Nidd the Dragon

This one less obviously than others, but hey, look! It's a vector dragon!



This guy is called Nidd. As my Flickr description will say, he is for a children's story I am very casually writing notes for. He appears as a statue in it, but I wanted to draw his true form for fun and for reference.

I originally was going to try making him more 'Norse' looking, but as I researched that I found out that Age of Mythology totally lied to me, and the dragons up north are more like big serpents. So I gave him more of a snaky body, realized he was looking a little oriental in style, and then something occurred to me. There was this museum exhibit I went to while I was in Edmonton (that was mostly for children, admittedly), that talked about dragons and their origins in human legends and history, and mentioned how some were pretty much a mish-mash of animals.

So I thought I'd try my hand at that. I tried to give him a wolfish, horseish head shape, with long horse/goat ears, antlers, a snake's body, thick fur (either wolfish again, or something with a thicker coat), bird's legs, bat's wings, and a tail of my own design.

... What?

Anyway, for this world, I figured dragons were more of a description than an identifiable species. Y'know, magic creatures, right? And the kind of dragon Nidd is are shapeshifting types anyway, so your guess is as good as mine when it comes to putting science to them.


The background, as usual, was an afterthought, but I wanted a colour that would make the drawing pop out. Somehow red was chosen. For the real thing, though, I'm not sure. I didn't draw him with a background in mind (probably because I didn't initially plan to post this to the blog, eheh), but maybe I'll draw the carnival he works at in later... Hm...

Well, until then! See ya later!

Evolution of a Character

/ What I've Been Doing For Four Months, Part 1

Hey, remember these guys? Or at least Nero?

Well, y'see, one of the side effects of drawing every day (even if I don't post it) is that your style changes. Usually for the better. Sometimes, you can notice that change over a month, or sometimes even a week.

Blah blah blah, dramatic build up, hey look at this!



Sketched on paper, then scanned and inked and coloured in photoshop!

Still a Work In Progress, though. I keep doing this multitask thing, look where it's gotten me! ANYWAY, yeah, the backgrounds very obviously need work, and admittedly, I mostly put them there so there wouldn't be huge gaping blank spots behind the characters I was so proud of.

But yeah, my point is, hey look! Spot the differences!

Yuu's wings are better! And I figured out what his suit looked like! And his hair is - well you can't see it here, but his headshape and hair are better than in those early doodle pages.

Nero's got a larger and pointier chin, likewise with his nose, and his hair has flared out into four spikes on top, and however many I feel like for his bangs, because I had to draw him repeatedly for a project I will mention later, and the best way for me to stay consistent was to cut corners.
... Uh.

And Krii is- not in this picture, but rest assured his structure is better too.



That's all I have for now! See you next post!

WIP it good!

Well, it's not Wednesday, but this is a WIP that I kind of like and would like to show to the world before I ruin it further!



There's a long story behind this starting with me jokingly creating a fan-character for Sailor Moon based on the stars of the constellation Draco, but then she, er, turned into her own character. Tadah!

ALSO the title says this is a Work In Progress. That is because her right hand will be holding a sword (that will block her nice shoulder-frills and mouth), and also I have to put shading to it. And probably pick a better hair-colour, and a less eye-burning and rushed background.

Professionalism!

But yes. More on this when I have a more finished version to post, hopefully with her sidekick/ward/boss. That's all one person, by the way.

See you in five minutes next post!

WIP Wednesday - SNAKES OH MY GOOOOOD

Well, it's been a fun little break, hasn't it? That is totally it and not forgetfulness on my part.

Well, actually, I was camping for about two weeks back there. So yeah! Which, actually, led to a lot of neat stuff in my sketchbook, which I will try to scan and upload this weekend. We will see, we will see.

In the meantime, it's WIP Wednesday! And it is still totally Wednesday because I haven't gone to bed yet! And on that note, we see the return of the 'Late Night Theater with Rex', there to absolve me of any posts full of fatigue-induced typos and dumb wordings!

**Also also, on a technical note, something weird is happening between flickr and blogspot and I am waaaay too sleep deprived to figure it out and make it pretty again, so as a consequence of that... uh, you'll get to see into my flickr account too, I guess./professionalism**


Aaaanyway, today is a very special episode of WIP Wednesday. Not only have I accidentally made it an actual feature instead of just a one-shot-joke, but I have something new, something strange, someth- OMG CARTOON SNAKES YEEEEEE--

Ahem.

I've been playing around with the dudes from here, sketching them and then drawing them in Illustrator. Interesting process. Blah blah blah, more padding about the process and my thoughts on the matter, and now snakes.

