handstand

true story...

New drawing + WIP

Re-posted from my deviantArt account.

WIP for my latest drawing:

Another drawing of my character Lapis from my story the Wish Bringer.  I actually had this sketched up for a few weeks and kind of forgot about it for a while. Unfortunatly, I think the shaped of her eyes distorted and changed her expression a little bit as I re-drew it from the sketch, though it's not too bad. This was also another case of experimentation. Instead of waiting for the ink to dry completely on the line art, I applied the markers over the wet ink to create a bleeding affect, which worked nicely with her hair.

1.  First I did a few sketches (which I threw away) and chose on the final design.  Then I used a combination of red and blue pencils to sketch it out.  I used blue to draw solid lines and red to map out shadows and softer edges.

2.  Then I put the sketch on my light box and put a piece of heavy weight sketch paper on top.  Then I started to trace the outlines using a ballpoint pen, while colouring it with copic markers at the same time.  I had to turn the light box off to take the photos because they wouldn't show up other wise.

3.  The next 3 photos show how the image develops.

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4.  After I finished drawing the main figure (Lapis), I took the sketch out from under the paper and replaced it with a photocopy that I took of clouds.  Clouds are very soft, so I didn't use any outlines, Instead I skipped straight a head to using the markers to block out shapes first with lighter colours and shades and then with darker ones.

5.  Did the other side.  Its better to colour outwards beyond your intended image, that way it's easier to crop after you're finished (either physically or digitaly).

6.  Scanned it onto my PC and cropped the edges to make it neater.  I usually adjust the brightness and contrast of my images at this stage, however for some reason (copic magic?) this image scanned nicely and didn't need touching up.  Then it was done.

Toby - Rock style

This picture is a bit hard to describe, because I've been going back and forwards re-writing this particular part of the story, but i'll try. Toby is another character from my story, the Wish Bringer. He's a hermit who lived alone for a long time, so he gets really shy and awkward when it comes to interacting with other people, but later on in the story he becomes more courageous and confident, especially when it comes to helping his friends.

Traveling through Rome comics

In case you're wondering, I'm creating a new post so that I can consolidate my comics from Rome so that they'll be easier to find.  (There are a lot of them, so hopefully I've included them all.)

"Passing through Sydney Customs",
Felt tip pen and watercolours on paper, 2013

I always had trouble passing through customs because of Australia's tight security, so this really felt like a miracle at the time.

"Meet my friend Yoshi when transfering in Tokyo",
Felt tip pen and watercolours on paper, 2013

Yoshi is an awesome friend that I meet when I was on an exchange in France.  He came to Narita airport to see me when I changed flights in Japan.

"My friend Tatiana and I waiting in line for the
catacombs, Paris", felt tip pen and watercolours
on paper, 2013

Tatiana from Switzerland and I both studied in Japan together.  Before starting my course in Rome we decided to take a trip together from Paris down to Rome.

"Tatiana and I in the catacombs, Paris",
felt tip pen and watercolours on paper, 2013

We both went to the catacombs in January, but they were closed at the time, so we were really happy to see that they were open this time.

"Crossing the Swiss border", felt tip pen and
watercolours on paper, 2013

Then we took a sleeper train from Paris to Milan.  Halfway through the night Tatiana woke up to use as much internet as she could when we passed through Switzerland.

"Train jet lag, Milan", felt tip pen and
watercolours on paper, 2013

By the time we got to Milan, we were so drained from the ride and culture shock in general that we decided to just chill out and figure out how to use enough broken Italian to order food.

"The wrong train ticket", felt tip pen and
watercolours on paper, 2013

On the way to Venice we found out that we had the wrong train ticket and was kicked off.

"Arriving at the camping ground, Venice", felt tip pen
and watercolours on paper, 2013

This is a pretty accurate picture.  Note to self, don't pack so much for a cross country journey.

"Riding a gondola, Venice", felt tip pen and
watercolours on paper, 2013

In Venice I fulfilled one of my life time dreams.  Ride a gondola in Venice.

"The wrong train station", felt tip pen and
watercolours on paper, 2013

This time we had the right train ticket, however we were waiting at the wrong train station and ended up missing out train to Florence.  So we went straight on to Pisa.

