Sass Juice

 It's been awhile since I've made something goofy, and this idea has been on my mind for months.

This idea bloomed shortly after I saw the picture Vakama, Toa of Sass  by Atlasavion 

Her OC, Toa Whakara, has become a very intriguing character from my own personal viewpoint, and this little joke of a sassy Vakama has spread quite a bit, started by some lone comment which led to a crazy idea that's left many with the giggles.

I felt for Whakara, this is when I dreamed of  Atlasavion's character falling into a void dimension where my OC, Pearllight, is having tea and taking a break. What kind of tea? An herbal tea that I actually do drink, the two herb names my fuel of inspiration for this comic. Sassafras instantly made me think of sassy Vakama and the pitiful Whakara, which led to the idea of Whakara being introduced to a drink with the word sass in it.

At last, Whakara believes he may have found a drink that can level the playing field against the sass of Vakama, and swipes the drink from Pearllight, who can only wonder what dimension Whakara fell from, and since when was Vakama sassy? She's use to the odd scenarios of dimensional travel seeing she does it herself, and recognized Whakara's mask, figuring he took a wrong turn, willing to have tea time with a stranger anyway. 

 A bit more on the art, I've included the messy sketch base because it was so relaxing to slap down the concepts for this comic. You can see what lies under the details and colors when I first start a drawing.

As I added detail to the first panel, I just kept laughing at how Whakara came out, starting to love his character even more as I drew him.

I'll admit it, I love the design of Whakara. Something about him that holds a lot of interesting, mysterious traits, like the fact his shoulder plating is missing on his right arm, bringing the question of how did that happen, and who tore it off? But overall I just like his character, and had fun drawing him next to mine.

When it came to getting down the details, I used two references, images from Atlasavion, and also a peek at Be Reasonable Whakara by Saronicle. I found Saronicle added details to Whakara's character that made him even more interesting in some ways, having an almost Egyptian feel to his plating, the color scheme of his character gearing towards that style. Seeing this was the first time I've ever drawn him, I combined a few details I liked from Saronicle's work, and added them to the base details of his original design of Atlasavion's work.

Bionicle Mini Book

 A fun combination of two interests, Bionicle and book making. This mini album is a great place to hold MOC pictures or art pertaining to the theme.

 I've had this pre-made mini album in my paper pile for awhile, always planning to use it for something like this, just had to decide what to put in the picture window. 

I went through several ideas, one was to add the Mata Nui robot form in the middle of some light rays, or possibly put the three virtues symbol in the window, but in the end I decided the Ignika was a good choice.

During the process of making this book, I came to realize the main reason I've held onto Bionicle as a fandom for so long is because I like the artistic aspects of it, everything from the designs, colors, symbols, and themes.

 

 The back side of the book is plain, I kept it simple and liked it. I'll note the Ignika design was fun to make into an embellishment; I'll explain at the end of this post how I did it.

 The book needed charms, thankfully I had this planned too, and got to use some pre-made paper charms with metal frames I've been meaning to try out. 

I added the charms and chain using some black jump rings.

 The three virtues symbol and Tahu's fire symbol were embossed onto the charms using silver and sparkly red emboss powder.

 On one side of the rectangle charm I wrote in white jell pen (LEGO Bionicle) in Matoran lettering, on the other I embossed the word Bionicle in my own text style.

 I liked adding two sides to my charms.

  

On the other side of the element symbol charm is Lewa's symbol, embossed in green. I chose Tahu's and Lewa's symbols because I had the powder colors for them, plus I like Lewa, and Tahu is the poster character for Bionicle. 

On the other side of the charm with the three virtues symbol, I listed the three virtues since that makes sense. Again I wrote it in my own style and outlined it with a white glaze pen.

 Onto the details. The mini album is a DCWV mini album with picture window, which means I didn't have to assemble the book, it's complete with blank white pages.

The more enjoyable experiment was embossing the designs of my charms and main picture. I did an experiment to see if you could emboss using a ZIG glue pen, turns out you can. I drew over the designs and lettering of my charms and main image using the glue pen, then poured on my powder. Because the tip of the pen is relatively small, I was able to pull off tinier details, no longer needing to use a liquid emboss adhesive and paint brush to emboss a drawing or object. 

I will make one note though, the melting process may not be entirely smooth like it would with actual emboss adhesives, but I find the texture to be charming anyway. 

To finish off my charms and window image, I used glaze and glues. I sealed my window image with Liquitex gloss varnish. and for my charms I used Mod Podge dimensional magic.

Takua the Videogamer

 "Takua, we're suppose to be at Turaga Vakama's hut."

"Hang on Jaller, I just gotta finish my high score!"

Been awhile, I know, but I managed to work up some energy to make this. Let's take a trip down memory lain, I've been so longing for an escape, an adventure, that I delve back into the early MNOG (Mata Nui Online Game). I smiled as I thought once more on what it would be like to tag along with Takua on some of his adventures, recalling the funny little device known as the book of chronicles he was given from Nokama. 

It was then I reflected on how this little computer looked like an odd alien gameboy or one of those hand held game devices from the 80's. On that thought I could see Takua secretly playing games on the device when he's suppose to be chronicling events, Jaller displeased when he discovers Takua's little secret.

 I have two versions of the image, one vignette and the full view. I felt the vignette looked better and focused on the scene more. The tree stump, grasses, and characters were drawn on vellum paper, inked, then colored with mostly marker and a bit of colored pencil.

I found lighting to be a bit tricky, still rather rusty in that. After scanning the picture, I added it to a scanned watercolor image my brother made for me, everything melding together nicely in the end.

Love Struck Gresh comic

With Valentine's Day coming up, I figured now is the time to share this, a small comic portraying a love struck Gresh and the classic concept of Tahu winning Gali's feelings.

