Sketch 14: Natsu and Igneel

Sooooooo glad to be back after such a long time. Had been busy with exams. Well, that's just how life works right? You wake up, stretch your sore muscles, brush your teeth, open the window to inhale the cool, fresh air--BAM! Exams slap you in face. It takes a whole lot out of you. I came not to realisation, but confirmation that exams are devised in such a way to suck the very essence out of you. It's very similar to the games in Saw(the movie, not the tool). Think about it. It provides you with challenges that you need to solve (at times even puzzles), you are given a limited time to complete everything, and a little of what's inside of you die each time you pass an exam. The only (noticeable) difference is that instead of blood and gore, you get mucus and moist tissues due to the decline in health of the students resulting from sleepless nights.

But all that is over for the year, which I'm super glad about. And finally I get to focus on another sketch. I search through my pencil case for my trusty Pentel Sharplet 5 mechanical pencil, stared down at my sketch book, and froze.

The amount of time spent on memorising facts and figures has led to the deteriorating of the creative side of my mind. I struggled so hard to think of what to draw, and decided to ask my friend *Daryl for suggestions. Almost nonchalantly he sent me a fanart of Natsu and Igneel. Now as you know, I am NOT an avid reader of Fairy Tail (as how I stated in my previous Natsu post) and I didn't even know what was the dragon's name. But I thought: what the heck. Let's get going. 

So, here goes!

Equipment: Pilot G-3 pen 1.0mm, Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Pilot Wingel 0.38mm, Eraser

So I started to roughly sketch Natsu and Igneel. Natsu took less time compared to Igneel as I was more familiar with Natsu's appearance and (utterly amazing) body (I'm looking at you, fangirls). So after about 30-45 minutes, I came up with this: 

And yes, that expression on Natsu's face was exactly what was pasted on mine when I first received my exam questions. Dat I-HATE-THE-WORLD feeling.

So later on I started to draw the outlines with the Wingel. This took me about 30 minutes. And this was what I got:

Not much difference from the first pencil-made one, but that's all part of the process. The key is to not get too disappointed with the plain look because 60% of the finished work depends on the inking. So after an hour or so, I present to you this:

Thanks for your time and see you in the next one! :D

DFTBA

* yes, that's his real name :) 

Sketch 13: The 'Oops'

Sorry for the long hiatus. Been busy with...holidays. Hah. Oh well, the many pains of having a long period of nothing-to-do-ness. One more day and it is back to studying, Back to the papers; back to the cramming and exams and the passes and the failures; and back to life. Oops, did I just miss out the most important aspect of university life? Why, I believe I did. Friends! The joy of meeting friends.

And oops, did I just say 'Oops'?

Oh yes I think I did again. Well, that reminds me. I have a sketch I would like to share. This one is a little unique in the sense that it came to me in such suddenness I was starting to doubt my source of inspiration. Such a special piece calls for of course a special title, and I have taken the honour of naming it as such.

Well, this is for those of you who still reads my blog (for some reason, heh) and for those of you Naruto fans. The thing about anime or manga is that it teaches you countless valuable lessons in life, such as the importance of ramen in the completeness of the world; or the kawaii-ness of having whiskers on your cheeks; and even the fact that it is a bad idea of placing your lightning/thunder imbued hand right through the chest of someone you love (just in case, this is where the 'oops' comes in). Which reminds me, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

Well enough chit chat :D Let's-a-gooooooo.

Oh wait. Before that, we have a couple of new members that I would like to introduce into our Pen family, or I had taken the liberty to coin the term 'Penamily' :)

Meet Ziggy and Wingel. The two most frequently used pens in my arsenal:

Two super duper fine beauties :3

EQUIPMENT: Zig Millenium 0.05mm, Pilot Wingel 0.38mm, Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Pilot G-3 pen 1.0mm, Eraser

So, as usual I was browsing through the net and that's when something hit me. Why not draw a page of a manga? This idea was not irrelevant because a few days back I did this: 

And yes, that is a Muji notebook. I was thinking of stamping my name on it using the Muji stamps they have in their shops (you should really check them out) but I wanted to make mine a little more unique. And so I thought of imprinting one of my favourite moments of the manga onto the cover. This was done separately and it took me about 2-3 hours. 

So, as you might not know, Kakashi is my favourite Naruto character. And for many reasons. The white hair and the mask says it all. Who WOULDN'T fall for that? ;)

So I looked for the page and found this: 

I know. There, there, my fellow Otaku's. Keep them tears. 

I started out with the pencil and came up with this: 

Notice how Kakashi's left leg is out of the picture? That, kids, is a classic example of poor positioning. And I blame this on no one else but moi. And I apologize for that. Oh well, no one's perfect, right? 

