Medieval drawing night

The theme for this week's drawing night was "Medieval" so I drew a more modern take on one of my favourite garments, the chaperon (a headdress with long swaths of fabric circling the neck or hanging from the headdress in a elaborate style).

Sorry about the lack of posting over here. I've been working on hats and my final pages for my comics class; the first two hats are on tumblr. I won't be posting them here until after Christmas as they're for my parents and they actually check this blog somewhat regularly. I'm also a bit hesitant to post here because I've been getting a lot of hits from spam/virus sites every time I post that are wrecking my stats.

I got a Pentel brush pen

And is it fancy. Damn the line variation you can get with it.

Colour for a really old sketch

Finally got around to colouring a sketch from last summer. Tried changing up my colouring style and colour choices.

More fancy punks

My drawing method is now officially 1. try to draw something, 2. have it turn into a bunch of sour-faced punks. I'm not typing out what it says behind them here because this is my "attempt at being professional blog".
The guys's hands are easily the best hands I've ever drawn; that is, however, outweighed by the fact that his boots are the worst boots I've ever designed.

Haydee

Haydee - The Count of Monte Cristo ch.49
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favourite novels and though Pere Dumas’ writing is so detailed Haydee was the only one who always stood out with an obvious look to her. I think this is in part due to her very contradictory personas. In public she acts the part of a childish, dumb coquette but in private she shares her pain and desires with the Count; that kind of great characterization always stands out to me. I wanted to create something representitive of her outwards persona, the beautiful coquette, and her inner turmoil while following her description from the beginning of Ch.49. 
I have very mixed feelings about this one. I saw the best art student owl the other day that I think explains my feelings pretty well: you know it's done when you hate it. If you don't hate it yet it's not done. There's a lot I like and a lot I feel like I failed at - mostly the composition and reclining figure.

East meets West

Another Threadless design (with a lovely typo in the title, great going, self). Please vote here!
This one's for a design competition with Loftwork, a Japanese company. I worked with what I know best, comics and fashion/costume.

Amelia

Amelia being a BAMF. Still not keen on the armour details. I normally keep her designs really simple but felt that her armour should have a bit of detailing. Ho-hum. Technically it should also either have a head covering or war mask but neither worked in the illustration.

Edit: redesigned the armour. Still have my issues but I feel it's more balanced and consistent with what I want for this style.

Only productive thing I did today

Today was one of my not so great days. I've been rewatching an anime I really liked as a teenager (Eureka seveN) to pass the time on such days. Back when I was in my teen years it really influenced my design style - which was a good thing in my mind and still is. Even though the animation is shoddy the production design and attention to detail is top-notch. It's still home to some of my favourite designs even after all these years.
I realized the other day that my costume history and construction background, in odd ways, hinders my ability to design. My designs always feel so confined to the realms of reality and what I know could be created instead of just being a product of imagination. I'm really trying to get away from that. It's one of the reasons why I'm trying to revisit old influences and finding new ones lately.

Anyways, enough angsting. This is really the only thing I did with my day aside from a small amount of reading. Unfortunately it was sketched in non-erasable pencil crayon so I couldn't fix things I didn't like. I'm definitely going to continue with this style for the series so I'll fix those things then.

Inspirations - Eureka seveN, Medieval lappets, military coats, men's doublets (mid 17th century), bugs
Couldn't figure out what to do with the boots. I'll figure that one out later. I'd like to fix the lower portion of the coat so that it has a more complex hem. I think I'll have this (when finished) done in multiple layers of clothing (with and without the coat, specifically so I can show the waistline of the pants at the back). The guy counterpart should be easy. I like this style. It's really easy for me to work with, but feels more outside my normal boundaries.

Sketches

Drawings! I haven't been able to draw lately but here's a few sketches from this week.

Inspirations - I'm not quite sure at the moment, but I'm tempted to blame the large amount of BBC I've been watching since mum invaded. Also a pair of earrings from Oscura, which is a wonderful webcomic that has a very sketchy updating schedule.

Pencil

I'm not sold on the sleeves but I'm liking the head/shoulder area. This is one of those "damn it's 2 in the morning and I was just about to fall to sleep now I have to tumble out of bed to find the sketchbook before the idea leaves and gaaaahhhh why does light hurt so much" drawings. I'd like to work on it more later.

Korra from Legend of Korra

Ballpoint pen

Began sketching this while visiting my dad's shop on Saturday. If you haven't tuned into LoK yet you really should. The series is incredibly well researched and has some amazing production design. If you're a fan of fantasy, Asia, or the Roaring Twenties I cannot suggest this series more highly. I'm going to stop being a fangirl now.

