French inspired Ballerina

Bonjour!

As I said in my entry French Inspiration  this cuatri is getting busier and busier, and I haven't had time for personal projects or for writting here. And that I just get a chance to draw when one of my teachers arrives late to school. But you know what? One of my teachers is getting used to come a bit late to his class from time to time, so, one of these times I took the chance to draw this.

Something funny about this, is the fact that I have never drawn a ballerina, since I don't really like ballet very much. And I don't like it cos ballet is something that is not natural for the human body, and causes severe damage on the feet of who practices it.
Without mentioning that the ballet industry forces girls to be extra tin to dance it, and then that's why the girls get in diets that are not healty and some of them even start to smoke to achieve that excesively and dangerously tin figure.

Leaving that aside, I just wanted to practice poses at the day I drew this, and to practice that effect of movement too. And I just thought a ballet pose would help me to do this, because ballerinas have a graceful movement.

This time (as the tittle says) like in my entry "French inspiration", I also felt inspired on famous cartoonish and comickers who have worked on my favorite shows or comics in french, specially for the face part, and the legs.
Comics and cartoons like Les contes de la rue broca, Il etait une fois...la vie, Lou, Les Aventures de Tintin et Milou.

Also, this time I felt inspired by the amazing and beautiful art style of David Gilson's comic, Bichon. His work is terrific! I hope one day (soon I hope) I can finish the article I'm doing to talk about his work.
I also hope he sees my work and he likes it, at least a bit, because I admire him a lot!

I mentioned the names of  the shows/comics instead of artists (except for David Gilson because I've seen lots of people know him) cos I felt if I said "Albert barilée" "Georges Remi" "Julien Neel", then you probably wouldn't imagine what kind of artstyle I'm talking of.
I've mentioned these names with my friends and they confessed to have no idea of what I was talking about! XD So that's why.

Referring about the "technique and materials used", this it was made with a black gel  pen and markers.
Usually I leave my markers at home cos to carry them everywhere is impossible, since I have lots of other things on then bag I use to go to college. But at that day I had my markers with me because I packed them cos I was going to use them for a work at the classroom.
 
Sorry about the quality of the photo but as my scanner doesn't work, I took a photo. I hope you enjoy the drawing anyways! And I hope to fix my scanner soon so I can give you a better quality of my work.

French inspiration!

Bonjour le monde! How you're doing?

I've been a bit busy with my school works, the year has started with a lot of movement. 

I think I would like to apologize for not coming to write on the blog in a good good while. Also, and most important I think...I sincerely apologize por not making yet "Thanks for another year of adveture" of this 2016 as is the tradition. But don't, I promise you I'll make it as soon as I can have the opportunity! God will I hope I'll not have to do it on the end of the year.

So sorry really! I've had some busy time at school, this "cuatri" have been very hard to manage, even more than usual, because of the tons of works that are complex and take much time. Is the first time our teacher is asking the class to do an animation that can last more than 1 minute, and is a long long time for an animation! I talked with a dear friend who knows about this the other day about it, and she said that 2 mintues of animation is so much for making it on only 4 months. To put things in perspective , she told me that for making a 2-3 mintues animation she took 8 months. Do you imagine it? So that's we I have to work a lot!
Specially because I suspect I will do my own animation all alone, cos the few classmates who like to work well were completed, and didn't include me on their team. And the ones who don't care about school and don't like to work...they are avaliable but, sorry, but I don't want them on my team.
In fact, I tried to work with one of my classmates, because he was lonely and he wanted an opportunity "to show he could do better" as he told me when the teacher left us this project. But is the end of January already and he haven't done anything to help me with the project! I hope to have chance to tell you what's the project about later.

In this 5th cuatri (5th cycle of the career) as you can imagine, I haven't had time to draw. Well, except when one of my teachers arrives late to one class, is one of the rare times I have the time. I feel bad to leave the blog alone so much time, though.

So, today I come quickly, or like we would say in mexico "como de rayo" to present this, a drawing I did on the time when my teachers of "impresiones y acabados" came late to her class.

So, here's faikel in what I would call a "French inspiration" drawing! :D
I had the idea to do this one because one of our teacher has been putting on her class those videos of the show that was translated in mexico as "los inventores" ( originally called "Il etait une fois...Les Découvreur"") which is s a french show, part of the cartoon series of Albert Barilée. His series have been some of my favorites, specially "Once upon a time life".
 Also the other day I arrived from the school and nobody was home. I was doing my homework but I had no ideas for one project, so I turned on the tv on (sometimes I get to get rid of the stress and relax a bit when watching someone on tv and doing work at the same time) and I saw by chance an end of another french cartoon, one called Spirous and Fantasio, and I liked the cartoon style of it. So I took inspiration from it to do this one as well.

