Loz in progress...

Poll 2.1 results

2012-02-13T18:44:00.001+01:00

Relly no doubts about the winner since the beginning here :) In fact I prepared the part 2 choices with some anticipations since the result was quite clear :) Saod second poll to choose the characters for the next DiD pic will be online some minutes after this post. Thank you!

Poll 2.1

2012-02-10T13:37:00.004+01:00

First part for the second poll, to choose the series for next DiD pic. Thank you!

Fuyu in a dress

2012-02-09T19:45:00.003+01:00

An old pic of Fuyu in a dress. One day wanna use this design on some stories :) Here is the first design sketch too:

Average Girl

2012-02-06T20:48:00.002+01:00

Another pic done using markers :) This time is a character I designed for a friend, the cute Average Girl, a superheroine with no real powers; she's a good heroines, she simply isn't involved in cosmic adventures, more like solving everyday problems XD Here is the first design I did of her,on my Deviantart page. :)

More markers fun

2012-02-03T12:27:00.002+01:00

More fun with markers sketches. This time is Black Cat :) I like how versatile these markers are, they can mix well with the ink lines to get darker is needed for example, like in her outfit.
The design is the one from this nice figure, part of Kotobuya superheoine figures line:

Mysidia & friend playing vidoegames

2012-02-01T19:03:00.002+01:00

A simple sketch I did some time ago, featuring my friend's original characters Mysidia and Sam, both playing some videogame. It seems Mysidia is having the upper hands! ;)

Syrielle & Nadia cosplayers

2012-01-31T20:57:00.000+01:00

A friend suggested the idea, and I had fun sketching it :) Nadia & Syrielle, my original fantasy characters, are cosplaying as the two way more famous superheroines, Storm and Black Canary. It was very fun to use some old markers I bought so many years ago. Glad to discover they're still very good! The sketching paper I used is really too light for markers, but I like the sketch result afterall. The good thing of these kind of markers is that the color gets darker if you keep coloring over the same area, so you can achieve various effects like that :) Also, I didn't used it so much in that pic, but I gave a couple touches with a white pencil to do a couple highlight effects in Storm costume!

The markers I used were Tombow markers, but I heard good things about Copic markers too, and of course the Pantone ones.
Here is a set of these markers, with just different shades of grays, quite useful to do pics like the one I did here:

But I also just found these "manga sets" if you care:

These two sets seems to be assembled to color manga styled pics. First one seems to have softer colors, for Shoujo mangas (mangas usually based on romantic stories, in a nutshell) while second one has more intense tones for Shonen mangas (action manga lessay, but I'm simplifying a lot). Both sets contains a "blender" marker, wich is used in combo with color markers to achieve watercolor-like effects. Hope you finde these infos to be useful!

[BookReview] Deleter Manga Techniques Vol.5

2012-01-30T21:44:00.000+01:00

When I reopened the blog, I also decided to expand it a bit adding some reviews, mostly for How to Draw manuals I liked.
Learning how to draw is also a matter of practicing a lot, but these manuals could contains some useful suggestions and clarify some points. So let's start :

Deleter Manga Techniques Vol.5 (80 pages) is a very good starting point for a newbie artist who want to know more about drawing manga styled stories. Despite being "volume 5", you don't need to own the previous books in order to understand this one as it works nicely as a standalone manual. What I really liked about this book is the quite unique (or at least rare, but of course Scott McCloud did it before and it became his trademark approch for Drawing Books) approach: the whole book lessons are showed in the form of a manga, featuring two characters (you can see them in the cover) learning themselves how to draw manga together: the guy seems to be slightly more expert and the girl is more than happy to ask him infos while she builds her own manga story.

At first I thought this approach could lead to not-serious explanations on techincal matters, instead the book surprised me on covering a wide range or drawing topics in a good way, and not making them boring, thanks to the comic characters.

