Beeswax test 2 ,Character design, and more Sugar Dominion

For starters, Finally finished a Beeswax comic.
I honestly don't know what format or template I'm going with.
Oh and you can read more personally about this comic in the description part here.

This was more of a 2nd test, one that I did on Clip Studio Paint.
That and I'm trying to relearn how to draw without cramping up my hand.
A recent article about poor drawing habits with wacom tablets could lead to hand and wrist injuries. Definitely don't want that, especially since my job requires me handling boxes and packages and some lifting.

Anyways, as for my portfolio. I think I'm approaching things wrong here and simply need to do more observational sketches first before trying to tackle the design and conceptual stuff.
And sadly, this the progress I have with this sketch page.
I'm trying to get a feel for each characters' personality and how they interact with each other.

Ah yes, Sugar Dominion. 8 pages so far done....about 22 more to go.
You can view them at my deviantArt.

New Moleskine and a few more doodles

So yeah, I had bought a small Moleskine Sketchbook, but didn't want to draw straight into it yet. Now that I had finished using my last sketchbook (literally a few days after the new year), I'm stoked to use it.

And yeah, the first page is literally a "Contact me" page with an "Award" line.

Honestly, sketchbooks are like my babies, but even I'm not willing to give a reward. Maybe I would, but honestly, I'm not made of money.
Am I the only one who tears up if something bad happens to each drawing I make?

Anyway, I've been working on these sketches, trying to determine what is a good design for my characters, and I think I've got one. I have Genndy Tartakovsky and Samurai Jack to thank.

I know this sketch was already posted, but still. It had a little bit of space so I used that space to do some more. And I believe I've found the adult design for the male protagonist

**Note to Self: find names for these characters** What also helped were these little references.

This was the first one i liked instantly, but I had a hard grasp of going away from the basic "round" shapes and trying to make these shapes semi "believable" Awesomely drawn by Taho	This one was a guide for finding the right "sunglasses"   Check it out	And this one is something to do with hats Seriosly, it's amazing

Bears Bears and an Acorn

First off, These were doodles I made on a blank card for my friend, who is away.
It's kind of an inside joke, where last time me and a bunch of girls from bible study went up north near Elijay for a "Ladies Retreat" weekend, we saw some bears up close (from a safe distance).
And she's at that same site where the Global team is.
So I made some doodles with bears on it.

And of course, while I was listening to another fabulous artcast on Christ Oatley's site, I was trying to actually get some doodle sketches done. I had this idea of how the children would look, except they turned out like this...

How I felt after this...

...I promise that's not where I'm stopping. I'm still in that messy experimental stage where I'm figuring out what style or direction I want to go with this concept portfolio.

Coloring Test for Eruti

I was trying to see if I could try out a coloring style for Eruti
which only turned out like this...and I wasn't very pleased. Though, to be fair, it's my fault that I did a sloppy sketch instead of more refined drawing. NOT pure clean lineart, but an actual drawing.

What coloring style was I trying out? Well, I recently fell in love with Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang's book "In Real Life", which was gorgeous, and goes into online gaming. Jen Wang's coloring style is very gorgeous and fun to look at.

***the pages mentioned above are (C) Jen Wang***

It's really pretty in my opinion, and has this soft look to it.

Now I definitely plan on doing another color test, and ACTUALLY paying attention to what I want to emulate.

Truth be told, there's another color test I want to try, and it's a style that's grayscale, but has more linework involved. I'm talking about the way Faith Erin Hicks colored her pages in "the War at Ellsmere"

***the pages mentioned above are (C) Faith Erin Hicks***

but now that googled reference pictures, all of her pages look awesome.
Clear drawings, yet not too overly detailed with the grays or toning (if she used screen tones at all).

***the pages mentioned above are (C) Faith Erin Hicks***

But right now, I really have to focus on Sugar Dominion, my portfolio, and the Magic Box Academy.

Developing sketches for portfolio, and first few pages of Sugar Dominion

First off, I really should be better with uploading stuff. I've been steadily working on sketches for character design, though I might need to push the designs more.
Honestly, these were done almost 1-2 weeks ago.

It's always good to have a tiny notebook. I work on some sketches when the store is dead and not busy.

A finished drawing of elephants. Still need to do some more studies of elephants. And yes, elephants are prime in this portfolio.

Trying to design some male characters. At least trying to find the right design for one of the guy characters.

I don't know why I started drawing beatboards for this, but  I guess I wanted to make sense of the story, or the short, if I ever decided to animate. As you can see, it's not done. Half, actually.

Oh yeah, I've started putting up some finished pages for that manga short, and I hope to finish that comic at least before April comes.
So you can see them at my deviantart.
For now, page 1    page 2    page 3 .
Until then, see ya later.

Edith Squeakton revised color comp

I actually finished this yesterday. Now I'm going to skip ahead to assignment 2 and get more acquainted with the photoshop brushes. No other doodles, so far.

Happy New Year and good riddance horsey

First off, a Happy New Year 2015 to all of you. It is now the year of the ram.

Just finished this 40 minutes ago.

And here's a tribute to this wild, and hectic year (for me) of 2014.
Why was it hectic? Well...

• I finished up my first year of teaching, and never again do I wish to return to that field. 
• I got into a car accident, and I have only myself to blame. Thankfully, no one was severely hurt. Everyone please stay safe on the road, and try not to give in too drowsiness or sleep fatigue. That's what happened to me.
• I got into a rather awkward and unfruitful free-lancing experience, with a rather peculiar client. A hard-learned lesson and experience of weighing my options of whether my time and effort is worth it, and to ACTUALLY listen to any warning flags and pray more before agreeing to whatever assignment given to me. For all those free-lancers, beware of any jobs that suck up way too much of your time and give little to no compensation. Unless you don't mind working for that person.
• Went on my first mission trip to Haiti. The only highlight to me was planning and painting inside the new nursery house, and actually finishing it by pulling an all-nighter before the day of departure (yep, I cut it real close there, but I did it).
• Went through some depressing moments of wanting to give up art and my comics after finding that I had to shelf Eruti again. 
• Finding how much I lack in self-discipline when it comes to learning.
• Got a job at a UPS store and still getting over my anxiety around people in general. And I miraculously survived my first UPS Holiday rush.

*Phew* yep, insane year of the horse.

Speaking of horse...

If you're curious of this picture, click on this link and it will take you to the link that has a description below.

Now 2015 will be the year of the ram. Well, what are my plans? 

• I will continue working and learning with Christ Oatley's Magic Box Academy
• Make some new fanart pieces for my first artist table at either Momocon or AWA 2015
• Work on a portfolio for concept/character design (a storyboard portfolio if time permits)
• Launch my webcomic "Beeswax"
• Finish that short comic "Sugar Dominion"
• plan for an anthology of short comics.
• Steadily write and rewrite Eruti and other potential stories and try to explore different story-telling formats other than only comics.

I also hope to be more faithful with Christ, because lately, I still have control/trust issues. But hey, if we made it this year, then we'll survive whatever comes. So bring it on, 2015! Year of the Ram, Sheep, Goat!

God bless, Peace, and Happy New Year! See Ya'll.