ElectricAbyss - sketch vomit

text and visual cohesion 2

2012-01-27T14:04:00.002-05:00

second go, hopefully these fonts are better.

text and visual cohesion

2012-01-26T22:12:00.000-05:00

The comic isn't mine, its from http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Multiverse/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature2/22b#

Please, tell me which of these, left or right, you think is more appealing (has better visual cohesion), and if you can, WHY.

Tokyo! And the donate button!

2011-10-29T11:27:00.000-04:00

EVERY TIME YOU COMMISSION ME, IT GOES TOWARDS MY DREAM! Even if you only have a few dollars to spare, I'll sketch you something, or may have an incentive like a super-secret-awesome wallpaper, or some other kind of special thing!

nyaran

2011-10-21T22:36:00.002-04:00

you go girl!

2011-09-29T12:40:00.001-04:00

http://michelelee.net/2011/09/24/dear-dc-comics/

this girl is a hero. I'm not the only one doing her up as a superhero, but I"m the first one done; I"ll post in links as the others are finished

THE OTHERS!

http://nattosoup.blogspot.com/2011/10/sekret-project.html

http://drawmicheleleesdaughter.blogspot.com/

red

2011-09-27T21:23:00.000-04:00

watercolors.

improving on the prince

2011-09-18T20:48:00.000-04:00

Drawn at some point in 2009 or 10, I think. Halfway colored in Corel Painter

Re-visited today, Corel painter and Photoshop. Still not finished, but hey, now I CAN finish it.

motorcycles

2011-08-27T16:09:00.002-04:00

Motorcycles are a staple of the west, at least in my mind. Though this is a Honda Black Shadow, and not a Harley. I don't actually like Harleys.

Convention review - Heroescon and Otakon

2011-08-18T22:31:00.000-04:00

After the lovely Becca did an excellent review of her thoughts and experiences at Heroescon and Otakon, and encouraged me to do my own, I relented, so here you guy go.

Heroescon is a mainstream (think DC, Marvel, Dark Horse) comics convention in Charlotte, NC. Because its so close to SCAD, not only do many students go, so do many of the professors, both to enjoy and to table. A good deal of the panels are even put on by SCAD. I don't know the number of attendees there, but it was located in the Charlotte Convention Center, and we did see a sizeable line when we set up friday morning.

The dealers room and artist alley were all in the same place, so comic giants like Neal Adams were intermixed with college comickers and comic store owners and publishers like top shelf. This probably would have been great, were we not therefore in the far back of a giant room. Regardless, there were still a number of people who came by.

I've used free candy to tempt people to my table for years, and at Heroescon it actually went over as a huge success - kids came by, saw the candy, and their parents would look at our work. Yes, there were the typical old nerdy guys with their box of first editions and $800 Neal Adams commissions, but there were also a lot of kids (and a lot of kids in costume), and a lot of parents (including moms!) There were SOME teenagers, but not so much of the hypersugared anime crowd.

Pbbth.

I can't say I really did booming business at Heroescon, but I've never broken $1000 at any con, so I guess in retrospect I didn't do horribly (I came home with about $300). Charlotte is a beautiful city though, and Heroescon was fun.

However, I think part of the other problem was we were competing with people who don't have standards. In THEORY, fanart is not allowed by DC or Marvel, but there were tons of pinups of all the girls, all as skanky and scantily clad as possible, or artists who, in order to conform to the family friendly rule, would cover the naughty bits on their giant paintings with post its. Then there were people who's tables were full of full sized comic books. Still, all in all, it was a casual atmosphere. Almost everyone had a banner similar to my own behind their table (6' x 2.5') then a display on their table that did not utilize pvc or crates or anything of that sort, but perhaps some small easels, or a banner on front of their table. People liked to mill about and take time to talk to you and look at your art, rather than darting from thing to thing.

Still, I didn't do very well, and it isn't REALLY my crowd. I have so many issues with mainstream superhero comics, and with so many of the artists that made cheap fanart or ripoff comics that I felt awkward there in the midst of all of it.

Otakon was in Baltimore in July, only a few weeks ago. It is the second largest anime convention in the US, with an attendance of 30,000. In additon to the merchandise I brought to heroescon (pokemon bookmarks, posters and prints, both fanart and original work, a sketcbook, a book of short comics, a longer graphic novel) I also made charms of the animals of the chinese zodiac I was selling for $3. I had the same setup - a banner behind me with a few upright displays on the table, but most things laid flat for people to flip through. And it was a disaster.

Yes, I made more at Otakon than I did at Heroescon, but not proportionally more. And I had way less fun, almost having to scream at people to get them to come by our table. Becca theorizes this was because, even though I did fanart, I didn't ape people's styles - my cloud and squall didn't look EXACTLY like squeenix, my ouran piece didn't look EXACTLY like hatori's (I couldn't do her style if I wanted to!) And because I'm not on board with what is popular THIS MOMENT (nyan cat? adventure time? ponies?) I didn't draw fanart of it - I only draw fanart of stuff I really like anyway. (Meaning I made a nice kenshin piece no one bought).

