Project #6 - The Tea Party

So I started this in March, and still haven't built up the courage to start coloring it... I knew I wanted to do it with Copics right away, but I wasn't talented enough yet to do it... So here is my progression of the well known tea party scene in Alice in Wonderland...

This is the first sketch. I was pretty happy with it since it was one of my best unreferenced drawings.

 This is the partially inked version. You can see I added a lot more things to the table.

Here I started cleaning it up a bit with the eraser. Also straitened some of the slightly askew sketches.

And this is my fully inked version. (I use Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens) And this is how it looks right now :)

So although I have rarely used my Copic markers I have attempted to practice on this picture multiple times, trying to get the right look....

 This was my first try at using the Copic markers on Alice... I used a transparent clip board to trace another Alice on a separate piece of paper. Then simply went at it with the markers! I was also using Prismacolor pencils since I have a very limited amount of different Copic colors... Plus it leaves an interesting effect... (as you can see I was really not sure what I was doing on the hair...

This is Copic Test no.2

I used the colorless blender more with the Copics on this one... and was trying to be more careful on the skin... (I ended up smudging some of the ink accidentally on the eyes...) I tried just using pencils on the hair, which turned out looking much better than using the Copics...

 And then we have my last try... (Note: All the skin is actually more peach looking... My scanner wasn't working very well....) 

On the Left you can see I was being impatciant on the hair, and on the dress I wasn't quick enough with the Copics, so it turned out having washed out layers of color... I also tried to leave some white on the skin for highlights to no avail... (I'm still working on adjusting to the bleeding range) 

In the Middle I tried using more gold and yellow colors for the hair just to see what would happen... The dress came out smoother but the skin turned out a lot more blotchy then the last... I did manage to get bigger highlights though. 

On the Right I changed the cup to green to see if I liked that better... But I think I'm going to go with the purple. It has a much more natural feel against her blue dress... Over all I was just really impatient with this one... The hair is just streaky unkempt lines and the dress... I'm not even sure what went wrong there... But over all it had the best skin in my opinion. So I was glad about that...

Over all this is my proudest work so far... I really wish to finish it soon. But I'm not sure if I'll be able to for awhile until I have developed more skill with the Copics! And I'm planing to purchase a few other colors for the skin since I really don't want it to look like Alice developed a sunburn in Wonderland... But one day or another I will come back to it. It's all a matter of time.

Thanks so much for looking!! Please let me know what you think about my projects! Nothing brightens my day like a comment! :)

 I'm not sure if I'll be posting on Friday yet... I currently don't have any new projects... But if so I will be showing my progress on the previously posted projects!
 Hope to see you Friday!


~Zarana

Thanksgiving

So sorry I didn't post yesterday! I actually didn't forget this time though... I was just busy visiting with family. :) I don't have a project for you today unfortunately, but I will most likely have one on Tuesday... But things might start slowing down with posts soon because I'm running out of projects, and I've been increasingly busy with everything lately.

I received the crushing news on Thursday that our dear friend Mary has gone to be with the Lord... I was shocked beyond belief as like many, I had no idea it would be so soon... Although I personally didn't know Mary as well as I would have liked to, I know that she was a wonderful person, full of life, and hope. She was a true joy to be around the few times that we visited. She had a beautiful spirit that I've never seen in anyone else. She will be sorely missed by so many...
Find more about Mary here: CaringBridge
Also find more about Erik here: CaringBridge

Thank you for taking a look :)
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!! 

Next Post: Tuesday 30th
  Project #6 -The Tea Party

Project #5 - My Original Characters

 Prologue

Alright, good thing I remembered today! It's so beautiful outside this morning. We had a bit of a down pour of snow yesterday and now there is probably somewhere between two to four inches of snow!... I actually never really liked winter, or snow, or cold... But to sit here on the couch covered in blankets and look out at the sparkly white blanketed landscape that I call my home, I know I could never live anywhere else....
 I had just realized we have lived here for twelve years now!! (or soon to have...) When my dad was in the Air Force we moved around a lot, and never lived anywhere more than two years... Soon after I was born though my dad retired, and we moved here where we are now. I was almost three at the time. We have eighty acres of land here. It used to be a farm long ago, but the previous owners didn't really use it as one. When we came here we had planed to get goats, and chickens, and have a garden as well... We did have chickens for awhile, and for a few years we had a garden, but never managed much more than that... We have two dogs, and four cats who have to be outside due to allergies. Over all it is a quaint little place, out in the boon docks of nowhere, far away from lights of the city and the sound of noisy neighbors.

