Wolfsong's Art Journal

A Merry Christmas

2012-12-19T23:52:00.000-08:00

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Wolfsong wants to you all a wonderful holiday season, brought to you by Pagan and Clover.

An Artistic Anniversary, August 26th, 2012

2012-08-29T10:44:00.002-07:00

My and my boyfriend's anniversary was this past Sunday, on August 26th. We celebrated our 4th year together.

Raven (you did wonder where I got my name from, yes? ) took us to Oak's Park in Portland, where we had our first kiss four years ago. We went out to eat at the Outback Steakhouse, and exchanged some very artistic gifts. I was both touched and impressed by what he was able to make without my assistance, since normally he relies on me for any artistic ideas he has (such as the Rooster comic).

Raven and me standing on the very place we shared our first kiss!

On the Carousel together

Raven looks so calm and pensive sitting on the carousel horse

I made this painting for Raven in acrylic, on a small canvas. I'm normally not a fan of actual paint (and when I do, I tend to prefer water color and water-color pencils), and I'm normally not that great at them either. I was pleased enough with this painting though to give it to Raven for our anniversary. The symbolism being a wolf with a raven on its back, lending a guiding wing. It's our animals (obviously, haha!).

Raven gave me a Sonic Screwdriver as one of my anniversary gifts, hah! Geek out!

My cat, Clover, was fascinated with the Sonic Screwdriver. It lights up AND makes noise!

The best gift of all though was this simply little "love coupon", which has a fairly long, utterly sweet and touching story behind it.

Back... oh... two, almost three years ago, waay back when Raven lived with his friend in their apartment in Gresham, that long ago, I used to have these cute little "love coupons" that I bought I can't remember how long ago (I think I was still in high school when I got them).

There were originally like 5 or 6, all saying things like "Redeem for a Kiss" or "This coupon is good for one Night on the Town" or "Good for One Roll in the Hay", and the one shown here, "Good for One Night of Falling in Love All Over Again". Most of them I lost or had given to my ex (same thing, right? lol), but I'd kept that one for whatever reason.

It must have been for like.. Valentine's day or something (2010 maybe) when I gave it to Raven as a cutesy little side gift. He didn't think much of it, we did so much more, the cutesy gift was just that, cutesy. Afterwards, I kept it as a bookmark. I always thought fondly of cute things like that. I loved that little bookmark. Silly, I know.

Anyway, Raven came across it one night while I was reading, saw it lying on the floor because I'm messy when I use things and asked me if I needed it anymore. Not seeing what he was holding, I said, "Probably not" (which is normally true, in my case), and so he folded it and tossed it in the trash can as I looked up at him. I felt only a little short of devastated when I saw that cutesy thing I was so fond of with an ugly crease down the middle of it. "I guess I don't really need it anymore now," is what I believe I said. He apologized, and as far as I'd known he threw it away for good that time. I quickly forgot about it, as fond as I was of it, it was just a little piece of paper.

Low and behold, two years later, I find out that he'd kept that little piece of glossy paper, kept it hidden away until he could find a way to make it up to me that he'd ruined a simple little piece of paper. He scanned it into our computer, used the little knowledge he had of Photoshop to repair the crease and added the personalization just for our anniversary. The date, the little personal message at the bottom (which he had to remove a cute little quip about eating a romantic meal, candle light and chocolates and somesuch to do it) with his own personal Raven-humor (teehee!). All by himself! I'm so proud of him for being able to pull it off without my help, and I am so amazed that he would have kept that little piece of paper to make such a wonderful, meaningful gift for me!

I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have him in my life.

And what was the final gift I gave him for our anniversary?

A kitten.

Rough Final of Emerald City

2012-08-16T02:54:00.001-07:00

The rough final concept of Emerald City.

The Emerald City Sketches

2012-08-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

Can you tell I've been busy? Yeah.. I've been busy. My conceptual art class is KILLER in terms of time. It's really fun though. Here are just a few pages of sketches that I've made for the class.
The reference images I used are all along the side for inspiration, I love Photoshop for that.

Steampunk is more of a challenge than I'd thought it'd be. In addition to my not-so-grand skills at buildings and man-made objects. I've always been more attuned with people and natural things such as rocks, trees, landscapes, etc. Buildings and pipes and crazy stuff like this are almost lost to my poor mind!

The bottom two are the more complete sketches with my idea more firmly set in mind. I'm working on the last image and adding value and detail to it even as you read this post.

I'm working my ass off trying to figure out how the fountain is going to look. Gaah!

Sitting Warrior and School

2012-07-22T00:38:00.001-07:00

A drawing I've been working on during classes at school to stave off boredom. In the process of coloring, but for now you can enjoy the pretty line art.

