Hey peeps, my keyboard has suddenly stopped providing functionality for the Shift keys these past two days, so I probably won't be loading this short entry w/ a lot of funny little faces that quickly grow repetitive. Damn, and just as I was hoping to annoy w/ just that...
Anyhow, the past few days have been somewhat filled in terms of pictures getting worked on, with a few new sketches started, inking on older sketches and resuming work on my Bilstien entry. Meanwhile I'm trying a few 'new' things w/ my Mai picture to elevate my skill set, and it's going pretty well. More on her, tho, as she's completed, which-barring other things to attend to-will be a few days out from now.
So with all that said, I have at least managed to get one picture completed today, my late Avatar image, which is gonna be whored on my scant few social profiles [including this one], if just for a few weeks. Altho I went into it w/ just the intention of doing a mere avatar image [thus, it probably has too much going on to serve that purpose lol], I took the plunge and pushed to try many new things, particularly regarding getting better at contrast and lighting. From what I have here, it was a big success.
I even tried doing a little desaturated lighting, and that came about on a whim as I was finishing this up. Granted some parts look a little underdeveloped-particularly the flames-and those are phenomena I will study up on more to learn how to interpret them better in future pieces. But as a whole, a lot was acquired working on this piece and I feel like a much stronger artist b/c of that. In fact, a lot of things I've done here and am doing w/ the Mai picture have been going back and forth, but thematically they're as opposite as can be.
The only regret I have about this picture is that I couldn't finish it in time for Halloween. A bit of a shame, but something that can be tolerated. The true horror festivities never cease w/ just the passing of a holiday, of course hehe.
That will be all for today; I'll post back some new pieces tomorrow. Not gonna say what they are, it'll just be a surprise until they're uploaded. But regardless I hope you all dig the work on this picture and look forward to more extremely soon. Until then, be awesome, and catch 'ya l8r.
What's up everyone; if you didn't watch the GOP debate last night, you missed out on some good arguing. These candidates (the majority of them) may not have any concrete answers but boy can they entertain w/ their bickering I assure you. And Ron Paul actually got shown more face-time instances than fingers I can count on one hand, so there was some progress in any case x3.
Also, must say I'm seeing why everyone rates Samurai Champloo so highly. I'm four episodes in and plan to watch the rest of it about daily. I said this already too, but, Eatman '98...underrated. Third ep's much better and sophisticated than the starting two, so if you're that odd person who saw it way back when, just the first ep and thought "eh", I urge you to stay w/ it and wait until the 3rd to see if you feel the same way ;).
Okay, well that's all for the small chat. Let's get on w/..more small chat. But this small chat has pictures w/ it too, so yay!!!
I still haven't posted anything up on ConceptArt.org, but that'll be changing this Saturday, when I put these sketches-among others-to my scrapbook there. Since I get the feeling fanart isn't liked very much around there, I'll be sticking w/ non-fanart pieces, which is just as well b/c getting any serious opportunities would come down to much more than how well one can recreate a popular pre-existing character. These sketches are being done for various reasons; to study anatomy, to study and improve stylization, to try different body types and ethnicities, and to get back to non-human stuff. B/c I love backgrounds and props and scenery as much as the human body and regard them as highly in terms of a good finished piece that emphasizes any amount of scenic composition.
The plan is to keep doing these sketches for an hour or two everyday or every two days; I just wanted to have an ample number of them for when I post to CA. Meanwhile some of them will get inked out and some of those will be colored l8r down the road; nothing epic, just exercises to improve in my artistic capabilities and try out new interesting things w/o the bother of having to do deadline for some project or commit to a preexisting set of rules.
**Note: Tad darker than the working file, gotta fix 'er up on that**
I started painting this one first but of the two it's further behind (tho I did make a note to finish the following picture first anyway). Basically, everything I did w/ the Chun-Li picture that worked is being employed here, but I'll also be looking for any opportunities to improve on certain aspects. In particular, I could've done more interesting shading and coloring w/ the clothing in that picture, and maybe some texture work as well (it's not like Corel doesn't have the brushes for the job), so on those fronts I hope to make amends here. I also want it to just look more solid, lively and technically accomplished, so I'm taking careful note and attention to the technical aspects of it as well.
**Note: Tad darker on the bg than the working file, I need to fix that**
Avatar's almost done; I went ahead and fixed around w/ the dome earlier today and some more shading in the skin. Also learned the limits of one of my chosen colors on the palette as far as how much it can go w/o resaturating, so the darks I have here are about as dark as I can push the picture in terms of overall value, which, ironically, works out great. Still tho, it's something to especially consider for future pieces. I'll be making sure the Mai picture matches (and exceeds) what's gotten done here but seeing that a lot of complicated stuff is being dealt w/ here is really improving my confidence. There are maybe three pictures sitting around waiting to get painted, but they were way too ambitious for me @ the time to start on. I feel a bit more up to tackling them now (and yes the Blue Mary picture is one of them), but they'll have to wait until these two and Bilstien are finished.
Speaking of which, here's the S.O.B now. Went through SO many iterations just to find something I could say I liked. I wanted a pose that wasn't just him standing around, but some of the other ones I came up w/ were either off-character or too disjointed for him to pull off (I mean, he's a big dude and isn't quite a gymnest either). Eventually I just settled for this one of him in his mighty chair holding his sword. It's unbelievably rough @tm (barely gotten started), and I need to have it done by the end of the month, so here's hoping I can switch to this one for a few and finish it fast enough to resume the other two pics and have 'em done by the end of next week (which, technically, should be more than possible now).
That will conclude it for updates this week. Once I get the CA.org situation organized I'll link to it here, and I will also be posting some work on Pro-Spec finally by the end of the month, starting w/ the Chun-Li picture (unless I draw and paint another one before then, most likely I'd roll w/ the new one), even tho that blog needs a lot of design work done regardless. Oh well. Anyways I hope you all like the update and I'll see you next Wednesday w/ more stuff. 'Till then, l8r out :)
