Original Stuff

As I vaguely said in my post yesterday, I AM going to post something today, be it schoolwork or not-schoolwork. As it happens, it is the latter. *cough*

Well, okay, technically, this was still for school, but this is a character I created on my own and sketched prior to the project she featured in. The project in question was a laptop skin, and this was the main image, with a bunch of panels showing scenes from her story as the background. Maybe I'll post the whole image someday! But this was my favourite part off it:



The short story behind this character is that I asked myself what I'd look like as a superhero. Then I got bored in class and drew her a lot and then came up with a plot and personality and so on, and now she's an original character in a Superhero story I'm totally going to write sometime. PS, her name is Annie Matterson. Her hero name is Animator. She did not pick her hero name.

... Of course, part of me thinks it might be bad form to start off original-character posting with a blatant self-insert, but I was having trouble picking which characters and sketches to start with, and this at least looked finished, so I'm starting with her.

... And, self-critique time:
Art-wise, the shading is very basic and could probably stand to be more detailed. Also the pen's shading/highlights look kind of weird. And her right leg looks a little odd going into that boot. I'm not so sure about her arms, either... I don't know, what do you guys think?

[Illustration Friday] Round 9: Expired

Yes I know it's a little sketch, but darnit, I'm going to submit something for Illustration Friday this week!



Originally I had a page of comic planned out and half finished for this prompt, but, er, then, you know, other projects came up, the usual. But, determined to submit something, I sketched out what was basically the main punchline - this guy, the main subject of the page - and that tag. ... It was pretty much the first thing I thought of when I saw 'expire'. Well, that and some convoluted way of connecting it to the patchwork pirate since I wanted to draw him again...

I went with this partially because the concept was clearer here (Pirate was going to uncover some ancient treasure with an expiry date, so), and also because I like zombies. ... Yup! Not much else to add!

And for those of you tuning in from class, especially if you are marking me, I will have not one, but TWO postcards tomorrow (or Saturday, because let's face it, it's me), and then... MORE!

Yup! I mean, aside from the catching-up things, I have been itching to post some non-school related art, and hopefully I will get to do so this weekend! So mark my words, there will be a post every day this weekend! Or at least tomorrow and Saturday.

See you then!

[Illustration Friday] Round 8: Subterranean

Iiiiiiit's that time again! Illustration Friday!

ahem

I can't remember when, but somewhere through my childhood, I picked up one of those books full of fun facts about various things. I think this one was called 'Bugs That Go Blam', as it was centered around bug trivia. There was a ton of weird stuff in there (that, looking back, might be inaccurate in parts), but one thing that I remember as kind of jarring was this one fact about the Cicada: Some types can spend up to 13 or 17 years underground, before they crawl out as adults. I think the part that struck me the most about that their long lifespan - there were bugs out there older than I was! - and the illustration depicting a teenaged Cicada larvae chilling in his underground home and watching TV. The fact made some joke along the lines of spending most of their life just eating and living underground. I think part of me was unnerved by how much of the insect's life was spent underground, while the other part of me kinda wanted to be that Cicada.

... Well! Now that I have the rambling story-set-up, let's get this trainwr- post rolling! :D

You ever have one of those days where you don't feel like getting out of bed?

Tadah!

I think I was originally going to do something with molepeople (Sam and Max or The Tick, pick your inspiration), but then I remembered the cicada and its crazy life cycle, and decided to go with that.

I seem to work better/more reliably with non-digital media, and this time 'round, I used these bright Staedtler markers I had lying around. I felt they suited the brightness of the cicada's wings and eyes. Though, now that I'm looking at it again, I think my scanner did something odd to the colours. Hm...

Initially, I was also trying to stick with colour combinations that are likely to happen in real life, but then I started having too much fun drawing the little cicadas having their waking up party. Also this was going to represent some deep-seated anxiety of mine or another but then I was too amused by the little pouty cicada faces to get into the right state of artistic depression. Lookit them! Heh heh heh.


