100 Days of Making Comics Day 53-54 update

As usual, I post an update each day for the 100 days of making comics challenge in the Daily time punch channel of the discord sever that I'm on. [Triple-A creators discord.] This Blog is just an extension of that update for each day, and offers an opportunity for reflection and elaboration on whatever I'm working on.

In the long run, I aim to make posts once a week. However, until day 100 of this challenge, I'll try to keep the "daily" updates daily. I skipped posting yesterday since there were some more pressing things on my mind, and i found that it would be healthier to take a break, even though I continued to practice some art that day and gave an update in the discord server.

UPDATES for day 53 & 54:

2/3/2021 - Day 53: Yesterday, 30min went into some really rough sketches in pen and I tinkered around for quite a while in Clip studio with the posable 3d models. By the end of the day, about 1 hour and 20 minutes went into working on this project.

[This may or may not be a sideways picture.]

[Designing a labyrinth scifi hydropower plant has been on my mind. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I think a giant waterwheel with claws would be cool for whatever reason.]

[Below is some sketching over a 3d model in Clip studio. Sketching over a pre-existing model feels a little awkward for me right now. So as strange as this is going to sound, I think I need more practice tracing. Not copying the 3d model exactly, but setting up a process for mapping the basic forms of the 3d model on my own, so that I don't get lost while sketching the 2d line art of the character's design overtop of a plain 3d model that's in perspective. fun fun. basically I'll use a couple more layers until I really get the hang of it; which comes with drawing the same characters over and over in different ways.]

 

[Hmm.. This doesn't seem like Neonie's ordinary vibe. Which reminds me, I want to create an expression sheet for Neonie next.]

2/4/2021 - Day 54: Today, I focused on drawing more character art for Endstar Arrival. I picked up where I left off yesterday for 40 minutes, by experimenting some more with drawing over 3d models posed in Clip studio. 

[I find it kinda fun to see these sketches along with their 3d model bases. A funny note about the hands is that even though I like realism, and could speed up my process by tracing them from the 3d models, there's just something I like about the cartoony little hands that I was already using in the initial installment of Endstar Arrival. That, and too much realism or detail concentrated in one area can impact the focal point of a composition. Most of the time, I want the eye to be drawn to the face, rather than the tiny finger lines. I'm aiming to keep the hands fairly realistic in Some of my other projects though, such as the Wanderstar Epic; who's name may just be a current working title, we'll see.]

[Inevitably, I've also been noting various dissimilar features in the 3d model vs Neonie as she is represented by her model sheet. For example, the legs of the generic 3d model that I'm using here are longer than Neonie's.]

[All in all, I think Clip Studio could prove to be a great asset. In the future, I hope to start importing custom 3d models into Clip Studio Paint as drawing assets for my various graphic novel/comic projects.]

For now, I personally appreciate the lower detailed 3d models most for sketching over. Simply because it's easier to focus on deviating from the 3d model to flesh out your own character's design. 

Too much detail can lead me to draw stiffly, or end up with a character drawing that looks too much like the 3d model itself, such as the size and placement of the facial features, the hands, and width of the torso. For general practice though, and poses, the more realistic models are great. At default, I don't see much body type variety to work with. But there're probably some downloadable models that could be added to Clip Studio for that later.

Today's random interesting animal(s) and sciencey things:  

• Here's a fungus this time. Not technically a plant or animal, but rather a representative of its own Kingdom called Fungi. A species that fascinated me growing up is Hericium erinaceus, also called the lion's mane mushroom. Where I'm from, I've seen this fungus a couple of times growing from the same trunk of a rather old big leaf maple in the pacific northwest.  

• Finally, I must say that handfish [anglerfish that belong specifically to the family Brachionichthyidae] are weird and cute, and well... Here's an adorkable video of handfish. Apparently, biologists don't know a whole lot about them, but unfortunately their populations are sensitive to disturbance, and as of 2020, the smooth handfish (Sympterichthys unipennis) a south-eastern Australian species was declared the first modern-day extinction of a marine fish. It's likely that they were a species caught in the crossfire of Scallop dredging, and though that activity ceased in the area just over 50 years ago, lasting damage was done. 13 extant species remain that we know of, although several haven't been seen in years. Interestingly, their young hatch as tiny versions of the adults without ever going through a pelagic phase.
    
  

• A few posts ago I brought up the Pacific spiny lumpsucker (Eumicrotremus orbis). So while I'm bringing up weird and cute fish videos, here's a video of the other weakly swimming fish alien that's on my mind. Does this thing ever leave my mind? 
  

References/Interesting links:

 

An article that asks, "What can we learn from the world's first marine fish extinction?"

 

On a happier note, here's an article with photos that talks about hatching the extremely rare Red Handfish in a conrolled environment for conservation and research.

Aaand here's a scientific publication from the end of 2020 about the use of
artificial ceramic spawning habitat to benefit Tasmania's spotted handfish.
 

• TOOLS USED for the art in this post: Autodesk sketchbook on the ipad pro, Clip Studio Paint. Yep, I really did take pictures of my desktop monitor while running Clip Studio, so that I could draw on the ipad because my desktop isn't set up for drawing yet. [It just has a keyboard and gaming mouse right now.]
  

  Thanks for checking out the blog! :) 

  Links to find me in other parts of the internet:  

  • Check out the Turaco Creative Cast! New livestreams each Wednesday!

  •  Anna Raub's Linktree.