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.

Some Sketches after Florida

Actually, one of them is really old, but I just didn't feel like putting it up.
I made a few sketches when me and my family were in Florida, and finished them. Honestly I haven't done many sketching, which I kind of miss. It's not easy with me still concentrating on "Blue Fire" as well as animating the Pixel Brains short during my livestreams. I'm hoping to open up art commissions next month. Hopefully I can rely on paying off bills with art, rather than job-hunting. I can't rely on opening a Patreon. It's too soon and my following is not even that big. So it would be shooting myself in the foot.

But enough of that. Here's the part where I describe each sketch.

I think I finished this last month, or maybe 2 weeks ago. I hadn't drawn these 2 in such a long time, so I decided to practice drawing in the new style I had discovered. It kind of meshes with anime, Butch Hartman's cartoon style, and Genndy Tartakovsky's style. At first I wanted to draw just Eth alone playing with these weird bee creatures, mainly the woolybugs from "The Ancient Magus Bride." 
Then I started adding some Salamander creature, but Eth still looked alone. I went ahead and added Shadow, and Asmod. Couldn't leave Asmod out.

Now the bottom 2 sketches are an idea that deviated from fan characters and a fanfic that developed after watching season 1 of "Star Vs The Forces of Evil."

Then there was also a lizard-man named "Toffee," one of the villains in the cartoon. And somehow I ended up making some crack head-cannon story around this lizard-man.

When I got too deep into the lore, I realized that this could be a stand-alone story.

 The first one, I always wanted to draw Eli riding a dear/elk. Well she's not riding, but it's close. Some day I want to make proper illustrations for Eli and Rokka (his name is pending). I unintentionally made her look younger than she's supposed to be (24-27?). That's mostly the result from deviating from the SVTFOE cartoon style, and trying to redraw her in my own style. For the record, Roca is trying not show blatant jealousy of the "walking meat with horns" getting most of Eli's attention.

Next is the lizard warrior himself. I got the name Roca when I found out about the anime "Rokka no Yuusha". The name "Rokka" sounded good, but I wasn't sure if it was made up, or had a meaning. Later, I found that "Roca" sounded simila, and it also meant "rock" in Spanish. It felt perfect for this guy, since almost half of his personality is steadfast, firm, strong, and persistent. I clearly need to draw more reptiles, lizards, and dinosaurs to make his design a bit more believable. Or at least make it easier on myself. I played around with some silhouette poses, to get a feel for how he'd run, crouch, and sit. I'm also referencing his body type based on Geoffrey Thomas's character; Hal Adhil from his book "The Wayward Astronomer." Really love how David Lillie drew this guy. It's like the perfect anthro version of a velociraptor.

Well that's it. I'm still working on the Pixel Brains short. Hopefully I don't run out of steam while animating it. I'd like to say that I'm nearly halfway done with animation. Until then, see you all later.

Blue Fire officially on Tapastic

First off, really sorry for the lack of updates.
Second, I've finally decided to upload the comic "Blue Fire" on Tapastic.

I plan on uploading a page from Monday to Friday of this week. That means 5 pages will be up and loaded. And I'm going to see how my update schedule works. I still find myself at a painstaking snail pace when it comes to making comics. I'm aiming for every 2 weeks for now. Maybe I can urge myself to create a page every week, once I leave my job. Otherwise, the updates would be sporadic. And that's not what I want.

In the mean time, I haven't updated with a whole lot of sketches or drawings. Most of the time I find really little to draw. And when I do, it's mainly fanart.
So I'll go ahead and upload what I have so far.

At one point there was a massive nation-wide internet blackout for Charter customers. Us included. So for a solid hour, me and my brother were perplexed, until we found that we weren't the only ones. Lots of upset baseball fans were unable to file complaints, since Charter's phone line was non-responsive. Using our phone data, we amused ourselves by reading all tweets related to Charter's blackout. Someone commented that Charter forgot to feed their hamsters. And that's how this doodle manifested.

And then there was mother's day.

My attempt of practicing the drawing of very detailed objects. My brother suggested drawing a simple Dreadnaught.

A card for Father's day.

Until then, I will do my best to update Blue Fire as much as possible.
Also, I finished animating part 1 of the Pixel Brains animated short. Still need 2 more parts.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.