Hello! I haven't updated in a minute. I have been knee deep in developing my TTRPG. It's coming along wonderfully. I am currently working on abilities and character progression. What I have completed the general systems for the game minus some space faring vehicle specifics. What is still on the docket is an expansive gear list for all my little sci fi trinkets. So many things on the to-do list. Here is a little preview of the character generation chapter. This chapter will take you through the character creation process. I am keeping the initial systems super simple to make onboarding a new player super easy. So yeah, not much to update in this regard as I am keeping my head down and developing this game. Doing this all by myself is a very big project. Sure, I knew it was going to be super in depth, but oh boy do I feel OUT of my depth. 😅 Some Art I've done since May!Even though I have been working hard on my game, I have also done even more art. I do need more art for my TTRPG after all. Upon reflecting on the last few months of doing truly fulfilling creative work, I am grateful to have the ability to take my time with this huge project. I can't wait to share this whole game with the world.
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...and now I'm back! It's good to take a little time away from art just to keep from burning out. I still did some doodles here and there, but I stayed away from trying to get things perfect. I ESPECIALLY didn't want to worry about posting anything. After about two weeks, I feel refreshed and inspired. So of course I finish two pieces in the last 48 hours! 😅 The first piece I wanted to do more of a full scene so I drew a Pscion from the TTRPG setting I'm creating. It's the current character class that I am working on. Still a work in progress and figuring out the progression system.
Figure Drawing PracticeIn the last week or so I went full bore on some character pieces. It started with just doing pose exercises that weren't meant to really go anywhere. Suddenly, I felt inspired to maybe turn some of these poses into fully rendered drawings! Sometimes you just feel it and you need to keep going. There was something about the natural way the figures we standing and carrying their weight. So, I have finished up a couple of drawings to share. Let take a look. "Hunter/Killer"This one was very interesting. I saw a couple of ultra details mechanics on the internet and was super into the idea of recreating it as armor. I think the real busy mechanics turned out well, but there should be more exploration in this space. Also, I thought I'd go with something different for the background as well. It's giving off a very anime-flying-through-the-air vibe. "Welcome"This is a little bit more of a basic piece. I loved the pose so much I decided to finish it. I like how there is a slightly different texture of the various materials in the costume design. There is a welcoming and confident vibe with this piece that I jive with. "The Invasion"This one I took a big leap in terms of background. Once again I am still drawn to cityscapes so I tried to do something a little more off in the distance. I also made an attempt to draw water, which is something I had never done before. I actually think it turned out really well of the first time ever drawing it! The subject matter is tied to the TTRPG setting I am making where cities are built under these floating monoliths of unknown origin. The prevailing theory is that they were placed on certain planets for terraforming purposes but there is no insight as to who built them. It's a super mysterious part of the setting's lore. A Plane Ride Doodle...This last piece was not part of the pose practice. However, I found myself on an airplane and I needed something to do. This whole piece was just a quick little portrait I did on the multi-hour flight. It also helped keep me distracted by the fact that I was thousands of feet in the air. 😅
Well. that's about it for now! Hope you all are having a good one and I will talk at y'all soon. If you haven't heard of The Pose Archives (https://www.instagram.com/theposearchives/), then I highly recommend checking them out. They are fantastic for artists as they have so many varieties of poses to choose from. They do a monthly challenge where they pick a pose and have artists draw it in their style. I finished up my entry in that challenge and it is presented here: You can view the original reference here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5R1r5jPNrp/?img_index=1 It was a surprisingly challenging pose as there is some subtleties in the way the subject is leaning in the reference image. It took several false starts to nail the figure first before adding my own artists flare to it. I gave her a robotic arm because of course I did. 🤣
