onna's scratches and scribbles

I have actually done about 100 words a day during a bit of my half-hour lunch at work for the past few days. I have no idea why I am spending that time writing on a new one-shot I think will probably be pretty darned stupidly lame, but hey, Grunt is poking and this one will take less time (crosses fingers) to complete than the multi-chaptered stuff. I think the only saving grace of the fic is the fact the situation is something unique compared to anything on the BADfic list. I am also playing with some word rhythms and patterns so I suppose the exercise is what I need to concentrate on, to see if I can pull off some things I am trying.

If I can stay awake this weekend, I hope to do some writing then. I envy those of you who don't have to go somewhere to work every day, or can write while at work. It's a bit annoying when I don't have the energy to write when I get home at night after work. It does not stop me from writing notes, but still, I want to get the stuff IN the docs. Damn, I just realized I forgot to write something down as I went to bed - I have forgotten it. Oh well, if it's important, it will come back, or not.

Hmm... maybe I should consider getting some kind of voice recognition software so I can read the notes into the docs... I know they are a little dangerous for the vocal chords, meaning you must stop after forty-five minutes and rest them for fifteen minutes, or you can eventually blow your chords. I cannot imagine talking for forty-five minutes straight, but I suppose I do when I am talking on the phone with people I don't see every day.

I have been lazily cg colouring one of my drawings over the past couple of weeks. I am doing it in Photoshop 6 because I prefer the airbrush tool in that version. It allows me to lightly colour areas where I want a 'dusting' of colour.

I think Evan, the drawing muse, sprained himself during the last creative vacation. He has been visibly absent from the inspiration bullpen. He might have gone to a pleasure planet to rejuvenate. If anyone sees him at the Liquid Rodent getting snockered on Ham-Ham wine, tell him to finish up and get back here.

Grunt has been around but he is now refusing to allow me to do any more physical writing until I get all the mess typed up into the manuscripts. I have stuff written all over pieces of paper with the working stories. Handwriting runs down the sides of some pages.

When I tried to work on some writing at work, I discovered I did not have any version of Word on otaku. I had not purchased Office with the notebook because we have copies here at home and it was just too expensive anyway. So now I need to install Word 97 and Word XP on otaku. I plan on doing that today, and maybe, just maybe, get some writing done.

I HAD planned on doing some writing yesterday on craptop ni but I fell asleep instead. The sleep fairies have first dibs on me at all times.

It was difficult to sleep last night. Not only did the thick drainage keep me sick to my stomach (so thick I cannot cough it out), Grunt was nagging me about a story idea I have been batting around in my head for about a month. I made some notes on it a few weeks ago so I could remember the general gist. He got really detailed last night and I just did not have the motivation to get up and write stuff down. I was yawning a lot and really wanted to sleep and not do anything else. Exhaustion wins over creativity when you are living in a body twice the age as your actual age.

I know I have lost the details. I will just come up with new ones later, or I will remember them as I go along. It's a stupid story, anyway.

I want to get my head and ears unclogged before I do anything else that requires thinking.

A Pillow to Rest my Head

I was really pleased with this piece until I saw how short Eiri's upper arm was when I made the thumbnail. Oh well...

Anyway, I am going to ignore the blunder for the moment and talk about this. The title refers to the pillow under Shuichi's head and the Shuichi pillow under Eiri's head. I did not use any resource material for this drawing, which I started during my creative vacation. Everything came out of my pea brain. I like how Shuichi looks peaceful and has a more Asian cast to his face because of his eyes. Eiri looks relaxed, happy and snuggly, the way I like to 'torture' him the most. I went for the wild 'bed head' look for both boys. I also wanted Shuichi to look male so he got some stomach muscles. I purposely avoided any dark and hard lines to define the muscles. I wanted the chest and stomach to have some softness to it, even with the muscle definition.

I had to look at my own hand for Eiri's hand. It was a bit difficult because I am left handed and had to look at my hand, draw from memory, then look at my hand again. I also referred to my own arm for Eiri's arm - I had to fake the muscles...

This piece came together rather quickly. It only took five days to work up. This has a LOT of subtle shading going on in it - something this thumbnail does not show.

I used a #F pencil and stumps for most of this piece. I used a #B for some of the darker areas of Shuichi's hair and a #2H to outline parts of Eiri's hair.

When I scanned the drawing, I had to make four separate scans and piece them together because I had drawn to the very edge of the paper, again. I had to adjust the brightness to get the layers to match somewhat. I flattened the image and had to do some cloning to get all the sections to line up and blend well.

