Project 52: Weeks 37 to 44 - Vincent Cass style meme

Happy New Year everyone! My last submission for 2010. : D

I've never tried memes before but I've seen *Goku-chan's pop up several times and it looked quite fun to do.

Anyway I chose Vincent as he's probably the one who would vary the most with different styles (especially the manga related ones). If you've not seen him before, there's more information about him here.

I'm a little unsure about the Yoji Shinkawa one. It looks better than I hoped it would but perhaps doesn't quite match his style. Same with the Disney one as well, with the eyes probably being the most accurate part. Also, the head shape of his realistic counterpart is quite a bit different to the original (should be a bit more triangular rather than squared). Still, they felt rather refreshing as drawing exercises at least!

And yes I know I cheated a little by using Mike Krahulik for "DA artist style", but it is technically correct. : P

Until next time!

More...

Weeks 35, 36 and 37 - The Batmen of BICS

With special guest, Swiss Army Wolverine.


Okay so it's a month after BICS, but here are some doodles based on a few things that happened that weekend.

1 - One of my friends came back to our table and commented that she'd seen one of the four Batman cosplayers texting somebody. We reckoned this was the only thing he could possibly be doing (I think Batman would have an iPhone).
Adam West and Burt Ward Batman and Robin used for comic effect. :P

2 - On the Sunday, three of the Batmen (we think it was a comic Batman, Adam West and the Tim Burton version) stood near the table talking about utility belts. I tried to take a picture of them, but I think they're too well seasoned at it because they all posed for me before I caught them. XD

3 - When we were all out for dinner on the Saturday (eating Chinese food), most of us were using chopsticks so we were thinking of how to use the surplus cutlery. Probably not all that surprising that this was one of the uses that were mentioned.

This is my first time drawing any version of Batman or Wolverine, so comic geeks please be gentle!

DeviantArt link

A Beginner's Guide to Photography

Today we have moving pictures!
My MA project was to produce a set of animated shorts that explained some of the basics of photography (in this case, aperture, shutterspeed, ISO and exposure) to first year BA Photography students at my university. So after a year of being an ex-student, I'm finally posting the videos for aperture, shutterspeed and ISO here. :D







Enjoy!
There is also a video for exposure (linking the three aspects together) and a short introduction in the works, so hopefully I can finish them and put them up soon.
The model for the main character is photographer Shaun Joyce and the voice talent is freelance journalist Matt Kamen.


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These videos were developed for Birmingham City University and are for educational/ non-profit use only. Feel free to share the link to this blog post, but please ask permission if you wish to show them elsewhere.

Weeks 33 and 34 - Soulsnatchers pages for BICS

Continuing with comic work for the MC² BICS banner, I redid the first two pages from a Soulsnatchers oneshot that I'd entered for Tokyopop's RSOM contest a few years back (never bothered with the contest after that either!).

My drawing ability and technique have come a long way since then (I'm a lot better with anatomy and perspective for a start). I also ditched the greyscale shading it originally had because I think black and white suits it much better.
I'd be very grateful to receive input from others so I can improve it further when I eventually start the story properly.

Deviantart linkDeviantArt link

If you're really curious, here are the original pages for comparison. :B
Page 1
Page 2
I changed the scenery on the first page because I wanted it to look more like a rundown part of town than a city scape.

Weeks 31 and 32 - Preparing for BICS

Been a couple of weeks at least since I last uploaded anything. I've been preparing stuff for the British Internation Comic Show next month, including artwork for the Midlands Comics Collective exhibition banner and free sampler comic that we'll be handing out at our table.

First up is the brief bio and cartoon portrait for the sampler:
(I'm not that bad with cats, but they are distracting bundles of cute (mostly!) : P )
DeviantArt link

And second is a new drawing of Alusius to go on the MC2 banner:

DeviantArt link

There's more BICS/ comic related artwork to come in the run up to the show, but I should be back to regularly scheduled uploading within a week or so. : )

Project 52 - Weeks 29 and 30: Requests and daft things

Another two-fer this week!
First up is character request my friend made while at Amecon (drawing his character in my style). I've been trying out some more dynamic poses recently and I think I'm getting better at them. : )DeviantArt link


Second is some Professor Layton/ Futurama inspired silliness:

For some odd reason, whenever Don Paolo escapes I always imagine him running away like Dr Zoidberg. : P

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Weeks 26, 27, 28 - More Amecon arts

Been a while! I had intended to upload these before leaving for Amecon but didn't have enough time to. So here are the rest of the characters for the poster I took with me:


No it's not "the" Box Gundam guy, but it felt appropriate all the same. I've not seen much of Gundam outside Wing yet, so please bear in mind that a lot of fandom comments will probably go over my head!

