Watercolor Tests

I've been itching to watercolor so I decided to tests the watercolor papers I had lying around today.

Below are samples of a larger whole:



However, these tests are still tentative as I used Crayola watercolors. I'm not sure how my other watercolors will react to these papers.

Plus I still have more watercolor papers to tests! XD

Temperamental Inks?

Ugh...The sumi ink that I like is acting temperamental now. D:

Or could it be that my nibs have gotten bad?

Sucks...just when I felt like inking too. Now I'll have to figure out something again. >_>

What's up?

Posting will become sparse now that school has started. I'll probably post once a week.

But anyways, the manga supplies came in and the b4 paper was larger than I expected. I dont think I'll be able to scan it since my scanner only goes up to a4. XD; Hm..the ink weren't as great as I thought they'd be... Out of all my inks, I really like the sumi one for inking so I'll just order more of it from Amazon.

I haven't been productive with any thing art related. I've just been reading a bunch of manga/online comic stuff to get out of my slump. Finished catching up with Gakuen Alice last night. Whew~ It's a great series but I kept thinking, Isn't it a bit mature for kids? XD; Ah well, I feel like Gakuen Alice might end soon or something...We'll see. And I've discovered a new favorite series: Noblesse. It's an online manhwa and it's great! Love the characters and it has an interesting plot. I really gotta learn Korean now. XD;

I guess I should be productive today and do my homework. 8D

Manga Materials

I just recieved a notice that my order of manga materials have been shipped! Yay! I cannot wait until it arrives. :D

I ordered B4 and A4 size manga paper with grid. I want to see what the actual size professional and amateur manga artist use. :3

I also order extra G-pen nibs but it's by a different brand. However, it's by the same maker so I'm hoping it's okay. I also ordered a school pen nib and turnip (maji?) pen nib as well. I'm hoping the school pen nib is like my favorite nib, but slightly thinner. We shall see :3

I also order black and white ink because I want to see how they work with non-manga papers.

And finally a pen nib holder because I want to see if it's comfortable.

Now to await the shipping notice of the light box :3

Inking around...

I can't believe I've neglected this. D:

Anyways, I've just been messing around with old pen nibs. I finally found a nib I like! Thank goodness I bought a whole pack of it before. Whether it'll work on inking a comic, I will have to see. So far, I really like how it draws hair - quick with varying line width. :3

Well, I just drew a bunch of random heads to test the nibs and they're not worth posting. XD; But there was so many fine nibs! But whether they will work for comic pages is still questionable...

I just need a comic idea so I can ink it. Come to me creative juices! XD;

Oh I'll be getting a light box soon, so hopefully I can test the nibs properly (saves on creative juices too haha). :3

Updated Love Letter

I updated Love Letter :D

I'm slowly attracting readers, but I think I need a better banner if I want to attract more. I'll see if I can come up with anything catchy...I really like the story and its characters and I think it'll be a shame if the story goes unnoticed even after I finish it, that's why.

Anyways, I didn't feel productive for the past two weeks. Hopefully this week will be better :3

Light Box

I was gonna do without a light box but I've realized that I can't live without one!!!!! XD

Especially since I'm craving to watercolor and don't want to ruin the original. D:

I'm going to wait until next week before I order one. I hope that this will not affect Calasen updates too much.

Coloring...

Lately, I've been wanting to watercolor soooo bad but I can't seem to draw or come up with any thing that I feel is worth watercoloring. D: Gotta look at those watercolor books for inspiration then...

Journal entries

I'm glad I didn't delete my journal entries at y!gal.

Lately, I've been active (?) on y!gal and I thought that maybe I was posting too much journal entries, so I decided to see what journal entries I had and which ones to delete. I found some really inspirational stuff written by me and great thoughts added by users - it has lifted up my mood (cuz I've been feeling down lately). I'm glad I left them there all these years. :)

Break

I'm here on a break from toning....

There is too much toning in Love Letter....

And there is going to be even more in Calasen =_=

It's moments like these I wish I did a black and white comic instead XD

y!gal audience?

