SatAft Update

  

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    What's up people?  I FINALLY managed to beat that bastard Mongolor in the Tower of Hera.  Man, what an annoying boss.  Something felt terribly off about him compared to the other two bosses..it didn't help that the sword was about the length of a broken toothpick.  And to add insult to injury, you get the Master Sword right after that.  Well, I have that now, the witch stuff and something that looks like the Triforce symbol from Ocarina of Time...wow I suck at naming shit lol.

   Anyway, the reason I'm here is to post up a new picture.  I'll post up my current work on Poison tomorrow (maybe), but for today I'll be showing what I managed to get done on Suzuka over the past two days.  Actually, before getting to that, I'd like to take the moment to mention that the OS and Valkyrie painting I had been posting here for some time now are both on hold. 

  The OS picture (w the three girls and Jim) was really just a freak exercise in getting used to outlining and shading w/ a marker/pen again.  Certainly, it's been a huge help.  I will most likely finish it this week in-between much newer pieces.  As for Valkyrie, the painting is just hanging on hold while I come to grips w/ "something" (it's a heavy thought; better saved for much later in some other entry).  In the meantime, what I'll try doing is paint the character again, but this time I'll use Corel.  "Huh?", you ask.  "But that's a digital program!"....read on...

   Suzuka here, as you can likely guess, is being painted in Corel.  I got the program a few days ago and spent the bulk of the first half of this week learning how it worked, seeing the strength of the brushes and the mixer tool, and making test color palette sets, that sort of stuff.  I probably didn't get to painting her until Wednesday.  So far I'm just adapting what I would do by hand to the computer screen, and it's going pretty well.  There's no doubt about this: this will be my companion in all future art pieces, for sure (though I would like to use the paints again).
  
    While I'm still familiarizing myself w/ the program, it hopefully won't take too long.  I'll also be getting a jump on painting the Poison one sometime next week, or at least come up w/ a color palette for it. Between them it's off to get a couple more ink cartridges; the printer has been out of stock on both for about a year :S.  And more computer paper...yeah...

    So tomorrow, I'll put up the lines for the Poison pic...most likely.  I'm actually more inlined to wait until at least the base painting has been done, and that should only take a day or so.  So if it's not up tomorrow you know for sure I'll post something of it next weekend.  And by that time, I'll have Suzuka and Valkyrie (in yet another unsurprising revamp xD) done.  The time of the WIPping boy is almost done people, just be patient.

    I'm out for now; take care and keep kickin' it.  L8rz.

Sunday Afternoon

 

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Sunday Afternoon Updates

  'Nathernoon there, me fellows (please excuse the brokenness, this is my attempt at proper English, and I must admit...it's gone sour very fast).  I managed to make it out to that club I mentioned previously w/ my sister, but suffice to say I have that post in another spot; you can click here to read up on it if you wish, and when I get a copy of the photo taken I'll post it up here.  Needless to say, it was very awesome and just what I needed to relieve some stress that had been building up; a few more stints in Zelda and Snatcher and I should be just about refreshed to tackle some major progress on art projects for the next five days.

   Speaking of art, as promised I'm here to post some updates.  I know I said I'd stop w/ all the WIPs, and I'm trying to stick to that.  But for the time being, until I get into a groove where I'm more focused on one single piece instead of several big pieces concurrently (and until where, for some of those pictures, I ingrain what I learn into my head where it becomes routine knowledge), doing a single WIP until they're done leaves too big a dry spell.  So I'll do a once-a-week sort of update on multiple pieces, and if there's any time I skip doing that, it's the signal I'm focusing on one piece only and it'll be done much faster as a result of that.

    First off, I'll start w/ a new WIP.  No it's not the Poison one; I'll probably begin drawing her today and I have a very solid idea w/ her in mind (could actually end up doing two copies).  This one is something I started doing so as to overcome weaknesses I quickly realized in my other OS piece (which I'll get to shortly).

