We Happy Few-Islands Apart

We Happy Few-Islands Apart: It's been a while since I've put out some We Happy Few art. But now that it's coming out in the summer, that's definitely about to change. This is a piece I made after Compulsion Games teased their female playable Downer.

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Micron pens from Sakura, Mincho gray scale alcohol-based markers, and Crayola Twistable colored pencils.

Moving the Blog

Greetings from the ArtzDeeva! I've got a pretty big development happening pretty soon.
While Blogger has been very good, I feel like the blog would experience a lot more success and visibility if run on a different blogging service. So I'm simply going to be moving the ArtzDeeva blog to Wordpress in February.
I'm not going to take this blog down - I've put so much work into this version of the blog that I'll simply leave it up with a post directing readers to the Wordpress blog when it's up and ready. I've still got a lot of work to do for getting the Wordpress blog up and ready yet, but I will let you know when it's ready. From then on, the art and the ArtzDeeva journey will continue!
Also without spoiling a whole lot, I've got a lot of great content coming up soon! I'm going to start putting more emphasis on video content, ranging from things like the ArtzDeeva video I put up last week to more formal things like speed draws. But I've got a lot of fun, crazy ideas I can't wait to get started on, and I can't wait to share them with you on the new blog!
That's all I have for today - ArtzDeeva over and out!

L Triangles

L Triangles: I was struck with inspiration today. I was looking through the first volume of Death Note, especially adoring the drawings of L. On drawing really caught my attention. Because of how his body was folded in the crouch and the interplay of negative space with his form, I realized "He's a bunch of triangles". Excited, I broke him down into his shapes and then built him up from those shapes into his full form. This just goes to show that no subject is so complex that it can't be broken down into a simple process of building off of shapes.

Tools: Pencil, Crayola Twistable colored pencils, and a Sharpie ultra fine tip pen.

Star Wars-Previously...

Star Wars - Previously...: A little bit of Star Wars fan art I did before The Last Jedi came out (which, by the way, was amazing!). Just got myself a nice set of Prismacolor colored pencils for dirt cheap at Target, and had to use them on something. The fact that I didn't mess up any part of the drawing makes this the best inking and coloring job I've ever done.

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Pigma Micron pens, and Prismacolor colored pencils.

Pitch Black Animation

Pitch Black: Short little test animation I made this week. I was in the mood for animating one of my favorite animated villains.

(I'm going to be moving over from Photoshop to Flash, or Animate, for future animations)

Tools: Photoshop. 

(Belated) Wildcard Wednesday #56

This week, we can expect: lots more Chess stuff! And a little drawing of L because Death Note is amazing.
(So sorry I forgot to post on time-had a really busy day at work)

Chess #29: As I've been giving the Chess concept and world a full development and makeover, I'm revisiting the kings. They need to be more distinct from each other and have more character to them.

This is your first glimpse of the Black King, who now has a name - Alistair.

Chess #30: Another glimpse of King Alistair. A playful, optimistic king, he is very skilled with the game and an enthusiastic risk taker.

Chess #31: A first glimpse at the White King, Edward. Way back in the day, the kings looked very similar to each other - their only differences being black and white, dark haired and light haired. But in order to give them each their own character and make them distinct, I've added more to their characters. Alistair is British Japanese, and his character traits were listed above. Edward is British, but he's a rough, cunning bloke who's determined to succeed. While Alistair's my favorite, Edward is going to be the most fun to draw as far as expressions go.

L #1: Another drawing of L! (And I'm going to start numbering them because I have the feeling I'll be drawing him quite often) This time I tried drawing him in my own style. It's kind of hard to break away from the manga/anime look, but this time around, I think I finally got something satisfactory.

Wildcard Wednesday #53

This week, we have: more Chess, Stranger Things fan art, and a random character design for fun!

Chess #27: Working more on the concept video for Chess! This piece of concept art illustrates a moment where a Black knight, Rory, finally finds the courage to face down the White bishop Basilio. This was a lot of fun to make, and I can't wait to illustrate other moments like this!

Stranger Things - Will: Finally doing some Stranger Things fan art! I love this show so much, you'd think I would've gotten on the fan art wagon sooner. Well, better late than ever! This is a moment from the season two trailer.

