dire-musaera

Fu Dog Hustle


While I got through Hourly Comics Day fairly well, I tanked at Daily Draw February. As I suspected, I didn't have the tenacity for a month long challenge, and it's only 11 days in at this point! Admittedly I got sick on the first day and got sent home from work the day after.

While that was a disappointment I at least have been looking after myself better and have been eating more fruit and ... well maybe not that many vegies, but definitely more fruit. Summer is a good time for that.





Art News

Had a hard time sitting down to draw lately. While I have done a few doodles there's nothing I like enough to scan. Actually that's not true. I have been working on the bunny illustrations, slowly. I do like those but I don't want to post them until ruzkin has gotten them all.

In other art news I've bought some paint and hope to do something with those.




On the Outside

electromancer and I went out today and hung out with Vamore, Kraden, carnival, patronise and Deezmo (haven't seen her in ages).
We went to a place called Reverse Art Truck, which is a shed filled with off cuts and general rubbish for craft use.




After that we went to a near by shopping centre for food, and then to Alternate Worlds for comics. Carni, Kraden and Vamore had to go, so the rest of us headed back into the mall to spend even more money. We sat down for some refreshments and brain stormed ideas for art jams.

In summary I had a great day and look forward to more like that.


On the Inside

I think this section is actually irrelevant now I'm not doing that much on the net. Nothing note worthy anyway. Spent a bit of time the other night looking at an online clothing catalogue and book marking things I'll want to treat myself to someday.



What do you guys spend your time online doing?

Commissions

While I haven't put much more thought into this, we can  start the prices off at $5AU for a chibi sketch.

Fu Dog Hustle


Third week into the year and I seem to be keeping up with my 'post a thing a week' resolution. (My other resolution was 'don't buy a diary'. That one is still up in the air since now they are discounted.)

Request taking made for quite a beefy post count today. Some I am more satisfied with than others so I think I'll do a self review.

01. Mehp

Although first on the list, this was the last one I did. This was pretty fun because the prompt was about interaction so it turned into a sort of mini comic. It's been a long time since I drew my character Foi and I had to check out his SDL profile to remember how to draw him correctly.
I specifically made Ryuu tall and thinner than Foi as Ryuu is poor and lives on very meagre earnings with no guarantee of a roof over his head. Foi, on the other hand, is sponsored by Yuki Hime and lives in her compound.

02. YonYonYon

This one I kinda struggled with. Although he had a detailed ref sheet and wasn't a complicated character, I couldn't quite pin down how to capture his personality. In the end my rendition comes off incredibly bland. It was only a last minute suggestion from electromancer that prompted me to make his right hand pointing at something so he seemed more lively.

03. TheTenk

I loved doing this one. It's pretty much a copy of what is on the ref sheet but from a different angle. She just looked so 'above it all'. She had so much personality and I really wanted to capture the feeling I got from her.

04. demjay

I thought this one would be hard as he's a pretty normal guy, so you have to play the expressions with a lot of subtlety. I was also unsure at first how to interpret the difference in art style. In the end it was a lot easier than I thought. I think it's a testament to Demjay's design and though his style can be thought of as cartoony, it also comes from a lot of real life observation. The character felt very real so translated easily into a slightly more realistic style.

05. 0riginal-shiinto

Oh man, I was supposed to do 'bad ass' and instead did this! While I'm kicking myself for not drawing her doing something cool, I am still happy with how this came out. Her torso feels a bit short but I'm not certain if it's just me or her jacket.
When I came across the ref image on google I was actually at first drawn to the way her hair looked from that angle, it had a great amount of form to it. I just kept working my way down as I sketched. I liked how the jacket made her shoulders look really broad and how her thin muscular arm ended on a firm grip of her gun. I generally liked how tough she looked from this angle. Then HOLY CRAP DAT ASS! Last time I saw a butt that well defined, electromancer was playing Metal Gear Solid:4.

06. aznyueying

I think I am satisfied with how this looks but at the same time wonder if it's a bit too plain. I also wondered if it's cheating to have the hands in the pockets. Kinda like I'm avoiding drawing hands. However it's not really cheating when you think about it. Hands in pockets is a very natural pose and it's actually harder to draw than just hands hanging out.

07. TuxedoMoroboshi

I knew what I was going for with this one but I'm not sure I achieved it. The smile is crazy huge because she's supposed to be having fun... but is it too crazy-huge? I'm content with the foreshortening on this piece, I can see a few flaws but at least it doesn't just look like she has tiny feet and one giant hand.

08. LydiaKitten  

This was pretty interesting as I was given a written description to work with. The description reminded me of a guy I work with, so my initial sketch was pretty much just a drawing of that guy. However I wanted to convey something about the character so I did another drawing of him with one of his dogs.

09. Tofubeast/SirThresher

Like revisiting old friends. SDL/Koden dominated a lot of my time back in the day and it was really fun to draw these guys again. I knew from the start that I couldn't help but be satisfied with this. I wasn't gonna let it drop until it was something I would like. This was really fun!

10. yunaayame  

I think I struggle most with adapting soft eyed moe style characters. I can never get them cute or gentle looking enough. This was no exception. I kept redrawing her face and in the end just had to move on to the rest of her body.
I don't think this was a successful interpretation.

Art News

I'm helping ruzkin whip up a kid's book for kindle. I'll be doing the illustrations. I hope to do a good job, I've been struggling with some of the scenes actually. I think I just need to hammer them out and get over my fear of not doing a good job. My other problem is it's sometimes hard to find time to sit down and draw. I alternate between working 6 days a week and 4 days a week. I had a day off today to get some stuff done but I'll be working the next 6 days before I get another day off. Some of those days off gotta go to house keeping too.


