I, Am, Return

Well well well, good evening everyone out there on the internet. I hope you all have been having a great holiday season and that you got everything you were hoping for.

Believe it or not, but I actually did a pencil on paper sketch last week but I haven't had time to scan it in. And just as I predicted the holidays have kept me rather busy. Well, the holidays and a cold moving through my household.

I could have done some sketching last night, but instead I ended up getting sucked into the book A Game of Thrones. It really is a wonderfully written tale and even though I'm still in the beginning, I feel like I've known these characters for a long time. I'm really excited to see how the story progresses.

And tonight I actually sat down with my laptop after my daughter and my mom both went to bed (we're visiting Grammie to give the GF some peace so she can kick the crud she came down with). The first sketch is of Miranda from Mass Effect 2.

Yes, I know I'm like a couple of years late to get on this bandwagon, but I just played through the downloadable demo that was released on PSN on Christmas (while I was home with some of the crud as well... Merry Christmas to me) and I'm really digging the game. I was completely not a fan of Dragon Age, so I was a little weary of Mass Effect as I figured it would play the same as DA. Needless to say that I was wrong, and thank goodness for that. I'll be picking the game up on PS3 as soon as it comes out. Maybe I should try to play through the first one in the meantime...

And my second sketch is inspired by the afore mentioned book, A Game of Thrones. This time of a weathered king with a heavy soul burdened by the weight of his position in the lands.

Hope you all enjoy, and I'll try to get some more sketching done during the rest of my vacation.

And if that doesn't happen, have a Happy New Year. Stay safe and I'll see you in 2011.

I want to tel you something...

Well, good evening out there.

I'm sorry I didn't get my sketch posted yesterday (Friday) but I ended up having a very busy day at work. It actually went to the wee hours of the morning.

So I didn't get to my blog when I thought I would.

Anyway, here is a quick sketch of Black Cat, beckoning to our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to come over for a... talk.

Felecia was one of my favorite Web Head 'villains'. Her romantic history with Peter/Spider-Man has always made the interactions between the to fun to read. One of my favorite stories about the two was done by writer/director Kevin Smith. The book's called Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do and I'd highly advise fans of Spider-Man picking it up for a read. Good stuff.

Anyway, I have to get running as the GF and I are going to a holiday party tonight and there's still work to do.

Have a great weekend and I'll hopefully see you back here on Monday.

Disclaimer: I'm on holiday vacation starting Monday, so I may not get my sketches done on time for the rest of the year. I'll try though.

Another step along the way

My girlfriend is pretty darn awesome.

Since I missed the last WEC fight when it was live, she put our daughter to bed so I could watch the fights. And so far they've been pretty awesome.

I also managed to get the dishes done. Do my pushups (I started the hundred pushups program again). And I'm getting my sketch posted as well.

Today I spent a little more time working on the Laurana sketch I posted earlier today. The sketch actually had me experience something I haven't had to work through in a while. Frustration. I just couldn't get her face to turn out the way I wanted it to. Each time I worked it, it seemed to get further and further away from... well, looking good. So I would delete it and start again.
And it actually showed me how powerful sketching digitally is as I could completely remove the head, leaving the layout on the layer below allowing me to come at the head fresh again. Something I wouldn't have been able to do on paper. At least, not as easily.

And I also was able to fix some serious proportion problems by using the Scale functionality in CS3. Again, this would have been a massive pain in the ass to fix using traditional media.

Anyway, I hope you like the sketch and I'll see you back here tomorrow for my last 'work day' sketch for 2010.

Ok what gives

I can't believe I haven't done a posting yet this week!

I have some sketches saved and everything, but every night when I get home I either completely forget to pull my laptop out of my bag to do the update or we are super busy.

Well to make up for that I'll be posting a few of the sketches I saved through the week.

The first is a sketch based on the anime series Gakuen Mokushiroku: High School of the Dead. For those that aren't bothered by heavy violence, zombies and excessive fan service you should check it out.
It starts out pretty awesome, with a really well done 'horror' presentation. The zombies are really threatening, and you really feel the stress of the group of kids and adults that are trying to survive the world around them turning into harbingers of death.
Then the fan service starts to play a more prominent role in the story, and actually is slowly becoming the focus of episodes while the zombies are being showed less and less frequently.
That being said, this old time anime fan is actually enjoying the series.

The second sketch is a scene from the Dragonlance series Chronicles and Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. It is of Laurana as she is being presented to Lord Ariakas in the series. I won't go into more as I would hate to spoil anything. But it was a pretty cool scene in both stories. And it's a sketch I want to work on more.

Lastly is some more work on the HSotD sketch above.

Now that my build is done burning onto my devices, I have to get to work. So I'll (hopefully) see you back here this evening for another update.

