Writing and Scribbling
If anyone is actually reading my Dreamsong story — and they might be you know, even if it’s just to laugh — I have finally got both chapter 2 and 3 written and — yes! — typed up. Unfortunately, a) there are probably at least 3 more chapters to go and b) it’s going to take me even longer to illustrate them. Now it’s very tempting for me to say, never mind the pictures, we’re all grown ups, we don’t need illustrations, but you know, the whole reason I even came up with this nonsense was to give me a context for my drawing lessons. Anyway if you are curious — and you might be, you know, even if it’s just to laugh — here are two pics that I have so far. It’s not much, my colouring lets me down big time.
From Chapter 2 — Clicky for big
From Chapter 3
And here are some more random pics since I haven’t posted anything interesting on here lately:
Me in Faia Emburemu Rabid Fangirl mode 
It’s Ray 
From Harvest Moon
Sorry about the shadows, I should have put them on a different layer. Full pic with chibis here
I do think it’s safe to say I’ve got better since chapter 1, but it’s also safe to say I have a way to go yet. I need to stop being so lazy and drawing chibis. Anyway what it means is I don’t know when the chapters are actually going to be posted because I have soooooo many pics to go I’m losing my mind help!??!!?!
The Story of Selene and Endymion
There are many variations of this story, but this is the version I am going with in Dreamsong.
Endymion was the mortal son of Zeus and worked as a shepherd, which he found utterly dreary. He was also incredibly handsome, of course. One night, bored out of his mind, he was stunned to see a beautiful and radiant woman approach. This was Selene, the goddess of the Moon, and she fell hopelessly in love with him.
But she was immortal, and he wasn’t, so in order to have him forever, she asked Zeus to put him in an eternal sleep, which he did, and so Endymion never grew old or died. And every night, Selene visited him in his dreams, and she bore him 50 – yes 50 – daughters, each more beautiful than the last.
And that’s the story of Selene and Endymion.
<< Back to Dreamsong
Chapter One – Where Angels Fear to Tread
I always dream myself to somewhere else each night / I dream in colour, cos I live in black and white / I know I dream much more than other people do / But I can’t see / How anything can be / Better than a dream…
~ Mike Batt, Better than a Dream
Despite life being good, Callimachus always found something to dream about.
Aside from the squabble between Palutena and Medusa, things had been quiet in Angel Land lately. Callimachus was off-duty a fair bit these days, which gave him more time to spend at his woodwork. Right now he was carving toys for the younger angels at the Children’s House, which always earned him some brownie points. It was nice that Angel Land was at peace. But one needed some adventure.
Of course, there was always Pit.
Ever since their captain had gone missing, the Icarus Army had Read the rest of this entry »
Moar Pit yeeeeees!
*simper* I drew Pit again
Pit
Can you guess who that is supposed to be? Yeah, it’s Cal. You see what I mean about men’s bodies? I wish my book would hurry up and arrive!
The rabid fangirl has made it
I drew Pit! I drew Pit! 
There’s still over two weeks before my How to Draw Anime book arrives 
Profiles and Squirrels
I’m so utterly bored of the chapter on how to draw trees – not just because I was finding it a leeetle bit difficile I dunno how it is, sometimes my mind is just a blanket and I can’t seem to get the pencil to do what I want. I drew a squirrel instead:
And also!!! I am getting better at profile views!!
It’s not finished, I still need to shade it and suchlike, but hey hey hey! It’s better than my previous one which I was so proud of at the time.
(Clicky for finished pic)
What I’m doing now is digitising most of my paper-based pics. This needs fixing for one. His hand looks… wrong somehow. I haven’t finished shading of course, and that’s something I need to work on still. It’s not so easy for me 
Anyway as well I’m about 2/3 through the first draft of chapter one. yAy!
Back to the Drawing Board
Il faisait beau aujourd’hui. It’s surprising how much better one feels when the sun is shining. In any case I’m feeling happy enough to start my drawing lessons – as my regular readers (all one of them) will have noticed, there’s been a bit of a hiatus in the drawing lessons department. Anyways, I’m having another go. So let’s see what wonders I’ve managed to come up with!
