Thursday, November 26, 2015

Blue Fire: YeoungHy Character Color Test

This is probably the last character color test I'm going to do.
I really need to make thumbnails and start on pages, since the writing is done.


But it was still good to get an idea of what I wanted for the 2 main characters. Though I feel that the other characters need some more thought.
Now as I started working on YeoungHy, I came to this problem about her design; how do I draw slightly malnourished, yet strong females?
When it came time to sketch the body base for costumes, I decided that I wanted to give her a build close to MMA fighters, or the Korra build. While looking around the internet for perfectly athletic Asian women, I found that the Korra build may not work for YeoungHy.
so rather than the Korra build or the Ronda Rousey look

I went with this look. It looks sickly or meh, but I feel it's better for YeoungHy in her case. Well...actually I think I can combine a bit from both.
YeoungHy's family is not well off, so she probably doesn't eat as much. Even if she started to hunt to help feed her family, she still wouldn't be eating much.
YeoungHy is not only helping her family, but she's practically helping others. She's always active and moving, so she'd have muscles, but I feel she'd look more sickly, than healthy.
I just don't want to draw her with a slim figure.That's something I've always drawn. I want to challenge myself to draw a girl with some muscle on her.

Also, some of the costumes don't look much like traditional hanbok. I got inspired by some of the costumes from "Jung Yi, Goddess of fire." Considering that most lower class civilians can barely afford to have colors. Most of them would wear only white or faded colors or earthy colors. So I was surprised that some costumes were colorful for peasants. Oh well. The great things about comics, I can bend a few rules.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Blue Fire Title Logo

I've been beating myself over getting the title look close to Korean calligraphy. Or even remotely like Asian calligraphy.
[EDIT/UPDATE]
I'm going to post new revisions on this post for the title.

Round 3 of new logo variations. [update 12/7]
This should be my last one


2nd batch of new logo variations
this was the first one.



Thursday, November 19, 2015

Finished breaking down Blue Fire, and first character color test

Huzzah for productivity ^^
I've broken down chapters to pages, or estimated. I've got about 12 chapters to work with. Not bad. Few of them will be longer than the rest.
And I made my first color test, though I think I did it wrong.
Initially I'm used to drawing people or characters that are pleasing to look at. Well it was a challenge to remember that this character had a long shaggy beard, and looks like he's indifferent to his appearance. I'm glad I did a color test. Other wise he would have looked like an old, giant smurf.

My dad was intrigued with the fact that I was taking a Korean folk-tale and making it a manhwa comic. Sadly, even he had never heard of "The Logger's daughter and the Blue-eyed phantom." Not sure if this would be an authentic folk-tale. But that's okay. It gives me some freedom to make this "phantom" my own character on its own. And I'm really happy with where I'm going with the characters.

I'm planning on getting thumbnails, and doing a color test for YeoungHy, the logger's daughter.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Another Road block and Small Doodle dump Nov 3-8 2015

Not much. Sadly.
It's strange, now that "Sugar Dominion" no longer ties me down. That means I can concentrate on other personal projects. But it's looking daunting, especially choosing. I don't know if I'll be able to tackle it. Afraid of failing. Afraid that my work will not get any recognition. Being forever invisible in the sea of other wonderful content. No one has even commented on "Sugar Dominion" much. And that's a bit disheartening.
I can't seem to make up my mind on what I should prioritize on.
Should I continue working towards the story "Blue Fire"?
Or tackle "Eruti" first? Or should I be creating that portfolio I've put off?
I try to see which one I'm more passionate about. And sadly, I can't seem to be as enthusiastic about them as I am when drawing fanart. But that doesn't sit well with me, building myself based on only fanart and fan stuff. It's as if I have no originality at all.

Sorry if this has become a personal vent blog. This first week was quite confusing.
For now, I'm going to aim for finishing the outline and story for Blue Fire, so that way I can actually have a webcomic to look forward to. Or, maybe a comic-prose.
In the meanwhile, not many sketches.

First one is where I decided to start working on "Blue Fire." I have found the perfect soundtrack to listen to; the soundtrack from the historic kdrama "Gunman in Joseon." This was me still trying to get YeoungHy's vigilante look. I had to see what the common portrayal of Hong Gil Dong was. Hong Gil Dong is an old fictional character in Korean legends. You can say he's a Korean Robin Hood.

Today, or should I say yesterday, my family and my church went to Tallulah Gorge Park. The view was great (as well as the food). I got a chance to sketch a bit.
 This is the new header I made for my tumblr. It only shows up when you view it in the app or smartphone. I had to throw in my original characters, though 3 figures are NOT mine. 1 of them, is the reason why I'm not getting any original stuff done (because his existence has sparked a craze of fanart I desperately want to draw). The other 2 are my favorite "let's players", the Pixel Brains ^^

Speaking of Pixel Brains, I'm STILL not giving up on the current "Left 4 Dead 2" animated short. I'm happy to say that I"m done with the rough pencil test. And am ready to do backgrounds, inking, coloring...still a lot of work.




Monday, November 2, 2015

Drawlloween 2015 over, and Sugar Dominion Complete

Title says it all.
First off, I'm happy to say that the manga short "Sugar Dominion" is done. All of it is on Tapastic
A short comic that wasn't able to make it for the 2013 Shonen Jump Manga contest, is finally complete. You can click on this banner to go there.
And now for the remainder of this  year's Drawlloween. I mixed it in with a bit of Inktober, but this really is exhausting. My right hand has been acting up again, though it's not as painful as the first time. This however sucked a lot of time and sleep from me. I almost didn't finish Sugar Dominion because of this. Though it wasn't completely finished for October, I managed. You can obviously see a lot of fanart crossing over with some of my original characters. This was a good opportunity, and kind of fun.


Now that means...I can continue to move on and work on other personal projects...which one to start on...
Well, that means it's time to write Blue Fire. That comic is still in writing stage, and I'm in the process of breaking chapters down for drawing.