A Skirmish in the Snow

Good evening out there in internet land.

I told you I would be back later this evening with a new sketch.

Today's sketch is inspired by the awesome looking HBO mini-series in development right now based on the George R R Martin book, A Game of Thrones.

Honestly, I wasn't aware of this book series, or the HBO mini-series before today. But the morning stand-up meeting with my dev team ended with a very excited conversation about the show and then the books when I let everyone know that I hadn't the faintest idea what they were talking about.
Needless to say, the conversation had me go to the HBO website while I was burning a new build and I was instantly anxious to see the show. It looks awesome.

And I'm hoping to get around to reading the books sometime in the near future as well. I actually have had two or three coworkers all volunteer their copies of the book for me to read. But if I do get it, I'll probably end up getting it through the Amazon Kindle app for my iPhone (since iBooks doesn't seem to have any of George R R Martin's work yet.
Which is too bad, because I like that interface better than the Kindle app's. Oh well.

Anyway, after watching the many videos on the show's website and blog, and considering the amount of environment art I've been seeing from peers online, I decided to do another sketch with an actual background.

The result of which you see here. An exchange of words between these two men resulted in a clashing of steel, that ultimately ended in death.
I hope you all dig the sketch. I had fun doing it, even though I'm still having a hard time getting pixels to behave like paints that I'm familiar with using. But you know what they say... practice makes perfect.

Go watch the videos for Game of Thrones if you haven't already. And have a great evening.

What happened to Wednesday?

Something amazing happened last night. I got home and spent some time with my daughter while the GF wiped up a tasty dinner.

We ate said delicious dinner.

I put my daughter to bed.

Then suddenly it was super late and time for us to go to bed. The time to work on my sketch just seemed to magically vanish between the two bed times. I hate it when that happens.

So I didn't get a sketch done yesterday, I'll work on a new sketch today and I promise that there will be an update later this evening.

Until then, have a great day. And watch out for those time stealing gremlins.

The Black Lodge

Well howdy-doo everybody.

It's time for my Tuesday update to the sketch a day. After watching the amazingly well done Dual Spires episode of Psych I found myself a little inspired by the source material/inspiration for this show.

Twin Peaks.

If you were a fan of Twin Peaks this was probably one of the best pieces of comedy you will watch on TV this year.
I can't say enough about how well it was executed. Flawless.

Anyway, I sat down to do my sketch and all I could think of was poor Laura Palmer and Detective Dale Cooper. So I started sketching, and found that I had put down a rough outline of Laura and Detective Cooper in the Black Lodge.

I think I'll probably go about finishing up the sketch tomorrow. I know, I've been doing a lot of sketch series lately. But I think I really want to see how this one looks more fleshed out.

I'm also really wanting to sit down and watch the series again. And I do have a couple weeks of vacation coming up, so it's a strong possibility to actually happen soon.

Maybe I'll see you all there. On the other side.

The Spider and the Rhino

Well, good evening everyone.

I didn't get a lot of time to work on my sketch today, and surprise, surprise. When I put the stylus to my Bamboo tablet I ended up drawing another Spider Man sketch.

This time he's battling his longtime foe, the Rhino.

I'd be lying if I said that the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series didn't have more than a small part in my recent influx of Arachnid inspired sketches.

Wel, I'm gonna call it a night right now, since the GF and I just started to watch the Twin Peaks episode of Psych.

Peter and MJ

My daughter has recently embraced her sudden love of Spiderman. Over the last month or two, every time we are out and about and she spots anything that has ol' web head on it and she starts freaking out.
"Daddy! Iis Spiderman!"
If you're al old Spiderman geek like I am, it's one of the cutest things you'll ever hear.
And honestly, she never had a chance. She was genetically predisposed to like Spiderman. I'm her dad after all.

So to help her out with the new obsession, I acquired the first season of the recent animated series The Spectacular Spiderman. The series had all of the characters designed by one of my favorite designers, Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, so I was already curious to see the show. This was that extra bonus to get me to finally pick it up.
And I have to say, it is really good. They changed some elements of Spiderman's past just enough to make it fresh, but they managed to execute his 'witty banter' and relationship drama better than any of the other animated versions of the character I've seen yet.

Too bad it got canceled. Oh well.

Anyway, I decided to do a sketch of Peter and his gal MJ. In this sketch Peter's either getting ready to go out, with the costume under his plain clothes. Or they're just getting home from spending a Spiderman free day together.

I'll let you decide which way it actually went.

Anyway, hope you all have a good weekend, and I'll see you back here on Monday.

A Shifty Rat

Well, I managed to get a few minutes of sketching time in at work today.