Recently, I noticed that some of the people who faved my stuff were largely male. At first, I was like, "Cool." I was actually pretty happy cuz I've been told that my stuff looked too pretty by guys. And while I like beautiful things, I didn't want pretty. When I hear pretty, I think girly and I don't want that. However, I'm not aiming for masculine art, I'm aiming for beautiful sexy. :3

As for those who watch me, I feel like it's split between the two gender.

But the large majority of male that fav my work made me think, Are there more gay and bisexual men active on y!gal now? Where has all the BL artists gone? I guess since it's a different audience now, they might have left. Seems like lots of stuff happened in my absence. XD

Oh well, just throwing out speculations. It's not gonna prevent me from drawing and making more comics tho. :)

Coloring

Quick coloring practice using crayola color pencils. I wanted to watercolor this but it was on printer paper. ^^; Why does he look like whatishisname from Togainu no Chi? XD;

Anyways, I used a different ink this time and I like this ink. It's a sumi black ink. I have no idea where I bought it (Michaels hopefully?), but I think this was the ink I had used to ink my mangas (I mean Love Letter lines were pretty good). It doesn't bleed on printer paper, which saves money on paper. And my pen nibs love it; one dip allows me to draw up to a point where I feel it needs to be dipped again. The Kor-I-Noor (?) ink that I was using is picky, so thankfully I found the sumi one!

Anyways, I need to color more. My poor coloring sketchbook only has four pages filled out of 40...need to practice!

Calasen

I've been working on Calasen, redrawing scene 3. It's harder than I thought it'd be. I look to the old drafts and I think it was better that way...I think I'm going to leave some part untouched, just to make it easier on me. XD

And I'm still contemplating how to ink it...

Love Letter and Calasen

I updated Love Letter today. Unfortunately I didn't change the layout on smackjeeves...I guess I'll do it when I feel like it. XD; I still need to tone the rest of Love Letter too...

For now, I'm just sketching Calasen characters to get into the grove of drawing them again. I need to feel comfortable in order to redraw scene 3 and onwards. :)

On a different note, I splurged in yaoi manga goodness yesterday. I feel like it's been awhile since I read hardcore yaoi stuff. They were crazy. XD; But the art was beautiful LOL They remind me that I definitely need practice with antanomy and sex scenes XD;

Traditional Media Experiments

My watercolor experiment failed today. I really like how the skin turned out but everything else needs more pratice! XD;

Since I'll be redrawing scene 3 of Calasen and inking it, I dug up my old manga/comic materials and started playing with them. I really like the Pental Superball pen but the store doesn't sell them any more. I only have one pen. I guess I'll be buying from Amazon then. XD I also bought some new pens and tried them out. They were fun. :D

As for paper types, I really like Deleters' manga papers. I wanted to try Canson's Fanboy ones so I went to Michaels today to see if the Fanboy series was in store but it wasn't. boo I'm still going to stick with normal printer paper cuz I'm cheap. :P I just have to mix the ink right so I don't ruin my pen nibs. XD; When I have money, I'll buy those manga papers.

Anyways, I liked how this one turned out. I like it with tracing paper and scanned it in as you can see on the right side. Makes a nice effect, no? :)

The guy on the top right was done with the pen nibs, the one on the bottom with pens and a brush and the guy on the left is actually in pencil. I like my pencils...LOL



Now I'm off to watch Yebisu :)

A Love Letter Layout

I skimmed at the html codes for smackjeeves' comic layout. Man, I am rusty with html coding and just looking at it brings back headaches. XD

Once I can clearly think, I'll look over it and change the layout. The one Love Letter currently have is their default. It's not bad, I like the colors, but I need to rearrange a few things to make it more navigable.

I'll look in to it later today. :)

Digital vs Traditional

I think that if I were to traditionally tone, it'd be more fun. In the last few days, I've been zombified by digital toning.

I started thinking, why do I feel like such a zombie? I think it's due to the long hours staring at a screen and the eye-hand coordination relationship of drawing on a computer - using the same repeated strokes and methods over and over again for hours and hours. Repetition probably made me a zombie.

