WIP Wednesday - 2017 - Volume 4

I've been working on more of what you saw last week: Angel is almost finished (at least for this part--the entire print has a lot more to it). The Magic Girl commission is finished. This one was fun. I was given a lot of creative license to come up with the design--I was given red hair, blue eyes, bare midriff, wields a great sword, and uses the element of steel. Also the yin-yang symbol because this character's normal form is a guy--he becomes a girl when he transforms.

Magic Girl Archetype

So this looks much better in person, but it is finished. This is going to be the first in a new series. I am coloring this coloring style "Noir." It's technically not part of that artistic style, but it's to differentiate it from my normal coloring style. This is the style I used for the Nintendo Noir set and the Mare Do Well picture I did last year. There is a definite art nouveau influence. That is one of my favorite art styles.

Archetypes Coming to Society 6

I am going to be moving my archetype collection to Society 6. I am in the process of phasing out all of my badges including my archetype badges. I will be cleaning up the chibis, since some of the earlier designs for this set were drawn some years ago.

In the mean time, as you saw in my last WIP post, I am working on a new set of larger prints for the archetypes as well. The prints I will have at my table will be full color and awesome (in my opinion). Since all prints I make now will be limited print runs, the full color design will not be available anywhere else but my art table (and maybe Etsy, but I really want to find a more cost effective way to ship before I list them there). I will be however posting a monochrome color variant of the design on Society 6. The monochrome variant is going to be exclusive to Society 6. The Magic Girl is available now as an art print, phone case, or phone skin. We will be formatting it for other products, eventually.

Magic Girl Art WIP

I have a lot of things in progress. This is because I have some form of ADD. It really is amazing I ever get anything finished. XD

For this point, I'm going to give you a sneak peak at one of my archetypes. One of my current projects involves drawing my archetypes in a style inspired by art nouveau and noir. This is in addition to adding new archetypes to the collection (my goal there is for a total of 52, so I can make a deck of cards featuring them). The first three archetypes that will appear in this set are the Magic Girl, Evil Overlord, and Steampunk. The reasoning behind this is that I am working (very slowly) on a comic for the archetypes, and the first story arc features these three.

I have really been enjoying working on this one. It has been nice to step away from the computer and work with traditional art mediums for a change. This art will be 11x17 and done entirely with pencil, ink, and markers. Pictures are taken with my phone because I do not have a large scanner at home.

Pencil with Original Badge for the design 

Ink added and some shading

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I mentioned earlier this month that I spent a lot of November and December really sick. I was more than sick enough to warrant a run through all of Pride & Prejudice. To my dismay, I finished that along with the first 3 discs of the third season of Avatar: the Last Airbender and had not bounced back. Usually taking a day to just rest is enough to get me back on my feet. Not this time. In fact, I went through all of BBC's Sherlock (twice), Puella Magi Madoka Magica, most of Sword Art Online, finished Durarara!, and a bunch of other stuff. Needless to say, I'm going to have a lot to write about. =P

On the recommendation of a good con-going friend, one of the first series I sat down to watch after Anime USA was Puella Magi Madoka Magica--being sick just moved my plans for what to watch forward a little faster. I had heard that this series was good but dark. Other than that I came to the series with very little idea of what to expect. Okay, so I did know that it was a magical girl series--the title kind of gave that away. Speaking of which, that title is a mouthful. Seriously, try saying it 3 times fast. I can barely get it out right once. XD Anyways, as far as expectations went, yes, the series was good, was dark, and, true to its title, involved magical girls.

One of the first surprises I got with this series was that it was short. It's only 12 episodes. I'm used to series running closer to 26 episodes. I think one reason why the series managed to have such a rich story and be so short was that it clearly understands the genre it belongs to and the conventions that come with that, and it clearly has fun playing with those conventions.

The series revolves primarily around a girl named Madoka (I'm sure that's also obvious from the title), and her friends. Kyubey, the token cute pet thing, singles out girl with the potential to be magical girls. He offers to grant one wish and in return the girl must become a magic girl and fight witches. That's the basic premise of the series; I'm not sure I could say much more without giving away too much.You'll just have to go watch the series. =P It's definitely worth it.