Postcards

Liz from my webcomic for promotional postcards I'll be sending out over the next few weeks in hopes of getting some freelance illustration gigs.

One of my biggest pet peeves in any narrative including robots/androids/AIs is the whole SYNTHETIC LIFE WANTS ONLY TO DESTROY ORGANIC LIFE that is pretty much the biggest mainstay of the genre. Liz, as a result is pretty fond of plants and a large portion of her character arc is trying to connect to organic life and further her own consciousness via her continued interaction with others.

Final assignment

My final assignment! I got some really great feed back, so I'll make those changes for when these pages are actually in proper use... which brings me to exciting news. I'll be starting up a weekly webcomic called Making of an Android in the new year. These pages take place near the end of the first chapter after lots of character development leading up to Liz's breakdown. I chose to do these for my assignment as I felt they worked best for what was asked, and frankly, it was lots of fun to get into the meat of the comic.

I'll post a link for anyone interested once the site is up and running with the first page.

Week 4 comics!

Week 4 assignment: 8 panels/1page max, an argument between your character and a person they hate with an emphasis on dialogue. 

Tried a different panel layout and actually used real text for my text bubbles. So many text layers. Elizabeth/Liz take after their father, if it wasn't obvious. It's the reason why her father won't look at her. She looks too much like him and is nothing like his baby girl. Her mother, meanwhile, just dropped off the deep end when their replacement daughter started growing a personality of her own.

Edit: Made some changes suggested by my professor to make the text and panels flow a bit better. I'm going to keep challenging myself with page layouts. Hopefully I'll pick up how to do lettering better along the way....

Week 3 comics

I was sick for most of the week so this one was done mostly this afternoon over the course of ~3 hours. The assignment was create a biography of a character in a page or less using words and images. I gave up on trying to use thin lines for these comics. Thick, varied lines all the way!

More comics

My second assignment: the death of a character in 1 page/8 panels, no words, only pictures. It ended up as a joint death scene as the only way I could see Liz choosing to die (as a robot she's essentially immortal so long as she can keep herself in good repair) was if her partner, Sike, died.
I had more trouble with this one than the last since I haven't drawn these two in a long time and Sike got a gender swap since I last drew him/her (and she's old here; man I'm such a masochist). So both of them are horribly off model and I suck at fine line work. Whatevs.

Rachael

Spent about 2 hours last night making a first attempt at a colour portrait (only ever done black and white); big learning curve but a great experience. I used a movie frame of Rachael from Blade Runner as reference. Likeness, good; colours, not so much.

Something old and something new

Returned to an old character from last year that I kind of forgot about. Been feeling that my style's been getting stagnant lately so I played around with colour and shapes on a sketch from last night for a bit. Liking it. More vibrant and eye catching. Now to just get over my fear of drawing clothes accurately in motion and perspective in digital.

More design challenge sketches

 Sketches for "leather" and "suits" challenges, both of which I'd like to return to. Still can't decide if the plant/deer man should have little breeches or not. I kind of like him all fuzzy.

Mini-illustration for "shorts". The original sketch was horrible so I redid her in photoshop with a new colouring style that I felt suited her design. Not something I'm totally comfortable with, but I'd like to work with it some more in the future.

It's your old friend, deadly neurotoxin.

Some fanart for a change!

GLaDOS - Portal series

Last week my drawing group had AU (alternate universe) as its theme. I decided to actually do the theme for the week and drew an android version of one of my favourite villains/potatoes, GLaDOS. I worked with just her original design, specifically the white plates. 

Also trying to start creating more graphic illustrations even if it's just a character study. I plan on working with the style more over the coming months.

Photoshoppin' again

Haven't had the attention span lately to open up photoshop (much to the dismay of my entire self). I started tonight drawing in a different way than normal to get myself back into the groove and to get my head working. I find drawing jolts me into a good place when my head's foggy.

Inspirations - The Art of Tron: Legacy, Evangelion
There are actually three working versions and I'm kind of torn between which one I like best (I'm not as keen on the third/can't figure out how to continue with it). It's all on one layer so I'm trying to make sure I can go back if I fuck something up. Everything's done with the lasso tool. I really enjoy using it but often forget of its existence.
I've been trying to get out of my tendency towards fashion/couture/historical costume and more towards a streamlined look to get out of my comfort zone a bit more. I don't know if this counts as a success; I think I found a midway point with sci-fi couture instead of straight up different, haha.
I'm going to stop rambling now.

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....

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?