Game Wizards Project

So I recently got involved with a volunteer group in Baltimore called the Game Wizards, and these are some sprites I'm working on in my first project with them. I'm super excited, but the information and art I'll be sharing is going to be limited for now. As you can see, these don't have their clothing designs finished yet and I'm still testing out different skin tones. 

Inktober

All my Inktober work, #s 3 through 6 on one page for your viewing pleasure. Yes, that is Leslie Knope you see up there. I've been watching lots of Parks and  Rec.

Outlines

In case anyone wondered what it looks like when I start the rough outline for a comic. Spoiler alert: it's this.

Characters

These are two characters I've been developing. Their names are Aimee and Sasha, and they've given me an excuse to break out the ink brush and try Inktober. 2 down here, only 29 to go!

Sketching

This is a little cartoon of what I looked like around age 7. I hated shoes and loved snap guns. And my mom dressed me in really frilly clothes. Also, I wanted to grow my hair out so long that it touched the floor.


And this will be a spot illustration! I'm thinking ink and photoshop.

Japan

So I've been invited to participate in an auction of artwork to benefit the victims of the recent earthquakes in Japan. The only guideline for the piece was what comes to mind when I think of Japan. Being a long time anime fan, of course that was the first thing that came to mind... And since it's the season for cherry blossoms, I decided on a cherry blossom themed magical girl (and her fat Japanese bobtail familiar). I've been watching vintage anime lately, so the magical girl has some 60s/70s inspiration.

I'll update later with more details about the auction. In the meantime, here are my sketches:

Dr. Sketchy's

Ah, the unexpected hiatus. It is a mysterious and wide-spread beast. I recently moved back to Baltimore, and luckily I have the perfect cure: some Dr. Sketchy's life drawing sketches. And it was one of the few times a male model was available, so I finally got some practice on the male form. The here are some samplings, I believe these are, in order: 10 minutes, 2 minutes, and 5 minutes with the opposite hand.

Ain't No Thang

I've been doing some more development work for Maiz, and I just thought I'd post a couple of things, including some more character design work (a woman, the monkey sidekick, an anteater I'm still meh about, a couple of parrots, and a sloth):
Some minor adjustments to the main character's clothing:
And some sketches of basic tunics:

Cranberries

It's been a while, but please blame the busyness of the holidays. I assure you, I've been working on things. By the way, here's a sketch that I may or may not paint someday: cranberry girls.

YOSH.

Experimenting with Bad Grammar's look... Michio here is pretty much the epitome of my mood as of late. Eventually, some day, I will be done with my overhaul of the comic. Until then... Moar sketching.

Moar Character Designs

Nothing much to post today, so have some more character designs from my "Maiz" comic-in-progress. All the animals and animal-people will be local to Guatemala, so here we have a crocodile, a sea turtle, and a jaguar. Jaguars are actually very austere animals in Mayan culture, which I want to reflect in the comic. But for now there's still a lot of design work to be done.

Finish to Start

Finished up a concept illustration for the Maiz project!

And because I'm addicted to showing process, here are the stages in reverse order: flat colors, linework, and pencils.

Maiz again

I'm busy working on what is currently my most ambitious photoshop project yet (and it is long overdue), so here are some more sketches in the meantime, all having to do with my current comic in the works.

I considered this sketch for a postcard, actually, but ended up going with a different illustration.


Here are some more character designs. Above is Marcus, the faithful dog of the group. He was a stray before he met Maiz, and so is the precocious type. He's also a music lover. Below is a secondary character who will appear in the first story arc, though I haven't thought up a name for her. Her village worships a giant macaw with sapphire teeth, who I will probably be talking about much more later on.

Let's Get Some Color Up In Herrr

Thought I'd do that thing where I compare the sketch version to the finished version of some artwork... So here it is with a commission I did a few months ago.


The request was for a watercolor painting, and this was the sketch with some quick PS color thrown on...

And here's how it turned out! MAGIC. This ladybug and her pet aphid are now presumably hanging on the wall of a baby's room. Sweet.

Birch forest

Alright, I'll admit it. I have a huge thing for birch (or aspen) forests and artistic representations thereof. Throw in some skinny, white-barked trees and I am totally there. So when I wanted to test out some new hot press wc paper, I decided to draw some birch trees. Aw yeah. That's what I like.

