Bad Breath, Dizrahk

Bad Breath, Dizrahk

 This comic has been in my mind for some time. How it came about; it was a small day dream that I had when briefly interacting with Dizrahk, a DA buddy of mine; see his page here on DA (Disturbulator). 

I've had several day dreams of what would happen if his character and my character were to bump into each other, and the outcomes tend to be rather comedic. One of the first ones I ever had is where his character says hi to Pearllight, and his breath wafts in her face as a cloud of stink. Her innocent reaction is to then awkwardly offer a tick tack; a subtle, "sweet" way of saying his breath stinks. 

Granted, Dizrahk is a civilized Rahkshi, but a Rahkshi none the less, hence he may have stinky breath on the occasion, which can be rather repulsive.

 My guess on what Disturbulator's character would be like towards Pearllight's gesture is slightly irritated, but all at once neutral in feeling.

Judging by this first comic, and other day dreams I've had; I think our characters are quite interesting when interacting with each other; especially since my character is me, and Disturbulator is Dizrahk.

How I Made the Comic

Above are the two stages before color of the comic panel. I started my project with a 2 HB mechanical pencil on a 9x12 sheet of medium weight drawing paper; final sketch results (right).

The next step was to scan the sketches and outline them digitally; final results (left). I switched between a size four and a size five brush to outline most of the piece;a few spots here and there were done with a size 3 brush, specifically where I needed more control in smaller sections.

Last step was coloring and text. I selected areas for easier coloring, tweaked it, used dodge and burn for some shading and lighting, and painted a few highlights on Dizrahk.

One of my favorite parts was adding in the green cloud of bad breath that surrounds Pearllight's head. Just added so much more life to the picture.

I'll also add a fun extra, notice the tick tacks are blue green; Pearllight goes so far as to carry matching candy to go with her suit. ^.^

 Once the character coloring was done; I chose two colors that seemed good for a background, and matched the characters, then I used the gradient option and got a nice color combo.

The thing I enjoy most is adding mini sound affects with words, and painting in expression. Note, I drew little lines in spots where a sound effect is, and directed the lines to follow movement. I added one line indicating where Pearllight's nose is, and wrote in red, *sniff*. And with the Tic Tac I drew a line indicating the way the container opens and put, *click*.

One thing I also like to do to express emotion if you can't actually see the character's face, is to draw an emoticon bubble to show what their reaction is underneath a mask or in their minds (which in this case the image of a sick face is what's mentally going on in Pearllight's head).

Enjoy, and be sure to check out Disturbulator's page! ^.~

2009 Pearllight Cuts the Turkey

Cut the Turkey

 Back in 2009, I tried setting up my first ever Bionicle Thanks Giving scene.

Unfortunately, these images were ruined by shaky hands and low shutter rate, and therefore never made it to the sharing list on websites I commonly post to.

Regardless of this fact though, I feel now is the time to bring out old photographs regardless of quality, since the theme and intention is more important than the quality at times..at least by my standards. Granted, it's a disappointment that these images, and many others came out poorly back in the day, because I didn't have stable hands and a tripod.

What's going on in the pictures? You may wonder. Lets just say Pearllight invited Pohatu and Tahu over for dinner, to introduce them to a simple Human tradition called Thanks Giving. 

Everything seemed dandy in the kitchen, until it was time to cut the turkey. Pearllight didn't use a normal knife because she couldn't find one sharp enough; so she decided to cut the meat with her plasma sword, which caramelizes the meat at every slice. 

Tahu and Pohatu flipped out though when she lifted her sword into the air; their fear, that she would cut through the table, and possibly snag them. This is why they sank in their seats and leaned back uneasily, trying not to say anything, but clearly feeling uncomfortable.

  How I made the scene

I took Barbie and dollhouse supplies, along with collected decorations that serve well for Barbie (cupboard and stove), and placed them together in an open back pantry. 

Then I placed a sheet of cardboard in the back to cover up the whole, and make a wall.

After that I posed my characters into the desired positions and captured the scene

 with the click of a button.

Final close up above. Yes, it's blurry like the other images, but was my attempt to show the body language of each figure more clearly. It still makes me laugh even though it's wavering in appearance.

I may include these pictures elsewhere in my scrap files and side line posts; my intent is to also someday remake images like these; using my gained experience and tripod for clear, enjoyable images, that don't make you feel so...dizzy.

Pearllight Nouveau- Posters and Trading Cards

Pearllight Nouveau- Poster 1

 I've been at work making one big art package consisting of two Nouveau themed posters, a set of printable trading cards, and an overall color improvement of these old Pearllight model images.

These Nouveau pictures were taken quite awhile ago, and I decided it was time to make them something more. With a couple screen saver images, and a few snazzy tweaks in Photoshop Elements; I completed two Nouveau themed posters for my six image set. 

