Jolin, Tellenta, and Mangala Solaris

So, this post is a combination of a new piece and discussion of two older ones that I forgot to post up although I did put them in the galleries.

The oldest one that I forgot to post about was Mangala Solaris.  He was inspired by my piece with the kids playing with the spaceships at the beach (the little girl in that one is actually me when I was itty bitty! haha).  I did a similar one for him, except with a boy playing with a firetail and a comet.  Getting to rainbow-color the text was fun, and helped add to the youthful theme.  I didn't want anything to serious in this one.

The other piece I forgot to post about was Tellenta's.  This one was supposed to be a cartoonish picture where the character realizes that mining ops are just as fun as o.o sov warfare.  I tried to blend the cartoon style with some other typically 'me' elements (e.g. feathered colorful sky).

Lastly we have the most recent sig I completed, which I will admit is something I considered not doing at all.  This was a piece for "The Babe Thread" on FHC, and being female myself, it felt odd doing a signature like this where girls are so objectified.  However, in the end it was a piece that I figured would challenge me on my rather abysmal figure drawing skills.  I had to go back to some of my basic art anatomy books to practice before I even got started.  In the end, I looked at it like an art lesson for myself.

I've got several updates in the commission status page, and I'm simply waiting to hear back from those people to know if I'm on the right track for them or not. If I don't hear back soon, I'll be moving on down the list.  Lots of pieces are mid-progress and my goal is to get them to the point where I can get some feedback... so... hopefully more links and updates soon!

Tootles! o/

Kishin Hattori's Sig: Thinking Outside the Box

It's easy to think of an EVE signature, and immediately run to whichever spaceship is your favorite, slap it on a background, and then shout that it's good to go.  However, sometimes I have the most fun when I can manage to get beyond the spaceship, and strip either the character or the corporation down to their bones.

To date, I think my most successful example of this is Kishin Hattori's signature.  Of course, being my friend, I know exactly how he views his EVE character, and am hence able to recreate something beyond a ship and flames and glory.

My inspiration was actually the Lil Wayne album cover "Rebirth":

The most obvious change that needs to take place is substituting Kishin's avatar for Lil Wayne.  However, there was a lot more to it than that.  I really needed to change the whole feel of the piece.  The album cover's golden scene portrays an almost lazy luxury, and Kishin is a much more down-to-earth kind of guy. He likes things that are traditional and classy - like antique leather rocking chairs and vinyl records (and his EVE character reflects the same attitude).

Therefore, the plush red carpet and gold needed to go.  I faded out the fabric color on the couch, and replaced the golden gilded edges with a warmer, worn wood.  A lot of the golds were replaced with grey, to give it an aged/weathered/weary look.  However, in the album cover, the gold was the unifying factor, so if I was going to split up the colors, I had to find other ways to bring it back together again.  Therefore, I threw gold and grey flecks into everything from the autocannon to Kishin's pants to the amp.  I also accentuated the red in the couch, and used that color to create a patterned link across the image (from the wire on the far left, to his name on the far right).  I replaced the guitar with Kishin's own favorite model, and then substituted Monster drinks for the wine bottle (it was either Monster energy drinks or Pepsi... but I thought the Monsters would be more mraaah!).  The wolf pelt I left as an ode to the minmatar assault frigate.  The guitar case needed to be shifted so the image would be more elongated than square.  Shadows needed to be adjusted with the addition of new objects.  And lastly, a giant auto-cannon was added to give a little reminder that he is in fact a pirate (and largely a frigate pirate at that).  And then, voila!

So, this is just a reminder that EVE doesn't necessarily have to mean picking out a spaceship.  The more I know of you and of your character and how you want to represent yourself (or your corporation), the more layers I can add to try to create a rendition that truly encompasses the person behind the spaceship, if so desired. =)

The first of a non-eve series

I'm finally back from my road trip up the east coast (South Carolina all the way to New York City), and it was a blast!  Coming home, I set to finishing up my first non-eve related commission - a rendering based off a photograph of an air-soft game.  It was a very time consuming piece, but at last, here is the result:

This is the first of 4 images commissioned by Cue1* - both eve and non-eve related.  Onward to rendering #2!

New Beginnings: New Eden Ink

With a splash of color and a dash of ink, I've decided to repaint this blog into one with a more artistic outlet.  Art has long been a favorite hobby of mine, which I pursued all the way through college (I even contemplated an art major at one point in time).  Although my preferred medium is usually oils and pastels, I started dabbling in computer art when Kishin Hattori first asked me to design him a new banner for his blog.  Since then, I've started doodling more and more, and recently I've purchased a Wacom Tablet to aid in the design (drawing with a mouse on Paint is frustrating enough to make me want to pull my hair out sometimes, lol). <3 my Tablet!  The look is still hand-drawn and rough - nothing too fancy here - but that's a feel I personally really like in art. 

This blog is now being separated into sections.  This home page will contain my latests pieces, but to see a complete portfolio of my works, you can link to the "gallery page."

I'm happy to take commissions (signatures, banners, etc), but I'm also happy to just hear an idea you might have for me.  Pulling original ideas are always the most difficult part of the design, I think, and I have found that I prefer designing pictures others would like to see rather than constructs just for myself.  Feedback is always great, and criticism is appreciated as well (it's how we improve after all). =)

The first two pieces I've designed with my Tablet are this blog banner and the image below, which is just a rendering of Bonni3 and Kishin Hattori post-incursion.  I hope to get another piece done by next week, although I'm still racking my brain for ideas at the moment.  Again, any thoughts and ideas are most welcome!