Promise Me

 When they see my drawings people often think Spark and Vahaadi are a couple.  They are not; but they are very intimate friends. This image depicts the meta versions of Spark and Vahaadi (non Loose Canon, essentially) from a scenario that Evie and I have been working on. It's less of a roleplay and more of an exploratory collaborative prose. Evie wrote about Spark kissing Vahaadi's wrist and I thought that was such a tender moment I wanted to illustrate it.  They've both just been through a traumatizing experience--notably more traumatizing for Spark than it was for Vahaadi, because he's endured it before--leaving Vahaadi drugged and injured and Spark picking up the pieces of her shattered self-created reality. 

The thick outline sketch style is one I picked up from Saibraeus.

Loose Canon Expressions

Probably needless to say, my New Year drawing ambitions haven't gone according to plan.  Ah well. :) I snatch what drawing time I can.  Here are some recent sketches, trying to get a feel for Vahaadi and Spark's expressions.

My current focus on Vahaadi is sorting out his facial proportions and incorporating his cowl more fully into his look. His eyes have shrunk significantly over the years. I like it; the smaller eyes make him look older and more crafty.

Whereas my goal with Vahaadi is to go tighter and subtler, with Spark I'm trying to capture that wild energy that Evie pulls off so well. Everything with Spark has to be EXTREME!

Shows like Aladdin and Fairly Odd Parents have given Spark unrealistic expectations of what a supernatural BFF should be capable of. XD I'm relatively certain that this is the first time Vahaadi's ever been made to feel as if his power is completely inadequate compared to what she's hoping he could do.

Let the Good Guys Win

Mmm, do you smell that? It's a fresh year!  Time for New Year Resolutions! Following some advice I heard relating to Luke 2:52 ("And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.") I like to make four goals each year focusing on these respective areas: knowledge, health, spirituality and social.  This year the line up is:

1. Draw for 45 minutes every day: 15 min gesture study, and 30 min. practices of various types.

For my gesture studies I'll be using posemaniacs.com's slick 30-second drawing tool.  Right now I set the tool to give me 60 sec, (so I do 15 gestures) but hopefully by the end of the year my speed will have improved and I'll be able to finish the poses in 30 seconds apiece.
My 30 min. practices will be a variation on the 30minspeedpaint challenge.  Everyday I will draw (or roll a die or something) to pick from one of seven categories: realism, fanart, emulation, animal, scenery, finishing, and free draw.  For thirty minutes, I'll draw something according to the chosen category.  For all but the last two, I'll use references. "Realism" will be photos of people, body parts, or props I want to focus on.  "Fanart" will be studies of characters I like, and "Emulation" will be style studies based on other artists. Animals and scenery are pretty straightforward, I'll be using both photos and drawings for this category.  "Finishing" will give me time to polish any pieces I've already started but want to continue refining, either from these practices or old work of mine that I want to finish or redo. Free draw is just whatever I want! I'll be getting my resources from one-stop-stock and my favorites folders on dA.

2. Record everything I eat on a daily basis on supertracker.

This is mostly a ploy to keep my weight under control. Just being aware of what I eat and in what quantities will hopefully help me cut back on bored grazing or recognize deficiencies.  Also, I sporadically get stomachaches, so it will be nice if I can possibly find out what's causing them. Also also, I've started experimenting a lot more with cooking from scratch, and recording my exploits and recipes here!

3. Temple attendance once a month.

I had better temple attendance when I lived in Orlando, shameful. >.> Now I live DOWN THE STREET from one and can't make time to go? Unacceptable.

4. 100% visiting teaching.  

If you're not familiar with the LDS faith, visiting teaching is a program (of sorts) to strengthen and "tend the flock" for the women of the Church.  We check in on each other and do service and things like that.  My track record for visiting teaching is not good. I tend to not enjoy church-mandated socializing. BUT it's good for me, and for others, and I know it. SO IMMA GONNA DO IT, AND IMMA GONNA LIKE IT.

Some miscellaneous "goals" include maintaining all-As as I complete the bulk of my college coursework, getting my website/portfolio/online presence all organized and getting one year older. If I don't manage that last one...welllll, it was fun while it lasted.

