Value Composition: Follow up

Well, I didn't actually get to art as much as I wanted to this week.  I did some thumb nailing but mostly I was doodling bad doodles trying to get myself out of an art block.

I'm going to give this Value Composition another week so I might product something up to a colour sketch of something.

So, here is my page of thumbnails. I was trying to find a composition for battle charge style image. There are a couple I like (6,12 and 14) and that I might expand into more detailed larger thumbnails to explore.
#12 is not exactly a battle scene but I wouldn't mind expanding on it into a different type of illustration. or adding details to it to make it a more subtle battle waiting scene.

Anyway, not so interesting but making an effort to spend a little time posting.
I'll leave behind 2 sketches I posted last week.

Weekly Art challenges: Value Composition

I've realized that a lot of the on-line art sharing websites just don't suit me. I've tried so many but most of the W.I.P. or critique based websites are CG heavy and as a result no one knows what to say or look at in regards to my semi realistic cartooning style. I didn't get a lot of useful feedback. DeviantART used to be the place to go but its overrun with trolls and comments and critiques have taken a side step to favouriting like crazy (Instagram style). So I've decided to take a different approach.

Weekly I'm going to choose a specific topic/theme to focus my art one, and just post the results of my focus here. Feel free to critique what I post, and feel free to post your own work in the comments and we can critique eachothers!

Okay, for my first week challenge I'm going to work on my Composition in regards to Value.
I tend to use bright colours and while I've got a decent amount of contract in my images I still feel like I could use some work on my Value Composition and silouettes. Muddy Colours recently had a great blog post about this which inspired me to get off my tuckus and work on this. I've been thinking about it for a long time. My comic, Conflagration is going to have a lot of intense scenes in it, in black and white, probably. Which means the better I get a handle on this now, the better chance my comic is going to be appealing and be successful.

I've taken a few of my recent art works and adjusted the threshold on them to see where I am at. I think 1.. maybe 2 of these are kind of successful a little bit but clearly I have some work to do.

Well, I'm going to get to work on thumb-nailing some ideas!!

Here are some great articles and Videos
Muddy Colours- using shape and value for better composition
Muddy Colours - Composition basics: Value structure
Muddy Colours- Composition Basics: Sketching Thumbnails
James Gurney - atmospheric distance and Value
James Gurney - Cure for middle value mumbling



 And I'll leave some of my newer art here too :)

Lots of tutorials, Deviantart Alive again.

I've started using my deviantART account again. I've posted some art on there, and I'm going to make sure to post lots of sketches in my scraps. I'm trying to find some more artists to follow on there because most of my DevWatch represents my interests of 6 years ago and doesn't necessarily thrill me any more.

I've done a TON of tutorials for Copicmarker.com and for everyone's convenience I've been keeping the list on the resources page of my website.I've done 15 since the last one I posted on here. Wow. They must really like me...

We've sent our Gateways to Beyond comic to the printers. We're expecting the first batch April 4th. Cutting it close for some of our conventions but barring any major issues we should be OK.

Heres some recent art work - all created for Tutorials, oops. One day I'll do art for me, haha.

Profiles by Marker-Guru on deviantART

Victor in leather and fur by Marker-Guru on deviantART

Stacy in Furs by Marker-Guru on deviantART

Pehny purple cape by Marker-Guru on deviantART

Fundraising to print our anthology, Gateways to Beyond

Gurukitty Studios is currently working on our 3rd anthology,Gateways to Beyond, and we have  launched a crowd funding campaign to help raise the funds needed to publish this book.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gateways-to-beyond

The campaign has many perks and donation levels where you can get digital and physical copies of our new and previous anthologies, including pre-orders ofGateways to Beyond. If you are unable to financially support the campaign, thats okay, helping us spread the word is extremely helpful, as well.

If you could spread the word on your social media sites such as twitter and facebook it will greatly increase our chances of successfully funding our campaign.

Gateways to Beyond will have 23 black and white sci-fi comics from artists all over the world.
The wrap around cover art was done by one of the contributors, Jason Hart.