And so it was time for Wingel to prove it's majesty. And after an hour or so of inking, this is what I got: 

The trick of erasing the pencil markings is to be VERY patient. I learnt this through the hard way. It id NOT fun to see smudges all over your paper. No matter how dry you think it is, give it an extra 15 minutes to be sure. If best, leave it for half an hour. Go for a walk, play a game of DotA, watch an episode of South Park, or just start another drawing :) So I erased and I inked. 

And I inked, and I inked, and I inked....

...and I inked...

...and inked...

and done! FINALLY

*drumrolls* The final product....

TA-DAAAAAA ! 

The rain was tricky. I had to use a ruler to do it. But nevertheless, This consumed quite a large amount of ink. 

And for the record, I am utterly impressed by manga artists. UTTERLY. 

Well, that's it. Thanks for da time and hope you enjoyed. See you in the next one.

And I quote the Vlogbrothers: DFTBA! 

Sketch 12: Debris

Phew, after what seemed to be an eternity of hiatus, finally I get to sit at my table and sketch away. Forgive me for the break. Exams were ongoing and my days were as busy as a bee.

Well, anyhow, here I am. This piece took me almost 4 hours to complete and I took the liberty of naming it 'Debris'. Why you ask? Just look below and you'll understand.

To those who don't know, I have always been an adamant fan of the anime and manga Fullmetal Alchemist. There is just this feel that the storyline bestows upon its audience. The brotherhood and love it portrays just touches the heart of its ever so loyal viewers.

Alrighty then, without further ado, let's start! :D


EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Pilot G-3 pen 1.0mm, Pilot G-2 pen 0.38mm, Pilot G-2 pen 0.5mm, Artline 0.05 

So as usual, I was browsing through the net trying to find an image to refer. And I came across this beauty:

First thought: WOAHHHH
Second thought: Where on earth do I start?
Third thought: Well, the face, perhaps.

And so I began sketching the outline of it, and this was what I got:

And I thought to myself: Hmm, not bad. Not bad at all. And so I dug through my pencil case and reached for my trusty .38mm pen. The inking was not that easy, since the degree of detail was quite high. Nonetheless, an hour later and a track of Boyce Avenue songs, finally I finished inking the outline:

Take note that the details were not complete at this point, since it is pointless putting it in before the coloring.

Well, after a series of Fullmetal Alchemist opening songs, I finally finished the piece. And because I started this quite late into the night, I had to pause my work, all because of the human evolutionary need to sleep. And as much as my hands wanted to go on, my eyes did not agree. (Oh, and then there was the Spain vs Australia match, heh)

And so, I continued this piece the first thing in the morning, or more like afternoon. (Well, as much as I think the idea of sleep is not all necessary, I still can't deny the tastiness of it)

So, here you go, the final piece!

Notice how most of the debris are added after the coloring and shading. 

Hope you enjoyed! And thanks for your time :3

Sketch 11: The Straw Hat Pirates

Okay. This is the second time of me drawing something I am not familiar with. (First was Natsu.)

Being a moderate manga reader (okay, perhaps less than moderate), the only manga I fervently read is Naruto. However, growing up in an environment where most people around me talk about One Piece really fuelled my curiosity. Why on earth is this manga/anime so popular?

I remember reading a One Piece manga back when I was staying in Shah Alam where the main language of communication was in Bahasa Malaysia. The title of the comic book was Budak Getah (i.e. Rubber Boy). I wasn't really used to the artwork as I was used to Kishimoto's more...lifelike drawings. And so I stopped after that one book.

And here I am, trying out a sketch on the Straw Hat Pirates.

So, here goes:

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Pilot G-3 pen 1.0mm, Pilot G-2 pen 0.38mm, Artline 0.05, Artline 200 Fine 0.4:

I noticed one thing since I bought the Artline 0.05: It works really well when drawing manga-like sketches. 

This was the initial sketch which took me about half an hour:

I am so clueless about this series that I started to question my rationality while I was drawing Sanji's ridiculously extravagant eyebrow. Though I have to admit that Zoro looks quite cool XD

Here is a sneak peak to the finished piece:

Say hi to Luffy :D 

Oh, and one more thing I found quite interesting was their flag. Talk about simplicity being the most sophisticated. 

Oh, and if you're wondering what does the Japanese words below the skull, it says (according to OnePieceWikia) mugiwara no ichimi which means Straw Hat Pirates. 

So...the moment of truth. To be honest I was quite disappointed with the piece because I had to exclude Franky and Robin due to poor space management. I promise I will improve on that aspect (I'll try). So, here it is:

Oh, and here's the picture I used as a reference (ignore the keyword I used to find this picture) :

Ta daaaa :D Hope you liked it. See you in the next one I make! 

