K J Dawson's KreativeWerks

MONKS

2011-09-14T12:18:00.000-05:00

B, I finally updated, yo!

Your turn!

Garrus, you are lucky I love you.

2011-07-05T13:14:00.000-05:00

I know I'm way behind on my Pathfinder challenge with B, but I haven't been feeling it. Also, I was working on...

SHEPARD'S ANGELS

It took a bit of time, and looking up ref for Garrus damn near infected my work computer with a virus (ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL), but in the end it was worth it. I'm not sure if I'll take this any further, or just leave it as is.

Also, I mainlined all of Season 1 of Rizzoli and Isles, a show on TNT. I'm pretty sure iTunes loves me, since I bought all of the episodes off the iTunes store in one night. I also mainlined a ton of R&I femslash fic, because that's how I roll. If anyone is interested in it, check out RizzlesGirls :D

Rizzoli and Isles, and a Random Warrior Woman

2011-06-10T18:32:00.001-05:00

Yeah... so I've been mainlining femslash fic like biotics mainline EEZO, and I got sucked into the Rizzoli and Isles fandom without watching a damn episode. In fact, I pre-ordered the first season "sight unseen," as it were. Then I cruised dA, where I saw many hilarious takes on Kate Beaton's brilliant fanfiction/comic, "Ooh Mister Darcy." I ended up drawing this:

What.

I also drew this, before I "wrote" "Ooh Detective Rizzoli."

It was a lunch break doodle.

Anyway, I'm off to forage for food!

My Bith Likes to Party All The Time

2011-06-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

B and I did a lil' something different for our challenge this time around - we started them "live," so to speak, when I was visiting him! I was nervous as all get out, especially since he told me the subject matter whilst I was driving to visit - BITH from Star Wars! Of course, I misheard, and thought he said, "Sith!"

I sucked it up, though, and cranked this out in about 2 hours (I think) while we were chillin'. He had ref for me to nab, so I did, and I went to work. I did a warm-up sketch that isn't super relevant to this discussion, so I left it out. Here is my final one (compare and contrast with his awesome Bith Jedi! I'm so ashamed!)

I did some other random stuff since then - I didn't scan all of it because there wasn't much to scan. I was out of town for a few days, and I didn't have much time to sit and draw much.

Here is a page of random studies, and a totally not-scary monk:

Here is a page of random heads (I cracked open my figure drawing book from Michael Hampton again):

And here are some random perspective/background attempts I did yesterday during lunch:

I can't do much sketching during lunch today, since I used this time to get this stuff posted, but I think I'll try to crack some studies and stuff out once I get home tonight. Hopefully my apartment isn't an oven when I get home!

/kellz

Half 'n half

2011-05-18T21:03:00.001-05:00

Bryant beat me to the punch this time - with awesome results!

My challenge was to draw half-orcs from Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. I didn't put a restriction on classes, so B originally told me he was going with a dual-classed accountant/lawyer or somesuch. I decided to go with a bartender - a suave looking half-orc bartender for a swanky establishment.

You'll notice, however, that his apron has some stains, and that barrel of ale has a weird logo on it...

Also, the bottle opener on his hip looks a little shady.

This took me about an hour and a half, I think - worked on it during lunch, and again when I got home. That's all I have for right now... just waiting for the next challenge idea from B!

-k

Edited to add: Also, a little Dragon Age/Portal piece - I did it to test out my new sketchbook paper.

SPOILERS (and SCIENCE!)

What a difference a year (and 3 months) can make

2011-05-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I marked up the last page of my cheap 70pg sketchbook from Target. It's a picture of Renegade!F!Shepard from Mass Effect 2.

As I was drawing it, I realized I had done a similar picture about a year ago... and I was pretty sure I had posted it on here. So I went through my "archives" (lolz) and found it - the influx of studies, Dragon Age fanart, ME fanart, and other assorted stuff (the post is here).

The picture I was thinking of was this one:

The styles are pretty different (although I'd recognize my heavy lines no matter what), but it occurred to me that I was going for more realism in both pictures when I drew them. It's amazing what a year+ of practice can do.

(also, I'm pretty sure that the one from my moleskin too me longer to draw than the one I drew yesterday)

I'm not sure which one is "better" - they both have their strengths and weaknesses. The important thing is that I'm making some progress, even if it looks like I'm taking steps back sometimes, instead of just resting on my laurels.

Han shot first, but I still like 'em as a whole!

2011-05-13T13:43:00.000-05:00

B's challenge this time aound was RODIANS from Star Wars. I started grabbing some refs, and... it kind of got away from me >_>

Here's my first (and only!) sketch:

I grabbed ref for the guns and some of the clothing, and his face (duh), but all in all it took me... maybe an hour and a half?

After talking to B about it via email, I decided to try giving this a background of some sort. I made a photocopy of the pic at work and spent another 50 minutes drawing the background elements on a piece of copy paper.

I'm... pretty proud of this. For now, at least :D

I need to think about the next assignment now! Well, I need to think about it after work, I suppose, when I'm not celebrating Mom's birthday, or playing Portal 2, or whatever.

-k

Some doodles

2011-05-09T12:50:00.001-05:00

I've been drawing a bit more often than usual, but I'm lazy and don't like scanning my studies. However, I did take my lunch break to draw the last three pages I worked on in my sketchbook.

The first pic is a poor sketch of Hellboy. I used almost no ref (and it shows), but the main purpose of this was to put my anatomy studies to use.

