Right, I threw the towel in with the full body. The more I actually continued working on it, the more I started to hate it until I realised it wasn't worth continuing. I'm going to go back and do a full body in time. I will just be building up towards it more slowly.
So yeah, taking the advice of a friend, I've gone back to doing a side headshot to try and get more to grips with my art style. Again, following said advice, that became an Umbreon.
Well, after an attempt to draw a full body and 3/4 head in my art style finally ended with me throwing in the towel, I took the advise o ...
www.furaffinity.net
Again, the line work took a bit of time, but I'm starting to get to grips with how it all fits together. It was nice for doing a bit of experimental approaches to try and save time. The entire head only took five hours tops in a single sitting, which was really nice.
However, this piece also includes another piece of art that took no more than 8 hours to do. Again, namely me working on the lineart of my own artstyle for furry heads (which also included working out how open mouths work for those heads). The result is basically an all new signature/trademark/logo that will now appear on all my future art, whilst at the same time, it may be appearing in a few other places. I went ahead with this since I wanted something more professional than my rather rough hand drawn signature.
I'm really chuffed with the results of both the head and the signature. I do have another piece that has not been uploaded anywhere yet, as that will be up for sale. I just need to work out how stuff like that works over in the UK.
Well, alongside something Christmas themed, I've got two little art projects in the pipeworks, the first being a second attempt at a half body with my avatar/soma:
And the second being the recreation of an old idea/joke from the War Room on SB which I'm working to bring back to life a bit. The Space Carrier Audacity!
Just some updates on my current projects save for the Christmas one.
Just currently wondering if I've done the legs and waist right for this before I work on using this new hand model of mine to do the hands proper for the first time.
There is still alot of details to sort out on the upper model, namely doing alot of neatening up closer in, as well doing some other angles for the carrier. But the side profile is mostly complete. Yes, there is actually two big cannons on the back and yes, the original Audacity did have a gun on the back. Just in place of the rear engines.
Two Mega Cannons (Overslung)
Twelve Heavy Laser Cannons
Several Laser Banks
784 Peripherally Mounted, 'Regular' VLS Tubes
56 Peripherally Mounted, 'Heavy' VLS Tubes
Dozens of Voidcraft including
Starcat Multirole Fighters - Based on Wildcat/Hellcats
Voidfire Void Superiority Fighters - Based on Seafires
ECW
AWACS
Transports
Bombers
That being said, the paint and dazzle camofluage scheme proved pretty interesting to work on. With the exception of the big guns for obvious reasons, the hull shares the original pattern for the original Audacity, however finding out the colours was a real pain, as everyone seemed to have a different idea of what colours Audacity had. I did have a look at the exact paints used by the Royal Navy in the end, but they would have had a blue sheen to them. Not the green that Audacity seems to have.
As it turns out, greys have tints of blue, violet and green in them. And after adding shadows and shades over the base coating, turns out the Audacity can indeed look green with the Royal Navy colours. What do you know? Got some more to do with that.
If anyone wants the FurAffinity Link, please PM me.
First of all, Merry Christmas and here's to a hopefully better 2023!
Well, I ended up starting this proper just a couple of days ago, which meant I had to scramble quite quickly to get this done, but phew, I managed to do it. I figured I'd for once get something properly put together before Christmas to help celebrate it. For some of us, it's to do with Christianity. For others, it's to do with getting together with family and friends as best we can and spending time with them. For those who don't celebrate Christmas, well, you can at least enjoy the discounts in places and have a little laugh .
Ultimately decided to do something featuring Rudolph, because hey, I relate to the guy on so many levels lol.
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and/or a Happy New Year. Or at the very least, a good set of days as can be to you, especially for those of you stuck in conflict, in that case, please stay safe!
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Well, this took a couple of days to complete. Which actually felt pretty speedy to me once I got the ball rolling. Again, I decided to get more experimental again and decided to go down a trip on memory lane, namely by drawing a background again with mountains and a starscape. This included double checking a few guides and using alot more blurs in order to get things working. However, I was still pretty chuffed with the progress I made with it, including my first proper aurora in the process.