It only seemed natural to make a two poster set, each containing a trio setting; and I must say I'm very happy with how these turned out. The celestial theme and color scheme are a great combo that say it all for Pearllight's character.

The general poster style is of course inspired and based off Alphonse Mucha's work; specifically his panel styles for the posters of the seasons. His work has flowing clothes and women; I figure, why not make ones in my own style of fluffy skirts and robots XD.

Pearllight Nouveau- Poster 2

 First and second panels were set in such a way that they're balanced, as I like to do with all my posters. First poster only has the images that don't contain pink. I placed the calmest image in the middle, and balanced the left and right side with sword poses. Also note, I place the swords images in such  a way that they point your attention around the page (which in this case, Pearllight's sword is pointing at the title from the left side in first panel of poster 1.) 

Second poster has the images containing pink, and one that serves best as a center piece. I chose the middle image in second poster to be the focus, because her blades are pointed up and are kept inside the circle, a central point. I then balanced out both sides with the images containing pink.

Pearllight Nouvea Trading Cards

My main goal has always been to make these posters into trading cards. To me, having personal trading cards of your own character is a great way to connect with others, and start a mini personal character trading card club, where each person can have cards of their personal MOC's, and trade with others to collect images of others MOC characters and have a collection of alternate characters and ideas. 

Most of all, having personal trading cards is a fun way to keep track of you art pieces as a mini collection; and for me is a form of security, knowing these art pieces will never go out of print, unlike company sold products.

The above image sheet has been rendered to be larger than a standard sheet of paper, so that when printed, will be higher quality, even if the pixels are reduced. I used the same celestial backdrop as I did in the posters, just selected a smaller section of it to make my trading card backgrounds.

 On a final note, the above images are all my Pearllight Nouvea images. Each one has been adjusted in color, and stand out more than they ever have before. Seeing that I shared the originals on Flickr, see here Pearllight Nouveau Posters and didn't feel like making another upload; I'm sharing the improved versions here on the blog, and leaving the original versions for you to view on my Flickr. The originals are very bright, and rather milky... a bit like looking at a picture in a dream. That was the theme I was going for at the time, but later decided they needed to be clearer and more vibrant, so I tweaked them and got the final images above.

Hope you enjoy looking at these old images; and one last thing is that these are picture of Pearllight's old build. I haven't yet cleaned up the pictures of her new structure yet; that project is for the upcoming future, till then, enjoy the posters. ^.~

"Desert Jelly" Berix's delivery

"Desert Jelly"

 This old digital art piece was done a long long time back; for whatever reason I made it, I'm not sure, but felt it needed an extra pop. 

 The original image, (see bottom of this post) was made as a gag. You may not be able to tell, but the character in this image is suppose to be Berix, holding a jar of jelly. Why he's holding a jar of jelly and standing in the middle of the desert is beyond me.

I remember I made this piece when sharing my art online for the first time....and if I'm remembering clearly, made this picture to share on some LEGO group. Didn't get much feed back, but it was my first time sharing something art related on a website with other Bionicle fans.

The original "story" behind this scene was sort of a snippet of Berix stopping in his tracks with a jar of jelly that may or may not have been stolen. I made the art piece while the Bionicle series was still unraveling, and therefore didn't know whether or not Berix was a thief.

Seeing that he ended up not being a thief, I thought of a funnier scenario as to why he was caught in the middle of the desert with a jar of food.

Berix happened to get a hold of a foreign jar of cranberry sauce which Pearllight gave to him. His intention, to rush across the desert with hopes of making it in time for the Thanks Giving dinner Mata Nui was holding in a small home somewhere in Tesera. (Connection image and aftermath here Bionicle Thanks Giving ) Berix heard that cranberry sauce was some kind of "special" Human food which made bird meat and stuffing taste magical. :P So he asked Pearllight for a jar he wished to give to Mata Nui as a gift of appreciation and thanks. 

With that little story, we get our final "Desert Jelly" picture. You may wonder if Berix makes it in time, the answer is yes, but he's hiding under the table so you can't see him (when in reality he was never included in the photo. XD)

Improved sky version

Deatails:

Here's what I did to improve and make "Desert Jelly"

I started with my original image, cut away the existing background, then used two different colored gradients to get a sunset sky. 

First I made a purple colored gradient and leveled it with my horizon, then added a pale yellow gradient over the purple, and adjusted transparency, 

so the under color Gradient would show through. This resulted with the left image above. I left the main clouds and made sure the sky color matched them; (gradients for sunset images are a new discovery for me, and they're great!)

Once I got my sunset sky, I felt the image needed extra; it seemed to be lacking life. So I went in and played with some texture brushes to add extra clouds to the background. This helped to add more depth to the image, and gave it that extra flair I was going for. 

Original image

During the making time of my original "Desert Jelly" image; I remember starting with the torso first of my figure, and tried drawing Berix from memory. His head came out a bit small, but none the less I did what I could at the time. 

