Recovering Zombie

This is the song that doesn't... ah dammit.

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:49:20 GMT

Title: Julia
Origin: Boredom
Medium: Graphite
Status: Finished. Finished I said!

This was an idle sketch I started to kill time. It killed it. Then mutated. At which point things got WAY out of hand and suddenly I found myself hunched over my sketchbook at five in the morning before work at nine, rendering hair and muttering unrelated snippets from the Batman movie (O.o?) over and over in my head.
I made myself stop when my roommate pointed out I'd been humming songs from Lamb Chop's Play-Along for the past few hours.
My muse wanted to do more but I put my foot down.
I'll doodle something for the first person who can tell me what the symbol on her shoulder is. X3

We're just going to pretend her head isn't totally flat in the back because if I have to draw even one more lock of hair, I will tear out all of my own. XP

'Cause you can't dance, it's too wet to plow, and it's a little windy to be stacking chickens

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:48:34 GMT

Title: Kieran Trevarde
Origin: The God Eaters
Medium: CG - Photoshop CS
Status: Colored doodle - finished?
Warnings: Uhm, nothing explicit but probably NOT worksafe.

The God Eaters again. X3 So I decided Ash absolutely needed his Kieran. He just wasn't complete! They were SUPPOSED to be drawn so that if you set the pictures beside each other it would appear the two were making eye contact... but it really only looks like Ash is staring at Kieran's AHEM and blushing. OOPS. XP

::sigh:: It's not as accurate as I would like. I got the attitude of Ash's pic right, but didn't quite make it with Kieran's. He needs to exude more badassery. XP

Eh, what am I thinking? No one's going to give a damn. XP

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:22:10 GMT

Title: Cherry Blossom Green
Origin: Dear god make it stop.
Medium: CG - Photoshop 6
Status: Finished
Warnings: Nope.

So much for that.
::snort:: No one who buys this thing is ever gonna find this journal, I'm an idiot.
Besides, half the enjoyment is getting to exercise my tea-nerddom on y'all.
Anyway.
Hopefully you can tell what this tea is. It's pretty straightforward, I don't know what else I could add about it; except that, for some reason, when I drink this one it reminds me of my Twin, Jenny. No idea why. O.o;
Drawing this was great fun. The outlined segments were actually a mistake that I liked the look of and ran with.
You know... I never realized how relaxing doing art just for yourself is. No pressure to make anyone happy but me. I dearly love giving art to people; catering each piece specifically for them then watching how they react.... It rocks my world. <3
But once in a while the ability to try something new and odd because I like it and damn what anybody else thinks, sure is nice. XD

Tea for Two

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:44:01 GMT

Title: Madame Butterfly
Origin: My own kooky head
Medium: CG - Photoshop 6
Status: Finished
Warnings: I got nothing.

This was one of the cards I did for the tea room where I work. A lot of the teas give me visual images when I drink them so one day I decided to start drawing them. Because I'm an anal information-o-phile I put little facts that interested me about said tea on each piece. I began to amass kind of a collection and presented them to The Ladies (my bosses.) They support local artwork and decided to offer them in-store. Now if people like, they can purchase a little booklet custom with the pics I've drawn for the teas they purchased. It's all very cutesy. The old fogies just eat it up. ::snerk::
For reasons that are pretty obvious if you think about it, I'm only going to post one, but it's my favorite. (Card not tea.) :)

Ironically, I first visualized a geisha while drinking this tea without the knowledge that the base was a Japanese green tea. Needless to say I was totally blown away to find out that the name 'Madame Butterfly' actually is a reference to a famous play about a geisha. So when I told my coworkers what the tea reminded me of their reaction was a bemusing "DUH." I was quite amused when they explained.

I haven't forgotten you art journal....!

