...
I thought it was a good idea but as a result of having 2 characters to draw in the title, along with doing last week's CG again, and doing a whole 'nother CG for this week, I spread my resources out a bit thin. :\ There are way too many errors in the Title. At least, I feel they are points that ought to have been done correctly in the first place. Although it's not nearly so noticeable now that I've digitally fixed it, Dawn's arms were originally too long. However, I didn't do such a hot job tweaking and so it doesn't look quite right, especially her right forearm. That's what I get for shortening it but not really dealing with the angles. :\

Let's see, other than that, I fixed Dawn's face a bit. It was way too long. Stuff I didn't fix: Dusk's left arm should be showing somewhere, shouldn't it?? I tried to draw it in but was never satisfied with it. I decided that it might be blocked by her body, from this angle. But now, I'm not so sure...I also missed colouring the buckle on Dawn's bag, and made some blatant errors in the background. I learned from last week's CG; I need to colour the farthest-back elements first. I nearly did that but I actually started with the trees, as you might guess. Not terribly bright on my part. Oof. Also, there's that lower right corner...Oops. Dusk's bag ought to have more 'play' in the straps and maybe I really should have drawn her nose in. I didn't think so at the time but now...Dawn also looks too mousy. Guess this Title's gonna be replaced soon, eh?

As for the Title's art, it's once again 2B pencil and watercolour. So, I like them, as you've doubtless guessed by now. :} After seeing some girl wearing a light rose-coloured shirt, I thought it was a nice colour and gave Dusk one. Dawn is wearing white, non-jean pants, which I can hardly differentiate when I draw, so that's why I have to say so here. ;)

Now, on to the CG. It's Ywain again. I thought I'd done him twice before but it seems like it's actually only once before. Because of the limited time, as well as a 76%-conscious decision, I made the picture sketchy. Perhaps I ought not have used such dark colours but they certainly seemed lighter on the Mac! Weirdness abounds.

 I really fought to do this CG. First, I wanted to do a picture of Atéo but absolutely couldn't do anything with him. I'm not sure why I picked him. I suppose it's just that I wanted a male CG and he's the first character to pop into my mind. After not making a very good sketch, I turned to Ywain because he's closely linked with Karen, who was in last week's CG. Funny thing, I had to refer to my old pictures to get a good grasp of his CD (Character Design) and it seems that I've only really drawn him twice. The pictures all cluster about 2 points in time, early April '97 and early May '97. That makes perfect sense, since that's when I was writing about him the most. On the back of one dated 5/7/99, I find the nice message I'd written to myself, "Ywain has the stupidest CD I know." :} Guess I'm not too fond of it, eh? Actually, in most of his pictures, he's depicted with his cloak on but I decided not to in either CG. But what's with him, Will, and Henry all wearing blue? I know they have other-coloured shirts...

As I said, I worked really hard on this picture and spent way too long redrawing his legs. This was supposed to be a dynamic picture. After struggling with that, I messed around with his spear-tip and ended up just cutting it out of the picture. And it's still 50kb?! In order to give it more energy, I went along with a sketchy look. I also used Fine Tip Felt Pen to give it a bit more force. I think it looks nice, even though at this size, it looks more like pen. I'm proud of the lines, even if his legs and feet don't quite look like they fit his body...And I'm pretty happy with the colouring. The pose isn't quite as stiff as normal and I did the pencils in about 1.5 hours, including all the hassles, switching of subjects, and redraws. Also, I remembered to draw his scar in this time, how intelligent.

Well, that's about all I have to say. Ever wonder why I don't write long notes each time? Well, who wants to read all of this, anyway?! :)

Next: the other pages get updated and I redraw a picture of Dawn from 1997 as a kind of apology for not doing such a good job on her in the Title. I can't wait! (No, I seriously AM excited!) See you in seven.

About this week's CG: It's Dawn again, for only her third solo picture. It's kind of funny that it's also her 12th appearance in the CGA. In real life, I draw her fairly often, as well, so while it may seem like she's the character I draw the most, the reason for that is because she is. This number also includes her one and only banner appearance. In comparison, "Site Mascot" Dusk has appeared 14 times, most of which are Title CGs. The reason I don't draw her very often for the gallery is because she gets to be on the index page every month, so I feel like I might as well draw someone else. :}

I drew Dawn in 2B pencil and in a strange mood twist, decided to colour her with coloured pencils. However, as I began to colour, I noticed that the reason I normally stick with watercolour is because 1) it doesn't obscure my linework and 2) it covers more space with less effort. Doubtless anytime that I colour a picture with coloured pencil, it'll be just as sketchily coloured as this is. Colouring with an actual pencil is one thing and using a mouse to move back and forth is quite another! In real life, my coloured pencil work is much smoother than this...The picture DOES include minimal shading, which is nice. :}

