Sunday, June 10, 2012

My 6-Year Artist's Block Is Over

It was 2006 when I abandoned drawing in order to focus on NaNoWriMo, sometimes to the exclusion of all else. It wasn't even till the exact middle of JulNoWriMo 2010 that I even returned to Spanner at all (with the inspired near-final version of the Intro). Suddenly, after six years, I find myself inspired to draw again.

Now, inspiration sometimes comes for the most unexpected reasons. Shira's own tagline is "expect the unexpected". And of course she's the character I've started to draw again. So why did I start drawing her again? Why, because her butt is so beautiful I felt compelled to visualize it on paper.

No, I'm not posting sketches; I'm still rusty, so they're not good enough yet. I'm going to post complete drawings, done in Inkscape, in full color, showing off some of the clothes she wears in the story. There's the getup in Chapter 3 with the purple Pedobear baby tee, pleated tartan microskirt, gangsterskin boots, and Cookie Monster plushie hat. There's the (not much of a) Kitsap Kouriers uniform she hoverboards in during Chapter 4. And of course there's the sailor-suit school uniform she wears to Bangor High. Last but not least, video body paint. And then I'll update her character profile for the new Fourth Revision continuity. In the meantime, I'm going to practice so I get her looking right, and other characters as well. Once she looks right, I'll post pictures.

So now I'm drawing again. That means I'm back to teaching myself how to draw the figure. I already know a few things, but only enough to draw figures standing rigidly upright in front, back, and side views. My challenge: learn to draw my characters so they look like they're moving naturally. This is important not just for character designs and the eventual comics, but for animation as well.

And that's not all. With 50 Songs in 90 Days coming in just under a month, songs are starting to come to me again, and I realize I'm going to have to practice my singing and instruments again...

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