And now! To make good on my first resolution, here's my first set of gestures for 01/01/2013!

I probably won't end up posting my daily practices consistently, but maybe I will.  I guess it will depend on how much time I end up having this semester.

And I'll count this as my first 30 min practice (although this took WAYYYYYYYYYYY longer than 30 min) in the free draw category.

Best "Wishes" from Vahaadi and Krissy!

Resources:
Firework PS Set 2 by FrostBo
And these two tutorials:
Photoshop trick 04 by Orpheelin
Digital Painting Walkthrough by altalamatox

This was inspired by the song "Let the Good Guys Win" by the Irish Rovers.

May I get what I want
Not what I deserve
May the coming year not throw a single curve
May I hurt nobody
May I tell no lies
If I can't go on give me strength to try

Bring the old year out
Bring the new year in
Bring us all good luck
Let the good guys win (x2)

May the one you love
Be the one you get
May you get some place you haven't been to yet
And may your friends around you
Never do you wrong
May your eyes be clear
And may your heart be strong

Bring the old year out
Bring the new year in
Bring us all good luck
Let the good guys win (x2)

May the times to come
Be the best you've had
May peace rule the world
Let it make us glad

When you see something wrong
Try and make it right
Pull your shadowed world
Into the bright sunlight

Bring the old year out
Bring the new year in
Bring us all good luck
Let the good guys win (x2)

Let the good guys win
Let the good guys win
Let the good guys win

Sketch Dump

Just trying to compile and organize some sketches I've had kicking around so I don't have 358724651351 million papers to worry about packing and moving every semester.

An old expression study for my OC Kala

 

More recent posing, gestures, and hairstyle experiment for Kala

Yet another experiment with Kala's design and style.  This was inspired by the work of O-mie.  I really like it, but I'm not sure it's going to work for me

This was sort of inspired by an RP with Evie, but I actually mostly wanted to draw Thystle with wet hair

A scruffy, haggard, and furious Vahaadi.  This is a scene from his canon story; he's facing off against Iryl and the Heir.

Working on a concept for Vahaadi's fiend form, based on a savannah cat.

Size Comparison of Vahaadi and his fiend form

First piece of concept art for Tryvnah (QUITE old).  This is him at age 18, when he and Vahaadi met.

Leimira's ponysona, Snake Charmer (or just Charmer). Her cutie mark is a snake coiled in a heart shape.

Study of Fawn from the Tinkerbell movies.  I screencapped a picture of her talking and caught her making this appraising expression.

Bitty chibi Sparks!

I've been meaning to draw Evie's OC Armera for awhile now.  I found this thumbnail sketch I did of her to experiment with her pose and build. Evie once wrote her saying something about having arms like tree trunks, so I think she's probably got some sweet guns like Venus Williams, on account of all her swimming and trident-hefting.

Pretty sure this was another attempt at drawing Holly for AC.

 Design sketch I did for LC

Steampunk Spark I did for a RP idea pitch.  This eventually led into Loose Canon, because this was the first time we considered the idea of Spark getting her powers from Vahaadi instead of a comic-book-esque genetic mutation

And super recent, an unfinished Whirlwind from Skylanders

Vahaadi Sketches

Experimenting with minimalism, chibi, typography, and a modern outfit for Vahaadi.

Some details on Vahaadi's design.

Working on more expressive posing...

More expressive posing, cont.  I'm working my way through ReincarnatedPorano's Body Language Meme; I would have never thought of drawing Vahaadi drunk otherwise. XD He is physically incapable of becoming drunk due to the way his stomach processes food (it's a Ia'lerian Djinni thing.)  And really, that's for the better; Vahaadi can't make good decisions when he's sober, so I can just imagine what he's like when he's smashed.

I'm excited to continue working my way through the meme. It's great practice and it's been really fun to get more in touch with the way Vahaadi acts.  I need to work on ensuring his outfit is consistent from drawing to drawing (I keep shuffling up his jewelry in particular, or leaving out the coins on his right sash) or else come up with new outfits that are obviously distinct.  Which brings me to another major design challenge...

