Thursday, December 15, 2011

Who is this? Where am I? What's going on?

Well well well. Lookit here. Someone found their way back to the internet and actually managed to update their blog.


I hope I didn't cost some of you out there any money (placing bets that I have completely abandoned this project). But if I did, well, shame on you for betting against me.


And not offering me a cut.


Anyway, I have done some sketches. Not much, but some. It has been a crazy ending portion of a year for me. Work has been, chaotic and unpredictable as of late. And one of my family members has just been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing surgery tomorrow. And that's just a few of things worth mentioning.


But I have done some sketches. And since I'm sitting here at work waiting for something to reproduce, and then will be on the phone with my family for the next little while, here is a small dump of them. I have an actual physical sketchbook page to add to this as well, but I haven't taken a picture of it yet. So you have that to look forward to.


Anyway, hope ya'll dig these sketches. And I'm hoping to get some more done on my holiday break.


See you tomorrow.







Friday, October 7, 2011

Appologies

Wow. I'm at a loss for words. I have seriously neglected this poor blog o' mine.

I mean, seriously. If it were a child, CPS would have been called and it would be taken to a safe place, where it would receive warm blankets and hot food. While I spent some time in a hard, cold cell awaiting my fate.

Despite work being pretty crazy lately, I have been albe to fire up CS3 form time to time. I didn't get a sketch finished, but I have been working on a sketch of the character Shi the past few days. A minute here, two minutes there.


I have plans for the sketch that hasn't gotten realized yet, but I am hoping to get some time on it tomorrow. Perhaps while my daughter is taking a nap. We'll see how that goes.

Till then, hope you all have a good evening and a great weekend.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Making up for lost time

Well, well, well. Look who finally got back around to his blog.

That's right. I'm back for a new update everyone (who's still bothering to come by my moderately neglected corner of the internet). And this time I'm bring you three sketches of varying content.

The first is from the other weekend, and was done while my daughter was taking a nap. We had just finished watching some more Avatar (which we finished last weekend, and it was AWESOME!). So I did another sketch of Ang and Katara practicing some tai chi / water bending.

The next sketch is from yesterday and was the product of only a minute or so. I was rather busy and my sketch-break ran very short. So it is nothing more than a gesture.

And lastly, is a series of sketches I did today. I wanted to treat it more as an exercise of warm-ups. Just to keep my hand moving on the page, not getting attached to anything and keep doodling till my break was up.

I also got a request for some artwork at work, so I will probably start working on that sometime soon as well.

So on that note, I'm gonna call it a night. Hope you all dig at least one of these sketches, and I'll see you back here next time.




Monday, September 12, 2011

A Mobile Update; Attempt 1

Hi there internetland. I'm using the Blogger app for tonight's post.

Thanks to a topsy/turvy day at work I didn't get a digital sketch done. But I did do some sketchbook sketching over the weekend, so here is a posting with that page. Hope y'all dig and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Sketch Dump

Good evening to those of you out there who happened by my digital dojo tonight. I hope you all are well and having a splendid time in these final hours of a very beautiful Friday (here in the Pacific Northwest).

I'm very sorry to say that I didn't get my sketching or blog posting, done as originally promised this week. But I did manage to sit down with the ol' Bamboo tablet and rapidly aging stylus to do two pages of random sketches.

The first was done yesterday during my lunch break, while the second was done today during one of my regular breaks. In between working on document outlines and reading project documents.

I hope you all get a kick out of em'. There was some fun stuff here. I was particularly entertained by sketching the minotaur head on page 2.

So until next week. Have a great weekend.



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Bad Bad Blogger

Blast. I thought I would get more sketching done the last two days. But sadly when I sat down to update my blog all I have it the page of sketches from the other day.

These sketches were done while watching the excellent Seirei no Moribito. I'd like to say that the pencil wasn't inspired by the show, but I ended up sketching quite a few images of characters from the show. As well as one random sketch of another fighter.


I'm guessing that I'll be able to get a sketch done tomorrow.

Till then, have a good evening.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Razza Frazzin...

Ha ha!

True story for you. I got home this weekend, and had some free time to work on some sketches for the ol' blog. My plan was good.
The execution, on the other hand, was a little flawed.

I once again brought home my Bamboo tablet, and it's USB cable. However I didn't have the much needed stylus.

Oops.

So I'll post some sketches done the old fashioned way, later today. I already have one page of sketches, but I want to do some more before I post any art.

