Kiki figurines

These are actually not fan-made but commissioned. Some girls get new shoes... i get figurines @_@
 And because blogger sucks at the moment and won't let me link the videos...
you have to click the links.

Pumpkin Kiki

Froghat Kiki

I'll update the videos links as soon as blogger accepts the links. Grrr...
Static eye-candy:

You want a figurine of your character as well?
IF you are interested to get a high quality figurine of your original character you might want to consider commissioning Vii as well. She's a great sculptor and showed me inbetween steps and corrected things in a light speed. The price per figurine is *more* than reasonable and I highly recommend her.
Visit VII on her Deviantart page She listed a price chart but it's best to directly note her to get the final price since it can differ a lot depending on details.Did I mention I love what she does? I mean look at the pumpkin one.... I send t-poses and got back that tiny perfect squishy thing. Oh, I'm so in love with it Q_Q

Otherwise I'm still and constantly swamped in work (which is nice...nothing's worse than being unattractive in the market). I had a prototype game play yesterday and my head is still spinning from information overload. I cross my fingers this monster of a project will come out fine. At the moment I'm just scared that thing might blow up right into my face but it's a challenge and I love challenges.

We started our weekly outside swimming session again and since the sun finally pops out inbetween muddy clouds it's nice to get a bit of vitamin D. I missed the sun a lot and I am yearning to be more active outside when you're not freezing your bum off no matter how many layers you wear. I love winter but it stayed long enough this time, don't you think?

I got myself for Christmas....

 ... obviously not Hantje. As always she's in her floaty boat watching lazily as I work... on comic pages. Actually the one you see is a reworked version of "anger a kitteh"... a page hopefully finished tomorrow. I so want to work on a snow page right now.

I got myself a Spyder4 Pro.
This tiny little stinker is essential for calibrating my screens. I have no idea if you ever had the chance to calibrate *your* screens but having a good screen also means you might want to invest in a buddy who helps you to see the actually correct colors. Nobody wants to be shocked in the final print version. Though I have to admit: If the printer messes up you'll end up shocked anyway. But it's a good start and for me essential.
IF you think "Oh shiny... me wants" check the Datacolor hardware. There are different versions of the Spyder. I had a OneEye before which was fine as well.

Tretel normally hogs the heater place. I am amazed he still fits in.

Big things that make life a lot easier....

I am currently inbetween game projects (though I still need to do 40 illustration sketches till January for one) and work (a lot) more on Chubs. The final goal is so damn close I could literally touch it... if I didn't have to paint everything. But... oh well... some pages take longer... some don't.
At them moment I have one of those "1 week for one page" thingies and it keeps unnerving me.

Anyways... when we started a lot of things were unclear. I had a rough plan of the cats' house but the more pages Lew and I did the more complicated it got.
Where's that cupboard? Where's the desk? If I have bird perspective will it look good. Should I zoom in? I had to do a lot of corrections because while drawing I realized the perspective sucked. Or didn't look right.

We decided to use Sketch Up. Lew was so patient and constructed the house up from scratch (isn't she great?!). We based it on the logic of the first comic pages and ended up with a pretty weird house probably nobody would built like that but it's cozy and I'd totally move in (if the kitchen was bigger...). Having a rough construction helps A LOT. If you ever decide to do something longer with a lot of interaction in one place you might be interested in using the (free) Sketch Up as well.

I still have to draw everything (digitally) and add a lot of details but the base is always correct and we can move the angle till the view looks perfect. It won't safe that much time in the beginning but the more I work with those screenshots the more I love it. Sketch Up doesn't love us back and is buggy as hell but that's bearable.

Cute galore!

*click for bigger image*
Next to finishing pages, 2 board games and keeping up with social life (I am still surpirse I keep that one steady... wow) AND normal work I prepared some things for the Animaco in Berlin.
I got my proof prints yesterday and realized these went horribly wrong with a flipped backside. Lew said she wouldn't mind but I mind a lot and less than perfect is not on my Wanted list.

Everything's already in pre-sale since I have no problem with first come, first serve. If I end up having three mugs and only buttons left... oh well, it will be fun anyway.

If you are still looking for cute christmas gifts read the journal entry HERE.

And even more plush stuff!

Owner of the collection is nhalyia and I'm quite envious of her >_< mostly because she has the pencil cases already. Rahh, aren't they cute?
I especially love how the oh noes motive (yes, header of my blog) turned out. and I love froggy o.o

And even more photo galore:

 

 Owener is Gabi and yes, I'm fangirling a lot when I get pics. It's just amazing and I am happy that people actually use the opportunity of the Artofwhere Shop though it's in Montreal but still.. they have the best quality and I'm a sucker when it comes to awesome handmade things.

