Character Sketch: Kougeki!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, between working on a commission I'm currently doing, I've also been doing some sketches of a character that I made a while ago, but never really drawn before. Partly this was more warm up type things than anything, but two that I did do I'm somewhat considering turning digital in the manner I did Huojin last month. They are both upper body shots and certainly have room for improvement, especially for details, but I do have a couple of ideas if I do end up using them.

For a bit of context though, the character I sketched here is named Kougeki. In the roleplay he was created for, he was originally one of the sub-bosses of an organisation that was meant to essentially destroy the world in an intense 'cleanse' and recreate it. For Kougeki, unlike the head and his fellow deputy, wasn't particually interested in the ethical dilemmas and such, but rather followed out of loyalty to the leader who had given him a purpose after circumstances left him without the ability to physically feel anything and being blind in one eye when it was turned into an optical weapon.

While not particually evil nor predominantly good, Kougeki is wild and unpredictable and, through the course of the story finds his own purpose and, in doing so, ends up acting as a type of antihero and ends up helping to stop the actual destruction of the world in the end, mostly since he would lose his purpose again if the world was reduced to ash rather than because he disagreed or agreed with any particular philosophy. If nothing else, he's fun to use in the roleplay, if only because of his behaviour and because he doesn't fit into the purely 'good' or 'evil' categories.

So, that said, these are the sketches and what ideas I have in mind for them.

Sketch number one is pretty much a simple portrait-like shot of Kougeki, and is sort of a cross between what I did with Huojin, and when I was doing a series of portraits of characters. It would be the less detailed of course, with it being only that, so no background involved, but it would serve as a good reference shot.

Sketch number two I sort of have an idea of doing a more 'poster like' picture of Kougeki prepping for a fight and would be interesting to see the lighting - or rather, lightening - effects. Though the photo of the sketch isn't too obvious, but Kougeki has lightning crackling around his hands and it would make for a different tone to the simple portrait. This one might even have a background to it. I have an idea of making it almost like a comic panel, depending on how it goes.

Of course, both these sketches are simple ideas more than anything, mostly to see if they work. Going forwards, the and sketches that would be the basis for the actual pictures will be a bit more detailed and more refined in placements and such. Admittedly these aren't my main priority, but I'll be updating you on them as I work on them so you can see how they're coming along.

I'll admit, I look forwards to working on sketch 2 - I've not needed to do lightning effects since I worked on the Susanoo comic! Hopefully I remember how it works. If not, then I'm sure I'll be doing research to remind me about it soon enough!

Until next time!

Tara

The Nogitsune Trio! The Update!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, still mostly focused on working on the commission I mentioned last time, but I have done a bit of an update to the Nogitsune Trio that I had been working on before I received the commission, enough of an update to let you guys see what's going on.

Last time I had drawn the line art....but I wasn't particually happy with it due to the hair feeling too solid or in clumps so large it looked more link bunches of bananas than hair, so I used that line art as the clean sketch for the updated version. What I have using that is this:

As you can see, the hair does look less clumped and the ends do seem as though there were bits of hair rather than a solid structure compared to the previous version. I also made slight changes to some of the masks, mostly Uta's and Nagisa's where the eye-holes are concerned. I am contemplating that I might have their eyes peeking through the masks in the shadows at some point, but that is something to experiment with later, depending on if it would complicate the image.

Beyond that, I also did the flat colours for the image, which, if nothing else, helped to seperate the characters from each other, and also allowed me to work out where the kanji will be. I've got placeholders for now, but I'll be attempting to do a stylised version one the main image is finished. 

As you can see, the characters do stand out a lot more from each other, especially since they do favour certain colours. For those unsure, Itazura is the red, Nagisa the blue and Uta the purple. Speaking of Uta, I did later realise her neck was way too thin and fixed it before I finished the flat colour, so it might not fully match the line art from above.

