Thursday, June 30, 2005
Boys on the Beach
I began the Shuichi drawing first as a basic sketch earlier this month. I liked it enough I started developing it more. After a few weeks of playing with the Shuichi sketch (as well as other drawings), I decided to make a matching drawing of Eiri to go with it.
The Eiri drawing came together quickly, in only a few days. The boy still likes me enough to let me capture him quickly and easily. Now, if I could only get him to pose as a cabin boy as a companion piece to "The Dread Pirate Snugglecakes" drawing...
I used the usual F lead pencil and stumps for both pieces.
The thumbnails here don't show all the shading the drawings have, as usual. Compression and sharpening have a tendency to kill thumbnails.
The background photos are from Newport Beach in California. I selected two shots where the angles were opposite of each other. I wanted these to look like the boys were passing a camera back and forth so the angle of the beach behind them would change slightly. I also wanted the images to line up nicely next to each other so I made sure the wave lines were compatable, even if Eiri's drawing was slightly larger. I gave Eiri the bigger waves as a bit of silliness. Read into it what you will...
Where are they really? Are they in California or are they on a nice deserted and private beach somewhere secluded so they are wearing nothing at all but skins and smiles?
That's for you to decide.
I began the Shuichi drawing first as a basic sketch earlier this month. I liked it enough I started developing it more. After a few weeks of playing with the Shuichi sketch (as well as other drawings), I decided to make a matching drawing of Eiri to go with it.
The Eiri drawing came together quickly, in only a few days. The boy still likes me enough to let me capture him quickly and easily. Now, if I could only get him to pose as a cabin boy as a companion piece to "The Dread Pirate Snugglecakes" drawing...
I used the usual F lead pencil and stumps for both pieces.
The thumbnails here don't show all the shading the drawings have, as usual. Compression and sharpening have a tendency to kill thumbnails.
The background photos are from Newport Beach in California. I selected two shots where the angles were opposite of each other. I wanted these to look like the boys were passing a camera back and forth so the angle of the beach behind them would change slightly. I also wanted the images to line up nicely next to each other so I made sure the wave lines were compatable, even if Eiri's drawing was slightly larger. I gave Eiri the bigger waves as a bit of silliness. Read into it what you will...
Where are they really? Are they in California or are they on a nice deserted and private beach somewhere secluded so they are wearing nothing at all but skins and smiles?
That's for you to decide.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Za'rayne and Ra'vahnThis drawing is quite old. It was last worked on in late 2002. I got to a place where I felt I could not successfully make the changes requested by the characters' creator because I felt seriously inadequate with my skills. I did not think I would be able to move/change the lines without completely screwing up the drawing.
Then the untimely death of a young DBZ artist and writer I greatly admired helped to kill my Dragonball Z fandom frenzy. I lost my drive and heart for a while. When I was able to draw again, I started drawing the Gravitation characters and have pretty much stuck with them as pencilwork subjects except for a few drawings like "Saiyuki Sleep". Of course, oekaki images don't fall under this and anyone who has looked at the wide range of oekaki work I have done will know I explore many series there.
Then suddenly, last week Evan had me pick up my DBZ sketchbook and kick-started me to finish this piece. Since I now erase entire sections of drawings and redraw the basic ideas without too much trouble, I felt I could pull off the requests better and with more confidence. Luckily, I did get it right and the creator was pleased with the final product. (waves happily at Joules!)
Anyway, these lovely children are Za'rayne and Ra'vahn. They are original characters from a wonderful Dragonball Z alternate universe epic called The Alliance Chronicles. Za'rayne (left) has deep emerald green hair/tail and light blue skin, while Ra'vahn (right) has black hair/tail and pale lavender/pink skin. I could not resist drawing them when I first read about them.
The highly recommended Alliance Chronicles are available to read at Wavewrights (http://www.wordwrights.co.uk/). For those of you interested in reading this great epic, you will need to get a user ID and a password. The webmaster will be more than happy to set any of my 'usual suspects' up if you send your ID and password choices to this email, info@wordwrights.co.uk, and note you were directed to Wavewrights by me from my art entry.
To tell you how addictive the epic is - when I first discovered it I ended up staying up all night a couple nights in a row, just devouring chapter after chapter. I also love the author's artwork found in various chapters throughout the series.
And now, the tech notes for this piece: I used mostly F lead pencil for the drawing. I also used 2B and 4B pencils on Ra'vahn's hair and tail to get the darker shades. A lot of stump work was done to make the shadows and to fill in the hair/fur.
The poses were referenced from a book called The Manga Pose Resource Book.
The cg was pretty simple. Just implying the wall and floor with Photoshop patterns would not detract from the main focus - the two children. The floor texture was selected for its lines and adjusted using the distort transform tool so the two-point perspective would be implied. The body suits were given Photoshop patterns as well, to add an extra bit of richness to the bodies. The layer modes were changed to Multiply to knock out the white and the opacity for each bodysuit pattern taken down to 50% (Z) and 58% (R).