Anyway, go check them out and I hope you enjoy this piece. Have a wonderful day! Hello all you wonderful people who stumble upon these ramblings! In the last couple of days I have finished a couple of pieces and I would love to share. I know that it's not quite been a month (Its been like 5 days XD) since my last post. I am going to make a promise to post more throughout the month and not just once a month. Just as I post my art on social media when I finish it, I am going to make it a habit to post about it here as well where I know I have the ability to say more about it than what character limits allow me to on other sites. Starting with the next piece of art I finish, I am going to post it here first and then put a link to that precise post to all my socials. Maybe just include a small segment or preview of it and have the full version of it here. My goal is to get eyeballs here since this place is the most impactful for me. It is certainly where I put in the most work for sure. I want this to be the place where I engage with as many folks as possible. We shall see how that turns out as sometimes my IRL schedule hampers my art schedule. Some other things I'm working onI also want to make some of my art available for people to purchase as well. I don't have huge ambitions or anything, but I have had several folks in the real world ask why I don't sell prints or that I should sell prints. I have gotten similar suggestions with stickers. I am currently looking into what that might look like in terms of initial investment in getting prints and the logistics of selling them here. There is also the question of "What of I turn into prints that people would want to buy?". This is the hardest part of all. The first thing I'm going to do is order EXTREMELY small quantities of one of my personal favorites and put it up on this site to see if there is any interest. However, I am totally open to suggestions as what pieces people would be interested in. This is all very new for me. 😬 New Art!Without further ado, here is the most recent pieces I've done. The first is a full scene that I wanted to challenge myself with. I really wanted to nab the perspective and create a really melancholy vibe. Also, I don't think I've ever drawn rain before. Thematically it's very similar to one of my favorite pieces I've drawn before, but the angle was so new and difficult. I really like the results though. The top down perspective took a lot of experimentation with the character. I don't think I have ever drawn someone from this angle before. Not in a piece I've finished anyway. The reall challenge was figuring out what would be visible from this angle. The next piece is a little more traditional in terms of my other work. What I really wanted to accomplish here was drawing someone from behind. I rarely draw a character facing away from the viewer and I wasn't too sure how out of practice I was. Also, I rarely draw characters with tattoos, so I thought I would try my hand at that as well. The character still has some of the stylistic choices I often make with my character art such as the mechanical elements, but there was some nice comfortable experimentation here in contrast to the extreme experimentation with the image above. The month is just starting and I know I've got a lot more art in me. I am going to give each of the pieces I draw the time in needs to be properly seen. That means more posts with more depth about my thought process and what I was going for with each post. Hopefully I can keep a good cadence.
In the meantime, I am going to be sending out more monthly newsletters that will link to all of the posts I made for that month so someone can get all caught up. So if you can, subscribe to my newsletter below. I would greatly appreciate it. I promise that you won't get inundated with emails from me. It's a lot of work just coming up with one a month. 😅 Stay creative everyone! This month I have been hard at work on my TTRPG setting. I have narrowed down the character creation, so now I can work on character progression. What does "leveling up" mean in this system. I want to do something familiar so onboarding is easy. I also want to make my system distinct enough that it entices folks to try it out. My goal is to have something play-testable by May. Stay tuned here for a free download to try it out and play test it yourself! Art-wise I have deviated a little bit from my usual concept art to focus on practical application of art techniques. I have been practicing dynamic angles as well as metal reflections. I've also done a couple of portrait studies to help with my facial features. All of this culminating into a fan art project that I am particularly proud of and an original piece that was just fun to do! Let's take a look. Portrait PracticeI did two portrait practices this month. As stated above, I needed to refresh some skills for facial features. The first piece, pictured below, is of someone who had their head slightly tilted up. This is a perspective I don't draw much so it was a really good practice. I decided to decorate it to make it my own. I played around with the lighting and shadow and I think it came across very natural. It definitely warrants more experimentation. The next piece was a portrait where the subject was angling their face down. There was something striking about the way the hands were in the original image. That is what drove me to do this study. It think the hands were very difficult, but they turned out very passable. This is a great improvement as I have always struggled to get hand right. I think I have passed the point where I only drew clenched fists to avoid drawing the hands all together. I'll keep practicing. ProgressSpeaking of practice, I am going to start looking back at drawings that I did a decade ago and redraw them using the things I know now. Below is an example of a character I drew in 2014. I