Freebird or Inspiration

When I'm daydreaming, without a care in the world, I find myself drawn to gaze at the clouds. They fascinate me. They feel like a wondrous thing even though I know exactly what they are and how to explain them. Like the aurora borealis, I suppose. I'm reminded of the opening scene to "A Boy Named Charlie Brown", in which Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy are lying in a field and staring at clouds, naming off what they see. To me, that's childhood in its purest form. No critical thought - just imagination that comes from the simplest of activities. What do you see when you look into the clouds?

As for me, I see stories in the clouds. I see monsters and strange creatures. I see worlds and sprawling landscapes. I see heroes and villains. I can see just about any given thing if I let my imagination wander and keep my mind open. These stories and shapes I see inspire my work. Sometimes I'll have no clue what to do for a drawing; and at those times, I look to the skies. Staring at white, fluffy clouds, which have such abstract shapes and can look like so many different things, helps free my mind and can spark concepts in my imagination that I would have never come to otherwise. The clouds are like a work of art, and every day is a new canvas that wipes the easel clean and starts over. One of my goals as an artist is to one day be able to draw something as beautiful as the natural sight of the sun shining through a sea of clouds.

Besides clouds, my other big source of inspiration is music. I write stories in my personal time, and music aids me in creating events and scenes. When I listen to music, my mind goes wild and I create images to sounds I'm hearing as if on instinct. I'm almost always listening to music while drawing as well; it helps keep me motivated and gets me excited to draw more. What are your sources of inspiration?

The girl you see here is named Sakiko - she is from a different story than Sei and the gang. I've been in the mood to draw new characters, but I didn't want to draw nobodies, so I tried out some characters from a different story that I hadn't designed before. I also wanted a girl with short hair, as far too often I give girls long flowing locks and, again, I wanted to try something different. I got a little lazy with her yukata this time; next time I'll give it some kind of pattern. So I started out drawing Sakiko in this pose, and that was it. I had no plan from there. Her pose made me think of a bird, so I played with the idea of drawing birds fly around her. From there, the direction of the piece got a little confused, I will admit. Is Sakiko in the same image as the birds? What is she standing on? Is she standing on air? Is she flying? I don't know! But she's there. You could say this is sort of an abstract like the most recent Suunuku drawing. As for the background, I took note of the way I portrayed shining light from my Halloween '11 image and used that to draw the sun. This is also one of the few times I've tried to competently draw birds, but they didn't come out too well. Here's some trivia for you - originally I was going for a much more realistic look and was putting shadows up on everything; all over Sakiko and all the clouds. But it didn't turn out well. Shadows are one of my weak points and I was having an off-day; it became a shaded mess. So I scaled back and took this more minimalist approach. I think it suits my style and my skill level better.

The Woven Girl or A Theory on Planning Art

I strongly believe that the most creative works come from no thought at all. Yes, a planned work may still be good; it may be fantastic. But planned works, well, don't often go as planned. When you have a plan, your freedom is restricted and you become constricted within the work. Everything must work this way and this part must go that way. Mistakes or alterations are less forgivable. And of course, artists rarely go without making a few mistakes or changes now and then. It is in human nature. Even if the artist completes the work and it meets his design specifications, will it meet his personal opinion? I also strongly believe that most artists are heavily critical of their own work, and a planned work with mistakes/changes is surely one to fret over. Even if the final product is good, the artist may not be 100% satisfied. As artists, our goal is to show what's in our heads on a canvas. If we can't show it exactly the way we want to, we feel we're not doing our job well enough. On the positive side of things, this kind of scenario can help artists strive to better themselves so as to prevent the mistakes and changes.

But sometimes, it's not a bad idea to just sit back, relax, and do whatever comes naturally. The goal of an artist is to make manifest the images in our heads, right? Well, then fill those heads; sit and think. Don't plan; just think. If you're an artist or one who likes to draw and you've never tried it like this, this is a fun and simple experiment for you. Get a your drawing tools ready without any kind of plan of what you're going to draw in mind. Once you're ready, sit and think casually. Don't force ideas into your head - let them flow. Take the first idea or image that comes to your head, and draw it. Try not to worry or fret as you work - you may be pleasantly surprised at what you come up with.

