Characters: Additions + Clean up

(This post is a WIP! I'll edit it as I see fit!)

This post is basically a note to myself. I plan to keep only 30 or so of the 60+ chars I have. The chars I do keep will get fully updated reference sheets and character profiles between November 2010 and July 2011. (if they haven't been completed already) The rest of my characters I don't use will be retired.


Active Characters: (* indicates profile finished)

1. Kasa *
2. Aki *
3. Manjoume* 
4. Anderson*
5. Andante *
6. Sandaa *
7. Noah *
8. Kamili *
9. Tene *
10. Inaha *
11. Aster *
12. Leo *
13. Luna *
14. Yuuki *
15. Kris *
16. M'yobi *
17. Kuhn *
18. Jabari  *
19. Aveo  *
20. Jasiri
21. Jinga
22. Iniko
23. Dume
24.???
25.???
26. "Wolf pup"

Main Comic Characters

27. Kazumi *
28. Dimeyi *
29. Sorin

NOTE: list doesn't include all character from Tribal Wars, Keystones, or Tales of an Outcast

WIPs Characters: (characters that are currently being designed. May or may not become 'active')

none atm


Reserved: (characters that won't be used often, but aren't retired either)

- Ayo *
- Hyaku
 - Kite * (possibly using for Keystones)

- Ouka *
- Ratha


Retiring: (characters to never be used again, but won't be adopted out for sentimental reasons. See "End of Year adoptions" post for adopted out characters )


- Chazz lion
- Adrian
- Tallon
- Arc
- Zane
- Oliver
- Hero
- Thunderstorm
- Topaz
- Jun
- Boomerang
- Blitz
- Atlus
- Sai Hu
- Niko

Character adoptions - new owners post

A post to help me keep track of where my characters went too after I adopted them out. If you own one of my characters now, you'll be put on this list. c: Though, this excludes characters given back in their original owners or random adoptables.

Change of Pace

Short lil update before I go play BBS. x3

I'm starting to get over my art block I've had since the start of school. <3 Although, for some reason, I'm really wanting to branch out and draw things I've never drawn before more than ever, especially people. My recent obsession with the new Kingdom Hearts game, Birth By Sleep has gotten me wanting to do some actual fanart of the characters as their suppose to be...not as lionized versions of themselves. I'll probably be working on something like that over the next week or so.

I'm officially starting up Keystones again, though this time, it'll be more planned out than it was before. I hope to write out each chanpter before I start drawing the comic's chapter so I know what I'm actually doing. :B But anyway, over the next month or so I'll be drawing out references for some of the major characters, finishing up the first chapter "Chosen One" and hopefully get the concept art part of my weebly website up. x3 Lotsa work on my part, but maybe you're looking forward to it?

Of course, all of this depends on my homework load. :P

Kasa: my new fursona!

This post will basically be reasons WHY I'm making Kasa my new fursona over Aki, and will highlight basic points as to why I choose these attributes in a fursona and how his design/personality are connected to my real life self. You can also find most of this info on his character reference sheet when it's finished. ;3


The name, Kasa:

Why Kasa? No, it's not some crazy name that means something cool in some other language nor is it random letters put together to sound amazing. Kasa is actually a nickname I picked up when I was 12-13. I used to be obsessed over a show, called .hack//SIGN, that I'd regliously watch every Saturday night. I used to watch and talk about .hack sooo much, that my friends eventually stuck me with the nickname Tsukasa (Kasa for short) after the main character of the show. Almost 10 years later, I'm still referred to as "Kasa" by friends who knew me back then.


The species, African Cheetah:

Not only am I trying to keep my fursona completely on topic and within the guidelines for every art site I upload to, but African cheetahs happen to be my favorite animal. They seem to be the best animal to represent my personality: Independant, stealthy, not the strongest cat in the savanna, and love of speed (I mean c'mon, Nascar is my favorite sport to watch! xD). They just seem to fit. ;3



The face markings:

Kasa has two red, slash-like markings on either side of his face. While they are mostly there making his design cooler, they do symbolize something! Tsukasa, the main character from .hack//SIGN and the origin of my childhood nickname, has face marks identical to those. See? I thought it only necessary to include those.

Tsukasa, the main character from the anime .hack//SIGN

Shapeshifter?