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:59:11 GMT

Title: Ashleigh Trine
Origin: The God Eaters
Medium: CG - Photoshop CS
Status: Colored doodle - finished?
Warnings: Nada

As you can see above, this is Ashleigh Trine from Jesse Hajicek's book The God Eaters.
I love Ash. And I heart this book HARD. No really. It occupies space in my dreams. I make wild gestures when I describe it to people. I don't even want to admit how often I re-read the thing. Let's just say it sits beside my bed in easy reach. ^.^;;
I posted this a while ago in the God Eaters/Metanoia LJ community, so if you frequent that you've probably already seen it, but I thought I'd start posting what I've been up to for the past... what? YEAR? And thought this is as good a place as any to start. XP

Back during exams this image hit me pretty hard and I drew this relatively quickly -- a few hours, tops -- just to get it out of my head.
I'd been wanting to draw a pic of Ash for a while but I think my muse's sudden need to do it NOWNOWNOW had less involvement with the compulsory creative process than I'd like and a lot to do with it being a stubborn ass who doesn't like to do what I tell it to. Thrives on defying me, in fact.
I know poor Ash's body looks like crap and his head is a little too big. Oh well. It's a doodle. His HAIR though...! That was just one spastic, expletive-filled joy after another. Ironically, it got easier after I'd finally had enough, stopped giving a damn, and just resorted to making random marks. There was a lot of maniacally unhinged cackling involved after that. XD

Back from Ber-ber-ber Bermuda!

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:22:03 GMT

No body's gonna understand that quote and I'm just gonna look wierd, I know it. XP

::snerk::

I'm taking advantage of some free time to work on Death again. It doesn't look like much still. Just jumping around and seeing where my muse takes me; not letting myself sweat about making major changes on a whim.
I'm kinda proud, actually. I'm forcing myself to stay loose and leave the smoothing and detail work for later. Only cracked (ha ha) once. X3
I'm a little worried about the color scheme... I'm struggling to keep control of it. I've always been bad at color theory. Woe. T.T
I should probably get a move on with the background too, otherwise later I'll ~~have trouble with it~~ be screwed. I always leave the background for last and curse myself for it afterwards. XP
I'm just not sure what I want behind her yet. Any suggestions?

Please keep your hands and arms inside the ride at all times.

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:09:06 GMT

So I just finished a huge batch of commissions and have been feeling a little burnt out on art.
And when you're lame like me and art is practically more precious to you than breathing... well.
You see the problem. ^_^;

For a while now I've wanted to give my art a certian kind of look that I'm just not getting. I got to thinking about a method to get the effect I want and spice up the drawing proccess along the way and that's when I realized that I've gotten too comfortable with the way I use Photoshop, I don't vary my technique anymore.
So rather than working on the five million in progress pics like I SHOULD... I opened up an old sketch I've been dying to color and threw everything I knew about drawing in Photoshop out the window.
The brushes I usually use, the way I set up my workstation, the style I work... EVERYTHIING. I've tried this before but not to the extremes I'm going this time. It's sink or swim.
I'm cataloging my progress here for myself and for anyone else who might be interested.
Comments and critiques welcome, of course. XP
(P.S - It looks retarded right now because I only just started. It won't stay like this.)

What's so different? (Warning, techiebabble about to ensue, try not to get confused.)

I'm putting my color layers above the sketch.
...
That's it?
That was HUGELY oversimplified but that's the crux of it.

Midblowing isn't it?
...Well it was for ME. XP lol
See, I'm used to setting my sketch to "multiply" putting the color layers under it, and adhering to the outlines like it's a coloring book.
I'll zoom in to like an ant's view and then render tiny details of one area at a time using the airbrush tool (to facilitate blending) that look great at 500% zoom, but vanish when I go back to normal view. Or worse, is too crowded and looks outright bad and I end up doing it all over again.
It's all very depressing.