    Most critically, I noticed that atleast Melfina and certainly Suzuka were not looking as "on-point" to their official image.  I could just bullshit and say I altered some details for my sake, but the truth is I should've studied them a bit better beforehand.  Now, I'm doing a three-piece picture of the three females (Aisha too) so as to get something closer to their official designs.  It was also a good excuse in doing some better portraits.  Still need to finish them all up; I'm considering either inking them raw or doing some flat paints and then inking them, leaning towards the latter @ the moment.  We'll see when we get to it, I suppose.

    The Valkyrie commission is coming along..ever-so-slowly.  Despite so much having been done, there's still so much more to get completed, it honestly does intimidate me at times.  Doesn't help I'm exploring ever-more-complicated processes and implementing them on the fly, as the time taken to study, conceptualize and understand those things eats into the time actually spent painting.

   But it's like I said; glad my client is so loose in their finish date.  I don't want them to be disappointed in the final work and I really want to use this piece to exponentially improve in every single way, so hopefully a couple extra weeks won't be asking for much before it's done.  If anything, any future pictures on this level should be done much faster, as I'll already be familiarized w/ the techniques by then (though really, I always try some new twist in everything anyhow xD).

    Here's some further work on the original OS picture.  Even w/ the complaints I had earlier, I realize it's a good opportunity to practice line weighing and shading to conceptualize a full, finished piece, so I'll be finishing it as soon as able.  Suzuka is basically "done", so I have mainly Melfina and most especially Aisha and Jim (lol @ Jim...lol @ him!) to finish up, again worrying that the black marker doesn't dry up.

    In any case, I'll be using what little cash I have right now to pick up at least a couple others from Micheal's if that does happen (or closer..doubt Wal-Mart sells Prismacolors tho :S).  Certainly, this one'll be finished this week I can't see it taking any longer than Wednesday, even if switching btwn it and the other pictures.

    I'm just about done here for today, and hope you all enjoyed the progress pictures so far.  Before I go, I'll simply reiterate on my dA reshuffling plan in getting the old pictures out.  If in case I haven't said so here, I'll be creating a shadow account there to host the older pieces, as my current account will just host the most recent work within about a three-month time span, in addition to what are the strongest pieces (could span from any length of time really). What I'm also considering, though, is just dropping off dA altogether until the fall, so even when those pictures (and others) are completed I won't be uploading them there until about the second week of September.  I can use that time to focus on other 'more important' things, like fine-tuning what pics I have and looking into constructing a portfolio, not to mention look for jobs I can post for.  Everything else should fall in place from there.

    So again, I hope you all enjoyed the pictures; please look forward to some FINISHED work later this week, maybe some random sketches I crap out in the meantime, and further progress on what couldn't be completed by the time I come back.  Stay awesome and enjoy life to its fullest; see 'ya next time.  L8r.

New Stuff Tommorrowz

  What's up everyone?  Another busy (and drama-in the case of yesterday...best I not go into that lol) week's gone by and right now I'm just coming off playing some more Link to the Past...I have to say, I'm a pretty happy Zelda fan now having given it a shot.  I'm going for the last of the three pendants right now but am finding myself stuck in that dungeon, about where the tiles pop up...got a funny feeling the gold eye-lazer monster might be a clue to further progress, and I absolutely refuse to use a walkthrough this soon, so another shot at it later tonight, hopefully I can clear said dungeon.

   Also been watching up on some doses of Blue Gender and...Boy Meets World?  Lol I used to LOVE this show back when they (ABC) had TGIF..that more or less made Friday nights for me as a tween/teen.  I'm planning on watching all the episodes over the next few months, and while the episodes don't have *quite* the same effect on me as they did then, it's still a very well-written show w/ some endearing characters...and Leon S. Kennedy.

   Where did that come from, you ask?  Well ask series char Eric Matthews; in the first season at least, I can't help to notice his resemblance to who we'd know as RE2's Leon Kennedy just a few years later...

