T is for Toad

... and Toadette!
This is my least favorite drawing so far... Mostly because I only had about 30 minutes to draw it; and it looks like a 10 minute drawing... For such simple character designs these two are deceptively difficult to draw.
I like the idea of it; maybe I'll play with it again.
I'd feel bad; but all of these are pretty rough sketches.  You can also tell as you go through them which things I'm better at drawing...

I don't totally hate it, but I also don't like it.

I hope for the reflections post that I'll have time to go over ALL of these sketches and makke  them look a little more done.  'cause right now they are embarrassing.

~Alicia

S is for Spyro...

This is another kids game one, because I was thinking of doing Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, then realized I didn't have that kind of time lol.
Outside of Skylanders, which I bought to play with my son, I haven't played any Spyro games, I've alwayys thought they they looked like fun, but have never played one.
I did my best with reference from google, he's not quite right, but meh.

Also I realized today I'm apparently a day off, probably why I always feel behind...

~Alicia

R is for Rikku

Yet ANOTHER final fantasy character.  What can I say? They are fun to draw :)
I'm noticing as I keep going back to the Final Fantasy franchise for characters to draw that they re-use a lot of character design ideas.  Aeith, Rikku andd Quistis all have pretty similar designs, part of that of course is just the style that Final Fantasy games have, but I still find it interesting that they re-use so much.  I guess that could be said of any series that wants to maintain a certain appearnce.

SO here is Rikku.

I've been having a hard time drawing lately, not just finding time but liking anything that I've drawn.  To be totally honest I'm not happy with this one at all... BUT I've also not been posting so I need to just post even though things aren't up to the standard I wish they were.  Only way to make that happen is to keep drawing and keep posting... my problem is being out of practice more than anything else.

~Alicia

K is for Kirby

So this isn't my best sketch ever, I had a hard time with the letter K so settled on a character my kids love.  Surprisingly it is very difficult to draw a circle freehand... and since Kirby's design is just a big circle... oh well my daughter will enjoy it.

I was also experimenting with some new markers I have, 'Spectrum Aqua' they are a water based marker, which is different from the alcohol based I'm used to.  I want to play with them a bit more on something less pink.  :D

If you don't know the games he is from, just google him he'll come up.  The one my kids play is Kirby Super Star and of course Smash Brothers.

well here it is:

~Alicia

J is for Jaina Proudmoore

I'd like to finish this past the initial sketch period, but even as it stands I really like how it came out.

Jaina is a rather important character in the Warcraft series.  She's been fascinating to watch through the series from when she first appeared (Warcraft 3 I believe) to who she is now in the MMO World of Warcraft.  She's a character with surprising depth.  I find myself loving and hating her at different moments in the story, which I think makes her a pretty decent character.

I don't really have much more to say about it.

~Alicia

A to Z challenge update

MAN I'm AWESOME at this.

Ok; so I've actually been drawing *nearly* every day for this challenge, but I do the initial sketch in a non-photo blue pencil.  Like the name suggests... it doesn't show up very well by itself.  So I have a few unfinished sketches that need to be inked. 

I now have most of my computer desk set up in my office, and I have space on the desk to draw. So that'll help me get on task.

This:

will also help me stay on task.  One of my greatest difficulties in getting anything done is I don't have a great place for the baby while I work.  Today I came up with the idea of using her highchair on my desk, so she can play and be close by while I draw.  We'll see how it works but I'm optimistic! (it's a corner desk, so that gives me more space than a normal desk, I was going to use the spot she's in for something else, but honestly giving up the space is OK if it means I can draw) 

Oh and don't freak out about the screen, it's been moved since this picture... lol

I'm going to play catch up this week, so probably two posts a day for a little while, but I'll post date the old ones and link them to the proper letters on the main a to z blog/fb page

~Alicia

C is for Lara Croft

I enjoy these games, I am yet to play to the end of any of them (something about having other things in my life besides games...) BUT I love them so much. 
I also love Lara's character design through the years, this most recent one is so much fun! 
So I drew the current character design instead of one of the older ones.

~Alicia

B is for Birds, Angry Birds... Angry BAT Birds

I guess... honestly only a day in and I was already having trouble coming up with characters to draw.  Next year I SWEAR I'm going to plan ahead  some..
So here are a few Angry Birds, mostly because I thought people could relate to them better than my other B ideas. 
They are batman themed because my kids got me to take them to the lego batman movie today.  I have bats on the brain lol.
I think these are just going to be rough sketches... 'cause that is all I seem to have time for.