Later, I looked up for spirou and fantasio stuff since I was curious, and I found just a couple of strips of the comics and I thought they were funny.
Also I watched an episode of the cartoon that was about a virus, and the characters avoiding them to be released. And I think it was good as well. I liked it at first glance because of the theme that is "detective-ish", about solving misteries and stuff.  But I think what I liked the most is the dynamics of the relationship about Spirou and fantasio; I think is funny how Fantasio can be very sarcastic and satiric sometimes when talking to Spirou. Also I like how they have had different ideas and sometimes they can arge, but they don't leave that to ruin their frienship.
Although, I don't know much about the cartoon or the comics as to talk much about them right now....
So I think I shouldn't dare to do it hehe, so, let's just enjoy the drawing :D

Estelle studying for Le Bac

Hi there folks!
This is the last drawing I've posted on dA this month, just out of nostalgia, and because a dear frend of mine wanted to see it....but after this, my dA page will be in hiatus. The why it's not important, let's say I'm lacking of time and I just can take care of one place, and I've chose this one :)
Oh ok ok...the why it's HERE....but don't worry, I'm not going to talk about that again. I just said that once, and I don't think it's worthy to repeat the same thing. Also because talking about that it's bad for my spirit, it makes me feel exhausted.
Leaving my dA in hiatus, it's one of the hardest things I've ever done...because that comunity always was my home...but don't worry, it will not be forever I think. I think I will come back there in one or two years more of course, when the crazy people have been gone XD

What I do would like to do, it's to post the traditional "drawing + quote". And luckily after this one I'll not post more quotes because all my artwork will be here :D So I hope you like! 
This is the ORIGINAL LINK

Estelle studying for Le Bac

"Today I've struggled to give myself a little time for drawing or coming here to post fun stuff. Even, I was planning to make a journal to comment about my first 2 weeks of school after the holiday vacations I had (2 weeks before these 2 weeks XD) but ah...I have no motivation to write about that  XD

 It's because, in total honesty....I was feeling really lonely a while ago!  Maybe it's because since I've started to collegue people no longer visits this gallery or send me messages here, or in any other place either.

For example today I came here a while ago to see what was new, to the only place I consider home, hoping to have a fun moment. And you know I was expecting to find messages from my friends, at least one! but all what I found was that most of my friends had done collabs and art trades with other friends of them, and have been having fun giving commenting on each other's art and making giftart to each other, and meanwhile nobody messaged me to even said "hi how you're doing?" and my gallery looks like a desert! o_O It looked like nobody cared even if I was alive or if I already have been crushed by a truck XD

Even some days ago I posted a journal here sharing I worried I might have been lack my skills to draw facial expressions/gesture language, but no artist took a moment to talk about their experiences or if that ever happened to them as I would have wished to...

And that's I felt really bad for a moment, cos I started to wonder if I was doing something wrong...or if there is something I should be doing but I didn't...and maybe that was why I couldn't make my friends feel appreciated and loved and that was why they didn't care about me, even if I always care and think about them...

Anyways, that was some hours ago though, cos recently I received a message of a dear friend of mine and changed it all! :D

Now I feel very happy and amazed cos she visited me to say hi! Specially taking in count I'm usually the one who send her messages first, and this time she did it first! That was such a nice surprise and it really warms up my heart and makes me feel like a vaulable person!!! ^__^ NAKOU MERCIII!!

Ah by the way, she's the only and one Nakou! Please don't use her name. Saying this cos I just saw a drawing on her gallery saying this. *chuckles* I love looking at her gallery because her drawings are fun and make me happy ^^ specially when I'm feeling a bit sad.

You know, I've missed her a lot! As well as a few of other friends I have here, of course. And sometimes I feel bad when school absorbs too much of my time and I cannot come to drop my friends a message as often as I would like! But well...I struggle to have free time to come like now for example, and I feel happy knowing that she and other dear friend of mine who sent me a message, still think about me, that's priceless I think! Also I know my Mentor and dear friend Jame always thinks of me even if she's busy and can't leave a message sometimes.  So I think I'm in a better mood to post something, I have lots of drawings I haven't posted yet, I think today I'll pick up one of my favorites

This one it's of my character Estelle (Mom of my character Jean, or "J" for friends *chuckles*) when she was in the age of High school (Lycée). Here she's supposed to be studying for "Le bac". I say "supposed" cos now I notice...Not sure if it's very clear here that she's studying

 

"Le baccalauréat" (most commonly called "Le bac") it's a test students take at the end of their High school so they can then continue studying and enter to College/university. And as far as I've read, all the students must take it.

