Dragon Quest Fanart: Druin.

Cross posted all over the place.

Afternoon. So, today we have a new piece of non-hoers fanart.

I’ve recently been playing through the original Dragon Quest for NES. The title has some peculiar monsters in it, with unique visual designs. In fact, the series, and particularly the visuals, were the creation of Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball fame. Anyway, I decided to sketch some of the characters with illustration ink. First up is the Druin, a flying squid-like creature.

Here is what it looks like in the game;

I did the pencils for it a while back, and just got around to inking and coloring it this afternoon.

The lineart came out pretty well, I think.

This was followed by some coloring and inking with illustration inks, brushes, and pens.

It doesn’t look as soft as it does in the game. The purple back is re-imagined as a sort of carapace-like covering.

I tried to match the colors as closely as possible to the original sprite. One of the cool things about retrogames is the vibrant, unique color palettes they had to work with, due to technical limitations. It results in a much more distinct set of creatures than you get when everything is brown, gray, and sepia toned.

So, yeah. I may do a few more of these. I have the pencils for one other, but those need to be reworked slightly.

My scanner is not the best, so you may see that the drawing has some color depth which the photo has captured, but the scanner has not.

Object and Space pt.1 : Chairs, Tea, and more.

Just some assorted objects and the like that I’ve sketched recently.

Fast, in a Moleskin sketchbook, with copic markers.

BABSCon and San Francisco.

These were sketched on a recent trip that my boyfriend and myself took to San Francisco, for the purpose of attending BABSCon. We flew out there, and then took a road trip back. On the trip I did a few sketches of buildings, objects, landscapes, etc. This was a great trip, and really got me in the habit of doing more sketches of everything around me, wherever I go.

Tampa International Airport

Airport in Charleston.

Assorted structural elements of our hotel.

This wooden canopy was inside the hotel.

Just some sketches of the BART trains.

Landscapes in southern California

Landscapes in New Mexico

Pixelart Preview.

Good evening/morning/non-sun time! I need to get some sleep pretty soon, but before that I thought I would post a preview of something I’ve been working on. For sometime now I’ve been meaning to do cross-section/platformer style pixelart of various environments. Well, after doing a few sketches and getting a burst of inspiration via Tumblr, I finally started work on this project. It began as a simple room, and then expanded to a larger room, with glimpses of the floors above and below. Now, you can see a good chunk of those floors, as well as some other interesting things. Anyway, this isn’t anywhere close to being done. It needs to be shaded, and a few other touches are going to be added to it. What I’m going for here is both atmosphere, and a few kinetic excerpts from different stories which are momentarily intersecting with this building as they unfold.

The central floor is the primary focus of the image, and most of the action (you’ll see, in time) will take place there. There will be points of interest beyond that, though. Most of the pieces of furniture are based on real life equivalents, and the proportions for all of them should be pretty close to accurate.

Anyhow, I got some inspiration from this tumblr;

http://1041uuu.tumblr.com/

The pixelart there is amazing and sublime. I wasn’t setting out to imitate it, of course. Plus, this project is taking inspiration from a few other sources, particularly screenshots I’ve seen that are, apparently, from old Japanese PC adventure games. The following image, from the game Policenauts, is of particular interest to me;

The dithering in that image is beautiful. This is the sort of shading I might go for in the image I’m working on.

In any case, this image, and a handful of others like it, provided a lot of fuel for what I’m trying to do with this pixelart, the the ones that will follow.

Some of you have seen this, but for those who haven’t, have a look at the screenshots in this thread;

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/incredible-pictures-from-an-era-of-games-we-never-got-to-experience.76520/

I’m not sure if all of those are what the poster claims they are, but on one level it isn’t even important. The gritty, cyberpunk-esque images of cities got the gears turning, and I had a desire to express my own view of cities and urban environs through pixelart. Thus, the image that we started this post with.

Expect to see this image again! Same time! Same Channel! More or less.

(This blog was cross posted in several places).

Commission: Tailwind!

Well, here is another pony commission!

A friend of mine wanted me to do a drawing of his pony OC, Tailwind. The basic concept was an image of her flying away from Cloudsdale, the pegasus city from the show. I agreed, and got started.

The first order of business was to get used to drawing Tailwind herself. I did these two sketches, which worked out prtty well. Part of her concept if that her wingspan is unusually large, so that had to be reflected.

Upon feeling more confident in drawing Tailwind, it was time to draw Cloudsdale. I did two versions that were radical reinventions of the city, but it was ultimately decided to go with something similar to what was seen in the show. The third and lowermost sketch in the above image as the agreed upon design. The other tow take cues from Indian temples and the minaret of the mosque of Samarra.

It was time to draw. In the end, Tail is depicted as  flying away from the city in the evening, as the sun is giving the clouds a golden hue. In the end, I was very satisfied with the results of this image.