I can't say I didn't sell anything, as I still made about $400. Before you factor in the cost of hotel, the table, the train ride there, buying any of the materials . . . . okay. I'm rather far in debt from it. Yeah. It really kicked my butt, and that means I really can't financially justify it ever again. So why did I do so shoddily when I have - supposedly - good art?

I've been tabling at anime conventions for several years - starting at a little tiny convention called Ikasucon in Cincinnati, OH back in high school (2002?) and for a while hitting four or five cons a year. In college without a car, con going became more difficult, though I did have friends that went, and once I started my full-time illustration job in Toledo, it was annoying to get fridays off to go to cons, especially if they were any distance away. I still did an occasional convention, but nothing like I did in high school. Looking back to how I handled conventions, though, things were different then. Now, 95% of all artists have a pvc or wire frame stand of some kind over their table to hang their artwork from. They've become more of a drive through booth, where you go up to a small window, pick a print, and pay. Back in the earlier 00's, it was unusual for people (at the cons I visited, which were admittedly smaller cons) to have even a banner. Now, even that banner doesn't generate enough interest for people to come look at your table.

Admittedly, I think I also pulled more of a profit because I was capitalizing on the manga boom. 1998 really marked when anime and manga took off in the US, and as tokyopop and viz experimented with formatting manga and bringing them to the US, I was there with not only fanart, but colorful art that appealed to the 'high school emo.' As the market became oversaturated, I stopped going (no correlation, it just happened to be when I got into college), and in the late 2000's, the market really declined, whether due to the availability of torrents and fansubs and free online scanlations, or just due to a lack of interest.

Now, the next generation of manga kids are used to this availability - with high speed internet, they can read all their favorite series online through a multitude of websites, and because of webcomics, they just expect things to be free - their parents give them money, they don't see that this is our job, how we have to pay the bills. They're hypercaffinated, ADHD, and probably just like us when we were 14.

In conclusion, I have no idea what to do with cons. One of my professors asked how I was networking online, and I was like . . . "uh, deviantart?" But DA hasn't done much for me - I have 80K pageviews, but when it comes to commissions, I've had a grand total of 2 people who aren't my friends want stuff from me. When it comes to prints, absolutely zero. Whey I try to promote my stuff or sell it on other sites, no one bites. Spitfire got featured on Drunk Duck, yet I still couldn't get people to buy ANY copies of the book.

I love art, and I'm not QUITE ready to give it up yet, but its becoming a hobby I'm paying 60K a year to learn to do better, and I just can't do that.

commission sketches

2011-08-17T21:30:00.002-04:00

blue lines.

new page 19

2011-08-14T20:49:00.000-04:00

stacking on the left!

shirtless guy week

2011-08-10T16:51:00.000-04:00

Apparently it is shirtless guy week. Sketched this way back at heroescon, colored it today. The idea was my idea of the 'ideal man.' Somewhere between the over-buff superhero sterotypes and the scrawny, weightless manga ones.

we'll set the world on fire just to watch it burn

2011-08-08T20:42:00.002-04:00

Finished!

he bites

2011-08-06T13:40:00.001-04:00

The real question here is, what color should I make his wings? I was thinking flesh tones fading into blues.

jace progress

2011-07-09T22:57:00.000-04:00

The initial sketch, scanned and bluetoned. I printed this out on canson dark grey paper at 11x17

First layer of colored pencils.

I melted the pencils using some turpenoid, spray fixed it, then added oil paint on top. (thats my cat's nose on the left, he's curious!)

The "final' piece, after adding more colored pencil details.

facial closeup

2011-06-18T21:14:00.002-04:00

work on the face

dr hart

2011-06-18T15:50:00.000-04:00

Commission in progress for cesura of her character, Dr. Hart

program comparison

2011-06-12T22:24:00.000-04:00

Same character, done in two different programs. Which works better, do you think?

sketch vomit!

2011-06-06T23:58:00.000-04:00

Some images from this semester and heroescon!

Six. He's naked. Whut?!

Ariel

Archery-dude

Six. I imagine he lashes his tail like a cat sometimes.

Heroescon

There were quite a lot of revisions to her boobs to make them 'superheroine' boobs. Meaning totally fake.

Read the comments. Is it okay for this to be my style? I want this to be my style.

heroescon

2011-06-04T18:31:00.000-04:00

And now, we've finished the second day of heroescon. So how's my first mainstream con going?

I'm curious . . .

Copyright laws dictate that we can't use dc/marvel/etc characters to promote our own work, or sell them for a profit. Yet I see tons of people using batgirl or green lantern or other characters on their banners, and selling tons of fanart. They're probably making a killing at this con - but then again, I guess I use the names of pokemon, and have a few fanarts, though I'm phasing them out.

