Life Sized Lewa Drawing

 Finally... here's a long overdue blog post I've put off sharing since the first post I created of it elsewhere on March 17, 2010..I do believe it was. I give to you, the full sized Lewa Phantoka drawing I did three years ago.

The incredible part is, the drawing is huge, yes, but to think at the time I didn't know I was actually missing a few inches for the actual true size of an average Toa. Toa are said to be 7' 2'' on average, but the drawing I made is seven foot.

It was my dream and strong desire to make something that could help me visualize the actuality of something from fantasy. The closest thing I could think of to make that dream a reality was to attempt making a full scale drawing of one of my favorite characters. My luck struck in for this full scale fantasy when I found a large sheet of banner paper at a craft store. I was entirely exited, though I knew how much work it would take to make this dream drawing.

First thing I did was measure out my head size onto the paper sheet, then I measured proper length and cut the sheet to size. From there I had a long day set out for me, and all of it spent in the hallway. I stood up on a step stool and taped the scroll to the wall and floor, then picked up my pencil and Lewa figurine and got to work. Judging my head size as reference to that of the Lewa figurine, I measured out the rest of his body according to that scale. Shoulders ended up being about three feet in width. I used a yardstick to aid me in making it as clean as I could; and from the time of starting it, to end of inking it, I spent a total of 15 hours in one day, making this drawing. By the time I was done, I was tired as midnight started nearing, and I sat on the floor gazing up at my very first full sized masterpiece; all I could think is, "So that's what Lewa would be like".

There were a few complications during time of work. My neck cramped if I looked up too long, by back cramped if I stood there too long, and during my time spent on a step stool while sketching, I gave the wall my very own pencil smudge hand print... oops. Thankfully that last mistake was cleanable, and forgiven.

Inking the piece was a pain since I used a marker to do it. A few times I feared I was going to run out of ink...next time a brush and ink method I do believe is in order. Why do I say next time..? Well, even after making something this large, I still have some leftover paper; and I was thinking about trying another character someday...maybe Tahu or Pohatu. I know that next time around I may have better luck with proportions and symmetry too.

Below is a second photo taken during this year over the back door. I took it because I didn't know if I liked being in the image.... but after viewing it again, I realized standing beside it helped show its scale; that and the drawing was right next to a door frame for even better reference of how big the drawing really is. So it's official, I decided that the original is still better, but it looked more pleasing as a black and white image. 

 There you have it guys, let your dreams run wild, and think BIG. ^.~

Prank call

 The Hero Factory rookies get a distress call from the planet of Bara Magna by a few Agori up to mischief. Their idea, a prank call; when the Hero Factory team arrives they do find trouble, on their own heads. The Agori watch from behind a rock and laugh as the slave driver Sahmad chases them across the desert for the slave market.

This was all a simple day dream, and I set out to make it a sketch and art piece as of recently. I'm considering making another half to this image as a mini comic; a before scene of the two Agori pranksters discussing the idea and making the call, then a pan over of them laughing their heads off after the scene above is shown. That of course is a future project idea, and may never get finished; depends on my mood and if anyone likes the idea to make more for this scene.

Process: I started out with a pencil sketch (below) that at first seemed like a challenge, but turned out more quickly then I expected. After a moment of thinking I decided to put it on the computer and outline it digitally. After that whole process I printed it out on some heavy weight, textured card stock. The coloring process is mixed media, consisting mostly of colored pencil with a little marker and jell pen. Last step was to scan it again, add some background color digitally, and complete the piece with speech bubbles and text.

 

Rahkshi Fashion

I've finally finished. After nearly two months of on and off work, I've finished both my Rahkshi fashion panels.

My original intent didn't quite look like this in my mind. It all started out as a simple day dream of what if Pearllight dressed up as a Rahkshi to keep the creatures calm while she was around them. This lead to the interesting concept of Rahkshi themed fashion. The original concept in my mind started out as a helmet idea for humans, with a costume made of mostly cloth and the accessory being the elemental staff of each creature. After that inspiration, I set out to make two fashion panels based off of the six main Rahkshi; as I worked though the idea itself decided to go its own way, and instead of fabric costumes with Rahkshi helmets, I ended up drawing full blown Rahkshi armor for women. It's still fashion in a sense, but it seems the idea became more then that too; it ended up becoming both fashion, and the concept of what Rahkshi might look like if they were human, and female.

I'll give details of inspiration on the suits further down, but first a few things about the panels. The first
panel contains all the brightly colored Rahkshi; being fear, poison, and disintegration. Since I was warming up to sketching on the first panel, the positions aren't as interesting as the second, which to me is a shame because I love the bright colors. Turahk was the first to be drawn, which is why the costume looks different from the rest of them. I was sort of working with the concept still, so the shoes and armor ended up with a slightly different style; but once I made Lerahk I settled with a more stable design.
    
