HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :D

I hope everyone has a great Holiday!
Stay warm and safe <3

And have some Alex

Just for fun

Have some Alex.




Sadly I have plans to finish the pencils on this, and ink it >.< when I should be doing other things. Like comic pages. Or the Holiday art I was going to do. I got distracted...that happens.

NaNoWriMo Fail.

Probably by now, it's obvious XD

I have a million excuses, from not having time, to being sick the day I could have caught up, the holidays being holiday-y and in the way, ALL of my markers running out at the same freaking time (which cost me a lot of money to replace, and then not use :\ ) and then the last weekend I had to really work and catch up...a friend gave me her Wii and I spent all that time playing Zelda >.<

So I fail. I'm not too upset since this was my first time trying this...but still it sucked. I'll try again next year and maybe try to keep at this story because I like it. I actually hit a good stopping point, so I'll post my next four pages that did get finished. It can be part one or something.

Now I have to go back to my real life and get some Forgotten Children updates. I'm way behind. Plus some holiday art!!

 

This will probably be my art this year. It stars Wyn, not Alex. I know, shock and amaze. Or something. For some reason I thought Wyn might be good in a pin-up pose. I don't know why, it just seemed right. IF I finish it, it will be the first finished picture of Adult Wyn I've ever done! Yay me!! It will be eye-bleedingly colorful >:3 Sunglasses may be needed...

NaNoWriMo update......10

I have nothing. NOTHING. I am so hopelessly behind now it's scary and I seem to have forgotten how to draw. I've been seriously struggling with Saturday's page since THURSDAY and it's still right it has been all along....barely a layout. I have to do three pages today in order to be caught up and I can't even get one. I'm so screwed.

Time just hasn't been on my side....Usually i can get most of a page done at work, but last week we were super busy....this weekend I had no time to myself at all and today...all motivation has died. I have been trying and trying and everything I've done is crap. 

....ugh.

NaNoWriMo update 9

Aarrrgh! I'm no longer far ahead. I barely got anything done yesterday at all, just the layout, text and some sketches for tomorrow's page. So now I have to work like a fiend to get it done today because tomorrow I'm not going to have time. So I'll be behind again *sob*

But anyway here's today's page

Page 13!


LOL that middle panel cracks me up for some reason. Alex looks really girly on this page.
I had to bring in pink and a dark red for this page because it just looked too blue. I'm not sure why. I think the extra color is definitely a plus. And again, white-out pen and sliver pen are love.

NaNoWriMo Update 8

I need a title for this thing =_=

Page 12



 Scary!! While I was drawing this page I didn't actually think I'd ever finish it. And my markers are running out...which sucks. There is no way this is ending at 30 pages....I'm way too long-winded.

NaNoWriMo Update 7

With page 11!


Which is actually today's page!
 Tomorrow's page is finished too, and Friday's....not even started!!

Drawing Alex as a child is...weird. I don't usually do it. He's so little!! He'll get littler. I'm going backwards. I've done some research over the years of what children, especially boys, wore in the 1800's. I've come up with pretty much what I expected lol AND some funness I didn't expect. Like boys dressed like girls for years until they were about 9 or 10!! Who knew?! All this time when I put Alex in dresses I doing it right. I'm totally embellishing the wardrobe btw. IF/when I get to the adults in this thing they'll be doing a steampunkish style that I can make up as I go along so I don't have to worry about accuracies so much. I don't really care tbh. I just want to draw what I want to draw, which is Alex in dresses and striped stockings. He's cutes dressed like that.

Other stuff...

The original concept of Boo I drew a million years ago. He hasn't changed much...



and as he "grows" These are concept sketches, I'm not sure how he'll look finished, but I better figure it out cause I think he'll be in the next page D:


**Just a quick not on Boo. He's not a child. He's not human and he has no gender. None at all. He's a thing. I call him a "he" because it's easy, and because he "grows" using Alex as a model, so in some ways they're similar. 

Alex - both as an adult and a child. That's the first sketch I did of him around that age. I've drawn him younger, but not around 8-10.



and...
 

