Daily Sketch Challenge- Marcus Fenix

Marcus Fenix from the videogame "Gears of War".

Photoshop, 21 mins.

Gears of War © Microsoft Game Studios






Oh boy, where to start with this guy. I'm not a fan of space marine-type characters that are NOT Space Marines from Warhammer 40k. I also HATE soul patches and characters with zero personality and lazy bloop-blop lights  that serves no purpose garnishing the armor like radioactive pizza toppings. So I am not a big fan of Fenix's design, although I was a fan of the game. I thought it was at least fun, and chainsaw guns are awesome.

Daily Sketch Challenge- Yukon Cornelius

Yukon Cornelius from the classic Rankin/Bass Christmas film "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Photoshop 33 mins.







I don't even remember what his role was in that movie, all I know is that he can potentially be a badass. I was doing a Netflix marathon of Man Vs. Wild in the background while playing Monster Hunter Portable 3rd at my friend's house today, so I thought it would be cool if Yukon was like Bear Grylls of the frozen tundra.

Daily Sketch Challenge Sketch Dump

Saxon from the comic book "Mouse Guard".
Photoshop, 36 mins.
Mouse Guard © David Petersen

Pirate from the comic book "WE3".
Photoshop, 32 mins.
WE3 © Vertigo Comics

Mr. Monster from the comic book...um..."Mr. Monster".
Photoshop 1 hour, 4 mins.
Mr. Monster © Dark Horse Comics







Have been keeping myself busy while Jennie is out winery hopping at Napa Valley. Been eating well and NOT eating out so yay for me. Been playing a TON of Monster Hunter Portable 3rd. Working out layouts for my Megaman Tribute Piece. Inking in my Ibuki piece. Sketching out my Nu-13 piece. Poking the cats. Busy Busy Busy.

Ibuki Rough

Ibuki from CAPCOM's Street Fighter series of fighting games. I had people vote for their favorite ninja-girl and the winner was Ibuki. I was quite surprised because I thought the Dead or Alive kunoichis would monopolize the category, I was pleasantly wrong. Though I was rooting for Ayame from Powerstone, I don't mind so much that Ibuki won. So I will be working on this piece in the next couple of days, can't wait!

Daily Sketch Challenge Two'fer- Jonny Quest and Tom Welling

Jonny Quest (Photoshop 30 mins) , titular character of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon: Jonny Quest and Tom Welling (Photoshop 25 Mins), an actor portraying Clark Kent/ Superman(?) from the TV show: Smallville.

Johnny Quest © Hanna-Barbera Productions

Tom Welling © Tom Welling

Hanged out with my friend again today to Monster Hunter it up. Such a damn addictive game. My PSP analog stick got stuck in the downward position but I fixed it, thank Poseidon, I would go crazy if I can't play Monster Hunter is what I feel like. I wonder what makes it so addicting, the Graphics aren't that great, the storyline is...what storyline? Well I guess to answer my own question, it's probably the combination of gameplay mechanics and the social factor. Sure you can trudge around with a Greatsword in hand throughout the land of Monster Hunter alone, but one is a lonely number, it's when you're out hunting with 3 of your friends is when the game shines. We are of course playing the Japanese version at the moment since the US localized game will probably not be out until August next year, but I'm actually proud to say I can decipher SOME of the hiragana and katakana and make sense of some of the menu text, the Kanji however is a different story. I was actually spending some time looking up translations for it and I was like "Screw this, I'd rather be killing stuff." so I did.

Daily Sketch Challenge- Syndrome

Syndrome, the villain from one of my favorite CG animated films: "The Incredibles".

Photoshop, 32 mins.

