Where the Green Things Grow

Oh look, I'm posting twice in a twenty four hour period.

This is the other drawing I finished last week at work and wanted to paint this weekend.

I actually drew this one at least five times-- It started with a page of sketch poses as I tried to figure out how to set this one up, I picked a pose, I drew it, and I liked it, except for the fact that Suka was this itty bitty big headed doodle crammed into a four inch space on my paper. I took out a new sheet of paper, and I drew it again, but Suka looked obscenely tall; for some reason. Not one to be thwarted, I figured I'd give it another go. And another. And another.

I finally wound up with this one, and to be perfectly honest, I liked the original drawing more. Over all consensus of my co-workers, but mostly my room mate convinced me to ink and finish this one instead, so I did.

After finishing Tinette yesterday, I was looking forward to doing some more painting, but I wanted to try some things. I've always loved the contrast of a gorgeously painted background against cell shaded characters, and I've always wanted to give it a go myself- But I'm always far too lazy when it comes to making my nice, water coloured background, and then drawing the characters, and then painting the characters separately and then super imposing them together.

After Tinette, and a friend telling me that my character and my background looked like they were from different universes, it came to me. "Well, that's kinda what I want--"

So, I took my lineart, scanned it in, removed my red lines, and started painting green viney abstract things, the same way I went about painting Tinettes curtains on Friday. I originally had the vines inked, but as I worked, the constraints of my line art were frustrating me, so I just erased them. Plus, I wanted the soft looking painterly background, the lines were sort of defeating the purpose. After a couple of hours, I had my vines as finished as I wanted them, so I made a new layer and I laid down the flats of my character.

Two of my room mates pointed out that Suka had darker hair and a tan, so I'll take a second to explain; this isn't my usual Suka. I've started a new RP in a totally different world, and I brought Suka along with me. Things changed, and she's technically not even human any more. So yes, her skin is darker, her hair is darker, and she looks pretty much exactly the same as Kara with a big nose.

So there, soft painterly background, and a hard cell shaded character. This one also only took about three or four hours, unlike Tina, who took me the better part of two days.

I designed this specifically with the new RP in mind, because I wanted it for her profile picture. The only problem is, now Alan's profile picture, which is just him standing there on a white background.. is boring; and now I have to repaint it with some sort of background in mind.

Gives me something to do, eh?

Annie

2:43

Shed Some Light

Tada! I drew this picture some time last week, and I finally got a chance to colour it this weekend.

I started work a couple of weeks ago, and I was so excited to be working at Trafalgar, being my own campus and with my own kind of people. You know, fellow artists?

Turns out it was probably the most depressing thing to happen to me all summer (Yeah, that whole two weeks of it). I'm having a lot of problems lately just feeling generally confident in my art.

I'm confused, because I like what I draw, I like how it looks, and I'm not being a cocky brat in saying it looks nice and interesting and generally on the whole, it looks accurate. So why, can't anybody ever say anything about it?

I feel like when people ask to see my sketch book, and they look, they're like.. disappointed or something, and I get the courtesy, "Oh, oh yeah, nice," and I feel like I'm being regarded as a child who's proudly trying to show off scribbles.

I mean, when people look at my friends art, All they can do is go on and on about how amazing their particular style is, or how cute their particular style is, or how well they draw this, or how well they draw that, and then they look at mine.. and what's the best comment I can get...? "You got to be careful with anime."

Talk about a kick to the face.

Well anyways, for feeling literally ashamed when I draw pictures now, I did my best to ignore all of that and really work on painting for this one.

After seven hours and up of just painting curtains, I've gotten really tired of curtains.

I took a lot of screen shots while I was working on this one, so you can take a look at the screen shot reel here; it's pretty small, but you get the idea. I finally got up the courage to ask one of my art idols on DA what his process was, and even though I didn't really get the look I was going to try for, I had a lot of fun painting it and from his brief run down of his working process, this is what I wound up with. I thought it looked pretty spiffy.

I used about three layers, the background was all on one, and the character colours were all on one, and the lines were on their own.

I cheated a couple of times, used Photoshops brightness/contrast option to help me get a bit of an edge on things; but hey, that's what it's there for. I have one other picture I'd like to paint, possibly tomorrow, but past that, I'm all idea'd out, and the way things are going, I don't know when I'll get any more creative urges.

Annie

11:40

Open windows and Fans!

It's the time of year where things start to warm up, and people start to regret not having air conditioning.

Not that I'm overly bothered, I haven't had air conditioning in at least four years.

That's what fans are for!

I changed my shirt because it was too warm, and now I'm chilly.

I started this picture last thursday (not the one that just passed, the one before) Because I missed drawing my baby. I've been planning this picture for a long time, as I imagine the two of them wouldn't get on very well. Mostly because Yukio is out to destroy anything that moves and Ninja isn't afraid of anything.

Where's her brother, you ask? I don't know. I did some world splicing, and now Ninja is without her guardian angel. I was going to draw the background, and I went through a lot of options in my head... Originally, I was going to have it out in the forest, where Ninja's mother lives, but Yukio wouldn't make any sense in a scene like that. I then figured, well fine, I'll go for an older, more victorian feel, to match Yukio's clothing. Well, I couldn't get the right feel out of that either. So the entire week, I didn't have any clue what I was going to do for the background, until I got home, and it hit me.

If I wanted the background to fit both characters, it was going to have to be a grungier, darker, setting. Ninja is from a much more futuristic era, lots of metallic and unexplained neon glowing lights. I also wanted something Yukio would be used to, but I really didn't want to draw a victorian house.

Ah, what about a victorian cellar? Like the really freaky one in my house?

Alright, I wound up not having so much a victorian cellar as.. some kind of creepy dungeon, but it does seem like a likely place these two characters would run into each other. Spent the better half of today working on this, and it was a lot of fun. For once I didn't give up on a background forty minutes in; I kept working at it. And I like the results, I think. It looks a bit crappier full sized, but hey, it's an improvement, I'm working on it.

Annie

6:41