It starts with drawing basis (the same ones you'll fine in many other manuals): human figure proportions, perspective, placing characters into a 3D space and such, and then dives into the basis of making a manga comic; the size of the page, the "cage" for the page layout, then the various steps: from the storyboard to the penciling, to inking and screentoning, everything is covered giving useful infos on materials and specs for page sies and so on. From this book for exmaple I learned the names of the various inking pen nibs, so I could order them :) If you're wondering, when I ink with pen nibs, I most often use G-Pen nibs: very elastic and allowing a good range of differently sized lines, from thin to thick, without problems. Usually inking like this needs some practice but it really gives satisfying results :)

If I can find a critic to make to this book, is the fact it can cover enough each topic, due to the wide amount of topics listed: if you are already used to perspective and proprtions stuff, you won't find much help from the complete but quick lessons on the book. So it's really a wonderful book for beginners: very complete and absolutely not boring, a well crafted idea; here, after many years owning the book, I decided to give it to a friend who wanted to learn more about drawing manga. It seems she liked it and found it very helpful, so I confirm my impressions on it.

A Stormy saturday

2012-01-28T13:39:00.000+01:00

Outside the weather is stormy so why not sketching Storm? The above sketch actually was done some time ago. Quite a silly concept for a pic (poor Storm, not finding her classic costume long boots!) I know but was fun to sketch XD

This one is more recent (as, some mins pefore posting). The approach between the two sketches is quite different imho. The first one had a more cartoon/anime influence in Storm design, while this second one is strongly inspired by John Byrne classic design of the character. Byrne, along with writer Chris Claremont, contributed to some of the best X-men stories. One of the most famous (not my very fav, but surely a great story) is the Dark Phoenix saga, wich heavily inspired the third X-men movie (the comic is very different form the movie anyway).

One of my very fav stories instead is the famous two parts storyarc "Days of Future Past", wich notably anticipated Terminator movies concepts by some years:

In both these stories I just presented, Storm role isn't central, yet she already appears as the very strong character that made me like her a lot :) And Byrne design for her still remains one of my very fav!

Zelda: Skyward Sword

2012-01-26T12:28:00.000+01:00

Some days ago I finished the Wii game Zelda: Skyward Sword. I got the game some days after its release, around the second half of November. I'm not a big videogame player, meaning that I usually am quite busy with other things to sit down and play, but if I have a new game, I usually find some mins every now and then to have fun with it. And this was the case of course.

I got caught by the style of the game: it's way more colorful and cartoonesque than the previous chapter for the same console, Twilight Princess, and while I like both styles equally, the colorful style really adapts well to this new story, wich someway reminded the feeling of anime movies like Miyazaki's Laputa! The characters and locations are various enough, and fans of the series can have fun finding new version of some classic characters like Impa or, of course, Zelda and Link. Zelda in particular has a great cute design in this episode, and her role in the story is more active than usual; she surely appears as a strong and determined girl, with a very sweet side as well. I definetly liked both her design and her characterization.

Zelda can deal with some bullies without Link help ;)

The story is epic enough and the series trademark inventivness for puzzles and items to be equipped is at its best here imho :) The wiimote controller is fully used and you really feel the game wouldn't be the same on a different console :) In any case, was writing this post also because yesterday I sketched a couple Zelda: Skyward Sword pics, there you go:

I liked the idea of Zelda relaxing after all the adventures she had in the game, chatting with Fi, another very nicely designed character (but she isn't a great talker I admit).

This is just a random sketch I did, to practice a bit with Zelda face, and to sketch chibi Fi, just for fun!

In any case a strongly suggested game, if you were looking for a great adventure to play with you wii :)

And here also is a link to Laputa anime movie DVD. Among other things, it inspired one of my very favorite Gainax series, Secret of Blue Water! Laputa is a great classic of animation, by the amazing director Hayao Miyazaki:

Poll 1.2, and the charas are...

2012-01-25T20:46:00.001+01:00

There we go, the first poll is complete :) It seems the winners kept the first place for the whole time :) I think it helps that it's the current new designs featured i the current manga and anime episodes. I like a lot those new designs so I'm more than happy of the result :)
I'll do the DiD pic in the next weeks and it will be posted on next site update or sooner, hopefully :) Thanks a lot again to everyone for voting!

