And Again

I know, it's been months. The problem isn't remember do draw. I do that all the time, but trying to think of what to say in a blog where I post the art is the challenge. I don't want to prattle on about the piece, I just want to post it and be done.

So, in order to keep posting but prevent the intimidation factor, I'll just drop in some drawings once in a while with minimal comment and if anyone wants to know more about a piece, they are free to leave a comment and I will answer.

So here's some Voltron: Legendary Defender fan art, starting from back in May 2018



Shiro as a koi merman for Mermay 2018

Allura and Shiro looking as 80s as possible.

Shiro with his new, all white hair after the end of season 6.

Some Colored Art I Guess

April 3rd was when the Voltron social media celebrated Pidge's birthday so of course I contributed.

Gift for a friend of some Japanese fantasy-esque Shiro surrounded by camellias. I actually don't like it that much any more but I am still proud of those flowers.

(Belated) The Start of 2018

This has been sitting in my drafts for over a month because first I couldn't think of anything to say and then I completely forgot about it, as often happens. My bad.

Voltron's official social media has given Hunk's birthday as January 13th, so I drew this for the occasion. Yeah, it was that long ago.

A little Allura and Shiro (Voltron) from a whie back that was mostly for coloring and fabric practice.

Shiro's birthday has been official listed as February 29th by the official Voltron social media accounts, but this year it was celebrated the beginning of March. Of course I had to draw my favorite character having a much deserved nap with his lion.

So this ended up being all Voltron but at least they're all in color. I'll try to update quicker next time...

Nothing Inktober Yet

I mentioned in the last entry that I would be participating in Inktober this year, and so far I have been. Honestly I'm impressed that I've managed to fill a prompt every day so far. But before I start posting those drawings, I want to put up the ones I finished before this started.


First up, an adorable couple from Voltron: Legendary Defender. I spent a Saturday working on this sketch of Hunk (the human) and his rock alien girlfriend, Shay. They have such an adorable relationship that I just had to draw them at some point. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Especially because it turns out they're both super fun to draw.
                    

This one I just did for some digital art practice and to pull myself out of an art funk. Eren from Attack on Titan. It's a... grim show for those who didn't know. Though for context's sake, he was saving a kidnapped girl. ...Let's move on.

Lastly, another fun Voltron art of Shiro and Pidg wearing these lion backpacks. The space mall background is a screenshot from the show because I am not that ambitious.

Next time there will be some Inktober sketches, though I'm not sure when that will be. Season four of Voltron drops on Netflix this Friday and I may be an emotional wreck.

Violet Sunrise

This is the most work that I have put into a drawing in a very long time. Months at least. It's also the most time I've spent on a Voltron drawing so far. For now I'm still very proud of it, so I'm presenting it in a blog entry all by itself.

The idea behind it is that Allura is kissing Shiro awake, like a brave princess waking her knight.

With this, I am almost caught up posting the drawings I have saved on my computer. However, I'm also going to be attempting to do Inktober, so that should help boost me along. Or at least, attempting until my trip on the 21st.

See you next time!

Just Those Attack on Titan Weirdos

Like the title says.

There was another fandom week for the Levi/Hanji pairing so these are some of my better entries.

Also the background for the last one because I spent hours on that thing and want people to see it.

Homages, Designs, and Improvements

It's probably a good thing you don't know how long these blog entries sit in my drafts with the pictures already added but me unable to think of anything coherent to say.

First is a simple sketch of two Attack on Titan characters, Mike and Nanaba, based on a photo of Carrie Fisher being held up by Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca).  The size difference is just uncanny and reminded me of these two.

A few entries ago I showed a sketch I did of Shiro from Voltron as the alien race Altean. I finally took it a step farther and designed some body markings for him, too. So far we've only seen the face marks on the Altean characters, but I think it'd be fun if they had those all over. And if they glowed.

 

Also while working on this I made an outfit template for anything else I want to design for Shiro. Then I looked at the original template I'd done a few months prior and there was like a leap in improvement. It's good to look at whenever I'm discouraged about my artistic journey.

Drawing all those muscles was a nice bonus, too.

The Voltron Favorite

Note: The third and final drawing in this entry will have some violent content


In case I haven't made it totally obvious, Shiro is my favorite character in Voltron: Legendary Defender. I relate to him on many levels and he's just so pretty. So here's a mini-dump of some of the (several) drawings I did of him last year.

For Shiro Week: A very young Shiro before he joined the Galaxy Garrison and went to Kerberos

Last fall the Voltron art team released a limited lithograph with every single character from season one of the show... and also these weird floating poofs. I thought they were cute so I drew Shiro with a few.

Drawing with some blood below

Another Shiro Week prompt. "Champion". I based it on his first battle in the arena, which is where I think the scar came from.

Attack On Titan Spoilers Follow

For any fans of Attack on Titan who aren't caught up with the manga, turn back now if you don't want spoilers. The spoiler drawing will be the last one.

Levi and Hanji cuddling. Part of a birthday gift for a friend last July.

Levi walking a female Even down the aisle to give her away. Note the implied threat in his eyes for the groom.

Attack on Titan Spoilers Below

The manga spent a lot of chapters hinting that Erwin Smith would die before the end of the series. But that didn't make it any less sad when it happened. He's a character that I love, so I had to draw at least somethingin his memory. It's not bad for a quick digital sketch.

This entry took much longer to finish than planned. It's been sitting in my drafts for a while. But the deed is finally done and I  can brainstorm was to post next.

Visual Representation

Art isn't always for fun. Sometimes it's because you can't scream.

