Annie-Mation

It Returns

2012-01-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

I may have been playing the hell out of Tron video games lately.

I'm curious as to why one of the movies doesn't have any of the viruses in it- or the Isos. So many story opportunities there!

Anyways, despite my crippling fear of zombies, I'm quite fond of the corrupted- they're a lot like zombies themselves.

I sense I'm in a TRON kick again, so be afraid. Be very afraid. I wonder who I'll draw next!

Annie

7:42

First piece of 2012!

2012-01-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

I haven't drawn in a couple weeks. Been making presents, hanging out with family, doing just stuff, really, nothing important.

Today I booted up my computer because I was going to attempt to make a sprite. Weeell, I didn't make a sprite, I got carried away and made a full pixel work based on Suka, just because I could and it was fun.

Yay, that was fun! Now I can get around to doing the real stuff I meant to do this break.

Happy new year, everyone!

Annie

4:57

2011 Art Summary!

2011-12-17T21:34:00.000-08:00

Oh look, I finished this! I just never posted it.

You can see 2010 and 2009's here!

Alright. I'm super sleepy and really want to go to bed, but I'll see if I can summarize all this.

While I was working, I didn't take my best of my best. There were other pieces I thought could have stood for the spot of "Best of the Month" but instead I decided to take the drawings that really showed I got something. Something clicked with those particular drawings, and I was able to recognize it and pin point it.

I'll start back in January, where going through my files the only thing I actually produced was a lot a lot of TRON artwork. I love Tron, just so everyone knows. I know it's badly acted and written and the story is incredibly vague, but I love TRON a LOT. Anywho, I drew a lot of Tron art in January, and this one was the first. It's not entirely a milestone, but the month didn't really have any show stoppers.

February, a month where all I developed a new lineless method of colouring, where I'd put pieces together with flat blocks of colour and add some patterns to make them look like cut out paper. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed using it, and continued to use it for many pieces and still like to use it on occasion.

March, one of those milestones. March was the month I started to make a habit of drawing animals, despite the fact that I didn't like drawing them very much. I've learned a lot, starting from that single crocodile.

April was a month where something in anatomy just clicked. I'm not entirely sure what it was, but months later that picture of myself tackling TRON is still one of my favourites. There was something naturalistic and not stiff about it that I really liked, and still do.

May was when I started to get better at giving my characters unique face shapes, and it all started with a girl in the cafeteria who looked exactly like I always pictured Kara to look.

June was a month of a lot of sketches, and this Thor drawing was one that even though I drew it in thirty seconds, it came out incredibly loose and free, yet the idea still came across, which made me really proud.

July: More sketches, but I was still beating back that stiffness in my work. I was really proud of this sketch, which couldn't have been larger than three inches. I'm still really happy with it, because it was dynamic and interesting, which is what I usually struggle with in my art.

August: For a few months I drew nothing but pirates, inspired by RPs and... well mostly RPs. I drummed out a lot of impressive sketches, but I wasn't really finishing any of them. This is another one I was proud of because of how believable it felt, but also because of the fact that I was getting better at making my characters intelligible from each other.

September: My output of work immediately slowed down as soon as school started, and I couldn't keep up with my pages and pages of sketches along with doing all my homework. It was a sad time, but expected. In the first weeks of school, I drew this picture of Suka, and I was really proud of it because I succeeded in having a thin frame, and a curvy frame, in the same drawing. I struggle with thin characters, a lot.

October: I made a successful design leap for Tinette. Originally I'd given her very pointed features to try and enhance the entire 'bitch face' look, but for me it wasn't really getting the severity of her personality across. I later got it after reconsidering how to draw her high cheekbones, inspired by several different actresses. Tinette is a very handsome lady, if she'd just stop being so miserable all the time, and I think I finally got it.

November: I tried drawing children! And the best part, I actually succeeded. Excuse me while I do a victory dance right now.

December: I took a shot again at drawing my heavier character, Kara. I've drawn more, since finishing this chart, but I do think Kara still represents my best for the month of December. Round, happy, and satisfied with herself and her life. I'm very proud of her.

And that, would be this years work, and I'm pretty okay with it. I don't see the same jump I saw last year, or the year before, but I see subtle differences that are leading to a better me.

Annie

11:07

I Survived Week Twelve!

2011-12-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

I am so thrilled right now.

I survived week twelve.

Granted, on Saturday, the hell of week thirteen kicks in, but for the time being, I have tonight to relax.

Why? Because I finished fifty storyboards, my six page workbook, my nine page essay and-- Aaaah, isn't this beautiful?

So I spent my English class drawing pictures and reading a book.

It was beautiful.

You know what else is lovely?

Gettin' a chance to draw Kara. I've been having myself a good time working on Kara's build, and she's lovely.

I drew this earlier but got her arms all wrong, so I had to fix them up in photoshop, because I made them far too tiny for her build.

Aaaaah, this is just wonderful.

I could dance.

I'm not looking forward to the weekend, but right now? It is my day to shine.

*Does a dance*

*Does a dance*

*Does a dance*

Aaaaah. I'm going to just sit around and read a book and relax.

Aaaah.

Aaaaah.

Annie

11:27

I've Been Drowning Lately

2011-11-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

I've had a ridiculous homework load these past few weeks, and I don't know how I'm supposed to keep up with it all. It's okay though, it's Wednesday, so I'm almost through the worst of the week and just coming onto the weekend...

Where it can start all over again for next week.

Alas.

Yesterday, after finishing the character design I couldn't do the night before because my wrist tanked, and after finishing all but three of my story boards for that day, I got to Character Design class and I decided I was going to spend the day drawing things that I liked to draw.

So I drew Kara. I love Kara a lot, she's very kind and warm, and I miss her and don't get to draw her a lot. I showed her to my friends, and the first thing I was asked was if she got chubbier. And then why.

Put it this way; I don't draw her a lot, she's still under development, and the idea behind her is that she's supposed to look round, soft and perfectly comfortable with who she is.

And that is why I find her so appealing as a character.

She's my character, I don't have to explain myself.

Next, I drew the complete opposite, and decided to draw Suka, sans metal arm.

Suka is the complete opposite of everything I love to draw, and she presents a number of challenges whenever I try to draw her. I have a serious issue with a lack of shape when I'm drawing thin people, and I try so hard to get curves into their frame that would essentially be straight lines, up and down.

At the very least I think I've gotten Suka to the point where I'm not just drawing straight up and down. Granted, she's not soft like Kara, but she's also not sharp like Tina, so I can live with that.

Suka doesn't have very good child bearing hips.

She's just this tiny little waif of a thing because she either 1.) Can't afford food, or 2.) spends far too much time worrying and being anxious/afraid to put on any weight.

Why are both my main characters these tiny little sticks?

Sticks. I can't draw them.

I am off to tackle that mountain of homework I have to do today!

Annie

11:21

A Little Redesign

2011-11-18T20:47:00.000-08:00

So I decided to redesign Suka's arm, because I'd never really put a lot of thought into it before. I sat down, and worked out the mechanics to the best of my not-mechanic brain. I gave it a skeleton, and 'muscles' so to speak, and refined the design to something that made sense.

And then I realized what an awful, awful thing I'd designed. One well aimed attack and Suka's got a like, thirty pound dead weight drilled into the end of her arm. That, and it would be a bitch to clean. All that blood. Off all those wires. Yuck.

That being the case, I think it's time to hit the drawing board again and add all that outer armour I'd stripped off for the sake of an interesting design.

I'll see what I can do. I had much fun, regardless! I like it when I finish something and it turned out more or less how I wanted it to turn out. And hey, I finished something! This weekend is going to be dedicated to a lot of homework, but that's alright, I don't mind so much. Think I might also take the time to finish up the ID I'm working on for Sarah's Kingdom's of Calamity group.

Yay, work! I like getting the chance to finish personal pieces. I never want to ink things, so getting past that stage is a feat and a half for me.

Annie

11:58

Days of our Lives

2011-11-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

Tada! I got inspired today in class to draw me some Alans, and it started with a picture of my OC with his head stuck in a fence.

I'm so mean.

At least Alan takes it all in good humour.

Anyways, I always liked these age meme things, and I haven't done one in a while, so I thought I'd sit down and work on it. I finished teenage Alan and adult Alan today after school, and it was really fun to be able to dedicate a bit of time to something I wanted to work on.

I don't have the time to ink them and paint them and make them all look awesome- but I could add flats and accents and make it sort of half decent to view.

Not very good at drawing children, but I think my kid Alans turned out pretty decent!

Teenage Alan also had me in a fit of giggles as I was designing his ridiculous hair and scraggly goatee. I'm going to bed to read until I pass out. I'm going to catch up to Jessica, so help me god.

Annie

10:57

Some Snugglin'

2011-11-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

I came home today and did some math and realized something: I'm poor.

So if you could all venture on up to the top right hand button on this page and click on it, I'd be much obliged.

Commissions are open everyone!

To the right I present a picture I drew today in an attempt to get out of my art rut. I'm pretty happy with it. Alan is my character, and Shaari is Jessica's character. In case you couldn't guess, Alan's the dude with the horns and Shaari's the girl. You can tell because she has boobs.

Waiting with bated breath for Miranda to update her blog!

Annie

9:36

These are my Friends.

2011-11-03T21:12:00.000-07:00

This happens on a very frequent basis. And when it's not relocating me because I'm conveniently situated on wheels, it's chasing me down the hallway screaming "I'M GONNA KILL YOU" because I threw a pencil at them.

Aw yeah.

Also, bad moods are contagious.

I like these little comics. They're a very fun way to get ideas down and out.

Annie

12:16

Scant Collection

2011-11-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't has as much time to draw lately as I wish I did, haha. Too much school, too much homework. I'm still writing though, so I'm keeping my creative brain busy.

Here's a drawing of Sherlock I made for Chelsea a few weeks ago while she was having a rough day. I gave him a little bit of a chin. He looks eighteen now.

Instead of sixteen.

Chelsea was happy.

That day, I'd decided I wanted to draw Sherry and Ninja, because I love them so much. So, in the afternoon class, I started to draw the couple of them.

It took me a while to find the time, but I eventually finished!

See? I'm not unfair to all of my characters. Just most of them.

So here, some Sherry and Ninja, havin' a moment.

For halloween this year, I dressed up as the doctor, from doctor who, and Leah was my companion.

We traveled all of space and time together and returned the same day we left! It is the advantage of having a TARDIS.

Later that night, I did up my makeup so I looked like a sugar skull for Day of the Dead.

It was a pretty kickin' halloween.

And a doodle of Alan and Rebel, just from my sketchbook.

I realized that even though Alan is Spanish, the goat I based his satyr appearance off of happens to be native to North America.

Oh well, it's a fantasy story.

And FINALLY working on getting some refined designs for the metal prosthetic one of my OC's has essentially drilled into her arm.

I gotta say, I'm having a ball coming up with all these designs and drawings.

Working out the mechanics is killing me though, haha! I'm sure there's a metal skeleton in there somewhere that holds it all together.

And hooray! All the work I have done lately.

I know, it isn't very much, I'm sad too.

Annie

6:37

Farewell, Old Friend.

2011-10-23T11:28:00.000-07:00

The other day, my dear friend Corrin came up to see me in Oakville! I don't get to see Crin a lot, but I've seen her twice this month, and what must be three times this entire year. Whoof, who could believe it?

After watching Doctor Who for a couple hours, we decided to go to the mall, because the mall was within walking distance, and the mall had a Davids Tea. While we were there, we decided to go into H&M, on my request. I was looking for a ridiculously baggy sweater, but instead Crin pointed out a black coat that could be a good replacement for the one I was wearing.

I love my coat so much, I've had it for almost a decade and it's gone through a lot. I had the zipper replaced, one of the snaps replaced, one of the buckles snapped in two, the pocket was half torn off, I put my hand through the lining that morning, the elbows were threadbare, the wind tore right through it, and the cuff was getting steadily shorter as it frayed to nothing and I repaired it with billions of stitches of black thread.

But I loved my coat. I'd had it for years and I got it from my dad as a birthday present when I was fourteen, along with a Blink 182 album with a parental advisory. I looked at the new black coat, and I looked at the price, and it wasn't bad- but did it really matter? This coat had serviced me well since I was a child. Then I saw a red coat. And I rushed over to the red coat and pulled it on. And then I saw a longer, teal coat. I abandoned the red coat in favour of the teal one. I looked at the price. It was fifty percent off.

I caved.

I bought the teal coat.

Leaving the store, I was still carrying my worn, beaten, loyal coat.

I wanted to donate it, but Crin pointed out there was a trash can I could put it in.

I have never found it so difficult to part with something I own.

My poor coat is now gone, but I have a beautiful teal coat to replace it.

R.I.P. Coat. You gave me years and years of loyal service.

Annie

2:39

Cold Cold Breakweek.

2011-10-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

I caught myself talking to the cats today.

They didn't humour me. At all.

But I felt like drawing something from it! And so I did. Kittens, kittens all around!!

By the way- BREAK WEEK YAAAAAY!!!

Annie

10:44

You know what?

2011-10-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Life's too short.

Taking some steps this year I've never taken before, and I'm quite proud of myself.

I wore my bright red boots to school today to combat the damp of the pouring rain lately.

I was very happy to be wearing them!

Anyways. Life's too short to not do what I want to do, regardless of what other people think. Life's too short not to take risks, and life's too short to be bothered by the thoughts of others.

This is my year. Happy new year to me!

Annie

9:44

The Pig Rider

2011-10-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Alright, the latest in ID's is finished!

I drew this in class on Friday. Because I wanted to draw a pig. Originally it was going to be a boar, like it always is, and originally it was going to be a really large boar.

Basically I was going to be riding Baeddan- but instead I drew a squat pot bellied pig.

Because I freaking love their wrinkly faces.

I enjoy how if I were to get off my steed it would probably stand to my hips. Waist, at best. Still very very large for a pig though, haha.

Psht, horses. Who needs horses?

Don't get me wrong, I love horses too.

Originally I was supposed to be holding some sort of weapon, and riding my big all battle ready- but let's face it, I couldn't think of a weapon I could actually see myself holding, so it turned from epic, to cute, in a span of "she's supposed to be holding something-"

Alas. I'll just ride my steed to school.

I made the background just by having some fun with the lasso tool in photoshop. I based it off the highlands I visited while in Scotland. I probably should have added some Scottish heather. Hm. I might go back and add that.

Anyways! Me, the pig rider.

Annie

11:07

Ninja Loves All

2011-10-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Well, a storm took the liberty of stealing away my blog update, my photoshop file, and my word file.

Thank you storm.

Anyways- just a drawing I drew today of my character Ninja and Jessica's character Phineas.

Ninja loves everyone in the world, but none as much as her brother. She's been separated from her brother, but Phineas makes a fine replacement.

I'm not sure how long Phineas can stand up to a ninety pound projectile constantly launching itself at his back.

Been struggling a lot in my work again. Not because I don't like it, because I do, but I feel like I'm not taking things as far as they can go. I'm not pushing the boundries I want to be pushing. I'm not taking actions as far as they could go.

I'm probably going to constantly redraw this same picture over the years until I get it right; and one day I might. I feel like it's going to be one of those pictures I forever think about and wonder, "Maybe I can do it now."

Much like this drawing, or this one.

Sorry Jess, I hope you're prepared to see this randomly pop up again three years from now.

