Acquana's Art Thread -- Closed, New Thread Started
- Thread starter Acquana
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Acquana
First Post
Weekly Assignment #4 -- Comic Plans
Animated series? Not that I haven't been asked if cartoons is what I want to do, and earlier in the thread I addressed my then distaste and eventual acceptance of so many saying they see anime when they look at my work ... but honestly, animation would bore the ever loving crap out of me.
I love comic books. In 8th grade I decided what I want to do with my life, and aside from bouts of depression I've stuck with it.
I'm currently trying to make it over a particularly low point ... So forgive me for my absence. And forgive me for not being eager to follow your advice, Rangerwickett, but I know I will try eventually.
To try and help lift my spirits a little, I thought, "hey, why not tell at least someone about the ideas sitting on the backburner?" You guys get it first, so enjoy.
Admittedly not the best image I've ever done of them, but this is the one I'll be preparing years to tell. I owe it to the main character, really. This is Sny, Acquana, and MacKenzie "Muscles" Davis, and they are On the Run.
Sny is the rather rodent-looking one in the front, Acquana (ah, sound familiar?) is the woman, and the very, very large black dude is Muscles. Their story takes place in a vaguely sci-fi setting, in that way that I can't stomach hard sci-fi so I'd certainly never write it ... Sny and Mac are former hitmen/bodyguards from an organized crime ring; when Sny makes a very big mistake, his first impulse is to take his partner Mac with him and run. Their former boss would've preferred to make amends, but Sny simply knows too much about the organization, and dared to steal his boss's "property" (Mac) and thus ends up with organized crime, bounty hunters, and the law against him. Acquana runs into the two mostly by accident, but stays with them. The story is less about guns and tech (which are very cool) and more about three people who have been betrayed and hurt many times in their lives learning to need others again.
It's gonna be a long time before I get to them, because I know I need to be better at what I do to ever do their story justice. Wellstar I've allowed into the inner sanctum of this story, a rare and precious gift on my part, and he'll, when the time comes, be helping me with the tech, ships, and backdrops for On the Run.
Hunter said:
Animated series? Not that I haven't been asked if cartoons is what I want to do, and earlier in the thread I addressed my then distaste and eventual acceptance of so many saying they see anime when they look at my work ... but honestly, animation would bore the ever loving crap out of me.
I love comic books. In 8th grade I decided what I want to do with my life, and aside from bouts of depression I've stuck with it.
I'm currently trying to make it over a particularly low point ... So forgive me for my absence. And forgive me for not being eager to follow your advice, Rangerwickett, but I know I will try eventually.
To try and help lift my spirits a little, I thought, "hey, why not tell at least someone about the ideas sitting on the backburner?" You guys get it first, so enjoy.
Admittedly not the best image I've ever done of them, but this is the one I'll be preparing years to tell. I owe it to the main character, really. This is Sny, Acquana, and MacKenzie "Muscles" Davis, and they are On the Run.
Sny is the rather rodent-looking one in the front, Acquana (ah, sound familiar?) is the woman, and the very, very large black dude is Muscles. Their story takes place in a vaguely sci-fi setting, in that way that I can't stomach hard sci-fi so I'd certainly never write it ... Sny and Mac are former hitmen/bodyguards from an organized crime ring; when Sny makes a very big mistake, his first impulse is to take his partner Mac with him and run. Their former boss would've preferred to make amends, but Sny simply knows too much about the organization, and dared to steal his boss's "property" (Mac) and thus ends up with organized crime, bounty hunters, and the law against him. Acquana runs into the two mostly by accident, but stays with them. The story is less about guns and tech (which are very cool) and more about three people who have been betrayed and hurt many times in their lives learning to need others again.
It's gonna be a long time before I get to them, because I know I need to be better at what I do to ever do their story justice. Wellstar I've allowed into the inner sanctum of this story, a rare and precious gift on my part, and he'll, when the time comes, be helping me with the tech, ships, and backdrops for On the Run.
