(Insert Synonym for "CG Dump" Here)

Let's start off with something from today.

Bleh. Nothing about this picture leaves me proud enough to keep on opening the picture to look at it.

The filename is "Maya" but I don't really have a name for her. She's an OC from the good ol days, but one I never really expanded on because her only purpose was to suddenly appear and cause drama in the protags' lives. She's not really an angel either, she's just dead. The dress she's wearing also looks very familiar, like I've seen it from somewhere.

I think the whole purpose of making this was to find a quick, "sellable" style that would be appropriate for commissions and prints and the like. Something a bit neater than my freehand painterly one I have already. Haven't found it yet. Back to surfing through the internet, stealing finding inspiration from other people.

...and now for things I didn't do today.

Another enviro study. Haven't done these in a while. The clouds/sky actually don't look so bad, especially the big one in the left-hand corner. But then it gets all crappy once you look down from there so just pretend that part doesn't exist.

If I were to explain the inspiration for this, I could probably pass it off as something artistic or that I knew what I was doing and generally leave you all impressed by my knowledge of fine art. But since it turned out so "wtf" that even slapping on the label of abstract wouldn't save it, I won't. Frankly, I don't even know what the heck that's supposed to be anymore.

My tablet wouldn't respond to pressure sensitivity. It was awful.


First and last picture made in SAI.
Second picture made in Photoshop.
Third picture made in openCanvas.

Why did you leave me standing

I don't like this picture at all, bleh. But I vowed I'd draw something for Feburary, for once. So here you go.

"Why did you leave me standing there in the rain?"

Yes, those diagonal lines are supposed to be rain. I know it looks bad, but a) I'm a graphics noob, and b) openCanvas isn't PS.
It looks a lot better as a thumbnail, trust me.

Anyways, partly inspired by Rain by E-Type. The line it was inspired from is obvious.
I think I interpreted the song way more dark than the official video does. A lot less related to cars and women, too (don't know where those fit in, honestly).

Started off as a line-less speed paint, but the dress turned out uber crappy with me trying to make it look like its wet and sticking to the skin. The face turned out pretty bad, too, with me trying make it look like its in the darkness.

Done in one layer, at least.

And filters make it look worse than it actually does.


Made in openCanvas

My mary-sue totally kicks your's ass

I decided to search for some memes yesterday, especially one where I didn't have to just find pictures of past work and actually get to draw something. I found something pretty short, but seemed pretty interesting, especially when you're using my characters.

Mary-Sue Meme by Wazupz

Blank meme.
I'm not joking about the part about me stealing ideas from other mary-sue fics. I really wish I was.

Bonus: here's a sketch of said mary-sue, as well.

The infamous Anaria.

It was supposed to be colouring skin practice, as well as a test to try a different technique, except the colours turned out really blah. I hate having to resort to blues and purples to make the skin interesting, but really, the shades I picked before were just different saturations of the same hue.


Made in openCanvas.

SF-A2 miki

Can't believe I haven't uploaded this one yet, hah! Well, here it ish.

Say hello to SF-A2 miki, or SF-A2 開発コード miki as she is called by on the box.

SF-A2miki

Event File

Not much to say about her, but I do like her box art. Don't have much to say about her songs either, except her Engrish isn't bad (probably the best I've heard from a Japanese Vocaloid thus far). But if I had to choose my favourite song from her, I'd probably go with Fragile Snow for being the first song Google results came with.

The drawing itself is really old, probably done somewhere near the start of summer. Originally, I wanted to make her in time for AE, but I was preoccupied with making things people would actually want to buy. Well, recently, I decided to dredge up her old OC4 file and finish her up.

Kind of like the background, even if it's half-assed. The colours I used were nice, especially how the yellow circles pop against the blue and background.


Made in openCanvas.

Purple Doodles

One day, I looked at my sketch folder and thought to myself, "Huh, I don't have enough of those to go around."