The mattress pattern is a built-in Photoshop pattern. I used Multiply mode and took the opacity down to 49%.

The pillow has a built-in pattern and one of the patterns I made and used for the Men in Kimono series. I first made a new layer for the pillow pattern built into Photoshop and cleaned up the pattern area so it was not covering Shuichi's face. Then I made a new layer, made a rectangle with the marque tool, filled it with the Orient Pattern, turned the selection so it would be aligned at the same angle as the pillow, selected the layer with the pillow pattern already in place, used the magic wand to select the pillow, moved to the other layer, erased the new pattern covering the face, then did some detail work so the hair did not have and design on top of it. Both pillow patterns's modes were changed to Multiply and the opacities set to 9%.

All in all, I like this piece, even with the arm problem.

I hope none of you went through withdrawal because no art was posted.

It will be a dry spell for a little while. I have one in-progress piece I am really excited about because it is coming together so beautifully. It is done purely out of my brain and I am shocked at how well it is turning out. I hope to sign off on it by the end of the weekend, pending chores, etc.

I have an Eiri piece that is fighting me because of the cg environment behind the drawing will not cooperate. I just might give up, do some kind of 'design' to the bg and leave it at that.

Evan is still driving me to draw. I caught myself drawing while on the john last night before bed. I immediately stopped drawing, finished up in the bathroom and got into bed... and drew for another hour. I finally stopped at 1:30am. I am SO tired this morning!

I finally found the other drawing I started for the Alliance Chronicles. God! It is horrible! I have already been in touch with J with a junk scan and have discussed some of the major changes I will be making to the faces. After three years, I can finally draw anime-esque faces half-way decently. I look at this drawing and literally cringe. I am seriously considering taking the drawing to work and use the light table to trace of a better copy of it and just start all over again. Part of the challenge is this drawing does not have any human-looking characters.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

This was started back in Sept. 2003 and sat as a shell sketch for some time. Last week I opened one of the small sketchbooks, saw it and started working on it again. Evan has been very, very good to me.

Eiri's face and hair came together so beautifully. The rest of this is not so good, in my opinion. Well, Shuichi looks better than what he DID look like... The arms are better than before but they are still sub-standard. The beginning of Eiri's hip curve is about the only thing I can say I like about the bodies.

The title came from the song by Bobby McFerrin. It seemed to me that Eiri was in a thoughtful mood in this image and Shuichi was basically telling Eiri to relax and enjoy the moment.

I used the usual tools: #F pencil, stumps, scanned at 150 dpi then bumped up the contrast and cleaned up the scanner chatter.

It took a while to decide what kind of background to use here. I considered beach stuff but quickly nixed it, thinking, "Not Again!" in my brain. It was time to think about something new.

I went out last week specifically to take photos at the local park for future backgrounds. I decided to try one the photos by the creek for this piece. I used the Reticulation filter on it, using a medium grey and white for the colours. I didn't like the photo, so I chose another one and the second one was what I used. I tried a few other filters but decided the Reticulation filter worked the best so I used it on the new photo.

Well, naked boys out in the woods may have worked if they had satyr horns or something, but this pic needed something else. I kept thinking about these boys getting chigger bites on their butts or something uncomfortable like that. So I decided to add shôji so it would look like the trees were part of a garden at a onsen. I suppose this could be the aftermath of "Kimono Grope".

I will get into more details about the process when I officially post this on my website later on. I am tired after my first day back at work.

The final art tally for the creative vacation:

Kimono Grope - Gravi drawing

Za'rayne and Ra'vahn - an a/u DBZ drawing

Eight drawings for the Men in Kimono series - eight different men from seven different series

Two drawings for Boys on the Beach set - Gravi drawings

Blessings from Buddha Come in Pink Packages - Gravi drawing

Turles Looks at Sage's Drawings - an a/u DBZ drawing

Illustration for Talon's "First Heat" - Gohan and Sage - a DBZ drawing

Don't Worry, Be Happy - Gravi drawing (this one will be posted sometime this evening)

Final Total: 16 drawings

I still have some unfinished pieces I am currently working on.

Illustration for Talon's "First Heat" - Gohan and Sage




Another ancient drawing is finally completed. Actually, I had signed off on this back in Sept. 2002 but I was still tinkering with it even after signing off on it. I wanted to add some cg to it at some point so sections of the drawing had been left as sketch shells for the most part. I had also considered inking the entire piece at one point. I guess part of the reason I left it dangling was because I could not make a decision on how to finish this one. I remember having soft outlines at one point then making the outlines dark, then regretting doing it. I even did some colouring layers to the original scan.

