Fairwell 2017!

Hey everyone! Welcome Back!

I know this is a day earlier than I usually post, but today is, of course, the last day of 2017 and I thought that I should do one last post for the year before we begin the new one with bright new posts and info. If nothing else, its always good to have a reflect on the past before looking forwards to a bright new future. That in mind, before we say hey to 2018, let's give 2017 a fond farewell. After all, this past year has had many a thing happen.

Yikes, it barely seems like yesterday when it was turning 2017. Where on earth did this past year go? I have no idea. I just know it's flown by. Has anyone else experienced that this year?

Beyond that, though, I know that the year's been a busy one!

For me, I know this year has offered me plenty of opportunities to work on my art, be it just for fun, for practice, or as part of my freelance job. Suffice to say, the fact that I've had all those opportunities around my pub job has been great! Admittedly I'd certainly be happy to have more opportunities in the coming year. I think one of my biggest regrets was that I didn't really get to focus on Dreamwalkers at all, which I think I want to put into more focus this coming year. Gotta keep myself a bit more focused than just on drawing whatever I want between commissions. But hey, getting used to certain colouring styles and experimenting is all part of helping to keep my art up to date, so it wasn't exactly a waste of time. Not to mention that working on commissions or other freelance work was certainly something I'm hoping this coming year will bring as well! I'm always happy for the work, of course :)

Beyond that, the year's been pretty good with my family as well. My little niece turned one this year and is the most adorable kid ever! (Of course, I might be bias there. lol). She's talking and a speedy little thing when running around as well. She refers to me as 'Rara' since she hasn't quite got the hang of the T in my name yet. But I get to see her almost every week and its great. Another little hope from me that things will keep going just as good for her as they have this year.

On less positive notes, one thing I've found is that I did seem to get colds and coughs a lot this year. I have one now, in fact (one I probebly need checking out, if I'm honest - We think I probebly have a chest infection. Yay...) so I should probebly look a bit better at either my diet or maybe vitamin intake. If I can I want to not have to cough up a lung half of the year. But hey, having a better diet is a good new years resolution anyway, right? So it's not exactly a horrible thing to reflect on.

Speaking of New Year's resolutions, I guess that, beyond the diet thing, my new Years resolution will be to get Chapter 2 of Dreamwalkers finished. Maybe even work on the third chapter as well. I know we of TanraStudios as hoping to do multi-chaptered comics, a bit more like manga rather than singular chapters, so that's our main aim for us, or at the very least my main aim for Dreamwalkers. So wish me luck on my endeavours because I know I'm definitely going to be trying my very best this coming year.

Not many hours left of 2017 at this point, but for all of you, I hope that you have a good ending to 2017 and I hope that you all look forwards to a great new year! I know I'm looking forwards to it!

See you in 2018!

Tara

Merry Christmas!!!!

Hey everyone! Welcome back! To a very special blog today as well!

Yes, its Christmas! (Assuming that you all celebrate it, if not then its whatever holiday you celebrate today!) I hope that you've bee having a great day so far and continue to have a great rest of Christmas Day as well.

I know for my family, Christmas day has its own rituals, as many people have. Although this year could have started better for me (A head cold that might possibly be bordering on flu preventing me from getting more than a few hours sleep kind of puts a damper on things), but despite that, having my brother home for Christmas day, opening presents together while our dog enjoys his own presents and sniffing around the wrapping paper, going to the pub I work at for a Christmas day free drink before having an awesome Christmas dinner...well, certainly can't complain about that.

I'm pretty damned pleased with my presets, too. I'm apparently awful to buy for because I never know what I want, but everything was great! Plus it seems my family loved the presents I got them in return, so I'm really pleased as I'm not the only one difficult to buy for. lol. I think my favourite gift, though, was the Nintendo Switch I got. I've wanted it for a while but the price range prevented me from getting it before, but not only did I get the Switch, but also got Breath of the Wild as well, which I've been wanting to play since the switch, and the game, first came out.

All in all, I'd say I've had a great day. Though if this cough/cold/flu thing could leave any time soon I'd love that!

I know that my bar job is still going to be pretty damned busy for the next week as well. After all, it's the lead up to New Years (Hey, my next post is actually on New Years Day, too!). But hey, I have a family get together after work on Boxing Day, so I still have a lot to look forwards to as well. Still, I should have some time to think up some new years resolutions and speculate on how the year's been.