Since I'm planning to make a comic with these characters and both of them are french, and I was planning to make school scenes/flashbacks of both characters, and them talking about school, I wanted to know more about french education system and school programs and that stuff. And that's how I discovered this about "Le bac".

I also heard a friend of mine commenting something about that, and in my search, I watched a clip from a movie about that too. It wasn't very useful, althought it was fun to watch most of the time  And I've read (back when I made this drawing not now) some interesting articles about parenting on France, and discovered it's not the same than here in mexico or in America Let's say it was very interesting to find out how french parenting was since I think talking about what I've read might strart a discussion about if french parenting is "superior" or not to other countries ones, like it did on the articles I read

 I looked for info about parenting in France too,  because Estelle it's a mom character.

I would like to mention I felt very good and had much fun searching about this stuff. I really like to search about lots of stuff when I write or make comics or characters that are not from Mexico but from other countries, cos I want my characters feel genuinely from that country!

I would hate it (and I WOULD NEVER forgive myself!) if my characters fall in the "cliché" of being like most of foreigner characters in american movies/shows, who are just stereotyped characters that are rather silly, or offensive, or both .

Because a character from a country that isn't yours also has their own culture folklore and traditions, a different system to study and lifestyle, and very often, even a different perspective of life! Another perspective of mind! So I think having a character that genuinely feels from that country, not only makes people feel attached to the characters and feel identified with them, and makes your character a well developed character;  also it's a show of respect and appretiation for that country, and I think all this a is priceless! ^^ 
Because searching for info shows that you care about creating a well-structured character and also about the country you're talking about! And that's something you the viewer from that country always appreciate and thank deep inside the heart! Believe me, I've seen a couple of rare times, people taking care of making a good foreing characters, it's so cool when people does this! That makes you feel warm inside the heart! Sadly, from other countries not from mexico

In my case for example, I have never seen a single "mexican character" on tv or films who can be actually called "mexican" by me with pride, or even feel a tiiiny biiiit, genunely mexican. So I know very well how sad and dissapointing it is to see people making characters from other countries without searching even bit about them. Just because he or she talks spanish and says their favorite food it's "taco", it doesn't mean they are mexican.  There are lots of things to do to be a genuine mexican, that I've never seen portrayed on tv/films, sadly.

And of course, I would never want people feel insulted and/or sad if I ever create a bad foreing character, that's why I I always read and search the most I can before even thinking of making a character that isn't from Mexico

Even when making a character that it's form U.S., sometimes I search info about some stuff. Because even if people from the U.S. are a lot like mexicans (and I mean a lot! ) and I know them very well cos almost all my friends are from there, it's always the wisest thing to look for info about stuff you don't know or you aren't very sure about.

By the way, as my character was in the school at 70's era, I tried to give her clothes this air, and the style of painting for this piece was inspired on the super incredible artist Hollybell. I'm huge fan of her work since a long time before I signed up dA hehe!

My gecko and I

So yes, even despite I've received a few of sad news, specially when my pet died.  It happens that I keep designing  my characters, and struggling to make this story work.

And what about what I commented about my doubts on my skills?" you might wonder. Well, the true it's that since some time ago I had those doubts, and there are people who will always try to make you to have more and more doubts.

Like for example what they say in that episode of the Simpsons I saw once. Where Lisa discovers the author of her favorite book didn't really wrote the book. And then Lisa tells Bart that it is possible for one single people to write a book, but Bart says no, and him and other 5 people get together and try to write a book. In the episode the group writes a book at the end, and lisa doesn't, cos she keeps postponing it.

This episode implies that one single person cannot write a book, but I think that's not true, cos I know a friend of mine who have wrote a book all by her own.

I think Lisa couldn't write, but not cos she doesn't have talent, but just because deep inside she wasn't sure of her own talent to write, so he did lots of things to avoid to write.

With time in my experience, I've discovered that  for writing you not only need talent, but also persistence and faith in yourself.

And well it's normal actually, to feel doubts when you're starting an artistic project and you notice there are setbacks, but these are always like "little rocks in the way" so to speak.