Not much to say about this picture, besides I was obviously trying to limit myself with colours, but I thought the pink was needed, for, you know, difference's sake.

Thought I'd try out oekaki again, too. Ever since I got openCanvas, I've (regretably?) transition towards it.
Now that I actually used oekaki again, I understand why now.

Man, I thought I improved, too! I suppose in respects of drawing abilities and shading, but in terms of utilizing the program: still fail.

Really, out of all the three main oekakis (Oekaki BSS, Paint BBS, and Shii Painter), Shii Painter is probably my favourite. For one: I like their pen brush, have more brushes in general, and can have multiple layers. Paint BSS on the other hand, though probably the most popular, only has a crappy pencil and watercolour tool and two layers, so it is kind of annoying. I still don't understand how some people make such pro lineart - or any pro pictures at all. Oekaki BSS... there's a reason no one uses this when given the choice.

I think the main reason that I chose to go back to oekaki was I figured I'd go remake one of my old pictures. They did look pretty bad:

My first oekaki - most likely the first CG picture I didn't do on paint!

Shut up, man! That was done with my mouse, okay? No fancy tablet stuff!


First picture made on openCanvas.
Second picture made on Paint BSS.

Pink and Purple

As I write this, I just finished drawing this picture.

This picture is actually a teaser for my annual birthday picture of my dear persona, Yukiko.

Hide your eyes because there's bright pink.

So what I like:

• Focused on two colours I kind of just chose on a limb (no, really, I just airbrushed some pink and purple on the background because I felt like it).
• Instead of blue in her hair and white on her dress, it's really shades of pink and purple, gasp!
• Her face turned out quite vivid... before I messed up the background.
• Coloured in 1 layer.
• The guy's coloured in the same colours as the background so he's not super intrusive.
• Background first, people after.
• It didn't take me a long time
• Experimented with colours in ways I usually don't.

Now what I don't like:

• Did my drawing abilities deteriorate? The anatomy is lol as well as the face... and pretty much everything else about it.
• What the hell happened to the background? 
• What am I trying to accomplish with this? Huh?
• Her right hand. Period.
• The skin tone I chose is so lifeless and unnatural.
• I don't like it!
• etc etc etc

It also took me about 2 hours to finish this picture - a first! No wonder it looks so bad, huh?


Made in openCanvas

Animu Club Poster Pics

Did I ever mention that I'm in anime club? I'm actually an executive, which I'm extremely angry about because my friend and I were the ones who even suggested the revival of the club. Then these two girls just come up and announce themselves to be president and vice president. Pissed off.
Ah well. We decided to split the club up into separate sections this year. I guess so long as I'm in charge of the art section, I'll be alright.

But really. They failed last year. What makes you think they'll be okay this year?

Well, back on topic. In the first meeting ever, my friend and I are making the banner to promote the club on Club's Day this year.

The only picture I was supposed to draw. I was suggested to draw a shirtless guy, and to ward off gay vibes, make him hold a big sword. I left the nipples to be added in the PS stage if my friend wanted to.

Because the guy above frankly suxed, I quickly whipped up some super shinee mahou shoujo! Yay! I didn't finished, but my friend fixed it up quite nicely afterwards.... especially so with her PSing skills.

Heh, they're really not that good. The guy I had a heck of a time colouring because I'm so unused to Sai's (yes, I used Sai and I don't know why... I think it's for the smooth line art) tools. I decided to just cheaply Ren-Ai-cell-shade the other picture because, hell, the eyes are big enough to reel in people and have them not notice the incompleteness.

Man, if only I had saved the finished product! Too awesome and so cheap!


Made in Paint Tool SAI.

Anime Evolution and Chibis!

I've attended the local anime convention, Anime Evolution, for almost three years now. Last year I decided to actually buy a pass and not just be taking pictures of cosplays and browsing the Artist Alley (and what a good decision, too, because the where it was set had some hardass security!). It all started as a joke with my friend as I was browsing Artist Alley. I told her that I should kick one of the ugly people by taking a table myself. And a year and a couple of days later - now I'm, sitting in front of my very own table.

