Sketchbook - Eel and Penguin

More "mermaids"! There's going to be a lot of these (over a dozen.)

The Eel. The opposite of the Whale. She's the meanie, as shown by the upturned nose.

The Penguin. Yup, even birds can be mermaids in my series, as long as they live in or spend time near/on water! I hope I didn't make her look too young. Some of these animals only allow for petite "mermaids." Anyway, I guess she could be chubbier since penguins are so cute and cuddly due to their roundness?

Sketchbook - Mermaid, Capricorn, and Whale

So I had an idea for drawing various "non-fish" mermaids in late 2010. I was thinking about entering a comic contest (but I ended up not entering, obviously), and I thought various female/sea creatures would have the right amount of marketability (and fan service) while still being weird enough for me. Then later I read that Meshia was going to do a similar series. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how we tackle the similar concept differently!

In addition to a comic, I have watercolors planned for each mermaid. But here are sketches for now.

The Mermaid and Capricorn. I just recycled one of the mermaids from my Mermayds vs. Unicorns series. And Capricorn, the trash-eating sea goat from my Zodiac series.

The Whale. I tried to make her pleasantly curvy instead of fat. And her hairstyle is meant to resemble water spouting from a blowhole.

Sketchbook - Helen and Karen

Finally, the last of the main Minervellas characters!

Helen is pretty much the generic doll-type. But I hope her upturned nose and mouth shape make her a little unique. Or at least mouth shape. I imagine all bullies and snobs with upturned noses, something that will become more apparent as more of my drawings are uploaded.

Karen. It was really hard drawing her as I imagined her partly because I didn't have much of a concrete image of her in my mind. She was a concept. I almost forgot to make her hair wavy and I debated whether or not to give her small twin tails on top. But I'm satisfied with the result. She looks cute and sweet to me, which fits her concept.

Sketchbook - Chicken Legged Trolls

The more I drew of this series, the more I took glee in drawing them rather than drawing to let out my stress (like doodles out of control!) Results. This is great therapy, apparently.

This started out by thinking of fried chicken and how gross it looks. And how thighs sometimes look like human legs (some people have such skinny legs below the knee, that they look like they have chicken legs.) Then I thought of a hybrid, where the chicken legs just sort of rotate on an axis like a children's toy. The teddy bear and the nose picking came later when I saw how the arms were turning out (originally it was going to be sucking its thumb.) Then I drew a close-up of the bear covered in armpit sweat, because armpit sweat is hilarious.

This creature has a buddy. And it's not me.

Sketchbook - Ugly Faced Ogres

When I get upset, I need some sort of catharsis so the negativity doesn't sit inside of me and mess up my tempo. Sometimes Pokemon is the needed vacuum for my stress. But I have exiled myself from video games until I make a large dent in my goals. So the next best thing... drawing. Ever since elementary school, I would draw exaggerations of the people that stressed me out. I stopped doing that sometime in high school. Around the time I started scanning in a lot of stuff (since it would be trouble scanning in mean pictures of people, and I wanted attention for my art, I guess. The mean pictures were private drawings I wouldn't and couldn't upload.) Then I started drawing my stressers in a more general manner, situations instead of individual people. Or metaphors. But recently, I just wanted to draw something ugly to express my stress. I tried to come up with the most repulsive things ever. I'd start with a snout or a blob and work from there. Here are the results:

The first drawing. An ogre. The hair growing in random places became a theme for this series. These creatures don't seem to have a gender either, as they are just general depictions of grossness and negativity, which both genders are capable of.

Based on the ears and the sea bubble-ish curly hair, this one probably looks like a mermaid in full. Just with a hundred times more pus.

Sketchbook - MM20XX Daughters

Since fanart is something that keeps me drawing and experimenting without botching my own projects, I have a comic strip in the works involving a future Morning Musume. Just four-panel silliness, nothing elaborate like my main comics. It will be once a month, but I have January to May to catch up on, so there might be a bunch at first. Anyway, part of the cast:

This girl is meant to be Reina's future daughter in the comic. She's even more "yankee" than her mom and gives the other members a hard time.

And Yuko's adopted daughter. (I came up with this before Yuko had the surprise engagement and subsequent marriage.) She follows Reina's daughter around and is actually very sweet and shy. Maybe Yuko can finally teach her to stand up for herself? (As in, have a character that is strong on its own and not just going along with her friend.)

I originally came up with the idea for this comic in November/December 2010, when I was eagerly awaiting the results of the first Morning Musume audition in four years. I didn't realize that the tenth generation this past fall would produce two similar characters, Kuduu and Masaki! I must make them different some how...

This felt creepy to create, though. At least these two characters. Fan-fiction based on real people is generally in creepy territory for me (or just for lulz.) But idols (also like pro-wrestlers and Miley Cyrus) are kind of special cases since they portray an image of themselves, a stage character, and not necessarily their true selves. I just hope the thought of these characters doesn't offend fans (or at least not the majority. There will always be people offended by anything.) I thought it would be neat if there were relatives of former members in a future Morning Musume. And this comic will definitely not be something to take seriously... it will be a gag and parody strip.

