So you know that comic I have been making?

Well… it is now finished! Sort of. I have officially finished the line art, after a good week and a half. Took a lot longer than I expected… was a lot harder than I expected. I have attempted things in it that I have never attempted before, including doing a comic.  I have learned a variety of things that I will take with me when I make my next comic and hopefully it’ll make things easier for me.

Since I am not bothering with inking right now (and can’t actually afford inking pens anyways), I have to scan it as just pencils… turns out my original drawing was too light to scan well, so I am going over all the lines again with an H pencil and making them darker. It should scan better, which in turn will make it possible to clean up easily on the computer.

I have two of four panels traced over and I want to try and get the other four done later on today after I sleep. If I have time, I also want to color them all and toss in the dialogue, but I also need to do math, so… worst case scenario, I should have it completed by the end of Sunday, but we all know I am really bad at time estimation, so we’ll see how long it really takes. I’m just glad I made it through and that it overall doesn’t look like crap. Considering my skill level and the amount of art I have done in my lifetime, I think it is quite good. Hopefully it stays that way after the computer is done with it ^^;

Things I’ve learned while drawing this comic…

Sure, I’m not very far into the page, only two half size panels out of a total of 4 half size and two full size panels, but I have learned and relearned a few things. So in no particular order (though still numbered for some reason), here is what I have learned.

  1. While it may be convenient to draw the entire page on one sheet of paper, it also means you will be drawing quite small. Therefore, in the future I will only do the equivalent of one, ormaybetwo, full size panels to a single sheet of paper. Drawing is hard enough, trying to fit in details and delicate things in a tiny space just makes it that much harder.
  2. Redrawing everything from a previous panel, with only minor changes is difficult. It is especially difficult to keep everything to the same size and/or shape as previous panels. While I could draw once, duplicate X times on the computer, I feel I’ll improve my skills faster doing it this way. That doesn’t change the fact that it is hard.
  3. I am apparently a slow drawer. It probably has to do with my lack of experience. Hopefully time and practice will speed me up.
  4. People have arms, it would do me well to remember this and draw them in.

And that is about it. I am lazy and timid, so this is taking me longer than expected. Two panels down, four to go. They will only get harder from her on out, as they will be featuring more characters per panel (specifically a doubling from the one I have now) and more complex going ons. So… yeah. It looks really empty right now, even in the drawn panels. Having dialogue would help, but I plan on adding that in on the computer so it is more legible and doesn’t take up as much space to boot, so it will have to stay as is.

Edit: Forgot to add:

  1. Moldable erasers are a gift from the art gods ^-^

Pirates beat ninjas… and homework ^^;

So I have work that needs done. I have homework, spring cleaning, and art practice. Two of those are self-imposed, one is imposed by forces beyond my control (a.k.a. college). Of course, it is spring break so I can take my time on the homework ^^; I really didn’t feel like doing math and cleaning / sorting is boring, so the only logical option was to draw. Of course, I procrastinated a ton because I am afraid of screwing up and whatnot.

Anyways, what I’m currently drawing, which was scripted and thumbnailed last week, is a one shot, six panel comic featuring pirates (which are better than ninjas, I might add). One panel down, five to go… and that first panel took like two and half hours… albeit part of that time was spent reading about pirates on Wikipedia and a good hour was spent researching clothing and hairstyles…sooo maybe only like an hour actually spent drawing. Still, this is harder than I expected. Anyways, hopefully I can get all or most of the line art done before I go to bed so I can color it and such tomorrow. No way am I getting all of that done tonight at the rate I am going. Also, it is hard to draw small ^^; But I gotta fit it all on the page, so…

Anyways, break time, food time, and then back to work for me!