The second panel contains the earth tone Rahkshi; being fragmentation, anger, and absorption. Notice the drawings became a little more expressive in positions, and the models became meatier and more hardy compared to the first panel. I started gaining a better feel for sketching after I finished drawing Guurahk; and gained the right idea of what the second panel would be like. My main intention was to make Panrahk a hardy, well built model that consisted weight to it. Reason being is because I researched the different Rahkshi as I drew, and Panrahk is said to be extremely heavy, so I made the model appear hardy, and settled with that look for the last two.
 
  A little note on color placement in the panels; I purposely split the colors so they were in appealing order. With the first panel, I put Lerahk in the middle so that the green would split up the contrast of red and blue. If Turahk and Guurahk were side by side, they would have clashed, and Lerahk would look out of place on the edge, so I put green in the middle to help pull it all together. Same goes for the second panel; I purposely placed Kurahk in the middle, being that anger is the lightest and the other two are in dark shades. So I put Panrahk and Vorahk on either side of Kurahk, to balance out the light/dark contrast. Another thing I did as a specialty for the middle panels was give the models hair. Lerahk having black pigtails, and Kurahk having flowing hair that goes all over, expressing her anger.
  
 Each character has a face and body language that helps slightly express each element. Fear has a face that expresses evil pleasure in frightening beings, poison smirks as she clouds the ground with toxin, disintegration half smiles with a face that implies she'll destroy you for fun like she's destroying the rock in her hand that crumbles to the ground as dust, fragmentation has a softer face that's more concentrated as she cracks the earth beneath her feet with an expression that says *come and get me*; anger has a scowling face and hair that floats in her rage, her fingers tensing into an open hand fist like she wants to tear your heart out, and absorption has a face of smugness from being pleased with the new Toa energy she holds in her hand.

 The costumes are based off both the set versions, and the movie versions of Rahkshi. The set versions were used as reference for the classic helmet design and the added element staffs. The suits themselves though were inspired by the movie versions; being that their structures were more organic in base, made designing easier when it came to applying the concept to a human. A large majority of the Rahkshi fashion panels were inspired and based off the images below.

     

The final inspiration for my Rahkshi fashion was this cyberpunk costume with its astounding LED computer chip spine. The spine to the costume reminded me of Rahkshi the very minute I saw it. And this costume shows that it would be very possible to pull off Rahkshi fashion for cos-play if you can afford it. It's truly an illuminating idea, in more then one sense... ^_^ The cos-player herself has a DA, and here's link to her page http://melell.deviantart.com/ for more great photos.

Hope you enjoyed the process explanation and art. Happy imagining. ^.~

Specialty for St. Patrick's Day

 

Hello everybody! Being that it's St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to share an image that I absolutely love, created by the artists known as Disturbulator on Deviant Art. His image "Toa Nuva Heritage" is by all means what I would consider the most playful and festive image I could think of for today's holiday.

Before I get right into details about my personal likes on this picture, here's a link to Disturbulator's page for more great art.  http://disturbulator.deviantart.com/ ^_^

For starters, if this image were made into a greeting card for today's holiday, I would buy one. The thing I love most about this picture is the way emotion has been captured. Lewa's expression and body language says it all, to the point where I can just hear him joyfully tree speaking about the drinks. When a picture says everything without saying a word, you know you've done it right.

I also love the simplicity of the picture, and added Nuva symbol. The composition itself with the Irish pub-like lettering, in my opinion, would make a perfect poster for hanging in an Irish pub if those actually existed in the Bionicle universe. I can also see this being used as the billboard sign outside a Bionicle pub.^.^

Now for a little fun! Every time I look at this picture, all I can hear is a song done by The High Kings called,"Whiskey in the Jar" window for this peppy tune right below. Hope you guys have a great Sunday, And cheers to Disturbulator for his comical art piece! ^_^

Nidhiki Golf

Hey everybody, check this out; my newest art piece for a small contest on my DA, to make a picture of the classic dark hunters Nidhiki and Krekka having a friendly game of golf.

The details were given in a journal entry from the group I'm part of called, TheOrderofMataNui. For record purposes, here's the link to that journal entry. http://my.deviantart.com/art/Quick-dA-Points-Freebie-2-353351179  Being that I was the first to enter, I won first place. :D The contest holder was very pleased with the picture, his comment, "This is amazing! Much better than expected. I love it! ^_^". He was also starting to feel like no one was going to join the contests, since he started it at the beginning of the month, and no one seemed to care, until I finally dropped my link below the journal entry. And even more fun news is that I received the bonus points for adding Turaga Dume into the picture in a fun way; so instead of nine points, I got 12. ^.^

I was thinking about adding some text bubble to this picture, but decided to leave them out and just write what I could hear the characters saying in description. As I quoted on my DA below this picture:  (As I made this image I could just hear these two talking, where Krekka says, "Ehhh, you sure ya doin it right..?" and Nihiki says, "Of course I'm sure! Now shut up and let me put...")