As always you can find all products here

*groan*

I have to admit... I like medievalsomethinghousenumbertenmillionohthere'sadog-jobs but sometimes I miss my chubs work. I hope I can finish all the missing comic pages for this month next week (brilliant optimism, I has you!) and finish some more medievalsomethinghousenumbertenmillionohthere'sadog things and next to that I finally started working on the 4th calendar. I have no idea when I will finish but I pray I have some a lot time in July/August/September/whatit'salreadyDecemberholysh#+§.

*hint* there's a story...
I dislike how it looks so unfinished but surprise! it IS unfinished and the only person I can blame for it is me, myself and I. I normally try to get the face right and mull over the rest when I have more time (ending up redoing everything anyway). I want to stick to a non so 3dimensional style and include some more funny geeky illustrations this time and hope it works out and people won't freak out when they get weird stuff for their birth month.

At the moment I'm happy I have my moleskine with me most of the time since lately I keep getting tons of ideas (obviously always the case when you can't work on them....) and have to scribble those down with additional notes. Totally not worth uploading but good to keep them for more than 3 nano seconds.

Farewell, I have to finish a bit more of medievalsomethinghousenumbertenmillionohthere'sadog. Buh. I still love the job. I tell myself so.

New Stuff!

Actually only one photo (thanks to the very lovely Stumdaemonin on Deviantart)

How freakin cute is that?! The motive fits so perfectly on the pillow case I can't believe it! I know I shouldn't freak out over one of my own motives but it's just so cool seeing those as actual products and huggable fluffy pillows. *can't get over it*
There are tons of new things in my ArtofWhere-shop which you can find here:
Follow the chubby panda

As always: If you have any questions regarding shipping yaddayadda use the help form on the page. Kate and Joey who run the show can help you if you take your time to ask them and they are nice and won't bite. :3

I started skating again after a decade of absence (yes... TEN years... how could I?!) and it felt so good. I used to skate 3-4 hours in a row and now getting back into it feels like coming home and totally new at the same time. In ten years so many things changed and I'm a tad more scared to break any body parts I might need for work (like arms, head and neck... who cares for legs).
Berlin has some pretty neat routes for bikers and skaters only and all the 6km+ will be mine O_O

If you have the option to get outside and stretch those stiff necks after a long day at the drawing table: do it.
Trust me, working all day and not doing anything for your muscles won't do anything good. I know what I'm talking about =.=

Lion Kiki Steps

and because I already uploaded it and it's no magic at all, just a very good brush

(click on the image to get redirected to the ... huge download >_< )

Basic steps as always:
sketch
flats (thankfully done by Lew)
painting
painting²
painting³
more painting
adding a background color
done

It's really no magic at all and the brush won't do the strokes for you. In the end you have to be patient and play a bit with the brush opacity and flow.

Random cutie Han pic

Lew complained I don't blog often enough... maybe a cute snap-shot of Hantje justifies it. I've been @ home this week- working quite frantically on comic pages, cover sketches, corrections (I feel really dumb when it comes to mirror and reflection... theory and practice have never been more.... miles away from each other) and dealing with a sick bf.
I wanted to work on several things additionally but I was so tired I mostly just ended up napping on the couch whenever my mentally wake presence was not needed. It was so good and I really needed it.

I try to blog more often in the future if anything interesting pops up. At the moment I'm a bit wrapped up in the odds of life and getting the last big bunch of comic pages done aaaand a board-game finally rollin' into conception phase.

Zebra-Schwein got pre-nominated for the Graf Ludo 2012 and in 2 weeks the winner of the Origins Awards will be annouced. I don't really try to hope but it's good to see things get recognized. Actually it's pretty lame not to scream hurray but last year kind of sobered me up. ;)

Color and Fails...

I actually didn't really have any time to blog and dang, I thought I'd still have more of the fails on my computer but no... deleted in shame ;)

Anyways, this was one of the comic color schemes I got mad over. I wanted to achieve a warm summer evening scheme with a darker setting but everything I tried just looked muddy or too dark.
The problem with sunsets is that of course gras doesn't really look green anymore and all colors fade over to the yellowish-brown-muddy-something range.
But the real problem is: It just looks shitty.
I have no idea how Kazuo Oga manages to get those moods done but I decided to go the unrealistic but more appealing way. Sometimes you have to tweak it and god knows I wouldn't have liked a mud page. :/
The whole problem took 3 months to solve. Sometimes it's really the best to put the page away and start mulling over the problem again if you feel you finally have the nerves to work on it again.
But so much for realistic nature... no idea if it would have done any good to test out another scheme.

I wanted to write something about another more delicate topic but still after some weeks I can't figure out how to wrap it up, so just enjoy the weather (hopefully awesome) and have a wonderful week.

So fluffy!