Something I wanted to try was to have a parchment feel to the background, which might fit more once the kanji is less obviously typed, and also would make it look almost like a play on old style pictures without fully being that style. I'm hoping that the textures wont be too out of place, as Uta's mask needs to have wood patterns on it as the 'unique' pattern that would be her calling card, so to speak. As mentioned in a past blog about the family, they are all shapeshifters, which means the masks acts as their 'face' so they can identify each other no matter what appearence they currently have. This at least should make the mask a bit more interesting to look at, as it is very simplistic in comparison to Nagisa and Itazura's.

I'll admit, though, I have a lot of fun with Itazura's mask. Its probebly the most fitting for his temperament. lol.

Admittedly the thing I'm most dreading is hand writing the Kanji. I'm not a native Japanese speaker, nor have I had formal tuition, so I'm terrified I'm going to mess it up. But I'll do my best! Though if anyone has any tips for writing in Japanese or knows where I should look for help on their, I'd love to hear from you!

Until next time!

Tara

More Doodles! :)

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I'm currently in the middle of sketching ideas for the commission I mentioned briefly last week so I'm afraid I can't show much in terms of those just yet, especially since I'd like to at least show them to the one who commissioned me in the first place. Due to that I'll admit I've not really worked on my Nogitsune picture either.

However, I have done a few doodles that you guys might be interested in looking at, since they are to do with the Nogitsune Trio - mainly I was sketching ideas for full body pictures, kind of how I did in the past with Nagisa. Admittedly they are pretty rough, as they were drawn in pen, but most of it was getting a general feel for them. I am hoping to translate them into digital versions at some point, and in doing so fixing a few errors. For now though, thought I'd let you see what my initial ideas are.

So, firstly, Itazura:

Firstly, yes, that arm is the main issue with this picture. I was actually unsure what position to have the arm ad somehow it got....stretched? Either way, its certainly disproportioned and will definitely be changed in the final image. I was contemplating if, like Nagisa, he should be messing around with blue fire or something else. One idea I di have is having the final image with one of the foxes that he uses as helpers, perhaps over his shoulder so he is absently stroking it. But it is just a thought at the moment. All depends on if I can draw a good fox to add in later (I hope I can, I do like foxes, though its been a long time since I drew a normal sized, non-magical one. lol)

Next was Uta:

With Uta being a child I sort of wanted her to look a tad more playful, though it sort of looks like she either is playing some odd game of hopscotch, is jumping over skipping rope two other people off screen are waving around or she jumped off a low wall. Either way, it works. lol. I just knew with Uta that I didn't want her just standing there posing like Nagisa and Itazura, if only because she's a lot younger, being ten rather than a full grown adult.

Out of the two, I think I like how Uta came out better. I might experiment with Itazura's pose just a bit more - I'm not quite sure if it show off his confidence in quite the right manner, so you may see other Itazura poses in the future, but I think I can work best with the Uta sketch into full digital glory. Of course, if anyone has any thoughts on the matter, please let me know :)

Until next time!

Tara

The Nogitsune Trio! A Little Bit More!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I've been a bit busy this week, not only with work, but also in the fact I've run out of room in my sketch book. Well, if nothing else, having hit and miss Tablet capabilities certainly makes sketching old school a bit more appealing. I have been on a shopping trip, though and now have a new sketchbook ready to go! Which is good, as I have actually been given a commission to do. Nothing to show for it quite yet as it wasn't too long ago I was asked, but essentially it's to make a design to go on a wall in a child's bedroom. I was given some examples and ideas that the person has in mind, so, with my new trusty sketchbook, I'll be coming up with a few and see if any of them catch any interest. I'll likely have something to show you guys in the coming weeks, too :) Just something to look forwards to!

For this week, though, around work, running out of sketchbooks (thus shopping) and surprise family visits, I had a go at the line art for the Nogitsune picture, though I'm admittedly a little unsure of it due to line thickness.

This is what  I had done:

Now, the main problem with it is the hair kind of looks a little too overlaid and not so much detail towards the tips, making them look a bit like leaves. I was also a bit unsure if the line art itself was too thick, or if I should leave it with a similar thickness and attempt to have it so the line art will be coloured, thus making it blend in a little more. 