The second pic is a random superhero-type flying in the air. I used a picture of a diver for the pose and threw on the anatomy (the diver was all kitted out in diving gear). I want to get back into drawing superheroes, like I did when I was in high school.

This last pic is a piece of fanart for Dragon Age 2 - it's the end of the duel between the Arishok and F!Hawke (who happens to be a rogue in this picture) in Act 2. I used ref for the Arishok's armor and F!Hawke's armor, but the rest was from imagination. Hooray! This took me about 2 hours total to draw.

And that about wraps up my lunch break today... I hope to post more soon!

I hate being sick. So. MUCH.

2011-04-18T20:07:00.000-05:00

It was my turn to give a challenge for my art exchanges with Bryant, so I decided on women warriors. It should have been easy-peasy - I like women, I like armor, and I like women. I should have had this in the bag, right?

Right?

Well, between Dragon Age 2 coming out, beating that once and starting a second playthrough, getting the influenza and being down and out for 5+ days, and trying to recover from that and/or a secondary cold/sinus infection/whatever that hitchhiked its way into my body, it ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. Like, 2 weeks longer.

First off, here's the final version:

I used ref for the armor, as the goal (for me, at least) was to draw a female warrior with armor that looked solid, useful, able to protect, etc etc. The pose and face and stuff was from my imagination, as was the sword and the lazy shield. As ridiculous as this sounds, the part I'm most proud of is that I added her head after I drew the rest of the body... and it looks decent. I usually have to start drawing the head first, or it gets all messed up later. I started using 2H lead to lay stuff out, and then solidify the lines I want with H lead.

This was my first pass:

Boring, huh? I used ref for the armor, but I didn't like pretty much anything about it. So I tried again.

I liked this one a lot more, but my lines were so heavy and dark that I got frustrated from lead smearing all over the place, so I thought I'd just start over again. I think that worked out in the end.

I did some other sketches while working on this - here's some Dragon Age 2 fanart I did while sick:

Random faces - there's the Arishok, Isabela (twice!), an elf, and a shitty dwarf face, along with some other random crap ('sup Frank Castle?). Also, there's a mini-Qunari-Blanka fusion.

This second batch of faces includes Sebastian Vael, a Desire Demon, F!Hawke, Loki from Thor (kinda), and some other random people.

We have an elf, a dwarf, two F!Hawkes, an alien thing, and some other faces. Oh, and a torso. Hawt.

I also have two sketches of F!Hawke (I picked the mage class for my second playthrough). I love her default face. LOVE IT.

Anyway, this first sketch is F!Hawke resting after a hard day. Yes, that is lipstick on her cheek :3 (I romanced Isabela ASAP because she's just so much fun)

This is a sketch of F!Hawke getting ready to fireball the darkness. Pew pew!

I have some other sketches too, but they're all studies (and two of them are kind of NSFW), so they'll stay in my sketchbook for now.

I heart lamp.

2011-03-20T21:00:00.002-05:00

Bryant picked ornate lanterns for our challenge, and then shit hit the fan for me, haha. Still, I scratched this out between a trip to the ER for a migraine, being without my car (or my apartment) for 2 days, and trying to meet deadlines at work LIEK A BOSS.

I don't have any process shots - I just looked at some ref on the web, got to drawing, and there it is. This was my first draft. I don't know. I'm pretty meh about it, but at least I got it done.

Shortly after I finished the lantern, I drew a silly sketch of Lady Hawke from Dragon Age 2. She's sporting a French 'stache. Yeah, it doesn't make sense, and it's not supposed to. The 'stache is an inside joke from my D20 Modern group... >_>'

I used a screen grab of her face from the prologue and slapped a mustache on there, along with a worried ghost face. Yep. That's what I do - draw crazy shit that makes no sense. /high five!

Finally, I decided to try participating in the local comic book store's sketch challenges. The past week was Iron Man. I kept mine pretty classy, don't you think?

We have an hour limit... I used 50 minutes, with some ref for the armor. Yeah, I drew it on a backing board. That's how the challenges work >_>'

It's 9pm on a Sunday night, and after canceling a few plans this week due to not feeling well, I think I'm going to prep for my doctor's appointment tomorrow and go to bed. Night all :D

Random shite on Harmony

2011-03-17T08:20:00.000-05:00

I'm working on the next challenge, but I thought I'd put this up for lulz. I drew this on http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/#chrome in a few minutes while at work.

I also forgot to post up my pic of HAUNTED BANANAS that I did as an art trade with @everydayfoxlife:

Now to return to a crummy week of migraines, high blood pressure, and destroyed rear bumpers!

Worgens represent! (and other stuff, too!)

2011-03-11T12:35:00.000-06:00

Well, shit hit the fan right after I submitted this challenge to Bryant, and we both ended up delaying our submissions :/ Anyway...

Here's the "final" - the cleanest line art I had for Zakarial. He doesn't look much like a Worgen from Wow, does he? Between the face and the armor (I nipped that from Dragon Age: Origins)... it was still fun, though, and a learning experience!

I did a few studies to get to the final product - here is my first worgen... um, yeah... back to the drawing board!

So I worked on some leg studies first, because the worgen legs were giving me fits.

Also, the faces were messing me up too. I've never really drawn anthro... well, ANYTHING before. So, I hit up my copy of Blacksad and went to work! I basically copied the faces, and then tried to reconstruct them myself.

I felt confident enough for a second try, so I sketched up a female worgen getting frustrated with a fishing daily. Instead, I got frustrated with her hands, and gave up.

