Snow Ball Agori

 Before this month is over, being that it's the last day of January, I wanted to share an old art piece I did of a snow Agori and Pearllight getting ready to throw a snowball at him.

I made this picture as an experiment, where I was trying out acrylic paints on scrapbook paper for the first time. I started with an outfit concept, and drew out Pearllight with that in mind. Then I felt she needed to be looking at something, so I filled the blank spot with an Agori.

I do believe I did a picture similar to this once, with the idea of a snow ball fight in mind, I just can't remember where I put it. The proportions are on the squished side, but this is an old picture after all, and I've gotten better at structure since then. I still like it for the cute aspect behind it; Pearllight getting ready to throw a snow ball at a shielded Agori who's smiling, knowing he's not going to get hit. He was also showing off his new shield to Pearllight, who decides to put it to the test.

For a little more silliness, here's a little day dream story behind the picture.

("Hey Pearllight!" shouts a perky ice Agori, "Check this out, it's my new shield. Pretty coll huh?" Pearllight looks over and smiles, nodding her head. Pearllight was playing in the snow, and scooped a big glob of it up with her mittens. While the Agori was paying attention to the igloo Pearllight built, Pearllight took the opportunity to have a little fun. She titters and hides behind a mound of snow she calls her fort, and when the ice Agori turns around, he suddenly feels a whack on his shield, and noticed a blob of snow sticking to the front. Pearllight snickers from behind the mound, and the Agori smiles; "I get it, you little stinker." Pearllight pokes her head out from behind the mound and says, "Just thought I'd put your new shield to the test." The Agori snickers and shakes his head, holding up his shield again and says, "Well then, lets have a second round." Pearllight grins, "Second round coming up!" The Agori didn't realize how many snowballs Pearllight had made in that short amount of time, and found himself in a heavy ambush. By the end his shield survived above the snow, but what could be seen of the Agori was a foot and twitching hand. Pearllight didn't realize how fast she was at throwing, and came over to yank the poor Agori out of the snow. He looked up dazed, and Pearllight started brushing him off, then invited him to the igloo for a nice warm cup of hot chocolate before the evening was over.)

This is the image before I increased the blue, figured it needed to be less yellow in tint, but this one still has a pleasant aged feel.

Travels of Frona, book 1

 Travels of Frona, a two part graphic novel, will take you on an icy adventure through unknown lands.

The above image is the front cover for book one. I assembled each panel of this two part graphic novel in a way that will allow me to print out miniature version of this comic, which will be assembled by using a simple accordion fold and glue. I will do this for both books, and will share a video on how they're made at a later time. On the right side of the front cover is the inner cover, which is the introduction for book one.

This graphic Novel is my first try at making a full blown 2 part comic, composed of old winter photography. When I first took the photographs of my Bionicle doing stuff in the snow, I sort of had a story in mind, but really didn't know what it was. For many years I left these pictures in their folder, never feeling confident in making them into something more. But now, as of this year, I decided it was time to tell a tale that's been hidden for so long in all these images; and thus, Travels of Frona was born.

I split the comic into two parts, feeling it would be too large to throw all of it your way at once. I will be clear on something though; I invented this comic not as a perfect piece of literature slapped onto imagery, but as an art piece made to display all the images in a chronological order, helping to tell the tale behind each one. The story itself is highly simplistic... in fact, I just sort of winged it when it came to dialogue and text that explains a few things here and there through the book. In other words, this comic is made to display the imagery, and the story behind them is just an extra bit slapped on. 

Book two is still being made, text and speech bubbles are yet to be added. For now, please enjoy the following panels of book one. ^_^

                                Front inner page                                                          Back cover

 Panel 1

 Panel 2

 Panel 3

   Panel 4

 Panel 5

 Panel 6

 Panel 7

Panel 8

                              Inner back page                                                     Inner back cover

Cup Cake Lewa, birthday card

 Cup cake Lewa, a specialty birthday card, has been made for an old friend of mine who's 15'th birthday is coming up this Monday; which is why in the above picture I hid a wonky 15 in the glitter coming off the cup cake. ^_~

I felt Lewa would be the best choice for a card, being that he was my friend's favorite character, and the main character she use to role play for the "Life of Lewa" series.

