Personal Projects

So. Little time for drawing lately and I've spent next to none of what I have doing costumes. Thought I'd do a post with some personal projects, sketches, and half-done illustrations for the hell of it. For those interested, it'll probably give you a bit of insight into how I draw.

Rowan - Rowan and the Spider

Almost finished panel for pg.2 of Rowan. Her hair is the most painful thing to cel-shade ever. I spent 3 hours drawing with friends at a cafe last night and spent most of it (the parts I wasn't laughing so hard I had to put down my pen) working on her hair.

Adrian - All Hail (part one of a pair of illustrations; the other is a colour swapped version with Amelia, see her below)
I did most of this in about 2 days after class and haven't had time to pick it back up. I really don't like how much white Adrian puts on a page (not a big fan of lots of white). He's so awkward in that sense. Mostly another colour/light experiment (which I do love on the other hand). I need to fix his jaw. It looks far too like Robert Pattinson's.

General Rodrigo Al Sayid - All Hail
Clearly this is half done; I only properly shaded his face, everything else is just blocked. I really like Rodrigo, but he's only scheduled to be in All Hail for a couple of chapters. I draw him from time to time just for the hell of it.

General Amelia Mondego - All Hail
She makes a come back from the first post! The other day I decided to do a series of sketches for all the layers of her clothing (knickers to normal clothes to armour). There's another 2 that need to be done. The first is just binding and shorts; second, under-armour (leather and wool) for battle; third, house clothes. I've slightly altered her design again. After doing the line up last year I realized that the current design stuck out from the overall direction. Now her hair is in a side braid, neckline is a straight slit, and her pants are extended with a cute slit hem at the ankle. As always, missing her left arm. It makes her so lopsided!

Amelia variations
Done for laughs (mine) while at coffee with friends (on the back of a tray sheet). The first and third are "Anime Amelia", larger boobs, more skin showing, cybernetic arm, long flowing hair, and a rounder face (younger too!), etc. Second is a poorly executed "American Mainstream Amelia". Why is she a boy? Because, like Marvel or DC would actually have a badass female character missing an arm; all their ladies have become walking sex objects. I have, however, faulted, Man!Amelia would have to be bulkier if he was in a proper America series.

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.

Happy Halloween!

No drawings today. I've got a costume (partially made) which I haven't uploaded to Haydee yet. Just wanted to wish everyone a happy halloween before it was over, fitting since this is a costume blog. I also just wanted to say how odd I find it that these days you have to go as something, particularly something or someone tied to some sort of pop culture... thing. A costume's a costume, and I'd much rather prefer something original and interesting than a from the box slutty costume (this is, of course, coming from the girl who dressed up as a corvid this year). Anyways, ignore my meanderings if you wish.

I'm sorry about the lack of updates for anyone who follows this blog, if there are any. Been busy and, quite frankly, been thinking that I'd like to spread my wings and work more in illustration than strictly costume design. A few of the illustrations I've been working on might make their way onto here soon. Same format, but different content.

Hope everyone had a spooky night and that your tummies aren't too bloated from mass candy consumption.

Another mini-update

Slowly finishing:

See Sept 17th's post for previous version.

Finally got the skirt working. It took a long time to figure out the right balance, but now I love it. Once this is done it's being added into the "most likely used for future portfolios" with Geisha Cleo. The colour palette on the side is barely accurate anymore.

Geisha Cleopatra

Been busy with school work, and with school work comes boredom and the need to draw. Did this today after a set of rather uninspiring classes.

Inspirations - "What else is there?" by Royksopp, Cash Back, that snake woman sculpture that's really, really old, Geishas, Cleopatra (reading Antony and Cleopatra by Dryden), "sketch-WIP-etc-duct-tape-idk" by NorthernBanshee, a pencil skirt worn by one of the girls in St. Trinians, the Geisha dolls in Ghost in the Shell, art nouveau

Sept. 26th 2011

Thus far, one of my best and most balanced designs. Done in about an hour and a half following class today. Not much to say. Probably will end up being a main portfolio piece.

Mini-(up)date

Here's a WIP. Currently stuck on the skirt pattern. The whole design started when I thought of a skirt with that pattern but I'm not sure if I like it with the rest of the outfit.

Inspirations - Art nouveau, Victorian clothing (no period specifically), the pattern on the skirt, harlot characters, fans

Sept 15-16

Started with the skirt pattern and colours and got stuck. Ho-hum. Definitely one of the most complex designs thus far and not normally me. I'm liking it but need to get the skirt to work. Ideally her ankles would show, but I do love how Victorian skirts hit and lightly touch the floor. Choices, choices. 

Bit of a joke: If this was for a movie, this would be such Oscar bait. Vaguely Victorian inspired theatrical costumes for sexually active and angsty women! How could the Academy not fall madly in love and declare them the best costumes of the year! Iamahorribleperson.

So, have you figured out that I like tutus yet?

Hello all, sorry for the lack of updates. In my weeks off from class I had my summer's life condensed into a few very packed days of constant interaction. Class has started again so I should have a more structured schedule again soon and hopefully I'll get out of my funk that I've been in over the past couple of weeks. I feel like my work's getting really repetitive and drawing from too few concepts and styles. I need to nest myself in the GT500-1500 section of the library again soon (costume history section). I'm getting very anxious since grad-school applications are soon and I need my portfolio to be excellent. If anyone has any suggestions I'd greatly appreciate them, I like criticism.

On a happier note, I've begun work on a costume for Halloween (which is very serious business). I started draughting pattern pieces the other day and hope to get a mock up and possibly the beginnings of one piece of it done this weekend. *fingers crossed*

Anyways, as promised in the title, tutus:

Odile - Swan Lake

Inspirations - Black Swan, feathers, gold

Aug-Sept 2011

Please excuse the horrible background and complete lack of a single light source - I got carried away and I feel like I lost the design behind the rendering. Not much to say. I like this one but would like to draw it again in watercolour so it works better with the VonRothbart illustration done a few weeks ago.

V. 1 updated

I changed the base top-plate colour to work with the rest of the tutu better. I had V. 2 as my background on Haydee (laptop) for the longest time. V. 2 was far more balanced, but I felt like V. 1 had a far stronger top, so I balanced the top-plate better to suit it. I think this works a bit better (I hope you agree).