Finally, I drew up Zakarial (the first image, haha), and printed it out so I could hash out a possible background. I used the Tudor housing from the last challenge as inspiration.

And, as promised in the title of this post, here is the other stuff!

Random dudes using the gesture drawing tool by Pixelovely:

Then another random dude while watching Dave Rapoza's Livestream (bonus content - a random M!Hawke face from Dragon Age 2!):

I got bored at work one day (I had to stay late) and I sketched this up in between searching for graphs. I used ballpoint pens and some Copics I had in my backpack.

And finally, something from yesterday's lunch break. It was supposed to be a warrior woman with a huge claymore, but that kind of failed (my layout was poor), and it ended up being a hapless male adventurer holding on to a rope >_>

Whew! I think I'm done with this post. Now I'm just waiting for the next assignment... (I'm talking about you, Bryant!).

-k

Tudor housing

2011-02-18T13:15:00.000-06:00

Another challenge from B... this time it's Tudor cottages. Seeing as how a) I'm a noob, and b) I never draw actual backgrounds and such, I kind of freaked out a bit. After getting some refs from Google and the Fable 2 artbook (B suggested looking at that for some more inspiration, because some of the images I found on Google were crazy complex), I got down to srs biz.

First off, the final:

It clearly still needs a lot of work, but I'm pretty chuffed all the same - it's my first house I've ever drawn... ever, really (well, since I got out of high school, anyway). I fudged the perspective, which is another weakness of mine, but it helped to draw a giant cube that the house would "fit" into - that gave me a bit more guidance than vanishing points that ran straight off the page.

Here's the notes/rough sketches I did when I was looking up images:

See what I mean about crazy? What's up bay windows and whatnot? Q__Q

And my rejected first pass:

The reason I rejected it is because I messed up with placement on the page, and the roof pretty much vanished into the coils of my sketchbook. Woot. Also, the perspective is a lot more wonky. Awesome.

Well, back to work for now >_>'

BLAM BLAM BLAM

2011-02-12T01:13:00.000-06:00

It's round 3 of Random Assignments with Bryant, and I picked guns this time around. He pushed me for more details (we wanted to avoid the vagueness of "trees"), so I picked 19th century hand guns :3 So, without further ado...

This is the "final" version - I didn't spend much time on it because I was getting sleepy (was doing laundry at Mom's house, and I actually just got home a short time ago). I did the values for the wood stock in grayscale, and slapped an overlay layer above it to lay down the colors ('sup, cheater?), but I did the rest of the coloring with a normal hard, round brush.

Next up, the pencils:

I kept the background color when I saved this so it wasn't just a glaring white picture.

My drafts/practice drawings:

'Sup, Zangief?? >_>

And finally, random shit and feet!

I was doing some studies, so I thought I'd just include them on this post.

And now I'm really tired, and I'm having company over tomorrow, and I still need to clean, so I should probably hit the hay. Good night!

Eff you, trees!

2011-02-07T23:02:00.000-06:00

And eff me for being impatient!

I'm going to try and redo the color tomorrow night...see if I can get them to look okay.

In the meantime, I'm going to clean up my Wacom. I just sneezed over it like a moron.

(Curse you, Bryant!)

And then I drew Batman. The end.

2011-02-03T14:18:00.000-06:00

So B at http://rubricscarab.blogspot.com/ and I are trying to give each other drawing assignments, so we improve our skills instead of play WoW all the time.

So of course he asked me to come up with an assignment when I was in a terrible Halls of Origination group. Awesome. The first thing that popped up?

BATMAN-KUN :D

Sketches:

Then I did a first pass... ugh.

Then I did this during my lunch breaks at work (probably 1.5 - 2hrs total):

I'm waiting to see what B comes up with nao~!

As promised

2011-01-31T13:00:00.000-06:00

It's just a sketch, done during my lunch break, using ref (I used a flipped picture of a diver), but it's something, right?

Mass Effect 2 x FFXIII (I can't help it Q_Q)

2010-10-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

It's been a long time since I posted last, but oh well. I'm not a fan of people posting just to post an apology for how little they update. I do have something new, though, that I'd like to share.

Ever since I found out that Liara (from Mass Effect 1 and 2) and Lightning (from Final Fantasy XIII) were voiced by the same actress, my mind wouldn't stop with the stupid-crazy crossovers. I just kept imaging Liara saying, "Don't worry, Commander Shepard - I have this," and then summoning an Eidolon ('sup, Odin?).

Last inght I finally sat down and drew the damn thing out. I spent 2.5 hours on it, and I'm not completely done (lol @ Liara's feet), but I like it so far. I used a bit of ref (screenshots from the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC so I knew wtf Liara was wearing, and a photo of the FFXIII Odin action figure), but most of it was from mah head.

Okay, back to work!

Brief Update

2010-08-09T15:22:00.001-05:00

It's been a while, but time flies when you're moving, hanging out with friends, and going to GenCon :D

Persona 3 Portable came out, and has been sucking up all of my available video game time. I'm going through as a female MC, which is such a frigging blast. If you have a PSP, buy this game. If you already beat Persona 3 (or Persona 3 FES) for the PS2... buy this game anyway. Playing as a female adds another dimension to the game that I really appreciate.

