"Calm Skies" - Some Reflections

A section of the artwork -- links to full version at the end of the post

Simply put, my original plans for this artwork was quite different. With Death's Candles out of the way, I was free to do a new piece. It was very easy to return to my often-used female model (my "Kiya"), but I realized that Kouseikei, the current male lead in my artistic universe, had yet to be given a solo artwork of his own. All my other artworks that feature him are either group pieces, or otherwise show him with Kiya. Now was the time to remedy that situation, I thought.

Meh, I still suck at human anatomies :(

Horrible preliminary sketching/planning aside, the process of its finishing was interesting, to say the least. The time period of its making coincided with some drastic events in my life. For one, the Philippines was being buffeted by the typhoons Saola and Haikui just as I was painting the background of the image.

At that moment, you can say that the artwork was in itself a prayer for calm skies again.

I owe Google images and Wikipedia a lot for jump-starting my muse and finding references, definitely. However, the weather wasn't the only significant influence in the artwork. I won't say it in many words, but as I was fleshing out Kouseikei, I made a decision that significantly altered my day-to-day living.

And made me notice some things I have never seen about him before, with regards to his character.

Admittedly, I am not too fond of using persons I know of as bases for my characters. I am not saying that my real-life interactions have no influence in how I design or conceptualize my characters (quite the opposite). I just don't like my characters ending up as simply being Ms. or Mr. So-and-so in a different name and look in my artistic universe. (Think of how awkward it could get.) Likewise, Kouseikei was "born"  more as a plot necessity and not as a virtual model of a real-life person.

At least, consciously. Because, if some people who know me by my real name also read about Kouseikei's story, they might find some glaring similarities with his personality and that of someone I know of. Don't worry, "he" has no wings, and neither was he scarred on the cheek and back by his cousin. :)

View the full artwork here or here.

Reflecting on Last Semester

Last Semester in a Nutshell by ~Antarel on deviantART

The above cartoon may seem quite lighthearted, but looking back, I was already reduced to "survival mode" by the time finals week came close to arriving. I'll admit that part of my difficulties was due to a personal blunder I made during enlistment, but either way, I think that the year before my thesis will really be the most difficult throughout my college stay. There came a point when I simply cut off all means of communication from the rest of the world because I badly needed sleep. I don't want to abandon my groupmates to their fate, but a person could only take so much. I guess that if not for my part-time job, I would have cracked a long time ago.

Ironically, though, I didn't shed too many tears over academics this semester (and when I did, it was only for one non-major subject) because I am already happy where I am. Recalling how often I cried during my last semester in BS Computer Engineering before I finally had enough and chose to shift, it's really a huge contrast.

Entropy Paradox: Post-artwork Evaluation

“Scientists have often been baffled by the existence of spontaneous order in the universe. The laws of thermodynamics seem to dictate the opposite, that nature should inexorably degenerate toward a state of greater disorder, greater entropy. Yet all around us we see magnificent structures—galaxies, cells, ecosystems, human beings—that have all somehow managed to assemble themselves.”

- Steven Strogatz

"Entropy Paradox" is perhaps one of the most (if not the most) geeky artworks I have ever drawn, if one takes into consideration the science that inspired it. Well, just look at the title, for heaven's sake. I do admit, though, that I fared better in Chemistry and Biology than in Physics, and the irony of it is that I enjoy Quantum Mechanics and Relativity more than I enjoy the Newtonian stuff. Heh. But enough of that.

I did mention two blog posts earlier that I intended to stick with two objectives in this artwork: [1] no stock images, and [2] stay true to the original sketch. Sticking with [1] was a success. Apart from the fractals, which were rendered with the aid of Apophysis, everything was pretty much drawn by hand or using paths. As for [2], compare the two images below and judge for yourself.

DevART version is a lot better, but it's concealed behind a mature tag.

Minor changes here and there, but it's pretty much the same... right?

Going with the "paradox" theme, I inserted a lot of "contradicting" elements in the artwork. Flat-surface versus depth-oriented, living versus inanimate, flowing versus rigid... you find it. But the main contradiction was perhaps... well, order versus disorder. After all, that's what the physics is all about. The problem was how to pull it off. In the end, I decided to intersperse fractals with hand-painted figures. Fractals, with their mathematical iterations and whatnot, somehow contrast with free-form painting, which in turn may not follow "the rules" so rigidly.

So here are some of the non-brush fractals used (and yeah, I know they're not so sophisticated -- I'm just an Apophysis rookie):

It's hard to see this one because I used it as a texture for the wings.

And on a closing note, if those rune-like markings on my signature got your eye, be aware that I did not invent it. It's Baybayin, a form of ethnic script in the Philippines. I could already write it well even though I am still rather slow in reading them. Like Japanese hiragana and katakana, Baybayin is spelled by syllable.

Read more about it in its Wikipedia page (unfortunately, you have to know Tagalog in order to understand the samples). You can download Baybayin fonts here. The downloadable files contain instructions on how to work the fonts, so no worries there.

Magnolia Metamorphosis

Well, I finally finished the only pending artwork I have at the moment. Since I don't want to upload a duplicate of the PNG file here, I'll just use this embedding link generated by DA:


Magnolia Metamorphosis by ~Antarel on deviantART

Pardon the ugly resize. It looks a lot better when you see the actual link, trust me. Hmmm, at this rate, I can already see a trend in the feedback: the figures themselves are good, but the background could use more improvement. I can see where they are coming from, because I ended up using a stock image for the background. On the brighter side, since the purpose of this artwork was to gauge as to whether I could already draw semi-realistic people, I can say that I am very happy with the outcome.

At least, I now know what I have to work on. I plan to return to my landscape-drawing roots, but this time I'm doing it digitally. I already have something in my mind for a start, but I am not broadcasting it yet. Hopefully I will get to merge good background and good figures once I have recovered my original forte. (I was more of a landscape artist before I went digital, ya know?)

Thanks once again, to all who gave feedback and stuck with my slow progress from start to finish!