What to wear, what to wear!

I don't think I've ever had this much fun drawing clothes since high school. I also haven't done this much research into styles and trends stuff in like...ever! Ami has much more possibilities dress wise than Mochi, and it was very hard not to make an entire wardrobe for her, lol! But I managed to whittle the 9 or so outfits down to 3 and from those made different color sets for them. Which do you think look the best?

Breathing new life into an old project

Sometimes I hate looking at old work. I'm beginning to think there are reasons why certain artists don't like to revisit it. One tweak leads to another and another, and before you even realize it you've changed almost everything about it.

Well, that's kind of where I'm at currently.

I came across a project that I had really wanted to do while at school, but ended up having to pitch it because I wouldn't finish it on time. At least, not at the level I wanted (senior year and all that). Initially I thought that since I had all my preliminaries done I could just jump right in and start running some tests, but after not seeing for almost 2 years, I noticed lots of things that could (or needed) to be altered.

So I'm revisiting every aspect about this project. Because of this, I need your guys' help.

I need some serious critiquing on several aspects of this project. Are these characters convincing? Does their appearance resemble the personality I'm trying to achieve based on the description? I don't expect many really to know where the origins of the story came from, but I would like to have some thing to tie in to their corresponding gods besides their personalities, so I'm playing with color as well. Any kind of observations you can provide me would be awesome. I think this has a lot of potential to be something really fantastic and I want to have the best finished product achievable. But I won't draw a single frame until everything about this, the story, the characters, all the stuff that may never see the light of day, is convincing and as great as it can be.

The story itself is set to be a high school drama loosely based on a Japanese creation myth.
here's a shortened version of the original and here's a prettier, longer version. Unfortunately, neither of these match the original story I got it from (all my books about it are in storage) but these are a close fit, at least to get the gist of the story about.

So I guess I should bring out some of these sketches right?

This is Ukemochi:

In most of these, she's seen with glasses, but that's because her original character design has her with
them.

First attempt at face and body shapes to make sure all of them look different.

Initial gestures, trying to get a feel for her outward character.

Here though, she's shown without them, to see her expressions clearly and to kind of see what she looks like without them in the first place, lol!

concepts for her school outfit. More muted earthy tones (save for one or two on there)

This girl is an amazing chef. That's where she really shines, what she's totally passionate about. She loves how it brings people together. To try new things, for comfort, to relax and let their guard down and have a great meal. For her, food is the best weapon for bad days, first impressions, thank-you's, awkward silences...pretty much everything.

Thing is no one really knows about it. She's super shy, hides behind her hair and her glasses (although I'm quite torn with them; she looks nice with or w/o them) doesn't say much if anything at all to anyone. Most people don't like her, but we're really not quite sure why. It's one of those clique things I guess; she's not made of money, not fru-fru about everything in life, not superficial or vain like many in the school can be. There is however, one person that she confides in and opens up to.

That person is Amaterasu:

Hair ideas. Trying for something simple, but still fashionable. Is that even possible? LOL!

Concepts for her school outfit. Not sure which one I like the best.

In the who's who of rank and status, she's the first on everyone's list. She's very much involved with different student activities and events, often taking the lead of many at once. A stickler for academia, her record's damn near stellar, the epitome of a model student. Add to that her ridiculous wealth and connections through her father and you've got one hell of an elite, making her admired and sought after from anyone and everyone on and off school grounds.

Despite all the fawning though, she's never been one to flaunt her status in anyone's face. In fact, she's super humble about it. She friendly with everyone she's come across, always willing to help however she can. She is quite reserved though. While she downplays her position, she's not blind to the reality of it, or that many don't want to befriend her so much as wanting to use her status to help their own.

There's also the issue of keeping appearances, making sure no one is aware of her own burdens, like her crumbling family, her father that's never around, leaving her to raise her brothers Susano-wo and Tsukuyomi (for this story though, it's only the latter) that are bloated with entitlement. Because of this, she keeps many of her peers at arms length. The only person she's ever been able to let her guard down with, completely and totally has been Ukemochi. This bothers Tsukuyomi immensely.


This is what I've got so far. Once I've got a decision on the hairstyle I can work on an expression sheet for her. I'm working on Tsukuyomi as we speak and can't wait to get him done up. I think he's gonna be my most challenging. I can't wait!

To all that have already put in your two cents, thank you so very much for the thoughtful input. You have no idea how much this is helping me right now and I cannot thank you enough for taking time out of your day to help me out!

FINALLY I have more than one sketch that's worth posting up! I feel real bad doing single dose sketch dumping and since I've been doing alot of work for other people (paid client work thank god, LOL!) I haven't really been able to create much of anything that was truly mine or anything I can release publicly. But now I do so hooray!!

First one was at a convention I attended a couple months ago. I'm really looking forward to moving this piece on to better paper to be watercolored. It looks like it'll be tedious, but a helluvalotta fun!

The next couple were the only sketches I was able to manage while on our cruise a few weeks back. We had one day where we were out at sea all day so Dee Jay and I took advantage of it to catch up on comic work and other art things. When we were winding down I still wanted to draw, so I sketched a few minutes longer before I called in for the day. 2 things; I really miss portrait drawing and 2, I really have to stop eating food with charcoal covered hands, LOL!

This one though...I was so giddy working on this one. We had gone to the art of animation area at Disney and got to take an art session at the animation studio with a bunch of other guests. Normally, they'd do Mickey or any of the rest of the gang, but we had a bunch of people that have already drawn them before. So as the lead was going down the list and came to Flynn's name, everybody swooned (men included!!) So Flynn Rider it is!