Details: The picture is hand drawn, inked; and colored with colored pencils, marker, and jell pen. The only color that didn't show up after scanning is the light blue I used on the sky... oh well.

Gresh and Marine

 Happy Valentines Day everybody! These two pictures are strictly from my old role play series, Life of Lewa. Back in the Frona Cupid post I gave some history on her origin, and mentioned about the specialty Valentines Day episodes; those very episodes included much more than Frona Cupid and her insanity, and these photos are another peek at what followed after.

In the late evening after all had been fixed and Frona was back in her normal mind, we pan over to a simple love scene. The character to the left is Marine, I'll speak more about her at a later time. In these scenes Gresh and Marine are sharing a simple, sweet moment, holding hands and hugging. The two were naturally attracted to each other, and they let people believe it was just another pixie problem; a mischievous way of hiding their embarrassment. Reflecting back on this scene, I do believe Gresh made an engagement announcement, the tale was played so long ago it's hard for me to remember how it went exactly. But he engaged Marine, which is why she's hugging him tenderly below.

These pictures in my opinion make a great set of Valentines cards. I just wanted to share them with you, even though I do plan to use them again if I ever rewrite the series for Life of Lewa, and include pictures amongst the writing.

A few details on how I did these scenes. I used my Fairytopia Barbie set and placed it outside in the right lighting, then posed the characters and took some pictures. 

Frona Cupid

 Valentines day is just around the corner; coming up next Thursday to be precise. I've waited a year just to get these up, and now here they are! Two pictures of Frona cupid out of the 16 picture collection from 2010.

I went for two different styles, one where she's wearing a pink skirt (above), and the other where she's wearing all red (below). I also made the addition where her double blade harp could be used as a set of wings.

The collection of photos is rather comical, made to be like trade able Valentine's Day cards. Someday I plan to make a set of trading cards out of the 16 pictures, make them look even better by adjusting the lighting, possibly adding a border, and flaring them up to fit that dazzled Valentine's Day card look. For now though, they will stay comical photos.

The theme I was going for in these photos, with the sparkly pink curtain backdrop, and silky pink flooring, was sort of a music stage. I wanted it to look like Frona was all dressed up for Valentines day, and was invited to sing at an evening Valentines day party. That's why I made it look like she was standing on a silky pink, carpet covered stage, with sparkly pink curtains in the background.

Now for some history behind these pictures, and the Frona cupid design.

Back in 2010 the long lasting Bionicle fan fiction, Life of Lewa, an inspiration ignited by a friend of mine; contained many odd episodes which could be rather twisted and mind glitching, in the sense that you wouldn't expect the sort of stuff we played to be thrown in with Bionicle. During the month of February, we decided to have a little fun by playing a few Valentines themed episodes; it's during these episodes I invented Frona Cupid. Now you may remember Frona being mentioned in previous posts; "Travels of Frona" for instance, a small graphic novel revolving around her, shows you that she's clearly an ice type. So you may be wondering why she suddenly became Frona Cupid, a white, gold, and red figure; and that's where the Valentine's day episodes from LoL comes in. During these episodes, a love pixie from an alternate fairytale universe makes her way into their world, causing mischief by powdering people with her love dust, a sparkly pink powder which has the same affect as Cupid's arrows if inhaled. This fairy caused trouble all over the land, but things got personal for the Toa Nuva when this love pixie shot Frona. Frona was on the beach at the time, and when she inhaled the powder it affected her differently; it changed her armor, and it made her as bold and crazy as the pixie that shot her, (thankfully the dust wears off after a few days). Frona became a slight threat to the personal lives of Lewa and Tahu while she was in cupid mode, and here's why; when Frona was hit she fell in love with the first being she saw, that poor soul being Lewa. She wanted him instantly, but he refused, telling her he was engaged to the beautiful Venimbus. In her jealousy, Frona shot Venimbus with a reverse beam from her scope. A reverse beam is an ability Frona  possesses, which can cause any mind to reverse back to an earlier state of their life, making them believe it's still the time line they were living in so long ago. This was bad for Lewa, because Venimbus believed the air types and jungle types were still at war, and that Lewa was her enemy. Lewa sought to cure her, and succeeds, but that is part of another tale. 

     Now as for Tahu, he was affected in a personal way because he got shot by the love pixie, and the first being he saw was a crazy Frona Cupid. That riled up Gali, and Gali asked Lewa to help. Lewa found an antidote that stops the affects of love dust, and he shot Tahu in the rear with a miniature arrow that was tipped with the stuff. Tahu was very angry, but soon woke up to realize how much trouble this pixie was causing. The rest of the tale won't be crammed into this history, but now you get where Frona Cupid came from.

When Frona woke up from her insanity, she came to like the color scheme she was wearing, and embraced it as a joke, dressing up as Frona Cupid during Valentines day, and performing for parties on the occasion.

For all 16 photos to this collection of Frona Cupid cards, please visit my Flickr set here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/76669336@N04/sets/72157629407741113/ ^_~