Character #1: To loosen me up and keep my creativity on point, I'm drawing random characters that come to me. I was kind of thinking of Pitch Black from Rise of the Guardians when I was drawing this dude...could be a good guy or a bad guy. Don't really know.

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water: I love Guillermo del Toro's films. The man has such an imagination! I had no idea that he was dropping a new film this year. So when I saw the trailer for The Shape of Water, I was immediately in love - so much so that I decided to make some fan art from the trailer. God, this movie's going to break my heart!

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Prismacolor pens, and Faber-Castell watercolor pencils.

Cirque du Soleil-Luzia Monarch

Cirque du Soleil-Luzia Monarch: I made this a couple weeks ago, but in my Patreon work I forgot to put this up. Inspired by a photo, I drew the monarch performer from Cirque du Soleil's Luzia. Still working on blending (going to look up tutorials to better myself-seriously, nobody taught me much about blending in Photoshop). But after looking up a tutorial to make the gradient, I'm happy with what I got and how perfectly the colors correspond to the color and lighting in the performer.

Tools: Photoshop and a reference photo.

(Belated) Wildcard Wednesday #50

This week, we can expect: Cirque du Soleil simplicity and more Chess developments.

(Sorry this came late-I lost track of time and I'm trying to make sure I'm ready for Patreon)

Cirque #1: A simplistic doodle I did around the Innocent, a character from Cirque du Soleil's Kooza.

Chess #22: Playing around with my Chess concepts again. This time, I made some ceremonial outfits that resemble the pieces' appearances. The knights are a little wonky, but I'll get them right soon enough.

Chess #23: When I said I'm playing around with my Chess concepts, I really mean it, and it's not just because of Patreon. This series is something I want to make big and meaningful to many people. So I'm really going to work on the story to make sure everything is perfect. And a perfect story will provide perfect visuals and artwork.

Going on Patreon-Voting Rights

Hi, ArtzDeeva here! So yesterday, I talked about the overall basics for my upcoming Patreon page, which is again launching Independence Day. Even though the $7 reward tier involving voting is pretty straight forward, I just wanted to further elaborate on the significance of voting rights on my page.
Even as a creative person, I like to think of myself as being very persistent and prolific. And often that is what I am. However, no matter how hard I try sometimes, I'm not always the best with managing time. In my time at Metro, where projects are usually due every one-two months (we go on a quarterly basis), I've found that's given me enough time to not only put in the work, but also make something I'm proud of. Having the supervision of my teachers has also been a good way to reel in my overactive imagination and get me focused on tackling projects one bit at a time.
This is what voting rights will do. Like I said, all my animation and graphic page projects will be in one-two month schedules. With voting rights, you'll not only be able to vote on which project I work on for that month, but also what aspect of it I work on (story, world-building, character design, and color script). At this reward tier, you not only become a patron - you become a creative partner, someone who's actively a part of the development of my projects. Your votes will help me guide the direction of my projects so that I'm not just aimlessly scratching on paper or wrestling with a gigantic story in my brain. And it will help me truly develop my projects from simply bare bones ideas to fully realized worlds and characters.
This I feel will work the best in terms of keeping me accountable to my schedule and patrons. And I think patrons will really enjoy being part of something big. Trust me, these four main projects are all going to be movies and series in the future-that's no small thing, and no amount of help in any of these projects will go unforgotten or unappreciated. And it's also good for me, the artist, as well. So often, it's easy to just go about your work day to day feeling like you're one fish in the sea or disconnected from the audience you want to reach. This system will eradicate such isolation and keep me engaged with those who get excited about the stuff I make.
This is the significance of the voting right tier I'm creating. And for those considering pledging at that amount, I look forward to our creative partnership together.

Wildcard Wednesday #49

This week, we can expect: new Chess doodles and a bit of Cirque gestures!

Chess #20: As my Patreon launch gets closer, I'm kicking back into original projects! I'm really excited to be getting back into Chess. I'm actually going to be studying a couple books on the game to bring even more awesomeness to this concept.

Chess #21: I've never really taken the time to explore rooks in my Chess concepts. But after reading about just how powerful and important to capturing the king they can be, I'd say it's definitely time to work on them.

Gesture #1: After having enjoyed it in classes, I'm taking up the practice of doing gesture drawings. They're good for warm ups, cool downs, and practicing action and movement in the human body. It's also a great way to build up reference poses for future projects.

