Wednesday Update

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  Good afternoon you all; the middle of the week is upon us and you know what that means...yep, nothing much lol.  Who ever REALLY goes into Wednesdays expecting them to rock their world?  Oh but don't feel too bad; I'm here to try and inject a small dose of X...and not the kind to lead to wild kinky night you-know-what [if you're looking for that try the blog three jumps forward ;].

  There are a few pictures I'll be posting.  Well, more like a few sketches and some progress for my Bilstein image.  I could mention about the shitload of other pictures being worked on, but for me art is more the process of showing, and everything else is either too little or too far completed to show off today.  Anyway, now that such has been established, let's cut to the 'ish.

   I've been doing some massive reading on the Battle Angel Alita graphic novels since a while ago, as I attested to in the previous blog.  It's good-fashioned cyberpunk sci-fi seinen [I think it classifies as seinen, since it-in my opinion-is a little too complex and violent at times to be shonen, even if most of those injured or kill are cyborgs...cyborgs got feelings too ya'll] and was something I had been wanting to get the full story on since seeing the OVA some years ago, and again just recently.  If you haven't already, check them out, especially if you're hoping James Cameron's adaptation will live up to the source [I'm hoping so, squarely off his work on the Terminator films...oddly I still have zero interest in watching Avatar, maybe the material doesn't strike a strong enough cord w/ me just now].

   Before too long I knew I'd wind up doing some Alita sketches, which is what I have here posted above and below.  They aren't anything special these sketches; still trying to work out varying issues of perspective and anatomy, only using a recognizable character this time.  Since these ones are sketches, there's no telling if I'll complete them or not, but if I do I'd rather save the final versions for some sort of sketchbook.  In fact, that likely will be the new plan w/ this; post w/e sketches are around for the week and finish them for inclusion in some form of something later on down the road.  That way I can do new sketches for each week rather than reposting updates. 

   I will, tho, be posting some more progress for this sketch as it's turned into a full inked and colored image.  Alita is quite gorgeous, but it took me a volume or two to really notice.  And those pouty 'octopus' lips just make her even sweeter to me.  There was one graphic in the extra stories graphic novel where Alita [in some revealing short-shorts] is posed ready to battle a quite formidable nemesis.  The pose and overall composition and foreshortening work on it inspired me to try a recreation of that image, my own way, and altered enough to not look like a copy.  It'll also give more good practice on many things, too numerous to mention.

  I just started drawing this one yesterday admist completing the Avatar image and working on other pictures [not to mention attending to ho-hum chores and duties], but so far we atleast got a head and upper torso defined xD.  Still figuring what I want the full shot to be in terms of a background, lighting, color etc, but for now I'm just gonna concentrate on getting the pencils laid fully by Friday.  If it's alright, I might start uploading progress at each big step w/ this picture, just to give an indication of how my process is like, altho I know there will be quite some hurdles along the way that could make that impossible, but oh well, it's worth a try.

  As for this big lug?  Well he's still waiting to get finished, but one thing Mr. Bilstein needs to understand is that he's possibly the most complex-designed character I've ever tackled, and stupid me had to throw this overly extravagant chair into the mix as well.  I have had some lousy luck in finding really good reference shots for him, so some details are being made up, others taken liberty of, etc, but there isn't any major compromise in that regard.  I wanted the chair to look more Egyptian, but...well, meh, I could use some studying of Egyptian architecture sometime if in case something like this pops up again.  Full-blown work on this one probably won't start until I finish the Mai image this week, but once it does, it should go by fairly quick, hopefully just a week or so, which would complete the dude right on time.

   So that will finish the updates for this week.  Well, I will upload the Mai image btwn Saturday and Sunday, so this technically isn't it.  But until that time comes, I wish the best of prosperity for everyone out there, just so long as you do what you love.  Truly, life isn't worth a damn if you hate what it contains for you day in and day out.  Oh, and put down the Iphones for a while eh; Jobs wants you all to stop texting him so much in Heaven already. 

   L8r.

Bilstien WIP

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  Welp, today was pretty interesting.  My stupidity caused me to forget bringing my birth certificate, therefore preventing me for taking the dmv knowledge exam.  That sucks, but at least I can go out l8r in the week to try again.  But what was really fun, was seeing this Tupac Shakur-like dude basically act like a felon on the run across not one, but two buses, and causing unprecedented commotion along the way.  Truly, he was a class act and made the afternoon trek much more enjoyable, tho I feel sad for his bike...it's going to be a lonely bike now for a few days, maybe even weeks, and I have been pushing to do more cardio...