Anyway, Evan finally kicked my butt to do something about it. I added some more shading to it, finally making the decision for this to be a greyscale pencil drawing instead of an inked piece with colour. I left the dark outlines.

I decided to rescan it at 150 dpi to get a better starting point. As usual, I adjusted the contrast to make the pencil lines a little darker.

I used a lot of built-in Photoshop patterns and a few Japanese screentone scans to make all the textures used in the environment. The modes were changed to Multiply and the opacities were adjusted to to more than 20% so the pencil lines could be seen through the textures.

Men in Kimono series part three

Two more drawings for this series have happened this week. Remember, Evan has had me working on old DBZ stuff, old Gravi stuff and brand-new Gravi stuff all at the same time.

As a reminder, some specific 'rules' are established for making the drawings.

1. Only spend a maximum of two hours total on each drawing. After two hours, PUT THE PENCIL DOWN.
2. Evan the Muse will pick the subjects - don't think about who to draw - Evan will decide.
3. All kimono patterns will be made using the Orient Pattern font and every person will have a unique pattern. No patterns already used in another drawing will be considered.
4. Be sure to SAVE each pattern defined in Photoshop this time.
5. Use the 5.5 x 8.5 sketch pad to constrain the drawing and to insure the drawing will be completed quickly.
6. Use the same font for labeling the characters in each drawing.

The third round of boys are:

Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho

Seeshoumaru from Inuyasha

Notes on this set:

The heads got even bigger during this set so the last pic's head was done small on purpose.

Notes on each:

I only have YuYu doujinshi, no manga, so I had to reference a few different artists to get Kurama's hair halfway correct. His face decided to take up even more space than the other guys for some reason. Kurama won over Hiei in Evan's book. Maybe Hiei will show up later.

I know Sesshoumaru wears a kimono all the time, but he does not wear one loose, does he? So this is Sesshoumaru being comfortable. I had to reference an action figure package to get the general shapes. I also made sure the head did not take up all the page this time.

Some Oekaki

Yes, I actually have done some oekaki, too, but not much. Evan has kept me in traditional media lately.


Blistering Lightsaber Action:
http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/
120: Purple-haired Guy


Artist's Cafe:
32: Happy Birthday, Darkest Lynk!
http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/32.png


Artist's Cafe:

35: Yuki Eiri without his Earring
http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/35.png

Turles Looks at Sage's Drawings

Yes, it is another old 2002 DBZ piece, finally seeing the light of day. This time, it is an illustration for Talon's alternative universe story, Restraints and Liberations. This is one of four drawing I have done for this multi-chaptered story. At the time of the first drawing, I was testing techniques I had not used in years with my newly modified drawing style influenced by anime and manga. I challenged myself with this series by using ink lines and cg for the first time together. These early experiments helped me learn what I could do with Photoshop to enhance my drawings.

I inked this using my usual Staedtler pigment liners in sizes 07, 05, 01 and 005. I scanned it at 150 dpi and cleaned up the scanner chatter.

The hair and clothing for each character 'drawing' has two layers - one solid and one Photoshop pattern texture. Turles' shirt has a third layer for fabric shadows.

The skin shadows for each character are made on separate layers. I just drew the shadows with a light grey where I thought the shadows would be.

The plate and some of the bowls have Japanese screentones. The tiny bowl has a leaf shape from the built-in Photoshop shapes.

I used a simple pattern fill for the table and a simple gradient for the background.

All of these layers were set to Multiply mode so the ink drawing lines were visible underneath and the opacities were adjusted to a maximum of 50% so everything blended well.

Men in Kimono series part two

Only two more drawings for this series have happened this week. Evan has had me working on old DBZ stuff, old Gravi stuff and brand-new Gravi stuff all at the same time.

Just a reminder, some specific 'rules' are established for making the drawings.

1. Only spend a maximum of two hours total on each drawing. After two hours, PUT THE PENCIL DOWN.
2. Evan the Muse will pick the subjects - don't think about who to draw - Evan will decide.
3. All kimono patterns will be made using the Orient Pattern font and every person will have a unique pattern. No patterns already used in another drawing will be considered.
4. Be sure to SAVE each pattern defined in Photoshop this time.
5. Use the 5.5 x 8.5 sketch pad to constrain the drawing and to insure the drawing will be completed quickly.
6. Use the same font for labeling the characters in each drawing.