While Kasa chooses to stay in the form of a cheetah most often, he can shift into several other animals including a fox, raccoon, lion, cougar, wolf, swallow-tailed kite, and a mouse. Kasa's shapeshifting ability is used to represent my love for all animals, not just felines. <3


Kasa's accessories:

Psshh, I know. He can apparently wear like, every necklace made under the sun, right? xD In fact, each of his necklaces either symbolize a certain like of mine or have a real life counterpart that I own. Most of these are seen as a change of pendants on his collar, aside from the shark tooth necklace which he wears without a collar.

• Shark tooth necklace: I bought one of these on my vacation to the beach, but it also represents my love for the beach and the ocean.
• Leaf pendant: Represent my love of the outsides, the woods, and nature in general. He wears this especially while he's in fox form.
• Black and white checkered collar: I like black and white checkered things. Just showing my love for that here
• Sora's "crown" charm or Roxas' "nobody thorn" charm: I own both of these in real life and wear them all the time. Also shows my love of everything Kingdom Hearts.
• Cloud pendant: I've had a love of clouds and watching the sku since I was little
• Skull/Jack-O-Lantern pendant: Halloween is one of my favorite holidays

Kasa can also wear several other accessories that aren't pendants, including one black and one white bracelet on his left paw and two tail rings, one black and the other white too.


The purple swallow: Kasa's Kite

One of my favorite hobbies, besides drawing, is to fly kites. I find it super relaxing and peaceful! <33 One of my favorite kites to fly is a purple, swallow-shaped kite that I recently bought online. Kasa's kite is exactly like the one I fly, except it's drawn smaller. My irl swallow kite is a little over 5 foot wide.
__________

More info on Kasa, like personality and background, can be found on his reference sheet when I finally finish it!

Warriors fanfic

I was searching through a few of my old pics today, just because it's rain out, and I stumbled on to my old Warriors fanfic I used for my short story in my senior writing portfolio. It brought back a lot of memories. <3 Not only was it the first story I wrote giving characters detailed backgrounds and realations, but I still use many of the characters I had then today.

The story was called "Into the Fire", a story based on Erin Hunter's Warriors because I was reading the first series of the books at the time. It told the story of the young, newly promoted MoonstarClan deputy Saberheart and how he tries to save his Clan from a group of rouge cats wanting to take over the forest. xD It was only 7 pages long so I didn't put a lot of detail and stuff into my storyline, but apparently it was  good enough to earn me a "distinguished" on my portfolio. <3

I'm planning on rewriting the story this summer. Definitely making it longer but also adding a storyline about when Saberheart was still an apprentice training under Phoenixstar (then Phoenixclaw). The first series would tell the story of the Clan lead by  Thunderstar just before the forest fire broke out, in which several important cats would die. :/

Changes between old and new story: 

• MoonstarClan is now called OakClan
• SkyClan is now CloudClan
• SwiftClan is now BrookeClan
• Bone becomes Bonestar, the relentless leader of StormClan after Ashstar's death and attempts to take over the forest from a leader's position, not as a rouge anymore.
• Kitestar is the leader of CloudClan after Silverstar's death, not Cloudstar
• RiverClan, ThunderClan, ShadowClan, and WindClan are mentioned several times as "Clans of the North Boarders." Even though they never meet, the four Clans still acknowledge their existence. All story events take place several years before the first series of official Warriors books

Order of comics:

• Volume 1 Warriors of OakClan: Into the Fire
• Volume 2 Warriors of OakClan: (story to be decided)  
• Volume 3: Warriors of OakClan: Rise of Bonestar

So right now there's a plan for 3 short manga-like comics.All would be kept in black and white so they'd go quick...since I still plan to spend a majority of my time on Keystones and my KH2 comic when I can. They'd all be a full web comic series posted on my deviantArt account since they'd be considered "off topic" every where else I post. ;3

Day 19: More than just Felines

I'm tired of just being able to draw felines! I'm through with having to "lionize" my favorite human characters so I can draw fan art of them or always having to choose feline subjects for my final projects at school. Srsly, it's gotten so bad that I drew only felines in my Drawing 2 class, which was suppose to be "figure drawing." I reffed from the model once, decided I wasn't as good compared to the others, and went back to drawing my cats. :P  I really want to have the freedom to be able to draw anything I want without telling others "Nope. All I can draw for you is Simba." I guess I'm just feeling...trapped? After only drawing cats for more than 3 years now, I feel the need to move on to other things so I can expand my artistic skills more, but I'm not sure how to start.