I guess I'm just the sensory type - I like the feel of the art instruments and materials at hand. It's how I grew up learning to draw and color. I get more sense of accomplishments using traditional mediums than CG. Because I can actually touch the finished product whereas CG images stay forever in my computer. (I regret not printing them out when I could have tho) But even if I did, it used up a lot of ink (darn you, HP) and ink cartridges are expensive.

Digital is also good too, don't get me wrong. There's the undo button LOL; it's clean; unlimited paper, paper sizes, ink, tools and coloring; cheaper in the long run - well those are the ones that stick out to me. But I'm sure there are more.

I guess when I do too much digital stuff, I start missing traditional stuff. XD;

Love Letter up :)

Yay! I was able to post Love Letter up today, just I had planned. :D I'm feeling productive, yeah.

I uploaded it here:

A Love Letter

Now my body's swore and in pain...Maybe I sat too long yesterday and today? With this heat, I'll be lacking exercise for awhile. D:

Oh well, onto to toning more "Love Letter"! :)

Punch Up series by Shiuko Kano

I read chapter 11 (the latest chapter) of Punch Up last night and I was like how can you leave us like that????!!!!!!!! I honestly thought Masa and Kouta was gonna do it in this chapter, but it was just a tease, a tease! Maybe the next chapter will provide us with more smexiness? Ah, Shiuko Kano's stuff is hot.

Okay, resuming on with my toning. :P

Toning Love Letter :)

Yeah, I can finally start toning "Love Letter"! I'm behind what I had intended, but I hope to get it up this Sunday, which will fit the update schedule. I've finished doing most of my assignments for next week, so I should be good to go tonight, tomorrow and Saturday. It's going to be a marathon. XD;

I realized that toning is another art in itself. I browsed through my mangas to get an idea and I discovered a new world. LOL It made me really rethink how I had used to tone. Since BL is for women, it should be kind of fluffy right? Right...

On a different note, I tried out my pen nibs the other day and boy, I missed using them. I realized that I can't find my old lightbox. ^^; And what kind of paper should I use? When I think of those things, I think that digital inking is a lot more cheaper and convienent...but I like the feel of pen on paper. So..I'll have to see what I'm going to do about the next scenes of Calasen when it comes to inking. XD;

Coloring Practice

In the past year, I haven't been able to color decently, like how I used to 3 years ago. I had my random bursts where I was like - hey, this turned out great! How did I do that? XD; It was like the part of my brain in charged of that skill had malfunctioned or something. So, I visited my coloring info books and it seems the skills are slowly working again. :)

I realized that I like the watercolor method more than the painting method (such as acrylic, guache, oil painting, etc) because I like how water interacts with color. But the CG I use is more like the acrylic method so I guess my brain wasn't registering that. XD; I guess I gotta learn how to paint to improve my CG skills....

Well, here's a coloring practice WIP. It'll forever be a WIP XD;

Bad, Bad..sort of?

Manga is bad for me. XD; I lack sleep because I read chapter 160 of Skip Beat (it was one HOT chapter..gotta really do a Ren fanart soon :3) and all of Gakuen Ouji that was available online. Gakuen Ouji is pure crack, like seriously (it was because of this series that I currently have bags under my eyes). XD; I also catched up on "Are you Alice?" (which is really good! gotta do a fanart of that one too) And started "Hi no Matoi" which has great art - the lineart's great, it's what I aim for *____* But historical manga/dramas bore me...I hope there's a bigger plot.

