Dungeons and Dragons!!!

Soooo something else that I've started recently is playing DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS!!! :D :D :D I've wanted to play D&D since I was a little kid but had no one to play with, so it's kind of a dream come true that I've got an awesome group now :) We've only had two sessions so far and we're going to have a third on Saturday, which I'm pretty psyched about. Above is my character, a halfling rogue/sorceror named Bryony Tanglewood. She's quite the firecracker and I love her to death :D

Here are some of my initial sketches for Bryony. She was a tough one because she's my character and I always have an image in my head where I know what the character is LIKE, I just have to scribble enough so they come out. I knew I wanted her to have a subtle exotic flair, but it took a while until I found her. I'm happy with her final design though :) I should really do a cleaned up version.

This is our druid, Markas, played by our friend Cid who's based in San Diego. Because of this, we record our sessions and I'm linking them below, for archiving purposes. Feel free to take a listen if you care enough! None of us have really played D&D before, but I think that's part of the fun :)

This is the process of getting a finalized design for Markas. I'm not really used to drawing men at all, especially non feminine looking men, so it's pretty challenging to design the guys in my group. It was really frustrating coming up with Markas, especially because I've never really drawn a manly man with a BEARD before, but I think I'm pretty happy with the result :) 

These are the first sketches I did for our bard, Pellin. He's not finalized yet, but since I posted the drawings I've done for the other characters so far I thought I might as well. :) He's definitely still in the works though!

These are parts 1 and 2 of our first campaign, A Dark and Stormy Knight. Part 1 doesn't actually start until like 32 min in but apparently I can't link that in a post....

And these are parts 1 and 2 of our most recent campaign, Time After Time, a custom campaign written by our DM. He uses an online app called Roll20 to create these maps for us, if you're wondering what it is you're looking at. It's pretty cool actually :)

Little Lilac

Little Lilac is a children's book project that I'm working on with my friend Christine. She's always wanted to write a children's book about her mother's life growing up in Germany during WWII. When she told me about her I was absolutely fascinated and agreed to do it right away! Christine started sending me pics of her mom growing up and WHERE she grew up…and I realized it’s like a real life fairytale. She would explore abandoned castles and hunt for mermaids…she basically immersed herself in a fairytale world as a distraction from what was happening with the war. It’s amazing! Not to mention right up my alley and something I would totally write except it’s REAL!!! :D :D :D Which makes it even better!

So anyway. These are sketches of her mom as a little girl (and the top pic is one of the ones Christine sent me). There is going to be major work done on this in the upcoming year, and I am BEYOND excited :)

Sketch Dump!

Considering it's almost the end of the year, I think I should probably post some of these drawings from a couple months ago that I never posted on here :\ Sketch dump! WOOHOO!

The sketches at the very top are early concepts of my character Elodie from the comic I'm working on called Graveyard Shift. The guy under those sketches is her male counterpart. He's supposed to start off fat and lose weight over the course of the comic, which is kinda challenging in terms of character design, to keep him looking the same after the weight loss. 

There are also some Charlie Day sketches in here from when I was high off Pacific Rim :D I just love Charlie Day to death... I really need to do some It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fanart. That is LONG overdue.

Akame ga Kiru Study

I felt like this study was worth posting, since I haven't spent this much time on a study in a while and it was really fun :) I've been reading this manga, Akame ga Kiru (and now I'm caught up GAAHHH) and I've been saving pages of it to study because it has some killer action sequences, and the art is just SOOO gorgeous!

This panel in particular I chose to analyze because I've been focusing on understanding shapes, contours, forms and anatomy lately, and I thought that the contrast between hard and soft in this was really awesome. The way that the girl is juxtaposed against the hard suit of armor is really powerful and fun :D And man that guy looks SOOO badass!!! I've never actually drawn any type of robot or suit of armor seriously before, so understanding the different planes and how each part works together and how each line and wrinkles accentuates form was really exciting to me :) The contrast of values I found beautiful also, with light against dark in a bunch of different parts of the image like her hair against the cloak, the shadows of her dress against his leg... things like that.

I'm going to be doing a lot more Akame ga Kiru studies... I'm so in love with this manga, which is saying something. The last time I did any type of study on manga or anime was back in my Sailor Moon days. It's a great read and I highly recommended :) The perfect balance between action, comedy, drama, and romance, with really loveable characters and badass imaginative weapons. Super inspiring!!! You can check it out here! http://www.mangahere.com/manga/akame_ga_kiru/

Goodbye World, I'm Focusing on Foundation!

