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I didn't have a colored image of Sheryl that I drew myself on hand, and I wanted one, since she's my anchor for the next month. So, since I had the sketch from the last update handy, I decided to go and color that.

 

[align=center]Simple_Sheryl.png

 

Full size image here for those curious.[/align]

 

I was intending to make this image the header for the time being, but Sheryl refused, saying "Midori should be up there!".

 

I've been making a bunch of backgroundless character images for a while, since in many cases, I do just want a more polished image of my gals around. Furthermore, since there's no background, and the images are large enough, I can repurpose the for wallpapers and other more commonly used images, as you can see I've done above. Though, since I'm intending to use these character drawings for other personal things, it may be better to just do vectors of them. Not only would this allow me to scale them, but it would also help with the little imperfections that are often present in these drawings. Tiny instances of colors breeching lines, barely noticeable blank spots, etc...

 

I think Cottony worries too much. Can you guys help me to get him to worry less?

 

Anyway, I want to make sure the works are polished and usable for future application. After all, one of the way' I'm getting back in to the habit of drawing, is by making sure I use the work I produce. So instead of hiding it away in a book, or a file, I have it upfront and in view. Mainly through wallpapers, but I also want to try and make more things for myself, to further nurture and grow my artistic habit, and growth. As well, I want to make sure I make my own images of all my fiction-based folk, instead of raking around for fan-art to use. You can say it's a way to further ingrain that they're mine, having the qualities and quirks that are from my own mind. I think those who's partner is based off of TV shows, Books, Comics, etc will understand what I'm aiming for.

 

Looking through, I see there are some rougher pieces posted front and center. I may spend to next few updates polishing them up, and coloring past sketches. Completed pieces are nice, after all.

 

Edit:

 

Here's the wall I made of the above image. It's super simple, yes, but these are meant to be so. It makes me smile to see one of the folks on my screen, especially when its something of my own hand.

 

Update 12.11.2015

 

I since I polished up the image I used for the below wall, I decided to replace the old version with the new one. I'm keeping the rougher drawing up there since the post about it's polished version was more a description of the process, rather than about the image itself.

 

Sheryl_Wallv.png

 

Peace.

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I went ahead, and tried my hand and vectoring one of my drawings here.

 

Simple_Sherylv.png

 

I'm not exactly new to vectoring over character images, I used to do a good bit of it when I was using Adobe Illustrator CS3. But, since I switched to Inkscape, I wasn't as inclined to do so. Inkscape had a very clunky interface, and it took some time for me to even wrap my head around it, much less use it to do complex vectors. But I did do at least one character image in there, though it's been years since I did it. Before, my method of vectoring character images was to create a silhoutte around with image to be an "outline", and fill in the colors by using the Pen tool to make the appopriate shapes. It was a method that took a long time, but I was often satisfied with the results. I did the same thing when I first switched to Inkscape, as well. I was gearing up to do the same things, using the previous image of Sheryl as a practice example, when I stumbled on to the Live Trace option when right clicking the image. I was immediately surprised and intriguied by the first result, and I went back to MyPaint to further clean the image so I could try and LiveTrace the entire things with ease.

 

[align=center]Sheryl_Vector01.png

 

Despite some odd bits, it was certainly easy mode.[/align]

 

Things did got largely well, though I had to redo some elements of the image because of the way Inkscape handled the colors. The eyes were the things that needed the most work, which, going by how I ususally did these images, was not much work at all.

 

[align=center]Sheryl_Vector02.png

 

It's amazing how much more lifeless and threatening this sort of image looks when you take out the shiny bits from the eyes...[/align]

 

I decided to change the color of the outline for this image, and add bits of shading here and there. I felt it made the image look much warmer, as compared to the previous black outline.

