A secret picture and an update

Two arts today! Sort of.

First is my Secret Santa present to a fellow member of DA's Fire Emblem Fan Club. I didn't post WIP updates and am not posting my receiver's name in the random off chance that they see this XD

I got it finished and THEN found out that I can't submit it to DA until the 19th. Oops. For the first time in my life, I am actually ahead of my work, albeit unintentionally.

I was going to do a winter scene for the background, but there were so many autumn colors that I couldn't resist.

Second art is just a WIP update. Started blobbing on a vague background.

I have one more gift art to do for my DA Christmas raffle winner. He opted for me not to post updates, so you'll have to wait. I'm sure your life is over.

Chaos WIP update 6 and a sketch

Redid most of her hair since it was way too poofy before. Technically, her hair style is a large bun ponytail kind of thing, but you can't see it from that angle, so it just looked poofy. Sometimes perspective has to take precedent over canon XD

... That's pretty much all I did for today on this one.

Today was my art class and I had to draw up a lesson for my students. I couldn't fudge by printing a reference sheet this time because I had to explain to them about value sketching (sketching without lines). So I spent 30 min sketching this as an example of the benefits of lineless sketching:

The problem is, a lineless sketch should only take about 10 minutes at the max. I got a little carried away :| Oh well.

Chaos WIP update 5

Real quick with this one. Very tired XD

Chaos WIP update 4

I went a little crazy today. Added an unholy amount of detail-necessary work, so now it's officially taking  me longer than it should. And yet, I'm staying focused. Who knows?

Unnecessary detail is unnecessary. I'll probably have to spend another day or two on the belt alone. I just thought the dress looked so plain. I needed to add something to add visual interest. Plus, it was Soren's idea and he would have never let me get over it if I hadn't listened to him.

Boots are fixed, too. Getting close to the homestretch! Then I get to start the fun part: Cleanup. Yaaaaaay.

Chaos WIP update 3

Got some more done. Removed the sketch for now, but I'll need it again when I start the scythe.

Before I go any further, I'm going to completely redo the left foot since it's making me sick. I also have to skew the pattern on the dress to make it bend into the clothing folds, but that will be done last. I think I'll change the belt (again), too.

Detail shots:

Chaos update

Too tired to think clearly. Picture WIP only. Bye-bye.

Detail shot

A sketch and the secret of my bad blogging

I was writing a detailed profile of one of my characters as an exercise after a few days of prodding by Soren when I thought, "I'm an artist! I can procrastinate writing this by painting a picture of the character and it will still count to Soren!" So I spent more hours than necessary looking for a pose reference, then another 20 min or so sketching it out.

Ta-da!

Soreana (pronounced sur-AH-na - get it right!), the Chaos Priestess of my mythology. I'm going to completely re-vamp the dress design because I hate it, but I'm too tired right now. Decided to draw her in my own style instead of fussing over realism. The scythe is my favorite part of her design XD

No, I have not finished my previous WIPs. Leaving so much unfinished may seem a bit weird, but I've only just begun to show you all of my WIPs. My "unfinished" folder is 3x as large as my finished. I usually work on something else and then go back to the previous ones. This should be a fast one, so we'll see.

ONWARD!

I deleted my other blog. Yeah. Kind of sad, right? I just thought it was pointless since I never updated it. I finally figured out why I'm such a bad personal blogger: I simply don't like writing personal things. I cut my facebook friends from 200-something down to like 26 because I didn't like the feeling that I was being watched. So enjoy the mystery of me, because this is all you get XD

WIP update

Today, I was thinking about the things I do to keep me from doing the things I SHOULD be doing and I realized this painting was one of them. I never do stuff like this :| I'm supposed to be working on a landscape but I haven't moved past the sketch. Why? Because landscapes intimidate me and I'm much happier working on fantard tripe than improving my skill. It's rather mortifying. But I WILL work on that landscape. Probably. After this, maybe. Oh, and that other one...

The most frustrating WIP update ever

Though it might look much improved, I actually worked on this for an additional four hours that achieved nothing. Why? Because Photoshop decided that it didn't want to stay open for longer than five minutes without immediately crashing. So I'd opencloseopencloseopenclose for hours and hours until I had to go beat the metal door at work to death to keep from throwing my computer across the room. The problem was that the image itself was so large, any additional color or effort to work would cause it to crash. So after fighting it, I finally managed to slowly resize it one piece at a time, saving in between to circumnavigate the crashes, until I got it scaled 50% and made it workable again. Then I got busy.

