Boxing Day Special!

Hey Everyone! Welcome back!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. If any of you have been following the TanraStudios blog, Nadia and I left a Christmas message there, which is mainly why this one is on Boxing Day. Well, that and I usually post on Mondays for this blog. lol. Either way, I hope you all had a good one, and we've still got the New Year coming up too.

I've been pretty busy with my day job over Christmas - its the time of year when everyone goes out to celebrate after all. But I did manage to finish the Christmas gift to Nadia on Christmas Eve and sent it to her. I'll show the image here, but I've found the resolution seems to be really off on the blog lately. Not sure why, so I will also leave a link to my DA account for anyone who might want to see it in its glory.

So, here was me finished Gift-Pic!

Though for the better quality version, click here

So, I really enjoyed doing the hair the most on this picture with the lowlights and highlights. Makes the hair seem as though it stands out more. With her clothing colour as it was, I thought it best to stick with the simple blue-and-snowflake pattern to help Rodessa stand out. As mentioned before, the previous blank space now has a Christmas greeting as well.

I sent it to Nadia, who was really happy, especially with the plushy character cameo as well. I'm just really happy that my rendition of her character came out so well! Its certainly good practice for once I'm the main artist for Pandora for a few chapters.

But, all in all, I had a lot of fun with this project. Maybe I can do something similar for Christmas next year, too :)

I hope everyone else has had as much fun this Christmas as I have. Stay safe for the rest of the holidays and I'll see you all in the New Year!

Until next time!

Tara

Christmas Countdown!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So its less than a week until Christmas day now! But no rest for the wicked, as they say - Not only will I have one of my busiest weeks at work with everyone having Christmas Parties and such, I also have a few presents to finish getting and a picture to finish - yeah, I'll admit that I've never been the best at being on top of Christmas shopping. But I usually get things done.

Speaking of the picture I'll be doing for Nadia, I should give an update there. Last time I showed my sketched concept for the image. This time, I have a lot more done.

Firstly, the line art was fun - after drawing images such as the one I drew for Nogitsune, specifically the hair, I'll admit that drawing Rodessa's hair was the most fun. She has a lot to work with after all! lol. I also made a few adjustments from her initial design on the dress, giving it some sleeves. I thought that it added a little more to the outfit. I also adjusted the perspective on the arm, as it was a bit off before.

Oh, I should probably point out the pushy that she is holding dressed as a reindeer. I do hope that Nadia will get the reference. Unfortunately, can't say who it is without spoiling, but you're welcome to guess!

I also did the flat colour:

Even having just the flat colour does tend to make the image stand out more, I think.  I made sure to follow the colour references that were made for Rodessa in the past, specifically for her hair, skin, eyes and lips. After all, I want to be sure I get Nadia's character as good as possible, since so far I haven't done much in way of art for Pandora yet, minus some base drawings and images of certain spoilerish characters that can't appear online yet. (Don't worry, they will appear eventually!). And I've been doing some practicing of Rodessa, to be sure that I can get her design correct once it comes to my turn.

As for the background, I just went for something simple this time. The image is essentially like a Christmas card, and the space left behind will have words as a season's greetings, so I didn't want a background that would clash with those words. Hence it was just a simplistic snowflake design. Admittedly, it reminded me of wrapping paper a little bit, but I did think that Rodessa's colour scheme would also stand out against the cooler blues and whites.

Now I have the main part of the image to complete - the shadings. While flat colour makes the image more obvious, adding the lights and shadow will help to make the image really stand out. This is the bit that always takes me the longest, since it does add the most detail to the characters. Should be fun! But hopefully my day job wont make it difficult for me, since I have less than a week left. So, cross your fingers for me! I'll let you know how it goes :)

Until then, have a Merry Christmas and I'll see you next time!

Tara

Christmas Project: Start!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, soon it'll be Christmas - only about two weeks away now! Man, time flies, doesn't it? I still have a lot to do before I'm fully ready for Christmas where presents are concerned for friends and family, but I still have time to do a little project.

You see, as you may or may not know, depending on how long you may have been following my blog for, I've been working two comic series. The first being Dreamwalkers, which I talk about here, and the other is a project done alongside a friend. Pandora's art is currently being handled by said friend, though the both of us are working on the story. Eventually, the art will pass to me and we will back and forth. With Nadia, our work all comes under the name of Tanrastudios.

Well, I wanted to make a Christmas present for my friend and fellow Tanra-lite! :)

This in mind, I was hoping to draw a season's greeting using one of the Pandora characters (well, two, if you look at what said character is holding, though that one would be more of a cameo than an actual character picture). Out of the characters we created for Pandora, one of the main characters, Rodessa, was originally created by Nadia (whereas the other main character, Mizuki, was made by myself), so I decided to draw a Christmas Rodessa. Currently, I only have the sketch work that I will probably need to do a few adjustments on to get absolutely anatomically correct, but this is the basics of what I have in mind:

Sorry about the photo quality of my sketchbook sketch. I'm afraid I'm no photographer. But this is the basic idea I had in mind, which I will hopefully have inked and coloured and presented to Nadia for Christmas. The space over her shoulder should also end up with a Christmas message as well :) I do hope to make it look a little more interesting at inking and colour stage though, as I know just a sketch isn't always that interesting. lol. But I have been having fun with the basic sketch, especially where her hair is concerned.