Sketchbook - Poupillon la Derriere

Poupillon la Derriere, from Toilet Spawn. Instead of looking cool and action hero-y, she looks pretty scary. Like a late 90's polygonal heroine. The smirk just didn't go well with this sketch. Actually, the whole face is off-center. I should stop drawing on my bed with these large sketchbooks, they become so distorted...

Like here. Even though technically she's the "right" amount of heads tall, she seems absolutely ginormous here. The problem centers on her waist. Cut her in half at the hips, and the two parts aren't so bad. Her legs are too long, though. I mean, she IS supposed to be somewhat Barbie-like, as a satire of girly girls. But I still want her to have (somewhat) realistic proportions. So future drawings of her hopefully won't look like this. But at least this shows off her outfit and hair style properly, the entire purpose of these drawings.

Sketchbook - Owl Family Part 1

I have an entire family of plush owls that I keep in a laundry basket called "The Nest." They will have their own series of illustrations as well as cameos in some of my other projects (some are actually main or supporting characters in Hellhoney.) So here's half the family!

The parents and two hootlettes. Mr. Fluffy Feathers (Manitoba/Manny) is a Grey Owl and Lilith is a Snowy Owl. Manitoba is a gentleman while Lilith is a proper lady who eats human children. Sayu-Lily and Ludwig are twin Snowy Owls. Sayu-Lily is a mischievous princess-type, while Ludwig is a mad scientist that wants to rule the world. He hates his hat being pulled down over his face.

Four more hootlettes. Since the plush owls they are based on are characters from a movie, I changed their appearances a bit to fit with the personalities and roles I gave them in the family. Which I hope are different than the movie. (Let me know if they resemble the originals too much, please!) Athena is a cynical tomboy (most of the other hootlettes concern her); Minerva is girly and naive; Odin is a little rebel (he used to be an emo, now he's an adventurer that hangs out with any type of animal, even dangerous ones); and Loki is a fluffy little troublemaker. As expected, the boys are momma's boys and the girls are Daddy's little girls. Though Loki also loves his Unkle Jobob, because of a mutual love of pranks.

Sketchbook - Matilda and Penelope

Finally I have more Minervellas sketches to show! I kept saying they would come soon, but that's what I also keep saying about the Hellhoney comic, so I can understand any skepticism. Will the last two girls come next week?

I wish I had uploaded this last Tuesday, like I had hoped. Only three other people probably know the significance. But anyway, this is Matilda, the motherly punk. Something about how I drew her reminds me of Erika Umeda, a former Hello!Project idol, now fashion model. I'm pretty sure it's her teeth.

Speaking of teeth, my mom thinks Penelope's teeth look odd. She's meant to be odd (a lunatic), but I hope they don't look too bad. I'm a sucker for yaeba, so I had to have one character with slight fangs, and I thought she'd be the best candidate of my characters (future pictures may accentuate her canines more.) The one thing that bugs me is that her messy hair makes her look an unsettling bit like me. If I ever manage to color a picture with her in it, hopefully the resemblance will go away (she has brownish hair.)

(Also, I forgot to add the neon highlights to Matilda's hair, oops.)

State of the Projects - May 2012

Unless I manage to work hard on Sunday and Monday, April will be another month of nothing but sketches and blogs (remember, I'm typing this on Saturday, as Tuesday is not my computer day.) So yes, I was able to get some things done.

But I'm sooo far behind on what I really wanted to accomplish. I'm actually starting to enter panic mode as I realize it's already May. Panic mode could be a good thing or a bad thing. Either I'll actually be productive this month or I'll suffer the effects of stress. I've tried breaking things into smaller tasks, but I still have unfinished blocked out stuff staring at me. Again, this doesn't happen with commissions (or art trades, when I do them.) How can I replicate that ethic in regard to my own work?

Oh, and the battery on my laptop is acting up again. The battery light was blinking orange after I shut off the power strip and turned it back on. (I turned it back on because of a gut instinct.) I took out the battery, blew on the contacts, and put it back in (the same thing I do when the battery light doesn't come on at all and the computer won't start.) Blue battery light as normal. Pleeease stay normal, dear compy. Survive the "end of the world"!

+Major Projects+

1.) Hellhoney - Why am I bothering writing these? Nothing.
2.) Minervellas - Nothing.
3.) Power Warp - Nothing.
4.) Toilet Spawn - Nothing.

+Minor Projects+

1.) QT Crawlies - Nothing.
2.) Optimizzy - Nothing.
3.) Random/Silly Calendar - Nothing.
4.) Hobo Story - Nothing.
5.) Zodiac - Nothing.
6.) Super Popcorn - Nothing.
7.) Mervscorn - Nothing.
8.) Birds - Nothing.
9.) Plush Owls - Nothing.
10.) Pin-Up Calendars - Nothing.
11.) Random Original Art - Nothing.
12.) Pantheon - Nothing.
13.) Playing Cards - Nothing.
14.) Tunnels and Elevators - Nothing.
15.) I'm a Bug?! - Nothing.
16.) Tutorials - Nothing.