Still, the future is the future, the present is the present and Christmas is Christmas! So I hope that you all continue to have a great day. Happy Holidays everyone!

Until Next Time!

Tara

Counting 'til Christmas!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

It's a week until Christmas! It barely seems any time at all since last Christmas, if I'm totally honest. Where on earth does the time go? It certainly felt like it's gotten away from me, either way, and all of a sudden, its a week until the day and I barely had any shopping done for presents. Admittedly, part of it was to do with the bad weather and paranoia that I would once again have an up close and personal meeting with the road or a pavement somewhere. Honestly, the ice has been horrific and its only finally started to clear up recently. I honest to god had to crawl across a road once because there was no way of staying on your feet because it had frozen over so badly. It was bad enough that even taxis refused to go down my street, because there would be no way to leave it. Ah, the problems with living on a cul-de-sac with a sloped entry road. But I digress.

Suffice to say, I had to put off shopping or risk my neck. I suppose I could do the more modern thing and go on the internet, but hey, I kinda like the experience of going around the shops. (Or maybe I just wasn't entirely sure it would get here on time because I'm an idiot. lol)

At the very least, with the ice finally melted for now, I've got at least half ready for Christmas, with only a few more things to get. Let's just hope there wont be a freak snow storm now just to toy with me. After all, I do need to be certain I have the best gift for my one year old niece.  Thankfully, I have a few ideas.

Eh, I guess even with a freak snow storm I'd risk it. She's too cute to miss a gift!

My ramblings aside, work is going to be pretty killer for me - Christmas time and bars tend to go hand in hand with busy, after all. So I'm not sure I'll actually have the time for that Christmas picture I had planed *Pouts* On the other hand, next post is actually on Christmas Day, and I'll finally be able to show off those projects I had been working on as Commissions, as they wont be spoilers any longer! Yay! So I do hope you look forwards to that!

Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful lead up to Christmas day!

Tara

Fighting Gravity (Gravity is Winning)

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I'm not sure if you know or not, but this past week we've been having snow. Its not quite Christmas yet, but we already have the white....which is slowly turning into ice. Joy!

As you may have guessed from the title here, I've not exactly been keeping both feet on the ground very often. Seriously, I've fallen over about six times in the span of seven days, and I can't even blame it on being drunk or ill. I've just somehow managed to hit so many icy patches, it's ridiculous. Most of the time I've been ok, beyond bruised pride, though my recent fall scraped up my knees, jolted joins and generally given me lots of ouches. It's kind of silly, really, as I've dealt with snowy/icy weather before with shoes that had even worse grip than the ones I was wearing and still ended up staying on my feet.

I think gravity is trying to tell me something here....

Beyond feeling many a scrape and bruise to both body and pride, good news is that I finished the commissions that I needed to do before Christmas! By the sounds of it, the client is very happy with them, too. I'll be waiting a little to put them up online, however, since they are gifts from the client, so bare with me a while longer. I'll show you what has had my attention once Christmas day is over and I'm sure that I wouldn't be spoiling anything for anyone. :)

Hopefully, in the meantime, I'll stop falling over as well. I really don't want to bust up limbs so close to Christmas, especially when this is also the season that pubs tend to get pretty busy. I need to be available to work for those celebrating!

Speaking of Christmas, now my commissions are done, I should probably actually get around to Christmas shopping.....Yeah....I such at getting my own gifts ready on time. Wish me luck! I'm just hoping that gravity and ice decide to cut me some slack for a while so I can get those gifts. Tis the season for giving, after all. And that does not mean giving bruises, gravity!

Until next time!

Tara

Once Upon A December

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So December is now upon us - man, time flies, huh? - and of course, it will soon be Christmas. Everyone ready for it? I know I'm....Uh....not. lol. Though, to be fair, before Christmas it was an important birthday for my mum this wear and my brother, sister and I had been working on a big present for her in the form of a Spa Day, so I've not particularly been focused on Christmas beyond one of my current commissions needing to be ready in time for it. Thankfully, that should be finished soon enough (possibly even in a few days, minus any touch ups or adjustments.

Similar to the previous commission, I wont be able to show you them until after Christmas, however, to avoid spoiling the present - the commissions asked for are going to be gifts from my customer, you see. But I will certainly be showing those off once Christmas is over.

