Happy New Year 2017-reflections, plans, & sketches

Happy New Year it is finally 2017. Goodbye 2016.

2016 was a crazy year, a hard year, but albeit a productive year for me.
So here are some highlights of 2016 (cuz I don't want to think of how many musicians and good actors/actresses died)

• I finally finished the Pixel Brains animated short for L4D2
• I launched my webcomic "Blue Fire"
• I finished my storyboard portfolio (which I kept holding off for a few years)
• Started making comics for a local newspaper
• Dusted out my youtube channel
• Actually took on commissions
• Set up a Patreon

Now for my resolutions:

• Create a concept art portfolio centered on game development
• Make Youtube an actual job as an artist/animator
• try to finish some animated short projects
• continue working on "Blue Fire" & upload it on Webtoons along side other platforms
• Be more patient & willing to trust God & stop trying to control every facet of my life, because the universe bows to no one & I'm a sinle speck of dust in this cosmic ocean
• If Youtube doesn't work out, look into enrolling into technical college to gain skills that will get me a normal job
• And if I'm unable to afford college, actually search for a job after the summer.

I'm happy to say that I found it pretty fun to work on commissions, no matter how small they were. Really thankful to some of the people who commissioned me. Here are samples:  

The last comic of 2016 for the "Korean Baptist Press of the USA" 침례신문

A piece of fanart for Riana Dorsey, cuz it was her birthday. If you can, check out her webcomic "Suihira." It's great ^^

And some art for Blue Fire

To spruce up my youtube page, I made myself a whole new channel art, which is now one of my wallpapers:

I'm now a fan of "Yuri!! On ice" anime. So good. And because of constantly listening to the song "On love: Agape," I sketched some of my characters as figure skaters. There's Ji-Hyun from that scrapped "Phantom of the Opera" fancomic. Her outfit is based on a Korean doll. Ethelmay from Eruti, her design is fairy-based. Creon is a simple one piece that shows off the markings on her skin (just didn't color them here since it was all charcoal). And Valentine in a stylized outfit based on a swallowtail tuxedo.

And that's about it. Happy new year, and best of luck to you all. God bless you all and take care.

Lack of Update and slow progress on Blue Fire

It's been a really long time. I haven't been uploading any sketches or content, because all of my time has been devoted to the first pages of the first chapter of "Blue Fire".

I'm going through some personal conflict of wondering if comic/manhwa/manga making is something I'll stick with, or suited for. I've been so used to making fan-comics, that I wonder if I can really do this for the rest of my life. I'm thinking of trying some other small projects.

Beeswhacks still updating bi-weekly (every other week). Still working on that Pixel Brains short. Now I feel that I need to try and make at least one original sketch or drawing every week. At least something to put on my blog. It's been 2 months of inactivity, yet I post gratuitous fanart and sketches on my tumblr and occasionally my tumblr. In fact, I've been posting work-in-progress images of the "Blue Fire" pages on my instagram.

Also, a little update on why the Pixel Brains short is STILL taking too dang long.

Here's to hopefully more updates for the rest of this year.

Nothing but thumbnails, and still working on that Pixel Brains short

My lack of updates is due to me making thumbnails for the first chapter of "Blue Fire," which I've finished ^_^
Whatever sketches and doodles I've done is purely fanart, which I'm not putting here. I'm trying to avoid that. I post all that on my tumblr.
In the meanwhile, I'm still working on Beeswhacks, they're still being updated twice a month (every other week), and I'm going to commit to that until I officially burn out of content to make fun of.

Now last month, I've uploaded a fan storyboard/animatic for the first time. Again, purely fan-based and only a test.

Speaking of uploading, still working on the Pixel Brains animated short, so I might as well post some wip screenshots.

Anyway, I hope to stay diligent with "Blue Fire" And try and updating this blog more.

Blue FIre test page 3

And test page 3 is here.
This time I tested out my usual way of shading, and then tried with screentones on the right.
Now I remember why I don't like screentones.
They're meticulous.
So far, I think I'm fine for now. I'd really like to get thumbnails done, and at least figure out how to present this comic. I still haven't decided on the logo, and that needs to be done soon.
Not to mention, I have yet to finish thumbnailing the first chapter.

Blue Fire test page 2

Well, the one road block that got in my way, was the phantom's blue fiery eyes. I can't seem to draw fire well. Let alone in black and white. But my brother did offer good feedback on getting the flaming eye look by referring to the manga for "Black Rock Shooter." Really glad I looked at some references.

One thing's for sure, I definitely need to look up references for fight scenes, because the original crouching stance in the first panel was VERY unnatural. My brother couldn't pose that way for a reference picture. I couldn't keep that pose. So I ended up changing it. Now here, I've come up with 3 different tests. One is completely black and white, the middle emphasizes only blue fire, and the last is where the only color remaining is blue. Personally, I wonder if having one color out of the black and white is distracting.

What do you all think? I would love feedback.
You can send feedback on my deviantart or message me on tumblr
More test pages are coming, and I don't think the story needs too much tweaking.
I just need to get thumbnails out.

Here's to a productive 2016

Happy New Year's everyone.
And sorry about the lack of posts lately. December has not been fun, that I just didn't feel like updating due to the busy Holiday rush at work.
Now looking through 2015, I have to say...not too much has happened other than working retail. Oh wait! There is some.

• I finished Sugar Dominion, the short one-shot manga
• I opened my first webcomic Beeswhacks.
• My right hand recovered from strain, and now those pains and weird clicking symptoms are back, so that I have to check up on.
• Got a lot of progress on the fully animated short for Pixel Brains
• Did my first internet drawing challenge: Drawlloween ^^
• Made a few fanart and original pieces.
• And have made lots of writing progress on my new comic, "Blue Fire" (title might be changed")

Now, there's a downside. I've definitely NOT accomplished 2015 new years' resolutions. But I do know this, I WILL make "Blue Fire" come to fruition. Eruti is still heavily on the backburner, due to how much I flip-flop with the direction of the plot, story, and theme. It's been difficult for me to grasp what my limits are, and what I'm more comfortable with. I've been slowly decaying spiritually. I think I've gotten too detached from God, that I've just stopped thinking He existed in my life. 

But enough of that, my hopes for the year of the monkey is DEFINITELY make "Blue Fire" a reality. This is one short story that I can make into a comic. Beeswhacks was a start, but now I'd rather start with something more short and simple. And hopefully I can finish animating that short for Pixel Brains. In other words, I want it to be a productive year. One that marks consistent progress. Who knows, I might have a patreon set up as well. That would be great. Also, I definitely want to be more faithful to God, and try to cast off my "religious" mask. That's all I've been, and I want to change that.

Now here's a taste of what Blue Fire is like. This is a test page, and I'm working on a 2nd one as well.

Ah and some sketches that I meant to upload