I was super anxious to get started and super nervous about it messing up, but I was determined to not suck at art that day, LOL!

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

 

finally a breather! it's short, but I'll take it, LOL

Conventions have been keeping us rather busy lately. Our last (and by far busiest) was Megacon! OMG was that ever fun...and frightening! I remember we were setting up Thursday night and I was looking at the other set ups and feeling my blood completely cold because of all the wonderful art up and all over the place. I was actually heavily second guessing whether this convention was a wise choice. Maybe we're not ready for something so big? Maybe we're not at that level yet to compete with vets and newbies alike of this kind of caliber? I was having a borderline panic attack, LOL!

But of course, we've already sunk money into the table so good or bad, we were there all 3 days. OMG I'm so glad we stayed, because it turned out to be a big ball of wonderful! I had no idea we had known so many people from other conventions; and we got to meet lots of new people as well! Got some real good commission requests, sold an original piece of artwork...omg that was one of my favorite pieces too. I miss it alot, but it went to a good friend of mine, so I'm extremely relived that it went to a good happy home!!

We've got alot of work to do now that Mega madness is behind us all. We don't have another con to worry about until april, but that doesn't mean I get a break until then. I've got commissions coming out of my ears and while I'm thrilled that people are nabbing original art, that also means I've got to fill those slots with new stuff! We're gonna be hella busy, but I seriously cannot be any more excited! Things are happening! With the wootness!!

Animation and con hoppin'

I cannot begin to describe how elated we are to say that our animation hermitage may actually be done! We got the opportunity to work on a little animated infomercial of sorts for Mongoose Coding and it came out pretty sweet (if we do say so ourselves!) I loved that the client liked to stay involved in the process and was thorough on what he liked and what could be changed. When it comes down to it, Mongoose Coding was a real treat to work with and we couldn't have been happier to get such a fun project! We can't wait to finally post it up and show it off!

In other news, we've been getting hella involved in the con scene again. Almost as if we've been making up for the years we missed out on while away at college, lol! But it's been SO much fun and challenging. We've even been venturing outside of Florida for some of these, our last one being Ohayocon in Ohio! It was a long drive, but it was hella awesome. We met some awesome people at the con, got some real fun commissions and got to experience a whole new convention environment. We're still testing waters, but I think we're totally going back there next year!

But on to what next on our plate; prepping for MegaCon! This is our first time attending the convention as artists in the Artist Alley, so we couldn't be more excited (and nervous!) for this one. I just hope we'll have a nice little selection of stuff to show off for this, because I have a feeling it's gonna be intense!

Genki

Getting acquainted

with my new to-err, I mean, um....business purchase

Not sure if I mentioned it to anyone here before but as of last month, GenkiGoth Studios has become official and legal her in the Sunshine state. Not huge, to the general masses, but definitely something I'm proud of. We're not just talking about it anymore. It's more than just an organized hobby now. I think the push to get the name and what we do on paper makes the whole act of what we do take a bit more of a serious turn. Not in a bad way mind you, it's just something that I have to keep in the back of my head. We can't think of this as something casual anymore...and I'm kind of happy about that, lol!

Now that we've got the paperwork in order, we've been working on getting ourselves promoted, and figuring out what we need equipment wise to streamline any jobs, projects and/or commissions we're gonna be getting (hopefully, lol!) it's been a pretty long list...and the price tags are sobering. But we've talked alot about it, and what items should take more precedence over others and the one thing that we both agreed that we really really needed was a new computer. Our laptops are SO old, to the point that we can't even update simple net broswing software because our systems are so out of date. Dee Jay's quite tired of getting burned from his laptop (seriously, he has two already) and mine is well on its way to following the same fate. And so, we made our first big investment as co-owners and bought a new computer.

Oh...my...god. Is it ever beautiful! wonderful size, gorgeous color output, it runs like a dream! I'm drooling in anticipation to start my current animation bit on this baby!! My laptop slows down so much because of all the abuse it's taken. Anything over a few gigs and it practically cries. But this...I don't think I'll have any problems animating at all. No lagging, no loud fan whirring, no crashing or freezing. I just love thinking of all the cool stuff we'll be able to do now that we've got some up to date machinery!

But enough of my annoying rambling....artwork awaits!!!

Genki

Ah, the refreshing taste of victory!!!

So, I'm leaving from my day job and one of co-workers says "you're a superhero".
Wait...what?
The scenario he gives me is that we all wake up at the theme park (don't want to name names, LOL) and from oh...a meeting or something and we all have super powers. When I came in, they were deciding who was going to be good and bad. So I've been deemed to be on the justice fighting side.

When it got to what sort of powers we'd all be getting, the were unsure for a bit and then it dawned on them. My powers would be comparable to Thor's; I have super strength that is amplified by mug.

Now, I feel I should provide some back story to this, lol!

I bring a 64oz. jug that I fill up with water every day to work. I work outside in a tiny kiosk and the only thing protecting me (not really) is a sheet of tin over the table (that leaks) and an umbrella (mostly for guests...that leaks) So, it's just me and the heat. I bring that to keep hydrated. I'm ALWAYS getting comments on it because it's so big compared to me. I see it as a very practical item; It's a water jug, an anchor, a dumbell, a travel chair and a bludgeoning weapon, LOL! So in a way, this assigned superpower fits all too well, LOL!

My whole gimmick though is I'll fight with this mug and make super anime victory poses and real corny remarks (like the title of this post, LOL) But OMG I had no idea making a costume would be so hard! I had no real rules to go by, except that it had to be skintight and it had to look kinda american, kinda japanese. Not sure how successful it was, but it was hilarious doing it!