Although, in order to make this work, I had to completely flatten the sketch from 12 layers to 1. So I have to paint directly on top of it, thus causing the weird look it has now. But I'll adjust that as I go.

After that, I went home and brutalized my way through several armies in Fire Emblem and felt much better.

Conflict of Interest WIP updates and a new doodle

I have been lazy with this painting. I can thank various wikias for that. They will suck the soul out of you. That and this one isn't as interesting to me for some reason. I've lost a lot of motivation XD I still fiddle with it for awhile occasionally, though, but not enough to make noticeable differences.

It's getting there. Slowly. I still have to paint the complete other side and the background, though. I'm starting to think that I'll split it into two corresponding paintings instead of just one large one. That'll make the lighting differences on the two characters a little easier to manage. Still need to paint John (the skull) and a few other bits, but it's coming along.

My lack of interest (or is it intimidation?) of that painting, coupled with the fact that I'm replaying Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn led me to doodle out a new WIP. Several of the characters in the game, particularly Leanne and Volug, speak almost exclusively in the "ancient tongue" which is displayed in-game as a curly font that can't be read without a key, so the player will be just as confused as the other characters when these two are speaking. However, typical to myself, I had to go and look up translations. I must say, if you've played the game through at least once, you need to do this. Both of them are ridiculously funny. Leanne especially is downright hysterical at times since she's rather snarky when she thinks no one can understand her.

Wasn't there supposed to be art back there? Oh yeah. Here you go.

FE's heron princess Leanne and raven king Naesala. Leanne's official art for RD was pathetic, so I drew her the way I thought she should be :< I'll probably bloody Naesala up a little bit just because I can and I'm feeling violent. Yay violence!

WIP day 2 - Conflict of Interest AND a comic

Technically, I should have posted this update four days ago after I had actually worked on it, but I'm lazy.

Just worked on Sunako a bit, deciding on a tone and playing around. Lighting is so fun. It's my favorite part of art. Yay! Her hair is the funnest thing ever to paint since she's supposed to only brush it like once every 3 weeks. I get to make it totally crazy.

I haven't worked on it in several days because the new Bleach arc put me in a comic-y mood. I just don't understand why Sensei is going to use a whole arc (and probably a year) to do something that could be done in a single panel! Which I addressed here:

I know I say this every time, but click to view full!

Not that I want the story to go like that, though, since I hate Orihime so much, I want her to die a cruel death. I could have changed the title to Useless Orihime's Godlike Powers and it would have meant the same thing. Super Boobs can take her toast-equivalent IQ and go rot in a ditch for all I care.

I may do a second comic since the wonderful freaks on deviantART seem to randomly love this one so much. Especially the YAY! panel. Rainbows and sparkes and chibis oh my!

New WIP - Conflict of Interest

Well, since no one objected to me spamming with my blog updates, I'll continue posting my WIPs.

I redeemed myself with the last finished work, but I can't allow that, can I? If I'm not an insatiable nerd, I'm no one.

Besides, I've been neglecting two of my favorite series characters of all time: Sunako and Kyohei of The Wallflower. 

But don't fret! This new art will be much more than me just having a fit of nerdiness. It's actually aimed at improving my background/foreground and fullbody painting skillz. 

Here's the concept sketch:

I love the early process bits XD They always look so funny. 

Bit of foreshadowing for the rest of the piece: As you might notice, I've divided it into two distinct halves. I'm really going to capitalize on the light/dark dimensions of these two (Kyohei=light; Sunako=dark) so I separated the sketch into shadow and lighting realms. Also, Sunako's half of the garden background --a WIP in itself-- will be withered. It's not obvious in the sketch, but she's holding John, her skull "friend."

I'm using Kame as the model for Kyohei since he looked the part so well in the live-action (even if the writers should be shot, dragged behind a horse, and shot again for making him emo). I'm adding Kyohei's hair to the list of things that are far more difficult to draw than they should be. :|

That's enough ranting for now, I guess. I'm tired.

The Dragon Queen - Finished!

I overworked myself to finish this so I can move on to the next project. But I tried hard not to rush!

WIP day 6 - The Dragon Queen

Bet you're getting tired of this one, aren't you??? Well, so am I. I want to finish it up tomorrow or Friday at the latest! I have other stuff I want to work on XD

Pretty much worked exclusively on the background today. I am notoriously bad at painting clouds. It shows. I'm not finished with them yet, though, so hopefully I can make them presentable D:

My artz and Pyralis are ©Me. Do not use without permission!

WIP day 5 - The Dragon Queen

DO NOT USE MY ARTZ PLZ!