On the Outside

Went over to Elsternwick to hang out with some friends last Sunday. Spent a good portion of that time reading Vamore's X-men trades and ending up borrowing the third trade to read at home. They've done some pretty interesting things with the X-franchise in the last few years I'll say that much.

Capped the night off eating delicious food cooked by Vamore while watching Toy Story: 3.



On the Inside
I think my internet time has actually dropped off since I've resolved to draw more. Also exercising more.
I used to check loads of different web comics (mostly out of boredom) but now I mainly look at just five regularly with two of those five only updating once a week. Main reason is my standards have raised now that I'm time poor-er and some things are better read in large chunks.


Commissions

I should probably update this with details, but I still need to have a think about this. So while it's tentatively 'open' it's more of a 'maybe'.

Fu Dog Hustle


[EDIT] Wow what a quick response. Sorry to those who missed out, but keep an eye out, I might try another of these before too long.

[EDIT 2] Updated with links to completed requests.

Okay, to beat my art lethargy I'll be taking some sketch requests. Feel free to give me a light challenge. Light. Or feel free to score a sketch of your character. Ten slots for now. Mehp goes first though.

01. Mehp fav.me/d4mzqjd
02. YonYonYon fav.me/d4mygbh
03. TheTenk fav.me/d4mygdw
04. demjay fav.me/d4myet2
05. 0riginal-shiinto fav.me/d4myeu3
06. aznyueying fav.me/d4myesg
07. TuxedoMoroboshi fav.me/d4myeus
08. LydiaKitten fav.me/d4myeti
09. Tofubeast/SirThresher fav.me/d4myhtg
10. yunaayame  fav.me/d4mygcl


Art News

Haven't settled on a challenge to undertake, yet. I'm still a bit wary of doing a 30 day challenge but haven't ruled it out.
I've seen a pokemon challenge, character challenge and palette challenge so far. I can always make my own up too.

In the meantime I've resolved to post at least one thing a week, even if it's just scraps. First two weeks have gone by smoothly with a comic each week. electromancer says I should be working on a narrative though. I already have done 'slice of life' with Totems.
Vellians should have a story. Which it does... but I'm not very good with details. I'm also wary of making it too dark whilst keeping it interesting. There is of course conflict but having given it thought I don't want to glorify violence in anyway.
Most stories aimed at young audiences get around this by making adult threats comical or blundering. While the young heroes are armed with superior abilities/intellect or just a lot of luck and spunk.

It's definitely something that needs a lot of consideration.




On the Outside

Went out to a noodle place with electromancer and TidalNight last friday. I think that was my first time eating authentic pulled noodles. You could even look into the kitchen and watch the chef make them. I was on a real noodle kick after wondering to myself whether people could make their own noodle bricks (ie. instant noodles). Wikied all about noodles and noodle companies and learned about the noodle making process and the origin of noodles.
I think my lunch was all the tastier after learning about it.

The day after that I went out bowling with the girls from work. I didn't do too badly considering I hadn't bowled since I was 13 as far as I can remember. What I remembered of bowling mostly involved the gutter.
After bowling we went to dinner. All in all a great night.

Boss reckons our next outing should be paint-ball shooting.






On the Inside

I'm not really spending my internet time on any particular site these days. I picked up on Tumblr. Though prefer Deviant Art for any kind of serious posting. Tumblr is good if you like gifs of cats with Robert Downey Jr's face pasted on them.






Commissions

I'll just leave this as open, as I'll never get any if I never mention them.

I'll update later with more details I think.

Fu Dog Hustle


Yes you heard correctly. It's still the year of the rabbit until Chinese New Year  which I believe is the 23rd of January.

Speaking of rabbits, I had an awesome Christmas and as part of my haul got a rabbit calendar to mark the new year!

The Christmas Eve just past was spent with friends: Vamore, Kraden, carnival, patronise, TidalNight, and of course my husband electromancer
The food was delicious, the company was delightful. We watched some Christmas specials and the Nightmare Before Christmas and of course exchanged gifts.

Because Spark and I are retail dogs we're usually pretty tired of Christmas by the time it rolls round and it often creeps up on us before disappearing and moving onto Easter in an anti-climatic fashion. But this year we were both very excited to celebrate and buy gifts for our friends.

So a huge shout out goes to those guys for getting us into the Christmas spirit this year. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Also thanks to Carni for getting me a deviantart subscription! Nothing motivates me to make a journal like CSS!



Art News

I don't think there's much of this unfortunately. Sometimes I sit down and try to produce something, anything! But I end up with a smudged page and a lot of eraser filings on my lap. I wouldn't call it 'art-block' as I have ideas. More like I get incredibility dissatisfied as I lay down a few lines.
My output is probably like 5%.

Perhaps I should undertake some kinda art challenge. Maybe not those 30 day things though.
I was thinking either art requests or some kinda theme challenge.
What do you guys think?
Is there anything you'd like to see me draw?


On the Outside

I'm enjoying work these days. Did I ever tell you guys my ass hole supervisor left and we got this awesome person who actually knows what they are doing and doesn't blame me when they get in trouble with the store manager! Everything is clean and tidy and there's no one who smells bad.

This isn't just bitchiness talking. My previous manager had terrible hygiene and smoked something that smelled like wee.

Anyway, things are pretty sweet now. The store was recently renovated so we got a lot of new equipment and a huge freezer (my favourite part).

On the Inside

How are you guys doing by the way? Hope you've all had a pleasant holiday period. I know a few people had a hard time recently with personal tragedies, and while there's never a good time for that sort of thing, I think it's even worse around Christmas when everyone is thinking about spending quality time with their families.

So my thoughts go out to all those people who lost loved ones or even just had scares.

In closing, Happy New Year to you all!




Commissions

I'll just leave this as open, as I'll never get any if I never mention them.

I'll update later with more details I think.