I haven't been posting on here lately, but I HAVE been posting on Tumblr. Why? Because I've decided to stop EVERYTHING and focus only on foundation. I realize I've been getting really frustrated and depressed lately because I KNOW that I am seriously lacking in so many aspects of artistic skill. Whenever I try to draw something that's out of my comfort zone, my body just automatically draws a girl. And I hate that. I don't wanna just draw GIRLS the rest of my life...I wanna be able to draw EVERYTHING!

So my bf, tired of all my whining, decided to force me to do this foundation that I've been saying I would focus on for like a year already. He came up with this curriculum and created a schedule for us every day, so we basically have a self study class from 9pm-midnight on weekdays, and on weekends we do field sketching for homework. On Fridays we have at least 3 spreads due for studio sketchbook of whatever we want, and homework is due a week from the day we have our class. Each day is different, Mondays and Wednesdays are dedicated to anatomy, Tuesdays is for design sketching, Thursdays is for visual communication which, in this case refers to lighting and shading, and Fridays is perspective.

I've basically shut myself off from the world and all social media except for the tumblrs that I post this stuff on. This seems extreme but I know this is what I need to get my shit together and finally feel good about myself and being productive. I'm not sure WHEN I'll be ready to return to society, but when I do I hope I'll finally be able to believe in myself. That's the ultimate goal here, because I am always the one holding me back and I'm sick of it.

ANYWAY. If you are at all interested in this, you can check out our "School" tumblr to see both of our work at letsimprove.tumblr.com, or you can follow MY journey at sketchercises.tumblr.com (I reblog to the school from this because I actually post more of my own exercises on here), and you can also follow my main tumblr which I'll be posting more refined work when I get to it.

The stuff I posted are SOME of the things I've been working on :) Go follow me on tumblr! It'll be a while before I post here again, but trust me...I am working my ass off.

Anime Expo 2013 Artist's Alley! FIRST TIME EVER!

Just a reminder to those of you planning on going to Anime Expo this weekend...I'm gonna be selling stuff at Artist's Alley for the FIRST TIME starting TOMORROW (July 4) until SUNDAY (July 8)! That means you should come visit!!! I'll be with my buddy Michael Tran at F25, which you can see on the map is kinda in the middle-ish so it shouldn't be too hard to find! See you there (maybe)! :D

Be Excellent to Each Other and Party On Dudes! Station!

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure will always be one of the most bodacious films ever made in my book :) Plus I am still totally crushing on teenage Keanu. I have a thing for guys with unruly mops of hair. I'll be selling this print at AX even though it isn't anime. Mostly because I wanted an excuse to get it printed so I can put it in my office at work. Words of wisdom! Brought to you by Bill and Ted :)

Sailor Moon Anime Expo Print

Here's another print for Anime Expo! Sailor Moon is pretty much what made me start drawing as a kid :) Sometimes I wonder if I never got into it what kinda person I would be... hmmmmm. Needless to say, Sailor Moon holds a very special place in my heart~

Full Moon wo Sagashite

Full Moon wo Sagashite is my favorite shoujo manga of all time, and I kinda just remembered that after  rereading it a couple weeks ago. I LOVEEE THIS MANGA. And Arina Tanemura's art is soooo gorgeous. I remember falling in love with it back when I was like 12 with I.O.N, Time Stranger Kyoko and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, and I think she's been one of my touchstones ever since. Full Moon is the ultimate though :) What a beautiful story and such AWESOME characters. Bah. She was a HUGE inspiration for me as a kid though, enough to make me start my own stupid webcomic back in 2005, and reading this thing again made me start developing a whole new webcomic! Oh Arina I love you...

Seriously, if you haven't read Full Moon wo Sagashite yet and you like shoujo manga, then CLICK HERE NOW.  It's only 30 chapters!

Restless.

I don't expect anyone to read this, but I really just need to get this off my chest.

Lately I've had this nagging feeling of... something. And this "something" has been preventing me from doing a lot of things. Namely drawing this fanart for Anime Expo. It's my first year selling in Artist's Alley at a con and I'm pretty excited but also nervous, mainly because I never really do fanart. I was in a huge drawing rut lately, which is why I started doing those reddit dailies and my friend portraits, but those dailies didn't last too long. Why? Because now I'm freaking out and nervous about getting my AX prints done, and now drawing is back to feeling like it's a job. And I hate that.