Highlights:

• Sneaking into things.
• Sharing the table with my friend and her 5 for 5 cent keychains!
  
• The worst cosplay competition and the winner - Gundam box.
• Going to the Team Four Star panel and seeing everyone in real life - and seeing the new episode before anyone else minus the people in the panel.
• Pedobear trying to pick me up when I said I was still a minor.
• Getting a hug from Lanipator when I said I was a fan of Yu Yu Hakusho Abriged - because I am.
• Buying Zelda: Ocarina of Time for 15 bucks - exactly.
  
• Getting commissioned five times.
• Selling around $80 dollars worth of art!

Yup, that's right: almost $80 dollars worth! I'm really surprised because I didn't think I would even make $50 dollars to cover the table costs but I was able to on the first day! Unfortunately, I didn't pay off all the printing costs but that's all good because 80 bucks is awesome enough.

And most of my sales came from these (it's okay if I show them because I'm just going to remake them for next year anyways - but yeah, no stealing all that shiz):

 

Left to right; top to bottom:
Link, Shiek, Alphonse Elric, Edward Elric, Ciel Phantomhive (♀), Ciel Phantomhive (♂);
Zelda, Zero Suit Samus Aran, Winry Rockbell, Claire, Sebastian Michaelis, Natsu Dragneel;
Gray Fullbuster, Ignis, Hiei, Enma Ai, Shiki;
Kamina, Yoko Litner, Yuri Nakamura, Tenshi (Kanade Tachibana), Youko Kurama, Akira.


Man, did we ever have the worst spot in the whole Artist Villa (that's right, the name changed). It was hidden in some secluded hallway that could only be seen by people who were unfortunate enough to be trapped in the lineup spanning on the opposite wall of the hallway. I'm not joking, it was horrible. I bet if there wasn't signs everywhere saying, "MORE ART IT'S AWESOME" pointing in my direction, no one would have known. They would have been more occupied in the parts of Artist Villa held in the main entrance and in the two visible rooms upstairs.

Now that I'm not so much an Arist Villa noob, I think I have a good idea of what my art is worth.
Also, never doing "Pay what you want" day ever again, haha. I think the record was 2 bucks for a large 8x11 print and four chibis. Yup, shut down the offer after that.

I bought an evil bunny plushie, a commission of one my complicated characters, a Kaito magnet, and a tiny keychain in that order! The last two things I just bought because my wallet was so full of coins that it was getting hard to close!

I'm actually starting to do some art for next year because now I learned that even with art, rushing on the last day is balls.

I really can't wait for next year! For some reason, though I didn't feel this for any prior years, I'm actually kinda sad that AE is over. Oh, I'm going to miss waking up at 9, meeting my friend, and driving everyone there!


Made in openCanvas.

Vocaloid Series: Lily

 Who's this? Teto with her hair down and a new outfit? A Miku remake? Another Vocaloid derivative?
Nope. Her name is Lily, the newest member of the family. However, the company which made Miku has no relation to this new Vocaloid. She's a joint with Yamaha (I believe they're responsible for Leon and Sonika) and Avex, though she is designed by the same person as Luka, Miku, and Len and Rin.

Well, I just wanted to finish her before her official release.

I did something different with Lily than what I usually do. Notice how her whole body's included in the picture? That's due me sketching the picture out beforehand. It was just a silly sketch, but I thought I would colour it. I've always been the supporter for the more unknown people in the Vocaloid family. I don't know if Lily will be the next big thing. We'll have to wait and see.


Made in openCanvas.

Crunchy Land: Hero Base

Most of you should be aware of a site called CrunchyRoll. If you haven't, don't let the professional homepage suck you in. Even the person who owns the site can't speak properly. It's the bane of society.

