Character Talks: Ashling Maury

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I know it's been a while, but I thought that I would use today to chat about one of the characters from Dreamwalkers, especially since that, despite the fact it is this blog's namesake, I've not really talked about it since the last convention and degree show other than in passing. Not to mention the last time I did a character talk it was back in December 2015. As such, today I'll talk about the first female of the Dreamwalkers team - Ashling Maury.

I've drawn Ashling as a flat colour version I tend to use it for reference for some of her current clothing, though the star on the shirt breast is still up for debate on if it will remain there during her first appearance.

Ashling, as mentioned, is one of the members of the SOS team, having been there as one of Somnus' employees before Rem's initial introduction, and is one of two female members of the team. Unlike the other female member, Ashling is one who takes an active role, and is capable of dreamwalking similarly to Somnus and (eventually) Rem. Unlike her boss' more mysterious, strangeness, Ashling is a no-nonsense tom-boyish young woman who likes punkish clothing and kicking ass, though at this point is so used to Somnus' strangeness that she barely bats an eye about it, even when Rem is utterly confused by it all.  Though if her boss get's a bit too overenthusiastic then she is not above dragging him back to something a bit more normal (in her opinion). As such, Rem sees her as a point of normality in SOS and gets on with her quite well, usually in terms of the two of them complaining about their insane boss.

Ashling, when not working for SOS, is attending university on an art based course, though she rarely talks about it during her dreamwalking job.

Hopefully, I will be able to finish this image as well. :)

Of course, if anyone has any questions about her and its not too spoilerish, then I'll be happy to answer them.

There are more characters to talk about at some point, but for now, that's all I can say about them, but look forwards to those character talks when they show up.

Til next time!

Tara

Doing a Thing!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So, with graduation over and my degree now sitting in a nice frame, I've had to get back to real life things. Along with more pub hours working (I'm bar staff when I aren't working on art), I have two new projects that I'm working on: a competition entry and a tattoo commission. I'm currently in talks with the client about what they would like from the tattoo - I don't think anyone would like something on their bodies they don't like, right? - so for today I'll be talking about the competition entry.

I've entered a competition before by Foxhat, which I did early on in the year and was one of the two joint winners. As such, I decided to have a go at the new competition that she set up. The perimeters are essentially to have the character 'Bubblegum' from her comic, 'Bubblegum and Marzipan' be in a comedic situation which results in Bubblegum being grumpy. Additional characters from the story could be included. Admittedly, the actual deadline for this isn't until November, but I thought it best to get started on it now and I can take my time on it while working on other things as well.

As such, I decided on a kind of pratfall, which used pretty much all the main cast, mostly for laughs, considering the personalities of each character. As such, I worked on the basic line art for the entry:

The characters are as follos. Bubblegum is the grumpy rabbit eared character at the front, with Marzipan being the other, more cheerful rabbit. The winged man is Nash, with Luna being the cat woman. The fox child in the back is Cinder.

Currently, I only have the flat colour done of this, using the colours of the character references, and there is still room for additional detail even before I do the fur/hair/wing shades, lights and shadows that the art needs. But this is what I have so far:

 It seems to be coming out so far, though I do hope I kept everyone in character. I'll enjoy putting all the finishing touches to it.

In other news of things that I've been working on, TanraStudios now has a Facebook page, so, if you're interested in what myself and Nadia are up to and want any additional news from the two of us without waiting for our blog posts, then come check us out.

Here's the link!

www.facebook.com/tanrastudios/

We hope to see you there!

But, until next time!

Tara

Graduation!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

This week has actually been rather busy for me. It was time for Graduation! Puhuhuhu!

*Ahem*

Thankfully, for all that I have drawn Monokuma (such as this one here) and often times I draw myself in my Monokuma hoody, the 'Graduation' I'm talking about is thankfully not the Danganronpa form of graduation. No, I actually Graduated from Staffordshire University, having studied BA(H) Cartoon and Comic Arts, with a First Class! I was so happy, especially since part one of Dreamwalkers was actually my final project on the course. I've come such a long way in three years 

(If you check out my DeviantArt page www.chosha-kurenai.deviantart.com/ you can certainly see the difference between what I used to do (just sketch work) and the things that I produce now)

So, on the Friday just gone, I attended my Graduation! I even took some pictures, which I hope you'll enjoy:

The ceremony was quite fun - It was funny to see someone run with a selfy stick when there name was called to photograph himself with Lord Stafford, and thankfully I didn't fall on my face going onto, or leaving, the stage, so it all went quite well! Though admittedly I almost hit one of my classmates with my hat when we threw them. Oopsy? Thankfully I caught it before I accidentally shuriken-ed them in the head with it. lol.

