Death's Candles Conceptualization

Now that I am no longer fighting my Wacom tablet, I have decided to give my upcoming artwork a thorough revamp. Originally it's entitled "The Incoming Tempest," but now (partly due to Halloween-esque inspiration) it will be "Death's Candles." Now for a preview pic:

Click to fullview -- you know you want to ;p

The change was also to help the artwork be more "Giratina," for lack of better term. In fact, so far this is the closest I have been to the Gira in my mind, physical- and character-wise. Although it's flattering that he has many fangirls in DA (my cousin even point blank said he has more sex appeal than Dialga *coughs*), I am a bit bothered that people may be forgetting that he is first and foremost the Dragon of Shadows, the God of Death. 

And no, his chest doesn't have to be that bare in the final. Still thinking if I am going to give him a necklace or something. :D

The Incoming Tempest - Beginnings

The Philippines is being buffeted by the typhoon Falcon as I am writing this entry. Heck, a tornado even formed at the part of the National Capital Region right smack where some relatives are living, and they had to call the fire department to remove the trees that have been uprooted in their property. As far as I know, this was the first time in my living memory that a tornado formed there. Signs of the times, indeed. I've got to be thankful that we are still all right where we are staying.

So, you can say that this calamity also rather influenced the sketch of what will be my next project. Actually, the sketch wasn't the only thing I drew. I pretty much put to pencil most of the vital characters in Starmaiden (even those that have yet to make an appearance), in an effort to pull myself together after suffering from a little emotional breakdown. Don't worry, it's nothing too serious. Just the matter of not getting enough sleep and suddenly being given four chapters of Plato's the Republic to read, annotate, and highlight for the weekend. (And I actually managed to read it all and understand the main points, after I took a good restful sleep.)

*gasp* Giratina, is that YOU?! Drawn right on Paulo Freire's essay The "Banking" Concept of Education from many semesters ago.

Ah, a great fan-favorite, Lord Gira is. Any female watcher of mine would most likely recognize him. *coughs* But your eyes are not deceiving you. That's my human-form Giratina, like never you have seen him before. Some of his fans (read: my cousin) have been pestering me to draw him again. Thankfully my muse was in a good mood (and yeah, I wanted to get back to my other characters after drawing EltaninShipping for two artworks in a row). I intend to use the same style I did with Magnolia Metamorphosis with this one, except that the no-stock-image personal rule still holds. Stay tuned, everyone, and please pray for those affected by the typhoon.

Trying out something new

Wondering what I'm doing now that Magnolia Metamorphosis is done? To tell the truth, I already have something in the works, but I got a little... hmmm, sidetracked when I began sketching away before Holy Week set in.

And what was I sketching, you may ask? Well... I'll have to say a bit of my conscience was screaming "You're INSANE!" and "Are you SERIOUS?!" as I looked at the outcome. But I guess it was only a matter of time before I drew something like this:

Brother Dia, don't kill me! It is censored properly, I promise!

My current scanner and I are not the best of friends yet, so I had to rely on Photoshop to do color adjustments that the thing mucked up. <_<

This is only a section of the entire sketch, and this time, I intend to stick with the original sketch when rendering the artwork digitally (heck, Magnolia Metamorphosis was a complete turnaround from the primary scribble). It may not be evident yet, but this artwork will come out as heavily more abstract and allegorical than my previous straightforward ones. And no, I swear upon my drawing hand that I won't use any stock images! It's high time that I recover my nature-drawing skills via Photoshop!