Colors @_@ I'm so bad at picking colors it's not even funny.  This is what I've got for his "usual" outfit so far, but I'm still not sold on it.  My concern in choosing these colors was avoiding black and red so that he won't look color-coordinated to Spark, but as you can see I couldn't resist the red.  I've also been told the white is off-putting. Hmmmm...Another concern is preventing him from looking too much like Aladdin, the Prince of Persia, Sinbad or Flynn Rider.

Anyway, I'm satisfied with how his design and my art are coming along, but there's still work to be done.  Colors, consistency, and alternative outfits are all on the agenda.

But in the meantime, have a My Little Pony Vahaadi. XD

I'm actually really burned out on MLP in general, but I drew this awhile ago and promised I'd share it.  His pony name is Luster because his super special talent is wearing way too much shiny stuff and tricking other ponies into wanting what they shouldn't have. Ho ho ho, double meaning!  He should probably be a unicorn, but I didn't think of it at the time.

Don't Pay Him Any Attention

I'm working through ReincarnatedPrano's Body Language Meme with Vahaadi as my subject. One of the required expressions is "Silly." This ridiculous scene came to mind.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Krissy said apologetically, hanging halfway out of the bedroom door to look pityingly back at Vahaadi.

Vahaadi sighed dully.  "And I'll be here..." he muttered, resting his chin on his folded arms. 

"I put your lamp in the living room so you can get around the house," Krissy piped, though she still sounded as if she was apologizing.  She always felt bad for leaving him at home with nothing to do while she was at school. "And you can use the iPad if you want to play Tetris or something--"

Her watch began beeping for the third time.

"Yikes! I gotta go! Sorry! Bye! I love you! I'll be back!"

Vahaadi listened as she thundered down the stairs and out the front door, then shifted his gaze to the small device she'd mentioned. Krissy was able to get the thing to produce all sorts of fantastic "features," but Vahaadi was vastly limited by his inability to read and his ignorance of electronics in general.  Normally he hated dealing with them at all, but he couldn't bear to spend another day in a boredom coma while he waited for Krissy to come back, and he'd already snooped through everything in the house.

He picked up the iPad and flipped it over in his hands a few times before he was able to remember how to activate it. When the screen glowed to life, he flinched at the bizarre digital light. Glassy icons floated on the iPad's surface, and he squinted at each of them, trying to recall how to get to the little game Krissy called "Tetris." Vahaadi was not particularly good at it, but it gave him something to pass the time.

At a loss, he poked at random and found himself staring at a playlist.  He furrowed his brow, and prodded again, then jumped when a catchy percussion rhythm started and three scantily clad women with gray skin began slinking around on the screen on long sleek legs.  Vahaadi stared at the bizarre display, torn between dismay and amusement.

...Several Hours Later...

Krissy paused after she came in the door, trying to hear over her own panting.  Music was playing from her room... She climbed the stairs, opened her bedroom door, and gaped at the bizarre display, torn between dismay and amusement.

Linking because it's big!

Eat your heart out, Beyonce. 

The art didn't turn out like I hoped, but it never does for sequential stuff because I get impatient. These are some crazy dumb poses, but it's a crazy dumb dance, so. XD I referenced from this. Shane Mercado performs "Single Ladies" Vahaadi's build doesn't match his at all, but Vahaadi's a lot more like Shane than he is like Beyonce.

Vahaadi = Spark

I was chatting with Evie and meant to type "Vahaadi + Spark" but I didn't hit the shift and ended up with "Vahaadi = Spark." Personality swap!

Notebook paper for the win.

Secrets - WIP

This is not how I wanted this picture to look, but I had to get the idea out on paper. This is a non-canonical roleplay scene. Spark's getting a terrible reality check. :(

The lyrics are from One Republic's Secrets.

Creativity Project

For one of my classes I had to make something--anything I wanted, as long as it fell within the school's honor code.  This is by far the best hour I've spent on homework yet. :D

My scanner is not great and this came out of a thick sketchbook, so I apologize for the quality~

Lackadaisical Cat

Vahaadi, in the style of Lackadaisy Cats by stellar webcomic artist, Tracy Butler.