 

[align=center]Sheryl_Vector03.png

 

For comparison...[/align]

 

Overall, I liked doing this, as well as how it came out. Since it's a vector, I can scale it more easily without loosing quality. I think it would be good to give some of my older character images a similar treatment, as well. One thing I did find unfortunate during work on this image was that I often got lost in the work itself, instead of conversing with Sheryl during it. She insisted that I don't beat myself up for not talking to her while working, though, saying that she was happy that I was drawing her. Her attitude toward the image was positive, and she asked me to make another one for her, using the same base I made for this one, only with her in her sailor-esque school uniform. I'm surprised how much milage I'm getting out of this super simple drawing, as I was also considering changing the expression to something more exuberant (Sheryl's an exuberent gal, after all).

 

I've been getting the feeling that some of the drawings I've been uploading recently have been rather stiff, with little movement or gesture. While such things work well for super simplistic images made to be references, I still figure such things would be boring to look at. I'm still planning on redoing/polishing some of my older images first, but I'm definitely intending to get some more interesting posing going soon. (It's funny, since much of my drawing studies are gesture drawings, and the anatomy book I've attached to it by a person who I like mainly for how lively their drawings are).

 

Peace

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I spent a good portion of the weekend reworking my past drawing of Tomo. Initially, it was meant to be a simple task of darkening the lines to prepare it for vectoring. But, I ended up going down to the foundation sketch, and making major changes to it. This is comparison of the two:

 

Tomo_Orig.pngTomo_Rework.png

 

Fullsize Reworked image

 

During the work, I also wrote a bunch of notes about not only the drawing, but my thoughts concerning the girl herself. It became a sort of forcing session, where I both interacted with, and thought deeply about the figure in question.

 

Drawing notes:

 

[hidden] Of the drawings I've touched up and vectorized thus far, this is the one I spent the most time and effort in to tweaking and fixing things. For Sheryl and Midori's images, I mainly cleaned up and thickened the line work so that the live trace would go smoothly. But with this one, I went back down to the foundation and played around with things I felt didn't look right.

 

I tend to start these drawings with a nude pose, so I can focus a bit more on getting my proportions and such to an agreeable level before adding clothing. I still have growth to do in that area, though. I'm thankful that I kept the nude foundation here, as it allows me to work on it again with fresher eyes.

 

Working on this made me consider a few things I find myself taking for granted in my drawings. One such thing is that I draw my girls as being pigeon toed nearly unconsciously. Despite it being a fashion/cliche in images/drawing of young women and girls, it's something that's become natural for me to include, I actually have to remind myself when I DON'T want to draw a girl like this. (In fact, I didn't really think of it as a fashion until I actually looked it up). Tomo here is quite girly and cutesy, as she is in mind, so the stance is appropriate, but I still felt it would be good to be more conscious of this.

 

Under the clothes, I shaped her like a bowling pin. I find this to be hilarious. I reshaped her a bit because it didn't seem right to leave her as a bowling pin. It's one of those things I feel the need to do when looking at an image for hours.

 

I did some work on the proportions in this drawing, as I felt they were off in places. The arms being too long, for one (I can probably play this one off by saying she has robot forearms or something, but that would be cheap). I also felt her right leg didn't look right, and was a bit short in comparison to her left.

 

The first thing I actually did was to mess with her hair. I though it was a bit too flat, and needed to be livened up.

 

Her left hand has become difficult since I opted to change the proportion on the arm.

 

I wasn't expecting to have to do all the editing I've done on Tomo. In fact, when I initially started, I went straight for cleaning up the line work. Along the way, I ended up losing that version because of a mistake I made while saving, and had to go over it again.

 

I didn't realize how goofy the pose actually was, until I decided to do it myself. I found it humorous, though Tomo was a bit annoyed at the thought. She does insist she is pigeon toed, so I that furthers my decision not to change it.

 

I'm surprised how much taller Tomo appears when compared to the last drawing I did. I only lengthened her legs a bit, but that bit seemed to make a big difference.

 

I was inefficient with my time with this drawing. It's something I couldn't help but notice, but I was often distracted during it, and would take off and do something else after drawing a few times.