And to make a long post longer, news!:
- Finished Storyboards to come soon, possibly a missed Illustration Friday.
- Will try to upload some non-school stuff, or at least non-portfolio-class-stuff. Will just have to pick the best of the lot.
- Also, you know it's bad when your own mother is telling you to stop being so self-depreciating and act more professional. *waves* Hi mom!

And that's all for now, folks! See you next random update!

Assignment 2 [Storyboard Roughs, no reference] [ALSO LATE *SOB*]

[Scene: INT. DAY]

ME: HEY SELF GUESS WHAT
SELF: WHAT IS IT, ME
ME: EVEN THOUGH WE ARE WAY BETTER AT DRAWING WITH PENCILS, WHY DON'T WE DO IT DIGITALLY
SELF: SOUNDS GOOD I MEAN WE COULD USE THE PRACTICE
ME: EXACTLY NOTHING WILL GO WRONG HERE
SELF: I MEAN IF WE TAKE THE TIME TO IT
ME: BY THE WAY THIS IS DUE IN TWO DAYS
SELF: SAY WHAAAAT THAT IS SOME CRAZY STUFF

... I'm going to end that there and give my shift key a break (capslock is for wusses), but you get the idea.

This is late for embarrassing reasons I won't get into (the reasons are also lame), and these are subpar. I think tracing my own photographs might indeed be a better plan.

I was also going to do more than three because these three are pretty lame and also basically copy-pastes, but... time. Even though this is late. Just work with me on this.



[board one: Cartoon is playing.]



[board two: Door opens, Roommate walks in.]

Roommate: Hey, it's -



[board three: Roommate does a double take.]

Roommate: *disappointed* Aw, Tom, have you been into the Din-O's again?


And that's it. I... will either do more/improve this or abandon it and pretend it never happened when I get to the photo-traces. -( ._.)-

NEXT POST: Missed Illustration Friday, theme: ADRIFT. After that, hopefully, not-missed Illustration Friday, theme: BRAVE!
And, y'know, somewhere in between, another missed assignment, I'm sure.


[HUMOUROUS QUALITY LOGO]

[Illustration Friday] Round 6 (ish): Perspective

Me: Golly, what was I supposed to be doing? I don't know... I have a feeling it's important...
Conscience: It's your homework.
Me: I could have sworn... it's on the tip of my tongue.
Conscience: *coughHomeworkcough*
Me: A nagging thing at the back of my mind. Man oh man, it's like right there, what is it?
Conscience: Is it your homework? I think it's your homework.
Me: Darn, I guess this is going to bug me all night...

WHOOPS It was Illustration Friday! And to a lesser degree, my other assignments!

I am sure I have a plethora of long boring predictable excuses as to why I haven't done this in awhile, but uh. They're not really important, the end result is that I didn't finish on time! I will post my missed I-F's later this weekend, but in the meantime, here is my take on perspective:



Whenever a teacher told us to use one or two point perspective, I would silently break into a cold sweat and a string of curses. Perspective is one of those things you could really, noticeably screw up, and I was terrible with straight lines and believable buildings.

Plus I have a short attention span and would rather be drawing cartoons and characters over perspective guidelines.

On a note about the actual artwork, it is all pencil-sketchy mainly because that is the usual stage that those perspective guidelines are visible and used at and so on, and it would look weird to have all or part of that inked, so, I left it as is. I probably could have cleaned it up a little more, but, um. I... was in a hurry when I scanned it. Yes. That's it.

Not to say I hate using proper perspective and guidelines and such. Just that I'm really paranoid when I am using them. I mean I'll get over it one day, but until then, I'm going to be nervously measuring and remeasuring lines (then giving up and making a ballpark estimate).

Ladies and gentlemen: a wannabe comic-artist! :D

[image advertising my QUALITY ARTWORK goes here]

Tune in next week where I'll draw myself beating up a mannequin representing my dislike for proper proportions in human figures! [/requisite self-depreciating comment]

QUALITY.