SensibleReverie

Another experiment in not coloring. I decided this time that I didn’t want to color (again), but that I might like to do some shading. Actually, I tried the shading 3 or for times (yay for saving a scan of the lineart) and this is the best I did, though the first attempt had some areas that I preferred. It’s the first time I’ve tried to shade with ink and hopefully I’ll get better and more consistent with practive. For now I’m going to consider this a success since there was a minimum (at least for me) of digital cleanup involved. My next few projects will probably be like this; I’d like to see what I can do with just ink.

Nothing particularly special about the pose, though I think it came out pretty well. For once drawing the hands didn’t murder me, though that right (her right) arm gave me some trouble getting a pose with the right perspective.

Note: I really do wish it were summer, just not for any reason that people might think from this picture. I’m just tired of it being cold.

Yes, it is a trio of cheerleaders dressed in gothic lolita. Sure the clothing is not at all practical to the leading of cheers, but that’s not the point. The idea amused me, so here it is.

I thought it might also be interesting to do something a little different with this piece and instead of coloring I wanted to just a monotone piece. No shading, just black and white. I think it worked out pretty well, though I did end up spending more time touching things up on the computer because of all the black touching black. If I had been more careful I might have avoided adding all the white outlines.

The pom-poms didn’t come out all that well in my opinion, but it’s really the first time I’ve tried anything quite like them.

It’s been awhile since I’ve put anything up here, but I am still alive. However, I nearly let my domain expire since I haven’t been doing anything. So I’ll give it another year…

Right, so I actually started this drawing way back in June somewhere, but it was put on hold for another drawing and then some other things got in the way and I finally got around to finishing. The idea here is that she is supposed to be some sort of futuristic knight-like character. So like that armor plating and what not isn’t really metal, it would be a super-advanced, strong, and lightweight future material. And like the chain mail of old, the fabric is also protective. Also futuristic and absurdly light and tough. In a move to introduce just a bit of a mystical element there is also some subtle water themes at play. The sea-grean coloration, wavy lines on some of the trim, and (look closely) the markings on the belt and neck insignia. Read on for the boring technical details. (more…)

Right, so about a week and a half ago (26 June 2007) it finally enters my mind that it might be cool to do an Independence Day themed drawing. Which gave me a week to finish it. Even though I knew it was impossible, I gave it a shot and this is the result. It may be 4 days late, but happy 4th of July just the same.

Since I put my previous project on hold to try and finish this on in time, the drawing is my first (completed) image to be completely digitally inked by hand. I finally feel like I’ve justified the purchase of my Graphire. w00t! All the coloring work and the lineart on the character was done with the GIMP.

The background was thrown together in Inkscape (and then blurred in the GIMP). I’m not sure it integrates all that well with the character, but it doesn’t look too bad and I was late as it was.

It may not be a Gundam, but you still don’t want to be on the receiving end of those guns. Ph34r teh Guncannon. Since the Guncannon is considerably cooler than the GM, I held it off for my second practice project. Once again it is a 1/144 scale High Grade kit. On the whole I think it went better this time. I did a better job getting colors that matched, and since I took all but the really small pieces out of the runners before painting, you don’t see the little nubs everywhere. There was also less touch-up work to do by hand. On the downside, some of the pieces moved when I spraid them, which made things difficult at times and on larger models this might not be practical since pieces could get confused easier. I think to get around that I’d do the model in parts instead of the whole thing when I was painting. I of course have some pictures below. (more…)

Let’s face it, there just isn’t much love out there for the Earth Federation’s mass production mobile suit. On the other hand there were an awful lot of them, and don’t let any Zeke’s tell you otherwise: it’s still better than a Zaku! But enough with the inflammatory blustering, the real point here is that I have completed my first serious Gundam modeling project. I suppose it came out about as well as could be expected; read on for the exciting details! (more…)

I’ve been working on finishing the coloring for my most recent drawing on and off for the last couple of weeks. Last night I finally got around to putting on the finishing touches, so here it is. The hardest part here was actually the bricks. Being a lazy when I can, I tried to find a quicker way to do it than color individual bricks, but that just didn’t work out. Then I had to deal with mistakes inking the lines on the bricks. They aren’t immediately obvious, but if you start going over it brick by brick you’ll find them; I mostly fixed this with the coloring. I had thought about trying some new things with my coloring technique in Inkscape, but because of the bricks I actually ended up just working in the GIMP for the whole thing.

It is also notable that this is also my first submission to deviantArt ,since a friend at work suggested I get an account.

Only this time it’s a camera (as opposed to a miniature brass cannon). Never mind the spelling difference, they sound the same. In any case, I dipped into the Wii funds again (no real time for games right now) and bought a Canon Powershot SD1000, since I didn’t have a usable camera before. Now I’ll be able to include pictures of stuff that I couldn’t before…like my other cannon: (more…)

So, about a year ago I got the idea in my head that I might like to assemble a model kit of some sort. Unfortunately I wasn’t too enthused about the prospect of gluing and painting and I was sated by completing a snap together Gundam model and a Lego B-Wing. It is unfortunate that the Ultimate Collectors series X-wing that I couldn’t afford when it came out was nowhere to be found (for less that 2x the original price), the Star Destroyer was too big (no place to put it), and the Y-Wing is poor consolation at $150. But this is really about the Gundam model and the steps I took to make mine suck less. (more…)