DeviantArt link





Pretty self-explanatory really. Rabid fangirls, they do exist outside the internet!
Just in case it's not known to some of you, a glomp is basically an incredibly enthusiatic, flying hug that can result in injuring the glompee. Yaoi... I'll leave you to find that one out.

DeviantArt link




Last one from the Amecon series and the most terrifying con-goer of all, the non-showering, smelly guy. And yes, there were a few at Ame. : P

DeviantArt link

During the next week or so, I'll be putting up the final poster and the full versions of the "Conwatch" comics. I'll also be carrying on with the weekly drawings as usual, as well as planning for my entry to next years Ayacon conbook. Until then!

Project 52: Week 25 - Japanophiles

Moar Amecon artz.

I'll add the accompanying text when it goes on the poster. Been rather busy lately (and will be for the next two weeks), so thought I'd at least put up the drawing so as to not miss another week.

Not sure if I like this one as much as the others, perhaps it's a bit too busy and obvious for now. Any input would be welcome. : )

(Also, I'm getting worried that doing these is making me a bit too unkind!)

Deviantart link

Project 52: Week 24 - "The Cosplay Pernicket"

Too mean? : p
Thankfully I've not come across any in person, but I definitely know they exist (and have witnessed them on certain forums).

Part 4 of the Amecon poster.
Sorry, I've been a bit behind lately through preparing for the convention but I'll have plenty of time to catch up when that's
over. : )

Also, "Excuuuse me Princess" proved far too tempting.

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Week 23 - Frazzled Fursuit

Part 3 of my Amecon bestiary comic.

Seriously, I just don't know how they manage to do it. I think they store water. : D

(BTW, the speech below the Pikachu head is supposed to say "kiiiilll... meee...", but doesn't seem to have come out too well. I'll patch it up a bit later.)

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Weeks 21 and 22 - The beginnings of an Amecon comic print

For Amecon this year, I've decided to follow on from my conbook submission by doing another comic page to sell as a print, this time a convention "bestiary" of sorts. Just picture everything said in David Attenborough's voice and that's the basic idea. : D

So until then, I'm uploading ideas one by one. Numero uno:

If you've been to a convention at all, it's likely that there will have been at least one group of people sitting in a dark corner with their DSes and PSPs (and not doing much else for the duration).

Second for today:
'Nuff said really!

(anyone not familiar with Japanese rock bands, check out visual kei for majorly androgynous dudes that make anime hairstyles look easy)

The final thing will be in colour, once I've sorted out which ideas I want to keep.

Week 19 and 20 - Amecon conbook: "Conwatch" previews

Just to show that I actually have been drawing stuff for the last couple of weeks. : p

These are previews of the comic pages I submitted to this year's Amecon conbook. I'll put up the full comics once the convention's over, don't want to be posting spoilers now!

Page 1 preview:

Page 2 preview:

Project 52 : Week 18 - Oh you rascal...

Every time there's a new Berlusconi scandal in the news, I picture him doing this. : D



(hey I'm half-Italian, I can stereotype if I want to : P)

Project 52 : Week 17 - RJD

Ronnie James Dio 1942 - 2010
RIP dude, every \m/ will be in your honour.

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Week 16 - Dargor the Shadowlord

Still catching up! Only two to go now...

The new Rhapsody of Fire album (The Frozen Tears of Angels) was released at the end of April, so I decided to draw my version of Dargor the Shadowlord from the Emerald Sword and Dark Secret sagas to celebrate.

Some of you will have seen this design before from my final BA project which was to develop a mock trailer for a film based on the RoF albums. Inspiration for his design included your typical black knight, the judges from Final Fantasy XII and Nathan Explosion. : D
Been a long time since he last saw the light of day though and I didn't remember how much I liked drawing the characters until now. : )

Sometime soon I'd like to finish it off properly as I ran out of time to give it some polish.

(Yes I often like cheese with my music thanks!)

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Week 15 - Caught

Too bad for Vincent that Lu's no so easy to get rid of!

I'm in the process of trying out scenes that I want in the story so sorry if it looks a bit rushed and bare. These things will be more detailed once they're finalised into finished comic panels.
This scene was originally drawn for a Tokyopop entry, but now it's going to be involved in the main story rather than a one-shot.

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Week 14 - "This won't hurt..."

"...too much."

Doc doesn't care much for eavesdroppers.
Eric's first encounter with the SS crew. It's becoming a bit more dressed up than the original comic, where instead of being sedated he was just whacked from behind with a steel pipe. : P

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Week 13 - Trololo

Because he's awesome : D

(Youtube video on the off chance you've not seen Eduard Khil/ Trololo Man)

DeviantArt link

Project 52: Week 12 - Bang bang...