December is usually a fairly busy month for me, not only because I'm terrible at shopping for Christmas presents and only tend to start in December, but also because I work at a bar when not working on my commissions or doing other freelance work, and most people do enjoy going out to celebrate the season. However, once the commission I'm working on is over, I'm hoping to do something for Christmas. Two years ago I did a Christmas Luphin, last Christmas I did a picture of Rodessa from Pandora in a Christmas outfit (admittedly that version of Rodessa was prior to the revamped appearance. This year I'm not entirely sure, but I'm considering either a Christmas picture of Rem, Somnus or Ashlin from my Dreamwalkers series, assuming that I have the time. After all, making sure I have gifts for my family ad friends is important too. lol

Sorry that I don't particularly have anything to show physically at the moment, mainly due to the reasons I mentioned before in relation to the commission. However, I do hope that at least giving an update will help explain my seeming lack of productivity.

Speaking of Productivity, though, I finally have the Wacom Pro that I said I'd be getting and am slowly beginning to get used to it as well - mostly its remembering that the shot cut buttons are a thing. lol. And, thankfully, my WiFi provider has now been sorted out, so I, hopefully, wont be having any more major problems with the internet for a while. Yay!

...I'm....seriously hoping I didn't just jinx myself...

*Touch wood!*

Until next time!

Tara

Kidnapped by Life! (Or Something)

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Soooo.....sorry I've not been particularly good on delivering on blogs recently. I have to admit that I had been pretty much kidnapped by life. While I'm working on commissions that I can't really show until Christmas - after all, they are presents and I wouldn't want to spoil anything - I also had hours to cover at my day job and even had to have an emergency dentist appointment. It wasn't fun. But hey, if a filling falls out, what can you do if you don't want it to end up hurting or getting worse? And lastly, of course, my ongoing battle with technology - though thankfully the Wi-Fi should be sorted by the end of the month (I hope).

Either way, so I wanted to give my apologies first to those who follow my rambling that I've not been up to much here.

Still, I do have things to show you all today! Admittedly, these are from one of my commissions when I was actually practicing/testing out slightly different manga-like styles for a person. While these are all front view, the actual commission ended up rather different. These, therefore, ended up as good practice for turning a photo into an manga sketch.

As mentioned, its the same person, just with different manga styles, seeing what I would end up with in the end. These below were what I ended up with for each sketch:

All of these were based on the same photo and took....about five minutes to sketch, though it was certainly interesting to try slight differences in style. Admittedly the first and last aren't quite as different as, say, the second one, but it was still interesting even with subtle changes. I'm also not entirely used to drawing characters without fringes (which is kinda funny, if you consider I also don't have a fringe, so drawing myself is often awkward) so getting to try a hair style which doesn't involve lots of hair getting in the way was certainly interesting. Who knows, maybe someone similar (but not exactly the same - at least the hair, anyway) might show up on a character in the future.

If nothing else, it was nice to have the practice a little outside my comfort zone.

I do hope that life will not make a second attempt on my person so I can focus on what I'm doing, though. I want to be able to show you guys some interesting things,. after all, whether they be practice sketches or projects. I do hope that you have liked nosing at these, however.

Until next time!

Tara

More Updates!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Soooooo, I'm still on commissions that I can't yet show anyone just yet. Sucks somewhat that I can't show you my main projects right now, but I thought I would just give everyone a heads up on what's currently going on. The current project that I'm working on is entering the last hurdle and will likely be done by the end of the week, minus any tweaking time. If I had to give an estimate, I would say I've entered the last quarter of the work, just half the shadow and lightning effects to go! It's certainly been interesting working on it so far, let me tell you, especially since the background effects aren't ones I've commonly used before. But it looks like its pretty good so far, so I'm hoping that the last part will go as smoothly.

My day job has been a little odd recently, with last minute changes, so that's the main reason why I've not managed to complete it just yet, but considering I was expecting the project to last until the end of the month, I still have a lot of good timing left, including time for any last minute edits, if editing is needed. Better to overestimate how long I have than underestimate, am I right?

In other news, I have been considering what to work on next once the project I'm working on is finished (minus any more commissions, of course) and I'll admit I've been kind of interested in Persona 5 recently, so thinking of something based around that. Alternatively, there are a few character concepts that I've come up with recently, but have yet to really explore, so I'm looking to focus on those as well.

I've also been recently going through a lot of old story concepts, sketches and such and I'm actually rather interested in seeing what some of the things I came up with as a child were. So I've considered showing a compilation of old sketches and the like, if only to see how much my art style had developed since I was young. There are also times when people redraw things that they drew years ago, to see what they would look like now as well. That's also something that interests me, and could even be quite fun. I know some of my old story ideas were a bit.....meh, but I do recall that I've managed to rewrite and even salvage old ideas into something new, so, who knows, maybe some of those old characters might get to show up elsewhere as well.

