Merry Xmas 2018

"Merry Xmas 2018"
(Original)

I don't often do holiday themed pics, but for some reason, this year made me want to. It also gave me a reason to use my characters again, and further flex my newfound style.
I first did this piece a s a quick "ink sketch" a couple days prior, but something wouldn't let me just settle with that. So I redid the piece on a larger scale and made it full color. Making sure the face and height differences between Rhapsody (left) and Elysium (right) were another challenge for myself. Not a tough one, necessarily, but something I need to make sure I can do consistently in the future.
For the final, I did add some digital effects just for the sake of not letting the text seem so stark with the traditional art.

The raw piece and the original sketch can be found below.

December 27, 2018
Micron pens, Sakura Pigma pens, Prismacolor Markers, colored pencils, gel pens, and POSCA paint pens
 on 14x17" smooth bristol stock.
Background/foreground effects and text done digitally via Photoshop Elements 7.0

"Merry Xmas 2018" (traditional piece)

"Merry Xmas 2018" (original ink sketch)

December 24, 2018
Micron pens
on 8.5x11" cardstock
Background text done digitally via Photoshop Elements 7.0

Fated Sword Dual Balance ©Studio OZKai

The Host of the Slayer of God

"The Host of the Slayer of God"
(Xenogears)

Xenogears had been on the mind a lot this year, being the 20th Anniversary and all. And I wanted an excuse to do an Alphonse Mucha-esque art nouveau piece. This also makes my third Fei piece in one year.
I wanted the background effect to go through the primary colors and also reflect the struggles Fei had gone through over the course of the game, with Zohar and a Xenogears motif adorning the top. The colors on the actual piece mixed too much between bright and dull, so I decided to mute them a bit for the final render, as well as add a "paper texture" to the background.

September 2, 2018
Micron pens, Sakura Pigma pens, Prismacolor Markers, colored pencils, and gel pens
on 11x17" cardstock 
Paper color and texture added in Photoshop Elements 7.0

*Determination

"*Determination"

(Undertale)

 
What can I say about Undertale that hasn't already been said? It's the most amazing indie RPG I've ever played, and love its twists in both gameplay and narrative, and I love how much the game is actually playing you, in the end. It's weird how attached you can get to characters in what feels like only a 7-10 hour game.

This piece started as a simple sketch. The human handing the monster a flower. The best part of this concept is the duality of the symbolism, especially depending on how you run the game. It's one that hit me hard in conceptualizing, and had to get it out quickly. I had no intention on coloring it, so instead I just did some digital shading on the piece, transferred it to a copper parchment texture, and erased part of that around the human (I'm intentionally being vague with the characters, as playing this game I feel is best to go in with as little idea as to what it is as possible). I only colored the flower, giving a bit more power to its presence, as small as it may be.

July 8, 2017
Pencil and Photoshop Elements3300x2550 pixels (native)

Bounty Hunter Birthday

"Bounty Hunter Birthday"
(Samus Aran from the Metroid)
 
So, yet another Samus picture, lol. But yesterday (August 6th, 2016) marked the 30th anniversary for the first Metroid game releasing on Famicom Disk System in Japan. It's a sort of somber anniversary, though, as it's the first Nintendo franchise to hit this mark and NOT have a new game on the way (Yeah, I know Federation Force, but while I don't bash the game as much as others, even I still feel it's not the Metroid game we need).

Since this is the anniversary for the maiden game's release, I decided to draw her power armor basing it off of the design used in old art and promos for the original Japanese release, but using an art style similar to Zero Mission. To really cement the "classic" appeal to this picture, I did a "Justin Bailey" variant, with green-haired Samus, but the pink Varia Suit (Yup, no swim suit or Zero Suit from me, this time, lol). The variant is below the blurb, here!

Happy birthday, Samus! Hope we'll see you kicking alien ass again, soon!

 August 7, 2016
Micron pens, Pigma pens, Photoshop Elements 7.0
2550x2550 pixels

"Bounty Hunter Birthday" (Ver.JUSTIN BAILEY) 

 August 7, 2016
Micron pens, Pigma pens, Photoshop Elements 7.0
2550x2550 pixels

MegaMan Juno

 "MegaMan Juno"
(MegaMan Juno from the Mega Man Legends)
 
Maybe it was just the shock of this character, who came almost literally out of nowhere in the last few minutes of Mega Man Legends, or his strangely calm, callous demeanor, but something about Juno stuck with me. Once I discovered no official art exists for his character (despite one very rough draft, which hails from one guide book), I knew I had to somehow make up for that...