Its just frustrating. I haven't been doing well at anime cons, and I'm not doing well here. Yeah, I'm 24, yeah I need to be patient . . . . and I know I've got a lot of work to do as an artist. But I don't always know what all to do to get better.

cons are always frustrating. Am I really supposed to get a job this way?

breakdown

2011-03-13T21:58:00.001-04:00

A layer by layer breakdown of my illustration for Periodic Heroes. I started with the sketch, then put it about 20% transparency over the background. I changed its color as necessary to see what was behind it, so I think it started out light blue and went to purple. I use several brushes of my own modification in photoshop as well as painter, and I switch between them on a regular basis.

blargedy blargh blargh blargh

2011-01-31T22:18:00.000-05:00

character designs for a comic I'm working on.

cover stuff

2010-10-26T00:32:00.002-04:00

blarghy blargh blargh.

should I change the design on the coat?

moving drama

2010-09-27T22:32:00.001-04:00

If you haven't heard the drama with my movers, there's a lot you've missed, most of it ugly. It basically boils down to "Heidi was an idiot and had to sign a contract that basically screwed her over."

Then I got a customer satisfaction survey in my email. Lets see how that went.

"

Dear BLACK,HEIDI:

Thank you for choosing E-Z Movers, Inc. for your moving needs! As a valued customer, your opinions about your recent moving experience are extremely important to us. We will have our Customer Service Department contact you as soon as possible regarding your issues. E-Z Movers, Inc. wants to help you make your moving experience a better one.

Thank you for sharing your time and opinions with us.

Sincerely,

Genave Daniel
Marketing Director,
E-Z Movers, Inc.

Below is the copy of the submitted survey:

09/20/2010 03:07 PM

ARONS,JOSHUA:

A = Excellent
B = Good
C = Fair
D = Bad
F = Lousy

	A	B	C	D	F
*Overall Experience: F
*Price: F
*Quality: F
*Responsiveness: F
*Punctuality: F
*Professionalism: F

*Would you use this company/individual again in the future?:

The questions in this section are optional. Before you skip it, remember that other customers will appreciate having this information.

How much did the final cost compare to the original estimate?
higher than estimate

How does the value of the work compare to the price?
		I paid too much

How far in advance did you schedule the work?
		1-2 weeks

How did you find our company?
		website

Why did you choose this company?
		other:

price

Have you used this company before?
this is the first time I've used this company

What did you like most about this company?
nothing!

What did you like least about this company?
unpunctual, unprofessional, unhelpful, unwilling to negotiate.

The contract is written in a way that removes all liability from the moving company which is very sneaky and dishonest.

What surprises came up during the course of the work?
the movers did not speak english well, the time it took to deliver, the full-size 18-wheeler in the middle of an old, crowded downtown, broken electronics, broken furniture, horrible contract.

What words of advice would you give other customers considering this company?
It took them over two weeks to even arrive from Toledo, OH to Savannah, GA. The movers, drivers, and dispatchers did not speak English very well at all and I had trouble understanding them at every turn. They did not even properly convey that they were going to bring an 18-wheeler into the heart of downtown Savannah. (A full-size semi does not fit in most downtowns, much less a very old one like Savannah). They did not have directions to my place and had to call me, then refused to believe me when I told them where to go. They parked on the street blocking traffic and did not even try to park in the empty lot or in the lane I live on, and tried to tell me it was my fault that they had run their semi into a telephone pole and broken the transformer and done other damage. They then refused to carry my stuff further than 75 feet without an extra $300 in cash, and would not even bill me later. (I'm pretty sure they saw that I lived on the second floor and decided they didn't want to even negotiate.) After they measured out their 75 feet, they dumped all of my stuff in the alley by the garbage cans, using the excuse of "company policy" for all of their unhelpfulness, forcing me to find anyone willing to help to carry my stuff with me. They broke several items and repackaged some of my stuff into large boxes, making it much heavier.

They were extremely discourteous, dishonest, unreliable, unhelpful, untimely, and unprofessional. I would not recommend these movers to even my worst enemy.

What words of advice would you give this company?
Customer service should be an important part of your business strategy. The fastest way to lose customers is to ignore it. That being said, it surprises me you have anyone willing to use your company.

Thank you for your time spent here making our company a better business."

Now, lets hear their reply after this was received:

"We regret you were dissatisfied with the contracted services provided for your move to Georgia. We appreciate the opportunity to review the circumstances of your move and take a stance regarding this matter.

We disclosed to you that all deliveries outside of a Chicagoland area require access for semis. We do consolidated shipping which means your shipment is not the only one on the truck and to make the most efficient use of our resources we utilize 53' semi trucks. This was disclosed to you in writing not only prior to the move within the Confirmation but on the day of the move in two different documents you reviewed and signed. When access for a semi is not possible we must either rent a smaller truck or carry the shipment much further than the contracted distance of 75'. For your delivery the distance was 250' - more than 3x the contracted allotted distance.

