Saturday, March 30, 2013

Sketch break with a tid bit labor of Love.

I wanted to try a style that was inspired by mashing up Mucha and Phil Noto's styles. My subject was Todoroki Yuu, a Takarazuka Otokoyaku (male role) actress.

I say Sketch Break because I wanted to draw something I didn't have to think too much about and outside of the projects I have to do. And, I wanted it to be relatively quick. I say labor of love, well, because for me to get to this point it took two pages of quick sketches of Todoroki Yuu and then some cursing with the copic markers. And yet, I still trudged on...
Make-up is both fun and hard to render.  It frustrates and delights me, pretty much the same way Takarazuka actresses confuse me with her gender-bending ways.
I used copic markers, sephia FW ink, and color pencils. I am both happy and upset with this.  I'm happy because it looks decent and I was able to color a face without using heavy outlines like I usually do. I'm a little upset because it doesn't really resemble Todoroki Yuu, rather she just looks like a typical Takarazuka Otokoyaku.

Now, please allow me to tell you a little about Todoroki Yuu.  Well, she is fabulous.  That's all you really need to know about her.  When you click on her name, it will lead you to a clip of her playing Ceaser, the "dude" in the white toga, with a fabulous entrance. No, THAT is not a man in drag.  I know you want to believe it's a man in drag but that is a woman with feminine make-up playing a man. (The other "man", with black hair, Brutus, is played by Sena Jun.  She is many degrees of adorable)  Here, another clip of her playing a man. She is amazing, isn't she? Such a convincing man.  What kills me is that when she is not in character,  she is elegantly feminine. Just go, click on the links and be seduced by her manliness, and then question your sexuality.  When you're thoroughly confused, come be confused with me. It'll be fun.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Confessions of a Straight Alliance

I support love because, well, why not?

I'm kind of a terrible Straight Alliance because I do not often actively show my support but changing my Facebook Profile Picture is something even I can do.

Currently, I don't understand why I have more rights to a marriage than a gay person. That seems rather odd, doesn't it? Just because I am straight, I have more rights to marry a person, even though I've never been in love, than a gay couple madly in love with each other.  That's like having nifty baking equipment, but not knowing how to bake or even know what ingredients to buy.  I am like the confused and skill-less baker, while the gay couple are the skilled bakers deprived of their equipment...

...and I think I should stop typing before I rattle into completely convoluted and senseless analogies.

P.S.- I think my subconscious had an ulterior motive also by changing my profile to this -- plugging my drawing...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Doodle this Deedle -- part 2, I guess?

I  haven't been doing as much of the Doodle this Deedle Blog daily doodles as I would like and I missed a lot of fun doodles themes.  It's okay, I might go back and do some when I have time or bored.

My name is Rie.  I have a problem.  I buy art supplies that I really don't need.
So when the art store had a sale, I bought FW inks: Marine Blue and Burnt Umber.  To be honest, the Marine Blue wasn't as blue as I wanted but I still found it very lovely.

One  Daily Doodle was to: Draw something that makes you happy!
I have an unhealthy obsession for a former Takarazuka actress, Haurno Sumire, who was the top star for Flower troupe from 2002 to 2007/8.  Her singing is magical. 
:
To me, Haruno Sumire is a goddess.  True goddesses are hard to draw.  That's what I keep on telling myself ...as an excuse for not being able to capture her full loveliness.

This was fun one to do. The theme was to draw a Puke Fairy.  At first I was going to draw something gross. and anorexic, but I realized that I didn't really want to draw gross. Then I had an urge to a womanly woman. Rather, I drew this fairy who is a matronly English lady who helps you puke, and then give you tea and biscuits  She is fully equipped with a face mask and a puke bucket.
Yupe, drawn in coffee and Marine Blue FW ink .
.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

[30DDC] -- Favorite Animated Character

Hahaha.
This is Day 8 of the 30 Day Drawing Challenge.  Yes, the one that I started in 2012.  I actually started this drawing sometime in October and I worked on it a little by little, when waiting in lines and during long lectures.  I decided to finish this recently because I wanted it to be part of The Ghibli Jam.

Nausicaa from Studio Ghibli's Nausicaa from the Valley of the Wind is definitely my most favorite animated character of all times.  She's a good walking contradiction. She is both strong and vulnerable. She is kind and tolerant, but can be vicious and be blinded by fury. She values life and takes care to protect all forms of life but also is an exceptional warrior.  I also like that she doesn't fall in love with her romantic interest at first sight, nor does she really need his help to save the day, which is a bit uncharacteristic of Ghibli heroines.  

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Doodle this Deedle Doodles

There is this great blog on Tumblr called A Doodle a Day keeps the Deedles Away! 
I love this blog.  I found out about this blog through one of its amazing artists.  Their doodle themes are my kind of random.  I think it's fantastic and it's great practice for my illustration sketchbook. 
Here are the doodles I've done in the past week:
Draw your crush as a mermaid/merman. Yeah, that's right. I totally crushin' Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes.

The people of the DoodlethisDeedle have a cat called Doodly Boots.  The doodle theme was to draw Doodly Boots going to prom.  This was a fun theme.
Draw yourself in a Zombie Apocalypse.  I didn't actually submit this to the DoodlethisDeedle blog because it was a few days late...

Draw a chicken wearing a hat. I don't know, I just wanted to draw a fabulous hat.  Welp, I think it's fabulous.

I used copic markers, because well, I WANTED TO USE THEM. DON'T JUDGE ME.




More Coffee Art Portraits!

So, I have a friend who doesn't like to have her photo on Facebook and I volunteered to draw her profile picture.  I thought this was a great opportunity to practice coffee painting. 
look at them elegant angry eyebrows!

Media  used were coffee, FW black ink and white ink. And the fan brush!   I really like  the fan brush, if I'm using it correctly, it makes blending a dream. You can't tell in the scans but these coffee drawings that I do are actually very shiny and I'm always rubbing them, half-hoping the shiny will rub onto me.  I'm weird like that.

I bought instant espresso so next I'm going to try to see if it produces a different shade of brown than instant regular coffee. Teehee, I'm excited.