Concept - Guardians

Guardians, or 'squids,' patrol the outer limits of the cities, keeping the citizens in check and in fear. While the more humanoid guardians keep 'peace' in the hightown areas, the 'squids' keep it in the cliffs, spiraling around the base of the peak, making sure that no one attempts to venture into the poisoned clouds below.

Concept - Skyvein Creature Sheet

Complied a list of what I definitely need to do (or redo) for my portfolio. Hopefully, I'll finish the list in Florida over the next couple of months (while doing four pages of comic a week and two hours of languages...I'm an over-achiever!) so that I can start applying for internships and jobs...do I want to do that already? I sort of just want to go out and see everything -- there's so much to see! I'm going to Argentina, officially, the end of January 2013. But I also want to bike the UK and train hop the US. There's time for it all, but maybe I'll just freelance for now to make time for revolutionizing the world and seeing all the beautiful nonsense.

Concept - Skyvein creature lines

And again, haven't updated in ages! Been working a lot at the comic -- also, figuring out what I need to actually be working on so that I can have a complete and working portfolio..'cause I'm going to start sending that out to folks pretty soon! Working on more world-building. Skyvein is becoming more and more interesting to me.

DS - guards of skyvein, take two

DS - the guards of Skyvein

Wow. I'm a slacker. My last update was on the 11th? Going to try to update much more! Lots of family nonsense going on. In a good way, of course. But between that and pretending to do those two pages of the comic a week that I'm supposed to be doing? No concepting time. When I'm in florida, I'm going to do at least one a day, I swear. Here's another go at the guards of Skyvein! I think I'm starting to work out what they're going to look like.

Concept - Tunnels

I could draw environments every day and not run out of material, at this rate. It's pretty amazing, but I really need to work on some character/creature/object designs!

DS - Byte

The Ninth Circle Launching Party

We have takeoff, people! So, this is a few months late -- there were some technical difficulties, but we are up! And we are running!  And we have a schedule. So bring your kazoos, and hats, and confetti, and balloons and come check it out.

ninthcirclecomic.com

Concept - Caverns

I've never done a concept sketch this quickly. It took me a little over an hour to finish this. And I actually like it. What's going on? Yay.

I came out with a massively bruised knee, but no injury has ever been worth it as much as that one was. What was there, below the streets and sidewalks that you walk and bike and drive over, were colossal caves, caverns, tunnels. You could get lost there. I did. And without the light, what would you do? There, in that deepest, darkest black where the sun wouldn't hit even if it were out, how would you find your way back? I came back with stories, with the remainder of gorgeous rock formations burned behind my lids, and an even more pressingly, consumingly urgent need to go back again. Tomorrow.

DS - guardian prototype

Trying to figure out how they fly/float/travel around the city, "protecting" the edges. I feel like it has to involve the skysquids somehow, otherwise why wouldn't they use the same technology that the guardians are powered by to fly their ships? (Or, maybe, it would be too costly on a larger scale, people are profiting from the exploitation of the squids and therefore their use continues.) Anyhow, still trying to figure out the details, but these models of the 'Oids are much less human-appearing, and they are more or less the police of the city, who have little or no interaction with the general public. The 'Oids higher in the hierarchy are more humanoid, and they are the ones who actively interact with the general populace.

Concept - Samhain

One of the dolls. This was a character project I was working on a very long time ago, with characters representing each of the holidays. Maybe I'll actually get around to designing them all! For now, a sketch for All Hollow's Eve -- because I had to!

DS - left wing tattoo

This is a commissioned tattoo design. These are the lines, it's going to be fully rendered and colored.

Concept - flooded cathedral

I am starting to like the atmosphere of this, but I don't feel like it's a fully fleshed out, environmental concept. It doesn't have enough detail, and it has entirely too much. Oh, well. Next!

DS - flooded cathedral

DS - the spines

Referenced from one of my friend's photos. Working on speed painting.

DS - The Ship-in-the-Bottle

Like the hole-in-the-wall! That's the kind of place that it is. I'm really bad at interior architecture, so I'll be working on that.

DS - #occupywallstreet

Referenced from an #occupywallstreet photo.

