More Squirrel Arts

[Mantid]

(Plus, being silly with art is always good. )

Being silly is not something Squirrel struggles with, really.

[mistformsquirrl]

Thanks Domochevsky! <^_^> And lol, yeah, Mantid's right on that count <'x'>/

[TheCountAlucard]

The way you decked out your robot reminds me of my Shadowrun hacker's drone modifications.

Among other things, he drone-ified a bunch of "Transmorphing Space Ninjas!" (essentially Power Rangers action figures) and outfitted them with ruthenium-polymer stealth suits; they essentially had the same sort of cloaking the Predator had.

Useful little buggers.

[mistformsquirrl]

Hah, that's wonderful Alucard <,< I <3 Shadowrun so much.

[Eldest]

Something fun: remember the early picture I asked if you could make, the paladin-succubus lady? I finally get to use her in a game, though she's ending up a bard instead. So I finally get to use the picture!

[mistformsquirrl]

Yay! <^.^> May good fortune follow your travels!

[mistformsquirrl]

An update on the Final Fantasy XI picture (This is very WIP):

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DA Link 1

DA Link 2

As you can see, the idea of making this a full painting just didn't pan out. I'm not giving up on trying to learn to paint, and I'm definitely going to continue experimenting, but it's just taking some time to figure things out.

So for now, I've gone with my traditional inked look.

I posted separate headshots so you could see the area that's recieved the most attention since last time, because looking at the full WIP doesn't really show the progress all that well I don't feel.

Chugging along.

[Domochevsky]

If I may be so bold as to provide some macro insight... it might be a good idea to take a step back from that head and look at it, instead of fiddling with the details.

[mistformsquirrl]

Normally I agree with your advice Domochevsky, but in this particular case I only really agree with one element of it - the neck length*. <. .>

The stuff that your overlay hits here are mostly stylistic choices on this one hehe >.< I know that sounds like a brush off, but it really isn't, for once I'm actually getting a significant amount of my imagination to the paper. Your advice is always welcome! I just want to make sure you know why I'm doing things the way I'm doing them, so it doesn't seem like I'm just ignoring you or something.

Explanation of what I'm trying to accomplish:

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Basically, the face is the way it is largely due to my attempting to avert only six faces. What I've got isn't perfect, but it's actually pretty close.

Head size is similar - this version of the character is 23 rather than 13 like the previous incarnation. Usually for an adult you'd have them be 7-8 head heights tall; in this case it's only 6, but that's because (despite her age) she still looks and often acts more like a teenager than an adult. Well that and she's extremely short - canonically 4' 11" tall. Yes, high shelves are her bane. >.>;

And of course the eye, mouth and nose positions are based on the smaller head proportion (which isn't to say I nailed them perfectly, but I'm mostly happy with it - only the right eye (our left) bothers me.)

The neck's thickness, rather than length is a function of keeping the body looking a bit more teenage looking.

The length though... yeah that's a problem, and will be fixed!

*Eventually I will stop giving people giraffe necks... I think I've figured out the problem too. I have a weird problem with drawing through objects, that is - if I have a head, I don't want it to overlap with the body at all... even if the chin at least would do so from the angle of the picture. It's an unconscious problem, but one I think I can fix. - Also it helps that I've learned how to cut and paste well enough to shorten out of control necks >.<; Requires a lot of work, but a lot less than redrawing the entire head.

[mistformsquirrl]

I do believe I have fixed the neck length problem!

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It wasn't too difficult really, I just had to cut and paste the head lower, then fix the shading on the neck.

Really hoping I can avoid this problem in the future though, sure I can fix it, but fixing it after the fact is a pain in the... tail. >_>; (I'll show myself out.)

[mistformsquirrl]

I have been busy-busy-busy lately! <@.@>/ Got one piece finished that I'll be posting soon-ish*, and just finished up a second piece that I CAN show you now!

