State of the Projects - February 2012

Suffice to say I did not meet any of my goals fully during the month of January except an art trade (there was only one, so it was easy to fulfill that goal.) But of my projects, I only got a little of one project done, still not meeting the monthly goal. I also forgot to ask my two friends and my family their thoughts on the projects, so I might as well skip the points and ranking this month. Except one project got a mention, so I added it to the top of this month's minor project priorities. I'll have to work twice as hard this month!

Major Projects

1.) Hellhoney - Six cards drawn and only one has been inked an colored. (That means only four were actually drawn this month.)
2.) Minervellas - Nothing.
3.) Toilet Spawn - Nothing.
4.) Power Warp - Nothing.

Minor Projects

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

For more information about each of these projects, please see this post.

Hopefully next month, I'll actually have something to report. I've already messed up on my New Year's Resolutions with the first month.

January 31st will count toward next month since I'm typing this early on Monday night and scheduling it for Wednesday.

2012 Game Plan

2012. Hopefully this will be the year of the Derrot! Last year didn't go so great, art-wise. I drew stuff, yes, but now I either want to redraw or trash them. Only a few I still want to finish from the original. But this year I want to start fresh and focused. I wrote out a game plan last month.

I know I won't be able to stick to it. I have more ideas than I can humanly handle. So I am implementing a monthly ranking system. I split my projects into major and minor and ranked them according to perceived interest. Every month, I'll see what people seem to enjoy more, through views, comments, purchases, and in the case of a select trusted few, personal opinions, then I'll re-rank accordingly. To my watchers, don't do anything new! Just naturally view and interact with my art as you see fit and everything should fall into place naturally! :)

What happens to projects at the bottom of the ranking? They won't be dropped necessarily, but if I don't get to them by the end of the month, oh well. They'll just have the lowest priority, which could be the kiss of death due to how many projects I have.

And when I get a job, I might only have time for one or two projects. I might have to rework this system when that happens just so everything can have an equal chance for an accurate ranking. 'Cause if I only work on one project, of course it's going to have the most interest!

Oh, and major and minor projects are separate. I might work on Major #1 and Minor #1 at the same time, but I'll finish the monthly goals on Major #1 before starting Major #2.

And some things are unrankable. I count commissions and the series I am doing for my friends as projects. But they can't be demoted just because not as many people are interested. Commissions are a top priority because I need money and the other, more altruistic projects are high ranked as well. But yeah, unrankable. They are a special class.

My blogs, website, and fan-art are unrankable also. I do fan-art to warm up, so I'll keep doing fan-art that you may or may not like whether you want me to or not, so nya! ;P

One last thing before I get to the list of projects: if you want an easy way to keep track of the stuff I do, follow my Twitter. I don't upload everything to deviantART. I upload art to blogs (like this one), I'll be posting my comics on Smackjeeves, commissions are sometimes posted to the client's website or deviantART. People that only follow me on one site assume I'm dead or inactive because I'm busy elsewhere. Now hopefully that won't happen (so much. There's always a few Slowpoke out there, hehe.)

And now, the list of projects and their current states!

Major Projects

1.) Hellhoney - My anti-Magical Girl comic with possessed stuffed animals. I have an outline for the first chapter and a summary of the second. Two out of six cards for January are penciled, not inked.

2.) Minervellas - My NaNo from 2011 about an American "Japanese-style" idol group. The novel is a little over 20% written, and that's without rewriting it. I want to finish the novel and do plenty of illustrations for it this year, if time allows.

3.) Toilet Spawn - A mock guidebook for a proposed video game where the protagonist must use every toilet in town and defeat the monsters inside them. Still in the concept sketch phase.

4.) Power Warp - Comedy about space pirates trying to reach Earth after seeing a television broadcast from it. Two chapters are planned out but need to be reworked.

Minor Projects

1.) Zodiac Calendars - An Eastern calendar and a Western calendar featuring all the signs in Derrot-esque humor. The illustrations will also be sold as prints. I had three completely drawn, but I want to re-do them.

2.) Super Popcorn - My one-shot mockery of different genres of super heroes. Yeah, still not printed. I feel like a terrible, dirty liar. I want to make a set of illustrations/calendar of it this year.

3.) Mervscorn - Another one-shot about mermaids. I need to completely rework the story.

4.) Birds - 10 birds every four months, made in four different mediums: watercolor, digital paint, colored pencil, and pastel.

5.) Plush - Series of illustrations based on my collection of stuffed animals and the magic that happens when my family and I use our imaginations.

6.) QT Crawlies - Chibi moe insect girls. I want to redraw what I had drawn previously. Which was actually a lot. Over 20 pieces, if I remember, some of them inked.

7.) Pin-Up Calendars/Illustrations - A Man and a Woman one, just to practice and have fun with figure drawing and outfits.

8.) Random Art - I'll be working off my t-do list from random margin notes. Also, I need to use up art materials, like marker paper, paint, fabric, clay, soap, t-shirts, foam, beads, etc.

9.) Optimizzy - The little cat-like creature that always has a smile on its face no matter what! I'm still pleased with the illustrations that I did last year. Now to finish them and make more!

10.) Random/Silly Calendar - I like what I drew of it last year, just need to finish it up.

11.) Pantheon - The 12 main gods of Mount Olympus. I want to practice some epic digital painting techniques. I was going somewhere several years ago and then I think I regressed. My anatomy got better, my coloring got more simple.

12.) Playing Cards - A deck of playing cards, each card with one of my characters on it. I have to decide which characters to use.