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Kimono Grope
I began this drawing 12/22/04 as an alternative and more suggestive Xmas card for special friends. I quickly lost interest and inspiration as the holiday hit and it was left as a simple sketch for quite some time. I did some work on it in early Spring then left it lying around again until June 2005. At that time, a lot of it came together.
As I usually do now, I used only a real, wooden, F lead pencil and three sizes of shading stumps on the drawing. I decided to leave some of the superfluous pencil lines visible in this one.
I worked up Shuichi first, which took some time to get him halfway decent-looking. After getting Shu completed, I finally began filling in the sketch of Eiri, who came together so quickly it was amazing. I love how Eiri usually cooperates with me. *pats Eiri's head and gives him a Shu bone(r)*
This drawing gave me fits in different places. Shuichi's eyes were originally closed with the curve upward and set high on the face. I changed them to being open and lowered them on the face and it looked better. However, the left eye would not come together. Finally, I closed it with the curve down, implying the pressure from Eiri's face pressing against Shu's skin and Shu's hair getting in his eye.
Shu's nose also went through a few 'nose jobs' until I finally settled for what you see here.
Shu's mouth changed shape quite a few times as well. I finally decided a big grin worked better than a more 'passionate' mouth I had tried variations on earlier. Now that one of Shu's eyes were open, he was no longer in the throes of passion and the mouth could reflect Shu's happiness instead.
Shu's hair was a joy to do, as always.
I originally had made Eiri's hands too small (I do that a lot) so I made them much larger. Eiri's groping hand changed position and angle a LOT. I finally got tired of dealing with it and stuck it inside Shu's kimono. The paper took quite a beating from all the erasing and redrawing.
Eiri's hair was left light and sketchy with just some soft shadows to definite the strand sections. I also made the active choice to not outline his hair with a darker line.
The drawing was scanned in at 150 dpi greyscale. The contrast was adjusted, the scanner chatter removed, the spots scratches from the scanner bed removed, some of the extra drawing lines removed and the whites and highlights of the eyes cleaned up and brightened. Shu's teeth were also brightened.
The kimono patterns were made using the reliable Orient Patterns font. I scratch-built tiled fills, then defined them as patterns in Photoshop. I played with various fills I made to find the right ones for the two kimono. I wanted them to contrast with each other so they would be distinctive next to each other. All patterns' opacities were taken down to 9% and their Layer Modes changed to Multiply so the pencil shadows became visible.
The pattern on Eiri's kimono was larger originally, but I thought it would contrast better if the pattern was smaller in scale compared to the pattern on Shu's kimono. I got the file, halved the size, defined it as new pattern, filled the kimono area with the new pattern and the smaller version looked better. It also lightened the overall look of Eiri's kimono, which contrasted nicely with the darker and more complex pattern on Shu's kimono.
An interesting note - Shuichi's kimono is actually two Orient Patterns layered together. I was flipping back and forth between the two separate layers, trying to decide which one to use. I left both layers on at one point and noticed how nicely they tiled on top of each other, so that's what I ended up using.
Trying to add a convincing cg background to this drawing was an interesting experiment. rat is always poking me about having the characters reacting to their environments. It was time to do some research and consider what 'story' was being told in the drawing. I wanted to get away from the beach and building photos had been using recently for backgrounds and do something completely different.
It took a while to come up with some kind of convincing background. Since the drawing initially was going to be an alternative Xmas card, no real background had been planned. Well, maybe a suggestion of a Xmas tree in the bg would have been added, along with holiday text, but not a lot of background would have been necessary for a holiday postcard.
Some of my finished pieces have simple backgrounds that frame and enhance the figures in the drawing. I decided to try that first. I played with some basic textures for a couple of days and was not happy with the results. I even layered some of them together to see if something struck me and nothing hit me as being successful. I decided this piece would probably take a little longer to complete because of the background decisions.
I was so frustrated, I actually debated scanning in a Japanese garden photo or a traditional Japanese room photo from one of my Japanese calendars using them as a base for the background I planned to draw on top of photo and use the drawing as a background. Instead, I studied the Japanese room spaces and decided to try some pure cg. I scratch-built cg layers to represent a shôji wall. Shôji are the wood and white paper walls in traditional Japanese homes. The small cells made by the wood can be different geometric sizes. They can be used indoors as room dividers or as outside walls to keep the outdoors out.
Initially I was not too happy with the simple geometric layer. After I added a wood texture (used a built-in Photoshop pattern), lightened the wood and added edge shadows, it began to shape up nicely. After I got the screen design looking good, it was time to erase everything on the screen layer that impacted with the actual drawing. I selected the drawing layer, inverted the selection, selected the screen layer, hit the delete key to delete most of the work under the bodies then went in with a small brush to clean up all around the hair so the shôji shadow lines and wood patterns were not overlaying on the hair.
I decided to try some of the basic background textures again, this time with the shôji layers. I still nixed the textures and turned off those useless layers yet again.
I then thought it would be nice to show the environment beyond the shôji. I even considered having the shôji open and seeing a garden in the background, but I would have had to step outside to take some photos to use for the background and the poor air quality was keeping me indoors. (After only 30 seconds outside, my lungs and chest would start hurting badly and it became difficult to breathe.)
