News Travels Fast

Big thanks goes out to all the sites that seem to be covering the Autumn Society's 8-Bit and Beyond art show that's coming up! If you're in the Philly area on August 7th, I say go check it out at Brave New Worlds!

The very awesome poster by The Autumn Society!

Also, warm thanks for mentioning my Link-Rucksack piece goes out to a few places that have crossed my path thus far:

THEISPOT.COM blog
Game Set Watch
Kotaku - Australia
The Daily What
Mad Thoughts
FunEffect.com
Game Abyss

I'm excited!

Flashback

For the epic-comic that's taking a short hiatus as I figure out an inking method I actually want to work with. This is the general 'look' I'll be using for any 'flashback' or memory-related pages. I wanted the concept of a super-over-exposed b/w photo. These are just a few characters, much younger than they'd appear in the rest of the story. That's all for now!

WIP - 'We're Gonna Need a Bigger Rucksack' Final

Okay....I uh... got carried away and I guess I missed a few steps and plowed through this. So before this, I laid in all of the flats which makes it easier to color the illustration in general.


In this final image, I placed a shadow and highlight on the objects as well as on Link. He also has his lil helper/buddy/guide/nuisance/whatever you'd like to refer to her as next to him. (Sprite, for all you SUPER old-school people [by the way, never speak of the cartoon that was shown on TV back in the 80s as much as you want to say it was awesome, for all that is good in the world don't revisit it], or Navi for you newer folk). On top of some of the objects, a texture's been put over it, generally if the items are made of metal, sometimes wood. Link also has a bit of texture put on his clothes so he's not so super digital-flat-looking. There's secondary top grass laid out beside the objects so they 'sit' on the lawn better. And then a secondary shadow for some uh...foliage that isn't pictured to just break up the image in some spots. Light that's creating the shadows is also coming from the top of the image because it tends to break through between leaves naturally for actual trees.

I might tweak with it some more... but that's all for now! The hands are healing quite nicely, but still have a long way to go. I'm impressed I got this much done already!

WIP - Flats

Okay. So now we have all the flats in on all of the objects, as well as the colors replacing all the black lines to give it a softer look. Generally all the lines are in brown, blue or red, depending on the object's main coloring.

NEXT. I'll begin to put highlights and shadows on everything because nothing is actually sitting against those stairs or the ground! And the grass is still...weird and one big blob.

WIP - Backgrounds/Textures

More progress. I generally start on the background first because it sets the overall tone and colors of a piece. It's also the largest area that I want to get out of the way!

I'm also pretty sloppy when starting because I know that I'll be painting over on top of the majority of this anyhow. So no worries on the items down at Link's feet as I have grass growing all over the place on top of them. There are gradients and textures on the steps and walls, as well as some slight highlights on the cracks. I've put in some rough textures on the grass and as always. As always, all of this is subject to change and probably will as I continue working on it!

WIP - Inks

'We're gonna need a bigger rucksack.' Now inked. Next is cleaning up and colors. I wonder if this is sometimes helpful to see a person's process.

Sadly, everything's going a bit slower than I'd like due to some health issues I'm dealing with concerning my hands. So, here's hoping everything picks back up in 2-3 weeks!

WIP - Gonna Need a Bigger Rucksack...

Sneak peak sketch of my piece that will be in the Autumn Society's 8-Bit and Beyond Video Games Art Show.

That's gonna be a heck of a lot of coloring.

I love The Legend Of Zelda (seriously though, who doesn't?). I probably just like it for a trifling reason like... because Link doesn't even have his name in the main title of his OWN game. He's that nice of a hero.

I didn't choose all of the items from one particular game because I've played and enjoyed a bunch of them (yeah, even the side-scrolling Zelda II one that... no one seems to like...) and there were too many neat items to take from one game only. I like to think he's made quite the collection after his reign of over 20 years and I always wondered how the heck that lil elf-like guy carried all this stuff around. Especially in the first one. A mini-raft AND a stepladder?? Poor guy!

Wind Up That Music Box!

She sings really beautiful music once she's all wound up.

...But she's a really independent woman.

Thumbnail/Pencil Dump PART DEUX!

BEHOLD. The result of what I've been doing for the past 5 days. Pages 11-24 of my comic issue in this OH-SO-VERY looong image.


...The first ten pages of this comic issue started as thumbnails, as you can see in my older post.
Because I'm insane and continuously stay awake until 4am, I started getting more and more detailed so these will just.... end up being the pencils. Time to go back and revise on page 1-10 to be as detailed as these. ...sigh.

VOTE!

I've submitted Buried as an iPhone skin design for Infectious!
BUT. It won't be made into a design until I get all you peoples to VOTE! You can do it right here:
http://www.infectious.com/voting/kiwifruitbird/buried/2967

You don't even need to sign up with Infectious if you have Facebook! Soooo easy! Whatcha waitin' for? Go vote! Do it now!

CHOP!

I don't know what it is with me. I either draw origami cranes, or people cutting their hair. It's a recurring theme. I think it's because I've cut my own hair since entering college to save money every year.


I feel like there's nothing greater than a person that's comfortable enough with their own image that they're not attached to their hair. I get frustrated when I hear women say they're terrified a hairdresser will make them 'look like a boy' if they cut their hair short; gain some confidence!

Granted, it's so fascinating that people can hold so much emotional baggage in hair. It becomes a permanently attached security blanket, fastened to the skull. And it can reduce someone to tears to literally separate that connection to these tendrils that were present for all those meaningful milestones in the past. It can take months to grow, but mere seconds to rid yourself of those strands!

Thumbnail dump

No finished/colored stuffs today. I'm finally taking action in getting the 'epic comic' out of my head and down onto paper. It's exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. Here are some tiny thumbnails of the first 10 pages.

After reading up on Paul Duffield's methods for making comic pages, I'm thinking of printing lightly drawn out pages as well, but instead of penciling over them as he does, I think I might get myself a light-box and go with that method for inking. Experimentation is happening!