I find that it's easier to be happy with a work that you don't invest upon too strictly at the start. That doesn't mean you shouldn't plan any of your works - I honestly think it's smarter to do so. But planning work after work after work can be stressful, so I like to stop and shake things up a bit with this method. If you expect too much of your art, you may be let down; but if you wait, and give it time, you may just find a piece you love.

Using the "off-the-top-of-my-head" method, I decided that my next drawing would be Suunuku in some pose with an axe. And that's it. My "From the Action Pages" image of Seikun from January is an homage and recreation of Seikun's first image on this site. Likewise, this image is an homage/recreation of Suunuku's first image on this site. The axe has an iconic resonance to Suunu's character, so I wanted to create an intimate bond between the two here. I wanted the bond to feel almost tragic in its closeness to help form a mood for the image: like a model sadness. In the end, the whole affair became a subtly stylish work. Normally when I draw I depict a character or a scene, but here I wanted to depict an ABSTRACT. There is a character and a scene (or background), but they combine to make a thing that is not just a character nor a scene. In the end, it was unusual to compose a drawing as an abstract rather than my normal profiles/scenes, but it was fun all the same. I'll definitely be trying more in this way in the future - for one, it's a good excuse to try out creative backgrounds.

Pachi Profiles 02 + Extra

Sorry for the delay on updating with more detailed art - I've got a few in the works, but for now just a small update. This is the second installment of Pachi Profiles! If you'll remember, last September I created this segment of the blog to introduce the characters I have created over the years and let you all get to know them. So without further ado, here are two more to add to the family!

Profile #4: Masashi Shobu
Profile #5: Kushiro K Blochen

EXTRA: So you'll all have a little more to see in this update, I'd like to direct you to a drawing that I posted on my deviantART page recently. This drawing was the main reason I didn't have much updating going on in January, as I spent much of the time working on it. But I didn't dedicate a post here for it because it has nothing to do with my own characters, and I'd like to keep this blog limited to them and any original works I make. But I'd still love for you all to see it, so go check and it out if you'd like and let me know what you think! :)

From the Action Pages: Rising out of Dreams

Let's kick things off in 2012 with a brand new segment of Pachi's Portrait: From the Action Pages! In these segments, I will showcase action scenes from my story exclusively. I won't be revealing the CONTEXT of these scenes, but I will give the usual linear notes as well as how I approach action drawings. These are meant to be set up as actual pages of a Japanese manga, so please forgive the crudely put-together "book" image I made here. I will do my best to improve that in later installments. I'm also trying out some new title images for sections of my posts to make things here a little more unique over just plain text. Let me know what you think!

As I said in my previous post, "The Assault Unseen", action scenes are probably one of my favorite types of drawings, just after profiles and portraits. But they are much, much harder to pull off than the latter. Many artists in the same vein as me will probably tell you, creating the illusion of movement with a medium that cannot show movement by definition is a massive stumbling block. Without the proper skill, a character throwing a punch may instead appear to be the character awkwardly holding their arm out before them. Based on my limited experience, there are two prime rules you can follow that should help make a drawing in motion convey its motion properly.

One: The more realistic the positioning of the body, the more believable the "movement" will be. By "realistic", I don't mean that it has to be a common pose. But no matter what pose your character is in, it's important to properly scale body parts in respect to each other. I have found in the past that if the legs are not realistically proportionate to the arms, they won't look like they're of the same body, and that instantly kills the motion.

