Nanowrimo Requests #4

Between my own nanowrimo novel and my nanowrimo character commissions shop, I haven't had much time for anything else. But here are a couple of the character commissions I've done just to give you a heads up on the sketches I'm working on- hopefully I'll get around to something of my own soon. :3

 For the last four I used a colored paper that has a rougher texture than printer paper so I can create darker lines with just my 2 hb pencil. I like it! I'm going to experiment with it a little more in the future. :)

 Manga girls and guys and chibis in one short sketch-dump post. :P

Conversion: manga to Chibi

When you're drawing a cartoon figure, you take what makes that thing, e. g. a cat, and take the features that make that cat a cat (triangle nose, triangle ears, whiskers) and put them together to create a cat. ( I suggest watching Will Terry's drawing for kids 2 starting at 1:40, he displays this concept well)

Looking at this chibi and the picture on the right, you can tell which character he's supposed to be; why? Because they shares core similarities. 
When you're drawing a chibi OF a character, you have to make sure that they have core similarities between manga and chibi, so that your chibi isn't just another blond boy in a t shirt.

Several (!) similarities
1. Rect. glasses
2. Hairstyle. Don't copy every spike- just the prominent ones
3. eyes and eyebrows- take care to mirror the face of your manga character
4. Jacket+props
When drawing a chibi be sure NOT to copy every wrinkle- remember, it's a chibi!

Nanowrimo Requests 2016 #3

Original character designs I created in a commissions shop on the nanowrimo site.

Doing commissions for nanowrimo users is a lot like drawing fan art when you're the first one. There are no pictures, videos or other pieces of artwork on the character you're drawing, absolutely nothing you can base them off of. Though this can be difficult, it also gives you a lot of freedom, because you're in charge of the interpretation.

Nanowrimo requests #2 1/2

I run a manga character design shop during November, and I always try to make each character their own self, not just a another boy in a T-shirt. I haven't had lots of time for much else( as far as art), so here are a few of the characters I've been working on this month.

 Both chibi Draco and dawn's skin tone was created with the Beach blick marker and the prismacolor brick beige (personally one of my favorite skin tones) and I love it!

Nanowrimo manga character requests ~ RT

Coloring a chibi girl with tombow manga markers

I start out with the line art; I suggest using technical pens because they have a wide range of sizes and they don't bleed! Tombow markers are water based and will not make the ink run whether it's a technical pen or ball point, but I use prismacolor for my skin tones and that got a little messy here.

I used a pink prismacolor pencil over two of my blick skin tones( beach and sand) for a little bit of blush around her eyes.

Next I did the hair. Tombow markers will look darker than they really are when you first apply them, so give them time to dry before you color over. I did one solid layer, then went over the places that I wanted darker.

I love the Tombow marker's bright/un fading color. Sometimes I make mistakes, but 'let's make them birds,' aka making it appear like the mistake isn't a mistake.

I used the same red brown marker for the belt, boots, hair, and eyes to help tie the picture together.

Because Tombow markers are not alcohol based, they don't blend too well, and while the resulting texture is great for hair and the like, it doesn't do too well for her leggings. If you're not as perfectionist as I am you can see past it though. XD

I used the pink pencil from before to add various highlights, and several more prismacolors to create a patten on top of the red marker. One of my favorite techniques is to apply pencil on top of a marker image because I can add little details, highlights or hemlines and such after the fact.

Nanowrimo 2016 requests #2

I haven't had much time to do anything else this month, so here is another manga sketch dump of nanowrimo character requests I did this last week. :) Enjoy.

Three on a sidewalk: English w/ sketches

English translation of my chibi comic, Three on a Sidewalk( 3oS) pg 1 and 2:

Concept art (on notebook paper no less):

 This third one is a concept sketch for another 3OTS comic. Chris is closing the restaurant, but Isa's there, being a little despondent. It's date night and Robbie is working. Chris gets an idea.... 'You know... I could take you out.'

Nanowrimo Requests 2016 #1

This is gonna be a long one. Here are a few of the manga characters I have finished for Users on Nanowrimo. Characters belong to the respective authors.

Kat here is my favorite because of the way I balanced her hip and the weighted line son her jeans- I just love it!

 This is Archer along with his concept design sketches.

 This is Ashe, chibi and head-shot.

Below are several more character requests:

This last one is a 'quicky sketch' of several of the above characters, something I do right away to capture the feel for a character. It's right at this first step where I find out if I'm going to enjoy drawing a character or not.