SKETCHES.

I am entirely unsure how to arrange this nicely, so I'm just going to leave them in this order. I haven't had any time lately to finish any artwork, but I've had enough time to sketch things. So here's all the sketches I've come up with lately, and all the things I mean to finish but haven't yet.

I lied, I'm a champion and reorganized all of my drawings nicely. GO ME.

It's a party!!

Okay so... Suka in her winter clothes, a trade for an old friend, a character design I had to get off my chest, me stepping on a subway grate in a dress in TO, baby version of my character Kara, Phineas in swimming trunks because Jessica gave me "beach" as an environment, a northern water nymp that tried to drown Ain once long ago, Ainmire, dressed up in his Northern gear, since he hails from the north, and Yuffie, part of my FFVII redesigns that I am not yet finished because I hate her stupid one arm armour.

Annie

11:57

Sketches Everywhere

I have been SCANNING ALL EVENING.

Okay so, I tried to break this up into two chunks so hopefully it'll upload okay- to the left I have every sketch or drawing I've done related directly to Pirates- and also Alan's parents because oops.

Well Alan wasn't in my other sketch dump at all, so I figured it would be best to include his parents with him, where they belong.

Okay so, we have... couples, couples, couples, couples, portraits, couples, couples, and more couples.

I draw a lot of couples.

Yes I draw other things.

AND THEN, everything else I draw! Because yes, I draw more than just pirates, as much as I love them.  I have couples, couples, couples, and more couples.

I'm sensing a trend.

A lot of Ninja's in this second batch- she's been the focus of my attention lately, because I think she's awesome. We have some Piqa, Sherry, Eli, Kara, and Ainmire in there as well. Oh and me, with a couple pieces from my style meme before I chop my hair off tomorrow and have to figure everything out anew.

Awesome, all of my drawings from what has to be the last four months or so.

Annie

12:40

Something Old, Something New

I decided a couple days ago I wanted to do one of these memes... and the next day it was a contest on DA!

Well then.

So anyways, I went back through my blog and dug up one of the oldest pieces I could find.

This one technically wasn't the oldest, but I did love it quite a lot back then, so I thought it would be appropriate. Ain was at one point, some form of necromancer. I imagined he loved women, and he loved to drink. When I first drew the picture to the left, it was supposed to be a looot more sexual, but uhm. Ha, sexuality, I ain't drawin' that.

Anyways, both of these characters changed a lot. Ain is no longer a necromancer, and you'll notice a lack of vials of blood tied to his wrist and stupidly spiky armour plates that left his chest totally exposed. Usually Ain still wears a cape, but I scrap it for a lot of pictures with Kara, because they're usually in a more intimate situation. He bulked out a lot as I learned more and more about how to draw; Ainmire's weapon of choice is a one handed sword, and I'm quite sure the character I'd initially invented would not have had much luck wielding his sword with the power that Ain's now fully fleshed out character could wield.


I was also entirely wrong about their characters- as I quickly discovered in my writing that Ainmire hated people. He didn't like to talk to people, he didn't like dealing with them, and was very blunt because he had no skills in tact. It was a far cry from the drunken womanizer I thought I'd created!

In the drawing to the left, Kara was blonde, thin, and unimportant. Now she's Indian, hefty, and the love of Ain's life. Not that he'd ever say that, but she knows. She actually has a personality now, and is the only person who would have any success in pushing Ain around. I find it adorable.

And that is what five years of time has brought about.

Annie

3:04

My Right Hand is This One-

I still don't know my left from my right without thinking about it.

I finished this today! It's Valentines season, and I'm not a hater, so I decided to celebrate Valentines the same way I did last year- by celebrating the relationships my characters have.

I've drawn some others, but I can't post them until I've given them to the people I made them for. So that being the case, here is Ainmire and Kara! Jeeze, they're adorable.

I've been playing with lineless art again, but this time instead of breaking up all the individual shapes in to different chunks of colour, I made each shape the same and used lines on the inside to define changing planes.

I think it turned out rather nicely, and I've gotten very good at doing making these very fast. I have some more sketches I need to colour, just of my characters.

Happy Valentines people!