Other than manga, the korean variety show "We Got Married" has gotten me addicted to it again. I'm watching the JoKwonxGain couple right now as I wait for the YoungSeo couple and NickhunxVictoria couple episodes to be aired and subbed. (I want a hubby like Nickhun :3 )

For "Love Letter", I'm still inking it. I have 4 more pages to go! woohoo~ ^o^ The last 2 pages require a lot of inking but all pages should be good to tone this weekend. :)

Love Letter Progress

As you can see, I'm still working on Love Letter and am in the process of inking the drafts in. I will be able to tone by Thursday. :)

Once again, I'm behind schedule but it looks like Love Letter should be ready by next week. :)

On a different note, my tablet is wonky...I guess if I leave my computer for a long period and come back, the pressure sensitivity goes off or something. Actually, I dont mind this as I will be using it for b/w comics, but when it comes to coloring, it's frustrating because the color's wont mix properly. Oh well... I should try real media instead. ^^;

Fanart: Thunder :)

So...people have probably been waiting for drawings/sketches right? XD; Well, I really like the pretty boy, Thunder from MBLAQ, so I sketched him after watching their "Y" mv. The sketch looks better full view. It doesn't look so great resized and I dunno why. Well, I gotta draw more eyeliner boys as I'm really liking it and it seems fun. <3

I wantetd to draw Leon from R4 but I knew that I was gonna do more than just sketch so I stuck to Thunder. Maybe I'll do Mir next cuz he'll have eyeliner too. :3

BL Dramas

When I see the Bud Light acronym on the bullentin boards (BL), I instantly think Boys Love. Looks like it's a bad habit now XD;

Well I heard my first Korean BL drama CD, "Oops, My Prince" and was pretty disappointed. I don't know Korean and recognized little words, but it sounded like a Korean version of something Japanese (which is reasonable as it was based on a game). I enjoyed their laughs - it was cute and sounded very Japanese (the uke sounded slightly old for his chara, IMO), but overall I was disappointed and stopped half-way. I guess I expected something more Korean and not a Japanese imitation. Oh well, it was a good listening experience :3 I looked up the game too and found that I might enjoy the game more. Cuz it looked really fun. LOL

Speaking of BL, I'm currently listening to June's releases. It was a struggle to just transfer them to my mp3 player tho. My mp3 player is weird. =_=; But I finally got them in and shall be listening to them for the next couple of days. :)

Slow progress

Man, what was I thinking in my last post? It made no sense whatsoever...I had obviously forgot that I had already mentioned my back pain. Just to clarify, on Monday, I had my spine re-align due to the injury on Saturday. However, the next day it was worst. So on Wednesday, I went back to get it checked. The chiropractic said that it was a nerve and massaged it. So now I'm feeling better - my leg still gets numb when I walk but sitting crossed leg for a minute or so doesn't hurt as bad as it did before. Sitting on chairs still hurts so it's going to take awhile until I'll be able to sit comfortably. >_>

Now my chest/shoulder area pops (before it was my hip area) when I do simple things like lean forward, pick up things, etc which I think is abnormal so I'm a bit concerned. I think it pops because of my bad posture. There's no pain there yet so I'm going to see how it goes...

But because of this, all I did today was play Resident Evil 4 while standing up, and sitting cross-legged and walking around between the death intervals. XD; I forget how hot Leon is in R4 <3

In addition to me getting better, the Internet got fixed today! Things are looking good for next week. :)

Delays

Since my last post, my computer has been pried apart. XD; The reason being so is because of the Internet. Something's off about it and my dad and I have been trying to figure it out. We've decided that it's the modem's fault.

So I haven't been able to touch my comics at all. Sucks...I dont know when I'll be able to at this rate. I'm going to wait a couple weeks and see.

Plus I had back pain from improper lifting and I got it fixed by the chiropractic twice. Now it has become hip to leg pain. It was unbearable yesterday. But today I'm feeling better. :)

Well, I am really hoping that everything will settle down next week *crossesfingers*

This Weekend

Internet is so slow now...I'll have to do something about it later.

Anyways, I was busy moving things this weekend so I did not have the chance to touch "Love Letter" at all. I'm really behind schedule. Well the good news is I got my computer set up today, so I should be ready to go tonight. I'll try for the all nighter since I napped today. XD; And I will have to squeeze in as much as I can this week in order to have it ready by Saturday.