Pretty much, I've decided that once my current project is over, I'll certainly have lots of things to show and tell, so to speak. If nothing else, we could all have a laugh at my old kiddy doodles! lol I might even talk about the story ideas they've come from as well, if I find the corresponding notes - I have a looooooot of note books lying around, let me tell you!

Either way, sorry for being somewhat boring for a second post, but I'm at least hoping you'll look forwards to some of the things I have planned. Wish me luck!

Until next time!

Tara

Updates!!!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, not so much in way of pictures today, but this week is mostly a catch up on some interesting things I have going for me this week and to let you know pretty much why I don't have much to really show this week without being lazy and saying 'blog is a no go today kay bye!' - because honestly, the reasons are pretty related to my art work after all.

So, what do I have to update you guys on?

Well, firstly I should mention why no pictures etc this week. Basically, I'm currently hired to do a commission for someone, the art itself being a Christmas gift from the person commissioning me, so I didn't particularly want to spoil any surprise for the person the gift is going to before they have had a chance to receive it. I will do a full update on my project when the time comes to show you what, exactly, has had my attention, but for now, I couldn't really show you except for perhaps a few of my warm up sketches at some point. I'll get around to showing those as well later, but even those could be considered spoilers right now, so....yes, please bare with me, there.

The second update is that I am being presented the opportunity on getting a new Wacom tablet. Yay! At the moment I'm using a fairly standard intuos, which is great for travel due to its sizing, but not particularly overly professional. However, if all goes to plan, I may soon have a Wacom Pro, which is something I'm looking forwards to. A bit more expensive than my intuos was, but at the same time, it should help having better, more professional equipment.

I mean I'd love one of those cintiqs, but I'm not quite at the level I could afford one and not also think 'I have a perfectly serviceable tablet here that I didn't sell my soul to get.

Ah, the life of a poor artist....Oh well, I'm still looking forwards to the Pro.

So perhaps for once I'm not having an attack on tech? Here's hoping that all goes to plan! *fingers crossed*

So yes, I really do apologise for the lack of images today. Hope that you guys weren't bored of me being a waffle iron and waffling on *avoids rotten fruit* and I hope that I can give you more updates and maybe even some fun pics for you next week!

Until next time!

Tara

Little Straight-Jacket Devil

Hey Everyone! Welcome back!

Well, I'll admit that this week, rather than working on much of my own plans, or doing freelance work, my body decided to instead be mean to me and I've spent most of this week battling with flu. Yay me! While I'm used to getting colds now and then, flu was definitely a different kettle of fish, let me tell you. While I'm recovering somewhat now, I've still been tiring very quickly. It's my hope that I'm over the worst anyway, because believe me, I'm getting sick and tired of being....well, sick and tired. lol.

Perhaps, rather than looking at my art work, I should do a post purely dedicated to cold and flu symptom treatments since that's literally all that got me through this week. But I digress.

I did manage to do a bit of work towards the sketch that I showed last time, though I am currently working on deciding what colours might work for the character. My first colour attempts made the character very grey scale. On the one hand, this could work for me if I wanted to go for that kind of feeling to it (and there are times when grey scale really does work with art styles!) but it did also make the character a little washed out. It could, however, work if I go back to the slightly different art style I had for the character (I'll go through my various designs for him next time)

For this time, however, I wanted to see if I could add at least a little colour to him. So far, this is one that made him the least washed out without taking away from the straight-jacket theme, though I will show a few other versions another time if I move away from a white coloured jacket to something more 'tan'.

The little 'wing' thing was mostly just me playing around rather than an actual 'wing' for the character. (He does actually have wings, just less cartoony. I'm still partly deciding if I wanted to go for feathers or bat like for him as both could work in terms of story and aesthetically. Originally he was also going to be paler skinned, but it made him look somewhat washed out.

Another colour idea I'm toying with is to reverse the colours somewhat, giving him a dark coloured outfit with pale belts and straps, which could also work, though it might take away from the straight jacket feel to the outfit. It is a thought, however. If that was the case it might give me a little more room to play, colour wise.

Of course, if anyone has any suggestions, I'll be happy to hear them!

