Organizing

It's near the end of the year and instead of spending it in a drunken stupor like normal, I've actually been doing some much needed organizing.  You see, I move around a lot (not an alot).  Like, a serious lot which you can undoubtedly find evidence of in these non-hallowed...pages?  words?  Whatever.

One of the things I find I've never got time for during a move is going through paperwork and files and whatnot.  It's a low priority thing and I'm generally more focused on bigger things like moving cars and hooking up utilities and that kind of thing.  Well, the last couple weeks I've recycled four full boxes full of crap that I've been carrying around but that's not what I want to talk about.

I spent the evening organizing my art.  All of it.  Or, at least, all of it that remains.  I viewed, sorted, and filed everything I had left spanning nearly 30 years.  It was...interesting.  Hankerin' at Drunkens and Dragons says that art is a skill.  I agree with this.  I don't have hardly any skill at all but it was fun to see how I got there from having zero skill.  Maybe it was negative.  Can you have negative skill?  I'm pretty sure I had that when I started.

I was also struck by how much I remembered of what was going on.  I could generally gauge the era something was drawn in even if I hadn't started sticking dates on things in 1990 (yes, I really do this).  I even remembered what was going on in my life and where I was living which is kind of a feat given how many places I've lived.  It was an interesting trip down memory lane for better or worse.

The upside of all of this, is that I've been reunited with some of my favorite pieces.  Digitizing gods willing, some of them will show up here.  Maybe my post count can be saved after all.

My Post Count!!!1!one

In a blatant attempt to rescue my post count in a rapidly ending year, here's some art.

I'm starting to learn how Manga Clip Studio works but it's not going fast.

This is De'elah.  She's been here before though probably a really long time ago and maybe not on this site.  She'll probably be back again at some point.

I won't talk about how long this piece took mostly because it's embarrassing especially given that I started with an OK sketch (from 2004, no less).  Nor will I talk about how badly I screwed up the shading.

I will say that I needed to be done and it was above my admittedly low minimum suck bar.   So there's that.

Less Sketchy

Meh.  Still needs work.  Someday I'll learn how to use my tools.

Also:  how is it April already?!

More Sketchines

Charissa

Sketchier but faster done earlier this last week.  She's sposed to have chain mail underneath but that didn't come through.  I went with a completely impractical half plate getup because for story reasons she's not supposed to be without her shield.  The weapon is because we don't see nearly enough hammer warriors.

More to come!

Sketchiness

Genoveffa

In an attempt to rescue my post count this year, here's some art.  Earlier this year I switched from ArtRage (which I still like) to Manga Studio (which I like more).  It has more of what I'm looking for in easier forms to use which seems like a win.

I've also started working more from reference which hopefully comes through.  I'm hoping I can do a piece every couple weeks at least and start doing faster cleans and colors and such.

Hopefully poor Geno won't end up on Repair Her Armor. Next one won't be as cheesecake-y, I promise.

Line Art

Not too terribly long ago, I bought a Surface Pro 2.  Forget, for the moment, all your criticisms of Microsoft, its recent turmoil, and the travesty that is its latest Windows.  This machine is the culmination of the crossroads of everything I've ever wanted in a computer.  It's fast, it's hugely portable, it has good battery life, but critically, and most importantly, it has a built in pressure sensitive tablet.

As a lefty who mouses with my right hand, I haven't ever and never will art well with one.  I have owned many, many tablets over the last twenty years from extravagantly expensive to terrifically cheap and terrible.  Despite having used these to good effect and having practiced on them for untold thousands of hours it's never been as natural as pencil on paper.  Working digitally, for me anyway, has always been cleaner but it's never been as natural as meatspace efforts.  The Surface Pro 2 solves this neatly and it's no word of a lie that I've been waiting for decades for a proper solution--and now I have it.

This is Rhode from Divinity II which I'll write about more at a later date, most likely in my end of year recap.  Rhode was one of my favorite characters.  Sketched from reference on my Bamboo then cleaned up on the Surface with colors hopefully following at some point.

Yes, I could have purchased  Cintiq but they are hugely expensive especially for someone who doesn't honestly art all that much =and= the Surface came with all the laptop I'll need for hopefully quite a while.  Now, other than time, I don't really have any excuses.

As I was thinking of replacing my old laptop anyway, this really was a no-brainer.  Actually since my employer paid for most of it through a development bonus it was even-less-than-no-brainer.  I am enormously happy with it which I haven't been able to say about a laptop for a long, long time.

Programmer Art

If you've been here before, you probably know that I still have art pretension.  This is Faith from Afterlife Blues which is illustrated by a coworker.

Original resolution was something like 1500x3600 done almost entirely in ArtRage.  This is the only reasonable piece I've done since...er...last March.

I Still Suck at Colors

Someday I'll get it sorted out...some day...

WIP

Been arting again. Hope to continue for a while. In a feeble attempt to post more, here's a WIP.

Alyssa is one of my (many) characters from Mass Effect as seen in ME1.

I told you I suck at colors

...so I didn't even try!



The last, oh, two months have been spent in the pursuit of building a Mount & Blade mod. Oh the irony! Crappy documentation: Check. Broken API: Check. Convoluted code: Check. Poor grammar: Check. It's just like work! I might talk about it later but remember: I'm lazy.

This is the title image I made for it at some ridiculously DPI busting 5000x7000 pixels, now resized for more convenient viewing. If I were smart (and it's well documented that I'm not), I would have checked/realized that the image that goes into the game is a diminutive 340x275. A 340x275 image completely loses its meticulously crafted details when resized from gigantic so the three days I spent on it seem...underappreciated.

Rough pencils overdrawn and shaded in paint.net with a crappy 5.5x4" USB tablet. Yes, I have nicer tools (aka Photoshop CSR2 and a giant pressure sensitive Wacom) but I cleverly couldn't be bothered to dig them out. Click to embiggen. Really, it's much nicer.

I Suck At Colors

I used to play WoW--a lot of WoW. I got better. My first character was a paladin who I took to 60 followed by a 60 mage and a 60 priest, the latter two hordeside. Alena was my paladin, retired around August of 2005 after 10 months of nearly constant play.

Yeah, I played a girl and no, I don't have a problem with that. I'm in fact stunned and amazed at how many people do. Go here if you really need an explanation.



People don't believe that I was an artist once. It was a long time ago, but still. I'm way out of practice and there's a mess of things I never learned to do correctly (like colors) and I figured it was time. My art tends to go in spurts much like my other hobbies. This is a doodle I did in a margin of some other piece that I liked. It took far too long to clean and color and, sadly, most of the interesting details seem to be missing after resizing.