Shatter Me: Poster drafts. And some shoutouts.

Lindsey Stirling is holding a poster design contest for her "Shatter Me" album tour. These are mere rough drafts, because my pencil drafts were hard for people to look at, so I couldn't get the right feedback.

Anyway, leave a comment. I really appreciate feedback. Otherwise, for those on deviantart, shoot me a message.

Also, a BIG shoutout, courtesy of Bonka Chan.
The artist who goes by "Princess Harumi" or her tumblr "playbunny", is recovering from her ER treatment. But she needs some financial aid, and prayers. I'll provide the link here, so you can look for yourselves. She has linked a paypal donation button as well. Thank you Bonka for signalling this. Although, truth be told, I almost thought that was Bonka, haha. This is why it's important to read CAREFULLY.

Oh, speaking of which, there's this artist who recently got his laptop and external hard drive stolen. That's 6 years of work gone. So far, they have found good support from online, but I'd like to still give a shout out to either read this blog and signal boost it. Hopefully the crooks will be found. Or if you'd like to donate to the couple.

Well, that's that. Take care everyone.

Hullabaloo and more sketches

First off...

Yep, James Lopez and his team will be creating 2 short films of Hullabaloo. I want to see this 2D steampunk masterpieace. Argh, a lot of other countries are doing 2D animations. I really want to see them. There's Master Jiang and the Six Kingdoms. It looks fantastic.
On the side note, I meant to upload the sketches last night, but I forgot. One day's worth of sketches. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to draw Eruti. I want to find that hybrid of anime and cartoon. And then of course, experimenting with what is my more natural style (first top 2 sketches).
Oh yeah, I couldn't resist the chance to draw John Oliver as a parrot.

New one-shot comic, and crazy goals for rest of this year.

Eruti is on the back-burner again. However, I don't want to just rush that story. It's quite dear to me, but so are a lot of other stories. Rather than focusing solely on Eruti, I've decided to finish an old project of mine.
If any of you remember that old OLD Shonen Jump Manga Contest entry I shelved last year, I've brought it back out. Phew! It's been a while since I last drew those characters. My brother seems quite happy that his idea won't be shelved forever. I'm actually glad he gave me an idea to quickly run with.
So far, I'm steadily inking this 22nd page, with only 8 more pages to sketch and ink.
And then that leaves touch-ups, lettering, and toning for all 30 pages.

Of course, I need to make a good cover for it as well.
Now lately, it's kind of disturbing how few of the most interesting, or peculiar, dreams start breathing a life of their own. Perhaps 3 nights ago, I had this odd dream. I was obviously in it (going to change to a different character), and for some reason I was held hostage? Then I was saved by this agent/spy/police officer? For some reason time must have skipped forward and I ended up being his partner and helping him with his missions?

It still has this potential love story, and for some reason they're too adorable to pass up on. It's scary how these dreams work. It's as rare as finding a unicorn. Heck, there's seriously a Snow-White story that I want to do, and a story with some mouse king? See? It's mind-blowing how these rare dreams can turn into stories.

Now another crazy, radical idea, would webfiction be a good route for some of my longer stories? I would definitely add illustrations there. Heck, even the webcomic Best Friends Forever is continuing with written pseudo-chapters and sketches. Again, so many choices, but so little time. And most of all, what is the best route for me? Still praying over it, and trying to relax.

You know how you think you have everything ready to go, and you are so sure that you can start making the pages for that webcomic you dreamed of ever since high school? Well...After sharing my story (spoiler-free synopsis) with another fellow artist, I found a lot of unpleasant flaws with my story. So it was back to square 1, rewriting. 

This month indeed has been rough. Especially with me wondering, "how am I ever going to make a living with art?"

More like "what is the best course of action to take?"

Well...I guess it's better to show you, then tell.

But I'm faithful that God will get me through this rough, unclear time. Even now, I'm listening to a wonderful Chris Oatley podcast interview with Sarah Marino. All artists go through this crippling disease of self-doubt, and the struggle of soul-searching and finding your true passion. I definitely know that I'm not cut out for teaching, even if it is art. I'm an artist first, but I feel like I'm letting that define my soul purpose, when it's not.