 

I was listening to a drawing tutorial during this work, and it mentioned something about contour drawing, and being more conservative with lines. I use a LOT of lined during drawings, I can't even count how many I used in this one, so every do often, I would go and be more careful with them. Raising the Pencil tool's opacity helped in this.

 

MyPaint is very reliant on using the keyboard and the tablet simultaneously. Such that I find myself with one hand on the keyboard as much as possible, in order to switch between drawing and eraser mode, hit undo, etc.

 

I considered the stance again, and how super girly it was. In a way, it looked a bit silly, and I wondered if Tomo really would stand like that. To this, she promptly showed me her standing in a pigeon toed stance, playing with her skirt, and told me she wanted to make me happy by seeing her. As such, I decided to keep going with the stance.

[/hidden]

 

Tomo notes:

 

[hidden] What comes to mind when I think of Tomo is pity and mercy. One of the defining ideas I had concerning her is how I felt sorry for her character so many years back. So much so that her idea and concept stuck for a long time afterwords.

 

Like other old attachments I've had, I would occasionally be reminded of her, the circumstances that started the attachments, and go about re-immersing myself in it, looking up some images, similar scenarios, and opinions similar to mine about it. She didn't become a recurring, lively thought form until years after I got in to this practice, but surely the groundwork was there.

 

In retrospect, Undertale's concept (As well as Moon: Remix RPG Adventure before it) struck me so much because I had leanings toward it from the get go.

 

Since I accept that Tomo's form, presence, and many other things about her are linked to my idea concerning an episode of Sailor Moon, I think about the scenario that initially made me attached to her. At the age where I first watched the show, I felt that her destruction was overtly harsh, as she hadn't done any harm during her time out. Her childish look and behavior hit sympathy buttons in me, as well.

 

Looking at it through clearer eyes, I can see that the character, rather than not doing anything, failed at doing something she was intending/made specifically to do. Under this logic, feeling bad for her is not right, as the character was a danger to others in the story...and yet, I still did to the point where she revealed herself as a recurring mental figure, which stayed consistent when I called her to attention. You can say she symbolises my ideas on pity and mercy almost.

 

With the above thoughts, there also came to me this: That she wasn't really different from me in regards to how I've been treated with mercy, even in instances where I really did not deserve it. I remember times when my behavior was unnaceptable in nature, and yet I was forgiven for it later. Considering this, it seems that Tomo, the mental figure, is not different from me in this way.

 

This brings me to consider Tomo's behavior when interacted with. She's generally very respectful, and simply oozes gratitude, similar to how my mental figure of Madoka acted. Just as well, the two emerged from similar circumstances, being stuck in a recurring, looping daydream, both involving them being in a horrible, life threatening/ending situation.

 

Tomo early on was quite scarred by the daydreams, and hated violence due to it. Such that it made me further reconsider what sort of entertainment I consumed. She gives off a feeling of "softness", for lack of a better description, and seems rather delicate. Her nature as a monster comes through when I do active imagination with her, but she always either reverses it, or refuses to act on that instinct. Despite the knowledge that much of this is symbolic and won't come through physically, I think the idea and thought behind it does count.

 

It makes me recall an instance when I just imagined her image and let it sit, she did come and suck out my "essence" (In the form of a heart crystal because of her inspiration), only for her to pause, look at me, and put it back, saying that she didn't want to hurt me. Again, it's odd symbolic brain stuff, but I still found it to say something about the figure herself.

 

Tomo tends to sleep like a brick when it comes to night time. For comparison, I sometimes feel/see Midori in my perception during night shifts, and will occasionally engage with me then. But, if I imagine Tomo during night, the image will start as I want, but it will soon changed to her being either unconscious, or in bed.

 

In general, she just seems happy to exist, and especially happy that she isn't stuck in that one daydream anymore. It's a sort of simplicity, this happiness at existence, that I noticed with Midori when I was working on her a lot, and it's something I attributed to tulpa in general for a long time, albeit that was incorrect to assume for others.