This time around my sketch is nothing but a rough guide. Since coloring over it obscures the sketch from view, half the time I'm shading from memory. And since I have a memory like a fish, I'm practically redrawing the thing as I go. It makes me feel much more free to improvise and make changes that I would NEVER have done before. When I'm finished there will BE no lines.
I'm also not allowing myself to zoom in and I'm working with the harder-edged brush tool with a diameter of at least 13 (where I usually use an airbursh tool at size 1.) I'm treating this like a painting and forcing myself to draw it all on one layer. If I screw up, well. That's just too bad. Draw over it. None of my usual a-bazillion-layers-so-that-I-can-delete-one-if-I-mess-up crap.
You think I'm joking. In a full-color picture I normally wrack up about, oh, 200-250 layers, easy. It makes me so neruotic. Or maybe it's the other way around. XP

Anyway!
Working this way is GREAT. I feel so loose and relaxed! I get the feeling the finished result is going to look WAY different then the original sketch and that's totally cool with me. XD

Coming Attractions

Thu, 17 May 2007 07:06:00 GMT

Making a living is tough in the world of anime and manga.
Young characters compete bitterly for admission into quality schools, where they study hard and train rigorously in hopes of mastering the skills which will land them superior roles in popular animes.
And of all the schools, one stands out among the rest.
To that school you can not apply: you are scouted. If found suitable, you are approached; often with sizable scholarships.
It only accepts the crème de la crème and its graduates never fail to be cast in prominent roles of highly successful animes.
Its solicitation letters are highly coveted. In fact, you'd be crazy to turn them down.

My name is Duo Maxwell.
And this is how my nightmare began.

Shonen Anime Institute:
A totally-not-serious-at-all irregular gag manga with no schedule whatsoever by Kitana Bradford for Jennifer Black (& co.) XD
Aka Kitana got bored and rather than using her little free time constructively, she's farting around with something completely retarded.

As usual.

I officially declare today: "Hug a Vampire Day" XD

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 09:05:09 GMT

Present for Jenny who has been working dang hard to churn out a snippet a day (and succeeding!) despite my foot-dragging.
I luff you babe! XD

What is this "sleep" you speak of?

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:58:29 GMT

Title: What the Hell is this Buckle Doing Here?
Origin: Gameshift (Original)
Medium: Pencil
Status: Finished Sketch
Warnings: She's not naked, I swear!

Old art sketchbook again, pooh. Being an avid reader and an artist at the same time sucks. XP
Anyway, this time it's a design sketch for one of the characters from a project Jenny and I are doing called Gameshit.
....
GameSHIFT.
Mustn't forget the f.

Man I'm tired.

I had to scan in the binding because I got chronically retarded and drew the picture INTO the rings, doy.
This picture makes me laugh because, via the way that characters you've created and know well have of talking to you from inside your own head, Hametsu has informed me she ABHORS this outfit.
Generally you would not see her thus (un)bedecked. She likes to tromp around in ridiculous amounts of armor, especially for one as mobile as she has to be, but somehow it works for her. ^.^;;
And, NO, she's NOT naked. I just didn't feel like drawing in all the little scales from the form-fitting dragonskin armor she wears. It's like chainmail long-johns.
...Hame is such an armor freak. XD

The blank bit was supposed to be reserved space for her twin, Heisei, to mirror-image her pose, but - ahem.
I ran out of space.
...If you couldn't tell.

Fire one!

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:19:01 GMT

Title: Hearts Blood
Origin: My own brain. (Ahh run away!)
Medium: Pencil
Status: Finished Sketch
Warnings: Nudity, Randomness, ...a stroll up the alley of Wierd. ^.^;;

GWY told me she'd post art if I posted too so I'm cheating by smacking up another sketchbook page I grabbed at random. XP
...Huh.
I should start writing down what inspired me to draw certian pics because it's the stuff like this that stumps me. ::scratches head::
Whatever mood I was in when I drew this, it must've been a strange one. XP
I think I just wanted to draw horns.
Though I do remember she was supposed to be clothed. I don't know at WHAT point she became naked. Lol
...
I scanned this badly but MEH. I don't care. I'm not particularly attached to this sketch. And, as far as I'm concerned, I'm through with it.

