr and began searching photos to draw from, with the intent of coming up with studies of people in street clothes. Obviously, I got distracted, and eventually drew a horribly-disproportionate police officer (?) in the center of the page.

But I like the man in the bottom-left. He turned out well.

So last night, I had this dream about an anthromorphic black cat killing a fat, anthromorphic cat king out of revenge, and learning strange things about his mother. After 10 minutes in the shower, I began producing ideas for a comic I could try drawing.

I'm no furry artist, and my knowledge of feline anatomy is poor, so I drew up this boy, tenatively named Belt, with a long belt hanging off the back of his pants in mimicry of a tail. I quite like him.

And then I drew...well, I guess...this guy is something of a prince? "Scarf," "Scarves," "Klaus"...I couldn't think of a good name for him. No idea what to make of this design so far.

And then, I wanted to draw this anthromorphic cat king. Not very much like the fat cat man I'd witnessed in last night's dream. I had this idea for a dramatic shot that I wanted to draw, so I rushed with practicing a mock-up of the king's design while doing some lazy doodles of cats using photos from the web...and then drew the red image at the top of the page.

Well, that about wraps up this update.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLLLLLDDDDD

I'll Take My Chances Here and Now

Title of the update pulled from the lyrics of Wild ARMS 3's english opening song.

Not much in the way of an update tonight, thanks in part to classwork drowning me over the past week or so. I did, however, have the chance to finally scan-in and edit two comic pages I scribbled-up.

In a stupid and hypocritical move, I've decided to play with tones...but I'm not so sure I'm working them right. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'm not applying them properly at all. I am, however, satisfied with how the linework for these pages turned out. I think I'm in need of some backgrounds, though...



That's about it. I sketched-up a third page, but got bored with it.

If anything bothers me, it's that the tones I used don't really show through on these images. They're too fine, I guess. I wish the patterns of the tones showed through. It might make Red Adonis seem less...dark?

Hopefully, I'll have more like this on the way, what with break coming up.

Dazzling

Post title sharing its name with the translation of a track from Star Driver's OST.

ANYWAY! I had a large chunk of time to myself to draw today...largely as a result of having nothing to do at school until 3:30 PM, and getting to the campus at about 8:30 AM. I sat and drew for maybe all but 30 minutes.

(Not like I have much to show for it, the way I draw, right? Right?)

This wasn't from today's drawing session. This was from a few days ago. Top is a drawing made from a lounge elsewhere on campus, made while waiting for my English 102 class. All but one of the faces in the bottom segment are drawn from a hairstyle magazine.

Faces from hairstyle magazines, a Nordstroms catalogue, and an Amtrak brochure. The old man in the top-right turned out best, I think.

Overall, I've been enjoying drawing out of that hairstyle magazine...although, I really should start drawing from life and not photos. >_>;

Anyway, the rest of the drawings are of characters from my Rose Hero story/plot. People checking in regularly with the blog should be familiar with these recurring faces...

Sketches of Sero/Red Adonis. I'm not too keen on how anything besides the bottom-left drawing turned out. Everything else looks...awkward. I'd have filled in the black or toned areas, but the pens I use for that have...dried-up. ._.

Various characters. Aruna and Sero on a dock, at the top. Aruna, on the left, seems...oddly-proportioned, and it bothers me. Maybe it's just the angle and perspective. Down below on the left was an attempt at redesigning Rosa with a new hairstyle, which I am very, very pleased with.

Sketches of Richard...nothing too special here. His sleeve in the top-left drawing seems like it's too...smooth? Lacking detail, I guess.

And then this is me playing with Rosa's new design. I'd enjoy the swinging drawing much more if her eyes hadn't turned out so strange-looking.

Overall, I'm feeling like I'm getting back into the swing of things.

I'm remembering the feeling that I need the most if I want to draw my best.

(24 images still left in order to meet last year's quota, though!)

Life, this is my life

Post name pulled from a verse out of "Hatenaki Michi" by HIMEKA.

My, it's been a while. Sure feels good after cranking out 8 pages of the rough draft of a research paper in 14 hours, the day before it's due. But now that the stress of that stupid thing's gone, I feel free to draw without worrying about it so much.

SO LET'S GET THIS GOINGGGG
Just some drawings of photos out of a hairstyle magazine given to me by a friend. Ignore the disproportionate woman on the right, as Doodle-Me is already aware of the problem. I think the faces actually turned out great, though.

More drawing from magazines because drawing people sitting around me is nerve-wracking. The old man in the top-left is fantastic, I think. And the showgirl...well, something...seems off about her. I think she's disproportionate? Something about those legs...

And now we begin with my babbling about things that only make sense to a few people: Most of the rest of the post is character designs and brainstorms for my Requiem plotline.

Glyde, pre-timeskip. I've settled on colors for his jacket except for the end and that giant folded-over collar. His shorts have changed from previous designs, and now feature those...gems.

The evolution of Hotaru's design throughout the story, beginning from the pre-timeskip period to the end of it. Her post-timeskip design seems fairly plain, though. Like her outfit needs something else to it...

General character brainstorms, plus a drawing of Janus...who looks a fair bit like Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia, now that I think about it.

Character design drafts for Stella. Her original design veered too closely to Hotaru's pre-timeskip design, so I felt the need to rework her appearance...although, it isn't as though that's helped differentiate her from Hotaru that well.

Next are comic pages. Three pages are brainstorming for story points in Requiem, mostly dealing with Janus and Glyde fighting. One other page is included in this post, but is unrelated to Requiem.
Fairly satisfied with this one...except for the second/center panel. Glyde's legs and the pose that Janus is in could have been...better positioned?

This was drawn maybe a week after that page. The first panel here probably makes for bad follow-through with the action in the final panel of the previous page, but other than that, all this page needs is some BACKGROUNDSSSSSS

Post-timeskip battle between Janus and Glyde. Besides the poorly-drawn backgrounds, this page made me realize that I need to get a grip on how visualize the neck. Just look at Janus' neck in the second and final panels. I don't think necks work that way?

And this was drawn specifically for submission into my college's art magazine. Look at that, I figured out how to use tones after X number of years! I'm satisfied with everything in this page EXCEPT for the background. Look at the floor.

Augh, my God. Look at the floor.

Anyway, these don't count toward the remaining 24 images I need to meet last year's quota.