After speaking with the driver he stated that you wanted him to park in an alley since the low hanging cables and trees prevented a safe scenario for the truck to park directly in front of your home. To illustrate what type of damage a low hanging cable or tree can cause the driver told you of the previous delivery in which he did not heed the hazard of low hanging wires. I have attached a picture of that delivery to show you what can happen when we ignore our experience. On this particular delivery when the truck backed up to leave the wire caught under the back fin of the cab tearing down the wire, the utility pole and the transformer. We can not risk this type of damage and when the hazards prevent themselves we must resort to long carries or shuttles. We were in no way blaming you for the circumstances of the delivery before yours in which this damage happened and hope you can understand that we must resort to safe alternatives when such hazards are presented. These hazards can cause not only physical damage to our truck and to other people's properties but also health concerns had the wires been exposed and someone electrocuted by them.

This is where the small lot that you spoke of was located, however, the alley was too small to access as well. We were forced to resort to the long carry option. You did not want to pay for the fee of $75/100 cf ($150) and therefore the foreman had the shipment carried the contracted 75' and you agreed to be responsible to carry them the remaining distance. We regret you were unhappy, however, we feel that asking our crew to carry a shipment 250' as a good faith gesture is unreasonable.

We wish you the best of luck in your new home and ventures."

We regret you were dissatisfied? But we're not going to do shit about it?

I think my friend was right - I shoudl just take this to 4chan . . . .

My reply: "

It is not simply that they would not carry it, it is that I asked if they could bill me later, and they refused. I do not carry large amounts of cash on me and would not have been able to pay, but requested to be billed. They would not allow this at all, and in fact, seemed to want to blame the incident when they ran their truck into the power transformer on me!

It would also be helpful if your crews had a better grasp of the English language. I understand that it is a difficult language, especially as a second language, but their accents were so thick I had a very hard time understanding their words. It is very hard to do business when you cannot understand what someone is saying.

Next, there is only a minimal difference between 75' and 250' when you have dollies - which they did - it takes only a small amount more energy to wheel something the further distance.

Finally, many items were broken or damaged due to the move - a bookshelf was broken beyond repair, a deep gouge was made in a dining room table, and an expensive piece of electronics was broken. It seems the "feather" in your "gentle as a feather" slogan actually refers to a half-ton granite boulder.

Thank you for your excuses. I look forward to never moving with you again."

But let this be a lesson to you all. E-Z movers is not a company to be trusted. Do not use them.

Just another page in the unfortunate life lessons of Heidi.

tattoo?

2010-09-21T20:20:00.001-04:00

Tattoo ideas for my sister.

aaaaaugh!

2010-08-28T17:30:00.000-04:00

Things I should be doing: Packing, eating dinner, getting some sleep

Things I am doing:

GHEY

2010-08-28T10:06:00.000-04:00

Vicadin does strange things to me. Like make RAINBOWS.

If I were a guy, this would be totally gay. Fortunately, I grew up in the 80's and 90's. When Lisa Frank was all the rage.

spaz

2010-08-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

I'm spazzing out about scad now. Yay.

Character sketches for a manga concept.

Axeeeeeel! I know his chakram are wrong, its a, uh, NEW design. Yeaaaah.

Sorry, I was in puerto rico with no internet.

What is this? Aaaaaaaaaaah . . . nothing?

new sketchbook

2010-08-15T22:43:00.000-04:00

Some of the stuff from my new sketchbook.

If you give a mouse a cookie . . .

Chibi style of Natsu, kind of.

Japanese woodblock style

Aslan, singing the stars into existence

Martin the warrior? Or just another mouse?

AAAAANGRY!

Rasheed (red panda) done with a brush pen. Is this better or worse than my normal pens?

Flowers and kimonos.

Detective character, he's intense!

I had an awesome dream about this guy, and two other characters, who fell into this world from a world that uses magic all of the time, and dresses in wild and crazy clothes. They become thieves, but also can see all the corruption in the world, since they see it differently . . . .

mmm, rainbows!

2010-07-25T00:35:00.000-04:00

Vicadin is one of the most amazing painkillers ever. It also makes me see rainbows and weird things.

On a side note, I now no longer have a gall bladder.

chimera?

2010-06-20T23:42:00.002-04:00

What is he? Something awesome . . . . that's for sure. My favorite part is the velociraptor claws.

the sun!

2010-06-01T00:51:00.000-04:00

Today, the sun did exactly waht I needed it to do, and turned the sky a fiery shade of orange, just so I could see how to light this puppy.

Also, its june now, meaning I stayed up too late. I need sleep . . . I'm tired after traveling all day!

color test

2010-05-26T09:04:00.001-04:00

How are the colors looking?

fighting onwards!

2010-05-24T21:08:00.001-04:00

Bad scan, sorry.

In color! Also, her chest looks right now.

orange skies

2010-05-22T22:16:00.001-04:00

uuugggh

2010-05-18T14:00:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm doing a lot of debating on whether I should continue six or put it on hiatus (after 3 pages!?) for some shorter, simpler stories.

In the meantime, here is some actual sketch vomit for you. Featuring girls in armor, and lions.

working

2010-05-11T22:04:00.000-04:00

on cleaning this up. Can you tell when I switched from photoshop to painter? I find the later way easier to work with.

pokemon dresses!