I'm hoping that Nadia will enjoy the gift to her, since she has been working pretty hard to help with Tanrastudios with me, and I want to let her know how much I've appreciated the help, as well as giving one of my close friends a big Merry Christmas as well.

I'll keep you all updated on how the project is going and, hopefully, how Nadia reacts to the gift as well.

But, until next time!

Tara

Oneiros Types: Morpheus Class

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

In our exploration of the types of forms the Oneiros, the enemies in my Dreamwalkers comic series, we've covered two of the three main classifications - the Icelos and the Phantasos classes. If you haven't read those parts yet, I suggest you check them out first, to gain a full understanding of exactly what those types entail by clicking on the names of the classes.

For now, however, we'll be covering the last of the main three classes - the Morpheus Class.

Lets see how far down the rabbit hole this takes us, shall we?

Garbled version of the quote from Matrix-version of Morphius aside, no, this class is not named after him. Rather, similarly to the other two class types, this type also takes its name from Greek mythology. Along with Icelos/Phobetor and Phantasos, (and thousands of other much lesser known siblings), Morpheus was said to be one of the many children of Hypnos (though some also believe that Hypnos was a brother instead and that they were all children of the goddess Nyx). It is said that Morpheus was capable of shapeshifting into any human form (though his 'true' form was said to appear as a winged daemon) and could appear in dreams. During the medieval period, Morpheus and Hypnos become somewhat synonymous with each other, as Morpheus was also known as the god of sleep and dreams, similar to his 'father'.

A little extra trivia as well, the drug morphine's name also came from Morpheus.

In Dreamwalkers, Oneiros that fall under this classification will take the form of a human within dreams. Unlike the other types, who are more instinctual, Morpheus class Oneiros are capable of planning far more complex stratagies to entice or trap their victims, sometimes taking the form of loved ones, or will attempt to seduce the enemy into lowering their guard, similar to a succubus or Inccubus. Sometimes, they are even capable of mimicking the effects of other Oneiros types to lead on the dreamwalkers into going after the wrong target, allowing them to fulfil their goals. For example, by leading the 'prey' into an area that a landslide could be triggered. Due to the fact they take a human form, they could also blend into crowds with dream created people, or pretend to be just a part of the dream in order to stalk their prey. Due to their shapeshifting, they could also switch up their appearance, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly which dream-manifested-human is just part of the dream and which is the true target.

Morpheus types are usually not as physically strong as the more monstrous Icelos and not quite able to have the pure nature manipulation as the Phantasos, but due to their more humanoid natures, they are the hardest to pinpoint and to take down in the long run due to pure tactics.

Well, I suppose some people do say that humans can be the biggest threats of all.

So yes, the Icelos, Phantasos and Morpheus classes are the main three classes that the Dreamwalkers cast is likely to run into. However, this doesn't cover all Oneiros as a whole, as their are always discrepancies, even in nature. For now, however, those are the ones to know about in the series. :)

Still, I may cover those rare types at a later date.

Until next time!

Tara

Oneiros Types: Phantasos Class

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, last week I started to explain the class system that the SOS team use for the main antagonists of Dreamwalkers: the Oneiros. To recap, there are three main classifications for the Oneiros based on their abilities. The SOS team use these classifications in order to identify what to expect from the enemy and so they can plan tactics to counter them accordingly. We also covered the first of the three classes, the Icelos class. So, if you didn't check out the blog last week, have a nosey at it now, as it does a full intro to the classifications and into the first of the three types.

This time, I'll be covering the second of the three classes: the Phantasos class.

Much as the enemies name and the first of the three classes, the Phantasos class is named after one of the Greek gods linked to sleep and dreams. Phantasos, meaning 'fantasy' or 'apparition', was one of the sons of the god Hypnos, and was god of surreal dreams and represents the inanimate objects in prophetic dreams, linked to the elements of earth, rock, water and wood.

In Dreamwalkers, Oneiros under this classification usually are the most difficult to locate, due to the fact that they usually fuse with the dream's environment that would trigger nightmares based around the elements. For example, a dream of being caught up in a landslide would likely be caused by a Phantasos Onreios that has fused into the mountain and causing the landslide, manipulating its progress. The main problem with combatting these types is less the battle itself, but rather locating the Onreios' specific location, then somehow drawing it out from said location in order to finish it off, before it uses the dreams very environment to pick off the dreamer or the dreamwalkers themselves.

After all, its pretty difficult to defeat an enemy that you don't know the location of.