One of the methods I think I may use is just finding a lot of screen shots from my favorite shows and redrawing them over and over for awhile. I know many people will disagree with me and say I should start working from real life first, but that's how I learned to draw my lions and I think it worked out for me okay. I even had a few of my teachers tell me I should stick with cartooning. To be honest, I really don't care if I end up with a style that looks like someone else's just as long as I can draw a person! That'll be enough for me! :D

I also want to be able to draw backgrounds that actually look believable too instead of the standard like ones I always draw. :P For this, I'll be reffing backgrounds from screen shots as well as sketching from outside...at least that much I can do from real life.

I think Tsukasa from .hack//sign will be my main reference for awhile. I love the dot hack style since it's simple yet really expressive and I think it would be easy for me to get a grasp on at first. It reminds me a lot of my style in it's simplicity too. The backgrounds in that anime are also really well done and I'd love to be able to ref some of those as well.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to upload to my art sites in the next week or so because of this. I'm not the kind of person that will upload every little scrap I draw, but I'm also not the type of person to leave a site idle either. If I like a background or something, I'll upload it, but I know without a doubt that my upload rate will drop. I may loose fans over my inactivity or from drawing more anime fan art than I do my cute TLK-style cats, but who cares. I need to do this.

I have one last lionized picture I have planned out as a sort of "transition" picture as a way of announcing my decision stop drawing lionized versions of my favorite characters and actually draw them like they were suppose to look. :P 

Day 13: Keystones decided

:P I've decided that Keystones needs to be re-done completely from the start. The pages I have up now are not going the way I want the story to go. It doesn't even resemble the original Keystones story line at all and looking back now, that story had a much stronger plot. Dimeyi isn't even the same character either. D:

The character Dimeyi was suppose to be a young, shy, almost depressed like cheetah as a cub that rarely interacted with others. As he grew up he would sorta out grow his depressed behavior and start to take more risks but still retain his secluded nature. He was also a "Timeweaver". Timeweavers were a select group of animals, that were able to "weave" a path through time and space to travel anywhere, breaking all normal rules of nature. These individuals were extremely needed to keep the peace across the lands, going where there was trouble and solving the fights using their granted powers. However, there only ever existed one Timeweaver at any given period in history, so they were seen as deities throughout the animal kingdom.

A new individual was chosen to assume the role of "Timeweaver" when the existing animal no longer felt he could continue protecting the world or, in rare circumstances, was killed. This new Timeweaver was often picked from a group of newly born creatures and taken to be cared for by the Infinity Council, a group under the Timeweaver that insured the protection of the young "Timeweaver in training" until he had learned all the necessary skills and was ready to take over the role.

During the last parts of Dimeyi's training, a group (not sure what they're called yet) discovers the secret location of the Timeweaver and the Infinity Council and seeks to obtain the time and space weaving powers for themselves. They completely destroy their home and attempt to kill everyone there, especially Dimeyi. Their determination is so strong, not even the current Timeweaver can ease their thirst for power and uses up all his strength trying to do so. With his last bit of energy, he transports Dimeyi away from the struggle to a unknown location, just before being pounced on and killed by the leader of this group.

This is where our story would start. Dimeyi would have woken up in a strange place, not knowing where he was or how he got there.While he's still trying to get himself together, a young wolf pup startles him, explaining how strange he was and how they don't often see outsiders on their land since her father, the alpha, kept everyone off their territory. She starts asking about him and how he might have gotten there but Dimeyi can't remember anything about who he is, how he got there, or where he came from. All he can remember is his name and a phrase.

Of course, this still needs work, but this will be the new story of Keystones. :P I think it'll be a lot stronger and make more sense than the last story did.

Day 12: Comics + New Character + MoonstarClan

 Comics

KH2: The chapter cover for KH2 "Chapter 27: Pride Lands" is almost finished! :D I finished coloring and shading all the characters that appear on it today, so all there's left to finish it the background...which I might go finish after I post this. After that, I'll finally be able to start the comic. I've decided that I will include the Simba cub / Death of Mufasa opening that starts the Pride Lands world on the game in the comic, just because it won't seem right without it.

