Occasional Scribbly Bits

Curse you, cellphone. Curse you.

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:03:00 GMT

Oh god. Besides wrapping up the end of term film I was working on and having very little sleep/no concept of the outside world doing it, this has been a strange week. Part of it because my phone took it upon itself to call 911 on me while I was leaning on it in class (t'was in my bag), and then having the operator do her whole WHAT IS YOUR EMERGENCY spiel really quite loudly in an otherwise quiet classroom. Then she made me stay on the line to talk to the RCMP and explain to them that, no, there was nothing wrong and I was just, in fact, an idiot.

Thanks, ugly phone! Now I know that the Vancouver 911 dispatchers are speedy at their jobs.

Also, I've been spamming everyone I know with this still from the film, as we haven't uploaded it to YouTube just yet.

The results of the student films were really fantastic this year! This one was my favourite out of the lot, and definitely worth a look. Also, amazing for just under three weeks of work.

Setting The Record Straight (AC1 spoilers)

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:22:07 GMT

Oh, I suppose Leonardo is alright as far as NPC bromances go. It's all well and good being adorable and eccentric and wearing jaunty Renaissance caps, but that can only get a man so far in life.

Much better to be sarcastic and overly harsh, is what I always say. Much better to be, say, Malik Al-Sayf. He had a way of making trips to Jerusalem something to look forward to, and he did that shit with style, not to mention only one arm.

Also? Right hand man of the assassins and best buds with Altair? Take THAT, Mona Lisa. You ain't no great shakes.

Unrelated, but there's only the slimmest chance of getting the last page of the PoP book out for Monday. I still haven't managed to pin down a final composition for it, and nor any final colours. How does Thundercake on DA manage to put out coloured work so often?

I bet she has a homemade time machine.

(Not one of those store-bought ones.)

Nooooooo :(

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:30:14 GMT

I loved the Sands of Time trilogy. Loved it. The original game ranks right up there in my top ten games of all times, but I can't help but feel a little let down that the new POP game being released in the spring is planning to revisit the SOT universe. Or, more accurately, a lot let down. I'm not entirely sure what this means for PoP'08 story, but fingers crossed that they'll bring it back eventually, even if Joystiq's calling it a day.

Oh, Ubisoft. Why you gotta play me like that?

Assassin's Creed In One Post or Less

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:15:17 GMT

I've been effectively covering my ears and singing whenever the subject of Assassin's Creed comes up, and, as I'm in vidyeh game school, that's meant a lot of singing.

Or as it's commonly called, "tuneless yowling".

Tonight, however, I managed to play it for a little short of two hours, and now I feel like I'm free to read all the reviews out there.

:)!

- They've updated the models of Desmond and Lucy. This is awesome! Their eyes are far less Children of the Corn -esque, and I can see where they're trying to nudge them from a character perspective. They're still kind of cardboardy, but hey. I'm two hours in. Fully hoping/expecting that to change as the story progresses.

- The game has a sense of humour! This is something that the original was sorely lacking ninety percent of the time.

- Ezio going from a charming, street scuffling playboy to a character that slices throats in the span of a day? Hells bells, that was fast, son. At least Altair started off as a murdering jerk.

Once more into the breach!

Also, this is the best YouTube video ever. I'd been wondering how to draw Asian women properly! And by the best, I mean the absolute worst.

We Jammin'

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:36:13 GMT

Vancouver Comic Jam time!

Saturday at the Wallflower on Main. The Wallflower's aiite, the food is pretty standard fare, but it's cute. :)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:43:43 GMT

Because I'll be out of the country and won't be able to work on things this weekend. Nooo, Photoshop! *reeeeach* I'll keep you in my heart, my photo manipulation friend.

Blood and Mermaids!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:04:46 GMT

I like the sound of that. It's something like a curse from the east coast of Canada, only with fewer mentions of Jesus.

Emily (aka embley on DA) is my better, more talented half, and she's pretty fantastic when it comes to drawing distressing, fantastical things.

You're Like A Parking Ticket - So Fine

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:50:48 GMT

AGH. I love Garfunkel & Oates. Are there two more charming girls around?

Answer: Nope!

I was working away busily last night on storybook things, only to realize part of the way through that the page was completely superfluous in terms of storytelling. As was pointed out to me, the villain of the story isn't supposed to be this other concubine woman, but the Concubine herself. Probably a good thing, as the page itself is a straight on one point perspective, which kind of blows.

At least now this means I can cut straight to the violence.

GET IT, CUT.

Also, this is from July, but I hadn't seen this Disney Rapunzel concept art before. The lighting is absolutely, positively beautiful.

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:09:57 GMT

Success! I have no willpower, apparently.

Also, Happy Halloween everyone! Though now that I'm looking at the clock, it ended nine minutes ago.

Page One

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:53:21 GMT

Page one issss... not quite done. The Prince has to added scaling the wall in the background there, and the corruption at the bottom needs to be completed.

And I'm really liking the way the fourth page is coming so far. Hoo-rah. :D

Rough Good Copies, If That's A Thing

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:31:19 GMT

I'll be holding off on posting this to DeviantArt (or elsewhere) until all the illustrations are done and I have the story pages written up, but in the meantime, these two pages were finished their colouring earlier in the week. I've had to rework a few things, and probably will go back and tweak in the future, but now that the Concubine's back story has been cleared up, there's the potential for drawing gore! And gore in storybook style is hell of fun.

Take it away, Flickr darling!

And Lo, There Were Art Ramblings

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:50:22 GMT

I'm fairly sure it was Patton Oswalt who said something about how to become good at anything you have to really nerd out over it for at least a year. A year straight, going all out.

