6.28.2010

Art: 022/100 Themes - Mother Nature

"Naturea." - Nature. 22/100 Themes.

I'm back at it. Rivek, in half-transformation. Still can't draw feet.

Art: Magnum Original and Miscellanous Sketches

I'm archiving my sketchbook before I move, so I finally got around to scanning the original sketches and unshaded comic sample page I used for the Magnum design. If you're wondering: Yes, I got in. No, it won't be posted here. And the person I'm up against is Zimmay, and I am super intimidated since she can, you know, actually draw comics.



And also, here are some Mondigan sketches for 100 Themes which need to be re-done (I may save "Mother Nature" and "No Time," but in order to do so, I must re-do "Cat"). In addition, I have an unfinished sketch of a winter uniform inspired by Sam Weber's cover for The Shadow Rising, a painting which pretty much incorporates everything I love, haha.

Art: Gaia Bookmarks

So, I found a ton of old paper I had stolen and cut from the art room in high school, so I offered headshots and bookmarks for Gaia. I'm not done the headshots, but you can view all the bookmarks now in a spectacular collage.

Art: Gaia Art Trades

I've owed a couple of Gaia art trades since the semester ended. I'm just finally putting them here, now.

The first is for tuna yo, her Gaia avatar. Very cute outfit, if you ask me.


Next up is Kimaya, her incestuous, evil, sibling characters. She's so sweet, and I've known her since the Art Corner! She helped me out when I was trying to win a Gaia auction, haha. I had a awesome time on the hair.


And finally, my favorite, Winter for water under bridges, who is one of my oldest internet friends and a fantastic artistic influence. She just keeps improving, and I adore her style so much, and it's been great to see her evolve. Guh, Winter is just one of my favorite character designs ever!

6.24.2010

Art: PE Round 90

I don't CG often enough, but this only took three or four hours from sketch to color! This is a normal Private Exchange round, Elaine for Tinkerbelcky. I think two more normal rounds, and I'm calling it quits from the group. I've been there since I was a sophomore in high school, haha.

6.23.2010

Art: Magnum Accessories

Wow, I got a lot of feedback really fast. Which is great since the contest I need this guy for has its deadline on Sunday. Everyone liked the tunic-shaped stripes, and someone tossed me an edit with a better-shaped 'M.' I didn't want too much, so I decided I should add one more thing, but I couldn't decide if it would be the thick stripes, the gloves, or the boots. I feel each one implies a different thing. The thicker stripes leave his limbs black, which I think implies acrobatics (think Nightwing, as usual, haha). The gloves imply punching, and the boots imply running. All in all, though, he's a character who'll just shoot a bad guy in the face, so I am unsure which is best. The belt breaks up the composition, but it may be necessary for the story (he carries guns, and if I decide to be really stupid, they will be Magnums).

In response, I'm running a poll here on deviantART: http://fongmingyun.deviantart.com/journal/poll/1285091/ . Once I've decided, I'll probably go over his hair color again, and then call it finalized.

Also, putting the PSD up made is super convenient to get other artists' feedback, and Brian sent me this outfit. I think I'll use it as the base for his alter ego design - he even kept the M on the chest.

Art: Magnum Layered File

If it's obvious, I've been drawing but not posting. I'm having some trouble with a relatively simple character design, so I made a layered file to play around with things. I'm still undecided, so I'm uploading it for feedback.

Superheroes are this iconic thing, so I wanted to create the most shallow superhero ever (heavily inspired by Kickass, I suppose). By day, Richard Cox is a rich-kid investment banker who likes martial arts. By night, he becomes (the ever appropriately-named) Magnum - a superhero whose only motivation is to rescue attractive women, take advantage of Nightingale Syndrome, and bed them. He's the type of superhero who just shoots villains. Kind of a dick. The other thing being, for all his desire to be arrogant, he is a masochist and in part, takes on this identity to get the crap kicked out of him.

Anyhow, I'm stuck on the visual design because I want something sleek, but everything I draw looks like Nightwing. I didn't make him hulking-ly Superman muscular since he's meant to be pretty unappealing in his alter-ego - in that Draco Malfoy, useless, pretty boy, too-arrogant-to-like, way. Magnum is supposed to compensate for this. Therefore - no capes, no extreme armor. I am trying to incorporate the 'M' as a symbol, but it's difficult. The colors are set, at least.

Download the PSD here:

https://www.yousendit.com/download/K0JRUGhhV3JiV3p2Wmc9PQ

You know, this would be a lot harder if I hadn't taken life drawing.

6.20.2010

Art: AnimeNext 2010

Here are most of the commissions I did for AnimeNext. It's mostly fanart, as per usual at this convention. I slightly lowered my color prices, though, and I ended up with a lot of them.

The first one is some headshots of someone's characters, inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender in a modern setting.


I also had to draw this very odd-looking Pokemon, Blaziken. Bipedal, humanoid Pokemon irk me. The fire in the background was fun to do, too.


I was also asked to draw Taokaka from the video game Blazblue. I like how this one turned out.


I spoke with Yoon, and she said my commissioners kept coming to her to pick up work I was doing for them. Do we look alike? Haha.

