12/31/13

GH ch03 / progress part 3 // 34/34 pages

 Listening to: FaltyDLDionysos (Long Edit) ♫♪
(It's been 4 years since this guy's debut album, and I barely remember it. But he recently posted this slightly longer version of this song on Soundcloud and I remembered how much I loved it.)
 Somehow I managed the willpower to finish this chapter before 2013 ends. The last eight pages were done within the past 4 days, with Sunday night having four pages. College has slowed me down considerably, so I'm happy to be speeding up a bit now that I'm no longer tied down to many things at the same time.
 My birthday (the 17th) and Christmas hit me pretty hard. One of my friends gave me Starbound, and I've been horribly addicted to that. The random generation of planets and items to discover and dungeons to go through really panders to my unrelenting curiosity.
 But geez, I got horribly, horribly rusty. So I forced myself to draw to the point where I was okay again. The screenshots below are after this point.


I am so happy to finish this before 2014 though! I didn't know this, but it's going to be the year of the horse! I was born on the year of the horse, and I bought a horse head mask this year. This has to be a sign of good things to happen! Looking forward to making some changes in 2014 and making lots of chapters of Glass Hearts!

Happy New Year!

12/14/13

//sketch log 008

Listening to: Beyoncé - Mine (feat. Drake) ♫♪
(Because…obvious new album reasons. It's quite good. Check it out.)

First of all, thank you all for 2k views! Second of all, it's been a while since the last sketch log. And I have a ton of sketches. So let's go!

For the first time, I'm going to try using the jump break aka it's-totally-an-LJ-cut. I'm serious when I say there are A TON OF SKETCHES.

12/13/13

FASHIONABLE FRIDAY #7

Listening to: Róisín Murphy - Simulation ♫♪
(Last week I decided to actually listen to a full album by Moloko and before I knew it, I was searching for the vocalist's solo stuff. This is from earlier this year, and gosh…I just love her voice. And she's featured on a few choice house tunes over the years. Now I patiently wait with everyone else for that third studio album.)

As I was drawing a Christmas picture, I remembered that I should draw something for this week's Fashionable Friday. This is based off of a color palette someone on Tumblr made from a Vincent Van Gogh piece:

I haven't done this kind of thing before and I've always wanted to - so I mixed that Charlie, and a furry shirt I found on Taobao. I was also messing with a sumi brush preset, so that was a lot of fun. Made me think back to painting with oils last year. Overally, I'm really happy with this.

GH ch03 / progress part 2 // 25/34 pages

Listening to: Beyoncé - Rocket ♫♪
(Get with the program because Beyoncé released a new album at MIDNIGHT. I haven't listened to the entire thing as I'm on my first listen, but it's Beyoncé - y'all best get with the FIERCENESS, honey.)
 25/34, 73%, 12/5 → 12/11 (a week - wait, what?)
 I thought this batch took a while, not knowing I actually stepped it up. I feel slightly relieved, but I still want to hammer out chapters faster than this. I've written up to chapter 72, so I want to get all that out. I'm very impatient about this, what can I say? I don't want it to take forever to finish this comic.
 Starting from this page, I started using another brush preset that I downloaded. I don't remember who's it is, but it definitely changed the line quality from being super clean and not so varied to being super varied and more organic. I kinda like this better because it forces me to not be so precise.
 Sometimes I think to myself "Maybe I should handletter the dialogue?" - but that would take forever, to be honest.

Anyways, I finished 2 pages of the new batch yesterday. So I'm fairly confident that I'll finish this chapter soon. As for my next step, I'll be thumbnail-ing chapters 4 and 5. It's the first two parter, so that makes sense to me. That, and I want to get faster at knocking out chapters.

11/30/13

GH ch03 / progress part 2 // 17/34 pages

Listening to: Sam Frank - Simple Life ♫♪
(I haven't listened to this guy's other stuff - but if you appreciate vocoder and UK garage, you'll enjoy this song.)
 This is going to be a very short entry because I didn't take enough screenshots. November has been somewhat slower. Then again I did fit in two finished illustrations, and making the webcomic site. So I'll forgive myself for resting a little bit.

 The good news is that this is the halfway point of the chapter. For some odd reason, I left the page count at 41 in the previous entry when it's really 34. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about that.

