Pen Sketch!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, does anyone ever get the urge to sketch while you're at work? Obviously not when you're meant to be busy, but while you're waiting for something (or if in the service industry, someone) so you can do more at your job. In my case it would be on a slow day working at the pub, no one is waiting to be served and I've already restocked annd whipped things down. Well, I had the urge, but only had scrap paper and a biro to work with. So, basically, can't afford to make too many mistakes, cause the sketch would be permanent (Or at least would waste paper that I didn't have much of).

As you can guess, I decided 'what the hay' and decided to do a sketch. I didn't particually have anything in mind at first, even considered drawing Rem or Somnus, but somehow I found myself thinking more onto the fantasy side of things and ended up drawing a younger version of Nui, a character I had done a full body image of about a year ago.

For those of you who dont know, Nui was a character I made for an RP who was essentially able to transform into a dragon. Though I haven't drawn his dragon form yet, I found myself drawing him as a kid, sitting and chilling on a large tree root. I was actually rather surprised how it came out, considering I had no plan in mind when I started and was using pen from the get go.

Honestly, I'd really like to do a digital version of this. Not only will it give me some practice on backgrounds (Or trees, specifically), but I think it might make for a fun image to complete. If I can get the background and lighting right, it could be quite pretty even. While Nui can be somewhat simple to draw in terms of not many complicated design details, he is a favourite, and I got to admit kid him is cute. I almost feel bad that I gave older him a haircut. Oh well!

Still, for a straight up pen sketch, I think it came out pretty good. :)

Still, any thoughts? I'm always happy for constructive comments!

Until next time!

Tara

Fox Lord!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I've been on a bit of a mythology streak this past week when not working. I've always been pretty interested in different mythologies and my favourite part of history back in school was whenever we looked into the mythologies of different cultures. Hell, even Dreamwalkers does touch on some of that - for example the naming 'ranks' of the different types of enemies, even the way some of the dreams turn out.

Speaking of mythology, a long time ago, I made an image of a Kitsune (fox) in human form. Foxes with the ability to transform is one of those mythologies that shows up a lot, though most people would think of the Kitsune, the Japanese version of this particular supernatural type of creatures, though foxes gaining supernatural powers have been seen in Chinese and Korean mythology too. The idea of normal animals gaining the ability to perform supernatural feats is pretty awesome. I mean, imagine if your pet could start to talk with you!

But anyway, a while ago I did do a picture of a fox in human form. Admittedly, I liked it! Though looking back on it, it was a little odd in proportions and my style has changed a little since then. As such, I wanted to have another go at drawing the character. As such, I decided to remake the picture of the fox lord:

Admittedly, this is currently only the sketched version and not fully the final form, but I do hope to make a digital version of this. If nothing else I'm a little happier about the hand, though I know I do need to fix the proportions a little more (trust me for doing this as a quick basic sketch rather than thinking about it a bit more, but having it rough does mean I can play with it a little more, maybe even experiment a little with colour to make those tails really seem fluffy, not to mention the fun I can have with the shadows with the cloth covering his lower form.

All in all, its still pretty rough and I might see about doing other sketched versions before I settle on the final one. Once its done, I can then do a compare and contrast with the old version. Admittedly its not quite as old as some of the characters I've drawn in the past (those ones will be really interesting to see how they look now!) but it will at least show the difference a few years makes :)

Wish me luck!

Until next time!

Tara

Oh My Goodness...

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Oh my god, I found some of the first sketches I did of both Somnus and Rem, back when I was first playing with the idea of Dreamwalkers. This was long before I was at Uni and the ideas were...probebly no more than a paragraph. It was only really after I started University doing the cartoon and comic degree that either characters really settled into forms that I would use. Honestly, I practically forgot about these as at one point I had up to thirty story ideas that I had written into notebooks.

Looking back on some ideas...well, they weren't particually detailed at the time, or were pretty...uh...bad. It was only really later that I had gathered the best ideas and began to come up with something a bit more detailed. With some of the less thought out ones that wouldn't have worked on their own but still had some promise with short plotlines or were too similar to other story ideas I had, I actually cannibalised into the more promising stories, where the better ideas would shine without just coming across as poorly written or with half baked characters that didn't do them justice.

Still, it was in those really old ideas that I found some pen sketched first draft version of the characters that would eventually evolve into two key figures in Dreamwalkers.

Just a warning, they're pretty bad. My art style's evolved a lot from when I came up with these. Mind you, at the time, my goal was more to write the stories in a novel form rather than a comic, buuuuut...they're still pretty bad

It's pretty funny how much Rem changed, honestly. His first, first version looks nothing like him, but it seems even the me of the past agreed as the sketch at the bottom  appeared a few pages later, when he started to resemble the self he becomes - couldn't miss the cow lick! lol Though his hair seemed to be more wavy back then. On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking for Somnus. I did, of course, keep his wavy hair, but I think I made his face slightly less....uh...cat like? Not to mention his hair became longer...

