Age and Self-Cartoon Portrait

Hello! Sorry this post is a bit belated; yesterday time got away from me and by the time I was ready to post it was bedtime.

Without further ado, here's some more work from my Character Design class this past summer semester:

Voila! Watch me age! The assignment was to do an aging of one character from toddler to child to adult to senior. I decided to draw myself since the first half of the assignment would be some good practice for my semi-autobiographical comic about Catholic grammar school (which will be worked on more!). I definitely want to fill in the age blanks for the younger ones... draw pretty much each grade--I'm thinking that second one is me in fourth or fifth grade. Also, for my senior one I figured it's gonna be the future and damnit I want a rocket rocking chair!

I decided to re-work and color the adult one as I can use it on my site and business cards. Our instructor went over digital coloring methods both overall and for lineart. So I felt it necessary to at least throw myself out of my comfort zone of black lines and to color them. Here's the colored lineart version:

I did like the effect to some degree, but when looking at it next to the black lineart I still felt drawn to the dark, inked lines. Also, probably due to my method, but when I colored the lines they became a bit fuzzy and that just pissed me off; I love crisp and delicious lines, what was happening to my good lineart?! I'm going to need to solve that problem in the future since I would like to integrate this technique into future work. But for now...

The finished product with black lineart!

What do you guys think? Do you like the colored lineart better? Does anyone know why my lines became fuzzy? If you have answers, let me knoooow~~!

Until tomorrow!

Eerie Experience

May I present to you the first completed illustration for my thesis! (with thumbnail and sketch)

The first step in a long and fun process.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Digital Sketch

I need and want to practice in Painter more, drawing and coloring digitally--especially drawing, tho. I usually draw and scan that drawing in, coloring digitally. Very rarely.. actually, never really, do I start a drawing digitally and do so all the way through. So in my efforts of learning, I decided to mess around more with the Real 2B Pencil in Painter 12. I also gave myself a one hour time limit.

I used a reference photo I'd taken of my friend Chelsea (who just so happens to have her own blog you can check out if interested here). We took a bunch of photos in the gorgeous Piedmont Cemetery here in Oakland for one of my painting assignments and I decided to make her a fairy!

Now, there's a lot wrong with that sketch right there. lol I wanted to practice a time limit, or "speed drawing' (one hour isn't all that speedy at all, but for me it sure is!) and definitely will continue to do so in the future. I think having a time limit is a good exercise since I'm just sketching anyways.

I wanted to apply color, but ran out of time. I might go in and edit and work on this more for Friday's post, or I might just do a speed paint portrait instead.

Working digitally, here I come!

Also, btw, I listened to Florence + The Machine's "Ceremonials" while sketching. Her albums have a tendency to really grow on me. When I first heard "Ceremonials" I thought the album wasn't nearly as good as "Lungs" (which I still think is true) but I really enjoy the album after listening to it a few times. Her music is very inspirational for me when drawing and painting.

Psychic Consultant

I worked on this business card and poster design for my friend who needed some representation visually for her palm and tarot readings. Henceforth, her business card! If you're in the Bay and need some psychic advice or consultation, don't hesitate to contact Madame Dragonfly! (dragonflyshan@gmail.com)