Apollo WIP

I went ahead and just scanned the inked linework into my computer so I can try my hand at this Photoshooping thing... I've been meaning to make the switch to digital coloring for quite some time now, but haven't done so yet for three reasons:
1- My computer's processor is crap for graphics programs. But I guess I'll have to deal with the jerkiness of the pointer trying to catch up with itself in the process of trying to improve my art.
2- I didn't know how to separate the lineart to set it into the foreground without redrawing everything. Now that I've finally gotten ahold of a tutorial, I no longer have an excuse.
3- I suck at digital art. But, after getting a tablet and putting in plenty of practice on 4chan's /i/ board (For those who don't know what it is, it has a built-in art program in the forum), I might be able to produce something halfway worthwhile.


The main reason why I'm wanting to make the switch to digital coloring is because it is incredibly difficult to accurately depict lighting effects (particularly colored lighting) with traditional materials. Plus, it'll be easier to create smoother gradients, fix mistakes, and get the colors to look right since I won't have to worry about the scanner not picking up colors properly.

So... hopefully this won't turn out like crap.

Some new stuff

Hey, I've been not updating this thing for quite some time now.... I figured it was about time to put in some sort of update! So, here are some new drawings since I can't think of anything worthwhile to say:






I've been getting a little better since I've had some more practice and lessons, but I still have a long ways to go to get where I want to be. Extra thanks to the portfolio reviewer at High-Voltage Studios for giving me that kick I needed to begin to take my character illustrations to the next level (of course, actually putting in the damn backgrounds could be a smart thing too, but... I've just got to start working even harder!).

Up for a promotion!

Hello!

I am happy to report that I am up for a promotion at my job! I'm one of the candidates among those who applied to become Trainers here, due to my prior experience as both a trainer and a supervisor at another job! The pay is $2 more per hour, and it gets me off of the phones... hopefully I'll be one of the people selected for the job.


In other unrelated news, while I was working on the F90 Type-V kit I purchased recently, I managed to give myself the worst model-kit related injury I have yet to sustain. On the bottom of one of the feet, there is a recessed area in the middle between the treads that is really hard to get to for the purpose of getting rid of any glue piled up on the seam... so I took an angled "chisel"-type hobby knife blade to scrape away the glue. Well... the glue line resisted for a bit, then suddenly gave away; allowing the blade to slice RIGHT THROUGH THE TREAD ON THE SIDE OF THE SOLE and into my finger. The blade went all the way through to the bone, severing an artery and instantly unleashing a small spray of blood; some of the spatters reaching 3 feet from my desk! D: Two paper towels were completely soaked in less than a minute as I attempted to contain the bleeding, then I held a proper cloth towel over the cut for another half-hour or so until it slowed down to the rate of a normal hobby knife cut (lol). It's now been about 4 days since I did that; the hole is healed up, but my fingertip is still numb... The amusing thing about the whole ordeal when it happened was that the first thought that went through my head was not "OMG this hurts" or "Wow, that was stupid"... but rather, "I'm glad I was planning on painting this thing!" :D

Anyways, the art lessons are going fairly well; I'm still having a bit of difficulty fitting everything into my schedule, though... but I finally managed to get some decent screencaps of the mech Hathor from Zone of Enders for the redesign project requested by Kyle 3 months ago... so hopefully I'll have some time to work on that before too much longer. ;_;

Moar portrait works!

Here's another portrait painting I just completed today, of Megan Zhang from my series Trooper Blaze. I learned on the previous portrait of Amanda that I didn't really need to draw in shading with the colored pencil I did the linework with; just doing shading with the paint is fine. :P

Here's the portrait; let me know what you think!

On a sidenote, I need to find a type of paper that takes watercolor paints a little better... I'm currently using heavy Bristol boards and they wrinkle all to Hell whenever I use the paint over a large area... D: I know that there is specially made "watercolor paper", but it wrinkles just the same and has a terrible texture that often ruins the picture....

Learning to be a better artist

I have decided to start studying up on whatever materials I can find on tutorials and other ways to become a better artist. I have been showing some progress in my work, but it's still not enough for my liking... so I'm going to try to "kick it into overdrive" throughout the next year or so in order to improve as quickly as I possibly can.

Here is a portrait that I have just finished... I used a purple colored pencil for the linework, and colors with watercolor paint. The whole thing was an attempt at a "speed-illustration;" trying to produce a quality image with materials that do not allow for mistakes, and get it done as quickly as possible. This one took about 1 hour 10 minutes to complete; not including the time for the paint to dry.
Let me know what you think!