Unfortunately it did rain after the ceremony, so I unfortunately couldn't get any more outdoorsy pictures. Its a shame - Trentham Gardens has some lovely views.

My week also had a bit of a bad turn with the funeral of my nana, however. I suppose you could say it was a bit of an 'up-down' kind of week. She'll certainly be sorely missed by all of us. Thankfully, the ceremony was nice, friends and family attended to say goodbye and there flowers were pretty. My Nana, unfortunately, didn't get to see my Graduation, but I'm pretty sure if she had, she would have been proud of me. She always was fond of my drawings when I was younger. I'm sure she would have enjoyed my Graduation too.

On another note of Graduation, I also graduated into becoming an Aunt. My older sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. 

Tabitha, as she is named, is now about a week and a day old as of this post, and I also got to meet and hold her during this week. She was so small, but adorable. I'm happy for my sister and partner and hope that I can be a good Aunt to her :)

That wasn't all I was up to this week either! I also 'Graduated' another year old - it was my birthday on the 13th. Admittedly I didn't do too much - I went out for a meal with family and went to visit my sister, held my niece for a while and had a relaxing day playing on some new games I got and planning my new laptop to help with my art - my current one is pretty old now (nearly ten years) and is slowly dying - I literally burn my finger on the mouse-pad at times because the fans don't work well, and this is even with a cooling pad! - so I think a new one is due). But still, it's not your birthday every day, right? (Although we have many Unbirthdays, lol) And even if I didn't seemingly do too much, I had a great day. :)

Honestly, it's been a busy week of many kinds of graduations, both good and bad. That's how one Graduates in Life, I suppose? But thankfully, this busy week has been mostly filled with good things and with very supportive friends and family. 

So, I shall be starting the next chapter of my life, and hopefully with many more 'graduations' to come.

So, until next time!

Tara

TanraStudios: GoFundMe Campaign, Start!

Hey, everyone! Welcome back!

So, this week I mainly want to talk about the GoFundMe campaign that was set up by the Studios that I'm part of - TanraStudios. For those of you who are new or just not aware, myself and Nadia Williams created a UK Manga publishing house, mostly leaning towards the supernatural and mythical, where we will be producing our comics for the public. We currently have four titles we have produced, these being:

Susanoo (created by myself, Tara Washington), a retelling of a Japanese myth with a few little twists The legend of a mysterious man teaming up with the supposed Damsel in Distress in order to save a town from a deadly monster.

Unbound (by Nadia Williams), a test for succession between sons of a youkai clan to fullfil the wish of their father, the current clan head. The test? To find a weapon as powerful as he is, and to find something precious to present before him, and one young mans quest to pass his father's test.

Dreamwalkers (By myself), where dreams become nightmarish real, a group known as SOS fights the monsters of the mind, within the dreams themselves. (which is currently the main title that I'm working on, and unlike the other two, is an on running series)

Pandora (currently drawn by Nadia Williams, but is a joint effort between the two of us), the story of a supernatural detective agency, keeping the balance between man and the mystic. (and much like Dreamwalkers, is also an on running series)

Currently, we've been funding these ourselves, but in order to publish the comics and new ones to come, produce merchandise and be able to get them to the public, we need a little help. 

As such, we have created a Go Fund Me account.

Of course, we know nothing comes for free and have also created gifts for those who donate certain amounts to the cause.

For all the details, you can find our campaign here:

https://www.gofundme.com/2dgqbuw4

It would help us greatly if you could help us out. But, even if you can't donate, if you could spread the word, then even that would be a big help. Of course, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact either of us.

Next time there will be pictures, especially as I have a busy week next week, including my birthday and graduation! so look forwards to it!

Until next time!

Tara

Practice, Practice, Practice :)

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So....my wrist is still acting up somewhat - I've been getting pain in my hand when I put them under cold water, as well as the aching to my wrist. I've been keeping it strapped up when needed, however, as I do have plenty of things I needed to do this week.

Namely, practice.

Why practice? Well, since I am technically no longer a student, I no longer have access to the Cinteq tablets at the university, and, admittedly, I rarely used the Intuos that I actually own. So, I've been doing some practice using my Intuos, mainly as I needed to get used to the hand-eye co-ordination needed to draw in one spot while looking in another. So, before I started to begin the digital versions of part two of Dreamwalkers, I wanted to be certain that I wouldn't have difficulties in my hand-eye co-ordination.

