FT:Rebirth.com and more Previews!!

I've been working on a lot of stuff, and I got so caught up I forgot to post a blog about it! Or rather, I forgot that I haven't posted about it yet? ^___^;;;
sooo.....

FT:REBIRTH.com IS OFFICIALLY UP AND RUNNING!! And I have been posting my Thesis comic, FAMILY, that is updating EVERY DAY until July 6th, which is the official beginning of FT:Rebirth!!! :D

Here's another preview of an upcoming panel, captioned OM NOM NOM:


Because I thought rendering the water/marsh currents like tribal patterns would be smart, this panel alone took about 3 hours to do...though I guess it doesn't look like it. XD;; One of the many reasons why these pages are taking me so long to ink...but I think it will pay off.

Also got really inspired by this manga Otoyomegatari that has absolutely stunning examples of pattern usage on every page. The story is...well, I kinda like it 'cause I love anything with history about it, but I guess it's not for everyone...but OMG the art is breathtaking, every page is just amazing. I've been using it as reference for the inner circle of Konaiya and currently have many pages of it strewn about my desk lol most notably like these:


Beautiful, huh? I am trying to use more patterns like this...it is very hard though, and is taking forever. Hopefully it will pay off though! It's no where near as beautiful as this manga, but here is a panel from a page in a Konaiya scene:


I guess you can say this picture I did of Lyra dressed in a more commoner appearance was inspired by it too, but actually I did this image before I found out about that manga. You can check out the Deviation here if you'd like. But yeah, was just a sketch that was taken a bit too far. I guess you can say I've taken a liking to more Arabic designs lately:


Speaking of Konaiya, I had been working out a map for the FT world for quite some time now. It is very challenging, but I think I came up with a sketch I'm finally satisfied with enough to move on to the fun part of actually making the map:


I LOVE cartography I don't know why but it's very calming to do...well, once you know where you're headed. Geography is very important to the story, so for a while making this map was one of my top priorities. I've also been watching Avatar:TLA NONSTOP (It's the only thing I can watch and pencil to at the same time simply because of the amount of times I've seen the episodes lol) so yeah that's making a big impact on how I think about the overall storytelling and world. :)

And the Konaiyan lands are made to resemble my cat's markings because I am a dork and I love my cat. XD;;

Anyway, I'm gonna go get back to work. Don't forget to bookmark FTREBIRTH.COM!! :D

OH RIGHT and the blog has gotten a facelift too. ^__^;;

Sketches of Jiiya users

I have been working on Rebirth so I haven't been drawing much, but here are some sketches I've done at least!

A super-quick sketch of Lyra and Yana's costume in their first scene just so I had a basic idea:


A more refined sketch I did later after drawing them a bit in the comic:


Some more sketches. Yana is a Wind Jiiya (what an elemental user is called), but she uses a more physical approach to the element than most:


I had to sit through a 5-hr class so I can take my driving test (yes I still don't have my license, I HATE cars but my brother was holding CS5 hostage until I went through it lol) and someone lent me their paper and saved my life 'cause I don't know how I would have survived that otherwise! I wanted to focus on how the elements are handled by different users:


I wanted to do some inking practice so I lightboxed that doodle of Cygnus using the Earth element. You can see how different my sketches are from my inks here! haha I usually hate showing my pencils of anything 'cause they're so bad and rough! I much prefer to draw with ink and see direct results. I will probably turn it into a more finished illust later:


I am having fun inking the pages but it is taking longer than I'd like because I am working more now. Earning money is my top priority now though! :(

Also, Creative Suite 5 came FINALLY! The new PS brushes work excellent, they feel so natural. I am having so much fun using them! :D

Soul Searching

ah...lots to say, not much to show. I suppose I just want to share what I've been trying to do this summer and where I am now.

So far this summer has not gone how I'd have liked it to go to say the least. It started off with my grandma breaking her other femur, and continued to get more stressful as the days went on and I had to take responsibility for my family and the house, and my art suddenly became unimportant to me. Well she's home now and recovering very well and this makes me happy, and I can sleep a little better than I have been.

However this break came at a time when I was so excited to do my art, and then suddenly I had time and then I had no desire to create anything, and I was constantly on edge with nightmares about my family and worried about failures.

Getting out of this slum is probably the hardest thing I had to do because I really felt defeated, but I am happy to say I think I am starting to want to create things again.

This is the first set of 'freestyle' sketches I tried to do to loosen up my hand a while back, and although there is only one sketch of these that is even mildly worth showing, I want to show it because...well, I'm really not that good at drawing and I kind of want people to know that.


Lately I have become almost obsessed with wanting to show imperfection because that is really what I was dealing with all this time, it's that I could never become the kind of perfect artist that I had in my mind. Let me be the first admit that I am really not good at many things from my head and I think some of these sketches show that. I realized that throught this year especially I had been too reliant on references, and in doing this, I nearly forgot what it was like to just...draw. And enjoy drawing it. This is probably the first set of sketches where I had begun to have fun again:


And so I tried to tackle FT again with the soul purpose to stop being so strict and hard on myself, not rely completely on being perfectly referenced, and overall to have fun and remember what art is all about. None of the pages are done being penciled, but I HAD to finish something so I just went in and drew in ink not caring if it was perfect. In my opinion, the result is a page where I don't think my inking, at least with the foliage, has ever been so good:


I don't like the colors as much but that's how it will be, I worked too long on them to re-do the page now. I tried my best, and I don't think it is still there but at least I know I am getting closer. I have a lot of work to do still, but I think I am finally ready to tackle this again. :)

Ah...a lot of this though I can say is due to a lot of me going back to my roots in a sort of soul searching kind of way. I re-watched and revisited all my inspirations of my childhood and elsewhere (Dragonball, Airbender, Fushigi Yuugi) and this helped me remember who I was and I am so happy I did it. I can highly recommend to artists who are in a block to trace back where your art came from and I can guarantee it will help you immensely. :D