Project

But ok, enough about that... Like I said this post is for the original characters I created! But I thought I would let you all know a little about where I live, so you could have a better picture of it, if I ever mention it again for any reason. Or just to get to know me a little better!

So here we have a character I created randomly while I was in the car on the way to eat out with my family.

I felt like doing something a little different, I had never worked with any robots or mechanical things very much before. So I thought it would be fun to do something like that. Besides the really sketchy surrounding I liked how this came out... I had meant it to be more life like, but I had some problems with the size of her head....

Then here is the same character I did last month or so... 

 A few months after I had drawn the first I came up with a plot line and story for her...I'm not sure how long it will be if I ever work on it again... But hopefully within the next few years we could make some progress...

The last post I showed you the newest picture of her that I'm still working on... I started coloring and I'll re-post it soon!

...Sorry this post is getting pretty long.... 

Next character! Ok... So this one is very new. I made her for a comic idea I had recently...

Zarana Torahime

And some of you know this one... This is my first original character! I made her October of 2008 I believe...

She is part of a comic me and some friends where trying to put together... Over the years the story has changed dramatically... But I will always treasure the world I first created her for.... 

 

 This is the very first Zarana! First considered calm, quiet, and kind.

 And this is the first drawing of her new look. She soon became one with a bit of a stubborn attitude... Not one to take jokes easy... She became the leader of the group.

Reference: Celesse

 This was done some time ago... I was very fond of the unreferenced drawing I did of her and Hyori.

 The reason these drawings say Akari is because she ended up having two names for the story... She is actually a type of snow leopard who came from another world... (Originally Zarana Sadohime)  So when she came to the real world she changed her name to Akari Kurotoshiro to hide her identity.

Reference: Chris Hart

 This is one of the drawings of her in her true form.

Reference: Chris Hart

 This is a reference sheet I made for her (or bio) a few months back.. I changed her name to Torahime because I was confused with the Japanese word tiger... (I thought it was sado, when I found that it is tora)

Her name means tiger princess more or less... This is her newest change, her entire attitude really changed with the new plot... Now she is the studious one who is a bit of a control freak... (I personally don't care to much for this Zarana myself...)

 This is probably the best drawing I've done so far of her... 

Reference: BlackCat

And yup, she has become my alias... :) 

Over all with Zarana and Tails it is a typical anime... When we started working on it I was really into the whole anime universe, after many years of watching series after series I was pretty hooked...  I admired all the fan art pictures that I would dig up from everywhere. All these masterpieces of complex originality...It was the style that gripped me from early on... Everything was so simple, but so complex at the same time... There was a lot of beauty in it all....(Examples: 1 2 3 4 5 ) And I will admit most of the story lines are pretty out there... But it was all the elegance in the style itself... I'd never seen a more gripping style of art before... One that I could love and learn to master myself...  Over the years I have mellowed out very much... And it must be my patience that has grown shorter. But it's been harder for me to take interest in the series I used to like so much... In the end I didn't know If I wanted to draw anime anymore... After talks with artists and observations throughout the years I realized that anime is just too popular! I mean.. What are the chances that out of the millions of fantastic anime artists a freelancer will come to me for my art?? Also after all that's happened I find that I no longer wish to be a typical anime-drawing, video game addicted/TV junkie... There is a lot more I wish to accomplish in my life!!! If at all I want to make comics that will benefit the christian nation... To uplift them in their beliefs, not tear them down!...... 

So yeah... I'm not sure what I'm gonna do anymore... But I'm still young! I suppose I have time to figure it out....

I'm so sorry this post was so long!! Thanks for sticking with me!!

Next Post: Friday 26th
  Project #6 -The Tea Party

Project #4 - Photoshop Experimentation

I'm afraid I have no excuse to why I didn't post yesterday... Except that maybe my internal clock is busted beyond repair... It never occurred to me that it was Friday yesterday!! I can't believe I never even gave my poor blog a thought!... But never the less, at least I'll hopefully make up for it today... I even have two things I've been working on instead of one!

Ok so here is the first thing I worked on a few weeks ago... It's pretty lame I know... But it was fun anyway playing around with new styles!

