Stoke Con: Post Con

Hey Guys, welcome back!

So, as I mentioned last time, I was at a convention this weekend (main reason I'm posting today, rather than my usual Saturday/Sunday post. Though for those of you that have been following me on Twitter (@chosha_kurenai) or have been following the TanraStudios Twitter (@Tanra626) then you may have been privy to our live tweets about the event. As we were there as TanraStudios, we were also blogged a few times on the Tanra blog.

The Tanra Studios blog usually covers our comic work and conventions as if we were in 'verse with our joint creation, Pandora, so its a funny, comedic twist on events. So if you want to read up on the adventures of Agent N (Nadia) and Agent T (me), then you should check us out here:

tanrastudios.blogspot.co.uk

Though for those of you who want the less 'in verse' version, then I'll update you guys here too!

So, not much to report on the week before we headed off to the convention. We were mainly preparing for the convention, making sure we had our prints and our new leaflet promoting Tanra Studios.

Similar to the website designs we're working on, we went for a joint style - meaning I did the base sketches of Rodessa from Pandora, and Rem from Dreamwalkers, while Nadia completed the line art and colour. We took some of them with us to Stoke Con, while the rest we have at a few shops that were happy to take some of them. It's certainly interesting to see Rem in our joint style, since its the first time we've done it with him, but it's cool seeing him in Pandora colours as well!

So, armed with our fliers, badges, prints and comics, we were ready for Stoke Con

Truthfully we weren't in the best place - we were on an upper floor in part that had the least amount of through traffic, so we didn't do as well as at True Believers, but it wasn't a flop, either. Our lucky Dip went well - someone even got the gold prize too! And we also sold a couple of prints, a comic or two and badges. Our main draw (literally in this case) was in the commissions, though. I managed to sell four sketched commissions and Nadia got a digital one as well.

Here's the one's I did :)

 



Undertale seemed to be the main commission asks - though it might be because I had some example sketches up showing Undertale characters I doodled - but I also did a picture of someone's cosplay as well. It was pretty cool. They even let me take pictures with them too.

They were fun - I enjoyed doing the commissions. Everyone was really nice as well, so I'm glad they were happy!

Either way, we had fun, though admittedly my back was killing me afterwards - it was worth it, though!

I believe our next convention is in June, but I'll talk more about that one a little closer to the time

But if anyone following us saw us over at the Stoke Con, I want to thank all of you for coming to check us out! It means a lot to us!


Updates from me should be back to normal now, and I'll be talking more on Sunday about more Dreamwalkers and anything else I have been working on, so hope to see you soon!

Until Next time!

Tara

Posters and Comicon News!

Hi guys! Welcome back

So, as I mentioned to you guys last week, albeit very much in passing, as I was talking about my external work at the time, but next Sunday is Stoke Con Trent, based in, well, Stoke. lol. Well, me and Nadia are going to be there selling our work, so if you're in the area and you're interested, come check us out!

This is one of the posters that was designed for Stoke Con, with art from all the talented people in my course, with characters from their respective comics, including one of mine! Which was one of the things I was working on this last week. Since I will be selling Susanoo over at Stoke Con, I thought it best to use him to represent my art this time. Here's a close up of the image I contributed:

Its been fun drawing Susanoo things again. I enjoyed it when I was working on that comic after all. Though I can certainly tell where I've grown as an artist since then. Perhaps I'll revisit it one day. But I'm glad I got the opportunity to draw him again!

My caricature I did is also represented on another Stoke Con Poster too! Though I unfortunately don't have the picture of that just yet to show you. Maybe next time?

Speaking of things I did this week, I finally got the first draft of Dreamwalkers 2 script done. Its very basic at the moment, with only vague stage directions (so to speak) and mostly dialogue. Though I might go through a few drafts, to be sure that the dialogue flows naturally and that it wont get boring for the reader. Once I've done that, I can start thumbnailing for it. Woot!

Not much else to report for now! But next week I'll be covering how we did at Stoke Con and any other new news I can think of.

Until next time!

Tara

Pictures Galore!

Hi guys, welcome back!

Well,. I had been meaning to do more work on the script for Dreamwalkers part 2, but a little stuck in places at the moment. I have some scenes I know exactly what I want to happen, but I mainly need to connect them so they aren't really awkward. I think I was having some writers block this week, though, unfortunately, so instead, I've been working on some sketches.