basically recreated it but using the techniques I've been working on. I also updated the armor and the emotion of the piece. It's amazing how much I've progressed. PerspectiveI am also currently practicing perspective as well. In this case a drop down perspective. I am not super happy with how it turned out, but I forced myself to finish it regardless. I think there is something here worth exploring though. I am going to try drawing a similar pose in April and see if I can make it something I am happy with. The angle and for-shortening is almost there. I can't quite put my finger on what needs to change. If you see something or have critique, please feel free to comment below. Reflective MetalThis next one I am super happy with. I has stumbled upon some sci fi art online and the one thing that struck me was the reflections in the metal. Looking at my own stuff I didn't se too much shiny metal. This umpired me to draw this piece for the express purpose of making the armor shiny and reflective. The lighting is behaving the way that it should and love how detailed I made the suit. I spent a good long while on it. The next step will be figuring out how to reflect objects in the metal to really give the impression that it a reflective surface. Though there is still some work to do, I will see this one as a win. :) X-Men '97 Fan ArtI am of the age that I watched the original X-Men 90s cartoon. I have a lot of nostalgia for it and I would say it had no small hand in the meteoric rise of Marvel in pop culture today. I love the property and when I heard they were reviving the series, I was skeptical. However, it is turning out to be a super fun trip into a time period of cartoons that I had forgotten. It inspired me to draw one of my favorite characters in the whole property. Rogue has always held a special place in my heart and drawing her was a perfect celebration of X-Men '97 coming out. Funzies!Lastly, I have a piece here that I drew for no reason at all other than to just have fun and not think about too many things. The weather is starting to flirt with getting warmer and sunnier (I live in the Pacific Northwest). I am ready for the grey and rainy weather to go away. This piece is a representation of my attitude right now. I am ready to go out into the sun but it's not consistently shining yet. So the subject patiently waiting - while at the same time being annoyed that they're waiting - is totally a vibe and I'm here for it. I'm ready for Spring/Summer. Reflections...Next month will be my birthday. It's a big milestone as I will be entering a new decade of life. It's weird to think about sometimes. On one hand, I am super amazed at the progress I've made in the last ten years. On the other hand, it's hard not to think about all of the time I wasted when I was younger NOT creating art. I had convinced myself I couldn't do it and was content to just consume it in the form of comic books and other media. It wasn't until much later in life I got over myself.
It has taken a long time, but I am finally in a place where I actually enjoy looking at my work. That's not to say I don't want to continue to improve, but I don't spend a lot of brain power hating my art. 😅 Don't wait to follow your dreams. Just get out there and do it. Don't keep telling yourself reasons to not do it. You may have to fight yourself, cry to yourself, or laugh at yourself; but don't ever condemn yourself. Take it from me, the years go by fast. This blog will accompany my first ever newsletter. It won't have anything huge in it, but it will have a brief synopsis of this post with a link to come here to view it. I am going to try to post more and use the newsletter as my monthly correspondence. Don't know why, but I'm oddly excited to give a newsletter a shot. I'm going to try to add additional incentives to subscribe to the newsletter. I will try a few things in the coming months and we'll see what resonates. See you all later and stay creative. Here we are again at the end of the month. We are just a few days away from Emerald City Comic Con and I am super stoked. I look forward to this all year. When one ends, I already start looking forward to the next one. Sometimes, when things get really rough at work, I can tell myself that there's always Comic Con around the corner. That is what made the pandemic so hard for the years it was happening. No Comic Con. No gatherings of fandoms anywhere. It took a really big toll on my mental health. Creating art was the only thing keeping me sane most of the time. But enough about that! ECCC is upon us! I get a chance to meet so many great artists. I rarely get such concentrated time chatting with people about their creative process. It truly fils my bucket. I am going to post again at the beginning of March to break down all I did. I hope you'll come along with me. More art has been created however. February Art DumpI did not finish as much art this month as I would like. I got distracted with some projects pertaining to my day job (not art related at all). I did manage to finish a couple of pieces so I'll share them here. A Possible CollaborationThe first piece I am sharing is the first maybe in a series of works. I am in talks to possibly collaborate with someone on a future art show. I won't say anything beyond that as nothing has solidified into a real project yet. But this