Fan Works

I thought I'd dedicate a separate page for fan works- since yes, they are genuine artwork, but they're not coming straight from my imagination, I'm borrowing ideas and styles from other people. Like I said on my Past Projects page- I don't think that makes them invalid. If anything it shows how someone can take the time to look carefully at someone else's work and try to reproduce it- much like how student artists used to copy the master's works in the old days.
Besides, if you can shift your style to match or come close to someone else's, then that can be a valuable skill down the road.

Most recently I've been doing some sketches from Rurouni Kenshin, one of my favorite animes. ^_^

First, a chibi one-page comic. XD The idea came to me while I was a work one day- playing off of the famous South Park joke of course. It was interesting shifting gears and doing the shadows and highlights so simply- with no real textures, or special brushes. Strange, but refreshing all the same.

Then I did a more serious sketch of the main character of the show, Kenshin. I think I captured the style fairly well- this time around though, I didn't do all the shadows and highlights on the same layer. (I learned my lesson after last time. XD) The weird part about doing some of these was that the sketching part of it didn't take very long at all- but the coloring process did. That's why all of these took at least two or three hours a piece.

And, another chibi comic. It's based on a joke that you'd understand if you'd ever seen the show. XD But it's still entertaining besides. Good practice doing quick, cartoony sketches instead of insanely detailed ones. It's good to be able to branch out a bit.

Update 9/22/10 :

Here's some of my favorite type of fanwork to do: Legend of Zelda fanwork. ^_^ I completed these within the last few days- 9/19 to 9/21- after reading through the Ocarina of Time Manga online. It got me feelin' pretty nostalgic. Ah, the good ol' days- spending hours and hours beating temple after temple in 80 to 90 degree heat (since we had no air conditioning at the time).

This one is just a quick comic sketch. Made me laugh, though. XD Those Re-Dead things still creep me out. I went and found the text on Dafont, since the letters I'd scribbled in there were way too messy and hard to read. It's called Swamp Witch.

After doing the silly one, I wanted to draw a piece that was much more serious. And it definitely is. I gotta say, the background I added to this really helps set the mood- it feels totally different as a simple sketch. I'm not 100% happy with Link's body position, though I'm really not sure why. I'll have to think about that. (Yet another one I'll come back to later. XD)

Update 1/14/11:

Just finished today ( 1/14/11 ). I'd been meaning to finish this one for a while now. It's an updated version of one I did waaay back in high school (which kinda sucked, by the way) called "Tears in Rain" - taken from the line in Blade Runner.

Update 3/19/11:

Another couple of fanworks to add to the pile. The first one is the most recent- based on a silly idea I had when (gasp) I was drinking late one night. Seemed funnier at the time. XD The second I finished before the end of last year but neglected to put up here for some reason. It depicts my two favorite elves in a not-so-epic meeting. (Yes, I am also an avid Lord of the Rings fan. Surprised? I didn't think so.)