Nami and Nico Robin

2012-01-22T14:39:00.000+01:00

While waiting for the poll results, here is the inked and colored pic of Nami and Nico Robin :)

Poll #1 results. And the winner is,,,

2012-01-21T19:39:00.000+01:00

No doubt on the winner of the first poll here:

At first Dragonball was on top but two days ago One Piece started increasing quite fast 'till the result you see there :) Not a big problems for the other series anyway, as they'll be reproposed on other polls, after this one is complete on its character selection as well :) In the meanwhile, here we do have a sketch representing our happy winners ;)

Nami: "Yay, we'll get our DiD pic...oh, waitamin!!!" è__é

And also, here is the new poll to choose the characters for the pic (to be inserted on the right side of the site as soon as I complete this post) :) Thanks a lot for voting, everyone :)

Zee

2012-01-19T22:36:00.003+01:00

While we wait to know what series won the poll, here is a chibi Zatanna sketch :)

Poll #1

2012-01-16T19:30:00.004+01:00

Just added a poll on the right side of the page :) Please suggest me a series for the next DiD pic. The poll closes this saturday. Once the series has been choosen, there will be another poll to choose the characters :) Thanks a lot!

Syrielle's home

2012-01-16T10:40:00.001+01:00

I just found the early sketches I did for Syrielle's home in the wood. This is where I started:

Early sketch for Syrielle's home. Notice how I can't even write correctly the name of my own character!!!^^;

Despite liking a lot this solution, I considered it was too much "sylvan elf" for Syrielle character, who ran away from her home city (and from the huge elf king and queen palace) just to stay in peace alone in the wood. But since she's a princess and all, I thought it was more appropiate for her home (of course built with magic by her) to look more like a gothic mini-castle. I still like the effect:


Second sketch

And that's ore near the one used in Fantasy Frontier comics, definetly! Her isolated castle...too bad her sister Serena couldn't help following her and settling there too!

Sirielle first complete design :)

Serena first complete design as well!

I liked the simple but effective color palette used for their outfits. I think it's effective and helps identifying the characters.

Chibi Mys and her cat (and drawing software thoughts)

2012-01-13T16:50:00.001+01:00

It's always fun to draw my friend original character, Mysidia and I found this old sketch of her in chibi style with her cat XD I think I did many sketches like that, here is a colored one:

I think this one was colored way many years ago, before I switched to using Photoshop full time. Back in the days I used Open Canvas by Portalgraphics, a japanese (available in english, no worries!) digital painting software which I liked for having just the essentials, complete tools for painting, in a clean interface, for a lightweight memory using program (unless you're working with huge images of course). This at least was my impressions on versions 2.06 (if I'm not wrong) and 3.0, but I read here it got up to version 5.0 now :) Browsing the website, I'm seeing it mantained all the basic functions I liked, like the very easy to use screentone tool:

I often used this tool back in the days, was usful for doing nets for example.

The color picker seems to have been expanded for being more in line with standard other softwares color pickers: you can now choose between 4 different kind of color picker methods as you can see here:

Confused? In any case I usually use the top left method :)

Then it has Layers, customizable brushes/gradients/patterns...everything you need to have fun in digital painting. You may consider this software in case you need something lightweight and easy to use. The site has a free trial download ready for you in case you wanna test it before deciding :)
And woah, wasn't planning to do a mini-review here but lemme know if you found it useful :)

Chara design sketch

2012-01-10T18:43:00.002+01:00

I don't recall the backstory of this character, but I like the overall cool look she has and the outfit :) Hope you like too!

Avatar The Last Airbender related design

2012-01-06T21:46:00.000+01:00

A sketch I did some time ago for my friend OC Mysidia, supposely in Fire Country outfit, from Avatar - The Last Airbender series :)

Storm :)

2012-01-05T17:24:00.002+01:00

I'm big fan of X-men's Storm and just found this old sketch I did of her in movie version :) Not bad costume design I think^_^

Bunny-bots

2012-01-02T20:56:00.000+01:00

I found this old mecha design sketch for the "Bunny-bots" XD cute rabbit robots usually seen around Rid's (Link to his blog) original characters ;)

Furry designs

2012-01-01T14:30:00.001+01:00

Found these old sketches for furry chara design :) First was an unused design for a tickling/furry comic. Who knows if one day I'll use it for a one-shot issue or such :)

Second one was the very veyr first sketch for Afterland chara design. Actually this was done for a furry tickling picture contest wich was run by PawFeather on deviantart :) Soi yes, these are the very first sketches I did for Akisu and Souku:

Fuyu wallpaper sketch

2008-10-19T17:10:00.002+02:00

As the title says, sketch for Fuyu wallpaper:)

You can view the complete wallpaper on my DA page:)