D: D: D:
Rocky does not want me to work. RAWR. Ebil cat is ebil.

NaNoWriMo update 6

Today's actual page! :D

Which means I'm totally on track. I have Thursday's page about half done. If I finish it tonight I will def start Friday's page. I have plans all weekend (again) so if I can get ahead by as much as possible I need too.

Page 10


 I love this page. I had so much fun with it...I just kept adding stuff! lol Plus all the depressing stuff is over for now....so I can move the story along. What story there is.

I think I need to buy more blue markers. The one I use the most is about dead D:

NaNoWriMo Update 5 (NSFW)

WARNING
There is mature and (IMO) disturbing content ahead.


I got a LOT done this weekend. I only half-assed worked on stuff Sat and Sun, but then finished everything up to Monday on Monday, plus today and tomorrow's pages. :)
So I'm ahead by.....well two pages, since today is finished and I'm starting Thursdays page already. I think if I can keep this up I can make up for the story change and get those 5 pages back. *crosses fingers*

I'll only post up through today so I have something tomorrow...but here are the weekends pages.

They're....awful. I cried. Don't judge me...Alex is my baby. I've always known this happened but I've never drawn or written it.


Page 7





 Page 8
 


Page 9
 


I'm not doing a great job of cleaning up my edges in PS.
I really like coloring by hand with marker and colored pencil and water color pencil with marker. I think my style is less consistent like this...but I am spending much less time on each step than I normally would, so I'm not shocked.

Look for another update later with today's page!!

NaNoWriMo update 4

With the next few pages.

Page 4




Page 5 
 



Page 6 
  Woo! I'm doing more color. Alex needs color. He does. So there.

So now we have Boo. I've been wanting to do a story with Boo and Alex for years. I've started it several times and done sketches and planned it out and not liked any of it...so this time I'm jumping right in. Alex has had several therapists in his time, this is just the latest.  I literally drew all three of these pages leaving the panels with him in them blank because I wasn't happy with his design...then went in and filled them in after. I'm still not thrilled, but hopefully he'll get better as I go on.

There will be no update until Tuesday as I'm off on Monday and have no scanner at home :P
I'll be working though! I'm already nearly done with tomorrow's page and the next two are penciled. I want to stay as far ahead as I can.

I am...seriously debating weather or not to post pages 8-9. Drawing them is hard, emotionally, not art-wise. They look really good so far but the content is...awful. Anything with Alex in it is automatically going to be kinda dark, but I didn't mean for it to get this bad so quickly. Oops. I probably will post, but there will be a srs warning. Or I might make this post friends-only or something....we'll see.

NaNoWriMo Comic project update 3

As of today I'm two days ahead. I did three pages today! Plus some outlining for the next few. I have plans.

So this is the new story.
I'm happy, it's going well...Art is ok, but with this it's a little better than I expected, so yay! No title, not even a working one, so right now it's just...Boo.

Page 1

I've wanted to draw something like this forever. Kinda happy I finally got too it even if it's not a labored over illustration.


 Page 2
 
 Using markers instead of digital tone is much harder. Especially since I'm not using copics and my colors are kind of limited. And I am literally doing all of this in my sketchbook so it's not even close to marker paper.

I may get a few more markers this weekend and keep adding more color to the palate. I messed this poor page up like mad but I like the result. My white-out pen is my new best friend.

 Page 3
 

I love how this page looks.

I'll post the next three tomorrow...Then I'll have some time to work on the next pages.

NaNoWriMo 2012 FAIL!

Already!! I just started!!!!

So basically I got behind over the weekend, started yesterday all ready to do a million pages to catch up....then totally scrapped the story I was working on and started fresh.

Yep. FAIL

Here is the before promised page 2, and what I had done of page 3. I also layed out and started 4, 5 and 6 over the weekend, but didn't get far enough to post anything. Between all of that, and what I did yesterday, I'm officially caught up and a little ahead (til today when I plan to fall behind again lol), but doing a different story all together.