Syndrome/ "The Incredibles" © Walt Disney Pictures

Had a fun and productive day today. Used the Furminator™ on the cats, did the dishes, played some Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on my PSP, and sketched out my entry for the art contest hosted by Udon for the upcoming Megaman Tribute art book. The girlfriend is shaking her bon-bons at her zoomba/ zumba? class at the moment, so I need to capitalize on the free time before she comes home. I got an A on all of my classes this semester so I'm quite happy with that since I worked my ass off, but more importantly, all the things I learned we're actually absorbed into my brain, which warrants a final fantasy victory theme song. What to do tonight? Probably cooking for Jennie's lunch, followed by more Megaman drawings and possibly some Monster Hunter. Also, I'm going to visit the family in Las Vegas on Christmas, totally looking to the food---erm, I mean seeing my beloved family.

Daily Sketch Challenge- Marineman

Image Comics' Marineman.

Photoshop, 33 mins.

Marineman © Ian Churchill

Tomorrow, technically later this morning, I'm going to hang out with an old friend of mine and probably burn most of the day playing Gran Turismo. The fact that I made plans to get out of the house and have some fun makes me feel a little guilty and want to cram as much drawing as I can before the morning. Could it be that subconsciously, drawing outweighs having contact with friends? Sometimes it seems like it, and I don't know how to feel about that. Once this post is through I will chug another bottle of Neuro-Sleep to help me K.O. About 3 years ago I bought a chair for my workstation, flash-forward to now and I wish I had spent the extra $60 for the clearly more padded and awesome-er chair. I literally spend all day and night sitting at my workstation. The younger me would've been playing videogames at said workstation but instead I draw draw draw and draw some 'mo. Sometimes I find it hard to stop, hence my lack of sleep, hence my reliance on bottled chemicals to help me sleep. Though one (well, maybe just me) can appreciate my recent burst of creativity and artistic stamina, I believe it's sustained by many things other than just the nicer nobler once like the need to create or having a strong passion to about art; sometimes the darker elements become evident: self-doubt, my obsessive drive to improve, and pathetically, the feeling of inadequacy that leads to self-pity. True, I am unemployed at the moment, and most art related jobs I've applied for have been struck down, the thought about the limitations of my skills have crossed my mind many times, the younger me (by a couple of years) would be in self-pity mode right away. But as I am today, for the most part, think that when you have time to have self-pity, you've got time to draw, draw, and draw some more, until you draw all of you bad drawings out so that all that's left are the good. I've been adhering to that thought process for a while now, only realizing now that it could also be a double-edge sword because of the way I think. Right now, it feels like everything is blurring together, I sometimes can't tell if it's still the feeling of inadequacy that is fueling my drawing marathons or perhaps this is just how I am now, a sleepless drawing robot.

Daily Sketch Challenge- Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon from Marvel Comics. A pretty random character to come from Marvel's stable, that being said I know almost nothing about the character except he seems like some sort of space raccoon that uses guns, which is pretty awesome.
Now that school is done (for now), I've been spending my time working on personal pieces as well as focusing on job hunting and tidying up the house. One of my professors were impressed with my work so I emailed him if he knew any place that may be hiring right now. But as usual, I'm roaming around Animation World Network and Gamasutra and also Monster and NWJobs for backup work cause I need to get some income flowing.
Now, to make some Kimchi Fried Rice!

Photoshop, 37 mins.

Rocket Raccoon © Marvel Comics

Countess Isabella "Ivy" Valentine Rough

I finally have time to work on her. Ivy is my favorite female Soul Calibur character due to her imposingly elegant fighting-style. When Soul Calibur came out for the Sega Dreamcast, Ivy stood out because of her fighting-style in which she can transform her seemingly short sword into a segmented bladed whip thus increasing it's attack range.

As for her outfits, I think when she was first introduced, her default costume was alright, it was definitely there for fanservice as it was basically a dominatrix outfit with some armor pieces here and there. I am, however, a big fan of her alternate outfits, including the very masculine looking navy uniform, and especially the ultra-classy Tudor Rose themed silkwear she wore in Soul Calibur III, it was elegant and instead of making her look like a flat-out dominatrix, she looks like a noblewoman with a darker side; it was a little (compared to her 1P Costume) subtler but still very sexy. I based this costume on her Soul Calibur III outfit. Continuing with the Tudor Rose theme and adding some baroque elements like the silver vines that cup her breasts and entwine her arms.