That one was actually my sample print from ArtofWhere.com and no, it's not available (at the moment) but you can leave a comment with lotsa oh and ah and love and meanwhile I try to convince my editor ;(
The pillow size is 40x40 cm.

Origins!

Matt send me a note that "Space Mission" got nominated for the 38th Annual Origins Award in the US. Yay!
I have no idea if we have a chance but I cross my fingers. >_<

... that would be the reaction of my parents...

Furthermore German readers can peek at Zebra-Schwein here. They wrote a very detailled review with some pictures of the actual game. I got mine last week but haven't had any time to take pictures. Duh....

And because it's so fluffy I wanna die:
Pillow covers for everybody
Joey and Kate make custom pillow covers that are so soft you wanna huggle those forever. You can get my moon bun, maneki and some other motives there but I'd like you to check the shop generally since the quality is simply awesome and the team so freaking nice.

Oh yes. And I'm half the way through my comic pages. Hurray =.=;..... sloth me is slow.

Oh Hai!

hehe... :D

Trees in Panels

... can be total sucker...

 The actual size of the panel.... because honestly.. every tried to add details to the a stamp size? O_o I failed which meant working with 600 dpi was a good decision.

 sketch and ... flats done by Lew... and a long road to go...

 Adding the leaves, erasing a lot and adding branches because it looked unbalanced. Adding things and erasing things happens all the time. I made the sketch (I think) 7 months ago??? Some months later you pretty much feel a lot wise ;)

 Depening the texture of the branch without going too much into hardcore realism because that's what I 100%ly don't want to achieve (and never will).

 Adding a bit of light....

... and correcting the contrast and bluring out the end of every branch because it looks too hard otherwise.

Still need to do the background, foreground, birds, details and the... whole rest of the page but that's pretty much it.
The leaves are 2 custom brushes and before you ask for those: Create some yourself, it's much better if you know how your tools react and why they actually react like that. I am still updating and cleaning my own set and it's worth the time you invest.

Winter Pong

I'm a sucker for interactive stuff. And I'd really like to animate around and do this and that and make a Kiki LWP but no time right now =.= Still it's on my agenda and I reallly want to have a cat live wallpaer that makes you ogle the screen for hours and get that high on rainbows cross-eyed face people normally get when they look at cute baby cat photos... or maybe it's just me getting that expression.

the problem with cats and Christmas

Clearly Christmas is totally cool for cats. At least when it comes to decoration and paper wrapping. Tretel decided to chew on our chain of lights last year (when it was ON) and Hantje loves paper wrappings. Most interesting part might be half packed gifts... you have no idea how fast they can undo the whole work.

A shame we love our cats anyway.... ;) I guess we'll buy paper and stuff twice this year.

Space Mission promo poster & Calendars

A1 huge and the quality came out perfect.... Those will be given out at the game fair in Essen in October. Whoot!

And because I just got my calendars from Deviantart...

Grass... again

... and I never get tired of it.
I'm still cleaning up my brush presets- throwing out a lot of things I got from other people or found on the net. Probably 95% of those brushes aren't really useful.
Normally I use the one I already >blogged about< and it's still the most useful although it looks so plain. With nature it gets a bit more tricky. Of course it looks awesome to paint every single blade of grass but mostly you'll end up needing ages to do that.
Since I colorate my comic panels 100%ly and the backgrounds NEED a lot of work I redo my preset-list and try to create grass, flowers (those above are self-made as well) and mostly leaves for bushes or trees.

Since some people seem to be eager but have no clue how to do it... (and you SHOULD do it):
This video explains it pretty well

Keep watching it till the video end. The last part is the most important part of the whole process. Defining the brush presets will take a while and you have to test a lot but it's worth the work! :)

And because it's pretty interesting and I just got it: If you happen to have the awesome artbook of "Open Season" check the background paintings again. There's one page showing some custom brushes they actually used and it's interesting to see how those simple brushes work together and how amazing the final result looks.

Chubbanimals Calendar 3

The third calendar is finally done and available and can be purchased >HERE<
It's A4 landscape (A3 on the wall, upper part illustration, lower part the actual calendar.

How the print quality looks like can be seen here: http://trenchmaker.blogspot.com/2009/01/snow-queen.html
It's semi-gloss and very smooth and I like how the colors come out on the Deviantart calendars. Definitely worth the shipping costs since most stores tend to have a problem with violet-blue shades.

Christmas -whoot

Short gif animation of the last illustration for my calendar.
Not as fancy as I wanted it to be but I like it anyway and it looks nice in a quite bigger version. Funny (and really annoying) is that the colors are massively changed in the screenshot mode and the final image looks radioactive in the gif version. It's actually something inbetween both color saturations you see.

If anybody knows a solution for the screenshot problem let me know. >_<