I'm sorry that this isn't a particularly long one this time. I'll be doing my best to get back to good health again! Hopefully if I do, I'll be able to actually do some better quality art for you all. For now, back to dosing myself up with cold and flu medicines and drinking lots of water and herbal teas!

Until next time!

Tara

Hey, Hello, Hi!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So I've been a bit on the busy side lately. I mentioned it on my twitter, but in case anyone missed it, I had been doing some freelance work for the past couple of weeks and so I wasn't really able to focus on my own personal projects. Because of this I thought the very small blog post I would have given would have been a little on the boring side and as such decided to save it until I was finished.

As it is, I'm currently back from the freelance job and as such I should be capable of bringing you guys some more art once again now I have the time to focus on my own personal projects once again. Despite this, I want to say sorry for leaving you all hanging and thank you for being patient with me! :)

While I didn't really get much of anything done, I have at least done a sketch of something I'm going to be working on, however, so if nothing else, I'll at least give you a peak at what I'll be doing. :)

If nothing else, the buckles will likely kill me. lol. But anyway, this is a character from one of my story ideas which I came up with around the time I had to pick 6 ideas to base one of my comics on. Since it's pretty close to Halloween, it seemed fitting to do a few doodles if nothing else. This character is from the same story that the hex doll picture is from, though currently in a less threatening form. His outfit was based somewhat on a straight jacket, hence the large amounts of buckles and 'restraints'. As for the character himself....well, essentially he is from a story I call 'Devil Contract'. As such it might be fairly easy to consider what this character might be when he is looking slightly less human.

I'll admit, buckles aside, I do like to draw this character quite a bit, to be honest, alongside the hex doll, so I might draw up a few concepts to share with everyone as well. I'd be nice to draw him a bit and maybe look at earlier concepts of him as well.

Sorry for this being a bit of a short one. I hope to give you guys a lot more progress in the next one!

Until next time!

Tara

Return of the Mascot!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, since it is 'Inktober', I decided that this month I would be making vaguely 'halloweeny'. So, to start off all of that (since I started this whole thing a little late, admittedly) I decided the first of my Halloween images should be that of my mascot, Luphin. As you may or may not have seen in the past, I have drawn Luphin in various holiday images, such as for Valentines Day, Easter and Christmas, but for some reason, I had never actually done one for Halloween. Seemed like as good a time as any to finally rectify that! :)

For those who might not have been there during Luphin's conception, you may be wondering what on earth I'm talking about. Well, Luphin originally came into being as a bit of an in joke between myself and a friend. It mainly involved a toy I bought at a convention - a mochi cat. Now, I'm not sure if that was the actual name of the item, but it kinda reminds me of mochi with cat expression, ears, tail and tiny stubby feet. It was after the convention that I was joking about how on earth it would move, if a real living one existed, and joked that it couldn't possibly walk on the stubby legs and would have to roll everywhere. To illustrate the point I rolled the toy off the hotel bed saying 'La la la'.

Eh, we had a long day. Anything could seem funny.

But either way, that in and of itself was what lead to the eventual creation of Luphin, little fuzzy creatures that only speak in 'La' sounds and were essentially accidental creations. What Luphin look like....well, you've seen them a lot - my avatar image with my user name shows one of them! Although admittedly the original versions were pink. (These days they could be any pastel colouring).

As for the name....we were also joking about why it was made in the first place and I mentioned it was likely for cleaning purposes with the odd tail it has, which in original concepts resembled a luffa. The name Luphin derived from that.

...For an in joke, I think I overthought it a bit. lol!

Backstory out of the way, here we go! The Halloween Luphin!

It has been a while since I last drawn my mascot, so I'm very happy to see a Luphin once again. Considering how Luphin look - mainly just....kinda cute...I was trying to think how to make it 'Halloweeny' and so I thought, well, why not add a few Halloween props instead. As such, an iconic pumpkin and a witch's hat. Admittedly the hat went through a few colour changes as one of them was originally a type of green colour. Since that looked far too much like some kind of deformed Leprechaun hat instead, it's colour changed. No offense to Leprechauns (or people who like that horror movie series) but it didn't quite fit the feel of Halloween. Not to mention that the blue-purple colour fits the pinkish fur a bit more.
I might work on it a bit more to maybe give a bit of extra shine to it at some point, either surface stuff or maybe to have the pumpkin itself lit up, but for now, I was happy with how it came out.

Hey, if you guys think I should try any other holiday with Luphin, throw me a suggestion and I'll see how it goes!

