Where's ninjaboy?

Hi all.

You may have noticed that there has been a significant lack of updates lately. Or maybe you haven't. Either way, here's my explanation.

I have this week off of work, and I have been spending it by spending time with the girlfriend and my daughter, home hunting, and some other business along the way. As a result, I haven't been at the condo much, nor have I had the time to sit down with my Bamboo to do some sketching.

I'll try and do some pencil on paper sketches over the next couple of days, but I don't want to make any promises.

Anyway, I have to get going, so I'll see you all back here when I update the blog next. Either later this week, or on Monday. Have a good one.

Updating a Laptop, forgot to do a sketch

Yup. That's right. I completely forgot to get a sketch done today. I spent the day getting ramped up on my next project at work, and getting things ready to move to a new office. Yeah, I said office. Pretty cool huh?

Then this evening I started updating the girlfriend's laptop with more RAM (which went great; it's so easy to install new memory in these white plastic MacBooks) and when I got to replacing the old, too small hard drive I found that I not only don't have a screwdriver small enough to replace the drive in the case but I realized that I also didn't get a sketch done.

"But ninjaboy. It's only 11 PM. You still have an hour to get a sketch done before you miss Thursday's sketch."

You know what, you do have a point. However, the pile of clean laundry that needs folding before I head out of town for the weekend is bumping the sketch down on my priority list.

However, I did just realize something. Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of this sketch blog (my first sketch post, not the day that the page came into existence), so I think tomorrow I will make it a special anniversary post.

If any of you would like to vote for your favorite sketch over this last year, please feel free to leave a comment. If I don't get any votes, then I'll just probably select a few on my own.

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

Just doing some doodlin'

Good evening (morning) everyone.

I was spending some time looking at various 'sketches' on deviantart this evening and decided to do a page of sketches myself. I have always loved the style of black lines with white highlights on canvas paper, so I decided to use the medium myself. In CS3 of course. I didn't have time to go out and find some nice homemade paper to sketch on.

These sketches are me working out my version of Annabeth Chase from the Percy Jackson book series. I'm not exactly sure why the movie decided to go the rout they did with the characters, but I always imagined Annabeth to be medium length haired, strong but at the same time very much a young woman coming into her own.

So I tried to work her design out on digital paper.

I hope you all dig and I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Thursday update.

The Bourne Sketch

Good evening everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend. I was out of town on Monday, so I didn't get a sketch done then.

But I did manage to get one done today. I ripped my DVD copy of The Bourne Identity to my iTunes at the end of last week and as a result I felt a little inspired to do a sketch of this rogue assassin. I really enjoyed the movie series, and am working my way up to reading the novels. Especially since one of my favorite action authors is now writing the character.

I tried to keep the sketch very loose as I only wanted to spend a few minutes on it. It was just an exercise to get my digital pen moving again. I actually sketched out two different layouts, this is just the one that I decided to put some 'ink' over. Does that mean that I think the sketch is perfect? No. It was just the one that I was willing to work on a little bit more this evening.

Well, I hope you all have a great evening, and I'll see you back here again tomorrow for more sketchy fun.

Finally, a new update

Good evening everybody.

I have for you another 10 minute sketch. This Thursday sketch is of the character Shampoo, from the manga and anime Ranma 1/2.

I must admit, I wanted to do a sketch of her because I am currently using a killer wallpaper of her on my MacBook. It's one of a series of wallpapers that are incredibly clean (probably vectors) with a single hiragana. I'm a big fan. And not surprisingly, it became an influence for my sketching imagination.

The GF and I have the first season of Ranma 1/2 on DVD, and we both really enjoyed it. Truth be told, I was already a fan of the series before then. It was one of the first anime I watched after I realized what anime was, and that I was a fan of the medium. The local video store back home in AK only had the second movie on VHS, so that was all I had seen of the series before going to AIS. And while there I watched quite a bit of the regular series. Rumiko-chan is amazing at what she does. Her characters are so lively and unique. Her drama is so endearing and believable.

We'll have to get the second season soon.

The sketch was done in around 10 minutes in CS3 on my MacBook, using my Bamboo tablet (which decided to cooperate with me today). Hope you all dig, and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Technical Difficulties: Once Again, With Feeling

Hi everyone.

Well I was set back today by the fact that my bamboo tablet didn't want anything to do with me using it. Seriously. I'm going to be ordering a new cable (if they sell them separately for the bamboo) next payday. This is getting plain silly.

And if that doesn't do the trick, then I'll be contacting the company about it to see if hey have any suggestions.

Anyway, I've given up trying to get it to work, and will now be going to bed. With a tummy full of enchiladas that I made, and a smoldering rage that might be taken out on a digital tablet device.

Sorry for breaking my promise. I assure you, it was not my intent. Cross you fingers for me. I hope things work better tomorrow.

Taking the day off

Hi everyone, I'm sorry to report that I won't be posting a new sketch today. Work kept me pretty busy today, and I've been busy going through paperwork tonight at the condo. And as such I was unable to get a new sketch in on time. That is, if I want to get some sleep tonight I won't be able to get a sketch up.