Mostly worked on texturizing the armor and adding highlights, though you can see I'm hinting at the idea of a background. I would have gotten more done except for a bad case of Cursed Texture Brush. My favorite little brush hates being used if there are more than 15 layers. It will say "screw you" and immediately crash Photoshop beyond repair. I lost a lot of work in the past until I figured out its limits.

Scrolling on the armor is gone. I may add more, but I'm not sure. I love the detail, but I really suck at it XD

Fireball is currently absent. The one I had was too cartoony and didn't fit, so I'm experimenting with painting it different ways. It'll be back once I figure it out.

WIP day 4 - The Dragon Queen

Technically, it's day 6, but I wasn't able to work on it this weekend. I was tired!

Updated:
*Blended the armor and began adding highlights and textures
*Tried to decide on a scrollwork to use as armor detail (it's not going well; apparently, I suck at scrollwork).

There was some other minor stuff, but I don't feel like listing every dot I plopped on XD Since it's getting close to resembling finished work, I stuck in a watermark. As we say on deviantART, "Do not use my artz plz."

I also picked a great and dramatic background reference photo, but I'm not posting it. Since I'm only going to use the concept of it (copyright courtesy and all that) I can't post it. I'd be using someone else's artz! But I think you'll love it. I hope I can paint it. Got a long way to go until then, though D:

PS, If you wonder why my art is blurry, it's because it's a screenshot. The whole painting is 7500x7500 pixels, so you can imagine how long it would take to load lulz.

WIP day 3 - The Dragon Queen

I didn't have a lot of time to work on this today. I mainly just focused on the hair. I deleted the crown and started a tiara made of finger bones, but it looked a little off. So I deleted that, too. But since I like the finger bones idea, I added Chinese sticks to the bun in her hair and I'm going to paint them like the bones. I'll also probably drape some gold chains and beads around in her hair to make it more interesting.

I started blending the armor, but didn't get very far. Most of that time was taken up by researching good armor painting techniques, like this armor tutorial from IDG-sensei. He's so awesome. I love him *almost* as much as I love Kubo-sama and that is quite a bit XD

LOL layer line. I just noticed it. Call it a watermark.

Oh, and I moved the body/arm down and to the left just a hair. I thought she looked a little squatty and it wasn't working for me. Ah, the magic of digital art.

I actually want to paint my mom a big traditional painting of a sakura branch, since she liked the one in the store so much. If anyone has any tips on traditional color blending, I'd love to hear them! I'm pretty much exclusively a digital artist, so I'm a noob at "real" painting.

WIP day 2 - The Dragon Queen

An update on my current WIP. Click to make it larger, BTW

*Dropped in the armor and some basic coloration
*Hair outline
*Fireball basic
*Fussy details in places

I'm unsure about the crown. I haven't made up my mind yet. Opinions would be nice. :D

The Dragon Queen - WIP

Since I don't finish a lot of art, I might as well post my works in progress.

Like this one.

Before you see it, though, I have to explain why this is significant. I had stopped painting for awhile because I felt like I had reached a point where I couldn't improve any more. So, I decided to go back to the beginning of my progress and restudy the tutorials that I had used to improve.

Previous to this incident, I had been using an airbrush to paint instead of a hard brush. While it was easier in the beginning because airbrushes blend more easily, it was actually preventing me from adding the detail necessary to improve beyond what I had already accomplished. Since the blending and the colors were soft, hard detail looked foreign and unnatural whenever I tried to add it.

The tutorial I restudied taught me how to use hard brushes, which in turn vastly improved my detail capabilities. The original painting I tested this new method on was a failure (bad undertone color - long story) but this one is going quite well, if I do say so myself. Now if I could just successfully draw the shoulder armor...

The Dragon Queen
(she will be holding a fireball, which is why the lighting is weird)

Fail rendering brought to you by Blogger. I assure you, it looks much better than that XD

But that's it for now! I'm working hard, if I could just get that armor right. *pout*

I'm breaking all my rules now

Maybe it's cause I feel guilty about not updating the blog like I should. Maybe it's cause I'm lonely and typing makes me feel like I'm communicating. Maybe I just want to show off.

Whatever the reason, I'm doing something I've never done before. I'm giving a preview of my work! That's right, an early-development sneak peek of what I'm working on. Oh, and if my words are mixed up, it's because I'm tired; in the last sentence alone, I originally typed "peak" instead of "peek" and "looking" instead of "working." If anything sneaks through, just ignore it.

PS Not just one preview, either. I'll continue to post new bits of it whenever I work on it.