Hello Acquana! Comics are my main interest in drawing too.
I think your comic idea is great and I will buy your comic when it comes out!
When I work on an independent project the hardest part for me is building the energy to create the many pages needed to complete the first issue. I have found that once I finish one or two pages (even though my story is not completely fleshed out) it gives me the chi (or energy) I need to maintain a work schedule. Even if I get ideas along the road to make changes, a worse case scenario is I have to re-draw some of the earlier pages but by that point the story may be complete by 20 or 30 pages and is no problem for me then.
I know every artist has their own unique method of creating, I just wanted to share with you my thoughts. From one comic artist to another.
Moebius once said that drawing a comic series was like running in a Marathon, and told that he must cross the finish line, again and again.
I am sorry that you are not feeling welll.
Hunter
I think your comic idea is great and I will buy your comic when it comes out!
When I work on an independent project the hardest part for me is building the energy to create the many pages needed to complete the first issue. I have found that once I finish one or two pages (even though my story is not completely fleshed out) it gives me the chi (or energy) I need to maintain a work schedule. Even if I get ideas along the road to make changes, a worse case scenario is I have to re-draw some of the earlier pages but by that point the story may be complete by 20 or 30 pages and is no problem for me then.
I know every artist has their own unique method of creating, I just wanted to share with you my thoughts. From one comic artist to another.
Moebius once said that drawing a comic series was like running in a Marathon, and told that he must cross the finish line, again and again.
I am sorry that you are not feeling welll.
Hunter
Acquana
First Post
05/06 and 07/05
Thanks for kind words, Hunter.
Well ... I have a good idea what would make me feel on track again, but it just ain't happening yet ... And frankly I hate making excuses.
So instead you will have a drawing. This one is more of a seedling of an idea. A place, a character, but not necessarily a story. Reaver is still searching for his story, though so far I've pinned him down as a very interesting character.
The elf on the left is who I'm actually trying to draw, the human beside him is only to show just how freakish elves look in this setting. It came to me in a dream, as did a version of Reaver. Most of the setting is still trying to settle itself into some concrete form, somehow I just have the feeling the story will come when I know more about the setting.
The second one is from a book my boyfriend feels he has some growing up to do before he can tell it (similar to how On the Run is for me). The story is Small Town Hero.
The man on the left is Joe, a bum who travels from town to town. Thing is, he's a former superhero. Seeing that only the big cities have heroes to defend them, he's taken to the road and rights wrongs along the way. Beside him is Rebecca Rush, one of the three who take to Joe's ideals and become friends along the way.
More on that one can be found on this page: http://www.shellcatstudio.com/Publications.html
Hunter said:
Thanks for kind words, Hunter.
Well ... I have a good idea what would make me feel on track again, but it just ain't happening yet ... And frankly I hate making excuses.
So instead you will have a drawing. This one is more of a seedling of an idea. A place, a character, but not necessarily a story. Reaver is still searching for his story, though so far I've pinned him down as a very interesting character.
The elf on the left is who I'm actually trying to draw, the human beside him is only to show just how freakish elves look in this setting. It came to me in a dream, as did a version of Reaver. Most of the setting is still trying to settle itself into some concrete form, somehow I just have the feeling the story will come when I know more about the setting.
The second one is from a book my boyfriend feels he has some growing up to do before he can tell it (similar to how On the Run is for me). The story is Small Town Hero.
The man on the left is Joe, a bum who travels from town to town. Thing is, he's a former superhero. Seeing that only the big cities have heroes to defend them, he's taken to the road and rights wrongs along the way. Beside him is Rebecca Rush, one of the three who take to Joe's ideals and become friends along the way.
More on that one can be found on this page: http://www.shellcatstudio.com/Publications.html
RangerWickett
Legend
Acquana said:
Is that the blue jacket, or the leather one? Or was it snakeskin?
*grin* Jess, get out of your slump. You've got people to please.
Acquana
First Post
05/08 and 09/05
Hey, like I said, I don't mind (and often encourage) requests.
