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Alfador Waving
I drew this as part of a birthday card for my grandmother. Explanation of the "square root of 2" candle on the birthday cake: I was trying to figure out what kind of candle I should put (since it's a birthday card!) and realized that it had been about one and a half years since Alfador's "birth" on FurryMUCK (character creation date May 9, 2000). One quick calculation later I had figured that Alfador's square-root-of-2 birthday was sometime in November. So I put it on there. }=)
Umlaut House Fan-Comic
This is a fancomic I drew for Umlaut House. The disclaimer that used to be right here was deleted because I no longer have any use for it, or indeed any of its ilk.
Newtch.
From my dad's birthday card. I cut off the text and made a few minor adjustments to the coloring (I'd forgotten to clean up the lines of the teeth, and put the black tips on the ears) so it would be fit to be posted here. Newtch.
Kitkala With a Mallet (Blue Dress version)
This one I'm more proud of. Kitkala said she dresses in shades of blue...not only does she look better in this than the White Mage dress, but I'm more pleased with how the shading turned out. Being as it didn't start out pure white, I was more able to get highlight and shadow to come forward, giving this version a bit more depth. .....But I still posted both versions!!! }=)
Kitkala With a Mallet (White Mage version)
Finally! The colored version of my first serious Kitkala pic. Her dress is colored in a way that feels reminiscent of a White Mage robe. This is quite intentional, I assure you. }=) The mallet she is wielding is to enhance that, since White Mages in the original Final Fantasy used Hammer weapons.
Portrait of Kitkala Wielding a Mallet (uncolored)
This is one of a friend and fellow FurryMUCKer, Kitkala the Katbat. Experimenting with different styles for eyes and such. I'm using Jasc Paint Shop Pro (evaluation version) to color now, it's way faster than the GIMP. But if I want to use it more than 30 days, I'm going to have to purchase it for $99. Not as bad as Photoshop's $600 price tag, but it's still a hefty sum. I've got to use it on more than one drawing before I make that kind of decision. ... Who am I kidding, I've already decided. I like it, it's easy to use (so far), the price is right, and it's nice and fast. I will buy it...the question is when.
This picture is uncolored; it will be colored shortly, and I shall post the colored version also. Thank you.
Two Family Members Make Monsters Stop Breathing
One of four sides to a birthday card I made for my stepsister. The card was not only a birthday gift for her, it was also a test of my skill--not so much skill as an artist (though it was practice, which helps me improve), but my skill at adapting to new things, specifically, the software I used. It's a free (and I do mean free, public-license and everything) graphics package called the GIMP. I use the Windows port, and though it's kinda slow (even with 192MB of RAM!) it's useful, and it's free. That last being of utmost importance to a poor little college student such as myself. It'll do nicely until I get the money for a commercial product (not Photoshop, it's way too expensive for the likes of me.) that, at the very least, has better documentation. Please note! I am not putting down the GIMP, just noting that it's painfully slow.
Racing Dad
This is the picture I drew for a Father's Day card. I got it scanned, finally... It shows me and my Dad playing a racing game. It's the first actual finished picture to show a rear view of Alfador, but I'm not quite satisfied with the way the tails come out. It looks right, but as far as illustrating how they divide off at the end of the spine, a sitting position just doesn't work out. I once had a sketch with a standing Alfador rear view, which showed this perfectly, but I don't know what happened to it. I'll try to concentrate on drawing more soon.
The Flying Toasters Crew
Originally intended to be just a sketch, this is my first attempt at drawing poses of all three of the main characters of the upcoming online comic, Flying Toasters. Doesn't this look much better than my first sketches? I'm especially proud of the way Sobe's tail actually looks like it comes directly off his spine. That kind of effect is what I want for all characters in profile or back views. I sketched (but haven't scanned yet) a quick picture of Alfador from the rear view, trying to incorporate this, and I think I pretty much succeeded. Believe me, it's tougher than it sounds to make the appearance of a fork in a lower spine, dividing into three tails. Before, I always dodged this by drawing Alfador from a front view, but I need to be able to do profile, rear, and diagonal shots. I'm learning (and borrowing) a lot from other comic strips; you may have noticed that the design for my cheek ruffs comes from Ozy and Millie, as does Sobe's mouth. I'm trying to "learn from the masters," as it were, while incorporating it into my own style and design. Someday...someday I'll get the tails to look right. Right now, what usually happens is the tails look like they're nice and fluff most of the way, but thin down to almost a cat tail close to the base. Maybe if I overlapped them more...
The little captions are meant to convey something of a "Final Fantasy" feel for our characters. The plan is, we'll be in a "Bruno the Bandit"-esque setting, with medieval technology and society mixing with modern, and we'll be a starting-up team of adventurer/mercenaries, specializing in infiltration. Our classes, as I see them, in a Final Fantasy type game, would be as follows: Alfador: Swordsman/Red Mage, Sobe: Fighter/Special Breath Weapons, Kitkala: White Mage/Summoner (like Garnet or Eiko from FFIX). Those aren't our only abilities; they're just what we'd probably be in an FF game.
Portrait of Alfador
This I am proud of. Click to see a larger version (this is the first image I actually thumbnailed, rather than resizing to fit the page after loading. This is also the image I colored the best in Photoshop. I still learned as I went along about certain things. For example, I learned that the Burn and Dodge tools are THE best for shading effects. They make it so easy to do shadows and highlights. I still have learned much about character drawing since this was drawn, such as ears should be placed diagonally rather than on top or sides, for maximum expressiveness. And, the mouth doesn't HAVE to be anatomically consistent, unless it's a portrait like this is. I'm rambling on. Somebody stop me.
Rusted-Out Thingy in Ingram Courtyard
Colored using Photoshop. I learned a lot about drawing on the ABOVE picture on this page, but I learned a lot about Photoshop on this one. I used that knowledge to make said above drawing as stunning to see (in my opinion) as it was for me to draw it. Click on this one to see the larger version. (I trimmed it down to size, but it still is rather large for this page. So, I'm displaying it at half size.)
One of my earlier attempts, this is a "contour drawing" of a cat...but with wings.
catgoddess.jpg
The above link takes you to a picture of the cat goddess Shes-ten of fertility, worshipped by some unknown tribe somewhere in some universe sometime. (Gee, that's a lot of unknowns for someone I have a picture of!) The picture is rated R for showing nipples, which is why I posted a link rather than the picture itself, on this page. However, since it is not of an "adult" nature, it doesn't violate the Acceptable Use Policy of my webspace. Otherwise I couldn't post it at all. This way, if you want to see it, you can, but if you're easily offended, I can consider myself safe from your hate email.
Animations
Flash Animation #1: Dialogue
A Flash animation of Alfador speaking! He's reacting to something...that shall probably be shown later in the complete animation project. I have not finished that, and it will likely take me more than a month.
Flash Animation #2: Walk
A looping Flash animation of Alfador walking. Took me quite a while to finish this, as each position of the legs was individually animated. Flash was a big help with this.
See Sketches I have drawn (mostly while bored!)!
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