Baseball Cap Sharpie Art!

*sips tea*

Oh--hello! I didn't see you there. *sets down classic novel* *adjusts lapels*

Hope everyone is having a good Liminal Spacemas! And in referencing Christmas, Imma brag a bit here...

One of my gifts was a plain white baseball cap branded by the lovely (nonexistent--thanks a lot, Gerard) MCR5 . I decided to spice it up a bit.

I didn't really know what I was doing at first, so I started by filling in the border of the rim. Already, it looked minimally better.

After much Pinterest- and Tumblr-surfing in the zentangle and tattoo tags, I came across an entirely ink-unrelated photograph of a forest. Perfect!

Originally, when I first drew in the trees, I was just going to leave it to the front bit... but of course, it looks better all the way around.

Time to spruce up (hahaha get it "spruce" like the trees on the hat bc they're coniferous like spruce trees hahahahahahaha i love to have fun) the lid!

Le final product:

Daaaaaaaaamn, Gerry.

Anyway, so I made a Panic! hat like this as well, but with beeg flowers instead of tiny trees:

Don't threaten me with a pretty odd hat!!1 

(I apologize.)

So yeah, that's a thing. Thanks for reading!

HAPPY NEW YEAR,

-nessa

memes but its league of legends

Hi. Me again, unfortunately.

So one day I sketched a meme featuring Rakan (my main), Xayah, and Ahri... and then another with Warwick... and then I Couldn't Stop...

Here are about half of the ideas I came up with (I was too lazy to draw out a zillion crappy memes):

- Vi as Chuck Norris. Yesssss.

- I have done this ingame as Rakan, which enrrRRAGED my Xayah (to be fair, it was accidental... sorta...)

- WW Doge! (Warwick makes a better Doge than Nasus, I think.)

- Conspiracy Ezreal. (I blatantly stole this pun from Ryan Higa, lol)

- Can Tahm Kench have a Dat Boi skin please??

- Taric and Ez + creepy Teemo, ft. possibly the best gay vine in existence (I had to put it in snapchat format bc images > video... this is still meme material, right?)

- justdarkinthings: because when Varus and Kayn aren't being so edgy, they're hair braiding and slumber partying and gossiping about [Aatrox and Rhaast]

- CAVEMAN NIDALEE

Yeah, so a lot of unfinished sketches here, but idrc because they're terrible memes anyway.

I have a lot more ideas/started drawings where that came from, so maybe I'll post more another time? (Or, you know, maybe I'll start doing something productive for once.)

Anyway.

- nessa

7 day black and white challenge

Sup,

I was too lazy to post to both Facebook and this blog for a challenge I was nominated for, like, weeks ago. So, here are my entries, from day 1 to day 7:

1. A character of mine, featured in my fave magazine

2. Another character half-transformed into a dragon

3. I included this one from a previous post (see below)

4. A quick sketch of my furry slug cat, Mojo, from behind. He actually does this. It's sO CUTE UGH

5. Jaede the half-drow druid-fighter, my D&D character. See also, a less-than-impressed familiar.

6. Someone requested this. I don't know or understand why.

7. Yet another character, also a half-dragon. Yes, I'm obsessed.

Et voila! Now, back to procrastinating work.

-nessa

My NaNoWriMo character...

That time of year again... National Writing Procrastination Busters Unite month!!!

I'm doing a--you guessed it--graphic novel about dragons. And this guy, Greyson James, is my lovely main character (he's a bit of a Mary Sue at the moment, but I'm trying to give him a minimum of three big flaws, not make his monstrous side too cliche or melodramatic, etc. etc.)

The concept for the initial sketch was based on Linkin Park's Tinfoil/Powerless, but I binge-listened to an old Evanescence album (obviously Fallen) while penciling for that *eDgyY* tone. 

I call this drawing "Mark of the Darkborne" (which teeters the very fine line between edgy as hELL and cheesy as... as Black Veil Brides. Or, like, KISS. lol)

Aight, that's all. Just wanted to show off before getting back to work. ^_^

p.s. GOOD LUCK WITH NANOWRIMO, PARTICIPANTS!

- nessa

I love layers...

...and not just layered band tees. Or onions.
Like, look at this horse sketch. Real crappy sketch, I know; I drew better penciled horses when I was twelve.

But that aside, this was really rushed, and I wanted to get this cool effect of a horse in the clouds, kinda metaphorically-ish--and just used three simple layers for a hybrid foreground/background. I mean, like, #1 Paint Can the background blue; #2 Spray Paint some clouds behind the horse; and #3 Spray Paint a continuation of those clouds in front of the horse.

Did I mention that I didn't colour in the white spots? I didn't. Ewps. But here's the thing: I erased them out, creating a transparent area where the background (obviously) shows through. GENIUS, I know. Totally didn't just laze out on blocking in the white while already working with a white canvas, and realizing my mistake during background painting when the horse went half-blue. *coughs*

Anyway, the colour scheme's a little loud and clashy on the original...

...so I desaturated and cooled the lighting and overall colour a little.

Kinda wish I spent more time on this one (that mane is horrendous), but can't bring myself to care about this one anymore. I'm painting my (super-duper-ultra-mega-cool) graphic novel character atm though, so stay tuned, kiddies!

Bye for now,

-nessa

Get your short stories published!

I just found this writing submission website, through which you can find submission calls for anthologies and magazines. These are paid gigs, people! 