My ballpoint pen skills are lacking. I really need to work on that. Clearly I am out of practice.

I'm hoping that I can get back into the game again soon. I'd like to finish the series started last week (and fix that illustration), get some character designs done, as well as some environment designs, and start experimenting with styles again - I'm not in a rut, but I do feel like I need to up the ante again some time soon. Also, please excuse my loopiness/rambling.

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....

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.

Almost done

Yup. More of her; I'm obsessed with her right now. She's almost done, just need detail work (so much pattern work and mehndi to do!), background, and a few other things now. I was originally going to fully render her, but I like the cell shading effect on her, especially the arms. Still adjusting a few things to make sure everything's perfect. Once done I'm hoping she can be a good portfolio piece for the upcoming horror that is graduation and job hunting. I promise that the next post containing her will be the last and that you'll see new things soon (well, as "soon" as soon can be for me).

Dhoti lady again

Inspirations - cont. from last night's list, buddhist paintings, a pair of sandals from the Bata Shoe Museum (do not remember the proper name for the specific sandal), the Inception movie posters, Hugo's automaton with the key

Working on her again tonight. Adjusted her skin and feet position, added a lot. I need to look up mehndi designs for her feet and hands. Also fish patterns for around her feet. Very pleased with this thus far. I'd like to finish her over the next couple of days since soon I'll be in hard core comic mode. The guys might kill me soon if I don't submit more comics. I'm not sure if those pants are physically possible. We're going to ignore the proper ways of tying dhoti and pretend that these work by some magical manner. Artistic license abuse.

Mini post (again)

Class has started! Not sure yet if this is a good thing or a bad thing for amount of drawing, though, honestly, nothing can be worse than last semester's drawing nothing very little. Tonight was coffee sketch time, I drew things. I didn't get much done. I have no idea how certain people can draw so much while talking with others. I can't really do both. If I'm drawing I'm drawing and really intense and scary.

Inspirations - feet, dhoti, the Mucha poster on my wall, Finder by Carla Speed McNeil, sci-fi

Jan 9th or something like that for the original drawing and tonight for the colour

I have an immense love for Indian/Hindu clothing; if that wasn't obvious by now, now you know. It boggles my mind that such intricate clothing can be created from a single piece of wrapped cloth. I've also been reading the Finder series. I love the designs for the Ascians and Vary. I have also, if you were wondering about the listing of "feet", recently noticed the pink tones on the bottoms of pale feet and how pretty they are. I've probably noticed this before, I've just never been conscious of it. Since the clothing is Indian based it would make sense for the girl to be a lot darker, but then I wouldn't be able to draw cute pink feet. Her skin might change, feet covered in medhi (where the hell does the h go?) and the pink feet saved until later. So,  anyways, here's the love child of all those things (and the Mucha lady whose name I don't know). 

It will eventually have a bit of a sci-fi twist. I left the sketchbook with the original drawing at home and couldn't remember how it went (I drew the sketch at like 2am one night, so I hardly remember what I drew. Yes, I do most of my sketches traditionally. I do illustrations digitally because it's faster.). She'll have robotic arms and possibly other mechanical parts. Her upper clothing will be a lot more sci-fi with a very traditional bottom.

For those interested in Indian/Hindu clothing I highly suggest tracking down The Costumes and Textiles of India by Jamila Brij Bhushan. It's impossible to find, last printed in the 50s (when Mumbai was still called Bombay), and it's absolutely amazing. If that fails, look up the artwork of M. V. Dhurandar; a lot of the illustrations found in the text are his watercolour works. Whenever I want to draw or reference Indian clothing I go straight to this book. If you ever find a copy buy it, forget about the price, buy the thing. It's worth it. I'm very rambly tonight so I'm going to stop typing now and get some sleep.

One last thing, hello to the viewer from Germany. Yes, I pay attention to where my views come from (yours stand out from the Canada/US ones and are pretty regular). Thank you for following my blog (that also goes to the people who are not my German friend). I hope you enjoy my work. Are you a costume geek?

Year's End

Happy New Year one and all. Hope you had a good time last night and I hope your hangovers are not too difficult to deal with today. I've decided to do a big post to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another; the following will have bits and pieces from my backlog of art that I never got around to posting as well as what I consider the best of the year. Thank you to everyone who's visited this blog over the course of 2011! I look forward to the beginnings of 2012!

Backlog

Dec 30th 

Draw this while waiting for my plane to board. About 15 minutes, no references. I think it's pretty obvious that I had a big anime phase as a kid; her eyes are huge, haha. Clearly my favourite way of passing the time is drawing pretty ladies, because honestly, what else do people do with their time? Watch TV? Pfft.