Anyway, this painting is a very special landscape. For years, I've always said that I wished I could paint so I could paint the inside of my mind. The Fifth Plane, or creative plane, of my mind, to be exact. I want to use art to create a window so other people can share in my madness :D

My goal is to finish it by my 21st b-day in January so I can get it printed on a big canvas and hung in my room.

Without further ado, here is the first element of the painting which took me all afternoon:

Click for full!

It's a tree. And it's watermarked so don't even try to steal it >:O

It's still unfinished, but I'm happy with it for now. I need to add more leaves and leaf layers so it won't look so sparse, but that's all easy stuff. The main thing was the trunk. I tend to make them a bit too smooth, so I spent awhile applying textures.

At first, I tried to make it too difficult by using hard/soft/linear light like all the tutorials said, but in the end, my Adonihs 400 pt Shattered brush at 60-ish% opacity with a Gaussian blur 3 pt filter worked just as well. That makes me sound smart doesn't it? Well, don't get your hopes up. I haven't heard what the pros have to say yet.

The tree was based off a stock photo I found while searching for "ancient English oak" or something like that, but it's not a carbon copy. I like how it's a little lopsided.

I'll probably add two or three small jack-o-lantern lights in the branches, but I don't want it to look too much like a Halloween picture.

So that's it for now! Hopefully, I'll keep plowing forward with this because I'm actually having fun :D

I'm the worst blogger ever.

More like the worst artist ever XD

That portrait commission still has me bummed. I hate failing. So I haven't been working on anything remotely art related in a long time. I spent all the time I normally spend on painting on over 240 hours of Oblivion. <-- That is epic nolifesville, that is. I have also become re-addicted to Bleach now that the promise of FINALLY getting to the last battle is on the horizon. Although I will hate to see it end, knowing Kubo-sensei, it will be another two years before the battle is finished XD Normally, I would hate to admit all that, but it was my nerdy happiness that made me brush the dust off my tablet and draw a comic strip.

Painting is a no-go. I feel like I've hit a wall. I'm not really seeing anymore improvement and that's slowing me down. Where before, every piece was leaps and bounds greater than the last, I just don't see that anymore. Not to mention, I've been trying to improve my speed a little. Bah...

Planning to go aaaaall the way back to my hometown this fall to go to the Renaissance Festival with my dear friend that I knew since I was five (or four, don't remember lol), but lost contact with in high school. I love the Ren Fest XD

And that's it! Aren't you glad I took the time to write about nothing???

Tribute

Yesterday, I learned that my friend and former boss Robert McCurry was killed in a car accident on Thursday while leaving his apartment to attend college classes. His memorial service was today, but I was unable to make it thanks to the eight hour drive between me and the Houston area.

I couldn't even think about going through the day without acknowledging him in some way, so I decided just to write some things that I remembered.

-Robert gave me my first job and was a unique boss. He valued my opinion in Gamestop goings-on and seemed to appreciate my blunt honesty. He never made me do work that was uncomfortable for me, like excessive dealing with customers, and instead let me do the work I was good at and enjoyed. He would never curse in front of me or the other female employees because he considered it rude. He treated us with respect that most people don't even consider.

-I picked up some strange food habits from him that I still can't break. To this day, I can't eat an untoasted sandwich and I love Little Caesar's pepperoni and jalapeno pizza with buffalo sauce mixed with the marinara.

-I remember once while I was training a new employee, someone sneaked around behind the register and snagged some merchandise while my back was turned. Robert chased him down and asked him if he'd stolen anything from us (his pants were obviously full of something) to which the guy replied that it was "just" his weed. It wasn't "just" weed, he was arrested for theft AND possession, and I still laugh while picturing the look on Robert's face when the guy told him it was marijuana.

-He introduced me to the only two American bands that I still enjoy -- Breaking Benjamin and Evans Blue/Parabelle.

-He texted me randomly about six months after I'd quit just to say "OMG I can't stop hiccuping. Seriously, I've had the hiccups for two days." At first, I was really confused, but it was so funny.

-When someone was hitting on me at work and making me angry, he told them I was jail bait (even though I was 18) to get them to leave me alone.

-He's responsible for my manga addiction. He'd let me take home leftover Shonen Jump magazines every month when the new ones came in, which made me fall in love with Bleach.

I guess I could go on and on, but I feel satisfied now. Today, I'm going to go order a Robert pizza from Caesar's and listen to some K-Mat Evans Blue. Please say a prayer for the comfort of his family.

Quick arts give me a break from real arts. PS comic!

Stuff is crazy. Can't keep up. So here's the art!

