Steampunk WIP

So on goSupermodel I was working on a magazine where I can show off all of my wardrobe "looks" and I wanted to do a page entirely for steampunk looks. (I would really love a SP collection soon.)
I needed a background for the looks to be amazing so I started in painterX and got totally angry because it wasn't doing what I wanted which was photoshop. Painter is great I just need to spend more time with it and be less about expectations.
Going back to my tried and true markers, I felt much more at home and ready to tackle my plan. I'm rustier than the titanic but this is a start.

I really need to draw more lol. On the plus side, I just had a bunch of designs released for "fall fashion week" people were able to buy and also win exclusive designs by moi, as well as some of the other JDs.

Sketch dump

  
Some kpop inspired stuff. Some gosupermodel inspired stuff. Other than this, all I've been working on are designs for GSM. and moving! new location should hopefully mean more art??
it's whatever.

Youtube: Gosupermodel design videos

I have some videos I've been making and putting up on http://youtube.com/born4catz for Gosupermodel.com designs. People from all over like to watch them and gain some insight into what makes a good design, or how to go about it. I don't claim to be an expert- junior designer or not- I just know that people are curious as to "how" I do it. So this is where they can see first hand. I try to cover many different topics according to requests, or just whatever I'm working on at the time. I'm embedding some of them here on my blog. Facebookers probably won't see them.
Over time as the site has changed, and as my videos have become more popular, I have worked on how the videos are presented. Hopefully with taste and class. :)
I also plan on doing this with many of my current artworks once I finish them. I take more care with regular art since it's paper and I don't have an UNDO button haha. So it takes much longer to produce those things.






This one with the pink background was my first video. it's gotten 29,014 views so far.

Kiseop/U-KISS progression.

It started out as just me sitting outside one day sketching on the lawn, I drew a typical manga guy, and then added some cool military fashioned clothes, and it sort of morphed into a U-KISS type guy.
Using the hair- I was going for Kibum but with his longer nose and eyeliner, My sisters agreed he looked more like Kiseop. And since Kiseop is my favorite, I had no qualms about that hehe.
  I was going to work on the sketch some more and try to improve it over the weekend. I went up to the cabin for some R&R and sat down with my sketch book. I decided to see if I could work on a more interesting pose rather than a token head shot of my typical manga-ness.
After some struggles and ridiculousness, I decided on a pose, but I needed Abby to help me. So she posed and I took a photo. Working off of that I made a reasonable sketch. I used my phone to browse google for photos of Kiseop and I worked more on the sketch.

Corrected some identifying features for him, and kept working on making it more Kiseopy.  

Looking back he still has a large nose, but It's a good first try. Kiseop doesn't seemto be popular where artists are concerned, but hopefully this will get the ball rolling. 

When I got home, I scanned the drawing and printed it out in a larger size. After that I traced it with my light box and kept tweaking it. I photocopied my sketches in order to test things before I committed ink to page, and from there Tweaked some more, ditched the sleeves according to personality, finished the line art, and started to make color test pages.

I had two choices, do a dark suit or a white suit.

Testing both, we (Emily and I) decided on dark for a richer look. Plus when I envisioned my drawing, I wanted a dark room type vibe.

I tried out watercolor pencils and some marker tests. Then I began the serious coloring, and kept at it. Fixing my mistakes here and there, and adding more and more to it.

I'm always nervous about doing things, so I have to force myself to push it further. I'm really glad I went back for one more layer on the black/gray suit. Now it pops :) 

I wanted a dark background too, so after I finished coloring him I had to figure out a way to do a background without losing him, messing up the paper, and not having photoshop. So in the end I used up the last of my lighter cool gray markers trying to make a decent background. It looks kind of photo studio esque and that's not all bad.

 I think it was a good compromise for having very little ink left, not wanting to risk watercolors on weak paper, and not doing a streaky marker fill.

I'm really happy with it.  I even rosied up his nose, knuckles, knees, and elbows for a cute little glossy look. The thumbnail looks spot on, but seeing it up close it doesn't look AS much like Kiseop as I'd like. I'll do better next time. :) Right now I'll just enjoy. xD 

Escaflowne & Random

Started trying out eyes, ended up with Varie. I love this series.

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Here's some more random marker doodles I've done.

Processes

The Cousins

Sorry I don't have anything in between.

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Corrected Line Art.

Photocopied and cut up, taped to my light box.

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Before it was fixed. Back when it SUCKED.