So the shôji would remain closed, but I still wanted to imply outside was beyond the wall. I decided to try a cg tree trunk and branches. That failed after a few drawing attempts. However, the layer I used to put the leaves (using the leaf brush) looked great all by itself. The only thing wrong with the leaf shadows through the shôji was the shadows were too sharp and distinct. I put a Gaussian blur on the leaves and it now looked great, like seeing the shadows of leaves through white paper.
The last bits added were the kimono highlights. I used a soft brush with both the opacity and flow set at 50%. After drawing the highlights, I used the Blur tool to smooth and lighten the edges of the lines. I did not want them to be too bright and pronounced. I just wanted some of the kimono patterns to be lightened up to show the fold highlights.
I began this drawing 12/22/04 as an alternative and more suggestive Xmas card for special friends. I quickly lost interest and inspiration as the holiday hit and it was left as a simple sketch for quite some time. I did some work on it in early Spring then left it lying around again until June 2005. At that time, a lot of it came together.As I usually do now, I used only a real, wooden, F lead pencil and three sizes of shading stumps on the drawing. I decided to leave some of the superfluous pencil lines visible in this one.
I worked up Shuichi first, which took some time to get him halfway decent-looking. After getting Shu completed, I finally began filling in the sketch of Eiri, who came together so quickly it was amazing. I love how Eiri usually cooperates with me. *pats Eiri's head and gives him a Shu bone(r)*
This drawing gave me fits in different places. Shuichi's eyes were originally closed with the curve upward and set high on the face. I changed them to being open and lowered them on the face and it looked better. However, the left eye would not come together. Finally, I closed it with the curve down, implying the pressure from Eiri's face pressing against Shu's skin and Shu's hair getting in his eye.
Shu's nose also went through a few 'nose jobs' until I finally settled for what you see here.
Shu's mouth changed shape quite a few times as well. I finally decided a big grin worked better than a more 'passionate' mouth I had tried variations on earlier. Now that one of Shu's eyes were open, he was no longer in the throes of passion and the mouth could reflect Shu's happiness instead.
Shu's hair was a joy to do, as always.
I originally had made Eiri's hands too small (I do that a lot) so I made them much larger. Eiri's groping hand changed position and angle a LOT. I finally got tired of dealing with it and stuck it inside Shu's kimono. The paper took quite a beating from all the erasing and redrawing.
Eiri's hair was left light and sketchy with just some soft shadows to definite the strand sections. I also made the active choice to not outline his hair with a darker line.
The drawing was scanned in at 150 dpi greyscale. The contrast was adjusted, the scanner chatter removed, the spots scratches from the scanner bed removed, some of the extra drawing lines removed and the whites and highlights of the eyes cleaned up and brightened. Shu's teeth were also brightened.
The kimono patterns were made using the reliable Orient Patterns font. I scratch-built tiled fills, then defined them as patterns in Photoshop. I played with various fills I made to find the right ones for the two kimono. I wanted them to contrast with each other so they would be distinctive next to each other. All patterns' opacities were taken down to 9% and their Layer Modes changed to Multiply so the pencil shadows became visible.
The pattern on Eiri's kimono was larger originally, but I thought it would contrast better if the pattern was smaller in scale compared to the pattern on Shu's kimono. I got the file, halved the size, defined it as new pattern, filled the kimono area with the new pattern and the smaller version looked better. It also lightened the overall look of Eiri's kimono, which contrasted nicely with the darker and more complex pattern on Shu's kimono.
An interesting note - Shuichi's kimono is actually two Orient Patterns layered together. I was flipping back and forth between the two separate layers, trying to decide which one to use. I left both layers on at one point and noticed how nicely they tiled on top of each other, so that's what I ended up using.
Trying to add a convincing cg background to this drawing was an interesting experiment. rat is always poking me about having the characters reacting to their environments. It was time to do some research and consider what 'story' was being told in the drawing. I wanted to get away from the beach and building photos had been using recently for backgrounds and do something completely different.
It took a while to come up with some kind of convincing background. Since the drawing initially was going to be an alternative Xmas card, no real background had been planned. Well, maybe a suggestion of a Xmas tree in the bg would have been added, along with holiday text, but not a lot of background would have been necessary for a holiday postcard.
Some of my finished pieces have simple backgrounds that frame and enhance the figures in the drawing. I decided to try that first. I played with some basic textures for a couple of days and was not happy with the results. I even layered some of them together to see if something struck me and nothing hit me as being successful. I decided this piece would probably take a little longer to complete because of the background decisions.
I was so frustrated, I actually debated scanning in a Japanese garden photo or a traditional Japanese room photo from one of my Japanese calendars using them as a base for the background I planned to draw on top of photo and use the drawing as a background. Instead, I studied the Japanese room spaces and decided to try some pure cg. I scratch-built cg layers to represent a shôji wall. Shôji are the wood and white paper walls in traditional Japanese homes. The small cells made by the wood can be different geometric sizes. They can be used indoors as room dividers or as outside walls to keep the outdoors out.