Starting with Colby the Cobra:



I was playing around with his colours, mostly because there may be other snakes that have black or brown as a secondary colour on this little team, but the general consensus so far is that black and tan is the best combination thus far. So, yeah, will probably go with that when I make fancy wallpaper for him later. *cough*



VICKY I love you more every time I draw you~~~!

Ahem, excuse me. See, Vicky is an eyelash viper. Again, I'm playing around with colour combinations, and now, patterns as well.

See, the problem is, I like her in green, but I have seen a picture of a pink morph on the eyelash viper (among many, many others), and my brother is insistent that I not give up this opportunity to have a female animal character that can actually be pink and have 'eyelashes' in real life. I am torn between this, but since she is my character and not his, I'll probably go with green. This is okay because if I am to believe every breeder site I read, pythons and constrictors can sometimes come in pink. Pinkish. Albinoish. -ahem-

The yellow morph was thrown in for kicks. So, yes. To my Mom, what does you and your office think? loyal readers, what do you think?



And finally, the most WIPish of the batch today/tonight, but my favourite snake in the group, Horatio the Hognose snake.

Seriously, Hognose Snakes are awesome.
Normally I'd be happy and willing to give you the spiel on why these are the best snakes ever, but I'll let this youtube video of its defensive techniques do the talking.

Aaaanyway, I at least put in the effort to give Horatio a pattern on the top left. Probably not an accurate one, though. The others are more bases to pretty up when I am not tired, but also there so I can have fun with his expressions. Man, he's the best.

I know what the last two in this snakey five-man-bad are going to be, their names, and what they look like, so they will be... um. Let's say next week. *bites lip*

So... yes, I'm still alive, and still drawing ridiculous stuff. Hi guys!

WIP Wednesday!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday!
(If I make it almost-alliterative, that means it's a feature, right?)

So, yeah, that was embarrassing, saying that I update at least once a week, then... Missing an update. *cough*

On that note, I think I will make this dinosaur thing a little more... infrequent until I can work out a proper schedule. ... I'm new at this, okay?

So, yes, the art post for today, ahem.

I recall something my portfolio class teacher said, about not uploading bad art, something to that effect, and that time my mom told me to stop being so self-depreciating.

Well, today, I get to defy TWO authority figures with one stone! Post! Figure of speech!

And by that I mean this is what I've kind of been working on lately:



The working file is WAY bigger (which is why the glowy effect around her wings is so large *cough*), but yeah, here we go. I intend to make this part of a wallpaper when I'm done, and right now I need to shade this and... fix that eye, but I'll save that for later.

So... Yes, explanation. This is Arianna, a character I made waaaay back when. The shortest (and long-standing) backstory is that she's one of those shoulder-advice angels. Depending on my mood that day, she also might dispense hilariously bad advice.

Normally, though, she's kind of Ari's sidekick, as seen here (incidentally, another work in progress):


"That's the problem with real people, Anna. They're so boring!"

Also I created these two between the ages of ten and twelve, so there's a LOT of history with them. Also explains why they're kind of anime-ish and crazy-haired.

The Max to Ari's Sam, as I said once. Only... Ari's not exactly smooth herself. They're both sort of cartoony bringers of chaos, and are comedic-duo-y with each other. Something like that.

ANYWAY, today's drawing.

My main issue with it at the moment is the fact that Anna's left eye there looks off. At first, it was kind of uneven:


"Whoops, made her hand too thin... *furious scribbles* GOD BLESS PHOTOSHOP."

So, I thought, 'hey, I'll touch it up in photoshop, how hard could that be?'

I've gotten better at gauging my skills in these situations, so usually I'm right. However, I redrew that eye like five times and it's still looking kind of wonky. Of course, I also have been staring at it for a long time, often too close to the screen, so hey, maybe it's not so bad.


Ariel-vision, reduced by 50%

Of course, at the time, I was inwardly a ball of rage and fury at this misbehaving bit of art. I start shading, realize that I'm too tired and frustrated to have it look right, so I call it a night. And before I do, I think of something...

Ariel: Hey, what's that thing some artist do? Right, they flip their work to see how it looks like from a different perspective. Hey, maybe if I do that, what I need to do to fix that eye will be clearer!

Ariel: Hm... No, it still looks kind of wide. *leans back* ... And now, her head looks flat too. ... FFF whatever I'm going to bed.

So, yes, readers. Not every day is one full of great success, but that's why you've got to leave that file open and keep working on it.

... Or something deep and inspiring like that.
WELL! Back to work I go!