Ah well, what is life if not a journey of discovery?

I'm excited to see where this stands in a few years.

Annie

11:46

School has Over Written my Life

2011-10-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't been producing as much as I was this summer. I know that sounds like it makes perfect sense, but usually my creative resources dry up like a raisin in the sun during the summer, and they plump right back out once school starts and I'm around my creative friends.

Well this year, I drew all summer, and I have been too busy drawing for school to work on anything else.

Today I was determined to draw artwork specifically for me. Well, specifically for me and Sarah, cause it would have had her character in it too- but you know. Instead I wound up drawing Tina, trying to figure out how her face works. There are two actresses I think of whenever I think of Tinette. One is Jeri Ryan, who played Seven of Nine in Star Trek. She's gorgeous and has similar facial structure I imagine for Tinette. The character she plays is also like Tina, only Tina is a lot more ridiculously emotional. In a very angry way.

She's a lady, what can you do?

The other actress is Kat Stewart, an Australian actress who plays the character Billie in the show "Offspring". She has incredibly prominent cheek bones. The first time I saw her, I honestly thought part of her face was missing. She's really beautiful though, so I worked really hard to get hers and Jeri Ryan's features into Tinette's face.

If I could only get her to smile she'd have the prettiest smile out there.

Annie

10:13

La Seine

2011-10-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Ha, I finished my drawing from earlier.

I pay attention in class, I swear.

I pretty much drew this for Corrin- I hope she likes it!

I'm very excited for this movie, despite having not heard of it before a few months ago.

Wee!

Annie

7:39

When I'm Working I Ignore food.

2011-09-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

I found some really gorgeous blogs today filled with pretty artwork. At first I was sad, because I realized I wasn't anywhere near that level of competence-

But then I felt inspired, so I just opened a document and started painting to see where I'd wind up.

And this is where I wound up.

Just a speed paint, sketched, drawn, and coloured in photoshop, but it was quite a bit of fun.

Wee!

Annie

9:54

He has his jam. We are very happy.

2011-09-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

An idea that struck me on the way to school the other day. I'm a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes, so artwork that follows the trend was bound to happen eventually.

And I miss Verden very much. He's one of my favourite of my OC's just because he's so very very awesome *clings*.

Can I have one?

Anyways, just a fun drawing I managed to pull out of my art block abyss and decided to colour instead of doing my homework.

Wee!

Irwin belongs to Sarah.

Annie

10:18

Squat Designs

2011-09-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

Today while in layout class, I wanted to draw a new ID picture of me freaking out and exclaiming "WALNUTS!"

There's a story for that, I promise you.

So, I started sketching, but I didn't like how it was turning out. It was too generic, and exactly what I always drew. That being the case, I erased it, and tried my hand at some stylization instead.

It was far, far more fun. After that, I drew another one. Thin arms, squat torso, huge hips, huge thighs, tiny ankles tiny feet, tiny hands.

I liked this style I was playing with! So I opted to draw couple of other characters, one being Ninja, and the other being Tina. Tinette was super easy in this style, I had a lot of fun drawing her. Ninja was a lot more difficult, because she's so very very thin. I think I did okay though.

I think I might use this sort of style for my lift and toss assignment, when I design that character.

Fun times!

Annie

7:14

Rehash

2011-09-11T17:36:00.001-07:00

I repainted this because I really really didn't like the approach I took last time.

This time I broke it down into simple graphic shapes and tried to paint it reminiscent of my collage pictures I went nuts with forever ago.

I like this version a lot better!

Annie

8:43

First Week Out!

2011-09-09T15:09:00.001-07:00

First week of school is over, and I have to present to everyone, the three drawings I have done this week! The one directly to the left is the most recent. I haven't drawn Suka in a while, so she's been on my mind. I sort of cheated, because this is Proto-Suka that I'm using in a pirates RP, but whatever.

I bought some new pencils that our character design teacher suggested! Oh boy have I been having too much fun. I don't think I'd depend on this pencil to do comic pages or anything, but it was really, really, really nice to play with this pencil. It's oil based, so doesn't smudge like grease on cotton, which I really liked. I just scanned it and cleaned it up a tiny bit and coloured it with flats and some tiny highlights.

Suka's not very happy right now, we were sort of a jerk to her and she's having some problems- but it's okay, I've got a plan to fix everything.

Buahahahaha. A very evil plan.

But it's okay! Because the results are for the best.

A pair of doodles, one that I drew in story boarding class of Alan saying, "bitch, please."

I really thought I had him all set up to be awesome and cool, I don't know how he wound up being such a total loser. He's so badly a loser, I back read a few pages of the RP, and I chuckled at his dorkiness.

Sigh.

A sketch of Ninja! Because I really love Ninja very much, and writing for her, and drawing her, warms my heart.

She reminds me a bit of me, when I was younger, only a lot better tempered.

I was a nightmare.

Cheers!

Annie

6:18

Goin' For A Ride

2011-08-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

Wee, I decided to add some rough colour to one of my sketches from... perhaps yesterday.

I didn't want to bother inking it, so I just went for it, and now after working on it for two days, I'm annoyed at it and I don't like Phineas's face.

Oh well, I had fun working on it, I guess.

I'm obsessed with drawing my characters being cute and dorky-

Inspired by a picture of Zib and Mitzi I saw while lurking Lackadaisy- They were just bein' all cute, on a train, which made me want to draw these two, bein' all cute, on a train.

A space train.

Anyways, I have more things to colour, and more fun to be had! I do so love drawing Phineas and Suka- cause they're stupid and mushy and cute.

Or at least they were, at one point, in my head.

D'aw. Couples. So fun.

Annie

9:22

This Is How We Do It

2011-08-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd start this entry off with a picture I drew last week. It's a redraw of a concept I tried last year, and I was getting frustrated with myself because I couldn't draw anything that didn't look super stiff and rigid. I made some slight adjustments when I brought this over into photoshop, but for the most part, it is the exact same drawing I drew last year-

And I am much happier with the results this time around, even if they aren't perfect. They're a little less stiff, so hey, it's a start!

Also the black on red helps.

Yaaay, sketch dump! So, I've been practicing with a steel nib pen, because I get finer lines out of it than I do with even the smallest fine liner- however, my hands shake something fierce, and I'm really not used to using a steel nib (I haven't touched one since middle school). As such, my lines are horrifically uneven, wiggly, and shaky at best. But hey, practice makes perfect, so here are some practice doodles.

I drew some Ainmires, some Sukas, a bunch of Ninjas, and couples! I like drawing couple pictures, so I'm abusing the hell out of the fact that two characters in a recent RP have a past together.

Today I was flipping through pages of the RP looking for things I haven't drawn yet- but all of my favourite moments, I've already drawn! Boo. I haven't drawn a lot of Tinas, I should draw some moments of her and... and... well, probably Irwin, because I find it funny.

Oh Irwin. You'll learn how to deal with the ladies one day, I'm sure of it. He's a smart man, he can fake it.

Ninja thinks she's batman, just so everyone knows. She's resourceful and very useful in a pinch, so long as that pinch doesn't require actual physical strength.

Yaaay, more couples!! This time I drew Garrett and Suka, at the suggestion of Sarah, but I haven't gotten around to sharpening this one up, quite yet. They're very cute and sweet, I miss them a lot.

Drew Alan, saying some things he probably wouldn't say (he rarely swears around the ladies, Jem would brain him), and Garrett, with a broken toothpick neck, and Shaari, I suppose she's singing-

And I drew Phineas and Suka again, probably a long time ago, and probably while they were dating. I like drawing cute shit. I might even add some colour to this lineart to sharpen it up some- see how far I can get without inking a lineart.

And then, just for shits and giggles, I drew Kara and Ainmire! Why? Because I think Kara's lovely, and I think her and Ain are so adorable it makes me squeal inside. D'AAAAW, so cute.

Ainmire can be loveable, I swear.

And that brings us to my last sketch dump, which is mostly Ninja fighting a yeti, Ninja bragging about how clever she is, and MORE COUPLES!

And this pair is DANCING.

I get obsessed with removing negative space when I'm drawing two or more people in the same picture...

I really like this last one, I even inked it and I'm getting set to add colours and finish it up all nice and pretty.

I like painting, once I get into the groove. Bar stools, here I come!

Annie

7:53

Piles of Papers

2011-08-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am continuing in my efforts to sketch more! As such, I have many more drawings than I typically do for an upload, and as such, I have broken it into many sketch dumps.

Instead of one giant one that gets resized into something you can't see.

In this pile of drawings we have some Sukas, some Jorns, some Tinas, and an Ainmire!

I did so miss my scottish oaf. I've gotten better at drawing him as the muscled man he is, which makes me happy because he no longer looks like a teenager. He looks like a good and proper twenty something or probably older. When I drew Baeddan this round I made him far too large. Eventually I'll get it right.

I have come to the realization that though Tinette is not overly fond of other people, she does like animals, and likes to take care of them. She has very few hobbies- she can't sew, or cook, or sing, or do any number of things she should be able to do because she was born into a family with many servants. I had a fun time coming up with hobbies; Dancing, fighting, horseback riding, reading, piano...

Yay!

And here I doodled some characters in their back stories, the other characters they happened to interact with, lalala-

This sketch dump is actually older than the one I already submitted. I drew Tinette and Jessica asked me if she was angry. I said yes. She said of course she's angry, because Tinette is always angry.

And so I started my mission to make her happy, which led to me drawing her with my first attempt at a horse.

Animals! They make even the worst people happy.

Shaari and Suka as kids, Phineas as a young adult and Suka as a teenager, Ninja with her new BFFL Jorn, and HUGS ALL AROUND!

Don't hugs just make you feel warm and fuzzy inside?

We had a lot of drama going down. It was going to end in hugs.

I'm not finished with this one, I don't think, which is why it isn't in any of the sketch dumps even though it's the oldest. I drew it reminiscent of a picture I drew a long time ago and was very fond of.

I'd like to colour it the same way, so they can sit side by side, like in a card set or something.

I have to ink it first though, ah ha!

I'm pretty sure I inked the last one digitally- but I'll probably do this one traditionally. It's easier, heh.

I think Suka and Phineas are adorable, but in a complicated spot. Suka still cares for Phineas, obviously, but she's given him up as a lost cause as far as relationships go- but Phineas on the other hand... well, he's got a ways to go.

The other day Sarah challenged me to draw some elemental ladies. After dicking around and ignoring said suggestion for a few hours, I decided I might as well, and I was having quite a lot of fun with them.

I only finished three, as I initially drew earth stick thin, and I don't know what I was thinking. I wanted earth to be heavy and real feeling, weighted with all the earth beneath our feet and trees above our heads. I made her really thin along the thought process of trees themselves- but earth needs to be everlasting, and needs to look capable of being such.

Fire was smokin' hot, of course, with a thin waist and giant hips and big boobs with crazy wispy flaming hair, and water needed to be soft looking. So I drew my favourite kind of figure ever; a tubby one.

Oh yeah, I love drawing heavier people. And now all I have left is air!

Once again, following the suggestion of my roomie, I drew myself as an element from her comic, the Awakened. We'd already determined last year that if I was any element, I'd be the element of rainbows, because I dress in fifty million different colours at the same time.

So, when I designed my human form, I just drew me, as I am every day. When I designed my personification, I was initially going to draw myself as my business card logo, which is a boar wearing a hat, scarf, my glasses, my earrings, with my hair, etc-

But instead I decided to go a little simpler, and took a boar, gave it some wings, added some bracelets, and as a final touch, added a scarf. My personification is a flying pig with a scarf made of rainbows! When it flies across the sky it leaves rainbows in its wake, like Nyan-cat. Only nyan-boar.

Yaaay!!!

Many many many drawings. Sketchbook cleanout!

Annie

7:36

Unfinished Exercises

2011-07-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

I'm making an effort, as an artist, to sketch more.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, I can't tell yet, I'm getting all of my drawing fuel from RP writings.

It's leading to a lot of random doodles in my sketchbook! Here's a fun one I drew this morning. I have others, but you know, I just wanted to put this one up because it makes me smile.

Alan's not much of a hit with the ladies in the first place, so stick him with Tinette and it will not end well.

I'll get around to that re-design eventually.

Fun doodles!

Annie

11:23

P.S. One of these days I will remember to spell 'exercise' correctly. I promise.

Many Small Drawings

2011-07-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Okay. Haha, oh boy, I have been busy- but not really.

A lot of sketch dumps for everyone, but not a lot of finished art!

Shall I list? Alright, I shall list.

1. Number one, Alan doodle, trying to get the physics of his legs down in my brain. I need to redesign him, but I'm having a difficult time as I'm incredibly fond of his current design.

2. Proto-Suka! I'm having much fun with her because she wears a lot of clothes that current Suka would never dream of wearing. Also, I hate it when I draw a figure I really really like, and then cover it with clothes. I gave Suka something a little more risque because I didn't want to hide her under the night dress I was going to give her originally!

3. Scribble of Ain in some winter gear, no face.

4. Baeddan and Ainmire! I drew Ain WAY too large for his pig, haha, my fault. Pigs are the only animal I'm capable of drawing, it seems.

5. This was supposed to be Tinette in an African inspired outfit, but I gotta say, it wound up looking nothing like her at all. I still like it though.

6 Some OOC Ainmire and Kara! Ain't they adorable?

7. Proto-Suka, when she got her arm chopped off. I imagine it hurt a lot.

8. An unfinished, nuddy Ninja sketch.

9. Tinette and her mother, even though her mother is dead long before Tinette reaches this stage in her life.

10. Pirate Suka is a pirate!!

11. Phineas and Tinette don't get along. There's a ghost Jorn holding Tinette back, but I haven't finished drawing him yet.

12. Ainmire trying to get Kara to understand something very important.

13. Ninja and her feathered/scaled friend Hubert!

14. I was in a Shakespeare mood, so I drew Tinette as lady Macbeth. It was killer fun.

15. Me back to back with my twin/OC who I don't understand despite looking the same as she does.

Haha! Okay, that was fun.

Annie

11:31

Some Pirate Scribbles

2011-07-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

YAAAY HELLO CREW!

A day of doodling.

Enough said.

Annie

12:06

Flashback

2011-07-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

Some more Proto-Suka! This has opened an entire world of drawings for me, just so you all know. I mostly forgot Proto-Suka existed, but now I'm having loads of fun.

I drew this today to celebrate the fact that I'd posted over 1000 RP posts. Aw yeah, how's that for a claim to fame?

I'm so cool, I pee iced tea.

That killed me, just so you all know, I'm laughing my butt off right now.

Okay, so, picture! Some Proto-Suka and Phineas, a character of my friend Jessica Channer.

We've decided that the two of them were childhood friends, dated for a number of years until Suka realized she was the only one growing up and decided to end the relationship.

Poor Phineas. So I drew this picture as an homage to the relationship we skipped! And it was adorable and super fun to work on.

Next time I try to scan in a line art without erasing my coloured lines first, someone shoot me in the face.

Annie

11:20

Privateers

2011-07-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

Yaaay, I finished my last pirate picture for my space pirates RP thing.

I tried a different colouring technique on this dude too. Haha. It was fun.

Alan's supposed to be sexy and suave and awesome.

I failed. He's a total dork who whacks his horns off things and doesn't know how to properly woo a woman.

I'm sorry Alan. So much for a lady killer.

Seriously, why can't I invent a proper lady killer? Other than Eli, he's the wrong kind of lady-killer.