Maiz

So, my computer died quite a while ago, and while it's not fixed it IS mysteriously up and running right now. I thought I had lost all the files for my website, so this is tremendous news, seeing as I had the chance to back it all up onto my flash drive.

In the past few months I started writing a new comic, and drawing up a lot of character designs for it (I'm just now getting into environment designs and straight-up script writing and such). I won't say too much about it, except it's an adventure comic heavily inspired by Mayan mythology and Guatemala.

So here are some designs I've been working on for the two main characters... I thought it would be interesting to show the progress I made from earlier designs to what I have now.



This is the main character, who I'll call Maiz for now-- since according to Mayan mythology people were formed out of corn. I may or may not change it. Maiz is the inspiration for the whole story, since I wanted to do an adventure with a chubby female lead. I feel like there's practically nothing out there featuring an overweight female character, and the few things I have seen are frankly insulting. But I won't get into my rage right now. Here, have some more Maiz:



I've gotten into the habit of sometimes sketching with ink, and I really like the results... Although it is sometimes disconcerting to not be able to erase anything. But they're just sketches anyway.



Here's Maiz's faithful sidekick, who I'm calling the Blue Monkey for now (again, subject to change) after the Mayan astrological sign. As you can probably tell, the comic will be filled with anthropomorphic animals. I'll stop here for now, but expect to see more work related to this project in the future.

New York and Company

Get ready for a real life finished illustration to be posted on here in the near future. I was inspired by New York and Company's new clothes to do a fashion/lifestyle illustration (since I can't actually afford them). There are some subtly nautical themed things in anticipation for the warmer months, so I decided to use them:

Just some really quick sketches of the clothing and accessories I was thinking of using. Then I sketched a few compositions and settled on this one:

In the next few days I'll be refining this, then I'll do the final illustration in ink and brush and colors in photoshop.

Also, just because I love to draw girls wearing cute clothes (and partly because I've been watching a lot of Facts of Life):

That's all for now. Have a good weekend, web surfers.

I seem to enjoy posting on Thursdays

Hello again. I have returned with some sketches and some news. Sketches first:

I've been sketching Briana quite a bit lately, but there's a good reason: she'll be showing up next chapter and I didn't have as much of a handle on her as I would have liked. Sketching her has remedied that.

And now enjoy the gang's winter looks! These probably won't be seen for another couple of chapters, but since it's actually winter in real life and I was feeling festive, I drew them. Also, Michio is gigantic for some reason.

Now for the news.

First off, I've been working on Bad Grammar: Chapter 2, but I hit a few snags (such as writers' block and getting two new jobs to distract me). I recently sat down and forced myself to choose a direction for the story to go in, so hopefully I'll have some material to show in another couple of weeks. Also in regards to Bad Grammar, I've been thinking of turning it into a webcomic. The more I think about it, the more I think that webcomics may just be the outlet for me.

Now, on a note completely unrelated to Bad Grammar: I've started another new project, sketches for which you will soon be seeing here. It is a line of greeting cards for awkward situations, which will be linoleum cut and handmade, then presented for sale (most likely via a site such as etsy). I'll also be working on a gift for some friends of mine, but don't expect to see that until after the holidays.

Well, that's all for now.

Sketchdumping

Just thought I'd drop down a few sketches. While working on chapter 2 of Bad Grammar, I of course felt it appropriate to change the outfits of the main characters. All except Michio. Of course, this will be commented on by the other characters.

And here are some sketches of Briana.

This here is just a bunch of random sketches/doodles. That poor ghost. :'(

Jess and Lizzie Preview

That's right! Jess and Lizzie will be starring in a new comic entitled "Hey, Jess?" which will be printed with "Ummm" in a mini-book and sold at SPX. Here's a peek at their new look:

I decided to keep the color scheme for their clothing the same, but to give Jess and Lizzie slightly different hair colors and skin tones, just to differentiate them a bit more.


And here's a quick color study of Jess' room. Again, I decided to repeat the colors from the first comic.

And just a look at what Jess and Lizzie will look like in the room. I mainly did this to help me visualize the color scheme of the individual panels and decide where to place them for their discussion.

The new comic will be between 3 and 5 pages (I'm still working out the details) and will cover another sensitive issue in puberty: breast growth. After this one, I think I'll either move on to body hair or go more in-depth with the menstrual cycle. Eventually, I look forward to having a "your body and you" type of comic book put together. Anyway, that's all for now.