2010-05-03T23:59:00.000-04:00

graphite puke

2010-05-03T21:54:00.000-04:00

Succubi/possible character concept for e6. Inspired cause val was drawing them.

DR. HORRIBLE! HE HAS A PHD IN HORRIBLENESS!

I will finish this. If I don't, I ought to be shot. But not tonight.

Photoshop HEEERO!

2010-04-29T23:53:00.002-04:00

Photo from NASA's site. I'm not sure if I want to use that, or a very dark starfield, to convey the emptiness of space. Opinions?

IN SPACE!

2010-04-29T23:24:00.002-04:00

AN ASTRONAUT! IN SPACE!

Not yet finished.

page 3

2010-04-07T22:37:00.000-04:00

Workin hard, really I am!

2010-03-25T22:59:00.002-04:00

Pressing on

2010-02-28T23:06:00.000-05:00

An update shot.

A little bit of progress

2010-02-26T00:15:00.000-05:00

Keeping you all updated, just for fun. The going is slow, mostly because I get interrupted by things like dinner, our "fitness challenge" at work, my cat, laundry, video games, etc . . . .

Fail

2010-02-24T20:52:00.000-05:00

Suck.

As my artistic abilities seem to have left me, I think I'm going to go play video games or some other completely unproductive thing. Also, I didn't get a table at otakon, which, for a spur of the moment decision, has actually hit me pretty hard. *sigh.* C'est la vie? Or as the germans would say, "Das ist schäde."

2010-02-22T21:37:00.001-05:00

adding in the values. Next step, real work!

The Fox and the Crow

2010-02-22T20:59:00.000-05:00

Actually, nothing to do with the Aesop fable. More to do with the Japanese interpretations of the two animals.

Initial sketch idea. Trying for a Mucha/manga feel

Finished lineart.

Flat/messy color comp. I'll add basic shading next.

initiate plan "kick heidi in the face."

2010-02-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

With the upcoming work illustrator blog, I decided it would be best if I actually started updating this thing every once in a while. Just some stuff I've been working on, finished or in progress. As always, final art is found on my deviantart.

Pseudo-realistic style of the pokemon, Arcanine.

Marker. Trying to break out of my regular style.

Preparing for the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Tiger (Whoo! My year . . . wait, that means I'll be 24!!!) I'm not 100% happy with it yet, any suggestions?

Lastly, another gijinka, this time the mythical bird Houou. I tried to give her the appearance of an indian dancer or the like. Still in progress, Painter X

Merry Christmas

2009-12-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

Some ornaments to print out and hang wherever. Your tree, your pod, your annoying neighbor. Some random characters of mine.

Enjoy?

Hanna is not a boy's name

2009-09-07T17:05:00.000-04:00

I work on stuff, from time to time.

Tribute art to the amazing Tessa Stone.

http://hanna.aftertorque.com/

I implemented the "Germain Glow."

2009-08-31T11:13:00.000-04:00

Painter X.

Only the left side is done so far

Red Versus Blue

2009-07-29T23:59:00.001-04:00

Red wins.

The United States of Ohio

2009-07-29T15:43:00.000-04:00

Just in case you ever needed to know what the US actually looks like. Remember, all 50 states are jammed in there SOMEWHERE, but at least 8 of them are taken up by the awesomeness of OHIO.

er, uhm, blargh

2009-06-01T21:29:00.000-04:00

redesign of the "scarlet huntress," color and black and white ref of six and ethan, progress shot of a fanart from prince of persia. Too tired/apathetic for anything else.

speed paint

2009-05-09T18:14:00.001-04:00

Speed paint under a pencil sketch. Painter, oil pastel brushes.

mmm, nodachi

2009-05-03T22:46:00.000-04:00

Practicing with textures and subtle color tones in shadows/background.

Photoshop

Tastylicious.

2009-04-14T20:01:00.000-04:00

Practicing with markers/new marker shading techniques, also with a more manga-y sense of lines and black areas.

Now that lent is over, I am ~~consuming whole mangas in a single bite~~ studying manga diligently!

Studying the styles of Death Note and 07Ghost

SDL battle no. 2

2009-04-03T01:30:00.000-04:00

Awesome composition? Check.
Super color? Check
Total detail? Check.
Dramatic lighting? Check
Sense of motion? . . . fail.

Detail shot on DA.

MANGA!

2009-03-16T21:27:00.000-04:00

Manga manga manga!

ALL HAIL MY MANGA POWERS! Soon to be even more improved upon!

Manga try part 2

2009-03-15T22:14:00.001-04:00

All kinds of super awesome new tricks tried with these 3 pages! Graar! I'm super proud of that last one.

I've decided the reason I can't draw manga is because manga/japanese art is based around straight lines, while american art is around the curves. Its hard to mesh the two. But I think I'm getting there. Its important to have one's own style, right?