...I shot you down...

I quite liked using watercolour pencils and marker when I did my hunter drawing so I thought I'd have another go.
I don't really think it worked as well as last time (mostly to do with folds and over-shading with the marker where it shouldn't have been, plus the colouring's a bit scruffy) , but I'm going to keep at it and see where I get.

DeviantArt link

Project 52 Week 11 - Bike Plane! (WIP)

BIKE-PLANE YEEEEEAH!

Idea for this came from a conversation about dentistry, in which the words "bite plane" were misheard.
Just a work-in-progress sketch for now, later on I'm going to clean it up and colour and ink it properly as a DeviantArt ID.

I also need new pens, the one I was using just about made it through the sketch!
Also, sorry if the quality isn't so good. I had to take a photo and alter the B/W levels since I'm currently without a scanner.

DeviantArt link

Project 52 - Week 10: Inspector Cass

Another tentative Soulsnatchers design.

Detective Inspector Vincent Cass, leading the investigation about the worryingly increasing number of people going missing, courtesy of Alusius and co.
I can't say much about his character without spoiling the plot, but for his design I was going for a guy in his late forties/ early fifties and very slightly scruffy (also not terribly worried about staying in shape).
I've had him almost as long as Alusius (about 4 years now) and originally his face was loosely based on Kim Coates.
As with everyone else, his design will probably be subject to change as I work more on the story.

C&C appreciated.

DeviantArt link

Project 52 - Week 9: "What's so special about that kid..."

"... that you're willing to risk your body for him?"
"Just keep doing your job and leave me to do mine."

Or something to that effect.
A quick scene test between "Doc" and Alusius. Apologies in advance for the roughness!

I know these tests are usually in the form of very rough pencilled thumbs, but I wanted to at least ink it up a bit so it'd be good enough as my week 9 (and so people could make more sense of it!).

No dialogue or proper backgrounds yet since they're still undecided, so I just concentrated on the characters and interaction for now.

Personally I think it'll still need fixing up quite a lot as far as body language goes since they're not as expressive, fluid or "shapely" as I'd like (Doc's body for instance was to have much more of a curve to it to highlight his body shape and habit of looming over people).
I'm not too keen on a lot of things to do with Alusius either, mainly to do with his arms and legs being out of perspective (bigger than thy should appear), but also the trouser folds between his legs.

I'd be very grateful for any critique and suggestions!

DeviantArt link

Week 7 - The Doc

Another week, another SS rough character sketch.
This guy is the group's medic. I haven't got a suitable name for him yet, so "The Doc" will be his working title for now.
As well as patching everyone up, he is also in charge of the creation of various formulas for use on the job (including a cell regenerator for Alusius). Despite the crazy-looking eyes, he's actually rather sane. Just a bit... high strung I suppose.
The original inspiration for him actually came from a dream I had years ago (Meg too), so I'm glad my subconscious actually has some use. : D
I'd like to work on his costume a bit since it's rather generic at the moment. Not something terribly elaborate but still a bit more distinctive.

More to come soon!
C&C welcome as usual.

DeviantArt link

Project 52 - Week 7: Good eeeevening...

... weee are reprrresenting... the Hubba... Gubba... Tea Company... of Tibet.

Would you like some teeea?







Some informations in the event of a WTF emergency : D
Gong (the band)
The Outer Temple (song and lyrics)
The Flying Teapot
Costume photos
(not mine of course, but he has the best I've seen of this costume).

DeviantArt link

Project 52 - Week 6: Valentine's, er... "special"

A belated Valentine's entry - Videogame Romance

Apologies to all the Mario x Peach shippers, but the Gameboy original canon gave me more ideas than the main console games (yeah, yeah there's no "your princess is in another [X]" in Super Mario Land). : p

And what is it about L4D fan art that just gets you hooked once you start doing it?

Oh well, until next time!

DeviantArt link

Project 52 - Week 5

A bit late with this submission. Last week was rather hectic
and I spent the free time I usually have catching up with work. : O


Another "Soulsnatchers" character in the pipeline.
This is Meg, named after Megara the Fury from whom she is descended.
Her job is mainly to track down those who have been marked by the Soulsnatchers team. She does this with the use of her left eye (a kind-of "eye of judgment"), which when activated can pick up the individual energy patterns of each of their targets. It can also pick up negative or corrupted energy patterns, so not only can she weed out the worst of mankind, she cannot be lied to.