See you all back here later today.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

More Troopers

Good evening once again.

My foot is really bugging me, so I'm going to make this fast before I go lay down in bed.

I decided to do some more sketch to work on the futuristic/slightly futuristic military trooper theme that I was playing around with yesterday.


I worked on a helmet design first.
Then I wanted to work more on the light body armor, and the storage that I would expect to be on the unit.
And I ended with a quick sketch of a grunt making his way through to the safe-zone with some aerial support clearing the way for him and his squad.

Hope you all dig the sketches and I hope to be back here tomorrow with another sketch.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

A quick one before bed

Good evening.

Sadly, despite how sexy the title of this update is, it contains no hanky-panky. Nor anything even close to sexy.

I had a few minute to do a sketch before taking off from work for the evening today, so I decided to do something I haven't sketched a lot.
A futuristic, foot-soldier. Perhaps on a planet with a less than hospitable atmosphere.
Perhaps on Earth, but wading through a warzone filled with hazardous gas and other chemicals.

We'll never really know as I didn't get any further than putting down a background gesture and started fleshing in the actual figure before I had to go.

But, at least it's something to post this evening.

Hope you all dig, and I'll try to get a better sketch done tomorrow.

Good night out there in internet land.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

I did a Friday Sketch. Honest.

Friday did end with me having a sketch started. However, the actual posting of said sketch didn't really happen till, well, now.

Sunday morning.

Since I'm here with my daughter next to me watching How to Train Your Dragon, I decided I should be productive in one capacity or another. Other than babysitter.

So here is my sketch. I was intending it to be of a post apocalyptic woman doing what she needs to to survive. With a hockey stick.
But during the sketching, since I wanted this to be an under 15 minute sketch I kept everything pretty loose, and in trying to get the body pose refined I think I ended up making it look more like a dude than a dude-ette.

Oh well. At least it's a new sketch. Hope you all dig and I'll see you back here soon with another sketch.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Cutter

Hi again. It's me. Ninjaboy back for another sketch for you.

I know, I know. I missed my sketch yesterday and I feel bad about that. But I managed to get the sketch that I was thinking about yesterday done today. Well, not really done. But at least put down in pixels and posted to the internets for you all to look at.

The sketch is of the character Cutter from the Elf Quest comic series. My brother and I were really into this series a long time ago, and he had all four of the original hardback trades. Which he let me take care of for him.

Hope you all dig the sketch and I'l see you back here for another sketch soon.
I have my martial arts class to watch (foot's still far from healed) tomorrow night, so I don't know if I'll get my sketch done tomorrow or not. I'll try though.

Have a good night.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Another Monday

Good evening to those of you out there.

Well, last week seemed to pass in a blur. I managed to get my post done on Monday, then Tuesday I went to the doctor to find out why my foot has been hurting. Turns out it's plantar fasciitis. So the rest of my week was taken up with busy days at work, followed up with trying to get this conditions taken care of.

And I went to watch my martial arts class so as not to fall to far behind in my studies. And while there I got some great advice on how to help take care of my foot.

I took Friday off to rest up my foot and purchase the insoles my doctor recommended for me. During the day I decided to whip up some sketches, so I pulled my Bamboo tablet and USB cable out of my laptop bag. But alas, I had no stylus. No digital sketching for me.

But I did manage to get a sketch started on Thursday. And another one today. I'm going to spend the week working in Manga Studio trying to learn more about the program. Especially in regards to getting the sketch saved for posting online better.

Anywho, I need to get some more ice for my foot so I'm gonna take off for the evening. Hope you all dig the sketches and I'll see you back here next time.



Monday, August 15, 2011

Monday Fantasy: Choose your own adventure

Good evening. It's time for a much overdue Monday Sketch.

I had a super busy Monday as my project had to send out a major milestone today. But the good news is that we got the builds out the door before 6pm. Which was great for me as I have been having some trouble with my foot lately (weird pain in my heel, along the inside of my foot) and it was seriously agitated today from a lot of running from my cube, to my temps desks, to my producer's and lead programmer's offices.

By the time we were done with our tasks I was ready to not move around for a while, so I fired up CS3, started listening to the Final Fantasy Tactics soundtrack and began sketching.