Concept - Goes, 6OS

6OS is the sixth operating system of the 'Oids of Skyvein. Goes is a particular model, named by their employer and owner, Demitri Stiles. This 'Oid has a very dry sense of humour, which shines through only to people (or 'oids) who know them very well -- it often comes out sounding robotic (which, to them, is part of the humour). Demitri Stiles struggles with their relationship with Goes as their business relations turn into a sort of friendship -- and struggles with the idea (as many of the wealthy youth of Skyvein do) of being friends with someone who is programmed to feel emotions.

DS - Skyvein 'Oids

Androids residing in Skyvein: All models are required to have platinum hair, no exceptions. All models are required to have silver eyes, no exceptions. Any model who disobeys these laws will be terminated. Any human accomplice who aids an android model in deceiving the Core will be tried in the High Courts.

DS - Computer Geek

One of my friends wants to make a board game, so D and I were playing around with concepts! This is a really generic quick sketch -- need to get better about conveying more personality in rapid sketches. I will develop this further. 

Concept - Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is a phenomenon in Skyvein which grow prolifically, but only on natural soil which is rapidly disappearing. It is said that before Skyvein existed, the Life Tree did not exist -- rather, they appeared as an attempt by the world to rid the sky of the poison clouds. The Core keeps knowledge of the Life Tree to a minimum, claiming that it is the cause of the the noxious clouds that hang between Skyvein and the world below. In reality, the Life Tree traps the poison clouds inside its fruit's husk, converting it into clean air which is stored in the inner fruit. In the early stages, however, the Life Tree's fruit appears as a scaled, toxic husk -- and if opened prematurely, it releases the clouds that it hasn't had the chance to process yet. The Core uses that to its advantage, making the trees look like they are, indeed, producing the clouds as opposed to ridding the world of them. The Life Tree take about fifteen years to reach this stage of maturity, which is still a sapling. Most of the Life Trees in Skyvein never have the opportunity to grow much higher than this one, because the Core finds them beforehand. It is said that there exists one tree in all of Skyvein that is taller than any of the Core's cities, and that it floats above even the bubble cities -- but these are only rumors.

Concept - Tree of Life lines

I really need to have a paper texture making party soon. This is severely lacking the paper-texture department.

DS - Llama and I

Ten minute sketch for a far-off dear (or Llama? ...I'm sorry, it's late). I apologize for my improper Llama-to-human ratio.

DS - Tree of Life design sketch

DS - Tree of Life Thumbs

Concept - The Bloodless sky ship

Done(ish)! I lost patience with this -- as is what often happens with many of my illustrationy, paintingy pieces. I feel like I could go farther, but also that it wouldn't add all that much. Since I can zoom into an inch by inch square, adding (possibly superfluous) details which won't show up when viewing the entire image, it's difficult for me to find the line to draw (ha ha). I may come back to this -- but at the same time, as a concept, I think people get the idea from this as it stands.

DS - Sky Ship sketch

Sky ship design I'm working with! Based vaguely off of a couple of the thumbnails which I combined. I'm also working simultaneously on the 28th page of the comic and the BEV (bird's eye view) of the Salts map for Cower.

DS - Sky Ship thumbs, take two

Now that I have a good idea of how the sky squids would fit into the ship designs, it was much easier to do this! Lookit what planning can do. It's very exciting. I actually like a few of these thumbnails quite a bit, and I may do a design layout for each of them. These are the designs mostly for the pirate/salvage ships, rather than the Core's armada. The 'ribs' are where the sky squids would be positioned, in an open chamber (while in the Core ships, the sky squids tend to be stuck into metal closed chambers).

Cower - Colosseum Map

Working out ideas for what the in-game maps might look like! Here are a couple of color concepts for the colosseum (working with the concept I did awhile back: http://resingular.blogspot.com/2011/05/cower-colosseum-color.html).

DS - Gunslingin' Alchemist

A topic from conceptart.org, just getting back into the swing of doing some speed concepts.

Concept - Sky Squid

Finished! And, frankly, I'm pretty satisfied. I'm definitely more satisfied than most other concepts I've done recently. I mean, c'mon, people. This is practically professional quality material. Practically -- not quite -- but very nearly. I still have problems with it. For some reason, I have a difficult time shading things and making it look good. You'd think it'd be easy, but I make it look amateury. But! That aside! We're getting close to gold, here, folks. S'right, I said it. And I'm gonna be damn cocky about it, too. That's all.

