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