Seriously, in one of those classes, I'm relearning InDesign, to the point where he's even teaching us things that we've learned 10 times over in our college careers, such as not trying to resample images larger than they originally came. You can make things smaller, but you can't make things bigger. We learned this Freshman year, and I am now a Junior. Give me something more to go on than resizing images!

You know, maybe one reason his face is so stern is because he's reflecting my irritation at some of the things we're 'learning' in these classes. Hah!

Ranting aside though, my classes are very interesting and are quite time consuming. But they're sure to produce some nifty work! Especially my Conceptual Design class, where we're literally creating the concept designs for a movie (creating a new Wizard of Oz), starting from a style guide, to environment designs, to character designs. Be ready to see a Cowardly Lion from me in the next month!

Before Our Love Fell - Page 8 (finale)

2012-07-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Process:

I had to seriously rework the ending of the first sketch, because it felt incomplete and I wasn't sure how to communicate the feelings and melancholy nature of the ending. Fortunately, that's what teachers are for!

Here's another example of where I had an older design for Anne's and her lover's home, which was changed in the final draft and lineart. I also had to change certain angles so that the flow wouldn't be interrupted. The 180 degree rule of site, you cannot move the camera more than 180 degrees around a subject or in a scene because it will cause a disconnect and they might think of it as a different scene. So I had to change how the angle of the wall/window behind Anne and Adam, and beside the vampire as she sits outside, to keep the relationship between the scenes to show that they are the same window.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 7

2012-06-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Process:

The overall design for this page didn't change much at all, beyond giving more emphasis on the movement of the 'camera' in the bottom four frames again to keep the frame from looking too still.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 6

2012-06-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

The darkness on this page is very fitting for the mood of the story.

Process:

This one had a bit of fixing to do in the final stages. One thing that people always have to remember is that a camera is never still, even in movies, it's always either zooming in or out extremely slowly, or panning across the screen in some subtle manner, etc. People don't always notice these movements (nor are they supposed to), but they are there because if the camera had been completely still they would notice the stillness.

With comics, you have the same issue. If you have too many frames of sameness, it will look flat and unmoving, so I had to create a dynamic scene on the bottom four frames, zooming out of Anne as she waits outside the door. It also helps the movement of the scene and denote the passing of time.

It also was changed because having the vampire bending over Adam in the first of the four frames made the transition awkward too, and this was a more graceful flow.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 5

2012-06-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of fun playing with the shading and giving the outdoor atmosphere around the vampire a darker feel. Making things seem darker where she was as if it was almost palpable.

Process:

This page was a little difficult. I couldn't really decide on a final design for the home that Anne and her lover lived in. At first I was thinking some sort of apartment/tenement type place, and then was thinking townhouses, etc etc.

You'll notice in the final draft I also shifted one of the boxes for better flow. The jump from facing Anne as she walks with the vampire to her approaching her front door was a bit jarring, as you weren't directly connected with the destination from one panel to the other, so I switched the order slightly to allow for better flow and the destination to location to connect properly.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 4

2012-06-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

I really liked how this page turned out. From the fear from Anne and the conflicting anguish from the vampire as Anne pulls her heart strings. From toying with one's food to feeling sorry for it, damn!

Process:

Notice how the sketch follows the action lines. I did that on purpose. ;D

On this page, it was surprisingly difficult to figure out where the speech bubbles were going to go once I fully realized what I wanted to do with Anne's hair. I didn't want any bubbles too close to the lower panels where her hair overlaps, because there'd be too much in that area and it would take away from the overall picture.

Before Our Love Fell - Page 3

2012-06-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

One thing I really liked about this page was how in the previous two pages, the lighting was more natural, and then when the vampire makes her appearance the atmosphere suddenly gets darker. Almost as if the entire world seems to darken in her presence.

Process:

Before Our Love Fell - Page 2

2012-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, it's just those two lines that are in Russian (transliterated). Since I didn't actually write the story, I can't tell you the exact translation, but basically, she is saying "I seek the one who lives here", and the reply, "You spoke well."

Process:

In the final draft, I also started to figure out where the speech bubbles were going to go.

I want a house like this one!

Before Our Love Fell - Page 1

2012-06-11T13:39:00.001-07:00

Page 1 of Before Our Love Fell

Process:

The sketch I drew teeny tiny (well, I hadn't noticed that photoshop had a fairly big file, I was zoomed out so didn't notice til after I saved and was all, "Woah, that size is funky" and checked the image size) just to get the idea down.

I then took it into a more final sketch, to get the idea more solidified, and lock the shapes and ideas into place. The blue overlay is a "Sacred Geometry Template", which the lines correspond with planes of interest where our eyes are happiest focusing on and finding the subjects along those lines. Even before they (the comic industry people) started actively working with this template, if you overlayed different templates on older comics you'll find a LOT of the lines of action correspond with the characters and action within the imagery. It's pretty nifty.

