Chihuahua Princess and Pigeon Development

So, people who know me (or sometimes don't know me) are aware of my incessant pug fascination. They're just delightful potatoes that one day grew fur, became sentient and ran into a wall. Ever since, they have infiltrated so many families, adverts and fashion accessories. They are beautiful beasts who I will one day be proud to call 'Master'.

However.

They are not the only dog I love. In fact, I love every single breed of dog on the planet. And probably a couple off this planet as well. So occasionally I am prone to drawing other breeds.

Specifically, I've become possessed by this precious princess. The tiny but mighty Chihuahua.

She kind of looks a bit like a cat, probably cos of the pink nose. But I'm mostly happy with how this came out. And I've had an overwhelming urge to doodle a Shiba Inu for well over a week now, as well as more chocolate labradors, so there will probably be more doodles of dogs in the future. And a butt-ton of other animals. It's good to draw more than pigeons all the time.

Don't despair though (you were totally despairing, I saw), the pigeons aren't going anywhere. In fact, I've been quite productive with them as of late. In regards to Bertie Blue, I've just emailed Steve the Christmas story PDF complete with coloured illustrations. We're hoping the book will be ready to print this week, with an even more exciting development for every single story of Bertie Blue ever written. There are fourteen in total.

I'm holding off on sharing more news about that for now though. In the meantime, I'll share the cover for the aforementioned Christmas story 'Bertie Blue and the White Rum Sauce'.

Glad to have the three stories out in time for Christmas. But as I said before, there's a potentially interesting development for the stories that we're considering. I'll share news on that as soon as I can.

Finally, Crumbs. I'm happy to say that the webcomic has entered it's second week! Still quite slow moving for now but we're kind of story/world building a little bit… kind of… sort of… eh, it'll hopefully make a bit more sense next week.

Anyway, the comic is running quite well so far and people seem to be intrigued by what's happening so far. So while the comic is running, I've toyed with the idea of making prints and posters. One design being Page 4 without dialogue. I think it's quite a dramatic piece and I'd totally poster the heck out of it.

Does anyone else feel the same? Would you have this rockin' on your wall?

Feedback is appreciated!

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to share more information about the Bertie Blue Christmas story and this new Bertie development later this week. And possibly more dog pictures. Perhaps.

Most likely.

Don't forget, Crumbs updates tomorrow. But this Wednesday's page might be a bit… intense. Heavily implied pigeon death as we see the toxin in action. Just a heads up.

Enter the Staghounds

Damnit. I'm SUPPOSED to be working on PIGEON PROJECTS.

WHAT IS HAPPENING.

First, it was the Yetis. I figured, 'What the hell, I'm gonna draw YimYam with Aan Xai cos that would be cute, why the hell not?"And then a story idea started developing from that. It's good to have another potential project in the works; something to develop in my own time, most likely. But it seems the Yetis have dug their spears in my brain and aren't letting go. I have Crumbs pages and Bertie Blue illustrations to ink and colour, fer cryin' out loud!

And if that wasn't bad enough, I started being pestered by these adorable little buggers. Known as Pugalopes to many. But I think 'Staghound' sounds cooler. And gives them a level of epic that's undeserving. Don't get me wrong, I love pugs but you're hardly gonna crap your pants if you see one in a dark alley.

Then again, them antlers...

Meet Bucky. Having trouble choosing what colour he should be but I'm leaning towards black. Input appreciated.

It was only a matter of time before I drew a Pugalope, what with Ruari's favourite animal being a Stag and mine (or one of mine) being a pug. And the thought of a tiny pug having huge antlers sticking out of its napper will always be hilarious to me.

Aside from that though, I've been meaning to draw one for… logo reasons, let's just say. Things still need to be discussed but lets just say there's another potential pie to stick my finger into.

Not sure if I'll stick with the stencil text or try something else but I'm happy with the overall idea.

Yay, business ventures!

Eh, I suppose in a way this is a good thing cos stuff like this means I can build more of a portfolio. I do need more variety than pigeons and dogs. Or, antler-less dogs anyway.

Anyway, aside from this, continuing with a page from the Crumbs buffer and a few yeti sketches, I haven't gotten as much done as I'd have liked. I think I've still got some fatigue from the play. Adrenaline can only last for so long. So I'm taking it easy for the rest of the night. I've learned that if I push myself to work in this state, I just end up making things more stressful for myself.

Despite not getting as much done as I'd planned, I need to recharge every once in a while. And I'm pretty much saying that out loud for my benefit more than anyone else's. I seem to forget it the most.

Tomorrow I'm planning on primarily working on colouring Bertie Blue illustrations and the Crumbs buffer, which I should have been doing in the first place. As well as uploading the next Crumbs page. In case you haven't been keeping up, the first two are now online and can be read here and here.

Next blog entry will be Tuesday. As for the rest of the night, I got some 3DS shenanigans to catch up on. The kids in Tomodachi life grow up so fast… no really, they grow up so fast. Three days ago my Mii parents had a baby and now he's living in his own apartment as an adult. Sunrise, sunset.