I already know that I'm not ready for an art job, and it's kind of a long story about how I got to that realization. Long story short, doing freelance for people wasn't making me happy. It felt downright torturous at times, and a lot of the negativity stemmed from my own feelings of inadequacy. I have a fear of disappointing people, and every time someone asked me to draw them something, I felt like I was disappointing them because I always hated what I was drawing. I felt like because it was something that was ASKED of me, it was somehow stripped of its purity. It became an assignment instead of a true drawing, so in essence it was almost fake effort that I was putting into it...and it was easy to tell. At least for me. And I hated that.

So now that comes back to the fanart. I'm feeling like it's kinda like a JOB... and no matter what I do ( I've literally done hundreds of failed comps) it just doesn't come out right, and I feel like no one will buy it. I don't wanna put crap out there, and that's what I feel I'm putting out. So now I'm stuck, with AX fast approaching, and terrified that I won't have anything to sell at my table. And because that stress is looming over my head, I can't draw ANYTHING else. UGH. THIS ISN'T HOW IT SHOULD BE!!!

Which comes back to this "something." I didn't really know what it was until today. I think I've finally pinpointed it. It's restlessness.

I think I'm at that sort of "quarter life crisis" stage... you know that panic of "WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?!?! WHO AM I REALLY?!?! WHAT WILL I BE DOING IN 5 YEARS?!" It all seems to be hitting me at once with these realizations of what I'm not yet ready to do. Sometimes people tell me "well Elora you'll NEVER be ready. You just gotta DO it!" And you know... I believe in that to a certain extent. I think with some aspects of my life I'm the spontaneous "just JUMP IN THERE" kinda gal... but with the whole career and art stuff... notsomuch. Because of that whole "fear of disappointment" thing, which also kinda veers into the "fear of failure." And I know going down that path of being an artist you can't fear failure, otherwise you're just gonna get stuck in this comfort zone of doing the same kinda thing because it's what you do well and you'll never GET THERE. So this fear of failure has actually turned into this gigantic fear of being afraid of the me that fears failure...because I seriously am starting to freak out that I'll never get over it, and thus never get better. ARGH. Does that even make sense? Whatever.

And that comes to the next thing... I feel like all of this stress and nervousness about trivial things like getting prints done and not being good enough is just that... TRIVIAL. Anthony Holden posted an awesome thing about GOING FORTH AND ENJOYING LIFE to become a better artist. And I could NOT agree more. So many CRAZY nutso things have happened in my life since I've decided to take this path that I'm currently on, and it's such great material that I'm ACHING to use it for something. I have so many ideas threatening to burst out of my head that I don't even know what to do with them and it literally HURTS. Sometimes I feel like I can't BREATHE because of all the awesome things I want to do, but then comes the fear of doing them...because I think they won't be as good as how I see them in my head. And the other problem is that whenever I know I have an ASSIGNMENT, I can't bring myself to focus on anything else anyway, even if I wanted to. That deadline is always just burning in the back of my head, freakin' me out. Bummer.

I feel like I'm just STUCK. Like SERIOUSLY STUCK. I need to do something DRASTIC to get out of this mess that I've gotten myself into. What even is this? Is it some sort of mental problem? Sometimes I definitely feel like I have some kind of problem, but I know the only thing that can fix it is me. Ugh. I just WONDER WHAT IT ISSSS. I don't think it's depression? I dunno. Anxiety? I WONDER.

Anyway. I got hired recently for two pretty chill photography jobs, which was what I was aiming for so they don't take up too much creative energy. Up until this point I've basically been unemployed because the jobs I DID accept didn't give me any money at all, or they currently owe me money that I'm not sure I'll ever see. Needless to say I learned a lot from this unfortunate experience. But yeah, I definitely needed something stable because absolutely nothing was coming in and I was at the end of my rope and couldn't pay the bills for all the debt I was starting to rack up, so thankfully I got hired for stuff. But now I'm pretty scared that having 2 jobs will be a crazy time commitment and I won't be able to LIVE anymore. I've been having a pretty fun time till now so I just keep telling myself that it's just dealing with the consequences, but I'm still sad because I also realized something else... I have no clue how to balance my life.

Last week I did training at my 2nd job, the full time one, which I am officially starting tomorrow. I don't think it's a coincidence that I listened to THIS PODCAST today. It's a fabulous story of this 23 year old guy, Andrew Forsthoefel, who decided to walk across America and record stories of people he met. He said that he was "walking to listen"... which is beautiful. I highly recommend listening to it, I listened to it twice, once on THIS AMERICAN LIFE and then the full version on the above link. Back to back. And I didn't notice, but I was tearing up. Why? Because this kid was living life. And I'm jealous. I wanna do it too.

