Senbazuru In the Making

Would you believe this was supposed to be a V-day artwork? :)

Valentine's Day 2013, admittedly, was the first time I awoke on that holiday not as a single lady. Since I was not exactly experienced when it came to giving presents to a significant other, I just decided to play by my strengths and go creative. What I decided on? Senbazuru. One thousand paper cranes to you and me.

Know your enemy. Prepare ammo.

Instead of buying pre-cut square post-its, I opted to just cut the squares myself. Dimensions: slightly smaller than 3x3 in (fitted 12 squares on standard size). Why sacrifice the convenience of using pre-cut paper? Two reasons:

1. Post-it would cost more than double the price of using non-cut paper
2. The available post-it colors are in neon shades (I saw pink, yellow, green, orange, and blue variants). I wanted to be in control of the colors I'm using, and honestly, I am not too fond of neon colors -- and neither is my significant other.

Trivia: I based the color scheme on the actual colors of the red-crowned crane, and it was only later that I noticed they were t'nalak colors (sans the blue). I love those textiles, really.

Multiply each by 25

There are lots of online instructions on how to fold a traditional paper crane, so I won't elaborate on it here. Of course, I would end up killing my hands and my sanity (among others) if I attempted to fold 1000 cranes in one day, so I distributed their making into a 50-day period with 20 cranes per day. Stringing them together, give-or-take less than one week.

Skewering them together, 40 cranes per string

Man, this step hurt my fingers and eyes more than the crane folding. I have no callouses to guard against needles, so I had to pad my digits with cloth if the needle became too difficult to pull. And I made the mistake of not using a threader, so I crossed my eyes more than once trying to make the crochet thread go through the tiny needle hole. I love arts and crafts, but needlework is something I still have difficulty doing.

Prior to bunching them together

Close up

If only I got to maintain the straightness of the pattern when I knotted the threads together. Alas, I ended up getting zigzags in the final version. I also wasn't able to take a picture of the threaded cranes hanging, so pardon me. At least I finished them before my scheduled deadline, and they have already changed ownership as of a few hours ago.

Did I wish for anything after completing the project? Yes, I did. But no way am I divulging my wish here. ;)

"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.

Bringing OCs to Life

It's finally 2012. I just pray this year will be a better one than the last, in which I was plagued here and there by spells of hopelessness (a bit of which carried over to the new year, I'll admit). But enough of that. Before I return to college a few days from now, I decided to try bringing my OCs to life. Originally, I intended to include every major OC from Starmaiden, but I just realized I hadn't really paid attention to my characters' physical descriptions (excluding the main protagonist). It was like starting from scratch, so I ended up with just Kouseikei and Ashikase instead.

Well, it's no wonder Kiya and <name withheld to prevent spoilers> fell for you, m'dear

Kouseikei is a favorite of my drawing muse, second only to my gijinka Palkia, who's his eventual mate in my story universe. I guess many can tell that I used Takeshi Kaneshiro as a reference (anyone watched "House of Flying Daggers"?). I mentioned in devART that he's my first major male OC in years, so it's no wonder he receives a lot of attention from my muses.

Ashikase, "drunk" version (hehehe)

Well, after 12 Starmaiden chapters, Ashikase finally gets his looks fleshed out! The de facto antagonist of the story, this guy was a pain in the ass to draw (well, he is a pain in Kouseikei's ass). My muse doesn't like him much either (both writing AND drawing), probably because I hardly consider him to be anything more than a perfect foil to Kouseikei. This is such a shame, because his family past was more delved upon than Kousei's, and was admittedly soppy enough to land a place in a soap opera plot. *snickers*

And since I already spoiled this little detail in DA, might as way say it here: Ashikase and Kouseikei are third cousins, sharing one set of great-great-grandparents (although Ashikase was never aware of it, and Kouseikei only found it out much later on). The father of Kouseikei's paternal grandmother  was the brother of the father of Ashikase's maternal grandfather. Good luck figuring that out.

Similar to what I did for Kousei, I looked at pictures of various famous personalities to somehow jump-start my muse. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyone who struck me as "Ashikase" enough, although I did temporarily consider Shin Koyamada, Zo In Sung, and Seiichi Tanabe. I had to completely redo his looks several times before I finally came up with something passable enough. Urk.

