Always the best student

Anyone noticing a trend of posts on Tuesdays? I am. Three guesses why. Here's a hint, it starts with "My professor" and ends with "is really boring." There might be some other things in that mix. Anyways, I drew some more character designs (in class, in my sketchbook, and he didn't notice*)!
*I would feel really, really badly about this normally, but seriously, the class is like watching paint dry and the prof can be a tad bit offensive every so often.

Inspirations - Finder, again, European and East-Asian historical clothing (the exhibit on Qing clothing at the ROM and obis specifically)
Today, pencil, 10 minutes each?
More designs for Liz's world, her family! Sort of. They're her mother, father, and original self (flesh and blood vs. robot Liz). I think this will be the kind of look for the clothes (at least in her household) with a more natural look for the people outside. Her parents are essentially nobility/rich; I want them to look good, but also the kind of clothes that are both 1. well-made and 2. worn every day. Does the sci-fi fairytale thing come out? I'd really like to hear people's opinions/thoughts about this.

Rowan

Here's a clean version of page 4. It's my favourite thus far so I decided to post a clean version here. I'm pretty sure every single panel of Rowan is off-model, but who's checking? 

Also, consistent light sources? HA. Ghosts don't follow the laws of physics....

More concept work

Been busy this week. I haven't been drawing much (that I want on this blog, mostly Rowan pages); I've been slowly working on/thinking about an essay for my Environmental Ethics class. Lots of fun. I think it could very easily be turned into a thesis and I'm now seriously thinking about something in Environmental Studies for my grad work. Anyways, I've also been thinking about the next comic story I'd like to work on. Here's a new design.

Sike (working name) - Heart of the Self
Inspirations - Finder, punk styles
Today and yesterday
New addition to the Heart of the Self cast (I think this story needs a better name), Sike, an electronics expert and robot mechanic who Liz befriends later in the story. Liz finds it funny that when his hair is down they have almost the same hairstyle; Sike does not approve.
I'll be posting environment sketches/designs as they get worked on. The story is a retake on traditional fairytales; the princess is Liz, a robot girl trying to figure out who and what she is, and instead of being in a land of castles and medieval yore, it's set on a cliff-side where the buildings are part of the natural landscape. It's an environmentally-orineted sci-fi fairytale, I guess.

This will never be finished

I lied. I've been stuck on this one for a long time so I thought I'd at least post what's done.

I don't remember where I got the texture, somewhere on dA, but I cannot find it again. There's so much more detail work to be done, but I'm having trouble with balance; the feet, clothes/cloth, and background all need patterns, all of which I'm determined to do on my own. I fixed a lot of proportion/angle issues and changed the line colour to make things pop better. Still, lots of problems....

More Rapunzel boys

Coloured! About 2 hours with photoshop, I'm slow today and groggy. Clearly backgrounds are not my forte. I need to think of them in the sketch phase or they're shit. Ah well. Anyways, back to midterm hell!

Rapunzel Boys

Keeping my word (for once) I drew a pair of Rapunzel-based boys. Enjoy!

First one, more or less the boy version of the girl posted last night. I was going to do him as a kid with dreadlocks and then I vaguely remembered Rapunzel being blond. Then I said fuck it and drew...

this kid. More of a boy-ish silly thing. I like him. I kind of want to draw him more now. I might colour one or both if I have time, which is quickly becoming sparse. YAY four research papers in two weeks and lots of drawing left for comics! Oh joy.

Sketches

Drew a coupl'a sketches tonight. Laides, as always. I really need to get in the habit of drawing more men. I've been drawing traditionally a lot more lately since I tend to draw better sketches/base work by hand whereas colours are easier in digital. I miss the feeling of getting a good drawing out by hand quickly. Takes so much longer and is so much sloppier digitally.

Inspirations - a moth picture in one of today's Cracked articles, NorthernBanshee, I've loved her fashion sketches based on bugs for a long time, but I never thought I'd do one of my own until I fell in love with a golden moth

Tonight, pencil, 10min

BAMF moth-lady in a BAMF chair, need I say more? She'll likely be coloured later.

Tonight, pencil, 10min

Ran out of space for her legs. Ahh! Such a bad habit I thought I got rid of when I was a teenager, alas. Basically a Rapunzel-ish girl, started with her hair and then turned into this. I think it would be interesting to do such a feminine fairytale girl as a boy, but that's for another day. I might work on this idea more later. And by might I mean possibly right now.

Ghost fix

I wasn't pleased with the last post. It was very amateur and boring. I think this is closer to what I want. Added a layer of colour to make things pop. Still not working perfectly, but then again, my best work is quick. Once I start messing around with things they get ugly. :/

Ghost

Inspirations - Queen Amidala from Star Wars, Japanese clothing, Blue Dragon (the opening scene with traditional Chinese dance, again, I don't know its name), revenge/death

Sketched a thumbnail version of this last week while in class. Decided I should do a full version; colour is coming along right now, albeit slowly. She started out as an homage to Queen Amidala's hair in the first Star Wars film (i.e. the horrible prequel) and somehow became very Korean looking with a hint of water-bender. Having difficulty with colours since I'm using colours I don't usually use (pale pinks and purples). She looks so washed out, but that's the point. Agh!

More or less a pair to the girl from the previous post.

EDIT: Added the colour version. Not sold on the clasp at her belt. Took far longer than the last girl. This one took about an hour and a half to colour because I kept changing the colours and fiddling around with things. :/

East/West

Inspirations - The Vision of Escaflowne film, Japanese clothing, European clothing

Pencil, ~15 minutes

Just finished watching the Escaflowne movie; it's not much in terms of plot, especially compared to the TV series, but the artistic direction is awesome. I rarely see such wonderful mixing of Western and Eastern styles like those seen in Escaflowne. Of course, like any time I watch/read/see something interesting, I made something new along those lines. Here's a lady rocking a tailed vest inspired by Japanese military jackets (I honestly don't know their names), wearing geta (shoes) with spat pants and big leg-o-mutton sleeves. Fun times.

Just fyi, I love mixing genres/styles. There are few things I like more than deconstructing norms or combining elements from things that aren't normally put together. I don't do it that often, but I love it when either I do or I find someone else who does.
EDIT: Splashed some colour on it with photoshop. One layer on multiply. About 30 minutes.

I'm beginning to hate Rowan's braids

Rowan and the Spider p. 3 of 8

Man, this comic takes a long time to draw. I've only got 3 pages (third is half-way done) thus far, but once it's done I'll post them all up here. For now here's another little excerpt. I'm hoping to have it completely done by the time I need my portfolio. The first four pages will be done by the end of the month (I've promised the guys four pages for the publication). One page takes between 8-15 hours (I can be very slow) but it's so worth it. The only thing I really hate is Rowan's goddamed braids which need to go die in a fire. At very least I'm becoming very good at drawing hair.

Comic day thing

The guys organized a comic event last night where each artist had an hour to draw a page and then hand the story off to the next person. Here's mine (it's page two).

Pencil, about 45 minutes for both story and art

The other artist started it off with a pair of space heroes fighting a monster when suddenly! it turns out to be a pair of kids with epic imaginations. I got really tired by the last panel, if it wasn't obvious. I hope you can read my writing. This is why I always use photoshop for text, my writing is a loopy illegible mess.