This is the assignment that caused me to give up on the drawing lessons in the first place. A bit iffy, hmm? He didn’t give many helpful hints. The mountains totally spoil the picture, don’t they? I didn’t get that bit (and in fact, I’ve erased a few of the worst bits so the real thing looks actually worse). And it seems I’ve forgotten how to draw water
Anyway, I am still on the lesson of trees. Here’s one I made earlier:
yAy! Groovy!
Moar: well also besides landscapey things you know I also want to be able to draw decent anime-style peoples. Profile views are still a pain for me – the pokemon style is the easiest but not always what I want. Anyway what I have found is a super tutorial by Crysa on deviantArt. However when it comes to drawing profile-views she just says, ‘this is how side views look’ and leaves it at that. Helpful! So I’ve been doing a bit of… um… investigating! for want of a better word and discovered something:
Because the way I’ve learnt to draw is, always break everything down into its component parts and then construct the picture. So that’s what I did – I traced Crysa’s sample face and broke it down and you can see my amazing discoveries for yourself. My Kid Liquorice underneath is the result of these discoveries and was drawn utterly freehand using only the basic shapes and lines as a guide (ignore the crappy hair that was done roughly cos I was concentrating on her face).
So start with a circle, note down the radius, then at eye-level, draw a vertical line equal to the radius length to get the length to the chin and the length of the nose. Then from the base of that line, draw another line at a right angle, again same size as the radius, to get the position of the front of the neck. Super fantasticness!!
That’s me trying to draw Apollo cos he crops up fairly often in Dreamsong. Hmm, back to the drawing board I think!
Anyway whenever I try to draw a new character it ends up looking too similar to one of my existing characters. Sooooooooo, I’ve splashed out (£15 yes) on this book of How to Draw Anime and Gaming Characters, Vol1. I’ve looked at the e-book and it convinced me to bankrupt myself on buying the actual in fact real book. But I’m hoping it will be a worthwhile investment because…
I can haz commission!!
Baby Kid Liquorice
Kiki when she was a toddler.
(ETA: Clicky for actual in fact finished version)
No she isn’t nakie, it just looks like that cos I haven’t got round to drawing her clothes yet. Needless to say, the picture is not finished.
But I’m getting better, aren’t I?
Stoopid hair
Whose daft idea was it to give Kid Liquorice psychedelic hair?
Everyone else: YOURS.
Damn.
Starting to write (finally)
I’ve finally got a lot (not all, mind, some I wanna redo as digital) of the pics for chapter one of Dreamsong ready. You see that? I even have a decent title now. And I’ve even started writing it! Though I haven’t got past the first scene. But it’s progress, yes?
Not that anyone actually gives a damn.
It’s Jayce
I’m trying to get the hang of drawing with the graphics tablet, but I am finding it utterly hard as you can see. But the thing is, I am getting better.
GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! My head is just a blanket at the moment. Some days I can draw really well (by my standards I mean!) and other days I can’t draw even the simplest of pictures. The same with writing. I am still stuck on that chapter one first scene which I started a week ago. And it doesn’t help that my eyes are still bleeding from that frigging Adult Satan: Man Icarus in Labyrinth 3D model.
Anyway, if you want a preview of Kid Liquorice: clicky ici
Pit’s Revenge Part Deux
Pit re-read the missive he’d received two days ago.
FAO Kid Icky
Our last battle was unreliable and unfair. The air in Skyworld is too thin and how do you expect me to fight when I am nearly fainting from lack of oxygen? I demand a rematch at a neutral location. I will meet you on Tuesday at Space Station 0 at exactly 10h00. If you don’t turn up I will assume you forfeit and I shall be the victor.
- Ike
PS I fight for my friends
Pit crumpled up the letter and tossed it over his shoulder. ‘Ha!’