Sample comic pages from the anthology will be posted periodically on tindiegogo campaign. We will also be posting concept work and sketches.

Thank you for supporting Gurukitty Studios.

Fire Dragon

VCon is next weekend, and I wanted to have a fresh drawing to have some new prints. I was doing a tutorial for Copic Marker and finished it early. The tutorial will be posted in a few weeks (I've frequently done tutorials for Copic) in the mean time, here is the image which will be available to buy as a print at Vcon this weekend.

Going to post more art - scott commission

I can't begin to tell you how many people are commissioning me to draw X photo in my style. I was happy though, this was my first winter scene of the year OuO

Marker Guru: Beards, chops and moustaches - Tutorial

Marker Guru: Beards, chops and moustaches - Tutorial: I recently did another blog for Copic . Its on beards and facial hair. Check it out :) Beards, Chops, and Stubble

Conventions and stuff

Today: Vancouver comic con
Sept 28-30: VCON
Sept 29: Emily con
Oct 6-7: mega comic con
Nov 4: Vancouver comic con
Nov 17: canzine

Busy busy! This year we've been going to every convention we could, even if it was a long shot. Why? Research. We want to get an idea of where our work sells best, and where it doesn't sell any all. You can't assume anything in a world like this.
So far its been an extremely worthwhile experiment! We've had enough surprises that we've thrown out all our assumptions.
By the end of the year we will have been to more come than I can even recall, but we are going to compile our data and see where our time and money is best spent on next years convention schedule!
I've also made some pretty awesome connections in the  convention circuit as well. A pleasant surprise :)

Pehny with Pearls

I did a drawing! OMG. I know. I've done nothing but comics for so long, I almost forgot what it was like to just sit and draw for the sake of drawing.
I thought I'd post the instagrams all in one place just to show the progress.

ink

ink 2

skin and hair and bodice

base colours done.

 

done

You can buy prints of this on our website!

Sketches

Working on feet and legs. I feel like it's a weakness of mine. Here's what I did today.

Sketch

I don't post much here anymore. Ill try to do better. Been doing so much comic work, and I generally post those on our facebook page. Anyway, I've got some art plans and a phone with a good camera and a blogger app so I'm GOLD!
Here's a little sketch I might turn into a big art later. 

The head in the bottom is not part of it, random doodle. Thumbnail page lol.
Any suggestions in thia early stage?

Temporarily open for commissions

I am temporarily opening up commissions to raise funds to pay for Convention Tables and for ordering Product. It's not cheap to go to Conventions, but we really do need to exposure of being out there to push our comics! ACK, so we need a fair amount of money to stock up on our comics to make us able to even break even at the conventions, particularly Calgary Expo.

So for a limited time, full art commissions. Here is what I am offering.
I will only take 5 orders at a time. It's first PAID first served.
I'll start with Sketched portrait drawings, and anything else will be an add on from there.

Pricing:
Sketch Card: 10$ (no add on's. this is a stand alone commission)

Sketched Portrait: $25

• ADD inked - +$15
• ADD colour - +$30
• ADD Full body - +$20
• ADD abstract Background - +$10

So, this means if you want an inked portrait in colour, it costs $70

Please note, It HAS to be inked, to be coloured! Please take that into account

To order, just fill out the form below. if It doesn't display or you have problems, go here.

Thank you! <3

Copic Blog

A while back Copic approached me about doing a Guest Tutorial for their blog! I was so excited and delighted of course I did it! SO here it is for you to enjoy and the art! (Blog restructure is still happening, I just got sidelined with dental issues)

Guest Tutorial – Airbrushing Comics by Marker Guru

Leaellynasaura - copic blog by `guruubii on deviantART

Sketch - Victor and Nakia

So I spent the better part of 2 days really flushing out the story for Conflagration, and the Prequel, Embers. There is some awesome imagery in those 2 stories, if I do say so myself.
I started sketching some of the scenes and for once, liked something enough to take it beyond a doodle, or a gesture.

