fan art for fandoms (of varying obscurity)

I don't usually draw fan art but when I find a series that I really really like, it's pretty hard not to draw art for it. 

Of course, I started like a lot of you in drawing fan art for Final Fantasy VII and I even did a bit for Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. But because pieces for both fandoms are painfully old and therefore embarrassing, I bring to you my not so embarrassing forays into other fandoms, particularly the smallers ones and the not so smaller ones.

Left to right: Simoun, Padre Sybilla, Elias.
Pencil.

The books Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo by Jose Rizal were huge inspirations to me back in high school. In fact, these books were one of the few where I felt the insane urge to draw all the characters. Truly a classic. A lot of the characters were pretty clear in my head, but probably not in the way Dr. Rizal intended them to look like. In any case, my very first sketches of the books are here, with Simoun the jeweler with his spectacles and hat (derp, what is period appropriate), Padre Sybilla and Elias.

I've promised myself to redraw these awful sketches one day and probably even embark on a steampunk re-imagining of the book. 

When I was in college, one of the various series that ate my soul was Simoun. I was just discovering the beauty and fluidity of gender and Simoun was truly an interesting piece. I fell in love with all of the characters but two of my most favorite characters were Anubituf and Guragief. These two are probably the first canon gay couple I've seen outside of actual yaoi anime. I have full intentions of drawing more of them when I have some free time.

Anubituf.
PaintToolSAI and Photoshop.

Guragief.
PaintToolSAI and Photoshop.

Soon after, I embarked on the wonder that was Darker than Black. I'm a huge huge fan of anything action and my preferences really do lean toward the shounen side of things. My particular favorites of the series were Hei/Li, November 11 and July. I did see the second season but it didn't really do a lot for me. It did however convince me that August 7 is fantastic and he needs to be drawn more with the other MI6 members.

Nick and Hei.
PaintToolSAI and Photoshop.

November 11 and...?
PaintToolSAI.

November 11 and July, being all familial.
PaintToolSAI and Photoshop.

Tales of Destiny was also one of my favorite games. It's quite a pity that I can hardly find fan art or fan fic of the series. :( Leon Magnus was, and is still, one of my favorite characters in the game. A close second would be Garr. When it was re-released for the PS2 a lot of the names were changed to match the Japanese names so that may be hampering my searching for fanworks of them. Baw.

Leon Magnus.
Colored pencil.

Good Omens is also near and dear to my heart! Just like El Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tangere, I had wanted to draw almost all of the characters. It was basically the book that made me fall in love with both Neil Gaiman's and Terry Prattchett's works.

Adam Young, War, Pollution and Famine.
Pencil.

 It was really in college that I discovered that I quite liked comic books. Especially, gasp, American comic books. One of the first I read back in the day was Lucifer.

Lucifer Morningstar.
Photoshop.

Here's the output of a cross-over idea, in which Lucifer is actually Adam Young's father. I had read the screenplay for Good Omens and just couldn't help putting the pieces together. This idea also spawned this prompt on the Good Omens kink meme and was fulfilled with amazing results. I highly recommend giving this one a read.

Lucifer Morningstar and Adam Young.
Pencil.

While we're on the topic of books, my cousins got me started on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series. I finished all the books back in, ah, January of 2010 I believe and just had to do fan art of it.

Left to right, top to bottom: Luke Castellan, Quintus, Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo, Apollo and Ares.
Pencil.

*spoiler*
Ink.

Hermes.
PaintToolSAI.

Last but not least, I'm a fan of Greek mythology as well. Here's my headcanon!Hermes being adorable.

02-20-2011

Working as a research assistant's been occupying my time a lot, in between working on commissions. Managed to get some personal art done though!

Elias de la Rama, leader of Los Guardianes.

More genderqueer! Here's a page out of my childhood, only I was less toothpick thin and more Pillsbury Doughboy.

A caricature of myself, before I got my haircut.

Some Honor. 

 More Honor.

Fuck yes, Aztec Filipino steampunk! I love designing armor.

happy hearts day :)

I hope you all enjoyed a happy valentine's! i made a card for my girl this year, in a medium i don't usually use. watercolor. :3

things i forgot to post :D

because i'm derptastic like that. some finished commissions and sketches.

 A commission for the always wonderful Poet, whose blog you can find here. She wanted a female version of one of my drawings from way back and I am ever so pleased to deliver. :) Where mine was more mottled, hers has a more sepia and grunge look.

 The finished commission for CrimsonKiss89 of her characters Clyetes Arkanum and Nikolas Drake, from her novel in progress Crimson Kiss.

The finished commission, also for CrimsonKiss89, of her Dorothy Bennett from her novel Vestige.