Initially I was not too happy with the simple geometric layer. After I added a wood texture (used a built-in Photoshop pattern), lightened the wood and added edge shadows, it began to shape up nicely. After I got the screen design looking good, it was time to erase everything on the screen layer that impacted with the actual drawing. I selected the drawing layer, inverted the selection, selected the screen layer, hit the delete key to delete most of the work under the bodies then went in with a small brush to clean up all around the hair so the shôji shadow lines and wood patterns were not overlaying on the hair.
I decided to try some of the basic background textures again, this time with the shôji layers. I still nixed the textures and turned off those useless layers yet again.
I then thought it would be nice to show the environment beyond the shôji. I even considered having the shôji open and seeing a garden in the background, but I would have had to step outside to take some photos to use for the background and the poor air quality was keeping me indoors. (After only 30 seconds outside, my lungs and chest would start hurting badly and it became difficult to breathe.)
So the shôji would remain closed, but I still wanted to imply outside was beyond the wall. I decided to try a cg tree trunk and branches. That failed after a few drawing attempts. However, the layer I used to put the leaves (using the leaf brush) looked great all by itself. The only thing wrong with the leaf shadows through the shôji was the shadows were too sharp and distinct. I put a Gaussian blur on the leaves and it now looked great, like seeing the shadows of leaves through white paper.
The last bits added were the kimono highlights. I used a soft brush with both the opacity and flow set at 50%. After drawing the highlights, I used the Blur tool to smooth and lighten the edges of the lines. I did not want them to be too bright and pronounced. I just wanted some of the kimono patterns to be lightened up to show the fold highlights.
Friday, June 24, 2005
I cannot WAIT for 5pm today - then I will be on my creative vacation!
Last night I kept saying to rat, are you SURE it's not Friday? It sure FEELS like Friday!
Can you tell I am anticipating next week?
I am ready to have large blocks of time to work on one drawing if I wish to do so. I am also hoping to complete a few older pieces. The stuff I am finding in my old notebooks - wow! - It’s time for these pieces to be done. I know more about cel shading and anime/manga art in general so I am feeling more confident about finishing up pieces that were daunting me a few years ago.
I am considering purchasing Paint Shop Pro because I can get it cheap.
I still need to learn Painter...
I was finally able to cg a good background together for the latest Gravi drawing last night, which is now completed. I will post is as soon as I get ALL the tech notes written up. I want to talk about some of the decision-making on this one because a lot of different choices for various sections were done before the final choice for each section was made.
I have two small drawings in process that are being done with the idea of them being a set. I had begun the Shuichi pic as a sketch and it came together okay. So I decided to do a matching piece with Eiri as the subject. It is coming together quickly, of course. Even with all the torture I put the grumpy blond through, Eiri still seems to love me enough to allow me to draw him well. I have also come to the conclusion I can only draw Shuichi when he is being still, a rare occurrence, so that is why I sometimes have trouble with him, even now.
I am still enjoying entering icon contests. I got a second place at a Fruits Basket contest last week. You can see it and comment at my live journal onna_icons.
I really need to get another icon lj set up so I can dump some of the non-Gravi icons out there for others to use if they wish. I won't be using the icons I make for these contests for fun so the world at large may as well take them and use them.
Grunt, the writing muse, has been quietly active. A recent email chat has brought the outlines for two ficlets into the light of day. One outline has actually gone into another direction I was not anticipating so I may put that one on the back burner until I have more writing inspiration to add the necessary details.
I am determined to complete one of the close-to-done writing pieces by the end of the year, but as we all know, best-laid plans have a tendency to fall through, especially when the muses and real life are involved. I really do not plan on writing next week, however, I work at the whim of my muses so who knows what will come out of my brain (besides brain cells leaking out of my ears) next week?
Last night I kept saying to rat, are you SURE it's not Friday? It sure FEELS like Friday!
Can you tell I am anticipating next week?
I am ready to have large blocks of time to work on one drawing if I wish to do so. I am also hoping to complete a few older pieces. The stuff I am finding in my old notebooks - wow! - It’s time for these pieces to be done. I know more about cel shading and anime/manga art in general so I am feeling more confident about finishing up pieces that were daunting me a few years ago.
I am considering purchasing Paint Shop Pro because I can get it cheap.
I still need to learn Painter...
I was finally able to cg a good background together for the latest Gravi drawing last night, which is now completed. I will post is as soon as I get ALL the tech notes written up. I want to talk about some of the decision-making on this one because a lot of different choices for various sections were done before the final choice for each section was made.
I have two small drawings in process that are being done with the idea of them being a set. I had begun the Shuichi pic as a sketch and it came together okay. So I decided to do a matching piece with Eiri as the subject. It is coming together quickly, of course. Even with all the torture I put the grumpy blond through, Eiri still seems to love me enough to allow me to draw him well. I have also come to the conclusion I can only draw Shuichi when he is being still, a rare occurrence, so that is why I sometimes have trouble with him, even now.
I am still enjoying entering icon contests. I got a second place at a Fruits Basket contest last week. You can see it and comment at my live journal onna_icons.