Ah well, he's charming enough, I suppose.

Sorry Alan. At least you're getting some air time.

I also finished this!

Yes, it is just all the characters I coloured plastered on a background I'd already painted, but who's judging?

So yay, Space Pirates! Lots and lots of space pirate-y goodness.

I love writing so much.

Annie

9:40

Stowaways

2011-06-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to include Ninja in my current line up. She's pretty darn awesome, if I do say so myself.

I forgot how tiny she was though, and dressing her up in loose baggy clothes ended with her just looking like a little boy.

That's okay though, it's basically the thing I was going for anyways.

She's not a pirate also, she's a stowaway who scrambled aboard Tinette's ship on impulse, and now she's stuck with everyone else on the Lucky Shrew.

My teeth are getting better, I'm getting closer to solid foods though I had to eat super slow and I was starting to get pain in my gums towards the end of my dinner and had to stop.

I switched back to applesauce for that.

Tomorrow I'm off to the movies with most of the FM crew, and I'm super excited!!

Today was also the first day of our new work regime. It was pretty fun, haha, even if it was a lot of hard work. I left feeling I'd done a good job; Accomplished. It will be difficult to adjust to, and I'm going to miss working with whoever I'm not working with, but that's alright, we're still working together.

9:42

Annie

Pirates!

2011-06-26T18:39:00.001-07:00

More pirates!! Because you know, you can never have too many pirates.

Okay, I actually only have one pirate here, and that would be Ain, in the kilt. And he's actually not totally a pirate, he's a privateer, so you know, it's different, even though I don't know who has him for hire.

It's been too long since I painted something for myself. And it's been way too long since I drew Ain, considering how much I love him to bits.

The original drawing of this had a very tiny kilt, but I had to fix it when I realized how short it was when colouring, and came to the awkward conclusion that his penis would fall out if he stood up.

So, longer kilt!

I also drew Tinette, for the same RP. She's not a pirate, unfortunately, as awesome as that would be, she's an heiress, true to her original story, and she's been kidnapped so that Irwin may find a way to her fortune by reading her mind.

Irwin is going to find himself punched in the face.

I'm sure he's slowly growing used to that. It has happened many times by now.

I put "SPACE PIRATES" On all of my drawings today because I could.

Also, I updated my comic. The new page will be going up at midnight. Yay!

9:45

Annie

To Boldly Go-

2011-06-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

Buahahaha.

Okay so this is what I spent my morning doing.

I changed her sword from a cutlass to something a little more appropriate- even though the first thing she'd do at a hint of trouble is to drop that thing and kill everything.

I'm glad I spent my morning painting this.

No, I can't draw spaceships. No, I don't care. I just wanted to work on something for me for once; and I had a lot of fun doing so.

Aw yeah, Pirates. I'm drawing more- but I just realized it means I have to draw another ship. Aw, drat, haha!

Oh well.

SPACE PIRATES. A TALE OF PIRATES IN SPACE.

3:42

Annie

Pirates? It's been a while.

2011-06-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

Man, I haven't done anything with pirates in years.

I'm not sure why, I love pirates. Of the real variety.

I started a new RP today. Cause I do that a lot now-a-days.

I ran with the usual suspects; Tinette, Ain, Ninja- and I wanted to use Suka. Of course I run into the whole "spineless" issue whenever it comes to Suka. She's difficult to adapt, unlike my other characters.

So, I thought back to Suka's initial creation, back when she actually HAD a backbone. Proto-Suka was a much stronger character, but I didn't use her because I felt she didn't have as much room for growth as Suka now.

However, in this case, she was what I needed. So, I pulled up a sketch I made last summer, and I decided to try again.

Proto-Suka was pretty fun; she had a spine, she took down a lot of various demons, and rarely fought with a weapon because she preferred to go at it hand to hand style with her bad-ass claw.

Yes, Proto-Suka fought like a bloody animal.

And she ripped everything apart.

I'm so excited about this.

Annie

10:45

P.S. No, I didn't finish my page. Again.

I'm Not Doing What I'm Supposed to be Doing

2011-06-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

Yes yes, I'm supposed to be working on my comic page, and I've supposed to have been doing that all day, but instead I did some writing and I drew this.

I invented him around the same time I invented Ainmire and Sherlock- but like Sherlock, he was dormant for a number of years.

Mostly because he was just a vague idea with phenomenal god powers, and I never worked out his exact personality.

I still haven't, but here's a really fast doodle of his concept!

I'm going to be using him RP style before too long. Yay!

Also, today, I got a very special gift from a very special friend of mine.

Crin made this for my birthday! and I got all excited and went SQUEEEE!!! When I received it.

Because I love Corrin's light hearted artwork and I love my baby boy, and it was just too sweet.

Thank you so much Corrin!

Also, happy fathers day, I hope you all called your dads and let them know how much they mean to you!

Annie

11:43

Look at all the scribbles!

2011-06-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

I realized I haven't posted in over a week!

Don't worry, it's not due to a lack of drawing; not at all! It's mostly just due to a lack of drawing anything I want to bother finishing. All of my recent finished work has been going towards my comic, and the rest of it is just doodles and fun stuff for me and for my friends. Not to mention I spent four days of last week busting my rear over fifteen hour shifts so I could pack away the over time! It was harsh.

More over time to come!

I cobbled the whole collection together into a sketch dump from yours truly! Some Sherry's, Tina's, Ninja's, Laurent's, Rebel's, Ain's, Kara's, me's, Kit's-

Yup, just a whole gobble-dee-gook collection of stuff.

Also, I'd like to take a moment to proudly show off the wonderful picture my dear friend Corrin drew for me!

Corrin likes Sherry's back story, and I'm a big fan of his sister Mel. Well, Melantho, I'm pretty sure you couldn't call her that without finding yourself eviscerated. As if that wasn't going to happen in the first place anyways.

But, she drew me this lovely picture while she was staying in Guelph with her boyfriend, Chris!

I have never had such sheer glee at a picture before.

Oh Sherry, I'm so sorry you had such a very rough half hour after hatching.

You did well for yourself.

Thank you Corrin!!

9:57

Annie

I Require Sustanence!

2011-06-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

Yay I fixed Thor's cape!

I watched Thor on Tuesday, after not bothering to forever.

And I really, really liked it.

I was never a huge fan of Thor; he always struck me as a lazy asshole in all of the comics I'd seen him cameo in, and it bothered me. However, after watching this movie, I was informed that the movie Thor was perfectly accurate to the comic book Thor. And I really, really liked the movie Thor.

It might have had something to do with that one particular scene where Thor didn't have a shirt on and was trying to figure out low rise jeans- BUT THE POINT IS I have a new found appreciation for a character I thought I didn't like.

And his cape, holy crap, I want to touch his cape. It looked so rich and luxurious!

And also, I wanted to hug Loki.

One day, I will get a manly man and make him wear a manly man kilt.

Mmmmm.

Annie

11:43

More Sketches From Murkwood

2011-05-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

Some more from all of my Tinette drawings today!

This is an obviously much younger Tinette, and her previous boyfriend, Lucas.

This is why Tina hates everybody.

I'm really sleep, ah ha- I don't know why I'm so out of it today. My jaw tries to kill me every time I yawn and my back is not happy bending today.

Boo.

So yay, simple sketches with simple colours make Annie a happy girl.

I wish I had the energy to actually finish something once and a while. I haven't painted anything decent in ages.

And, just to show she's not one to let anything stand in her way of being rich and successful, I present Tinette, telling some sham fortunes.

Because she's awesome like that.

I think I'm headed to bed a little bit early.

Annie

11:44

To Dance

2011-05-26T16:22:00.001-07:00

Just finished adding quick colours and text to this one a couple of minutes ago. I drew a whole bunch of Tina's today for a timeline I made forever ago and just didn't bother to finish.

Well yay!!

More sketches to come, later.

Annie

7:24

Annie-Mation has a Logo!

2011-05-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

And here she is, ladies and gentlemen!

I spent a good chunk of today updating my portfolio over at DA, because I decided to throw caution to the wind and apply to a very expensive, very elitist art program that I doubt I will get accepted into.

If I am accepted, I do believe my parents will kill me.

However, I figured you only live once, it's a great opportunity, and the odds are stacked against me, I could go ahead and try. Doesn't cost to try, and who knows, life just might surprise me and then I'll be scrambling to scrape together funding so I can go.

Also, seeing as I was applying to something professional, I decided to update all of my stuff. My DA portfolio, my email signature- and so I finally created a little logo for myself. This is actually a terrible logo, due to the fact that when shrunk down it doesn't translate as well, but hey, I gotta start somewhere. I'll sharpen it up to a full out logo eventually.

Very tired, I haven't finished my page for Friday yet and it's already Wednesday, but that's alright because it's almost finished.

Wish me luck, in all my endeavours!

Annie

9:54

BOOM she says!

2011-05-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd post some of the things I'd been drawing in my sketchbook.

So yay! Nothing special, I've got some Sariel, some Sherry, some Suka, some Kara, some Rebel-

I also drew Lance from Sym-Bionic Titan today, and Shannon, my friend and co-worker who just had her birthday on Friday!

Most of my work is going towards RISE lately, as I spent all last week developing and modifying my layout, as well as drawing my sixth page. You can check it out on the link to the right there, do enjoy!

So yay, it felt good to relax today and draw pointless doodles of pointlessness. Tomorrow I start back at work, bright and early, but that's cool, I love my job.

Enjoy!

12:10

Annie

Ten Million Fireflies

2011-05-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

How many of you remember this from last summer? Well, shortly after starting, loving, and highly enjoying that picture, I redesigned Alan.

That led to complications, because I couldn't finish the painting with his old design, I needed his new one.

Today, during break, I drew this. Basically the exact same picture, only with Alan's new costume, and new legs. I also decided to have fun with Suka's costume this time, and give her something a little more loose and flowy, as opposed to the tight and relatively short jumper she always wears.

Fun times! I think these two are very sweet, but I don't know much about Alan. He's just a typical nice guy, albeit one with a bit of a temper and likes to drink, but an over all nice guy. It makes it boring to draw him, and relatively boring to write him. I'm still working on developing his character, but I quite like his face here.

And his bushy eyebrows.

So who knows! Perhaps this time I will finish my picture of Suka and Alan sitting in the grass looking up at the fireflies.

Wee!

Also, page four goes up at midnight. FOUR PAGES, AH HA HA.

Annie

7:33

Rage Scribbles

2011-05-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Okay. This ran me through hoops of fire, I can't even explain.

However, I've finally finished my sketch; I can relax now.

I can't draw animals to save my life; but that's okay because I wasn't trying to draw an animal. Not entirely anyways.

I have a soft spot for Kit and Sherry, despite the fact that there's a ten year gap between their ages.

Sherry's a very fragile kid- When he was separated from his mother and sisters as a child, he was determined to prove he was a worthy son and did his best to learn how to fight in preparation for the tournament. The first time he actually killed someone, instead of turning them to stone, shocked him so badly he mentally snapped. Poor Sherry.

For a short period of time he was ridiculously violent, lashing out at friends and enemies alike, until his friends caught up with him and managed to smack him back to reality. He never completely recovered from that experience, and from then on immediately backed away from any sort of violence and refuses to hurt people. Unless they hurt someone he cares about, in which case he'll do anything to protect them.

It's about the only time Sherry will fight anymore.

But THERE I finally finished, jeeze.

Working on catching up on the art I owe people.

Annie

3:15

Summer Kick Off

2011-04-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's summer time!! I haven't been able to upload anything, mostly because I went home to Orangeville and had no access to a scanner and I wasn't drawing. Instead I was just chilling at home, watching Star Trek with my brother and attempting to catch up with my friends. I reconnected with my best friend from middle school, and we guess that enough time has passed our friendship has patched itself up and we can start again. Pretty awesome, no?

On the drawing side of things, first off a reference sheet of an angel character of mine that I quite like. Her name is Sariel, and I had a lot of fun drawing her once I got into the swing of things! She's a timeless angel in a child's body; but don't mistake her for child. It. She doesn't have an actual gender.

Yesterday while I was waiting for the bus at the library, I drew this picture of an older Rebel and an older Ninja. I don't really draw them older, and I figured I should give it a go, because Ninja get's a little more level headed but still pesters poor Rebel something fierce. He's gotten even better at not being affected by her, despite the fact that he never was in the first place.

I imagine the sentence following is, "Picture this! You, me, and nothing to stand in the way! We could go clear across the continent from one ocean to the other, ahha!"

Oh Ninja. You're so positive, it makes me want to crush you in a hug and then slap you for being so irritating.

But you are lovely.

And of course, I missed my dear OC- So I decided to draw Suka. I started this while on the bus yesterday, and finished today. Originally I had skin tone coloured in, but it was too over powering and I didn't like it.

This is what happens when I draw a figure and I like it too much to cover with clothes; I just leave them naked.

Summer ended today! That means I've started full time work, with most of my crew back, which is great. I can't wait to start putting money away and to book our flight to Scotland.

Aw'right!

So yay doodles! I plan to stay active this summer and keep drawing, because I'm awesome like that.

But not really. Here's for trying!

Annie

9:13

Today is a Day of Birthdays

2011-04-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

Today is the birthday of two people who are very special to me; Firstly, my younger brother, Mitchell, is turning seventeen today. I tried to draw several pictures for my brother, but my caricature skills need some work. I also didn't get an invite home for his birthday tonight, probably because I've been so busy it's just assumed I'm never available for anything.

Happy birthday to my little brother <3

And the second birthday today is for my friend Corrin, who is just finishing up her first year of vet tech at our sister school Davis. I wanted to wish her a happy birthday, as well as celebrate the closing of our first year together.

Happy birthday Corrin!

Birthdays birthdays birthdays.

Annie

3:29

In the Midst of a Drought

2011-04-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know me, TRON makes me happy.

I don't care if it's got a terrible story and terrible acting and terrible... uhm... writing. The movie makes me feel giddy inside. Both of them.

A few days ago Neilizza drew a picture of me jumping old school TRON. I loved it. Tron was coming out the following day, so I drew a continuation of the picture where I tackled the modern TRON. And I included Bit, because I liked Bit.

I haven't been able to draw this week.

Annie

1:02

It's Time to Leave Now

2011-04-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

More Rebel and Ninja!

I don't get to draw Rebel much because he's pretty dull. There's not much I can do with a character who doesn't really react to anything, ever. He's a walking statue. Ninja however, offers full opportunity to do whatever the hell I want. Because she's awesome that way.

This is actually an initial drawing for what I plan to use on my painting assignment, even though I haven't figured out the layout yet.

Rebel and Ninja, people; they're the best siblings ever. Sort of.

Rewriting, reworking, reformatting and slowly developing these into a comic- because I've stopped sitting on my hands and actually started working on one. Ooh, aren't I cool?

Not really; I kinda have to learn how to draw first.

But whatever! Do not despair, I am drawing. Drawing drawing drawing; it is my life, after all.

Annie

11:26

A Loyal Mount

2011-03-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

I'm having fun with this.

I drew this while watching 'The Pirate" with Chelsea. I'm apparently learning how to draw dinosaurs and alligators instead of actual animals.

Wolves are next. One day I'm going to draw Ainmire as a proper wolf.

But anyways, I named Tinette's dinosaur Jules. Partly after Jules Verne, and partly because he was the first name that popped into my head while I was looking for the dwarf crocodile at the zoo. After Stuart.