This Is How We Do It

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

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

Many Small Drawings

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

YAAAY HELLO CREW!

A day of doodling.

Enough said.

Annie

12:06

Privateers

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

Pirates!

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

Look at all the scribbles!

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 Forgot About a Title

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

Some Step-by-Steps with Many Steps.

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

Moderately Uneven

This is a horribly drawn picture of one of my favourite OC pairings I ever made.

Ainmire and Kara make me smile because they're hilariously contrasting. Kara never let's Ainmire get a word in edgewise, and Ainmire doesn't know how to operate around Kara.

For the most part, she's convinced they're already married and going to spend their lives together. Ainmire cares about her, but he can't get the whole 'commitment' deal through his head. He doesn't like people touching him or being emotional to him and just.. doesn't deal with people well. They do live together, and even so far as to sleep in the same bed (This doesn't work out a lot and Ain sleeps on the floor because he's such a light sleeper and Kara wakes him up all the time), but every time Kara tells him she loves him, he counters with "No you don't." He'd murder the crap out of anyone who would hurt her, and he's a great guy, really- he just has a hard time being close to people.

Not my favourite drawing ever, I drew Kara's eyes too high and I'm disappointed with that, but knowing me I'll probably draw it again, because that's what I do when I draw things I don't like in execution but do like in visualization; I draw them repeatedly until I get it right.

So! Some Ainmire, acting very out of character, letting Kara get this close to his face (You can see the reality as a little doodle off to the left there) and he's actually smiling. I was going to have his hand in there holding her face, but I had already ruined the drawing and just wanted to finish.

They are a hilariously mis-matched couple, but they have their moments, and when they have them, they're adorable.

Annie

9:13

Multitasking Musings;

I've actually been doing pretty good with art recently. Just a lot of doodles, because I've been busy with work and fighting off a burnout (By the way, I very much succeeded).

But, between all that, I did find time to get some drawing in, though not a whole lot.

First, on the left I have a couple ballpoint pictures I coloured really quickly with my water colour brush. The first one is Suka, obviously, dressed up in different gear from what I normally give her. I started a new RP with my dear girl, and this one involves the Grecian storyline I made a couple of years ago specifically to do battle comics with.

Instead, I wound up using it for and RP, but the RP died because... Well, I don't know, it just died.

It's going quite well now and we're having a lot of fun, ha.

Ainmire and Kara as well, and they're both being used in the same RP. Kara and Suka are both currently being held hostage while Ainmire and Kerorphe are busy fighting for their lives in a giant labyrinth just jam packed of monsters, demi-gods, and idiots.

To the right, are Ninja and Suka!

Ninja was just a doodle I did when I was trying to get into drawing again; You can tell because my anatomy is bad, I didn't draw a shoe, she's leaning on nothing, and it looks kinda stupid.

Haha.

I never draw Rebel... Poor guy, he's been taking a lot of heat lately from my coworkers/friends.

Beside that, holy crap, it's Suka again!

I know.

This is a mock up for something I'm working on in the long run. I still have a lot of work to do, because after three drawings I still wasn't happy with this one.

Oh well!

I do have a great picture planned out, I just have to actually draw it.

Tada! Yukio and Ainmire.

I love drawing Yukio, and I miss my baby very much.

I sort of wish I could just skip to writing about him in my own story, but he's quite a ways off in my storyline.

He won't be as interesting after the fact, when he gets his soul returned... but that's alright, he's still my baby.

Besides, when he gets his soul back, he get's hilariously jaded and whiny and he acts a lot like... like... well I'm not sure, but it's humorously flamboyant.

Ainmire I just drew because at work we were discussing why kilts are so awesome on men, and why I had a character with a kilt in the first place. Eventually I'll be able to actually draw him as a like.. properly built dude.. but so far! The musculature is not happening.

One day.

His outfit used to be hilariously complicated. Now I've simplified it to a cape and a kilt and some fuzzy boots.

And this, is Suka, Tinette, and one little Yukio who got sat on.

It's also an account of my fight with the flies.

Oh, these were also drawn the night I didn't have any sleep at all.

So they make no sense.

Tinette and Yukio, what the hell, that never happens.