But I think they are there to make life more interesting and exciting, and doubts assault you, you just need to try and relax a bit. For example, when you feel stuck in doing an artwork (writing, painting, etc) what I would recommend a lot is to take some time to relax, to do other things. Things like, I don't know...like taking a walk or make a picnic in the park, to go to the beach, play with your pet if you have one, play a cool video game or to watch a good movie, that always helps and makes you feel ready to re-take the story or painting or comic or anything you're doing.

So, yes I'm in this business still, and a few days ago I did this sketch in Sepia. In the up side it's Laura (the main character of this story) as a teenager, and his pet who it's a gecko, and who still doesn't have a name, so you can suggest one.

The other drawing it's Laura  as a kid, and that's the scene where she shows the gecko his home, it supposed to be made of glass, and it has some drawings that she glued there to decorate the house, but since she's a kid she draws a bit sloppy.

And no, it's not a Cemetery! XD it supposed to be a drawing of London she made, cos she lives there and she likes the place.

That why I made her live on London? Well...because of the British accent of course! :D ;)

Yeah I know, probably I will never have the chance to released this to tv so voice will be useless, but...but just in case XD

Also in the original story she was British and lived in London, cos I would love to visit London someday.

Here I share the sketch without painting so you can see it is London. There, the tallest building is the Big Ben.

The beginning of an Story.

Hi folks! Hope you're having a good Monday.

You know.. I've been feeling a void in my soul in these days....and I'm not sure why...

maybe it's because I feel I'm growing up, and I have never made any of the things I've always dreamed to do when I was younger. 

For example, when I was younger I always wanted to go to Paris or London to study art and live there for a while, and with luck to meet a French or British boy in college who was a lot like me and who loved me for who I was, and who I could love. Someone who could accompany me to travel around the world, knowing new languages and cultures, who also had this in his list of what to do in life.

I wanted to learn at least 8 languages like Tesla did, specially and mostly English and French. Also to learn to play the ocarina, the ukulele, keyboard, piano, flute, bagpipes, banjo, violin and also the sax. 

I also wanted to improve as an artist and to become a recognized one, and I imagined at this age, in the second half of in my 20's, I was going to have already a comic or book published at least. But no...none of this have happened.

Well....I can't be pessimist though cos that's not my nature. So I must say, that thanks god and to my effort and devotion, a couple of these things have already happened  At least I have been able to improve as an artist and I also learned to play flute really well, and these two things I did them all by myself! Which makes me really happy, and proud ^^

It's funny as a self-taugh learner, I can play any song you would like in a flute if I hear it, and I mean ANYTHING, but I still don't know to read musical notes XD. 

Also I've been successful in learning English, cos I took classes. Well, in my school they gave me a few classes as part of the school program, but the teachers there usually were really bad, so I didn't learn much with them. But who helped me with English for real was my truly amazing and cool teacher Gudrun Clausen. 

She had a vocation to teach, and she always made English fun and cool to learn. I'll always be truly grateful with her! He taught me well and it's thanks to her now I not only write in English like I do here, but also I can understand it and actually speak it! :D It's since a 3 or 4  years ago that I can understand all what people say in English-speaking movies and shows! And I no longer need the subtitles to watch something in English; this have opened me lots of new doors, to amazing and wonderful things to see and to know and to discover, like other cultures and traditions, or the cool voice casting of some of my favorite movies and shows.

And in my work this have been very useful too in important occasions. Like one day when some clients came to the office and they were mad because other people said them our work was bad, I explained them that they had no problem about their taxes in English, and I think I must have done it really well, cos they were very happy at the end, and stayed on keep preferred our service :D

Also, I must say I'm surprised of myself, cos I have a year and a half learning french as a self-taugh learner, and I'm still doing it! :D Even after all the difficulties a self-taught learner has to pass, like the nasty jokes of trolls (mostly foreign people, usually Mexican people who don't want other people learn, I must say) in the web who enjoy to make confused other foreign people who really want to learn. And even so that nobody cares if I learn friends, and even there are people where I live who have told me that I shouldn't try, and I wouldn't do it.

But even so, I'm still devoting great part of my life to make this dream a reality, as well as I did with my other childhood dream, that was learning English and being fluid at it. And I'm doing pretty good  so far ^^ It's funny...I never thought I could do it...but once I started, I couldn't stop *chuckles*

So don't get me wrong, I appreciate a lot the things I've been able to do in my life, and now I'm writing them and thinking of them, I appreciate and value them even more! ^^ And I no longer feel very much like I have a void in my soul :)

Although...now I see back in my life and I discover, that my only one legacy to the world, the only valuable thing I really have given to the humankind, its my artwork, and most recently, this blog. 