(March 20 2016)

Wow, This Is A Lot

Once in a while fandom communities will come together on Tumblr to organize a week of prompts dedicated to said fandom. It's unofficial and always just for fun. Last March there was such an event for my favorite Attack on Titan pairing, Levi and Hanji.  It's crazy to think that this was the last major art project I did before starting my full time job.

Technically there were seven days' worth but I don't like all of them enough to share. What I do feel like sharing I'll put up with the prompt that inspired it and how I chose to fill it.

Prompt: Service Men/Women

Fill: Levi and Hanji as police officers

Prompt: Fantasy

Levi is a shape-shifting dragon and Hanji is his human mate.

Prompt: College
Fill: ...self explanatory

Prompt: Iconic Movie
Fill: Levi and Hanji as members of the MIB

Going back through these I realize that I couldn't seem to choose a consistent color palette for Hanji other than "darker skin than Levi". Lately I've been more consistent with that.

Feeling Like A Time Traveller

The last entry was miscellaneous artwork that didn't fall into one of two fan art categories, so from here on it's going to mostly fan art going back to the earlier I have for 2016 up until the most recent. It's going to be an experience looking through my folders and finding things from roughly a year ago and thinking back to my motivations and my mental state when I made them.

This entry will be all Attack on Titan fan arts of varying crossover or Alternate Reality setting. 

The first is from a Role Play with a friend where Levi is a shark merman and Hanji is a marine biologist. She rescues him from a tide pool one day and they hit it off from there.

I now remember how difficult it was to make Hanji look right after Levi turned out exactly how I wanted. She still doesn't look totally how I want, but it's been a year and the original drawing is now hanging on someone's wall. 

In 2015 I discovered and fell in love with Steven Universe. A friend turned me onto it and I grew to love these strange characters that were aliens made of gems (Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, etc.) 

Considering my obsession with Attack on Titan, it was only a matter of time before a friend and I did a crossover of the two. For my part, I decided to try designing Levi as a gem and settled on an Obsidian. My first design in 2015 was... bad. But early 2016 I tried again with far better results.

Role-playing with this version of Levi even inspired me to try digitally painting a background for the first time in... forever. And reminded me why I hate plants so much. Let me just say I'm glad plants are edible so I can eat them out of spite/revenge.

Although looking at it now I'm also acutely aware that I should try a complex background again sometime soon. Having the motivation will be much easier without trying to hastily throw one together for a webcomic page each week.

I haven't yet decided what intervals I'll post blog entries at. Weekly? Twice a week? Who knows. I'm just rolling with it for now.

See you next time!

Back Again

It's been months since the last time I made an entry, and I apologize. At least it's not for a lack of drawing. The webcomic is still going strong, and chapter four is scheduled to start on Friday. I haven't been putting the pages on my portfolio blog because they didn't feel high quality enough, but here is a link to the comic all the same. Once chapter four starts I'll probably start including Previous Page links in the description as well as a jump to the first page.

As for other art, I've been doing this and that on the side when I can. The comic takes a lot of energy however, so unrelated bouts of creative energy are few and far between. All the same, I figured I'd upload a few of the things I've done lately. There seems to be a running theme of Attack on Titan fanart, including an art experiment of what Levi might look like if he were black...

Finally Something Else

Rose With Thorns updated today as usual, and as usual here is my portfolio entry that has the page without text, as well as a link to the page itself.

This week, however, I am pleased to announce that I finally drew and colored something that is in no way related to the webcomic. It was 100% for fun. It's fan art of course, and Role-play related as it often is. If you want an explanation bad enough you can ask but I'll go ahead and say that the characters are from Attack on Titan and Blue Exorcist. Also including the progress pictures, because it's been a while since that happened, too.

Random Update: This Was A Bad Idea

Over the past week or so I've been working on Chapter 2 of Rose With Thorns. To be honest I've been dreading it because there will be at least three complex backgrounds for just this chapter, at least one of which I am unlikely to use again. It's tempting to have a majority of the story take place somewhere easy to draw but I'd rather not put a cap on creativity.

So here's my first real obnoxious setting, a playground. A photo of the playground outside my apartment was used as a guide.

I also started something that I've been meaning to; a color/outfit chart for Thatch. He'll make his debut in Chapter 3 but I'd like to be ready for that. Hopefully he'll be finished on Friday and uploaded with the last page of Chapter 2.

Week 44: The Stubborn Girl Part 2

Once again just barely in time, Rose's outfit/color guide sheet.

Rose is actually half Mexican and I recently realized that would probably make her name "Rosa", but she goes by "Rose" just to lessen any bullying/complications with classmates/racist jerks. Though she's just finished high school so I guess the former is no longer relevant.

Her clothes are no baggy as a fashion statement. Her clothes are baggy because living with an abusive step father does a number on your appetite and you don't eat much. Her birth father was awesome, just so we're clear. He's also where she gets her Mexican blood from.

Week 39: Own It

Years ago I drew a character in a red dress with a minimalist city background blocked in behind her. This was before I had a tablet or any decent digital art program so it was a huge pain. Technology made things so much easier and smoother this time around. Another plus is that if I decide to make a series of it, I have the background in a document ready to use.

Week 39: Step Up

Every time I decide to try a new shading method it turns into "I dunno, make several guesses until something looks good", which makes duplicating the process difficult. Working on this also made me realized that I need to do some muscle studies, both structure and lighting because once again I forgot how to anatomy. Also her foot is huge, which I went back and fixed after saving this file.

Week 39: The Lady in Red

It occurred to me recently that I draw a decent amount of my favorite Attack on Titan character, Hanji,and a lot of my other favorite, Levi, but there are so many other wonderful characters that I haven't even touched yet. Mikasa is wonderful and strong and passionate and just an all-around great character. I couldn't believe I hadn't drawn her yet, so that's what this week is all about.