I ended up sketching a young night looking at an old map. I really only spent around 10 minutes on the sketch, but I have an idea of the environment in my mind right now. He's in a forgotten portion of a castle's library. Looking at a map leading to a legendary treasure and realizing that a new chapter in his life is beginning at that moment.


That, or he's looking at some form of inkblock nude pinup he found in his Lord's chambers. Perhaps of the Lord's wife? Or mistress?

I'll let you decide what this story is yourself. And the fact that he doesn't have a face should help you come up with some great versions yourselves.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy and I'll see you all back here tomorrow (hopefully).

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

What a Week it Has Been

Good evening out there in internet land.

I'm finally catching some time to update this ol' blog of mine. My absence lately has been largely in part to some rather big news at work, resulting in me now working for a new company and a sea change in the type of games my company makes, as well as a change in how we go about making these games.

There has been a lot to get educated on so far, with a lot more to come. And of course this is on top of continuing work on the project that I was already assigned to. So my free time has been rather sparse as of late.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to my martial arts class that I have now missed for an entire week, so that coupled with work doesn't lead me to believe that I'll be getting a sketch done tomorrow either.

So to make up for the previous lack of updates, and another one tomorrow, I'm finally posting some of the sketches that I've done recently.

Hope ya'll dig 'em and I'll try to get some more done in the near future.

Have a great evening.




Monday, August 1, 2011

Monday after an Absence

Greetings and salutations.

I'm back. And this week I have given myself a hard goal to get a new sketch done every day this week. I got a few new art program demos this weekend and I really want to check them out. So I'll be doing some experimenting.

Also over the weekend I started watching the anime Seirei no Moribito. It's pretty damn good so far. So I decided to try out program number one with a sketch of the lead character from the show Balsa.


This program actually has a really good pencil simulation. It is one of the best I've seen so far. And I'm looking forward to getting some more time with it tomorrow.

Hope you all have a good evening. See you back here tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Monday and Tuesday, Sort of Friday Too

Good evening anyone out there that is still coming around to this blog.

Sorry for the continual lapses in my updates. I started to do a sketch on Friday of Soka and Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender. But I didn't get much farther than some quick gestures, so I fleshed out the forms a little more on Monday.
Suki's right arm is crazy long, and I didn't feel like spending a lot more time trying to fix the layout. But I like the concept of the sketch and will probably re-visit it again in the near future.


Today's sketch is inspired by the upcoming Pixar flick, Brave. The teaser trailer looks pretty awesome. I'm a big fan of Scottish lore and love those settings, so this movie looks to be right up my alley. Plus the colors are amazing.


Anywho, I might finish this one up some more tomorrow. Or I might work on something else all together. We'll see what happens.

Have a good night everyone.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Tripple Shot

Well, guess what. I finally got around to posting to my blog.

I have three sketches for your viewing pleasure tonight. The first is a sketch of Conan I did on Saturday when I had a few minutes. This one was done in my sketchbook.

The second was an outline for another drawing of the Cimmerian, rescuing a princess. But when I looked at it again this afternoon I realized that it looked almost identical to the Marv and Goldie sketch I did the other day.

So I scrapped that idea and moved on to today's sketch of the Barbarian in the process of rescuing the princess.

Hope ya'll dig the sword & sorcery sketches. And I'll see you all back here again next time.



Friday, July 15, 2011

Bummer

Well howdy there folks.

You might notice that this evening's posting is rather light on the visual material. Some might even say it's downright lacking in any artistic content at all.
And both of you are right.

I didn't get a sketch done during my lunch break today because I tried to work on my iaijutsu in a secluded corner of the office building. This is because I spent the evening feeling under the weather in our water closet at the apartment and didn't make it to class.

Then the day proceeded to get away from me while I was nose deep in Excel.
But I had the plan to do a pencil on paper sketch this evening at home.

But an animal emergency popped up causing me to make not one, but two runs to stores for products to help prevent any further blood from getting on the house and furnishings, as well as components to clean up said blood.

Bummer.

Well, I'll try to get a sketch done this weekend if I can. But it's gotten rather booked up so I'm not sure if I can really make that a promise.
I will try my best though.

See you all on the flip-flop.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

And Now for Something, Completely Different

Good evening everyone.

Hope you all are having a great day. I had a pretty good one myself. Busy, but good none the less. And when I sat down to do my sketch today I felt like painting an environment instead of sketching yet another person.


I'm really sorry that I missed the sketch yesterday. It was another of those days that seemed to slip past you before you even realized what happened.

