My creation! IT LIVES!

As an artist I love to create things. Most of the things I create, like my characters, are stuck in the 2-D plane of view. But lately my desire to learn to sculpt has overwhelmed me so much that after gathering more supplies I have started trying to bring my characters to life; on a 3-D plane. I love action figures and statues (especially anime ones) so while using some that I own as inspiration (and some great reference) I've started sculpting a stand alone Alencia mini statue. Here are some photos from the last few days of working on it.


The wire armature covered in tin foil. This actually started as another character but I then decided to make it Alencia instead, so as I went on the pose was adjusted. You can also see my sketchbook (one of many) with notes and diagrams of how I originally wanted it to look. Now I'm more loosely basing it on my notes.


With sculpey on her. I put on a basic layer of clay to cover the whole form up (save for the hands, I plan on doing those near the end) and then added more volume where she needed it based on her body and her clothes. I then added details of the shapes of her clothes, trying to make it look somewhat separate from her body but as a part of the overall statue.


Detail close up. Here you can also see the bit of balsa wood I have lodged in her hand. That will be making room for the sword she will be holding. I'm very excited to make a miniature of her blessed sword. I hope once my prop making gets on to bigger projects that I'll be able to create a full sized replica of it. *Dreamy sigh* Her other hand will be holding a lantern. I'm not look forward to making that as much as the sword. When she's fully done and painted I plan on having her sit on my convention tables. I'd also love to make more of my characters and have already been drawing up possible design ideas for future figures.

I've also been having some computer trouble lately so while my iMac (and all its programs) are at the apple doctor I'm on my laptop, with almost no programs on it so even photo editing is a no-go right now. Also still trying to get the laptop to talk to the scanner, so until those two kiss and make-up there's not going to be much for me to share :/ But hopefully the iMac will be sorted out soon and then I'll have loads of art to share!

ART PLANS.

Hey guys! It's been a while but loads have been going on. Mostly busy at work. But now I'm starting to settle down a bit and I've got plans. ART PLANS.

+VA Comicon Small Press Table
You've been hearing me talk about this for a while but that's because I'm super stoked for it! My first table at a non-anime convention! I've been making plans for merch that I want to make and bring including the new Alencia comic, buttons, prints, and some other small items like key chains and book marks.

+Media Studies
There are things like animals and landscapes that I feel like I need to draw more of so I'll be doing a lot more studies to get in the swing of drawing them. For now I'm using certain sketchbooks for this as well as making ATC style cards that I'll be doing studies as miniature illustrations on. I'll be posting them to my tumblr and then grouping them here too. Here are a few so far:










+Or Maybe Not Webcomic
I've got scripts from Ryan lined up and am currently working on the next update. Looking to have it up by Friday since I have a few days off work. I'm going to try to update it as much as I can between now and VA Comicon since I plan on making post cards to pimp it out for the con. I also need to just sit down and draw more comics.

+Kale issue #2
Is still in progress! I've been rewriting an reworking things and I'm starting to think that I should do it as a one shot book like I originally planned but maybe start it over after all. I learned a lot from the first issue but the more I look back at it the more I see things I wish I had done differently. I'm going to keep working on it and when I come to a final decision I'll talk about it here. But either way Kale's story will continue.

+Alencia Comics (and Contest!)
Writing for Alencia's stories has been much easier. She comes more naturally to me than Kale so her stories will be more in number and varied. I really like working in short story/episodic format and I will continue that. I'm also really enjoying mixing horror with fantasy so that is a plus!
Alencia's first short comic will be featured at my table at VA Comicon and will feature FAN ART! I have a fan art contest running from now till August 4th, where anyone who sends me fan art for Alencia will be included in the book (with their name and information to their website) and will receive a free copy of the comic for themselves! Just send me a copy of your fan art (large file size, TIFF, 300dpi, I need it large so when I format the book it will print nicely and not be pixelated) to fran_rowan(at)yahoo(dot)com. Here are some references for your use:
-Alencia close up
-Alencia and Human!Theloyn height chart in color. Theolyn hasn't been introduced in his human version yet (he appears as a cat in the comic for now) but if you wish to draw him then by all means go for it :)
-Preview of the comic. Also for your inspiration here is the preview of the comic featuring the first 6 pages.
Also please keep fan art to PG-13. The comic isn't really rated but it's not really hardcore or anything. If you have any questions please let me know. I'll be sure to share the entries and their artists here too!

I'm also making jewelry that I'll be selling on my Etsy page soon so keep your eyes peeled for that! This post is epically long as it is so goodbye for now and stay tuned!

Digital Process

Happy 4th of July everyone!
To celebrate I thought I'd share my digital process on my most recent piece, my tribute to Ronnie James Dio.

When I start a digital piece I like to use a pink color (at 50% opacity) to do the under sketch. I'm using CS5.5 and they have a brush option where the brush has a feathered end. I like using this one because it mimics using a brush and I prefer the quality of lines I can create with it.


Next I use a solid black to draw out my line art on another layer.


For this one I figured out the colors as I went but usually I prefer to have at least values and an idea of colors figured out ahead of time. It really does save on headaches. I do the colors on various other layers underneath the line art.


I color the foreground and then do the back ground last.


When I'm done I save a Photoshop file with all the layers, then I smush it together (flatten) and save it as a Tiff, then make smaller jpeg versions with watermarks for putting online. I like to save larger files of everything in case I want to print it or use it for something else later. I learned the hard way not to flatten your only file of a image in case you need to edit them later :/

Well, that's how I work digitally. I hope you all have a great 4th of July! Stay safe and have fun!