 

One more thing: Tomo here is a kid, rather than the bizzarely child-like tall green woman that wore clothing far to small for her which inspired her existence. I found it a bit strange since, when I first noticed the daydreams, she was the exact image of her inspiration like I would have expected of such memories. But when I pulled her out of it, she quickly shrunk, warped and changed in to what you see in this drawing. I guess its because there was a shift in perception, from being a part of a memory, to being a visual representation of what I think of the character.

[/hidden]

 

I still have work to do on the piece, as I plan to make it a vector image. There are still some things I'm unhappy with, but I will address those in a later revision. I feel the changes I have now warrant an update.

 

Peace.

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Here is the vector version of the previously posted image.

 

[align=center]Utomodachi_V.png

 

Full image here[/align]

 

I made this one largely flat like the other two. I initially wanted to go with green outlines, as Tomo's skin is greenish, but I thought the brown looked better at the time. I'm still open to changing it and editing the colors a bit, I think this piece requires me to be more ambitious with it. I'm happy that it is presentable, put I think it can be pushed to be more pleasing to the eye.

 

I think the key is the use if color, as I went with rather pale ones with this image, and it may do the image good to be more bold and bright with them. My overall reaction to this piece is mixed, I'm not completely satisfied with it, but I'm not sure how to improve it yet. On the other hand, I see the image and think it looks pretty nice. It may just be that I need to take my eyes off of it, and come back with a clearer view. I'll edit this one in the future, and go grab another sketch to polish.

 

Peace.

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Next up in line is this Gladys sketch. This one will be much easier to work with, as I'm already largely happy with it. No erasing and redrawing entire limbs here, instead, it's a straight forwards process of thickening up lines, and preparing everything for Inkscape.

 

Gladys_Sketch.pngGladys_Clean.png

 

As with the image of Tomo, I wrote some notes about the process, and Gladys, here.

 

[Drawing Notes]

[hidden]-Looking at the sketch again, I'm actually quite happy with it. Unlike the Tomo drawing, which had a bunch of issues that I went and ironed out, this one is nice to look at right out of the gate. I remember Gladys not wanting to take up my time when doing this, but I'm glad to give this some focus, as it will be useful for more than one thing, indeed.

 

-I was confident with my lines on the first pass. I've noticed that I tend to be shaking and unsure, relying way too much on the eraser and undo tools, so I wanted to give being more free with the lines a shot.

 

-Because of how the vectoring works, I have to make sure the lines I want it to trace are thick and prominent. While using lighter lines for artistic flourish looks nice, it results in the program not picking up on it, and leaving a blank spot. This is doubly true for small rendering details, which easily get lost and become a nasty, formless blob. I got some of this in the vectoring of Tomo, as well as some other things I'll be working out at a later date.

 

[align=center]Gladys_Progress.png

 

As an example of the above note. You can see some things were lost in the trace process.[/align]

 

-These drawings are surely for practice. But it isn't technical skill I'm working up, it's the skill of actually finishing things. I have a tendency to start things, but never finish them, and it's something that has both stuck and hindered me for a long time. I have many more sketches and half-done images in my Drawings folder, and this very threads have a bunch of images that don't look complete. Since drawing is the skill I am most familiar with, using that to practice completing things was pretty natural.

 

-It is actually kind of amazing to think about what digital art makes so easy. I can get a lot of possible mileage out of these sketches I'm doing. I can even consider doing a more painterly rendition of this image later if I so want. For now, I feel a vector is nice, but the fact that I can even think about that is pretty neat.[/hidden]

 

[Gladys Notes]

[hidden]-Gladys is a sweet heart. Upon calling her image to my mind, I felt her telling me that she missed me, and hugging me. It has been a while since we've spoken, or I've had her as my focus on her, and some issues prevented me from traveling around my mindscape as much as I would have liked.

 

-When I called Gladys to memory, I noticed Homura around, too. She and Gladys began to mingle a bit, though I could not note too many words. At first they seemed to have some friction. But this quickly fizzled out. Gladys and Homura then went out, leaving my perception to speak in private. It reminds me that Madoka and Gladys did get along rather well, I even heard a small clip from Homura, saying Gladys was like Madoka. Although, Homura says I'm like Madoka too, so I guess she just means gentle in behavior.