Page 2
 

Page 3



 Neither are bad...I actually like both and was trying to think of a way to work at least the first two pages into the new story (still might, but we'll see), but the backgrounds for this thing would have killed me. NO WAY was I going to be able to handle the next three pages in one day each let alone future pages. I need more skillz. Yo.

So I am working on something set in Forgotten Children's time with futuristic crappy bgs that I'm used too, and set waaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day with woods 'n' stuff. So it's going to be - let's face it - easier. I'm not too proud to admit it, I took on more than I could do.

Anyway I have three pages left to upload but I'll probably do it later. Since it's a new story and beginning I figure it needs a new post.

NaNoWriMo Rebel! Black and Blue page 1

Page one is finished! I'm on track! For now, lol



 I'm really happy with it, especially since I didn't even attempt to think about this whole story til yesterday. I am fighting a cold and had other stuff to do and just...didn't. But I knocked it out anyway, started the second page and will hopefully keep going as well as I can. the weekend scares me...I'm usually busy and never do anything...we'll see.

I thought about it a little yesterday and divided this story into four parts. I have to come up with a good title for both the whole story (the working title is Black and Blue, but I didn't want that as the final title) but for now it's "Alex Wakes Up".

 ...

Actually, considering what should happen, that's not too bad. Maybe I'll keep it. I tend to keep my WTs anyway.

 I love drawing Alex in bed...he's such a lazy Mo' I should really do it more often but I don't. His "morning" routine is something I've wanted to do in detail for awhile, but this will be a very abbreviated version. This thing is going to go way past 30 pages as it is.

I realized something horrible last night...I have to hand-draw all his stupid tattoos. STUPID ALEX!!! I have a vector file of almost all of them, so I usually just plug them in after I'm done inking...but since I'm doing everything by hand from start to finish (except for the text - I want people to be able to read this thing) I have to draw them. Alex sucks. I hate his tatts. Why'd I ever make them up?!?!?
At least most of them are easy...he doens't have the wings yet so the rose and his stupid name with be the worst. He'll be wearing long sleeves the rest of the time. lol

I'm putting a border around these pages. I didn't do that with what I did of Raw, and I regretted it. I need borders.

Must work on page 2...wish me luck!!

EDIT: I thought I should mention this will not be updated on the weekends unless I can find a scanner somewhere. Since I only have one at work, anything I do will have to wait til Monday...

Alex and the (4th) Doctor - Pencils

And I failed in getting the inks done this weekend like I'd have liked! :D
Between not being home and cleaning the apt I did nothing else! Boo. But here are the pencils.
Poor Four. I think he's more upset about the Jelly Babies than anything else. Alex is so careless with things that aren't his.




I mentioned before that Four was surprisingly easy for me to do...but I failed to mention that his stupid hand was not. I didn't have a lot of trouble with it, but I did struggle some. Older man hands are not something I draw often as I usually use my own hand as a model when I need it...but slim girl hands might have been a little out of place on Tom XD

Alex was next hardest, this being the third full version of him, and the first two were both redrawn at least twice. Don't ask me how since I can draw him in my sleep.

Also, scarf. I draw scarves a lot, so the wrappy parts were no issue, but I originally had the thing filling up most of the neg space. As you can now see, it isn't. I might add it back in PS in a separate layer that I can play with, or leave it out and "endless". We'll see. The Who fabric shipped, so I gots to get this thing done.

And the worst? The Tardis. OMG this is why I don't draw anything with straight edges!! I had to break out a ruler, which if you know me, tells a lot. I avoid them like some kind of extra nasty plague. I like natural lines, not straight ones, and even if I have "straight" surfaces in my art I usually just wing it. Damn Tardis almost killed me. PLUS I realized that I was drawing the Matt Smith Tardis and had to find pics of the Tom Baker Tardis so I could draw the right one. WHO KNEW?!?!? It still won't be right, because I plan on making it 11 blue. SUE ME. I like that blue.

On another note, someone was looking at my art of Alex the other day and said it didn't look like me.

...

O.o

Eh?!?