But the idea crossed my mind, I found it remotely funny (by remotely I mean I was killing myself laughing) and I decided to draw it.

Also, a curvy Tinette that was RIDICULOUSLY fat before I realized I was insane with sleep deprivation and redrew it.

And, a Suka, sitting on some sort of invisible surface!

I'm so awesome.

9:46

Annie

It's way too hot to be doing anything.

This is me being unable to actually stay off my computer.

Well, actually, this is me trying to draw something, failing at what I was trying to draw, sifting through my portfolio for idea's and finding a butt load of stuff I never bothered to scan.

So, I scanned it! Buahahaha, course. Okay so basically, I'm trying to see what happens when I put doodles on my blog horizontally instead of vertically. Click here for proper size, please!

On the far left, we have two pages of something I tried, got embarrassed about and stopped. I had so much work left to do, but by this point I'm probably not going to touch them again. I picked a scene from Rise, and I was scribbling it out in little pages and blew them up. I wanted to try painting them, to see how it all fit together, and in the end, I decided for something like this I'd much prefer digital.

Beside that, Ainmire! I miss his grumpy face.

The next one is probably one of my favourite doodles of Tinette ever, because it just kinda happened and looked good anyways.

The following three are a series, each one drawn after the last as I hated them and didn't think they were lively enough. Too stiff and boring. By the end, I got a pose I was okay with, but I'd burned out and didn't want to finish.

Ninja and Rebel, being sibling-y. I specifically designed Rebel to be everything his sister wasn't, as they were supposed to be complete opposites in every way, instead I just wound up with an insanely boring character; who's only concern is his little sisters well being.

Alan and Suka, a doodle I have no idea what I was thinking about or where I was going.

This was me gettin' into the pokemanzzz. And being epic fail at slowpokes, I had to ask Chelsea to draw it for me! I like drawing in ballpoint, and I generally wind up liking everything I draw while at it. I like drawing chunky things.

Tinette, in some winter wear, probably lined with real fur. I don't think she's actually effected by the cold, or she would be really really damn frigid.

Suka and Verden, shortly after Verden saves Suka from unintentionally almost starving herself to death.

And of course, Ninja! I don't know what it is about her, but I like her quite a bit. In real life, I'd probably want to kill her, but as a character, I care about her a lot. The ceaseless, hyper, never ending supply of energy that doesn't know how to stop talking.

I am going to try and draw again!

6:54

Annie

"Hello, baby!"

Yeah, I markered over my red lines. Cause I'm cool like that.

Drew and coloured this today as a break from my portfolio work, which is really driving me insane. Not in the sense that I feel like I won't finish (though I guess there's a touch of that) just in the sense of.. "I'm really tired of working on this and want it to be done already,". I still need to redo my layout and finish up my composition, and touch up my hands...

But at the very least, I completely redid my rotation (just a couple things here and there to fix) and my action poses, and my expression sheet.

Woo hoo!

My drawing for today consists of Ainmire and Kara, both traditionally drawn, inked, and rendered. I love my markers. They make me happy. In a very bad way as well as a very good one.

Ainmire hates pet names so much. So of course, Kara never misses a chance to call him one.

I miss drawing these guys, especially Ainmire. I love the relationship they have and they way they act around each other; it makes me smile. Ainmire will never grow accustomed to having a girl who won't leave him be. Not to say he doesn't CARE for Kara, as he does, he's just awkward around people in general. Especially people who actually want something to do with him. Poor baby.

Heh heh, baby...

I'm a jerk.

Ah, I dropped by the school today on the hopes that I could see DQ again and show him my new character rotation and show I took his advice to heart as well as to see if he noticed anything abnormally out of place, but; Due to the fact that I couldn't find him in the directory to call or email, I couldn't tell him ahead of time I wanted to show up, so I was showing up the same time I did last weeks in the hope I'd run into him, and he wasn't there.

Bummer.

So, dejected, I went back to my locker to collect my stuff and walk home, when I ran into Liz. I guess I didn't look that great, because she invited me to join her for coffee, which I gratefully accepted. It was fun, seeing as I haven't had a sit down-go out for coffee-talk thing since last time I was in Orangeville.