Rika & Renamon

2008-09-28T23:05:00.002+02:00

Rika and Renamon from Digimon Tamers sketch:) I'm a fan of the series and so I liked to do this fanart:) In the sketch you can see some ref lines on Rika face, used to draw her face correctly:PThe finished and colored pic is on my DA page:)

Hinata Hana outfits design:)

2008-09-16T18:38:00.002+02:00

I liked to sketch some alternate outfits from Hinata (from Naruto) and Hana (original character by Seifer); so first I sketched the outfits without caring about the poses, just focusing on how the dresses should be: Then I used the above sketch as ref for a more refined and inked pic, on wich I tested some color choices:
And started refining the pic, with some simple colors on the background and such:
Finished pic on DA HERE :)

Laughing Beauty again:)

2008-09-14T20:22:00.003+02:00

The lineart for another Laughing Beauty pic:) This time not chibi style;)
Finished pic on my DA page HERE :)

chibi mgs4 bosses

2008-09-11T21:08:00.003+02:00

I liked to do another chibi pic based on mgs4 characters:) So here is the whole "beauty and the beast" unit, chibi version; this is the work in progress pic with juts the background completed:
Finished pic is on DA HERE :)

chibi Laughing Beauty

2008-09-08T15:14:00.003+02:00

The inked pic of chibi Laughing Beauty, before coloring:)

Finished pic on DA HERE :)

Totally random sketches

2008-09-05T22:22:00.002+02:00

Woah, it's been a while, isn't it?:) Here are some very random sketches. Let's start with an old sketch of Asuka form Evangelion (with a small intrusion of Rei):

Then we have the Baroness:D I dunno if I'll make a pic from this sketch:)
And here is just a practice on chibi Mysidia character:
Hope you like:)

Practice:)

2008-08-02T19:53:00.002+02:00

Very random sketches for faces mainly^_^ different styles etc:)

Space Damsels 3 cover sketches:)

2008-07-27T19:35:00.003+02:00

Some production sketches for Space Damsels 3 cover:) Once I had an overall idea of the cover, I wrked on the parts composing it; Here we have the fake logo for this issue, since princess Elvina makes her space debut;)

Here we have Elvina, wich is the main star of this cover:) You can view the colored space Elvina HERE on my DA page:)

Then we have the 3 main characters, this time having just a small role in this page:

Elvina's helpers, getting the "new logo" in place for this issue:And here is a composition of all these elements, ready to be refined and colored:

And as bonus, the character design sketches for Elvina;)

Crystal design

2008-07-27T19:00:00.003+02:00

A work in progress for Crystal (original character by Karyu) wetsuit, since we imagined she's in vacation too;) The pic is half colored at this stage, so just the shades are to be added:)

You can see the finished pic HERE on my DA page:)

Velma fanart:)

2008-07-13T20:01:00.002+02:00

Following Daphne (from Scooby Doo) fanart, here we have Velma of course;) Here is the sketch:

And HERE you can see the finished pic, on my DA page:)

Daphne fanart:)

2008-07-05T13:57:00.004+02:00

Just a quick Daphne (from Scooby Doo) fanart^_^ Here is the sketch I did before inking. It came out quite clean I think:
And HERE you can see the finished pic, on my DA page:)

Zatanna

2008-07-04T18:38:00.002+02:00

Some sketches for a possible Zatanna illustration^_^ First one is just a simple front view to study the character, then I tried a pose for a pinup and a variant in cartoon style:

Laughing Beauty sketches

2008-06-29T17:21:00.004+02:00

Here are some sketshes I recently did:) I wanted to draw a pic with her so I needed to study a bit the character. In particular, I wanted to have a good ref for her outfit, since the screencaps around just show parts of it. Not all faces came out so nicely^^; but I wanted to post most of the attempts anyway:) Oh, she's from a great, recently released videogame ;)

Random Fantasy Frontier Elvina related Sketches:)

2008-06-11T19:05:00.004+02:00

hey there:) I found these sketches around for varous Fantasy frontier chapters; I suppose when you plan a comic, you do looot of sketches, from the character design sketches to the backgrounds and the buildings:) In this case we have:

