Jaco’s Random Writings

Yes, it would seem that the Sketch Blitz had a little hiccup in relation to yesterday’s missed update. I’m going to have make that up in some way. Well, I continued to work on that WIP of Alita. Well, here’s what I’ve gotten done so far:

Some line refining and hair.

I did some work on the lines. That, and I got started on the hair. Let me say this: I am getting a lot of practice with hair. However, despite all that practice, I really don’t like how the hair’s turning out. Her head is supposed to be turning in a sudden, startled motion. Unfortunately, the hair is not communicating that motion. That is some very static hair and no amount of drawing and redrawing over it will change that. Guess I should just whip out the eraser and to the hair from scratch.

I could probably simulate the hair moving in Blender using the hair solver just to see how the strands react to the head turning. Of course, it would probably crash my little lappy to try and do that in realtime. Oh well. Guess we’ll see what I come up with.

Right, so I am way too tired to continue work on either one of those WIPs I posted in the past two days. Make no mistake, I wanted to work on them today. They were open on my desktop. But alas, after a long day of work, I am weary and my bones are begging for respite. So, in order to keep the Sketch-Blitz alive, I bring you a sketch of my tired bones:

I'm practically asleep

And so, with that, I bid everyone good night. Tomorrow, there will be a sketch of either the lovely Alita or the demon wolf shaman.

So it looks like I’ll be posting another work-in-progress. I just got back from Newark International. Let me say this: whoever designed the roads leading in and out of that place, really, really took some very powerful stuff before, during, and quite possibly after the process of designing that mess. We ended up on Rt. 1/Rt. 9 until we eventually wormed out way back to the Turnpike. Being cramped in the backseat for an hour and 45 is not fun. Not at all.

Anyways, without further adieu, here’s the screencap of the WIP:

Some sort of Wolf Demon in the form of a shaman.

I know what you’re thinking: that is in fact a very large wolf head. The way I imagine this fellow, he’s a wolf demon in the form of a shaman. So he walks around with a wolf’s skin as a headdress. But you’re never really sure whether it’s really a headdress. You never see his actual hands, as they are always under the robes. Instead, you see this pair of severed hands floating around him. But they appear as if they are being controlled via an invisible puppeteer’s strings.

Oh yeah, I am definitely making more drawings of this guy.

Ooh boy. This whole “not updating over the weekend” is starting to turn into a pattern. I didn’t update last Saturday nor Sunday. And this time around I didn’t update on Friday and Saturday. Well, hopefully I can break that cycle. So it looks like I have to get up really early again. So for tonight, I’ll post a screenshot of my next Alita-related sketch. It’s a little rough and will probably go through quite a few re-sketches, but here it is:

A work-in-progress of Alita

So I’m doing another practice sketch. I’m thinking of submitting some fan-art to Yukito Kishiro. Don’t know if the character design contest is still ongoing. I wouldn’t mind submitting a minor character design to that either.

And with that, I’m off.

This post is mostly just an update on that portrait of a random chick. Here it is:

This is the updated portrait

All I really did was darken the piece of clothing around her left shoulder. I think it worked out pretty well. It balances the overall look nicely. Besides that, I mostly just did a general clean-up.

Anyway, there’s more I want to do to this picture. As part of the background, I’m thinking of putting several ships coming and going. Here’s a preview of what I’m working on:

Some ships passing through

The first ship on the left (no, your left) I think I’m just going to have passing through. The ship on the right (yes, your right) is a type of futuristic blimp that I’m going to have coming in for a landing on a platform. As for the distant background, I’m still thinking of a nature scene. I kind of want to continue the theme that I started with the girl herself: a blend of the natural and the technological. Here’s the tricky bit: How do I do that in the background in the thread as the was technology is integrated into the girl’s wrist?

Yeah, I’m whole-heartedly not sure what tomorrow’s update is going to look like. So, here’s to a surprise.