Never Underestimate Art!

Hey Everyone! Welcome back!

I've been thinking of changing up my avatar a little. You know the one I tend to use - you can see it on the author page for this blog :) - well, that was one I admittedly created a couple of years before I really started to get the hang of digital art (it was just before I started working on Susanoo). I was thinking that, since I was getting better digitally, that I should also create a new little avatar to use on my blog, twitter etc and in the 'here's how to find me' pages in my comics etc.

Well, I made a sketch that I'm quite pleased with that I'll start to make into a digital version soon. Here's what I have so far!

Obviously, its currently only a rough sketch, but I think it could have some potential? I'm sure I can have a bit more of a play with it once I get started on digital versions. Though Dreamwalkers will come first, of course.

And on that note:

Soooo....remember how last week I said it would only take me five pages before I finished the first chapter of Dreamwalkers? Yeeeeeeeah.....that didn't quite go as planned. lol. Seriously, five pages really wouldn't have given me enough space to work with where the pacing was concerned, In fact, it ended up being 13 extra pages to finish the story, bumping up my page total to 40 pages for chapter one.

I, of course, can't show all of my thumbnails, but I can show some of them, along with some minor calculations I was making as to if all the pages would fit together and wouldn't leave tons of blank, unused space - The poor trees would hate me if I did that! lol.

Anyway, here are the thumbnails for you guys to look at at your leisure. Though warning, they are veeeeeeeery rough.

Sorry if they're a bit faint - just think of it as me not wanting to spoil anything, if that's the case, rather than my shoddy photography work. lol. (I'm afraid that I'm not near a scanner at the moment). Still, good news is that I've pretty much done all my line-work for these extra pages digitally now, and am currently in the process of adding all the flat colour to them. 

Touch wood *knocks on desk* but if all goes well I think I'll make good time. Uh....hopefully.

I'd show you some of the final line work but once more its a bit spoilerish. Sorry about that. Hopefully my sketch work will suffice for today. 

Oh, something I did do as getting me into drawing feeling before I started working on the avatar idea was a quick fanart sketch from the game Undertale by Toby Fox (obviously the character belongs to him). I just happened to be listening to the soundtrack at the time and ended up sketching Papyrus from the game (have a guess which song I was listening to at the time, Undertale fans! lol)

Anyway, this is what I ended up with. I thought it came out well. Maybe when I have time I'll do a colour version of it. After all, only the best for the Great Papyrus, right? lol

Aaaaaaanyways, that's all from me for now. Hopefully next week I'll be able to show you a panel or two from Dreamwalkers and will be close to finishing it as I hope I am, or even with a new Avatar in toe. Either way, I'll keep you guys informed!

Until next time!

Tara

Updates! And a Question

Hi Everyone! Welcome back!

Today, I'll mainly be giving a few updates on things that have been happening this past week that I have referred to in previous posts. There is also a bit of a question that I'd love to hear peoples opinions on, as I'm a little bit stuck.

The first thing is n update on Dreamwalkers.

So, where the first chapter is concerned, its almost done! I have about five pages to sketch and the back cover left to do now, along with adding the speech to the nine pages that I've colour finished since term started. Though I might revisit some of my older ones where sound effects are concerned - I had a few ideas for an alarm sound that I hadn't thought about last term that might improve it a bit more.

Now, my big question comes in the form of front covers for chapter two of dreamwalkers (I know, a bit early to think on considering chapter one isn't fully finished yet, but I think it would help to know sooner rather than later, right?)

I had sketched out four ideas for front covers - they are very rough sketches, so I apologize in advance - and I'm a little stick as to which of them I should continue into digital forms or to fully finalise, so I was hoping for an opinion on it.

Well, these are the ideas!

As said, they are extremely rough. Either way, if there are any that could be potentially interesting, please let me know! The ones that have most interest I'll end up creating digital versions of! But I really would love the thoughts from you guys too - it really helps!

My second big update is in reference to the competition that I had entered on DA. For those who might have only recently started following my rambles, basically I joined a competition ran by FoxHat on Deviant Art, where those who joined were asked to draw their versions of the characters Bubblegum and Marzipan from FoxHat's newest comic. The winner would get a copy of the comic, stickers, prints and points that could be used on DA.

