More arm

Elastic makes things so much easier @_@

So I think I mostly finished the mock up of the arm. The shoulder rig didn't hold up nearly as well as I had hoped, but it did at least stabilize the upper arm a bit. I didn't have to hold it any more, so that I'm happy with. Anyhow, without further ado, I present the newly improved arm!

I did identify one problem area, which is the area where the upper and lower arm cross paths. I'm not sure if it was due to the shoulder rig, but the two parts kept getting caught on each other.I think this could be solved if I pad my upper arm with something. That combined with building the shoulder a bit further out from my body should hopefully give the pieces enough room to pass without hitting each other.

I really love the lower arm, though. If it didn't make using a computer impossible, I'd still be wearing it :P

Well then...

So apparently not only has the only craft store I can get to without bussing over an hour one way closed, but the Zellers at the closest mall is finally closing to make way for the Target that's going in there next year. This means their stock, while nicely discounted, leaves something to be desired ಠ_ಠ

Anyway, while I didn't get as much as I was planning, I did pick up some elastic and velcro at the fabric store. I don't really need it now, but since I was in the area figured I might as well save a trip later. Also picked up some poster board at the local dollar store so I can make a mockup of Soundwave's head when I get the design sketched out.

Can't wait until I can get a ride to the local Home Depot, though, so I can pick up some insulation foam. I worked with it briefly years ago and after checking out various cosplay sites, it looks like it's the best stuff to work with for anything that needs to be durable (and several layers of wood glue/tissue paper paper mache is supposed to reinforce it pretty well while not adding much weight and being sandable). It's probably also cheaper than crafting foam >_>

Initially I was thinking Wonderflex would work pretty well, but that stuff is way too expensive to do something as big as this. Soundwave's arms alone would likely cost upwards of $200. Though if I had the money I'd likely go that route and do the EL sheets for all the glowy bits, but I'm not going to spend $500+ on a costume which I still don't know where I'd wear it to >P

Anyway, I'll see what I can do with the helm design tonight so I can possibly work on it tomorrow. Don't know if I'll do that or work on the arm some more now that I have proper materials for it, but I'll do something.

Rough chest design and why multiple screenshots work best

(hey, I actually remembered a title this time!)

Alright, so I finally managed to sit down and stay focused to figure out Soundwave's upper body. It's not the most accurate (or symmetrical -- the left is the "good" side) but I needed to figure out the best way to adjust the proportions so that they actually fit. Soundwave has very broad shoulders and a tiny waist and I... don't really have either. So that needed to be dealt with.

And as you can see, I'm currently doing Soundwave without Laserbeak attached. Depending on how things go, I may make a Laserbeak I can attach and remove when I want. Or maybe have a mini-Laserbeak I can stick on my shoulder like a robotic bat-rat parrot. Maybe get an eyepatch to stick on the helm when I want... Damn, I kinda want to make a pirate Soundwave now ._.;;

Anyway, hopefully I can get foam and/or posterboard soon so I can get working on the real deal (or at least a mock-up that I can put on and test), though I should probably work out the proportions of the legs and diaper first. Same with the head/helm. That thing is a lot more complicated than I first thought, and it doesn't help I'd need to make sure it has enough room for my glasses.

I nearly made a horrible mistake with the chest, however. One of the clearest screenshots of Soundwave's chest that I could find comes from Master & Student when he releases Laserbeak to follow Starscream. The problem is that in that shot, the prong-y things on his chest (blue on my drawing) were up since they are apparently articulated (despite having no visible joint) and point up when he releases his drone ಠ_ಠ

Made a basic (and rather bad) shoulder rig to test an idea. I'd post pictures but the camera batteries died and I haven't gotten new ones yet. But it seems to have mostly solved the problem of the upper arm not staying straight and/or hitting me in the head. Up/down movement will likely end up being limited, but forward/back should have a good range and allow some rotation.

Using a shoulder rig also let me try out moving both arm pieces at once, which felt both odd and cool. It will take some getting used to when I make a more solid arm, but it should hopefully work out well with practice. Even better if/when I get to work on articulated fingers.

I'll get pictures up when I can, but for now I'm trying to figure out the best way to do Soundwave's chest and legs. Looks like I may need to use stilts to give the lower leg a bit more length :S

A wild potential cosplay has appeared!

Wow, has it been a year since my last art post already? Yay procrastination, art block, and some other stuff?

Anyway, decided to update this for a project I started working on: a Soundwave (from Transfromers Prime) cosplay. Not sure how far I'll get or what I'll wear it for, but I figure that it's more productive and engaging than sitting around much of the day.

Right now most of the ideas are in my head with a few sketched out, but I did make a mock-up of Soundwave's right arm out of cardboard, bamboo skewers, tape, and a cheap sheet I was going to use for a different project. Elastic would have been better and kept things on without me having to hold them up (the upper arm/shoulder especially) but I didn't have any on hand.

Pictures kinda suck since I had to put the camera on a bookcase and use the timer, but they ought to give a decent idea of it. (the lower arm is actually longer than it seems, as apparently I can't take a picture without having it at an angle that makes it seem shorter).

Elastic will definitely make things easier and I'll try to get some soon and  replace the regular fabric to see how that works out.

