Zila's new design

Unlike most artists, I think it's humbling to show just how much I suck at some things. Drawing animals, especially from my head, is one of those things among many.

I had realized I needed to drastically change Zila's design to be more unique and interesting to give FT a more unworldly feel to it, especially if she was going to be a more prominent figure in the story. SO I started sketching and, well, I can't believe I'm showing you these first ones 'cause they suck SOOO badly, but I think it's always interesting to see that no one is ever always good!


But anyway, it shows how I came to try and make her more 'real' and kept in mind that she is an animal of the snow. I just so happen to be watching Planet Earth during the snow leopard episode, and got inspired from that.

So here she is now, and I think I'm pretty happy with the result. I was most concerned with her movement to show power and elegance, while still being able to show her kind personality.


Deviation is here.
By the way, my number 1 resource for animal poses lies in this book:

Unfortunately, this book is now discontinued and incredibly rare. I saw it used for over 100 bucks on Amazon!! It is by far the most valuable book I own, and if you ever come across it for it's original or at least not-over-100 pricetag, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY! I rely on it for everything, and it's just like this series to discontinue their books that are the most helpful, go figure! lol

Ink Tests and More~

Usually when I'm working I have a blank paper next to me that gets filled up with doodles and ink tests or thumbnails to prepare myself for drawing a page. These are mainly done in straight ink, so like...forgive the bad anatomy? lol ^__^;;

This is the latest one I filled up, which shows some process of developing Zila and the new look of Cygnus and Bizo. I've always grappled with giving Zi wings, but...I mean, I think it's better to make her more feline-ish in how she moves, as if she is running among the clouds! :D



Most all were done with my brush pen as doodles, but the larger cleaner Cygnus is when his design was pretty clear and I was testing how I may ink with my brush for the actual comic. Making his hair darker was a fluke from the bottom doodle that I liked enough to decide to make it permanent. yay for happy mistakes! :D lol

Cruddy doodle of Lyra XD;; not final design, the colors n hair aren't doin' it for me yet.


Some doodles of Zi's new human form, Deneb, and Lyra's second battle outfit hidden under all that kimono. lolz Deneb has sideburns now. and now his freckles show more. It makes me happy. :D


Aahaha oh man I was looking at Becky Cloonan's art after I drew Deneb, and I couldn't believe how much influence I had gotten from her work. Can't wait to take her class my senior year! :D

sooo...my thesis? I'm working on it, I swear!! >___>;;

FT: Rebirth : Big Previews!

AHAHAHA I got hit with the FT bug, and now I can't stop. I'm just so excited! Luckily it is a type of productive procrastination, and now I'm pretty sure of how the storyline has changed and how it's gonna work, start, etc. Unlucklily, I still have no new pages of my thesis finished...umm...but I have been working on it...O__o;; uhh...

HERE IZ SKETCHIE:


Cygnus with Aurora, and Bizo (Kauz) with Tiffy. No more Ember, unfortunately. (trivia: she was created to die anyway!) ^__^;; Size of partners relates to a show of power more. Aurora is still not in her full size most of the time, as Cyg is laying low.


Cygnus and Aurora, with Lyra and Zila. Zila will be in her animal form much more, and in her human form acts as Lyra's attendant more than before.


Cygnus and Bizo, who actually start off the story. (Bizo will be disguised as Kauz with his black wig.) Cyg's design is a lot more 'rough' in appearance, 'arabian-ish,' darker, and Bizo has wavy hair with his purple-hued skin being more noticeable than before, as he is mostly At'rik. For some reason they have snarky expressions here...umm I dunno why, I was just doodling. >__>;

This version has A LOT more action in it, and I think it has benefited greatly. There is a lot more going on, while being simpler...if that makes sense. XD;; It's also a more 'simplistic' style, as more attention will be paid on backgrounds, atmosphere, culture...and oh yeah, it's gonna be in COLOR. :D

Anyway that's it for now, I need to get back to work on Thesis pages....>___>;;

Happy 2010!

Happy 2010 everyone! This is the first image I finished this first day of the year of the tiger. :D

"Lyra's Glare" finished:

Without panel, to show kimono details...


I must say, it was an incredible joy to do something like this for myself...felt like the old times when I had the time to do it!! lol :p

Amazing new source of inspiration!

Started another pic...was just a random no-ref doodle (the painted part) and then...I went a bit far and decided to work it as the last image of the triptych I'm working on.