GenCon was fun

Hello everyone!

I figured I would give an update on how GenCon went; it's been a week past already!

On Thursday, Zignoff and I got to Indianapolis at about 11:00 AM. When we got to the Convention Center, there was a MASSIVELY long line wrapped around the corner of the main entrance, going on for almost two blocks total. Two hours later in the sweltering summer heat later, we were able to get inside to the nice air-conditioning and purchase our 4-day passes. The wait was well worth it!

GenCon ahoy!

Hello!

Tomorrow morning, I will be heading out to GenCon, the Games and Entertainment convention held every year in Indianapolis! I look forward to another great time of hanging out with friends I haven't seen in a while, checking out the nightlife in Indy, and of course getting lots of cool stuff from the dealer hall! :D

I'll try to take pictures of some of the more interesting stuff there; and will update as soon as I get back home!

...What's my job again?

Hmm.

About two months ago, the Teleperformance call center I work at was moved over to doing work for Boost Mobile doing activations and such for cell phones. Just a few weeks ago we were informed that Boost was leaving and that we would be working for Sprint general care. Now, only one week through Training Bay for Sprint, we are informed that we will become Sprint's Billing Department instead.

So basically, I will be explaining to the customers of a company I don't even directly work for why their cell phone bills are all in the $200-$300 range. Oh joy.


On a side-note, GenCon is less than a week away, so hopefully I'll be able to get a good word in with some of the publishers there and maybe see about getting employed in an industry that I actually WANT to work for. :/

Tagged! Twice!!! :D

Hello everyone! I've just been "tagged" by both Baxojayz and Misato-chan, meaning I must post 8 little-known facts about myself. These might take a while to do...

1: I am a fan of unusual pets.
I am fascinated by the prospect of keeping an animal that seems unusual or at least a bit "different." The two types of pets I am currently the most interested in having are:
Skunk- these can be legally owned in the state of Indiana with a license and taking the animal to a vet while young to have the stink glands removed. They're resistant to disease and are easily vaccinated for rabies, and are actually pretty cool-looking little animals!
Giant Centipede- They grow to an average of a foot long or slightly larger, and are capable of systematically disemboweling and eating a mouse until all that's left is the empty sack of its skin! Check it out! (only if you have a strong stomach, that is...)

2: I've had a job ever since I was legally able to get one.
When I turned 14, I started working for Pioneer doing farm work in their corn fields as seasonal work until I could get a year-long job at 16; and I've been working ever since! Through the years I have had the jobs of:
farm laborer
janitor / closing stock person at a toy store
fast food worker at two restaurants; making it to Trainer Supervisor at the second of them
lead singer for the band Rebellious (we didn't get far at all...)
ADSL technician
Care Representative for two different cell-phone companies
And of course, freelance comic book artist!

3: I have yet to take travel outside of the United States.
I've been to nearly every state in the eastern half of the country, but have yet to actually go to any other nation of my own accord. I have been on ships numerous times, but only been on a plane once (and I was way too young to remember...). I would love to follow in my parents' footsteps, travel and see the world someday, but I don't yet have the linguistic skills to really make it anywhere else yet (I can read Spanish and Portuguese, can more or less bullshit my way through most French, but am not skilled enough to listen and speak fluently in any of those languages...), and unless I join the military like they did, the money required for traveling is more than I can afford at the moment. Someday, though...

4: "Seafood is my body, and coffee is my blood!"
Most of my favorite foods are seafood of various types. I have yet to come across seafood that I didn't like; if it comes from the ocean, chances are I've eaten it and will do so again! Barbecued eel and sushi are my palate's current obsessions.
And speaking of obsessions, there is my hopeless addiction to coffee to consider! If you see me at home or work without some form of coffee, there must be something wrong! I usually can't even get going in the morning without at least 4 cups; and my trusty 32-oz mug is always right there at my desk at work for whenever I need a quick pick-me-up. The best cup of coffee is a 10-1 ratio of dark-roast coffee and coconut milk, topped with a splash of Kahlua. Another good combination is espresso with chocolate syrup and half of a banana, mixed in the blender.

5: I am a notorious procrastinator.
Yup, let's face it... the biggest factor that keeps me from getting major tasks accomplished usually tends to be my own reluctance to get things done. I often try to pin the blame on schedule constraints or monetary issues (which are usually actually a factor), but quite often when I actually get the free time to get a project taken care of I'm too tired out from my regular hectic schedule and just want to do nothing but relax... or maybe that's another excuse. I need motivation, dammit!