Wildstar fanart of Malvolio -

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Specifically a propaganda poster for a contest on the Wildstar forums. I'm not going to win of course, but I really enjoyed putting this together just the same. The design, incidentally, is based off an old WWII propaganda poster:

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I did of course modify a lot of things; but the theme is identical.


*edit* - I forgot the mandatory DA link! - Here, have link!

*Not yet though; it's for Draw Your Friends and I must keep it under wraps until at least Friday <o.o>

[mistformsquirrl]

Testing a pic that (if the transparency works) I'll be using as an avatar for a theme-week >.>;

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*Edit* No dice. Hrm. I will update this post when I get this thing working properly. >.> (It's just a goofy little avatar, nothing spectacular, but I'm happy with it for what it is.)

[Domochevsky]

Note: You can save a layer from openCanvas in order to preserve transparency.
(It has a few downsides, but that is easily fixed if you then load that layer into another program, like gimp or paint.net and resave the image.)

[mistformsquirrl]

Thanks Domochevsky <^_^> I will try that later! I think I still have GIMP on my machine somewhere >.< May have to go all file archaeologist to find it, but I'm sure it's there...

Really want to get this avatar finished up, but I can't go further with it until I can see how it looks as-is >.<; Much work, very sweat, busy squirrel.

[mistformsquirrl]

Quickie piece I did for an avatar on the Wildstar forums:

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DA Link

I couldn't keep the eyes level no matter what I did >< I'll probably do a new avatar at some point because I'm not wholly satisfied with this one, but I couldn't work on it any longer without going mad so >.< it is what it is.

One thing I did like though: I learned to use the Pencil tool for inking, and (in some situations) I can see that being my preferred method going forward. So that's progress at least!

[Domochevsky]

If it helps: You can get out unevenness in anatomy by flipping the image horizontally frequently.
(In oC the Navigator window has a button that flips the image visually without editing it.)

Also yeah, a thick pencil is just as good for coloring as a brush. It's what I prefer to use (together with disabled density control) for flat colors.

[mistformsquirrl]

Yeah, I should have done that >.<; Everything was coming together so well... right up until the eyes, and when they didn't do what I wanted them to do I let myself get frustrated rather than taking my time <x.x> Hopefully whatever I come up with for a replacement down the line will be much improved.

I am happy with the prosthetic hand though at least < ._.>/

Need to get to work on my Fey Week avatar too... decided to drop the Will-o-Wisp idea and go for an Atomie instead >.>/

[mistformsquirrl]

New avatar for Fey Week - I ditched the Will-o-Wisp idea and instead went with an Atomie:



And the mandatory DA link here.

Pretty darn happy with this. Did it in about 2 hours, and I've never done pixel art before, so all told it went well I think. < . .> Was fun too!

[mistformsquirrl]

Now that this round of Draw Your Friends has concluded I can finally put up the work I did for Mantid <^,^>!

Better version:

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Original cluttered version:

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DA Link: Go Here

I'm mostly very, very happy with this piece. There are some notable flaws of course, and her hair didn't get the treatment I wanted to give it, I just couldn't make it work for anything... but overall I'm quite pleased. I really enjoyed working on her shoes and tights in particular; it was fun to work with costume parts I don't usually use much.

So yeah, that's what I worked on for quite awhile recently, which is why the FFXI Yumi pic has been on hold. I'll be picking it back up eventually though!

[mistformsquirrl]

Just posting a WIP of my current project, a picture of my Stalker alt in Wildstar:



Nivena the White Rabbit, an insane albino Aurin assassin working for the Black Hoods. < . .> Her brain is kinda screwed up along the lines of the Pyro from TF2.

[TheCountAlucard]

Awesome drawing and awesome concept.

[TheCountAlucard]

Haven't heard from you in a while, squirrely one! What creations have you wrought?

[mistformsquirrl]

Not much I'm afraid <_ _> I've been having a lot of nasty migraines and it's slowed my production to a crawl. I worked on a piece I cannot reveal yet for the latest round of DYF, but that's about it.

If I can get the headaches to let up I'll be more productive though.