Of Banners and Icons

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So this past week, I've been working on a couple of projects. The first one I mentioned last time, which involves making a banner and icon for an Ebay shop, and a second one, which is to make an avatar/icon for a fanfiction profile.

So for the first one, the Ebay shop in question is a game shop that deals with retro games and is doing quite well, but wishes to become a little more professional looking, thus wishing for a banner and icon for the online store. Most of the banner so far has come down to researching in looking for fonts that might work with the store and what it sells. As such, I looked up various free-use fonts online for ideas and presented some of the to the client, so that he could see if any would interest him. So far, he has found four that could work, depending on how they look once in a banner form, though I'll also be trying out a few with modified fonts, and make an attempt to make my own font.

That last one will be the most tricky, as I only semi-created a font when I made the title for my Susanoo comic a few years ago. However, I'll certainly be doing my best. Time to brush up on my typography!

I have also worked out what colour scheme that the client wants as well, though I've not been informed which colours will be better where, so some of my differentiations will also be purely different variations of the colour as well.

Once the main banner is done, then the icon will be easier to work with, since I'll have a preferred font to work with and can come up with some interesting appearances for that. What I do need, however, is the dimensions of the banners and icons on Ebay. I personally don't use it often enough to have a clue, so my research crusades are not yet at an end!

On the note of icons, the next project is to create a few different icon/avatars for a new user on Archive of Our Own - for those unsure of what that is, its a fanfiction archiving site where you can right your own fics for various fandoms. The new user is currently awaiting the 'invite' to join, which can take a few weeks, so is preparing for once the invite arrives.

So the icon would be their avatar on the site.

The first one I'm working on was based on a character I drew and showed on here and on my Deviant Art page - the character Nagisa Nogitsune. They liked the design and was wondering if I could make an icon of it for them to potentially use, along with a few other designs and they will eventually take their pick.

So, while it isn't quite finished yet (Ah, the dreaded shading and lighting....) This is what I have so far:

This is a somewhat enlarged version, since the avatars are a bit smaller. However, this is what I have so far. I think the biggest part of this was the flame effects. Mainly, me recalling how I did my fire effects last time I worked on the blue flames. I think I have managed to replicate it, though....Hopefully. There is a few possible edits I may include, such as a hand with a finger near the lips, as if making a shush sound, though that might make the image a tad too cluttered. It is just something that I'll have to attempt on a different layer and see how it goes.

As for other icons....not certain how they will come out just yet, but I'll keep you all informed, along with what image, in the end, is chosen.

Should be fun either way!

Until next time!

Tara

Chibi Sketch!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So I've been doing little bits and pieces to the angel picture that I started last week. Its a little slow going, since I've been a tad busy, but the shape is beginning to form somewhat. Its likely that I'll be having to do small details and adjustments as I go along, however. I'm a little unsure about the wings of the angel at the moment, as a lot of details even smaller than the main part will be needed. I'll be giving a picture based update on that soon enough though, once I feel that some of its true appearance will come through. Or at least until I have a lot more of it finished, if only to give something a bit more interesting to look at.

On the other hand, considering I've been experimenting on styles a little with the angel piece, I thought I should maybe have a little experiment on another style that I don't tend to focus on much, but if pretty fun to do anyway. That is....chibi!

Admittedly, I don't think I have a real set style with this. It might be because even my somewhat overly cartoony seeming pictures, similar to the cartoony drawing of myself I did a while ago, it isn't exactly a 'chibi' style. So I thought I'd give it a go. I had started to add a little shadows on my pictures of Aster I mentioned a few posts ago, so I thought, hey, while I'm working on that, maybe I'll try out chibi with that character? If only to get my hand in before I try out other characters in that style, too.

While this is still part way between extremely rough and sort of rough in terms of sketch, this is what I have so far of Chibi Aster:

As you can see, there is still a lot to do, but it has been coming out pretty well so far. I'm currently working on the little details - I know the eyes are a tad off at the moment, and I'll need to put more details in things like the knife, as well as what I actually want to do with that other hand. I have a few ideas at the moment, but I'll be having a bit of a test with those. It will either stay as it is, have them holding another knife, or maybe showing off their powers a little bit. It'll be fun to see what works. If everything goes well with Aster here, I might try my hand at doing other characters, either my own, chibi versions of characters from fandoms I enjoy, or maybe even something done on request. Not entirely sure yet. We'll see how it goes!

One thing I know I'll be working on for a little bit is an actually requested item, though - a banner/logo for an ebay shop that has been doing well recently. That will certainly be something new for me, as it involves typography, rather than a character of some kind. As I'm not a graphic designer, it might be a challenge, but it is one I will do my best to rise up to! I'm unsure if I'll need to make a new font from scratch, or if I'll be able to find something that my client would like, but either way, I'll keep you all informed on my progress.

Of course, if anyone has any suggestions for me that might fit a game selling online store in terms of fonts, then that will be a great help. If not, well, it'll be fun coming up with combinations to present to him and see if any of them take his fancy. Considering I'm a big fan of games (RPG types, mainly) its pretty cool to be asked to do this, too.

Well, until next time!

Tara

Angelic Experement

Hey Everyone! Welcome back!

So...Ever been bitten by a horsefly? I have. For what seemed to be the hundredth time st this point. What is even more funny is that I don't live anywhere near horses. But where I walk my dog seems to have become home to some of them. And I swear they must be mutants - the one that bit me decided to do it through my leggings! I didn't even think they could bite through cloth (and it couldn't possibly have been that one was in my clothing before the bite, because I was wearing them all day with no issue) . What is worse is that it got infected, too. So I'm currently on antibiotics to help get rid of that. I don't seem to be having much luck lately, huh?

So, with a burning leg that itches like crazy, I'm not entirely sure that I was able to draw at my best....possibly the worst time to experiment on things. However, despite this, I did very rough sketches of just about anything to keep my mind off things. As it was, one of these sketches gave me an idea to have another play around with a different art style, the one I used to make the portrait of Shinobu before. I was sketching just a random woman, and it ended up turning into some kind of angel.

True, the sketch in and of itself was ridiculously rough, not even with facial features, so I thought it might make for a good base to work with art that wouldn't have any lines to it when finished. At this moment in time, its still pretty rough, even the bits of colour that I've done so far, mainly as a lot of detail will be needed, including hair strands, adjusting eyelashes, the finer things, along with the more detailed light and shadows that will be needed, as well as blending certain sections to make it a tad bit less obvious that I was working in sections. All in all, it's a work in progress that might take me a while, especially with the tweaks that will need to be done once the main colours are finished to make things stand out a bit more.

This is what I have so far:

As you can see, the hair currently looks like bunches of bananas, but, once finished, it should look more like locks of hair. Shadows and lights will be added as I go along, and further adjusted. This picture will likely have a lot of edits done to it until it is fully complete. Hopefully the effort will be worth it once I'm finished. Fingers crossed? I'll be showing my progress on this as I go along, as it may take a while, especially since this is a style I'm not the most familiar with when it comes to drawing people.

With hopefully less ouches, until next time!

Tara