I'm fairly certain this is legit, and a better place to publish your bad fetus fiction than Wattpad: https://writingcareer.com/

As I've probably said many many times before, I want to be a graphic novelist. I really do. But I find blocks of words on a blank sheet much less daunting than blocks of images, dialogue, and movement that won't confuse my potential readership... Anyway, these 5-cent-a-word gigs can help soften the blow on my rent, so I'm going to give it a shot.

Wish me luck (and good luck to you, if you happen to be interested),

-nessa

I MADE A THING

Aight, aight, so I made this painting thing, right? Looks like the character in the pic is totally detached from the background, ew:

BUT THEN! I went over to the photo editing stage (the last time I ever used PicMonkey, as they have since disabled free use :| ) and made THESE BABBIES:

What looks better, the red one or the pink one? I think I prefer the red, because it isn't so neon (omigod you have to read Neon Genesis Evangelion it's so good okay bye), but I've also always loved that pink/blue scheme...

By the way, I got Gimp. I hate it.

Still going to use ArtRage, I guess. It's very simple, and I like the way the tools work together like wet paint (or wet marker ink, in the case of this picture). Gimp is v confusing (or maybe I'm just technologically stunted?? Most likely.)

Okay but yeah anyway. I dunno which one's better, so I'm just gonna layer them up on my New Favourite Photo Editor, *~BeFunky.com~* (take THAT, PicMonkey). 

Hold on, 2 secs--

...

I mean, if you're into sashimi, it looks okay?

Which works out great, because I'm a huge weeb. ;)


Uhkay, so I think I like the red one best? Imma go with that one. (Yay for pointless overediting!) (*confetti*)

So even though my Bakuman-esque dream is being a graphic novelist, I have a novel-novel that's kind of almost done that I'd better go back to (who procrastinates by writing a blog post?). Lates!

-nessa

Zombie Horses at Dawn (or something like that)

Heyaz.

First post since May... smooooth, Vanessa. Anyway, although I've attempted to draw about a dozen pics before this one, I was only able to actually finish a digital painting today. Yeyyy!

*awkward confetti*

So I stripped down the process like I did with my last post, starting with the initial sketch...

Starting with a pale green canvas--my goal was to create a kind of creepy, dreary-looking scene, not unlike a post-apocalyptic landscape--I made a rough sketch. The horses originally had riders, but I later decided to show off the saddles I so nicely drew. B-)

I went a shade darker than the background and used an airbrush tool for the clouds; then a shade darker, then a shade darker, then--you guessed it--bright white, to complete the look.

A couple of shades darker than the darkest clouds, I airbrushed the mountainous shapes.

After that, I spent a good hour using a Very Fine Airbrush to detail the rocky face. I wanted the surface to look a little damp, so I used white for highlights and adjusted the opacity until I got the look I wanted.

Losing the visibility on the sketch, I airbrushed (I basically used an airbrush for the entire painting) a big chunk of grass for the middle ground, adding a few subtle highlights where the sun would hit the topmost blades.

I actually had to paint the foreground twice; the first time, the green I used was Wayyy Too Bright. I'm glad I kept it on a separate layer from the midground. That would've been an ugghh to restore...

I duplicated the foreground, expanded it, and flipped it to fill in that empty left corner. Then I used the midground colour to add some texture, keeping it blurry for effect (or laziness, tbh)

PONIES! This part was easy. I used the Ink Pen tool for once--scandalous, I know--and filled out the horse shapes. I added the silhouettes of their tack on a separate layer.

The humans were pretty easy to draw in, too. Yawn.

Making the sketch visible again--note the mysterious white dot in the grass--I Ctrl-dragged an airbrush to make some nice straight lines, starting from that dot (for accuracy), and reduced to opacity on that layer to 20-ish%. I had to erase some parts where the light would be blocked, but not that much. Piece of cake, especially for such a cool effect.

Here's how it turned out. Pretty swick, right?

BUT WAIT--THERE'S MORE!!!

After a little visit with my old friend PicMonkey, I auto-adjusted Exposure (aka contrast), desaturated a little, and used a mixture of Dusk and Orton effects to create...

Ta-daa!

Okay, so it's a pretty subtle difference. But it adds a touch of realism and post-apocalyptic haziness, I think.

Well, there it is. It's no dragon or League of Legends fan art, but at least I actually sorta know what I'm doing with this Wacom thing. 

I've also been working on an Unmasked Kayle painting lately, so dangin' heck, maybe I'll be posting again within the next two years. 

Thanks for reading! Later, tater.

-nessa

Ignis Scienta (Final Fantasy FFXV)

Henlo, fren!

It's  time!

I made an Iggy drawing, wanna see?!?1

First I made the sketchy scribblins! I did a draw with a dang heckin' great tool called a Pencil

Then I did an ink with an Ink Pen, which made me angery sometimes cause it wasn't very fun and it looked all nope

So I did a sneaky and used the Select, Airbrush, and Ink Pen on different layers and got rid of the Lineart of Angery so it didn't look all bad and make everyone DOGGERED

I did the daggering, face, fancy kitty print etc. on some top layers and HOLY FLING FLANG SON, I am having me a Real Good Yay today cause I just drew an exquisite lil nugger with cheaply-paintered blood knifes and sparklin glitters of yes! Wahey!!1

`~*cue angelic fanfare*~`

Alright, you can stop cringing now.
I kind of want to turn this into a picture with all the guys, plus some swick Tricast action in the background and maybe a god or two... Yes?

-nessa