I went to GenCon with my gaming group this year, and I have to say, I had a blast (despite catching Con Crud on Saturday). Iron Player was amazing fun (as always), and answering the Player Call for Iron DM was... interesting (our table ended up with a DM who insisted on running us through 4th Ed D&D, despite the protests from us). I picked up the Advanced Player's Guide for Pathfinder, which is 300+ pages of sheer awesome. I love how Paizo updates the base classes with new goodies even when they create brand new classes - it helps avoid the power gaps that ended up plaguing D&D 3.0/3.5. It remains to be seen if they'll continue to keep that up as time goes on, but as of right now, I'd be cool with either playing a new class (Oracles are very sexy, IMO), or playing a core fighter (even without using the variant fighter stuff they added). Also got some awesome new Steampunk-themed dice, some GameScience dice, and Steve Prescott's artbook "Aggregate," which is friggin' SWEET.

Speaking of artbooks, the one I ordered from Amazon.jp finally arrived while I was at GenCon - it's "Shigenori Soejima Art Works 2004 - 2010". He is the main art director and character designer for Persona 3 and Persona 4. I haven't had a chance to actually open the damn thing to look at it yet, but the cover image of Aigis is amazing. I can't wait!

I am actually doing studies and art pieces here and there, believe it or not. I've just been too lazy to scan them. My apartment is hella hot (and WAY humid), and turning on the computer just adds to that problem. I did post some links on Twitter - let me see if I can find them...

Zhou Xiang (my Oracle PC from my Sunday gaming group) - pencils: http://twitpic.com/22u16k
Zhou Xiang - color tests: http://twitpic.com/24kfn2 and http://twitpic.com/29lylo
The image I used for my haircut poll: http://twitpic.com/27z2cs

Well, I'm at my mom's house doing laundry, so I should probably log off and finish that up so I can go home and clean before I go back to work tomorrow. Later!

PS - Patachou's in Indy has the best omelets EVER. Totally worth the price of admission - their daily omelets kept me filled up for a good 6 to 10 hours each day, depending on how busy I was after I ate breakfast there. And the cinnamon toast is to DIE FOR.

Blowing the dust off for two shakes

2010-06-29T09:39:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so much for updating on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Between apartment hunting, moving, setting everything up, and playing video games (why hello there Red Dead Redemption, Alpha Protocol [stay away from that buggy PoS!], Yakuza 3, etc etc etc), drawing in general has been pretty low on my totem pole. I have been doing at least a few studies per week, though, which I hope to get scanned in this week.

Since I have nothing to show, I'll dive into some quick video game reviews:

Red Dead Redemption: LOVE IT. It's a gorgeous game with a decent story and memorable characters (some of them make me so MAD I wish I could just kill them on the spot). I like the combat, and I'm even doing okay on Expert :D If you don't want to buy it, you should at least rent it. It makes me like Westerns, and I normally am not a fan of those (to say the least).

Alpha Protocol: I WOULD HAVE loved it, except that it's buggy. So buggy, in fact, that it froze my game in one particular spot about 15 to 20 hours in. Couldn't get past the freezing at all, no matter what I did (I even set up a fan behind my Xbox 360 unit to keep it cooler). RDR worked just fine, but Alpha Protocol came to a stuttering halt every time in those ruins in Rome. It's a shame, too, because I actually liked it as a game. The plot is decent, the characters are memorable, the combat is a less polished version of Mass Effect 2, with more of an RPG level up system, and the conversation system is a combo of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age, but TIMED.

Yakuza 3: not very far into it, but Kaz is a great uncle :D

Well, it's April

2010-04-21T22:07:00.001-05:00

I know I've been slacking (at least in posting), but I've had a busy schedule lately. And now I'm sick. However, I'll be damned if I go without posting at least once a month. I thought I'd post some drawings I've been working on in the past few weeks - I've probably used some sort of ref on pretty much everything (except the random faces in my moleskine).

So here goes (no particular order):

Anatomy studies, and a landscape

2010-03-17T22:44:00.001-05:00

This is all I have for the last week - I just can't seem to get my head in the game, so to speak. Something's better than nothing, though. All of these were done in 20 to 30 minutes, using ref.

In video game news, I've been playing a ton of Final Fantasy XIII, and I'm loving it so far. Mass Effect 2 is probably my personal Game of the Year, but still - having a blast for the most part. I'm seriously considering canceling my WoW account till Cataclysm, and now I have friends telling me to join them on Star Trek Online or Champions Online, haha. I'm considering it, at least till Star Wars: The Old Republic and Final Fantasy XIV come out...

Holy crap there's art in this post??

2010-03-08T22:27:00.002-06:00

First off - I'm severely disappointed in White Knight Chronicles :/ It doesn't sit well with me when I'm playing a game, and all of a sudden I beat the final boss, and I didn't even know it was the final boss. I literally sat there, staring at the screen, controller in hand, saying, "... this isn't the end, is it? Is it? What the hell, I think I just beat the game! WTF?"

So anyway, I'm playing Assassin's Creed on the PS3. I have to say, I like the game a lot, even with the repetitive missions. There's no way in Hell I'm going after all of those hidden flags, though. That's a definite time sink, and this is coming from someone who has played World of Warcraft since release (except for a 9 month break, but I digress). I can't wait to open up Assassin's Creed II, but that will have to be delayed till I finish ACI (and then Final Fantasy XIII comes out, so... yeah).

I promised art in the post title, so here goes - all are studies from the past two weeks (two of them are from today, actually).

This was from a study demo from Analytical Figure Drawing SP08 that I did on 02/17 during my lunch break.

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This was a shot at a quick environment, also done at work during a lunch break. This was from a few days ago, I believe.