Keystones: I'm not entirely sure if I want to start Keystones over from the beginning or build off what I have now yet. :P There are a lot of changes I want to make to the first few pages that would heavily effect the story line. Plus I've found a new background style that I developed especially for my comics so...it really won't look right if I suddenly start using it at page 7. I think I may restart my comic. :P I'll make an official annoucement on dA tomorrow


New Character

I'm wanting to make another character that would fit within The Lion King universe as Kovu and Kiara's son. ;3 I've been wanting to make them my own fan character since I joined TLKFAA back in 2007 but I've never gotten around to it. D: Now that I'm working on a few story ideas with Vahn (a.k.a =WhiteDragonLove from dA) that involve a cub of Kovu and Kiara's to interact with a character called Takua. I wanna create my own version. xDD

I know I want their cub to be male and carry a mix of traits from both Kovu and Simba. I'd like for him to have darker colored fur, but not as dark as Kovu's. He'd have green eyes and a hair tuft, though he'd have a Pridelander styled nose. Not sure what color his tail and hair tuft would be yet. :P

Possible names:

• Unabii meaning "prophecy"
• Shani meaning "crimson"
• Asani meaning "rebellious"

 But I'll decide a name when I have his final design. :)
   


MoonstarClan

My Warriors fan-made clan, MoonstarClan, will be getting it's promised summer make over. xD I need to finish a family tree, make an official territory for the clan, and finish making their rival clans, SkyClan, StormClan, and BoneClan. So I may be spending the next few days not working on art to upload, but support art for my Clan. :3

Day 10: More background practice

Still doing background practices for my comics. I think I'm improving a bit so hopefully by the start of June, I'll be able to start updating both comics on a regular basis again! :D

"Cave"

This was a cave background practice (as if you couldn't tell! xD) Pretty happy with how the rocks came out as well as the shading/highlights. ;3 My first time ever digitally painting somewhere that was mostly dark so this was a huge learning experience! :D

"Takua"

I drew up this pic as a special thank you to =WhiteDragonLove on deviantart for buying me a subscription!. <3 This was the first pic I've done that included both a character and a background in my new style. Overall, really happy with how this turned out! =3 I'll start doing more fully finished pictures now. ;3

Anyway, it's late. :P I think I'll go watch an episode of .hack//sign then head off to bed.

Day 8: Keystones

D: Sorry for missing an update yesterday. :P Not sure why I forgot. xD I didn't have anything exciting to write about art wise anyway.

Keystones

I feel like I want to start the story over from the beginning again. I've been writing out the prologue to the story and I've found a better way to start the story than what my comic shows atm. So...I may end up scraping all the pages I have done now and restart from the beginning or I may just keep building off of what I have now and come back once I have several pages done and revamp them. I'm not sure what I want to do yet.

I recently started watching the anime that sorta inspired Keystones in the first place again so I may re-do the comic in its original story line too. :P I'll have an update about the story line of Keystones in a few days. xD

8:36pm update: Here's the new background style I'm wanting to use for the new pages of Keystones. It's a very painterly style that  requires less of the background be inked. I really do like it more plus it looks more realistic than the old BG style. xD I'll be playing around with backgrounds for my comic the rest of the week just to see what comes out of it. ;3

Background practice of the Land of Creation / Land of Ruin. <33

Day 6

Not really much to update on today. :P

I'm slowly finishing the trades I owe. I really don't like owing people stuff I've promised them for long amounts of time, so hopefully I'll get all pics done and sent by next weekend. Then I can start on my two comic projects that srsly need to be worked on. :P The Prologue to Keystones is in the process of being written so as soon as most of that is finished, I can start drawing out pages again. :D KH2 doesn't need a written script since I know what's going to happen and such so it should go faster. Chapter cover for the Pride Lands is still in the process of being colored

...I need to draw some of my own characters soon too. I haven't drawn any of them in awhile. :P

Day 5: Character Clean-up + Trades + Comics

:D Hey guys! Just thought I'd mention that this blog will only be updated Monday - Friday.