possible collaborator wanted to see some of my original character and what it would look like with text. I'm am no graphic designer when it comes to font choice and composition, but I think it gets the point across even without the specific skillset needed. I initially started out with what I do best which is character design. So I drew each of these characters individually. Here are the full bodies of these individual characters. Portrait StudiesThese next pieces were just little studies to keep my skills up and practice little things like angle and hands. Oh god...the hands. Every once in while you have to challenge yourself. For me, there is nothing more challenging than hands. So the first piece is specifically for the complex position of the hands. However, I was also able to experiment a little with the coloring as well. I wanted to mess with different hues of light while at the same time having the skin look more naturalistic. I think the coloring turned out a little more stylized than natural, but I still liked how it turned out. I think the hands are almost what I wanted to accomplish. The fingers on one of the hands seem too short for some reason. Not enough knuckles. 😅 Still, the face looks great and the piercing gaze was captured. So I chalk this one up as a win! The next portrait was more to practice angles that I rarely practice. I dabble a little bit in angles, but I need to keep trying to be more dynamic with the placement of my "camera" when it comes to my art. This isn't exclusive to my portraits, it is something I am trying to incorporate into ALL of my art. You will see some further experimentation later on in my Complete Compositions. I really like the design of this character. It happened solely by accident. It was a study, so it didn't really need to be a full fledge design, but she just kept peering into my soul and needed to be a more fully fleshed out character design. Despite that though, I think I nailed the angle I was going for. Why a cyberpunk elf? Why not? 😛 Completed CompositionsThe next two pieces are completed compositions for this sourcebook I'm making for "Void's Edge". They're going to be full page spreads at the beginning of a few chapters. Definitely playing with angles here in this last image. Top down has always been a struggle for me. I think I did a pretty decent job. I'm making progress at least! The shared challenge is forcing myself to do the backgrounds. I'm seeing progress slowly. I'm waiting for that moment where everything "clicks". Right now I'm not thinking with enough detail. I think I should focus on more scenery studies. Stay tuned! Unfinished WorksThis month also some works which stated out as something, but fizzled out midway through for one reason or another. I want to include them because there are som many artists out there who can feel discouraged if they struggle to finish a piece. There is no shame in leaving a project incomplete. If it is not inspiring you and there is no client with a deadline, then you are totally empowered to let it sit. Maybe I'll revisit these at a later date. This one I left unfinished because I only created it to practice realistic skin tones. I am focusing more on a more painterly color theory when it comes to skin tones and I am hoping that it will eventually allow me to diversify the many shades and hues of human skin. Anyway, I drew this piece specifically to try out a color theory with skin tones where one takes a main color and to create the shade one increased the saturation and bring down the brightness in very specific percentages. Then you add a little red to the midtones to create the sense of translucency of the skin. After playing around with this, I was trying to force my self to finish this piece only to realize, I didn't have to. The pose wasn't particularly inspiring and I was mentally exhausted trying to get the skin right. So here this character is, in all her unfinished glory. This one was a tough one to abandon. I love the story and narrative this has without saying any words. It's great visual storytelling and a happy accident. This is where it became a problem. I got invested in this piece and became obsessed and hyper-focused on the details. So things like the angle of the figure in the foreground not looking right or not matching 100% with the reflection made things so frustrating. Even with a reference image (Thanks @theposearchive), I couldn't get the details I think this piece deserved right. It was very frustrating to say the least. So I chose to leave it be. I want to give it the full finished treatment I think it deserves. I'm just wondering if I'm capable of pulling it off. Maybe I will come back to it at a later date. If you want to chime with your take on whether I should finish or leave it, please leave a comment down below. I'd love to hear you opinion. As March begins.This should be a month where things settle down and will be able to put even more focus on my art. I am trying new things with my social media presence to see if I can garner more eyeballs on my stuff. I've seen a little uptick on site traffic here as a result. I have to keep going and take advantage of the momentum. It's just...social media is not my passion. For the last decade I have used social media as a means of consuming media. It takes a lot of hard work to actually cultivate a following.
