Stuff'd

For all my wonderful friends.

I can't believe I actually finished this in two days...

I think I've always intended, but I've never got around to making a tribute for my friends so here you go: all my friends turned into animals which are then turned into stuffed animals. And just in time for New Years, too.

Have fun guessing what the animals are what who they're supposed to represent. Some of them are more obvious than others, such as Inkeh just being her fursona, but for the majority, I had to come up with an animal counterpart. I really hope I didn't forget anyone because I don't really like vectoring. 

But yes, how often do you see me vectoring anything? Uh, never. But I thought it suited the picture I was trying to make, so I went through the pain staking process of fiddling with the pen tool to produce with (with some cheap tricks thrown in of course).

Original sketch. It's missing some people because I couldn't fit them on the paper so I drew it in PS.

I might make a wallpaper-friendly version where I just isolate each character on their own, because a lot of detail is blocked off with the layering, and that makes me sad considering all the work I put into it.
Speaking of layers, I think I used the most layers I've ever had for a picture, topping at around 150.

Thanks everyone for making my year awesome. I really do appreciate you all.


Made in Photoshop.

This is the first time in a long while that I stayed up late just to draw

It's only fitting that it's Zelda inspired. When I'm not staying up playing Zelda, I'm staying up drawing Zelda. Hurhur.

Just a bunch of Skyward Sword characters and references. I love kikwis.

...I wish I could be Professor Owlan and own my own kikwi.

But that's not all. Let's step away from the wonderful world of Zelda and focus more on me - or really, my fursona.

Stylized fursona

I left out a lot of details because she looks preeetty stylized. makes me want to revisit her design, especially her half-assed markings. I like the star/wing pattern I have here on her rump right now, though.


First picture drawn with pencil on paper.
Last picture made in openCanvas.

Meme: Draw This Again

Look at that difference.

When some people do this meme, I don't really see too much of an improvement in the before and after picture. Maybe it's due to them just redrawing a picture a year or a couple of months old. So went all the way back into my picture archives and dug up this piece of crap from 7 years ago to ensure that wouldn't happen.

Check out my MS Paint and mouse skill, guys. Check out that anatomy, and my super original OCs (but you already knew that). I don't really remember what the whole context was, but guess she's watching something tragic... or something. Doesn't look like she's really sad. Maybe's she's actually too shocked to display an emotion? We will never know.
At least it's obvious that she's sad in the picture. I mean, look, there's tears. Nothing says despair better than throwing in a couple of tears. Cuts and bruises too. And muscles, because, realistically, you can't be stick and be fighting off evil demons at the same time.

The picture on its own.

Anaria looking sad for some reason.

At first I was gonna render the background a bit more, to really make it obvious of the difference of skill level, but I left it half-assed. I am okay with that.



Blank meme.
Made in openCanvas.

Derp Link

Look at dat beautiful face

So I've got nothing done for Christmas thus far, and it looks like what little gift art will just have to be late. In the mean time, I'll show you this beautiful piece I made for someone else.

I know that it's nothing too difficult to create, nor legit, blood-and-tears art. It's pretty much a traced - yes, traced - image of Link's face on a rainbow background. Actually, I didn't have any carbon paper so I used newspaper instead. That's what you call being creative.

And I never knew how useful retarder could be until doing this. Man does acrylics dry fast, which was hard to work around for me because I've worked mainly with tempera. I didn't mind it that much because this is mainly cellshaded anyways.

Anyways, it's super simple, and made it within a day, but I got an awesome reaction from it, and I guess that's what counts. :)


Made with acrylics on canvas.

I've been sleeping in guiltlessly

An elf, I guess? His/her eyes remind me of a hawk.

To help with the gender imbalance...

Yup, school's out, andI haven't been doing much with my break thus far, so here, enjoy some drawings.


Made in openCanvas.

Blankey ♥

Me and Blankey

There are times when I wake up and my blankey is the softest, warmest thing in the world. This is especially true now since it's winter.

So let me introduce the one that's kept me warm for years: Blankey! Yes, he - that's right, he - must be referred to that as that is his name. I kind of lied about how Blankey looks like in my picture, because he isn't completely red, but I liked the simplicity of it.

And here's more me with my one true love.

I walk around the house like this

Made in SAI.

Finals week

Study sessions are so productive. I mean, look at what I got accomplished there:

A girl, my friend's butchered fursona, an otter, two Kikwis, and a box guy. Oh, and an Russian Nazi Domo holding a cake with a crab with whip cream, a cherry, and a sparkler on top.

Link chasing a Cucco, Hiei blasting an isometric drawing, and me going FUUU because I can't understand anything.

What? You think I'd actually study the entire time?


