look back on the year and see

Earlier this year, I decided I was going to try my hand at realistic painting.  My efforts have certainly been very educational! I learned very quickly that I wasn't very happy working in Photoshop, unlike many of my peers who seem to thrive in it.

I was very thankful for SAI and it's amazing Brush features. Even more thankful when I learned to make my own and customized it to fit my preferences for blending. The end result is much smoother pictures.

Before 2010 winds down to a close, I wanted to repaint some of my favorite pieces. It was an exercise to see how much I've improved. And an outlet to how anal I am about my work.

The first of my forays into painting. Honor is far more fleshed out in the repaint, looking less anime and just a bit more human. He's also featured with sharper cheek bones, broader shoulders and darker hair. I had to completely repaint his mouth and ears as well. What a difference eight months makes!

Van, however, was painted back in August and was already better to begin with compared to my Honor painting. But there were things that bothered me with his design so I indulged and painted him again, sharpening his features and adjusting things that were too long or were too short. Deepened his color here and there as well to really bring him out.

All in all, 2010 was a very good year for me artistically. I found new ways in which to grow and will be plugging at them some more until I've overcome more and more obstacles. :D Eventually, I will pwn the internet.

I'm kidding. Maybe.

See you in 2011!

Jesus comics!

Merry Christmas!

I was digging through my folders and found the panels I did for my cousinbrother's project. It was a fun experience, having to work with Bible excerpts and interpreting them my own way. I left the speech balloons blank for my cousinbrother to fill in. I don't quite remember the formal titles for the panels but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Possibly my most favorite panel ever :D It's, uh, the one where a young man is possessed by Legion.

man and religion

For a Catholic, you'd think I'd be more religious. Religion has always been a sore spot for me, as someone who both believed in a Greater Power and who greatly disdains organized religion. I'm not big on religious activities either, despite going to church every Sunday. But I am fascinated by religion as a concept, as something people desperately cling to in adverse times.

I view religion as something that's deeply personal. You can worship whatever -whoever- gives you strength. So today I present two different concepts of religion.

There's Honor and his deep devotion to a person who gives him strength. A purpose in living, a direction in life. To pain and discipline and being alive.

And then there is Man fascinated by God, and God who is chained. Man touches Him reverently, running his hands over His face, as if that could help Man understand God better.

productivity, i has it

There are certain days where my creativity is drier than a desert. But there are also days when it keeps coming, so I gotta ride the train when it happens by. Last night I managed to finish two of my paintings in my folders.

The first is the Kapre I was working on the other day. I started with a dark base layer and wanted to see what I could do with it by adding lighter and darker colors. It eventually shaped up pretty well, especially when I started whipping out the details.

Painting monsters is really one of my most favorite things ever. It's ridiculously calming and I feel like it's the only thing I am actually good at.

I also decided to finish Cissa, who has also been lying around forever. I had wanted to test myself months and months ago if I could actually paint. So I started with Cissa's conceptual sketch and built on that, applying what things I picked up from watching amazing artists livestream. The top right one was my first attempt to paint, which I quickly abandoned when I realized that it wasn't shaping up how I wanted it to. Weeks later, I picked it up again, reshaping the face (and quickly learning that my strengths lay in SAI). I worked on this on and off for a couple of weeks, until I picked it up again yesterday. BAM, Cissa with shoulders! I would have gone on more but that would have exceeded my plans, not to mention gone past the PG-13 area.

Maybe I'll do that at another time!

little myths

Did a livestream session earlier and look what I coughed up.

The Kapre is one of the Filipino creatures that appear in The Mourning Son. Since I did a little retcon of one of the major plot points of the book, I decided to play around with the Kapre. In the original myths, the Kapre is more of a trickster but in my novel something is making these poor babies go haywire. Which means, they eat humans. Not very good news, no. I'll probably futz around with this more later.

Lucifer Morningstar is probably one of my most favorite characters in the history of anything. He's charming, he's motivated, he's fed up, and he's the Devil. Also the Lightbringer. I became acquainted with the Lucifer series some time 2008 while I worked on thesis. The sketch on the top left I drew some time 2009, when I was getting a more stylistic/semi-realistic feel for my work. I also attempted to paint at that time but that wasn't very successful, no. Today, I decided to pick the piece up again and basically painted over everything. I'm a whole lot more comfortable with how it turned out.