Starry Eyed

Evie and I were discussing the idea that, for as good of friends as they become despite their huge age gap, Vahaadi and Spark would not much care for one another if (in some weird time-jump) Spark managed to meet him when he was closer to her age. He was a sullen little jerk at the hormone-tormented age of fourteen. Evie suggested that a shocked and disappointed Spark might even take it upon herself to "turn his frown upside down!" which she illustrated here!

Naturally we had to consider the reverse situation, wherein Vahaadi meets Spark's younger self, and we quickly realized that while Spark's approach toward re-befriending (or pre-befriending?) Vahaadi as a teen would be funny, Vahaadi's approach to fourteen year old Spark would be basically terrifying. Not intentionally, but Vahaadi's sauntering charisma often pushes the threshold of creepiness. Thus, their meeting would look a great deal like a cliche shojo anime scene: An attractive, mysterious, unsettling older male appears like a shadow out of the darkness, stares deeply into the young female protagonist's glossy, mesmerized eyes, and murmurs something terrifically eerie that should definitely not be directed at a girl as young as she. Such scenes are supposed to be somehow romantic, I guess, but I think they're scary. However, the idea of such a scene happening between Vahaadi and Spark was amusing enough to me that I thought it warranted a spoof. While working on this I did lots of "research" (ie watching Shugo Chara, reading Tokyo MewMew, cautiously surfing the web for anime pics, and this fantastic tutorial) to create what I hope looks like a passable screencap!

(( of course, if this ever happened, Spark would not do the typical shojo-heroine thing and stand there blushing and gaping. She'd probably do something more like this XD

Spark: DaaaaaAAAAAAAADDDDDD!!! There was a creepy guy on my balcony! I PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE.
Spark's Dad: Atta' Girl!
Vahaadi: *holding his broken nose after falling from the second story window* D:!!! Was it something I said??!!))

Creating art this sharp, flat and shiny was actually way harder than it may look. Cel shading (the blocky, clear cut distinction of shadows vs blending) doesn't grant a lot of room for mistakes, and I'm sure my lighting is off. Good practice though! And hey, I finally have a pic of Vahaadi in color. The ridiculously shiny highlights in their hair, the fuzzy blur, and the grainy texture all make me cringe, but the pic didn't look "anime" enough without them!

This was fun to do. So fun, I never want to try this again. :P However, I think it's worth mentioning that it was actually working on this pic that inspired the Loose Canon project.

Credits: Background was yoinked from wild-thang on dA, used with permission.
Title comes from Ellie Goulding's song "Starry Eyed", which could well serve as the anthem of all shojo series ever.

Character Design - Vahaadi

 I recently (ish) listened to a really inspiring podcast from Paper Wings called PWP #9: Five Tips to Make Your Character More Dynamic & Believable.  Of the five tips, the one that really jumped out to me was #2, "A Strong Silhouette is Everything." The podcast recommends taking a collection of objects associated with the character design and tracing their shapes, thereby training yourself to translate those shapes into your character. I thought that was a fascinating idea and decided to try it out myself for my character Vahaadi.

These were all traced from images I found on google. (I'm not slick enough to draw all of these things freehand @_@ ) My compilation includes an example of Persian architecture, Arabic calligraphy, a hookah, a Savannah cat, a scimitar, a diamond-cut gem, stylized flame, a tracing of Jafar's lamp from Disney's Aladdin, stylized smoke lifted from a package of Capri cigarettes, and a bullwhip. Items I would have included but got bored of tracing: scroll, tassel, coins, draping and tattered cloth, sand dunes, needles, pouches, and a gross assortment of jewelry.

Personality and plot wise, I'm pretty satisfied with Vahaadi's development and identity as a unique character, but if he was judged by his silhouette alone he'd be nigh indistinguishable from any other Prince of Persia- or Aladdin- like character.  The only things that make his shape a little different from the others are his tail (which he only has sometimes in partial transformations), his whip, and occasionally I envision him with a magic carpet strapped to his back when he's not using it to travel. I really like that idea, but it's also not terribly practical.  Here's a recent drawing of him. I'm so classy, I drew it on lined notebook paper while I was supposed to be paying attention in church.