Hee hee. Happy.

And some Sherlock doodles!

The first few I drew for Chelsea. Sherry and Kit are sort of incredibly adorable, and I enjoy them highly. I like the idea that in the RP we have them in, Sherry can build things! He is an experimenter who likes to try new things; why
wouldn't he invent some roller skates to pass the time on their super long trip through space?

Hell, I'd totally invent roller skates if I was stuck in space for three years.

On top of that is a slightly aged Sherry, by about six years or so. That would make him about twenty two- and also Chelsea's age. I drew him with an older Ninja, who is busy inventing him sunglasses so he can see where he's going without turning her to stone.

The CSI Miami Sherry in the bottom right led to hilarity; I highly enjoyed that conversation.

Annie

11:12

Liesurely Stroll

2011-03-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

I expect there to be a lot of these two in the time that follows- due to the fact that I'm finally starting a comic story, and it happens to star them.

Theta Gamma is where the two live; level Theta, section Gamma. Often referred to as "Theta Gamma Quadrant" and etc for all levels and quadrants of Rise. Alpha Alpha Quadrant, Alpha Beta Quadrant, Alpha Gamma Quadrant, Alpha Delta Quadrant; then BETA Alpha Qua- you get the point. I skipped "Epsilon" in the Greek alphabet when I was naming the seven levels. Mostly because I couldn't pronounce it.

So as impressed as I am with myself for finally starting a project somewhere, I'm sad. Why? Because Rebel and Ninja are very solitary workers. They have their story, and they play their roles, but they don't interact with as many characters as in my other story, and that makes me sad. That one has Suka, Alan, Eli, Ain, Kara, Tina, Booster, Jem, Yukio- etc. This has Rebel, Ninja, Alleiah, and a chance of Sherry. Which is good, I wanted to start simple, ah ha! The other one is going to be a real bit of dedication.

Like I said, I'm impressed I'm actually starting something; these are my first attempts at making comics since Peck- aaaand I'm not going to delve too deeply on Peck the woodpecker and my attempts at gag humour.

I just realized Archie comics were my very first influence as a child.

Happy times. This is my fourth day of my self-implemented "Remain positive" regime. Gotta say, getting up for stretches at the crack of dawn is harsh. But, I feel okay. Go me.

11:27

Annie

Dinosaur

2011-03-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

Because you know what, Tinette isn't scary enough unless she's traveling around on a giant carnivorous creature.

I haven't named him yet.

I haven't RPed in a while, so I'm exploring hilarious and extravagant things I can make my characters do that I probably can't do in an RP because it's too late or out of world or something. In my world, she's perfectly capable of owning this thing. Probably pulls her sham fortune cart in the caravan or something.

This is what came out of my last post of Tina riding an alligator; I decided an alligator was too close to the ground for Tinette's comfort, so now she gets to ride around on a... uhm... Postosuchus, one of the earlier dinosaurs.

It's basically a hybrid of a tyrannosaurus and an alligator, so it wins. Anatomy fail. I really don't care, I made it up. Messy backgrounds are messy. Not to self, plan and draw a background before I colour a picture; it makes the painting process ten million times easier. So until I remember that! Messymessymess.

Tinette. And her dinosaur.

1:41

Annie

Some Things Are Too Awesome

2011-03-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in layout class, Komza had us drawing animals. Without references.

Let's just say it was depressing and frustrating. I walked home with Leah, and I asked her, "Leah, what am I doing here if I can't draw animals?" to which she answered, logically, "To learn to draw animals?"

Which is where this challenge came from! Leah told me I should give my characters mounts. Like Beaddan. And to draw animals that way. Which lead to her challenging me to draw Tinette on an alligator (I have been wrong about crocodiles and alligators my entire life) and me challenging her to draw Marc on a bear. I didn't draw mine last night, and neither did she, so we both drew them today at break. Thinking about it, there is no way Tinette would ride an alligator. Not because they're deadly, or frightening (Tinette? Fear? Never.) but because they're so low to the ground, and she wears one of two things; her incredibly long gypsy dress, or incredibly short, incredibly tight skirts. Panty shot? Shoot. That, and she has insanely long hair, and if she was riding a gator, it would more that likely drag on the ground unless appropriately clipped up.

Which in this picture, it is.

I also imagine that saddle to be insanely not comfortable; and I imagine straddling a gator to appropriately ride one, wouldn't be comfortable. And those knee braces. And leg braces. Ow.

8:01

Annie

Ga Haha

2011-03-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

And now I have a title page! Wow, I've never seen myself get this far. I'm rather impressed.

As per usual with everything I work on; I just made a big mess and had a lot of fun painting it. Yippee!

Welcome to Rise.

The title page.

I'll just pretend Ninja has perfectly normal length arms.

Thar you go guys, you finally know what the giant junk heap is for; you know, that one I was drawing just this morning?

Why did I pick such a crappy setting for this story? There's so much garbage floating around.

Also; LCD colours BURN LIKE HELL FIRE. I matched my CRT to match my printer, but I guess I didn't accurately match up my LCD to my CRT-- tried the best I could.

I need to go to bed.

12:47

Annie

Are You Ready For This?

2011-03-14T20:33:00.000-07:00

Secret: I'm not.

Ever since I started drawing way back iiiin... when I was little, I always wanted to make a comic.

I never did. Because it was too much work, and I'm as lazy as a pile of fish bones. However, the other day, I came across an old sketchbook of mine with a few drawn pages in it. I thought, "You know, I should really try that again." and so I bought another mini sketchbook, plastered a piece of tape on it, scribbled "Rise" on it in marker, and- booted up my PC and started typing.

I never liked the idea of planning things, but at the same time I never liked the idea of just diving in and going at it. Doing things without thinking is usually my downfall, so I kept putting it off. Until yesterday; where I wrote out ten pages worth of... well, pages. I scribbled out some page layouts- and I tried actually drawing it. On full sized paper. I decided my lazy-man's method of "smaller sketchbook" wasn't going to cut it. After drawing, I actually sucked it up and inked. After that, I decided, "Why the hell not-" and kept barreling right on through till I finished painting it.

Will this be a consistent thing? Ha, when am I ever consistent? But, I'm pleased with myself, as this is probably the furthest I've ever gotten. I've had scribbles, I've had... more scribbles, and I've had the beginnings of novels- but never a full, inked and coloured page.

Kudos to me.

The only think I'm not too keen of- when it comes to comics, is that it also requires a huge amount of dedication. Not that they aren't my children, and I don't love them to death- but there are other things that matter to me, and I don't want to brush them off because of one project. I write, I draw random things- I hang out with friends- it's all in good fun, yeah?

Not to mention I'm very self conscious with my artwork, especially when people I know are doing the same thing and all I can ever think about is how awful I've done or.. or... etc.

Ah, right, page- This is the introduction to Rise. A story of a girl and her brother/guardian. I haven't really decided on a style yet- or anything, really, but, what ever, I figured it was time to try doing something.

11:44

Annie

I'm Starting to Really Hate Deviantart

2011-03-09T22:16:00.000-08:00

You can be an amazing artist and not be able to earn a penny because you don't draw anime or fan art.

Decided to post this in my post-DA search rage.

I like my character Verden a lot. I didn't do so well in drawing him this time around, I sort of made him look very young- but that's alright, I suppose.

Verden's old. He's been a vampire for over three millenia, and understandably, has forgotten most things that once defined his life. One of those main things being his family; at one point, he had a wife, and he had children. Now, several thousand years later, all he remembers is that he once had such a thing. For Verden, it's like trying to remember exactly what you did on the Thursday of February 10th two years ago. Like remembering that time when you were two, and had a Jacobs ladder.

I wouldn't go so far as to say he's lonely, but he's tired. He knows that he's going to live forever, and he's accepted the fact that no one will be able to follow him into eternity. He doesn't really get attached to people anymore, as it's a difficult thing to do when you know they're going to die in what, to him, is a very short amount of time. He's recluse and quiet.

Verden is Suka's physician in my story. His bad eye sight and bad hip really don't make any sense for a vampire to have; but I like to think that just because a person is turned, doesn't mean they're suddenly perfect beings. Verden makes mistakes, and to be technical, he's senile, and well aware of it. He jokes about the dust and cobwebs in his brain. He can't see without his glasses, and can't walk without a cane. It doesn't cause him pain anymore, because he doesn't feel it, but remaining upright can be a little difficult at times. Without the cane, I mean.

Wee, original art from an original artist!

1:26

Annie

Rape Isn't Cool, People.

2011-03-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

Oh look, I finished painting it!

Boy am I sleepy.

I had to lay down the flats differently this time around. Stacy inked the picture, so I had to try to work within lines that weren't mine; and that's fine for Sherry, as most of my lines close and come into closed shapes; But both Stacy and Neilizza's styles had a lot of open lines, so I couldn't scan in the image and bucket it like I normally do. I had to brush in all the flats the long way. After that, I was trying to figure out the shortest way possible to paint this thing, because I didn't feel like spending a monumental amount of time on it. So, I selected the flats, made a new layer, painted it a dark purple, and used a soft eraser at low opacity to life out the lights.

I like the way it turned out; Thar you go, guys, I finished.

Following this encounter, I drew a picture where Verden came in to save poor Sherry from the cannibal, and Abby was all victorious with my OC. Well, Neilizza wasn't too pleased with the fact that Paine got smashed across the face with a fire poker, so she swore her revenge.

Her revenge was quite horrible, and I didn't know how to react to it.

I would like to set the record straight; Yes, Sherry has the body of a fully developed sixteen year old male (his legs still have to grow out) and yes, he speaks coherent English and is relatively intelligent- but Sherry was only born two years ago, and he was hatched from an egg. The way people work, or the biology involved in certain matters, are above and beyond his comprehension.

Also, regardless of whether or not he is a male; rape is rape, and painful and not enjoyable.

Way to break my character, guys. I don't think he'll recover.

Oh look. It's Sherry. Emotionally scarred and not recovering.

Paine is in the bottom corner there, devouring my vampires arm.

Sherry and Verden don't exist in the same world; I used them together in an RP once, and Verden cared quite a bit for Sherry, who didn't have any family of his own. This picture is the first thing that popped into my head after Neilizza's horrible actions.

By the way, Chelsea? Way to drop the ball. You're not allowed near Sherlock anymore.

After an entire lunch break of nothing but pure horror, I decided it was time to rescue Sherlock and give him a break.

So I drew him with Ninja, as he winds up helping her overthrow her fascist government and starting an era of peace for Rise.

I have a hard time drawing Ninja as a displeased person. Her younger self has such a happy disposition, it almost hurts to make her angry.

After everything that happened though, one can hardly blame her.

She's in her twenties in this picture, a much more mature and sensible girl. She knows what risk is now, and weighs her decisions more carefully.

Finally, to close everything off, a personal piece that is not related to Sherlock. Not that I don't love Sherry, but I was starting to miss some of my other characters in the light of all the attention he's been getting.

I drew Suka and Alan! Inspired mostly by this song performed by Gene Kelly in the movie "The Pirate". It inspired me to pull out Alan and work on him some more, as I'm still not completely certain of who he is or what he's like.

Suka doesn't know how to dance. Theoretically, neither should Alan, not having human legs, but let's just pretend he knows what he's doing.

Lot's of playing around with brushes on this one; I know, it's a real mess, isn't it? But it was a lot of fun, so I'm not complaining.

11:28

Annie

I Forgot About a Title

2011-03-07T16:55:00.000-08:00

Today on break, after I finished my left over homework, I asked someone to give me a character to draw my character with.

Instead, Neilizza suggested we try a collab. I thought this sounded like, fun, so I agreed and asked what we should draw? Neilizza suggested one of Stacy's characters and one of hers, each trying to pull Sherry a separate way.

Poor Sherry, he's so horribly bashful around girls, I thought this would be fun! I drew my Sherry, and handed off the paper to Neilizza, who drew her character Paine on the right.

There's a couple problems here; The first being that she snapped his arm. The second being that she's a cannibal, and is willing to rip Sherry's arm off instead of giving up her dinner.

Ack!!

To the left is Stacy's character Abby, who's about to be turned to stone if she doesn't close her eyes.

This is me, forgetting the fact that my character has this unwanted hobby of making garden statues. Oh well, it's cute to draw his eyes.

Stacy inked this picture again; Because I didn't want to.

I started arguing with Neilizza on ways to spare my baby from being eaten; at first I threatened to have Ainmire come in and slice her arms off with his sword (As Ain is typically the one who comes to Sherry's rescue) but, Neilizza insisted Paine would win in an all out brawl. I gave up this fight, because Ainmire's never been very capable of fighting girls. As much as I think he could win in an all out fight, he's got this honour thing that gets in his way.

So instead, I promised to sick Verden on her!

I love Verden very much. He's a very quiet, calm old man, and doesn't typically resort to violence. He believes in diplomatic resolution to issues, and once surrendered himself to a mad scientist in order to spare his village. Poor doctor.

However, threaten the people Verden cares about, and you're asking for trouble. So I brought in Verden, and took out Paine with a nice fire poker to the face.

However, I've now left Sherry in the care of Abby- and I'm not entirely sure that's a much better fate.

Aw Sherry, you're so adorable. I'm sorry I gave you a girls name.

8:06

Annie

Oh Hi!

2011-03-05T22:25:00.001-08:00

"I hoped after a few years it would get better. The nervousness. Being afraid and all that. They're my family, why should I be? But it didn't. I locked up- it had gotten way worse. As soon as I saw her, all I could remember was the sound of scales scraping across rock and their screams as I ran away. She looked at me for half a second before she'd grabbed my arm and pulled me off my feet. Where I hadn't really changed much since I hatched- Mel had grown a lot. And I mean a lot.

"You know that feeling you get, right before you think you're going to die? Yeah- I didn't just think I was going to die. I knew it. I was going to die, and Mel was going to be the one to kill me."

Another sketch; I haven't had the time to finish anything lately. Today started with me drawing pictures of Tina. And I was drawing Verden yesterday. And then today, I wanted to draw Sherry. I wasn't sure what I wanted to draw, but I knew I had to draw something as I was starting to drown in self pity; which isn't very cool. So, I cracked out one of my babies and started drawing to see what I would come up with.

And this is what I got!

I love Sherry very much, and I'm so sad he doesn't have much of a place to fit in, in my stories. I love him, and I love his two insane sisters. I like to draw gorgon's. They make me very happy! I was lurking DA for inspiration, and there were a lot of drawings of the children of a gorgon- and I gotta say, I'm very happy with my designs in comparison. Especially Sherry; he looks just like his father (I assume. His father is probably a pile of bones in his mothers nest). And his sisters look unique; which makes me smile.

I am so tired, I think I'm going to bed.

1:37

Annie

Stuck Behind A Table

2011-03-03T14:19:00.000-08:00

Today was the last day of portfolio's. Some really amazing one's came in today, I was impressed.

I'm tired; I spent three days running around without sitting down, and I was doing the same today, and my manager was giving me a hard time and that, on top of everything going on in Orangeville, how much I miss my family, the monthly hemorrhage, lack of sleep- I couldn't handle it and I hid in a stairwell and cried; and then I got stuck behind a table for the rest of the day. So I drew pictures.

Lot's of pictures.

