The Internet's Best Kept Secretion

Hey folks.  SO.  Here I am… trying to be “regular”.  Stop the presses.  I find it not only interesting that I consider a 3-week interval “regular” but also ironic that the one time I decide to actively engage  myself with this whole blogging thing (as opposed to merely resorting to it when I have nothing better to do) is when there really are better things, or rather, more productive things to do with my time.  Even more “irony-er” is that during these  holidays I have been incredibly busy -in my head AND on paper- with such an incredible array of things that it really wasn’t much of a holiday (not to mention that I‘ve hardly been sleeping).  If all goes according to plan everything will come together pretty soon.  For now though, I still have about a month’s worth of images to get through.

Starting with these:

I haven’t really posted a link or done ANYTHING to promote this fact, but for about 8 months or so, I have had a DeviantArt account,  which means I have also been posting my art on the site and interacting with fellow artists from around the world.  One such artist goes by the moniker HakuzaCaF.   After going through some of her characters and story ideas,  I fell in love with her Mafia White and Black Universe; so much so that I decided to do some fanart featuring the series‘ lead character, Haku.  Yep.  I’m that kinda guy.  Not only would it be good practice, but the character was also a lot of fun to draw.  I feel that one of the marks of a good lead character is an applicability to different media and situations.  Haku over here works as a cute mascot figure, a sex symbol,. a vessel for comedy  and as an action hero.  That's diversity for you.

As for the images, The first one was fairly standard procedure.  No witty anecdotes there.  Whereas, with the second image, I once again took the opportunity to experiment with Photoshop.  About the time this was made, I'd been asking around about how to selectively blur images.  After no solid answers, I eventually devised my own fairly simplistic, albeit limited method, which gave an admittedly static image (well, static's a bit harsh, but it definitely wasn't as tight, fluid or as dynamic as I wanted) a great sense of movement.  Thank you, layer masks.

I really wanted to steer clear of FuZioN U stuff for a while, but as it so happens, this is next image pertains to precisely that...

"Merlin Hawke upside yo Head!"(I honestly have no clue what that means)   Not long after I decided to base Merlin Hawke's appearance on Mr. Laurie,  I knew that the story would have to include one scene with a cain as a little homage to one of Laurie's most well-known portrayals.  This isn't exactly that scene (more of an outtake) but it is more or less the atmosphere that the scene will have.  It will include a secluded pathway in a foresty-type park environment and take place at a similar hour, so...

Colouring this image was an oddly organic process.  I wasn't entirely sure if I would be able to produce what I'd imagined or how I would go about doing it, but I just kept going until... this came out. This image also where I started vaguely defining the look of the story.  I wanted to have a cell-shady vibe to it but also with softer lighting for the atmosphere, if that makes any sense.  Almost like Tekkon Kinkreet. But not quite.

I was going to premiere a new character but, on Sunday I thought up a new and slightly more efficient method of revealing my characters, while also showing their development, so I think I'll save him (Yes it's a dude) for his own entry.  Later.

Nice 'n Fuzzy. Just How You Like It.

One of the hardest things about having an irregular sleeping pattern is figuring out how to spend your hours.  Despite the solace of the solitude that 4AM provides, there's actually very little you can do.  I (and I suppose society, as well) should just be grateful that I have such incredible quiet, time-wasting outlets at my disposal to keep the madness at bay.  One can only imagine what sort of crackpottery I'd be up to at these ungodly hours if I weren't privy to the luxuries of art, the internet and (most relevantly) blogging.  That being said, let's dive in.

Last time I elaborated quite a bit on the intricacies of the origins of the FuZioN U and so I think this week we'll stay away from all of that and instead I'll show some fan art I've worked on.

So earlier this year I finally got around to reading DC's Infinite Crisis and 52 series, which were, in my opinion (does that go without saying?), of the smartest series DC has ever done.  Not only did DC showcase a lot of its "lesser" Superheroes and catapult them towards some much needed spotlight time (Booster Gold, anyone?) but they also gave a really good story.  It was continuity-heavy and pretty elaborate (what with all the tie-ins and 20 year old references) but ironically also the best time for new fans to come on board as the Universe was essentially being rebooted (God,I hate that word! But I'll save this rant for some other, more appropriate time) .  The point being that the series made a huge fan of the Marvel family (The family of Magical DC Superheroes, not that other company), and more specifically this guy; Teth Adam, the Black Marvel! The most Badass man(god) to ever grace the pages of DC comics!  He kicked so much ass in 52.  This guy took on the entire Superhero community (sans the Big Three) on his own! They basically had to cheat to beat him! Just look at that scowl!  That elegance! Do NOT F#%K with Black Adam!

Now, about the images:  A lot of experimentation went into these, and some were, admittedly, not as successful as others.  In particular, with the first one I tried to play with multiple light sources and unfortunately  the lighting from the lightning bolt on his chest didn't really translate the way I intended.  I was going for a sharp, bright glow and high contrast but instead  the yellow light looks more like face paint.  In my defense, I don't have a tablet and it was really difficult to get the kinda strokes I wanted using a mouse.  Anyway, I'll take it as a lesson learned.  I've since developed theories on how our would tackle the problem, were it to present itself again.  Maybe I redo it, or something similar in the future.

Up next I have some sketches.  The first of which  being :

"Is there a doctor in the house?"

My main man, H to the izzO! (Despite my best efforts, it seems the Jay-Z references are here to stay)  Hugh Laurie, and by extension, Dr. House, is the man! (Or is that the other way around? I guess they're both pretty awesome for different reasons) I don't know if I mentioned it when I first posted my Max Martini sketch(too lazy to go and look), but I watch a lot of TV shows.  And sometimes, in an attempt to remain productive while the hours whittle away, I sketch what I watch for practice.  It's not as good as doing live sketches, but practice is practice, right?  Can never draw enough faces...

And on that note:

This next one is meant to be of Tess Mercer from Smallville.  Y'know I really don't think the writers of the show knew what to do with Tess after Michael Rosenbaum(?) decided he wasn't interested in coming back to Smallville.  I don't mean story-wise (not directly, anyway), but rather I mean personality-wise.  First she's badass, then she's cute and misunderstood, then she's a Lex-worshiper, then she's cute again, then she's got daddy issues... Actually I think that last one might explain the rest. In all honesty, I don't think the likeness is captured that well and I kinda fudged the anatomical accuracy a bit, but these are all meant to be quick sketches. I won't be taking 2-hour breaks during a 40 minute show to do a sketch.  That being said, I do like some of the detail I managed to pack in during the 20 minutes+ this took (I usually aim for about 10 minutes, but this expression was particularly tricky to capture). Sketches are fun...

So, I think maybe I should end it here before I write anymore topically ambiguous paragraphs.  It's curious how the mind wonders at this hour.  Perhaps the night really is reserved for dreaming; a time when thoughts violently swing across the borders of a cluttered mind, which may explain why I'm finding it so hard to focus.  Perhaps, it is the act of dreaming that allows us to board our most inarticulable trains, allowing us to focus with a refreshed mind when we wake. Or perhaps (and most likely) I should just post this mutha now.