This coming week I have a project that I'll be working on, but I'll do my best to work on another personal project as well for Inktober. Wish me luck!

Until next time!

Tara

Character Concept!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

With my computer now back in working order again (here's hoping that nothing else will happen for a while, assuming I'm not jinxing myself), I thought I'd get around to showing you guys a couple of things I've been up to since you last heard from me. Though firstly, I'm considering doing a few Halloween based characters for this month. One idea I'm considering is my mascot in Halloween 'dress'. For whatever reason - likely due to other projects taking place at that time, I had never actually done one for Halloween. A good a time as any to rectify that, don't you think? Beyond that, this October I'm hoping to at least have a few within the theme. Whether or not I manage remains to be seen, of course.

But, since it is 'Inktober', so to speak, I think even if I don't manage the full 'Halloween' feel, at least I'll be doing my bit! :D

That in mind, admittedly those will be coming up in the following weeks. For now, though, I'll at least show you a few things I've been working on. Firstly, I've done a little more to that angel picture I was working on a while back. Admittedly, the wings of said picture aren't the final ones just yet. For the most part, I was experimenting with them to see how much I need to work on them, which is why they look a little on the rough size. Not to mention that I would need to consider the bends of the wings in comparison to where they would be on a human body. As it is, I'm not at the moment happy with those. Still, it was good to at least attempts, if only to see where I might have gone wrong. But it has been a while since I last showed you an update to that low priority project, so here it is:

Beyond the wings, as you can tell there is still much to do to prevent the blocky, segmented feel to it, but it is slowly starting to take some kind of form.

Beyond that, the concept that I was working on was for a character who uses their hair as a weapon. As such I've been getting a bit of practice in with drawing a character with.....uh.....very long hair. lol. Not Rapunzel levels, but long. At the moment this is only a standing character concept, however, so the hair has not yet been shown in an 'active' state. 

This is what I came up with in the smooth sketch that is being used as a base for the rest of the character:

I admit that I do enjoy drawing hair when I get into the idea of doing it, and have been trying to dive it a bit more in terms of the style around the bangs, since I tend to favour the type that would usually cover the forehead in some manner. My main concerns is that the hands might not be quite in proportion, however. Besides that, I think the sketch came out quite well and began to work on the rest of the image.

Admittedly, I usually would draw the line art, then add the colour. With this one, however, due to the hair, I ended up focusing on doing both at the same time so that I could concentrate on the hair in sections to be sure that it works in the final version. Admittedly, this isn't quite finished just yet (I have the inner sections of the hair to work on) but this is what I have so far!

Much like with images such as Nogitsune, who's hair is also fairly long, I was hoping to do the sections in a way to make them feel a little more natural in terms of hair, since there's no hair that is just straight one colour - there's always lower and higher lights in them. As such, I was hoping to do something similar here, minus the lighting that would be added when the toning process happens. It seems to be working so far to give it a little more depth, so I shall continue on that track for now.

There is still much to do, but at the very least, it seems I have made a good start.

Though this may be put a little on hold for the Halloween stuff I'm hoping to do this month, so we will come back to this another day :)

Until next time!

Tara

Attack on Tech 2!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I've been having technical problems again for almost a week now (I'm beginning to think technology hates me and I somehow offended the matrix or some other computer based overlord somehow. So, you may (or may not) be wondering what my technological issues were this time around. Thankfully it wasn't quite the fiasco that was the so called IT help deleting important information, but it still has been a little on the annoying side.

Firstly, the main issue I've had (Which is why this is more of an update post than a 'What I've been up to' type) was with the internet Wi-Fi. Or rather with the broadband provider itself. Apparently, from what we discovered after sitting on hold for nearly an hour was that there was problems on the providers area, which was effecting the internet of everyone using that particular broadband type in the area. If it wasn't being ridiculously slow, it cut out, or it just stopped all together. Because of this I'm only able to use pictures already used in previous blog posts (hence me still having my logo on the top and bottom as usual) otherwise I'd either be sitting here for hours on end, have things time out or it just wont load at all.

Yay for typing this out on Word before posting it up here to lower my time on the page and hopefully have less of a posting issue)

Other tech problems came in the form of things running out, such as my antivirus, which was a pain to renew etc when there was the internet issues, making it take far longer than it needed to. Thankfully, I got it reinstalled (eventually) but that did eat up a lot of my time as well.