However, in doing so it's becoming very clear that I need a new stylus for my Bamboo tablet. One of these days I'll get a new one.

Anyway I hope you all like the sketch this week. I'm going to go and get some sleep in a few minutes. So, have a great evening and I'll be back here soon.
Maybe even tomorrow.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Two Sketches for this Monday Night

Hey there everyone.

Well I spent the weekend with a cold, and a sick daughter, but the family and I did manage to have some fun when we could.

But it is now way past time for bed, so I'm going to make this quick.

Here is the sketch from last Friday. It is of the character Briareos Hecatonchires from Masamune Shirow's manga Appleseed.


And today's sketch is another inspired by Frank Miller's Sin City. It is of Marv and his goddess, Goldie. Or at least, the memory of her.


Hope you all dig the sketches and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Two for...Wednesday

Well, good evening everyone. Hope you all had a happy and safe 4th of July.

We've been having some fantastic weather here in the Pacific Northwest. I ended up not being able to post my blog yesterday due to the fact that, well, I lost track of time.

So today you get two super fast sketches.


Yesterday's sketch is of Natsuki and Kenji from the movie Summer Wars. I watched it last week and it was awesome. It totally surprised me. I wasn't sure if I was going to be very into it at the beginning. But by the time the movie was coming to a completion I was cheering for the entire family the movie focuses on.


And today's sketch was going to be of Sin City's resident bombshell exotic dancer, Nancy. But with more of a Brom styled twist. Though I didn't get much further than picking out the background/base color and started outlining the figure. Maybe I'll finish it tomorrow Or maybe I'll do a new sketch to keep my pencil moving.

Anywho, have a good evening. I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Another Dose of Miller

No, not the beer. It's time for another sketch in the style of Frank Miller. I got to spend a few more minutes on my Miranda sketch today. And now it's time to post it.


I have been having a hard time finding a brush in CS3 that I like for this style, but this one worked a little better than the one I used earlier on the Squirrel Girl sketch.

Her face didn't turn out how I wanted it to, and that's mostly because I was having a hard time getting the 'digital ink' to do what I wanted. Were I doing this in traditional media I'm pretty sure that it would have been a lot easier for me to get the eyes right.

And I found it funny that even though she is from a far more technologically superior universe/time than ours, I still drew her with a 45. I guess it was the subtle influence of the Frank Miller art style.

Oh well, at least I'm getting something up tonight.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A Work in Progress

Good evening out there in internet land.

Welcome back for another installment of ninjaboy's sketch-a-day. I'm your host, ninjaboy.

Well I did manage to take 15 minutes today to sketch out the gesture for my Frank Miller - Miranda (take 2) sketch.


It's not quite as flowy as my previous/first gesture from yesterday, but it isn't a bad start. Hopefully I'll be able to start blocking in the fills tomorrow and get it ready for posting on Friday.

(I'm not confident that I'll have a sketch to post tomorrow as I have a busy day at work, then tomorrow night is my martial arts class and I'm usually pretty beat after that)

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

An update and a snafu

Well, hey there everyone.

I meant to post my sketch on Monday, but completely got distracted and forgot to pull the laptop out to post it.

So I was going to post it yesterday, along with a new sketch. But not only was it my daughter's b-day yesterday that meant that we were having a lot of fun but I also had a hardware problem with my laptop that resulted in my MacBook rebooting its self.
Before I saved my new sketch.

Awesome.

I'll try to get that picture re-sketched today if I get the chance.

But in the meantime, here's the sketch I was going to post on Monday.


It's of one of the comical Marvel heroes, who apparently is one of the most badass in the universe. Squirrel Girl.
However, as per Saul's suggestion I tried to sketch her in the visual stylings of Frank Miller.
It was really different trying to do this style digitally. I find it easy to do in traditional media, but after some more time I'm sure it will be just as easy to do in pixels as well.

Hope you all like.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Darnit!

Well blast! I totally spaced on updating my blog last night.

So here's my late update from last night. I did a little more work on the previous sketch, fleshing out the adventurer in the foreground, as well as roughing in the monster behind him.


Not a lot of new work, but enough for an update.

If I get the chance to do another sketch today I will. But seeing as how I have class tonight, I probably won't be able to get one done and posted. We'll see though.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Setting the Scene

Good evening out there in internet land.