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Hey, look! It's my stapler, my Gunnar glasses box case, and a box of Kleenex, all sitting at my cube at work!

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These are just anatomy studies I did today. The torsos are from lunch today, and the lips and eyes and whatnot were done while watching Dave Rapoza's Monday Night Stream today (of course I missed it live, so I watched it after the fact on Livestream).

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Okay, I'm going to finish watching the Monday Night Stream, and head off to bed.

White Knight Chronicles - where was the beta testing?

2010-02-26T09:25:00.000-06:00

I took a break from doing anything art-related last night, and instead spent a bunch of time playing White Knight Chronicles: International Edition (by Level 5 and Sony).

The game definitely has its flaws with the plot line, which makes me yell at the TV screen every hour or so for a good five to ten minutes per plot hole/cliche/super-fast exposition. However, I usually just give it the MST3K treatment and move on. I can accept bad and/or cheesy plotlines if the game play is good. The voice acting is... uneven, but not cringe-inducing. Also, I love the random comments that are made by everyone when I'm running around a town/dungeon/battle/whatever.

The technical glitches that I've run into, however, make me want to cut someone.

Being limited by range when it comes to my attacks, but the enemy being able to hit me no matter where they are on the map? Aggravating, but at least I knew about that one ahead of time, so I planned accordingly.

Having to run around and wait a few minutes to target an NPC to talk to them? Time consuming, but not game breaking... unless it's an NPC in a timed quest. Then panic starts to set in, and anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour of work can be shot to hell.

Having to run around and enter/exit game menus to try and get an NPC to become visible, as there's nothing except a floating nameplate in the air? Not cool, especially if it's an NPC for the above-mentioned timed quest.

Having the controls lock up in the middle of a boss battle, where your only option is to hit the Triangle button to send a text to an online friend (if available and in-game), or R1 to defend? Kind of game breaking for me. I couldn't even hit Select to try and change who I was controlling. The only way to do anything was to RESET the game, and reload from my latest save.

Talking to an NPC and having their conversation text stop in the middle of a sentence (I made up an example to avoid spoilers: "Oh, hello, strange adventu")? And they repeat that every single time you talk to them? I sure hope they don't have anything important to tell me, or I'm screwed.

Don't get me wrong - I like the combat a lot, when it's working (it reminds me of Final Fantasy XII, which I loved), the huge maps are gorgeous (and did I mention huge?), the character models are nice (if cartoony, and a little dated looking), and like I said - the plot doesn't bug me all that much (gives me fodder for mockage, if nothing else).

Some of the glitches, though, make me want to just put the game down and never come back. Seeing as how I pre-ordered White Knight Chronicles, I'm pretty disappointed. This game has been out for a while in Japan - why couldn't they tighten up the controls and the NPC appearance/disappearance issues, at least, before releasing it here?

First impressions of Sketchbook Pro 2010

2010-02-23T22:16:00.000-06:00

I've been kicking around the idea of trying Sketchbook Pro 2010 for a while. I even downloaded the trial for my Macbook, which I almost never use (except to play WoW at a friend's house every once in a while). I was trying to use it on the Macbook, but with the small screen (13.3" or whatever vs my 19" desktop monitor) and my small Intuos3 tablet (lolwat), it felt clumsy to me.

Also, I didn't bother to read anything about how to use it.

In the end, I defaulted to CS3 on both machines.

Fast forward to now - I have a new tablet, dual monitors, and I'm still learning/re-learning how to use digital media again. I'm looking for a program that I can sketch in, without having to mess with the brush settings in Photoshop (I'm sure it's not that hard, but I'm impatient, dammit!). So I'm reading up, and lo, Sketchbook Pro 2010 crosses my path again!

It's roughly $100 USD, though, and I'm trying to tighten ye old money pouch again. I figured I'd download the 15 day trial and see if it I like it enough - if so, I'd buy it when I get my next paycheck.

...

Yeah, after messing with it for an hour, I'm ready to put the money down right now.

I didn't sketch anything freehand in it yet, just did a rough "ink" on a study I did at lunch today (I grabbed some dude's picture off the internet in between manual editing). Here's the progression from scan to "finished product":

It's not the best thing EVER, but it was a lot easier to work in Sketchbook Pro 2010 than in Photoshop. It runs light, it's easy to use (I had no problem setting up the straight edge tool!), I love the little tool lagoon... Yeah.

I'll try to use it for various things besides just "inking," just to make sure I still want to buy it at the end of the trial period, but so far I'm sold.

argh pt 2

2010-02-22T23:30:00.002-06:00

OH HI CAPS

Anyway.

Here's take 2 for my Commander Shepard pic from a few days ago. This was done after I spent over a half hour wondering why my new Wacom wasn't working properly (turns out it was because I had two installed on here. Whoops). I was finally able to work on this after uninstalling the old drivers, restarting, installed "critical updates," installed the new drivers, and restarted. YES.

My digital ink skills are still rusty, so I just did ye olde "Multiply Layer!" method, with a bit of overlay. Really, I just wanted to try out my new tablet. I think I"ll try to push this a bit further, but we'll see. I'd probably be better off making a nice clean pencil sketch and going from there, or starting with forms and values.

Right, so I guess it's time for bed? It is 11:30pm right now, and my contacts are buggin' me something fierce.

Dammit.