And yes, I did chop it into little pieces and shift things around after it got scanned due to infernal compositional retardation on my part.
I don't care anymore.
::snort::
And dad wonders why I have no qualms about occationally using sketchbook pages as tinder for stubborn campfires (god damn wet wood.) ^_^;;
Hrhr. That story is kinda funny actually. One resulting in a green fire and my brother minus an eyebrow. XD

So THERE Gwy.
...
I'm WAITING. ::grins::

In my last dream my horse ATE me!

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:02:29 GMT

Title: Death Becomes Her
Origin: Me
Medium: Pencil
Status: Finished Sketch
Warnings: A little morbid, but nothing too bad.

I'm finally starting to get Kate to scan some of my sketchbook stuff.
We're taking it in baby steps so she doesn't get freaked out TOO badly. Lol.

This one was drawn a while ago, back when Jenny came down to Savannah to visit me for that awesome week. <3
I started it in the airport waiting for her plane to get in and MAN did I get a lot of ~~people edging away~~ stares.
Anyhow, Jenny was determined I read a book she'd lent me and eventually quite cleverly found a way around the foot-dragging I was doing by just reading it out loud to me. This I ADORED because then I could listen and sketch at the same time -- which I did.
Jenny had a hand in this pic as well, as I would occationally interrupt her and demand she challenge me by naming elements I should include, which I would then attempt to portray in the most creative way possible.
Ah, such is the life as a friend of an artist nerd. Fortunately she's very tolerant. XD
This is what resulted:

I want to color this pic very badly.
I can already see some things I'd tweak, but I'm going to force myself to finish Xaio before I even think about that otherwise I'll be in ADD -- oh look at the chickens!!
XD

The book she was reading to me was The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold btw. I'm pretty sure that it played at least a small part in this pic too.
If you've read it, then you know what I'm talking about. XP
If you haven't then you should. It's pretty good. XD

Intercourse the penguin!

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:20:40 GMT

Another Xaio WIP.
I haven't had much time to work on him but I uploaded it to show Jenny and I figured what the heck, I'll stick it up here too. I realized I have to start getting the background in and coloring it with the character otherwise it could turn out weird. This is definately the undersketch for the final composition. More or less. That, plus... whatever the hell eventually ends up behind him. And in that gapingly empty space where the color dots are now. Hm. ::ponders::
I wish I had a free day in which to just sit down and concentrate on drawing.
The next time I post he will not be near as unfinished as this.
Any thoughts?

An 'ouch.' of epic proportions.

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 05:19:54 GMT

Hahaha. Having come back from vacation I re-discovered this pic and, recieving a bit of a breather from art homework, have decided to to art for fun. ::is a nerd::
And since I've temporarily snapped out of my drawing haze to talk to Jenny, I figured I'd post an in-progress shot before I totally forgot. ^.^;;;

I know, I know. I asked eveyone for their opinions on the arm and then I go and do something totally different. I'm sorryyyyy, I didn't mean to do that.
I wanted to do the gargoyle-dragon arm thing but it would not fit in. I looked at the previous sketch I did with elaborate background, and crap I crammed in just to make the canvas big enough to fit and balance out the space the arm would take and realized it just was not as good.
I'll definately do another pic of him in a better position to show off his arm later.
That being said here we go.
My approach to CG coloring is becoming less and less dependent on layers and more "painterly" instead, so it's hard to show it in stages, but I'll do my best. XP

PS. Look Hawk, he tucks right!

I swore I would die before I let anybody see this... ::sighs::

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 00:58:02 GMT

Oh well. XP

Title: Bane Color Test
Origin: Mythos (Original Creation)
Media: Intuos3 Wacom Tablet
Status: Blech.
Warnings: None

Notes: This is a very quick test for Bane. I love him. (The character, not the doodle. XP) He's from the same universe as Xiao and Adrian... though Adrian has, since that post, TOTALLY recieved a makeover and no longer looks anything like that picture... XP
Anyhow, Bane is a Selkie. A baby one at that.
...Comparatively speaking. XP
Hence the white hair.
Well.
It was SUPPOSED to be white. I got all retarded and now it looks white blonde.