To make matters worse, so long as they are fused with the environment, as long as the element its fused with is in place, it can move its location through it. Using the landslide analogy, the Onreios could theoretically travel through the earth without being seen in order to follow its target, but it couldn't move from the earth into, say, water, or up into the air, at least not without revealing its location and thus making itself vulnerable.

Unlike the Icelos Class, the Phantasos are usually physically weaker once they are exposed, but due to their elemental manipulation, they are still a force to be reckoned with while infused with the environment.

One last class to go! So, next time, I'll be discussing the last of the three Onreios classes: the Morpheus Class

Until next time!

Tara

Oneiros Types: Icelos Class

Heya Everyone! Welcome back!

So, today I'm going to be talking Dreamwalkers again. This time, I'll be discussing the enemies in the comic once again, though this time I'll be discussing the various types of Oneiros there are. The SOS group had devised classifications for the various Oneiros that they face, of which there are three main classifications that they might fall into. These classifications help the Dreamwalkers team to devise a plan of action, as, while each Oneiros has individual abilities, they also share some similarities as those also under the same classification.

The three classes are as follows: Icelos, Phantasos and Morpheus (no, not the Matrix one! lol). Similar to the name SOS gave to the monstrous beings they fight as a whole, the three classes are also based loosely on their mythological counterparts, due to the way the monsters will present themselves in the nightmares.

The classification that I'll be talking about today is the Icelos Group.

The Icelos group's name comes from Icelos in Greek mythology, also known as Ikelos, Icelus (all of which mean 'semblance' and, in some cases also known as Phobetor, which means 'frightening'. This god, sometimes known to either be one of the brothers of Hypnos, or one of the son's of the god of sleep, was said to be a shape shifter that could take on the form of animals and beasts in order to interact with mortals in the waking world. It's said that he is also the personification of nightmares.

In Dreamwalkers, Oneiros that fall into this category take the form of monsters and/or animal based phobias that the dreamer might have. This class is also the easiest to find and classify by SOS standards, as they often actively hound the dreamer. They also tend to be the most aggressive of the three main classifications.

So, for example, if you had a phobia of Spiders, an Oneiros of the Icelos class might take the form of a giant spider with hoards of tiny spider minions that are chasing down the dreamer to weave into a web with the intent of eating the victim alive.

Of course, with them being shape shifters, they aren't bound my a single form. So long as its animal or monster based, they could change forms at will, making them the most versatile when it comes to all out offense, though the tactics used by them are usually the most crude of the three types.

Well, crude, but still effective! While they might be more obvious seeming monsters than the other two types, they are no less dangerous

Those of you who might have seen clips of Dreamwalkers part one might note that the Onreios here is based in this class. Though what it does and its abilities are something that you can only find out by reading. :) Though some of my original sketches of the Oneiros (which I showed on my previous blog post that gives the overview of the Dreamwalkers antagonists) do give a little insight on ideas and concepts I had for them in the early stages of the comic.

Next time, I'll be talking about the next in the three Oneiros classes, the Phantasos class! So please look forwards to it :)

Until next time!

Tara

Project Stuff!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Well, as some of you may or may not know, the competition I entered - the image was something I showed a post or two back - has released the results. Unfortunately, I didn't win this time. A bit disappointing, but there was some pretty stiff competition, so while I'm a little disappointed, I'm not too unhappy. It was fun to draw either way, and I'm sure that next time Foxhat64 does a competition, I'll be having another go at it anyway.

Either way, congrats to the winners! they did really well, so they definitely earned it :)

Onto other things, I have been continuing on an older project, which was more or less a practice using an original character on, essentially, profiling - mainly drawing the character in different outfits, shown from different positions, close ups on certain bits of detail etc. It's not finished yet, as I'm also intending to do different facial expressions and different angles, as well as finishing the colours on the images as well. I had shown a part of it before - a single figure version in one outfit, but much like then, it was a work in progress.

While its not quite finished, this is what I have so far:

As you can see, the shading isn't fully finished yet, but I'm quite pleased in how its coming out so far. The character I made here was for a roleplay on fanfiction.net, and while this is mostly a practice, I'm hoping to do this kind of thing for Dreamwalkers characters, complete with artist notes, maybe even make an art book for Dreamwalkers, or a collaboration art book with Nadia involving all our characters from the 'Tanra-verse'. It would be interesting, if nothing else, not to mention a good reference point for myself with the comic series.

Oh, I am considering making another print for Dreamwalkers. As I've done a print for Rem and for Somnus, making a print for Ashling would be fitting, right? I just need to think of a good pose, so its entirely likely that this will be my next project.

Until next time!

Tara

Nogitsune

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, last time, you may remember I took part in a competition on Deviant Art, and showed my entry for said competition. Weeeeeeell, while the submission date hasn't changed, there was a bit of an extension on when the results will be out, so as of yet, I don't know how well I have done. But once I know, I'll be sure to let you know how it went.

Meanwhile, apart from coming down with yet another cold (Honestly, I must have a horrible immune system or something), I have finished another of my projects, this time a character I once created a while ago, but have only recently drawn in order to see how it would look, and to test out my colouring style, as well as testing out ever so slight differences in angles. The character I drew was one based on legends of Nogitsune.