Inspirations - an article in Times magazine

Dec 27 or 28th

While at home (Houston with the parents) I read an interesting article in Times discussing how there hasn't been a major shift in clothing over the last 20 years, which greatly contradicts the historical patterns. I have my own theories about this (including that fact that my generation has had everything handed to us on a silver platter, case in point: hipsters) but I found it interesting that no one's really tried to make a new style of clothing for the modern era. This is my take. Sci-fi infused clothing with poofy pants because skinny jeans, and jeans as a whole, need to go die in a fire. They're SO OLD and BORING. We really need a new pant style.

 

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

August 2011

A friend of mine Kat (you can find her under wkobra on dA and blogspot) had a theme drawing week where each day we had to do at least one drawing (doodle to full illustration) based off of the day's theme. I did Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander for films. Moderately successful; her mouth is off, as is the overall length of her face. Single colour and opacity on a white background.

Inspirations - birds, masks, blood
April 2011
4 layers, black background, white, two red (blood on hands and background red). I find it a lot easier to draw by thinking about form and then shaping it than line + fill. This was done by blocking everything out with white and then erasing to get the proper shape. This is related to All Hail; the mark at the bottom is one of my signatures (I go by "black koi" on a few websites).

Regina - Ghosts by Ibsen

Inspirations - taken primarily from a close reading of the text. The historical accuracy is so horribly off. Hair inspired by Wendy from Disney's Peter Pan.

January 2011

Watercolour, ink, pencil

1 of 2 illustrations for a class assignment back in January, Regina from Ibsen's Ghosts. I'm a huge fan of Ibsen, his work is so detailed and really lends itself to bold visual interpretations. The focus for Regina was that she was Oswald's "light" to save him from his venereal disease, she is, however, a child and cannot do these things for him. She's supposed to be a mild-mannered young woman, but she is easily tempted (flash of red after a certain scene). I'd like to revisit this design and make it more accurate (bustle is so off).

Oswald - Ghosts by Ibsen

Inspirations - same as Regina, Japanese kimono

January 2011

Watercolour, ink, pencil

2 or 2. Oswald is a failed painter whose primary characteristic is that his views are clouded and that he can no longer paint like he used to, at first this just seems like an artistic block but it is revealed that he's dying of syphilis like his late father. Red (lust) hidden by his artistic persona, a persona which is clouded (print on kimono). In the text he wears a smoking coat. I changed this to a kimono; they were trendy at the time. Colours to match Regina suggesting a connection between the two.

Summer 2010 - 2011

This was the first thing I drew when I started using photoshop. As I learned more about the program I worked on it more and more. I still visit it every so often to tweak things. A lot of it was just experimenting with brushes, painting styles, and the general mechanics of the program, which is why different parts are done in different methods. Painted over an old sketch from February 2010. Also related to All Hail, Alia from a previous post.

Faves of the Year

I'll hopefully be drawing some new things over the next week. I've got a week before school starts (yay!) but first I have to do some design work for my parents.

I'm alive; I'm just busy!

I still live and what-not. I've been busy with school work and illustrations/comic pages (I've joined a comic making group on campus, what joy). I've been doing very little costume/design work as I've been working on larger projects with my spare time. Here's a few drawings I've been working on. I've got a backlog of old drawings to scan, I'll get to that soon.

Rowan and the Spider - "Rowan and the Spider"

Inspirations - very little actually, wait no, nothing comes to mind, that's a change.

November 2011

Character sketches for a comic I'm working on. It's a 9 page story about Rowan, a young girl, based off a story I wrote for my creative writing class. I wrote the story in late October right before Halloween and really liked it, so I decided to make it into a comic for my group's publication. Thus far only one page is done. In case you're wondering why Rowan's naked (SPOILERS), I've never understood why people's clothing goes with them in the afterlife so she's naked in the comic, obviously her body will not have detail beyond outlines and a bellybutton seeing as how she's very young.

Inspirations - birds, women, you know, the usual, and the Tortall series by Tamora Pierce

October 2011?

Sketch from late one night continuing my never-ending obsession with birds and curvy ladies. I'd like to paint this one some time. Or possibly make something about her. I really like her. We can ignore the fact that birds are not mammals and therefore should not have mammaries, or hips for that matter.

Inspirations - Chinese and Korean clothing, pleated gowns, a skirt from the Qing Dynasty

Sometime in the last couple months

Another late night drawing, one I forgot about until I opened the notebook next to my bed to draw the bird lady. It was before the monk lady from back when I started this blog... so... June? Another drawing I'd like to paint (maybe digitally). Palette of purple-red, black, and gold.