My entry was this:

Well, the results came in last weekend and I found out I was in first place, along with an artist on DA called Trailing Feathers - Foxhat couldn't really decide between the two of us. Admittedly, Trailing Feather's picture was adorable, so I don't blame her in the slightest! (I'd check it out, it really is cute ^_^)  I hadn't really expected to win, but I was really happy! It was also cool that there were two winners as well. There were plenty of other cool drawings too, so check them out if you can!

Oh, one last update for today - Nadia and I are intending to be at another con - this time in April called Stoke-Con-Trent. We should be selling there. If all goes well, hopefully I'll have chapter one of Dreamwalkers done as well! I certainly hope so either way. I'm going to be aiming to make it my goal anyway! Though if its not done by then, it's definitely going to be done for our Degree Show in May.

Either way, wish me luck!

Until next time!

Tara

Back Into the Swing of Things!

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

With True Believers done for this year, I've been getting back into doing all things Dreamwalkers. Line art wise I have everything done up to the first of two thought out endings of the comic, though it is likely I'll be trying for my second ending, as it seems to be far more fitting. In the talks with other people as well, its the preferred ending too. As such, I will be sketching out the additional pages soon.

I've got most of the colour done on the pages I have done too. Most just need a few extra shadows in there to be done. I'm sort of bouncing around at the moment between pages, so that it would let me work on a different scene for a verity of differing colours etc so I don't get bored. lol

Well, less bored and more so I don't give myself repetitive strain injuries. lol. My wrist is far more better than it was a couple of weeks ago, but it twinges if I am working on the small details for too long. I need my writ to behave itself after all. I'd show you bits of those, but unfortunately, its during a very spoilerish part of the story, soooooo....Yeah. Unfortunately, can't show any of that just yet. Though once I've got a page entirely finished, I will show maybe a panel image, so you can see a bit of what I've been up to without me spoiling important plot points.

In addition to the pages I was doing, I've also been doing some other, little things as well. I finished a chibi version of Rem, which is likely going to end up becoming a keychain or phone charm - I thought he came out quite cute, if I do say so myself. lol.

I did two versions of them. One of him reading a random book, the other with him reading Susanoo. One is probably better for advertising purposes though. like on price lists. The other likely works better for being a keychain etc.

Going along with something I did over Christmas, I once more made a seasonal Luphin! This time for Valentine's day tomorrow. I'm hoping to make one for ch major holiday - so the next one will me an Easter Luphin. For this one, though, I decided to have two Luphin's looking all cuddly together. I thought it would look adorable.

Most Luphin's I've drawn so far are pink, but yes, I plan to have them in all kinds of colours. lol but aren't they cute? :3

They are going up on DA tomorrow, for Valentines day - you guys just got a sneak preview of them!

As well as that, I've been helping out a bit at the uni with some new students who might be joining the course I'm on. It's been pretty cool - I just explain to them about how the course works or about the uni and answer any questions they or their parents might want to know. They all seem like great people, so I hope they did well on their interviews!

We've also started looking into how things are going for the Degree Show - true its a while away yet (like, in May) but there is a lot of prep work we have to do. I've been helping out a bit with layouts for a brochure. Not sure if any of them will work well or not, as Graphics is not my strong point, but hey, if it helps, then I'm glad to try! At the moment, they're all rough sketches, but we'll eventually have mock up pages for those, too. We'll all eventually vote on those next week to see which layout we'll be using.

Honestly, the whole class is really throwing in their all on this, its really cool! Our Degree Show is gonna be awesome!

....I so hope I didn't jinx that...

Aaaaanyway, next time I can hopefully give you some picture based updates on Dreamwalkers. I have a plan for the back cover, for example, which, if it comes out right, should be pretty cool. And It has been a while since I last showed a picture update on the comic itself. But with so many pages real close to being finished, I should be able to show clips of it soon! :)

Until then!

Tara

Convention Conclusion

Hi guys! Welcome back!

I was meaning to post this yesterday, but I had work pretty much all day, so this ended up slightly belated. But I will be posting again this week as well to make up for it! And the posts should then go back to my usual schedule. :)

So, last time I mentioned that I went to True Believers with Nadia, where we shared a table, so today I'm going to let you know how all that went!