Victor and Nakia

I can't decide whether I want to go full colour with this, or play with warm and cool greys. Anyway, just thought I'd share it before I butcher it with colours and ink, LMAO.
Ps: I'm fairly certain this is the cleanest sketch I've ever produced, Lol.

NanoMango

So November is NanoMango. Today was the first I heard of it too.
It's something someone started on livejournal (unfortunately) as a Comic artists alternative to NanoWriMo.
I've decided that while this is an extremely ambitious goal to have, I'm going to try to make the prequel to Conflagration, Embers, In this time frame. The goal is a page a day of pencilled comics, and with a full time job besides.. I don't know if I can do it, but I'm sure going to try. I'm working on scripting it out right now, and have layout complete before November 1 so that It's a more obtainable goal.
Embers should be at least another comic to have going to sell at conventions and to generate some interest in my biggest awesomest story I have going right now. Unfortunately because I've been working with these characters so long, everyone knows OF it but really nothing about it. So hopefully this will be an asset to my comic pile.
I'm still planning on having Hello, Albertosaurus done by the summer of 2012, then a couple Mini Projects in there as well (2 of them I'm very keen on) then Full production on Conflagration. How cool!

Copic Original for Comics.

Hello,
I have been doing a few black and white comics lately, and something I've come to value in this adventure is my Copic Multiliner SP's! Oh yes! The Multiliners are a godsend. I've sort of tallied up what it would have cost me to buy disposable pens VS Copic multiliner SP's (refillable) and I've saved over 100$ on these 2 wee comics alone!

Something else! I have a couple Copic Original in black that I got in my Comic Inking Pro set a while back, and recently I swapped out my Fine nib on it for the Super fine and it's AMAZING!
This is what it looks like:

"One Day to Live" Comic, in progress! Will be available at Vcon sept 30!

Isn't that a keen nib? I've been adding some line weight and stuff to my inked pages with it! It's awesome because it doesn't get fuzzy like the Fine nibs do, and it is regular copic marker ink. It's like one step up from the .07 size Multiliner which I often crave.

Anyway, Just thought I'd share that with you :D

 (Cross posted from MarkerGuru)

Ghost tales cover- please vote

We've got a public vote going on to decide the cover of ghost tales! Please go look at the entries and vote for the one that most fits the theme!

Participation!

I've decided I like participating in things. I used to be so aloof. Never participated in things, never went to groups or anything but now, I've been going to cloudscape every week, and I've Submitted (and been accepted) to a beastiary with cloudscape too! It's been great fun!
Now I've got to motor on my Ghost Tales submission! AHHH!

Lots of projects

I've been taking on a lot of projects lately. We've been trying to come up with more merchandise for conventions and the shop as well.
I've started an intermitted blog only web comic called bad kitties. No set schedule on that one, its just cute blog content. I've also started a dinosaur calendar that should hopefully be available in september at vcon, but that would be pretty miraculous. If nothing else it will be in the shop.
We've got 3 conventions sceduled and paid for one in august, one in september and one in november. So we're keeping very busy!
Only a few days left to submit to ghost tales and we're still accepting calgary donations!

Help us get to Calgary Expo

We are taking a big leap in our Comic Convention adventures. This time we're diving into Calgary Expo. We've heard great things from other people who've attended the Expo, and we're really excited to take our comics there! By the time the expo is here we should have ghost tales and maybe even Hello Albertosaurus at least available for Pre-order! Excite!

Now there is a small issue of funding. It costs a lot to travel these days. especially by plane and with lots of Luggage. To sell for 3 days, thats a Lot of merchandise. We need 2 plane tickets, hotels, and other costs. We live rather simple lives so we don't need much. Please take a look at our campaign below:

It would be really amazing if you could help us by donating some money, or even just promoting it for us! If you have Twitter, facebook, google+, Tumblr, blogs, or websites or anything (your dA journal for example)! if you could just promote our cause, and get the word out we'd be forever in your debt!

We have a campaign goal we're trying to meet.