Industrious Illustrating #38 – Sophomore Year Review Project

*Edit 5/11/2023: Fixed image embeds that weren’t working!

Apologies for not posting in several weeks. I was swamped with finals and finishing up lots of other tasks that hit me all at once.

Now that the winter semester is over, though, I can show my finished sophomore year studio project!

I did my sophomore year studio project with the intent of strengthening the concept art/visual development side of my portfolio. The bulk of my project was creating character turnaround design sheets, both for the Bhairava mech and for three of the characters in my sci-fi story concept “Blade of Seafoam”:

 

To round out my project, I did create some concept art sketches contextualizing my characters in the post-apocalyptic world they reside in, although I didn’t get a chance to finish painting these before I had to present my project before the review committee.

In the end, my sophomore year review went quite well, and I had a good discussion with the faculty review committee about my work and about my plans for the rest of undergrad. I intend to keep working on my character design and concept art skills over the summer, and I hope to share more “Blade of Seafoam”-related artwork here in the future!

Industrious Illustrating #37 – Concept Art Sketching

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my table during Con Ja Nai 2023 and made it a successful con for me! I had a great time talking to everyone and supporting my other friends in the Artist Alley as well as Maid Cafe this time around. I’m looking forward to the next Con Ja Nai and the rest of this year’s con season! My next con is Anime Park in Canton, MI on May 6th, so I hope I’ll see you there if you’ll still be in the area!

In other updates, I’ve been working on environmental concept art featuring my visual novel story idea “Blade of Seafoam”‘s main cast for my Sophomore Year Project that I will be presenting at Stamps for my Sophomore Review on the 18th. If you’re a current freshman at Stamps and want to watch to see how Sophomore Review goes for a student focusing on entertainment art and concept art, feel free to come watch!

My preliminary thumbnail sketches:

My current digital sketches for the three environmental concept art pieces, based off of bucket wheel excavators, the “Z Machine” X-ray source, and Gunkanjima Island respectively:

And here’s my current sketch for the cover art of this concept art “pitch bible”:

I will be working more on my “Blade of Seafoam” concepts over the summer both as portfolio work and so that I can proceed further in developing this story idea into a fully fledged visual novel with three story routes to be my next project after “Flamechaser” sees a full release. I’ll also post my entire completed Sophomore Year Project in a week or two.
I’ll be making a few more posts before the end of the winter semester here on arts, ink, so stay tuned for more!

Industrious Illustrating #28 – Character Concept Sketching 2

Truth be told, I’ve been having a hard time maintaining a regular regimen of drawing at least partially because I feel like I’m clocking in to a day of grueling work every time I sit down to draw. It’s a feeling I have to continuously deal with if I want to continue developing and monetizing my art as an illustrator, but I haven’t found a good remedy aside from drawing self-indulgently and not worrying too much about what the final drawing looks like. As a result, this week I have more quick character concept sketching to share.

The above character, Wenet Tozawa, is another character in “Blade of Seafoam”‘s post-apocalyptic world. I still need to develop her backstory more and draw out her full design, but here’s the character description I currently have written down for her:

“A traveling medic known for her ability to regenerate the sick and injured almost to the point of giving them new life. She’s apparently close friends with Rashida, though the history of their relationship is unclear to outsiders.”

I’m planning on developing and showing off more character designs from “Blade of Seafoam” soon, so look forward to that if you’re interested in seeing my character designs!