Maybe because Alex is blond, fictional and A GUY?! I am none of those things.
And as Alex is not me nor I him, I am not sure why we should look alike.

Also a friend was surprised at how evil he looks in this drawing. He kinda is, so I didn't get it. Then I realized I didn't go crazy with the eyelashes like I usually do, which softens his normal evils, making it look less so. That was probably it. Yeah. It's not like his fangs aren't hanging out all over the place in half my drawings of him.

What's new?

I haven't posted anything in forever....I got behind in art with the craftshow stuff and haven't done anything in forever.

To get back into it, I am working on something personal-ish lol

I don't do a lot of fanart, because I would rather draw my own characters, but I am making an exception!

Can you guess what this is?



XD Alex is stealin the Tardis! Which is very scary. Very very scary. This is the first draft...the final looks nothing like this, but I thought I'd put up some progress stuff. I actually drew Four first, then Alex and the Tardis on another page, spliced them in PS, added to it and then printed it off to the size I wanted the drawing (which is big for me, it's like 14x9 or something like that. I had to break out the large sketchbook! XD) and started working on it! Four / the Doctor / Tom Baker came out great, I couldn't get Alex to work. I erased the whole thing (just the Alex part) and redrew him a couple times but it just wasn't right....so I went back to the doodle-book, and did this




Much better!! It looks like crap because I was at home and had no scanner, so I took a piccy with my phone XD and emailed it to myself. I replaced it in the above drawing and positioned/sized it how I wanted.

Then I had to size the whole doodle to the size of the actual drawing, copy Alex out into his own file in "actual size" so I could print him off and add him to the drawing. *dies*

I swear there has to be an easier way of doing things. I have yet to find it though. 

I finished the pencils last night and I'm working on inks. I plan on coloring (cause the Tardis gots to be BLUE and the scarf...well the scarf gots to be the scarf. DOOM) and using tone.....so we'll see how it turns out. Hopefully good, it's going on a bag, both for myself and my friend who's making us both bags out of Doctor Who inspired material off spoonflower. YAY WHO!!

Raw pg 8

And now I'm behind! Woo! Good thing this is practice and not the actual challenge XD
Too much other stuff to do this weekend....crafting and faceups took up all my time.

But hopefully I'll get back into it. I have page 9 finished, so that will go up tomorrow.




One of my more favoriter pages. I love the chibis in the 2nd panel (or first, depending on how you look at it). The odd angle of Alex in the third. It turned out ok. The last panel is my least fav but what can you do?

Raw pg 7

Oh this page...

I almost threw it away and started over. The first, third and last panels - I messed them up so bad!! I kind of managed to fix things...I really like Alex's hand holding the cup. It looks so much better than it did. His shirt is still massively bad. The chibi panel sucks...and Chibis are my favorite so that's sad.
The first panel isn't as awful as it was, but still the worst of Isis. Ugh.

It's done though! Yay!

I'm not sure about the thought balloons. I generally hate when people overuse transparent balloons, so I didn't want to do it at all, but I couldn't think of anything else! I might try squares next time, but it's what I usually use for Alex's thoughts so I didn't want to do that either. :\

I'll figure something out.

Raw page 6

Almost caught up!! I almost skipped page 8 yesterday....I got all of the latest (very late) page of FC inked and then it was halfway through the day and thought about not doing it....but it's done! And possibly my favorite of the bunch...espcecially considering the huge mess-up I made right off the bat XD

Too bad I shouldn't really talk about it since this is pg 6 not 8...




 Pg 6...Kind of a mess. I don't hate it but I feel like it could have been better.
It's hard to see what's really going on because I think I failed...but hopefully it gets explained in the next page which I only just scanned in. I thought I finished it, but I haven't even added text yet XD
I'll get the hang of this eventually. 

Raw pg 5

Second update in one day!!




Nothing really to say about this one...it was kind of easy.
The second and third panels bug me a little, I wish Alex wasn't so smiley...but at the time it seemed like a good idea.

Yeah. Meh.

Raw pg 4

I'll probably do 5 later today so I can start catching up. I'm on page 8 today...so I'm a bit behind on the posting.