Sketch 10: Natsu Dragneel

Yay, a decade of blog posts!

I would like to congratulate myself for having the gung-ho-ness to post these sketches (not knowing if they are even being read or not).

But as they say, self praise is no praise, so I shall end my self-indulgence here.

The following sketch was inspired by an image sent to me by a friend of mine. Please take note that I have not read a single volume of Fairy Tale; and neither have I watched a single episode of its anime. If it does not resemble the so ever beloved six-packed main character that shoots out fire, please forgive me. (Yes, that was a disclaimer. Well, some sort of that)

This was the image sent by my friend:


My first thought: This is epic. Nothing beats a fire breathing muscle man, not especially when he has pink hair.

So let's head on to the process of it.

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Pilot G-2 pen 0.5mm, Pilot G-2 pen 0.38mm, Pilot G-2 pen 1.0mm, Artline 0.1:

I spent about 10 minutes sketching the outline of Natsu. This was a brief process as too much details shouldn't be added at this early stage:

 After sketching the rough outline of his body, I went on to add more details into it, including that sexy 6-pack of his:

When i was done with the sketching, I moved on to the pens. This time I utilised alot of my Artline 0.1mm because it was fine enough to highlight the details of the drawing. The fire took quite a huge amount of time and effort. Here's a sneak peek of the piece when I was halfway through it:

After about 2+ hours, it was finally completed. Here is what the final outcome looks like:

Although I have no idea what I was drawing, I still had great fun working on this. And here I thank my friend for suggesting this marvel of a picture to me, and thank you for bearing with me throughout the whole process of it. 

:D 

Sketch 9: Diabolos

Okay. So you look to your friend next to you, flash him a toothy grin and nod slightly. You squeeze your facial muscles and try your very best to put on the game face. As you are stretching your neck and shoulders, you notice your friend running to the bathroom and you hear him turn on the sink. Seconds later he comes back with water droplets dripping down his chin.

You skid right past the corner and runs past the NPC. You look around for that save point. Ahh, there it is. You approach the blue-and-yellow rotating orb looking thingy and mash the X button. Yes, save. Yes, overwrite. Yes, load all you want. You start to feel uneasy. Sweat start pouring down the sides of your face. You reach for the tissue but the save is complete. You grit your teeth and wipe your face with the side of your sleeves.

This is it. You open your inventory, search for the item you want, and hesitate.

"Come on, this is killing me," Bob uttered with his quivering voice.

You gulp noisily and stare at the two huge words: MAGIC LAMP.

***

Sorry for the long and irrelevant (except to those of you who has played Final Fantasy VIII) intro :P

Diabolos (or Diablos) has been one of my favourite optional bosses and Guardian Force. Come on, a bat-like creature with the control over gravity? If that's not badass I don't know what is. 

As usual this piece has taken up quite a huge amount of ink. And I sincerely apologise to my Artline 200 red inked pen. Also, here's the latest addition to my family of pens. Meet Artline 0.1: 

Ain't she a beauty? :3

Alrighty, let's get to work.

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Pilot G-2 pen 0.5mm, Pilot G-3 Gel 1.0, Pilot G-2 pen 0.38mm, Artline 200 Fine 0.4, Artline 0.1:

So I started with a rough sketch of Diabolos, which looked somewhat like this. This took me about 15 minutes:

It took me another 20 minutes darkening the lines with pen:

This sketch was different compared to my previous ones in a way that the details are much lesser. In my earlier sketches such as Bahamut or Adrammelech, the details were overwhelming, however for Diabolos, what made it difficult was the amount of black ink I had to use. In order to properly portray a body of black and not make it look like a clump of shadows, I had to improvise. And this took up quite some time.

Here's a close up of his (or its, if you prefer it that way) wings after it's done :)

After about 3 hours or so of shading and coloring, I finally managed to get it done. And thanks to Mr Procrastination, of course those 3 hours weren't consecutive. Here it is, the final product:

Hope you liked it :D

And I guess its time to buy myself a new red-inked pen.

P.S.: A shoutout to those of you who played and loved (and still loves) Final Fantasy VIII. Here's my favourite line from Squall : " ......."

Cheers! And may I quote John Green: DFTBA!

Sketch 8: Bahamut (Fury)

Here's another one that I stumbled upon while browsing through the Final Fantasy Wikia page. I was sitting at a table in my University's library when I decided to pull my sketch book out.

We all know that Final Fantasy Aeons are badass and cool, but if you haven't already acknowledge the existence of Bahamut, trust me, be prepared to be blown out of your seat (that's assuming that you are sitting down when you saw this).

This was what I came across:

And as you know, I sketch only using black inked pens or pencils, so the golden was out of the question. I considered adding some green at where the orbs are, but I couldn't find my green pen. Oh well.