All rights got to the original artist--> WildRainOfIceAndFire

Basically all I did was take the Brush tool and used the Eyedropper to go over and just paint the same color over the picture bits at a time... I used a soft brush to get a very soft look... So far I'm actually pretty happy with it even though I really didn't do much to it... The same goes for this picture I did awhile back--> Blossom on Bob wire. Except for that one I also took the original picture! :)

For the next picture I just did it yesterday while I was busy forgetting to post! >_< 

(Click to see more detail)

This is a rough sketch of my character that I created for a comic awhile back... I doubt I'll get to writing anything (or drawing anything) for it anytime soon... ever maybe... But I just thought I would use her to practice some perspective and stuff... I really stink at it but this is my sorry attempt to improve.... Hopefully if I get to finishing it and coloring it I'll let you all know! And I will most likely post it on my deviantArt account first... :)

Thanks for looking!!! 

Next Post: Tuesday 23rd
 Project #5 - My Original Characters

Project #3 - The Altered Sweater

I really meant to post this earlier... It was chaos trying to find my camera, new batteries, and my tripod.... But anyway, I still managed to post today!

So here is the only picture I have of what it originally looked like...

Unfortunately the quality is not very good... I took this a few months ago before I thought about using my tripod... But oh well... At least now you get to see the awesome Erik sleepy hat! which is very nice when it is cold and I can't stand being upstairs unless I'm wrapped head to toe...

This is a bonus... picture I did that day of me drawing in my room. :)

And yes... It was freakishly cold that day.... (you can see the temp on the clock... >_< )

So now onto what I did!!

Here is the picture I took today of the sweater... (Sorry these pictures didn't come out great...)

You can see the basic changes... I basically just cut right down the middle then had to sew the edges so they don't pull apart... of course I'm not secretly any pro seamstress or anything, so it has some odd lumps and such here and there... It was all done by hand, I even did the button hole myself! I also took it in at the back a bit... (I got it an extra large, and I'm normally either an extra small or just small....)
So yeah.  there you have it...

Here is a picture of it on me :)

The lighting was really bad when I took the pictures... It gets dark so early here!! I did get a lot done today though... so I'm happy. :)

Thanks for looking!! I promise the next post will be better. ^_^

And if you haven't seen it yet... I set up an extra page for my random drawings that I don't show anybody... hehehe

My Art

Next Post: Friday 19th
 Project #4 - Photoshop Experimentation

New Schedule

Since I started this project series I haven't been able to hold my posts off until the end of the week... And I really didn't want to have a huge number of posts and then, just ......none.... Sooo I decided to start scheduling them! They will be on Fridays and Tuesdays from here on out... Until of course I'm busy and have to post a different day... But anyway there it is... :)

I'm sorry I couldn't post my Project #3 today... I had planned too, but I had only remembered what the project was till just now! I had this slightly over sized sweater that I bought last year... And I wasn't too fond of the way it hung on me so this week I changed it tremendously!!! (In my opinion :)

So anyway, that was my project... and I'll be posting it Tuesday since I couldn't find my camera and I am really busy right now... So sorry! :(

Next Post: Tuesday 16th
 Project #3 - The Altered Sweater

Project #2 - Autumn Well

For Project #2, I have this!.... Yeah.. Not much, I know... But it is still a work in progress. :) It is done with all Prismacolored pencils. I started it a few weeks ago just for practice. I was pretty happy with the way this one came out. So I thought I would try my luck and experiment again... Unfortunately I really over estimated my new abilities... I'm fond of the colors, but it still looks pretty sloppy... 

This is the reference picture I used. I love all the art this guy does! I want to learn to draw just like that some day... But for now I must except my insignificant skills... Sad as that may be... :(

I will try to finish this and re-post...  Thanks for looking!

Project #1 - Digital Wardrobe

So I think I will go ahead and share some of the projects I'm working on currently! This is one I was experimenting with a reaaally long time ago... But now with my slightly improved abilities I think it will be much more effective now.


The idea is to draw every article of clothing I currently possess, and then effectively transfer them to Flash, hence forth making a personalized digital wardrobe for myself!... Of course this is a bit outlandish for my basically nonexistent Flash skills... But I shall try nevertheless....


                            Ok so here is the basic sketch of one of my favorite outfits of the month...

 Although I plan to put these in Flash, like I said I don't even know what do to with anything in there... (It's like a whole other world  >_<) So I have decided for the present to mess with it in PS since I am much more accustomed to it, and I can still use the drag and drop feature!  

This is my WIP of the outfit in PS... The clothing doesn't quite fit just right yet, but I'll fix that eventually.... 

  But anyway, you get the picture... :)

I will be posting a series of my current projects, and hope to be able to keep you updated on my progress with them.... Thanks so much for looking!!! And I'd love it if you let me know what you think ;)