Finished Raphael and some kissy scribbles.

Raphael belongs to Yuki, who can be found at http://lustredesquelettes.blogspot.com/ .  I love Raphael to itty bitty bits, but I have a hell of a time drawing him.  For a full color mixed media piece, I don't feel like this took too much time, but I might be underestimating it. When I start working on something, whether it's artwork or a task of some sort, I have the tendency to become very focused and can work at it for long periods of time.  Fortuitously, my order from Jetpens came in with my new pilot choose pens ( gold and white ) and some various other supplies, so I went a little wild with them! I'll probably do a materials post tomorrow once my holbein ink comes in, or maybe I'll do an entire post on inks. Part of the joy in creating artwork for me is learning new ways to use tools and exploring new mediums, so I think the things I learn might be nice to share.

I wasn't really planning this picture, really. I was using this page in my sketchbook as a blotting page to clean my texture stamps, and I got a little bored and started fiddling with a paintbrush. I decided I liked the background and sketched a bit onto it, and the sketch developed into Raphael. I've been listening to a lot of ambient electronic music lately by an artist called Burial, and I think I blame Archangel for how this picture came out. Anyway, I was trying to keep the end result a little unfinished looking, but I think I got a little too meticulous in blending and sort of destroyed that tentative balance. It's alright though, because I kind of like the result.

What can I say, cuddly dudes make me happy. Yuki pointed out that I make Lucifer more muscular every time I draw him, and she's totally right. Canta still looks like a chick, but he always looks like a chick. He's gender neutral so it's awwwwright. You might be able to see some of the thumbnails on the back of the page for a holiday fluff story I'm working on, but I haven't even started to draw it yet. I'm sort of waiting for a program I scored off of ebay to come in before I get on with it.

On that note, I am going to finish my grapefruit and start on some ATCs.

Mixed Media Tomfoolery.

I love working with mixed media. About the easiest way in the world to make me happy is to give me art supplies of any sort. I'm always on the look out for wood and wood panel that can be used for paintings and drawings, and a new favorite of mine are these cheap little panels that you can find in craft stores with varying degrees of thickness and edge design. Prep the surface with gesso or something similar and you're ready to go! This is a teeny little work in progress picture that I don't really have any particular direction in mind for, but I'm having a lot of fun just doodling and playing around.  I was wandering around a home decorating store the other day and I saw a large custom decoupage-type painting of a chandelier, and the design kind of stuck with me and inspired me to use a similar design for this silly thing. I'm still working on it, and I'll post a better quality picture when I'm done!

So I decided to color the Koren picture from the last update, since I have a good hi-res scan of the lines to use if I decide to mess around with the scenery again. I'm trying to make more dynamic pictures with less white space, so I made a quick little last-minute backdrop.

I have a little block of watercolor paper that has sort of been sitting around collecting dust, but I used it in the past to blot the excess off of my texture stamps. That's the black texture on this page. I have some deep purple ink that I like, so I played around at painting it over the black patterns and used my waterbrush to fuss with the edges. After some soufflé pen detailing and some level-tweaking in photoshop, I was done. Here's the end result:

Yeah! I like my purple background even if it was totally winged, and I'll probably use it again for something. I might even make more with different patterns. 

All of this because I am procrastinating drawing actual comic pages. I guess we'll see if I can actually get shit done tonight without getting distracted by other random projects.

Honeyed Words

So. I finished him. There is a lot that needs fixing, but I really need to take a step back and work on something else for a while. If I don't I'm just going to get sucked into tuning it until I start to eat my own hair out of frustration. I had something to say about this, but my brain is a bit foggy and I don't actually think any of my rambling will be even halfway entertaining. I am, however, getting better at facial anatomy. Also, I can't seem to stop listening to The Knife, which I think has a direct influence on how my pictures come out. Trying to decide if this is a good or bad thing.

Anyway, I need to get back to writing and thumbnailing. Maybe eventually I'll have something interesting to share.

Halloweening and a NSFW sketch.

I started this a week ago after a drawing party at a local cafe, but I'm just now finishing it because I had to actually get off my ass and color. The initial drawing itself took maybe...two hours to complete, the lining took a million years, and the coloring took just a little bit longer than that. As usual, I used mixed media including but not limited to: Copic, Neopiko, walnut ink, waterbrush, purple bleedy gel pens, prismacolor pencils, aquamonolith, etc etc etc.