2010-02-12T08:41:00.000-06:00

So I slept on it, and I think I'll try printing out the pencils for Shepard on paper, clean them up/ink them, and rescan. It's really bugging me... I'm half tempted to do the corrective stuff at work (I have GIMP on my machine here), and use my liners to ink it during lunch.

FFFFFFF.

argh

2010-02-11T22:11:00.002-06:00

Ok, so next time I do something I want to color, I should probably draw it out on white paper, and make sure my lines are crisp and clean.

Clearly, I drew this in my moleskine, all sloppy like, and digitally inked it in like a half hour. Garbage in, garbage out, right?

Lines are too thick, but I haven't done this in a while. So next I throw down some color:

At this point I realize that the color makes Shepard's outfit look like Asuka Langley's plug suit (or wtfever it's called). Doh! Hopefully I can change it up a bit later on.

Still, felt like posting... showing some back-asswards progress. I'm also working on a luchadora for the Chicagoland Street Fighter/King of Fighters RPG I'm playing in, but it's in the rough stages.

And now it's time for some more cream cheese frosting, and then to bed.

Influx of study doodles, Dragon Age fanart doodles, and Mass Effect 2 fanart doodles

2010-02-10T21:41:00.002-06:00

I'm doing real good on this daily or almost-daily drawing and updating thing (not). Anyway, here are a few sketches I did in my new moleskine... as the title says, it's mostly doodles (and mostly Mass Effect related, at that).

(oh wait, this one has my half-orc and our party's half-elf rogue from my D&D/Pathfinder campaign; the right-hand side is more Mass Effect stuff)

That's pretty much it for now... I'm making this post while waiting in the LFG queue for World of Warcraft. I wanted to get some coloring in, but my head is killing me :/

The wonders of Omegle.com, or "Wow, you're a geek..!"

2010-01-25T09:09:00.000-06:00

Okay, this has nothing to do with art, and everything with me being a geek.

There's a site called Omegle, where you chat with a random stranger, until one of you ends the conversation.

This is one such conversation I had with a gentleman via Omegle. I tried using the shortest, and yet technically complete D&D adventure (per Monte Cook), and it just snowballed into this...

---

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!
Stranger: im a guy btw
You: Hello, new player!
You: You are in a 10ft by 10ft room.
Stranger: oh, game time?
You: You see an orc with a pie.
Stranger: oh shit i want that pie
Stranger: apple?
You: The orc is looking at you warily.
You: Yes, it appears to be an apple pie.
Stranger: warily? ima gonna charge him
You: Ok, roll initiative!
Stranger: that pie is mine
Stranger: ROLL!
You: /roll
Stranger: /roll?
You: The orc has rolled a 13 out of 20.
You: You have a chance to beat him!
Stranger: ok, dam
Stranger: what if i upgrade my stuff
Stranger: i can roll to 30 now
Stranger: /roll
Stranger: i ole 22
Stranger: rol*
You: Ok, you go first!
Stranger: i win
You: Ok, roll to hit
Stranger: pie is mine!
You: It looks like his armor class isn't very good
Stranger: dam, i thought the pie was mine?
You: You can probably take him
You: No, you just rolled to see who went first
Stranger: god damit .... well
Stranger: i use my fuckin bow and arrow
Stranger: HEAD SHOT!
You: You successfully head-shotted the orc!
Stranger: thats a 5% chance btw
Stranger: oh yeah bitchs
You: The pie drops to the ground.
Stranger: i pick it up!
You: You pick it up. The pie seems to have a bit of red on it.
You: It's also covered with whipped cream.
Stranger: i dont care, gonna eat it
Stranger: oh yeah, red, whipped cream, sounds like my weekend
You: You eat the pie.
You: It tastes delicious!
Stranger: oh yeah, 10+ all states!
Stranger: know ima gonna /roll to see if i can get moe pie
You: Somewhere, there is a bakery making more delicious pies.
Stranger: oh god yes! pie is good
Stranger: oh wait
Stranger: are we using pie as a metaphor for women?
Stranger: if not, thats cool
Stranger: mmmm pie
You: Either or. Orcs are knows for devouring humans, as well as apples.
You: Do you wish to exit the room and search for any bakeries that employ other orcs?
Stranger: oh yeah, so i want it EVEN if its not a pie, but a chic
Stranger: with whipped cream
Stranger: oh yes
Stranger: i ount my flying zoo-bat
Stranger: mount*
You: Ok, you exit the 10ft x 10ft room, and mount your flying zoo-bat!
You: Roll me a perception check!
Stranger: NO, I MOUNT IT in THE 10FT BY 10FT ROOM
You: !!
Stranger: o god, not again
You: Ok, you mount the zoo-bat in the 10ft by 10ft room.
Stranger: rolling?! i want too mount my zoo-bat NOW
Stranger: oh yeah, now ima gonna ride that zoo-bat to the bakery
You: No, rolling perception was to see if you could track down orc-run bakeries.
Stranger: /roll perception check
Stranger: 9/30
Stranger: dam
You: Hmm.
You: Ok, you don't see anything. However, your zoo-bat rolled a 22/30.
Stranger: oh yes! i love it when my zoo-bat wins at this!
Stranger: he smells the pie
You: Your zoo-bat starts flying to the outskirts of the town, following a trail of apple and/or women pie!
Stranger: oh yes whipped cream here i come
Stranger: he dives!
Stranger: *gasp*
Stranger: i jump off him and land on the roof of a house
Stranger: fall thro
Stranger: and BAM there pie
Stranger: but theres also 10 orcs
Stranger: all with there weapons out
You: One of them is an elite War Orc!
Stranger: i use WHIRLWIND!
Stranger: it has a 10% chance to stun
You: Level 80 warrior, empowered with apple pie, stuns 8 out of the 10 normal orcs!
Stranger: oh yeah!
You: The war orc is still conscious and moving!
Stranger: wait, 80? what is this shit
Stranger: im like lvl - mr T
Stranger: Mr T schools ALL bitchs
You: You examine the War Orc, and realize that he too is a level Mr T.
Stranger: oh god
Stranger: well, im a CHARGIN MY LAZER!
Stranger: DOCTOROCTOGONPUS BLAAAAH!
You: Laser is charging
You: Laser is charging
You: Laser is charging
Stranger: triple finish!
Stranger: its super effective
You: The laser blast dispiates harmlessly after the War Orc's "I don't have time for this jibberjabber" shield!
Stranger: oh god!
You: War Orc is now charin his lazer!!11
Stranger: Mr T quote means i die
Stranger: welll, ROUND HOUSE KICK PLZ>!?!?!?!!!
Stranger: face shot
You: His lazer fails, as he misspelled "chargin"!
Stranger: oh yeah
Stranger: =)
You: You successfully round house kick him! The power of Chuck Norris compels you!
Stranger: oh yeah, it creates a new big bang
Stranger: but then the war ork wins
Stranger: cause we all know that chuck norris is weak
Stranger: war ork eats pie/ women
Stranger: and then explodes
Stranger: cause that pie/ women had a bomb on its chest
You: The War Orc goes "Om nom nom," and devours the women and pies.
You: And he explodes!
Stranger: those implants werent real?!
You: Mr T pities the fool orc who makes it to his level~!
Stranger: they were a bomb
Stranger: oooooohhhhhh yeeeaaaaaahhhh
Stranger: dam, know i own the bakery
Stranger: that bakery is my bitch
You: The bakery was destroyed in the new big bang, unfortunately.
Stranger: oh
You: However, you see 100k gold laying in the spot of the former bakery
Stranger: well, oh
Stranger: oh YEAH!
You: Would you like to rebuild the bakery and make more delicious pies? Y/N?
Stranger: coll-aid wins
Stranger: N
Stranger: ima gonna get me some hoes
Stranger: and build a playboy house
Stranger: happily ever after
You: The end! I hope you enjoyed this adventure, and remember - Cleanse spells are good for removing disease after sleeping with a ho!
You: Hookers and blow for the win!

