Artslam 2011 - 37-42

Two draft pages for chapter 7:

Cover draft:

Some old art done for a uni assignment a few months ago. Kept forgetting to post it here... orz

Artslam 19-22

Artslam 2011 - day 1

Yep, I'm participating Artslam again this year. It's becoming a tradition!

Anyway, as a warm-up exercise for day 1, I decided to doodle some human (and human-like) characters in my new style.


I also did up a shiny new banner for the entries on the Livejournal community proper. Here it is without the text.

some random sketches!

Neko-yasha profile

Finally gave him a proper colour scheme, after all this time. He's mostly unchanged from his first conception, except for the scarred right eye. The scar is a physical manifestation of the power he's gotten from Cerberus.

I was a little afraid I'd gone too far with the purple, but looking at it now it actually came out quite nice. Purple is not a colour I usually use, so this was interesting.

a textual interlude

Posting text, for a change.

I want power.

I want to be stronger.

He chanted those mantras in his head, over and over. He had been wandering in Purgatory for… he didn’t even know how long. At times it would feel like seconds, and at others it would feel like he had been stumbling around for tens of thousands of years. He wasn’t good at keeping track of time, but if he had to guess, it might have been close to five thousand years.

He had suffered a graceless defeat in the race, behind the twelve animals that had beaten him. Even the pig. And that was the part he couldn’t fathom, couldn’t forgive himself for. If he couldn’t even beat the pig – that cumbersome, good-for-nothing sack of meat – then he couldn’t even hope to accomplish a fraction of the things he had dreamed of.

And he had plenty of time to dream.

Not too long ago (or perhaps it had been a few seconds ago, he really couldn’t tell), a voice had called out to him. A voice telling him to find it, telling him that to find it would be to find a source of infinite power. That alone – the promise of greater power – had urged him on from his stupor, and gave him renewed strength.

I want to be stronger.

I want revenge on those who defeated me.

I want the world to burn.

He didn’t know how he knew, but he was heading closer to the voice with every step he took. There had been a constant presence in the back of his head since he first heard the voice, and it seemed to grow stronger as he went on.

After what seemed like an eternity, he arrived at a large cavernous opening on the side of a mountain. Chains criss-crossed over its entrance, and there were multiple talismans over it, to keep whatever was inside from breaking out. The voice whispered tantalisingly in his head, louder than ever. He had found it.

Cautiously, he approached the chains. A pair of red eyes glowed as he drew closer, and he flinched. The voice comforted him, reassuring him that it was nothing to be afraid of, and that he should destroy the talismans.

He reached out and tore a talisman from the chain. Removing one caused a chain reaction, and the remaining talismans fell to the ground in a fluttering heap. The mountain rumbled, and he could sense a massive being inside moving. The chains around the entrance collapsed, and he had to run back to prevent from being crushed.

The red eyes he saw earlier glowed with a stronger intensity. The mountain rumbled again, but it wasn’t the earth moving, it was the creature growling. He gasped and scrambled backwards as a clawed paw thudded on the ground in front of him, one of its claws nearly impaling him.

What emerged from the mountain was a being even he couldn’t have imagined. It had the form of a wolf, but it was clearly accentuated with demonic qualities. Spikes rose from the top and at the sides of its head, and at each of its limb joints. As it continued forward, he saw that it had two pairs of wings – a pair of huge, leathery wings grew from its shoulders, and a smaller pair of black, feathery wings rose from the middle of its back. It swished around a long, scaled tail, which was topped off at the end with a sharp, menacing curved spike.

The voice spoke in his head again, stronger than ever before. His head felt like it was going to explode, unable to contain the massive presence.

I promised you infinite power, and you shall have it. The voice said, resonating in his head.

Amazingly, the creature – the demon, he thought – dissolved into nothing more than a spirit, and drifted toward him. Without warning, it penetrated his very being. He screamed soundlessly, feeling the sudden agony of being invaded by such a powerful entity. Light exploded from his eyes, and suddenly, he collapsed to the ground in a heap.

When he rose, he was different. He was stronger, more powerful. The voice was there again, whispering its plans, telling him what to do. Together they would accomplish more than they would have achieved had they been alone.

He had finally gotten what he wanted. Soon, revenge would come.