Ashikase, "slightly more sane" version

The above pic was just to provide a kind of contrast between Kousei and Ashikase, since the two look decidedly similar with their hair down. As it can be seen, Ashikase favors topknots while Kouseikei prefers low ponytails. I actually had to repeatedly revise his hairstyle, because several times he ended up teetering close to... someone I would rather he not resemble. My muse may not favor Ashikase much, but she's not that evil. *coughs*

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

Wacom PS CS3 Issues - Fixed (sorta)!

This post was meant to be a follow-up of an earlier one featuring the same problem.


Recap: my old CD-R King tablet broke down (specifically, the pen got damaged by a battery leak *cries*), but as a replacement, I got a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch. Initial testings ran smooth.

But come a computer reboot:

Wow, Wacom guys, you would seriously allow yourselves to be beaten by CD-R King (a brand that never gave me this problem throughout their tablet's service)? So off to Google and deviantART forums I surfed for possible solutions, and turns out I am not the only one with the problem.

Solution #1: Chances are, your tablet drivers are outdated. Download a newer one on the Wacom Customer Help website and see if it does anything good.

And it did!

But not always.

It turns out then, that Photoshop CS3 has this irritating tendency to muck up drivers or something (at least in Windows -- by the looks of it, Mac people have significantly lesser problems like this). I reboot Photoshop and then the problem resolves itself. But it would be just inefficient if I sit down to work and yet I have to keep on rebooting Photoshop until it fixes the sensitivity issue. Whaddamigonnado?

Solution #2 (for Photoshop [CS3?] users only): Make 'Photoshop CS3 Prefs.psp' read-only.

Wow, such a simple-sounding solution which I read in this forum thread. I was skeptical at first, but after following the instructions, it worked sweet as a nut. Well, for a while. Occasionally it still mucks up if there are other programs running when opening Photoshop, but the age-old restart-PS solution fixes it in a jiffy. Oh, 'Photoshop CS3 Prefs.psp' could be difficult to find, so if you are going to follow this solution, I suggest that you refer to this site if you can't find it (make sure to show all hidden folders first).

The downside of this solution would be that you would have to remove the read-only setting manually if you wish to update your preferences (my case: updating the 'recently opened' file list for easy reference). I have actually decided to just keep the preferences file setting in its original state because it's hindering my working style. Guess I will just settle with the restart-PS solution and be a good girl who does not open any additional programs while PS is in the process of settling down.

Now here are what I have gleaned from this problem:

• The issue arises when Photoshop CS3 competes with other programs when it is just starting. There's a big chance the pen sensitivity will be lost.
• On the brighter side, once you are sure that the pen sensitivity is working for a particular Photoshop session, it is quite assured that it will not be lost the whole session. I have played out various scenarios to test this (playing songs in Windows Media Player, typing using a keyboard, using the mouse in between tablet work in and out of Photoshop, surfing the web, etc... all while a particular session is open), and the pen sensitivity remained the entire time.

So does this mean that the problem is perhaps a conflict in starting command calls or something(since the issue pops up only there are other programs conflicting with Photoshop when it's starting)? Woo, at least this is a possible topic for my thesis year.

Despite all these problems (and having to sleep at 1:30 am in the morning), my reaction to my new Wacom tablet is still this:

Wacom Sensitivity Issues in XP

Now, Wacom Bamboo Touch and Pen is a very nice product. Sleek design, very responsive to pen movements, and good touch sensitivity. All compared to my old (now-busted) CD-R King tablet, of course.

But amazingly, CD-R King turned to be the winner when it comes to software reliability, if that's the right term. Wacom Bamboo's touch sensitivity worked perfectly fine during my initial testing...
 

But after a computer reboot...

It's all blocky again, as though I'm using a good ol' mouse! I never had this problem with my old dilapidated tablet, but does that mean Wacom now has to go back to the store (a damn waste of Php6000)? No way am I giving up without a fight! A few searches on Google -- any troubleshooter's best friend -- narrowed down my problem to this (AND it turns out this is a very common problem especially for Windows users): outdated tablet driver files. A download from the Wacom website's customer care service, and it solved the problem!

