Renegade-Hamster

Yus, so, artsy things and such.

I was beginning to get a little sad that I hadn't updated dA with my Space Girl! stuff in a while, but I have been working on things that I just haven't submitted yet. For Space Girl!, I've got a Gimic character reference drawing that I'm working on, just nailing down the details that up till now have been various sketches and a general idea in my head. Gimic is a gynoid, that is, a female-humanoid robot. And unlike most gynoids (or "fembots") in fiction, she's not going to be some raunchy sex-fantasy object. Just a woman robot, as opposed to a man robot. I've decided that the robots in Space Girl! will be male and female, and not androgynenous or asexual. I think our sex is part of our psyche as individuals, so why should that be different for humanoid robots? Especially robots like the True Humans, who simultaneously hold themselves superior to "organic humanity", while considering themselves also to be human, but in a truer sense.

Gimic may turn out to be my favourite character as I'm writing this comic, but I'll try not to get too attached to her and make everyone just as interesting (to me, anyway). I specifically like her interaction with Sultan, an android (or male-humanoid robot), who I would say is more reserved and cold than Gimic, and also interested in different things to her, (e.g. Gimic is interested in organic life, and holds a high regard for its complexity and beauty, whereas Sultan has never really considered nature to be important). I'll probably continue with drawings of Sultan, and another gynoid, Challice.

I've also drawn what could possibly be used as a panel for the first chapter of the comic. I've basically drawn it just as a colouring test. I know what style I want to colour in, but I'm actually doing it to figure out any kinks in how I do that, and also what colour combinations work together. Each chapter, I'm planning to use a different colour scheme, both as a stylistic choice to differentiate and individualise each chapter, and for enhancing mood. Intitially, I was thinking space scenes would be more black and white (because of black space, and white stars, and largely white space craft we currently have), but as I'm testing out my colouring of this panel, I'm not so sure how far that will go. It may just extend to the space crafts themselves, and not so much the interiors of the cockpits, bridges, e.t.c. It will also be fun to realise the characters with different colours, and not be stuck on any particular combination.

Besides Space Girl!, I recently I spent a whole day drawing that silly Three Billy Goats Gruff picture! I really like working on that. I predominantly used the pencil tool in Adobe Illustrator CS2 to create the shapes and lines, following two quick guide sketches I made (also using the pencil tool in Illustrator). I think I used a few circles in there too, but the rest was just the pencil tool. It is very freeing to use this, as opposed to the relative stiffness of the pen tool, where you must place each individual point and manipulate the lines between them. The Pencil just allows you to make the shape you want, and because it's a vector line, you can still adjust it very quickly and easily.

I think that's all I wanted to say about my artsy things, and I'll be glad if you enjoyed reading. This journal is for me mainly, but I do like to keep anyone who is interested in my work updated.




P.S. I just realised that dA changed everyone's icons.... nooooooooooooo! Hahahahahahah

So part of my original reason for starting this Space Girl! project was to create an unsexualised female (as in, not dehumanised for someone's fantasy) in a sci-fi setting. To start with, it was just a picture, but now it's decided to become a comic story (Apparently it has a mind of its own, and didn't bother to ask me for permission).

I watch Linkara on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com, and I remembered that he mentioned a webcomic making fun of an unfortunate trend with some professional mainstream comicbook artists where they just trace a photograph of a celebrity or model from a magazine. It had a female character who had been traced from a Sports Illustrated cover (bikini model, probably) complaining that her hips wouldn't "unsway", due to the tendency for pin-up girls to have their hips swayed, cocked to one side. Because that's sexy or something.

I typed in "Why won't my hips unsway?" into google, found the webcomic Linkara mentioned, but also found an interesting livejournal entry that shows scans from a "How-to-draw" book written and illustrated by comic book artists in the business, including Adam Hughes, who is on deviantART. I used to watch his work, (because he is talented at what he does), but it turned out he was fixated on drawing the kind of dehumanising anti-female crap I hate. Anyway, this "How-to-draw" book doesn't just "teach" someone to draw, (It really doesn't have much good advice beyond "Try harder" and "Draw good", proving that being skilled doesn't automatically make you a good teacher in the subject), it also shows quite a lot of what's wrong with the western world's comicbook industry. Check it out here:

ratcreature.livejournal.com/17…

Someone even drew their own version of these "How-to-draw" examples, switching all the genders of the characters drawn to highlight the absurdity of not just how female characters are universally made into sexual fantasies in mainstream western comicbooks, but also how the males are typically drawn with stupid muscle bulk.