     ...yeah, must be the hairstyle ;).

   And Blue Gender?  Welp since I've finished Outlaw Star (fantastic final fight btw, highly recommended watch) and there are tons of other Toonami anime I never got to watching, I decided on BG.  Didn't like it when it first came out, but now I must say it's fairly impressive.  The conflicts are brutal, and the whole thing feels like a REAL war, no sugar-coating the realities of dyastopic futures and suchlike here.  Some of the music is awesome too (the English theme song and 'Next Time' tracks, specifically).

 

  They even have Corbin Bleu in it...ah shit, sorry about that.  I'm just thinking of Yuji's original bff, who-when I saw him @ least-just screamed Corbin Bleu...uhm, not that I'm into anything that dude does, mind you.  I don't have a shrine around dedicated to him or anything...maybe...

    One other thing:  it'd appear as though SFxT has gotten my attention again, in the best sort of way you can get a man's attention:  w/ a hot woman.  Or shemale, in Poison's case.  Dunno, it really depends on the territory you happen to stay at, but she seems to continue Capcom's 'thickalicious' trend w/ their females these days..if you don't believe me, I've conveniently place a video clip below and urge you to skip to the 0:05 mark, pause, and marvel at the plumpy ass cheeks.

    It probably goes without saying I'll draw her very soon in the next few days.

    Speaking of drawings, while the Valkyrie and Outlaw Star pictures aren't done, the OS one's coming pretty close.  A megaton of work's been done on Valkyrie and atleast that much more needs to be done to complete it...I'm very fortunate to have a time-lenient client to deal with here xD.  The good news:  Future paintings in her ilk will be much quicker time-wise, since I'll have that knowledge by then instead of learning it as I go along (which really does eat into the time of working on the actual piece).  The "bad" news is that I'll probably always keep looking for bigger and better things to do so that time never really seems to reduce in the end xD.  Very happy about where both pieces are at right now, so later tonight I'll send my client the current progress on the Valkyrie one and try and work a solid bit more on the OS piece.  Tomorrow morning I'll upload what I have so far, and maybe a few new pieces too (though none of them will be done..most likely.  Yeah, I know, this is depressing for me too xD).

     So that's all for now..I might actually be going to a comedy club w/ my sister and good friend tonight:  Shawn and Marlon Waynes are performing.  I always wanted to see if Shawn still does his DJing and/or has any older SW1 cuts lying around just..wherever lolz.  If I manage to go I'll mention how it went.  If I don't...I'll probably be playing some Snatcher instead or watching cyberpunk films.  Either way it'll be a good night.  You all take care.  L8r :)

Saturday Morning Updates

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  What's up everyone?  Today I have some more WIPs (oh, as usual, the dredgery x3); I can only roughly gauge out how much longer it'll take both, but I'll try keeping the updates from here on to a minimum.  Let's not waste any time then, shall we?...

  First, Valkyrie.  The progress so far is about to the halfway point of the finish.  I went ahead and added in much more detail for pretty much everything, basing it around the concept that I'd be using this layer to represent texture, shape and solid definition.  Henceforth, that's the same reason I have not done the same w/ the sword, gown, and skin; these things do not have normally solid textures or hard definitions; they are more subtle and dependent more on the effect of light.  So the next round of painting will involve carrying that concept throughout the whole piece, using more values and pushing around the hues a little in thinner glazes to (hopefully) achieve a softer and more realistic look.  I say hopefully b/c-like almost everything else in this piece-I'm learning as I go.

  Actually, yesterday I had a major fuck-up with the hair, getting the values all wrong and contemplating if I should just let it slide or re-block it.  The former would've been a dick move, but the latter had me worried simply b/c I didn't wan to EVER layer the paint on so thick for one step, worrying about cracking.  To my surprise, taking the latter route has benefited the picture immensely.  Her hair is closer to what it should've been the first time, and the paint layed down extremely well w/ no cracking (and maybe just minimum chipping).  Even so, I think for future pieces I'll use some gesso on the ground to support this technique better in the future.