Lastly was having various programs run out and need renewing for me to continue using them. I must have had them all installed almost at the same time for everything to have started running out on me like that.

But long story short, having no internet for almost a week really does go to show how much we really do use it for many important things, honestly. Its a good job that it should be back to normal soon, though, and hopefully I can actually show you guys some interesting art in my next post, rather than trying to explain my technical issues.

Way first world problems, am I right?

On a slightly different note, if you've been keeping up to date with the TanraStudios blog, you'll see we have limited stock on the Pandora books if anyone is interested. I've retweeted the post onto my twitter as well, if anyone is interested (My twitter is @chosha_kurenai if anyone wants to check it out). On a similar note, chapter one of Dreamwalkers is also on a limited stock as well at £8/$12 plus additional P&P if anyone is interested in gabbing one of the last few copies! Just send me a tweet, reply to this blog or drop me a email on chosha_kurenai@yahoo.co.uk for more details. Even if my internet has been a little shoddy this past week, my phone, at least, lets me keep an eye on my social media, so there is no worries!

For now though, that's all from me,

Until next time!

Tara

Masamune! Attempt One!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, I've been working on another character idea and having a little experiment with a full body character that isn't just standing up in various poses. The character himself is one I've been thinking about for a while, but has no real set colour schemes just yet, so pretty much everything with the character is experimental. This is just the first choice in design.

So, the character - what is it?

Well, I like to sometimes get inspiration from legends and such - my work on Dreamwalkers and Susanoo probably being a bit of a clue there, not to mention previous character designs like Nogitsune. So this character is actually based off the Japanese legend of Tsukumogami. A Tsukumogami is an object that, after a long period of time (about 100 years) gains its own sentience, essentially becoming a type of spirit. The one for this character specifically, is if a sword had gained sentience and became a spirit - admittedly one with a human form.

The character himself, which I named Masamune, I had several ideas of in terms of appearance, as mentioned, the main differences in my ideas being the type of sword he is based on and his clothing. So there will possibly be other design ideas of him in the future, with the final version becoming the fully finished product, including shading work. This is a work in progress, so hopefully it won't be judged to harshly, at least not yet.

So, of course, I began with the sketch work:

So with this sketch, the man parts that I was considering were the parts that would link the character to a sword. This sketch was pretty rough in places - one of his feet in the next version gets adjusted so his leg doesn't look quite so broken, but the sword parts, of course, were the blade arm and the wrappings, which, when they have more detail, resemble the hilt of a Japanese sword. The blade itself...originally the idea was some form of katana, but with a much thicker blade - likely closer in idea to a thickened Zanbato - a type of blade from the Heian period in japan that was used against cavalry. I believe blades like the Buster Sword from Final Fantasy 7 were probably based around that sword type, if I were to guess. A thinner blade probably would sword, but for this design it might not have blended into the arm. Of course, that isn't to say I wont give it a try n one of the designed versions, of course.

I then made a slightly more refined sketch to add in the details a little more that I missed on this initial sketch:

Apologies on this one being a little on the faint side. This is mostly because it was used in the base sketch and I somehow accidentally made it only come out faint. I'm not sure how. Yay my technical difficulties! Lol. Either way, you might be able to see that I adjusted the foot position a little for the sake of perspective, and I also put some details into the hair and leg wrappings.

As for the flat colour version.....I'm a bit unsure about the colouring at the moment. Due to the location the character lived in, I originally gave the character sandy or earth coloured clothing, though it has made him a tad washed out. I'm already considering different colours for him, to go with the 'metal' idea, at least for hair and eyes. But considering I'm currently going through a design process with the character and I'm not yet at the final design for him, I'll show you what I have so far:

As you can tell, the sandy, ever so slight rose pinkish hair doesn't really work, making him look fairly washed out. There is also bits of green in there, as I was considering maybe a green colour for the clothing in one of my next tests, along with the idea for silvery coloured hair and eyes to go with the metallic feel.

So, anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm always happy to hear what people have to say :)

Until next time!

Tara

Sir Sketchalot

Hey Everyone! Welcome back!

So, I've been feeling in the mood to just do some good old sketching recently. Digital stuff is all well and good, but sometimes you just feel like having a bit of a doodle, so to speak. Admittedly, half the time I 'doodle' tends to be with a pen and hoping to god I don't make a mistake, because I'm a prat and forgot to go fetch my pencil. But I suppose it comes from my early days of doodles when they lived in the corner of school work books. But hey, if nothing else, it does help you to be very careful not to screw up as best as you can, because unless you have those special pens with ink specific erasers (I used to have one of those a long time ago, I'll admit), you can't get rid of a pen mistake.