Though the word itself is a bit overused...I was certainly cringing, looking back. At the same time its fascinating seeing how my characters have evolved from these little pen doodles. I may have mentioned it before, but seeing these makes me want to look through those old story ideas, find old sketches and do sketches of them in my current art style, just to see how they look. Who knows, I may even find some lost gems from my past. Not to mention pretty fun!

Until next time!

Tara

Hot Headed!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Welp, been a bit on the busy side at work this week. Since its coming up to time when Paid Holiday needs to be taken before the financial year ends, we've been working a bit short staffed. And then there was last minute calling in sick...(By last minute I mean half hour before I was finishing a shift and thus had to stay on for a few more hours to cover, then had some rearrangements to the rota for the rest of the week). Well, just ended up doing more hours than I thought I'd be doing at the Monday.

Still, at least I know I have some paid holiday to come soon, so I do have that to look forwards to. I'm beginning to make some plans for them, so should be fun :) Plus going somewhere a little different I might get some good reference material for my comics, at least in terms of realistic backgrounds. You can never have too much reference!

Speaking f reference, though less about backgrounds, I was having a play around with demonic features that could work for Damien (my devil dude I've drawn a few times) or, failing that, for another story idea I had that plays around with demons and the seven sins. I ended up with a head sketch front ad side view, though I think I could, if I worked on it digitally, have some fun with the effects I could make.

For example, the 'hair'. I was originally thinking flames, but considering this is a demon, I don't necessarily even need to go with orangey red ones (though it would still look pretty cool...uh, no pun intended), but I could try blue flames for a more supernatural feel, or I could drop flames all together and make it a black shadowy substance. Depending on just the colouring alone it could give this character a different feel to it, even give some hints about what the character is like. I could even follow a similar feel used in Disney's Hercules, how Hades' 'hair' changed colour with his emotions. So much to play with!

Beyond the hair, I exaggerated some of the features, such as the wide mouth and huge eyes. Sometimes simple human features that aren't 'quite right' can be quite freaky in and of themselves. Couple that with playing around with lighting effects and colour and it could come out pretty effective! 

If nothing else, playing around with this could help me to come up with some things that could even be used in the dreamscapes for Dreamwalkers. What do you guys think?

Until next time!

Tara

Take Two!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

Firstly, I hope everyone had a great Easter and didn't get trolled too hard for April first. I know that it's been busy for me over the weekend, since plenty of people want to go out over Easter and when everyone else is off, bar workers tent to, well, work. lol. Not only that, my dad retired and my family and I had a party for him. It was pretty fun, nice to see some of the family again and dad seemed to have a good time too, so a success all in all :) We even had a cake that was modeled after him to make it seem like he was lounging on a beach. It was almost a shame to cut into it, to be honest.

All that aside, I'm not sure if you guys remembered a picture I did back in June of last year (the blog was called 'Two For One' if you need a refresh of what that blog entailed) which was a portrait of a character named Shinobu done in a somewhat different style to what I normally use. Said style mostly relied on making shapes of colour and blending in to create the image. Well, I decided I wanted to have a go at redoing the image, but in my usual style. This meant doing the line art and going from there.

No real reason for it, but I wanted to see how different she might look, or if she was still recognisable as Shinobu in my usual style.

Admittedly, its not finished - like I said, bit of a busy week - but I did do the line art and flat colour, so thought I might at least show what I got so far.

Admittedly, wasn't too happy with the line art and needs some lights and shadows, but she's still pretty recognisable despite being in a different style. It's always good to see if a character made can still be identified even when the art is a bit different. Though it's unfinished, anyone got thoughts on the two styles? Or even have a preference?

Not to say it can't be improved on, of course. I'm pretty sure I could do a lot better. Still, for being done while short on time, I'm not complaining too much. Goes to show I should try and have more time dedicated to digital art to get a bit better with my line art, though.

Anyone else feel like, if they've not done much in way of drawing for a bit, you need to refresh to get back into the skill you had? Or get off days where you suddenly wonder if you could draw at all? Yeah, pretty much the issue here, I think.

Welp! Just means I should get in some practice before  really get back into Dreamwalkers and stuff.

Speaking of that, I'm currently working on the script for it. I wasn't entirely impressed with the previous version, looking back, especially since the chapter is supposed to be introducing SOS, so time for 2.0! Wish me luck!

Until next time!

Tara