The next day, I drew a couple cosplaying as characters from .hack.


A friend of mine also asked me to draw his youngest daughter with her favorite Pokemon, Eevee.


I sketched out a couple as chibis.


This piece is one of - if not the - most elaborate piece I've done. Two original characters for a constant, returning customer. I threw in the semi-background to thank him for his loyalty. This one piece paid for the con for me, but it took all of Sunday to draw!

6.15.2010

Art: Wizard World Philadelphia 2010

I went to Wizard World Philly his past weekend. It was a nice change or pace, being able to draw women with muscles and curvy bodies. I may come from the anime side of things, but I do appreciate American comic book culture. Not to mention, commissions at comic conventions go for way higher price points. I got a record number of tips because people were so satisfied by the pieces I did specifically for them.

Not like Fanime, where I got a tip for basically entertaining three children who I was drawing chibis of as they watched me the entire time I was drawing them, haha.

By the way, oh my god, I saw Bruce Campbell! I didn't see Patrick Stewart as hard as I looked, but I am happy to know that he and I were in the same room. That man is so amazing. And oh my god, I was sitting next to the man who draws Green Latern, and I saw the guy who did the covers for Strathmore's new paper line, and so many more. It was insane.

But, yes, uh, art... The first thing I was asked to draw was Supergirl:


I really enjoy when people get full-body pictures since it gives me more leeway with the posing. Another man asked me to draw Vampirella in his sketchbook. The same sketchbook that a hell of a lot of professional artists had drawn in. I was intimidated silly. The proportions were a bit off since I was rushed and am not used to working on such large paper.


A guy came by and asked me to draw his daughter as Star Sapphire, who she had dressed up as for Halloween:


Another guy couldn't decide between Sailor Jupiter (my childhood hero!) and Nico Minoru (I love her design... and Jo Chen), so he got me to draw both. Haha, well, he was also debating about adding Alice Cullen, but I nixed that one. I'm not much of a Twilight fan.


Robin. Again. Time Drake, this time. Maybe this is a sign. His eyes are too high, but I like the exaggerated jaw structure which I don't get to play around with as much when drawing anime (which leans toward softer features).


Nice guy came at the end of Saturday and asked me to draw Emma Frost overnight. Then he told me the next morning it was the best piece he'd ever bought. Ah, I forgot to take a picture of the second one he asked for! Emma Frost with a Flyers hat and hockey stick. Haha.


Ah, the people were so nice. This guy asked for Powergirl, then said thank you again on my deviantART, then showed it off on his Twitter.


Finally, in the last three hours of the con, a young man asked me to do Avatar artwork, and our discussion slowly transitioned into me drawing Zuko and Draco - two characters who are intended villains but who are not thoroughly evil but merely have something to prove to their own self-worth. I'm really glad he took the shading option since it gave me a chance to play with the lighting. I think he was happy, too. It may have been more expensive, but I tried to make it worthwhile.


I've discovered it takes me awhile to warm up at a con, so the first and commissions aren't the best. But if I get rushed, they tend to turn out pretty bad. You want to bet somewhere between third and fifth.

I've just been so busy with school, moving, and conventions, that I haven't had much impetus to do original work. How sad. :(

Art: Fanime 2010

A collection of work from Fanime, con commissions. I haven't done much original drawing as of late. I need to fix that. A lot of them are missing since I forgot to upload them. But if you are interested in live updates as I finish my con pieces, check out my Twitter.

Stephanie has been a good friend of mine since we met online years ago. Her Nutella sandwiches pretty much kept me alive during the con, so I gave her free merchandise. She insisted on buying something, though - so I said if you insist on spending money, you might as well get a commission since any prints would be free. I offered her legitimate shading (since I"m finally getting fast enough that I can do it at-con). Originally, I meant to draw just Aedan, the guy, but then I looked in the sandwich bag, and there was a note congratulating me on my new job. Yeah, it was "Hey! Congrats! Here's twenty bucks!" Obviously, that would be enough to add another character, so I did! Haha, so Mae is now in his lap. Anyhow, I do so adore these characters. Enough that I didn't even need a reference, haha.


This was weird. A woman looked through my work and saw this piece of Rivek and Willowren. She requested it re-drawn with Gaara. She didn't care, either, about size, shading, nudity, or even who the female character was, which I found odd... Thus, I modified Willowren into Hinata because I didn't want to put my character through that.


Part of me loves drawing Robin because it's like drawing Rivek, only I can actually sell pictures of Robin. Hence, I did some small costume changes which I consider integral to my designing style. This was for a sketch trade with Karen who is an amazing artist obsessed with all Robins (Seriously, I'd go to buy a commission for someone, and they'd be like "sure, after I finish this picture of Robin for Karen."). It's her favorite, though - the dead one, Jason Todd, so I threw the wings in. Awkward foot is awkward.


This one, a guy asked me to re-draw his character but in both my own style and my own design. I had no real idea where I was going with it, but I think I landed somewhere around airship captain. I tried to maintain some of his original design elements, like the jacket and "OK" belt, but throw my own spin, like the bandages, on it.


There were probably like, five or six more which I just forgot to take pictures of. Eheh.