~Alicia

A is for Aerith (or Aeris) (ff7)

Its time for the a-z blogging challenge again! Hopefully I can finish it this year.  I wasn't sure if I was going to even try to attemp this challenge this year,  but decided that I would attempt it... well we'll see how it goes.

I missed the day for the 'theme reveal' so I'm going to mention it here with my first post.  I'm going to do video game fan art, focusing mostly on characters of course :). 

Aerith seemed an obvious choice for 'A' as she is one of the more iconic characters in video game history.  At least in my opinion.

Today I only had time for lineart, I do plan on painting it later though.

2017: life, goals and stuff

So my last 2 posts on this blog are very very old, the last being a little over a year ago, and the one before that being a rather depressing review of fall 2015 semester. It's been a long crazy year, and honestly I spent most of the last 12 months in bed... if you don't know why Check out this Facebook post

This is one of the few illustrations I've done
in the last 12 months, and it doesn't feel
remotely done, but probably the closets I've
come to finishing anything.

While I didn't draw much, couldn't really lift my head most of the time I felt so awful... I did study a LOT and I mean a LOT of art.

Even after my long December post where I recommitted myself to art/illustration I kind of struggled with that.  Did I really mean it? Could I possibly become good enough? Should I just quit where I was, get my BS and move on with life? Was it worth it?


and probably most importantly...

Do I still have any passion for Illustration?

Basically January 2016 was one big dark depressive funk.  I tried the whole 'Fan Art February' as a pie in the sky ideal that *maybe* drawing fan art would make me happy and excited again.

Then of course I found out I was pregnant.  And as usual I got sicker and sicker and sicker.  To the point where I kind of just got by every day...

Despite the fact that everything in my life pointed to this being bad timing, this was probably the best thing that could happen to me.

I spent a year feeling awful, my strength and energy only just coming back over the last month or so.  I could do very little beyond very basic taking care of my older kids and laundry when it was needed.
And all I wanted to do was sit up and paint and draw.

Turns out there is plenty of desire when my ability to do anything was taken away.

So I studied art.  I watched so many online classes, YouTube videos and read so many articles on how to draw, how to paint, anything.  It kept me from going insane.

strangely enough, as I've been able to find time to do more; I some how improved during that time.  Not as much as I would have if I'd physically held pen to paper, but I'd improved in my drawing skills because I had to stop and think about the process of drawing.

I have a long way to go, and so much more I want to accomplish; but I have a better roadmap then I had before.

this is another from the last year
I like where it is going, but haven't
gotten past an initial sketch...

You see; when I finally found the Illustration program I felt SO far behind everyone else.  And I was; I really really was.  I'd been in and out of so many majors, I'd been told how stupid it was to go into art... So when I stumbled into what was to become the greatest decision of my life, much of my ability had atrophied.  I was suddenly in classes with people who had drawn non stop for all their lives.  I'd drawn non stop up to a point, and then so many other influences pushed me away from drawing, and it became something that I was convinced I was terrible at and that I should never pursue.  So I'd stopped, and I tried to go into things that were more practical.

So I forged mightily ahead, playing catch up in every class, having to repeat classes... feeling dwarfed by my peers, and I was terrified of taking to long of a break from school because I was sure I'd never make it back.

So life forced a break on me.

And I couldn't stop thinking about art.

This is where I find myself today.  I have about 31 days to put together a really good showing of my ability and then I only have 5 short months to prepare for my last year of classes.

SO I have a few goals for this time.

#1- finish things
My greatest weakness hands down is my fear of screwing stuff up.  So I never finish anything.  I'll start a sketch and then post it and be like 'look at my sketch' but I never take it beyond that despite wanting to.
#2- draw every day
I doodle nearly every day; but I'm going to take an hour to just DRAW every day
#3- draw for myself
Even when I'm back in school.  I don't know why I started at some point trying to draw for everyone else, and it's kind of trapped me in this weird place where I negatively critique everything to the point that I achieve nothing.

Some fan art I'm working on, actually I'm redoing
it.  Again, got to this point and kinda stopped...
no good reason, just fear.

They aren't my usual 'draw 10,000 pages' type goals, though those have merit, and I might do something like that (not that extreme this year lol) behind the scenes, but as far as real goals that I
need to place on myself; I'm going with the 3 above.

One last thing before I sign off for the night.

I'm going to be moving this over to a wordpress blog sometime in the next 6 months, and integrating it into a website.  I feel like this is important as blogger is cute, but hard to really make into a professional feeling blog.

I'm also going to put together a schedule for blog/facebook/instagram/website/youtube/etc updates, not sure if I'll post that or keep it to myself.  The only reason to mention it is so you know that I'm going to have more regular content.

~Alicia Hawks