Someday soon, I hope to be amazing. For now, though, I think I"m gonna go beat someone's head into the ground . . . namely whoever decided to turn their stupid stereo up so freakin loud . . . . . *enter ANGRY HEIDI mode!*

another try at this manga thing

2009-03-10T23:10:00.000-04:00

Two weeks to make a less-than-ten page manga on how my OC beats another girl from DA's OC. Another try at all this manga junk. Well, we're getting there. But not before TOTAL ANNIHILATION!

Uh, comments stolen from my DA: Pages 1 and 2 of my SDL duel with *Chocolate-Chibi Guy who's in the bottom is mine, but I wanted to try something different, and kind of tell it from her character's perspective, as they supposedly have a very difficult language barrier.

Am I getting better at manga yet? No, probably not. These pages look okay, you should see some of the crap thats coming up in the next 5 pages.

(pages 3 and 4) Trying all kinds of new tricks. . . . the speed and focus lines in the fourth page were made in illustrator, then taken over to photoshop. Look pretty good? I think they do . . . but they're starting to make the grey tones look out of place? Actually, thats good. MOst manga don't use as much grey tone as I do. But I gave up reading manga for lent, so its hard when I don't have references . . .

Yokoshima is SUPPOSED to be saying "Who are you? A samurai?" I tried to do some funny things with his speech, since he uses 'omae,' the very informal almost insulting form of 'you,' but also 'osamurai,' which is more respectful. Ah, whatever.

RAR! ONLY 3 MORE PAGES TO FINISH! . . . I'll never make it . . . .

Micron 01/005, photoshop cs3, illustrator cs3

I won't quit my day job . . . yet.

2009-02-23T23:43:00.000-05:00

Ha! Look what I finally finished! And . . . all these other things I haven't finished. Ugh. What a pileup. But I will get that sizer picture done! I will! I can't leave it halfway!

Can we have something besides vector at work soon? Please? Its starting to drive me insane. Just a little. Now I know for sure I could never do 3D

video games!

2009-02-19T00:37:00.001-05:00

Just finished my first playthrouhg of DMC4, I'll probably play it a few more times before I'm done. Never did finish the first one though, never even touched 2 or 3.

I really like video games, I wish I had more time to play them. But honestly, I'm very sad in relation to the games that are in the market right now. Lots of games that are like assasins creed, or resident evil, or god of war. Sure, they may look nice. The graphics may be well-done and look like real people. They may have huge world maps and awesome programming, but . . . video games aren't ART any more. What happened to the beautiful games like Kingdom Hearts? Odin Sphere? Or that wonderful Okami? We've lost them somewhere? Why? Because game artists want to make games look more like REAL LIFE? This seems to defeat the purpose of games.

Give me back my beautiful games! Give me back real-time battles! I want more stuff like Zelda or Chaos Legion or Rogue Galaxy! I want eye candy! I want things that are fun to play! I want to be ENTERTAINED! Thats why I'm a gamer!

Aaaah, anyway, I totally thought the two crazy-looking characters would make awesome video game characters . . . . Death the Kid is from Soul Eater (I like anime too!), and the last guy is a . . . uhm . . . . something.

*pouts* Dante's DMC4 voice is terrible. We also need more good video game music! And voices!

The (tentative) music card project

2009-02-07T23:27:00.001-05:00

Photoshop and painter. Whether or not the epic music card project goes through, I'm at least doing this one, cause the oboe is freaking amazing. Duh. Anyway, kind of a work-in-progress look.

The oboe . . . one of the oldest woodwind instruments (possibly originating in ancient Egypt), the oboe is one of the few double-reeded instruments (along with the english horn, bassoon, contrabassoon, and bagpipes). It has been known to portray various waterfowl, and pwns pretty much every other instrument out there.

Uhm, on a side note, now that it finally warmed up a bit I went on a walk . . . but apparently the shoes I wore were NOT made for walking, cause I have a nice blister on my foot now . . . . D:

Epic Win!

2009-01-28T23:33:00.000-05:00

Then I learned how to make custom brush shapes in photoshop. There was so much win I just pwned obama. Thats how much win.

There was way too much fun going on with this one. Improvement towards a good direction?

Honestly, this is looking a LOT like what spitfire looked like, except a little bit more shading done with the pen and not photoshop. Is the simpler shading in this one better? Rawr! I'll keep on working, and keep on improving my pen skills! Its time to become a TOP-NOTCH illustrator!

extreeeme!

2009-01-22T10:36:00.000-05:00

Practice with extreme lighting using tones and ink. Go? No go?

Still working out a good workflow for my next manga, whatever that may be. Whenever that may be.

Is scott the only one who reads this any more?

worse?

2009-01-14T23:13:00.000-05:00

Or better?

Still workin details. And trying to find a good car to replace dooky . . . because the time is coming . . . .

black and white vomit

2009-01-10T17:26:00.000-05:00

All right, some fun with black and white images.

So I don't know where I stand as far as what I want to do for my next graphic novel (since spitfire is such a big hit, apparently X_X). I think these top two are what I more or less default to, the one with the guy jumping is more or less just for fun. Lemme know what you guys think - will these work for more manga? Should I try something with screentones, more like some of the other ones I've posted?