The third eye is an enhancement for supernatural energy, for instance if the team are after a rogue demon. This can't be used for too long though as it is far more physically draining.

It's also rumoured she and Lu may have had a thing for each other at one point.

I'm still working on trying to make sense of her character so it's very likely that some details will be changed (some significantly) to work better with the story and the mythology (a cross between Greco-roman and the Christian view of hell).

As for the drawing, I only realised after I'd inked everything that I'd kind of messed up her hands and legs (the most obvious flaw being that the left hand and leg on the full figure are too big). I'm still tweaking some of the character designs and others still need to be done at all, so when I've got them roughly how I want them, I'm going to draw up some proper character sheets.

Anyway, I promise this week's drawing will be up on time! : D

DeviantArt link

GrrrrrRRRRYYYYYEAAAAAAARGH!

Happy week 4 everyone, have a hunter.


Drawn with a 2B pencil, inked with a rollerball and brush pen, coloured with watercolour pencils.
I'm trying some more dynamic poses at the moment and this has turned out quite a bit better than I'd hoped.
Changed the red levels to give the colours a bit of a boost, but they still seem a bit murky and areas like the left hand don't stand out as well as I needed them to. Also the silhouette isn't too strong as the hand crosses over his right leg.

I want to turn this into a full colour piece with background at some point so I'm going to keep working into it with the pencils. Hopefully continuing to build up the colour in the shaded areas will give it a lot more vibrancy and depth when I wash over it.
As usual, if anyone has any critiques or tips I'm all ears (or eyes in this case).

Also, I apologise for any mistakes in the design. I didn't have any references to hand when I'd passed the initial sketching stage!

Hunter and Left 4 Dead © Valve

DeviantArt link.

Project 52 challenge - Weeks 1, 2 and 3

My first entry is actually a three-in-one since I started the challenge a couple of weeks into January. For those who are members of DeviantArt, I'll also be including the DA gallery links.

First up are two characters from my comic Soulsnatchers.


DA Link

A brief introduction:
Eric Killian has been searching for clues to the whereabouts of his brother, who disappeared mysteriously four years ago.
During his search, he gets caught up in the "Soulsnatchers" [pending name change] organisation, a sort-of black market branch of hell that specialises in trading human souls for what they most desire (without their consent naturally).

Eric, the main character, is the dude to the left. I've not posted him to DA before but he's changed quite significantly since I first designed him. He was originally supposed to be a dishevelled cop, but I didn't like the way it was working out so I made him a (slightly scruffy) university student. Bright but his curiosity often gets the better of him.

Some of you may have seen Alusius before if you know me from DeviantArt. He's the head of his team of soulsnatchers and before Eric joins, is unique in the fact that he used to be (and possibly still is) human. The first outfit is him in his uniform (worn so as not to draw too much attention to themselves on the surface) and the second is his casual outfit, much more comfortable since it's less restrictive to what lies beneath his bandages.
I've also given him a slight design change, giving him a high coat collar, different boots and baggier trousers.
Here are some of the original drawings I did of him for comparison:
Alusius original design 1
Alusius orginal design 2

The comic style itself is getting a makeover too. Less loose with more varied line weights.
A couple of pages from the original comic:
Page 1
Page 2
I'm hoping to post up more SS stuff in the near future, more characters and also environments which will also have an overhaul from the previous version.

These were both sketched in pencil then inked with a Copic brush marker. Rather missed it, it's been a long time since I've done non-digital inking!
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Next is just a quick digital drawing of Eric suiting up for his first day on the job:
DA Link

I'm thinking I should have made the line weight difference between Alusius and Eric greater to help distinguish between their jackets (or perhaps made the colour shades slightly different?). Also, does this inking style still work for the refined character designs?
Any ideas at this stage are more than welcome.

Critiques are more than welcome of course! : )

- Ryuuza

Project 52 challenge - the drawing edition!

DeviantArt is currently hosting a photography contest called the Project 52 photography challenge, in which users submit one photo per week to their gallery (on the theme of "progression") throughout 2010.
I thought this was a really neat idea, not just as a contest, but as a challenge to one's self.
So what I'm going to get myself to do is a similar thing with my drawing. At least one piece (not job related) a week throughout 2010 which will be posted both to here and to my DA gallery.
I'm going to use this challenge as a way to boost my drawing skills and confidence as well as a means of getting my comic story "Soulsnatchers" off the ground.
It'd also be very cool if anyone else wants to take up the challenge themselves! : D

I do realise I haven't used this blog in an extremely long time as I hadn't really felt like I had much to contribute, so this is going to be its long awaited revival.

Hope everyone's having a good 2010 so far, all the best!
- Ryuuza