Some landscape sketches for an upcoming project.

Not all of these began as concept art for a specific commission, but they have evolved in that direction.

I won’t reveal a whole lot about the project until it is done, but it s a fanart/pony commission, and it involves a sense of adventure. Some of this is reposted from a blog I wrote about this elsewhere.

Also, waterfalls are cool.

Notice the scale. Look at the pine trees, and how small they are. Now look at the mountain, and the tower rising from the mountain range. Consider how large it must be in relation to the rest of he environment.

A good deal of the feel and aesthetics of these concept pieces were inspired by a certain old NES game. This image in particular depicts something seen in that title. See if you can guess what it is.

A village carved in stone, beneath the shadows of futuristic ruins from an age long past.

When I finish the final image, which is going to be a coverart for a fanfic, I will post it. I may post some of the process as I work on it, if the commissioner/author is okay with it.

Anyhow, consider this a preview. I’m really excited about this project.

Pony commission: Twinkletail.

This was a commission I did for a friend of mine, of his original character Twinkletail.

He wanted a drawing of he with the character of someone else he knew. The basic concept was that Twinkletail (the one on the left) would be writing on her iPad, while the other character was drunkenly doing a radio broadcast. The idea was cute, and sounded like a fun project, so I was more than eager to take it on.

The first order of business was to get used to drawing Twinkletail. He showed me a few other images of her, and I did the above sketch, in my own style. She is a cute, personable character that is fun to draw. A good deal of thought went in to her surroundings. all the furniture and other items are real world objects,

This was the initial lineart, done with copic multiliners on watercolor paper. The desktop items such as the pencil case and tape dispenser are Crate and Barrel, as is the desk. I have an affinity for Crate and Barrel. The drink is a Hennessey, and a rather expensive one at that. The book titles are all significant as well. See if you can spot anything familiar.

Two colored versions were done. Digital and analog. The above digital coloring most closely matches Twinkletail’s color.

This version was colored with watercolors and illustration ink. Twinkle looks a bit too pink here, but I’m actually pretty satisfied with it overall. Moreso than I initially was.

In the end, this as a very enjoyable project to work on. Expect more along these lines in the future.

More peculiar hideout sketches.

Yeah, more of this idea.

I have a list of different hideouts/hidden residences I wish to draw. Here are some early sketches for two more.

First, the cliffside hideout. Somehow I got the idea of an enclosed, industrial living space build in to the side of a cliff, with no real indication that anything was there. I began sketching, and happened upon the idea of the entrance being concealed behind a waterfall, with a metal walkway leading to it. The walkway is, as far as anyone else knows, just a viewing path that connects to a local nature trail. Not the access platform to a hidden futuristic residence.

Should one go behind the waterfall, they would find a small cave. At the back is a smaller space behind a rock wall. A hidden switch allows access to the elevator shaft, which leads downward to the actual space.

The next one concerns a living space beneath a canal/artificial river in a city. It would be situated underneath a bridge which spans said body of what. a nearby maintenance structure, ostensibly used for the bridge and its lighting, would contain a secret elevator that leads to the residence beneath. This one needs to be hammered out a bit more, but it would feature a skylight/overhead aperture which would give the resident a view of the water and sky above. Again, this one in particular needs more work, so more on this idea will be posted as time goes by.

Sci-Fi concepts: Pod Towers.

This was an idea I had been kicking around for a while, but only finally got around to sketching it recently.

This is part of a series of unusual shelters and/or living spaces in a sci-fi context. ?IT evolved from the idea of some kind of modular, semi-obscure shelter that could be placed atop a relatively tall building (at least five stories) and somehow concealed amongst the various structural elements of said building. One of the ideas was to hide a shelter/hideout by making it look like part of an antennae setup or similar tall, metal construct. This, combined with my fondness for plant forms, led to me sketching out this idea of multiple “pods” arranged along a tall lineal element. Given this arrangement and the design of each pod, it becomes less of a hideout, and more of some sort of strange sleeping chamber. Regardless, that is the direction it took.

These hideouts/sleeping pods/listening posts/whatever are small, and arranged vertically, with a sliding canopy providing access. They would be made to move along the axis element. They would have two small levels, with room for a bed and perhaps a few other things, but not much else.

How did this strange idea evolve? I like the idea of a person having all these small hideouts, scattered across a city. This allows them to seek immediate shelter if need be, as one of the micro-residences would always be within close distance.

This isn’t exactly a serious concept. Just a cool sci-fi thing I thought up, which I might use in a comic or short story one day.

Constructs from class, pt.1

Greetings! It’s been a while since I updated. I fell out of the habit, mostly due to class and my job.

Anyway, let’s get things moving again with some process sketches I did for one of my architectural design classes;

This is just part of a larger process, the rest of which will be posted as time progresses.

This particular class has been wonderful, and this assignment among my favorites.