6: I have never had a serious relationship that has lasted for more than 6 months.
This one is pretty much self-explanatory... the majority of my relationships have been little more than brief flings. I have been wanting a more meaningful relationship than just that, but all of the women I've been with are of the mindset of just having fun and moving on; having no intention of anything long-term.

7: Music is one of my biggest passions.
I have a collection of over 500 music CDs now; just counting the original copies (I only have about 30 or so burned CDs; most of which I later bought anyway). My favorite styles are Power Metal, Jazz, Classical, Rock, and Trance. Really though, the only styles of music I don't like are Gangster Rap, Children's Music, and Country... either they annoy the crap out of me, or they're overly redundant. I listen to music in over 10 different languages; as long as the music had a lot of effort put into it the lyrics don't seem that important to me. My current favorite bands/musicians are:
Blind Guardian
Iced Earth
E Nomine
Rhapsody (of Fire)
WAG
Jethro Tull
MASA
Also, after my band Rebellious failed I did a joke solo project as the rapper "Peter Cheese." I wrote, recorded and produced four songs of dubious quality; I doubt if they have even reached circulation beyond central Indiana yet... perhaps someday these things shall see the light of day... :D

8: I have used several aliases throughout the years on web pages and accounts on different sites.
During the pioneering days of teh Intarwebz when ID theft was a big concern, I had created a few different aliases to keep my true identity unknown. I have since changed them all to my actual name, but here are the aliases in case anyone has seen them before:
Samuel Anderson- This one was based off of the "porn name" idea, by which one creates a name out of their first pet's name (Sam, a black cat) and the city they currently live in.
Makoto Chiba- This one came from one of those "generate your Japanese name" pages; I kind of liked the name and used it for a while to make my Anime-styled illustrations seem more "authentic"... but it backfired on me when I started receiving E-mails and comments in Japanese text (which I can't read...), so this one was retired quickly.
Lee Christopher- I still use this one from time to time; it's just my middle and first name used to look like a real name.



This is the point where I would normally tag 8 Bloggers that I know, but since all of the ones I am familiar with have already been tagged I'll leave it at this.

Ittoryu is THE MAN!!!! :D

Today I received this illustration of Enyo and Nemesis from my buddy Ittoryu!

THIS MAN CAN DRAW MY CHARACTERS BETTER THAN I CAN!!! :D

If you have a DeviantArt account, give the man props for his skills on the page where he submitted this picture, HERE!

New project: Doven Wolf

Hello! I've begun work on another new model kit, Bandai's 1/144 Doven Wolf from ZZ. The kit is from 21 years ago, and definitely shows signs of its age! The parts fitting is not exact in all places, a lot of the parts edges have spots on them that are rounded or otherwise showing wear from the old molds, and the polycaps don't give quite the amount of grip that they should. In addition to these, some of the "box" type thrusters are missing any details that would indicate an actual thruster being there, and the waist and neck joints do not move at all. So, taking all of this into consideration, I think I will make this my second extensive kit mod!

Here's the kit, next to my oooold 1/144 Blue Frame Astray for size comparison:



Of course, this thing is held together with tape due to it having been released before the invention of snap-together kits... It's still in the test-fitting stage for now while I plan the mods on it. :B

Mods that I plan to make:
-adding ball-joints to the waist, ankles, hips, and neck
-adding weight inside the feet
-building box-type thrusters on the calves (you can see where they're supposed to be)
-replacing some of the thrusters with aluminum ones
-possibly replacing the hands; these ones cannot even hold the gun that came with the kit
-possibly running an LED light up into the head for the Mono-Eye, as well as hooking up LEDs to the beam cannons on the chest... it would be cool to make the switch one of the Incoms on the backpack!

Since I don't have all of the supplies I need for this thing quite yet, I won't start a WIP thread on HobbyFanatics just yet... plus I'm a slow worker, so I don't expect to get this thing done for maybe two months...

FACELOCK PWNZ J00! \m/ (>_<) \m/

Hey, I just figured I'd put in a plug for my cousin's band, Facelock! These guys are pure hardcore Death Metal; they've only got a handful of songs so far but considering how good they are already, they are definitely going to hit it big very soon!

Facelock on MySpace

Their YouTube channel

My cousin Mike (the drummer for the band)

Rock on!

THE GREATEST SONG/MUSIC VIDEO EVER!!!! :D

This is pretty much self-explanatory. :D

Yet another Grail kit in the works!

Hello!