Elvina chapter 10 outfit, the sketch has all details I needed to include so it was just to be refined and colored:)
Elvina's room design for Fantasy Frontier Archives 1; design based on chapter 1 since I didn't do a background design in that case;) Since the Archives #1 was entirely set in this room, I tought a reference design was really needed to be sure I'll know how to deal with the various views of the same room:)

And here we have a sketch for Fantasy Frontier Archive cover:) Ready to be inked and digitally screentoned:)

Space Damsels cover rough

2008-05-27T09:26:00.003+02:00

When projecting a comic cover I suppose it's very important to consider the space for the series logo and additional text to appear there. For example, in Space Damsels covers, I had to be careful not to draw important details in certain areas, so they wouldn't be covered by the title or such. So I did a rough sketch with the cover concept and paced it in a file containing the cover layout (a page with the title and the guidelines basically) to figure if the pic could work or not:)

little homage:)

2008-05-24T15:38:00.005+02:00

A little homage fanart I liked to do, for "Barbarella" cult movie:) I started with some sketches to define the pose:
I wanted something simple but following the movie style:) I cleaned the sketch into an inked lineart:
You can view the final colored version on my DA account HERE:)

Hinata fanart :)

2008-05-22T11:26:00.008+02:00

I found these sketches for an Hinata (from Naruto series) fanart I did, so I tought to post the various steps from rough sketch to finished pic:) First I did a general rough drawing, to figure how the pic should be; I even added some variants just as random ideas, like Hinata's alternate hairstyle or her feet pose; then I refined the pencil lineart to obtain a clean pic to be colored:

Next step is scanning the pic and start coloring it;) I usually start form the background, if the pic has it, just to have an immediate impression of what the tones of the pic will be; if the background has too many color layers, I duplicate the file and merge the BG layers so I can add/color the character layers not having a too high of layers in the file (I'm assuming you know the concept of layers used in Photoshop and similar softwares;)); so th pic now has basic, not-shaded colors:

Now I can start shading the background and the character; Depending on wich clor style I choose, the shades will be more or less soft; in this case we have softer shades I'd say;) The fact all "objects" are on different layers help a lot when coloring;) And with the added signature, the pic is ready:
You can look a bigger version of it on my Deviantart Account HERE:)

Kairi fanart:)

2008-05-20T12:34:00.002+02:00

A Kairi (from Kingdom Hearts videogame) fanart:) Without the colors, the lineart is quite simple, the character, a line for the shore and a background element to the right:) In this case the colors made the difference;) I usually start coloring the background first, just to be sure I know the tone that will be applied to the character too:)

Hinata sketches:)

2008-05-18T11:38:00.008+02:00

Two sketches for some Hinata pics I didn't used (for now at least);)

This one pictured her in a more formal outfit; she's waiting for Naruto maybe?:P In general I want to rework the pose and the, in particular, redo the background, in case I decide to make it as a complete pic:)

While this other one was meant to be Hinata staring the sunset:) It needed some good warm colors of course;) I would like to work on a pic like this when I get some time:) I think Hinata characters is appropiate for such contemplative pics:)

SteamLine pic:)

2008-05-16T19:59:00.003+02:00

It was very fun to work on this pic:) I wanted to experiment some things with colors, but the first thing was needing a lineart to work on of course;) Since I decided to work in a bigger size than usual, due to the many elements contained in the pic, I made a very quick sketch to have a good idea about what to draw in the pic, thgen I sketched each element separately and scanned them to make a good, composed sketch to refine into an inked lineart to be colored:)

Let's begin...

2008-05-14T13:30:00.003+02:00

Let's start this blog experiment then;) These day I'm (slowly) working on a new chapter of Fantasy Frontier Archive; I won't spoil much about what happens in such chapter, so you'll have to wait;) What I show you is a just scanned page; for this comic, I'm using a different technique from what I usually do. Since I'm also busy with other stuff, I've decide to draw the pages with a mechanical pencil provided with blue lead; this means I don't have to erase the pencil lines after inking, saving some time, 'cuz the blue leads doesn't appear with bitmap scan. The problem is that the lines aren't so easy to erase with normal pencil eraser, so I have to be careful not to make too much errors while drawing; when I'm not really sure I can get the right pose with a few attempts (like with wider scenes), I preferred to work on a separate page sketching the pic with normal pencil, just to copy it with blue lead on the actual page later. Here is the rpeviw page; hope you like:)