Sometimes I Even Surprise Myself

As the title states, I was able to sit down and completely the rough line art today for my “major” project.  Even more surprising was that I was able to finish the clean line art.  A storm of excitement and anticipation to finish the work is brewing in my head.  There were many bumps along the way thus far, including the urge to delete everything and start anew, but I’m glad the situation is otherwise.  Hopefully most, if not everything, is done tomorrow!

- psyko: gloria, honorifice, animus

A Cat with a Fancy New Hat

Ohherro there!  Looks like I’m updating within the time span of a month and not a year as previous.  /Pats self on the back.  Just an update with what I’m doing, I’m currently working on four major projects, one of which brings a sensation of joy to me.  Hopefully it will be done within the weekend, with the other projects to follow shortly, but knowing myself it would be a gamble to put money on it.  But who knows?  Perhaps all four will be done come the Monday.

Anyway, recently my daughter (don’t look too deep into this people who know me in real life) conned me  into participating in the “Picture Yourself in Wonderland” contest held by Deviant Art and Disney.  Attached with this con was a 24 hours to complete a picture/painting.  Normally, this task would have me in a rut due to the lack of inspiration, but the situation turned out to be otherwise.  However, due to the time restraint, I was not able to delve as deep into the drawing as I originally had envisioned.  I was planning on furthering the piece by adding a background but as is life.  Here is what I excreted out from my head:

For those who are not familiar with Tim Burton’s take on Alice in Wonderland, or the movie/book in general, this is the Cheshire Cat.  The Cheshire Cat whimsical creature, a bit ninja-like one might say, known for his everlasting smile.  Both qualities drew me into drawing this feline, and the color scheme used in the latest rendition of the movie made him a prime choice.  Unfortunately, guidelines for the contest state that no watermarks or signatures may be used, therefore I cannot stamp the picture.  For those interested, a write-up on the process of how this came to be will follow shortly. Enjoy, and wish me luck that I win the competition.

- psyko

Moar Art After Awhile!

Oh wow, I haven’t posted on this thing in awhile.  I guess I have been preoccupied my many a odd things in the past year.  Well, to make sure I don’t reach that point where this site has been collecting dust for almost a year, here is some art that I have worked on over the years!

4chan.org had a post awhile ago to create a Steam Punk Power Ranger comic and growing up with the Power Rangers, the idea really appealed to me.  Especially the idea that a Power Ranger can DIE!!!  (I always wanted to see a power ranger fall in combat.)  So this was a concept that I worked on.  I’m still working on it here and there when I have time.  Most of the character’s stories have been fleshed out for the most part, but there are tweaks that can always be done to make it better.

Awhile back I drew this.  Looking back on it, it was a terrible drawing/painting.  So I updated the drawing to what you currently see above this text.  I am quite satisifed with the results.  Though, maybe in the future, I’ll have the ability to draw better and hate this.  Perhaps I’ll muster enough motivation at one point or another to ink and color it at one point or another in the near future.

Just a quick doodle to experiment with Sketch Book Pro, which I am in LOVE with.  The coloring was done with PSC3.  For all the Horde ladies out there.

This, at the time was probably one of my favorite paintings.  I was suckered into buying Modern Warfare 2 by most all my friends that game, not that I have any regrets!  For all those who play, you should be familiar with the “knife runner”: the deadly menaces that destroy without firing a bullet!  One of my favorite builds as well (say what you will, it’s part of the game!  Deal with it!)  My biggest gripe with this painting is the helmet size, and that the legs got reversed (Try standing like the solider does in the pic, it doesn’t work).

Artwork that I did for the Palette Town Project. Check em’ out @ http://palettetown.tumblr.com/!  Squirtle was my first pokémon evers, that’s why I chose to draw him in the picutre.  Water pokémon were always my favorite.  I have a bit of an affiinty towards the water and ice element if you think about it!

