Lunch Buddy

"Lunch Buddy"

Those times where day dreams are small, but sweet. Not sure why I dedicated my time to such a small concept, but the theme just moved me.

This image relates to a possible moment in the Pearllight Origins story or in an alternate dimension concept. It came from a day dream of a little girl trying to see what's on the counter, hungry for lunch and trying to get a peek at what's being made. This idea then mixed with the thought of how being around a Toa can make you feel like a child when they're so tall and you're on the short side, this feeling being partly how Pearllight feels around them when not in armor. So here she is trying to get a look at lunch, feeling as a child as she gets on tip toes to see what's happening at the kitchen counter built for a giant.

Creating the environment of a Toa's kitchen was kind of fun. I tried to keep things looking efficient, while also showing it's still tribal and island like. Lots of wood and organic materials, iron pans, ceramic bowls and jars, a cob oven with stone top stove, and preparation of food being done on a very large leaf since this home is either in the jungle, or somewhere near the beach.

Who the green guy is...I'm not sure. My original day dream was Lewa, but then I felt it should be someone else, partly because I draw Lewa so often, and his mask is hard to draw from behind. Perhaps this character is one of his friends, or maybe his form morphed temporarily. :P

One thing I did enjoy was designing the clothes on Pearl; the colors make me happy. The thing I'm more iffy about is lighting and shading.....I feel a need to improve in that area, but still lack some experience for it.

Hau Nuva Pumpkin

 I'm so happy to have this made. :) It seems I do a pumpkin carving every two years, and always after Halloween has passed. :P I listed the stencil for the Hau Nuva back in 2013, and now I've gotten to make my fourth Bionicle themed pumpkin.

 This year it only took several hours to make my carving from start to finish, the most time spent on scraping out a large amount of flesh from the inside since my details weren't the deepest, and carving deeper became difficult seeing the woodcarving tools are becoming dull. Total time minus breaks I'd guess about four some hours.

 Thankfully the camera still managed to pick up on the faint glow, my favorite picture being the one above with the illusion of an outlined mouth and eyes that appear to have glowing pupils.

Of coursse a side view of both cheeks is a fun way to show off details.

 The main thing I noticed was the heat coming off the two small tea candles placed inside. It made me amused and I had a day dream where I'm snapping pictures of the hot Tahu. xP

I'll admit, it was awkward too, I blew out the candles through his mouth hole because I didn't feel like turning the whole pumpkin around. My mothers side remark, "Must be the French way". :P I did find it oddly amusing.

Here's a view of it with lights on. Fun trivia, I didn't choose the pumpkin, it was brought home to me, which means it had some warts and blemishes I found a way to incorporate into the piece.

Note, Tahu has some warts (left). XD But the blemish I found was even more amusing is the mark on his left cheek (middle and right). This was a rough spot in the pumpkin, a bit more wood like and difficult to carve. 

I purposely placed the stencil around the area in such a way that it served as a partial infection beginning on his Kanohi from the poisonous scratch he received in the movie. This mark just coincidentally ended up on the proper side of his mask just like in the film. An infected and grouchy Tahu is a great scary theme if you ask me. ^.^

I noticed this particular carving pumpkin was rather dry compared to ones I've worked on in the past. I believe that's partly the reason it was more difficult to cut.

You can see here the close up details, notice how dry the flesh is, even after only briefly sitting. Cutting the eye holes and mouth was the final step, and then it was candle time.

Big N Tall Shopping comic

 Some of you may recall the Big N Tall Shopping image included in this comic. Funny questions followed about what the other three Toa would be wearing, several of those questions pertaining to Kopaka. His first shirt quote was a suggestion from someone on Google+.

All the shirt designs in this comic were fun to design, especially Onua's. All the other shirt quotes were just a result of my zany brainstorming.

A joke had followed about Kopaka, people wondering where he was. For one moment I thought he might not be there at all, and preferred the coffee shop in the mall, which connects onto the other comic strip "No Mask, No Service". I decided though that I'd include Kopaka somewhere, and the comic developed from there, the fancy suit idea coming from a conversation on Deviant Art with a fan of my work. :P

The rest of the comic melded out into a second page where I found a way to combine a few day dreams once separate ideas, into this comic. Turaga Files and Tie Time Lewa were both separate at one point in my sketch book. Gave me a good excuse to add more puns to my pages. :D