So, what are Nogitsune?

Basically, a Nogitsune is a form of supernatural fox, or Kitsune, from Japanese mythology. In said mythology, foxes are capable of shapeshifting to take on a human form (often female, but not always) in order to interact with humans. Nogitsune are the most malevolent version of the foxes (Also known as Yakou or 'field foxes'), as apposed to 'Zenko', which are foxes mostly linked to the deity Inari. Nogitsune are prone to playing tricks on humans, and not just the playful kind.

You can find more information on Nogitsune and their various counterparts on Wikipedia. It, along with other Japanese mythology, is rather interesting :)

The family I made essentially has the shapeshifting ability, though in this case it is at the cost of the users individuality. The shape shifters have fox shaped masks with individual and unique patterns on them in order to identify between themselves, no matter what shape they take. The character I drew is to a point that they have forgotten even their own gender, and as such refers to themselves in a non-binary manner (unless using someone else's appearance, when they take on that person's name and gender). As such, I hoped to be able to draw an androgynous figure. What I came up with was this:

I have to admit, my favourite part of this image was the hair. I know that in earlier pictures, hair tended to be fairly simple, but I'm hoping to make hair at least a little more interesting to look at. It was fun doing the waves in the hair - it reminds me a bit of Somnus' hair. Hopefully my practice will help me improve on characters like Somnus as well. I'm also quite happy with how the angles have been coming out as well. It's easy to draw characters facing the camera, and I'll admit that that was something I often did when I was younger, but it's nice to try things from different angles as well.

This character, who is named Nogitsune Nagisa (in the Japanese format of surname first and given name last) was created in a role-play, where I tested out the shapeshifting character, and fell in love with them. There is a lot of depth that such a character can have, not only with being able to explore how the character may win or fail at faking people's identities, but also looking at the psychological side of being everyone but yourself. The picture was inspired by a scene in which Nagisa was speaking with another character on the RP, named 'Bokudou', and a particular conversation that they had there. It stuck with me, somewhat, and thus this image was born in my mind.

To see the full sized image, check it out here and maybe even leave me a comment or two. :) Constructive criticism always helps to improve and that is something I hope to do as an artist. You never stop learning, after all.

Well, until next time!

Tara

Grumpy Bunny Competition!

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

I hope you've all been having a great Halloween this year! And, with it being October 31st, I decided to celebrate by.....doing something that has nothing to do with it. lol. Not to say I wouldn't have done something Halloween-y, but I had a project that had the deadline of the 1st of November, which I was completing this week.

Now, some of you who have been following me for a while might remember me mentioning a competition I had joined, under the title 'Grumpy Bunny' - the project stated that the submitted art had to include the titular character of Bubblegum, from the comic 'Bubblegum and Marzipan' by Foxhat64, who was, for whatever reason, being grumpy. Permitted was any of the other cast from the comic as well, so long as Bubblegum was grumpy. Thus, in my head, I could only imagine the whole group of them stuffed in a room together with Bubblegum grumpy at having the attention taken away, and from that I ended up with what I like to call the Grumpy Bunny Pile Up.

Now, this project was something I admittedly put off for a bit after initially drawing it, mainly as it's deadline was very long, (literally about three months or so, perhaps longer) and I had other projects with closer deadlines, but I finally turned my attention back to it once more and this is the result! :)

(The full version of this is available on my Deviantart for anyone who wants to see it in its full size.)

Character wise, for those unaware of the comic, we have Bubblegum at the bottom, the blonde bunny, Marzipan on the left, Nash the owl on the right, Luna the cat on the top, and Cynder the fox peeking out by Luna's leg. All the characters, of course, belong to Foxhat64, though these are my iterations of them.

I do hope that it does well in the competition. Much like last time there are plenty of talented artists that have taken part, so it should be fun to see how we all do. Wish us all the best! I'll be sure to let you all know how things went once the results are called :)

So, until next time!

Tara

Inspiration!

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

I'll admit that this past week hasn't been a good one for me. I've been ill through most of it, honestly (likely having caught a bunch of things while traveling from the US, or due to the cold I got on the plane my immune system dropped) and only really just recovering now. So admittedly, I've not really been 100%. Still, despite the fact I've not managed to get much work done this week, I thought that I would focus a bit on the Dreamwalkers universe a little.

So far, I've spoken of three of the main characters in Dreamwalkers, a bit about what Oneirology is and how S.O.S fits into the study, and a little bit about the main antagonists of the series, the Oneiros. So, what does that leave us with?

Well, this time, I thought I would actually get a little deeper into Dreamwalkers - not in the story itself, but rather into what made me create the comic in the first place.

