my heart is beating like a jungle drum

So I've been around sort of and sketching for a while but there's nothing interesting so I'mma share random crap like I usually do.

Since J-Money and I are rewriting Darkheart to be less faggoty, I thought I'd freshen Ria up a bit. The awkward positioning is really not supposed to be there I just needed to draw the outfit. She's wearing leggings I swear.

And this is only really the basic stuff. I'll add to it and make it pretty soon and then post a COLORED VERSION FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AGES WHAT IS THIS BLASPHEMYYYY. And I'm really inspired by this guy and this girl. I really like that hidden severity in art. ;^;

Also, I might go to St. Louis for five weeks in the summer. Winner.

Saturn and Thatcher, also less faggoty! I decided to make them classy designers instead of really fking obnoxious. They are now obnoxiously classy, as cliche'd by Saturn's ascot. His hair needs a little updating, he looks too much like Eric for me to like. And he's mopey. He's really pretty happy. Self-centered yes but not a bad guy.

OHOHOHthisisexciting. If you can guess the subject then you're a winner. If you can't, well, that's just too bad. >:O

My first major project in forever.

i like mail.

Just so everyone knows, when this post goes up, I'll be in Virginia Beach (a mere half an hour from our dear Jordyn's house (and I'd go there if she wasn't on vacation!)), but I figure by the time it DOES the packages will be in their respective locations and it'll be okay to post them up online.

I'm sending two letters later this week (for all of those curious, this was written Thursday, at 4:07AM)- one to Jordyn and one to Jess (VA and AR, respectively), both including esclusive doodlebug sketches and letters (Jordyn's package will contain something from a few of my friends as well as me).

So, here are the doodleys!

JORDYN~

A lovely sketch of Eric and Dre working (in which I digitally corrected the angle so it looks semi-better.)

A pin-up of Ria in a martini glass. My scanner doesn't pick up colors, but her eyes and the liquid in the glass are colored in.

A hothothot Eries.

And also the original sketch for the Mrs. Toad art I did, as well as a little cover of me saying hi, a mix CD titled after this blog, and possibly a CD with a bunch of photos of me and my friends. Possibly. OH and a comic strip of Vlad and Ria fighting as usual, fufufu.

JESS~

The original sketch for this baby here.

This lovely ink doodle of our lovely couple, Anna and Mike. I messed up when penning her face, it's so sad. v_v
And a doodle of her Hatter in the Hearts outfit. There's another, but it's not inked or colored.

portrait study I

So I've been on a bit of a facial anatomy kick, and I honestly think I'm getting somewhere! Take my pencils if I'm wrong. Anyways, I tried going for a character I was comfortable with and working on her with a new outlook on faces, in this case, Ria. I'm satisfied with her mouth, after figuring out that the one on the original sketch was not only too small, but too far over to one side. I really think I'm getting there with skin tones!

Here are some things I just spotted, and decided could have been much better. First of all, by laws of head shape, her hair placement is too flat, and I decided only recently that her hair isn't curly enough as I draw it. I should study some of Jordyn's sketches, she always seems to get it right. Hm.

Also, her eyes are now too big the way I draw them. She looks like a dying rat to me, and that needs to be fixed. And noses? Man, don't even get me started on noses. :( Her face shape isn't satisfactory to me, either. =3= Back to Anchor and Braille... and the drawing board!

If you wanna know what the lyrics say, I'm gonna link you to the original jam first, and then quote the chorus, ktx.

And the war came with a curse and caterwaul!

And the war came with all the poise of a cannonball!

And they're picking out our eyes by coal and candlelight,

When the war came, the war came hard.

PS: Anyone else notice that I got the second line wrong on the original? P:

we have a map of the piano.

So, as a random two in the morning inspiration, I started to doodle, and it endured being crappy into being the first artwork I've ever done to bring me to tears. How egotistical is that?

Well, anyways, feel free to tear me apart. I'm posting the process for this piece here because I would LOVE suggestions! This is a crucial time for me, bouts of inspiration like this sometimes lead to good things.

I started sketching this on a pad of somewhat rough paper, then traced it with pen on a sheet of tracing paper and scanned that in. I fixed up the lineart with the eraser tool, and set up a nice little playlist to set the mood. It consists of the following: Mum - We Have A Map Of The Piano, The Decemberists - Of Angels and Angles, and Imogen Heap - Hallelujah.

This is kinda easy, I just fixed her eyelashes, applied a "mood background" and a basic skin tone.



Step three's just doing the face. You can see all the little imperfections in the lineart this close up, but I'll be fixing those again later. I changed the background color a little and started with yellows and pale reds to shade the skin, and went back in with a purple. I may go back in with a blue later.

Same steps as the previous one, except on the whole body. I used this as a tool. Shading vs. Less Saturated Shading. :DD

This was one of those parts where I didn't know what to do. Finding a scarring tutorial deemed impossible, so I found a legit picture of a scar and went from there. Mine look pretty decent zoomed out, so I'm not going to try much with them. Zoom in, though? They look terrible. XD

Applied a nice, heavy base for the hair. Notice the god-awful scars.


Now just to figure out how to place this so it looks good, and add some textures...

i would really love if you pulled this thread,

I pretty much leave you with this sketch and a word of a project that I may or may not finish. (:

(The first doodle is a doodle I did on no sleep. It sucks, ktx.)

all i need is just a love to make it worthwhile

Yes, yes, I am very much still alive, and I do pick up my pencil once in a while! It's been a busy first year of high school, my friends, but I do believe I'll be alright sooner or later. So let's start off with some of the things contributing to my business: commissions. The images above are Gaia commissions for TrinityCowgirl and P u r p l e K a r l a respectively. They definitely challenged me, the first pose-wise and the latter with its complex design. I've still yet to figure out half of the items on there.

The next is more of a personal half-project I've been working on. It's (a currently faceless-because-I-fail-at-Vlad) Vlad and a kissyface equally-copious-amount-of-fail Ria. Because I can, kay? C: And they don't have enough cute in their lives. Poor sods, I don't show either of them enough love, even though Ria's my baby and Vlad has auto-love for being wonderful&married to my baby.



This last thing is also kind of a personal thing. It's just an unfinished doodle of Ella from Happily N'Ever After, which is a fabulously addicting movie that you all should go out and see, fufufu. It'll be done when I have the time to finish it, for other things come first. C :





Last on my list is actually something even more personal: my classes (but not in proper order) for next year! I shall be taking English 10 Honors, AP World History, Chemistry, Algebra II/Trigonometry Honors, Art History, Health, Art 2 (Drawing&Painting), Orchestra, and a PE/Lab/Study Hall period. I gave up my lunch to fit in Art History and Health, because Art History is stupid and required, as is Health. :C

not so tough found out, found out.

So only after discovering how much of a pain editing Blogger can be, I have decided to pull through and actually make a post for once in a while. I swear I'm starting to become like Jordyn- ninja-like and never seen.

So this is my sketchbook cover. Ziegte. She can dismember her own body in streams of crackly magic. I might finish it if I feel up to digitizing the deal.


This is Arthur and Beluga. Arthur is my gay flowershop owner who loves his partner Zeke and his baby Beluga, who's a cracked-up man-eating plant and we all love her blahblah. She's phenomenally acidic and deadly and ... wonderful. C:







This next trio of images is actually the separated duo from my would-be webcomic type thing which I should really get back to doing 'cause it's been a while and I'd like to improve. Clearly, Evie and Claudius got a makeover. And I like it that way. Bwhahahahahah!















And this... might be my lovey-dovey belated Valentine's Day picture if I feel up to finishing it.

we were sixteen, maybe less, maybe a little more

So I decided it might be about time to do some facial reference sheets for my characters. Make sure half of them don't look exactly the same and stuff. So I started with Ria 'cause my hand's really accustomed to drawing her, and worked out things like her eye and face shape. That nose looks too dramatic for her, but it's a good nose, so I couldn't bring myself to erase it. :B

I love how the only colored part is the one that lacks any facial structure.

the biggest tragedy is not your death, but a life without reason.

So, first and foremost, welcome back to the Klutz Kronikles, which hasn't updated since October 16th. How ever did I live?


Today we're gonna start with the first product of my boredom in class- bikini girls! There's some chibi and ... Thatcher, I think. Very pink, very hoish.


This was something I drew listening to Robert Randolph's Ain't Nothing Wrong With That. And I felt like drawing poofy hair and superstar poses. So sue me. D:


Continuing on the path of music-inspired drawings, this is from Iron&Wine's Boy With A Coin, featuring, DA DADA DAAAH, GALE! Because I felt like it, kay? Really. My drawings lack any sort of form or purpose anymore. I' almost sad. Almost.


Finally, we're getting somewhere. Xiu (pronounced Zhi-oo) is my Asian OCD-ridden experiment of awesome. The last "resonator," as Jordyn knows her, and probably one of the classier additions to the team. I'm going to enjoy this. Color scheme pending.



Here's where we get srs. The first picture is my final concept of Eric once he ditches the creepy labcoat. I've got his hair worked out, the trinkets, yadda yadda. His concept design was probably my favorite, but this is the first time I've ever been able to draw his hair perfectly. Har har.


And who would I be without a Riadump? This was more fun than anything else. Meaning, it's useless. So on the left we've got a very interesting battle outfit of awesome that reminds me somewhat of Verunica's, but with a more... flat-chested twist. Watch that stuff be made of some sort of armored spandex blend. That'd be funny. Upper middle is something I uploaded because the anatomy is so whacked, and yet I wanna finish it. Lower middle is one of the more accurate representations of my baby, colored with a Q-Tip. 8D On the right is the pending design for her new uniform. Booyaaaah. 8D

i'm gonna put my hand in front of your head.

I'm in such a good mood, but I'm so tired. D: My day literally went like so:

~8-2:30 - School
~3 - Bus to Sarah's house.
4:30 - Freshman football game
6:30 - Choir
7:20ish with impeccable timing - Khaled Hosseini at UB
10 - HOME. D:
So, who the hell is Hosseini? He is the world-renowned author of The Kite Runner as well as One Thousand Splendid Suns, and we got to see him (forfree!) at the local university. He was so phenomenal, it's scary, but that's for later. You see, we get mandatory school credit for doing out-of-school things and doing writeups on them, but since I didn't have my sheet, I took notes!


Three and a half pages worth, thankyou. Complete with worthless doodles! Now I just gotta get my sheet, and I'm kinda inspired to write about some of the things he said. My shorthand's the worst, I know. :'D


Right, don't ask me what this is. I was bored in Earth Science and felt like adding detail, kayh? So I drew some random girlpersonthing and added beads wherever I could. :'D


This is a kind of thing that's been stuck in my head for ages. I always draw Ria as a passive looking character, but I kinda wanna draw her with her weapon(s) out. So this is just something I was playing with in English (inwhichIhaveatesttomorrowee!), annddd... yeah. >>



And this is Nye. Because... I don't really have accurate references for his dapper self, and he's terrible to describe. Pretty boy, right? 8D

&i know it seems like we're never coming back.

I've been in an incredibly sketchy mood as of late, so a blog entry seems... incredibly fitting. Before, I start though, I'd like to touch on three things that have bothered me MAJORLY as of late, and all of which are things my friends have said to me. The first, I remember distinctly, began with a conversation between my friend and I during art class. I was done with whatever project we were doing at the time, and I decided that, hey, maybe I should doodle for a little while, since nothing extra was assigned.

Can I just clear up, for those who think my art is just really bad realism, that I'm NOT AIMING FOR REALISM K? It's fun to have exaggerated features and limbs.

So anyways, my friend says to me, "Why do you draw those anime people? I hate them." Or something.

As much as I love said friend, and I'm not mentioning any names by any means, I got a little offended. One, not only did several people comment that my art has strayed far from anime and into a more cartoony semi-realism, but you don't just say something like that to someone. I'm like, afraid to draw around that person now in fear of making them say something else like that. Same person and I were having a discussion about our school art program and, since I might wanna have a double major in Literature and Art and a minor in Music, I said that I might have to transfer school simply because the school one of my friends goes to has a better program. And my friend says, "You'd want to transfer schools JUST for the art program?"

Well.
Yes. Since that's what I want to attempt to incorporate into the rest of my natural life. Yes.

The third thing was actually something from this morning and from a different friend, and all she asked was, "Do you ever draw real people?"
My question is, "Am I obligated to?"

I'm not sure if anyone else is bothered by stuff like that, but seriously, man. I doodle because I like to doodle, and I'm (usually) proud of my finished stuff. I really do not understand why in hell people who don't even want to do anything with art later on in their lives feel like it's necessary to criticize little things like that. And yes, I have drawn real people before, and it's hard, and I'm still working on it.

Fuck damn.

Hem.

WIP Halloween picture. Some witchy thing sitting on the edge of some cauldron, it's prolly gonna end up looking like crap anyways so I'm not even gonna talk about it.
After listening to the Decemberists (Mariner's Revenge Song), I felt like sketching something folky, and was in the mood to put Ria in different situations just because I wanted to. After much repetition, I came out with this piece of crap.Finished digital cover of my sketchbook, should do it in colored pencils on the real thing. Her claves are too long, thighs are too short, I see it, I know.

Now I'm in a crappy mood.

well, hello, hello.

Well, as you can see above, I had a little bit of fun with my digicam. I mean, come on. And I figured out some cool exposure settings on Photoshop. : > I'm kinda happy I got to play this weekend a little more than usual. Anyways!

Since I finished my sketchbook, I figure it's time to go back and figure out what I didn't upload. This is a sketch of Aline that I'm not sure I uploaded, but I think it captures her attire and general expression and stuff pretty well. She's... carefree, to say the least. What a goofer. I can't wait to play her.

And here is something I've been talking about doing for... kind of a while. Getting down into the nitty-gritty of Ria's design is something I kinda gotta do if I wanna start doing her justice in my sketches, youknow?

Anyways.
Everyone needs to wish a WELCOME BACK to Wolfie, who had left us due to unprecedented reasons and stuffs for a very long time, and I'm sure we ALL MISSED HER. D<>

Too sleepy to write much more, but gotta finish my homework.