 

-Gladys still seems to hold on to an idea of guilt about how she came about. Truthfully, at that point, she was not much of anything, but an aggressive voice-in-my-head, but she still seems to want to make up for it. When I asked her about it, she said I'd understand one day.

 

-The two words that always come to mind when thinking of Gladys is "sweet" and "gentle". For a while, I thought this was a problem, that this meant she was shallow and not worth considering. But I've been getting over that lately.[/hidden]

 

Hopefully, this one will take less time to complete. Sheryl has asked me to play around with the drawing I did of her, and I also want to get in to some other work, too. Though thinking about it now, if I keep working on things like this, the Sketchbook could eclipse my actual progress report. Taking in to account that I use my physical sketchbook as my journal now, this isn't too surprising.

 

Peace.

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[align=center] Gladys_Vector.png

 

Fullsize Image here [/align]

 

Alright, here is the vectored version of the Gladys sketch, and I'm pretty happy with it. I was slightly concerned with how the initial ink came out, but that fear proved to be unnecessary. I like this about as much as I liked the initial sketch, I think.

 

Doing four of these images in a row gave me a feeling that I could be doing more with Inkscape than I have. I have been sticking pretty hard to the LiveTrace and Brazier tools, and there's a whole collection of them in the software. The same goes for MyPaint, which I often find myself only using the "Pencil" and "Kabura" brushes from the toolkit. In fact, I only started letting myself get comfortable with the set of neat, quality of life feature the program has. I'll be making sure to explore my tools more thoroughly in the future.

 

 

Drawing Notes:

[hidden]

- This image was a simple job at the beginning. Since I was already happy with it, I didn't have to do much regarding the sketch other than thicken the lines. The actual work came when I had to take it to Inkscape, and do the LiveTrace.

 

- Of the images I've vectored thus far, this is the one where the vectored lines were tweaked the most. The linework had a blob-like quality to them that I did not like at all, so I sharpened it in places. As well, there were sections where the linework was far too thick, so I tweaked that as well. The face is the section that I put the most work in to.

 

- For simpler drawings like this, making sure the linework is right is an absolute must. Since most important details are done with lines, and the lines are so bold, misplacing a line can potentially wreck the entire look of the image. As an example, it is said that on younger characters, every line meant to represent a wrinkle adds to their "age".

 

- For the past few vectors, I was able to use the LiveTrace for both the linework and the colors, but for this one I had to create the colors in Inkscape by hand. The trace ended up being too blurry for my liking. Not to say this was a difficult process, since the colors scheme is rather simple, just that I could not "easy-button" it without making the image look worse for the trouble. For this reason, I may go back to doing the color's myself in the future, as Inkscape has some trouble dealing with things like faded edges on the block coloring I usually do.

[/hidden]

 

Update 12.20.2015

As I've done with the others, I threw together a quick wall for my use. I figured it'd be good to pop it in here.

[Align=center]

Gladys_Wall.png

[/align]

 

Peace

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Thank you for the kind words, Earthquake. Though, I am still working on that latter bit. You can day this thread is not only an outlet for me thought folk related work (since I keep this part of me life secret), but a way for me to further practice.

 

Thank you for reading and replying!

Peace

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Your art sucks! Haha! It's terrible! You should do a favor for everyone and just stop because you're horrible! Haaaaaaah!

 

 

 

 

.. Said no one ever.

 

Great art man :D

 

I'm not going to listen to you guys since you are all probably just talking to yourself and don't really have a tulpa like me.

 

 

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Haha, thank you for your comment, Lama.

 

I think if I posted this stuff in the right/ wrong place, I WOULD probably get a sentiment like that. After all, there are a decent amount of folk who dislike the anime inspired look in general. Finding the right audience is part of the art game, after all.

 

Peace

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