1) Most have seen it by now, but I painted a portrait of Tarja Turunen to commemorate both her birthday and her upcoming new album, What Lies Beneath. It was quick by painting standards: it only took about 10 hours XD

Leather was fun to paint. I'd never done it before.

I actually colored her eyes for effect (she has pretty eyes) but I didn't take into account that they're light blueish-grey so it barely shows D:

2) Even quicker than that (taking a monumental hour and a half) is a new comic! I know, right? I don't even remember how to do comics. But everyone seems to love the ones I do, so I thought what the heck?

I've been playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion again. I go through phases where I play for a month or so, then don't, then start playing again and so forth. I just felt like making a comic about the funniness of the guards and the game's ridiculous crime engine.

You'll have to click to view the whole thing.

That's it! I'll try to finish up some more serious arts...

Driving Rant

I rarely use this blog for personal stuff anymore, but I have to rant or I might kick a puppy.

My general dislike of people in general is never helped by driving. I can't comprehend how some people are still on the road. Still alive, even. It makes no conceivable sense.

Therefore, I have compiled a list of the top 5 groups of people who should not drive.

5) Chit-chatters
- Talking, either on the phone or to someone in the car, is distracting, but most people seem to do ok with it. However, you do not have to stay focused on someone to talk. Stop looking at them and watch the road, for crying out load.

4) The elderly
- I'm not saying all elderly people can't drive, only that most of them can't. In the last few days alone, I almost got into a several car pileup because an old lady was going 25 MPH in a 45 MPH minimum zone. She was completely unaware that everyone was swerving around her and almost crashing. This happens to me at least once on a weekly basis, sometimes more. There was an old man straddling lanes just 30 minutes ago that almost caused a wreck. And he didn't even know.

3) Texters
- Teenagers are idiots in general (no offense) but this is mostly enhanced by their OCT, or obsessive compulsive texting. You are a new driver and are statistically more likely to have a wreck anyway. Your friends are, like, going to be a lot more depressed if you, like, die than if you don't immediately respond to their "lol" message, ya know? Probably.

2) Drunks
- Insert obvious comment here

And the #1 group of people who shouldn't drive: Narcoleptics
- Anyone prone to randomly fall asleep at any given moment shouldn't walk, let alone drive. Sorry, Narcoleptics. I know you can't help it, but we don't want to die. Stay off the road, yes?

Basics of Sketching

Since Blogger chose now to be an idiot and tell me that my .jpg files were not .jpg's, I had to come up with another way to post my lessons. So here you have it!

Beginner's Guide to Sketching Part 1: Basics of Sketching

 View full by clicking the "download" option on the right side of the image.

Part 1 contains the first 3 lessons.

It'll be several weeks before I finish Part 2: Facial Features because I want to spend at least one more week on eyes, preferably with a way to show them directly instead of just making a print out. So if anyone knows of a free screen capture program, plz to let me know?

I'm not dead.

I'm just crazy, insanely, overwhelmingly swamped. I haven't even touched my tablet in over a week.  That kind of sucks because I have multiple projects due AND lessons to scratch up for my students.

I have begun to prioritize:

1) Portrait commission #1
2) Art lesson reference pages. You can find the completed ones here, as you probably noticed. When I'm finished with actually "teaching" with the stuff, I'm going to combine the pages into one book and post it for download on DA.
3) FE collab pieces that are due in September.
4) My manga.
5) Another quick comic or two.
6) SilentReaper's StupidFox contest. I want a StupidFox plushie :O
7) Portrait commission #2
8) The artwork that I actually WANT to work on :|

So as you can see, I am quite busy. And all that is NOT including work, my classes, and piano lessons. Fortunately, piano is taking a two week break so I can catch up a little.

As much as I like taking breaks over the weekend, though, I hate having the 5000+ messages I get when I log back on.

Before I took a break, I did do a bit of quick concept art for the manga... I guess I'll post it so I don't look entirely hopeless.

I'm still here! Change in Showcase, as well

I haven't made a post in awhile, but I haven't finished any projects lately. I took the weekend early this week and started on Friday to give myself a three day weekend. As you may recall, I take my weekends off quite seriously. I don't do anything brain related, and that includes art.

I mostly play the Sims. Yes, I love the Sims. It gives me insight into how God must feel when we do things that make no sense and ruin our own lives in ten seconds or less. Well... that and they just make me laugh.

Although, when my first chapter of my manga is finished, you can thank the Sims for knocking me out of my writer's block. While playing through as the characters of the story, the Sims' utter lack of common sense gave me some hysterical ideas. PS, I will include the manga in both traditional Japanese AND English reading formats for my less manga-experienced peeps.

