What I'm Doing With Myself - June/July 2012

-Managed to get two freelance projects--a huge deal for me. It's pretty much a miracle! Been juggling that and my part-time job so it's been fun on a bun. Late nights and computer troubles--like college except more rewarding. :)

-Something I need to get around to--cards. But I don't have a lot of money at the moment (I don't think it takes a lot of money, actually...)

-The only game I have time for is Pokemon Black/White--I can play it on the bus to/from work. Also, my friend just purchased it and I have someone to play online with (mulling over whether or not I should bother with Pokemon B/W 2)
 *Excited about Hawken at the end of this year. I always like mecha games--the feel of piloting a large, metal  beast to beat up opponents is fun. I remember playing Virtual On in the arcades a lot (I was always the pink girly robot because it was lighter and faster) and Hawken seems like it'd give me that experience! I signed up for the beta trial but nothing yet.

-Will need to update my site soon! Thinking of re-hauling the sucka. I'm glad I haven't bought a domain name just yet--I'm still not 100% satisfied with it. Torn between finding someone to make my site for me or just learning how to do it myself (I'm exploiting Adobe Creative Cloud and have access to stuff like Dreamweaver now)

-Considering a membership to the Art Museum of Orlando--you get access to museums all over the US. I really, really, really, really, really wanna travel.

Drawings to come soon, semi-scout's honor. <_<    >_>


Commission Status: OPEN

Scanner Troubles

It's not working for some reason...I didn't do as much as I wanted to but I had some rough sketches of an idea that hatched in mah brain. I'll either try to get this thing working or just redo them digitally. I have to go to work early so I gotta turn in--night, peoples. :0

Also, apparently Pixar is working on a movie called Wreck-It Ralph? Sounds interesting. Don't forget to catch Brave on June 22nd!

(I can understand why Brave took a while to come out---Merida's hair alone probably took years to tame...untame?)

Watching 2011 Thundercats.

Loving string cheese.

Seeing this and wishing I can go but realizing I'm far from ready.

Scanner won't work for some reason.

Sketching this:

Animation Project: Me Face

Was going to draw a bust but it became a little more so...it's a slouching bust. Rough sketch, first pass:

...then the second pass...

Sketchy time, first pass:

Doesn't quite look like me but that's OK--doesn't really have to. I put the glasses in a different layer as well as the eyes and mouth since I'll be changing those up for the animation. I'll draw maybe two or four more for eyes/mouth and decide which speed I like the best. I found a site that makes .gif animation files for you--if all else fails, I can just put this in After Effects or something.

More Progress + Finally Done

Changing the background color to see if my outlines/colors are nice and perfect. Fixed the face fur a bit...still trying to figure out what's missing on the dog...not sure. Maybe more texture w/ the fur. I like to try to figure it out before I ask artist friends for advice. Argh! I'm obsessed with getting this one just right!!! >_<

Listening To: Birth of Cool (album) by Miles Davis

Purchased: a red headband (so I'll look cool when I go jogging)

                                                                               ~~~


Didn't go jogging because...I dunno. I'm lazy. Anyways, finished it:

May change the background but I found out what I thought was weird about it---I drew my friend w/ an outline and the dog without one (I typically use black outlines for everything). For my friend, her outline is colored to match the flat colors/shadows/highlights on her body and the dog was too fuzzy to really have an outline. Two different things. Well, I tried colored outlines for this piece right here:

But I dunno--I think the only thing that looks good here is Lord Beef Wellington III (The Lickitung for your Pokemon fans or the one w/ the big tongue for the people that have no idea what I'm talking about). I don't like the proportions on the Slowpoke (the pink hippo thing to the far right) and if I recall correctly, I didn't organize my layers properly. The doggie picture, I had a lot of layers and they were nice and organized. 

Anyways, I'm getting off topic. This one was fun and I hope to learn from my mistakes and draw again. Most important, I hope the post-birthday girl liked it. And...I have tons of friends with birthdays this month that I didn't know about/knew about and was too busy to make something. I feel crappy about it. -___-;

And let's not forget the other self/group projects I have.

....sigh...

Pushed A Little More

But I have to go to work so I'll finish up laters:

Added highlights and shadows to Nichu--still needs to be cleaned up. The dog is proving to be difficult---might redo the forehead fur completely. Not sure what to do w/ the background...

Reference photos:

Birthday Card: Big Surprise

I was productive--worked on some 3D animation/painting weights! Besides that, I want to finish this for tomorrow although I'll probably end up doing what I did for the Bekkstar drawing. Anyways:

Rough sketches...

I did two passes this time. Next, flat colors!

Then I decided to do a separate color for fur and clothes patterns (the neck/sleeve trim of her shirt):

I try to learn from each drawing and...there's always a lot to learn. I think the proportion of the darkened fur makes the dog's head look weird. Also, I wanted to try colored outlines again and playing with hues. Instead of just using black for her hair, I just darkened the mustardy color on her shirt (or her skin, I forget which color I used). Her sandals are also just a darkened brown. The dog's light fur is actual a light tan instead of just white. Anyways, I do a lot of tweaking and came close to just ragequitting but I'll stick it out. I added shadows in hope of rounding this lil' doggie out:

Not close to being done but it's shaping up. I'll work on the dog more first but I just wanted to post this to show I'm actually being productive! Stay tuned!