I put down some small lines on digital paper in CS3, and those lines sort of make up a were-rat like creature.

So just now I went in and threw down some flat colors to help define it's shape and make it less boring.

Hope ya'll dig. And perhaps I'll be back tomorrow with a new sketch.

G'night.

Helping family out...

Hi everyone.

Well in case anyone noticed, I didn't get a sketch done yesterday. And the reason for this is because I'm helping my cousin out with a Christmas present doing some image editing and testing for her.
Her project is super cute and will look really cool when it's all done.
Can't wait to see the finished results X-mas Eve.

Depending on her feedback this evening, I will probably not have a another sketch done for today either.

Work was quite a bit busier than I thought it would be, so my lunch flew by without me realizing it. And next thing I know it's almost 5 PM.
I might try to get in a fast sketch before I leave for the night, but I wouldn't count on it.

If all else fails I may do a pencil sketch after I decompress tonight and scan it in the morning.

But we'll have to see how the night plays out.

I'll see you all soon. And please forgive my lack of updates this week.

Holiday Week = Me Missing Sketches

I doubted the weather predictions from last week.

"If, and I stress if, we see any snow this weekend it will just be a dusting," I said. Honestly believing that we weren't going to see any real accumulation of snow this winter. Especially this early into the winter.

And when it started snowing on Sunday, I wasn't really surprised. But it stuck. Then the damnedest thing happened. It kept snowing overnight, and we ended up having quite a bit of snow hang out for a few days (it's still here as of tonight as well).

Two snow days and Thanksgiving preparations pretty much sucked away my time and before I new it it was Wednesday and still no new sketch.

So to make up for it I decided to share some drawings I did at the end of last week with my daughter. She really wanted to color with daddy, so we opened her sketchbook, grabbed some crayons and went to town. I think she really improved my sketches.

What do you think?

Anyway I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and a safe weekend.

My oh my, what a weekend.

Well how's about that. I finally was able to get to my blog.

Friday kinda exploded on me. I was at work till almost 4am, and I didn't get enough time to do much of my sketch. But I was able to get down a layout.
The sketch is actually based on a character from the D&D campaign I'm running my players through. I know, I know. I said earlier last week that I was going to stop working on a sketch that was inspired by my D&D gaming session. But I just couldn't help myself with this character.

I'll spend some time tomorrow (Monday) to finish it up a little more.

On that note, I'm going to finish watching the last episode of The Next Iron Chef, then watch The Walking Dead.

Have a great evening everyone.

Last in this series

I think it's time to move on to something else, so this will be the last update to this sketch I'll be doing for a little bit.

I worked on the background with this update. I really needed to get the background darker to help make the figures pop out a little bit. But when I did so I realized that the figure lines were not as dark as I had thought so the illustration feels really unbalanced.

I guess I could just say that this was the rough outline for the sketch; working out lighting, composition and all that jazz. And from here I would take it and work on the final illustration.

If I were actually making this for a portfolio piece, or if I was back at the Art Institute, I would totally go forward with the sketch. But considering the gap in posting lately, and the fact that all week has been devoted to this sketch I think I can move on for now.

Oh yeah, I also moved the explorer's left arm to more of an angle to create a little more interest in the flow of the illustration. It's something I read about in that copy of ImagineFX I picked up and I'm trying to keep the concept in mind for the rest of the year.

Anyway, hope ya'll dig and I'll see you back here tomorrow. Which reminds me, I'm going to be at work late tomorrow so the sketch might not come until pretty late at night. Just FYI.

Sleep Happens, Then You Sketch

Well I had every intention to post my sketch last nigh. But when I put my daughter down for bed, I ended up falling asleep myself. Which made it a little hard to post a sketch.

So I put some more time into the sketch today.

Hope you all enjoy the further elaboration of the sketch started on Monday.

Way past due

Well, good evening out there in internet land.

If you happen to check this blog more than once in a while, you may have noticed that I missed a posting last week. Or rather, all of them. Yikes.

Well, I'm getting back on track after a week of half days and a day off. Today's sketch is based off of the last gaming session with my group. They found themselves in a rather trying fight in a room with lots of water and some small standing areas joined by some old iron bridges. And yes, there were some skeletal foes in and out of the water.

I didn't have a whole lot of time to devote to the sketch today, so it's not much more than an outline. if I'm feeling like it I might put some more time on it tomorrow. We'll see how my inspiration and availability looks then.

So, until tomorrow I hope you like the sketch and stay warm and dry this evening.

Later.

Tuesday's sketch along with some Wednesday progress

Well good evening everyone.

Time to show you the sketch that I missed posting yesterday. And for more bang for my blogging buck, I'm posting an update to the sketch as I worked on it today.