And I still think I would really like to do a lot more! Something that it's a bit more...longer lasting. And I've discovered recently, that when you feel like you don't have a direction in your life, it's probably cos you're lacking of a good organization of your ideas, and plans for the future. So, that's why I made a list of the most important resolutions I had done for last year, and that are pretty much the same for this one:

1- Learning french well.

Since it was always my dream to start learning french, but at the end of 2012 was when I took the courage to start doing it. So I'm glad to tell you folks that I keep with this resolution still :D

2- Learning to drive a motorbike.

I just did learn how to drive this year, so this one it's accomplished, and in an amazing way I must say! :D It was truly incredible to learn to drive a motor bike! :3 I'll tell you with more detail later how amazing it was.

3- Finishing my career. 

 I'm still struggling to sing up to a collegue this year, but I know I'll achieve it.

4- Start to write a book with any of the stories I have in mind (that I've created)

5- Publish a webcomic (either a long comic or a series of comic strips) 

See? Some of the things in the list are already done, but some other, I'm still working hard to make them a reality. The 4 and 5 are the ones who I'm taking care of. Well...At least I'm doing my best to it! And I feel much better about my life now, cos I organized my ideas and I made projects, and I'm starting to do something and I'm seeing a couple of good results. ^^

That's precisely why I did these drawings some weeks ago.

They are characters I felt inpsired to draw (see the date in the drawing) because of an story I'm trying to make work. Here is a quote of something I wrote on July 21 but I couldn't post until now:

"In these months, I've been writing and developing an story I invented some time ago when I was a teen, cos a couple of friends of mine had faith in it when I talked about it with them. And I feel like now it's the right time for me to start writing something in form, either for a book or for a comic. What happens first! XD But then when I was writing it I discovered a few issues...the characters are great cos I'm good designing characters, but the plot has a few problems, the concept itself has a lot of things that don't fit all together, and even... I can't decide if making this a sci-fi or a fantasy story XD
Now I understand very well why comics, tv shows and films are work for lots of people. and not just only one! One sometimes feel like you feel stuck when developing an story, and you need another opinion to decide stuff, or just talk about it to have inspiration to continue with itRight now I think my story sucks! XD But the characters I drew and I put so much time to develop and bring to live...are amazing....So I think I'll try to continue  developing this story because of the characters :) And specially and mostly, cos couple of my friends have become fans of them."

That was what I thought when I was writing the beginning of the story I mentioned, but when I was writing that day, my computer got stuck and I lost one page and a half of writing! (and no I wasn't working at Word, but in a wordpad, cos I didn't really thought the story would be much)  And since then, I just...I don't feel very inspired to write again. And I haven't had much luck drawing the characters either.

And it's ironic that I say this now, cos when I was a kid and even in the beginning of my puberty, I could write stories like how I breath, almost in an incredibly, magic way. But now I struggle to write like if I was trying to carry a piano to move or something! I think if my younger self was there, she would say "seriously??! Really?!!" or something like that XD

It is both, ironic, and a bit sad too...I think I've lost lots of self-confidence in my while time passes, due the bad experiences I've had. And sometimes I just wanna...give up on writing....

Although well...my mentor and dear friend, was able to write a book all by herself. So I think if she can do it...maybe I can too....all I know it's that she has faith on me, so I'll keep trying.

Also when I wrote this story, I realized one thing I think it's very important to mention, it was like an epiphany! It was that before I started writing, I had a blank mind and I didn't know what to do XD But I was determined to start this goal so I believed that was going to make me feel better, so I did it. 

And it was until I was writing, that I started imagining lots of cool and new stuff, stuff that haven't been in my mind before! And some of these new stuff I created solved the plot problems!  It was truly amazing to realize this! It was like magic! :D 

I think now I see why my friend, while she was writing her novel she did lots of cool fanart of her own characters. Cos writing inspired her to draw, and by drawing she felt more close to her characters and that inspired and motivated her to write more ^^

Although sadly, I no longer remember what was the thing that solved my plot issues....But seeing how art works now, I guess, I'm going to be brave and start writing again since the beginning , with the hope if I start writing, I'll be able to solve the problems again and I'll draw some more art about the characters, and that will make me feel motivated to write even more :)

About the story

Oh and, about the story? you must wonder. Well, I can tell you much about it, or I risk to spoil it if someday in the future I finish this and release it as a comic or book. But in general, it's an story about a girl and her gecko pet, and a device (totem) that can transform her into animals. I still cant decide if it will be a sci.fi story, or a fantasy one. I'll decided with time I think. XD Let's see what inspiration says.