 I'll also note that I made the clouds a sunset color, but used shades which would match the jelly in Berix's hand. Come to think of it, the clouds themselves have tones that remind me of Thanks Giving food, a funny coincidence I guess. ^.^

Bionicle Art- Autumn Slide Show

 

I made this simple video to show my small collection of Autumn based Bionicle art pieces so far. Figured this would be a great way to show it all in one place, quickly and simply.

Though I feel the video could be better than this, I 'm limited to the programs provided (Windows Movie maker 6.0 and Windows Live Movie Maker.) None the less, it was still kind of fun to make, and I'm happy to share it with you. Enjoy! ^.~
 

Also, if you're interested for the craftier side of things, you may like to drop by Pearllight Studio where I posted another recent video about glue. :D

"I'll Always Love You" LoL illustration

"I'll Always Love You"

 This illustration is an inspiration from the "Life of Lewa" series, a fan fiction I'm currently working on. In the image, Lewa (left) is receiving affection from his wife, Venimbus (right).

The picture is a random scene of affection, which hasn't yet been given a place in the story, but I'll likely find a spot to add it, since I feel every picture made should have a nook that connects onto a unique story, even if it's small. Once I do find a place for it, you'll no doubt be seeing these once random art pieces added to a meaningful story chapter in the future.

The title "I'll Always Love You" is meant to go both ways. Lewa is thinking it, and so is Venimbus; therefore the title is short, sweet, and to the point; a quality I value as part of the affectionate message this illustration is meant to portray.

 The background of this illustration (left) was made by a friend of mine; using acrylic paint and watercolor pencil. You can see her original version before I tweaked its color here Figmentrose- Jungle Background. After seeing the drawing of the two sweethearts, she was instantly inspired, and so taken by the piece that she wanted to see it on a background. This led to her making one for me to use, leaving  the editing and Photoshopping in my hands. I simply copied the image from her DA, tweaked its color to make it pop, then applied the figures, and signed our DA names so all would know the illustration was a two person project.

 Here's how "I'll Always Love You" started, and how I made it step by step. 

Tooth paste advertisement

 The drawing of Lewa and Venimbus was a four step process. 

   One day I picked up this tooth paste advertisement (right). I was in a very odd mood, and had been facing a strange emotional tug for affection. There was something about this advertisement that instantly sparked an idea, and fed that emotional feeling.

First outline on tracing paper

I saw past the two people in the picture, and dreamed of Lewa and his wife Venimbus. This urged an idea I couldn't resists, and I decided to try something fun. I used the advertisement as a guide, and placed a sheet of tracing paper over top of it; then kept the sheets together on a clip board, took out my Lewa and Venimbus figurines for reference, and started tracing their forms over the advertisement.


Drawing over human forms was slightly different since I had to avoid the nose aspect of the heads.

By the end, this resulted with the base pencil image (left). I would have done a full scale tracing, but the paper sheet wasn't long enough to fit the full advertisement.

I made a tracing paper image first, so it would be easier to see while I traced over the image a second time.

 I took my traced image, then placed a sheet of bleed proof marker paper over top. The marker sheet ended up being a tad smaller than than the tracing paper, so

I had to cut off a few of the lower details.

Final image on bleed proof paper, colored with Prismacolor marker

 I then clipped the sheets together and placed them over a tracing board with a light underneath, and drew out the figures with pen. 

     Once I was finished, I started coloring the image with Prismacolor markers, and a few cheap markers for the gray, since the Prismacolor sets didn't have that color. 

      In the end, the results were satisfying, and the characters both portrayed the emotion I yearned for. After that point, I shared it and was given a backdrop, leading to the final illustration at the top of this post. ^.^

Tahu Nuva Mask Stencil

Since I've done four Bionicle based pumpkins now, I've decided it's time to try a more complex carving; this is why I made a stencil of the Hau Nuva.
     Tahu Nuva, I think, would make a great pumpkin carving; on top of that, this stencil can be used for other projects like putting on a book cover with metallic red paint, or used for spicing up a journal page, along with other possibilities.

Whether I'll get the chance to carve the Hau Nuva onto a pumpkin this year or not is unknown, but the stencil itself is an all year round image for different uses.

Here's how I made it, with a few cheat methods in Photoshop elements.-

I pasted the picture shown left, onto a blank file in Photoshop. Then I made a base white layer, and added a translucent layer over top the mask. Next I took the selection brush tool and went over any parts of the mask I felt I needed as a guide for carving, and used the "stroke (outline) selection" option to quickly outline my selected areas. Saved time and kept me from having to outline each part by hand.

The Final design, though not absolutely perfect, turned out to be satisfying enough; and as far as I'm concerned, a little imperfection gives it that artistic charm.


You can use the stencil too for projects of your choice; just be sure to link back to this page and credit me for making it. Have fun. ^.~