So I guess technically you can call it research?

Christine is worried that her dress makes her butt look big.

Melody can't figure out why there's no ceiling in an underground room (walls down lol)

Ok, I'll stop nerding myself out.

Well, except for this: While Onemanga closed its scans for good, other manga hosting sites are still going strong. So if you want to keep reading your manga, check out mangastream.com and bleachexile.com -- we've still got them, at least for now.

Ok, now I'm done nerding.

I don't know when I'll get to work on my own stuff, though. I have several portrait commissions that I need to start on, which is cool. Also, my art classes start tomorrow. I need to get some material drafted up for the first class. I have to cover a lot in just one hour because I really want to get the technical stuff out of the way as quickly as possible so they can start playing with their own creativity. Art is 15% technique and 85% practice.

Which reminds me -- I'll be picking up my Showcase posts again next Saturday, but instead of using pro artists, I'm going to be posting my students' work. I will still post pro's work if I run across something that inspires me, but I really want to give my kids the affirmation of getting their work published. It'll be on my deviantART, as well, so you can't really miss it.

I'm also not going to the convention this year. Too much overhead needed and not enough time to get it all together AND get enough art done to make it worth it. So I'll try again next year! Plus, it would be cool to be able to sell my first self-published manga volume there as well. If I could do one chapter a month, that would be awesome.

I had the mother of all headaches on Saturday. I don't know why I'm telling you that :|

Maybe cause I'm out of stuff to say.

That's all, folks!

Nobody loves me

After talking to my printer and having a minor heart attack over the cost of going to the convention, I decided I needed to do something to bolster my available capital. So I offered art classes, starting next week, to the large homeschool group in the area.

Nobody has signed up so far. Which especially sucks because I am the ONLY person who offers art classes other than one lady who charges $120 per lesson. Maybe I should charge that much to seem more legit? XD

Course, I still have a week left before I wanted classes to start, so maybe if I put out another email, I'll get some students. If not, though, I'm not going to be able to afford the convention this year.

PS I don't care what Metal Magazine says, Tarja is metal queen, NOT Sharon den Adel. Sharon only won because Within Temptation spent the past week badgering their Facebook fans to vote for Sharon. Epica did the same for Simone Simmons, but she got third.

Tarja was 200 votes off winning and she never asked for votes. So there! *ignore*

Neither did Nightwish and poor Anette got stomped 0.o Of course, they're probably too busy fishing to remember the contest XD

Why is the type so big? I have no idea.

New work

Three down, two to go for my five paintings by August 7 goal.

Finished:

BEFORE adding the deep light:

I'm not really sure which way I like it better XD

That's all I have for right now... Sorry. Nothing else interesting going on. ^_^'

Excuse and a sketch

I apologize for missing ANOTHER showcase post. But I have multiple excuses for it.

1) The artist I contacted never wrote me back. <--- best excuse
2) The internet at my house died on Friday and I couldn't have written it anyway. <--- backup excuse
3) The dog ate my post. <--- I don't even have a dog.

Anyway, so those are the reasons I didn't post.

As usual, I've been working on a painting whenever I can get up the energy. I've been kinda mopey lately, so I haven't made my usual shutout progress. But you can't see it until I'm done, as always. It should be up later this week, though. Depending on my mental health XD

But I did do a sketch that I will show you! It's of my secondary character Lara from my novel-becoming-manga Nothing Good Ever Happens to Christine Ceal. Yes, I decided to change my manga from the Aoudanian Chronicles to Nothing Good because that story is more complete and, with the modern setting, it is easier to find references.

Plus, it's humorous and I think people will like it better.

The quality is bad because I was too lazy to clean up the scanner's mess. So I won't be posting it on DA because of that. It was mostly just a quick concept thing...

I did get to use my new 6H-6B pencils (I only had HB-6B before) and my handy-dandy kneading eraser.

WHICH REMINDS ME! When I was at Michaels to get the previously mentioned supplies, I saw this and had to buy it:

It's a raven statuette with feathers and everything. I couldn't resist. It's fully Soren approved, too, and I'm hoping he'll be in a good enough mood to behave until my mental state improves.

That's all, folks!

Demon Spider encounter #3

I thought that once we moved, I would be free of the wrath of Demon Spider and his minions. Apparently, I was mistaken.

So far they haven't managed to find my new house, but these arachnid ninjas are infiltrating other places I haunt.

Appropriate, considering the most recent location was my Tae Kwon Do do jang.