And my Animal Crossing town are probably wondering where the hell I am.

Back From Tibet! With a Yeti Fixation.

… Well actually, I'm back from performing 'Tango In Tibet', a play written by my good pal Richy Wilson. I think a couple of you guys came to see it, so many thanks if you did! You totally got to have a good laugh at me as a yeti.

The yeti fixation though, that's legit.

As the play was going on, between rehearsals I would often doodle out this little yeti character. I have a few ideas in mind for her and a potential series revolving around the princess of a yeti tribe and her spirit guide helping her channel her anxiety so she can successfully rule the tribe and not end up killing them.

It sounds like an exaggeration but… uh, the reason makes sense in my head. Which you can't see into. I envy you.

Anyway, where was I going with this… oh yes! As the idea started to take shape, what came out of it was Aan Xai Yeti, a young spirit guide yeti with the task of helping the princess manage her… well, anxiety. Shut up, it was super clever when I thought of it.

The whole inspiration for the princess and tribe idea came from me playing YimYam, who was a yeti princess. It all just kind of took off from there. I'll most likely develop a new design for the princess character however, as YimYam doesn't belong to me. And she was never actually an anxious yeti anyway. (which you'd know if you'd seen the play, GAWD)

Despite this, I couldn't resist drawing Aan Xai and YimYam together. BEHOLD! YETIS. Featuring shade comparison. It's a bit subtle but I think it makes it pop that bit more.

Yes, Aan Xai is supposed to look like a horned furby.

As well as this, Richy asked me to doodle YimYam with her father GrimGram when I had the time. I was in a yeti drawing mood so I figured, YEAH YETIS.

And then I got a bit carried away, it was only meant to be a simple doodle but then I added snow and this happened.

Male yetis have curly horns and females have pointy horns. Probably cos the females hunt and the males
can't be arsed or something, idk.

Nice little yeti Kodac moment. What isn't pictured is all the random yeti fights, mud throwing (figurative and literal) and farting.

It's a yeti thing.

So yeah, Tibet hasn't quite left my system just yet. And the fact that I could keep my yeti onesie isn't helping.

"My bitch is horny!" Hahaha YOU'RE NOT FUNNY, RUARI.

Yeah I'm wearing it now, why do you ask?

… yeah it's starting to smell STOP ASKING QUESTIONS THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER

Crumbs Begins and Framed Artwork Whoa

Well, I said I was going to attempt to update this mother two times a week, alongside the Crumbs updates. So let's get cracking. I don't expect this to last long.

As of yesterday, Crumbs has now began uploading. At the moment, we only have the title page for the first arc but it will slowly begin to take off. I'm really excited about finally sharing the story!

Also, I've rearranged the main page so it's a lot more accessible now. Feedback is appreciated!

Click to be taken to the page!

I'm constantly planning updates and I'd like to create some concept artwork with the comic's official new artwork in mind. But for this week, I might not be as productive as I'd like. Mainly because I'm in a local am-dram project with Wave Theatre called Tango In Tibet and it hits the stage from Wednesday-Friday this week. And I need to be put in make up extremely early.

I dabble in acting, dontcha know.

Anywho, things should be much calmer after this week and I'll really be able to hit the ground running with my projects again. I'm quickly putting together a rough Christmas story for the author to showcase as a WIP at an event tomorrow. Next week I'll be able to work on it properly.

In other news, I've also done a nifty design for my Aunt! I wanted to make a cool something for her and I felt her last picture was a bit outdated now so I decided to go for something more… better.

I word good.

Also featuring the framed version. I normally frame pictures I do for family members/friends so I'm surprised I didn't show this on my blog before. The photo shows it really dark but that's down to the monitor issues I was having. I've actually brightened the original picture on the left so HOPEFULLY you can actually see the darn thing.

Anywho, I'll try to get another blog entry up this week but I make no promises. I'll definitely keep the cycle up next week though, fo sho.

UNTIL THEN.

Resolved Screen Brightness Issues

So, a bit over a week ago, it came to my attention that my images were printing too dark.

I wasn't sure if this was a problem that had plagued me for a while because my work mostly seemed to come out alright and the majority of my work was only ever shared online anyway. But after looking over the front cover to the Christmas Bertie Blue book, I noticed that the problem was indeed rather glaring. It made a pile of crumpled army clothes look like a snail. Not quite what I was going for.

So before I went on any further, I decided to turn to social networks for fresh eyes in helping me with my brightness issues. Someone suggested that perhaps my work monitor wasn't at is brightest. So I decided to turn up the brightness.

It didn't get any brighter at all. Mystery solved there. But now I was worried that my images in general were showing up much too dark on other monitors. So to look into this, I presented people with the below image. The one to the left was the original image and the one to the right had been brightened.