The remainder of the chapter has something I want to draw in every page, so that's a good motivator. I'm confident in finishing it within December, which is right around the corner! Crossing my fingers for a new tablet this year since my trusty 7-year-old intuos3 is finally showing signs of use and age. I want to try a different brand since the other ones are cheaper than Wacom and have just as great reviews, so…yeah! Look forward to 2 more of these posts in December!

11/29/13

FASHIONABLE FRIDAY #6

Listening to: Niechęć - After You ♫♪
(This is an interesting jazz album that I haven't listened to in a while. It's worth checking out.)

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Hopefully good enough to still be in a turkey coma. Or if you were up and early, attacking those yearly shopping deals.

For this entry, I decided to do a black wedding theme - for Black Friday. So here's Alana in something I made up. She wouldn't mind doing something non-traditional for her wedding. My obsession with domineering shoulder pads continue, and so does my love for 90s fashion and (of course) black & white stripes.

11/26/13

Sweet As A Cream Puff

Listening to ♫♪ Lady Gaga - Fashion! 
(Believe it or not, ARTPOP is a good album, and it's so out of fashion to overlook the Mother Monster.  This song feels oh so good! I can imagine walking the catwalk to this.)

This was for this month's Drunk Lightning challenge, which was food. I'm on a 'once-in-a-blue-moon' digital painting mood, so that's how I did this. I didn't have any other ideas but "Charlie has to be in it somehow." And I love cream puffs, so voila!

Posting this early because I've been itching to post it, haha!

11/22/13

FASHIONABLE FRIDAY #5

Listening to: Commix - Live Forever ♫♪
(One of the best drum and bass, and liquid funk songs in my book. It has that right balance of soulful vocal sampling, and Commix brand of drum and bass. I just realized it came out 10 years ago. It still holds up now.)

Wow, I'm actually keeping it up! I'm surprised myself!

I've had a photo of this outfit on the runway for a while, and I finally drew it. I never drew Peter with so much leg before. Surprisingly, he pulls it off really well.

11/15/13

FASHIONABLE FRIDAY #4

Listening to: Ennico Morricone - Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo (Hird Remix)
(Looking for a remix that does justice to the original song? This is one of them.)

Sorry for missing so many Fridays! Hopefully all these fashionable Charlies will make up for them! I love drawing him in various outfits. It's one of my favorite things to do!

L ➺ R & ↑ ➺ ↓
1: I don't draw the classic bunny girl outfit. I wanted to change that.
2: I love drawing fitted dress on Charlie. He looks so good in them! And instead of the usual thigh-high tights, I went for longer boots.
3: A more voluminous flare with some wooden elements.
4: If Charlie were a boy scout, his value would be weighed in gold.
(And by value, I mean his value in cuteness.)
5: After watching an episode of Phi Brain with the one effeminate male in a tied off t-shirt and shorts, I had to draw Charlie like that.
6: Inspired by an outfit in Vivienne Westwood Red Label SS2014 Ready-To-Wear line.
7: A relaxing, pastel night texting a special someone. ❤
8: Getting ready for an eventful night. Because you gotta go all the way.

Here's 3 Instagram photos because every once in a while, I post art on there. They're all Charlie related because fashion is Charlie goddammit. And more making up for all those Fridays I missed.




11/10/13

GH ch03 / progress part 1 // 09/41 pages

 Listening to: Claude Debussy - Preludes, Book 1, L 117 - La Danse De Puck ♫♪
(Because Debussy is lovely. I do listen to some classical music, believe it or not. This is one of my favorites.)

 Lemme begin this post by saying GO TO THE WEBCOMIC. It updated yesterday, so yeah…! It's better to get into a comic of mine early on than late. (I'm currently writing chapter 67, to give a clue.)
From next weekend forward, it's going to update 4 times a week (Tuesday - Friday) at 4 PM EST. Why that much? Because it would probably take a big chunk of 2014 to get through chapter 1 if I did any less. That, and I want to get everyone up to date to me.