The second round of boys are:

Hatori from Fruits Basket

Vejiita from Dragonball Z

Notes on this set:

The heads got much bigger in this set for some reason.

Notes on each:

Again, I referenced the Fruits Basket manga, this time for Hatori's eye shape and hair style. I guess my request to Evan to let me draw the good doctor was heard. This drawing came together very quickly. I was pleased I was able to find an Orient font pattern that had a general shape of a red cross.

Evan was not very helpful when it came to getting Vejiita right initially and I actually put the tablet away and went to sleep at one point. The next day, Evan kept trying to help but nothing was working until the Prince himself walked in, thwacked Evan across the side of the head, sat down and told me to hurry up because he was a busy monarch. I looked at the little DBZ box I use for my erasers and realized I was making the eyes too high on the face, the nose needed to be shorter in length and the forehead was not long enough. Once I fixed these details, everything fell into place and I met the time constraint. I used 4B and 6B pencils to get the dark hair. I was tickled I found an Orient font pattern that looked like two carrots crossed...

Blessings from Buddha Come in Pink Packages

I had just completed the first round of the Men in Kimono series when this image just started pouring out of me, and did it come out quickly! It was like Evan was still using the 'rules' of the kimono series. I finished it in less than two hours.

I wanted Eiri's look to be contemplative, like he was realizing his life was actually pleasant and he was happy. I can well imagine him having a casual chat in his brain with Buddha about his comfortable circumstances.

Men in Kimono series

This idea was sparked by some email conversations with Aja and Lutra. Since I was already doing some Gravitation drawings with my favorite boys in kimono, how about trying some other series' characters as well?

After I started my second piece of the series, I realized I had some specific 'rules' already established for the drawings, even though I had not realized it at the time.

1. Only spend a maximum of two hours total on each drawing. After two hours, PUT THE PENCIL DOWN.


2. Evan the Muse will pick the subjects - don't think about who to draw - Evan will decide.


3. All kimono patterns will be made using the Orient Pattern font and every person will have a unique pattern. No patterns already used in another drawing will be considered.


4. Be sure to SAVE each pattern defined in Photoshop this time.


5. Use the 5.5 x 8.5 sketch pad to constrain the drawing and to insure the drawing will be completed quickly.


6. Use the same font for labeling the characters in each drawing.

So, who are the first round of boys to make it into this series?

Eclipse from Demon Diary

Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist

Shigure from Fruits Basket

Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing

Notes on this set:

For the first three drawings, I started with the general head shape first, before even knowing who I was my subject. Then Evan told me who I was drawing. For the fourth drawing, Evan told me who to draw while I was talking to Talon about some tech notes on an old, in-progress DBZ art piece for one of her stories and I started working on Duo as soon as I got off the phone with her. Talon might even remember me saying "Duo Maxwell" out-loud and out-of-the-blue during our conversation.

Notes on each:

Eclipse had to be referenced from my Demon Diary manga to make sure I got the eye shape and the hair reasonably correct. I had not looked at the manga for a while so I only had a general idea of how he looked. I used 2B and 4B pencils on his hair to get it darker than what the F pencil usually gets at its darkest. I am surprised Evan wanted a drawing first and not an oekaki of Eclipse.

Edward's eyes were initially too close together. Now they are too far apart. Oh well. I referenced a shitajiki I got at a-kon to get the eye shape and general hair shape. Ed's hair was loose on the shitajiki so I decided to do the same thing here. It was fun adding more and more strands to the hair.
This is the least successful drawing of the series, in my opinion.

I referenced the Fruits Basket manga for Shigure's eye shape and hair style. Of course, the man wears a kimono most of the time anyway so this was not much of a stretch. The mouths on all the FB male characters are wider than what I am used to drawing so I had to compensate for that so Shigure looked like himself. I had hoped Evan would have encouraged me to draw Hatori but the devious dog got first dibs. Maybe I will get to draw the good doctor later in the series.

Surprisingly, I pretty much had a lot of Duo's facial structure, hair and eyes down without any reference, but decided to double-check with my GW artbook, just in case. I am glad I did because Duo's back hair was not wavy and thick enough. I added a little more curve to the eyes and changed the direction of some of the bang strands, too. For the most part, Duo looks a little older here, and it suits him. Why Evan chose Duo and not Zechs is beyond me.

And now, men in kimono - round one - with bigger thumbnails than usual because I was not thinking straight. Sorry in advance for the slow downloads.

# fucked up by bakayaro onna : 8:44 AM
|