So when I sat down to work on a sketch yesterday, I found myself thinking about the manga of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that was published in issues of Nintendo Power back in the early 90s. The game is among my all time favorites. Everything about it was spectacular. The story, the gameplay, the visual improvements and the music were truly amazing. But what the manga did better than the game was really develop the romance between Zelda and Link.

And that was what I was thinking of when I put my bamboo stylus down onto the tablet. I wanted to show that side of Link and his Princess. So I started by sketching out Zelda and, didn't really get much father than that.

Today though, I went back and started refining her form and then placed Link and worked on the environment a little more by putting his shield and sword.


Other than trying to convey their relationship, I also want to do more of a background with this piece that I have done in the past. We'll see how it all comes together, but at least I have something in mind as I work on it.

So until my next posting tomorrow, have a great evening everyone.

Belated Halloween and the Monday Sketch

Hi again. Welcome to November.

Halloween has come and gone. And I ended up missing my posting on Friday. What can I say, it was a crazy busy weekend. And I have a feeling that it won't be letting up until 2010 is over and we've entered 2012.

But either way, I give you my last entry in the Halloween series. I refined the linework on the faces. I wanted to really bring out the eyes of the Vampire mainly. And I realized that his rendering was really light, so I went back and added in more darks.







I also sat down today with the ol' Bamboo tablet and I had a case of artist block. Even my trusty 'use a wallpaper to inspire you' trick kinda backfired on me. I have a Yoshitaka Amano illustration set to my background, but I couldn't bring myself to do another Vampire Hunter D sketch. But I decided to keep the sketch loose, like his sketches. His use of lines is absolutely stunning. All of my illustration instructors at the Art Institute all said to make each line on the page have a purpose, and to avoid 'pencil masturbation' (a habit I haven't really been able to kick) and I honestly can't think of many other artists that have mastered this as well as he has.


Anyway, I hope you all have a great evening and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Halloween Sketch, Part 2

Good evening everyone.

I had some time today to do more work on my Halloween sketch again. Yesterday didn't quite work out for me, so I had to go another day this week without an update. I guess it's not that surprising seeing as how we're getting ready for our Halloween weekend. One party for us, and an fun filled day with our daughter. Time just slips away faster than I'd like sometimes. Oh well.

I refined the face of the vampire, spending the most time on his eyes. I was really trying to get the demonic frenzy of the Chiroptera from the OVA, Blood the Last Vampire. The eyes caused me to redo the vampire's face at least twice today. After calling it quits on his face, I decided to started to refine the girls face as well. Tomorrow I hope to finis the sketch up some more.

I hope you all enjoy the sketch and I'll see you back here, one more time before the weekend.

Halloween Sketch, Part 1

Good evening everyone out there on the interwebs.

You might be wondering where I was yesterday? Ok, most likely not, but there is a good reason I didn't post a new Sketch yesterday.
I was working on a musical project I'm trying to work on with my Uncle. We did a quick recording of a song concept that I am working on a couple of weekends ago, and he sent me the files to work the other day. And since we were super busy this last weekend, I didn't get to start playing with it until last night.

Anyway, today's sketch is part 1 of my Halloween sketch. I have been wanting to do a sketch of my version of the classic vampire for a while now. So here is the rough outline for the sketch. I may change the entire thing tomorrow when I start working on it again. But for now it is what it is.

Hope you all enjoy the sketch and I'll see you back online tomorrow for Part 2.

Good night.

A weathered veteran

Another good evening goes out to you all.

I spent a few minutes today (well, maybe about 20 or 25 minutes) on a sci-fi sketch. The sketch features an intergalactic infantry soldier who has spent his entire career maintaining the safety of his planet, and those in the same system.

Oddly enough, the incredibly dangerous career he maintains is what has kept him in such great physical condition. All he has to do is survive a few more years and he'll be able to retire a hero, and a legend in the corps. Let's hope he makes it that long.

I hope ya'll get a kick out of the sketch and I'll see you back here tomorrow for my last sketch of the week before a very busy weekend.

Have a great evening.

Quickshot

Good evening out there in internet land.

Welcome back for the Wednesday sketch update. I once again had to finish this up at the last minute, and so I'm gonna make this short just so I can actually post this on time.

I am not sure why I wanted to do a western sketch. But there you go. Sometimes you just have no say over inspiration when it strikes.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy and have a great night's sleep.

D

Good evening out there in internet land.

Hope you're all enjoying a nice fall night. Perhaps with a scary movie. Or a cup of tea or coffee. Or even a slice of pumpkin pie.