I tried my best to mimic Hideki Ishikawa's at-the-time style to allow it to mesh with his other designs from the game, though going with the lighting used on the reaverbot illustrations, since he tends to fit in better with them than characters like the Bonnes or even MegaMan, himself. I don't declare it 1-for-1, by any means, but I think I got fairly close. The red digital-esque lines were a challenge to pull off, but I think they came out good given what I was working with. The final touch was giving it a "scanned" look, using some filters and reverse-DNR, just to really cement it into looking "official."

 December 6, 2015
Micron pens, Pigma pens, Photoshop Elements 7.0
4224x5746 pixels

Buster Vine

"Buster Vine"
(Final Fantasy VII / Vinesauce)
 
A quick illustration I made for Vinny of the video game stream site Vinesauce, who's recently been playing Final Fantasy VII, Ironically a few weeks prior to the announcement of Square Enix's remake.
I decided to make it look like the loading screen image, but placed his signature Vineshroom next to Cloud's Buster Sword.
The main illustration is done in my usual traditional means, however, I did some extra digital work to my submitted versions on the Vinebooru, to be used either as wallpaper/splash images and also as a "BRB" during their intermissions.
Sadly, whether he ever actually saw the pieces is forever a mystery to me. :\

June 21, 2015
Micron pens, Sakura Pigma pens, ballpoint pen, Prismacolor Markers, charcoal pencil, colored pencils, and gel pens
on 8.5x11" cardstock.

"Buster Vine" & "Buster Vine (Ver.BRB)"

June 21, 2015

Compiled and edited on Photoshop Elements Editor
Cursor sprite taken directly from Final Fantasy VII game assets

Builders

 

"Builders"
(Char Aznable, Haro, and Amuro Ray from Mobile Suit Gundam / commission)

This was a commission requested, once again, by Falldog over at Otaku Revolution, done for his Layman's Gunpla Guide page for his 6th year anniversary. Sadly, that was a year ago, and I missed the deadline by a tremendous margin, due to alot of RL issues, several consistency problems with the art itself, and a complete drain of my motivation. Thankfully, he was extremely patient with me, and when I started feeling motivated to work on art again, I knew I had to get his pieces done.

The two characters were drawn individually as separate illustrations and compiled into a single banner. Drawing the runners on Amuro's image proved to be the biggest pain, while coloring something as complex as the box and manual on Char' image had no issues. Kinda weird, but whatever. (lol)

*watermarked per request for usage protection.
April 15, 2015   
Illustrations: Micron pens, Sakura Pigma pens, Prismacolor Markers, colored pencils, and gel pens,
on two 8.5x11" cardstock.

Banner: Compiled and edited in Photoshop 7.0 and Photoshop Elements.

Earthsphere

"Earthsphere"
(Amuro Ray and Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack, Banagher Links from Mobile Suit Gundam UC, Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, and Setsuna F. Seiei from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 ~A wakening of the Trailblazer~ / Commission)

I was given the characters and space restrictions for this one, and simply worked within that. This piece went through two drafts, because I tried something different with Char and Amuro, but also lacked proper lineart for Banagher. The second one fleshed them out more proper, and coloring was a cinch, after that.
The background image is a random uncredited stock image I found, since there was going the main body of the website there. But I still did the lighting on the characters, accordingly.

EDIT: Here is the site using this, "The Hergula." It's used in the Mobile Suit Gundam sub-heading of their site, as well as all Gundam-related articles. 

February 17, 2012
Micron pens, Photoshop 7.0 and Photoshop Elements 7.0
1845x920 pixels

Always and Forever

"Always and Forever"
(Portrait)

One of my only attempts at photo-realism, this was done for the wedding of my best friends, Kelli and Darryl McGee. This was the second ever piece I did using Photoshop for the colors, and despite some issues (mostly with my tablet), I feel turned out a little better than I expected. I'm not really a fan of photo-realistic art, but I feel they deserved it.

August 26, 2011
Pencil, Photoshop 7.0
2550x3150 pixels

Gerbera X Tiger

"Gerbera X Tiger"
(Gundam Astray Red Frame Kai from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray VS.)