Character Clean-up:

This summer, I'll be doing an extreme clean-up of my current characters. I'd like to narrow it down from the 50+ I have to around 15, since I'll be bringing in new chars for my Keystones comic. However, most of the chars I decide I won't use any more will not be adopted out. They'd be be put on a "semi-retired" list just in case I decide to use them again for whatever reason.D: I find it really hard to part with my characters anyway. (See the list at the end of this post to see which chars I'm keeping)

Trades:

I'm slowly catching up on the work I put off on while I was going to school. :P I should be able to get to sketching out the trade I owe Alexus and then to the one I owe Hunt really soon! Sorry for taking so long. :P


Comics:


KH2: This comic's coming along really nicely. I finished inking the chapter cover for the Pride Lands last night and should be able to start coloring it today sometime. :P After that, I should be able to start sketching out actual comic pages. Reference sheets for lion Sora and the others should follow after that, though the refs sheets won't be posted online and will only be used for myself. xD I being really careful about what I post and I leave offline for this project since I'm using someone else's story and characters.

Keystones: I've sorta put Keystones off as a side project for now until I get through some other projects I need to get finished first. I thought I should at least start the KH2 comic since it IS suppose to be helping me with this comic. xD I'm still writing on the story line now and should have the Prologue chapter done by end of may. Page 7 should be done around the first of June.

___________

Character's list:

Keeping:


Manjoume
Aki
Anderson
Dimeyi
Ratha
Aster
Kuhn
Leo
Luna
Ayo
Hyaku
Oliver
Kazumi
Kris
Sandaa
Noah
Tallon
Yuuki
Atlus
Jun
Boomerang
Andante

All other characters of mine that don't appear on this list are "RETIRED" and won't be used in any other pictures, role plays, or stories past today. If you've adopted a char out to me and they've been retired, you can ask for it back by noting me on deviantArt or emailing me. I'll gladly return it. Characters from my comic "Keystones" besides Dimeyi are not listed because they're still in development, as well as character from the KH2 comic since they aren't mine. :P Aki's family that appeared in the one page I had finished of "Crimson Spirits" aren't listed as well. Chars from my MoonstarClan aren't listed either.

Day 2: Questions Answered

Concept for the KH2 comic Pride Lands chapter 27 is finished! I should have it enlarged to fit the comic page and inked by tomorrow. =3 Then the KH2 comic project will be officially underway. :D

Disclaimer: This is fan made comic made purely for fun. It is in no way official. The story line as well as all the characters are property of their original owners stated above. I won't be paid nor will I distribute any copies of this for profit. I also will not be referencing nor do I want it looking like the KH2 comic already published. Any resemblances will be purely coincidental


Fire's comic Q&A 

Since uploading my KH2 comic cover concept yesterday, I've had a few questions about my comic status and what my plans for this comic as well as Keystones were. I'll be answering a few questions about that on my blog.

Q. Are you still doing Keystones?
A. Yes, I still plan to work on Keystones along with my KH2 comic.

Q. What's the uploading schedule for your comics now?
A. Each comic will have one new page per two weeks; or one new upload from me per week. I'll upload one new page of Keystones one week and then a new page of KH2 the next except for weeks I'm on vacation.

Q. You do know there's already a KH2 comic out there, right?
A. Yes, I'm fully aware of that. Read my disclaimer plz

Q. So why put effort into doing a comic that's not your own?
A. I'm doing a fan comic to help me with my original one in more than one way:

• Doing a comic of a story I already know well will help me with my comic structure/panel flow
• I want to learn how to draw other things. Doing a comic of someone else's story will force me to do that.
• I've been into drawing a lot of KH fanart recently and find it fun. Therefore, this comic will be made purely for fun. :D

Q. When are you going to start uploading again?! D:
A. I'm on summer vacation now so very soon. x3 The first pages of the KH2 comic should be uploaded in 2 weeks and Keystones page 7 should be up by the beginning of June. :)

Day 1: Summer projects list

Today is my first official full day of summer vacation. =3 Its amazing so far! After almost 4 straight months of nothing but homework, I can finally say I have none. x3 I can spend the day as I see fit. xD. I <333 summer!

Anyway this update is strictly for me. I need to make a list somewhere of the projects I have to get done before I go on my first vacation, which is sometime in June.

 Art Trades:

• Finish an art trade with Hunt of her char Rosko
• Finish a commission I owe willowkit of her OC Willowtail
• Finish my half of a trade I owe Alexus of her fursona playing with Sora in the Prdielands
• Get around to doing my half of a collab with Yatima

Art Trades / Requests will be closed after I finish up the 4 pics I owe! They may be reopened later in the summer.

