Castlevania Nocturne Frozen Shade: Lighting and Painterly Study

    One of my goals for the longest time was to actually finish my artwork. For various reasons I'venever quite been satisfied with my approach and workflow. What a strange thing, then, that a show I only kind of liked would be my muse for a few days.

Castlevania Nocturne Frozen Shade

 Hello world, it's been a while.

This year one of my goals has been to take a concentarted effort to try and refine my craft, put stuff out there, try and get noticed, and who knows, maybe get paid for this. 

For the last three weeks since the start of the new year, I've been attempting to grind and level up as best as I can, which more often than not is a slow process that starts with finding a first push of momentum. About five to ten minutes of dragging my pen over the tablet seems to do the trick...until I run out of steam, unable to decide what to draw.

I caught up on Castlevania: Nocturne on Netflix over the weekend to try and jostle something into inspiration. I found myself morbid captivated by this minor character, the nameless Captain of the French Revolutionary Guard who was turned into a night creature as a nod to one of the video game enemies, the Frozen Shade. The horror of her second unlife juxtaposed well with the series' themes of elevating oneself over oppression.

It's not a bad show, but to call it an adaptation of Rondo of Blood is to really stretch the meaning of the word. For what it was I enjoyed it overall, and from an aesthetic point of view, Castlevania has always been visually interesting.

As an artist, I found that while I still enjoy drawing figures and sketching, my inking is rudimentary and I'm still no painter. I'd like to improve my skills as a colorist, and referencing stills form the show gave me something to study. 

Tsukino-Con 2014

Hamon!

I just came back from Tsukino-Con at the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island. I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised that under a rather unassuming venue, there was a group of folks subsisting on good will and hype.  It was also nice to explore a different scene, close enough but all the same different from the Vancouver crowd.

Heichou got no sleep

At my table I was doing the usual illustrating, even got a few commissions. Before they disappeared, I snapped a few pictures. 

Unfortunately I could only do pencils, since I brought my inks but no white or correctional tape!

All in all, a good first run in the con circuit. All fired up to get some more stuff done, but first I gotta stretch the hands and make some time.

Day 7

The Detroit Hitman, The Motor City Cobra

A sketch of Thomas 'The Hitman' Hearns, a boxer who rose to conquer six weight divisions in the 80s. The guy punched so hard that he made Sugar Ray Leonard retire temporarily due to a detached retina!

I tried a bit of a different approach with this one and used non-repro blue pencil for the structure lines. I'd like to improve the cleanliness of my pencils and my rendering, and this seems to be a bit of a start.

Day 6

I listen to The Sex Pistols a lot - or as much as I can, as Never Mind the Bollocks was their only release - and, as much as I can appreciate angry vitriol as any other, I cannot completely identify with the Punk mentality beyond that.

I do like the Ramones though, since they were sincerely awkward geeks who by being brazenly honest amounted to a raw coolness.

Day 3

Shenanigans!

I've been learning Ibuki in SSF4: AE 2012. I usually play with Chun-Li, but Ibuki in offering more approach and offense options allows a gateway for me to explore playing the game a different way from pokes, footsies, and laming it out.

Day 2

Galaxy Senshi Bishoujo Mantis

I loved the 2008-2010 Guardians of the Galaxy team, the Nova series, everything Cosmic in that era. Annihilation, (parts of) Conquest, War of Kings, The Thanos Imperative. So rad.

I absolutely loathe Bendis' current, non-explanatory, movie-tie-in, send-Iron-Man-to-upstage-Star-Lord soft reboot that threw out everything from that run.

Also Mantis is my space-waifu. Those weird celestial psychic feels.