Using their two pairs of gills, the sky squids intake air, which mixes with the chemical compounds in their lungs to create a more buoyant compound, allowing them to float -- this is the power humans harness when using the squids as an energy source for their sky ships. Mostly peaceful in nature, sky squids feed mostly off of insects and plants; with few predators (other than humans), the squids have little need to defend themselves or get away hastily. In the wild, most squids travel in small family groups, and are often playful and highly communicative, while in captivity, squids are often despondent and almost always eerily silent. Squids are highly intelligent, and have been thought to be able to understand parts of human conversations, although this has yet to be confirmed.

Concept - Sky Squid (lines)

I've rewritten this so many times because every time I go to upload it, it gives me an error and erases everything I've written. So we're keepin' it short, folks.

-Angels will be up soon, I promise (we've had some minor complications)
-Cower ideas have been mulling in the back of my head, and it's time to get them to paper (including attempts at some of the in-game maps)
-the trip was amazing, and gave me so many world building ideas for the world these sky squid belong to -- those concepts will pop up now and then, as well
-I'm working on updating and revising my personal art site so that it's presentable
-I accidentally resized this, and then saved over the large size. So now I'm working a lot smaller than I had intended, and I'm not too pleased about it. Actually, currently I'm raging, but I'll get over it. ...promise.
-also, everything looks better on old, crinkled paper texture -- might be time for a paper texture making party soon?
-shaded (finished) version to be posted shortly

DS - Sky Squid layout

Thumbnails are the bestest thing ever. I was trying to work on the dirigible, but then I realized I really couldn't figure out how they would look or work until I really knew what the beings keeping them afloat looked like (and how they worked). So I did thumbnails! And then this. And I'ma finish this, then go back to the sky squid-powered dirigibles. I'm trying to work on a wedding present, plus get one and a half more pages of the comic done, plus pack, plus move, plus pack again so I can go to England, plus work five days a week 'cause my work hates me...point being, I may not update much until I get back from England! And that's the 22nd!

DS -dirigible sketches!

So, these were super fun. I'm starting to sorta really enjoy thumbnails. Initially sketched, very abstractly, in Alchemy, then brought to photoshop. I'm working on world building for the graphic novel I have planned after we finish Ninth Circle! (23/25) The goal changed. Also, it won't be launching 'til I get back from England...so, September? We just want it to be perfect, things'll be smooth from then on! Perfect update schedules and everything! I figured the delay was better now, when not many people even know about it. Thanks all.

Concept - Slayer

 don't like the strictly side view, and yet I don't know a better way to depict this and show everything on the bike. I want to do another, the Scavenger. Slayers and Scavengers travel together in packs so that the Slayer, as name and tools imply, clear the path while the Scavengers are heavy-duty collection vehicles. 

DS - Creature Thumbnails, p2

Some definition! As you can see, some of these were dropped and didn't make it to this stage. More will be dropped and not make it to the next stage. This method is working out better than I'd hoped, although these creatures are looking pretty mech-y.

DS - Creature Thumbnails

I still have trouble with creatures. I thought I'd try what I've seen other people do when sketching out thumbnail ideas for creatures -- even though I haven't use thumbnails that often, I do think they can be pretty useful, so I'm going to try to start using them a little and see what I can come up with.

I can almost see creatures in the clouds. As always, I'll have to go further with these.

DS - Zombie Slayin' Bicycle

Yep, this was fun. I want to go farther with this. I always want to develop my sketches more, though, so I guess that's not new. It'll be news when I actually do so! Zombie slayin' bicycle. Because we all know the remaining fuel is going to run dry quickly in a post-apocalyptic world.

Concept - Kelpie

Kelpies are awesome, really creepy dark-fae creatures which are beautiful, but deadly (like all dark-fae creatures, right?) that use that beauty to lure children to climb onto their backs, then dive under the water and drown them. And eat them. Of course. In most tales, the Kelpies fuse the child's skin to their own to trap them -- which seems too macabre and unnecessarily unnatural. In my version, they either use their long, finned tail (which is under the water here) or their tangled mane to trap the child. My Kelpie doesn't have eyes, either, which would be mostly useless under those marshy waters. They use touch and smell to hunt down their victims.