Referenced mainly from this woodblock by Eishi Choki, The Courtesan Takigawa of Ohgi-ya.


OMG did I mention how much I love my boyfriend? He got me the PERFECT textbook-sized collection of Japanese woodblocks for Christmas, many of which I've never seen and it's exciting as all hell! For example, I couldn't find an image of this anywhere on the web...hence the silly photobooth snapshot lol. oh man I'm such a nerd but seriously, it's AMAZING. much love!! I stare at this book for forever...it would be sad if it wasn't in benefit of my career lolz. (probably still is though.) XD;;

Speaking of awesome-tastic-gasmic Christmas presents, here's a snapshot of my current desktop from my new baby, Behemoth. :D


LOL YAY I missed working on a million things at once...ya know, that isn't all entirely school-related, but FT-related. YAY! :D

Merry Christmas and stuff!

Just...umm...I forgot what I was gonna post? OH Merry Christmas!! :D yaaay eat stuff and get lots of nice family time. ^___^

umm...well here's a WIP of something I'm working on:

Okay so this is part one of a triptych that I plan on doing this break in addition to nearly finishing my thesis...fun times! XDD but yeah, it is, I enjoy having time to do artwork for myself now. YAY! :D

Also, can someone PLEASE tell me how to get Blogger to open the image larger in a new tab like it used to?!? I have NO idea what the problem is, it seems to work fine for everyone else! AUGH. PLEASE HELP this is an annoyance...XD

Welcome Home, Behemoth. <3

First off, I did this painting. It's probably finished...could do more, but I think I've done enough. It's my last piece with Donato Giancola...I'm REALLY going to miss this class and I know there's SO much more I could learn from him. so much so that I'm thinking of retaking it or sitting in next year. lol

I would like to welcome into the world of my desk, my wonderful Behemoth.

Behemoth is the new 27'' iMac, and I have no idea how I convinced my family to get him for me for Christmas. (granted, I'm chipping in nearly half but it's worth it!) I am constantly overwhelmed by his sheer power. As the comparison picture shows, my PowerBookG4 doesn't stand a chance in comparison. This will take some time getting used to, it's such a huge difference for me! lol XD

Edit: umm...I don't know what's up with blogger but it's not letting me click on the pictures to open larger in a new tab? Their help wasn't very clear about it...what's going on?!? ugh.

water nymph or somethinglikethat.

Just a procrastination sketch. blah I should be painting...or writing my essay! >__>;;


Sometimes I miss drawing and CGing like this. sometimes. I wonder what my art would be like if I continued in the more anime direction? ah, it would be so generic...blah! :p lol but it's still fun to sketch like this. I wonder what style FT: Rebirth will be in? ^__^;; I really want to start it up, but school is intense...ah well, it'll happen sometime soon I hope!

Thesis previews of a sort.

So...some comics for once, perhaps? That IS what I do, after all. lolz. XD;;

First assignment of the class, we had to do 2 1-page comics on a myth, literal and modern. I did the myth of Dionysus, with imagery based upon a Grecian bowl replica someone lent me for inspiration:


The modern one. This was obviously done in a rush, as I had just come home from a lousy night of work and had to do this stupid comic. Honestly I forget what I was thinking, but it helped me feel better? XD
Finally, onto the actual thesis. This is the lineart of Page 9:
Colored version, dunno if I'm happy with it but eh it's done:
First page of my thesis. I am quite happy with this one...I hope I don't screw it up in the colors. Should be interesting.
I have more I could show, but I guess that's good enough for now.

So I am doing the abduction of Persephone, but literally translating it into a modern satire, intending to show just how morally wrong these myths are when you think about them. The designs are from Asian art; the Chokkoman and Dotaku patterns. Later I am also incorporating the Japanese folktale clouds in later scenes in gold paint overlay, which literally mean 'this is not real, it is a story,' which is meant to contrast the 'realistic' style of the comic.

okay back to work! I'm supposed to have 5 pages done by tomorrow and I don't even have 2, ahhh~! XD

I'm hungry again!

Not much to say, but here's another WIP. I have to figure out a way to breathe more life and color into it, but I think we have a few more weeks to work on it or something...


ummm and yeah, I love how every time I'm excited to start my thesis pages, whenever it gets down to it I end up putting it off more and more. UGH NEED TO WORK. >___>;;

I'm so hungry omg.

lalala...just some wips of stuff and whatnot.