I really need to get another icon lj set up so I can dump some of the non-Gravi icons out there for others to use if they wish. I won't be using the icons I make for these contests for fun so the world at large may as well take them and use them.
Grunt, the writing muse, has been quietly active. A recent email chat has brought the outlines for two ficlets into the light of day. One outline has actually gone into another direction I was not anticipating so I may put that one on the back burner until I have more writing inspiration to add the necessary details.
I am determined to complete one of the close-to-done writing pieces by the end of the year, but as we all know, best-laid plans have a tendency to fall through, especially when the muses and real life are involved. I really do not plan on writing next week, however, I work at the whim of my muses so who knows what will come out of my brain (besides brain cells leaking out of my ears) next week?
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Actually, it has been a little exciting having Evan the drawing muse willing to look at and work on older work. We are talking about stuff from 2002. I was just looking at some of the sketchpads and found the one with DBZ stuff in it. Evan said go for it and now I am working on a piece I had been doing for The Alliance Chronicles long ago.
I had gotten some feedback by the author about what needed to be done to get the characters more accurate and had dropped the project. It had nothing to do with not wanting to work on the piece - I was just daunted at the time. Back then, I did not have the confidence to erase lines and get the same shapes and quality when re-drawing a section. Nowdays, I erase lines and entire sections and start again without too much trouble.
Monday I went in to make the changes as requested, scanned the changes, layered the two images together showing the changes with two different colours and emailed them. The author liked what I did so now I am working on the shading for the piece at work during lunch every day.
These characters are particularly intimidating because while they are children (hard for me to drawing anyway) they are also alien children and have certain physical attributes a human child would not have. I am so relieved I got the changes correct. I suppose all of my recent drawing prepared me to go back and fix this particular drawing and do it with confidence.
Anyway, today I need to take my pencil box with me so I have some softer leads to darken hair and harder leads to get some sharp outlines. Evan has been niggling me about considering colour for the piece and maybe even inking it, but I think the full pencil work will be good enough. I might take it into Photoshop 6 to do some airbrush if I am inclined. Photoshop 7's airbrush just does not work the same. But first, I need to complete the drawing.
I have another Gravi pic scanned and right now I am fighting the background. I am debating scanning in a photo from one of my Japanese calendars, drawing on top of photo and using that as a background. I have also built cg layers to represent a shoji wall but I am not too happy with it. I am still debating on this background so it may be a while before this drawing is completed. I am considering checking out one of the digital cameras for my creative week and take a day to go around and take some photos to be catalouged for future drawing backgrounds. I am just tired of using my California and Hawaii beach pics. I need some garden shots, preferably looking Japanese. I really don't want to pay to go to the nice gardens in Dallas or Ft. Worth so I might just see what's available in the local parks. Hmm, maybe I should go see how the garden looks in the horticulture department of my school...
Of course, all of this in contingent on the hot weather and the poor air quality we have been dealing with lately.
I took the new laptop to the office, loaded the camera software, tested the software with the camera and everything works now. This is good. Now otaku and craptop ni both have the Nikon software and I can load photos as I need to if I am out and about and need to empty the memory card.
I had gotten some feedback by the author about what needed to be done to get the characters more accurate and had dropped the project. It had nothing to do with not wanting to work on the piece - I was just daunted at the time. Back then, I did not have the confidence to erase lines and get the same shapes and quality when re-drawing a section. Nowdays, I erase lines and entire sections and start again without too much trouble.
Monday I went in to make the changes as requested, scanned the changes, layered the two images together showing the changes with two different colours and emailed them. The author liked what I did so now I am working on the shading for the piece at work during lunch every day.
These characters are particularly intimidating because while they are children (hard for me to drawing anyway) they are also alien children and have certain physical attributes a human child would not have. I am so relieved I got the changes correct. I suppose all of my recent drawing prepared me to go back and fix this particular drawing and do it with confidence.
Anyway, today I need to take my pencil box with me so I have some softer leads to darken hair and harder leads to get some sharp outlines. Evan has been niggling me about considering colour for the piece and maybe even inking it, but I think the full pencil work will be good enough. I might take it into Photoshop 6 to do some airbrush if I am inclined. Photoshop 7's airbrush just does not work the same. But first, I need to complete the drawing.
I have another Gravi pic scanned and right now I am fighting the background. I am debating scanning in a photo from one of my Japanese calendars, drawing on top of photo and using that as a background. I have also built cg layers to represent a shoji wall but I am not too happy with it. I am still debating on this background so it may be a while before this drawing is completed. I am considering checking out one of the digital cameras for my creative week and take a day to go around and take some photos to be catalouged for future drawing backgrounds. I am just tired of using my California and Hawaii beach pics. I need some garden shots, preferably looking Japanese. I really don't want to pay to go to the nice gardens in Dallas or Ft. Worth so I might just see what's available in the local parks. Hmm, maybe I should go see how the garden looks in the horticulture department of my school...
Of course, all of this in contingent on the hot weather and the poor air quality we have been dealing with lately.