Concept - The Steampunk Post

This was fun, and good practice. My website needs more industrial design, more than anything else, so I'll prolly be doing this quick-lines-then-(supposedly)-quick-colors method for quite a few more IDs. I'm almost happy with how it turned out, too. I have trouble, when working on concepts, making the background simple and non-distracting, while still making the design seem like it isn't out of place. Also, I think this post is a little too monochromatic, even for the steampunks. I tend to branch out into color very tentatively, because I'm not all that good at it. And now I curse myself for being the art kid who only worked with pen and ink and graphite -- and who still refuses to paint (traditionally), and probably always will.

Concept - The Steampunk Post (lines)

Well, this was super fun. These are just the lines (and they took me bloody forever), but I'll have the painted version up soon. Even though I should be working on the comic. I found this super helpful concept artist who posts a bunch of free tutorials online, and one was about mechanical design, which I've always had some trouble with. I think the tips really helped. I'm excited that I actually like how this is coming so far.

CS - Dumpstering Tales, Meet J and N, part 1

I have difficulty portraying an understandable story without words and without a bajillion pictures. I would like to be able to do this, so I am practicing. Also, I think comic shorts are super fun, and a friend just gave me the idea of doing diary comics, which I think could be fun -- especially if I did them in a bunch of fun new styles. We'll see how it goes! I don't have time for this! Yay!

Page 19/50 done. I think we're not launching 'til August. But it'll be worth it. Promise!

Concept - Cap Trel

Another revamping of a character of olden days.  I swear, Trel had a bandana and long dreads before Cap'n Jack Sparrow existed. And I wasn't go to change it now. I'm unapologetic about this point.

DS - Cursive.

Word of the Day sketch! I think an art friend of mine, DR, and I are going to be doing these more often. We picked environment, and then found a word of the day (today's being Cursive) and gave ourselves fifteen minutes to sketch out an idea.

Concept - Lexian

I haven't down a proper character design in ages, I realized. I've been so busy practicing other skills, that I haven't done what I actually enjoy doing the most. Which is, frankly, silly. So I'll be doing more character designs. I also haven't worked with this kind of style too much for characters -- I'm not very good at it yet -- this took lots of studies of other people's character design, as well as taking the pose more or less completely from a photograph. I'm working on it.

Lexian is a character I've constantly come back to. I'll probably draw them in the future, and they'll prolly look slightly different than they do here -- they usually do. Those skates are supposed to work only in designated areas, but the Reds have reprogrammed them so they can use them as a form of transit around the cities -- usually for when they're doing illegal things in their dystopic world.

Sixteen pages done on the comic! Don't know if I'll have the fifty I want done before the website is up...but the website will be up in July, for sure, anyway! We might have to start updating it a little later than the prospective date. We'll see, though. I've been doing an average of four pages a week, and expect to keep that up -- we'll see if we can't fit a few more pages in here and there.

volvete.

This is my animation final from spring semester! As tedious as it was, I really enjoyed this. I'm sure I'll animate again sometime. This is far from polished -- parts of it need to be tweaked, but since that won't happen until fall, at the earliest, I thought I'd put this up. Especially since I've been promising it since the spring.

animation by Sen Holiday
music by Mo Lukas

http://vimeo.com/25560123

Still Can Tattoo, Just Kidding

1,000,000,003!

Concept - The Inker

Found in the Swamps, the Inkers roam, marking their territories with a bright, bioluminescent, poisonous blue paint which is produced internally, then secreted through what would on most cats be the scent glands. Because of the thick scents of the Swamps, these cats have adapted to these visual cues. The translucency of their skin allows for them to blend in with their surroundings, until their paint is viewed -- a sign which normally warns off their predators. A close relative to the Inker is the Potter, who tend to use a thin layer of mud to hide their paint deposits, and generally go about life in a stealthier manner. 

Cower - Initial Factory Exterior

Just working out thoughts for what the factories/processing plants could look like from the exterior. I'll touch this up and post a better version later (unless I find a different direction to go in!).

Cower - Factory Thumbs

Still Can Tattoo, 1,000,000,002

This might be it, folks. Also, a friend of a friend may do this, making it significantly cheaper and cooler. We'll see. I'm sending them this image to see what they think!

DS - Chameleon Speed Paint

From National Geographic! They have such great photos, and I'm trying to practice my speed painting, so these are probably going to show up more often.

Comic update: 13/50 pages complete!