I'm going to really miss my teachers next year. Thurman rescued me some vegetarian pizza for lunch while I was in the bathroom trying to get rid of the red on my face, Enzo saved a seat for me at lunch, Michel caught me when I was upset and tried to cheer me up, DQ and Mario both stopped to ask if I was alright...

It was really an amazing way to spend the week, and I would, despite the disaster of a day I had before lunch, love to do so again next year.

However, I don't regret it being over, as I am exhausted beyond belief and look forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Yeeeeah, sleepin' in. Fun times.

5:30

Annie

Hustle Bustle

2011-03-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

I was tired of having my anime commission head my blog.

I haven't really stopped moving for the past couple of days; I got hired to work on portfolio's this year, so I've been getting up early and headed to Sheridan every day to run portfolio's back and forth between teachers.

It's pretty awesome, I feel like I'm the one dishing out homework to teachers- but I don't really get the chance to sit down. I worked on this doodle on and off throughout the day, whenever I got more than ten seconds to be on a chair and with some relative concentration.

Kit and Sherry! I think Sherry's adorable, and I like pairing him up with other characters. I think he winds up with Ninja, but it's going to take a very long time, for the both of them (longer for Ninja) to mature to that state. I don't think my story will follow them that far, unfortunately. This here is a hypothetical situation from rift, where Sherry is conducting some repairs, and Kit is.. visiting. Derp smile is derp.

Sherlock has a massive crush on Kit; but she's ten years older than he is. Also, I drew Kit in her entirety and hid her behind a gigantic computer component.

I had a really good day today. I'm trying to be a more positive person; I'm exhausted and sleepy, but I enjoyed every moment of my day. This is a good job; it's fun and enjoyable, I get to spend the day with my teachers, see what comes in, learn a few interesting things, meet teachers of future years.. it's good times. Positives are easy when nothings the problem though; let's see how I do when things get rough again.

9:24

Annie

Rabumbumbum, commissions!

2011-02-27T18:31:00.000-08:00

And tada, I finished my Revolutionary Girl Utena commission. I know nothing about the show, but hey, here ya go.

On an unrelated note; my printer completely butchered these colours. My CRT, which has been matched up to my printer output, is much nicer. The green's are much darker, as are the purples. That.. green, on my CRT, is a very dark dark dark navy blue. As is her jacket--- I think my LCD might be massively over exaggerating everything...

Today has been an adventure in computers!! I upgraded to windows seven last night, and my computer patiently waited until Sarah's dad left before throwing in the towel and telling me everything went wrong.

I've been on remote assistance since this morning as Sarah's dad tried to restore my profile. And he has! And I am back.

Come next week he has more he wants to do to my computer, but this is alright for now.

I'm kinda sleepy.

9:35

Annie

Squish Loves

2011-02-25T23:03:00.001-08:00

Bet you're getting tired of seeing these, aren't you?

It's a shame I'm not tired of making them yet.

This is a special request I made for Sarah. I don't think I've ever been straight up asked to draw something for someone before, or at least not seriously. Usually trades, ATC's, all that jazz, so this felt special to me and I wanted to make sure I did a good job.

I wish I was as on the ball with my commission. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

On a side note, I should never be given free reign to draw a curvy lady. I go nuts.

Sue and Chase both belong to Sarah, and are characters in her comic the Awakened. If you haven't read it, she's recently rebooted everything and started from scratch, and it's a really cool read. Don't worry, the first few pages involving Chase are nightmare fluid. You're not supposed to understand.

I've always loved Sue, since I first saw her. She's colourful, comfortable, fun, and often reminds me of me. Up until the reboot, all of her stat's matched mine too. Sue's awesome fun to draw because of all of her curves and colours; right up my alley.

Chase, I don't draw as much. It doesn't help that I enjoy spending my spare time tormenting him, and the fact that he's anorexic and skinny as a bean pole. I have issues with skinny people. Even my own. I just can't draw them properly. Thunder thighs, all around!

I tried to stick to mostly repetitive patterns for Chase, and I refrained from giving him vibrant blue arm warmers. All the various shades of gray were bothering me about as much as Irwin's bandaging was, but I managed. Chase, you so drab. Spice up your life! Wear a green hat or something. No? No? No funky accessories? Okay, I'll give you one of those later.

For now, I'll make you wear emo pants! This is what happens when I design costumes without looking at references. He normally wears ratty tatty baggy pants. Not emo pants. Oh well. And I doubt he'd wear the shoes I gave him, but you know what, I like those kinds of shoes. With some proper rubber soles on them. I like converse too.. I don't know what I was thinking.

For Sue, because she's Sue, I picked whatever loose pattern I had on hand. I really like how she turned out! She is wearing; the lime green boots I desperately want from Target that won't ship to Canada, the purple skirt I constantly regret not buying from old Navy, and a yellow sweater that I own but is much to small for me.

SUE, I AM SO ENVIOUS OF YOU RIGHT NOW.

Darnit.

Think I might change the texture I used on the skin tones... they sort of look diseased.

This was a lot of fun to work on, and it was a great way to start the break. My left hand is a little sore, but hey, at least my right hand is functioning properly again. That's all that matters, yeah?

Eventually I'll stop drawing heart bubbles and calling them backgrounds. I promise. I couldn't really think of anything else that would have been relevant to what I was drawing.

Without further ado, here you go Sarah, I hope you like it.

2:16

Annie

Part FOUR: How to Do It Without Wanting to Stab Yourself with a Pencil.

2011-02-25T14:37:00.001-08:00

Yaaay! I didn't bother putting texture on this one, because I really put it together specifically for Chelsea, to show her the easier, more organic way I did these things. I did the majority of it with a mouse, because I'm still avoiding using my hand which is still not... totally feeling too hot! Perhaps if I stopped typing so much, it might make life easier.

That being said, you can find part four of my step by step thing here, and then jump to Part 3 for the texture tutorial. I don't really consider myself a master at anything or a very good teacher, but hopefully this will help out those few people who were curious as to what I was doing!

I've left this one as just the lineless shapes, because I think I want to play with some other options other than textures. I'm just not sure yet. I'll think about it while I'm at work, and get some idea's when I get home.

I also totally didn't draw on any folds or shadows, but that was my own short coming. Oh well!

Characters are my very own Sherlock and a slightly older, more mature Ninja. With boobs. Also, even though you can't see the line work that went into it, I thank Stacy for inking Ninja for me, because I was too lazy to do so myself. She did good! And I covered up over it all.

Today in character design class, we were all supposed to draw each other as children. I didn't participate, because of my wrist, but Enzo drew me as a child and sent me well wishes in return.

It was the sweetest drawing and the sweetest sentiment, I realized I was very much going to miss my teachers when I move into second year.

Today, is officially the start of break week. Tomorrow, Sarah's brother Andrew is coming over, and on Sunday I'm going to get my hair trimmed. Then on monday I start my full time job and have to be at the school for 7:30 in the morning. Harsh.

And between all of that, I have character design, painting, layout and story boarding homework! Seriously, is there no rest?

Animation, I refuse to accept you will eat up my entire life. I will sleep well, and socialize well over my break. Even with my job.

Money money money.

5:50

Annie

Some Step-by-Steps with Many Steps.

2011-02-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

I couldn't draw today, and I was sent home from life drawing because my wrist was hurting me. I thought, "Oh, I'll work on that picture of Ainmire and Kara!" Totally forgetting that would involve... drawing.

So instead! I decided to break out that blasted pen tool again, and use my mouse to click together the piece. I also decided to take lots of screen shots, because my friend Victoria, and my friend Neilizza were curious as to how I made them.

For those people, and anyone else curious, I give you part one, part two, and part three.

It is a very agonizingly slow process. I have a better process that can be applied to a traditionally drawn and inked picture, but here's the process I went through to make them the pen tool way.

Bythe way, I totally don't know why I took half the pictures I took. I use photoshop hotkeys a lot, so most of my directions are in hotkeys. I don't mind clarifying up some points if anyone is confused, but I'm not going to go into a lecture on how to use photoshop. I'm way too tired to do that. Ever.

Did I ever mention how terribly I missed Ainmire? He's been missing for a while, and it was great to get the chance to draw him again. He's ambidextrous now, because I cannot settle on which hand Ainmire holds his sword in. He favours his left though.

I think it's time for some dinner.

9:50

Annie

COLLAAAAAAAAAAGE

2011-02-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

I'm having way too much fun putting these things together.

However, in light of all my recent experiments, I'm getting better at producing these- next time I'm going to try an actual environment instead of some cobbled together bit of nonsense.

Tilted table is tilted.

Also, there are about twenty chess pieces missing, at least. Please ignore, I'm lazy.

Irwin is Sarah's character, not mine. I'm just currently exploiting her creations for my experiments.

He also gave me one hell of a time because I can't depend on lines to say he's wrapped in lots and lots of bandage! I attempted to differentiate with colour. I got so very very very confused when I was removing the lines.

Verden, though is mine! And he's my baby. And I hug him tightly and love him to death.

Okay, so I actually drew this one with GRAPHITE, so I could erase the lines and scan it in as a black and white drawing. I had much success. I also got graphite all over my hands and paper. I have to stop that. Anyways, colouring in the lines took me a lifetime and a half, and I find this hilarious because I was never overly fond of coloured lines, yet here I am, working my butt off to colour every individual line to remove them from my drawing. Awesome.

It is still much more engaging than the pen tool!

Wee!! I think I am very hungry.

Why do I ignore food when I'm in the zone?

3:18

Annie

It's An Important Question.

2011-02-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

After having success in the experiment I started last night, I wanted to try again, but this time I wanted something that felt more organic.

I wasn't happy that I spent five hours clicking and pulling points around with my mouse; I felt incredibly uninvolved with the piece, even if I really liked the effect I got at the end of those five hours.

So I tried to figure out how I could use one of my inked line arts, but to get the same cut out effect.

Five hours later.

I was having a hard time, my lines were fuzzy and not registering very well so I was having a difficult time colouring them. I can't tell you how insane it was driving me. Sarah normally scans her line arts in as black and white, which gets rid of a lot of the fuzz that happens when you scan things in colour. I thought this might solve some of my problems- but I'm prone to drawing with a red pencil. The creates a lot of noise when scanned in black and white.

So I took an eraser and scrubbed at my drawing like hell to lift off as much red as I could before I tried to scan it in black and white.

I got much cleaner lines! I could easily bucket in the colours and select the lines and erase them.

It's not as clean as my first experiment, but I did enjoy this drawing a lot more instead of thinking "I HATE the pen tool" or "this is extremely boring".

So I think this was a pretty successful attempt, and I might play around with it more in the future- because I am fond of the collage appearance of things.

10:24

Annie

A New Experiment!

2011-02-20T12:10:00.001-08:00

I will quite possibly never do anything like this again. Playing with the pen tool is the BIGGEST pain in my rear. No life. just run around clicking, clicking, clicking.

I recently bought a book called "Ramayana - Divine Loophole" by Sanjay Patel, and I spent last night lurking lots of very flat, very graphic galleries, and I wanted to try my hand at it. I love when collage is used to create a picture, and I thought if I used textures properly, I could probably get a collage like effect.

And I did.

It is not my cup of tea.

That being said, here is Tinette, learning a valuable lesson that crushing someone's spirit is not the best way to get things done.

Instead it gets you booted way back in time where you will more than likely freeze to death and die unless you can get Garrett to figure out how to take you BACK.

I'm sure she has much less abusive lessons planned for the future.

Tinette and Garrett are.. interesting, to say the least. I really don't know why he's nice to her- though he is nice to everybody. I tried to fill out a character profile for her, and there's really nothing positive about Tinette anywhere in there.

Yet, everyone I know loves Tinette.

For future reference, she hates all of you.

YAY EXPERIMENTING!

I must get back to my homework now.

This took roughly five hours.

For you curious people, I was working on top of this, and trying to build from the bottom up.

Textures from Cloaks.

3:15

Annie

So Many Beautiful Drawings!!

2011-02-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Haha, I have so many pictures to post today, I don't know where to start! I usually try to keep on top of things, but I've been doing awful lately.

I've landed myself in a class where the instant someone get's bored it turns into "Do an art trade with me!" So I've been drawing and sketching and handing things out like mad and getting plenty of drawings in return!

It's fun.

It's also an exercise in drawing characters and people I don't know very well, which is great for commission work. Speaking of commissions, I gotta finish those anime girls...

Anyways! First up, some Tina. I'm also trying very hard to convince people to draw Tinette with their characters, but as it turns out all of my friends fear Tinette's wrath and wouldn't wish her unholy rage on any of their characters.

Oh come on, she get's along fine with Fray!

Psht, pussies.

I like seeing Tinette drawn by others! And besides, the only person she's ever actively beaten on was Lucas, and that has something to do with the fact that he shot her with a flintlock rifle. I'd beat on him too.

This particular drawing of Tina was drawn by Neilizza, a couple of days ago.

Next up, my baby Yukio, drawn by Stacy! Yukio doesn't get a lot of love. He's rather stupid and doesn't understand just about everything, but he's a sweetie at heart. If you can reach that heart.

He's changed a lot since his initial invention years ago- but his design is still very similar.

I just learned how to explain it better.

Kara get's some loving! Some loving not directly related to a particular cockney accented red-head or a kilt sportin' sexy man.

Just general fan love.

Kara get's appreciated because she isn't a skinny little twig; but I apparently gave Amanda a difficult time because Kara is an "in-betweener". She's not too skinny, or too fat, but is what normal people are supposed to look like.

Score!

I like Kara for that reason.

She's round and squishy and soft.

What's this? Some more straight up Kara.

Dalton drew this picture for me; he's got a really good, very cartoon network style, and I was thrilled he came over to join in all of our art trade fun!

Unfortunately I can't link to his blog or gallery, because I'm not sure where to find it. Tear.

Dalton's been working at drawing all of us in his style since last semester. I got the chance to lurk his sketchbook today, and we had a Star Trek vs Star Wars debate.

He actually doesn't like TNG-

HOW TOTALLY HEARTBREAKING!

I love TNG...

Whoops, I totally forgot to whiten the paper on this one-

Sarah drew this for me yesterday to celebrate Valentines. I came out of my shower and walked right past it and didn't notice till I sat down at my desk- and I found it hilarious.

They really don't make any sense, but somehow or another, angry plus angry equals harmony.

Or maybe just some really loud sex, I don't want to know.

The point is, they're 'getting along' and I really don't want to upset that balance because HEY, Tinette has a BOYFRIEND again, what is this nonsense?!

It's confusing. I'll leave it at that.

I love Leah's art. I suggested an art trade with her a little while ago, because even though I had portfolio's I was storing art in that people had given me, I only had two pictures from Leah. One was a disturbing pin up Suka, while the other was Tinette, inside of a spiral bound sketchbook.

She agreed, and I got the chance to draw GG. When I drew GG, I didn't have any reference, so I had to make it all up from my head- so when Leah was drawing Tinette, even though I offered her reference she refused, wanting to draw Tina from her head like I'd done for GG.

Tinette looks gorgeous and sexy; just sayin'.

These are some doodles from Chelsea's sketchbook! It's Suka, in purple, Sherry, and Sarah's character Asher.

Chelsea always loves my sweet and innocent characters, and then get's all heartbroken and upset when she realizes I plan to end their lives.

It's alright Chelsea, it's not too late for me to change my mind. Who knows, I just might.

The question is, would I be being crueler or no?

Dun dun dun.