Comics:

• Get a final chapter cover design done for "Chpt 12: Pride Lands"
• Aim for 3-5 pages done in Pride Lands
• Start the smaller KH2 side comics
• Do reference sheets of the Pride Lands KH chars
• Sketch page 7 of Keystones

Summer + KH2 comic project

Summer

I finished up my last final in Western Civ today, so that means I'm finally out of school for the summer! :D Now, I've got all the time I could ever want for 4 long months to do whatever I want, when ever I want! xD Expect more art to be uploaded really soon on my art sites! <3


KH2 comic project

Every year I choose some type of project to start during my time off from school. This year it'll be turning Kingdom Hearts 2 into a comic. Yes, I know it's already been done and published before, that's why this is strictly for my own enjoyment. I won't be doing this for the pageviews on deviantArt or the popularity of being another fan comic artists. No, I wanna do this so I can start getting myself used to drawing people more and to work on my comic structure and panel flow for Keystones. I think drawing a fan comic where I know how the story already plays out will help me do this. :D And since I've enjoyed drawing way too much KH fanart the last month or so, I figured I'd go ahead and combine the two.

Eventually the comic will span the entire storyline of the game, starting with Roxas in Twilight Town and ending with Xemnas' defeat in The World that Never Was. However, because I'm going to need awhile to practice more on my human drawing skills, I'll be starting with the part of the game I'm most familiar with: the Pride Lands.

Kc a.k.a lightliger on dA for those of you who know him there will be helping me with the concept for chapter covers as well as a series of smaller KH comics that will have nothing to do with the game what-so-ever but drawn purely for fun. 

Comic Status:

Kingdom Hearts 2
- In Progress: Chapter 12: Pride Lands
- Where: Page "1", chpt 12
- Online: none (Projected release around the end of May)

Keystones 
- In Progress: Prologue
- Where: Page 7
- Online: http://www.kaisertiger.deviantart.com/gallery/#Keystones 

Status update

I missed updating last week due to my homework load. :P This week isn't much better but I actually made time to update my blog this week. xD

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Art Trades / Requests

My half of all Art Trades I owe are on hold right now! I really can't handle the amount of homework I have with owing art trades online atm, After my finals next week, I should have all the time in the world to finish my part. <3 Thanks so much for being patient with me!

Keystones

Keystones is still on hold until the summer too. It should be back up and active around the middle of May.

Summer Characters 

Every summer I design a few new characters to develop over the few months I have off from school. Last year it was Aki, Leo, and Luna. This year I have two characters planned that reflect my love for early American history, especially the revolutionary period. ;3 They're both still feline! xDD

Name: Oliver "Toby" Tornclaw

Breed: British Bombay / American Tabby mix

Born: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

Lifespan: 1773 - 1785

Name: General Caterwaul (1st general of England's Feline Expedition force)

Breed: British Shorthair

Born: London, England

Lifespan: 1773 - 1781  (died in the Battle of Yorktown)

They'll be developed a lot more when my summer starts as well as get official ref sheets. ;3

~~~~~ 

 

Art status update

I've decided that I want to start updating this blog at least once a week now. :3 I really don't want it to go through another dead period like the past few months, since this place is for me to keep my art status up to date and all! :P So yea, this place will at least be updated once a week, probably on weekdays. ;3

This is going to be one huge update since I haven't done so in awhile. =3

~~~~~

KH: Pridelands

My 2010 lionization project, KH: Pridelands, has gotten off to a good start. Currently Roxas and Axel are completely finished, with Xion getting sketched out either tonight or tomorrow.


Keystones

Keystones has been put on hold until this summer, mainly because I need to start studying for finals which are coming up in a couple of weeks...but also because I've gotten into drawing lots of fan art stuff. Page 7 should be out shortly after I start my summer vacation though.


Art Trades / Collabs / Etc...

I've also been thinking about putting my end of the current trades I owe on hold until summer too...just because school projects and stuff are getting in the way of my personal art time majorly. I haven't forgotten about the people I'm doing art trade with atm and you'll get your pics...eventually! xD

School projects

Not like anyone online will be seeing these but I figure they should get a spot on my Art Status...since technically they are art I'm doing.

- I haven't even started the 12 paintings I have due for my Painting I final. I'm suppose to be doing a series of 12 11" x 14" big cat paintings with each one using some kind of found object (grass, tree bark..etc) all on canvas. "Cheetah" will be the first.

- Finished pages 1-3 of 16 in my accordion book on "Clouds" for my Graphic Design class

- The "Rainforest Coloring Book" for my Typography class has 3 pics in it so far; a leopard, toucan, poison dart frog, and a scarlet macaw.

