Process!

In lieu of exciting new things to show you, I bring you... my mind! I finished a commission this week, and will now share how it went down.

1. "Well, it's for a Megaman RP. Could you draw a dark-magical-girl robot carrying her adopted eleven-year-old girl piggyback? I made a few images from an online face generator, if that helps."

So this is the part where I rough out a design for the robot character, since the human looks pretty generic, and try to think up some spiffy poses.



2. "Looks great! Just remember, she's pretending to be a dark magical girl... very dark. Kind of inspired by Fate Testarossa. I like the pose on the upper right, I feel like it really captures their character. Also, I know Megaman characters have huge feet, but I'm not really into that."

Sweet. I mourn the shoes briefly, and then start drawing. I only adopted this method recently, and mostly because of animation - grab cheap paper, sketch something out, flip it over, and then trace using a lightbox. (Repeat as necessary.) The robot's legs and the kid's head were really troublesome. I finally get it to a place I like, and then ink on Bristol board.



3. By this point, I am feeling pretty good, so I scan it in, fix up any goofy errors, and start coloring.



4. BAM. I have no idea what happened. Why are they in space? Don't ask me. I mean, you could, but I have no idea.

"I love it! But actually, the girl is multiracial."

Oh, cool!



Approved and paid! I originally meant for there to be more obvious dark-magical-girl elements (the ribbon was a nice start), but ended up favoring a sleeker look. Also, purple and pink.

Watercolors, continued!

Back home for the summer, and thought I'd start scanning stuff in. Above are more adventures with waterbrush - part of Washington Square Park as seen from the eighth floor of a building, and my workplace. (It isn't actually that colorful, sadly.)



I found an old magazine at work. These three are based on advertisements I found in that magazine. I'm much more familiar with acrylic paint, so it was frustrating trying to get the colors to match what I saw. Eventually, I gave up on that (orange skin, anyone?).

Sometimes, I just let my mind wander and doodle. It tends to look like this. (The lab was quiet that day.)



Next up: what I started drawing after 1) acquiring a real, portable watercolor kit! (as opposed to the watercolor pencils I'd been using) and 2) leaving NY.

Work...

Drawn on the job, haha.