I have private lessons occasionally with the grandmaster to work on my kick technique because my rotating sidekicks are abysmally uncontrolled (I have no balance at all). Anyway, we had finished kicks and I was working on my basic forms while he took a call. The form I was working on calls for a step back at one point. Not even a second after I took that step back, a large black mass suddenly fell from the ceiling, just where I had been standing moments before. Now, the ceiling is black, so I just thought it was a piece of insulation or something. So I glanced down.

As you have doubtless figured out by now, it was not a piece of insulation. It was the effin' biggest non-tarantula spider I had ever seen in my life. One of those black shiny ones with the pointy butt and loooong weirdass front legs. Legspan and all, it was about the size of my fist.

To my credit, I didn't scream (I didn't want to freak out the grandmaster). I just ran like a maniac to the other side of the room and waited for him to come back, trying to build up my guts to kill it before he came back and saw me running from a spider when I was supposed to be training to fight.

Oh, the irony.

Sadly, I wasn't able to do it. Every time I would take a step toward it to squash it, it would start to move. It's their movement that freaks me out so bad - not necessarily the size (although that makes their movement more defined). It's the way their legs move, all one at a time with little creeping motions. So when he'd move, I'd panic and run away.

Eventually, Master Kim did get off the phone and came back. I pointed the failed ninja assassin out to him and he appropriately remarked "Oh, that is big." like it was nothing, then proceeded to beat it to death with a kick pad. Although it took several good shots.

Unfortunately, he left the carcass there for an instructor to get and I couldn't concentrate anymore with it there. He hates spiders *almost* as much as I do, apparently. So I left and went home to make myself a cup of hot chocolate (yes, in July) and work a little.

Now I'm terrified of my own do jang. I just pray they hire an exterminator before Friday.

Also, I learned that even the grandmaster can hate spiders. And that learning tae kwon do will not cure me of my arachnophobia.

Showcase Saturday - Carina Nerland

This week's showcase artist is Carina of Norway!

Carina is one of my favorite fantasy and video gaming artists. I first ran across her art a few months back when I stumbled across this painting:

She has a very personal relationship with her art, which I appreciate. I don't want to be a "professional artist" because it would take away the freedom that art brings. I like to escape into my art, and Carina's art is pure escapism, in more ways than one.

From Carina:

How did you get started as an artist?

That is a very good question – as I started drawing before I was 2 years old, I actually don’t remember. But I guess it was my older sister and mother who encouraged me to start drawing. Eventually, when my younger sister was born, we naturally encouraged her to start drawing at an early stage as well. Me and my sisters were very quiet, calm and well-mannered kids who could spend hours and hours together, just drawing or playing videogames and minding our own business. We had so much fun doing these “activities” together, and I have lots of nice memories from those times.

I have never taken any drawing lessons or such – I am self-taught.

What usually inspires you?

For me, making art has always been some sort of an escape from reality. I and my sisters didn’t have the best childhood, as our father (to put it mildly) is an alcoholic and psychopat, and our mother slowly but surely was broken down from the way he treated her. When drawing we felt safe, and could focus on making fantasy worlds through art where anything was possible – where there were no such things as anxiety or fear.

Now that I have “my own life”, art is a nice and relaxing escape from all the studies I do. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, and will start on a Master’s Degree this autumn. My studies are so different from art in all ways, which makes drawing and painting a good source of recreation. In art there are no rules or restrictions - anything is possible! Only the imagination is the limit.

I played a lot of videogames growing up. Since I got my Nintendo NES when I was 4, this also functioned as a reality escape. I’ve mainly played Nintendo. Videogames has from that time on been a significant part of my life, and is still today definitely my main source of inspiration for art. In my old artworks, I can see that I started drawing far more mushrooms after I turned 4 and got a Nintendo and Super Mario games, haha! I think the games I’ve been the most influenced by are the Super Mario series, plus the Legend of Zelda games on Nintendo 64 (especially Ocarina of Time).

Music that inspires me the most are soundtracks from different videogames, especially from the Zelda series. Those games have so much beautiful music with so much emotion to them! They also reminds me of long evenings of playing videogames and having fun with my sisters.

I have also had other inspiration sources in my young days. In addition to videogames, I think I have in the past been influenced by the old drawn Disney movies. I watched a lot of Disney movies when I was young, and was very fascinated by how well they were drawn. And I had periods where I drew a lot of “My Little Pony”-artwork too, haha! And oh, I almost forgot Pokémon. When I was around 11, I was extremely fascinated by the Pokémon TV series, collectible cards, games and such, and I drew a lot of Pokémon fanart.