13.) Hobo Storybook - How to take care of a pet hobo. I have notes from five years ago to work off of.

14.) Tunnels and Elevators - A one-shot comic based on a story I wrote for Creative Writing. I think it will go over better visually than in words.

15.) I'm a Bug?! - Re-work of a children's book I wrote for a class five years ago. It's about a bug that is afraid of bugs.

16.) Tutorials - A friend and I saw one of those "How to Draw Manga" books and she thought we could do better. I'm not sure if she still wants to do this, though, and I don't think I'm that good. For now, I think there are better tutorials out there.

So that's my current plan. In another month, I'll have another State the of the Projects to see what I've accomplished and what the new ranking is!

Hellhoney - Nicolina Transformed In-Depth Design Sketch

Okay, Meshia, here you go! A more in-depth look at Nicolina's costume:

Her head's a little too small here. Ehhh. At least this is focusing on the costume. The color scheme is metallic gold and black. The fin/peacock looking things above her skirt are make of a shiny gold-foil like material. The middle of her bodice is made of the same material. The fluffies inside her folded down collar is white with gold sparkles, while the folded down collar itself is white. (The cape-like collar is still gold, though.)

Her skirt is a transparent black, with ragged edges. It gets more transparent toward the bottom, but is practically solid toward the top. Black and gold diamond-printed bike-style shorts are underneath. Her hoof-style boots are similar to some sandals, as her big toe is separated from the rest of her toes.

The "6" necklace and her silly tail are both red, as are her eyes in this form.

Let me know if there are any questions... I'm not sure if this is any easier to decipher from the original sketch, haha.

Hellhoney - Supporting Character Design Sketches

Now I have to come up with some more sketches! I just have leftovers... supporting cast members and bonus sketches from a long time ago. Maybe I'll post some WIPs next time, though. Or some sketches for one of my friends.

^ The design for Nicolina's parents. Also, Lady Lilith, an owl that makes an appearance with the rest of her family later on. She eats children (but not her own.) Odin the emo owl and Loki the prankster owl are two of her hootlets.

^ Some demons. Only one of them will make an appearance early on.

^ Actually, I don't think I ever posted Nicolina's transformation, even to deviantART. Here you go.

^ Suggestions on making the older sister look more bully-like? I actually had a hard time deciding where to place the mole... I don't want it to look like a beauty mark, but a mark of evil.


That's all for now!

Hellhoney - The Unicorn Character Design Sketches

Here proceeds the last of the main character sketches I have right now (well, actually, I have some more from many months ago that I scanned in and posted a couple on deviantART, but I don't think I posted all of them... so they may make an appearance soon, too.) I also have some supporting characters to post next time.

So, in case you haven't guessed from my hint last time, this post's character is:

The Unicorn

So bony! Actually, she didn't turn out quite as horse-faced as I originally intended, but I can't bear to change her face much, she's very pretty (don't worry, what she lacks in face meat, she more than makes up for it with her muscular body.) This is just a pencil sketch, so you can't tell, but her hair is white with stands of bright dyed color. She's the silent badass of the "good" guys.

She can actually fight well, with tank-like strength and a sharp pointy thing on her head (also known as a horn.) Until nastier bosses enter the picture, The Unicorn is the greatest threat to the main characters!

Hellhoney - The Mermaid Character Design Sketches

I just finished finished watching S/mileage's Live Concert on YouTube. I've been up since 8:30 am Saturday, but I still stayed up till now (6:30 am Sunday) just to watch the whole concert. <3 It was good! And very happy~ Kanyon was her usual silly self, though I was a bit worried for her for awhile. She looked like the dancing was exerting her more than usual and her voice was cracking. ;_; Oh, and Vampire Girl (Meimei) was super cute! Proudly show your fangs, girl! Probably anyone reading this blog has no idea what I'm talking about. So from now I'll put idol-related posts (including sketches and WIPs) on my idol blog, haha. Now back to finishing up the Hellhoney sketch series! The Mermaid

She's the cute and pretty "good" guy and probably the only real personality (besides the cupid) in that group. She's kind of mischievous, so she could actually fit in with the main characters if they could convert her...

Oh, and I had fun with her hair! It's a bit inspired by how I keep my bangs out of my eyes when they get too long, haha.

She uses her seaweed lasso and tail as weapons (but don't worry, she doesn't sound like a hick, hurrr.) I need to figure out a way to allow her to attack in water in my storylines, even though it would be entertaining to draw her flopping about. But really, I shouldn't have such pathetic antagonists!




One more character left and then one page of supporting characters left from my batch Hellhoney sketches~ The next character shouldn't be hard to guess actually if you know me...

Hellhoney - The Angel Character Design Sketches

Gaaaah, finally I post again. (Sounds like Deja vu...) It's harder to write these entries because I really don't have much to say about some of the "good" guys... I haven't developed their characters enough/thought about them as much as the main characters.

The Angel

I was giving him a longer face to make him look older, but now he looks like Miya from Buono! Well, that's fine, something else to make fun of the "good" guys about. Though the "horse" face would be more appropriate on another character. Maybe they could be siblings. A Pegasus and a... hmm.

He's a healer as well, but he can throw his halo like a frisbee and play his harp to calm beasts and demons, so he's not entirely useless. He's very much a support character, if he was in an RPG party. He also has wings, which makes him the only aerial member of the "good" guys, and whether that's fortunate or not depends on whether the aerial main characters (the Dragon and the Griffin) are subdued.

The last two "good" guys are probably the most awesome of the bunch, powers and concept-wise. =3