Using my Master Grade kit as a reference, I did this piece with the intention on truly showcasing the samurai-esque aspect of the Astray RF - My favorite Gundam, period. This was also my first piece done solely digitally, using no lineart or sketchings. It's not a method I'm fond of, however, as this one took me well over a month to finish...
The "Lowe" and kai symbols were actually scanned from the model kit's decal sheet, with minimal clean up, and placed in the background.

April 3, 2011
Photoshop Elements 7.0
3000x1940 pixels

Just a Puppet

"Just a Puppet"
(Sephiroth and Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII)

Probably the most risque picture I've done (publicly ^_^;), but wanted to show how much I could get away with without showing really anything. I gave this one a similar visual style like I did Seventh Heaven, despite the large time gap between the two pieces. I don't really have a lot to say about this piece as I don't really recall too much around it. All I know is it gives all my friends nosebleeds.

February 20, 2008
Ink pens, PainterClassic and Photoshop 7.0
1283x2000 pixels

Anima of Hell

"Anima of Hell"
(Original Character)

Part two of the intended cover illustration for an artbook I never completed.
This one didn't turn out quite as well as its counterpart picture, but am still fond of some of the effects. Once again, though, the edging was still a mistake, but even more-so with this piece, since the black shows up a lot more of the paler colors. Oh well. If I ever redo these, I'll be sure to add a bit of a bleed.

August ‎14, ‎2007
Pencil, PainterClassic and Photoshop 7.0
2410x3000 pixels

Anima of Heaven

"Anima of Heaven"
(Original Character)

Part one of an intended cover illustration for an artbook I was going to compile, however got scrapped when I was no longer able to do the rest of the illustrations for it due to my computer crapping out. :P
I still really like how this piece turned out, though, in retrospect, I shouldn't have done the "painted edging", since -when cropped- cuts too far in on the face, in particular...

August ‎04, ‎2007
Pencil, PainterClassic and Photoshop 7.0
2410x3000 pixels.

Seventh Heaven

"Seventh Heaven"
(Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children)

While it's rare for me to do a picture like this for sheer sexuality, I feel this one achieved it with some fine class. I did the final layout to look similar to the promo images for FFVIIAC. While not perfect, I still think it's got a nice fun look to it, which is quite contrasting to Tifa's character and role in the movie...

 ‎July ‎29, ‎2007
Pencil, PainterClasic and Photoshop 7.0
1426x1956 pixels

The Demon of Elru

"The Demon of Elru"
(Id and Weltall-Id from Xenogears)

The second one I did in the same style as Awakening. This one's aesthetics pleased me much more, with the back-lit Weltall-Id making a much more intimidating appearance than the Weltall's almost thoughtful look on the previous picture. Id, on the other hand, I did not pull off as well as I had hoped, in retrospect. And, once again, both suffer from lack of understanding their designs. Something that I can easily rectify with the Xenogears Perfect Works in my hands...

July 4, 2007
Micronpens and PainterClassic (Layering done in Photoshop 7.0)
1535x2000 pixels

Awakening

"Awakening"
(Fei Fong Wong, Weltall, and Id from Xenogears)

When I finally came around to doing Xenogears fan art, I had apparently had the concept in mind to do them in the style of Shukoh Murase's works for New Mobile Report Gundam Wing. Not a bad, thing, though,as the composition really compliment's the game's feel. I just wished I had better references when I did this, as aside from Fei, nothing else is quite right about this. I was extremely pleased with the shading I did on the Weltall, however, even if the colors aren't right...

June 30, 2007
Micron pens and Painter Classic (layering done in Photoshop 7.0)
1535x2000

My Fears, My Lies

"My Fears, My Lies"
(Sora and Roxas from Kingdom Hearts II)

Ironically, my first piece of fan art for Kingdom Hearts II, and ended up being one of the most work-driven and lengthily ones from my entire career! This was an ambitious project, as I colored it with no defined lineart, going for a quasi-three-dimensional approach, all the colors were applied in constant regard for "realism," despite the conflicting backdrops between the two. The ripples and distortions. All experimental for me, and I went about it in the most roundabout ways possible.
While VERY experimental, this is easily one of my favorite works, even with the flaws I am now much more aware of than I was then. It still gives me a large sense of "I tried so very hard on this and didn't give up even once."

May 16, 2006
Pencil, PainterClassic and Photoshop 7.0
2274x1522 pixels