cjarts

No Internet is a Harsh Mistress

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:46:25 GMT

So last Friday was the latest in a long string of technological failures, starting with my laptop's broken hinge, continuing with the second broken refridgerator in six months, and finally culminating in a fried cable modem. So I spent the weekend doing hourly comics, partially as an excuse to use up the last few blank pages in my TARDIS book, but mostly just to keep from going bonkers. There's quite a bit of them, being three days worth of comics, but I really think they're some of the best I've ever done. Enjoy!

She's Actually an Archer

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:53:18 GMT

Recently I've been playing a free-to-play MMO called Dragonica Online. They're having a comic-drawing contest to celebrate their first week of Open Beta, so i decidd to do a quick entry. And here it is!

Quick Sketch

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:50:32 GMT

An art exercise - you have a couple minutes to draw yourself. Also a bit of a sketch for the style of the upcoming FFXII comic.

It's Utterly Ridiculous

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:49:46 GMT

It has been waaaaay too long since I last updated. So have some art! This piece of art came mainly from my desire to draw a suit of armor which was completely inefficient and utterly ridiculous.

As for why it's been so long between updates, I started a Pokemon-related art project over on the Smogon boards. In a nutshell, I'm designing a Pokemon for every type combo that doesn't currently have one. From now on, I'll be updating here every time I completely finish a 'mon design.

Younger Self Comics

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:22:04 GMT

And now, to rip off Kate Beaton.

Yes, this is a reasonable illustration of myself as an 8 to 10 year old. A goofy looking scarf, a crew-cut, and an obsession with turtles.

Dream Comics!

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:57:44 GMT

So I had an exceptionally odd dream last night, so I decided to record it for posterity. Or, you know, mockery. Whichever. I've condensed the events a bit, but I swear by the holy belly hair of Thor I did not make this up.

Painting - Hat Crab!

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:34:54 GMT

I do love a good nonsense animal. ^^

Sketch Dump - Neuroses, Ladies, and Crabs

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:57:45 GMT

So for the first time in weeks, I actually felt like drawing last night. I blame the work of Lucy Knisey, which I spent some time looking through last night. I started by doing a warm-up exercise, entitled "Draw Your Neuroses."

The first one is about my sense of taste, and how it doesn't seem to extend to my actual wardrobe. I think I've got pretty good taste, but I can't stand wearing ties or fancy clothing, so I usually stick to t-shirt and jeans. But I almost never go clothing shopping, so maybe I just need better options. The second one is my distractability - I'll often come up with huge, complicated plans, but I rarely have the patience to follow through with them.

You know, I complain a lot about art, but I really just draw the things I like - big simple shapes, crazy pseudo-hallucinatory animals, video game fanart, and pretty sci-fi / fantasy girls.

Hat crab! A bit Parasect, but I like it. ^^

Hourlies! Again! - 3/10/2009

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:43:11 GMT

I got up early yesterday to meet a guy from the phone company, called in to repair our house phone. The rest of the day was pretty dull, but I've done my best to make it interesting.

Paint it Pink! It's a Fire-Type!

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:23:48 GMT

Over at Smogon, there's a thread in the art section that encourages folks to present their interpretations of Pokemon as different Types. Water/Flying Pikachu, for example, or Fire-type Exeggutor. Here's a few of my recent contributions to that illustrious thread;

We have Water/Electric Torkoal, Psychic Snorlax (complete with nerdy bowlcut!), Lava Lamp Rotom, Ice-type Yanmega, and a special request, Dark/Flying Feraligatr.

Physical Arts!

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:00:21 GMT

So a while back when my laptop was visiting the Bountiful Land of Repairs, I busted out the canvas and painted old-school. No, seriously, old-school.

The scanner didn't do quite as good a job as I had hoped (at some point, I really need to find a bigger one), but it definitely works better than a photo. At any rate, enjoy. ^^

Stream of Conciousness Sketches!

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 22:43:26 GMT

I spent most of the day doing sketches. It started out just being random things, but eventually evolved into chibi versions of my SMT:I character, who is adorable. ^^

More Work in Progress

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:08:56 GMT

Spent most of today doing these flat colors, and I'm pretty happy with how it's going so far. The skirt absolutely flummoxed me for a while - it's actually got a pattern called Houndstooth going on, but I couldn't do it convincingly, so I went with just grey. But anyway! So far so good.