Inspiration comes from many places and in many forms. For me, the beginning inspiration for Dreamwalkers came from music. Weirdly, not even really from the lyrics, but the sounds of the tune behind it. Indeed, one of the tunes that inspired me was a Sweedish lulaby, Byssan Lull, and I'll admit here and now that English is the only language I know that I can actually read and write proficiently in (and even then I can get tongue tied or my dyslexia gets in the way), so I actually began coming up with concepts for Dreamwalkers waaaaay before I actually found an actual lyric translation for the song. In this version of the song, the clock pendulum sound in the background, the slow beat and the soothing, almost mystical sounds to it seemed to me to have an underlaying mysticism to it, at least in my head. Coupled with the fact it was a lullaby and it was what gave me the basis to create a story that involved sleep and dreaming.

Researching dreaming on sides such as dream interpretation, as well as the actual concepts of sleep, along with the more mystical aspects that I used to make up the enemy in the story were interesting as well. I always find that if you have a personal interest in what I'm going to be drawing or writing about, it helps to keep my focus and also makes the whole process enjoyable, rather than a chore. And honestly, there is a lot of interesting things about dreaming, sleep and the effects on the mind. Some concepts such as lucid dreaming also made for interest to me, in how the Dreamwalkers can actually function while in the dream worlds.

Essentially, using dreams as the main plot point to a story, rather than some kind of 'And it was all a dream' twist ending means that you have a lot of room to play with. Each dream could even be considered a new world, with different laws and physics, and as each dream is formed from a different mind, new concepts, or even art styles can come into play. The dreams of a child, for example, are not going to be the same as those of an adult. And likewise, as dreams can be influenced by a character's waking self, the lives of each individual character could also effect the events of their dream worlds. All in all, considering it that way, each mission would be new, while still retaining a connection to the overarching plot.

The limits of what could be done, while conforming to the basic plot, of course, is still very much only limited by imagination: that of myself as the creator, and that of the characters 'living' within the Dreamwalkers world.

For me, even now there is a lot that I can still research, and so much potential I can bring to the story, just by looking into actual scientific research as well as dream interpretation which in and of itself could actually grant information about the characters who's dreams the team enters - you would essentially be seeing the character's state of mind without even needing to use words.

Essentially, in Dreamwalkers, even the most 'boring' seeming dream would still have some interesting information, I feel. Of course, that's assuming that they hadn't just ate something funny before sleep. lol

Still, all in all, its interesting where you can go from just a bit of inspiration. And I do hope my spark of inspiration will, at least, make for an interesting series, even if I currently only have the first chapter completed currently. Make sure to keep an eye out for more Dreamwalkers info as I bring it to you.

Hoping that I'll be in a much better state of health, until next time!

Tara

New York, New York!

Hey everyone, welcome back!

As you might recall from my last blog post, or if you've been following me on twitter, I was in New York last week. And while I'm having to resist the urge to sing Frank Sinatra's 'New York, New York' as I type this, this week I'll be talking about my experiences over there, since for me, it was my very first time going to America. Though I'll say this right away that the five days I was there was nowhere near long enough to get a really good experience of the place. It's so big and there was tons of exploring I wanted to do. But it is a place I really would love to go again, for a longer period of time.

So, thankfully the flight was smooth going there. A good thing, really, since it was the longest flight I had been on. Well, I should say 'flights', since we had to go to Amsterdam first. I never quite got why going to Amsterdam, then from there to America would be considered cheaper, though, especially since you have to go back on yourself to get to the US, but I didn't arrange the flights. Might be something I should ask at some point, but hey, the plane to JFK airport was pretty cool. It had a screen in front of each chair that you could watch movies and play games on, we got a pillow and blanket included (which I did attempt to use, even if I pretty much failed at any sleep past ten minute dozing). Oh, and free headphones - which is good as mine seemed to have died half way to the airport.

I seem to have bad luck with headphones.

I think my main complaint was the food. While its awesome that food and drink was included, I really can't eat much plane food. I'm probably a very picky person, but I could only eat about half of the stuff. I was glad for the drink, though. 6 or so hours on a plane without it would have been killer.

So yes, my rambles of travelling aside, New York itself was a really nice looking place, and while its not 'beautiful' in a 'look at all the greenery' fashion (Discounting Central Park), I have to say it was still a very pretty city in its own right. We were staying at the YMCA near Columbus Circle, and it was pretty interesting to look at the various venders and sculptures and generally just how life is in comparison to home. It's a strange experience for me, who comes from a pretty suburban area, to go to larger cities, with the exception of London and Leichester, which I've been to for conventions. Each of them have their own charm, of course. With New York, it was amazing how tall everything was, and yet it wasn't really a dark place in a 'blocking out the sun' manner either, as the tall buildings also seemed to reflect the light around.

Honestly, if I wasn't acting as the main navigator between Nadia and I, I would have loved to have been able to focus on the architecture if nothing else.