---

And then the conversation ended, I joined Facebook, and we went on Omegle and regaled people with War Orc, courtesy of Nick Markey.

The end!

Small update

2010-01-14T20:52:00.001-06:00

First things first: I worked on my Elissa Cousland sketch a little bit this week... centered her body some, and refined the armor a bit.

Then we have some concept exploration fail, done with Copic Cool Grey markers on copier paper:

... which lead to the fail sketch below:

There ARE some things I like about it... I just wish I didn't have such a heavy hand. No matter how hard or lightly I press, my lead smears ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL over the place like WHAT. Maybe I need new lead? Anyway, I'm going to see if I can clean it up/refine it in Photoshop, with my small-arsed Wacom Intuos 3.

Hopefully the WoW raid will be starting up soon, so I'll cut this short. Later!

OMG STUDIES

2010-01-12T21:30:00.000-06:00

As promised... a lot of studies from the last few weeks of 2009 and the first week or so of 2010.

Happy Belated New Year's and whatnot!

2010-01-07T10:44:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I'm totally late to the party, but still - I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve! I know I did, even if I don't remember certain parts of it :3

I have a bunch of studies I need to scan and post, but I have been slacking off to play World of Warcrack and more Dragon Age: Origins. I hope to get them scanned, cleaned up, and posted by this Sunday... and then I hope to maybe start working on an actual piece, instead of just a bunch of studies. We'll see what I get done!

I also have oil paints calling out to me, but I want to make sure I know how to dispose of them properly before I start mucking around with them.

Later!

What's up, cast study?

2009-12-24T23:20:00.000-06:00

This is a cast study I worked on for about 2 ~ 3 hours (total) on Christmas Eve. The colors and values are off (I have very yellow lights in the basement... which doesn't explain the values being off, lolz), but it's all a learning experience... I hope!

lol what

2009-12-20T23:26:00.001-06:00

I am such a fail dork when it comes to drawing directly on my tablet, esp w/ no ref. auuuugh. Still learning though!

Looking at this, I think I need to stick w/ traditional stuff for a while yet... not that I'll listen to myself, but whatever, haha. And yeah, it's more Dragon Age: Origins art, because I didn't feel like drawing a blank featureless face again.

I'm also trying the demo for ArtRage 3. I don't know how I feel about it yet... it's taking some time to get used to, for sure. It's neat, but I'm not sure if it's something I would use very often. Also, for some reason it kind of lags on my computer, with only one layer on. WTF?

It's late, and I should go to bed. Night night!

Dragon Age: Origins fanart scribbling and head studies!

2009-12-17T20:56:00.000-06:00

Scanning stuff is a PITA.

Anyway, as promised, the start of some Dragon Age: Origins fanart that I may or may not continue (I see issues with her proportions and perspective already, but I don't know if I'm skilled enough to fix them yet), and a CRAPTON of head studies dating from 12/11/09 to yesterday (12/16/09).

RIP Nintendo Wii - I hardly knew ye. Too much waggle.