I also still need to write up a 7 page paper on the French involvement in the American Revolution, finish 5 online chemistry exams, and 2 chem lab write ups...I told you I was busy with school. :P  


Other stuff

Besides my KH: Pridelands project, I'm working on a lot of fanart stuff including a Roxas (lion) keychain, another Roxas (human) keychain, Simba cub traditional pic for my closet door, and a Sora/ Roxas (human) pic for my wall. I'm also working on a pic of a realistic bobcat for my dad and a bunch of sketches of my characters that I'll get to finish after finals.


Besides art
events in my life

I've mentioned my finals at school several times in this update. xD Finals week starts May 3-8 though I only have finals until the 5th, after which I'll be free to do whatever I want for almost 4 months! :D But until then, I have tons of projects to finish and tests to study for. Luckily they're starting to give us our final projects and wrap up on lessons so maybe I'll have a little extra time during dead week to myself.

I've also been addicted to playing video games the pass few weeks too! :D I'm replaying KH2 for like the 5th time and KH: 358/2 Days for the 2nd time. I'm playing Pokemon Soul Silver too. ;3

Pic process

^^' Sorry I haven't updated in...awhile. School's been keeping me busy along with my comic Keystones and this KH Pridelands project I've picked recently. xD Summer vacation will start in less than a month for me though, so that's something to look forward to I guess. :D More time for artz!

Anyway, I recently got a message asking me to show a little more of what I do between planning a picture and it's completion. So I'll try to using pics I've finished or I'm working on. ;3

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Step 1: Concept

I only do this step if I have absolutely no idea what I want to draw or really want to see how a layout will look before I dive head first into drawing it out. I also like using this step for figuring out color combos if I'm doing concept. I'll sketch up a really quick 10 - 15 min doodle, just really worrying about getting my idea down. Then I'll quickly color it. Lol, the end result is really rough looking, but at least I have an idea of what my finished pic will look like. xD I can make changes between this and the final sketch anyway (and I usually do!)

This is the concept of Marluxia lion for my KH Pridelands project. This took me less than 10 mins to finish but gave me a lot of insight as to what I want my final pic to look like. I won't be keeping that pose since it's really boring or the color of the thorns but the colors for Marluxia and the falling sakura blossoms work well. :D

Step 2: Sketch 

After the concept is done or if I already had a really good idea of what I wanted before I started, I'll start working on the final sketch for my picture. Normally this takes me anywhere from an hour to a entire day, depending on how complex my character is. Most of the time I sketch in Photoshop using a shade of blue, but if my pic has a lot of small detail, I'll sketch different parts in different colors to keep it all organized. I really don't worry about neatness here either since it'll all get cleaned up in the next step. ;3

Here's a really good example of a typical sketch I'll do on PS using one color. ;3

This sketch was a little more complicated so I used more colors than just my normal blue. Lion Axel's hair, face/body, chakram, and right arm were all different parts I wanted to keep separated.

When I do traditional media, I sketch really lightly in pencil. These were concepts of my fursona, Aki.

Step 3: Inking

This is the step where I clean up the mess I've made in my sketching stage or make slight changes to my design, though I try to keep these minimal. When inking digitally, I'll double the size of my sketch by using Photoshop's Image Resize feature then zoom in 300%. In the end, all of my pictures are really enlarged while I'm inking. I use a 4 pixel brush and ink everything free handed with my tablet. ;3 Digital inking ends up looking like this:

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When I ink traditionally, I use a small 0.3 fineliner pigment pen just because they dry fast and don't bleed if I plan to color them with markers like my copics.  The end results look something like this:

Step 4: Color / Shading

I try to finish everything up in this step. This is where I want everything to look its neatest and most complete. Normally my digital coloring in PS is done on several different layers separating the small details from the large blacks of solid color. I also like to color while still keeping my pic double it's size, though I only zoom in 200% here. I won't resize my picture back to it's normal size until I'm completely finished.

 Tradition coloring is a little less complex. xDD I just use my copic markers or my colored pencils to color my lineart. Nothing really to explain here.

Here's Simba done in Copics!

And here my OC Kuhn colored in colored pencils!

Hopefully that gives those who wanted to know a little look into my pic process. ;3 More of my finished picture can be found on my deviantArt account or my TLKFAA. :D