Made with pencil on paper.

And when I say "colours", I really just mean red

What is wrong with that hand?

Headshot of an OC.

I like to sketch with pretty colours.


Made in openCanvas

Project: Art Noveau Phantom of the Opera

I already introduced the topic on a previous a post, but in case you're too lazy to either click the link or scroll down, I'll recap for you:

We had to pick a graphic design style (New York School or Swiss design, say) and were given the choice to either make a poster based on a movie or a famous place. I don't know how famous place got so many votes, because I know like one person who actually chose to do that boring thing.

Anyways, my partner and I chose to do Phantom of the Opera in the style of Alphonse Mucha.

And there you have it. But before I post the actual poster, would you like to see some more drafts first?

A cleaned up version of one of the drafts, where I pretty mush centered and neatened things up a bit, as well as give you an idea as to what colour scheme we would be using.

Our final second draft. Made her looking towards you a bit, widened the space allotted for the title, as well as added a text box for all the movie-like stuff like actors and what not.

So which draft exactly did we end up going with? The answer's none of the above, but a draft my partner put forward. I've never seen the movie before, but I think this is supposed to be based off the scene where the Phantom meets Christine at a mirror, and she realizes it's actually a door. I don't really know, I'm just getting this off hearsay.

And, without further ado, my final poster!

Art Nouveau Phantom of the Opera Poster

Sleep? What's that? I don't even know if you could count those two measly hours of sleep I got as actual revitalizing sleep. But yeah, if you already couldn't guess, I spent two all nighters on this thing just so I could get the impossible done and have this ready for presentation day, even though we wouldn't be able to print it in all 36" by 24" glory until much much later. I actually have the poster sitting in my room right now, ready to be handed in but can't because my TA isn't at school until Wednesday.

I've grown to have a greater appreciation for Illustrator and after doing this, it has opened my eyes as to what the program - or really Live Trace - can accomplish. Yup, I pretty much made all the people out of Live Trace.


Drafts made in openCanvas.
Poster made in Illustrator.

Art style poster drafts

Just dumping my first drafts I did for my poster project for school. We had to pick a graphic design style (New York School or Swiss design, say) and were given the choice to either make a poster based on a movie or a famous place. I don't know how famous place got so many votes, because I know like one person who actually chose to do that boring thing.

Anyways, my partner and I chose to do Phantom of the Opera in the style of Alphonse Mucha.

I later on found out I was doing it wrong because I was supposed to draw all these drafts out on paper and not computer, but meh.


Made in openCanvas.

Project: Automata

Our beautiful automata

Oh, hello there final project. Even though it was the cause of much shedding of blood, sweat, and tears (mainly tears), I'm pretty damn proud of it. Best of all, if you couldn't tell from the gears and stuff in the box that something is supposed to happen to the figures when turned, movement is smooth and works most of the time without issues.

Yeah, our thing is pretty lame, but at least it's beautiful, dammit! That's all we have. We were able to secure a spot in the spring showcase from it, so I'm not ashamed of it at all!
I think after the horrible "definitely ugly" rating we got when we pitched our idea, we just strove to make my prof eat his words.

It doesn't seem I really like sleep, do I?

Instead of doing some work on a poster which would potentially shave off a couple 'o hours from my all nighter I'm planning to have today, I decide to draw a picture. My excuse is that I don't have Photoshop nor Illustrator on my laptop, but it's a stupid excuse because I'm currently sitting in the library, nearby a whole bunch of computer which do. So... I'm just being a procrastinator.


Sorry, I'm just tired from the almost all nighter I had yesterday night, ugh.


Made in openCanvas.

I should buy some more clothes

Been a while since I've drawn my outfits. But since I was particularly uninspired today, yet felt like drawing, might as well, right?

My fashion sense hasn't really changed all that much, though... nor my clothes.


Made in openCanvas.

Rawr

We had to draw drafts for our poster assignment. I decided to bring my tablet so I'd have the convienance of using colours (which I later found out - after I finished all my sketches - was not the intention as I needed it to be done on paper). I got bored halfway so I drew a dino.

Oh, by the way, I finally got Skyward Sword. It arrived yesterday, but I can't play it. That's all I'll say for now because I'm a little swamped with work right now to write anymore.

Toodaloo.


Made in openCanvas.

Mark down November 20th

Skyward Sword Zelda

Skyward Sword on the 20th. Probably the first time I've ever been this excited over a game release, probably due to me not really getting into gaming until a couple 'o years ago. No, correction, it should say "getting into Zelda" instead of "gaming" because me? A gamer? As if.
Even though me preordering the game while it was on sale is awesome and all, I'm totally missing out on all the preorder deals being released now. Like this:

Hnngghhh, it's so beautiful.