In addition, I got to work on my first full quadruped since the MadWolf (something else I'm working on again). But I also figured I'd do Rudolph, again, because I really like the guy. I thought this was going to be difficult, but as it turned out, he was actually pretty easy to draw. The trickiest bit was the hooves, but once I managed to get them done, the rest got quite a bit easier from there. Again, I used blur effects on Rudolph's eyes and nose to help get a glow and shine on them. I'm really chuffed with the way he came out in the end.
The trickiest bit was the sign though. I originally aimed to go for a sign at an angle, but that didn't work as well as I hoped, so I decided just to place it mostly flat, but I still got to do a nice design for it.
And so, not even a couple of days after the last piece. I got this particular piece completed! Basically, since the MadWolf is becoming more and more like a sona rather than just a mascot, I figured I'd get something particularly special completed featuring them. This was the first piece I did where I actually gave up halfway through at first, before springing back at it later to try and get it done right. I was also determined to push myself further than ever with this piece, going back for a near full body whilst also working on a better background.
And damn, I'm really damn happy with the result. I managed to use some digital trickery to get some new shading/shadowing effects done across the piece, as well as doing a new grass field and an outcropping done in combination with some of those newly learned tricks. That is then topped off with combining the new tricks with some old style choices and getting a new result. And I even managed to do some hands properly myself for once!
So yeah, I'm very much happy with this piece of art! My favourite so far!
Whilst I'm still working on the Space Carrier Audacity (I have the side profile and frontal profiles complete, I just need to work on the top down profile for the carrier), I've put a little bit of time to one side to work on one of it's mainstay fighter choices. The Starcat.
It's a fighter that is based on the Wildcat/Hellcat/Bearcat carrier fighters and totally wasn't draw in time to start looking like an old MiG 15/17 with downward sweeping wings and ruddervators. No actual designation yet, though calling it the F10/F-400/F-468 has been on my mind. I've also added a few details on it, including it's squadron which happens to be 802 Sqn, which flew off the original Audacity.
Well, it's taken a while, and this was probably my biggest art project yet, but the old joke from Spacebattles, the Space Carrier Audacity, is now fully unleashed to her true glory.
Once again, I'll start with setting details, then go into creative details down after that. If you want the FA link, please let me know. I'm probably going to set up Artstation too.
The Space Carrier Audacity (D10) is a one of a kind escort carrier, originally undergoing construction as a merchant vessel before being finished as a fully functional space carrier for the United Earth Navy. After serving for twenty years, she was transferred into the custody of the Confederation Navy, essentially a bloc of interstellar powers in a similar vein to NATO and the EU. However, the Confederation Navy is essentially a vanity project, suffering from a lack of funding and excess corruption, meaning that the already relatively 'cheap and dirty' carrier was basically falling apart and was treated like a joke. However, thanks to the efforts of a new captain, the Audacity and it's crew have basically took up the old Audacity legacy and really turned the ship around into a badass.
She carries not only a modest couplement of 60 aerospace fighters (small for the setting) that often launched from the gaping big hangar/launch bay at the front of the vessel, but she has been modified with alot more weaponry than a normal fleet carrier would carry, including two massive cannons that are slung over the deck. She is surprisingly agile too thanks to the drive pods at the ends of the pylons, including being capable of both inter- and exo-atmopsheric operations, which interestingly use no moving parts, thanks to running her engines entirely through EM fields and energy shields, giving her near instant acceleration. Whilst intended to protect convoys, Audacity has turned into a surprisingly multirole ship, ideal for what is essentially the hero ship of her setting - and a right scrappy underdog to boot. I've also added an aerospace fighter as well that the Audacity would carry too, the FS-468F Starcat.
All in all, a huge amount of fun to work on this. I'm really glad with the way she came out... and I can finally revitalise an old joke/meme!
And well, I have a pretty big connection to the original ship, so, this felt pretty important to me.