Firstly, I've been working on an external piece at uni - basically we were asked to draw caricatures for the guests that will be coming to Stoke-Con-Trent this April. I decided to draw Jesse McClure. (Here's hoping he's ok with it...After all, no idea what kinda art styles he likes. lol). Here is a quick photograph of what I was working on mid way through:

Forgive the bad photograph. Anyway, I had just finished flat colours at that point in time. It's now pretty much finished, though I probably wont have it up anywhere until after the con, just in case. Still, I certainly had fun with it. I just hope that it's what Stoke-Con was after.

I've also started working on base sketches for a joint poster with Nadia for when our comics, Pandora and Dreamwalkers, both come out. Though I have to do the characters separately, in order to be able to do any tweaks before they go on the same page. I'm in the middle of working on a good pose for my character from Dreamwalkers, but I did complete the base sketch of Ro from Pandora:

(please forgive the fluffy part near the top of that picture, my dog was sleeping. lol)

Lastly, if you've been following Nadia and I over on the Tanra Studios blog, a few weeks ago we mentioned that we're starting a Youtube channel, with various playlists on there that range from talks about our comics and the joint universe, to discussing things like tropes, to general rants about silly anecdotes from real life. The Youtube channel will be partially animated, with drawings that were done by Nadia and I. I've basically been doing some of the 'puppets' based sketch forms (which we would later add clothing and more detail to, etc. I had to do a bunch of different emotions in body language. As they are in a 'chibi' style, they are a bit different from my normal work, but it's been fun to draw them - its then drawing regular things that felt so weird afterwards! lol

I wont show all of them here - save a little of it for when the channel is up and running - but here is a bit of some of them:

There are several pages worth of these sketches, ranging from happy, startled, angry etc, though admittedly there are more than two or three sketches on those pages. Still, I hope that you'll look forwards to the finished ones.

Anyway, here's hoping that I get over my writers block for next week, as I really want to try to start thumbnailing chapter two of Dreamwalkers soon. But I'll keep you posted.

Until next time!

Tara

Happy Easter!

Hi guys! Welcome back!

So its the Easter holidays! Yay! I hope that everyone has been having a great day and had lots of Easter Eggs. Speaking of Easter Eggs, like I have been doing for various other holidays, I've made one of my mascots as an Easter pic.

I hope you guys like it! Though I think I need to get more used to using my intuos rather than the higher tech tablets from the university - I think I'm still a bit shaky on my hand eye co-ordination.

Anyway, literal Easter Eggs for you guys aside, I'm gonna leave you guys with an update on how things are going with Dreamwalkers part two. So far I've started working on the basic script (basically who says what and where people go etc. I will have to later then work out panel layouts and stuff. So far, I've just reached the start of the climax of the chapter in script form, and have the rest bullet pointed out as to the key events going on. I'm hoping to complete the script before the holidays are up.

Not much really to report this time, but I hope you enjoyed the short update.

Have a great Easter everyone!

Until next time!

Tara

Chapter Two! Rough Front Cover Ideas

Hey guys! Welcome back!

So, I've started working on things for the next chapter of Dreamwalkers.

So far, I've bullet pointed all the main plot points that will be occurring in chapter two - looks like it will probably be longer than chapter one, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue. I'll be working on the basic script (that is just who is saying what and any positions/actions the characters will take, rather than the full comic script, which would also include panel layouts - I do that one after) and thumbnails in the coming week or two.

What I have been doing is a rough digital version of some of the art for front covers for chapter two. Admittedly these are very unrefined and more concepts working on the basic sketches I did a few weeks ago, to see if any have potential once coloured. Only one of them is a little more refined (as I worked in eye glows and such, as well as a rough but not set title placement), but is still rough.

I'm hoping to get some feedback on these, see if any have any promise. So, here's what I have currently:

So yeah, what do you think? Do any of these have any potential, or do you think I should go back to the drawing board where the front cover ideas are concerned. I personally like the first, though the last one does mirror chapter one's cover. As it completes a story arc, that might be a good idea, but I'm not entirely certain. Not to say I don't like the second idea, of course. lol. But I suppose you can see my dilemma?

Feedback and constructive criticism is welcome!

Here's hoping to hear from you guys soon on that.

Until next time!