Before I went, I had to be sure I had a business card to take with me. Last time I went to a convention I made my business card into a bookmark, thinking it might give it a duel purpose. As it was, no one picked those up unless I outright told them what it's purpose was, so this time I made a more traditional kind of business card, which looked like this:

They actually went quite well, the blue seemed to stand out very well against the dark tablecloth, and being a more traditional business card, people picked them up more or less straight away, even if they didn't buy something or came back later. We also put some in the bags that we gave to people with the purchases in, so that they had any contact details.

While Dreamwalkers isn't finished yet, Nadia and I sold some of our old comics, with previews of both Pandora and Dreamwalkers in the back, so people will hopefully get to see what the new things will be like and keep an eye out. 

The old comic that I sold was this one: 

It went really well, actually! we sold them at £3.50 each, but we made a bundle deal of two for £5 as well, and people seemed to like that. It was nice to see people really like Susanoo though, so I was really happy about that. We actually sold out of all of the comics we brought with us! I was so happy!

Hopefully, next time, I'll sell both Susanoo and Dreamwalkers. I'll let you all know when and where I'll be next time I'm at a con. Of course, if anyone is interested in buying Susanoo, feel free to contact me!

I also did some commissions at the con as well! Those were fun. I unfortunately didn't think to photograph all of them, but I did a few. The quality of the photo's isn't top notch (I'm afraid my affinity with a camera isn't the best), but everyone seemed pleased with the drawings! Here are a few of what I did:

I enjoyed doing them. I also took part in a comic strip where each panel was done by a different artist. Since I'm unsure if any of the other artists would want me to display there stuff on here, I wont post the pic here. But if you're interested in looking, then Todd Marsh on Twitter @OldManRupee has posted some pics on it, and I also retweeted it on my own twitter @chosha_kurenai, so you can have a looksy at those there too see what interesting story can happen when you have no set plot and give the artists the go ahead to lead the little story anywhere. It's fun!

All in all, we had a great time in Cheltenham at True Believers. I hope everyone else that went had fun as well,and if they had a table did well also! It's highly likely we will apply to this con again next year. :)

Until next time!

Tara

True Believers!

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Just to let you all know that I may have a slightly delayed or early blog next week. This is because of the main point of today's blog! Not that this is a bad thing, of course, but rather because its a great thing!

Yup! Tanra Studios is going to be heading to True Believers next week, where we should be selling some of our older work. I'll be taking copies of my comic, Susanoo with me, Nadia will be bringing along Unbound and both of us will be bringing other things as well, like badges and stuff. We should also be bringing along small sneak previews of Dreamwalkers and Pandora as well. Should be fun, right!

If you want to find us, here are the table layouts. Nadia and I will be found on table 12, in area A, so if you're coming along, I hope you'll come and see us.

If you can't come along, I'll let you guys know how it all went next post. Since this one's a little short, I'll be posting a bit more mid week to give you a bit more on updates where Dreamwalkers is concerned and if there's any more developments before then.

So, until next time!

Tara

Ow Ow Ow...

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Well, this week, its been rather productive for me where art was concerned. And painful. Not because of any writers block or artist block this time, though, but rather I've been getting wrist pains that feel very much like when I last got tendinitis on my left wrist last year. Only.....unfortunately, this time it's in my right wrist....and I'm right handed.

So....yeah....Ouch?

I'll be going to the doctors to get it checked out. Last thing I need is to have a busted wrist at the start of a new module, right? Especially if I want to get the first part of Dreamwalkers out for you guys.

Speaking of Dreamwalkers, one of the things I was productive with was creating the first of several posters for Dreamwalkers. I had the sketch done early on in the week, but I did line art and colour on the same day. (My wrist did not thank me for it. lol).

This is what I managed to do:

Still, I thought that it came out fairly well. Though admittedly, I was experimenting somewhat with the lightning here. I'm not entirely sure I managed to get the effect I was really going for - I'll be looking into lightning a lot more in the future, I think - I still liked how it turned out. Especially considering my wrist. lol

I also finally finished the image for the competition for Foxhat which I showed the flats to last time. I'm not amazing at backgrounds - they have never been my forte, so its nothing too interesting - I need to do a lot more background practice. Or at least for singular peaces look at background references like I sometimes do for my comics - it would make good practice if nothing else, but I like how the two characters turned out. I made sure to use the colours from the actual concept arts of Bubblegum and Marzipan, if only to try to keep the same feel to them, even if our styles are somewhat different.