And a final picture to close the day, something drawn by me, as my art blog needs a post from me- this is just a doodle I made after trying and struggling to draw an under weight Suka for the better part of lecture.

I am awful at drawing skinny people, yet my main character has an anxiety disorder and doesn't eat enough because she can't keep food down if she's feeling any kind of negative emotion, and she worries a lot.

I'm so smart.

Apparently I annoy my classmates because I draw myself too fat and always exaggerate my weight.

Man, I finally thought I'd gotten to the point where I could draw myself fairly.

Oh well. Going to finish this one up with some super fast colours so I can upload it as my new deviant ID. I probably shouldn't scream in Suka's face- I might give her a heart attack and she'll die.

Thank you everybody for all the beautiful artwork, I really appreciate it all!!!

11:53

Annie

Happy Valentines!!

2011-02-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

Everyone's hating on Valentines big this year, so I felt the need to step up and defend it.

I don't really do anything on Valentines; I wake up, I go about my day, I go to bed. Today while in class, I decided I wanted to design a Valentines day card. Hater's gonna hate, but I figured I'd try to be positive about another Monday!

I couldn't figure out what I wanted to draw. Initially, I wanted to draw myself hugging my significant- and then I remembered I didn't have a boyfriend. Hm, that posed complications. I could pick a fictional character, but my favourite characters aren't much ones to provide amusement if I was to tackle them and hug them tightly.

After that, I supposed I could hug one of my characters! After all, I have a couple characters who would be very unhappy to be hugged- mostly being Ainmire and Sherry. Sherlock is horribly bashful around girls, so I decided to use him! And then I realized that no, I couldn't terrify the poor boy enough, and decided to make it funnier by including Chelsea. Chelsea loves Sherlock very much, despite the fact that it's similar to having a crush on my little brother. Ew.

I thought I should step in and try to spare poor Sherry- and that's where this came from. Bad Chelsea! No jail bait for you!

After I turned around and made a Valentines card that was directed to one of my friends, I decided to keep going.

The next person I wanted to make a card for was Sarah, where I ran through a couple options over the course of five seconds. I already drew a Valentines picture last month that summarized two of the more hilarious relationships I could have drawn for a card, so I considered something cute. My brain instantly filtered out Sue and Chase, as well as Suka and Chase, and my head went *click* when I realized I could draw Laurent and Ninja.

After all, Valentines is a celebration of love of all kinds; Not necessarily romantic love.

Plus this held more true to the picture I wanted to draw initially, though in my initial planning stages, Ninja was supposed to be wrapped tightly around Laurent, and Laurent was supposed to be trying very hard to pull her off. Until I realized he probably wouldn't want to touch her.

It turned into this!

Happy Valentines, SAD, half-price chocolate eve, or just happy Monday!

10:09

Annie

Step Away from the Curtains

2011-02-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

Man, I hate painting curtains. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself, but it's always near curtains.

I finished painting Tina on my CRT and I uploaded her to deviantart- and it was at that point I realized Tinette was horrifically purple. The colours aren't as painful on my CRT, which is matched up to whatever comes out of my printer, so that's alright, I guess, but I was hoping to make some sort of happy balance; too bad I didn't save the PSD at a point where I'd painted the background.

None the less, I had a lot of fun drawing this.

I realized Kara and Tina are off by one inch and five pounds; so I guess in essence, they're the same BMI.

Actually, I just ran a calculation and they have the EXACT SAME BMI. Oops. Tinette just gets more in her boobs and hips, while Kara's a little more evenly balanced. I imagine Tinette is heavier than I give her credit for; she's probably pushing the realm of 180 or 190; she is a dancer after all, they have some wicked toning going on to add to all them hippage.

I had a real run at the colours- I couldn't decide which to use. I personally find Tinette suits red better- but the green colour scheme appealed to me in the first place (hence why there are so many versions of it) and it seemed that everyone I showed it to love the green- though Leah said red was a sexy colour, but wasn't digging the purple.

Ah well, I was trying to steer clear of the reds because this wasn't an outfit Tinette chose for herself; it just so happened that Garrett magically changed her outfit without her realizing it. I tried pastels first, to try the whole fae colour scheme of soft and gentle looking- but nothing suits Tinette worse than pastels. Gross.

Here she is! With her glass of fine wine and a lovely outfit and apparently floating in mid air because I didn't bother to draw her back leg. Tinette will snap your fingers. Or ignore you. Depending on what you do to provoke her.

I've been working on her race in the back of my head, even though I won't be delving into it at all in my story. I've decided demons are a very cultural race; everything follows strict rules and traditional ceremony. There are cultural greetings specific to who they are, and there are stories and folklore that they build their lives out of. Tinette is of the younger generation who reject this- but that's mostly because she got betrayed and shot and hates everything about her people. She still pays her respects to the god and the goddess- but in a very casual way.

11:45

Annie

Leafy Leaf Leafs!!

2011-02-08T17:27:00.000-08:00

Oh look, it's Kara!

And oh lookit how pretty she is!

Durhur.

I don't know what I want to say.

Again, Kara's like.. my standout to the fact that I think a girl doesn't have to be stick thin to be beautiful. Instead to be proud and confident in who you are!

Kara Naidu
21
5'6"
165lbs
Kara's kindhearted to a fault; she's incredibly loyal and head over heels in love with Ainmire.

This is for a series of GoM profile images. Hooray!!

And I thought about it. I considered it. And no, she doesn't look pregnant.

8:35

Annie

Vampires and Hips

2011-02-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of today drawing.

And crying.

Curse you, painting.

Seriously, I don't understand what drive there is to get any better when my marks don't improve when I do.

To the right! Dr Verden, my vampire doctor. He's somewhere over three thousand years old- but he lost count a long time ago. He had a last name once, but he can't remember it. He had a wife and children, but he can't remember them. He's forgotten what most emotions feel like, but over the millenia he's still maintained a shred of good humour.

Basically, in order to spare his sanity, Verden writes everything down in his journals; every minute detail of every day, fleshed out with drawings and sketches and tucked away on a shelf in his study. He can never completely forget, because all it takes to bring back his memories is to read the appropriate journal entry- but Verden hasn't opened himself up to that in years. He thinks it's better to let the past remain preserved between the pages of his journals instead of clouding up his mind at present.

I have a massive crush on Verden; but it took a long time before I could get his design down. Every time I thought of him I kept picturing him with a cane- he already had bad eyesight, but the image of a cane and a bad hip kept coming to me every time I tried to visualize him.

So I caved and gave him the bad hip. He's virtually a reincarnation of an older character of mine named Viktor- an eight hundred something year old chap who fell in love with a girl from another world. Verden's less creepy. Also, he's a doctor! He's sweet and makes me happy.

Kara! Still working on Fray's GF in GoM. Though technically she's together and tight with Ainmire, this is for a story.

I've also been working on her design for lord knows how long. She's supposed to be soft, but I was never quite getting that from her- I think I kept trying to make her too thin. Too athletic.

So, today, I went with the "rounder is better!" Mantra- and I think I got her. Kara's not thin- but she takes good care of her body, and she's beautiful. I think heavier people should be proud of their beauty; I certainly think it's lovely.

I kept running into the problem that I was shaping her too much like Tina, I suppose. Tinette is very sharp; she's got big hips and big boobs, but a narrow waist and a flat stomach. She's also got very sharp features- a small nose, angular eyes and a pointed chin. Kara's the opposite; Big thighs, big hips, lots of squish, and she's got a large nose, round eyes and rounded features. They're so opposite it's hilarious...

Anyways, I plan to ink this and colour it for GoM. I also have to draw Tina and Suka.

I did another impromptu art trade with Neilizza and this time I got to draw her GLORIOUSLY HIPPY captain character. I have no idea what her name is. But it was fun!

I got Verden in exchange!

Luffers the vampire.

8:01

Annie

Rush Rush Rush!

2011-02-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

Okay so it's kinda late, and I'm kinda tired, and I really should go to bed before I have to wake up at nine for class. I finished my homework!! Yaaay!! So this is my layout assignment-- and I just realized that I'm again posting my homework, despite the fact that I don't normally post school work. Le sigh.

This one however is a work in progress for myself; that I intend to paint and render completely, so I don't mind sharing.

I like my layout class! I always wind up drawing something I actually like, even though this particular assignment has like, no layout in it at all. To the right I have the various layers I used to put this assignment together, moving from back to front.

I added some colour to the furthest back layer, just to add some visual interest and so I wouldn't have a blank BG layer. When I finish painting it, she'll be back lit from behind and it will be epic.

The snakes gave me a run for my money, I almost put them all on separate layers until I realized that wouldn't make much sense, due to the overlapping pattern of the snakes. Instead they have to be on the same layer as Zephira- else it wouldn't work.

Oh yeah, I named Sherry's mother, could you tell? She's Zephira.

I also named his sisters; Melantho (Mel, for short) and Admete, which I can't pronounce. Sherlock's name seems so out of place now...

I wanted to play with these series of pictures to give the wrong impression, haha! I think I did okay. In a series you'd think it was a boy being attacked by a snake, but zoom out and OH NO, it's Sherlock, being attacked by his terrifying full gorgon mother, Zephira!

Damn you Zephira, you bitch.

I think it is time I went to bed for the night.

Yay!

Annie

1:38

Too Much TV

2011-02-02T23:09:00.000-08:00

I really wish I'd had cable way back when and was interested in Star Trek when it was popular. I feel so tragically out of date.

I recently finished watching TNG, and I'm so very sad that I have to move on to Voyager. I've been meaning to draw Star Trek art for a while, but for the time being, this is the closest I'll get.

I thought about t really hard, but I'd never get into Star Fleet Academy to begin with. I picked the blue uniform, figuring if I was anywhere other than art, I could see myself being a nurse. Well no, not seriously, because I don't think I could handle the pressure or the pain of being with people who are sick or in pain- But I mean I think I could learn it. So! Even though I'd love the idea of being an engineer, Science always escaped me, I'll have to settle for medical. Or maybe even command *scratches chin*. Nah, no one listens to me.

Today was another rough day-- I played in the snow for a couple of hours with Winona, Leah and Neilizza, and it was a lot of fun, but I came home, and Swazzle was struggling. I curled up with her and sat with her for a while. Offered her an apple, some cheese and a half eaten potato.

Less than an hour later, Swazzle had a heart attack in Sarah's hands and died.

I wasn't there to say goodbye- she was just.. gone. We were going to take her to the vet tomorrow to get put down because she was in pain- but this was sudden an unexpected and I'm broken. I feel like Elmer just died, and now I've had Swazzle taken from me. I haven't been much of a mom- I rescued her and bought her and then passed her off to Sarah to care for while I helped pay. I was the estranged parent who never visited enough, and I feel like a jerk for being so broken up when I didn't even treat her right.

Swazzle and Archie are both waiting for me on the other side- but I've got a long way to go before I catch up. I'm afraid to go to sleep again, I don't want to lay awake crying.

Bye baby <3 I loved you so much, even if I didn't show it enough.

Annie

2:20

Oh Look, It's Legible Now!

2011-02-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

Sleepy. Think I'm going to go to bed now.

I got this idea last night while I was thinking about one of my characters. Sherlock is a sweetie who I've come to care a lot for, and every since I decided to use him in my layout assignment, he's been on my mind. I was thinking about his history, which I had to seriously think about for the first time- I always knew his mother was a gorgon, but as to HIS backstory, I was never sure.

I discovered last night that Sherry has two crazy sisters- both of them older than him, though not by much. He was born in a nest of three, and was lucky not to get killed within the first ten minutes of hatching.

I've never heard of a male gorgon in my research, though I know gorgons have mated with humans before (Though, I think Medusa was pregnant before she was cursed to be a gorgon-). I decided that gorgons are plenty now, a species more than specifically three sisters (two, after Medusa's death), and Sherry's mother had two girls, who took the gorgon blood of their mother, and one boy, who took the human blood of his father. He still has stone-eye abilities, and he has an extended life due to his lineage- but he looks perfectly human.

I have a lot more coming! If I work on them. Never really felt inspired to work on something like this; I wanted to see if I could tell a story without dialogue, as well as see how comfortably I can work within panels. Since my last attempt, I can work surprisingly well within panels, and found most of this very fun to do.

I'm still unhappy with a lot of it, it's not as dynamic or as dramatic or clear as I would have liked, but hey, it's an experiment, and it's for fun. It's on five 8.5x11 pieces of paper, and you can see the page number in the top left corner. Reads from left to right, up to down. Hooray!

Poor Sherry, his sisters are insane. They get more sentient (I'm just guessing that's the word I want) as time goes on, but they're still very cruel and violent, especially to their youngest and weakest sibling.

Poor Sherry baby!

Annie

1:54

A Doodly Day!

2011-02-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

Don't be alarmed that you can't see this; it's only because I don't want you to.

I've had my fingers taped together into LLAP for the past two hours as I figure out doodles, and let me tell you, trying to type while my fingers are stuck as Spock is kinda hilarious and very time consuming.

I got this idea last night as I was trying to go to sleep, and I started it this morning in lecture. I wanted to see if I could tell a story without any dialogue- and I was doing pretty well until I stopped to scan everything.

I might keep going, I still have all the idea's buzzing around in my head, but I'm probably not going to finish. I never finish anything, haha.

Just some fun, some character exploration.

Annie

7:03

This is What I Call Victory.

2011-01-30T15:38:00.000-08:00

Didn't sleep well last night, forgive my death face.

My second painting for painting class. I don't normally post my homework but I feel like I actually accomplished something here.

Yay!

Maureen is going to kill me when I don't show up tomorrow.

Tutor, yay!

Annie

6:40

Rose

2011-01-29T20:40:00.000-08:00

And this artwork is a little off the beaten path for me.

I've complained multiple times about my abilities to draw people I know, right?

Well this is Rose, and she's my tea angel. Every few weeks she brings me a tin of Tazo chamomile tea, which I have every night to help me get me set for bed.

Rose is also one of the most wonderful people I've ever met; warm, sweet and kind, there's nothing I look forward to more than meeting up and having a good heart to heart with this girl.

So a picture for a special friend, Rosanna Trinh; A girl comfortable with herself in every way and happens to be one of my favourite kinds of people to draw.

I got a little carried away, she doesn't weigh three hundred pounds- but she has a lovely curvy figure, none the less.

Annie

11:44

Hi Mom

2011-01-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

This is the rough line art for my proportion/scale assignment for layout class.

It's mostly for my own pleasure though.

It's Sherry and his mother! Isn't she a charmer?

I was thinking about the story behind this for a while, and it was fun because I had to run back to the storyline I'd given up on for him, very heavily based in Greek Mythology.

Sherlock used to be named Nikodemus, but when I realized he was the baby I'd always wanted to create and name after Sherlock Holmes, I switched Nikodemus to his middle name and named him after Sherlock. He's very dear to me.

Sherry's father was a human, while his mother was a gorgon. I'm going to take liberties and say his mother can change her physical appearance, else the biology would have never worked. Anyways, Sherry, was, along with his siblings, hatched, as snakes are. Having taken very much after his father in shape, his sisters drove him from the nest, and Sherry was introduced into the world.

Just by being born part god (liberties. I take them.), he was taking part in a tournament that had been carrying on for years- and the winner was granted permission to return to olympus. Despite being ashamed of his ability to turn people to stone, Sherlock thought if he could win, he could return home to his mother and his sisters.