Tara

Sneak Preview!

Hey guys, welcome back!

Not a large amount to report today other than mainly to update on Dreamwalkers. Other than two pages, which are a page with contact details and the back cover, and a couple of sound effects I'm still not entirely happy with yet, Dreamwalkers Part One is pretty much completed. However, I wont be releasing it until around May, as we, that is Tanra Studios, are hoping to have the first chapters of Dreamwalkers and Pandora to go on sale around the same time. Pandora's first chapter is a bit longer, you see.

However, this means that I'll be well on my way in creating the start of chapter two of Dreamwalkers (so it wont be as long a wait to get the second part, which is good). I will also be starting to create more merch for Dreamwalkers as well, since so far there is only the design for a phone charm/key-chain and a poster done at the moment. I'm hoping to make another print, and maybe stickers or badges as well. I'll keep you posted.

Still, for all of you who have been following me at the moment, as a thank you, I want to show a preview of Dreamwalkers #1. I know it's only a page with no context, but I hope it's interesting for you!

One the last little bits are done, my next Dreamwalkers updates will be my progress on chapter two, as well as any new merchandise that'll be for sale that I'll be working on. I'll also be showing a little of my progress on the caricatures for Stoke Con as well.

Oh, yeah, don't forget to check out Nadia and My shared blog for Tanra Studios on tanrastudios.blogspot.co.uk where we are talking about the lore of the Tanra 'verse as well as updates on our upcoming website, news of comic trailers and our Youtube plans. We tend to take a relaxed, informal approach to things there (with a smidgen of insanity and character cameos), but it'll still be pretty interesting for you, especially if you're interested in the folklore and mythologies that are going to be especially prevalent in Pandora or may even crop up within Dreamwalkers, and if you really want to know what the two of us are up to when we get together. It's updated fairly regularly too, so check us out there.

That's all from me today, but I'll be back next week with more Dreamwalkers (and other projects)

Until next time!

Tara

Progress and New External Project!

Hi guys! Welcome back!

Before I get to he main part of today's post, I'll first give you an update on how things are going where Dreamwalkers is concerned. Pretty much all I need to do if finishing off the shadows and lighting in about three pages, then I just need to ad the last of the speech and sound effects and I'll be done! Awesome, right?

I have been bullet pointing the events for chapter two as well. One I'm done on chapter one, I'll be doing script work and thumbnails for chapter two, as well as do a bit more in way of merch, like stickers and stuff.

I mentioned last time that I'd been working on a new icon for myself, too. So far it's in flat colours, so I still need to do the shadows. It does depend on if I end up just using my Luphin mascots too. lol. But either way, this is what it's looking like so far:

What do you think of it? Do you prefer that kind of style, or the slightly more chibi type that I used on my old icon/business card? Obviously its not quite finished yet, but still good to see how its progressing, right?

Anyway, to the main point of the post - I'm going to be doing caricatures of some of the guests that will be turning up for Stoke Con in April. As you may recall, I said that me and Nadia will be there under our joint name 'Tanra Studios', But we were also asked if we could draw some of the guests. At the moment, I'm trying to decide on who to pick, or if I should do a few, but it's highly likely that my next post will at least show the sketches of the people I decide on.

Speaking of Tanra Studios, if you haven't been following us there, Nadia and I have been doing a lot of talks about the Tanra universe lore. It's pretty interesting, though do to technical issues we've not really been putting too many images up. But that should change now, as we finally managed to get those technical issues dealt with, so we should be able to provide you guys with images again in our Tanra blog! Yay!

Oh, one last thing, in my spare time (which means this is going to be veeeeeeeery slow, as its not top priority and just something I'm doing for fun) I've also been working on a colour Fanart pic from Undertale. Obviously, Undertale and its characters belong to Toby Fox. Still, I thought if nothing else it lets me play with a different art style, using a similar method I used to make my Hex Doll Image.

Please note its no where near finished and still has a long way to go, but I thought I'd let you guys see it.

As you can see, there's still loads to do on it, but since Dreamwalkers, projects for clients and related stuff is most important, it may take a while before I'm finished and happy with it. But it's still a fun pic to play around with.

That's all for now. But hopefully if there's no hiccups, I may have all the images for my comic done next week and ready for the text. I'll keep you guys posted!

Until next time!

Tara