I took the new laptop to the office, loaded the camera software, tested the software with the camera and everything works now. This is good. Now otaku and craptop ni both have the Nikon software and I can load photos as I need to if I am out and about and need to empty the memory card.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Snuggle 05Here is another old piece I finally signed off on.
The initial sketch was begun February. 2004 but I did not do much to it until Animefest 2004 that August, when I worked on it during various workshops. Yet again, I forgot about it. I have six sketchbooks and two drawing paper books floating around and all of them have sketches, incomplete work and almost complete pieces in them.
I finally decided to officially say this piece was finished, after finding it in one of my small sketchbooks after the 2005 A-Kon.
I really did not have any background in mind when I did this sketch. I suppose the boys would be at home in their bedroom, but Eiri's expression is a combination of possessiveness, challenge, a little bit of contentment and a touch of happiness.
After I scanned and erased the scanner chatter, I debated for a day about the background. I decided to take a cue from Eiri's expression and use one of the California beach scans I had made for the Liquid Rodent series and not used. The main photo was taken at La Jolla. I changed the Layer Mode to Multiply so I could erase everything that fell on top of the boys. I had to use a narrow soft brush to keep the hair strands around the edges of the boys visible, yet still blending with the background.
I did not have enough sky in the main photo so I added sky from one of my photos of Newport Beach, close to Orange County, CA. I added the sky layer, lightened the layer, merged the two layers then used the Clone tool to blend them together, close to the edge of the water. I took the opacity of the background layer down to 48% and placed a white layer behind it.
Now this picture tells the story of Eiri and Shuichi at La Jolla, wearing their swimsuits, walking along the stony beach area, looking at the seals sleeping on the rocks and enjoying the sun. Someone gives Shuichi a lustful look and Eiri becomes possessive. Shuichi eats it up.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Life is Good
This thumbnail is a little soft because of the compression. The large piece is sharper.
The title refers to the feelings in the picture. Initially, it referred to Shuichi's happiness. Shuichi's lover, Eiri, is lying against him, content to be there and letting Shuichi hug and snuggle him. In fact, life is good for Eiri as well. He has a lover he can trust and who loves him for himself. Even with all the trials and tribulations they have had to endure, the boys are together and content.
I started this one back in April 2005 and it quickly came together. Then I forgot about it, as usual, when other things are pressing. I found it again and decided to finally sign off on it in June 2005, shortly after A-Kon that year. This is not surprising; after a con I am usually really hyped creatively and I start drawing a lot. I discover almost-complete drawings in my various sketchpads at that time and sign off on them.
I now scan everything in at 150 dpi. After the scan, I used Auto Contrast then faded it to about 50%. I cleaned up the scan chatter and cloned out all the scan bed scratches like I have to do for every scanned piece.
The pillow patterns were made with the selecting two Orient Pattern fonts, making tiled patterns, defining them into Photoshop and using them as fills. The fills' layer modes were changed to Multiply. The Opacity was adjusted to 4% for the top pillow and 9% for the bottom pillow.
The headboard wood and the wall were made with built-in Photoshop patterns. The patterns were placed, then sections were erased so the drawing would come through.
I made three separate sections for the bed wood, even though it does not look it with the headboard and the headboard edge. The top of the headboard was done by making a rectangle then using Distort to line the grain up with the perspective defined by the window edges. Each layer's Mode was changed to Multiply and Opacity was taken down to between 20% to 36%.
The wall's simple pattern was duplicated and darkened for the edges of the windows. The wall's layer mode remained Normal and the opacity was set at 20%. The window edges' layer mode was set to Multiply and the opacity was kept at 100%.
The scroll behind Shu's head was scratch-built in Photoshop. I put a narrow drop-shadow on the rectangle so it would match the perspective established by the pencil lines. A built-in Photoshop pattern was used for the scroll's texture. The texture's layer Mode was changed to Multiply and the opacity was adjusted to 50%.
The buildings in the window were from photos I took from my 18th floor hotel room at the Adams-Mark hotel when I was attending A-Kon 16. I placed the photo into the main drawing then cut it in half to divide the buildings into two sections. I used a Reticulation filter on the building layers to break them down into simple shapes. Both layers were left at Normal and the opacity was changed to 40%. The window highlights were placed on a separate layer. I drew white streaks then used the Blur and Smudge tools to soften them.
I went out to a translation site, typed in "Life is good", selected 'English to Japanese' and got "Seimei wa yoi". I was surprised a "desu" was not a part of the sentence but I suspect this is one of the many cases where the phrase has been shortened in the basic Japanese language and the "desu" is now implied. I translated it back to English, just to make sure and got the same thing. I made a screenshot of the translation and brought it into Photoshop. I changed the screenshot to 150 dpi. I selected each character separately, made a copy, then pasted it into the main drawing. After setting each character in place, each layer's Mode was changed to Multiply to knock out the white around each character and the Opacity was taken down to 50%. I smoothed out the pixelization by drawing on top of each separate character.
Interesting enough, after I completed this, I looked up the word "yoi" (good). The Japanese dictionary shows "yoi" with a kanji and a hiragana, not two hiragana. I went ahead and left it this way because it was the easy thing to do.