My goal, of course, is to not make social media the priority. However, the more I can get eyeballs on my work, the better. So if you're here because of clicking on a link in one of my posts or my bios, welcome. I hope these little looks into my artistic process and mindset is something you find engaging. Tell your friends. In the meantime, keep on trucking. There is a lot wrong with the world right now, but there is also so much beauty and community out there as well. Let's help each other out there. Be excellent to each other. I will post again soon. So long! ExperimentationThe new year is almost one twelfth done and I have been super busy. Professionally, things have gotten crazy, but that means I need to create art more than ever. Drawing characters is the best way I can to unwind. So, of course, my brain needed to make it more complicated. I decided to get more ambitious with my art. Not all of the pieces I drew with month were ambitious, but I wanted to challenge myself with a few. This is all thanks to a couple of content creators I stumbled across called The Pose Archives (https://linktr.ee/theposearchives). They specialize in creating reference images for artists! They have a treasure trove of poses over on their Patreon. If you are an artist at all and always struggle with finding good references, check them out! Here are a few characters using their poses as references. I have always struggled finding dynamic poses online. There are only so many images google searches can yield. There are hundreds of poses over on The Pose Archive and I highly recommend them. This post is not sponsored or endorsed in any way by The Pose Archive, I just want to point as many people in their direction as possible. Other Art for JanuaryI have more art inbound since it is almost mod February as of the time of this writing. Here are some of the random arts I drew while still in January. Kind of a hodgepodge of different content, but I had some fun with them. Game System UpdateI am getting closer to putting together all of the different rules to create my TTRPG system. Since I am one person, things are processing slowly. We are inching closer to some actual play testing with my gaming group. I am hoping to keep you updated as things progress. Currently, I am writing out the history of the setting. It's been super enjoyable creating worlds and seeing things come to life. I am looking forward to sharing soon! Signing off for now! I hope you all have a wonderful February and stay tuned for the next Episode of "I Have Something to Say About That" (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-have-something-to-say-about-that/id1613282824) where we talk about aliens and their depiction in Hollywood cinema. That should be dropping mid-february. Cheers!
Posting the art I did during the month has started to become a tradition. In keeping with that tradition, I am posting my December art here. I decided to try something new with a couple of the pieces. A friend of mine, Tryfe (Check his stuff out at https://www.instagram.com/tryfe), suggested I try my art style with logo or branding to see how they mesh. Now, this is indeed a completely different art form so I gave it a good college try. I also didn't really have any actual logo or saying to actually put into the art so I just have placeholder text. 😅 I thought I'd use a character I had drawn before. I think it would do me some good to redraw my original characters every once in a while. They can't all be improved on the spot. Maybe that is what some of my art blocks have been in the past? I am trying to come up with a new original character every single time I draw and maybe I should draw someone I've already created just in different situations. Maybe that's something worth thinking about. 🤔 As far as other pieces go, I tried different character designs, but mostly I wanted to experiment with different kinds of poses. Especially these two pieces where the character is sitting on the floor. There are certain ways humans have to sit if they're sitting on the floor and this was good practice. One looks natural while the other looks a little contorted. Not sure what happened there, but it's practice so I'm posting it here. 🙃 The next piece I drew in December was an exercise in baggy clothing. I've seen a lot of cozy art over on Threads and I wanted to recreate that. Of course, I added a more sci fi and mysterious flare to it though.