Soul Calibur / Ivy © NAMCO

Daily Sketch Challenge- Lucas Bishop

Lucas Bishop, or just Bishop, a character created by Whilce Portacio and Jim Lee for Marvel Comics. He seems kinda cool, I vaguely remember him from the old 90's X-Men cartoon show, I think he was a time traveler or something, and he shot pink lasers AND wielded guns.

I finished my last Final for school today. What a relief, it took 15 hours to do roughly 1 minute of animation, pretty nuts. People clapped in my intro to Flash class when we featured our projects, but I didn't think it was deserved because I see a lot of room for improvement, but no rush. We got out of class early and I didn't eat anything today, so I teetered off to the nearest Thai place and filled up on some tofu pad thai. Finally got home before Jennie (my girlfriend) because she had a Zumba? Zoomba? Class. When she got back, she's complaining that her legs and feet are hurting.

Soon I will be working on my Ivy piece, my 6th sentai member design AND the recently announced Megaman Tribute art contest hosted by Udon, so excited.

Photoshop, 35 mins.

Bishop © Marvel Comics

Daily Sketch Challenge- Booster Gold

Booster Gold, a superhero from DC Comics. I wanted to do a more interesting pose but I was running out of time and was just not feeling it today. I remember first seeing this guy in my old Death of Superman comic book back in the early 90's. I still don't know what his powers are suppose to be, but I don't find him very interesting at all.

 I have plenty to do today, errands, work on my final, do some sketches, but I think I should eat first I am starving.

Photoshop, 29 mins.

Booster Gold © DC Comics

Daily Sketch Challenge- Steel (Ame-Comi Ver.)

DC's Steel in Ame-Comi variant form. Robert and I intended to draw this version of Steel for yesterday's daily sketch challenge, but I forgot all about it. I blame the school finals. Speaking of school, apparently some lady stabbed another lady on the shoulder a couple of days ago in a fit of rage during an anger management class that is held in the same building as my classes. People need to chill out.

I haven't been sleeping well lately, it can be caused by many things: Stress, the drive to be artistic, the 2 fat cats that always have to sit on my leg when I'm ready to go to bed. Last week I discovered a magical drink called "Neuro-Sleep", it really works, I chug a bottle and I get drowsy after a couple of minutes. It's awesome but I really don't want to rely on such things to gain back a normal sleep schedule, I think I'm going to have to do a hard-reset sometime soon.

I still have a few drawings that I need to get out of my brain. I have a drawing of Ivy from the game "Soul Calibur" that is pending along with my plan to draw a concept of the 6th member of the recently announced "Kaizoku Sentai Goukaiger". Seeing that my original "Kamen Rider Deimos" character concepts were mistaken for actual concepts for the new show "Kamen Rider OOO" and was spread around Japanese and global Tokusatsu forums and even YouTube a couple of months ago, I think I'll be watermarking my designs from now on so at least I can get credited or advertise my site or something.

Photoshop, 36 mins.

Steel © DC Comics

Daily Sketch Challenge- Steel

Photoshop, 28 mins.

Steel © DC Comics

Daily Sketch Challenge- Dexter

Photoshop, 30 mins. 

Dexter's Laboratory © Genndy Tartakovsky

Daily Sketch Challenge- The Coon

"The Coon", Cartman's super hero vigilante alter-ego from "South Park". 

Photoshop, 30 mins. 

South Park © Trey Parker/ Matt Stone

Mashiba Ryou

Sketch of Mashiba Ryou from "Hajime No Ippo". 

Photoshop, 27 mins. 

Hajime No Ippo © George Morikawa

Daily Sketch Challenge- Hwoarang

Hwoarang from Tekken.

Photoshop, 33 mins.

Tekken © Namco