This thumbnail is a little soft because of the compression. The large piece is sharper.The title refers to the feelings in the picture. Initially, it referred to Shuichi's happiness. Shuichi's lover, Eiri, is lying against him, content to be there and letting Shuichi hug and snuggle him. In fact, life is good for Eiri as well. He has a lover he can trust and who loves him for himself. Even with all the trials and tribulations they have had to endure, the boys are together and content.
I started this one back in April 2005 and it quickly came together. Then I forgot about it, as usual, when other things are pressing. I found it again and decided to finally sign off on it in June 2005, shortly after A-Kon that year. This is not surprising; after a con I am usually really hyped creatively and I start drawing a lot. I discover almost-complete drawings in my various sketchpads at that time and sign off on them.
I now scan everything in at 150 dpi. After the scan, I used Auto Contrast then faded it to about 50%. I cleaned up the scan chatter and cloned out all the scan bed scratches like I have to do for every scanned piece.
The pillow patterns were made with the selecting two Orient Pattern fonts, making tiled patterns, defining them into Photoshop and using them as fills. The fills' layer modes were changed to Multiply. The Opacity was adjusted to 4% for the top pillow and 9% for the bottom pillow.
The headboard wood and the wall were made with built-in Photoshop patterns. The patterns were placed, then sections were erased so the drawing would come through.
I made three separate sections for the bed wood, even though it does not look it with the headboard and the headboard edge. The top of the headboard was done by making a rectangle then using Distort to line the grain up with the perspective defined by the window edges. Each layer's Mode was changed to Multiply and Opacity was taken down to between 20% to 36%.
The wall's simple pattern was duplicated and darkened for the edges of the windows. The wall's layer mode remained Normal and the opacity was set at 20%. The window edges' layer mode was set to Multiply and the opacity was kept at 100%.
The scroll behind Shu's head was scratch-built in Photoshop. I put a narrow drop-shadow on the rectangle so it would match the perspective established by the pencil lines. A built-in Photoshop pattern was used for the scroll's texture. The texture's layer Mode was changed to Multiply and the opacity was adjusted to 50%.
The buildings in the window were from photos I took from my 18th floor hotel room at the Adams-Mark hotel when I was attending A-Kon 16. I placed the photo into the main drawing then cut it in half to divide the buildings into two sections. I used a Reticulation filter on the building layers to break them down into simple shapes. Both layers were left at Normal and the opacity was changed to 40%. The window highlights were placed on a separate layer. I drew white streaks then used the Blur and Smudge tools to soften them.
I went out to a translation site, typed in "Life is good", selected 'English to Japanese' and got "Seimei wa yoi". I was surprised a "desu" was not a part of the sentence but I suspect this is one of the many cases where the phrase has been shortened in the basic Japanese language and the "desu" is now implied. I translated it back to English, just to make sure and got the same thing. I made a screenshot of the translation and brought it into Photoshop. I changed the screenshot to 150 dpi. I selected each character separately, made a copy, then pasted it into the main drawing. After setting each character in place, each layer's Mode was changed to Multiply to knock out the white around each character and the Opacity was taken down to 50%. I smoothed out the pixelization by drawing on top of each separate character.
Interesting enough, after I completed this, I looked up the word "yoi" (good). The Japanese dictionary shows "yoi" with a kanji and a hiragana, not two hiragana. I went ahead and left it this way because it was the easy thing to do.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
It is always surprising when I get a review from an old story.
The following review has been submitted to: Over Breakfast Chapter: 1
From: Saint Germain
I know this is an older fic but I wanted to comment on it. I don't think I've read a story like this one in the hundreds, sorry...thousands, of Gravitation fanfics. A sweet look into the future of our fave pair. In depth and trueful in how they would have matured. I hope you still check your reviews and find this. Thank you for such an endearing touch.
Reviews like this always embarrass me...
Can you believe "Over Breakfast" will be two years old on July 4th this year?
The following review has been submitted to: Over Breakfast Chapter: 1
From: Saint Germain
I know this is an older fic but I wanted to comment on it. I don't think I've read a story like this one in the hundreds, sorry...thousands, of Gravitation fanfics. A sweet look into the future of our fave pair. In depth and trueful in how they would have matured. I hope you still check your reviews and find this. Thank you for such an endearing touch.
Reviews like this always embarrass me...
Can you believe "Over Breakfast" will be two years old on July 4th this year?
Sunday, June 12, 2005
I started this one on 5/28/05 and it is amazing how quickly it came together and demanded to be completed. I worked on it one night in the hotel during the con, too. Cons are so artistically inspiring.After I scanned this at 150 dpi and greyscale, I added a different built-in Photoshop texture to each kimono so they would look a little differently next to each other. Then I built two patterns using the Orient pattern font and added them to the boys' kimono. All of these layers' opacities were taken down to between 5% to 15% so the drawing could be seen underneath. Also, the layer modes were changed to Multiply so the white would be knocked out.