I think, at least, I get the soundtrack or something?

I may not be getting anything extra for looking out for deals, but at least you lovely viewers can get another picture.

A head

Made in openCanvas.

Hybrid Nurse

Hybrid Nurse

...which was the theme of last week's manga academy meet. It was randomly chosen which accounts for it's weird nature. Though the word "hybrid" is pretty ambiguous, I assumed it to mean half man half animal, thus I made this centaur thing. I was looking forward to showing everyone my work - even if my bag totally smudged the pencil at the bottom - because I actually spent a while trying to get the horse part and the head right.
Unfortunately, when I went to the room, I didn't see anyone that looked like they belonged to the club was there. And I know it wasn't because I was too early and no one had come yet, because I was 15 minutes late. So instead of sitting in a computer lab and drawing, I sat in the library and watched my friend do some 3D modelling. For two hours.

That aside, on the same kind of tangent as the hybrid nurse, here, have some quads.

These pictures are actually the result of me trying to brainstorm updated designs for my neglected Subeta pets. As you can see, the designs are pretty boring - as many of them are just plain pets - so I've gotta get my creative on. Man, coming up with quad designs are hard.
And then there's the deer. I don't have a deer pet on Subeta, so it's just chilling.


Drawn with pencil on paper.

Project: "Tipsy Jazz"

Magazine Spread Assignment

The title of the this article is "tipsy jazz" and it's about interior design, more specifically "jazz inspired bar design". Yeah, so totally unlike me to pick something like this to do, right? Well, I didn't pick it, nor did I approve of the title. It was more like it was imposed by my partner and I shrugged and went with it. You might call that being a door mat, but I call it being a good partner. I know how to compromise.
(Though I sorely regret not going solo so I could make the magazine about horror movies or a hair magazine featuring Yu Gi Oh characters...)

Honestly, I'm freaking out about this project. Even though I'm done and can put it behind me, I have a really nagging feeling of impending failure. For one, it got super stressful the day - or really, last couple 'o hours - before the presentation due to issues that kept cropping up while I was finishing up the project. I think that's all I'll mention now, because the story is a long one. But part of it does include my partner. That's all I'll say.

Unfortunately, I don't think I should show my partner's page, because it's technically not mine's. I know it's a lame excuse, but I got a better one: I don't have a picture of it either.

Ugh. I hate this assignment, and I'm not proud of what I submitted.


Made in inDesign.

Wolf Girl

Wolf Girl

I pretty much recycled the style I used for Pumpkin Girl a couple of years ago, because it's easy and I'm short on time and motivation - but mostly time.

I used a bit more colours than I did, but that's okay because it compensates for the lack of detail and a good drawing in general. The two were supposed to go together nicely, but because of the simplicity of this one, it doesn't really work that well anymore.

Yawn. Boring picture is boring. I just wanted to do something for Halloween, so this is what you get.

You're welcome. :)


Made in openCanvas.

Another year, another entry into a con mascot contest

AR... kun?!

Event File

I derno why I keep entering into art contests because I never win, orz.
Maybe it's just because art is the only thing I can do? I derno.

Anyways, another year, another con, which means another mascot contest. I usually don't enter into them because I'm intimidated by the fact that this is contest is, possibly, province-wide, and I'm pretty sure there's a really good artist lurking somewhere.

We were given the choice to do either (and I quote):

1.) Cute Pink hair girl
2.) Cute Pink hair boy
3.) Cute Pink hair furry thingy.

And I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win by default at this rate because - unless one got submitted since the last batch of mascots were posted - I have yet to see any male entries. Which is probably why I opted to go with the male mascot because I knew there'd be too many people drawing girls.

Sketch

I'll save you nice people from hearing me go on and on about, for example, how much I hate how the scarf came out and how I half-assed most of it, to talk about the con. Notice how I tentatively named him AR-kun and not AE-kun? Well, if you remember or care from last year, instead of Anime Evolution we had Cos & Effect. I'm still assuming that AE isn't going to happen in 2012 neither, thus comes this new con.

Get ready for Anime Revolution.
I see absolutely no relation to Anime Evolution. Nope, not even one.

When it was first announced, it was met with suspicion, but I think that's now subsided and it's welcomed as our new con for 2012. At least their planning abilities look more sound, as they've already booked a venue at the prestigious Vancouver Convention Center.

Of course, I already sent an application to be in Artist Alley.

On another note, I saw on Facebook that new staff has already been hired for AE so maybe we'll be having double cons this year?

And I know this has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, but in the case that I never make anything for it, Happy Halloween evvrybody!