Finished commission for Sir Mordred on Ygal (and known by other handles elsewhere) of Arthur and Mordred. Yes, as in the Arthurian figures. 

Here's another update on that huuuuge piece for my baby. I wasn't kidding when I said huge! 

Old but good sketch of one of my favorite dragon/elf hybrids, heavily contemplating a night of amazing sex.

Good ol' Apostle, being such a bad ass.

Three, four, lock that door. Concept art with the theme "There's a monster in all of us". 

Practice sketch. Recently acquired Autodesk SketchbookPro. Been feeling my way around it.

Look what I found! An old old old ink drawing of  Poet's Alexander and my Alexandra. This was, ah, a cover for a fancomic I made, I think. Still one of my favorite works.

My menstruation doesn't make me any less of a man. Genderqueer for the fucking win. :) 

 Everyone's favorite (?) sassy gay lawyer. Okay, so I made all of that up. Here's Wilhelm Helmholtz judging you. :|

Another SketchBookPro sketch. I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Walkthrough: Leonardo and Ezio

I was recently commissioned to draw Leonardo da Vinci and Ezio Auditore da Firenze of Assassin's Creed II by a friend. I've never played this game but it being mainstream and a favorite of some of the artists I follow, I more or less know what's going on. Won't stop me from actually getting the game though!

Here's the process for this commission.

The commissioner was very kind to give me information on these two characters and a basic idea of what she wanted. Working with those, I make a basic sketch.

I let that sit for a night while I get some shut eye. In the morning, with fresh eyes, I review the image and decide it's lacking interaction. Where are their other arms? So I set off and make a sketch based on the first.

Awful chicken scratch in the corner is mine. I wanted something more romantic, so I had them interacting more. Here I also sketch in an idea for their facial expressions. There's something not sitting right with me though. I've decided Ezio would be hugged by Leonardo, but his left arm kind of obscures Leonardo's face. Not to mention closes off the composition too much.

 I make a new layer and adjust things a little. There, that's better. This way we can see Leonardo's face. 

I look at a lot of their reference pictures. I even look at dozens of the game videos. Also, around here I notice that Ezio has very Italian features that a lot of artists don't draw. A low brow ridge for instance, thick eyebrows. A strong nose. I decide to bring these out in the sketch. I start getting an idea for their clothes as well. It's a mess right now.

I block in a few things to get a better idea of how they flow. Well, that looks pretty much correct. Let's get started with inking!

As always, I start inking on the face. I discover I may have drawn Leonardo's head  too small. Oh dear. 

Time for me to adjust Leonardo's head just slightly. There. That looks better. I ink in their hands next. And start seeing all sorts of anatomical errors. YIKES. None of my sketches are 100% fool proof, traditionally or digitally. Mistakes just crop up when I start getting serious. Around here, a friend lets me know I drew their hands too small. ;A;

 Hands corrected! And the rest of the ink is magically done?! No, no, I spend an hour or so fixing that. I also start detailing here.

Adjusted Leonardo's face and hat because it kept bugging me.

I start laying down my base colors. A lot of them I referenced off in-game stills, while others I pick up from other artists' renditions of them. I gave Ezio a more olive complexion than Leonardo.  

I had to stop for a moment to broaden Leonardo's jaw and chin to lessen how girly he looked.

There's all the colors. As you can see, I started detailing the cuffs of Ezio's shirt. I can't find very good references for them so I had to improvise. 

Leonardo's tunic looked a little too washed out, so I darkened it. I started detailing his tunic as well.

More detailing! My eyes are starting to bleed at this point. 

 MORE DETAILING. Although, not gonna lie, I had a lot of fun doing those leaves.

 Ezio's vest was a bitch to detail! It was a very complicated pattern I couldn't make sense of so I partially improvised. Think of it as paisley's cooler cousin. None of those prints were textures; I hand drew them myself.

 Time to get coloring! I did Ezio's eyes first, to get a feel of the piece. Then his skin. I almost always start at the face.

 Don't mind that crude sun, it's just a light source guide for me. Kept refining the colors on his face and his hands until they looked right before I started painting his shirt. 

 Not wanting to lose the detailing in his vest, I had to duplicate it, setting one layer to Screen, the other to Luminosity. The patterns were saved from the deep dark shadows of his vest. Painted other things as well, his arm accessories and his leg.

His hair was particularly challenging in this one. I wanted to show the texture of his hair so I switched to an Oil Brush to get that quality I wanted. 

 Leonardo's turn. His face is slightly more interesting, considering we've got to contend with his hat. 

I darkened the shadows on his face a little.

Rinse, repeat the same process I employed on Ezio. Here's the finished image, with the folds on the tunic just like I wanted.