  This one here is being done moreso for myself and possibly portfolio reasons (depending on how well it turns out) than a client.  The characters are-from left to right-Suzuka, Melfina, Aisha and Jim, from the 1998 anime Outlaw Star.  I remember OS coming on Toonami way back in the day, I must've been in middle school, certianly.  Didn't give it the time of day then due to being so infused into DBZ, but it's easy to tell that it's aged much better than Akira Toriyama's epic (though, given they're quite different in so many ways, that isn't too fair to say).  I've really been enjoying this show recently and wish I had watched it sooner, but that's alright.  Now I can do these awesome fanartz!!

  Since it's summertime, I just wanted to take the three leading ladies and the easiest male pushover and do something fun and tropical w/ them.  Although, the excessive shading might be at odds w/ a supposedly "lightweight" and "fun, tropical" theme...but atleast there's an ocean above and fish swimming!  See?!?  They're riiiiigggggghttttttt...........there!  Lolz; seriously though, I took this one up as an opportunity to sharpen my pure lining and shading skills, which have gotten complacent the past few months.  I haven't tried a drawing this shading-heavy in a few years, actually :S.  It's also been a good excuse to use up whatever amount of black marker I have left..in fact the only reason this one might take longer than it should is solely b/c of that marker drying up at the halfway point (though I hope that doesn't happen) delaying the finish.  The other colors are okay atm though.  I just don't want Aisha to find out my little confession involving the black marker...she's gonna have a fit w/ me taking so long xD.

  Well there you go peoples; I won't be posting anything else on Valkyrie for another week or so, and w/ any luck I should have the Outlaw Star piece done by middle of next week.  So to my fellow artists out there, I wish you the best in your pursuits and don't let frustration knock 'ya down; it's just an invitation to try harder ;).  Take care you all and have a gr8 week; l8r.

Busy

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  Good Friday kiddies; sorry it's been so long since the last post.  I've been quite busy w/ painting and drawing, and working on some other stuff.  Just not enough time in the day.  All's good though; at least I'm in here for a little bit to discuss some plans.

  First, a bit of a reworking of the blog.  I started up The Bristle's Law to act as a professional space for my art and other endeavors.  That intention is still very much there, but I get the feeling that it's still a bit too loose (especially in the off-beat topics I tend to like to discuss from time to time) to fit that duty precisely.  So, I'm in the midst of creating another version of the blog that will be purely business.  The current name is The Bristle's Law Pro-Spec, and I'll be launching it as soon as I have content.  As it implies, there's no bullshit w/ that one; just a grounds to put of finished work, and little else.  There won't be any room for WIPs or off-topic humor in any way, and it's really just there for future clients to check out my stuff if they are interested in doing work w/ me.

   Second, I've come to the decision to remove all of my older work off my dA...I just don't have an idea where I'll be putting it at yet x3.  By "older work", I mean everything besides the Valkyrie picture and newer, which I will be posting there to reinvigorate and begin again my pursuits.  I would like to leave those pictures in the folders they're in now, but to be honest they don't represent my current skill level or the direction I'm hoping to pursue w/ my artwork (literally and somewhat figuratively); keeping them just won't work out.  Currently in hopes of finding an imagespace that allows me to store them; doesn't have to be any fancy spot.  Maybe Flickr or possibly ImageShack; I've also thought of Tumblr but that's more a social site, I just want a site to dump these older images securely.  If that works out, I can continually migrate other work there too when I don't want them in the dA gallery or on Pro-Spec, particularly if they're images that show weaknesses I've conquered by that time.