This one is my least and most fav. It started out great and I killed it (which is bound to happen when working in mediums I can't fix with the "undo" key).
However, the third and fourth panels are totally my favorites!!




It's kind of sad how hard I try to make sure all my characters look different...even sadder is the fact that Alex looks more like a girl than Isis. Sorta. At least you can tell she's a girl. Hopefully.

D:

You can see where i really really really messed up the second panel. And then just kept making it worse....and then deleted it completely with black marker :D
Why do I always hear the world "delete" in my head as a Cyberman voice???

Just an fyi, I'm not looking at anything while doing these...so my coffee pot is going to be a sad sad sad piece of crap. TOO BAD.

Blurg, I should have erased that edge up there D: Stupid Photoshop. It didn't show up there!

RAW pg 3

OMG IT'S ISIS!!!!!

LOOKIT HER! I have tried so hard to get her to work with her new character...when I say new I mean new as of years ago. This is not Isis as she was originally conceived foreverago, but how I think she really would be. If that makes sense. 

This is pretty much it. I mean, it's rough, since that's the point of the whole exercise...but that's her. If I get nothing else out of this page-a-day thing, I am relearning how to draw women (slowly) and figuring out one of my main characters, which is a little important since she's due to show up any minute in the main series. In all I think I'm happier with this page than any of the others. If only because of her...and possibly because Alex looks super-cute in that second panel XD

I wish he'd smile more...lol

I'm doing all my lettering in PS, which actually means the pages aren't getting finished in one day since I don't scan them the day they're finished...but it's close enough. I am fairly confident I will be able to keep up a page a day for an extended time...but now I'm committed to this stupid thing, and have no choice but to finish it!! NO CHOICE!! XD

Raw pg 2

No words. Done completely in my sketchbook, no editing, erasing or any kind of correcting (save for a minute color correct, just so the color shows...straight out of my scanner a lot of blue gets lost). This was actually the first page I did...that top panel started out life as a random Alex doodle (of which about a billion and three exist) and became a panel...which then became a page. Sort of.

Alex has the attention span of a gnat. He gets bored easily and tends to wander off. Which is why he requires a "babysitter"....

I wish my greys weren't so...extreme. I have a pale grey and dark grey...I need an inbetween. I need more blue too. Or I'll just start using other shades of blue. I try later on...Don't know how much I like though.

OMG My handwriting....it's so bad D:

Raw

I decided to practice for November (because I have nothing better to do lol). In the last four days I've done four pages of a story I'm calling Raw as a working title. Maybe I'll officially name it when it's finished.

It's not going to be some big intricate story (hopefully) and I have no idea what I'm going to do from day to day....it actually started with a doodle I turned into a panel and then kept going. I'm using a non-photo blue pencil to lay it out, then I've been going over the pencil with pen in blue and black, then coloring with markers and other stuff, all in blue, grey and black.

I'm trying really hard to just let it go and not fix any mistakes...so far I've been good, and only one panel has really been edited...but not til the fourth page. other than that only the text was added digitally.

 Raw: Page 1



 If you follow my DA page, this is kind of a prequel to Forgotten Children. Or if not a prequel, it would be some time before FC, David and Alex have only just started working with the local law agency.

I really like that drawing of David, looking over his shoulder.

This is page one, but it's the second page I did...Hopefully they get better than this...

I'm pretty happy with what I've gotten so far, it's not awful, and being forced not to constantly correct all of my mistakes means I've got either get it right off the bat or deal with it. The fourth page has a horrible panel >.< But it's there now!

I plan on doing a page a day til this little story is done. It's not too exciting (so far), mostly just chatting over coffee ;)
Character development is my friend. And look at all the practice I'm getting! :D

Alex, David, Elizabeth, Forgotten Children/Raw and all of it's characters are © me. 

30 days of Comic...?