Laura it's the main character of this story, and here are the secondary characters that are:

Her mom: who is british, still with no name. She is a teacher in the elementary school of her daughter. In the neck she wears this necklace always, it's his husband's gift, and it has the form of a world globe.

Her dad: Also british, and still doesn't have a name. He's an archeologist and biologist, that works for the Natural Story Museum on London. A posibility for a name for him it's "Jake", but if you have another, I'm still accepting suggestions.

The gecko who also has no name yet. I was thinking on a short name like "Bio" or "Io", I don't know why these name got to get in my mind. I'm thinking about other name cos, I worry about if people would make jokes about the name or mistake him with the computer brand "vio" XD

I mostly want a short name for him, that can be cool, practical to pronounce and that you can say when in danger out loud. Like "Hey bio watch out!" or something like that. See what I mean? It's much easier this than to say "Hey rupelstinsking" or another long name XD

For the names of the dad and mom of Laura, I don't want anything in particular, but if you now a British name that you like, it will be really great!

And well at the end I was inspired also to draw Jean Patou's dad. Who, as a friend of mine says, he looks a lot like him. Which it's great because that's what I wanted to do, to make him be alike his son, so people could identify him as Jean's father. There are sometimes this similarity in real people too, for example, my dad and one of my brothers are almost identical. You see my dad's old photos when he was in the college and he looks like my brother *chuckles*

Oh and Jean's dad doesn't have a name, but he's french not british.

And no, I'm not asking for suggestions of names cos I think I suck with names or something like that XD I know while writing I will have some ideas. It's mostly I just would like to make my friends and other people who appreciate my art to participate, to feel part of my life, and make my life an adventure with their fresh ideas! I think it's always interesting to know what you think :D

So, yeah, as the tittle says, this is the beginning of an story, but not only the story I'm working in, but the story of my life I think, cos after many years of not finishing something for fear to failure, I finally feel like my artistic dreams have an structure and a pad.

And with my hard work, love and dedication...and also God's grace, and even a bit of luck, I hope this story comes out amazingly! 

Estelle figure drawing - For contest.

Hiya folks!
This is a drawing I made of Estelle, one of my original characters. I made this to enter a contest where the main theme was the figure drawing. I chose her because she has become very popular among the artist who admire my work. And I imagined that in case of not being accepted for the contest, it would be cool to to share the drawing for her fans. That are well, only one or two, but they are here and this makes me really happy! Also yes, a friend was right, she said I could add this to my portfolio, and it's true, I can have this as a sample of my artwork :)

And you know what? It looks like I'm a guesser, because I was right...it wasn't selected! And neither the other piece I submitted for the contest. As I told to a dear friend of mine when I realized it wasn't selected:

"I'm a bit disappointed right now, though....I put all my heart in this piece, and also a lot of my time, I ended up with my wrist hurt for the use of the tablet, but even so, two days have passed since I sent this and it hasn't been selected...I think by now it was discarded *sigh*.....
And it would be ok that  if they other who have selected can be dignified competitors, but no! Some of the pieces that have been selected have a poor quality, they look like they were painted by 5 years old kid, and the figure and anatomy it's really poor too. 

I took much care on the digital painting cos to one person the one in charge of the contest said that his digital work was like vomit, and also I took care of doing a good quality anatomy cos their moto it's "excellence in figure drawing"....but all that for what? If they accept drawings of figure drawing (where the pose and good anatomy was the only requirement! It was free theme ) that are cartoony where the anatomy it's atrocious! 

I thought I could win, or at least be selected! cos my art skills have improved, and also my anatomy, and seeing the other works being poorly drawing and lazily painted.....but now I think it's true some of artists from here who participated said some time ago, that maybe this contest it's rigged :( 
You know, I didn't believe that before, but then I haven't seen the contest in a close distance or participated before, this what happens to me now, makes me think a bit that this is true....
It was good I read before participate though, cos their rules said by participating I didn't renounce of my rights to do with my art what I would like, or any rights, so I can at least publish it here and give a bit of joy to people"

Althought as I told her...I don't regret of participating :D
Cos thanks to this I've been able to practice figure drawing, and I've discovered I'm getting better in it.
These are the first sketches I did for this particular project, but I didn't liked the sitting one very much. I liked the other (the blue one) more, so as you can see that was the one I used for the contest at the end. I just added a bit more in the chest part because the character has this body complexion.