I think my only real complaint, if you can call it a complaint, was signs. Some of them were a bit hard to find at times, though mostly if using the subways. I suppose if you live there, you probably know where you would be going, but as for myself, downloading both a street and subway map was a lifesaver to make sure I wasn't a moron and going on the wrong train, since it was rare to find a train map once you passed the barriers. But other than that, we weren't too bad off, and if we did get a bit lost, people were really helpful. Maybe I'm just more used to reserved people, or people who are far too used to getting jumped by people trying to sell stuff or ask for money for charity or something to do with religion, but the residents mostly seemed quite happy to point us in the right direction. Honestly, people did seem a bit more open to talk. I mean, in the UK, more often than not, on trains or other public transport, people usually only talk if they know you, but a few times we were spoken to on the train by strangers. It really was weird, cause I often had the very British reaction of 'OMG a person is talking to me randomly, who the heck are you?' in my head, but it's not like I want to be rude either, you know? Still, it was a nice change of pace, my weird thoughts aside.

I'll admit that a lot of the time we were there, we were looking mostly at different types of food sold in America that I've never had in the UK, which is where the navigation came into play. Nadia was mainly pointing out where to go, and I was getting us there. Food was a bit mixed - I'll admit, I kind of like not too complicated stuff when it comes to food. I don't handle spice all too well, as apposed to my friend, who loves the stuff, so between us we had varied reactions to some places, where I was happy with the food, but my Foodie Friend was much more critical. Though we did have a few bad experences on that front. Nadia and me chat about the food on the Tanrastudios Blog, so you can check out our thoughts there - a bit of warning, though, its a very informal and opinion based post, and Nadia is prone to swearing, but we cover all the places we went for food there.  Still, I can show a few pics of the types of food we had :)

 

Oh, there was one food thing that I did find funny, though, which I didn't talk about on the other blog, was that I got renamed by Starbucks, which I found funny. I was named 'Tari', which really confused me when they called my order out, since I knew I said Tara. Maybe it was just busy, but I'll admit it was funny. I'll admit I made a few 'Atari' jokes - well, after I managed to say 'I didn't know I was a Tari' to Nadia and my Pun mode kicked in. lol

Yeah, I'm a bit of a fan of bad jokes. I drive Nadia mad all the time when I hit Pun Mode. lol

So, anyway, food aside, I did get to see a few things.

One of these was the New York Comic Con!

I mentioned before that getting the tickets had been a nerve-wracking experience, considering just how fast they sold out, but I was glad that I had it delivered to me. While the convention itself was much like London's, albeit bigger, it was still fun to look around. There were some interesting sights there, and I'll admit, by the end of it, my feet were almost literally dropping off! I didn't particularly buy much, but I do hope that, one day, Nadia and myself will be able to go to New York Comic Con as venders at some point. I think that would be awesome. We do have a long way to go before that, though. But one day! 

On Wednesday, on the Tanra blog, we'll be talking about the con in length, hence my somewhat brief mention of the subject here. But we'll definitely be covering it and I'll be retweeting the link, if you guys are interested. I'll also link you all in on my next post too. :)

I got to see the Statue of Liberty, too, though from a distance - we were on a ferry.

But still, its the closest I've ever been to that historical monument, so its still pretty cool. I managed to get a picture of it, though I'll admit, my photography skills on my phone are terrible. I certainly wont be winning any awards for those any time soon! But it was still pretty cool to have the reminders.

We would have gone to see the Empire State Building too, but that trip had been scheduled the evening we arrived and I'll admit I was suffering from Jetlag there. It is a place I'd love to see some day, though, along with other similar places too, so I'd definitely want to come back.

Going back home was about as fun as arriving, though with added colds to the mix - the problem with flying, I guess. With the air circulation, if one person has a cold, or is ill, pretty much everyone ends up with the same thing.

Still, despite that, I had fun on the trip and would definitely go again for a longer period! :)

So, for now, until next time!

Tara

I'm So Excited!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I'm really excited for the coming week, which I've spent most of last week prepping for! While I was still attending university, before my graduation, me and a few others had signed up for a trip to New York! It's the first time I've ever been to America before and its one of those places I've wanted to go for a long time, even before I started the Cartoon and Comic Arts Course (The other place I've been wanting to go for years being Japan), so even if its only for less than a week, I'm really happy to go!

So, what does it mean for you guys?

Well, it mainly means that I wont be able to blog this coming weekend, but instead, I'm going to be taking los of videos, maybe filming a bit on my phone to show you all what we get up to in NYC. Considering one of those days also includes the New York Comic Con, I think there'll be a lot to report! I'll be posting these pics and videos on my Facebook page, the TanraStudios Facebook Page and both my own and the TanraStudios twitter live, so, if you happen to be in the area, so if you follow any of those, keep an eye out!

Oh, for those who just read my blog directly, here are the links to mine and the TanraStudios Facebook and twitter:

My Twitter

My Facebook

TanraStudios Twitter

TanraStudios Facebook


I'll also be doing a blog post once I'm back in the country again, including all my thoughts and feelings on the trip, too, so I hope you guys look forwards to it, cause I know I'm pretty pumped!