There's this really retarded game on CR, Crunchy Land, where pretty much you can dress up with an avatar and fight generic bad guys in a Nummyz dating game way (that means it sucks!). You can be extremely cheap in the game because as long as you know how to colour in the shape of something onto of a paper doll, you can make up the cheapest weapons ever, and then price them really high. I'm not paying 5000 gold for some shitty looking bow and arrow!

Anyways, as you people may or may not be aware of, I have graciously offered my talents and graced them as a contributor in "Crunchy Land". I made an avatar base named "Hero" and submitted it.

Hero base

For some reason, I decided to check how Hero was going along and what other additions was added to his wardrobe.

I was very disappointed. 

Seeing how my base was being raped by a feast of ugliness, I had to step in and even out the ugly.
Thus, I'm adding some more items to the mix. (Mainly recolours of parts I already made! Haha!)

But really, seeing some of the things made me cry.


"Why the name Hero?"

The name comes from the idea that it was the hero amongst the sad looking bunch. If there was a male base, it was usually because it made a nice set with the female base before it. Of course, there were some bases which didn't look like a base minus breasts, but that one was ugly. "Hero" was also the hero of the anatomy for the most part, with a base which obviously looks like it's been more lovingly done.


But you know what baffles me? The description of my Hero base:

Finally, an automatically correct buff dude. ~This avatar has until June 27th to submit a full set of basic items until disapproval. Please submit items for this avatar to be considered. ~Duster

When is "Duster" going to remove his(?) comments off the base description? It's already been approved for two years!

Also, I am slowly beginning to restart the line I had going with the Digi-Doll base. Finally, the hair will have a matching top (and possibly other articles of clothing).


Hero base made in openCanvas.
Some items made in Paint Tool SAI.
Some items edited in Photoshop (mainly changing colours).

Also also, I'm considering making a "Heroine" base, but I think CR needs more guys than girls.

Vocaloid Series: Pakaito and Miku Gouda

These pictures were actually made the day after the McHatsune picture a while back, back during spring break. I finally got off my lazy ass and decided to upload them.

Yup, stupid stuff ahead.

Guess who this is? Pakaito! Who is this “Pakaito”? Well, my young child, Pakaito is a llama version of Kaito. Sometimes, he’s represented in a beighish colour, like I used, and sometimes, a rainbow scheme.
I really like this way of colouring. I realize I’m really bad at it, so, yup, practice.
Aw, Pakaito’s awesome. :D
And he's even eating a popsicle! Aw.

Testing out SAI in this picture. I really need these stupid little brain-farts so I can practice these kinds of things.
You know what is the most intriguing tool found in many Asian-made graphic programs? The paintbrush. Not the Photoshop kind of paintbrush, but the paintbrush which has those blurring capabilities. I think I get it… a bit, but overall, I have no freakin’ clue as to when to use it. The colours just go everywhere when I try to paint. I’ll stick to my pencil too, thank you very much.
But, yes, this fat sexy character is my attempt to like, “practice”. What a sexy beast.

Made in openCanvas and SAI, in that order.

Oh, and don’t worry. Unless you’re caught between the brief interval between this and my next post, I need not to remind you that I’ll be uploading more art here!
Sigh. When will I ever update my dA? I don’t know, man; I don’t know. But hey, at least I’m still showing signs of life.

Vocaloid Series: McHatsune

Yup, back into the swing of things a bit. Guess what I did? Last night, I drew a new Vocaloid fanart.

"You want fries with that?" 

Out of all the fan made versions of Miku, I swear, McHatsune is my favourite out of all of them. Yeah yeah, Black Rock Shooter, you have fanart and even a figurine, and figures such as Teto and the... sad one is even more popular. Well, you know what? McHatsune doesn't have any figurines and very little fanart, but she does has this video.

I rest my case.

Moving on, I hopefully will upload this picture on my dA... eventually. I'll talk about this picture more there.
Honestly... I just don't have the motivation to... Bleh. D:

Made in openCanvas.

