Intro
It’s the end of summer and my day job at school has started again, so I’m growing busier once more.
August Ko-Fi Sketchbook
I’ve made a new August sketchbook collection for my Ko-Fi Page!
Continue readingSummer Wrap-Up
Tag Archives: Art
Comicopolis and Gallery Seven
First Days with Pixaki
From learning pixel art in Procreate I found my efforts limited. With the extra money I had, I invested in Pixaki 4 Pro, a $30 USD app on the Apple App Store. I do most of my pixel artwork for personal and game art in Aseprite. With Pixaki, I want a good portable option that I can trade between the two programs for faster pixel art output.
Continue readingGallery Seven Comic Art Exhibit in July!
From July 1st to July 29th, I have an art exhibit called at Gallery Seven in Lockport, IL. This is a showcase of the original comic art I made for Shirley’s Day and Incident at the Game Store!
You’ll see the real pencil drawings and ink brushwork in person! The Opening Reception is on July 23rd from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm CST during Comicopolis! Here, you can meet and chat with me about my comics and the process of making them!
Continue readingAz & Miko Marker Commission Process
I couldn’t finish one of my commissions by the time Anime Central ended. So I needed to finish this two-character piece at a later date and mail it to my client! With this, it gives me a short opportunity to tell you about my Copic Marker technique for this piece.
This commission is for ToastyGhostey’s OCs and Az and Miko. I dig the art style, and it was a nice challenge to figure things out with my markers. ToastyGhostey told me that I didn’t have to draw AZ’s helmet, but I took that as a challenge. Do I regret it? No, this was still great.
I start with a Mignola-inspired ink drawing using a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, Pentel Tradio Stylo Pen, and drying Copic 0.3 Multiliner. I was hoping it would be fast enough, but I got sloppy on my Bristol Board.
After letting the ink dry for the rest of the night, I began the color layering with my Copic Markers. Starting with E35S Chamois, BV00S Mauve Shadow, B12S Ice Blue, YR21S Cream.
Next, I fill in Miko’s first jacket with YR18S Sanguine. I should’ve used a lighter red marker since the color is too orange compared to the refs. I pressed forward to avoid my perfectionism. Likewise, I also took the time to add Y18S Lightning Yellow trim to Az’s jacket.
Then I needed to layer more colors to darken Miko’s fists. I tried using E15S Dark Suntan and Mauve Shadow. Then added V06S Lavender, but it wasn’t enough. Using an N2S Neutral Grey 2, I dulled the stone color down.
I realized that messed up a detail for Miko’s Jacket. Failing to notice the small patch on her Jacket from her refs until after I colored it. With a Colorless Blender, I attempted to clear away the color to the best of my ability. Time to add in the YG03S Yellow Green in the eyes and a 0.3 Pentel Arts Hybrid Tech Pen for smaller details.
Continuing on, I layer more color with V09S Violet and B39S Prussian Blue to darken Az’s coat and pants.
Finally, use the E27S Milk Chocolate to darken the wood of Az’s rifle and antlers.
After all this, I add a smidge of Ice Blue for shadows and complete Miko’s jacket with Lighting Yellow trim! All that’s left is to message my client to get their approval, and mail the sucker off in an envelope!
This is a sloppy explanation of my process. This gives me a good idea to make a formal article about Copic Markers. Heck, I’ll try to make a video about it!
I’m still open for commissions and so if you want a commission for yourself, check out my Commission page to get some cool unique art from me!
Setting up the Summer
As of writing this, I have a show at The Gallery Seven on July 23 during Comicopolis 2022! There you can find my traditional ink comic pages framed in Lockport, Illinois. I never thought I’d be able to do this, but I’m glad it’s happening, and I hope you’ll stop by and see my original pages!
Massive May Marker Art
This month has been my most successful month of the year saleswise for my art! Anime Central was this month, and it’s a huge one! It’s a good sign that can sunset my time at my day job to take a big plunge into full time art. But I’m sure this is wishful thinking.
Art, Aims and Anticipation
April is a better month with new conventions. There’s plenty of prep work to do for the next cons. I’m sketching and working on new things.
Continue readingProcreate: The First 30 days
As of writing this at the beginning of March 2022, I purchased an iPad Pro for $799.99 USD, an Apple Pencil 2 for $129 USD, and a copy of Procreate for $10 USD. Here’s my review of the first 30 days of using the iPad and the App!
The last time I used any Apple product is when I had an iPod Touch. I dropped them for an Android phone when it became a pain in the butt to transfer my music files from ripped CDs that I had.
Continue readingMarch Meh-ness
The month of March has been mild. The most I can say is that I celebrated my birthday and trudged forward on small art projects.
As of the 3rd of March, I turned 30 years old, and I’m trying not to get crushed by the anxiety of aging. I covered it up by having dinner with my family and buying myself an iPad and Procreate! Now, I can draw on the go! I’m writing an article about my time with Procreate at a later date.
Conventions
On April 8th, I’ll be at the College of DuPage Convention answering questions and selling art! There, I’ll be selling the finally printed Pizza Man book! So if you’re in the Northern Illinois area, stop by and grab a copy with my stickers as well!
The week after, I’ll be at the Schaumburg Library Convention on April 16th.
More Events
I have a big thing planned in the summer later this year! I’m preparing some of my art for something I’ve never done, before. So, I’ll keep you in the know once everything is arranged!
Writing Blackmask
Most of my art time has been occupied with writing Blackmask as a story. My focus is split between re-editing existing ideas for the demo story and the big narrative of the entire game.
My personal hope for Blackmask’s main quest is that players can choose a level toplayin any order they want, Mega Man style. A connected Metroidvania-style world or an Open World is tougher to design without ballooning the scope even more.
My programmers and I check in on each other in our messages. We’re both doing our best to keep going during our bigger commitments. Adam’s tackling enemy AI next, as there’s not much left to do with Cole’s abilities for now.
Other News
I’ve been doing tiny website tasks to streamline my websites stuff. The Art Page now has all my art on it instead of having separate pages for each category of art I make. If it ends up making loading issues a pain, I change it back, but right now I want my archive front and center
There’s more blog articles in my back burner that I want to finish up, such as my tutorial series on making Incident at the Game Store. There are other articles that I want to write when I make the time.
I’m struggling to keep my focus on one specific art task. I keep dipping so much into different shit that I can’t choose an art direction for myself. My schedule is a loose cloud of “what is currently unfinished that I could finish now?” on my project list.
It doesn’t help that I keep falling into that trap of posting on my socials to say I’m alive on them. My game stuff is in my programmer’s hands. I’m messing about, sketching, and procrastinating on writing a game story. Am I busy or making up meaningless tasks for myself? I need to improve my personal project management skills.