Ze Mochi

Well this is the most recent and current version of Mochi, in ink. I used the dreaded inking pens again, and I hate to say it but not only am I getting used to them, I'm starting to see their advantages. No need for a big container of water to wash the inking brush, for one thing. And it's just more portable. Oh well, I'll still always love you, inking brushes. ^_^

This was actually originally just supposed to be a sketch, but it got so dirty that I had to ink to get any sort of clarity. And it's so annoying, no matter what softness of lead I use to sketch with, I always end up with pencil marks that I have to erase on the computer. This was done with 6B (which would explain why it got so dirty, at least >_>) and still I couldn't erase every mark off my paper. It must be the way I use it or something...

I'll be coloring this at some point, but at the moment I have so many pictures in progress that it will be put on hold for the time being.

(In case you were wondering, the stuff between her thumb and forefinger is fire. No, really.)

Mini comic

This is the beginnings of a mini comic that I'm working on. It's using two of my old, old characters, re-vamped a bit. This is pretty much what I had planned for them, so really I'm just taking a story that I wrote a while ago and drawing it now. It's very interesting. It almost feels like I'm doing a commission for someone, like it's not actually my own.

In any case, the main idea behind this one page mini comic is just a magical girl parody.

Using lilac, I sketched out the panels and the basic things that would happen inside of them. Then on a new layer, I drew out the borders in black. This is my lines layer. Back on the rough sketch layer, I used a darker purple to draw out the details of all the panels. I've just started inking the top panel in black (on the lines layer) - this will be what it finally looks like. The text and word balloons are in different colors, so I can read them better. I'll probably end up using the type tool to write out the words.

Snow Day

It snowed a centimeter at Cottey, and it was the end of the world. Classes were even canceled that day.

Butterfly, complete!

At long last! ... (>_>)

Not much has changed, just touched it up, added more depth to the shadows and highlights, and of course, the background. Oh yeah, and the gold swirly bits on the body.

I like how it turned out. ^_^

Butterfly with color

Well, here he is with some color. This is just blocked in, I haven't smoothed it out yet, or added shadows or highlights, except for a little bit on the body. I'm not too fond of the green color on the wings, so I think I'll color in something different. Also, I find his eyes are too dark.

I looked at some pictures of butterflies for color reference for the wings. There's a certain way that colors interact on butterfly wings, and I wasn't getting it right until I looked at some photos. Originally, the dark brown was supposed to be red, but it took over the whole picture. It also made him look like a fire elemental rather than a wind elemental, which he is.

Anyway, I'll post the finished picture tomorrow, as long as I don't find things wrong with it that will take forever to fix.

Butterfly continued

These are the lines, all complete. The pattern gave me a headache, but I finally got it all down. Working on the coloring now, which is actually going pretty well! O_O

:Edit: I just realized that the butterfly reminds me of a Flaminco dancer! >o<

Little kid and Kitty cat

This is a submission that I did for Pixish. They are, in their own words: "...a place where people who want images and people who make images can easily find each other and collaborate on creative projects together." Cool huh? Anyway, just for contemplation, I posted the same picture below, minus highlights and color adjustments.
Bleh! So dull! But this is how I originally colored it. I first do the midtones, then the shadows, and then the highlights. (this is before the highlights) And THEN after everything is done, I flatten the image so that the whole figure is on one layer, and play around with color adjustments. These settings can be found under the "image -> adjustments" file menu.

To get the image looking like it does at the very top, I increased saturation and contrast, and played around with "color balance", mostly adding more green to the picture, as well as a bit more red. And voila! (^_^)

(First inked on paper, then colored in photoshop. 2008)

Further progress

Blocking in color for the background. I also changed around some of the colors on the girl herself, made them better match her surroundings and each other. And also, her eyes are now pink/orange/red. ^o^

For comparison: older version.

Stage 1 - inking

I'm planning on coloring a sketch that I made a while ago. Meet chaos butterfly, a cute little spirit that will be used as a killing MACHINE in my mmorpg. XD

Anyway, this is the first stage of the coloring. I inked with a tablet, which I still have to fiddle around with because I'm not happy with the lines I get. Even though they're at the sharpest, the lines aren't sharp enough! >_< You can see that I'm not completely done, I still have to fix up some lines.

This is why I much prefer inking on paper, with real ink. It gets the right look, and you've only got one chance to make the line. No undo, no eraser. -_-

Obviously work in progress

But yeah, I felt like posting it. I'm going to end up changing the colors of the girl a bit, making them a bit brighter, but I wanted to get a background in first, so that's what all the scratchy brown lines in the background are.

I'll hopefully be posting this pic through each of the stages of coloring, so an interested viewer can sort of see how I do this kind of thing.

I really don't know how this pic is going to turn out. >_>;

as a side note, she's kind of freaking me out.

AlphaRev

Drawing I did of AlphaRev, this whiny falsetto boy/man-band who came to perform.

Gawd's Gift to Da World

My character on a web comic we're collaborating on: Marigold.

Spring, get your butt over here.

Man, I really miss not having to put on 5 layers of clothing before going outside. (._.)

Made this a few days ago, with a happy color-scheme to scare away winter. It hasn't worked, in case you were wondering.

Materials: Turquoise (yum, turquoise XD) chips, assorted glass seedbeads, mother of pearl pendant. Picked up the mother of pearl disc thing (and a few others like it) at a kitschy shop in NYC. Seriously, I'd like to know how they make this sort of thing. O_o

Oh, and all the wire-work is mine. The clasp I shaped and hammered, the gold pendant hanger thing I hand wrapped, and even the bright blue french wire that holds the clasp I did myself. Cheaper that way ^_^.

In a related note, I've been making a ton of necklaces, so I'll probably be posting some more later on. :D

A bunny and a Bee

Oh noes! XD

A girl

This was the result of fooling around with a paint brush. There weren't any pencil lines, so if something looks a bit wonky, that's why. I really have no idea why she's all manga style. ^_^;

Daily ink sketch

I do these sometimes, to warm up. I don't use pencil lines so often they get really demented looking, but this one turned out alright. He kind of freaks me out though. >_>;