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!

Busting Out

Busting Out: I haven't gotten political with my art in a while - and while I don't want all my content to be political, 2018 is the year I finally allow myself to make it more frequently. I especially want to do more with the Liberty and Justice characters.

(Also, Jeff Koterba who makes cartoons for the newspaper here in Nebraska liked this on Instagram, and I'm still freaking out about it!)

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Sharpie Ultra Fine pen, and Pigma Micron pens from Sakura.

Power Couple

Power Couple: Happy New Year, everyone! What better way to start it than with new ideas and concepts? This is a couple I designed over the holiday break (most of which was spent lazing around being sick). One is all about science, the other about the arts, but in the end, they will bond together over love and the one enemy they can only defeat together - the stand in for stupidity. Who will totally not emulate Trump in any way, shape or form.

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Sakura Micron pens, and Crayola Twistable colored pencils.

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.

Laurie and Cumming (Plus Announcement)

First, announcement out of the way: I'm going to take a break from Wildcard Wednesdays. I've kept forgetting to do them for quite a while because of homework and my schedule, and until I'm on a better schedule to be doing them, I'd rather drop Wildcard Wednesdays and give you a crap ton of art than forget for the millionth time. So sorry about that! But the Saturday posts will keep coming, and I'll include a section called "Extras" for all the little bits of sketches and art that would normally go in Wildcard Wednesday.

But without further ado, here's some art!

Hugh Laurie: We finally started working on faces and portraiture in life drawing! We studied two faces, and one of them was Hugh Laurie. The process behind this sketch was my teacher would take the photo into Photoshop and blur it so we could only make out value shapes. Then, in two and five minute increments, the teacher would slowly sharpen the photo, and we would add more detail and information to the sketch until the photo was completely sharpened.

Alan Cumming: We all put in slips of people to study for the last face in class, and we ended up drawing my suggestion, Alan Cumming. We used the same process of drawing him that we did with Hugh Laurie, and I love how this one turned out. He's got such an interesting face, and working wildly with the charcoal and white conte in his hair added a little extra flair to the overall piece.

Wildcard Wednesday #62

This week, we have: the transition to charcoal in life drawing!

Life Drawing #6: These drawings are from Monday night's session, and we were lucky to have the same model from last week pose for us again. We started moving towards charcoal, a medium I love but can find tricky at times (and definitely messy).

Life Drawing #7: One of the things I soon struggled with was medium values with charcoal. It can be hard to get any subtlety out of something as bold and sharp.

Life Drawing #8: The last piece of the evening was a subtractive drawing, where we didn't focus so much on capturing the whole body, but on focusing on the relation of shapes. I found getting the medium highlights I wanted was easier to pick up with a gummy eraser than to scratch in and blend with the charcoal stick.

Chess-Conservatory

Chess - Conservatory: In this piece of concept art, we see the Black queen Florence in her private conservatory. It was made specially for her by her husband, the Black king Alistair, and serves as sanctuary. Enemies would do better not to disturb her here.

Tools: Pencil (outlining) and Sakura Micron pens.

(Belated) Wildcard Wednesday #61

This week, we have: drawing from life! I lost track of time posting yesterday because of school, but it's just as well, because I came back from a really good session of life drawing with some improving sketches!

Life Drawing #2: Started off the evening with gestures, as usual.

Life Drawing #3: Last night was just a review of proportion tools, but unlike Monday night's session, I feel like I was finally starting to get the hang of things. The model we worked with had a lot of good poses for us to sketch from.

Life Drawing #4: This one, I believe, had less time to work on than the previous drawing. I've found that too often I try mapping out the form and setting in the hard contour lines and details at the same time. So this evening I spent more time mapping out the model, making sure the proportions and angles checked out, so that with what little time I had left, I could put in contours and details and know they were in the right places.

Life Drawing #5: Last sketch of the evening. I think I started getting a little too fixed early on, but otherwise, this just shows even more my different approach last night. I feel the most pleased about how the torso, arms, and left leg turned out.

Wildcard Wednesday #60

This week, we can expect: more Chess stuff (showing off a bit of my first Maya work) and some of my first life drawing sketches.

Chess-Pawn: Today marks a momentous occasion - I have only just been getting the basics of Maya for two days now, and I've already constructed a pawn with a matted color! Now that I can construct something like this, finals will definitely be Chess themed.

Chess #33: Going to be working on a lot of Chess art over the next two months, some of which I can't show 'til later or until the next concept art video comes out. One of the things I'm trying to get down to memory is the designs for all the different characters, especially the kings, now that they finally have their own distinct designs.

Life Drawing #1: Like I've said before, I'm finally taking a life drawing class this quarter. And I have to say, it is possibly one of the best classes I've ever taken so far. Drawing from real live models is incredible, and I feel like every night I attend, I keep growing in skill, excitement, and passion for what I'm going into. The model drawn in these sketches was a wonderful poser.