Rant's over! Comment if you like. I'm not into arguments, but intelligent discussion is okay. By the way, I'm not bashing all western comics (or elevating all Eastern comics, either), and I'm not against "mainstream" comics. I'm just using the mainstream label to indicate what I mean. Plenty of independant and/or amateur comics are guilty of the same things.

Also! If you want, you can follow my progress in creating Space Girl! in this gallery: Renegade-Hamster.deviantart.com/gallery/#Space-Girl

Follow my progress in creating Space Girl! in this gallery: Renegade-Hamster.deviantart.com/gallery/#Space-Girl

Peace out!

Been working on a t-shirt for the youth group at my church called imPACt. It's getting pretty detailed. It's a white vector design, using the colour of the shirt itself as a contrasting colour. I've referenced a lot of stock images, so when I upload that, I'll be writing up a long list of credits, and notifying a whole bunch of people. Blah. I like how it's going, though.

I've been working on a full-body costume reference for the title character of Space Girl!, but I took a break from it when I got to the hands. Hands are hard. That'll be done soon. Today I wanted to work on a few plant designs for the alien world (which I have tentatively named Perdu), but I've been working on the imPACt shirt today, and otherwise just having leisure time. I have ideas for the plants, and I've sketched them, but not in photoshop yet. The linework I can do in photoshop is what I think really brings my designs to life. I am in love with the lines I'm doing. I think we will be getting married.

Recently for Space Girl!, I've been sketching up designs on paper for the three robots. Their names are Challice (a gynoid), Sultan (an android), and Gimic (a gynoid). I've also been writing a bit more character information and background information, finding and patching up plotholes, as well as writing another chapter of the story outline. 5 chapters now, I think. I'm wondering if I shouldn't start the page layout sketches until I've finished the story outline and I think it's solid... but I'm getting a bit impatient, and I think I might have to start layouts soon just to keep the ball rolling.

Finally heard back from the door hanger people, and they went with another concept, but they said I'd be payed for the work I did do.

Byes!

So, I've been working on a bunch of things. I've finished the logo for Dan Jones' radio show (for his podcast graphic, and accompanying website, for those cynical people wondering why a radio show would need a logo) and I should upload that soon. I've made an insert and cd label for the new single from Seven Steady (a band some of my mates are in). That's basically just some re-used graphics from their debut ep, so I may not upload that here. Finally, I've been writing a story outline and backstory for my planned* Space Girl! comic, as well as some concept sketches.

I've decided that the Space Girl! picture with the dead space dragon is going to be re-done to make it look more interesting, and that it would be appropriate both as a wrap around "cover" for this book* and as an end of chapter double-page spread for one of the chapters. I've started another Space Girl! picture, with a style of chunky, dirty linework (e.g. check out this artist on dA. I think his work is awesome: TimKelly . Another person with "dirty" linework that I greatly admire is roxination. She's fantastic).

For the comic itself, I plan* to finish the chapter-by-chapter story outline first, then make quick layout pages. Then I'll draw the final pages one-by-one, using the kind of dirty linework I've mentioned above and a different minimal colour palette for each chapter of the story. For each chapter, I would like to have a title page or double-page spread, as well as an end of chapter double-page spread. These would also serve as the first and last panel of the chapter, respectively. I'm not sure about having chapter names, instead of just numbering them. If I do, I think I'll have them be esoteric quotes and references that have little or no connection with the plot. Maybe.

After each "end of chapter" splash, I'm toying with the idea of having some backstory related to the reader through in-universe framing device(s), like fictional books or articles. I may end up having the backstory related through the story itself anyway, but some of it just wouldn't have any reason for being in the story, and I think it would bog down the pacing. Another advantage to having the backstory separate as a series of excerpts from in-universe articles is that it can help reader immersion in the story so they can believe the universe of the story, and also just be fun for those who like to know the details.

Well, that was a good exercise for me. Getting my thoughts down in a journal like this helps me think even more, and be more creative.

See ya.





*Note: My grander artistic plans (e.g. comics, illustrated novels, etc) usually end up taking so long that I get bored, get overwhelmed, get side-tracked, and never complete them. So I am tentative in using the word "plan" when I talk about Space Girl!, but I really hope I make this thing.