Made in openCanvas
Edited in Photoshop

Maybe I should've joined some sort of service club

Male and female heads in different angles.

Gesture drawings. It's a mess because I try to cram as much as I could.

Seem familiar? I know this anatomy chart by heart.

These drawings reminds me of the stuff I would produce for the manga drawing section I used to run last year as an exec for animu club. Maybe it's because I made them for a club I joined this year, Manga Academy. We didn't have an anime club at our school, so I had to settle with this.

But I also joined because when I asked them what they did, they said they all they did was draw, so I was sold.

I don't know how much I'll learn from this club, because they go over the basics when I need to help on more specific things. Not to undermine the execs artistic abilities - I'm sure they're probably better than mine's - but I think I need the professional eye of an art teacher to get me in the right track. You know, someone to tell me to stop drawing animu and such.

At least they used Loomis as a reference and not Christopher Hart.


Drawn with pencil on paper.

Oh hai

I miss having an agenda to draw on, and doing the sort of pictures I would do in it. I like these abstract concepts I don't initiate very well, because details in pencil are fun to do. :D

More concepts of animals 'n things.
Oh hai, there, Hiei.

My descriptions are getting shorter and shorter as my creativity slowly deteriorates.

Drawn with pencil on paper.

"Definately ugly"

A fox... thing.

An idea for a new mural on my chalkboard wall. Obviously, the idea isn't very developed so it'll be a while before I get started on that.

What I do in my 5 hr breaks: I draw brides with guns.

An initial concept for our Alice in Wonderland inspired automata we eventually have to make for a class. In it, we're going to have Alice, upside down and stuck in a hole, her legs flailing, with the rabbit running around her. The Cheshire cat will be popping from the mushroom. I also have the sketches for some of the models.

I've got a funny story about the last picture. When we went up to present the idea to the class, my prof circled the "definitely ugly" section on the marking sheet because he couldn't understand why Alice was "upside down and obscured". Has he never watched Alice in Wonderland before?


Drawn with pencil.

Recipe: Pumpkin Squares

Pumpkin Squares

Honestly, I don't know why I didn't post this recipe sooner, because I make 'em every time I start seeing pumpkins popping up in stores. I guess it's kind of like a traditional thing now, like how people bake a bunch of cookies for Christmas. Except for me, I make pumpkin squares in October.

Basically, pumpkin squares are just pumpkin muffins baked in a square pan. This particular one is a bit plain because we didn't have any chocolate chips on hand. I might drizzle it on top if I ever get my hands on a bar.

And I know the picture doesn't really show it justice, with the clutter, and it still being in the pan (silicon ftw), and how it's already been nommed on, and just the whole fact that it could be anything tucked in there... Oh well, I guess you just have to trust me on this one. I draw, I don't take photos.

I used to take a lot of cooking classes offered in the community center when I was a kid, and that's where I got this recipe from. I think the class was a weekly baking class or what not. I was still elementary then, and I've been making this recipe ever since. However, my mom praised me for this particular batch of squares, calling it the "best one I've ever made", even though I really don't think I made it all that differently than from a year or two ago.

Pumpkin Squares

•  1/2 butter (you could probably sub it with yogurt, I just didn't have any on hand)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 cup pumpkin filling
• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream the butter (if using), then mix in the sugars until evenly combined. Beat in the eggs ("until fluffy," as quoted by the recipe). Afterwards, add the pumpkin filling.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the batter and mix until all the dry ingredients are moist. (Refer to muffin method.) Add the chocolate chips.
4. Pour into a square pan and bake for 40 - 50 minutes (even though I ended up leaving it in the oven for an hour and a half... ick) or until a knife comes clean.

Anyways, I won't make you have to put up with more of my 3:00 AM crappy writing so bye bye.

Request: OC Refs Parte Du

Another one of my friend's RPG OCs.

The same friend who requested the previous refs asked for another.

This time, the character is for a Kingdom Hearts themed RP, hence the coat, which was referenced off Axel.
Cookie for the person who can guess who the character design is based off of. The hair's a big giveaway, I think.

Anyways, I haven't gotten the approval yet with the eye colours nor the design, as I didn't get the hex codes for reference this time. Hopefully, once I get this bad boy to recipient, she'll approve and I wouldn't need to edit and re-upload it, as well as write a comment about how I had to fix it.


Made in SAI.

The hardest class I'm taking right now is mainly drawing

We waste so much paper in class that it's not even funny.

What I do in class when I'm tired. I wish I could be that caterpillar right now.

Headshots. It's been a while since I've drawn anyone crying, haha.

Thought I'd throw some stuff here before it starts accumulating.


Drawn with pencil on graph paper.