The story for Audacity was inspired by a War Room discussion back in 2015, which included the WW2-era escort carrier HMS Audacity going up against the battleship Yamato. A 5000-10000 ton ex-merchant with no hangar and only six fighters against the biggest battleship ever. Not a very fair fight, but it did lead to someone quipping about dropping the carrier onto Yamato. Cue a quip about a Space Carrier Audacity along the lines of the Space Battleship Yamato. Something that I couldn't really get out of my head. I did an early drawing for such a Space Carrier at a similar point in time to intergrate into a single setting, but that was before I started doing art more fully.
So in December 2022, I decided to started working on a more extensive specsheet and get the details for a more specific setting sorted out for the Audacity. Something that took a bit of effort with both research, scales and actually drawing the Audacity itself. The good news was, when I originally pondered about the carrier, I did develop a basic idea for the carrier and had some fairly good knowledge about her to boot. The original idea was that this Audacity was salvaged from the bottom of the ocean, much like the Space Battleship Yamato. Since the original Audacity had it's bow blown off, the iconic whale shark bow would have been fitted in it's place. However, once I started investigating things further, I realised that not only the ship would be tiny for space operations, but the original ship was probably not in a great condition to be converted anyway, hence the new ship merely has some metal plates from the original placed in a similar fashion to a ship's bell but is otherwise a completely different vessel. In addition, gaps would be reinforced with new hull plates. New engines would be fitted and of course, the big guns. Unlike the rest, the guns were added partly out of 'hey, looks cool, let's add it' as well as 'oh, let's replace the four inch gun with a pair of 64 inch giants'.
The side was realtivly straight forward, as I got to use the original Audacity's profile to really get things set up properly, as there are plenty of side shots of her. The frontal view was a little bit more difficult, but fairly straight forward once I started looking more closely at the scales and adjusted things accordingly. The top down was ironically the most difficult, as trying to get the scales of different parts was a challenge. The top down itself probably doesn't match up as well with the side view, but it is asthetically pleasing once it was all done with the linework. The engines had to often be done seperately, but they were a nice, simple design, especially once the glowing effects got thrown in.
Colours were actually pretty interesting, as I wanted to use the original colours of the WW2 carrier for the Space Carrier. I had an idea of what kind of dazzle camofluage pattern that the Audacity used, and had the right references, however, colours were a different matter. Despite the Royal Navy grey colours of the time having a hint of blue, Audacity was always portrayed with a slight green tinge in most of the pieces I came across. Other diagrams showed her being almost stark white, and I even resorted to using recolour tools online to try and produce the original colours, only to get browns instead. In the end, it turned out that greys have three main colours mixed in. Blue, violet and green. Audacity's slightly green tinge comes from shadows and low lighting, whereas she would still have the blue tinted grey hull, which was a pretty nice find. Throw in the rest of the shading and the blue glow effects for the engines, and she came out looking really good.
I also wanted to add one of Audacity's fighters too, namely something inspired by the Wildcats that Audacity would have orginally carried. I gave it a retro-futuristic look, even if it started coming out looking more like Sabre or a MiG than a WW2 cat, but I still liked the way this fighter - a Starcat - came out. The colours are based off those that would have been originally used for 802 NAS, a squadron deployed on the original Audacity.
And finally came the details and the background. I wasn't sure what the background would be like, but in the end I settled for a set of different gradients and alot of light blues that had been used for the space carrier engines. Then, I gave them a glowing effect (krita's filters are your best friend) whilst using a black effect to help the other light blue text to stand out.
This piece took ALOT of work to do, but it was definitely worth the effort.
Right, no new update this time, but I am curious... out of all the art I've done so far, what seems the most interesting to you all? I seem to get alot of interest in my reference sheets or military themed content, but one of my older pieces featuring a character called Lyall seems to always draw views each month.
I'm just trying to work out what brings alot of folks into looking at some of my art. Anyone have any particular interests/perferences?
I wasn't supposed to go this far with a small bit of practice after my massive three art pieces pushed through over the course of December and Early January! I took a break from art for a few weeks, taking the time to catch up with some of my writing projects and silverware, before decided to see if I could still go ahead and draw another 3/4 head in my normal style with little use of references. As it turned out, I can, which is a nice little improvement and development. So I went one step further and decided to draw a full body of my sona, the MadWolf, in their feral form.