And now this is the final result.
Frankly...I didn't like this drawing very much, because as I was in a rush cos I worried the time for submitting getting over, I rushed this honestly. I tried to paint as quickly as I could and the result...well...it was that I painted too much and ruined the sketch itself. For example, his left arm it's fat in the finished painting but not in the sketch. And in the final result the skin looks like a cut piece of paper I know! XD

Even so I liked the hair and the eyes, and also I'm pleased with the sofa, for that I used lots of reference photos I found on the web, and I found one form that convinced me, and one color that convinced me, not in the same photo, so I combined both of good traits I liked from these two photos and I made this :D

In this case I was able to use Photoshop by moments, cos it doesn't work well since last year; I start to paint and after 20  minutes or some it freezes up, and I have to reboot my computer, which it's really really frustrating cos I lose my process sometimes! But at least had luck to use it for background scene (the wallpaper it's from a Photoshop free pattern) and also for the little details like the flowers. 

The rest of it was made with Sketchbook express, who came with my tablet, cos that really makes the tablet feel soft, and even if it doesn't have pressure sensitivity like SAI for example ( I can't use SAI in this computer cos I have windows 8, it doesn't work :( ) for me it's the best I can get for the moment! Cos it works really well and doesn't get stuck when I'm working :D

To sleep a bit more it's worth!

Hi there folks! Hope you're having a good day :)

It was 7:00 am. when  I heard the alarm clock of my brother, and then I wanted to wake up to have more time to do the stuff I do everyday, but I was sleepy cos I hadn't been able to sleep much yesterday, that I went back to the bed again.  Then when I woke up at 10 pm. I knew the extra time I didn't planned to stay sleeping was awesome, cos I dreamed about a new story today!

As some of you know (cos I have mentioned it some time ago) sometimes I dream about stories that only exist in my imagination, usually it's as me watching something on the TV, like if it was a movie, but these are original things. Some time ago when I was younger, I didn't really pay much attention to these because I thought they were vague and "unfinished", and thus not very useful. But since some time ago, I discovered that these kind of dreams are in episodes or parts, so yeah they have a beginning, and end of course, it's just I haven't seen it yet cos I haven't reached to it.

And I must say, that some of these dreams are really cool and amazing! So much that sometimes I've been found myself waking up in early morning to draw some of these things! XD It's all very intense when it happens!
That's precisely why I've been taking note of these dreams since like....3 or 4 years ago, cos as I've realized, there is a reason why I have these dreams...now I'm sure God wants me to do something with my talent, and turn these dreams in stories! I hope I can dream more of these stories, so I can get more inspiration to turn them into a comic or book someday, but meanwhile I'm going to talk a bit about this, cos it was cool!

The 19 century kids

 It was a dream about 4 kids, and their grandfather. They lived in a house made of wood, that was near to a farm, that a bit later in the dream I realized it was theirs, I suppose the parents were off or something like that,cos I didn't see them.....or probably death?...I'm not sure.

How I know they were from 1910? Well because of all the stuff from that age (buildings, clothes, the lamps!) since I'm fan of making stories with this time in particular as the setting, cos I think it was very interesting and enigmatic. All this age in general, it's amazing, it was the beginning of the industrial revolution, and lots and lots of interesting things have happened! 

So the dream started with the house and the farm, and near to the house there was a .... and the grandfather was yelling at them cos they were playing with ballons filled of painting, and left all the walls of the ..... full of that painting! XD Then the older of the kids was in the ceiling and said, referring to their siblings "I told them to not do that, but they didn't listened". 

I don't think they were bad kids though. You could see how they were playing, and probably all that "bad behavior" was just because they missed their parents (if they were death) and they wanted them to spend more time to them (if they were alive) and their older sister struggled to be mature, but wasn't old enough to know what to do in all the situations.

The characters of my dream...mmhhh they were an old but kindhearted man, a girl in her 12-13 years old, a boy of 10, a girl of  5 and the last one boy was like 3 years old or something I think. 

I think the older kid was an inventor, because she always used to carry a belt with tools, and her clothes were dirty like if she used to try to fix things or to build something.

They talked in English, although not British English, but american with a kind of southern accent....and it was funny to notice they dressed like if they were poor (I guess cos the parents were a middle-class family before, and they had debts?...) but they had a farm that was pretty big and house that looked very nice...and why the parents of the kids let the Grandpa taking care of them? I am not sure, but poor guy! They seemed the kind of kids who liked adventures  *chuckles*

Well, anyways, in the dream, when the grandpa called them and yelled at them a bit, they went back home to change clothes (cos they were full of painting XD) and to take dinner. And meanwhile, when night was comming, we could see that in the ..... something fell down from the sky.....and that was when I woke up, sadly. So I couldn't see what was going to happen next!! XD

So, what I did when I woke up was to draw this:

Just rough sketches of the characters I dreamed. And as I said up there, I hope I can dream more about this one story!