I promise, cross my heart, to get a sketch up tomorrow during my lunch break.

So until then, have a great night's sleep and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

5 Minute Spidey

Good evening everybody, and welcome back to another Monday installment in my sketch-a-day.

As you are aware my weekend was crazy busy, and my Monday turned out to be, well, less crazy than Saturday... but it still had a good amount of work to take care of in the middle of the day. So I'm posting the sketch online now.

I decided to do a super fast, loose sketch to get my hands moving today. I realized that I wanted to sketch my favorite super, Spiderman. But I wanted it to stay very loose. I also wanted to draw a younger styled web head, more along the lines of when he first started web slinging to fight crime (end of High School, early college). I also tried to keep in mind the versions of him by Sean Galloway and Craig Rousseau. I really like their lines when drawing Spiderman. I didn't emulate them so much as just keep their stylings in my mind while sketching.

I'm actually pretty happy it turned out. Especially since it only took like 5 minutes to sketch in CS3 on my MacBook using the Bamboo tablet.

I'll have to revisit this sketch at a later time and refine it. But that'll have to be another day.

Busy busy busy

Hi everyone. Welcome to a special Sunday edition of ninjaboy's sketch-a-day.

No, it's not a super bowl update. As I'm not a fan of american football the 'big game' isn't really a priority for me.

Instead I'm finally posting my sketches from Thursday and Friday. The last few days have been very busy at work, so I wasn't able to get the updates on time. And I worked yesterday, so I'm getting the update done now while the GF cleaning up her parent's living room and my daughter are with grandma and grandpa for a quick errand.

Anyway, hope you enjoy them. If you're watching the game, hope it's a good one and you all have some great food with some enjoyable company.

See you all back here again tomorrow.

Wednesday, but just barely

Hi everybody. I hope you all had a good Wednesday. As expected my day was jam packed full of awesomeness at work. So, I wasn't able to get my sketch done until this evening.

It's partially inspired by the damn cool character designs of Yusuke Kozaki. I was reminded that Yusuke was the artist responsible for not only the anime Speed Grapher, but also for the character designs for the game No More Heroes. My memory was jogged after watching a fantastic preview/review for No More Heroes 2 on MSN this morning. It was such an entertaining review, that I am now contemplating getting a Wii (when funds are available) even more than before.

Anyway, tonight's sketch is of a modern ninja-ish girl, wielding kote protection and a bokken. Anyway, I hope you all get a kick out of it. And I'll try to do some more action-y sketches in the near future.

Now off to bed. Oyasumi nasai.

Keeping the peace

Good evening everyone.

Well, once again I prove that I'm incredibly influenced by what I hear and see when it comes to my art.

I sat down with CS3 on my MacBook and my Bamboo tablet to do a really quick sketch for Tuesday and had Elton John's album Madman Across the Water (iTunes link) pumping out through my iTunes and what do you know, I drew an indian brave while the song Indian Sunset was playing.

This is hands down, my favorite Elton John album. It is moving in every possible way. Every song is solid gold. I mean, come on, the first track is Tiny Dancer. What does that say about the album when you put a song like that as the first track! Almost every album has the 'big hit' in either track 4 or 7. I don't know why. Three is the 'magic number'. But for some reason it seems that traks 4 and 7 are where you often find the golden nugget on an album. But he put Tiny Dancer right up on front street. And it's no wonder why there is some serious power in the rest of the album. The title track, Madman Across the Water is on my list of top ten songs of all time. It's sweeping, enchanting and touching. The guitar riff keeps a constant tension on the composition, but Elton's piano and vocals both soothe it and help drive the point home during the chorus. It's a spectacular song.

And Indian Sunset is absolutely marvelous. I get chills every time the 'chorus' plays. Ever time. And I've listened to this song countless times.

If you haven't listened to this album please do yourself a favor and pick it up, borrow it from a friend. Do whatever you can to listen to it. You won't regret it.

Anywho, hope you like my sketch, and I'll see you all back here tomorrow. Probably late. It's looking to be a busy day at work. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hit rewind in iTunes a few times. Good night.

Monday, via Tuesday...

Good morning everyone. I didn't get a chance to post last night's sketch, well, last night. Sorry about that. I had a late night at work, and when I got home I realized that the condo was in dire need of a picking up, and my laundry bin apparently was housing all of my clothes. So last night was laundry and kitchen cleaning time.

When I was done it was well into the early morning hours and I was ready for sleep. At which point I promptly forgot to post my sketch.

I didn't get much time to work on it yesterday so it is very rough. What can I say, it was a warmup Monday sketch, so it served it's purpose. I'm not going to elaborate on what it is of due to the fact that it may be spoileriffic for some people. But it was something I wanted to draw. I'm probably going to re-visit it later on down the line.

Anyway it was done in CS3 on my MacBook using my Bamboo. As usual. I'll see you all back here later today for the Tuesday update.