I actually drew this because I wanted to try incorporating a cowl into his outfit, and ended up finishing a full figure. I've always liked the idea of Vahaadi wearing some sort of cowl, but I never liked anything I came up with because (and call me a dork if you want) ears are my favorite part of the head, and I missed drawing them when they were hidden. I give full credit for the inspiration for his cowl design to Hunter Bonyun and specifically this drawing of hers. I think it's also worth mentioning that she's one of my favorite artists, and I'm almost positive that Vahaadi's design was inspired by her work long before I ever drew my first clumsy scribble of him years and years ago. Bask in her beautifully detailed work here!

And for your viewing pleasure, here's a really old pic of Vahaadi--this is the first time I tried out the idea of carrying a magic carpet for his travels. This used to be one of my favorite illustrations, but, looking at it now...yikes. The scene depicted is from a scrapped version of his back-story, so he's about 6 years younger than I usually draw him to be.

Here's a much newer and better doodle of his face in profile. It took me about way-too-many years to stop drawing all of my characters with the same nose.

 

Kindred Spirit

My friend Brit has her birthday the day before mine, and since I have designated her as a kindred spirit due to our almost immediate bond over similar interests, I drew some of our characters sharing their hobbies with one another.  I still kind of want to clean these up and color them, but I'll post them as they are for now and if I ever decide to make the time to get back to them, I shall! As it, I'm already really late posting these. Our birthdays were in August, haha.

Left, my Thystle, and right, Brit's Bree. They share a love of nature and a common link to Centaurs, as Thystle was originally one, and Bree is half-Centaur. They also have similar hairstyles, as they both have braids tucked behind their ears. n_n They are star-gazing, which doesn't come across well in the absence of any background features whatsoever. I'm actually almost done coloring this one, but the CG colors are not meshing well with the ink lines (which scanned in really pixelated) so I'm going to need to digitally ink it.

Left, Brit's Kess, and right, my Yaraif.  They share cutesy immaturity, purplish hair, and an unapologetic avarice for shiny trinkets. Oh man, this is the first time I've drawn Yaraif in years.  She's an adoptable Roleplay pet/character I won on GaiaOnline, and she was designed by Peipur.  Yaraif used to be my favorite RP character, but somewhere along the way I lost touch and stopped writing her. Hmm. Anyway, for this pic I had to draw Yaraif separately and then shrink her down to fit in Kess' palm.  Here's a full-size view:

She's wearing a big gaudy ring on her head as a crown.

Left, my Took, and right, Brit's Tara. They are both physically frail, selfish, ruthless genius gingers with telekinetic powers.  Oh, and they both have T names! I think that these two actually have TOO much in common, so they'd probably hate each other, and much back-stabbing drama would ensue. Sadly, even though he's ten years older, I don't think Took would win. XD Tara has the power to project hologram-like screens to help her organize her ideas--in this case, some nefarious plot with Took.  I didn't ink all the diagrams and symbols on the hologram screens because I'd like to do so on Photoshop (the screens glow, so it's going to be a great lighting practice!) but if you squint really hard and turn your head sideways and know in advance what I was intending, you could see that the screen to the right of Tara bears a really simplified version of the map of Magic Kingdom. Maybe these two schemers are just planning a trip to Walt DisneyWorld.

"Fantasyland must be our first conquest--my research indicates that the wait time for Peter Pan becomes intolerably long after 10 am."
"Yes, but if we pick up a Fastpass, we can go to Jungle Cruise first. No one thinks to do that first thing in the morning, so we'll have no wait and the benefit of the cooler morning temperatures."
"We need to ensure we have sunscreen in our arsenal."
"Sunscreen, shmunscreen. Let's just kidnap a weather Mage and make them conjure an overcast day."
"I like it. Can I do the honors?"

Left, Vahaadi and right, Brit's Lyra. As a mortal, Vahaadi occasionally made an honest living for himself as a tailor/dress-maker and Lyra is a fashion-designing thread Mage.  Drawing this pic was bizarrely relaxing, so even though I'm not thrilled with how it turned out, I like it just for the process it required to make it.