The biggest problems I had with the picture are: 1) Dawn's head. I tried really hard to get in in proportion to the rest of her body. This seems like an admirable attempt. 2) Her sword's angle just looks weird. This picture is based off an original sketch drawn on 2/17/98. This CG is very similar in all of the angles except her body is now more horizontal, her left leg isn't raised quite as high, and her sword was originally pointed more vertically than that. Also, she was originally wearing a backpack (which I completely misdrew) but this time around, I realized that would mess up the flow of her cape (it's not really much of a cloak...oops). The cape is one of the main reasons I liked the initial sketch so much. Yes, I know I said last week that it would be a picture from '97 but what happened was I set that one aside along with this one and when I was in a hurry to pencil the CG, I grabbed this one first, then decided this one was easier anyway. I've always had issues with the far side of capes and cloaks but that didn't deter me much. Other than that, hmm...I always have problems selecting colours, particularly browns. (That's why I refuse to give anyone brown clothes unless absolutely necessary. :) ) But this time, I also goofed up on the light part of Dawn's hair. But all in all, I'm rather happy with it. As they say in France, "That's life."

Why why why am I still awake? (And how how how? ~_~ )

And, against my better judgement, this week's CG will be put up as my OCAD sample. (This piece really is very experimental...)

Whoo-hoo! My Sonic Adventure is "in the mail." Now, how about that Dreamcast?

Picture notes:
I've been rather tired lately of people referring to all my characters as 'he' regardless of his/her actual gender. So, in this week's CG, not only did I make more of an effort to distinguish Aeyar's eyelashes and eyebrows, I also gave her a pink shirt. Other than that, there's really not much to say (and I should be somewhere else right about now...ooops). It's standard 2B pencil + watercolour. I know the triangle ought not be so red since it's not on but it's more noticeable that way. I also think I drew their hair differently today. I'm not sure if I like it. Finally, Jason seems unusually out of proportion today and I had more problems with their eyes than usual...

I need to plan out CGs better. And in just a few hours, a FDN: BL update! Whee!

Crys' pic is rather nice, considering how long it took me to just come up with the idea. It turned out not to be a very good or unusual idea but it is presented nicely, isn't it? Unlike certain other pictures, I actually drew her facing left. I always have trouble facing left and this time is no exception. This picture is much more in proportion than my last attempt at her was. That wasn't awful but it was definitely off. Fortunately, no one will ever see that picture. Hahaha...In this picture, I rather like the colouring. Somehow, I found nice colours and made a better approximation of shading than usual. This picture was done with fine tip felt markers and coloured with watercolours again. I went with a rough style because that seems to fit her personality better as well as the fact that my pencils weren't all that wonderful, either. But generally, the linework and colours are pleasing.

All right, this week was a new experiment! I used MetaCreations Poser 4 to help me with angles and limb placement. However, I spent way too much time doing all that high-tech stuff and not enough on my pencils! Argh...Looking at the picture now, I see that I failed to properly angle Kim's torso. I suppose I ought to have printed the rendering out and then looked at it flat, rather than trying to sketch based off the monitor. Also, when I modelled it, I thought her chair would be unusually high, which I suppose it still would be. :\ I was going to put a pile of finished papers on her desk but I completely forgot. Lately, I haven't had very many good ideas for pictures. I think I will start next week's a little early. One of the problems with my rendering is that I simply used the default human adult female model, rather than trying to tailor it to look more like Kim. But I wasn't able to draw anything good anyway, so it doesn't really matter. :(

All right. We knew it, it's 2B pencil and watercolour. Also, this time, I drew Kim's hair somewhat differently from usual because I actually drew her face based off of an oval, like one is supposed to.

Okay, I'm going to check that I've uploaded the pages...

I'd put this as my example art on OCAD but they seem to be having problems right now. Just my luck.

Ooh, a new bio on the WWWH pages...I have to write it right now. :}

This week, it's a brand-new CD that I stole off someone who was actually wearing it. Although it's tough to see because this week's CG is almost purely watercolour, it's a red, short-sleeved dress-shirt looking shirt on top of a thin, long-sleeved white shirt. I saw it and thought, "Kain would wear something like that." So, I drew up a picture and then thought, "This isn't very interesting." Thus, I used Poser 4 to look for a slightly more dynamic pose, as well as a more interesting camera. I'm not sure I succeeded on either point. ~_~

Yes, another experiment. I wanted to do an entirely watercolour picture of Kain, so that's what this nearly is. Her eyes are actually from the pencil sketch at ~75% opacity. This picture here is 25% of its working size, which is 800% of its original size. So, that's 200% of its original size, or 2x larger than normal. (Normally, I do 50% of a working size of 200%, or 100% size.) Additionally, I think this is the tallest picture I've ever done.

Well, it's been a rough week, so I'm turning in.

I rather like this picture. My linework was really clean this week and it was almost a joy to work on the picture (IF I had been using a Mac!). This is probably due to the fact that I actually inked the picture. I wonder...I think it shows! Let's see...misc. "art tricks" I used were the nice sunbeams coming through the clouds...not that they're ever that pronounced when it's so bright out, of course. Other than that, I stuck with a rather monochromatic colour scheme and added a touch of colour with the flower. Perhaps the analogy is Miko is a beautiful flower in the midst of destruction? Maybe...Oh, yes. My biggest complaint apart from having to use a PC is the way I drew her shoes. Her feet look very wrong, don't they? Oops.