This was actually a fairly quick process, and I'm happy with the result of the basics. I also decided to do something a bit different, and decided to use some more experimental ideas as well. Namely by working on a soft fur effect in a few places, glowing tattoos, scuffs on some surfaces and some extra details on the eyes. I'm definitely liking how it has all come out.
I might release a version without the fur effect, but I am thinking of getting close to going ahead with commissions. My plan is to do one more MadWolf piece that is a bipedal full body with a more extensive pose, and if that comes out quick enough, I will likely start taking some kind of commission. I might need some more time working on Feral poses before I get working on those, but I'm sure I'll get to that point soon.
Either way, I'm really happy with the way this practice came out!
This piece was partly for the sake of practicing with my frontal heads, whilst at the same time getting this idea out onto paper. Basically, the MadWolf has gone madder than usual. Hence the glowing pupils and black eyes lol.
This wasn't intended to be a fully piece, just something rough and fun to pass the time. Makes a nice little bit of practice though and experimentation though.
After completing the feral form of the MadWolf not too long ago, I sat down and started drawing the anthro version of them as well, doing my first furry full body for a while whilst at the same time, working on a new outfit for the MadWolf as well. My hope was that by completing this full body in my style, I'll finally be ready to start preparing to take commissions for my art.
So, this is the result after 14 plus hours, and I'm pretty damn happy with the result. The MadWolf's clothing was inspired partly by the old outfits that Kili had, whilst also taking cues from the Dark Suit (Lean) from Nitendo Switch Sports. It's alot more androgynous a look compared to what I've done in the past, especially based on my own experiences with exploring my identity, which using the MadWolf has allowed. The only thing I had alot of difficulty with was the hands, which, well, are hands either way you look at it. But the rest of the design was something I very much enjoyed putting together.
It also helped in refineing some elements of my art style, and working on using the different features of Krita to push it futher. Something I think has worked really well.
As for commissions, after completeing this, I feel like I am now ready to go ahead and start some small commissions! I just need to work out prices and how best to start things off and then soon enough, I'll be abe to get started with a couple!
So, still been doing a small amount of drawing whilst keeping up with writing projects, namely a few wolf heads, though one of them has evolved into a prototype side body.
Whilst still messing around with the last set of scribbles, I ended up going ahead with another, more dynamic full body to fully settle once and for all if I was ready for some kind of commissions or not. And this is the result!
Overall really happy with this piece! Just kinda resonates me as well, so it helps on a personal level too!
Well, after uploading that last piece of art (the other projects still need doing), I've decided that I'm now ready for go ahead with doing art commissions! It'd probably be limited to headshots or simple projects with only 2-3 slots whilst I stretch my legs, but it's still a start!
Right now though, I've been really stumped on the buisness side of things, like taxes, media systems and of course, prices. And I've not found much to help me out there. Hopefully once I work out the details of how much to charge and how tax all works, I can start going ahead with commissions proper.
Artwise, just started the art for a pricesheet template that I'm working on right now.
So, on one hand, I've managed to get the pricesheet mascot further along overall. Will mainly need a little bit of shading and eye work.
On the other hand, I'm having another crack at drawing Arcbots. Specifically Spitfire again... who despite being a cool design proves to be impossibly difficult to draw. It took multiple attempts to get the head even remotely right at an angle. The torso is even more difficult.
Well, the time has come to do a big art drop before I go on holiday and potentially lose Wi-Fi for a couple of weeks. Namely some practice on new expressions, new angles and finally poking my head back at an previous character that I've done.
The first little piece is a simple headshot of the MadWolf, only practicing with a more angry expression than normal. Came out pretty well once I worked out where the mouth needed to sit. Overall, pretty nice little piece to do.
Basically an avatar piece of the MadWolf, basically working on a new approach to the side and a new angle for the head I haven't tried before. Took a bit of time to get the fluff right, but it paid off well.