Unfortunately, being well, Sherlock, he was quickly beaten down, and if it wasn't for Ainmire he wouldn't have survived. Though he probably would have stayed with Kara, for this assignment I toyed with the idea that he tried to return home anyways.

He wasn't greeted favourably. Sadface.

Ignore the plot hole that both of these guys would have turned each other to stone the second they made eye contact, hm?

Although that's another interesting illustration I could follow up with...

This is my newest painting for painting class.

Gotta say, I really hate gouache-- but this stuff wasn't too bad. It worked almost like water colour and I wasn't just shoving colours around and picking up under colours and creating mud, which is nice.

I've been requested to attend extra painting classes on Mondays- which is a huge bummer, but I'm honestly scared of what will happen if I don't go. My teacher thinks I'm a bit thick in the head, on top of talentless. Don't worry, I got rid of that distracting white square in the back there.

I'm pretty happy with this painting, I got the gloomy look I was looking for. I left out a lot of wires and busy stuff from my first design including all the smog and dirt I was going to sponge in. I look at this and I don't think "What a piece of s#*t", I think, "Huh, that kinda looks like where I think Rebel raised Ninja. No, I'm not an amazing painter, but I still like it.

That makes me happy!

Annie

10:02

I Quit

2011-01-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

I have given up on this.

Hahaaaa, I wanted to just play with digital painting, but my bad anatomy was bothering me too much, and after having it pointed out I threw my arms up and was like "You know what Annie, go to bed."

Drew this a few days ago, during Chris Walsh's class. If anyone knows me very well, they'll know a few things. I'm loud and don't realize it, I'm impressionable, I scare easily, I love Sherlock Holmes, Tron, and Sarah recently got me obsessed with Star Trek and I love Data.

We watched first contact last week and I loved it very much.

Drew this while thinking about the movie; I wanted to play with things while colouring, but I have no idea what I'm doing so I stopped.

I'm so bad at drawing real people- On the other side of this sheet of paper I have a few doodles trying to map out Brent Spiners features. Like his massive nose, puffy eyes, huge forehead and defined chin. Plus I'm awful at drawing Data's particular haircut in any view but profile.

What a horrible week, I just want it to be over.

One more day, and then I'm plunged into my homework weekend of hell.

Annie

11:49

Sherlock's Abound!

2011-01-25T15:24:00.000-08:00

Today was a day of fanart! Honestly, I hate Chris Walsh's class. It's interesting, don't get me wrong, but I have to get up early to go to school for three hours of sitting and listening and watching animations, and then I have to wait around school for a further three hours until layout.

It's such a bummer.

Anyways, today, among other things, I drew Sherlock Holmes! One of my all time favourite fictional characters, who I love all to bits and pieces. I'm quite sure he'd hate me in real life and hurt my feelings all the time, but he's amazing.

Along the lines of Sherlock-

I did an impromptu art trade with my classmate Neilizza! She asked me to draw her princess character with small boobs and no hips, and I gave her my ipod to pick whichever character she wanted. She picked Sherlock!

I showed this to my friend Chelsea and she gave me a dirty look. I PROMISE, THIS IS A MOTHERLY KIND OF EMBRACE. Sherry just doesn't know how to deal around pretty girls.

I drew more fanart today, but I want to finish painting it before I show it off. Hooray!

A day of drawing lots and lots of Sherlock, Sherry's and his mother.

6:43

Annie

Sheridan Trading Cards

2011-01-24T16:20:00.001-08:00

Happy early Birthday to my bestest buddy evar. I bet you can't guess who that is. Basically bust up shots of Sarah, Chelsea and myself, played off like it's some sort of awesome Sheridan trading card game.

Fake Japanese symbol is fake.

They were a lot of fun to do.

The full busts, as I cropped out quite a bit when I fit them to the cards.

I don't normally draw people I know because I'm really bad at characterizing, and I don't like to run the risk of offending anyone.

My room mate is really pretty, so I tried hard to make sure I kept the integrity of her features, not hide her eyes- and of course, got the eye colour all wrong.

ME I'm damn good at drawing, because I draw me all the time, with the fat cheeks and big nose.

Chelsea gave me a bit of problem- I drew her with a derp look on her face, and I was like, "Aw damn, I'm totally skipping all of her nice features and making her look retarded." I hope she can forgive me for that. She's much prettier IRL, I promise.

HOWEVER, her spirit is there!! Chelsea's patronus would be that of a seal.

I drew Sarah's birthday out over a matter of days, haha. Cupcakes thursday, hat on saturday, trading cards today- and now I have nothing to give her on her actual birthday tomorrow.

I'm so lame.

Annie

7:32

AND Face Smash!

2011-01-23T18:12:00.000-08:00

I haven't drawn anything in a few days, so I thought I'd scan and upload something.

I got this in my head a couple of days ago. Friday night, really, but I had something else I wanted to work on, so I put it on the back burner.

It's Tinette, obviously, and her not very amazing ex boyfriend, Lucas. He apparently caught up with her. Unwilling to get shot, she took the initiative, and beats his face in with a broken broom. Possibly. Or she gets shot. WHO KNOWS?!

I won't tell.

Tinette's got her own collection of battle scars; flintlock rifles (Ha, you can't even tell he's holding one) leave a nasty mark, if you can survive in the first place. Tinette's nothing if she isn't stubborn. And vain. And angry. I blame Lucas for turning her into the people hating machine she is.

Woo, this sketch took me all bloody day, because I wouldn't sit down and actually work on it and kept adding a line every ten minutes or so while I was listening to music, watching Star Trek or RPin'.

I wanted to draw something EPIC like.

Annie

9:23

Monday's Hurt

2011-01-17T23:17:00.000-08:00

This is a two way art piece...

My layout teacher recently lost his mother to cancer. His latest assignment was a request to draw a picture that demonstrated what "Mother" was, seriously, to each of us.

Also, Sarah and I just lost our pet cat today to FIP- and it was the most painful thing I've experienced in years.

Everything seems so trivial now...

This image has gone through a few stages- Originally it was supposed to be me, crouched on the ground in the rain, and mom was supposed to be standing over me with an umbrella. It was building off a past memory of when I lost my job, and mom took me shopping to make me feel better about failing in my endeavors.

It then changed to me crouching in the rain, sobbing, with mom behind me holding a blanket over my head, playing on "Mom is my blanket", still relating back to that one memory of mom taking the pain away when I'd lost my job.

After the events of this morning, my idea changed again. Sarah's mom came with us to take Elmer for his final vet visit. I cried, and I cried, and I came home and I clutched my pig tightly and I lay in bed, not wanting to do anything. I wanted my mom, and I wanted my dad. Last time I lost a pet, they were both there for me- and it's so funny that in a room full of people, I've never felt so alone.

This is an homage to both my mom, my dad, and a little kitten, who I will never, ever forget.

2:27

Annie

Love is...

2011-01-15T15:40:00.000-08:00

I should have saved this idea for Valentines day.

So... Ah ha, Uhm...

The girls are my characters, and the dude is Sarah's character. The first lady is Kara, while the second lady is Tinette. Sarah and I have these characters interacting in different stories.

In one, we're trying very hard to get the character's together, but it never really works because he's an idiot who ruins everything.

In the second, we decided to skip that painful phase and just make then an already established couple.

I don't understand why the bottom two are getting along fine, yet we're having a hell of a time figuring out the top two. Tinette hates everybody, you see, so how this even came about- I have no idea.

Oh well, haha- I should have saved this for Valentines.

So far this has been a very productive art month for me.

Annie

6:44

Annie-Fluence

2011-01-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

Because I LOVE plays on my name, har haaar.

Oh yay, now I get to explain all this...

Alright, jumping the board a bit late, but I always wanted to fill out one of these, so I got bored and did.

1. =SADCAT My biggest influence because she's my best friend and the first person I met when I came to Sheridan three years ago. She taught me how to ink, offers her advice on anything I ask for, keeps my anatomy in check, helped me gain confidence in what I drew, and still helps me to this day, every day. She also helps me stay sane.

2. `budgie The person responsible for me coming to Sheridan. Always there to offer a kick in the pants when I'm lost, offer advice when I'm stuck, and help me iron out problems when I need them. I envy her gorgeous paintings and strive for such beauty in my own work.

3. *dustsplat My friend for years, one of the first real artists I knew. I'm constantly blown away by his idea's, his world's and the depth and detail in his work. He used to help me puzzle out poses and would draw things to explain them for me; a huge influence in trying to get out of the anime style.

4. *patrickbrown I adore this artists expression work, and how dynamic everything he draws is. I want such dynamism in my own work, and nothing is more helpful or inspiring than his gallery.

5. *Blithegirl (I'm usually influenced by people on DA) The liveliness and emotion in her figures gets me every time. I hope one day my drawings will be as fluid.

6. Disney! Specifically 'Princess and the Frog' because after watching this movie my art took a turn in the direction of "Oh, I get it!"

7. The books I read and the worlds within. Garth Nix is one of my favourite authors, and his world in 'Sabriel', 'The Seventh Tower', and the 'Mister Monday' series are so vividly THERE I can see it in my mind like a movie.

8. Classical sculpture, specifically Bernini and Rodin. The life and the dimensionality is something I strive for in my 2D work.

9. My friends and the people in my life who inspire characters and character designs.

10. Chris Sanders, but this image really just represents "Curvy people". I'm a huge fan of curvy women who are proud of their appearance and don't try to hide under baggy clothing.

11. Spiderman! No artist in particular, just the character. The way he moves and twists and acts pops up whenever I'm thinking about characters and action poses.

12. Greek Mythology; this image represents any mythology I've ever read. I love Celtic mythology, Norse mythology, Greek mythology, Native mythology- big fan of stories, is what I'm saying.

13. The music I'm listening to. No genre in specific, just whatever I'm listening to. I close my eyes and see pictures when I listen to music, and I can come up with some pretty awesome idea's when I'm not fully conscious.

14. Yes, I'm one of the fifty million people who are influenced by Alphonse Mucha. His design work makes me happy, and his portrayal of female figures in flowing drapery make me happy. I'm also going to link this to 'Fashion' because I mentioned flowing drapery.

15. Movies and TV show's I watch. Not specifically TRON, but that's been the latest inspiration. I'm also influenced by Xena, and Star Trek, ah ha!

16. Light. Love light and I try my best to have dynamic lighting in my paintings. I admit I fail hardcore at this, but hey, I try.

17. I didn't really want to give this one a number, but otherwise no one would be able to find it... Sheridan, my school and second home. Inside I have dozens of friends who's slightest idea's and suggestions push me to try and to experiment and to grow as an artist. I'm also enrolled in Animation, and my teachers push me to go further and try harder.

There are other influences in my life that I didn't include on the map; another major one being *Chib-bee, and deviants *Sahara-chan and *Saria-Sama who helped me get serious about drawing in the first place. Thanks guys!

Sorry the maps kind of all over the place, I filled it in and then realized they didn't totally go in the order I filled them in, ah ha!

Annie-Fluence, yaaaay.

2:34

TRON Sue

2011-01-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

And, I think I'm finished.

Eleven different characters drawn and painted in TRON glory, haha. Two of the characters weren't mine, and my twelfth drawing I never finished.

This character is Sue, and she doesn't belong to me, but to my buddy Sarah. I love Sue because she's funky and doesn't let anyone stand in her way. The way she dress reminds me of me, so I love her even more. She's also my weight and my height, so yippee!

I had to think about Sue's light suit; I wasn't sure how I wanted to design it. In the end I tried to make it incredibly asymmetrical, and I almost added a skirt. Actually, I was dead set on adding a skirt, and then I inked it and felt silly because I totally forgot the skirt.

OH WELL. Sue rocks my socks. I'm a little sad because despite my TRON binge I only drew one civilian/muse style program, and all of the others (including myself) were Gladiators. If I get bored again I might draw Suka, but she strikes me more of an Iso type than a program.

Think it's time to move forward and draw some more personal work.

11:13

Annie

An Edited Thank You

2011-01-14T16:03:00.000-08:00

After my last gift to Chelsea I realized I'd completely ignored everything I wanted to incorporate into a drawing of Sherlock- so I decided to redo it a little.

This is the helmet I wanted to design because I miss my blind Sherry. I know it sort of looks like something cyclops would wear, but I was thinking more along the lines of what Geordie wears in Star Trek. Plus I included the clear face protection, though protecting just the nose and jaw is kind of silly.

Well, Sherry breaks his nose a lot, so perhaps it's.. for the best, ah ha-

Kit is Chelsea's character, and is currently Sherlock's best friend on the planet. However, neither one of them are very brave, or strong, or powerful. Sherry can be when he's angry and feels he has to protect someone, but for the most part, this is... about it, haha.

Two dorks destined for de-resolution.

Again, because Chelsea is being such a rock in my life right now.

7:09

Annie

A Thank You

2011-01-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

A special bit of art for my friend Chelsea. She doesn't really care about TRON, but she loves Sherlock a lot, so I promised I'd finish this one for her.

Our cat is very sick, and unfortunately there isn't anything we can really do to help him. I've been a wreck since last night, and Chelsea's been trying her best to keep her spirits up for me and my roommate. I know Chelsea loves Elmer to bits too, and I'm very proud of her for being so awesome when she's probably just as upset as we are. She bought us candies, did the dishes, and has been.. Amazing. I only wish I could be so amazing when my friends were in need.

Thank you Chelsea, thank you so much.

11:51

Annie

Screw the Discs, Just run!

2011-01-12T21:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still on the TRON funk.

Let a girl be.

This is a portrait of my friend Stephie, TRONified. She was enjoying my TRON postings, and so was I, so I gave it a whirl. Love this girl, she's a major inspiration in my design of Tinette- because I love drawing ladies with hips.

Also, both Tinette and Stephanie would not take anyone's shit laying down. Hellz no.

Steph recently attempted to dye her hair black, and I took the liberty of giving it a muse inspired design, again.

Now, where Steph would make an amazing Gladiator who could probably successfully defend herself, we turn around and immediately run into:

Me!

Who would not survive ten minutes on the grid without someone to save me.

Created this one as a new deviant ID on deviantart, and had fun with it. Used my personal favourite font, "Space Toaster" for my name, and the TRON font for everything else.

The TRON font has some pretty crazy bad numbers. Tried out something new on this one, trying to see how quickly I could pull this painting off; and it didn't take me very long. I scanned it, removed the white, coloured the lines, bucketed in the colours, added some highlights and shadows and grabbed a quick background from something I'd already painted.

It took a little over an hour to throw together, which pleased me greatly. I got progressively faster as I worked my way through these TRON portraits, and I think I may have actually learned something to apply to future attempts in painting, haha... ha.. ha..

Today wasn't the best. I had a great morning class, I met up with my friend Rose for lunch and we exchanged stories and she gave me tea, I drew some new pictures, I settled in for animation, I left early to meet my room mate at the vet--

I got there first, and my room mate caught up later with the actual patient. I'll just say the news wasn't very good, and I'm incredibly anxious for tomorrow and I'm afraid to fall asleep. I may not be going into class tomorrow, depending on how the baby is doing. Heads been hurting all day, but has really kicked up the past few hours; I can't think straight and I'm trying my damnest to do anything but think about it, which is why I'm afraid to fall asleep.

Pray for the kitty?

12:35

Annie

De-Resolution Pending

2011-01-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

I don't draw fanart.