Sorry that this post is a fairly short one this week. As mentioned, I've been running around making sure that my ESTA, insurance, money and belongings I'll be taking with me are all sorted, along with my day work, so admittedly I've done little in terms of art work, which sucks. But hey, I'll be making it up with all my photos and thoughts of the trip

So, until then!

Tara

Random Stuff!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, I'll admit I've been a little busy this week with work and planning out part two of Dreamwalkers, but since I can't really show any of the sketched comic images without spoiling things right now, I thought I should show you a few other things I've been working on in the meantime. It's not quite the same, I know, but I hope it'll be interesting anyway :)

So, the first thing was something of an experiment in inking and also in doing more fine details, such as doing hair. My usual style is, admittedly, a little more simplistic where hair is concerned, and admittedly, I was a little unsure how it would come out. While the image is currently unfinished, this is what I have so far:

It looks a tad weird when its unfinished, especially since it looks like there are horns growing out of the character's back right now (Spoilers: they aren't horns, just something unfinished. lol), but I have to admit that the hair did come out quite well. Though admittedly, it did take me a while. I started by drawing the outlines of where the hair would flow, before adding in the shadows/inking to each section individually.

Admittedly, this likely isn't the most productive manner to do this in comics, and there is probably more efficient ways, but I'll admit that I prefer to experiment a bit before I actually look up tutorials. Again, its a bit of a weird way of doing things, but I am a bit weird. I guess its just it feels easier to adapt tutorials into whatever I learned from my experimentation, rather than trying to use tutorials and then trying to experiment with them when I've now got a full 'this is how you do it' in my head.

But that;'s just me, and I know I'm odd. lol

Either way, I'm quite pleased with how its turning out so far, and I hope that the trend continues as I work on it more. There is still a lot to do. Like finishing the armour, the wings, and....well, the lower body.

Still, this isn't the only think I've been working on. I've also been asked to do a continuation of a tattoo that I did last year. This time, I've been asked to make a pocket watch over a cracked part of skin, which will have words underneath, with various words such as freedom and liberty, etc. There is also going to be a broken chain coming from the pocket watch.

This is currently my progress on that.

 Have I ever mentioned before that drawing circles by hand is difficult for me? Still, it's not as bad as it could be, right? I didn't want to rely on the circle tool, especially since I'll have to work on thicknesses on certain sides of the circle and such. I do think that what will take the most time, though, is the cogs on the inside of the clock. There is a lot of detail there after all, and one of the requirements I was given was to have a pocket watch that showed those cogs in the middle. Still, I'll persevere! I do hope the rest of it will work out, though, as I want it to go well. It is for a client after all. Hopefully, once I'm done I can show the final result and how the client liked it too :)

That's all from me for now!

Until next time!

Tara

Somnus Oneirology Specialists

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Today, I thought I would talk a little about something I've mentioned in a few of my posts about my comic, Dreamwalkers. That is, the group known as S.O.S, which the central plot revolves around. As mentioned, S.O.S, in this case, rather than the usual Save Our Souls meaning, stands for Somnus Oneirology Specialists.

Now, as you probably know from any of my previous posts, Somnus refers to one of the main characters and founders of this group, and I'm sure I don't need to explain the 'specialist' part. However, Oneirology, the middle part of this version of S.O.S, is not a standard word that everyone uses day to day. However, it's not a made up word. Oneirology comes from the Greek 'Oneiron', meaning 'dream', and 'Logia', meaning 'The Study of'. As such, the word Oneirology translates to 'The Study of Dreams'.

According to Wikipedia and similar sources, Onreiology researches the connection between dreams and known brain functions, the mechanisms of dreaming, how dreams can be influenced, as well as how the brain works in dreaming pertaining to memory formation and mental disorders. The aim is to study the process of dreams, rather than analysing the meaning behind them, so Onreiology is a completely different study than that of Dream Interpretation.

Considering that the creatures that Dreamwalkers revolves around, the Onreios, effect dreams on a physical level, enough that it can change brain functions to essentially kill the dreamer from their own dreams, Oneirology fit far more than dream interpretation. That is not to say that some dream interpretation couldn't be added to the specific dreams that each victim might have during the series, but the Dreamwalkers are mainly looking at brain function during the sleeping states of the victims to monitor their state and locate and classify the Oneiros, which is far closer to Oneirology.

In the story, S.O.S is meant to be a legitimate business. A character whom has yet to be introduced, is actually trained in Dreamology, and as such, they can still earn a living, even when an Oneiros-inflicted victim isn't the one walking through the doors, but as mentioned before, Oneirology in this case can only locate and classify the Oneiros. Now, you may be wondering where the 'Dreamwalking' is involved.

Using the Oneirology as a basis, the Dreamwalkers are then capable of traversing the dream on a conscious basis in order to neutralise the supernatural threat. Now, while Dreamwalkers on the level of this story might not exist, there are such things as people who are fully conscious of the fact they are dreaming, and are even capable of influencing their dreaming actions to a degree. This is referred to a Lucid Dreaming, and is the basis of the idea of Dreamwalking, and thus the basis of the idea for those characters that are capable of hopping into people's dreams. It is certainly an interesting idea that you could have this much control over your dreaming self, and certainly opens up interesting story related doors, especially since the trope of 'everything is a dream' is used less as a twist ending, and more as the premise you already know, but doesn't act as a buffer. Rather, the fact that everything is a dream is actually the reason things are so deadly during the waking parts of the story, where it is now 'real life'.