I did some range of motion tests since I was worried that the upper and lower arm will catch, but surprisingly that didn't seem to be a problem. Granted it could be because the upper arm was so loose when I didn't hold it straight (and would hit me in the head...) but I think as long as they're at slightly different angles it won't be a problem as long as I'm mindful of it and don't make quick movements.

Brief update

Alright, haven't done much art at all recently but I'm making this post in an effort to guilt trip myself to do some. Luckily for me several glitches in Skyrim have given me ideas for some comics, so we'll see how those work out. Got some sketches going already, it's just a matter of scanning them and doing some work on them...

Almost there

It's the home stretch now. Mostly it's just the background, and maybe a few small things here and there. Should finish it tonight or tomorrow.

Progress2

I was going to post this last night, but I ended up falling asleep.

Forgot to resize the link watermark but whatever. The gold doesn't look so flat anymore, but I need to go over the chains and add a couple links at the back of the neck and have it actually attach to the pendant. And do the gem in the pendant. After that it's just details and a background and I'm done :D

And I finally got my third pyro milestone in TF2, so I'll be much less tempted to play that instead of doing art >3

Progress!

Dragon's mostly done, now it's just the jewelry. The shiny, gold jewelry... and the shiny gemstones.

I'm going to redo the spine sheaths again, since I still don't like their shading. Same with the gold pendant. And of course the gems. Plus fixing details like the nostril and eyelids and such. The main thing left, though, is the chain. I tried multiple times to get it with rectangular links and it just wasn't working, so next up are round links that overlap. What's there is 5 seconds to get an idea about it, and it looks better. Whether it will still look good after I put time into it remains to be seen, however.

Quick update

Figured I might as well post what I managed to get done since my earlier post, since I won't be working on it any more tonight and I don't know what, if anything, I'll get done on it tomorrow or the next few days.

It's coming along nicely, even if I keep wandering onto the internet every 10-20 minutes >_>;;

Not sure if I'm looking forward to or dreading the shiny jewelry.

Yay tutorial vids.

I'm so bad at actually finishing anything... Started working on yet another piece =_=;;;

Earlier I ended up watching several tutorials on ctrl+Paint and wanted to try out some of what I learned on a new piece. So far so good, and without a crazy number of layers or an embarrassing amount of time spent! Of course I have work the next three days, so I don't know if/when I'll finish this. It never fails that I'm most motivated to do art just before I won't have the time or energy left to work on anything XP

But I definitely recommend checking that site out. Lots of helpful pointers and info there. And did you know Photoshop has a transform selection tool?! How was today the first I've heard of such a thing? I can not wait until I get a chance to use it 8D;;

Now leaving the pony tangent..

So, yeah. I haven't posted anything recently because I ended up drawing pony fanart due to Equestria Daily's artist training grounds. That and I needed a break from what I was doing, things came up at work, and some laziness tossed in for good measure.

But some good things did come out of it in that I've gotten a better hang of my tablet and can work faster now... when I don't get distracted -_-;;

Anyway, I'm still not ready to go back to what I've posted previously, so I'm completely redoing a previous WIP. I posted it on my DA account (though I did a fair bit more work on it after that post), but I just didn't like how things were turning out.

This is what I have now:

Foliage beast WIP-2: Success!

A-ha! After a few days of trial, error, hunting, and shrubbery, I finally managed to find part of a tutorial that actually helped with making leaves.

So here's the latest WIP sporting revamped foliage:

Still not quite done with the leaves, but I think it's a definite improvement over what I had.

Hopefully now I'll stop dreaming of leaves and partially waking up thinking how to do them >_>;;

Foliage beast WIP-1

Just got an Intuos4 yesterday and went with one of the previous sketches to use as practice. I definitely feel more loose and relaxed now that I don't have a cramped work area, and can work at a faster pace. It hasn't helped me with my shrubbery, though >.>

And I do know I need to up the contrast in a number of spots. When I was working on it it looked fine, but now I can definitely see how flat it is.

Er...

Well, things didn't turn out quite how I had planned, but I finally have sketches to post albeit a couple weeks later than intended.

Nothing too exciting here -- just some crappy random doodles.

More work doodles, but this time not quite so crappy. I may even fix these up and make proper drawings out of 'em.

 
I don't normally sketch or doodle in pen, but I had left my pencil at home so it was either use a pen or be bored for 20 minutes. I chose the former as I had also left my MP3 player at home >_>;;

But I'm starting to like the permanence of it. It sucks to screw up or change my mind about something, but because of that I need to think harder about just where to put lines. The only bad thing is that my last Micron is running low on ink so I'm going to have to do a pen run sooner rather than later now.

Side note to self: buy a dang notepad with plain paper in it!

A Start?

This may or may not end up being a simple impulse to make a sketch blog. I rather doubt many would/will bother to read it because frankly, I'm not that good. I'm not an up and coming artist, I don't have mad skillz or the charisma to draw people in -- I'm just an amateur artist still deciding whether art should be a hobby or something more.

But! I still want to get better, and hence the blog. I have the nasty habit of procrastination and getting distracted by a small thing known as the internet. I just can't seem to shake either of them, but this is where this blog comes in. I figure that maybe, just maybe, if I have a place to post crappy sketches, practice drawings, and WIPs then I might be more inclined to focus on art instead of browsing the internet aimlessly.

Only time will tell if this will work, but here's to hoping.

Cheers!
- Zephire