And finally last but not least, the Arcbots return. Namely featuring Spitfire in the Republic of Manchester, part of the wider ARCSverse/Arkaris setting I'm working on. Just had that ARCS itch I needed to sort out. Once again, Spitfire was literally painful to draw, namely in the new angle for the head and the torso that needed a redesigned waist, but that only made actually getting through to the completed product. Overall, I'm really happy with the way this piece came out featuring the sapient 3D-printers with plasma cannons and giant swords. I am going to do other ARCS in time, specifially Hellcat and Hurricane, but I'll need some time on that.
Feel free to quiz me about the ARCSverse.
Also happy to confirm that I'll be opening slots for my first headshot commissions in May.
I know it is quite sudden since the last WIP update, but I'm going to give folks the opportunity to infulence this particular piece I'm working on featuring Lyall.
Basically, this piece is going to feature posters in the background and maybe on the bar, these will be pretty simple in their design and details, but I'm going to be adding a couple of jokes and ideas from my own projects to a few of those posters, plus one acknowledgement. If anyone has any particular ideas about what should go on those posters, please let me know, and I'll look at trying to do your poster idea on this piece! I only have so much space though, so only it's gonna be either the most popular or first come-first served here.
Progress has been slow for the last few days. Namely because I've been obsessed with trying to get the heads in my art style to look exactly right. Namely making sure any frontal views and 3/4 views closely match the side view I tend to regularly draw. Despite drawing numerous heads and being obsessed to the point of requiring three seperate documents, I'm still not entirely satified.
Right, this head obsession has gone on for long enough. I've settled on a trio of heads that I'm ultimately going to use as a template or in an art piece, but I'm not sure which one of the 1/8 view heads I'm going to go for at the end of the day.
I want to go for a head that is most similar to the actual 3/4 head and the side view at the end of the day, but I'm not sure what is the best fit at the end of the day. Anyone have any thoughts?
Actually ended up going further and started looking at the fullbody again with that same original head. Still not quite happy with the fullbody, even if the head is now in the right place. Hands are still a nightmare, and the early attempt on the arms were too thick, so started slimming them down, just hope not too much.
Just practicing drawing another head at a side angle before I push through and finish off my current art pieces. It was a pain, given the awkward aside view of the head. But I eventully got somewhere with it.
I need to sit down at some point and try and fully finish off the pieces I've mainly been dabbling with. I am practicing with another bit of line work for a upper body to try and get back into the groove after having a bit of a break down for creative works as of late.
So, here's some of the recent updates that I've been working on.
So this was just a half-body/head practice that I've dabbled in based on my sona again.
Now, admittedly this was inspired by an AI-generated art piece, mainly because morbid curiosity finally overcame me and I used a phone app to see what it could actually generate despite my general hatred of AI art in general. And during one generation, it actually churned out a pretty interesting mech design when it was meant to generate an anime character in pilot gear, with a good chunk of the head hidden out of sight. So I decided to use it as a small amount of inspiration to dabble in some mecha heads.
However, the heads themselves are original. And if I do continue these heads in some form, AI will play very little part in it and would be inspiration only. And it will likely never happen again now my morbid curiosity has been sated.
And I already did a basic sketch of this rifle before, but I decided to carry on working on this sci-fi rifle design. It's called a MATR-40, a tactical rifle that runs on coil gun technology. The rifle itself, despite being slightly bigger than an M16, can fire it's rounds with the energy of being hit by a truck.
This is going to be one part of a final project before I sit down and start actually colouring stuff in rather than just bouncing from one art project to the next in order to satisfy my concerns on my own ability to raw.
So yeah, I'm also doing a repeat of the Gadget character from over a year ago, updated in my own style. Plus an extra character who will also be appearing here.
And so, I've put together the second head I needed. Which seems to confirm that I've regained the ability to draw heads in my artstyle and full bodies. Now it's onto the clothes, weapons, and the hell that is hands.
The inspiration comes from a mix of Sonic Forces, Ratchet and Clank, and finally Titanfall. Should be an interesting combo. Already got the name of the wolf, but I'll need to work out what to call the rabbit once she's punked up.
www.furaffinity.net