Hourly Comics - 2/7/09

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:12:05 GMT

Yesterday promised to be an interesting time, so I decided to do hourly comics. Fun fun!

Art Exercise - Primary Colors

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:05:47 GMT

Sometimes I get a rather strong urge to paint or draw, but without any clear idea of what to do. So I've decided to try and come up with simple art exercises that I can do quickly and without a great deal of thought. And from the looks of things, the results are going to be a little surreal.

The idea here was to take the three primary colors and play around with them. I sometimes think of colors as having shapes, so a boxy blue robot was obvious - I've actually had that guy running around in my head for weeks now. A red spiral was a bit tougher to turn into something, but I think the last couple of days spent playing SMT: Imagine Online played some role in its design. As for the third one... Well, yellow has always struck me as being the least subtle of the three primary colors, so I decided to stick with flat colors, since flats grab the eye and don't let go. Aaaand that made me think of the way that while flat colors tend to stick out like a sore thumb, a detailed point surrounded by flat color (such as the, er, face) sticks out even more. So number three is sort of a combination of playing with your perception and kicking the color yellow in the chroma. As for the face... Iunno. I thought it was funny. ^^;

Hourlies Again!

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:57:11 GMT

So yesterday was hourly comic day! The day was a little dull, which I think will become painfully obvious, but what the heck, it was fun to do. Onward and upward!

Lineart Lineart

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:07:24 GMT

So I've been working on some Chie fanart, because she is awesome. So here's the lineart, to get Slayer to quit bugging me about it. :P

There are still a few things to work out about the whole composition. I can't decide what she should be kicking, for a start. I thought at first maybe a Shadow, but maybe a chibi Yosuke would be better? Dunno, I'm not totally satisfied with those ideas. And depending on what she's kicking, I may have to alter the arc of her kick. And I'm not sure how to work the background, either. THINKY THINKY.

Sketch Dump - 1/17/09

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:41:45 GMT

So it's not exactly weekly, but what the heck. Anyway! The first two sketches are my practice for some Chie fanart, as well as a little fashion mixed in. I started wondering what the characters would be wearing if it actually froze over in Inaba. On the bottom row, we have a Goblin King and his disturbing, disturbing face, an old man whose picture I randomly came across on the internets, and (my personal favorite) some sketches I did of early WWI battleship camouflage. They called it "razzle dazzle" paint, which was how you knew it was 1918.

Yeah, Pretty Much

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:24:35 GMT

Hourly Comics

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:09:41 GMT

So there's an art meme of sorts going around. The idea is that you draw one two-panel comic an hour for a day, although John Campbell, who started the whole mess, has been doing them for days on end now. He is perhaps some kind of machine made of ink and paper.

But anyway. It was an interesting experience, having to drop everything once an hour to draw. It was like a sleep deprivation experiment, except without the sleep. They turn on the klaxons every hour to wake you up and you just go, "Yeah, I know."

It's the Mark of the Deeeeemon!

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:11:13 GMT

I enjoy madness. And so, in the spirit of stuff that just doesn't make any sense at all, I present...!

Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig von Beethoven as Pokemon! Sort of an Uxie/Mesprit/Azelf thing goin' on.

Zap!

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:40:09 GMT

Playing around with Painter again. I always seem to end up doing Pokemon when I'm bored. The simple design makes it easy to do stuff with 'em, I guess.

Shiny Shiny!

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:53:44 GMT

Whee full-blown artings! This one was the result of a desire to do something really bright and cheerful for Christmas. I wanted to do a Santa in FFXI-style for X-mas, but I wasn't satisfied with any of the armor designs I came up with. I'll probably post some sketches later in the week so you can see how horrible it was. :P

Quick Painting - Gengar

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:18:15 GMT

One speed painting of Gengar, the creepy grin Pokemon. Took about a half hour, so it's pretty much the Painter10 version of a sketch. :P

Sketch Dump - 12/14/08

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:24:11 GMT

The first sketch dump! I'm hoping to do one every week or so, but we'll see how that goes. Each of these images are just thumbnails, so click 'em for a bigger view.