Step 3 was to create a final draft. I had the layout and where everything was going to go, I had to work on finalizing my work and get it ready for inking (or just final lineart, since it was digital). I created finished boxes, and started working on the layout of where art would not be present (the white).

Last step before I colored, the lineart.
The reddish lines around the image are my crop marks, where the page will be cropped to once it's printed.

As I colored, I stuck mostly to shades of grey, only bringing out specific colors (eyes mainly), with an overlay to create a papery texture and a somber blue hue over the entire image.

The next 7 pages will be posted every three days, just to keep you on your toes. I probably won't write too much about the process on those pages, since the process for them was just like this one, but I will post the visuals for those steps just like I did here.

Busy Busy Life of a College Student!

2012-06-06T17:48:00.004-07:00

Wouldja lookie here! Seems school caught up with me a little bit (or a lot a bit), and distracted me from posting things on my blog! It's finals week, I've been working on a lot of crap, from writing scripts to studying social habits of people, to sculpting my head out of clay, to making a graphic novel. I'll be posting a bunch of things from the latter two things in the coming weeks, once my finals are over and I'll have time to sit down and discuss the process and thought behind the pieces and whatever techniques and general feelings about the project were.

Until then, here's the first page of the mini comic book, Before Our Love Fell.

I will post more about the process on in in the next few days/week!

Wolf Painting In Progress

2012-04-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

A painting that I am currently working on in photoshop. The battle of wills and spirits between two dangerous foes of the canine variety. It is quite obviously not completed yet, but I figured I can use this to show a bit of my process.

A lot of the time, when I'm working on things like this, the very basic picture is in my head, but I let whatever muse has me to tap out the fine details. Like right now, I have no idea what the other wolf is going to be colored like, but I'm having thoughts of making it something of a yin-yang realism, since the above wolf is mostly silver with a little black.

My first step was to create a very rough sketch. I put them on two separate layers so that I wouldn't have to worry about messing up one while I did the other, and so that I could position them the way I wanted to after I finished sketching.

I start with basic shapes, usually circles, and then I just draw outward from the head and torso to define the body. I might use the warp tool if I find something slightly amiss.

Afterwards I take the rough sketches and I fine tune much of the lineart. I'm still loose, since because this is a painting, the lineart isn't going to be visible in the end, but it helps me define where the muscles are, and it finalizes the shapes of the bodies and limbs.

Currently I'm working on painting the silver wolf, as you saw in the first image. I have the basics down, at this point I've started working on fine tuning details and replacing the lineart with digital paint.

I'm looking forward to finishing this piece! I can't wait to show you when it's done.

Clover Belatrix

2012-04-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

This cute little feline is my cat. Her name is Clover.
She has been constant inspiration for me throughout my time as an aspiring artist, not only because she is such a pretty girl with an adorable coat, her quirky personality has also inspired me in thinking of new ideas for new interactions, stories, and even an entire new character concept.


Clover in Mercenary armor based on an armor set in Earth Eternal

Meet Clover Belatrix:

I first created her concept from an MMORPG which has sadly been discontinued due to lack of support, once called Earth Eternal. The game was a really cute concept, had a really unique world and characters, but alas, adorableness is not always a sure fire way to make sure something lasts.

After that game though, I really started playing with the character I created. In the beginning, because of the game, Clover was a mercenary and a magic user, which worked well in the universe of the video game. After I began to really build on her though, I wanted to bring more of my own pet's personality back into the character.

Clover, my cat, is a very unique animal. Unlike most cats, who take pride in their independence, their hunting prowess, their often sadistic, uncouth, selfish, demanding, territorial tendencies, Clover is a cat who, if I didn't know better, one would swear she was actually a dog or a two year old human child trapped in a feline body. She is very dependent, needy, gentle, shy, awkward, naive, she begs for treats and affection, she is polite and won't even walk on my keyboard or steal things out of my hands unless I hold them in front of her face. I am even in the process of teaching her to sit before she receives her wet-food treats.

Those very unique, adorable, and admirable traits that belong to my cat were what I wanted to see in my character. She wasn't just the rough and tumble mage that I created for some computer game, she was a unique cat, a loving and affectionate, naive and innocent, silly and rambunctious girl and I wanted those traits to shine in the character.

As I went further into the character development, I realized that, while my cat is an amazingly unique little girl, to put her into an anthropomorphic world, where she becomes a furry human, she is rather flat. She needed a history, she needed goals and fears and wants and loves and likes and dislikes and irritants that my little kitty just wouldn't comprehend living in her little world that is the inside of my house. My girl thrives on affection, food and water, treats, and the occasional movie (yes, she does indeed watch tv).

Clover Belatrix would need much more than that to survive in a harsh fantasy world where she would have to defend herself from more than just the evil toaster shoots burnt bread out of its metal mouth of doom.