Again I must apologize ... to anyone who reads this thread regularly, my sincerest of apologies. There is no real excuse for my lethargy lately ... though I'm surprised how many consider depression to be an excuse. Well, I've gotten it bad over the last month or so. I've gained 10 pounds, I don't get out of the house much, I sleep too often, I work too rarely ... The webcomic's progress has been at a halt for weeks now ... I just don't know when things are really going to start looking up. I also have been depending on my parents' insurance for any kind of therapy, and the insurance seems desperate to find ways to make sure I don't use it.
All in all ... things are not well. I'm trying to pick myself back up, I'm exercising again, and once Wellstar handed me some inking to get done I'm suddenly drawing again.
To anyone who's been waiting on me for something ... I'm very sorry. I rarely get in slumps like these since starting medication ... but lately things have been so depressing I can't even fight it with the dosage I've got. Thus everything else has fallen behind and Wellstar is trying his hardest to make me feel good so I can get back to work ... It's a slow process and I'm trying.
And I know no one really wants to hear that, so I'll move on.
This is a sketch of the main characters of a story that's been in my mind for a while: DP, Gecko, and Coyote of Bad Shape. It's autobiographical too. I'd be that parrot on the left.
When doing comics about myself, I find it very unnerving to draw myself and those close to me accurately for some reason. So I draw cartoon animals instead. The same theory applies as Maus (if you haven't read it, DO IT NOW DO IT NOW GET IT READ IT WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!). I keep getting people calling this "furry," which it is not. Furries are more human proportioned. The only character who is even slightly furry is Coyote. Mostly because if I didn't give her some kind of figure ... with that short hair she looks like a dude. No real way around it with that one. But anyway, Bad Shape chronicles the misadventures of DP as she falls in love with Gecko. However, DP is betrayed when, as soon as she finds out DP's plan, snatches up Gecko for herself. The story is very real, very true, and I plan to put it on paper someday.
The next one is a different pairing for a different setting. These are two as yet unnamed characters, who have a very simple story of "boy meets girl." Only both happen to be corporate asassins in a cyberpunk setting.
The main point of this story is a love story. A normal relationship that turns out to have a few more eccentricies than either previously thought. The two of them discover their main source of income, and rather than feeling betrayed or threatened, simply see it as another step in their relationship. The violence is a backdrop to the story, and the man is the main character. He finds very little exciting in his work, as exciting as it would seem, and his story becomes much darker later. He eventually becomes a villian for another character in the setting, but today I've decided you all should see him in his youthful days of lust and life.
Wellp, that's all for tonight. In between catching up on comic inking and webcomic, I'll be throwing up more sketches. Please be patient with me.
mandyscog said:
Hey, like I said, I don't mind (and often encourage) requests.
Again I must apologize ... to anyone who reads this thread regularly, my sincerest of apologies. There is no real excuse for my lethargy lately ... though I'm surprised how many consider depression to be an excuse. Well, I've gotten it bad over the last month or so. I've gained 10 pounds, I don't get out of the house much, I sleep too often, I work too rarely ... The webcomic's progress has been at a halt for weeks now ... I just don't know when things are really going to start looking up. I also have been depending on my parents' insurance for any kind of therapy, and the insurance seems desperate to find ways to make sure I don't use it.
All in all ... things are not well. I'm trying to pick myself back up, I'm exercising again, and once Wellstar handed me some inking to get done I'm suddenly drawing again.
To anyone who's been waiting on me for something ... I'm very sorry. I rarely get in slumps like these since starting medication ... but lately things have been so depressing I can't even fight it with the dosage I've got. Thus everything else has fallen behind and Wellstar is trying his hardest to make me feel good so I can get back to work ... It's a slow process and I'm trying.
And I know no one really wants to hear that, so I'll move on.
This is a sketch of the main characters of a story that's been in my mind for a while: DP, Gecko, and Coyote of Bad Shape. It's autobiographical too. I'd be that parrot on the left.