On a side note, dooky is dying, so I"m looking into a new car . . . . if anyone knows anything about which cars are good (I really only know a little about styling and that) I need help . . . . my favorite pick right now is the honda fit, but I've been kinda looking at the saturn astra too. I know nothing about the mazda3 or the nissan versa. The pontiac vibe/toyota matrix have rear visibility issues that I hate . . . . . I know I'd fight them the whole time I owned the car. The Aveo is off the list, the prius is ugly (and too expensive) . . . What other possible hatchbacks are there? Whats good? I know if I got that fit I'd be okay, but if the saturn is a better car . . . .

At least dooky is fixed for a while though. I hope. Hey, snow.

2008-12-11T08:52:00.000-05:00

Its not that I'm slacking off or anything, work has just been a little bit slow recently. But I'm pretty sure its gonna pick up like crazy today. Anyway, here are some of my 5x7" card attacks, for your viewing pleasure.

8.5x11" seems so big now, sometimes.

2008-12-05T01:41:00.000-05:00

Brooke from one piece . . . . probably would have been better had I had a reference . . .

BUT TODAY IS FRIDAY! THAT MEANS A NEW ONE PIECE CHAPTER! w00t!

Everything else happening in my life right now?

well, my car was doing something really strange when I drove back from dayton, but the mechanic said it was okay. I wonder, though, because now its not shifting into 3rd gear right. Transmission fluid maybe? I should check for leaks . . . cause its a decently new transmission, and I don't want to have to replace it on a 16-year-old car. It'd be worth several times the car's value. Though I do love that car . . . .

I also posted Spitfire on this web comic site called "drunk duck," and it has something like 870 pageviews! In two weeks. Thats super encouraging, as I was wondering if I could ever become an awesome manga artist . . . . There is, of course, still a long way to go (especially when it comes to dealing with things like . . . I'd rather play video games, etc . . . ) but at least I know someone's reading!

(you can check it out here! enjoy!)

the best program . . . .

2008-11-20T23:25:00.000-05:00

Bwahahah!

3 of my newest pieces, each was created in a different program: Photoshop (cs3), Painter (x), and Open Canvas. And possibly not the one you think! (See if you can guess! No fair if you've already seen them on DA!)

For as much as TEH BEAR and I "argue" about the merits and disadvantages of each of these particular programs, I really think that they work well in conjunction. Photoshop is, of course, the most widely used, and the one whose file format is most likely to be openable by another program. Open canvas has its own unique system, and the layers are kind of WTFish, but the brushes are really great. As for painter? I wish I could spend a lot more time with it, cause its really got a lot of pro's going for it, especially if you like to paint on the computer like you're painting in real life (but with less mess.) The thing is, though, their 'opacity' is more like photoshop's 'flow,' so you get some weird things going on, and don't always get the effect you want.

The blue samurai one was done basically emulating the style of Dani Jones (danidraws.com); the red and green SDL was done for the Samurai Dueler's League on Deviantart. The cowboy was done because I misheard some lines from Jonny Cash's "Ghost Riders in the Sky" as "Crosses in the Sky," and thought it sounded kinda cool. (Thoguh admittedly I"m not 100% happy with the pic, my "lineless" style really kinda sucks. I enjoy lines in my drawings as part of my drawings. But I want to become better, and better at many things. So there's nothing to do but press on and throw out some crappy ones along the way!)

Regardless of which program may be "better," though, the secret is of course spending time to get to know the interface, and being able to draw well in the first place.

I also hafta say I have a prejudice towards painter, cause face it: photographers don't use it. And I have choice words about things like "fine art photography."

vomit-licious

2008-10-30T21:12:00.000-04:00

So many pictures, so little time . . . .

An actual vomitous post, where I"m just gonna throw up stuff that's been doodled over the last two weeks at work (when my computer finally started to open files faster, I had less time to doodle . . . . man, opening a 300M file as opposed to a FREAKIN 1G FILE makes a difference . . .

I think it was Bernards fault.

Anyway . . . sketches, hopefully in order. Top: composition for fanart from Howl's moving Caslte (awesome miyazaki movie, watch it!) Also, a picture of Rasheed the Red Panda being his mechanical self (and fixing Leon's motorcycle)

Next row: Leon with a kitty! So cute! Next, a composition I made for a project some friends from home and I were working on before I so conveniently moved away to Too-ley-doo.

Last image: A landscape I saw in a dream. Imagine it much bluer. I think I'll do some kind of speed paint color of it, if I can get the time somwhere. I"m so lazy when I get home after work . . . and I just work so much! Aaaaugh . . . . . I wish I worked just one day less! But I"m also lazy on the weekends, so I'm not sure it would matter.

Ossu! But I got my halloween costume done! . . . . all that effort into one costume . . . but I might wear it at cons, just for fun. Even though its not an anime character. People will probably still love it, at least I hope.

But I"m never sewing another hat like that.