Power of the Djinni

They Eyes Have It

In my quest to settle on a look for Vahaadi's face, I did a study on his eyes. Down at the bottom I also tried drawing Vahaadi making an expression inspired by Canadian-rainwater 's awesome fanart of Clopin from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, but...uh...Vahaadi looks WAY weird, so it won't be sticking.

Face it

I've been drawing Vahaadi's face many different ways lately. I need to make up my mind.

Watercolor Talent, I ain't.

I decided to draw Spark as a Disney Fairy today (ala Tinkerbell and friends) and tried to emulate the style of the storybook illustrations, which called for large, widely set almond-shaped eyes, a pixie nose, wide hips, and watercolor over graceful pencil lines. So I dusted off the watercolor set that's been languishing in my cabinet and my Disney Fairies artbook and took on the challenge! Unfortunately I'm not thrilled with the result, but it was a welcome way to spend the day.

 Spark is a Fire Talent fairy, tasked with overseeing natural wildfires that help to rejuvenate forests and grasslands. Her job is chaotic and dangerous, just as she likes it.

I wanted to make Spark look right at home in Pixie Hollow so I also gave her a new leaf-and-flower outfit for her new Fairy body.

While I was working on this, I took a couple of photos to document the process. The quality isn't great because the photos are from my phone, but if you're curious, take a gander: Process!

I drew Vahaadi as a Fairy too (ahem, "Sparrowman") much to his dismay. Poor guy, how many ways can I think of to emasculate you? Ahaha anyway, I decided not to bother with watercolors and just slapped some Photoshop flats onto the pencil sketch. I like the results a lot better.

Vahaadi is a Dust-Talent, responsible for delivering the freshly ground pixie dust to fellow denizens of Pixie Hollow. While he generally ensures that everyone gets their serving, he's certainly not above pilfering more than his fair share of dust from the mill and has amassed quite an avaricious hoard, which he uses to get into all sorts of hedonistic mischief.

Like Spark, I changed his proportions to try and match the style of the story illustrations. His angular "Fairy" face cracks me up. I promise, Vahaadi, the next thing I draw of you will be manly! DX (well, after I draw you as a pony that is, haha)

Since I'm posting Disney Fairy stuff I thought I'd toss this up, too--it's a quick simple CG of Rani, a Water Talent Fairy. I drew her for a collaborative project with my sister LC on Gaia last year, thus it's signed with my username "Inkdust."

The style was supposed to be chibi, but it turned out sort of odd...I thought about just throwing this away, but, eh. Even though I don't like it, maybe somebody does.

...In conclusion I'm pretty "ehhhhh" about all of this art. >\ I need to draw a Disney Fairies piece I actually LIKE!

The First Wish

This is a quick sketch of what I envisioned would happen between Spark and Vahaadi following her first wish. Vahaadi has no concept of personal space. Fortunately, neither does Spark. Her expression is slightly off-guard here, but she's about to start raving with excitement and probably a hint of conceit. "Psh well you've never met anyone like ME before. AREN'T I AWESOME?! 8D I'M A SUPERHERO!!!"

EDIT: Not long after posting this entry, I found whitetrashpalace's Understanding Your Style - 2 discussion and discovered that I suffer from chronic "Anime Long Mid-Face", an apparently common and (now that I recognize it for what it is) HEINOUS anti-pattern.  Realizing this infirmity is quite a bit like getting struck across the face, but it's a good wake-up call.  While the above pic was only meant as a super quick sketch (and with a gimpy sore wrist, no less) I had to see if I could fix Vahaadi's horse-face--and a slew of other errors--and hopefully redeem myself. @____@ 

I made Vahaadi's mouth wider, his nose shorter and wider, his jaw shorter, his eyes a little bit taller, thickened his eyebrows, added pupils, tousled and darkened his hair, and tried to fix both of his hands. I also defined Spark better and changed the flow of her hair to make it look a lot more like her. Then I had to draw in Vahaadi's torso, since it had been hidden before.

Better? Please tell me it's better. DX