When fall rolls around, especially the Halloween time, the anime Vampire Hunter D jumps into my thoughts. I remember the first time I watched it on cable. If I recall correctly it was part of a mini-anime-marathon. I believe it consisted of Casshan, Robot Carnival, Vampire Hunter D and there may have been another one in there.

I started to do this sketch yesterday, and due to a crazy filled night didn't get it fleshed out, or posted. So I decided to continue working on it today and made quite a few adjustments along the way as well. And even as I was starting to flesh out the rendering I realized that I really should have raised D's right hand more as it's really static right now. Having the sword pointing down to the right corner would give the illustration the life that it is sorely lacking.

Which is kind of amusing considering the fact that D is half vampire.

Anyway, despite the lack of emotion/movement, I hope you like the sketch. See you tomorrow for my next sketch.

Thai Boxer

Well, I'm getting this one in under the wire aren't I.

Tonight's sketch is of a Thai boxer. Practicing his leg checks. One of the most amazing things about Muay Thai kickboxing is their use of the shins.

They are both offense (destructive kicks with the shin bone to the legs, body and head) as well as defensive. They use the shins to block those kicks coming in to the legs using them like sharpened shields.

I've seen a lot of fighters unable to walk after a round of effective usage of Thai leg kicks. The muscles swell up and block the blood flow in the large arteries of the leg. Which of course leads to the leg starting to shut down, as well as some major discomfort. Obviously.

Anyway, tonight's sketch is a homage to that amazing utilization of the lower extremities. Hope you all enjoy it.

Have a great weekend.

Peter and the Love of His Life

Good evening everyone and of course it's time for another Thursday update.

Today's sketch is another Spiderman illustration. Oddly enough when I sat down to do my sketch today, my original idea was something a lot darker and more violent. But when I started working on the figure layout, I had the sudden urge to draw my favorite web slinger and his lovely wife.

Yes, as far as I'm concerned Peter and MJ are still married. Their relationship, and balancing their real lives with the super hero world was one of the most entertaining dramas I remember in Marvel back then. Tuning in every month was so much fun, not just because of the great action and humor that you expected to see during the usual Marvel outing. But you never knew what was going to find its way into the private lives of our heroes.

Anyway, I hope you all like the sketch. I'm off to bed now. Enjoy.

Nobody Owens and Silas

I'm getting this posting in before midnight comes along, and my laptop battery dies.

Since it's October, and I've started reading The Graveyard Book again, I decided to do another illustration of Nobody Owens, and the undead that watches after him named Silas.

This book is charming in a way that only Neil Gaiman could achieve. I can't wait to finish it. But at any rate, I need to get to bed.

Have a great evening everyone and I hope ya'll get a kick out of the sketch.

Google Fu and Ninjaboy

I know, 3 posts in one day from ol' ninjaboy. Pretty unheard of.

But I just had to share this awesomeness I stumbled upon. After my last update I decided to see if I could find any wallpapers of Chris Bachalo's The Witching Hour comic. What I did not expect to find in the first page of Google Image Results was one of my sketches. That of Miss White, from the mini-series. How awesome is that?

And something else that's pretty crazy, is that I did the sketch almost a year ago. It was done 10/15/09.

Spooky.

Anyway, I thought you'd all get a kick out of it. I know I did.

Sleep well. I'm about to do the same.

Black Cat

Once again I find myself inspired by my computer wallpaper. That's one of the reasons why I like to use art for my wallpaper.

If I find myself in the trenches of an artist's slump, I'm rarely more than a quick glance behind my work for a last minute dose of inspiration.

This Tuesday edition of ninjaboy's sketch-a-day is inspired by a pretty damn cool illustration by Chris Bachalo. He is one of those funny book artists that I always come back to, and when I start pouring through his work again I realize that I never really left his books. He's worked on so many titles that I've been a fan of I doubt a year goes by that I don't read at least one book that he's illustrated.

However, I would say that the exact book that I fell in love with his illustrative styling was The Witching Hour. I remember seeing an add for the first issue in an issue of Wizard magazine while I was attending the Art Institute. My roommate and I usually walked down to our very local comic shop downtown every new comics day, and on this particular day I remember being excited as The Witching Hour number one came out. We got ready to walk to the comic shop, then I had to walk up to a print shop to pick up a project for school, and wouldn't you know it, it started pouring. Hard. And my roomie was such a pal that not only did he accompany me to the comics shop, but he also came along with me to the print shop on the other end of town.

The entire time we were both conflicted as we were excited about our new books in the thin plastic bags we had them in, but were also concerned at the amount of water coming down on those thin bags.

Needless to say, we got home looking like a couple of drown hippy rats (yeah, we both had long hair) and enjoyed our books.