A speed concept update on a painting that i did a few years back. I think the original is too plain, and I’ve been thinking on and off on a way to update it and make her more detailed. Hopefully, i’ll be able to improve on it and get my graphic novel started =x

Another update to an old drawing that I had up, or at least a spiritual successor.  You can check it out here.  I like the one above better, clearly.

A piece of work that was a bit more recently.  I drew this around the time that Kick-Ass the movie came out.  I am a fan of the comic series, though I like the designs in the movie slightly better.  I am not happy with the line art, but there in lies the problem with line workd done in Sketch Book Pro and then transitioning it to PSC3.  I’ll figure out how to deal with one day or another.  The background says: “KICK-ASS’S, FOUL MOUTHERED, SWORD-WEILING, DAUTHER OF BIG DADDY, MINDY MACREADY, HIT GIRL” for thsoe who are wondering.

Was talking to a friend about Venom (Mac Gargan version) and how crazy he is. Quickly sketched this and painted it. Took about an hour or two.

That’s all for now.  There is a lot more work that I haven’t posted, though not much is really worth looking at.  Hopefully there will be more work posted in the future and it won’t take me almost a year to post again.  Enjoy!  Nice comments are always apperciated =P

Blood Elf Argent Crusader

General Vezax downed the other night. Other than that, been a bit busy but I’ve been meaning to write something or another, sooner or later. In the mean time, enjoy this try to enjoy this quick piece of work:

Click for full size.

Perhaps I’ll color if I ever feel like it.

Anticipating the New Star Trek

Despite my love for sci-fi, I’m not much of a Trekkie.  My knowledge in the Trek universe is minuscule, especially in comparison to Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica.  I have barely seen any Star Trek series, needless to say to their entireties and have not seen ANY of the movies at all.  Not even one bit.  Ironically enough, I have a “Next Generations” movie poster hanging in my room, although that will be covered up with a Transformers poster soon.  When the J.J. Abram’s first teaser came out after Cloverfield, I was not that impressed.  Of course, I believe that it was meant to appeal more to Trekkies.  But with more teasers and trailers following behind, I have been more and more excited for the movie.  I did have my problems with them at first, but now I am genuinely excited to watch Star Trek this weekend. 

There are many reasons for my excitement.  To begin with, I can watch this movie without having to know anything about the series at all.  According to Abrams, this movie was meant not only for the hardcore fans, but the casual movie goer as well.  Granted, I probably won’t be able to understand some of the underlying trekkie jokes, and probably many hardcore fans will be upset, but for me this is bliss.  It’s a movie based on a popular set of series that I can walk into without having to know a thing about the backstory, especially with such an expansive one.  Secondly, this movie doesn’t look boring. 

One of the main reasons that the other Star Trek hasn’t appealed to me is cause they just don’t look that cool, fun or exciting.  The stories and settings seem way too peaceful.  The anti-Star Wars and BSG to me.  It always looked boring and dry to me.    There’s not enough happening to keep my attention!  Furthermore, whereabouts members of Star Fleet are using “phasers” as what seems to be a last resort, Jedi are swing their lightsabers, and pilots in BSG are flying in machines that arebuilt to kill and destroy.  Though the Star Trek maybe the same thing with their “phasers”, all the explodies make things seem more exciting to me. 

Another reason, but probably and surely not the last, is the feel of the movie.  The other movies and series have an extremely artificial and dated feel to it.  This can probably be attributed to cheap TV styled cinematography, poor special effects and the like.   However, Abram’s version seems more natural and fluid, if that makes sense.  Of course, this is all just how I personally feel.

Anyway, I don’t know if my self hype will pay off or not til this weekend.  But to kinda sum up my feelings is the following:

MCS: BECK’s Harold Sakuishi Has a Sense of Humor

I finally got to read the last volume of Mongolian Chop Squad: Beck the other night, much to my surprise (I hadn’t been expecting a scanlation anytime soon.)  It is one of my favorite manga, especially in the genre of music as it partially inspired me to take up the guitar.  I’m not a fan of how it ended, but it is what it is and regardless, I was able to enjoy the series as a whole.  Anyway, while reading through the second to last chapter, I stumbled across this:

Hiro Nakamura

Why, it’s everyone’s favorite time traveler, Hiro Nakamura in the first panel!  Seems like Harold Sakuishi is a fan of Heroes and is inspired a lot by US pop culture (MCS:Beck draws a lot of inspiration from the Red Hot Chili Peppers according to Sakuishi).