  Third, I'm accelerating the building of a few portfolio pieces to push around in a pursuit for future clientelle.  I've set up an account on a freelance art site a while back, but the truth is I have zero images that seem good enough to draw in clients vs. the competition.  Well, at least from what's in my dA gallery.  Pieces like the Valkyrie pic and a few others I've either been working on (just haven't uploaded so far) or plan to soon are partly in hopes of being portfolio-worthy pieces.  In any case, I'll be using a few of them for representation of myself on said sites in a little bit of time, but the quality of the pieces comes first.

  Fourth, I've been working on what I'd like to publish as a webcomic.  All I can say for now is, it's got a lot of swords and mythological overtones.  Still fleshing out the backstory, setting up the premise and working/sketching on the characters...I don't think anything'll come of it until early fall, if I'm lucky.  But btwn now and then I'll mention a few other bits and pieces.

  Fifth,..been thinking about trying to give commissions another go.  I originally wanted to get them going this past May but a "crisis" of sorts had stalled that.  I just wasn't ready then, skill-wise.  I know it's only been two months-and my style's changed drastically (lots of relearning going on), but I feel much more confident trying them out.  Though if it does happen, they certainly won't be my main focus; that'll come to trying to get some publishing deals w/ clients (hence why I'm doing so much drawing/painting...that shit's unbelievably competitive and I gotta be ready ;).  If anything happens, I'll mention it.

  That pretty much does it for today.  I'll pop back in tomorrow to post up the current progress on Valkyrie and my Outlaw Star fan tribute piece I've been working on the past few days; neither one's done, but there's enough new there to warrant an upload.  Hope you all look forward to the pieces, so in the meantime just stay cool and frosty.  Catch 'ya l8r!

Valkyrie...Initial Coloring

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Good afternoon denizens of the state; today's coming forth w/ an update of the Valkyrie commission I'm doing for a friend on 1Up.com.  We've done business for little over a year; he's been my only commissioner so far but I sincerely value the contact we've had, as I've learned a bit more about the model and, hey, from here things can only get better right?

  As you can see here, I've mainly just been focusing on laying in the initial color blocks.  Tbh I know a medium other than acrylics, like goauche or casein, would have been better for this method.  That said, I only have acrylics on hand and since they're fluids, it wasn't that hard to get the consistency downpat and JUST thin enough but thick enough all the same.  I think I have a very solid idea how to proceed forward w/ this piece but you must understand that almost every concept being employed here is a case of "learning as I go".  In other words, it's the first picture employing most of what I've been learning over the past couple of months on my own, and I would like the final product to reflect the original vision.  Still a long ways to go on that front, but we're getting there (slowly).

  So far, if I can levy any complaints on what's been the toughest thing, it's actually been mixing up these colors.  Yep, no pre-made paint colors other than the primaries and some white/black/brown for me x3.  Trying to emulate other colors in this fashion w/ a limited palette is extremely difficult, and I've gone as far as to use GIMP for value mapping.  Countless swatches have been painted and in fact more are being painted as I come up w/ different ratios for new colors.  The one big drawback I see already is that, if realism was the intent, I'd be screwed over.  A lot of the colors in that Valkyrie picture use heavy doses of Titanium White, which tends to dull the color.  I would probably need to buy a wider range of primaries and a few complementary colors to get the same colors I've made swatches of so far but w/ greater vibrancy (of course, a little glazing could liven up some of the duller colors, but it's a very case-by-case issue).

  I still need to do the color blocking for her eyes, eyelashes, eyebrows and mouth, but from there I can proceed to the next step.  Very tempted still to use a variation of the dead layer technique in this..I feel it could benefit my style.  I'll just read and study on it more the next few days and see just how much to incorporate it.  Also been considering trying impasto and sgaffito in some areas; again, just considering the options.  One thing is for certain though:  I feel much more confident in my painting skills and color theory conceptualizations now, and would like to keep improving them both.  Just finding the right balance of study and practice, that's what it really comes down to eh?

   Next time I post anything up on this will be when she's nearly done, so in the meantime just keep a lookout for other WIPs and random musings.  Be back l8r, hope you all like the work and catch 'ya next time.  L8r :)