Back To School Feelings

Animator in the Making #1: This week ushered in the return to school, and I couldn't be more excited! I'm taking an Intro to 3D Modeling and Animation class, and one of the most essentials classes an artist could need, life drawing! Maya will soon be added to the list of programs I'm fluent in, and drawing people will come with more ease and understanding. I feel like such an evil genius right now.

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Prismacolor pens, Crayola colored pencils, and Sakura blendable markers.

Self Healing

This week took an unusual turn. I had most of it off and I meant to do lots of art and animation, but things were just falling apart inside for me. Sometimes you have to make time to help yourself. So instead of any project related art, this is an art therapy session.

Transition: Things have been going very well for me of late. I finally figured out what I wanted to do in life, I'm earning my way to that dream, and I'm going to school to enrich myself. But I often feel like despite all this, I'm holding myself back. Slowly but surely, I'm trying to embrace all of who I am so that I can really grow into the person I want to be.

(Also, finally got my first set of blendable markers!)

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Prismacolor pens, and Sakura Koi blendable markers.

My ENFJ Sides: Based on the MBTI personality test, I'm an ENFJ. ENFJs are charismatic, enthusiastic, and great with communication and understanding people's feelings. These are all the different sides of my brand of ENFJ to better understand myself. Lately, some traits like responsibility and putting other's needs above my own have been self-sabotaging me, while other traits like honesty and creativity could stand to thrive even more.

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Prismacolor pens, Crayola colored pencils, and Elmer's glitter glue.

Wildcard Wednesday #58

This week, we have: some villains!
(also, art on time, finally!)

Tommelise #6: As stated above, I'm starting visual development on the villains in Tommelise! While I am retouching just about every character in the story, these three didn't have any work done on them at all, so I'm working through them first. They don't have any names yet (left to right: the toad, the beetle, and the field mouse).

Tommelise #7: Here I've started to work on fleshing out more details and ideas with the villains. The mother toad is this grand, bossy matriarch in flowing gowns that hide her feet. The stag beetle is a sleazy no-good kind of guy, and he's getting leather and crocodile skin in his wardrobe. The field mouse is a very well off lady and a raging narcissist, who takes great joy in manipulating people.

Chess - Concept Art Video #1

Chess - Concept Art Video #1: And here it is, the first Chess concept art video! I realized the ideas I had were too big for one video, so I've decided to make a whole series as I develop the concept. I'll probably do the same for other projects like Between God and the Devil and Tommelise.

Tools: Sketches (traditional) and Photoshop.

(Belated) Wildcard Wednesday #57

This week, we can expect: something a little different, actually! Revisiting Between God and the Devil and Tommelise concepts!
(Note: due to some school scheduling for the fall quarter, I may put a pause on Wildcard Wednesdays or move loose sketches to another day)

BGAD #24: Thumbnails for one of my upcoming animation projects and the latest development in Between God and the Devil in a long while! This will be entered in next year's Elkhorn Film Festival, and it's basically a pitch for the story in the form of a funny news report from Purgatory. This is going to be so much fun, and I can't wait to have it finished! I'll release a storyboarded version pretty soon.

Tommelise #? (We'll Call It 5): Like I said above, I'm revisiting my other concepts as work on the Chess concept art video goes. This includes Tommelise, which I'm giving a whole revamp. I'm working on her design to not only make her stand out, but also easy to draw over and over.

Chess-The White Queen

Chess - The White Queen: Working my way through royalty in the designing process for my Chess concept this week, and now I'm retouching the queens. The White Queen, Camilla, has some traces of her earlier design, but she's definitely lot more sympathetic this time around.

(I've been posting lots of my work on Instagram lately, and the House of Staunton, a major chess set manufacturing company, has actually been liking a lot of my Chess art-aaaahhh!)

Tools: Pencil (outlining) and Prismacolor pens.

(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 #54

This week, we can expect: more Chess work and some playful doodle work.

Chess #28: Some thumbnails for the concept art video.

Theatre Doodle: Some random concept I'm playing around with. Not thinking of getting too serious with this one at the moment. I've got so much work to do on Chess and Between God and the Devil.

Chess-Eliza

Chess - Eliza: As I plan for character sheets and the Chess concept video (which will be coming out a little later next month, since things got busy), I've been thinking about my characters. And I've decided I'm actually going to cosplay as one of them for Nebraskon this year. I'll be going as Eliza, the Weapons Master on Black. I thought not only would this be fun, but it could also get some interest in my Chess concept. I'll be cosplaying her exactly how she looks - and that includes pale skin and the black and white/grayscale scheme. The red accent is not a part of her official character design, but only to add some contrast to the cosplay.

Tools: Pencil (outlining), Artist's Loft colored pencils (trying out new brands), Prismacolor pens, and a Sharpie pen.