Right now I'm still in painting mode in terms of art, so where I was doing more in the way of comic style art last year, this year it's all new Photoshop brushes and trying to make things look vaguely Mary Blair-ish. In keeping with her storybook art style I've started a new project that will probably take me through to December, but it does increase the geek factor by uh... a lot.

Gabe from Penny Arcade did that lovely storybook however long ago for the Hunter character in the last Prince of Persia, and it worked awesomely in terms of, well, pretty much everything. As a tribute to that project, I've started a ten page version for the Concubine boss. I've drawn about six pages and have two of them coloured to date, and I'm sneaking it in between homework. With any luck it'll be fully done before the new year, and hopefully by then my XBox will be repaired and I can finally play Brutal Legend. Boo urns, red ring.

That Fake-Gouache Charm

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:35:40 GMT

What's with these creepy teeth ads on LiveJournal these days? I hope that's not just me. "Don't let the dentist fool you"? What is this, some kind of dental conspiracy theory?

ANYway. Teeth aside.

Coloured version of Elika from the last post! I meant to post this here first instead of DeviantArt, but completely spaced out.

Normally if it's just a single piece I don't put art behind a cut, but yell at me if it bothers you. I don't want to clutter up friend's lists.

Ruffs!

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:46:54 GMT

I keep trying to get back into finishing fan art, but it seems like whenever I sit down there's a mountain of school work wot needs attention.

A random Ahura.

The Ancestor/Spirit from the (kind of crummy) DS game, and the tree of life, treeing around.

Elika lookin' for her peeps.

And one from 1001 Nights, just for kicks.

What! 3D school is crazy.

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:41:07 GMT

Here I was, all thinking Photoshop was tricky to learn, but in our first week of school we've been punched in the face by Maya, Z Brush, and SoftImage. One after the other in rapid succession. Geez, you'd think I insulted their mothers or something.

Regardless, learning animation in a school-based capacity is fantastic. Everyone is super into it, and works hard, and can talk for hours about the most obscure bits of old Canadian animation. Also, while I enjoyed studying illustration tremendously, animation students seem to take themselves a little less seriously. They are hella chill, is I guess what I'm trying to say. They embrace their geekery wholeheartedly and with love.

I've decided to specialize in environment design, so with any luck, in seven and half months from now I'm going to have a rad demo reel.

Also (and this is totally a secret), I'm super tapped from drawing so much Warcraft fanart. I hate to say it around my DA page, but I haven't played the game in nigh on eight months, and I know just how pigeon-holed I've been as that girl that draws WoW fanart. It was a lot of fun, and I've learned a great deal doing commissions and requests for people (who have always been very patient), but going forward I'd like to try new and exciting things.

There, I said it.

:)

Obnoxious Positivity

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:49:41 GMT

How is Illustrator CS4 even this good? I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of it, at least for the week, and it's leaps and bounds better than CS3. Between the blob brush, the gradient controls and the new art board features, I think I'd like to have Adobe's baby. I've been trying to illustrate this mushroom icon for a poster and it's like working with a brand new, shiny tablet when you're used to writing with chewed up old pencils from the back of a drawer. Or something more apt. If they implement layer comps in the next version, Illustrator is going to be perfectamundo.

Also, I swear that this post has not been funded by Adobe*. Though I did give them $800 for Photoshop CS3, so maybe it is to a small extent.

(*Because the last time I wrote anything positive on a company's forum people called me out as being a corporate plant. Which is all at once fantastic, and a pretty unfortunate commentary on the state of the internet. If you ain't cranking about something, you ain't a real person, son!)

The Smutty Royal Library

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:19:33 GMT

Back in a Week! Same Bat Time, Same Bat Place!

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:11:04 GMT

YOU. Wear a shirt.

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:32:52 GMT

Ooof! Since when did I forget how to draw humans? Since Sunday, apparently.

The Missing Gold - Part 2 of 4

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:04:51 GMT

Stop. Poster Time!

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:07:26 GMT

I say. Well done, old chaps!

I'm more than a little surprised at the choice of a sans serif font for the posters, but in a good way. In a delighted, 'thank-goodness-they-didn't-bust-out-the-papyrus-font' way.

Very cool. :)

The Missing Gold - Part 1 of 4

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:10:48 GMT

On Fandom Secrets

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:44:35 GMT

I wasn't quite sure what to expect on posting my first FandomSecret*, but it turns out I've just been living under a rock. A handsome, cozy rock, mind, but still a rock**. In the past I've wished there was a little more of a blend between gamers and the lovely cats that like to geek out over the storylines in said games (Bioshock, I'm looking in your direction), but it turns out you just need to leave Kotaku once in awhile and take a look around. Angry, cantankerous forum trolls do not good company make.

Regardless! Thanks to all the new folks that have friended this journal in the last few days! I have a handful of Prince of Persia scribbly bits that I've been working on, but unfortunately I can't polish them off until I'm finished another, less fun, illustration for work. After that, hopefully I can get back into some fashion of weekly drawing situation again. Those are grrrrreat!

*Most addictive blog eveeeer. Apart from Cake Wrecks.
**Maybe a nice shale.

Alright! Let's Do This Thing, Baby.

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:41:54 GMT

In the interests of saving my old Warcraft pals the trouble of having their friends lists mucked up with another fandom, I do declare that I'll keep the Assassin's Creed/Prince of Persia Geek-Spectacular to this journal.

And to keep things organized, here's the work I've ended up doing to date. Work permitting, I'll no doubt have some more up in the near future.

XOXOX