On the Notion of Sprays and Logos

If it hasn’t been apparent from the previous posts, WoW takes up much of my gaming time, at least on the weekdays.  However, there are other games that I do indulge myself in as well.  One of the main games being Team Fortress 2.  It is quite a change of pace from WoW, as one is a FPS and the other MMO, respectively.  The ability to “spray” or graffiti a picture or logo of sort in TF2 is one of the most amusing and fun parts of the game, PC version at least.  It gives an otherwise common character a little but more character.  This also applies for any games running on other SOURCE engine or produced by VALVe.  I have gone through many games and sprays, and up til recently, I had created them myself.  Atlas, I find myself using another person’s work for my spray.  For quite some time, I have been using one of Alberto Vargas’ pin-ups as my spray as a result of it being able to fit the time frame of the games I use it for, Day of Defeat: Source (Pin-ups were popular amongst GIs, or so I’ve read) and TF2, obviously (The game takes place 1968, when pin-ups were still prevalent.).  I also use it for Left 4 Dead, but that’s out of laziness.  However, I find myself not wanting to use another person’s work but it is not an easy task to create a pin-up.  After many attempts, I finally decided to go with something more contemporary, reflecting urban art that has been more prevalent these days.  It came out to look like this:

TF2 Spray Prototype: It says "Doing it from behind est. 19xx"

Unfortunately, after much thought, I decided that going with a pin-up would be a better idea in respect to DoD:S and TF2.  However, I may complete this for L4D.  Even more to the challenge is the notion that the image must live up to my FPS motto: “Doing it from behind”.  It is quite unfortunate to have such a fickle mind with minute and trivial matters like this.  Though, thinking about it more and seeing more pin-ups, I think the biggest problem I have is my patience and my urge to see things done quickly, which in turn, makes a lot of my attempts half-assed.  Well, hopefully something will come into fruition soon in respect to my FPS life. 

In other news concerning sprays and logos of sorts, for those who have ventured into Ulduar and have attempted the first boss will know that it is different from other bosses due to the use of vehicles.  Being the nerds and geeks that my guildies are, we came up with call signs and such reflecting our love for Starwars.  I was designated Rogue Leader with my driver being Rogue 3, or at least I called her that.  Eventually, partially out of my partner’s own accord, our names respectively changed to “Snowstorm” and “Dragon”.  Ultimately what manifested from this geekfeast is this:

Salvaged Demolisher Team XIII: The Prinja Demolishers

I made a mock patch for our little “fighter group”.  Inspiration also came after I took a trip to the Aerospace Museum last week and saw all those fighter group patches.  Our little “fighter group” was named “Prinjas” as a result of my pilot always referring to herself as a pirate and myself as a ninja.  Guess which vehicle we’re designated to every week?  Anyway, that’s my little rant for now.  Hopefully I’ll have that spray done sometime soon.  Furthermore, hopefully I’ll have a write up on thoughts on the pilot of Caprica and the season finale of Chuck.

 

Bosh: The Guild Tank

A commission that I did for my guildmaster and maintank, Bosh.

Click for the fullsize picture.  Enjoy.

Making a Drawing Come to Life

Recently, I was working on a piece for one of my fellow guildmate for her birthday.  Although it doesn’t take much time, I saved pictures portraying the process of how the final piece came to be.  This was one of the more “simple” drawings that I have worked on.  Tools of the trade: Paper, Pen, Wacom Intous3 9×12 (A4), Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Before any drawing beings, you need an idea.  After you obtain that idea, you need to find a way to transition it to paper, or whatever medium.

