Madotsuki and the pink sea

  

Taking an experimental approach to picking ideas. What if I had someone else do the picking? This is the result.

Walter Sullivan Gets A Glow-Up

Drawn in 2009

Sometimes I like to go over old artworks and see if I can make them better. I like this picture of Walter other than the fact that it doesn't really look like him?

Lookin good, gurl. 

Lil Ienzo

Small practice drawing of Ienzo from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. I haven't done much character art lately, especially anything digital, so I'm feeling a bit rusty. But it's fun seeing how my art is evolving as I continue to experiment. 

Can I just say, I love Ienzo's design because of his hair. It's such a cool color and I had to make sure I got that part right. That's mainly why I wanted to draw him. : D

Here's the rough color version. 

Nintendo 64

 Messing around with colors on this scanned sketch. Here's the original drawing.

Admittedly, I like the first version better. The colors are more varied and fun. The other one looks too washed out, especially the screen. But I can still find ways to combine the best of both worlds. 

I don't know where this is headed or if I'll even finish it. My attention has been mostly focused on painting right now.

Ghost Trick tribute wip

I lost steam on this project. It looks fine, but certain things keep me from wanting to work on it. It annoys me that some characters are straight up copied from the game's sprites. I'm sure I can pull it off. Idk. I just work on things when I feel like it. That's one of the main reasons I stopped doing commissions.

I was going to finish the sketch in my sketchbook but I got frustrated and resorted to proceeding digitally. 

Hyrule castle ruins - gate

Coloring practice on the ipad. I colored this sketch. It's far from complete and I didn't have any reference material. If I pursue this further I would probably just start from scratch. It's a rough practice piece just to get the hang of new techniques I want to try out.

I didn't use a reference for the colors, just the sketch itself. Pinning it here for future convenience. My main excuse is that I was lazy especially because I did this on my ipad which feels restricting enough. But the more noble excuse was the desire to imagine the scene from memory and the impression it left on me. Dude that is totally the reason I swear.

Link lifts the Master Sword

A gouache practice painting. The size is roughly 5x7 inches on bristol paper. I mostly wanted to experiment with how different colors interact with each other, especially the green. This isn't my best work but I had a lot of fun with it and paves the way for future artworks to come. That is what it's all about!!!

Castle town ruins

Here is the finished painting. It is just a practice piece, so I didn't want to overwork it. I am fairly happy with how this came out color-wise. The goal was to maintain the wacky N64 colors established in the previous update. 

Next time I would like it to be more textured. I have been doing more art in traditional medium, and the difference in approach is throwing me off. Now I ask myself what digital art can do that traditional can't, and vice versa. I want to make the most out of whatever medium I use.

Castle Town Ruins work in progress

 I want to document how I approached this in case I feel like revisiting the process.

Original sketch in pencil

First, map out the values. Keep everything as simple as possible and resist the urge to add detail.

Next, map out the hues. I referred to the in-game screenshots, yellow and magenta. Much like with the values, this should be as simple as possible. The hue should cover the entire shape to account for its space and mass.

Combining the hue layer with the value layer gave me the shades of yellow and magenta that I wanted. It is such a dark shade of yellow it is essentially a sickly green.

Underpainting: Circular rainbow prism pattern underneath (going for that Erin Hanson look)

Then, I painted OVER the sketch for optimized coverage. The base colors were sourced from combining the hues and values mentioned above. This is how I would approach it if it were a physical painting.

Just for funsies, I moved the painting layer under the sketch to get the lines back. The result surprised me! This is something you can’t do with traditional. I would have to go over the drawing again to keep the lines.

Where do I want to go from here?

I want it to look like Van Gogh, but I also want to keep the grungy, cartoonish N64 graphics that I accidentally ended up with. Spooky, stylized, and colorful.

Here is the original color scheme I would have used. It doesn't excite me that much, although I do like the overall mood. I am hoping to combine this with my more prefered version of the colors.

I learned something important from adding touch-ups to old artworks: only make small changes. They will add up over time while still honoring the spirit of the original. The goal is to keep the foundation that made the picture special in the first place. 

No color filters. 

No lowering layer transparency or it will become muddy and lose focus. 

Make every decision meaningful and intentional.

Memories of Zelda 64

I randomly felt like playing Zelda 64 and picked up right after opening the Door of Time. This was such a huge moment in my childhood, especially after being stuck on Jabu-Jabu for weeks despite using a walkthrough (yeah I wasn't that smart). The feeling of exiting the Temple of Time for the first time as grown-up Link and seeing what is left of Hyrule. It was an intense moment. I have so much to say about this game and what it meant to me, but I'll save it for another time.

Anyway, I felt an impulsive urge to start sketching the scene on my TV. Eventually I got so carried away I ended up drawing the tv, and the furniture it sits on. I'm hoping to color this at some point, but the joy of drawing was a fulfilling experience in itself.

