Drop of Sunlight WIP - basic coloring and some shading begun

I'm much faster than I used to be. Half a year ago, this would have taken me at least three days. I can already see one serious problem that I am going to obsess over for at least that much time, though: The nose. I am abysmal at noses. They're so weird looking. But anyway, here's the update.

Also, random tip: If you ever want to color anything black or white, DO NOT actually use black or white! Your blacks should really be dark blues, purples, browns, etc depending on your work. Your whites should reflect the color of your light source in very light yellows, blues, pinks, etc (unless they're in the shadows, in which case they should reflect your shadow colors).

Of course, that doesn't apply if you're actually doing a black and white picture.

New WIP - Drop of Sunlight

Just a line concept sketch I did a few weeks ago. Decided to go with non-character based, marketable artwork for once. I'm also going to turn it into a digital painting tutorial now that I'm good enough to give legitimate advice, so I'm screenshotting basically everything, but I won't snowball you.

I don't know when I'll have a chance to work on it since things have been so crazy, but I'll do my best.

I've been reconnecting with my roots, so this is a Gothic type concept. Where most people use umbrellas to stay out of the rain, we tend to use them to stay out of the sun. Pretty simple, really. I think it will be fun.

I don't know that I'm going to go so fullbody. I may cut it down to just the top right quarter. But I really like drawing clothing and ours can be so beautiful, I'm a bit conflicted. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens XD

But anyway, there you have it! My new work in progress, Drop of Sunlight. Simple, but hopefully it will be elegant. And marketable. I want to be as good as Dianae.

Some rocks

I painted them.

After about a month and a half of doing no art at all, I painted rocks. Fascinating.

In my defense, I am rather busy with music related tripe. In the next few months, I'm going to go bother the Lubbock Theater until they eventually hire me. I'm just happy I can sing again. If I can sing as a career, all the crap from the last few years will be totally worth it.

Anyway, here's the rocks. And my random floating lightsource.

No, they don't have texture yet. No, the ones on the right and left are not curved the way they should be. But I'm not finished! Clearly.

Chaos WIP - The beginning of refinement and the conquering of Gilbert

That's kind of an epic title for a pointless update. Well, it's not pointless to ME - I need these to chronicle my improvement XD

Speaking of improvement, I'm afraid I hit a snag. I spent most of the day repainting the dress because of weird off-color marks that would suddenly become massively visible blights if I tried to add any advanced shading or highlights. Not just little spots either - the entire left sleeve was ripe with them. It looked like it had the plague.

This was caused by poor color blending. I had stretched and blotted the color pigments in such a way that it created a whole new blueish-greyish-reddish color somehow that would NOT disappear no matter how many times I colored it with another color. I'll call this color Gilbert because I hate that name so much (sorry, Gilberts). Anyway, anytime I would try to add shadows or color variations, Gilbert would be like LOOK AT ME NOW! So I had to redo it.

The problem was that when I started this before Christmas, my blending style consisted of circles, blots, and strokes. Messy messy. However, when I started working on the prize for my Christmas raffle winner, I noticed how horrendous Kisuke's jacket looked with this technique. No matter how many times I tried to refine it and make it look smooth, Gilbert would not go away.

See what I mean?

So I refined my stroking style to this, using lighter strokes going all one direction instead of just blots:

Smooth!

I hope all of that made even a bit of sense XD It's all rather important. Well, if you care about it anyway. If you don't, I just wasted five minutes of your life.

But don't worry, I'll make it up to you. Here's the actual update:

NO GILBERTS! :D

Did some skin refinement, too, so here's a detail shot:

Hair is looking kind of kooky now, but that's what I'm working on tomorrow.

I guess as far as problems go, having to repaint something because you got better is a good one to have.

Chaos WIP - epic scythe pwnage

HA! I finished it finally! Just the scythe, I mean. I still have a lot of work to do on the whole thing.

Next on my project list is to repaint the sleeves of the dress. They are bugging me. I tried to fix the left one and only made it worse -_- So that's the next thing. It shouldn't take too long though. Hopefully. I also need to add textures and lighting effects throughout, since I had decided halfway through the scythe that I wanted to have more intense light than I had originally planned for. That won't be too hard, either. All I have to do is add stronger highlights and darken the shadows a bit.

And of course, finish the background, add a foreground, and create the light that is invisibly making everything brighter at the moment. And add effects. I've spent so much time on this now that I might as well go all the way :|

Estimate of when will I finish it? Never.

Chaos WIP update like... 80000. I've lost count

I'm really starting to get tired of this picture. I can't imagine how YOU feel. But tough it out. I'm sort of almost finished. Unless I start adding unnecessary chains and such in places people wouldn't even notice anyways. And that is always likely.

I'm telling you, when I'm finished with this scythe, I am going to kill myself with it.

In my reluctant defense, I did take the last five days off. Friday was Rukia from Bleach's birthday and I received a random outcry of requests for me to do some artwork for her. So I did. I'm such a pushover XD

I had wanted to do a painting, but I only had two days and that wasn't enough time. So I did a comic.

Yay!

I need some help on this one

Determined to take a break from the scythe, I started fussing around with the background. I'm never happy with backgrounds. I always start thinking along the lines of "Now why would someone be standing there posing? It makes no sense" and never get anything done.I guess I should start doing paintings of characters interacting with the surroundings to avoid this problem, but I sometimes change my mind about what I want the background to be, or sometimes it just doesn't work. That's me being a n00b.

My relaxing break from the Scythe of Doom wound up being a failure. I went from just losing my soul to intimidation to something along these lines:

Of course, that's only in theory, because in reality, I never get off my butt.

Uh... Anyway, I need help picking a background. So which is your favorite?

This is the initial one, chiseled out a little bit more.

I hate this one the most. That column would have to be scrapped and redone from scratch.

Rock over the sea kind of thing. I actually like this one the best, but it would require massive amounts of hair re-painting, and I'm afraid I just didn't do the initial painting with outdoor light in mind v.v I wish I had. The scythe looks like the moon against that sky.

So give me your opinion! I can't promise it will affect mine, but I'd like to know what you think. Oh dear... now you won't answer, will you D:

Another self-gratifying scythe detail pic:

Remember this?

You should. I was updating it a lot before Christmas. I decided to finish it before I start anything else since I've already spent so much of my time - and yours - on it. But of course, my time is all that really matters. I just added you to make you feel important :D

For today's update, I have but one thing to say.

Scythe.

The time I've spent on it so far is not even funny.

I changed the entire design on a whim, just like I did with the belt. And, like the belt, it's working out for the better. It's taking me forever because my base tone for it is browner than I had intended it to be. I had wanted it to be a bronze scythe, but it was looking like wood. So I spent half the day messing with texture brushes to add a bronzy look to it. Looks better in photoshop since the metallic part actually shines... :|

And still so much to do. Plus the background. I'm feeling quite intimidated again. It's been awhile since this happened. And yet, I enjoy myself so thoroughly that I can't stop even though I'm overwhelmed.

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 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

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.

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.