Rough Sketch

For this drawing I used my guildmate’s Blood Elf warlock.  This sketch was done with pen and took roughly 5 minutes to complete.  I would’ve used pencil but I can’t seem to find any graphite in my room, or at least I know i misplaced it.  Normally, your sketch should be as accurate as possible for the next step.  I then scanned it and opened it up on Photoshop.  This will end up being the bottom layer of the piece.  

Inked

Following the scan, I proceeded to ink it using Photoshop.  I ink it using a new layer so I do not interfere with the original piece.  This will be my top layer for the piece.  Something to keep in mind is that usually we want the rough sketch as accurate as possible is to prevent any mistakes while inking.  Traditionally, I used to use Sakrua Inking pens on the physical copy.  However, with the tablet, it makes it easier to patch things up.  The trade off is that it takes me more time to ink, at least for me. With more maticulus drawings, it might be a wiser idea to use inking pens, but that’s personal preference again.  This portion of the drawing probably took me to the longest, including getting the lines to come out right.  Thickness of the brush while inking is something to put into consideration for a drawing, since it can alter the feel for it.  I wanted a more “cartoony” or “stylish” look, so I went with a thicker brush.

 

Colored

The next part is to actually color the drawing.  I think that it’s quite obvious what needs to be done here without me having to point things out.  This uses the ink layer as guide lines.  The rough sketch can be kept as hidden at this point.  I keep a color palette to the side so I can keep fast track of the colors used for the drawing.  It’ll help later on as well.  Furthermore, you’ll notice that I have added a blue background up.  This is to make sure that I have every spot colored in without overlooking any.  I use a contrasting color for the background to spot my color palette easier.  Like the brush thickness, colors can affect the feel of the drawing as well.  For this drawing, I went with a color scheme that wasn’t too bright or hard on the eyes.  Abet dull if anything.

 

Shaded

Next part is to shade the drawing.  The shading layer goes on top of the base color layer.  Something to keep in mind when you are drawing or planning on coloring a picture is where the lighting source is coming from.  Where it comes from in the drawing should affect where you shade.  In addition, ask yourself if there is one light source or more.  Keep in mind contours of the body, clothing etc.  Of course, that all depend on how complicated you want to get.  For this drawing, I simply used colors that were darker than the base color.  Keeping the color palette helped me find the colors I needed easier.  Traditionally, I would do something else a bit more complicated to keep the shading even, but I’ll go into that some other time.

 

Finished

After shading, I went into adding the light source.  The lighing can go on the same layer as the shading, but I kept it on a layer on top.  In this case, it would be the spell as the sole light source.  Of course, with adding light, reflections are also made.  I added where light would reflect more by adding colors that were lighter than the base color.  Keep in mind that light reflects off different materials differently when taking light reflections into account.  For example, light might not reflect off the skin as hard as silk.  So the light reflections off skin maybe more dull than silk, which would be a bright reflection.  Also keep in mind the color of the light source.  Although not used here, if we take this drawing for example, the light source is green.  With that in mind, maybe you would want to mix in a hint of green to the reflection.  Again, depends how complicated you want to get.  For this drawing, it was finished after the lighting was added.  Don’t forget to sign after as well!

 

Hopefully, this tutorial will give you insight as to how I go about some of my more simple pieces of work.  The concepts given are rudimentary and can obviously go into much further detail.  However, this wasn’t meant to be a super complicated drawing.  This drawing took me roughly 2-4 hours, mainly due to how annoying the inking was, and me spinning around in my chair for minutes at a time every so often.  If there are any questions, feel free to ask!

 

 

You Know You Have a Problem When…

The other day whilst playing World of Warcraft (SIGH) a guild mate told the guild that he recently bought his girl friend a sapphire ring encrusted with diamonds.  I asked him to link the item in guild chat.  Realizing what I had just asked, I realized I MIGHT have a problem.  If you don’t get it, it might be better that way.