Cirque and Politics

It's another double piece weekend! My summer, job wise, has taken a weird turn for the better, and because of all the time that I've got, there'll be plenty more double piece weekends to come, I'm sure.

CdS-Duet: Been doing a lot of thumbnailing for my "for fun" Cirque du Soleil page project. I made a couple of these two as Zaia (the young woman) performs an aerial strap solo. So I decided to turn those images and feelings into an illustration.

Justice and Sessions: I don't talk about it often, but ever since Trump got elected, I've been in and out of states of political angst. Rather than express these feelings with words, since people use words all the time, I'm instead turning to political art. This was in response to the Jeff Sessions testimony. He looked very nervous and couldn't stop squirming in his seat or sipping water. Perhaps it was because a certain someone was haunting his desk at the moment. (I played around with some embossing filters to get this strange, nightmarish effect)

Tools: Photoshop, thumbnails (for CdS-Duet).

Wildcard Wednesday #48

This week, we can expect: a couple animations!
(Also, quick note - I'm back on for Patreon business! I've set a new launch date, things are getting prepared - and I'll let you all know of the updates and information this Saturday)

Why?: I've just recently joined Instagram (find me as "artzdeeva"), and I realized I hadn't actually posted any pictures of myself yet at the time. So I tried and tried...and I just can't do it. I'm terrible at taking pictures of myself. So I animated my dilemma.

CdS Anim - Niko: I've been getting back into drawing lots and lots of Cirque du Soleil art. It's so much fun with the character designs, colors, and movement. So this week I started animating some of the characters! These ones are from Kurios.

CdS Page #1

Thought the animation was all there was today? You're in luck, 'cause I finished some more art!

CdS Page #1: The first of several pages I'll work in between original works. This project, which I got a rough start in two or three summers ago, is just something I work on for fun (haven't got a full story yet, but when I do, I'll have some animatics for later spreads-and even animations). It's inspired from Cirque du Soleil's Solstrom show many years ago. It's so much fun drawing these characters and bringing in others just for the fun of it.

Tools: Photoshop and many reference pictures.

(Belated) Wildcard Wednesday #47

This week, we can expect: an in-progress viewing of a Cirque du Soleil piece I'm working on! This is a project I've been doing just for myself over the years, but I'm giving the whole thing a new treatment and new life through Photoshop. I'll put up my progress on a small animation I'm working on this Saturday!
(Sorry for the delay-was having technical difficulties yesterday, ended up just saving my progress pics from Instagram, which will explain the filters)

CdS Page-Sketch: This is where the digital work originates from. It was just a random doodle I did during school earlier this year. Because I loved the composition so much, I decided to turn this into a piece of digital art.

CdS Page-WIP #1: I considered scanning in the sketch and working from there, but I wanted to make the image bigger in Photoshop. So I just decided to start over from scratch, glancing at my sketch to keep the same feel and composition.

CdS Page-WIP #2: Here is the finished line art. While I have gotten much more comfortable with the Intuos, I decided to keep my lines pretty loose so I wouldn't get hung up on perfectly drawn out lines. And I felt it added a bit of a playful feeling to the characters.

CdS Page-WIP #3: The first round of coloring on the first panel. I played with the hue and saturation/brightness levels on an image of Zaia (the girl hiding) to get the exact darker hues I needed. I ended up scrapping the dull gray shadows and the erroneously green underside of the sofa.

CdS Page-WIP #4: The first panel finished! Used the eye dropper tool to get the exact colors for the room (it's based on a location in an episode of Cirque du Soleil-Solstrom) and on the purple-legged character. This panel was a little labor intensive-and I still have no clue how to do real blending on Photoshop-but I'm pleased with the results.

CdS Page-WIP #5: My latest progress leaves off with the start of coloring on the second panel. While I love the Baron, there are several details about him that can make him frustrating to draw (I hate drawing stripes).