I have other halloween type pictures planned, but I might not get them done in a timely manner because I am in the process of putting together a costume. ;w; I have a few days to construct a hat and tease out one of my wigs to holy hell, not to mention all the prosthetic doctoring I have to do. So busy! I also have a butt-ton of sketches to share, even though I don't have much time to scan right now. So here's some porn, as promised.

Haha. So this is the unedited version of a sketchpage full of Adonis. I posted the colored portrait on DA, so...sorry if you've seen it before. Side note: It is annoyingly difficult to find reference pictures of people making out with shoes on the internet. D: So I had to take a picture of myself and work from there.  Hurrrr.

Privilege and Process

Hey guys. I'm totally back. Sort of. Life is kind of stupid right now so art helps me kind of deal with what's going on. I won't go into details because it's not interesting, but I will share some of the stuff I'm working on. I actually have a lot of projects and sketches going on, but today I'm going to talk a little bit about my process from start to finish.

Because I have generally stupid habits, I tend to do a lot of work in my sketchbooks, instead of planning drawings on nicer, better paper. It's probably because when I draw, I start really rough and abstract. I might have an inkling or an idea, but it's generally chaos and pencil lines until I start to erase and curse a lot. I started with a teeny scribble in the right corner of the character, Privilege, and the sketches on the side are just me trying to work out what the demon that lives inside her neck looks like. I'm currently working quite a bit in a moleskine style teNues sketchbook that I always have with me, and the paper is very thin and not very well suited to markers. Oh well. Moving on.

Lining! The part in the process I actually hate. It wasn't until more recently when I started to use liners in different colors, and I am really loving the browns and reds. Black, I feel sometimes makes me hypersaturate my color choices. Or it just makes my colors look funny. I might be crazy. Whatever. I love black, but right now I'm liking the idea of adding black after all my colors are locked down. It makes for crisper lines.

She's done! I know this seems like a big jump and if I had actually been planning this as a process-oriented post, I would have done some scans of the progress in coloring, but I just... didn't think of it. There are times when I know exactly which colors to use and times when I have no idea and fly by the seat of my pants. This is an example of the former. I always start with the face and hair as a habit, and then move on when I feel like I have sufficient definition.

When working with mixed media, I start with layers of markers. I use neopiko and copic, but I have a few prismacolor pens floating about. I don't really prefer them because I love the flexibility of a brush tip. It's generally good to have a sense of organization to the way you color and I kind of....don't have that very well. After a certain amount of time with marker, I tend to get restless and pull out my inks/pencils/whatever.

I have found that some of the ink sticks made for the coletto multipen systems bleed when exposed to water, as do many gel pens, and this can be used to great advantage to shade and color. I lined a few sections in the hair and placed a few small lines in the legs and cardigan, then I took my waterbrush and pulled the color from those lines to shade nearby areas.


After some lengthy tuning with the waterbrush and some watercolor pencils/aquamonolith/multicolored daiso ballpoints, the last thing to do is clean up bits and pieces with a white gel pen. I use a wonderful pilot gel pen which makes very clear, consistent lines. It's easy to go crazy with the white because it's fun, but it can add a lot of distracting lights and make things look plastic, so I am trying to use it with more purpose. So I primarily used it to soften harsh lines and add shine to the hair.

Then I took it into photoshop and cleaned it up, slapped a border on it and signed it.

Maybe I'll do a boring post on my tools next! Or a better process post. Hahaha. <3

Derping about and HOLY SHIT I FINISHED SOMETHING.

For anybody interested, this is generally what I look like.

Been on a roll drawing lately. Most of it is not really worth sharing because it's just thumbnails and such, but I sort of finished this thing.

I have this bad habit of trying to create decent finished works in sketchbooks. >_>;;; I have so many canvases and proper boards and whatnot hanging around, but naturally, most of my finished works end up in sketchbooks. Herp. I'm sort of okay with how this came out, but I am definitely NOT okay with how often Canta changes his clothes. Once I get to his chapter in the comic, it's going to be hell on my hands. There is a lot of mixed media going on here, and I am feeling a bit too lazy to list everything right now, haha.

Too much BL. XC

Yeah. I needed a new sketchbook like a hole in the head, BUT I BOUGHT ONE ANYWAY.

And I christened it with some naked making out with Lucifer and Canta. Obviously this is still very much a WIP.  Oh, also, this is the worst thing I have ever drawn.

Canta uses his shapeshifting know-how to mimic Gabriel. Not a very good idea unless you like getting on the bad side of a sorcerer with a napoleon complex.

Toxic Cute

Materials: Wood panel 6 x 12, acrylic paints, ink, thick black marker, ballpoint pen, watercolor ink, gel pen, watercolor pencils.