Sometimes, I'm homesick. Most of the time I couldn't give a damn.

A Field of Coloured Post-its

Just a very very quick post before I got to sleep as I'm very tired and need to pack in the morning and go home for the thanksgiving weekend!

Fruits of my labour (which is a fancy way of saying I wasn't paying attention during lecture today)!

Ta dum. Alright, first up, top left in green was me playing with my GREEN marker instead of with my BLUE marker, and the result was something I wasn't too fond of, but I was overdue for a happy Suka picture.

Right below that, is ME, expressing my frustrations at being unable to connect to the internet.

To the right, are all doodles of Tinette, as I was exploring her character design during class, both to match recent happenings in the RP (Yes, we destroyed her face) as well as just.. Character drawings because I'm rather fond of Tinette and enjoy drawing her hair. To the lower right, is an image of a child Tinette dancing (I bet you didn't know Tinette was a DANCER) and then beside her some 15-20 years later Tinette, also dancing. It's why she can fight so damn well and why she has no problem running stupidly long distances and stupidly fast paces. She's very pretty when she smiles, I discovered, but she doesn't smile a lot. She sort of like a female Ain... which is creepy to think about.

Speaking of! Above the dancing Tinettes I doodled Kara and Ainmire, because I hadn't drawn a single decent picture of Kara yet, and I can't really see Kara without her clinging to Ain... So Ain got roped into the picture too. Aren't they adorable? He looks very happy.

The next three on the right were me tinkering ever so slightly with Tina's outfit design, and then decided I should really stop obsessing over Tinette. So who did I draw? NINJA! Another one of my female characters who actually has a strong personality... I'm not totally sure where Suka came from.

Below the two girls, is Rebel, being tired, probably because of Ninja, again.

So on the walk home today, I crossed through the field like I always did, and was relieved to find there was no gym class. I was listening to "Lose You" by Pete Yorn, and while I was walking through the field I started to notice these very vivid pink squares scattered through the grass. It took me a few moments to notice they were post it notes, and there were also vibrant blue squares scattered about.. For some reason it felt very artistic and awe inspiring, just as little post its. It made me feel comfortable for reasons I don't know, and it made me feel very deep!

I enjoyed my walk home because of those post-it notes.

A few drawings I have yet to colour

The one with actual real dark black lines.. was done with my new scanner 8D

Muahahahahaha, I'm SO glad I made that upgrade.

Kay, so just some doodles before I head off for a weekend of scavenger hunting and waiting in long line ups to collect autographs for friends of mine!

My least favourite of this set of four is Ainmire. I don't know why, but I just didn't like it as much as the other three..

These are all characters from my original story Timestamp; Ainmire, Tinette, Suka and Yukio. So far I haven't decided if Tinette is going to be in my actual story or not, but I quite enjoy her attitude and I love her hair... So I figured I'd stick her in the line up and decide if I wanted to keep her later or not! You've already seen Suka and Yukio, so I won't bore you too long with my endless chatter... I plan to draw Kara next =3

Yes, I'm obviously avoiding the male lead, whose name I have changed fifty gajillion times and needs a decent redesign done.... I don't know him well enough yet, I have to make the effort.

They aren't coloured yet, but don't worry! Colour is coming!! Just been busy and frazzled.

I'm having a rather nasty week, still stressing over finishing my packing, went two nights without my computer (I know it sounds horribly sad, but when the rest of my life is shoved in boxes I literally had NOTHING to do) and wound up staring at my ceiling and falling asleep super early both nights (I attempted to replace my computer with my Ipod but it didn't work), my blue folder went missing sometime two nights ago, and I realized I'm actually highly dependent on my notepad for writing down anything and everything that comes to mind and I feel completely lost without it. I'm concerned over Swazzle, though it's probably nothing major and more than likely me being overly worried because I haven't owned a rat in almost eight years; Fan Expo is tomorrow and I'm thrilled yet HOLY SHIT SO MUCH IS HAPPENING!!! At the same time.