"Love Struck" is inspired off of Saronicle's Gali and Gresh stop motion from so long ago, a name mentioned in the intro of this comic. The theme is silly, rightfully so, and is not to be taken seriously.

I remember when I was younger the videos nudged me towards the Deviant Art community where I found Saronicle had her own page and all that jazz. I liked the fact someone else wasn't afraid to deviate from the considered formalities of canon, able to think outside the box and reach towards the bizarre and amusing, much like myself. I mentioned about this before on the Deviant Art post Heart Hit.

For easier reading of the above and following, feel free to check out the PDF version of this comic.

Some details about the project: Backgrounds consist of scrapbook paper with added elements like Barbie toys. Valentines and heart frames are scrapbook die cuts, and the final scene has its own post called Gresh Pin Up.

 The fun doesn't end on the final scene before closing, imagery in the comic can make sweet, nerdy Valentines. This picture is my official choice for a Valentine card. For those who wonder how I got this shot, I held up a die cut frame, closed one eye, and took a picture through the heart window.

Ta Koro Kolhii Poster

Ta Koro kolhii field. Can you feel the heat? A game well played by Toa and Matoran alike. 

 I mentioned on my main blog that I've been on a slight hiatus from Bionicle fan art, but of course I try again to bring myself out of this nearly one month long reluctance.

Personal feelings have taken a roll in my break, but no, I won't avoid my hobby for long, still liking this art form, regardless of aggravations that come along the way. 

As a warm up image (ironic since this is Ta Koro themed) to pull myself out from behind the door, I made a basic poster using an image from one of my existing comics Silvermask Not Jaller. This picture represents my OC named Silvermask, but his form is Jaller's, the comic makes sense of it a bit more. Anyway, I wanted to use this image as an anonymous fire type (could even be Toa Jaller this time) for the scene, being reminded of Ta Koro's kolhii match in the first Bionicle movie by the armor plating that the figure puts on. It reminded me of Jaller and Takua with their funny little arm plates. 

I've always imagined kolhii being a more dangerous and thrilling sport if played by Toa. 

For those rough in Matoran, it says, "Be a champion".

I gave my hand at making a digital watercolor background resembling Ta Koro's kolhii field, then posterized my character to make him look more painted and part of the setting.

Say Something Ero

"Say Something". There comes a time where we have to let things go.

 "I love you, but you don't love me....I have to accept that and live without you, even though it hurts. I'm leaving you be, because I love you."

This image has been on my mind for a long time, the idea originating from the song "Say Something" from A Great Big World. The words and emotion put into this song inspired an idea that remained concept for a future chapter in the Life of Lewa fan fiction, the idea itself relating to personal feelings and experiences of my own, expressed through one of my main characters with a slightly different scenario twist.

 The image of Erozion walking off into the evening after dropping his phone on the ground is from a day dream I had while listening to "Say Something". As a concept in the story, Erozion met a girl he really liked, and he pursued her because he loved her, but she took that the wrong way, and in fear she abandoned him, not wanting to hear his side of the story, not wanting to understand his pain, not able to handle the truth of Erozion's life. He knew she didn't want him and didn't care, so he stopped pursuing, but he never stopped loving, just knew he meant nothing to her.

How that relates to my own personal scenario, let's just say it connects to a friendship I had at one time which crumbled away through the years and eventually led to me realizing how much I'm actually worth to that person. 

To better express the mood of this image, I made this video that includes both the Bionicle version, and the normal version of the image, displayed to an edited version of the song.

This rendition of "Say Something" is a cover done by Dano Feehan and Elissa Ebersold. I found the MP3 for free download on Elissa's blog, right here http://elisitagayle.blogspot.com/2013/12/say-something-cover-of-great-big-world.html This was the first time I had ever heard the song, and loved it, but wanted to tweak it slightly to fit the idea blossoming in my head. Because I dreamed of a phone call being dropped (in the literal sense) when I listened to this song, I wanted to open the song with a radio sound like the music is playing through the cell phone, and then it goes from being gray to full color when the song becomes normal as the story is told, and then it ends with the radio sound like we're focusing back on the phone again, closing the story with a pan over of the normal image instead of the Bionicle image, showing two worlds, same concept.

I actually found the song more thrilling because of how I found it. First I checked out Elissa's Deviant Art page http://elisitagayle.deviantart.com/. So happens she does Bionicle art too, then I noticed in one of her journal entries she mentioned she does singing. I was especially thrilled to know this because I too am a vocalist who does Bionicle art work alongside other things, hence my higher appreciation for the song. I was actually a bit disappointed that her voice was less noticeable in the song, her voice being part of the background and not in the lead, but I guess that's how the song is suppose to be.

Regardless, I'm happy I found it, and glad to say it inspired me.

For the curious eyes, here's the normal version of the picture. I used a doll, scrapbook paper, an old cell phone, some creative lighting, and digital editing.

Tropical Punch

What a scene! Tropical punch, taste the victory. ;P

How did I come to this idea? The story is rather simple, one day while I was clothes shopping I saw a sign on the wall that said tropical punch, suddenly my mind scrambled this with several things I had been looking at recently, and then I imagined the Toa Nuva punching Skakdi.

What do you get when a group if island robots are in a wrestling match? Tropical punch of course, and all the flavors to match their color schemes. 

The song that kick started this image is by Te Vaka, called "Tamatoa".

  Have a listen while looking at this picture and enjoy. XD

Come on, who doesn't want to see the heroes kicking Skakdi skid plates. And for the record, this is the first time I've ever drawn the Skakdi. 

I also got a bit tired near the end and cheated on shading of the page, but hey, for such a simple concept it doesn't need to be perfect I guess.