   Other than that, got a few more pens for illustration work; unfortunately I couldn't find any col-erase color pencils so I guess I'll have to order them off Dickblick, waiting time guaranteed, but it'd be worth the effort.  I won't be posting any new sketches except the one this blog's titled after (mainly b/c I haven't done that many new ones since the last post), and I will have both Mai and the avatar picture done by Saturday so for the sake of thinning out the herd I'll wait until they're complete to post again.  That being said, I do have some progress (not much tho) on my Bilstien entry, so let's jump to it eh..

   Not knowing his design by heart, it's been a bit of a challenge to draw this dude I must admit, and it hasn't helped I've been using a shitty reference picture.  Hence, why I started working more on the chair.  I have a color scheme in mind, and I guess I'm going for a more Ranisseance-like 'holy' vibe w/ him, so basically lots of mute earthly tones aside from the plasmid energy to give some life.  But there's the need to, um, actually draw the picture out first, so I'll be likely attending to that tonight and over the next two days while I work on other pieces, as it'll be the next up to bat.

   W/ the new pens, I can ink out some pictures I had finished before, which might be a good idea but seeing as how my drawing capability has improved steadily since drawing the pictures, I'm half-tempted to start 'em from scratch.  Yet, my pencils are on the verge of proving useless, and if anything they aughta be used for new drawings amirite?  So regardless, there's still a shitload of pics to complete and that business is good on my watch ;).

   I'll swing back around over the weekend to post the finished results of the aforementioned pieces, while I also work on updating my CA.org profile (should get it up tonight) and seeing what's up around there.  In the meantime tho it's grubbin' time, so catch 'ya all on the flipside.  Peace!

New WIPs (ugh!!)

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  What's up everyone; I haven't been as consistent as I'd like, but I've also had to rethink this whole "social networking" angle as well.  Donned on me a while back that it's not so much how often I pop up to post something, it's that I make it worth the effort.  Lots of other random boring details could ensue w/ that, but I don't have the energy to waste on talking about it.

   Needless to say, I've been feeling very invigorated to give it my all w/ the newest works.  I gots a couple of WIPs for today and a revelation for an entry in another art project over on dA, so let's go!

   This is the current coloring having been done on that Chun-Li picture the lines of which I posted last week.  Went back and tightened up the lines on her and Mai some, learning line weighing again.  Very happy w/ the coloring so far and it's surprisingly been thanks to some simple setups, tho the road to realizing their use was convoluted.  Should be done within the next couple of days.

   Surprisingly I haven't done a real avatar picture for any site other than when I was around on 1UP.  It's always been snippets of other pictures I was on @ that moment.  This time, it's the right mood for something much more appropriate.  Another artist I met on deviantART, brenthenowell, is very good w/ creature renders and designs (just check his page out here if you're interested).  I'd like to consider myself a monster fan, but don't really show it that often.  So, figuring that and Halloween's this month, I drew up this random design in celebration of the fact and to use as an official ava around my network sites.  Will complete him after I'm done w/ the Chun-Li picture, he's gonna be scwarwy xD!!

   GBK666 over on Fighting Game's Elite and sister site Game-Art HQ is holding a Boss Tribute project for the month of October.  Participating artists are able to claim multiple characters from a list of 33 (I think it's about five more than that now) and draw them during that time.  Oddly I picked Star Gladiator's Bilstien.  Not gonna lie; I haven't gotten a chance to play these games, but this looked the closest to any Cybermorphs on that list (a game I HAVE played and loved the hell out of @ that), and besides Bilstien's design is awesome.  Seriously, designs like his and most of the ones Arika came up with during their collabs w/ Capcom make me hunger so bad for their return to the scene.  You can just look at him and tell he's boss, exotic and very interesting.  Seth...no, just no xD.  Hopefully my fan tribute can live up to his character and existing official art.  Now if I could just start drawing the damn mofo.

   Okay that's all I got for now; I'll only return when the Chun-Li picture is complete, so that should be this weekend (keyword: should).  Until then I wish everyone the best of luck w/ their pursuits and to enjoy their lives as they are right now, and of course strive to make them better.  Oh and down w/ Wall Street!!  Okay, that's truly enough for today; l8r.