Chris was really playing around with page layout in those books, and would take that experimentation even further in his next series Steampunk but I was hooked. His women were glamorous and beautiful, his male characters had weight and strength, and his compositions were fantastic.

Anyway, this illustration has nothing in common with any of this other than the fact that he has been doing some illustrations for Spiderman and I decided to sketch Black Cat, since he did a pretty cool version of her himself.

I hope you all get a kick out of it and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Yesterday's Batman

Finally, here is the sketch that I couldn't post last night.

Not a lot to it really. And I think I did it in about 2 or 3 minutes.

Party on Dark Knight. Party on.

Bunk...

Well as you may have guessed, the iPad version of blogger doesn't allow you to post images. And when I tried to add this to my original post, I accidentally posted it. So there you go. So close to not missing a day's sketch. oh well.

All iPad update

Good evening everyone. Welcome to my "all iPad" update. That's right, today's sketch and blog post was done entirely on an iPad.

I was reading some comics on our work iPad, when I remembered that I hadn't done my sketch yet. So I fired up one of the many sketching apps installed on this thing and started drawing with my finger. And yes, I drew Batman.

Hope you all like, and now it's time to hit the sack.

Note

A super fast Spidey

Well, I didn't get my sketch posted last night. Honestly I don't know why I didn't get it done, but none the less it wasn't posted by the end of the day yesterday.

And honestly you can probably see why. It isn't much of a sketch. Just a very fast outline of everyone's favorite neighborhood spiderman.

I might finish it today/tonight. Or I might do something different. I haven't quite decided yet.

Either way I wanted to get it posted before I forgot about it again.

See you all later.

Aya, part 2

Well how about that. I actually got to finish up my sketch for today!

As promised, I spent a little more time refining the linework then adding some basic colors to the image. Not much more to really say about that. It turned out pretty good. I made her face a little rounder than it should be. But I don't think that will take anything away from being able to identify her.

Have a great evening and I'll be back here for a Thursday sketch tomorrow.

Tuesday's post by way of Wednesday afternoon

Well last night didn't work out at all well enough to facilitate my getting the sketch posted.

Yesterday I watched a trailer for the latest game in the Parasite Eve series, The 3rd Birthday, and I have to say that I was rather impressed. It was a well put together trailer, and the gameplay looks fun.

Plus it looks rather impressive as a PSP title. It may be one of the last games I buy for the system, if it really is on its deathbed right now. But we'll see.

Either way, the trailer made me remember my first year at the Art Institute when Parasite Eve had just come out. Most of my friends were playing it at the time, and there were mixed reviews. Mostly everyone liked the story and the concept of the game, but some aspects of gameplay were troublesome. That being said, this was 12 years ago now so I can't exactly remember what the problems were. But they weren't enough to keep people from playing the game.

Anyway, I was feeling nostalgic so I decided to do a sketch of Aya, the main character from Parasite Eve. I didn't get enough time to fully flesh out the sketch, so I'm posting the outline that I did manage to get done. I'll try to refine it more today for today's real update.

Till then.

Nathan, ready for business

Well now, this was a rather unexpected sketch today. I knew that I wanted to draw something a little outside of my normal material. And that I was probably going to end up drawing an american comic character or something along those lines.

So, I sat down with the MacBook running CS3 and my good ol' Bamboo tablet and to my surprise I ended up drawing a character I haven't thought about in years.

Cable.


And I guess it shows that our lives had drifted apart based on the fact that I drew him with the mechanical arm and eye on the wrong side of his body.

Time was, Cable was my favorite marvel character. I loved the mysteries behind him, and that he was a badass. But not all powerful like so many other characters.

I wanted to give the character some colors to help define the shapes, but I didn't want to take the coloring to seriously.

Posting, take 2

Well, here I am again. Time time with a wifi signal of more than one bar.

And what do you know, it actually worked. So yeah read my posting from earlier today, just apply it to the actual image that you're seeing above this text.

Looking at it again later in the evening, there's actually quite a bit of it that I like. I'd want to refine/correct the anatomy, and change the blade positioning so that she won't be cutting off her fingers as she cleans the blade. But otherwise I think there's some promise here.

Anyway, have a great evening and I'll be back tomorrow.

Pink Haired Fury

I'm often amused by what ends up inspiring me when I sit down with a sketch pad (digital or otherwise). Today's sketch is no exception.


Ok, so it's of a girl cleaning the evidence of a rather deadly encounter that has ended in her favor. She appears to be brandishing a Shirasaya (litterally, white scabbard) katana and cleaning it with the traditional rice paper. Though it could honestly be a rag. I didn't really go into much details showing the material used for this cleanup job.