Well, almost. (And I've got to be thankful that being a sci-tech major causes me to have a high tolerance of these technical troubleshooting stuff.)

Now I don't know if this is because I have a separate mouse plugged into another USB port while the tablet is on at the same time, but I think that the basic stress-free (or is it?) solution is this:

Nonetheless, despite the occasional Photoshop muck-up (it happens ONLY in Photoshop, to my chagrin), my reaction still is best summed up by this:

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.

Incoming Tempest Update 01

Gee, is it coincidental that I get more psyched up to continue this artwork when there's a storm buffeting the Philippines?

His expression is probably more intense than what the original sketch implies, IMO. And somehow, if this in-progress work is the only basis, methinks he bears more resemblances with Kiya than Dia does (dunno... the hair perhaps?).

Bubble 'Mence

A Sketchy Salamence With A Heart...

Woo, I figured it's time to hone my pixel art-drawing skills because I would need it sooner or later in my Interactive Multimedia track (read: game dev). I obviously need practice, but at least it's a good start.

Note: I actually used a previous artwork as reference because I didn't want to start from scratch. Heh.

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.

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.

No More Missus Nice Girl!

A.K.A. proof that Antarel doesn't always draw clothed people. *cough* (But hey, I don't do this all the time! My last "daring" artwork was five years ago, and only in pencil.)

So does this merit a mature tag in DA?

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!

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!

Yin to the Yang

Time for something comparatively more lighthearted. It may not be evident yet because I have yet to go far in Flight of the Star Maiden, but two of my gijinkas actually... well, look similar (intentionally). However the personality of one is the yin to the other's yang (read: opposites). Want to guess before scrolling down?

A	B
Volatile and fickle	Calm and disciplined
Outspoken	Silent
Confident	Self-effacing
Immortal	Mortal
Privileged	Poor (sorta)
Blue and Silver	Red and Black (post-Starmaiden only)
Can't stand children XD	Gets along well with kids
Could be naive	Rather battle-hardened

Hah, it's already obvious as hell to those who have followed on my works for so long. But anyway, if A is your type, then you may like...

Dialga! I don't have a semi-realistic colored art of him yet, so I just chucked this speed paint/practice in. Gomen ne, Dia! 

On the other hand, if you would rather go with option B, you'd better stick with...

Ah, Kousei darling. It's been a while.

Just one teeny problem though: both of them are taken, at least where their respective story universes are concerned. XD But hey, if you are in for a life-or-death match with two martial arts-experienced women (one of which oversees space), why not?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Or rather, my signature long-haired female character through the years. Although some of the proceeding stuff may hurt the eyes (including mine), one does get the urge to see the evolution of my art guinea pig (sorry, Kiya!) every once in a while.

Artwork: Gijinka Palkia and Dialga ver. 1.0
Comments: Oh boy, would you believe she originally looked like this?!

Artwork: Dragons of Sinnoh
Comments: Although that artwork was quite a milestone for me, well... at least my coloring was a bit better...

Artwork: Reconciliation
Comments: Woah, her hair's down for the first time!

Artwork: Cosmic Covenant
Comments: Now that I look at this artwork, I kind of like the background more than the people in the foreground. :/

Artwork: ---- (unrendered sketch)
Comments: Now, if only the final results were as pretty as the sketches...

Artwork: Part of cover page of a fanfic
Comments: Wow, so pale. Wonder what possessed me to give her the vampire-like look, considering how I don't like... ahem.

Artwork: Starmaker (revamped version)
Comments: Not half-bad, but why still so pale?! (*Facepalms myself*)

Artwork: One With the Night
Comments: I was riddled with a lot of technical difficulties here, so I might say this is only so-so. But at least she doesn't look as drained of blood as before.

So, I deeply apologize if I burned anyone's eyes out. The next pic is actually the updated preview of my only pending full artwork. Nix the earlier face you may be familiar with, because a couple o' weeks earlier, I just realized how much I needed practice in rendering semi-realistic people. Of course, the day may come when I may look at this new face and come up with the same negative reaction I now give its predecessors, but for now, it will have to do. Hopefully it's not too bad.

Note: Despite the tons of revisions, the last pic still isn't final! There's a big chance the actual output will look different.