So without further adieu, let's begin!


EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Pilot G-2 pen 0.5mm, Pilot G-2 pen 0.38mm

I began sketching a draft for the sketch. This took me about 10 minutes:

Next, I started to sketch out the details. I started out, as usual, with a pencil. This took me around 1.5 hours. Here is what it looked like:

 Next, I spent about 50 minutes inking the sketch. Here's what it looked like:

I was considering leaving it like this, but I thought to myself: what the heck. So after 1.5 hours of shading and hatching, this was the final product:

The outcome was actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Although this (like my other sketches) took me a long time and effort to do, I still enjoy it.

FUN FACT: Bahamut (Arabic بهموت Bahamūt) originated as an enormous whale in ancient pre-Islamic Arabian mythology. Upon Bahamut's back stands a bull with four thousand eyes, ears, noses, mouths, tongues and feet called Kujuta (also spelled "Kuyutha"). 

Source: finalfantasywikia

Sketch 7: Tail beasts (Bijuu)

Alright. This is by far the most challenging and time consuming piece that I have ever done.

Think of Naruto. Now think of the tail beasts. Then think of the jinchuurikis. Now picture them all on the same piece of paper. That's what you are about to see.

So this was actually another 'request' by my friend. No matter how casual the 'request' might have been, I was still quite gung-ho about the whole idea. So I started searching for the image that I wanted to use as a reference. This was what I got:

Looks crazy, I know. Trust me, I have spent quite some time just staring at the image, wondering to myself: Where on earth am I gonna start? After some serious considerations, I decided to start with the main character.

So, let's begin!

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Kneaded eraser:

(I used a art block paper this time rather than a normal sketch book paper)

Oh, I used close to 10 leads while working on this. Also, the kneaded eraser helped me loads in dealing with the narrow spaces.


This was after approximately 1.5 hours:

The adjustments of the positions proved to be quite challenging. I had a hard time determining the position of Naruto. And because he is somewhat of a centerpiece, his position on the paper has to be perfect. This is because I am using him as a reference point to draw the other jinchuurikis and bijuus.

This is what it looks like when everyone is in the picture. Talk about a big family:

 Here's a sneak peak at the end product. (This photo was actually taken because I was tired of shading :P)

*Drumrolls...*

Ta-da!! Here is the final product: (Please ignore the irrelevant background. Heh)
This took me around a combination of 5, maybe 6 hours.
And yes, it was tiring.
Yes, it was frustrating when I couldn't get the right shade.

But, it was worth it :)

Sketch 6: Heatsuke

What's up with the name, you ask? Give it a guess! 

If you happen to guess a combination between a Sasuke and a Heatblast, then, bravo! You're absolutely right! 

For this specific piece, I (unfortunately) did not take down my process of sketching it. This piece was actually a request by my cousin. The request went like this: Draw me two characters waiting at a bus stop, one from Naruto, and another from Ben 10. 

Well, he actually said train stop but I misheard it. Oh well.

This is also my first post using only pencil. No pen was utilised during the whole drawing process. 

Now, I chose Sasuke because it was actually my cousin's favourite character from Naruto, and Heatblast because he is my favourite from Ben 10. (Also, Heatblast is one of the few aliens which are "normal-sized")

So, here goes! 

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Kneaded eraser:

I'll just skip to the finished product :)

Here's a better look at it:

And yes, Heatblast took a LOT of time and strength. Oh, the shading :/ 

Oh and this was drawn on a standard 297mm X 420mm paper, instead of the usual sketchbook-sized paper.

Hope you enjoyed! :D

Sketch 5: Auron

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I gotta say, Auron blew me away when I first played Final Fantasy X. His cool facade; his awesome outfit; and not to mention his swaggelicious sunglasses.

Also, I love his quote: “This is it. This is your story. It all begins here.”

So, I began my search for an image to refer. And here we go!

EQUIPMENT: Mechanical pencil 0.5mm, Eraser, Pilot G-2 pen 0.5mm, Pilot G-2 pen 0.38mm, Artline 200 Fine 0.4

I guess it is quite obvious why I included an Artline pen :) Here's the pencil draft:

I'm actually quite glad that this Final Fantasy character doesn't have a million and one details on him. Although the red was slightly tiring. But it was nonetheless satisfying. Here's after inking:

Believe it or not I actually considered leaving this as it is. I really like how it looks after the ink. But somewhere inside me prompted me to add in the shades and color. I was actually praying that I don't ruin the sketch with the red. The result isn't all that perfect, but it was not as bad as I would've thought:

There you go. Auron :D

FUN FACT: In the game Kingdom Hearts, Auron is one of the two Final Fantasy characters which featured as an active party member. The other one? Well, who else? Cloud of course!