 Meanwhile, I am working on chapter 3, which is a John chapter. He's the most logical of the three, but he has his own quirks that makes him not-as-straightlaced as he tries so hard to be. That gives him his own unique brand of cuteness, I believe. (`ω´)

 You could say "Samurai Monique, it looks like everything's about cuteness to you."
To me, it's important to present some sort of appeal to the reader alongside the negatives. Balance.
(That and a character being cute is VERY IMPORTANT. Do not underestimate cuteness! (≧∇≦)b)
And with the plot, present opportunities for them to either shine or falter. Sometimes at those points of stories, people dislike a character for whatever they did. What I want to do with all of my comics (Glass Hearts included) is make those characters be redeemable with their feelings and actions as well. I'm not saying John is going to be someone like an antagonist / evil / etc, but yeah.

That is also something that reoccurs throughout Glass Hearts. So if you get frustrated at some point, I won't be disappointed. If anything, I'll be interested in why.

Until…however long it takes for me to get through the 2nd batch of pages, c'ya!

11/7/13

@ GLASSHEARTS.NET

Listening to: Katy Perry - International Smile ♫♪
(This is one of the two best songs off of Katy's newest album, Prism. The breakdown definitely sounds like a specific Daft Punk song, but I enjoy this one so much that I'm not even mad.)

That's right! I finally got hosting for Glass Hearts, and updates will start tomorrow at 4 PM EST! For more information, GO TO THE WEBSITE!

Oh how it feels so good to own your own website. Free hosting and jumping between two hosts no more - I'm my own boss! (´∀`) And all my fans can come to one place!

10/12/13

//sketch log 007 + more

 Listening to: The Internet - Higher Times (feat. Jesse Boykins III) ♫♪
(I love OFWGKTA. And I love that The Internet is another soulful group to accompany The Jet Age of Tomorrow. Both include Matt Martians, who is an amazing producer. Y'all should check both groups out if you want some jazzy, experimental electronic goodness.)

 Long time no blog entry, yeah? Well first off, I finished thumbnailing chapter 3 of Glass Hearts, and it'll be 34 pages. I'm hoping to finish it in general within November and get started on chapter 4 in December. I actually plan to thumbnail 4 and 5 at the same time since it's a two part chapter. So yeah! I'm moving along!

Speaking of working on Glass Hearts, I have been ordering test prints of chapters 1 and 2. And…let's just say unexpected results happened, I got really angry, and I'm waiting on a 2nd test print of chapter 1. If that comes through with positive results, I will be ordering in bulk. When that happens, I'll be putting up prices. (I plan on having a deal for an order of chapter 1 + 2 together, so if you haven't bought anything - this is a great chance to do it.)

 Also after some deliberation, I decided that volume 1 will be chapters 1-5. That's definitely going to be done next year, so look forward to that announcement!
 Also I am planning on getting a new webcomic host for Glass Hearts - my own! I need to gather all my readership to one place, and get more readers as well! So stay tuned for that information! I'm really rearing to doing that, yet no job yet, and loan payments are coming. I'm hoping to get it up this month, but we'll see!
The last weekend, I participated in 24 Hour Comics Day, and did another collab with my friend Alex. It's the 2nd chapter of the comic we did last year, and we plan to just keep doing this every year. I'll post it here eventually, but yeah! I learned that when sleep deprived and had too much Mountain Dew, I become an emotionless page-making-machine and I stick to one goal and one goal only. So in other words, I become more of a workaholic than usual. Yeesh!

Also don't mind me, I just found a new muse to draw: Ryuuko Matoi of a new anime called Kill la Kill. It's super crazy and I love it. And Ryuuko is just the cutest thing ever.



Voice actor connection: hell yes, the actress for Ryuuko DID voice one of my top favorite Precure characters. I still can't deal with this.

 This is said Precure character, Hibiki Houjou from Suite Precure. She's my #2 favorite out of like, 20-30 of them total as of Doki Doki Precure (season 10). So she's a big deal to me.



 Yuris is justice.
 A friend of mine told me that I'm definitely similar to Mako. And I agree. The way I get excited about things is definitely on her exaggerated level of excitement and energy. And I'd be hanging all over Ryuuko too, so hey! This is a huge compliment.
I love drawing these two, but that should be a fact by now. Liam and Michael from Glass Hearts, uehehehe! 

And two fashiony Charlie sketches. The second one is based off of an outfit I drew in version 2 chapter 3. I made a few improvements because the vest was too plain before. Oh how my fashion chops have grown over the years. ALSO forgive me for not holding up Fashionable Fridays. I'm super lazy and stuff happens, that's all I can say.