"(2nd last day with Tatiana) Pisa Pizza",
felt tip pen and watercolours on paper, 2013

After seeing the leaning tower of Pisa, I made it a point to eat Pizza in Pisa for this pun.  When I saw Yoshi in Japan we talked about how the Japanese pronunciations for Pisa and Pizza were the opposite to how they were pronounced in Italian, so this one was for him.

"My cooking reputation", felt tip pen and
watercolours on paper, 2013 

I'm known for having a bad reputation when it comes to cooking, so I tried to redeem myself by creating something awesome... though things didn't go as planned.

"Fashion show in Rome", felt tip pen and
watercolours on paper, 2013

In Rome we were invited to attend a fashion show for the students who were graduating from IED (European Institute of Design) AKA the school we were doing the exchange with.  

"Drawing in the Capuchin Crypt, Rome"
felt tip pen and watercolours on paper, 2013

Spent another weekend visiting and drawing dead people. (I swear i'm not morbid!)  The Capuchin Crypt was pretty amazing actually, because all the bones were arranged like artworks.

"The Lazy backpacker style, Florence", felt tip pen
and watercolours on paper, 2013

On another weekend I went to Florence (since Tatiana and I didn't make it the first time) and went to sleep like a lazy backpacker.

"Climbing up the bell tower, Florence", felt tip pen
and watercolours on paper, 2013

"Duomo, Florence", felt tip pen
and watercolours on paper, 2013

"On top of Duomo, Florence", felt tip pen
and watercolours on paper, 2013

"River, Florence", felt tip pen
and watercolours on paper, 2013

"Living with Lucy", felt tip markers and watercolours
on paper, 2013

(Lucy was my room mate when I was in Rome and a really cool girl in general.  I just drew this to make fun of her, since she was always cleaning up.)

"Taking a silly picture", felt tip marker
and watercolours on paper, 2013

Kate was another friend that I met in Rome.  We were in a restaurant taking silly photos with our friends, when some random guy came up and tried to sell us roses.

"Eating Stake in Paris", felt tip markers and
watercolours on paper, 2013

I passed through Paris again on my way home and had one of the best stakes, not to mention the dessert... mmmmmm

"Hanging out with Alan, Paris", felt tip markers
and watercolours on paper, 2013 

Meet up with my friend Alan from Mexico who I also meet when I did an exchange in France in January.  He was actually leaving to go home 2 days after me, so it was great timing that we managed to catch up again. 

"Using the massage chair at the airport", felt tip markers
and watercolours on paper, 2013

Can you believe how long I've waited to do this again?  Two years ago I said to myself.  Next time I come here I'm going to use the massage chairs again... and I did.  It was definitely worth it, especially after carrying around that heavy suitcase.

"Before and After", felt tip pens and watercolours
on paper, 2013

"The trouble of knowing too many languages", felt tip
pens and watercolours on paper, 201

another napkin drawing

Some how I seem to spend more time drawing compared to eating at restaurants ^^

Anyway here is a design of my character Toby.

Some finished drawings

First of all I forgot to post the finished picture of 'Guitar Duel' up, so here it is:

And secondly I finished drawing all the layers of Yuu-kun's anatomy.  So here they are:

(I used a little bit of photoshop magic to clean them up though :p)

Here's a little .gif of all the layers combined.  

(I left the layers transparent, because I thought

that it would be cooler that way.)

  

Spirit of the desert WIP

This is a continuation from the drawing that I did on the back of a napkin. 

Two different designs to see which composition I liked. 

Drew a bigger sketch of my chosen design on to some ordinary A4 paper. 

Added some more details such as Benji's clothes, clouds and sand. 

Scanned it on to the computer and played around with different colours and shades, though I only printed out the b/w versions to save ink. 

Used the airbrush to sprayed the sky and sand on a piece of B4 illustration board. Then I started to draw the Spirit on with watercolour pencils (which I'm still doing now). 

Hopefully, I'll be able to make it beautiful =)

Napkin art

Sketch of my next drawing, featuring my characters Benji and the Spirit of the Desert.