What advice can you offer beginners?

That is kind of hard to answer, as I don’t remember much from when I started drawing. However, I think it is important to remember that you have to love what you’re doing. It really shows in the artwork if the artist put his/her heart into it or not. And of course, patience and practice is crucial.

I also think it is good practice to draw using lots of reference pictures in the start. I have mostly drawn from my imagination, but I really wish I had used a lot of more time drawing from reference images to make my style more “correct” and realistic.

Taking drawing classes may also be good help, although I don’t have any experience with that.

But then again, art is mainly a reality escape and a way to relax for me – it is something I do on a hobby-basis, and not something I plan on making a living from.

I really appreciate Carina's art for it's beauty and detail, but also for the heart that she puts into it. You can have perfect technique, but if you don't love what you're doing, it's going to be missing it's soul. She not only has the technique, she has the  love and the heart to take her beautiful art and make it sing.

I truly thank Carina for her time in telling her story, as well as for continuing to create such beautiful and personal works of art.

For more of Carina's beautiful artwork, check out her deviantART gallery or her blog.

*All artwork is ©Carina Nerland (www.xenonia.deviantart.com -- www.xenoniart.wordpress.com) and was used with permission from the artist. Unauthorized use of artwork is punishable by law*

The second Friday post

When I posted the last entry, I wasn't expecting to finish another painting today. But I did, so here's another post. I didn't want to wait until Sunday XD I've painted pretty much all day since I have to work 9-5 and don't have that much stuff to do. Works for me though, since I like the uninterrupted art time. Anyway, here's the painting. It's supposed to be my second anime convention painting, but they still haven't got the contracts posted, even though it was supposed to be done yesterday. Hrm...

I also did something a bit different and made a meme based on the painting process I used for that painting. Click on it to see the full: It might be interesting or amusing to you :D

View the meme here

Critique matters

I was totally proud of my last painting. So proud, this is now the third time I've brought it up XD But I really feel like it shows the most of my improvement.

I had submitted it to a critiquing group I'm part of and got some great feedback. Since I finally had some time yesterday, I updated the painting based on the feedback.

So...

BEFORE

AFTER

There were a lot of small details I fixed, but the main things were improving the branches and blossoms (which were apparently transparent) and blurring the background a bit to keep the focus on the character. Now I can be proud of it all over again. For another couple of days, anyway, until I finish my next one.

Do you want a prieview of it? Really? Reaaaaaaally?

Well, too bad. I don't do previews. :3

Showcase Saturday - Marilena Mexi

This week's Showcase artist is Marilena of Greece!

As you may recall from my last painting, Garden Light, I have been working incessantly on improving my background ability. As a result, I decided to study up on some beautiful landscapes and detailed backgrounds. My search led me to discover Marilena on deviantART.

I was immediately astounded by the stunning amount of detail she puts into her work. It's as if you can see every leaf, stone, and wood knot in the scene. You can't just look at these paintings -- you fall into them.

I am particularly inspired by the above piece, Hidden Castle, as it reminds me a bit of a valley city I created in my novel mythology. The lighting and the depth in this work, especially, is outrageously stunning. It just seems to go on infinitely beyond the canvas. And really makes me want to go hiking XD

From Marilena:

How did you get started as an artist?
-Since I was very young I remember myself painting, participating in school painting contests and all sorts of artistic events. For me painting has always been a way of expression. I had been influenced by Walt Disney movies, as well as by my mother, who loves art and often took me to museums and galleries. She encouraged me to carry on with what I'm doing.



What usually inspires you?
-I'm inspired by my favorite bands Nightwish and Sirenia and general the symphonic metal music, also movies like the lord of the rings, twilight saga, matrix and my favorite artist and director Tim Burton.Generally I am influenced from the Greek mythology and not only.Always I like to hear and to read for myths and different mysterious stories,is something which is charm me and and make me to influence and to want to make with my fantasy mine stories.



What advice can you offer beginners?
-I don't believe in the word "talent", but in the words passion, love and practice. If you try really hard you will achieve your goals.
Love and hope makes us both better people and better artists. 

Wait a second... Nightwish, Sirenia, AND Tim Burton??? I knew I liked her art for some reason. It's always fun to find a kindred spirit in the world.

Many, many thanks to Marilena for her time and permission, as well as for having such awesome taste in music. I'm listening to Sirenia's The Other Side as I write this.

All artwork featured is ©Marilena Mexi (maril1.deviantart.com) and was used with permission from the artist. 

Unauthorized use or reproduction of art is punishable by law.