When doing comics about myself, I find it very unnerving to draw myself and those close to me accurately for some reason. So I draw cartoon animals instead. The same theory applies as Maus (if you haven't read it, DO IT NOW DO IT NOW GET IT READ IT WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!). I keep getting people calling this "furry," which it is not. Furries are more human proportioned. The only character who is even slightly furry is Coyote. Mostly because if I didn't give her some kind of figure ... with that short hair she looks like a dude. No real way around it with that one. But anyway, Bad Shape chronicles the misadventures of DP as she falls in love with Gecko. However, DP is betrayed when, as soon as she finds out DP's plan, snatches up Gecko for herself. The story is very real, very true, and I plan to put it on paper someday.
The next one is a different pairing for a different setting. These are two as yet unnamed characters, who have a very simple story of "boy meets girl." Only both happen to be corporate asassins in a cyberpunk setting.
The main point of this story is a love story. A normal relationship that turns out to have a few more eccentricies than either previously thought. The two of them discover their main source of income, and rather than feeling betrayed or threatened, simply see it as another step in their relationship. The violence is a backdrop to the story, and the man is the main character. He finds very little exciting in his work, as exciting as it would seem, and his story becomes much darker later. He eventually becomes a villian for another character in the setting, but today I've decided you all should see him in his youthful days of lust and life.
Wellp, that's all for tonight. In between catching up on comic inking and webcomic, I'll be throwing up more sketches. Please be patient with me.
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Acquana, I really think you should stop feeling obligated to this thread and start viewing it for what it really is: A forum where we lucky few get a chance to see a great artist at work.
When you look upon this thread as an obligation that you are not fulfilling then it probably makes you feel that it is something that you've failed at. And it is the exact opposite of that. You have selflessly shared your art with us for FREE and done REQUESTS at the behest of many people here. For you to feel bad that you're not posting more here is just silly.
Give yourself a break. Let this place be a break from your troubles, not a cause for them.
I very much look forward to whatever you draw next...whenever you darn well feel like it.
P.S. I think you should change the thread title to "The wonderful art of Acquana" or "Drawings at my convenience" or anything but "Drawing a day", which is what set up the sense of obligation in the first place. Think about it.
When you look upon this thread as an obligation that you are not fulfilling then it probably makes you feel that it is something that you've failed at. And it is the exact opposite of that. You have selflessly shared your art with us for FREE and done REQUESTS at the behest of many people here. For you to feel bad that you're not posting more here is just silly.
Give yourself a break. Let this place be a break from your troubles, not a cause for them.
I very much look forward to whatever you draw next...whenever you darn well feel like it.
P.S. I think you should change the thread title to "The wonderful art of Acquana" or "Drawings at my convenience" or anything but "Drawing a day", which is what set up the sense of obligation in the first place. Think about it.
Acquana said:
i was just trying to find family portraits for my noble quarter-dragon evil soceress' family tree (which i obsesivly put together in family tree maker and wanted to print out with pictures next to everyone's name). and she's not a quarter of one dragon, she's an eigth red and a sixteenth each black and white. oh and her father (quarter red, eight each black and white) has two sisters and a brother. so there's a lot of half dragons in there. i pulled the dragons (i put them on there too because they're still alive and there's a chance i might meet them while adventuring) from the MM, and i knew i wouldn't have trouble finding pictures of humans to use for the rest of her family, but i was worried about the half dragons. luckily, the wizard's web site had a whole page of them.
depression is a legitamate excuse. you have it, you should know that one of the symptoms is loss of interest in things you used to love. vent here all you want. i used to do it on another board and i know that even when no one's listening it helped me just to say it. besides, from what i've read, the people here are listening and do care about you. and i guess, despite my resolve not to get that involved in an online community again i do to or i wouldn't bother posting this.
oh, and as to the furry thing... i have a furry friend, and as a consequence, i've seen a lot of furry art. they tend to be more human in proportion but they don't have to be, so it could be considered furry. but so could foghorn leghorn.
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