I took many photos of him, then added in a confetti background, complete with a jolly tree speak greeting, "Make a dream-wish!". I felt that was perfect to top off the birthday greeting, and include lots of memory through a fun character. I might also mention that Lewa is dressed and built the way he was back in 2010 when the Life of Lewa series was still being role played. Costume complete with sash and snake medallion.

While I was at it, I made four more cards with the other multiple photos I took, and threw them together as a card series I call "Cup Cake Lewa" greeting cards. You can find the whole set on my Flickr here http://www.flickr.com/photos/76669336@N04/sets/72157632553600901/ Or you can view the four other cards below. This series, to me, makes a great set of birthday cards to light anyone's day if they like Bionicle and cup cakes. ^_^

Happy viewing. ^_^

Thanks for 1000 views, Pearllight poster

I made this poster specifically for marking a special moment on DA; that moment when my page finally reaches the 1000 page view mark.

I started the poster today, finished the poster today, and..... received 1000 page views on DA today! Now my poster is officially posted on DA as a thank you to all who visit my page, watch my page, and appreciate my art.

Behind the scenes extra on this poster: I used a homemade cloud backdrop, inserted a common desktop image I've used in many art pieces before, surrounded the image and placed Pearllight on a chair made of Nouveau motifs, and used a photograph of Pearllight that I took long ago.

About that detail actually; this old Pearllight photograph came from a series of Pearllight photos I took and made into Pearllight Nouveau trading cards (someday to be shared). This specific one belonging to a set of several images where Pearllight is sitting down, isn't included in the main set of Pearllight Nouveau trading cards, but I'm considering the idea of making a second special edition poster card set containing the Pearllight sitting pretty photos. That's another project for the possible future, and I will remember it as an idea.

One of the main elements, the cloud backdrop I made, is actually an element I used for the main set of Pearllight trading cards, just lacks her symbol. I also have this poster saved as a normal image without the extra message, figured it helps to have both. 

That's all for now, stay tuned for more fun stuff in the near future. ^_~

Lone Traveler

The lone traveler, a picture taken back several winters ago, is what I consider one of the most photogenic Bionicle images I've ever done.

The figure walking in this image is named Frona, an MOC that has existed in my collection of characters since 2009.

I feel this picture captures the beauty of winter, and gives that sense of being determined and on your own. To me the lighting, which hasn't been enhanced in any way, captures the beauty and color of this female ice type and her steadfast determination wonderfully. Even her blue mask scope glows radiantly in the sun.

I consider this to be a postcard, poster, and book cover image. The reason I'm finally sharing this picture after so many years of keeping it away, is because I've been working on a little something you may enjoy. I've been assembling a two part graphic novel called, "Travels of Frona". There are a total of 32 pages when both books are combined. I'm making the comic not so much for the story purpose, but more as an art piece. The pictures are the most important part, and I figured they would make more sense in comic form.

There's quite a bit of work involved though, so I have some ways to go before the comics will be posted for all to see. But until I do get around to that day, you may enjoy looking at all the base images just as photographs, not comic panels, the way they were to begin with; so here is my newest flickr set containing all the base images from "Travels of Frona". http://www.flickr.com/photos/76669336@N04/sets/72157632500694020/ Enjoy. ^_^

Ice Towers of Knowledge

A long time ago I gave my hand at trying something more background related. These ice towers are based off of the knowledge towers of Ko-Metru. At the time I was again rather secretive about Bionicle being an inspiration to my work, but these towers were purely based off the idea.

Since they really didn't show much of what the Ko-Metru Knowledge towers looked like, I invented my own versions. I figure some of them could be fancier than others, and have metal supports that serve as decoration. That's what the silver is on the towers. The domed tower on the left would be the building for quiet study and reading. At the top floor with the domed roof would be a massive library full of astrological charts, rock samples, and books having to do with the celestial bodies. On the right is the observatory tower, which is why the top of it has a telescope sticking out of it. These two towers were built to be efficient and work together, and are likely connected by an ice bridge for scholars of both towers to share information.

In the background I just felt it needed an massive mountain; and a gray, snow filled sky. I figure these towers may be important, so they're built near a mountain to make them difficult to intrude. Not to mention Ko-Matoran prefer absolute silence, and very little noise reaches beyond those cliffs.

This was actually one of my few first tries in making a landscape scene, and I'm actually surprised that I managed to make it look so cold and snowy, even though I have very little experience in texture technique. I'm also surprised that this picture still looks pretty good for it being about four some years old or so, maybe a little older than that.