Yesterday I went over to my friend Jon's house for an Arrested Development marathon, and we started talking about going on an adventure. I want to go on an adventure SO BAD. I feel like it's what I need... to just disappear... up and leave... and figure myself out. Listening to Andrew's story was so inspiring and amazing that I started looking up how to do this whole "Walking Across America" thing, and boy am I serious. I haven't been to any other states except for Nevada (for Vegas) and Arizona (for a Muse concert), and I feel like I am really missing out. I want to know what this country has to offer, and I want to meet a bunch of interesting people and listen to their stories.

The problem is, I just got hired for 2 jobs, have all these AX prints to do, have a bunch of plushies to make, a ton of debt, and currently NO MONEY.

So that's why I'm now writing this blog entry, so I don't forget my feelings at this exact moment, and so I can PROMISE MYSELF that I will make a PUBLIC LIST OF GOALS, a CONCRETE LIST that is ACTUALLY WRITTEN OUT with DEADLINES, so that I can refer back to this whenever I feel lost, and keep myself on track. I don't want to wake up tomorrow and be 40 years old not having done any of this... not having gone on a legitimate, life changing adventure. Maybe right now isn't the best time, but I know that time is gonna be here before I know it... so better be ready. I know the deadlines are loose, because life tends to get in the way...but I think having approximate deadlines is important. I have SO MANY ridiculous goals, but I'm just going to put the ones of utmost importance here for now.

ARTISTIC GOALS
1. Finish AX prints (June 20, 2013)
2. Sell plushies on Etsy and get better at sewing (July 2013)
3. Start a webcomic and REMAIN CONSISTENT with it (August 2013)
4. Learn how to paint (July 2013 - Chris Oatley's magic box)
5. Get stronger at foundation (July 2013)
6. Make an iphone game (by 2015)
7. Get better at storyboarding (January 2014)
8. Create a digital "Choose Your Own Adventure" book (August 2013-March 2014)
9. Draw all my facebook friends by 2014
10. Create and publish a children's book (2014)
11. Get a portfolio together for CTN 2013 (October 2013)
12. Lose 40lbs (2013)
13. Learn how to animate (2014)
14. Make a short film (by 2021)

LIFE GOALS
1. Be a bridesmaid (September 2014)
2. Pay off all credit card debt (December 2013)
3. Walk/Travel Across America (Visit all 50 states) and DOCUMENT it (2015 or 2016)
4. Teach English in Japan through JET program (2016 or 2017)
5. Attend FZD for a year????? (2017 or 2018)
6. Backpack across Europe (2019-2020)
7. Become a magician (while I'm doing all of the above)
8. Become a member of the magic castle (2020)
9. Live in LA finally (2020)....

Oh man... that's kind of a lotta stuff. Writing out the life goals especially and seeing those year numbers... :\ Yeesh. I JUST WANNA DO IT ALL NOW!!! Is that too much to ask?!?! D:

Apparently yes, it is.

I wish I did more things when I was younger... I feel so old already :( I don't want to be saying this same thing when I'm 60. I want to be proud of the life I lived!!!

I'm going to end this braindump entry with some art because this is an art blog :P My dad has been going through old stuff, and I was actually already going through a bunch of old stuff yesterday! So now it's time to share, especially because I want things in a ton of places so nothing gets lost.

When I was in high school, my friend Jannica and I did a comic called Tinder and Razz for the school newspaper. We created these twins who were freshmen at our school and we wanted to document the weird stuff they dealt with. I created the guy, Razz, and she did Tinder, the girl. I found some stuff on deviantart yesterday, but I'm sad that a lot of the originals were lost :( Thankfully my dad found some of the actual newspapers today which was cool :D But yeah... here's some of that! :) We wrote the stories together, and we originally started off BOTH drawing it, but then I think we moved to one of us drawing it and we tried having the other color... or whichever one of us had more time did whatever... you know. But yeah it was a great experience and I really miss doing it and I miss Jannica :( I can't even collaborate with people anymore because I worry so much about sucking, but this proves that something GOOD can come of it. I dunno what happened.

That's another thing, I accomplished SO MUCH when I was 14-15!!! Back in 2004-2006 I was SOOO productive! Way more than I am now! And I think it's because I was just drawing for the fun of it, and drawing what I REALLY WANTED TO DRAW. Which is why I wanna start a new comic... SO BAD. I want to write the stories I wanna write... and not really do fanart :\ You know? I need to stop complaining about fanart. I do it SOMETIMES, but only when I really want to and really feel it, and mostly it's 80s movies or TV shows. Sigh.