Two: Use the medium and tools at your disposal to assist the illusion of movement. Sometimes it's just the little touches that can alter the intent of a drawing. Try using other drawing techniques to convey the character's movements. Making the character's outline sketchy and less defined, for example, often makes it look like they are moving from or in the process of moving into their current position. Adding "speed lines" into the background is also extremely helpful for showing the direction and intent of a motion. I used both of these techniques in varying degrees on today's sketch, so hopefully you can see what I mean. The techniques I'm describing here are slightly more geared towards manga-style action, but I believe they can be applied to other styles as well. I'm sure a more legit artist will give you more and better advice on this topic, but for what it's worth, that was my two cents.

Once again we have Sei, looking pissed off. He gets pissed off a lot, huh? In this key scene, Seikun is rising into the sky during a fierce battle for his life, using a special ability to propel himself there. This sketch was more an experiment in smoke than anything. In fact, I'm positive I went overboard with the smoke. He's supposed to be rising from a lower area with a lot of dirt/dust, but it looks more like he's dashing out of an explosion. Which isn't necessarily bad, but it's not what I intended. This was also my first time drawing a large quantity of smoke, so I tried to get creative with the layout and shading. I'm really not happy with it, but oh well. A lot of this sketch is really sloppy, but it was fun to draw. The tendrils circling Sei were a last minute touch.

The large symbols in the background are Japanese katakana characters - being used as sound effects, like in a regular manga. Here the characters say, "Goaaa~", which I've read is a sound effect used for dust settling after an explosion/unsettling motion (though I would not be shocked if it was wrong). It was the closest effect I could think of that fit the time frame of the scene in this sketch. I also tried to convey movement in the drawing of the sound effects themselves, to further establish the movement of the scene.

Union on this Night

~click for larger version~

On this night, hand in hand, they look to the stars. They see their future waiting in that far-off magnificent world. And they vow one day to return to that place, on the road forged through the snow and into the sky, together.

Merry Christmas everyone! In-between the excitement of tomorrow morning and tearing through wrapping paper to your gifts, I sincerely hope you will keep in mind the true spirit and goodness of this time of year. This is a time to be with those you love, just as Seikun and Suunuku are doing. Whether it's your family, your partner, or a friend, be merry with each other! My gift to all of you is the above image I worked hard on for the past month. No "About the Image" section today, as I don't want to keep you longer from your holiday activities. :)

As a side note, I've finally updated my archive page. Sorry for the delay on that!

This will be may last update in 2011. I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to visit this blog as I'm figuring this stuff out for the past 5 months and who supported me and my art along the way. You can expect to see even more updates and more art in 2012. Thank you again so much, and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Love you guys~

A Pachi Break: Censorship

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The Assault Unseen

~click for larger version~

"What's going on? I felt his punch hit me, but he clearly missed!"

No deep meaning or alternative topic behind this one, folks. Just a little action scene I put together over the last three days. :)

About the Picture:

I had a lot of fun with this one. One of my favorite types of drawings back when I did nothing but doodle in my notebooks, next to profile shots, was action scenes. It's been a long time since I drew a good action scene, so I wanted to give one a shot. My thought process going into this was, "I want someone punching Sei in the face, and I want Sei reeling from the attack in an over-the-top fashion. I couldn't pull it off with the same intensity as I'd pictured in my head, but I was able to capture the "movement". A lot of times it's difficult to convey movement in a drawing because, well, a drawing doesn't move. Usually when I draw a person in motion it looks either completely realistic, or it looks as if they were frozen in that position rather than moving into it. But I can feel the motion in this one, so I'm happy with it.

The reason I've named this drawing "The Assault Unseen" requires explanation of Quan's abilities. Quan isn't physically connecting with that punch on Seikun - I probably should've made him smaller to make the gap between them more obvious. However, Quan possesses a power he calls the "Magical Fist". Using his energy, he can manifest an invisible extension of his fist when punching. Even if he misses, the Magical Fist will extend beyond his physical range and still connect with the same force. This was my first time displaying Quan's ability on paper, and I was struggling over the best way to represent it. Truth be told, this version is not what I originally designed his power to look like, but I decided that doing it this way would be a time-saver since I spent so much time on the characters themselves.