But, after I had a quick sketch on a layer, I dropped in the background color. Then my hands decided to add in a pattern on her skirt which I really need to adjust as the dots are far to large for this image, but oh well. Then I added color. And for some reason I apparently needed to give her some pink-ish colored hair.

A few blood spatters, and some white on the blade and I decided to call it good. All in all the image took about 15 minutes in CS3 on my MacBook.

I'm hoping to get another sketch done this evening to make up for not getting one done yesterday, but I'm not counting on it.

Till the next time, have a great evening.

Update: Well it looks like the wifi here at work doesn't want me to upload the image so I'll have to post it later this evening. See ya'll later.

Senpai

Good evening everyone. Hope you're ready for another update in my sketch a day blog.

Today's sketch is of an older senpai in a karate dojo. He's probably not the instructor of the dojo, but rather one of the most senior kohai.

Honestly, I was inspired to do the sketch from when I was reading the striking post. It's a pretty interesting blog about karate training, and life.

One day I'll probably start a blog like this of my own, covering the styles of martial arts that I enjoy to study, practice and watch. But that will have to wait for another time.

Anyway, I hope you all dig the sketch and I'll see you back here tomorrow for another update.

A rough Monday sketch

Hi again folks. It's time for a Monday installment of ninjaboy's sketch-a-day.

That being said, it was kind of a rough sketching day for me. Probably because of the long break I took from the blog. Or maybe it was just one of those days.
Either way, lets just say that things didn't come together at all the way I wanted.

I went through about 5 or 6 figure outlines before I just decided to work on one to get a post done. And midway through it I decided to just focus on the head and face, then throw in some tones.

For me it was akin to practicing kata. At times, you just end up getting stuck on even the most basic of movements, and you can keep doing them wrong over and over again and get frustrated, or you can move on to something else. Maybe even a different kata all together, but one that uses the same movements. When I was learning katas I found that sometimes just switching to another kata helped me to understand some movements that were giving me troubles in previous katas.

At the time, I figured this was because the earlier versions of the kata were distilled from these advanced versions. Which isn't all together incorrect (depending on the kata you are talking about). But more to the point it was giving my mind a break from doing an action one way, and having me look and perform it from a slightly different 'perspective'.

Which is what ended up happening here. I worked until I was ready to quit, then I changed the background color, flipped the image and worked a little more.

As you have probably noticed, the sketch is of Bayonetta. And I've been wanting to do a sketch of her since I downloaded the demo on my PS3 last week. I have to say it's a rather fun game. Which isn't really that big of a surprise coming from a male geek who enjoys over the top action games.
I'll probably pick up the full game sometime down the road. Till then I'll just keep enjoying the demo.

Have a great evening everyone and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Man, where have I been?

Good evening everyone.

I know, it's been quite some time since my last update. I've been on vacation for the past week, and while I know that's not exactly a very good reason for missing my sketches it did have an affect on getting them done.

I've been having a good time with the girlfriend and daughter, and playing some games on my new PS3. And well, things just got away from me.

The games inspired me to do a sketch of an elven archer and considering the fact that today was a 'game day' gift from the girlfriend I didn't want to spend too much time on it. I set an alarm for 12 minutes.

So I present to you my 11 minute elven archer.

I actually had another sketch in the works this evening, but for some reason I have not quite figured out, my MacBook decided to restart its self before I saved the image. Bummer.

Oh well.

Hope you enjoy and I'll see you back here next week for more regular postings.

Kenjutsu, Mae

Hi everyone. Blogger is freaking out on me and making it very difficult to post my sketch. Hope it works this time.

Another Iaido sketch. Enjoy.

Looks like it's going to work. I guess 3rd time really is the charm. Have a good evening and I'll see you all back here tomorrow.

Witch's Brew

Good evening once again everyone. Welcome back for another sketch.

I'm sorry that I didn't get one done yesterday. The day completely slipped away from me.

Tonight's sketch is based off of a show that the girlfriend and I are addicted to, and is my third sketch inspired by the show.
My muse this evening was the local witch who is spending too much time with the dark arts, Devon.


I didn't want to over think this sketch too much. I tried to keep it all simple. Quick linework and layout. Simple colors. Minimal rendering.

Stepping back from it, I think it turned out alright. It's actually an image that I could see myself coming back to in the near future. I know, I know. I've said that a lot. But I always mean it.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy the sketch and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

WIP, part 4

Welcome everyone. Here's my Friday edition of my Work In Progress series.

Or what I call, Where Things Went Wrong.

Ever have one of those projects where you think things are really turning out well. But you then come back to look at it again at a later time and it really wasn't as great as you thought it was?

Yeah, the coloring really didn't turn out the way I was hoping it would. I think I'll do a cell shaded version next week. Just to cleanse the linework that I actually like.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Hope you all have a good weekend and I'll see you back here Monday.