Hobbyfan has just announced that they are going to be releasing a resin conversion package for the One Year War version RX78-2 Gundam to make the one from the Gundam Evolve movie 15! This kit looks really good; I can't wait to get my hands on one!

Also, my other Grail kit, the Re-GZ Custom, should be entering production soon! Unfortunately I do not yet have the kit required to make that one... but hopefully it won't be too hard to find it. I've been going to the Anime Palace booth at GenCon each year since they generally sell their Gundam kits at about 60% MSRP during the convention; hopefully I'll be able to find the MG Re-GZ there.

Job Change in progress now

Finally, I bring you an update to my previous post! I'm now in training for a job with Boost Mobile doing activations and manual addition of minutes to the customers' phones. The training has been fairly slow thus far and my trainer does not seem to be too incredibly competent in her role, but other then that the job itself sounds fairly promising, and I'll be making about 40 cents more per hour than I currently do. Also, they have an actual break room with vending machines that are actually stocked up and working!

The company slogan amuses me: "Boost Mobile: Boosting your lifestyle and status in ways that matter!"

I've heard that slogan at least 50 times in the three days of training I've had here so far...

Job change on the horizon...

Yup, the day has finally arrived. Today upon coming into work, everyone in the call center who has never been on the Outbound Consumer Advocacy Team for Verizon was sent back home, and those of us who remain are sitting here idle on our Outbound logins since this queue does not get inbound calls. We're sitting here waiting for our immediate supervisor at this center to let us know what's going to happen with the Verizon project, since our contract is over.

So, within the next hour or so, we will maybe find out what's going to happen with our jobs.

Screw Verizon. They need to let us know before deciding things like this; isn't it illegal for a job to just turn its back on its workers without giving us a chance to look for a new job?!

BY OUR POWERS COMBINED!!!!

Hello everyone! I'm in a really good mood right now! In my message inbox on DA today, I just got notification from João Paulo that he's finished the coloring on the collaboration project on Amanda's transformation to Nemesis! He made an invitation a couple of weeks ago asking for some lineart to color, and I went ahead and asked him to do that one (since I'm WAAAY too lazy to do a scene like that and get it to come out right!). And, let me tell you, his coloring on it turned out simply AMAZING!!! So, without further ado, here is the picture so you can all check it out yourselves!


And thank you once again, João! :D

Trooper Blaze (update)

Just in case anyone was wondering what happenned with the Trooper Blaze project, I haven't abandoned it yet! I'm keeping a lot of the details under wraps, but at this time I am hard at work trying to get another issue done in time for GenCon! 3 months isn't too bad of a deadline, so I should hopefully be able to have it done by then. For now, here's a "chibi" of Blaze to tide people over until I can get the issue done!

Also, a HUGE thanks goes out to Ultema, who sent me this fanart of Tornado, the main rival from Trooper Blaze! Thank you so very much! :D

Dammit Mr. Smith!

My job is not being very fun today...

I am on the Consumer Advocacy Team with Verizon; my new job is to look for customers who have either: A) called more than 4 times the preceding day, and B) have been affected by a DSL service outage. Usually this new job duty is pretty rewarding, but sometimes, I just run across a customer who is truly a lost cause.

...such as Mr. Smith.

He called in to our tech support center a few days ago, stating that every time he restarted his computer he would lose his wireless connection. Not only would the wireless not connect, but the computer would not recognize the wireless card. The first few agents informed him that the issue is definitely in the computer itself, but he didn't want to hear that. Eventually, one of our agents from our Mexico City call center sent him to our ordering department to purchase a new modem and new wireless adaptor cards.

He was on my callback list on Tuesday, 05/08/07; I called him and suggested again that the issue is with his computer. However, since he had already ordered the replacement equipment, I told him to go ahead and see if he can get it to work with those, and if it does not work to call his computer manufacturer.

Well, he is on my callback list again today. He recieved the new equipment, and completely ignored the advice I gave him. He has since called back in 11 times, still for the same issue! I really do not feel like calling this lost cause customer AGAIN.... >:(

It's Tutorial Time!!!

Here's a tutorial for my style of character illustration, if anyone's interested. It covers everything from the finished pencils to the last step before the final illustration.

Edit: Okay, so it looks like Blogger automatically resized the WIP, so the text is impossible to read... Alrighty then, you can find the tutorial in full-size in my DA Gallery. Just remember to click on the image to view it in full-size!

And of course, the finished drawing! Check it out! :D


Feedback/questions/comments are always appreciated!