Thus, practice!

I decided to practice, I took a look at some old OC characters I had made for various Role-play forums in the past and decided to recreate them in digital form, since a lot of my past work had been hand sketches. That way, it would allow me to get used to the Intuos without messing up the Dreamwalker scenes.

Admittedly, most of the practice was to do with line art, though I decided that I would eventually finish them with colour as well. These are some of my (in progress) practices:

As you can see, they are pretty much either all flat colour or, in the case of the last image, in progress. As mentioned, the majority of these characters were from Role-plays online. However, I think that the practice has been rather helpful. It also gave me the chance to, in the latter image, to practice using perspective tools as well. All in all, I felt that the practice helped out quite a bit, especially as I sketched these completely digitally as well, rather than using my usual method of pencil sketches scanned up to complete line art.

So, with these practices in place, once finished, I will have a good basis, using my Intuos, to work on the digital versions of Dreamwalkers Part Two.

Of course, I may continue with practices where colour is concerned as well, in order to better improve. :)

I'll keep you up to date on my practices if I do any more, along with any more Dreamwalkers information, or more on TanraStudios.

But, until next time!

Tara

Good News!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

I apologize that this was somewhat delayed. I've actually been a bit unwell. Including the fact that my wrist had, once more, began to flare up again. It's still not quite right - if I put my hands under cold water it causes my thumb to twinge - bit it's improving somewhat, at least enough that I can type or hold things (where work is concerned) with my wrist strapped up. So I'll apologize for the moment that there wont really be images today since I've been trying to rest my hand outside of work. Sorry about that.

On a brighter note, I have good news!

Well, it was good news for me at any rate. lol. As I mentioned in a couple of past posts, hand in was completed, and we also completed the Degree Show. Well, last week we all had our Degree Results back and I was so happy! I got a first! Totaled up with my results from other modules and I'll be graduating BA Cartoon and Comic Arts with First! I had been so nervous, especially as this final module had the most credits going towards the final degree.

So, what will be happening now?

Well, one thing I can tell you is that I'll still be posting on this blog. But if you mean in general, other than preparing for graduation, I'll be continuing to work on Dreamwalkers, with Part 2 the next to work on. Nadia and I will be working more on TanraStudios as well, with various projects we hope to get up and running, though we also need to make sure we can get our works printed as well. We'll also be looking for more conventions to attend as well for next year, as those for this year are already fully booked. If all goes well, we should be working on our full website as well. Once that is up, I'll also put up links to it on my webpage as well as social media.

All in all, there wont really be much differences here, if you think about it, other than you'll have a very happy me!

What I do want to say is congrats to everyone else who will be graduating Cartoon and Comic Arts at Staffs Uni this July! I'll be sure to post up pictures :)

Until next time!

Tara

The Degree Show

Hey Everyone! Welcome Back!

So, this past week was the Degree Show that I've been mentioning the past few posts I made. The show itself consisted of pretty much all the 'arts' departments (including ourselves in Cartoon and Comic Arts, Fine Art, Graphics, Textiles, Animation, Photography, Foundation Art and others) putting on a show of work for people to come and check out, as well as giving us the opportunity to sell work there. Since Dreamwalkers was originally part of my final degree project (as well as being something I really wanted to start anyway! lol), my part of the show was pretty much all about that.

Here is a photograph of my display:

Sorry if the photograph came out a little dull. 

Still, talking about the displays, I had two prints at the top of the main characters of Dreamwalkers - Somnus and Rem, then on the second row is (techincally) three pages from the comic itself - one being a double page spread. Then on the bottom row is an image of Rem in an anime-like colour style, and lastly, there is the comic itself.

As well as being on display, Dreamwalkers made its debut for sale as well - a little later than I hoped, due to various issues in printing, but it was also quite fitting, considering it was made as part of my degree. I was quite pleased as I sold half of my stock there.

For everyone who bought a copy of Dreamwalkers, thank you so much! There were so many interesting comics there made by my peers, so that you wanted mine makes me so happy! I'm currently working on part two and hope to have it finished by the end of the year.

The Degree Show is over now (awww) but I hope everyone that came to it enjoyed it.

I should be finding out my actual results for the module (maybe even my overall one!) this Thursday, so fingers crossed I did well!

But either way, good or bad, I just want to let everyone know that I'm really happy that you've been interested in my work so far and I hope you all continue to support me :)

Until next time!

Tara