I immediately noticed a big difference but wanted to see if others had the same opinion. The one on the right was indeed the more popular option and I've been using the brightening method ever since. It really makes things more vibrant, as well as more visible. Which is obviously important.

Yeah, this is the title page for the first Crumbs arc. 15th September is approaching.

Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback on various social networks. And who says Facebook ruins lives? Pft.

Crumbs: Comic and Title Page Art Comparisons

We all know what I'm going to say about this late entry so there's not really any need to say it. Onto progress!

In terms of the Crumbs buffer, the main issue I'd been having with it was how long it would take to do one page. If you recall, I used to do lineart in Illustrator before doing everything else in Photoshop. Here is an example from the previous edition of the comic.

God, Pink was such a blabber beak.

As my colouring/shading methods have developed, I've noticed that I take way too much time on one individual image, let alone an entire comic page. So I have come to the decision that the in depth shading/textured images will be saved for posters, title pages, concept art, basically anything but the actual comic pages themselves.

I'm hoping that doesn't come across as false advertising. Eek.

Now, at first this left me with a dilemma as I'd used that method to create artwork for a while now. It was basically like learning how to breakdance after only doing tap for so long. Rather different methods. But I've played around with some techniques and I'm quite happy with this one. It'll mean comic pages are done at a much faster pace. And it's a lot easier than breakdancing.

I've always loved the artwork from Rayman Origins and wanted to see if I could recreate such a design for the comic pages. Obviously they'll have their differences but I loved such a contemporary look for the characters and with it being much quicker for me to do, I'm feeling a lot more optimistic. I still need to work on the lineart skills but I'm having fun with it, which is nice.

The pose of Lilac and Twig is from the title page of the first arc. It was originally the one with all the pigeons and Tita in the rap pose but as they're not heavily focused on until the second arc, I've decided to make that the second title page. And maybe a poster design.

I want it all up in my wall.

Crumbs: More Concept Arts

To everyone who has had a look at the Crumbs website so far and offered feedback, thank you so much! I knew there would be a few things I'd miss such as links and typos so the fresh eyes have been extremely helpful.

It's also good to note all this down now so I can develop my vlog discussing the website and comic. I'm hoping to have all that out by next friday, possibly. We'll need to see.

You can still have a look and offer feedback if you still want to/haven't already!

Anyway, I didn't get a LOT of work done yesterday cos I made the mistake of buying Plague Inc for my iPad for 'research reasons' (sort of) and uh… well, yesterday kind of flew by. SO I figured I'd share a few pieces of concept artwork from Crumbs today. Normally I just share one piece per entry but eh, I'm feeling generous. And also I have other upcoming things to discuss.

So, lets have a looksee at some story/character developments. Mostly character.

~~~~~

Some further playing about with this adorable couple and their designs. I kind of picture this being them in college or something as they look a bit young here. Whether they were dating or not at this point is still undecided but they're known each other for so long that they were pretty much into the sweet old married couple territory anyway. So it's hard to tell.

Anyway at this point, Jude is studying Zoology and is planning on obtaining a PhD to study pigeons specifically. As you can imagine, bar from going to college, she doesn't get out much. Carrie studies Sociology and volunteers at the Wingview Softpaws kennels. She's a huge dog lover yet not a big people person. Way to spend your lolly on the wrong degree, numpty.

Every wannabe ornithologist needs a 'birdbrain' t-shirt. And pretty much every piece of clothing Carrie has bears the Softpaws logo.

I hadn't actually drawn much of these two together and I'd done virtually nothing on Fizz so it was about time I introduced the two. Not much to say really, just a little something showing the besties together.

Blue works more out on the field, fetching any pigeons who need protection and bringing them back to the coop. Fizz is banned from field work as she'd go right into the Breadwinners building and take no prisoners so she's being trained for counselling the plague victims.

To anyone wondering what the hell kind of pigeon Fizz is supposed to be, she's one of these lovely Sherazi pigeon beauties. The concept art doesn't really show her off very well so I need to do a little collection of sketches entirely for her. She'd love that.

Urgh, THIS picture kicked my ass and I'm still not entirely happy with it but eh, it was mainly a shading experiment. Gone a bit wrong. At least in my opinion. Ho hum.

I seem to like drawing all the main dogs together. Although Rocky should PROBABLY be with the blind person he's supposed to be helping. Friggin slacker, no wonder you're finding it hard to get work.

But yeah, not a huge point to this one. I guess I do like how the dogs themselves came out. I'm getting a bit better at keeping Tita consistent. And Snaps is so derpily adorable.

~~~~~

So progress on Crumbs is coming by nicely. The buffer is starting to slowly chug away now and I'm going to battle not to have it slowly taper out like last time. At least not before the first story is finished. But I'm feeling a lot more in control this time round rather than "I have no idea what I'm doing". Lets hope that keeps taking.

Just a quick question to everyone though; I'm not sure if I should have all the characters on the one subpage, after the one telling the reader what the story is about. Does anyone have a preference?

Anywho, now to script the vlog and the rest of the comic.