Tomorrow is my last day of work. No painting, just classroom work, so I can wear nice clothes. I'm following Alysia part of the way home on the buses and she's going to direct me where to go from there and then I'm going to catch the subway to meet my friends at Union Station. The entire trip is going to take hours, but only cost me six dollars.

I'm incredibly excited for the weekend, even though I'm going to be doing very very very little shopping for myself (I don't have a lot of money and I'd rather spend it on things for my friends anyways); though I am going to get at least one commission of Ainmire.. because I love him and he needs more love!!! As much as he hates it. STOP BEING SO ANGRY, AIN!

I'll be back Monday, don't expect anything new before then!

Annie

Ah HA, some productivity!!!

Like I complained in my last update.. It's been a while since I produced something I was happy with. WELL, to people who actually bother to read my blog, I present: Ain and Kara, my unofficial couple characters.

Aaaaah, it's been way too long since I actually enjoyed painting something <3

I finally ordered a new tablet, the latest Wacom, Intuos4, and gave away my old Graphire4. My new tablet arrived from Mississauga on Thursday, and expecting its arrival, I wanted to draw something to celebrate.

At first, I was going to draw Suka. Then I didn't want to, and instead tried to draw Ainmire, because I love him to bits and miss him. So I started to draw Ain, and I decided the pose was boring, so I erased it and reworked it, and decided I liked it and then got a funny idea... but there wasn't enough room on my paper to fit the idea! So I had to flip the page over and draw it again. I came up with this, and I'm very happy with it, though, as Leah pointed out.. I did take Kara's right leg too far.

I had so much fun paaaaainting it!!! This tablet is so smooth and easy to work with, there are no glitchy spots, or dead areas, and everything works beautifully. I unpacked it like it was something religious, and carefully packed everything back in it's box so I'll still have everything in one place. I set it up, installed it, and instantly started to play.

You can almost over look my horrible line work! Don't worry, a new scanner is my next investment, though I still have no idea what I'm looking at.

Anyhow, Ain and Kara. I wanted to try some different methods of colouring, as I coloured and deleted my work twice on Thursday. Yesterday I went in with a brand new 600dpi scan, and decided to experiment. I had been browsing tutorials the entire day at work (yes, I'm massively productive in my job), and I'd collected lots of different ideas I wanted to test.

First thing I read was to draw and paint the background first.. The artist who's tutorial I was reading said that it helped him stay motivated about the artwork, as the character was the most fun part of a piece. So, I tried to focus on the background first, and it really did help! Granted I still have a mudpuddle carpet there, but the washing basin turned out better than I would have expected! Had I coloured Kara and Ain first, I would have rushed through the background as an afterthought, and this prevented me from doing so. The tutorial I was talking about is right here, if you wanted to take a gander.

More than once I've read, or watched, or been told, about starting with a completely neutral colour and colouring on top. Alright, I'm up to try that! So I coloured in my lineart with a warm gray, and kept all of my flats on one layer; something I'd never tried before. With my line art completely and precisely filled in with a warm neutral, I locked the transparency and coloured directly on top of that, then built layers on top to paint on my shading. Previously I'd colour everything on separate layers, and I'd get long lists of layers with everything broken up, like "Shirt", "pants", "hair", etc etc, but this way I wound up with maybe four or five layers of shading-- which I found a lot simpler and will probably keep to in the future.

I even coloured my lines, something I'm still getting used to. With my horrid scans, leaving them stark black is just too painful to look at, but I wasn't sure if I liked colouring every line in a slightly darker colour than the paint around it. I didn't get a feel for it, and maybe I just need some more practice. Instead I went back and used colour balance to pick a colour for my lines, which wound up being a reddish brown colour. I discovered after I flattened the image it slightly takes away from Ain's costume, but I will eventually get around to repairing that... This time I still have a PSD file to work from. Yes, I thought ahead for once in my life.

New finished product to upload to my DA! Took me two days and a day of farting around with my shiny new E-Tab the second. WEEEEE!!! I love Ain and Kara!!

It was nice, sitting there working away, reworking areas I wasn't happy with, or that looked wrong, going back, touching up, darkening a shade here, lightening a shade here-- I think I got a taste of what my art idols feel like when they're in the midst of painting something. I am a very happy artist right now.