So, the S.O.S team essentially blend real studies with the supernatural aspect of the story to create the events that Dreamwalkers works around.

Still, I am interested in exploring the ideas of dream interpretations as well. After all, there are characters that only appear for a single case, so the fact that you could divine information about them due to the kind of dream they are having seems an interesting way of developing characters in this universe, if only slightly. Of course, relying only on that would make things very open to interpretation in some cases, so regular story telling applies as well, but since comics and manga are a visual medium, it certainly peeked my interest.

The world of dreams and its studies are certainly interesting ones!

Until next time!

Tara

Speed Sketching

 Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, I've been doing a few things recently. I've been rather busy at my day job, so I haven't really been able to focus on Dreamwalkers much. But I do have some news! I'm going to be going to New Work Comic Con! Not selling anything, unfortunately (maybe one day once there are lots more volumes of the comics done and there is more of a following. Tis a goal!) but it'll actually be my first time attending a con abroad. And considering that it's likely to be even bigger than London, I'm really excited to see how things are done over there. My ticket arrived in the post yesterday, so I'm really hyped now. Less than a month to go!

I'll definitely be giving my impressions of it once I return, but I'll talk about that more a bit closer to the time.

In the meantime, I've just been working on a few random things. Firstly, I was working on creating a portfolio picture for a Naruto OC I made a while ago. I'm going to be creating a full version including different angle shots, different clothing types etc. If the final version goes well, its my intention to do something like that for the Dreamwalker characters as well too. But as its not too important, I've only been working on this version on and off. While all the angles have been sketched out so far, I've only got one of the full body drawings finished.

It's certainly been interesting doing this, so I think it'll be fun to be able to do such things with the Dreamwalker cast, especially considering the interesting clothing styles that Somnus and Ashling tend to favour.

As well as slowly working on that in spare time, I've also been seeuing just how fast I can do sketch/colour drawings. They certainly aren't neat, of course, but I'm mostly using them as warm ups to keep my hand in while I've been busy with my day job (I don't work set hours, so they can change weekly. Normally I have more time to work on my comics). As said, not neat, but they have been quite fun. These are a few of my quick five/ten minute sketches:

Not all of them came out brilliantly of course, especially since I was limiting myself to five to ten minutes to draw and colour as best I could. These two were some of my favourites, but it was fun just messing around, sketching whatever I felt like and just keeping practicing until I can really get back on track again. If nothing else, it was just fun trying out different styles, even if they are only in sketched form. Hopefully, I'll be able to show some more things soon too! It'll be interesting to see what might inspire me next. :)

Until next time!

Tara

The Antagonists

Hiya everyone! Welcome back!

So, I did a ten facts list on the three main characters the last few weeks. Today, I thought I would talk a little about the main antagonistic force in Dreamwalkers, which I had mentioned briefly in past posts. The antagonists are referred to as the Onreios.

The word 'Onreios' is actually from the Greek mythological entities referred to as 'Onreioi'. In the Greek mythology, the Onreioi are the offspring of the goddess of night, Nyx, and the siblings of Thanatos (god of death), Hypnos (god of sleep) and Geras (god of old age). They were said to be the personification of dreams and took the appearance of black winged daemons. These came to be the inspiration of the Onreios, who are beings that are the personification of monstrous nightmares that the S.O.S team have to hunt down within the dreamscape. The name also comes from the word Onreiology, which is another word for Dreamology.

Here are a few of my initial concepts for the Onreios:

I had planned for the Onreios to come in different shapes and sizes, depending on things people might fear, so I practiced with a lot of different sketches, some of which might even be used in a fashion later on. Things that look shadow, unnatural and out of place certainly seemed fitting. A style I chose for the final design of the Onreios that appear in the first chapter I decided to look into more human-like features, such as a humanoid skull-like face, but warped and changed. Something I found was that the closer things look to human, the more unnatural they can sometimes appear. Of course, the additional features added to it also help too. Still, if only to make it interesting, each Onreios that appear in each cake will be unique in their own ways.

I'm considering at the end of each case doing a little Onreios file at the end, giving a bit of information about the creature involved with the case.

There is more involved where the Onreios are concerned, including a ranking system, hierarchy and more, but as it's not yet appeared in the comic itself, I'll bring up that at a later time. Something to look forwards to as the team and the readers learn more themselves. Still, there is a lot of info on the Onreioi online, if anyone wants more information on the inspiration for the Onreios. It is an interesting read, since they aren't the most well known of Greek myths.

I'll very likely make more concepts for different Onreios as the series goes on, so keep an eye out for those too :)

Until next time!

Tara