2009-12-15T19:30:00.002-06:00

I have a ton of geometric head structure studies from last night and my lunch break today - probably about 3hrs worth from last night - but I'm so not in the mood to scan them. My Nintendo Wii - or the disc drive, at least - died today.

I'm pissed because I bought my mom the Wii Fit Plus so she could use it for her hip rehabilitation exercises, and of course the Wii decides to crap out NOW. It's not like I played it very much (didn't have many games that I liked, or the ones that I did like were destroyed later on), so I don't know why the fuck it stopped reading discs. I can go on the internet, check out the Wii channels, but I can't play a fucking game disc. I mean, wtf - it was able to play games after it survived the sewer back-up a year and a half ago. Lame.

So Mom and I are going to buy a new Wii tomorrow - we're gonna go halfsies on it. That way if she's still playing it when I move out, it's hers, but if she's done with it by then, I'll take it with me.

In the meantime, I'm going to play video games to try and calm down. I'll scan and post the studies tomorrow.

Elissa Cousland: Human Noble

2009-12-10T21:03:00.002-06:00

Yep, another Dragon Age: Origins piece... actually, a colored version of fan art I did previously, if I'm being completely honest.

Basically I messed around with grayscale, and then threw a color and an overlay layer on top. It's not great, and it's certainly not perfect, but it definitely feels like a bit of improvement for me!

I don't know how long this took me. It was the result of me messing around in Photoshop, trying to draw directly via my Wacom. That... didn't go so well, so I turned to this to blow off some steam. Thoughts?

As promised!

2009-12-10T13:30:00.000-06:00

Neither snow nor sleet nor rain nor hail, or something to that effect!

Dec 8: What's up crappy head studies? (I will say that I liked how the dwarf, the random creature, and the Joker turned out!)

Dec 9: Working on the neck a bit...

Dec 9/Dec 10 (c-c-c-combo BREAKER!):

I've been doing these studies from Figure Drawing - Design and Invention by Michael Hampton, just fyi. I think it's a great book... picked it up directly off his site, which is http://www.figuredrawing.info/.

Speaking of anatomy...

2009-12-10T09:16:00.004-06:00

... my own hurts like a bitch. My back, my arms, my chest - ugh. I'd put a pox on the snow we got Tuesday and yesterday, but I don't think that would do much good. Besides, Mother Nature would probably find a way to smite me for my impudence.

So really, all I did was play some Dragon Age: Origins, putz around in Photoshop (tried to colorize that Cousland pic from a few days ago - not finished yet), and go to bed.

Anyway, here is a pic from Tuesday night:

I have the sketches from yesterday's lunch break too, but I need to scan those yet. I'm hoping to hit them up at lunch* today.

*lunch: consisting of pain killers, sinus medicine, and more pain killers, followed with a Fiber One bar chaser! OM nom nom!

Oh hai winter!

2009-12-09T12:55:00.000-06:00

Yep, our first real snowstorm of the year decided to make an appearance. We ended up with about 3 inches of a snow/slush mix, which supposedly equated to about 3/4th of an inch of RAIN. It was super fun to shovel, and is probably frozen solid in certain parts of the county, I'm sure.

I made it to work safely (and on time wtf?!), and just finished up my lunch break. I did a few more anatomy studies, but I don't know if I should post them or not... I probably should, because this blog is intended more for my daily sketches than anything else. I'll have to scan them, and take pics of the studies I did last night, when I get home.

Well, not much to add for now. Back to the daily grind!

bloooorf

2009-12-07T13:28:00.006-06:00

Right, so I never had time to post my study from last Friday. To make up for it, there will be a bit of an image dump today.

From my lunch break on 12-03-09:

From my lunch break on 12-04-09:

From my lunch break today (12-07-09):

In other news, my once-a-month gaming group got their D20 modern characters pretty much finalized. It probably came off as more complicated than 4th edition D&D, but I think they'll probably enjoy it more over the long run. If that proves to be true, I'll see if I can get them to go to 3.5 or Pathfinder should they bite it in the new campaign.

The bad thing about doing studies on cheap paper...

2009-12-04T13:12:00.000-06:00

... is that sometimes the graphite smears all over the place a few days later, if you keep your sketchbook in your backpack with you.

I have some fairly recent stuff I'd like to scan, but it's smudged to Hell and back, due to soft lead, my heavy cave-man grip, cheap sketchbook paper, and carting said sketchbook all over the place.

On the other hand, it's cheap paper, so I don't feel like I'm "wasting" resources with studies. It's a ridiculous hang-up, I know, but still :/

I'll try to scan my daily lunch break sketch/study and post it before I punch out for the day.

Anatomy Studies

2009-12-03T20:16:00.000-06:00

So I got home, dicked around on DevArt looking at Dragon Age fanart, and then got down to business. These were both done on huge ass newsprint (18"x24") in a mix of charcoal, graphite, and... colored "charcoal," I think. I totally pay attention to what I grabbed, haha!

(forgive my shitty pics - had to take them with my iPhone)

Study 1:

Study 2:

First!

2009-12-03T14:28:00.000-06:00

Right, so... here we go. I've been debating about starting something like this for a while, but I built it up to be this "huge thing" where I'd need my own domain name, some space, coding skills, etc etc... but I should actually see if I can sustain this first. After then, who knows?

To kick things off, here's a picture I drew of my first character from Dragon Age: Origins - Elissa Cousland, human noble, and tank extrordinaire!

Edited because I fail at spelling.