Ghost Trick tribute

A group artwork from June 2011. I am interested in re-doing this.

Description: Yomiel looking fly as hell, with Sissel at his side. A medley of characters and props appear in the background. The negative space is white, with Yomiel’s shadow cutting into it.

There was a different version which was bathed in blue-green light. It was more stylized. I’m so sad I lost it...

Background characters

• Jeego and Tengo
• Cabanela
• Jowd (I bet I was too afraid to draw his face)
• Lynne
• Missile
• Kamila
• Sissel again
• Ray

Props

• Crane and wrecking ball
• Guns
• Bicycle
• Chicken
• Red flag
• Donuts and bowl
• Car tire
• Fish tank
• Cogs and gears
• Sweet potato on a stick

What would I do differently next time?

• It would be more stylized like in the lost alternate version. (Ooh, how mysterious!)
• Take inspiration from movie posters, especially Bob Peak
• Include more characters. I want to include Beauty, Dandy, and Detective Rindge, to name a few. 

Other thoughts

• It would be cool to draw it in reference to the Ghost World. O m g. An old school VHS vaporwave aesthetic would SLAP. I remember having a headcanon that the story takes place in the 1980s. 
• The vaporwave CRT screen idea excites me, but I would also love a VHS tape box style as well. 
• In the spirit of the original and its lost alternate counterpart, I should make two versions of this artwork. The world of the living represented by the vhs tape box. The ghost world represented by old, blurry CRT graphics.

Princess Peach stained glass

Finally wrapped up with this. I really like how this came out. Much like the Deku Tree terrarium, this was 2 months of sporadic progress. I have a little bit more free time now and I am so ready to move on with something new and not take forever to finish things!

Deku Tree Terrarium

Calling it a day on this one. I'm fairly happy with how this came out, but I would not be opposed to re-doing it from scratch. I struggled a lot with the background and fine-tuning. It's very easy to over-work details instead of accepting the results. 

I would really like to do the other two spiritual stones as well. My idea for the Goron's Ruby artwork would be either a volcano or a lava lamp. I have my hands tied up with some other stuff right now, but once that's taken care of, I'll be able to finish artworks a lot quicker. I started this Deku Tree artwork over a month ago...

Deku tree terrarium wip

 This is where I am at as of April 30. Still much work to be done but I am so excited with how this is turning out! Doing art is so therapeutic for me and I look forward to any chance I can get to work on my own thing.

Deku Tree terrarium progress

My latest project: Deku Tree terrarium! I would love to do a series of Zelda-themed terrariums, but right now let's just focus on this one.

I have found it is much easier to start new drawings by staying simple, almost abstract. This didn't ever click for me until very recently. Viewing everything as abstract placeholders makes it easier to focus on the overall foundation. One mistake I regret in my previous art is over-rendering details far too early in the process.

Following this will make it easier to work in an analog setting. Right now I'm bouncing between digital and traditional, but I hope to eventually adapt this entirely for a traditional medium.

Next, I fine-tuned the sketch digitally. Still didn't add details, but adjusted the various forms to make sure everything is structurally sound and balanced. My goal was for the zero sketch to be as sound as possible, but making changes is inevitable.

Now, the fun part!! I printed the artwork out, very light on the ink so I could easily draw over it. I want to spend more time away from computer screens in general. When you're bored, your mind does miraculous things. I remember being bored in school and doodling. With screens and other distractions, these magical moments feel far and in between, so I decided to make more opportunities for that to happen.

I was still fairly easy on the details at this stage as I was still unsure of the direction I was headed in. But at least the foundation is secured.

Here is where the real fun begins.... importing the sketch back to digital! Oh yeah, it's all coming together!

As of Sunday night, here's where I'm at. I'm excited to work on this some more. I have no idea what I'm going to do next, but that's the part of the fun. The hardest part - the foundation - is long taken care of. So now I can start to explore!

Princess Peach stained glass WIP

 

Here's where I'm at with my Princess Peach stained glass artwork. Still more to go, but I'm being very careful not to overwork things. I want to add an ornamental border, or something to make it more window-like.

Sketching for the sake of drawing

 

Antler cat

Princess crowd

Princess Peach Stained Glass

OC doodling

My goal for April onwards is to do more drawing for the sake of drawing. Spending less time on the computer. I enjoy digital art but would like to reconnect with the analog side of art. 

Princess Peach

 So obsessed with this art style from some promotional kiddie book around the time Mario 64 came out. I love the art style because it's no BS. Just gets straight to the point. How do I obtain this power!!?

Wedding Peach

 

Some drawing, art style and coloring practice with Princess Peach, because I've fallen in love with her adorable design. I'm not super thrilled with how this came out, but it taught me some lessons for next time, so overall it was a valuable experience.

Eileen

 

Practicing my goal art style with Eileen