Today I decided to work on another sketch that was more than just a figure posing in a positive field. So since I've been thinking about D&D again quite a bit today (to get my mind off some other sad news in the family) I decided to do a sketch of a character not exactly having the best of times during an 'encounter'.


I would like to work on this some more tomorrow if I can. But I do have another cool idea for another sketch (thanks for the suggestion Saul) that I want to get done later this week.

Anyway. Hope you all dig the super rough layout.

Have a good evening.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Water Bending

Good evening everyone.

Despite having a tweaked back I had a good chill weekend. My daughter and I watched some of Avatar's second season. When I sat down with my Bamboo tablet today, once again I decided to do another sketch based on this show once again.

Today's sketch is of Katara, from the Southern Water Tribe. I always really enjoy watching her water bending scenes because the animators do a great job using Tai Chi in really dynamic ways.


Hope ya'll like the sketch and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

A Week Condensed into One Post

Hi again.

Well, I didn't get any postings done this week. And a bulk of that was due to the fact that we were once again getting a different internet provider at home.

Another factor was me having enough time to do a fast sketch (almost) every day this week, but the next thing I knew the day was over, and I had to leave.
So here is my week-long backlog of sketches.

First, is based on the elven archer from the upcoming game Dragon's Crown by Vanillaware. I was a big fan of their previous game Odin's Sphere and am planning on playing their Wii game Muramasa sometime in the near future.


Next up is sketch of Solid Snake, inspired by a conversation I had at work on Tuesday about game pacing. It's no secret that MGS was, and still is, my favorite video game.


Wednesday's sketch was a super fast, and very sloppy scene of Spider-Man battling his nemesis, Venom. I realized that I really haven't been doing much more than sketches of a figure with no environment, or actual story. While this may have worked for the old Marvel Universe Trading Cards, it really starts to look one-dimensional and boring for a blog.


Thursday's sketch was going to be a rendition of Ayame from the Tenchu game series. But I only had a very short amount of time to work on the sketch, and was planning on re-visiting it later to finish it up.


Sadly, Friday was super busy for me and I ended up not working on Thursday's sketch any more. Nor did I work on a new sketch for that day. Bummer. And I was doing so well too.

Oh well, depending on how long my daughter's nap is today, I may get some more work done on the Ayame sketch. Or I'll just start a new one. But we'll see what happens.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Friday, June 10, 2011

The Internets, I Has Them.... Barely

Wow. What a week it has been.

We are once again firmly trenched in for another round of internet battle at the apartment. We switched to a different provider with the understanding that we would be getting more reliable internet signal, and a reliable billing process.

Only to find that the internet speed is a fraction of what was promised, and less than acceptable for this modern age.
Too slow for Netflix streaming (another reason we got rid of our previous cable TV).
Incredibly slow downloading games, or game related materials (it took me 16 hours to download the copy of inFAMOUS I got from Sony).

We are in the process of hopefully getting this all sorted out, but it really took a bite out of my week. And getting any sketching done.

Today I had about 5 minutes to do a sketch so I finally did one.


It's a really iffy sketch of a shinobi perched above his prey. Or the guard of his prey. Or is he just avoiding being discovered so he can exit with the information he was hired to retrieve?
I'll leave that to you.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll try my best to get back into the swing of things next week.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Saturday is the new Friday

Blast! I missed my posting yesterday.

We had some friends over for dinner after work last night and I got caught up with that so I completely forgot to open my laptop.

I did get in a sketch yesterday. And it is of Vanessa from King of Fighters. I have always liked her design, though I haven't played her much in the games.


I was liking the sketch yesterday, up until I started working on her face. Then for some reason I just couldn't get the eyes to come together at all. And before I knew it, the 10 minutes I gave myself for the sketch had come and gone.

Oh well. Maybe I'll come back and fix this sketch up in the future.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend. It's already sunny and blue skies here. Play hard and be safe.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Fighting Game Gals, Part 3

Good evening out there in internet land.

Just got back from watching class again and I wanted to get my posting taken care of before I forget.

Today's entry in the Fighting Game Gals line of sketches, is of Last Blade 2's Hibiki.


I played this game a bit years ago when I had my old Dreamcast. It was a lot of fun, and I loved the character designs. Hibiki was a particular favorite of my friends and mine.

I didn't get as much time to work on the sketch today. So I think I'll put a little more time into it tomorrow. Or at the very least some quick splashes of red.

See ya all back here tomorrow.