Enemy set no. 1

2008-10-11T13:21:00.000-04:00

Mmm, the first two enemies for e6 . . . . well, I shouldn't say that. The girlish-looking one on the right is the first real enemy I think I"ll have six run into, a kind of imp demon like him, who works for the demon who "oversees" the city that ethan lives in. She doesn't particularily dislike him, but because her boss, whom she absolutely adores doesn't like six in his city, she fights against him. She's less powerful than him though . . . .

A little bit about demons and power and appearance:
If you can't tell, she has a different tail than six. He has a regular spade tail, but she has a (shorter) tail with a kind of end thats good for ripping and tearing (ugh, I just made myself sick.) She also only has two horns, while six has four. (for comparison, the highest demons usually have six, but lucifer will probably have 11, in a crown shape. . . . . I always think about the least significant details.) The closer to a demon's 'true' form that they must shape a human body, the more power it requries, and consequently, the more of their host's life they use up. Some demons don't care; their human forms are just disguises, since they destroy the mind of whomever they posess. But because Ethan retained his self when six posessed him, Six (eventually) tries to be a little bit more careful with him.

The other guy? He's a fallen angel.
All demons are fallen angels, but not all fallen angels are demons. He is one of the latter kind. He has his own sense of what is holy and right, though its terribly skewed. He's the kind of guy who would kill someone because all he can see is the evil in them. In other words, he's an old testament kind of guy - all about the laws, but he never sees grace . . . .

But thats all on him for now. Because its a beautiful day out, so I'm going to go to a metropark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . *poof*

2008-10-10T23:57:00.000-04:00

Just these two sketches for now - Six and Ethan, the main character(s) of Element 6. Six is a demon who is summoned to ethan's world (prettymuch like ours, but in the same kind of alternate world that all superhero comics take place in, wherever metropolis and gotham may be . . . . ) Anyway, he inadvertently becomes a kind of superhero, but I'm not saying any more right now

But, because I have a blog, I"m going to . . . blog.

About cars.

Okay, there are some REALLY ugly cars out there. Do people even know the car that they are driving is ugly? Not to mention some of those gas hogs out there, and now, just because people NEED their SUV's and trucks so badly, they're making hybrid and e85 versions of these monstrosities! Yeesh, people . . . just drive a smaller car!

Ugly car: Toyota FJ Cruiser. This may take the cake for ugly cars. Its even uglier than a hummer!
Ugly car: Hummer H3 - why would anyone really want (or need) this?
Ugly car: Scion XB - The XD is kind of nice looking though.

Awesome car: Honda Fit. Really, they're adorable!
Awesome car: Chevy Aveo 5/Pontiac Vibe (I think its the same car, but the chevy and pontiac versions.)
Awesome car: THE SMART CAR! Smart for 2 is the only one available in the US, and honestly I"m not sure how I feel about smart for 4.

Ugly car: Chrystler 300. First off, chrystler sucks. I've got terrible stories about their lemon-ness.
ugly car: Dodge charger - I think its the dodge version of the 300.
Ugly car: PT cruiser. 3 for 3 on this round, chrystler.
Ugly car: Any pickup truck taller than 5'. Which is almost all of them. Seriously, who needs a truck thats got two extra wheels, mirrors that have to hang out an extra foot to either side, and that you have to have a stepladder to get into? Not to mention they get 9 MILES PER GALLON! I wish I were exaggerating.

Awesome car: The 1st generation of Ford Focus were awesome (foci?)
Awesome car(s): The mazda 3 and Mazda 5. Hrm. All of these awesome cars seem to be pretty similar. Lets think of something different for the next
Awesome car: FERARRI FXX! Also, I would take ANY Lamborghini. I'm not a Porsche kind of girl though.

Car I'm not sure about: Toyota Prius. It could have been okay . . . but that sloping back just turns me off.

MOST AWESOME CAR EVER: 1993 Red Chevrolet Cavalier, station wagon! 3.1 V6 engine, though I wish it was a manual transmission. Still gets 30mpg and its 15 years old!
His name is dooky, and he's mine. XD

So, it seems that honda and chevy (along with ferrari and lamborghini) are the winners here, while christler, toyota, and the infamous hummer aren't doing well at all. But what do I know?

Well, that obviously deviated quite a bit from the art. Wow, Six looks so gay. He turns out better later on, I promise . . . .

Six: click here . . .
Ethan: (actually, he looks a lot like a younger version of the guy who sits next to me at work now that he has his hair cut almost exactly like this. You're terrible, scoot!)

sketch vomit

2008-10-08T11:52:00.000-04:00

Welcome to EA sketch vomit . . . basically, where I plan on sticking all the stuff I do that really isn't worthy to be considered "real" art . . . also random bits and plotlines on stories I'm working on (especially e6 and BS right now)

Also, when I feel like it, I'll post reviews on music, anime, and other stuff thats really great.

Current Animes: Antique Bakery, Code Geass R2, Nabari no Ou, Bounen no Xam'd
Current Music: The Rasmus, Poets of the Fall, Masterplan
Current Storylines: E6 (element six), BS (Blood Sword)

I have a blog! DX fail!