What I am considering is actually using this as the more 'neat' base art, but redoing the line art so it will be a tad thinner, but will also have a bit more detail in the hair so they look more like strands and less like clumps. I think perhaps in this one I was following my sketches a tad too closely, perhaps. If nothing else, it did help me get my hand back in after so long needing to avoid using my tablet to fix its sticking issue. Despite this, having a neat base line art should be easier to work with than rough sketches, so it should make the true line art easier to add the smaller details too. As such, the 'mistakes' can be used to make something better :)

Alongside that, I did some research as to what the kanji would look like for Nogitsune, which will appear in the blank space. The Kanji is this: 野狐, using the combination of 野 - 'No', meaning 'field' or 'Wilderness' and 狐 - 'Kitsune', meaning 'Fox'. Together pronounced 'Nogitsune' or alternatively called 'Yako'. In Mythology, a Nogitsune is a mischievous or malicious fox spirit who targets humans. As mentioned, the three characters here are all shapeshifters, ad do tend to trick others, and could be considered malicious or mischievous, especially to enemies, so it fit. Its one of the reason I chose the fox motif for them. Still, a bit of trivia for you.

Assuming I dont horribly mangle writing the Kanji so it doesn't look so stiff and 'typed' when it is added to the image, it should be written in a line down the page in the space, perhaps borrowing a little from the style I used when I created the title for my Susanoo comic. I'll make an effort either way, but we'll have to see how it goes. If that fails....well, I'll just have to come up with plan B!

Until next time!

Tara

The Nogitsune Trio!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

While my tablet was being...iffy, I had an idea of a project I wanted to try. It mainly came about while I had a free moment at work and was messing around with a bit of scrap paper and a pen. As those who read my doodlebug post might have seen, I had been drawing one of the fox masked characters of the Nogitsune family as an idea for an icon or avatar. hat lead me to thinking of doing a picture showing all three known members of the family - Nagisa, who I've drawn full body in the past, Itazura, the one from the icon idea, and the youngest, Uta, who I hadn't really drawn before.

That in mind, I doodled a very rough Idea of what I was considering.

While I was sort of happy with some of it, Nagisa just looked like a lump and I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with Uta. I was pretty happy with Itazura (the guy in the back) though his hair certainly needs a bit more work so it didn't look quite like leaves - just something that would be added in the digital version. This, after all, was just a vague idea.

With myself being....very eh about some of the characters, I redrew Uta and Nagisa somewhat.

The second attempt at just the individuals looked better:

As you can see, the bottom two looked much better and I was happy to use them with the initial Itazura. Admittedly, these wouldn't be the final appearances - Uta especially would need far more detail, but with the very plain mask, those details are things that could only be shown in colour and shading, otherwise it admittedly looks very flat.

Still, while my tablet is stil very hit and miss, I was still able to at least put them into the pattern for the final image layout, so I could then work on the fine sketch (which should add  in those details such as the hair strands better, and then the rest of it. This is what the sketches together look like:

As you can see, it looks much neater than the original concept, though it needs a lot of work. I have an idea of using the blank space in the top right to put the family name in there in the actual kanji (assuming g I dont butcher how its written by attempting to make it look like it was inked on, perhaps even have it on the blue flames that these guys can use. It depends on how cluttered or otherwise it appears once the line art/flat colour stage is done.

Basically, watch this space to see how it all unfolds!

Until next time!

Tara

Doodlebug!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So....I'm still having a few issues with my tablet right now, but I've just been doodling where I can, thinking up things to do once its all back to normal. Some doodles were just ideas to play around with, while others are ones that I'll likely be doing digital versions later on.

So, one thing that I doodled that I know I'll be playing around with and, hopefully, make a digital version of is an avatar/icon of a character related to a previous avatar I did before, Nogitsune. This one is another masked character from that same family, only this one in the process of removing their mask.

Sorry for the bad photo. Admittedly this is a very rough concept, the full version would look much cleaner and a little more in proportion. The hair would also have more detail as well and the background would likely mimic the flame like pattern the previous Nogitsune avatar did. Unlike Nagisa, the other Nogitsune character, I've not drawn this one very often, and I hope to play with the character a little, to do a full body pose for them as well, though, possibly based around this kind of pose?

