Cosplay Crossover, Hands, Birds

Alrighty, well, only four in this update...

Someone told me to draw Avatar fanart. I...I'm not sure what happened, but somehow Steiner from Final Fantasy IX and my fist made it into the page, too.

...I struggle with drawing fanart, a lot of the time.


Studies of hands and birds. The birds invited a bit of playing with inkwashes. I like them quite a bit.

More character design brainstorming. Played with inkwashes and used a brush for linework on the guy over on the left. Doesn't look all that bad.


Watercolors and brainstorming...and Persona 3 fanart. The figure in the bottom, at the center, is an idea for 'spiffing up' my current cosplay plan for Kumoricon...namely the mask and sword.

BUT YEAH. I realized I wrote "Battle Coffin" instead of "Battle Casket," which I had intended...the thing still looks far too phallic for my tastes, but whatever.

SO. FOUR DRAWINGS.
191 drawings total, as of this post.

I should have 210 drawings by today, though.

Still behind by 19. Shucks.

Overcoming A Block

The past few weeks have been unproductive and frustrating.

Or at least, the recent few weeks have been. As a result, I have sparse few drawings to share. However, since it's been a while since I last posted, I figure it would be a good idea to post what I have so far.


This is actually an older comic page I doodled up a long while back earlier this year, but didn't post for some reason or another. Might have to do with the horrendous, eye-gougingly-wrong proportions on the last panel.

Hand studies, and attempting to work with foreshortening. With poor results.

More hand studies.

A failed hand study, complete with self-depreciative remarks, and a drawing of a rabbit from a photograph.


Playing with watercolors while listening to the soundtrack of Fradile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon.


I actually struggled with this page until I drew up the girl...and quickly applied watercolor soon after.


In lieu of the last watercolor image, I tried it with two more of my characters.


And then another two.


And then I doodled up some other character designs...


Playing with inkwashes on a comic page. Mixed results...


And this page marks the beginning of my period of recent frustration. Something about faces, hands, and bodies became an incredible struggle for me, and nothing seemed to be working right.

Also, the "Dogs aren't primates" bit is clipped from my own life - from my psychology class.


I got this idea to try draw an action scene. So I tried...but then I realized that I don't have any idea about how to render action in a comic, let alone how to draw a scythe being used to attack someone.


...which brought me to try drawing-up the various ways a scythe COULD be used. I can't say that this was...particularly helpful, though. Or realistic.


Another attempt at an action scene, and I gave up before finishing, because everything just looks...well, horrible and wrong. I think the past two penciled comic pages and the scythe poses add together to maybe two images total.

...I won't acknowledge the comic pages alone as counting toward my image count.


So, a few days ago, I decided to try take another shot at drawing, despite my frustration with my abilities, and just drew faces. To my delight, everything seemed to be working out well.


And so I continued, the next day.


And then this was drawn up today. At the rate I'm going, I'll be back to speed in no time. :D

So...well, let's see how far behind I am.

16 images in this update.

That makes...100? Wow. o_o

So. 100 images total.
265 left.
But I should have 118 images by today.

I'M BEHIND BY 18 DAYS, GOOD GOD. ;_;

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. ;_____;