Garrus, you are lucky I love you.

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

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

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.

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

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!

argh pt 2

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.

argh

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

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 :/