WIP, part 3

Well, here we are again. Time for another update in my Work In Progress series.

Today I worked on doing some cleaner linework and even started laying down some base colors.

I actually like the way that its starting to turn out. Not much more I want to say about this tonight, especially since it is now midnight so I'm going to turn in.

Have a great evening everyone and I'll see you back here for another update tomorrow.

WIP, part 2

Hi again. Well here's part two in my WIP series for the week.

I spent a little longer on the sketch today, working more on the costume designs and refining some of the line work.

I also wanted to try and lay in some background coloring but when I looked at the piece again this evening I realized that it was rubbish so I deleted it. And in all honesty, it looks better this way.

So tomorrow I'll continue working on the base illustration and I should be done with it either tomorrow or Friday.

We'll see how things work out.

Anyway, I just finished another round of the 100 Pushup Workout so I'm gonna stop typing. Have a great evening and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

WIP

Good evening everyone. And welcome back for a new sketch.

Today is the first work day of the week, so I give you my first sketch. I didn't really get much time to devote to the sketch today, so I decided to make this week a Work In Progress week.

I'm doing a sketch of an elven warrior. I know, a big stretch for this blog. But it was the first thing that came to my mind when I sat down with the Bamboo tablet. I wanted to play around with the clothing and armor on this character. Maybe make it a little more fantastic than I normally illustrate.

Anyway, I hope you like this first sketch, and tune in again tomorrow to see where the sketch takes us.

Good night.

A Princess of Mars

Good evening everyone. Well well, what a busy week this has been. I've been honestly trying to get my sketches done on time. But sometimes intentions just aren't meant to be realized.

But I did manage to get a sketch done tonight.

At work I took a little break and was looking at the works of two artists. The first one was Frank Cho, and the second one was Adam Hughes.

Of course both of these guys are known for their incredibly beautiful women. I'd say that few others can even compare with their sketches.
Frank's drawing style is of the more realistic, traditional fantasy school of illustration. But he also has a heavy american comics element to his figures. But when I see his illustrations, I'm often reminded of the works of Larry Elmore.

Adam Hughes on the other hand is master of his craft. He is able to travel from realistic high fantasy, american comics, animation and back again with the ease of a seasoned craftsman.
Which is not surprising considering that he is a legend in the industry. And while I don't draw with his style, I do often refer to him for inspiration.

And today I was inspired by both of them. I have started reading the book A Princess of Mars and surprise surprise, both of these illustrators have done fantastic renditions of the character Dejah Thoris from that book.

This evening, I present to you my very quick interpretation of the same character. It took about 25 minutes in CS3 using my Bamboo tablet on my trusty MacBook.

I hope you like, and I'll see you back here tomorrow for my Friday sketch. That does it for me tonight. Time for some rest. Good night everyone.

More tardiness

Good morning everyone.

This hasn't been a very good week for my blog.

I finished up Monday's sketch yesterday morning and was planning on working on my Tuesday sketch at home last night but my daughter decided to illustrate why people refer to the "2's" as "terrible".

Suffice it to say, I never did get my sketch done. But I am posting my late Monday sketch.

It's of a young Raistlin Majere pondering the secrets in his dragon orb.

I didn't have much time to spend on it, so it's not as colored as I would have liked it to be. But I think it has some promise.
I'll add it to the list of 'must revisit' sketches.

Anyway, I need to get to work so I'll (hopefully) see you all back here later today.

Unable to sketch tonight

Hi everyone.

Well, I had every intention to do a sketch tonight after I finished my first day of the 100 Push Ups program.

Big mistake. I honestly didn't think that the first day would be so hard on me. Especially since I did more push ups in my preliminary exam than the program outlines (don't worry, I'm not making myself sound like a superman; I only squeaked out 23 push ups).

However day one's workout has left my arms shaky and unable to do more than make squiggles. Tomorrow should be fun... and full of lactic acid soreness. Yippie.

Anywho, I'm gonna call it a night and hopefully I'll be able to get a sketch in tomorrow.

Good night everyone.

The Deep

Good evening everyone. And now it's time for the Friday edition of ninjaboy's sketch-a-day.

This evening I present to you a super quick sketch. The actual sketch took about 3 minutes, and I spent another 10 minutes at home playing around with quick colors and gradients.

The sketch is of a diver going deep into the ocean. Is he descending from a ship on the surface high above? Is he investigating a problem outside of an underwater station? Or even worse, is he stuck in an uncontrolled trip to his potential doom?

I'd like to think that he's just investigating a problem.

Anyway, I hope you all get a kick out of the sketch and have a great weekend. I'll see you back here on Monday for a new sketch update.