I also did a few more concept art prices for the tabletop game I'm designing. I'm really leaning into the cosmetic and designer side of technology when it comes to body modification. It was been super fun to explore that in both subtle and extreme examples. The experimentation is really the point here. I am really happy with how all of these turned out. I am hoping to explore this more as time presses on. The one on the left is exploring body modification in the form of skin coloring as well as technology "tattoos". The picture in the middle is more based out power and is a little more subtle (minus the power cells coming out of her back of course). Lastly, the piece on the right is meant to really encompass the vibe of the world I'm creating. I drew someone powerful, but also in a relaxed stated. Lastly, this next piece is an honorable mention for December as I started her but did not finish her in December. She is my first official completed piece of 2024. I the world I'm creating there are synthetic humans that are both artificial but alive. They need to recharge on occasion and I've drawn a few of them in the past. I'm hopeful for what 2024 brings. There seems to be turmoil in the horizon, but I can see it coming and I'm ready for it. This year promises to be one for the history books (for better or worse) and I am going to face it head on. Look forward to a preview of my tabletop game during this year and I am hoping that I can garner enough play testers to figure out how broken it is and learn as I go. I am not a game designer by profession and I am mostly learning as I go. Wish me luck.
As far as 2024 goes for everyone else, I hope that it brings nothing but joy and prosperity to all of you. If you are finding this blog for the first time, welcome. Let's make 2024 the year for the ages. Farewell for now and hope to have more art soon. We have another month almost in the books. With that comes time to reflect on what has happened thus far. I have some new art to show as well as some successes to share. So let's get started! First of all, art. The first piece I tried something new with the way I colored. I didn't use hard inking lines and instead went with a more painterly style. This is the first time I've done something as detailed as this without line art. I was pretty pleased with it. The second piece I drew while watching sports on tv and I thought it was a fun take. I do like how vibrant the coloring is. I also added a little glitch effect to give the vibe of watching it on a tv or something like that. The third piece is an actual character commission I did for someone's D&D campaign. I was all too happy to draw their character and I hope it stands them in good stead. I also did a little experiment and drew a mirror in the background which would reflect the character's back. It was super ambitious and I love how it turned out. Over 100 followers on Treads!I’ve never had much luck in social media. For a long time it felt like I was just posting a bunch of art with no one seeing it. The only time I would get any engagement it was usually just from bots. I’ve mentioned this before. It was very demoralizing. Lately though, I have found quite the artist/creative haven over at the most unlikely of places. I have been fairly active on Threads as of late. It seems that, at least to the algorithm, Threads has been completely taken over by artists. I have met so many amazing creative people over there. I am doing my best to engage with their content the same way they have engaged with mine. I hope I am living up to the challenge. For the first time on any social, I have over 100 followers! I technically have as much on Instagram, but a huge chunk of them seem to not be real people so I struggle to count that. It was hard for a while but I'm starting to build a community over there. If you're reading this because of discovering me on Threads, welcome! Please throw a comment down below and let's interact! November's ReflectionsThis month has been a tough one. Not necessarily because of any hardship, but just a lack of energy. I am trying to devote all of my creative focus on my art and I think I'm hitting empty. I only did three art pieces this month. Maybe that means I need to take a couple of weeks off and just consume other people's art. I need to reconnect with my inner artist. If you're an artist, and I am not following you, let me know in the comments. I need to see more of other people's work.
Anyway, thank you of reading these ramblings and I hope you all have a safe and wonderful December. I will leave with these final thoughts, you are not the sum of your work. You are so much more than that. Don't let the lack of inspiration dissuade you from putting in the work. Create something every day even if it's hard. This is advice I am following myself. Cheers. |
PoofypumaThe thoughts, musings, and postings of a character designer. Subscribe to never miss a curious inner monologue. |