I'll do my best tho. Cuz I poppped/pulled something in my spine/back when I was lifting on Saturday. I was in pain all day Sunday. Today, I got the chiropractic to align it back. But it still hurts. D: Sitting down for long periods make it hurt even more, but I'll just have to remember to walk up every hour or lay down to assuage the pain. I can do this!!!! Ganbarimasu~

Tablet skills + MBLAQ

So I was trying to get into the groove of redrawing frames to "Love Letter" today and I just thought that the method I was doing was quite tedious. Cuz I was retracing the old art on the comp with my tablet. And I am really rusty with my tablet pen skills...like seriously. Why did I ever think it would be easier? I must have been crazy. But then again, I think my inking skills are worser. Maybe that's why I stuck to the tablet pen? Unfortunately, I wasn't productive for "Love Letter". I just felt very tensed and the heat only adds to it. (Is it an artblock? Omg, why so soon?!?!?!!!)

I ended up watching MBLAQ's Idol Army's finale to release my tension. (I also jogged today too, woohoo! :D ) I love MBLAQ. Cheongdong, Mir and da leader are soo pretty in their new mv, "Y". But I dont love the clothes concept. It really looks like they're just wearing briefs instead of pants. XD; However, the makeup is PURE LOVE. *o* (Adam Lambert inspired, maybe? LOL)

2010 FIFA World Cup

And so...yesterday I was unproductive. =_=;; I spent the entire day catching up on the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Sports are addicting, I tell you. 8D

And so...today, I planned my comic schedule out. I'll have to follow it to the bone now that I'm off by a couple days in order to meet my own deadlines. XD;

Progress: Love Letter + Unlucky Script

For "Love Letter", I am still in the process of redrawing frames in several pages. I think I have 10 more pages to go before I can start editing and toning. "Love Letter" is comedy and after awhile, I felt like drawing something serious, so I did and lost the comedy mood. XD;

I also wrote up the rest of chapter 1 for "Unlucky". I have re-written that chapter sooo many times in the span of 4 years because I wasn't happy with it. I think I'm satisfied with the one I wrote yesterday because it'll move the plot and characters forward (compared to my previous attempts XD;). But I haven't edit it yet to make sure if fits into 32 pages. I'll see when I do the storyboard thumbnails. XD

On a different note, I'm about done listening to most of the BL dramas on my playlist. Woohoo! Now the problem is, which ones do I add in next? XD;

Devil's Bride

Fanart of the yaoi manhwa, "Devil's Bride". I was surprised that it was the same author of "Boy Princess". I think her style has improved and I like her story's theme.

I also have a "Bride" story in mind too and I was afraid that it'd be too similar to this one. But after reading the summary and checking out the story, it's not. Thankfully :) (I like her's better tho LOL)

Well, I don't think I did the art any justice. LOL I drew from memory and it reeks of my style. I can't seem to color nowadays, so I stuck to grayscale. :P

Venus ni Arazu + Love Letter

Summer school is a time killer. I didn't get the chance to jot down any concrete ideas for "Flat" because of it. D:

Also I wanted to work on Love Letter but I didn't get the chance. I hope I can tomorrow *crossfingers* I want to be productive this weekend :)

Anyways, I'm reading "Venus ni Arazu" now and it's HILARIOUS! I love it but I wish the main guy would have some more slack. :P I remember reading this author's work before and she seems to have the same prototypes for the main female and male leads. XD; Well, I'm liking the manga so far as it's good for releasing stress. :)

Reviving this! :D

I've decided to update this blog and will try to be more active with my posts. Anything will go with my posts - I've decided that I will post more than just sketches but they will still be artworks/drawings tho. :)

Also, I will try to be succinct and clear with each post. Cuz I dont want to bore people with lengthy paragraphs, as I do have this tendency to talk on and on. XD;

For today, I just want to say that I read a manga called "Flat". (Unfortunately I don't remember the mangaka) but it was good. I've gotten several ideas for pictures and a comic after I finished reading the latest release. :3 The series is still running and I have no idea how it'll end. XD; But it's definitely worth checking out. :)