Ok so I've been giving it a lot of thought (more than I should, lol with another page of FC LATE LATE LATE) and I'm probably totally going to do the 30 pages in 30 days in Nov.  I know what story I'm going to do, and all I need to do for that is to get it all written out...shouldn't take long, just a couple hours of me sitting down and getting it all organized. My only fear is that it will be more than 30 pages >.<
My only fear other than the fear that I'll fail miserably XD

I really need a different style for this though because I'm kind of anal with my finished work...and I will have to be faster than my normal snail pace. So far I'm trying to experiment and all I'm getting is...well...this.

I will most likely be doing it black and blue...I like that color sceme and it gives me something more than just BW or pencil for a finished product. Since it's a fast, sketchy thing, I want it to stand out from and be nothing like FC even though it's in the continuity - and I won't have time for a lot of computer editing...so this is something I can do by hand. And now I have an excuse to hit the art stores in search of blue implements! :D Here's a few things I've been messing with

not great. The scan makes it worse...it has a little more depth I swear.


You know, I'll never understand why people always think Alex is a girl... O.o
JK. I get it.

Tried to get a style out of this and failed. But this is most likely what he'll be wearing in the beginning.
 
Only hopefully better. I wanted something more stylized and simple than this even but it took me forever to develop this style! I can't even begin to try something new in two months...


Alex in the morning evening before coffee....
 May be my favorite thing ever.


and finally, trying to get a new hairstyle for David...I know what Alex looks like centuries ago, but I always have trouble with David. I should mess with the doll and see what I can come up with...or just keep doodling.
 

Lamely enough, I want to call it Black & Blue. I figure it's good name for several reasons, one of them being it's Alex's name, and y'know, I try to throw that around whenever I can. I thought (ambitiously) that if I get through this one, the next could be a different color like red. Which would work in the story somehow (I already know how if you haven't guessed, but I am trying really hard not to get too ahead of myself). I dunno, it may change, especially if I crap out halfway through....we'll see!

Web Comics

Just a few links to the ones I read

This could be my favorite

I love this one but she updates like me, never.

New to me and pretty fabulous

ZOMBIEHS!!!

If anyone actually sees this and wants to link me to some new ones, please do! I am always up for new stuff.

Thoughts

I'm thinking about Nanowrimo already, and since I did it last year and won (go me!!) I thought I'd try something different this year. I know there's some thing where people try to do a whole comic in one month but I think it's in the spring...I thought I'd do it for Nano this Nov. I read a little about the other one, and it seems that it's not so much a day every day a month, but since it's "Nano" I thought I'd try for a page a day.

D:

Insanity?? Who knows. It's just in the thought stage right now...which means I already have a "great" idea and really want to try to do it. I LOVED Nano last year, I lived on the forums and I don't want to have to give that up so I'll just go along like it's a novel! lol I'll be a "rebel!!" Or whatever. I just want to stay in the drawing habit and attempting to write 50000 words in a month takes some time away from my art. This might be better, and since it will be super-rough, it might get me out of any boxes I have.

Anyway, that's the thought for this year. We'll see if it happens.

Sketchies!!

Dump dump dump

 Alex looking worse-for-wear...probably in his younger days.

 
One-half of the tattoo I hate drawing on his back. This is my favorite sketch of it...I want to finish it more and slap it in illustrator as a vector so I will never have to draw it again!



 
I...have no idea.

Sketch Dump!!

Welcome to the new format! :D

As my third official first post, I figured I'd just do a quick dump of a few things I had on hand. Some are older, but I figure they're still relevant, so they get included too.

Ok, Nuff Said! On to arts!


Quick character sketch of Ryuji, done to get his doll in order before it actually got to me. I did it a few years ago, and sadly it remains my favorite drawing of him >.<




David and Alex, wardrobe concepts.


 
Boo, character concept


 
Did this on the front of my self-made planner last year. I finished it eventually, both on the cover and digitally...




Concept art for the "cover" of my NANOWRIMO novel of last year. The art got finished, the novel didn't. I did "win" however! :D Go me!!


 
 Alex and David. One of my favorite drawings of them ever! So cutes!

I posted art!! Yay! Now if I could only keep it up.... D: