Thursday, June 28, 2012

Oddities and Little Boxes

Most of these sketches were made during morning classes when I'm still half asleep. These are desperate attempts to stay awake and ward off boredom. 


I remember this day definitely was "my brain feels like jelly i hate the world and everyone in it" day.








The "BUUUUU...." boxes were something I'd draw when I'm really confused with an assignment or having a bad drawing day. 





Any time I want to draw a figure but don't know what it should be doing, it ends up either dancing or meditating... naked... with bunny ears. 

Lots and lots more to come!!

-aKino

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Illustration Process

There's so much I have to scan and upload, it's ridiculous! For the next few days, I think I'll post some old sketches for the hell of it. I feel kind of crappy for not updating here as much as I intended. Anyways, this post is all about how I got to my final illustrations.  These were done in "Drawing for Illustration" class with Dennis Nolan. Enjoy.

City Light 


Our prompt was to illustrate a city. It was easier said than done since I'm terrible at perspective. I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler! These are brainstorm sketches of the first things that popped into my head. When you don't know what to do for an assignment, keep putting down ideas on paper until you do.




 After looking at some concept art for the game, The Last of Us, I wanted to do a busy, post-apocalyptic scene. Also, I really wanted to draw kids on telephone poles. I thought the image brought out the "adventurous youth" character, which is always fun.


Then, I wanted to find a way to bring back the angular fish since just having a post-apocalyptic scene wasn't enough. In fact, it got boring very quickly and since I was bad at drawing boxes to begin with, I decided to keep things simple. I figured I should build things up slowly to prevent making a giant mess of a composition.

Voodoo Tragedy : 


This assignment was simply something with hands, so the first idea that popped in my head was pinning a voodoo doll. I guess I'm kind of dark-minded like that, haha. However, I didn't want to just draw a still life, so I added little dollies in rebellion. I wanted it to be busy with action, but for time and composition's sake, I had to cut out a lot of details. 





Designs for the voodoo dolls. The third sketch is a voodoo doll I made for reference. I should've taken more reference photos for the final compositions. I'm not too happy with how the random boxes came out (then again, I did plow through this piece in three hours the day before class to prevent a longer all-nighter).



Wrapping it up with a few quick hand practices and lighting references. 

Sea Lady :







For this project, we had to combine three animals. I loved sketching for this assignment. As usual, once I got to the final illustration, I lost all the energy that my doodles had. It's so frustrating, but at least my professor assured me this vicious cycle was perfectly normal. 







Putting her in a composition was rather difficult since she has so much going on. I had a lot of fun with her terrified octopus friend. 

A Note :




Although I wasn't a huge fan of this assignment, the lesson was valuable. Basically, how to tell a story through still lives. At first, I wanted illustrate an old story called "The Red Shoes". Back then, red shoes weren't allowed in the church dress code. One girl ignored this rule and was cursed to dance forever.  In the end, she has a lumberjack chop off her feet and the feet continued to dance away.



As much as I wanted to continue this narrative, it was turned down since I was focusing too much on the girl than her shoes, so I focused on a classic form of Japanese bullying—thumbtacks in shoes. In middle school, I wanted to know what is was like to be in a Japanese school environment. Almost immediately, I had someone disliking me for being Japanese-American. She slipped thumbtacks in my shoes and left a nasty note saying, "Speaking English doesn't make you special, bitch!"

Alrighty, I'm over and out. 

-aKino


Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Conte Nonsense

Well, I wanted to update something after not posting anything for practically a month! Anyways, I had a bunch of conte pencils and a shitty 18"x24" sketchpad, so I decided to do practice with the two. Posting only a few images because these are the only ones I deem somewhat acceptable. Conte is fun, but it's also very difficult. I made more scribbles than finished sketches (which is slightly oxymoronic). 





Will be posting doodles from the sketchbook soon. Sorry for being lazy. 

-aKino


Friday, June 8, 2012

Dump

Sketchbook has always been random—not to be taken seriously and never to finish. I haven't been taking post-graduation seriously either. I don't know if that's good or bad. 


What started as a warm-up doodle became a fan art for Audrey Kitching. Yeah, so much for "I enjoy looking at fan art than making it". 



Sneak doodles from work. Manager hates it when I doodle during work. My little attempts to keep in touch with "Hair Monster". I haven't made any solid plans for a new piece since my studio space is constantly shifting. Plus, I need another $80 roll of paper... before that, I need money.


よしこレモンちゃん ("YoshikoLemon-chan") for Kazukij just because I enjoy her adorably random character and Tumblr likes. 




Random fashion doodles to practice color in general. I like the look of ballpoint pen with digital coloring too.  Of course, it's not as rich as actually pushing paint around a palette, but Photoshop allows me to practice how to choose colors and harmonize them without the interruption of a sloshy, muddy surface. I'm "cheating" in a sense that I'm picking colors from the computer as opposed to making them myself, but I never use the smudge, dodge, or burn tool. I try to explore how colors react to each other based on how much I use it, where I place it, and how I apply it—much like traditional painting. 


A promotional (?) doodle for "Our Bunny of Blood". It used to be "Santiago: Bunny of Blood", but I've learned to keep things simple. I'm struggling between working on "Hair Monster" and making a potential webcomic out of these guys. Both projects are on such opposite spectrums! 


Finally, a love-struck zombie. Who knows what she's in love with... or for what reason. 

Ahh, maybe I should do one of those draw-a-day challenges? Even if I did, I would only update the ones I deem "acceptable". I'm self-conscious like that. 

- aKino

Friday, June 1, 2012

Practicing Digital

I guess today will be a small digital update. Normally, I can't hold my attention and interest long enough to even finish half a doodle on Photoshop, but I've managed to fully color two drawings. I'm ready to pass out now. 


Pyramid Head's Spanish is due to this piece. I like looking at fan art more than making it. However, when Silent Hill's Facebook page uploaded a cute screenshot of Heather, I couldn't resist. 


I keep telling myself I'm going to have full character reference sheets for these guys, but I never get around them! From left to right: Gill, Thorn, Santi (the bunny), and Slate. I mainly wanted to fool around with digital colors. Oy, the lack of color harmony is absolutely disgusting. 


Obviously, a WIP, which means I'll never finish it. I think I like them in chibi form. It's more fun and humorous like they're meant to be. I've been drawing these guys since middle school and still have no idea where I'm going with them. General bio:
Gill - emo boy cannibal
Santi - possessed serial killing bunny
Thorn - an angel and a pussy
Slate - Gill's veagan girlfriend. 

I would upload my 18"x24" sketches if my camera wasn't so shitty. Maybe I'll post some real painting sketches once I purchase some canvas paper pads. I haven't done traditional painting for so long, it's embarrassing! 

-aKino