Oh, yes. For those of you who didn't catch the joke in "Miko Nakamichi from Mike Koos' Miracle Stars sitting on what once was the middle of the road," it's that Nakamichi literally means "the middle of the road." Well, *I* thought it was clever. And no, I didn't notice it until I was writing the picture description. The original picture idea was to have her sitting at a table reading some big ole book. Then, I thought, 'Now, how many pictures have I done like that?!' and utterly changed the design.

I was very unhappy when I went in this week and found the computer still hadn't been fixed. So, I took matters into my own hands and switched mice. :} Bingo, worked like a charm. It was great to use a Mac again. I felt a surge of power go through me as I noticed I didn't have much time...So, that's why I went with airbrush instead of watercolour. But the lines are also 2B pencil.

Well, gotta go.

Marty really isn't done nearly as well as I thought when I originally drew him. Again, I tried to do a top-down view, not quite so much as with Jason's pic. It's simple 2B pencil and watercolour. I also tried to depict him younger than I've been drawing lately but my lack of proper perspective really hurts that, too. :\

The new Title is rather nice but I realize Dusk's expression is a bit cold and her pants don't look right. The first stroke of 'aki' (Chinese character for 'fall') is also too long...I'm a bit disappointed that the brown colour of the lines really doesn't show up very well. (RGB 61/33/1) What pretty much worked is that I used light colours throughout the picture, other than the leaves. This helps draw more attention to them. Why Dusk is holding a bunch of leaves is beyond me...makes a nice picture idea, though. The original version of this Title is actually a real-life pen sketch (no pencils, ever!) and I liked the look; that's why the resulting picture is also sketchy. The leaves were also drawn around her and cut-and-pasted in digitally before I did the linework.

The title was drawn with Pen and Ink and coloured with watercolour. Perhaps I ought to focus more on the actual picture rather than randomly doing Titles, eh?

This picture isn't too bad considering it was done on an (ugh) PC. It's rather annoying but as I attempted to do the CG, I discovered my Zip disk's copy of Painter Classic was corrupted, so I simply worked on it at home. It's Fine Point pen and watercolours. My eyes bothered me, so I'm not very sure about the colours. My pencils were somewhat better than usual this week, especially his hands. However, because of the attempt at perspective, size and proportion are just way off. :\

In other news, Xoom is being weird, so I have to hunt for another server. Sigh.

How I did this picture: 1) I wrote bits of my short story. 2) I picked this scene to illustrate. 3) I sketched it in pencil. 4) I created roughly proportional Poser 4 models and modelled the scene. 5) I put the camera in roughly the same position 6) I sketched the scene again 7) I drew the scene in a more final format and CGed it from there...this brings up some problems. I don't understand how to pose models very well because if you try to do things like make someone sit "Indian-style," their knee polygons go all weird. I also couldn't find clothes to fit their models...This might explain at least some of why Mark seems a little disproportional, around the face and back. The angles and size and proportion looked like that in the render but it looks wrong to me. I don't know. :(

Errors: apart from normal size and proportion errors, Lauren's eyes are completely the wrong colour. I coloured them green when they are in fact blue. Oops. Good thing no one can tell. Besides that, I don't have a firm character design for her yet. I also believe I put just a little too much shading underneath Mark. :}

Maybe I'll put the story up in 2 weeks, when I ought to be done with it.

I decided to use 2B pencil and airbrush this week, for no readily apparent reason. I first tried coloured pencil but that was very ugly; uglier than it is now, even! Perhaps I ought to have used something else. They look like they're glowing!

I don't know why but my pencils just haven't been very good lately. Perhaps I'm not good enough to concentrate on a picture if there are too many elements in it. It takes me about 1.5 to 2 hours of actual work to CG a picture, no matter how many elements are in it. I wonder how long other people take. As for pencils, those take a different length of time each time, depending on if I start with an idea or not. After staring at literally thousands of CGs, I'm trying to think up pictures that don't involve showing the whole character, as I had been doing earlier. I need to be more subtle and detailed. However, that doesn't work well with how I do CGs. I'll figure something out.

One thing I'm proud of is that even though I pencilled the buttons and buttonholes on the wrong sides of their shirts, I was still able to switch them and draw them in fairly well.

Argh...big error: Kain's neck didn't get coloured. Doh! Other than that, I completely did not draw any of their arms particularly well.

Xoom is still being stupid but I've found another free server (sigh) and am in the process of uploading all the old CGs again, for the third time...Grr...
I would just leave them down but you know, it really annoys me how some artists will just go and wipe out their galleries or not have a complete collection with no explanation or warning whatsoever. So, no matter how awful some of the old art is, I intend to keep it on-line.