Project: Lord of the Flies Thing...

Just some school work.

For English, we're reading Lord of the Flies. Since that unit has come to an end, it's time for our big project! We're given a choice as to such. My partner and I (or really, more like just I) chose a pretty simple one: draw a snapshot of a character, and just explain the artistic techniques and such used and what it symbolizes. Since my partner couldn't draw, and I intended to do so anyways, I did everything.

Not a bad thing necessarily, because then I know this art piece has met my standard of art! Hopefully, this would rake in some marks, because I need that desperately.

After some turmoil, we finally settled on the character to be Ralph. (Really, it was more like I was being forceful and making it go that way, lawl)

Sketch.

Final CG!

Yeup, pretty much it. I spent an assload of time working on the final CG, but I'll save that for another time. I'll probably talk more about this technical stuff and the whole process of making it when I upload it on dA, but right now, I do not have the time to do either.


Made in openCanvas, like many of my other CGs.

Vocaloid Series: Yowane Haku, Sweet Ann, and Kiyoteru

Yup, got back into my nightly drawing routine a bit and created some more Vocaloid fanart of unloved Vocaloids. I’m thinking of uploading all of my other pics so far here, but for now, check them out on my deviantART.
As for now…

From left to right: Yowane Haku, Sweet Ann, Kiyoteru.
For more info on these pics, click on the pictures, and hopefully, by then, I’d have them linked to my pictures in my dA gallery, where you’ll find some more info in the description.

See, I’m still doing something.

Character Concepts: Kanaria 2

I thought I had posted my previous Kanaria sketch dump, but from furthur inspection, it had mysteriously disappeared, and when I mean disappeared, I mean I was too stupid to realise that I didn't post it up.
It should be there, now. So visit it. 

Practicing warping my style, again. I've also drawn some scenes I've had of her floating through my head. See the bottom left-hand corner of the picture? The one where she's eating something?
While most youkais eat humans, she has to eat other youkais to stay alive. It's considered blasphemy, but youkais (since they ingest humans) possess more energy, fueling the two spirits in her body.

Drawn 3:30 AM or so. Really quick sketch with some gradient overlays and some blue shading to look like I gave more of a crap.

But two spirits in her body? What spirits? I don't know if I've explained this, but in my other post, I explained the type of youkai she is, right? Anyways, these half-birds were real birds' slaves, and would do anything for them. When a stray shadow cat decided to visit the real birds, the real birds tricked the cat to go for the half ones. Kanaria, being a loser as she couldn't fly for her age, was used as an offering. Some kind of tricks I haven't thought about were thrown in, and now she's permanently stripped from flight, but instead, got these shadow powerz.

And the cat youkai's supposed to eat her, but it figured that since she was its living vessel, it'd make her a deal that instead of having it eat her inside out, she'd eat other youkais to save herself.

That's pretty much her background. Yes, it's not realistic and a bit mary-sue, but if it helps, she's as weak as hell and really relies on the cat youkai to save her sorry ass.

But, I have fun with this bit of freedom I have by not making everything super realistic (like I do other things).

First picture's drawn with mechanical pencil on scrap photocopy paper.

Second picture's draw on openCanvas 4.5.

RE: Yukiko's 2009 revamp

Background added.

Man, looking back, Yukiko's portraits have drastically improved. The last finished portrait I made of her was this:

 

Definitely improved, huh?

WIP - Yukiko's 2009 revamp

Realized that I haven't drawn Yukiko in a while. Since it was my birthday a while ago, I though I'd give her a style revamp. I did have another sketch of Yukiko in the works, but that never came through. I'll post it's WIP that I may or may not finish.

Yukiko's pretty much finished in this pic, but I still need a background. Also tried to make her hair less saturated but still silky and bright.

Oh yeah, I never did finish this on my b-day, but oh well. I couldn't work during it!

Made in openCanvas 4.5.