Anima and My Creative Mind

Sorry I've been gone so long. I've been sitting on a number of post ideas but none of them were really working for me. I debated doing a post about how women are treated in comics art-wise then I realized that it is such a controversy. I'd much rather enjoy scrolling through the Escher Girls Tumblr and laugh at the atrocities against anatomy than state my own opinions. Getting into it too much takes the fun out of some of it.

I debated posting about the continuing adjustments I'm making to my Fluttershy cosplay but as we had to cancel going to JAFAX, I'm not currently working on it.

I debated things I cannot even remember.

Finally I have something. This past month, I started down a new path, that of Game Mistress of an Anima Campaign. I've been wanting to do this ever since my husband bought me the original core book a couple years ago. And now it's finally happening! Squee! I have five players who are fantastic at characterization, a very open world to play with and a brain that won't stop coming up with ideas to throw at them. My guys are also hilarious. Last session, several of them stuck their d4s to their foreheads and declared themselves to be Dice-icorns. My husband stuck two and then three to his forehead, becoming a Diceson and a Diceratops.

The part that is most fun for me is all the art this inspires me to do. I already knew going into this that this campaign is destined to be a comic but I didn't know I would be this excited about it. I have to wait a bit for the actual art part of the deal though because I don't have all the information I need about the characters from the guys as yet. I guess I'll be working on transcribing the script from the recordings. It will be a challenge because all of us have serious ADD during the sessions but it's at least something.

I feel like I'm kinda boring since that's pretty much it for that part of my life right now.

I'll leave you with my latest artwork, a full design of my character Lark Meadows. Steal her and I will throw things at you.

Artist Media Revelations

*** Warning: This post contains a little bit of drawn/painted nudity in the form of a man chest and the back of a nude woman, so there's a butt shot. These were meant simply as anatomy practice, but its not for little ones or those who would be offended by this. ***

Hello all!

I wander around the internet a lot, usually to things on Pinterest or links from the blogs I read. I'm also trying to find new ways to improve my art process. And that's when I discovered that I actually like watercolors. 

For years I belittled watercolors as something you used if you couldn't afford other paints. I didn't mean to be like that, I just hadn't seen how beautiful watercolor could be with the work I already do. Pinterest is full of art like that. I have been humbled. 

And then I remembered I still had some watercolor sets from high school and I went crazy! I think I'll be incorporating watercolor into my sketch process more often.

This one looks better in the sketchbook. Less bruised...

She's the best one I did. And the first. I'm not sure I improved or not.

This was the last of my face studies. I think I was getting tired because she's way messier than I'd normally let happen. By the way, this is my character Firestorm.

This is Ayseirah.  I did her before Firestorm and she was turning out really well until I did the hair behind her face. Don't get your paper too wet...

Here's my character, Lark. I'm bummed the picture turned out really blurry because she is the best one of the bunch, especially since she has white hair. The blue worked perfectly as the shade color.

This is Laine. I'm most proud of her because she's not a dark brunette like most of my lead females and it worked fabulously.

Yay Meira has green eyes! She was the first one face I painted. I really struggled with her hair when I drew it and then again when I painted it. Curse you fauxhawks!

This is my Fluttershy cosplay redesign in color. Unfortunately, the color was eaten by the digital process.

Holy Noseplosion Chiroptera Male!

Chiroptera = bat. So yes, the title is a reference to Batman. But I don't like Batman all that much, so Chiroptera Male!

Any way, I've been sick with an allergy-induced cold for the past few days (stupid vacuum cleaner being all full of dust and crap...), so I have had a lot of time to think about every story I have except the one I'm supposed to be working on. I seem to be really good at that.

But there is good news! I've finally broken my "drawing guys" block. One again, my character Bram from Lark Song, has helped me with that one. I've been putting off drawing him in his half- transformed werewolf form because it involves mostly naked man chest. I'm pretty terrible at that but it turned out really well. I'm still trying to figure out how to make the proper balance between a werewolf head with all that neck ruff and their legs which tend to seem soooo much smaller in light of the neck rough and manly muscular shoulders. Fem werewolves are so much easier in that respect since women have that lower center of gravity, thanks to wider hips.

Now I'm concerned that I won't be able to reproduce such good results, especially considering the next male character on the list is a Japanese dragon man who is based off a friend of mine (and my hubby's) who is decidedly not Japanese (whom we call King of the Wild Frontier. You can find his blogs here: http://caseybutlerkingofthewildfrontier.blogspot.com and here: http://parachutepete.blogspot.com  Visit him. Love him!). I'm also not well versed in dragon drawing in general, let alone the Eastern varieties. Lungs are decidedly different than the European wyrm-style ones. And that's just the beginning. I also have to design a rock golem man, a volcano golem man and three werewolf children, another weakness of mine.

And those are just the main characters. There's all kinds of other lychanthropes in this story of mine, from something as simple at a were-elephant, to horrible composite creatures that eat people. What have I gotten myself into?

Well I can at least show y'all the good things that I have done so far, excluding anything of Lark because those would spoil the whole plot. Pardon the crappy cell phone images. At least that means people are less likely to filch my work. So yeah, no stealing my brain children.

This is Drew in her normal form. I gained a lot of confidence having drawn her.

Here is Alfa. Isn't she cute?

And here is the wolf-man who gave me so much trouble. He's not done yet.

Thwarting Awesomeness

Have you ever been working on something with the potential for major Awesome and then something horrible happens that prevents you from working on it?

Here is the my potential awesome:

It was going to be amazing. I've never tried to color my work while omitting the lines before and was therefor stoked that it seemed to be working well. But now I'm stuck at this point, with Lark halfway colored and nude, while Alfa(on the left) and Drew (on the right, as you probably deduced) remain sea foam green and some strange orange-brown.

So what happened that stopped the awesome from become more so? The cord to my graphic tablet shorted out. The only reason I didn't cry hysterically is because it isn't a lost cause. My husband is going to see what he can do about it, and I plan on reinforcing it with embroidery floss, which also prevents tangling. It also looks pretty but that's not the point. Hopefully, my magic man can fix it any will be back in awesome business. But for now, I'll look for references and resources while "watching" episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

While I'm waiting, I hope I don't go all Mrs. Nesbit on everyone.

But mad props to this guy for dressing up like this