It's funny now I notice it, when I dream, I often dream with characters that are geeky, who are inventors..now I know why, I think it's because I myself was inventor when I was a kid! I just left it after some years, specially when my father said "being an inventor isn't a career, you cannot make a career out of it!". 

I admit he was right in part...although now I regret leaving that passion I had for building things I had,  I would have liked to not pay attention to that, or at least no completely but partially pay attention, and keep doing it. Because now I feel I have no longer this skill since a pretty good time :(

Well....at least I'm very glad I didn't left the art, and also to notice I keep having dreams about original stories and characters! ^^

Oh almost forget it! One curious thing about this dream, it's that one of the characters said "Pixeles" too! XD

I said "too" cos some days ago I had a dream of completely different story/characters, where one character said that as an exclamation expression. 

Mmmhhh....I guess someone wanted me to use this as a "catchphrase" or expression *chuckles*

Jean Jean Patou Nicolai - A bit of Story!

For the ones who still don't know, Jean it's Estelle's son, and both of them are french. Today I have some free time, I would like to share the sketches I've done so far for this, one the characters I've been working of to develop since the end of last year. Before he became the character you know now.

Jean Jean Patou and his partner in the TV documentary show "Traveling with Chip and Jean", they came out from other story, which main character was a kid who needed an hero, a role model, and since she loved animals and documentary shows, I thought of them. But it wasn't until I commented a friend of mine about that story, and about them, that the inspiration for developing them came to me like a powerful lighting, and I felt inspired to actually draw them!

Early Jean and Chip Sketches.
These are the very first sketches of both characters Jean (the one with the snorkel mask) and  his friend Chip. Chip isn't french but, well he was in the same page XD.
I did this on oct 21, 2013. Because I talked about them some days ago with a friend, and he said they were really cool characters. I still thank this friend of mine for listening to these characters concepts.
Cos in the past I kinda felt they probably weren't going to be very successful characters, so I just had them in my mind since a good time ago,  but I never really payed attention to actually draw them. Until I talked about them! Now I realize how amazing and warm characters they really are; People who like to see my art love them! :D

As you can see here, the characters weren't very well constructed still, it was a vague idea the one I had when I did this. Even I wouldn't have imagined that one day this was going to become the characters you see now. Here they were both in swimwear.


Oh Mon dieu! Jean's First good sketches!
This was the very first consistent artwork I did from him, and I remember I felt so happy and excited, and proud, like I haven't felt in a long long time! ^^
It was in part because I have created a new character in a long while, but I think it was mostly because I felt I kinda had "beaten" the problem I had with drawing male anatomy, cos I have been improved and my hard work has worth the effort, which it was amazing! :D

I think the sketch I was more pleased of, was precisely, the one where he says "Oh mon Dieu!". I just loved the expression there, it was so warm and full of amazement...it had all the emotion I wanted it to have! And I was happy cos that doesn't happen to me very often *chuckles*


This work was made also thanks to the encouragement of a very dear friend, yes, the same one who encouraged me to do them when I talked about them. This was what he saw when he saw the sketches:

"Its like looking at a stunning monument and being rendered speechless! You have created a true work of art that trancends simple beauty and conveys layers of emotion and depth that few people ever reach. Your soul and love and passion so pure looking at these drawings is like bathing in a warm light of eternal wisdom"



Jean's face practice.
Some sketches I made trying to draw a  formal Jean, I thought he probably would be in his prom. I was trying to practice drawing faces from the front side, because I'm not very good at this XD 

Teen and Kid Jean.

I knew at some point I was going to make him be a kid, either to have flashbacks of memories of him being a kid, and also because I have developed him and his friend Chip very well that I had the idea  that maybe I could make a series for him as well. Since he and his friend Chip were secondary characters in another story of mine, but they were so great characters that I was excited to make them their own show.

So I did some sketch test with jean being a kid and a teen.  I wasn't totally pleased with the results, but well, I think these are a good start :)

Jean Patou Sheet reference 

To the left:
Some random sketches I did for an intro "Sheet reference". I did this putting together some of the best sketches I had drawn of him from different times, also I drew other new ones.
The gray and brown ones are the old, the blue and purple are the new. 

But at the end I didn't used all the sketches for  the character design sheet cos I thought some of them weren't that good for this piece in particular. The final of this sketches is HERE

This and the other sketch, are the most recent sketches I've done for this character.