Patreon Launch Date - Postponed

Hi, ArtzDeeva here! So today was going to be the launch day of my Patreon page. Well...
...not anymore. Launch day's cancelled.
I will still be going on Patreon, don't worry-I've just realized I need more time to really think over the logistics of some of the things I'll be doing and the rewards I'll have. I thought I had it basic and manageable enough, but as practical as I try to be, I still don't always think things through.
And the thing is when I launch my Patreon page, I want to be as ready as possible. I know there are some things you can't prepare for or little problems that arise. But when I launch on Patreon, I want it to be more fun and exciting than crazy and stressful. I want it to be more about creating art and animations and giving all of you wonderful work than me floundering about making mistakes or being behind on things. That's just the way I want it to work, and I'm sure you'd all appreciate that as well.
I don't know when the new launch date will be. I really need to get looking around for a summer job, on top of all this. I'm going to tentatively say I'll start putting out pre-launch things around the end of the month. I'll keep you posted about this as I sort things out over the next couple of weeks.
Sorry for the delay, and thank you for your patience!

Recovery Break and Quick Updates!

Hi, ArtzDeeva here! So first off, there is no Wildcard Wednesday today. Finals and the film festival were eating up my time, and combined with construction of my Patreon page, I simply ran out of time. That and the fact that I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. Yeah, I'm going to be miserable and loopy. But while I'm recovering, I'll be making up for lost time in between Patreon stuff and searching for a summer job.

(Also, I'll be releasing my Chess animation from finals this Saturday-can't wait to share it with you all! This was a labor of love, and I'm excited to finally be animating these characters)

Also, I have to say...finals did not go well at all. Drawing for electronic media in particular. In a nutshell, my teacher sent us all off feeling like a bunch of failures. This isn't making me doubt myself as an artist, but it sure has put a dent in my morale (I know there are ways for me to improve my art, but man...he ripped us all to shreds). Not to worry, though! I'm already beginning to bounce back from this unfortunate instance. Patreon is not only a welcome thing to take my mind off of finals, but as you will soon see, it will continue to push me as an artist just as my teachers have in the past.

As for my Patreon page, I'm still in the early stages of construction. I'm determined to make more progress today and during my recovery. I'm going to be keeping things on there very basic for now - I only have three manageable reward tiers. But I've got something that will not only entertain my patrons but also give them a hand in my artistic progress (I shall reveal more in a later post).

Anyways, that's all the news for now! Sorry again about Wildcard Wednesday today, but at least there's the Chess animation to look forward to this weekend.

Until then (and after my recovery), cheers!

Patreon Update-Shifted Launch Date

Hi, ArtzDeeva here! I'm back with a new update related to my move to Patreon.
I've been doing a lot of research on building up my creator page and all the little details that come with it. I'm also really taking into consideration what I can and can't do, and what I'll be able to do in the future, especially since I'll still have to be in a summer job and then back to school afterwards.
So I'm changing the launch date on my Patreon page. Instead of May 24th, I'm going to begin the next leg of my artist/animator journey right at the beginning of June. This will allow me more time to build up my page and work on creations and content for the page and the tier rewards (plus work on some awesome developments that will come a little bit later).
Again, I can't wait to get started on Patreon! I'll make sure I drop the link to my page when everything's ready. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Next Step - Patreon!

Hi, ArtzDeeva here! It's been a while since I've done a more personal blog post, hasn't it? Well, I'm coming in with some pretty big news.
Ever since I came back to school in the fall to study animation, I have learned a lot in such a short amount of time. I have loved every minute of it, and for the first time in a long while, I finally feel like I'm the master of my own destiny in life.
But the summer is almost upon us, and you know what that means, right? Back to the workforce I go, 'cause the world's against me getting scholarships, apparently. I've come to realize that because I've learned so much and am now officially animating, I'm afraid I'll be even more unhappy in a normal job than I was last year. On top of that, I found out I'm actually going to be done a lot sooner at Metro than I thought I would. I need to start planning ahead and taking steps towards my future if I'm to become the animator I want to be. And I'm ready for something creatively exciting.
So, as is evident in the title of this post, I'm going on Patreon! At the end of the quarter (May 24th), I will set up a creator page and start making what I love to do my job. True, it'll be a bit measly in the beginning (and make no mistake, I'm still working a normal job this summer), but I feel like it'll give me the chance to really push myself to make more creations while getting my work out there and building an audience.
The closer I get to launch day, the more details and information I'll have to share with you all. For now though, things on my blog will go as normal. Some really juicy bits may only be available to certain Patreon supporters. No matter what, I'll keep you posted, and when I'm ready, I'll be sure to leave a link to my Patreon page in the About Me section of the blog.
This is the first step towards bigger things-I can't wait to get started!