Clover Belatrix, who is still a work in progress, has turned into a bright, impish, naive little fire mage. She was separated from her family as a kitten, surviving on her own in the harsh marshlands of her world (for those who know the real Clover's past, that should bring about a giggle). She loves whacking things that attack her with sticks, and running for her life, as well as making things go boom. She is a survivor, though she doesn't often look far ahead to know what she's surviving for. She's a glutton for sweet candies and kindness, her innocent nature often brings her to trust people too quickly, which often gets her hurt in the process. Her child-like attention span makes it hard for her to sit down and pay attention to even the most important things for very long.

Some day, this young lady feline will find her way into an excellent story, where her true colors will shine and people will love her as much as her creator does.

Illustrations for Raven

2012-04-17T15:32:00.001-07:00

These two pieces of art were projects I did for my boyfriend for a couple of his novels. In the next couple weeks you'll be seeing some sketches for the next project I'm doing with him for one of my classes, designing a graphic novel based on another of his stories.

The first image is the cover of his journal/biography, called Andy's Hologram. It recounts the days in his high school youth and is a most excellent example of the silly things that high schoolers do.

The second, below, is the cover for the short story Salacious Steak, about a diner going under that is saved by the mysteries steak from their cook, Ricky.

My man has tons of amazing ideas, seeing as he's a writer and all, and he loves taking advantage of my artistic talents to create visuals for his stories.

These were both made in photoshop. I had tons of fun with the demonic sky above the school in Andy's Hologram, and I was experimenting with a new way to color for the image for Salacious Steak. Instead of just using swatches of color, I made the entire image in gray-scale first, to get the values correct, and then applied different washes of color over it.

Overall, these two pieces were pretty fun to do. I enjoyed being able to get someone else's ideas out visualized, and he loved how they turned out, too.

Cats!

2012-04-17T14:09:00.002-07:00

Cats! Do you like cats? Do you like the Broadway play Cats?
I did these about a year ago in an illustration class. We were to make an illustrated alphabet, much like the ones you see in children's books, only you could make them with any medium and using any subject. One classmate did hers on phobias; it was pretty interesting. I decided, since I hadn't seen much art out there to do with Cats, to make my alphabet based on the characters in that play.

They were quite fun to figure out the poses that would make them fit into or resemble the letter they were representing. Not to mention being able to draw all of the characters with accurate costume coat patterns and seeing them realistically represented as the people in costume and not cat-people like most fan-art does.

It was all done in Photoshop, with photo reference, though I couldn't find pictures for most of the specific poses, so the project really pushed my understanding of the human figure and how it moves and fits together.

My personal favorites are Alonzo, Bombalurina, Etcetra, Grizabella, Munkastrap, Mungojerri and Rumpleteazer, Macavity, Pouncival, Victoria, and Tumblebrutus' poses and characters.

The images themselves are HUGE! I have separate files for all of the characters that are 5x5 inches at 300 dpi, and these two posters themselves are 11x17 in at 300 dpi. At some point I might post close-ups of a few of the individual characters.

I've been told that I should send this to whoever runs the Broadway marketing materials and see if they'd like to use it. I don't know if I will though.

Awkward Introductions

2012-04-16T15:20:00.001-07:00

Beginnings are always difficult. What do I say? Should I just start like everyone just knows what I'm talking about, or should I write an introduction? What sort of introduction? Should I say hello or should I treat this like a journal? Do you say hello to your journal? Journals aren't usually public though, so there is quite a bit of a difference I suppose.

All of this introspective is making my brain hurt though.

To make things simple, this is my art blog. This is the first posting. I've decided to journal my exploits as an art student and aspiring artist. Documenting artwork I make, attempts (maybe, if I'm not too embarrassed about them), the processes I go through and the life torments that plague people like me who aren't part of mainstream society.

To add more about myself, I am an art student, enrolled at the Art Institute of Portland under the degree program Media Arts and Animation. I'm specializing in illustration, concept art, and graphic design. I live with my boyfriend in the Portland suburbs, surviving on an income of selling art and delivering pizzas, and a little help from my friends (mainly my parents). Can it be hard sometimes? Most definitely. Is it worth it? Sometimes that's debatable, but I haven't given up yet, and while I know I have quite a stubborn streak in me sometimes I feel like my goals and dreams will pay out soon.

Each journal entry, I'll try to include at least one small piece of art, either a photograph of a sculpture - in progress or finished, or a sketch, or a full fledged drawing, occasionally a video of an animatic, reel, or animation. I may even post sound clips of some musical projects I might work on. I love, appreciate, and encourage comments on my blogs, to hear from people and get insight on my artwork and everything else.

Looking forward to sharing my experiences with all my potential readers, and hearing back from all of you!