Wow, I need sleep.

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 10:14:27 GMT

Xiao Again.
Random stuff.

Final sketch, blahblahblah.... This is the part where any good artist would go over the sketchy crappy lines in a nice smooth black.
But yeah.
I'm not going to do that.

Instead I have set my background color and picked my basic pallette.
Not very exciting, but since you guys have been involved from the beginning, I figured I'd post this step too.
Plus the composition of the pic, for anyone who's interested and didn't already see it. Even with all this foreshortened stuff in the foreground, the focus is going to be his face: so everything is arranged to lead your eye to it. Which means I'd better not screw his face up or it'll ruin the entire pic. Heh. XP

Now we color. Heh heh. ::cracks knuckles::

::gnaws on desk::

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:43:25 GMT

Title: Xiao WIP (Continued)
Etc... etc...

Notes: Tweaked it some more. Messing with his arm, mostly, and worrying about composition. As well as trying to figure out just what I want this pic to be about.
I also fixed his necklace, because Sunhawk is a pervert. XP

Stage 1.5: INDECISION!

I have arrived at a dilemma. Already. (Sadly this is not uncommon. T.T)
I can't decide whether I want this pic to be meaningful: Xiao standing on the rooftop scattering the ashes of his clan.... (Symbolism, whut. Especially appropriate since he is a gargoyle. XDDD
Though I wonder if the extreme action-type angle is a bit strong for the scene and takes away from the melancholy of what should be a bittersweet moment for him.... ::fret::
If I chose this one I would probably extend the canvas downward and include more background there and off to the upper right so that you could see the ashes floating away and more of the building he's standing on. Maybe off to the left somewhat too. I wonder if I should draw his wing. SHOULD I draw his wing? Also the face. Hmmm... the face.)

OR!

Whether I should not worry about being all cute and symbolic (for once, HA!) Just make it an action shot (as the pose and original expression kinda suggests), and have Xiao displaying his arm in it's fully transformed and warped glory. XD I would be less concerned about the background in this one and focus mostly on Xiao. And his arm.
His fucking arm.
This route being the less thought-provoking of the two, as you can see. It's the HIYAAA! Rather than the ...Hmmm. ^.^

... Somehow I get the sinking feeling that, either way, this will end up being quite a labor-intensive piece. >.<;;;; lol

Any thoughts?

Edit: Unanimaous "action scene" ka?
... Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck.
You guys want me to die, don't you? lol
Right.
Action scene it is. XD

Try something new.

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 20:39:46 GMT

Title: Xiao WIP
Origin: My head.
Media: Intuos3 Wacom Tablet >,<''
Status: WIP
Warnings: None

Notes: Well, normally I'm very secrety about my art... I don't like people to see it until it's done so that it has a strong impact. But this time I'll try something different and see how it goes. Lol
I hope this helps those people who've been asking for tutorials... I really don't have anything special that's worth it's own tutorial but maybe seeing how I work will help you develop your own style. XD
Feel free to critique (especially since it's not finished and I'll actually be able to FIX the mistakes as they are caught!) or ask me how I did anything (though I don't really use any tricky techniques, so it should be pretty straightforward.) X3

Stage 1: Rough Sketch.

What the hell, why not?

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:55:42 GMT

Title: Edideuceto Sistas
Origin: Mom's nagging (lol)
Medium: Acrylic on stretched canvas.
Status: Finished
Warnings: None
Note: This was an assignment I did for class a while ago, in which I had to do a self-portrait or a portrait of a least one person we knew in the style of a modern artist. I chose Charles Kaufman (who is one of the few modern artists I adore) and in the meantime took the oppourtunity to combine it with a request of my mom's for a personalized group picture of her and her tennis friends with references to all their little in-jokes. And, yes, that is a roll of toliet paper on the table, thanks for asking.

