Teens of Valor - Chapter 1 page 18

Story so far: The siblings certainly have things they needed to work out. 

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Next week will be a comic concept update, the week after will be a new page. I need to update the text script soon....I also need to figure out how many pages I want to have for Chapter 1; I could stop the chapter before Lydia meets Rose Water for the first time, or I could get it to just there. 

Life sketches from various locations over several days

6.25.14 GMT +8 

I'll admit, originally I was planning on oing outside often and sketching on location but the days after I arrived were all rain, followed by heavy downpour that would appear and disappear again and again. That combined with not wanting to head out which resulted with me playing MMOs and PC games ...well. 

I even tried sketching while getting a haircut, thus blind without my glasses and got a fuzzy sketch. 

Sketches below are from on the way to NTU hospital. Which by the way also heavily down poured on our way their. Literally, we exited the apartment and it doe poured. Luckily it was before we left the roof area of the door. 

Teens of Valor - Sparrow character design (Brainstorm)

Sparrow - original character design

(Brainstorm)

 Sparrow's scheduled to appear soon in the comic so I needed to create several versions of what Sparrow might look like. Both hairstyles and costume design turned out the way they did. Right now, I'm leaning towards the 4th hairstyle with a variation of the 2nd costume. 

I wanted to create a bird themed superhero but quite a few were already taken. Falcon (Marvel superhero), Hawkeye (Marvel superhero), Hawkgirl (DC superhero), Hawkman (DC superhero), Vulture (Marvel supervillain). I did think about an eagle themed character but since the character was female, an eagle seemed more masculine than feminine. A swam would have been a choice as well if Capcom hadn't taken it already. 

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Next week is a new comic page! 

Rose Water - character design brainstorm (Teens of Valor)

"RoseWater" is a temporary name I have for her, as I mentioned in an previous post ("Ramblings"). At the moment, I think I have an idea down for her physical appearance.

Ramblings for today, er GMT+8's today

It's become unbearably hot and humid the past few days. Then again, it's expected weather here in Taiwan, even more so since the typhoon that was suppose to arrive went elsewhere instead.
I need to get into the habit of painting stuff again. I did manage to sketch variations of my new character, Sparrow, a few days ago but I need to be painting/drawing everyday!
I was thinking I could split my day up like so, morning breakfast, possibly 2-3 hours of gaming, lunch then drawing/painting for most of the afternoon (GMT+8) with some life studies if possible, dinner then after dinner is up for grabs.

Which reminds me, in some way or another, I need to design a villain since she'll be appearing around the same time as Sparrow. I've temporarily named her RoseWater, based off a phrase I thought would work for her backstory: 'I'll dye you the color of the rose."

I know her initial appearance will mostly remain mysterious, a somewhat decorated yet creepy mask and a cloak that seems to make the rest of her harder to see. But for when she's not wearing that cloak and mask, I need to figure out what she's wearing.
Also need to continue the text version/script. I think I've got about 2 pages written out in full, need more to get the comic pages after those 2 pages.

Teens of Valor - Chapter 1 page 17

Story so far: It's been a few months now and Lisa's brother's finally been found. 

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I went with a different shading approach for this page, instead of a brush + blending, I just used the pen instead.  Next week is a new comic concept, week after is a new comic page. 

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If anyone is interested in the text version, albeit rough: 

Page 17On the other side of the bridge, one of the members signals for side radio attention.
“Hey, they found him.”
“Alright, call them back. Let the sister know we found him.”“It’s been months and you’re still experimenting, no I’m sorry, testing me?” Lisa said as she say a maze like area in the training room.“Hmm, think of this as a test for us to see how you deal with certain things. In this example, we want to see what kind of type you are. Are you the type to smash through or think it out?”
However, midway through the maze, her tester came onto the mic, “So you are going to smash…Wait, we might have to put this on hold. We’ve found your brother.”Lisa couldn’t help but immediately turn her head and face the speaker, as if she could ever see who was speaking through it. (She can’t.)  “Really?!”
While waiting for the search team to come back; Lisa is pacing around, clearly worried.  When the search team comes back, Lisa exclaims, “Joss..!” as she starts walking up to her brother. “Sis – “

Painting forum signatures

Recently, I decided to finally paint a signature for the guild forums I've been more active in.

It took me a bit to figure out a slightly creative way of displaying the text, though it's probably not that creative. 

I started the process with creating a gradient and sketching out the pose and clothing. After that, I painted in the values, blended, then added an overlay layer with the colors over the values. 

Originally, the text "Flaming Lily" was written over the partial painting and towards the bottom, but I didn't like it. I had the idea of having the full name of my character on the side where the "nickname" (in game name) was sticking out more than the "full name" (first and last name). 

The original painting, where I only wrote my in game name on the bottom, generated an interest with one of the guild members and I accepted the request to paint one for him. 

He sent me 3 reference screenshots of his character in their respective clothing and poses and I proceed the same process to paint the signature out. 

I've sent him the image and may or may not make changes depending on what he'd like to change. 

Teens of Valor - Teleportation Bay, final WIP

Final WIP for Teleportation Bay, unless I decide to color it. 

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Next week is the next comic page and then the week after is a new concept sketch. 

'Slash the Wind'

The idea came to me when I envisioned a blurred sword with a focus on the person's face. It seems like the way I envisioned it was a bit different from how I ended up painting it.

The costume was a bit made up on the fly from while I was sketching it but the color choice of the costume was based off of my sleepwear. 

 I was trying to figure out what to do as a background to show he was jumping off of (or onto) something. Originally I thought about rocks but it seemed too easy and boring. 

Character Silhouettes

Yesterday I had the idea of painting some silhouettes of my characters from my comic, Teens of Valor. The idea was mainly geared towards getting interesting silhouettes. I admit some of these are a bit out there. 

Spider's Cave

Originally the idea was to have the cave be nearly pitch black with spiders crawling around, possibly with blood. But while sketching the lines I drew gave me a different idea. 

Level adjustment layer + painting over the sketch lines. 

Sketched over gradient/fill layer mix. Sketch layer is set to either 25-30% overlay or soft light. 

Rough color & value application. Toggled black & white adjustment layer to check values. 

Cleaned up the colors and values, particularly around the foreground elements and the lit areas. 

Color balance~

Teens of Valor - Chapter 1 page 16

Story so far: Spark Shock and Lisa have different experiences throughout the down time after Curquill incident and the search for Lisa's brother. 

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Next week is a concept idea.