Recent Happenings
The art class at the community college is now teaching crosshatching and ink washes. (Plant and bug study ftw.) And, the computer programming class is moving onto memory allocation. The programming projects are getting more and more complicated and I've had no time to play Final Fantasy XI as much as I've wanted to because I use my spare time to draw more now.

Final Fantasy XI
Server: Asura
Name: Guttler
Job: Beastmaster
Blog: [link]

The last thing I was doing was solo leveling 72THF to 75. Not much for linkshell events either, I have had no time to attend. Some funky information from the event moogle.

Chat, 675258
NPC chat, 122040
Party joined, 4604
Alliance joined, 834
Battles, 113195
K.O., 2148
Enemies defeated, 62556
GM calls, 0
Screenshot, [link]

Free Commissions
Why is it for free? Is there a catch? No, there is no catch. I am looking for practice. (Cause I suck at brainstorming what to draw.) The ancient quote, "practice makes perfect." My cost is the extremely long waiting period. I will not draw erotica.

Sketch: 5 days (very rough pencil sketch)
Outline Inked: 7 days (regular ball point pen and pencil markings cleaned)
Traditional color: 12 days (color pencils, ink wash, or water colors)
Digital color: 20 days (colored with photoshop; digital art coloring is not my strength, it is a weakness; thus it will take 20 days and up)

The work time is estimated and can range to even more days pending on my real life work schedule and school. If a more complicated drawing is requested, it may take twice a long. (Though, it would be nice for simple requests only because I'm still a noob.) One more thing, I don't keep track of current anime and games. So, you will need to provide a back, front and side reference picture for me. Send a note if you are interested.

Sharing what I have learned...
About pencils. I use 2H or HB pencils for my sketches. The scale for pencils goes from 9H to 9B, hard lead to soft lead respectively. HB pencils are right in the middle of the scale and are general purpose. So, I like using that for sketches. I don't use soft lead pencils because they are more difficult to erase.
About mechanical pencils. I don't use these anymore. Too expensive to handle and I keep losing them for some reason. Buying lead to refill is also a pain. Sometimes the lead breaks if you press too hard. Though these type of pencils are very nice for small details due to their always sharp tip.
About paper. Rougher paper works better with pencils and color pencils. Smoother paper works better with ink, water colors and markers. Feel the paper surface and you'll know what I mean.
About inks. You don't need to use expensive archival ink, such as Sakura Microns if you are discarding the original paper sketch after scanning it. Regular ballpoint pens (or other cheap ink pens) are usable if you just need a clean outline to scan in for digital coloring. *BUT* If you are looking to make a portfolio with traditional art, only use ink labeled as 'archival ink'. Archival ink is high quality and will not fade or smudge overtime.
About general artwork layouts. Start with general shapes, circles, squares, and triangles. Ask yourself, who, what, when, where, why, and how. Who do you want to draw? Understand anatomy. What are they doing? Understand positioning and more detailed anatomy. When does the scene take place? Understand shadow and lightning. Where do you want to set the scene? Understand landscape. Why are they there? Understand body movement and facial expressions. How do you want the viewer to portray the drawing? Understand dimension and perspective.

[insert stuff here]

The library exists? The library can have cool books? What? Serious?

That needs to be on a t-shirt. I need more custom t-shirts now. NOW. (Dance Dance Revolution inspired t-shirts please.) Speaking of clothing, I put so many soap bars in my drawers that my room smells like fragrant soap. No, I am not addicted to odd smelling things. (Then what's this Sharpie doing here?)

Stop playing FFXI now and finish those damn comic strips you lazy piece of...

**Added about 20+ artwork I had sitting on a backup disc collecting dust. (As you can see the short intervals between their additions, I went nuts.)

So many ideas, so little time. Needs crack (aka milk tea and ddr) for my comic ideas. I'll start working like an energizer bunny! So, the newspaper messed up my paycheck for last quarter. Big deal...BIG DEAL?! Do you know how much crack I could have bought?

Title has nothing to do with this. Started back up comic strips for UCR newspaper because I have more time.