My roommates totally got a kick out of the fact that I was actually going to turn in a piece of art portraying a man with a boner on it. Albiet a small one, but there nonetheless. XD
I didn't say a word and no one was the wiser (though I'm sure they wondered why I was grinning so big during critique.) X3

Ps. Sorry for the quality. As I am here and the painting is hanging up in the kitchen at home, my dad was nice enough to snap the pic for me.
The glare is pretty bad, but what the hell. You get the gist.
It's also much bigger than it looks, btw. That thing was a BITCH to carry home on the airplane. Just so you know. XP

Art

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 04:06:44 GMT

Title: Want
Origin: (Fan-art) Gundam Wing
Media: Intuos3 Wacom Tablet
Status: Rough color -- permanently unfinished
Warnings: I hate this pic.

This has been sitting on my hard drive for a very long time and I haven't posted it before now because, well, we had issues, this pic and I. In a word? Loathing. ^.^;;;
But I liked the cig.
I destroyed everything I worked so hard to capture in the original sketch and then had to add that gay tear and scratches in order to make up for it.
But I liked the cig.
There are large anatomy errors that I didn't notice until after I was hip-deep in coloring.
But I liked the cig.
....
So I figured, why the hell not.
Plus, I know there have been a couple of people who wanted to see what my art looks like in progress and well. Here you go. Roughly half-finished. You can kind of see how I had my basic highlight and shadow colors laid down and was just about to start building them up when despair at how thoroughly I had destroyed the face sank deep enough that I lost heart.
Bleh. Even now, just looking at it, I want to rip it back down.
Oh well. Facing your failures is as important as your successes, I guess. I lived, I learned, and now I'm moving on. XP

Ahahaha! Look at how fast I broke my own word. All art posts my butt.

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 07:01:23 GMT

Ahhh we all knew this was coming anyhow. X3
Because I don't already have enough to do.
Actually this meme just made me laugh. Plus, I found it refreshingly different from the five million "what's your personality" memes out there.
I'm probably going to regret doing this but what the heck

Drawing meme

1.) Comment on this entry and I'll draw something based on 2 of your LJ interests (or, if I know you personally, 2 things I know you're interested in.) Sorry, but you have no say in what I draw for you. (It's a surprise! X3)

2.) Please have at least five LJ interests. (If I'm not familiar with who you are.)

3.) You can't request twice! That's just mean!

Ps... don't be expecting high-quality fanart here people. These are fast doodles and are probably going to be totally silly and look like crap, but it's all in good fun. <3

Edit: This meme is now closed. Thanks to all who commented! I'm going to have a lot of fun drawing these! XDDD

Art

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 19:04:01 GMT

Title: Ice Cream and Chocolate
Origin: (Fan-art) HunterxHunter
Media: Intuos3 Wacom Tablet
Status: Sketch -- unfinished work in progress
Warnings: None
Note: Heh. Very rough sketch that I'll fix up as I color it.
...I drew them a bit too close together so there's more shonnen ai here than I intended there to be. ^.^;;;
This pic is going to be homage to my favorite ship manifesto EVER, which is where I got the title from. You should definately go check it out: Ice Cream and Chocolate

Art

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 00:51:59 GMT

Title: Vampire Duo with a Flower
Origin: (Fan-art) Gundam Wing
Media: Intuos3 Wacom Tablet
Status: Color -- finished
Warnings: My stupid sense of humor. XD

Art

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 00:40:52 GMT

Title: The Feminine Wiles Series -- Lethal Kiss
Origin: Original
Media: Intuos3 Wacom Tablet
Status: Color sketch -- unfinished
Warnings: None

Art

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 00:30:09 GMT

Title: Be mine
Origin: (Fan-art) Gundam Wing
Media: Intuos3 Wacom Tablet
Status: Graphic design color -- finished
Warnings: None