It's this thing I have with shame where I'm ashamed of the fanart I draw, haha, so I don't want to draw it or finish it or show anyone, in case they're all like, "Oh well, you did this wrong and this wrong and this wrong-"

And you know what, what EVER. Here, I present my fanart of TRON Legacy; and guess what? THE COSTUMES ARE SO NOT ACCURATE, LOLOLOL.

I also don't care, because I was having the time of my life.

I freaking love these new light suits; and I even managed to track down a TRON font available online. Light suits were completely my own design, I couldn't find a decent enough reference to figure out how Rinzler's body armour was put together, so I made it all up. The most accurate parts are the lights, but I'm missing a number of those too.

This definitely would have been an epic happenstance, and I could see it very clearly in my head. CLU gave me some complications, but I managed to tweak them into submission using photoshop. Some mist, some light, something to resemble the computerized Grid; and my personal favourite Gladiator.

Best line in the movie, haha, "I fight for the users".

Has anyone else realized TRON is a prophet and a religious martyr? I just clicked to that.

I promise, eventually I'll stop being obsessed with a crappy movie, but I really, really loved it that much. What can I say? Going to buy it when it comes out on DVD.

9:20

Annie

TRONgemon

2011-01-10T20:30:00.000-08:00

I swear, this is the last TRON related thing of the night, ah ha!

Can't help it, I was having the time of my life with these light suits.

Drew this one based on the little TRON dude my buddy Age gave me earlier today. I haven't seen a spiky helmet like this on the Grid, but I'll assume it exists!

Recycled background from my earlier posting of Tinette, but stretched a little to better suit the drawing.

Aaaaaw yeah.

11:31

Annie

Just Because

2011-01-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

You can never have too much TRON.

Feeling in the dumps tonight for some reason, so I figured I'd chase away the blues by painting them out. You can see them there on the left, all smeared about like clouds. Yippee!

Love Tinette; she's just amazing.

When I originally invented her, her primary colour was orange. It has changed more or less to red, but I dress her in a lot of purples and blue's too.

I would guess Tinette wouldn't handle well on the Grid; A rogue program, if you will.

De-Resolution pending. If they can catch her.

9:24

Annie

TRONified

2011-01-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

My latest bit of inspiration.

Disney should TOTALLY drop all their things and hire me as a layout painter.

Suffice to say I love TRON Legacy way more than is healthy.

Big fan of the new light suit designs, they seem so much more believable and real than the original ones. Probably because this time around all the costumes actually lit up; instead of having the lights digitally added like they were for the first film.

I got this idea while listening to the Daft Punk soundtrack for the new movie. Rebel was just made for the grid, I didn't have a problem designing him at all, haha. He's fun to draw. And he's developed a bit of a nasty streak since I've started to RP with him.

Rebels design was based off every character I've seen on the grid; no cotton, just supah spandex. Played with the lines some to make it stand out; black lines on a black character equal disaster.

Ninja's design was a little more difficult, because I didn't see her on the grid. She's too young to partake in the games, but I picture her being a bloody nightmare off the grid anyways. I based her colours mostly off Jem and Castor, Castor being the biggest influence. All the white was a little more difficult to light up- but I think I did okay by changing the colour of my lines.

I've GOT to get myself a copy of 'Betrayal'.

Also, so long as I'm on my TRON funk, I introduce:

TRON Sherlock; Helmet free.

Yes, I freaking love the new light suit designs. There's so much room for customization, I can have so much fun!

This drawing was a huge mess, haha, I had limbs all over the place and no idea what I was trying to do. His face is still all wrong, haha, but oh well, here's skinny skinny Sherry, and his light disk.

I picture him with more of a green blue, I think. Probably partaking in the disc battles. Poor guy, I don't think he'd last very long. This is obviously not half-gorgon Sherlock, just Sherlock, a regular, perfectly normal kid.

What bit of TRON fanart would be complete without my addition of Tinette? None, that's how many. I picture her in red, and probably previously part of the Black Guard who operates on her own agenda. Tinette doesn't take well to order and hates being told what to do.

This one was a lot of fun to draw, ah ha! I based her hair off the muses from the new movie- and the visor was one of my own design, mostly inspired by Jarvis. Hooks around the back of the head and sits just about the ears while the visor protects the eyes. Her hair looks much shorter, only because it's half tied up.

I also drew Ainmire, and he had a TRONified cape, but I wasn't happy with the final picture, so I'll have to try again.

Hooray TRON!

5:53

Annie

Let's Paint!

2011-01-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

I gave up on this when I ran out of juice, haha. Also, I can't paint gold and I don't have the patience for all this insane amount of soft shading. It was really just me looking for an excuse to play with some new brushes, anyways.

Kara's one of my OC's that I don't know very well. I know she's a sweet person who cares a lot about other people and she rarely let's herself get upset. She loves Ainmire dearly and would do anything for him

I decided a long time ago when I made Kara that she'd be East Indian. Specifically, Hindu, but when I got this idea for a picture, I realized I didn't know anything about East Indian culture, despite growing up with it all around me.

I plan to change this, haha, but it was interesting. I did some research for this uhm.. not very successful painting, and I realized that the nose ring signifies a promise to Parvathi, the goddess of marriage and a girl is typically pierced when she turns sixteen, of marriageable age. The ring is often never removed after marriage, so it's sort of like our traditional wedding rings.

Well, at least that's the way it used to be, haha. Now days a lot of women wear them just for fashion, and not to signify and bond of marriage, or a religious tribute or anything like that.

Here's a preview of another picture I'm working on, but I ran out of painting mojo today. It's Suka, of course! Looking very loverly, if I do say so myself.

Don't worry, I won't break my arm as I pat myself on the back. Just playing with some new brushes, seeing what I can do when I experiment. What it's going to look like at the end, is that the part of Suka that is surrounded by blue is going to be painted up all soft and nice. However, the rest of her, trailing outside the blue, is going to blend into simpler shading. From detailed to vague. Inside the blue circle I'm going to paint some kind of landscape, just so I can do a little bit of painting.

Another experiment, just to see how things are going.

Annie

5:24

Wah Happen?

2011-01-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

It has been about ten thousand years since I last drew something, so I figured I'd scan it!

I also wanted very badly to ink this at home, but there were a lot of fine details I was worried I'd screw up, so I took the safe route and scanned a nice high resolution copy I can ink digitally if I screw up royally on paper.

Suka and Eli aren't very cool- but I haven't had a chance to draw anything dynamic in a while, and I really wanted to.

I also really failed. If you look, I somehow unconsciously built this drawing in the shape of a perfect rectangle. My static imagery shocked me into silence.

Oh well! This is why I'm in school; to play and discover and learn.

I just gave myself a reiteration of the fisher price commercial.

What have you!

Some Suka, some Eli, some struggle. When I paint it Suka will have her appropriate illness, but in the sketch I didn't bother to colour it in. Hooray something to do!

8:00

Annie

Little Late

2010-12-21T16:51:00.000-08:00

I always jump on bandwagons a couple decades after their peak.

Anyways, Sarah told me I should watch Star Trek TNG because I would probably like it. I downloaded the first season sometime last month (or was it the month before?), and started watching.

I immediately fell in love with Lt. Commander Data. He's adorable, a Sherlockian, and plays the violin.

I wanted my own Data to hug and love and confuse with human emotions!

So I built one. Mine is far less.. responsive than Dr. Soong's model.. but mine is also squishy and filled with rice.

I had a lot of fun making his tiny Star Fleet uniform, but I'm not a huge fan of fleece, I don't think. It's got a lot of stretch yet isn't very strong, like felt, and I got fuzz everywhere. His hair was also a new experiment for me, and I think it was very successful. His communicator and eyes are both made from painted and glossed sculpy- because I decided against buttons.

His ears are lopsided, his head is floppy, and I wasn't too fond of the head/body ratio of this particular pattern- but I love him anyways. Another doll experiment to stick under my belt!

When I stroke it thusly...

Christmas break started last Friday, and I kicked the event off with some TRON Legacy! I enjoyed every minute of two-dimensionality, abstract story and lack of character development. SO going to see it again.

I haven't actually slept since Thursday night. Instead I've been having little naps here and there when ever I got tired, and I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with how much stuff I can get done when I don't have to sleep for eight hours every night.

I still have a lot of work to do- six pencil cases, seven pairs of jeans, two pillow covers, my sister's, brothers and cousins presents (and grandparents, oh boy) and most of those people I have no idea what to get for them. I don't think I have time to keep making everyone presents, as I spent a couple days on my dads instead of a couple hours. Still, tackling things one project at a time; I envy my sister who can make everyone fuzzy gifts for Christmas and all I have in my repertoire is drawing.

Christmas! Maybe I'll get my brother a coffee mug and stuff it with candy... "I'm sorry bro, I have no idea what I could possibly get you for Christmas!" *hands mug of candy*.

My cousins are more difficult because I don't know them very well- I love them both very much, but since my aunt and uncle got divorced and we both started college, things got a little.. distant. I wanted to buy Sarah a bath bomb, but I texted her and found out she wasn't really a bath person. I don't know what I'd get Laura either, haha.

As to my grandparents- I know what they want, grampa wants a portrait of the lot of us drawn by yours truly- but I'm terrible at human likenesses and at this point, I don't have the time to draw that. I don't know when I would have in the first place- I don't know what to get my nan either.

I am at a loss, oh no!!

Annie

8:05

Some Profile Sketches

2010-12-16T23:01:00.000-08:00

I'm horrible when it comes to updating my characters profiles in RP's, so I figured I'd take a break and make the effort.

This of course, is Suka;

Suka Amaia (Strife, for present RP)
18
5'4"
100lbs
Human girl
Frightened of everything

It takes a very very very long time for Suka to get any sort of backbone, and it's kinda of.. hampering what I could do because I really don't know how to give her that shove that forces her to stand up for herself without the catalyst I designed in her original story.

It will be painted, and in that nifty little halo around her head, I'm going to design a chunk of back ground and paint it in all neat like. Perhaps I'll ink it tomorrow!

This is Kara;

Kara Naidu
21 (Holy jeeze, she's my age!)
5'6"
165lbs
Human Housewife
Open hearted and caring.

I cannot tell you how long I struggled with Kara. It's like I'd get her face right and then everything else was just wrong. She started to look a lot like Tina, and then she started to look too generic- but while I was spending the night at my friend Winter's, I managed to successfully get Kara's body shape down.

Round, soft, and gorgeous.

I like it when a girl is curvaceous and still confident in who she is and how beautiful she is. Kara is that girl. Lady. Girl.

She's also going to have a floating halo of background!

In Ghost of Man she's currently stuck with Fray, because Ainmire ran off on her and she was heartbroken.

I had a drawing for Tina- but I really didn't like it. Her face was odd, though for the life of me I can't pinpoint why. I'm also pretty sure I gave her a tree trunk for a torso, which is not okay for Tinette. So I will be redesigning that particular piece! But I look forward to finishing.

2:12

Annie

It Goes on and on and on and on-

2010-12-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

Tada! I finished my horizontal looping pan. Yes, both edges meet up perfectly. I don't normally post homework, but this one was a lot of fun, so I figured why not.

I made a big textury mess and I played with contrasts to a ridiculous extent.

But it was fun! I put in a couple of my characters, people who know me will more than likely recognize both of the inserted drawings. I left them sketchy so they could contrast better- also because I don't have the energy to paint them and I really don't know how to paint them so they properly mimic a changing light source.. though I'm pretty sure I'd have to just paint them in flats. Fun times!

Some Sherry and some Tina, just to spice things up a bit.

I totally baked this monster today!

Have I ever mentioned I hate baking? I also really can't bake to save my life- this cake fell into four pieces when it came out of the cake pan, so it's really a cake jig-saw puzzle hidden under icing.

I don't trust it, and I really don't want to eat it- but I promised my friends cake, and so I shall bring them cake. It's a thank you present to my friends in second year who let me invade their studio once a week to work on my homework and talk to them.

Wee, I actually had a rather productive day today! TRON, homework, cake-

Pretty slick!

Annie

12:04

Year by Year Summaries

2010-12-08T21:10:00.000-08:00

Sat down and filled this out, because I did the same thing last year. A quick summary!

January, something clicked. I was still in Visual and Creative arts year two, and I was still working on my portfolio, but after watching Princess and the Frog and returning home from my shortened Christmas break, something was different. I drew this quickly to show Chelsea how I ink things, and I was surprised how well it turned out.

February, still struggling and having a hard time because I wasn't enjoying the year I was in (at least some aspects of it) and spent all of business class doodling. DQ loved this picture- and he loved the design of it.

March, a ballpoint drawing done in my media studies class. I had a hard time picking something I liked, but this one was one of my stronger, more confident drawings. Drawing directly in ink, even ballpoint, forced me to be a little more confident in what I was putting on the page, because I couldn't erase it.

April, just another, confident ballpoint drawing.

May, things picked up a bit. The best digital painting I have done to date; Tinette in an atmospheric room with a bottle of red wine.

June, another Tinette drawing. A month where I didn't have a lot to pick from, but in terms of anatomy and design, this was my proudest moment.

July, a traditional art trade I did with my coworker. I designed myself a new pencil case and as such started to carry around more art supplies to work with while at work.

August. This is quite literally the only drawing I have for the entire month; these were not my most creative times.

September, School started up again and my creativity started to get back into full swing. A drawing of Suka I inked on the computer, testing out my photoshop skills.

October, not much in terms of tangible pieces. A lot of sketches, not a lot of finished work, though I did finish this one water colour drawing after a concept I came up with over the summer.

November. Somehow I exploded with art this month, but my favourite was this blue painting of Suka and Yukio; a really simple concept, with basic cell shading, but I loved it so much, and I still love it, even a month after its conception.

December: The month isn't totally over yet, but so far, this one is my favourite.

Looking back, I'm a little stunned- as I take last years, and I look at my best of my best, and I see,

Artwork I have since locked into storage.

IMPROVEMENT IS NIGH!

Despite the fact that I really feel like I'm not moving anywhere, haha. It sort of just sneaks up on you.

Annie

12:27

Something Personal!

2010-12-08T19:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a personalized header on my blog since the first time I signed up on blogger and actually used their stock templates. Suffice to say, I could never navigate anything! With the new template designer it was a little easier- and I finally managed to delete something that was driving me insane. I'm still working on it, but for the time being, I'm okay with this.

I don't have the money to pay for my own domain, so I intend to add a couple buttons and stuff and make my blog mimic a website as best I can.

This is my title page for my-- er, well I guess it sort of speaks for itself, doesn't it? I never really care to put my homework up on my blog because it's just that, homework.

Though if I get a good grade on my next portfolio, I might actually take pictures and show off my lovely life drawings!

Haha, right, Annie can't draw from LIFE.

So here's my picture for my title page, and I was about finished inking when I realized I drew my corset; an article of clothing I promised to never again wear to my life drawing class.

Oh well, I'm very fond of that particular article of clothing, despite the embarrassment brought on by it.

So because I got this idea the other day, and I didn't realize I'd be utilizing it in such a tiny matter, so here's a slightly larger version of my blog header, that I just finished a couple hours ago.

I'm actually fond of it. It's not totally what I had in my head, but I still think it came out quite successful.

I was playing with some texture brushes, just having a good time. It's me sitting under a tree, in what was originally planned to be a forest of light bulbs, but for the sake of a blog header, I simplified it.

I think I might do some writing, perhaps.

Annie

10:45