Kid Liquorice tapped her feet impatiently. ‘And once you’ve finished your battle, you will be good friends again, won’t you, because I want to invite him to our house for tea. Oh look, he’s coming!’ She sighed. ‘He’s soooo handsome…’
‘We didn’t come here to admire the view!’ Pit snapped.
‘Didn’t we? I did.’ Read the rest of this entry »
Meet Cal
Squee!!! This little sweetie only cost me £4.95, in fact a bit less because of the recent lower VAT rate.
He is called Cal (short for Callimachus) and I am in love with him already.
There is actually a decent art shop in Muswell Hill, I can’t think how I never saw it before. I didn’t find my Marsmatic drawing pens though. They had Staedtler drawing pens but they were different, they had the fibre tips not metal precision ones. And there was another brand of pen which looked like the right kind, however all I had on me was the £6 needed for my Cal and a rubber, so I had to give it a miss.
So w00t I can have a bit of help in getting Callimachus’s poses right. However Cal is not quite so flexible as I’d hoped, i.e. the joints don’t bend as far as a real person’s could, however what do you expect from a wooden man?? But it does mean I won’t have to spend quite so long drawing him… or maybe not.
‘A curse on your name…’
Squee, watch my eyes turn into hearts. Here is a sneak preview of Kid Liquorice – Skyworld Story.
Looks like Callimachus has pretty much sealed his fate… who is he shaking his fist at?
4B Pencils, Mannikins and Level 4
I’ve become so utterly useless at Smash Bros lately… I’m losing to level 6 CPUs even. Not even my special nunchuk of luck is helping… hmmm… I guess my heart eyes are just getting too big!!
My trusty 3B pencil that I’ve had since I was 17 is getting very small, so I was on a mission to buy a few replacements. Can you believe it? No one seems to sell 3B pencils on their own anymore. They had packs of pencils from B-9B – yeah, great – what do I want with all those? But no 3Bs on their own. So I had to get 2 4Bs and a 2B. Well, maybe I’ll prefer the 4B, and who knows? There used to be a really good art shop on Muswell Hill, just where the 144 stops. I used to get my art supplies from there – including my faithful 3B pencil – but it changed a few years back into a make-up shop.
More sketchins
So you see I am making some progress on my Kid Liquorice Sky World Story, but I am having difficulties at the moment with some sheep. I can draw sheep okay, that’s not a problem, it’s a lot easier than I expected. But I am having problems with this particular picture in terms of the composition and perspective. The depth, it always looks wrong. I haven’t got very far with this picture and getting Callimachus’s pose right is also proving a bit tricky.
I really want to get a mannikin and they did in fact have one in Smith’s (despite the fact that they had hardly anything else) for £11.99 which is not bad, so I might get one from there next time I go. But first I’m going to look on the interwebz because Smith’s is very expensive.
I had an interesting conversation with Agent T the other day.
Agent T: You look like someone I know.
Me: Who?
Agent T: [whispering]Kid Liquorice
Agent T FTW!!!
Fangirls FTW!
Kid Liquorice has seen something she likes the look of… I wonder who what it is?
Meh, that explains it!
Concept Art
I’ve been doing a bit of concept art of my own, lately. Strangely, the concept art looks better than the finished pictures. Here are two of the protagonists from Kid Liquorice – Sky World Story.
Silver – Honestly, it’s not vanity that makes her name Silver… she originally started off as a cartoonified self-portrait, only she was far too cute and pretty to be representative of me, and she ended up developing a personality of her own, but the name stuck. I know you won’t believe me, but really and truly, I just stuck a chiton on her and she changed into someone else! (Technically, this isn’t actually concept art, just a preliminary sketch, really.)
The fight is on!
Callimachus – he isn’t Kid Liquorice, although it does sound a bit like Callimachus. I am quite in love with him already
That’s the picture I’m using as the archetype, but as you’ll see when I finally finish chapter one, he doesn’t always look very much like it. That’s something I’ve got to work on.