I'm a Christian who still has lots of problems like any regular person, I'm a sister, a daughter, a friend, and the occasional entertainer. And to all you struggling and aspiring artists out there, hang in there.

Now with the situation on Eruti...well, I'm still writing, but I got this crazy idea of taking a break (again) and work on some short story webcomics instead. To get my bearings together. I really want to tell these stories. 

Until next time, God bless, peace, and take care.

Oh and here's some other stuff I posted on my tumblr first (I prefer to compile a bunch of stuff, rather than blogging every single, minute doodle.

 Some fanart and homage to the General Yi Soon Shin, and the movie "The Admiral: Roaring Currents."

A gift doodle for the child I sponsor through WorldVision. 

Eruti Chapter 1 is in works

The reason why I don't put much content on deviantArt or even tumblr, is because I was thumbnailing the first chapter for Eruti. Last night I happened to finish page 1.

Also, it took longer because I ended up ditching a different version for how to start chapter 1. So about 2-3 versions of the chapter were scrapped after being fully finished or 1/4 done. This below is the reject. But there's one chapter that I will recycle.

I've also been testing out Clip Studio Paint, to get the feel for it. I still need to get a grasp with the coloring, though.

On the side note, I've begun getting into Ragnarok Online (not the 3d 2nd version). Not sure if I'll be investing time in Guild Wars 2, though it is a good game. I'm just easily discombobulated by the 3d navigation, while fighting and dodging.

Wacom Cintiq 13HD woes

Now I know I'm being too hard on it because it's spanking brand new and I haven't gotten used to it.
But this thing is ridiculous with it's calibrations going wonky with adobe Flash, Gimp, and Clip Studio Paint.
I just got a new windows 8.1 desktop 2 weeks ago. Liking it so far, and I mainly got it because I needed something powerful to handle the work I would be doing.
Today I tried setting it up, and nothing came on. I had the drivers installed and everything.
Then when I went to Microcenter to get an HDMI to DVI adapter, it worked.
Next problem: The pen calibration was off. I think I uninstalled and reinstalled those drivers and the tablet about 3-4 times, including the ones on the cd and the newest one online.
Now I'm pissed because I had purchased Clip Studio Pro, and liked it (for now, still trying to figure out how to use the brushes. Not used to them). But the calibration on that is way off as well.
Sure, i can access the toolbar settings. But when I try to paint, ink, or draw with pencil, the cursor is like 3 inches apart from the pen itself.
It works fine on photoshop.
But then, I couldn't seem to download Flash, the trial version, and the same thing happens there. pen calibration is off.
I don't know if I need to configure something in the settings of those programs
Or if this cintiq is derpy with Windows 8.1
I'm frustrated. I've wasted probably $2200 for both the pc and this cintiq, and I get this bullcrap.
I wanted the cintiq to help me draw better and more efficiently, especially since I plan to work on my comics.
Instead, I'm scouring the internet for answers.
Wacom, you disappoint me.
Either they're so invested with their new Hybrid Companion rather than their predecessors, I might as well return it.
It's too soon to throw in the towel, but for now, I hope the tech support can help.
If any of you have problems like these, feel free to share.

Got Clip Studio Paint

I tested Clip Studio Paint (pro version), and it's pretty good so far.
Though I do realize how drawing with the bamboo tablet is still somewhat of a disconnect.
But nonetheless, here is the result

Now some explanations.
As you can see, 2 characters from Once Upon A Time
I was weepy at the mid-season finale, and then in one of the later episodes (RIP Neil).
I saw the Dark Crystal yesterday and love it.
The weird version of Shadow is a version from my brother and our roleplay from old days.
Here Shadow is a battling commander of his personal fleet, of the trinity wars.
Let's just say Shadow lived long enough and grew more powerful enough to be summoned to end the reign of Luistring. Sonic? Sadly, Sonic in our roleplays takes multiple versions and personas in the multiverse. The original Sonic made a deal to give the universe a chance to be rid of Luistring's power. Which involved putting a reset on the universe. It wiped him off of existence, nearly everyone started over again.
I'm not going to go on in huge detail. But yep, that's Shadow in his outfit. His retinas are actually synced to the wrist band.