I used a photo of the skyline from my con hotel room on the 18th floor for the background. I basically cut the photo in half and put the two tall buildings on the outside of the drawing to frame the boys. Then I added a Reticulation filter to the building layer to break it into more simple shapes and colours. I added another layer of the right building to the area under Eiri's face because that section was all black in the original photo. The opacity was taken down to about 50% to keep the dark buildings in the background from overwhelming the picture.
The porch wall was made with a built-in Photoshop texture and taking the opacity down to about 15% so it would be a light concrete.
I had thought about adding a design to the fan but I decided to leave it alone.
more oekaki
Blistering Lightsaber Action:
http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/
118: Eiri and Shuichi walking on the beach
Artist's Cafe:
http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/88.png
88: some art for Ko
Blistering Lightsaber Action:
http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/
118: Eiri and Shuichi walking on the beach
Artist's Cafe:
http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/88.png
88: some art for Ko
Saturday, June 11, 2005
As promised - Eiri in kimono.
 | I originally sketched this up while at the 2004 Japanese Autumn festival. I pretty much completed it a few days later then promptly forgot about it while real life hammered on me. I discovered it, along with some other drawings, recently and decided to sign off on it and scan it. This time I scanned at 150dpi. It is something I am trying to get in the habit of doing all the time now. I pumped up the contrast and actually used two layers of the drawing in Multiply mode to get it darker. As always, I had to clean up all the scanner chatter in the white areas. The kimono texture is a built-in pattern fill in Photoshop. The opacity is taken down quite low so the drawing lines can be seen through it. The shell pattern for the kimono was built from a font called Orient Patterns. I took one of the patterns and made three more copies, flipped them around and made the pattern for the kimono. I defined it as a pattern in Photoshop so it would tile in easily. The opacity is also low so the kimono texture and the drawing lines can be seen. |
 | I decided to colour this one. I used some of the cel shading techniques I use for oekaki for the skintones. The kimono colour's opacity is low so the drawing lines and the additional patterns can be seen. |
Friday, June 10, 2005
The website is 'open' again. Ren faire pics have been posted. The anime con pics will be posted over the next few weeks.
Drawings:
I have drawings completed, believe it or not. Going to an anime con always gets Evan's juices flowing and kicks Grunt into the closet.
I have the Eiri in kimono pic completed, with cg patterns for the kimono. I have both a black and white and a colour version of the drawing. Small versions will probably be posted here this weekend with large versions sent to the usual suspects at the same time.
A 'sit-snuggle' pic I worked on at Animefest last year will probably be signed off on this weekend or early next week.
A snuggle pic I began in April 2005 has been signed off on today. It will need scanning and I plan to add buildings in the windows, using the photos I took from the 18th floor hotel room window where I stayed for A-Kon.
A kimono pic of the two boys has been signed off on today as well. It took only a week for this one. I worked a lot on it in the hotel room while resting between major events. I want to do a background so it looks like they are sitting on their apt. porch in the morning. We shall see if I can pull it off in cg.
Writing:
I haven't given up on writing - it is just on the back burner right now. Eiri has a tendency to feed me bits and pieces when I have no way to write them down, like in the shower!, so I am just hoping I will remember the thoughts later. Yes, Eiri likes to bushwhack me in the shower - you would think the poor boy would be afraid of witnessing all that jiggling naked flesh.
Some of the writing pieces are SO CLOSE to completion, damnit all.
Drawings:
I have drawings completed, believe it or not. Going to an anime con always gets Evan's juices flowing and kicks Grunt into the closet.
I have the Eiri in kimono pic completed, with cg patterns for the kimono. I have both a black and white and a colour version of the drawing. Small versions will probably be posted here this weekend with large versions sent to the usual suspects at the same time.
A 'sit-snuggle' pic I worked on at Animefest last year will probably be signed off on this weekend or early next week.
A snuggle pic I began in April 2005 has been signed off on today. It will need scanning and I plan to add buildings in the windows, using the photos I took from the 18th floor hotel room window where I stayed for A-Kon.
A kimono pic of the two boys has been signed off on today as well. It took only a week for this one. I worked a lot on it in the hotel room while resting between major events. I want to do a background so it looks like they are sitting on their apt. porch in the morning. We shall see if I can pull it off in cg.
Writing:
I haven't given up on writing - it is just on the back burner right now. Eiri has a tendency to feed me bits and pieces when I have no way to write them down, like in the shower!, so I am just hoping I will remember the thoughts later. Yes, Eiri likes to bushwhack me in the shower - you would think the poor boy would be afraid of witnessing all that jiggling naked flesh.
Some of the writing pieces are SO CLOSE to completion, damnit all.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
oekaki
Wrapped In Plastic
http://members.lycos.co.uk/chickenheadsasuke/oekaki/65: Half-Youkai Guy
Tearing us Apart
http://members.lycos.co.uk/eva94589/oekaki/index.php281: Trunks from Dragonball Z
Wrapped In Plastic
http://members.lycos.co.uk/chickenheadsasuke/oekaki/65: Half-Youkai Guy
Tearing us Apart
http://members.lycos.co.uk/eva94589/oekaki/index.php281: Trunks from Dragonball Z