But yeah... it's already 2am and I need to work tomorrow. There is so much more to say but at least it helped to get this stuff off my chest. What it comes down to is that I feel stuck and lost, but not lost in the sense that I don't know what to DO with my life, but lost in the sense that I don't know how to accomplish WHAT I want to do with my life. There's so much that I wanna do and it stresses me out worrying about how to get there.... it's terrifying. I know people usually say "oh yeah it all works out in the end!" but right now I'm having trouble believing that because there are so many obstacles in the way preventing me from attaining ANY of the above.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with my life, and grateful for everything and everyone in it. Which pisses me off even more. I should be content with what I've got... but there's always that part of me that feels empty... I just really need to find that THING to fill it. And I don't think it's a place of work... I don't think it's a person... I think it's just... me. I just gotta fix me. Somehow.

Blah. SOOOO much easier said than done.

Better get on it, Elora.

Daily 7: Alternate Historical Figures

Today's SketchDaily was to come up with an alternate history for a historical figure. Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary, "The Blood Countess" or "Countess Dracula", killed hundreds of girls in the 1600s, and it was said that she bathed in the blood of virgins to remain looking young. Here I turned her into a cute bakery chef! Kinda like Sweeney Todd?

Yay history!

Daily 6: Sloths

Man....I should've posted this yesterday but I hated it so much that I didn't want to. I guess that's the point of doing these though, right? Post it anyway! I actually posted it to my tumblr and was stupid and forgot to put it here. BUT I DIDDDD DO IT! Here's proof! Today's daily is hard and requires a lot of thinking... kinda regretting starting these now before AX though, because last night I had a reality check and AX is coming up REALLY soon. Gotta focus on that. So these dailies will probably be pretty crappy for the next 5 weeks xD

Daily 5: Frank Frazetta

Super quick Frank Frazetta study before work. Oh man this stuff is HARD. Gonna study him a LOT MORE from now on. Always been meaning to but was scared for some reason... that has GOT to stop.

Happy Mother's Day, Back to the Future Style!!!

"When I was your age I never chased a boy or called a boy or sat in a parked car with a boy."

She is totally his mom. So relevant. I couldn't resist. :)

This was Daily 4 by the way, Mother's Day theme!

Friend Challenge Day 2

SketchDaily 3: Expressions

WIP! The SketchDaily for today was to fill out the 25 Essential Expressions sheet. I'm super exhausted because I took a 5 hour nap yesterday, woke up at 10:30pm, and now it's 6pm the next day and I haven't slept...so I don't think I'll get to finish the 25 expressions :( Gonna take a nap! It's SO nice though to revisit my girl Magic Macie who I designed 2ish years ago for Shiyoons character class. She's still my favorite character I've come up with :D I really need to do something with her already...

Friend A Day Challenge: Day 1

Always wanted to attempt to draw all my Facebook friends, so with the onslaught of these sketchdailies and a resurgence in my motivation to finally start DRAWING again...what better time to try it? :) Here are the first 4 that I posted today! Many more to go... but it shall be an adventure!!! :D

SketchDaily 2: Free Day Friday

Dang I posted this everywhere earlier except for my blogspot! Gotta get in the habit! Anyway... be excellent to each other! :D Oh Bill & Ted how I love you so....

This is still a work in progress! It's called "Sketch" Daily after all ;) Just wanted to submit before work this morning~ First day at a new job! It went awesomely!!! :D WOOHOO!

Party on dudes!

LIZ LEMON

It's prolly not a good idea to watch 30 Rock before bed because all I wanna do is draw Liz Lemon. I am seriously in love with Tina Fey.

But really... who HASN'T drunkenly sung into a wine bottle while on an important phone call???

SketchDaily 1: Equestrian

So I've tried doing this Reddit SketchDaily thing a couple times and have always FAILED. HARD. I want that to end... so I'm starting over. Here's Day 1! Equestrian! I did the horse study earlier because I've never drawn horses and posted that, but I wanted to do something more fun. Whenever I think of centaurs, I can't think of any famous female centaurs so I wanted to draw one of those :) I really love centaurs~ Although I clearly have to study horses more xD It'll happen!

Here's to being consistent! Crossing fingers! O_O Or... maybe not. It'd be kinda hard to draw with crossed fingers.

Horse Study

Too lazy to hook up the scanner so it's phone camera quality... sorry about that xD

Lorraine

I was trying to draw a good Back to the Future illustration all day yesterday, but after a bunch of failed attempts, all I could manage was a quick sketch of Lorraine. Honestly, I think I might’ve just wanted to draw boobs, and I have always admired hers. Lorraine is adorable :) I will do her justice someday. I think whenever I'm frustrated I fall into my "cute girl doodle comfort zone" which is not necessarily a good thing :\