I hope that I managed to get the personalities across in the colour. Marzipan is more outgoing from what I gather, with Bubblegum often trying to be somewhat macho and uncaring, even though he very much does love his brother. The picture almost came out as if they were posing for a photo. I also have an idea for a second entry, which came from that thought, buuuuuuut I dunno if I'll have time, since I do have many other things to focus on as well, not to mention the deadline coming up t the end of the month.

Last thing to mention was something I actually forgot to talk about last week. Oopsy! But it links with the sketches that I was doing for the sprites for the Tanra Studios Pandora website. We did some individual ones that would appear in the website, but to make it consistent, we decided to do a joint style picture for their group image, based on the posters Nadia did last year. So I had to do the sketches of the characters (individually, so that they can be moved around etch if needed) as if they were standing around/sitting on a large chair. I was so glad my artist block had finally gone! I was really pleased how they came out and I finally managed to draw Rodessa in a manner that didn't make me want to tear my hair out.

A sure sign that I have my drawing mojo back (even if my tendons seem to want to be as awkward as possible)

Anyway, here they are!

(in order - Huxian, Violet, Mizuki and Rodessa)

They are now all with Nadia, who will help turn them into the combined styles (I'll link you guys to it when its done!) but still thought I should probably share the originals, since I was fairly proud of them. Only think that really bugged me was Rodessa's boots. Not sure I got them right...But otherwise, I was fairly pleased!

Anyways, still got lots more to work on. I'm doing character expressions for the two characters I created out of the four (Mizuki and Huxian) as well as doing similar for Rem and Somnus for Dreamwalkers. I hope to create another poster idea if nothing else for Dreamwalkers, and maybe get started on some more pages. I also need to present what I'll be doing this module at uni too. Busy busy!

Should be fun though!

Till next time!

Tara

Banners and Eternal Work

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

Well, this week Uni has started again, so there is lots of stuff that I'll be doing, and lots of things that I'll be talking about where Dreamwalkers are concerned, since I'm back to working on that. Another thing that I'll be doing is external work - so this includes competitions, commissions, Conventions....

Maybe I should call it the three Cs. lol.

Last week I mentioned about a banner I was working on to help advertise Dreamwalkers, and will appear mostly on the Tanra Studio website once its up. Still, I am rather proud of how it turned out. I did have to do some adjusting, as I realized I as working at too low a resolution by accident, but I adjusted the line art and neatened it up a bit.

It's nice that I got my banner done now. I hope that you guys like it as much as me:

It took me a few tries to think of a good blurb for it. I didn't want to reveal all the plot, but at the same time, I wanted it to sound interesting as well. Hopefully, I pulled that off! 

I also finally started getting some work done towards my competition piece, and decided what I want to do with it. I showed the sketch image some time before, and decided, due to how the story Bubblegum and Marzipan works is to make it seem like a photo that Bubblegum is looking at during his journey to save his brother.

I actually would have got further than basic flats of the two characters, but Manga Studio decided to crash and lost quite a bit of my progress. Guess I learned once again that saving every five minutes really needs to be a thing, Still, this is what I have so far!

I'm just hoping that my plan works. I'm going to be working on finishing that next week, as well as make my finalized plans for my work for my next module where Dreamwalkers is concerned, including posters, keyrings and badges etc. The colours used are taken from the colours used for the characters in the comic itself, or at least as close as possible. It still seems a bit weird at the moment, as the markings Bubblegum was supposed to have were part of what I lost when MS crashed. Still, will be adding those in soon and will show my finished work next week.

If any of you have any questions about an of this or anything to come, don't hesitate to ask me on chosha13@gmail.com or on my twitter @chosha_kurenai and I'll answer what I can. Minus spoilers, of course. lol

Well, looks like I'm going to be busy over this next month. I do hope you guys enjoy what's to come.

Until next time!

Tara