Concept Sketch Progress for Persephone. I wanted to get a feel for the style I want, and considering this took only a min or less to color, people need to stop freaking out about me watercoloring my thesis. LOL I love you all but you worry too much. XD;;
A WIP of the charchoal sketch for The Last Human illustration. I say sketch merely 'cause I still have to make changes to it after it got crit'ed. blah.


I pulled an all-nighter for this one, and I'm glad I did. Nearly everyone else in my class didn't even have a complete line drawing fleshed out...which confused me, but it made it seem like I did more work than I actually did. LOL awesome.

Random, but: OMG I WANT THE NEW 27'' iMAC SOOO BADLY!!! It looks positively kickass, and I just so happen to be in the market for a new computer, since mine is so pathetically old that new software that comes out now isn't even compatible with it. Christmas is coming, and I usually never want anything but now...one can only wish! :D

www.allisonstrejlau.com and like...other stuff.

hmm...so within a month's time my older brother has not only purchased an awesome Prius, but has moved out of our house with his awesome girlfriend. Needless to say, I jumped the gun with claiming his room as my new studio. Also, my Omi is home and is recovering just great! :D

So my new Lukas Oils came today and this is the most logical thing that occurred for me to do with them after I opened the 20lb box. It makes me so happy. 23 tubes of 200ml oil paints at a great deal. I will never have to buy oils ever again! XD


hey, it's a lot better than the mish-mosh that is still my 21 bottles of 250ml Lukas Acrylics I bought a few months ago. Again, at an awesome price. I love them but they always look so sad. It's because they just got a bunch of new older stepbrothers who are much more experienced then they and like to pick on them for being so quick to pansy up and dry. :(


umm...so here's a technique sample swatch of an illustration I did for Donato's sci-fi class last week. I'll scan in the actual one when like...all the large-format scanners in my school are not being used until eternity.


This is a reference I took of my Opi I'm using for Donato's next illustration. I rather love this photo.


I started a new sketchbook. It will be an odd sketchbook.


OH did I mention my portfolio website is up?? www.allisonstrejlau.com is now a fact! Gotta find time to put more works up, but hey at least it exists now. :D

Gallery, Shoes, and Sketchz.

A recent sketch I did, just to start off this post. Deviation is Here.
AH School has started, and so that means I am probably gonna disappear off the face of the internetz for a while.

...or not? I have started a blog for our cartooning club, which can be found at http://cartoonistalliance.blogspot.com/. I will be updating there regularly with news and interesting things. ^__^

but anyway, on to my own blog business...

My gallery show was this week, the opening was last Friday. Now if you've read my previous post you'll know the trauma that took place so I'll skip that, but yeah here are just some pics from it.

I got a nice spot right in the beginning:

ew, a horrid picture, but we were still shaken from what happened to omi, so I had to put on my best face:
The Finished Paintings. The Deviation is Here. :D
some cool paintings from the show:
The hospital sign....now you KNOW a maintenance guy did this on purpose. regardless, it brightened our moods a bit.
My Pokémon High Heels! Deviation is here but also this:
My Princess Mononoke Vans! Unfortunately, they gave me blisters...ugh. The Deviation is Here!
Work was slow last night, so I doodled on a receipt paper. I don't know what to do for my latest assignment...:/
And lastly, this is how amazing my boyfriend is and I wanted to share it:
It was as delicious as it looks! :D <3

Ach, jest sketchinz.

I've been playing Arkham Asylum a bit too much...combine it with FT, and we got one crazed cyggie. UGH I need to like...remember how to draw before school starts next week. @___@;;


a random business chap:


UM so my gallery opening didn't go so smoothly...my omi broke her femur on an unmarked step at the entrance to the building, and we were in the ER all night. She had her surgery and she'll be fine, she's a tough as nails german woman. However, this will greatly effect how this school year goes for me...hopefully I will be able to achieve the goals I have, but now I'm not so sure. I'm just glad she'll be okay though...it could have been a lot worse. I'm grateful for that...I love her more than anyone, I don't know what would happen to our family if it was worse. It's so scary when something happens to the one who raised you...I just love her so much. Hopefully she can come home soon. <3

Marsyas Sketch

sketchysketchysketchyzzzz. Should I finish? I dunno. >___>;;


ugh I'm getting a cold. :(