Related post: http://zodiacbattle.blogspot.com/2010/06/artslam-34-37.html

Artslam 76

This poster was done as an entry for a contest, where we had to draw our comic (or idea for a comic) as either an advertisement, or the first volume cover. I made this poster to emulate the double-spread "style" of an article that would appear in magazines such as Newtype or Animage.

A version of this image without the text will soon be available on the main site as a wallpaper!

Artslam 34-37

Short animatic that shows how Neko got his powers. No one's supposed to know yet, but the only reason why he's evil is because Cerberus possessed his body. He usually exists only as a regular spirit, not as a zodiac, as he never finished the race. Probably only makes sense to me but oh well...

The ritual by which Neko creates the soul monsters. Using this method he can create hundreds of monsters at a time, and potentially create an army. The blood is used to bind the souls to him, so that they give him unconditional obedience.

Another type of soul monster, Devouring Souls, often called Devourers. They are usually the souls of people who were impoverished during their lives. They have an insatiable hunger, and can smell humans from hundreds of miles away.

Yet another redesign for Buta. Only changed the belt this time though.

Artslam 27-33

I've actually been really lazy the past week or so, gaming a lot and trying to finish a few old games I left unfinished. I finished Dragon Age earlier this afternoon, so I decided to stop procrastinating...

Neko can manipulate his magic into the shape of weapons. It's just one of the things he does. This one's a whip with a blade on the end. As with most things, it looked better in my head...

A new weapon for Nezumi. I admit, I pretty much stole this from the Prince of Persia movie. He has a device on his wrists, hidden in his sleeves, that dispenses these "needles".

On the topic of Nezumi, I've been thinking of redesigning his guardian for a while. After drawing a few of the male characters, I felt all their hair kinda looked the same. The one on the far left is what he looks like currently. I like the one on the far right the best though, heh.

While we're talking about male characters, I doodled a simple ref for Kyle. Needed to remember how his hair is, because I drew it wrong in the recent comic drafts. I also kind of epic fail at drawing kids next to adults.

Winter outfits for Purgatory arc:

Lee

Steven

Den

Artslam 18

Somehow this only looked really good in my head.

hmm

More sketches for storyboarding.

Neko rough refs

I should probably colour these...

some random sketches

Sketches done for a school project that got scrapped.

Character Balance Meme

Haven't posted here in a while... uni work and commissions keeping me busy with barely enough time to pump out the weekly page. >_<
Results were quite interesting, albeit expected, to say the least. Tatsu was made to be a mentor and guide, and be powerful from the start, so he should be fine the way he is. Inu though, I might need to tone him down a little for when he becomes a main character.

These 7 are probably the most developed out of the vast number of characters I have planned for this comic, and I tried to limit it to zodiacs only, as I sadly haven't done as much work with the humans. Need to rectify this!

And yes, I did design Tatsu to be bishounen. XD

on a pale horse

traditional cover

Remember that mock up cover I was working on? All done!


Not sure now what I'll use it for...

goals for 2010

• More comics! If I can I will try to draw fast enough to be able to update twice a week.
  
• Extra chapters : Zodiac Battle -Untold Stories-, describing how the other guardians met their zodiacs, each will be about the length of a standard chapter. One of these every 4-5 chapters. (think of it as the omake at the end of a manga)
  
• More coloured images, more downloads.

I've been working on this since yesterday afternoon, a mock-up "manga cover" for "volume 1" of Zodiac Battle. Taking a page out of other mangaka's books and colouring it traditionally, with Copic markers. ^^

crash boom

Running out of witty titles.

Decided to re-design Buta on a whim, after looking at some artwork.

Yay fight scene!

(insert witty title here)

He put on the goggles!

More demon chair. Future wallpaper/cover?

how about that, huh

Many, many apologies for neglecting this blog recently, Aion among other things has been chewing up my time.

I've recently gotten a few comments to increase the update frequency, and trust me that has been something I've been thinking about for weeks. Right now I don't think I can trust myself to churn out enough pages for a twice weekly update. If things change though and I can get enough time to draw more comics, then I certainly will. :)

Anyway, I scanned my sketchbook today to share some of these here. It took almost the whole afternoon, but by the time I trimmed them down it was only these that made the cut... oh well.

Three new characters (not including Saru) are gonna be introduced in chapter 3, the two on the left are Battle commentators, and the one on the right is Den, Saru's guardian.

Neko sitting in a sort of... demon chair. Oda Nobunaga can suck it!