Well, yesterday I said I was going to do art and I did. I then said that I would post it, and that I might even color it and post that. And here we are, with me fulfilling promises left and right ^^;

I still don’t have a name for her, though she is less than a week old, so it is probably okay for the time being. This is her first full body image and my 5th or so full body image ever. I like how this turned out, I’m pretty proud of it. It took me about 2 ½ hours to fully draw and then another 2+ hours to clean up and color. I don’t have any detailed info for her yet, but I’d say the following might be a good rough sketch:

  • Age: 20, maybe 21
  • Born: April ##, because I like the way the month sounds.
  • Height / Weight: Unknown
  • Hair Color: Black
  • Skin Color: White
  • Eye Color: Purple
  • Hobbies: Geeky things.

And that’s all I have there. Some of it was made up on the spot as I was typing it. I get her more fleshed out over time, I’m sure. Oh yeah, and she has a simple color scheme right now. All of seven colors in this image, including two near-black shades of dark gray. So, what do you think?

I did this today in Astronomy class. We are still reviewing stuff from Astronomy I because that class is not a pre-req for Astronomy II, which is quite stupid if you ask me. So I was bored and to keep me entertained and able to focus to some degree I decided to make a drawing. Besides, if I am ever going to make a living as an artist I need to start practicing a lot more, so… She doesn’t have a name, I have only drawn her once before. I mistook in my memory a recent drawing of my first ever character, Casey, as her and so that is why she has the skull shirt. The skull shirt stays, though… Casey is more inclined to more feminine things I think, so I have no idea why I drew her with a skull shirt. So I now want this girl to be one of my characters officially, because I like her. I am thinking she might have a cutesy but tomboyish style of dress. So skulls, but cute ones, for instance. I am also considering making her some kind of geek, but I am not sure what kind yet. Maybe a tabletop RPG geek, maybe a gamer geek… *shrugs* Also, astronomy notes! I could have cropped them out, but feh… kinda more interesting this way. Anybody who happens to get what is going on in my notes gets an e-cookie (:̲̅:)
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I did this today in Astronomy class. We are still reviewing stuff from Astronomy I because that class is not a pre-req for Astronomy II, which is quite stupid if you ask me. So I was bored and to keep me entertained and able to focus to some degree I decided to make a drawing. Besides, if I am ever going to make a living as an artist I need to start practicing a lot more, so…

She doesn’t have a name, I have only drawn her once before. I mistook in my memory a recent drawing of my first ever character, Casey, as her and so that is why she has the skull shirt. The skull shirt stays, though… Casey is more inclined to more feminine things I think, so I have no idea why I drew her with a skull shirt.

So I now want this girl to be one of my characters officially, because I like her. I am thinking she might have a cutesy but tomboyish style of dress. So skulls, but cute ones, for instance. I am also considering making her some kind of geek, but I am not sure what kind yet. Maybe a tabletop RPG geek, maybe a gamer geek… *shrugs*

Also, astronomy notes! I could have cropped them out, but feh… kinda more interesting this way. Anybody who happens to get what is going on in my notes gets an e-cookie (:̲̅:)

So I haven’t posted these anywhere yet, but I figured I’d post them here. These are two Christmas presents I made, one for each of my sisters. They were kind of last minute, but I made sure to put as much effort into each as I could. In total, I spent around 7-8 hours across two days creating these. By far the most tedious part was the lettering on the Saw image, but it turned out really cool, so it was worth it. I don’t have the originals anymore, this is all that remains. That was part of my gift to them, the originals.

I want to get better at my art, but I have a lot of motivational problems tied in with perfectionist tendencies. I feel I can do better than what comes out on paper, I can see things in my mind that I can’t duplicate in reality… it frustrates me, I give up. I keep coming back to art, though. I’ve drawn more in the last few months than at any other time of my life, short of that one art class I took. But as far as drawings for myself, for the sake of drawing and not a classroom, I am at my most productive.

Which is sad because I have barely done anything in the time I have been trying to draw. I am finding it exhausting, though I think I know why. When you try and do something new, something you haven’t done before, your brain does a large build up of new neurons to help you out in getting better at it. I haven’t done anything truly new or challenging in over half a decade. I am sure that is why it is draining… but that combined with my struggles in accepting my skill for what it is now and trying to improve it by drawing tons is… difficult to say the least. Anyways, here is my offering of art. Maybe I will get more done and can offer more…