Ah, digital art certainly spoils you when a simple back space can ensure no accidental ripped pages or smudge marks, huh?

So, considering I had been indulging in my Undertale-ness last time with my Sans pic, I decided to do a few Undertale sketches, two of which might even make for interesting little icon/avatars if I decided to digitalise them - a distinct possibility at some point.

So, this is what I ended up with!

Strangely, I think my version of Alphys ended up far more adorable than I was intending, but I'll admit that I did enjoy sketching these three. As you could probably guess, Napstablook was probably the easiest to draw - not exactly surprising since, despite his cuteness, his design is pretty simple. Meanwhile the most difficult was probably Toriel (and I realised I misspelt her name on the pic only after I wrote it because I'm a bit of an idiot *hides from Undertale fans*) because drawing her snout from the front view is a little more awkward than side view. Considering that was probably the first time I've ever actually drawn Alphys or Toriel, however, I was kinda proud, honestly.

Along with my Undertale sketches, I also started a base sketch, digitally, for a potential icon/avatar, or just a lose up pic of an Inkling from Splatoon as well. It's still pretty rough at the moment, since I'm trying to work out where the best splat layouts should be, and its still at the rough sketch phase, but if it all turns out well, it could make for an interesting picture when finished.

Depending on how it goes, the Inkling should be in the 'Agent' uniform, though it'll be interesting seeing if I can manage those interesting ear pieces when I actually get to the...Uh....literal inking phase. (It is so hard not to end up with a list of ink puns here. lol). I do get an 'inkling', however, that it should be fun to do :)

Until next time!

Tara

Here's a Skelepun for Lost Time!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So.....sorry for missing last week. I'll admit that I ended up being far more busy with my day job that I actually had very little time to actually work on images, coupled with doing some practice writing for personal projects further down the line. And the bits I did do I unfortunately can't show for the moment, at least until the projects are done and the clients happy with the final products. So, once again, a massive apology for missing a blog post!

This week, though, I have done a picture that I can show! It's unfinished, I thought you guys might be interested to see it anyway.

While, admittedly, not as right-here-right-now as some fan arty stuff is, I have to admit that Undertale is still one of my favourite games and, probably like much of the internet, Sans does happen to be one of my favourite characters. Most of it stemming from the fact we are both Punsters! I likely don't show it as much in my writing skills, but I do love puns myself, personally, and have often driven my friend Nadia nuts with them, be they accidental or because I was actually trying. But, of course, there are many other reasons as well.

And no, I do not want to bone the skeleton. lol

Draw him, on the other hand, that I am happy to do. :)

This time, rather than attempting to do it in my experimental style, however, I decided to see how my version of Sans would look in the way I usually draw.

I decided to do a pen sketch for this one, rather than on the computer. I will admit, it was a bit 'spur of the moment', but, as I mentioned before, it's always good to keep my hand in, so to speak. The sketch came out like this (also, sorry for the bad photograph. You could say I'm.....sans photography skill? lol):

As you can tell from the fact this was a lined pad (I had been writing notes at the time) it was definitely very spur of the moment. Still, I was pretty happy with how the sketch came out and I really wanted to give it a go digitally. The funny thing is, I also thought that, if I wanted to put a background in it, I could switch and change it, depending on how I feel as well. After all, Sans' expression, other than his eyes, doesn't really outwardly change that much. But that is another project to experiment with for another time.

Instead, for now, I decided to go with just making a digital version of his character. And so.....tada!

Unfortunately, no light and shadow just yet, but I'll admit, I'm liking how it is coming out so far. I'll admit that his coat amused me a little, because I had drawn Rem wearing something similar some time ago. I was also a little unsure with the slipper colours. Most people had drawn him wearing pink slippers before, likely to go with the whole 'Who cares' aspect of his character, but I've also seen them done in blue as well. But, when I did them in blue and grey, it made them look.....too flat? Or rather, the character seemed slightly off in this rendition, so pink he got. 

Other than maybe making his top a bit longer, I was actually fairly pleased in how he came out. What do you think? Pun-ny for your thoughts. lol

My bad attempts at written puns aside, I hope you like it. Also, do you all think it might be interesting for me to draw the full cast at some point in my style? I'm open for suggestions!

Until next time!

Tara