Though it is only a thought. If I did try for a pose similar, I might add details to it and I'd certainly make the clothes flow better - I'll admit that doodle was done while I had a few moments at work, so its extremely rough, drawn with pen and on a scrap paper. But still, since these are just really basic concepts, and extremely rough versions, the big details can come later.

Beyond that, I was also just playing around with another character idea, once again very rough, but a portrait and a pose, though neither are particually finished, both, yet again, being quick sketches while at work in a free moment on scrap paper, but still, the sketches can lead to far better things digitally once I have a fully working tablet and time. :) 

While certainly no masterpieces, each are merely little seeds to play around with and will hopefully grow into something better with a little time and effort. Considering none of these took me longer than a minute or two at best while having no real idea of what to do in mind, it certainly helped to get some ideas flowing. But hey, even the roughest of things can give birth to something awesome, right?I'll definitely do a comparison of what an end product will look like from these idea sketches though. Hope you look forwards to it! :)

Until next time!

Tara

Character Sketch!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

First of all I just want to apologise for the delay in last week's blog, which ended up coming out on Tuesday rather than the usual Monday. I probebly should have left a message on the Monday to mention the delay. Long story short, it had been the 30th birthday of a friend and co-worker of mine and I was working on that day to allow her the day off, which meant that I couldn't post on that day. Either way, last week's post was the second part of the Old Verses New that I had been doing, so if you missed it and were interested in how that went, then you can find that post here

With that said, on to the actual post for this time!

So, this week I was mostly looking at sketches, mainly because of the ongoing annoyance with my Tablet that makes doing line art a bit iffy - the issue being that the pressure detection keeps playing up, sometimes registering pressure I'm not exerting, or refusing to believe I've lifted the pen away from the tablet. I keep being able to temporarily fix it, but...well, the issue keeps coming back, so I'm looking into things there.

Either way, I was having a play around with a new design for a character that is in Pandora, the joint comic that is being created in TanraStudios. After the first chapter, which is also essentially the pilot, we had a think about the character designs for some of the main cast. While it isn't yet my turn to be the artist for Pandora, I thought it best to start to get used to some of the new designs. It felt fitting that the first person I should look at was the one I first had the most hand in making, Mizuki.

Out of all of the redos, Mizuki probebly had the least changed, mostly a slightly shorter hair style and a change in one of her outfits - after all, it would be really odd to wear the same thing every day. Mostly, however, I wanted to get used to the hair style. The sketches that I did were an idea of her in my regular style and then, for fun, I decided to try a chibi version of her, which came out like this:

Originally, Mizuki's hair was more a chin length bowl cut, which, while it worked, didn't quite match an event that happened in her past involving hair. As it is, Mizuki's hair style and even her outfit are the easiest to implement in the comic itself without it seeming all that random, since currently she's only been shown in a shrine uniform and a field uniform used for apprentices. Both of these are fixed through story events. Still, this means by the time it's my turn to illustrate Volume 2, the changes would be made, so getting used to the subtle changes helps.

Honestly, I think I'd like to draw a few versions of chibi Mizuki. I like her hair style :)

Another character, however, who has yet to be introduced in the comics (but has been met in the additional stories on the TanraStudio blogs, however, has an extreme amount of differences from his initial hair style, though because he has yet to show up in the comic, we do have some leeway. Unfortunately, his hair style change is much more complicated, so I'm still getting used to those. Suffice to say, I'll definitely be showing the changes and progression in that a bit later on, once the character is less of a spoiler risk. lol Should be fun to see the hair style attempts though!

Still, I'll have to draw full body versions of Mizuki soon to get used to the change in outfit. Part of it is seen on these pictures, since it shows around the shoulders and upper chest, but I hope to be able to do digital versions of it. If nothing else, getting used to the folds and shadows in her clothing should be interesting.

...Assuming my tablet stops playing up. *Sigh* Well, either way, I will try! And if it doesn't stop playing up, I'll just have to look into a replacement. But I am determined to do this!

Until next time!

Tara