Ancient art dump from my younger years....

 From the dusty piles of boxes full of dusty old artwork I bring you...

...a bad drawing of a cat person from almost ten years ago?

So yeah, old as dirt surviving artwork showing off my tween's knowledge of anatomy, style, composition, and what not.  But the art gets better, I swear, my most recent posts are proof!

Oh...why did I choose to shove my characters to one side of the page?!

For some odd reason, he's still my favorite character.

This is what Vistalgia's forerunners looked like.

Anatomy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So many errors still!

Anatomy still!!!!!!!!!!!!

Later, I learned how to ink my characters and they have slightly better anatomy.

Old Character with a tragic back story...

I love bugs, mostly praying mantises. Her concept is based of them.

Before Vistalgia there was Gothica.

Isn't the coloring great in this picture?

What about this one?

Why I keep adding wings to every thing?

Anatomy!!!!!

He's angry about the way I drew him. Deal it, tigerman.

Later still, I started working with color pencils. And I got better. (2005-2007)

Vistalgia's design inspired by the (fail) movie, Eragon. The only thing I liked about that movie was

Saphira's design...everything else was fail.

Vistalgia's character design development.

This was what I thought that dragons in heaven looked like. (I'm glad I changed the design to something else)

Remember Drew, this is more tragic brother with a even more tragic back story. Oh, furry angst.

Some alien cat thing with a unpronounceable name.

Another cat alien thing.

 More recent stuff. (2008-2009)

From my creature hand-sketch-book.

Better color pencil coloring.

Beautiful blue bird.

Phoenix character for a story.

Based off of snails.

Vistalgia again.

More focused on still life during this time.

My hand was sore after I finished this.

Still life was boring....so I went surreal.

So there you go, I learned from my mistakes, studied life, imagined stuff, and looked back on how far I come from this:

......

 To this:

Still having trouble with anatomy but I got better in this one. 

What inspired this post: Boxed Artwork comic by Andrew Dobson

Goblins Galore

Been drawing goblins all week. I'm experimenting on exaggerating the nose, mouth, ears, and facial hair on these guys. Some came out pretty cool looking...

Here I'm playing around with their faces, mostly with their noses. I like the mean-looking one.

(old picture) A she-goblin with an insane curly hairdo.

I really like this guy. He looks sweet and kind. A possible character in the future?!

Another one I like.  Looks like a risk-taker.

Female goblin anatomy. One big toe for feet, thick tails, and hair everywhere.

I like the nose and ears on this one.

Another she-goblin with a long chin and short hair. And kick-tail attitude.

Update schedule change

During this past week, I found that updating this blog every day was very challenging.  I found it difficult to plan new posts because I have to edit my pictures and, hopefully, upload them without the blogger picture upload acting up. That and I'm sick of updating late every night. (I missed Friday and Saturday because I was very tired of the picture upload.)

Updates will return to their normal schedule this week, Fridays and Saturdays.

And a random she-sphinx for you.

One more thing: Japan is seriously going to need all the aid and support they need to overcome this earthquake disaster. So, I encourage you, my readers, go out and donate canned foods, money, do whatever you can to help. Get the word out! Post on your blogs, talk to your friends and family, volunteer a group, pray to God, do what you can do to help these people!

Some Very Good news!

I went on a very nice tour at SCAD (Savanna School of Art and Design) in Atlanta, Georgia.  I had their tours before, my first was five years ago when they first moved into Atlanta and another two or three years later.

So much had changed since then. SCAD now have a few buildings dedicated to certain majors: one for animation, video recording, and television communications, another for sculpture arts, and more. Back then, they only had their main campus building. All their buildings, except for sculpture building, were originally owned by other companies.

Also, SCAD students are really stepping up their game. Their art is phenomenal. A combination of artistic talent, developed skills, and a strong determination is very obvious in the artwork they create. Not only that, this is also like a competition, your going up against hundreds of artists, each one with a unqiue style, imagination, intelligentance, and wit, and almost all studio, film, animation, and communications
 companies are looking for that one artist that stands out of that crowd.

SCAD  makes me feel at home, a place full of color, artistic passion, and spontanious creativity.  A school that not only teach you art, but it push you to create art. Make something, do something, draw, dance, sing, color, create. It naggs when you first enter the building and it continoues to nagg when you leave for home.

Thank you, SCAD, for accepting me into your school.
And thank you God, for giving me the artist's bug and for my crazy imagination.

Blogger, Nooo!.....and some old written works.

I'm having some technical difficulties involving the picture upload on blogger. So this means no sketches for Wednesday. Instead, I'll entertain you with some (possibly bad) old written works of mine.

Thoughts on Johnovia is a series of short stories and letters written last year when I first thought of making a comic based on my imagination.  They were meant to help me develop the world of Johnovia and its characters.  Any idea that popped up during the time I wrote this was jotted down without a second thought, so be prepared, the grammar and pacing is a little weird in this narrative:

Thoughts on Johnovia^©

Ideas by Amari Harkness

Onundav, 3^rd , 5009

            Journal of Krillvony…

            So, here I am, looking over the lands that once were a great mighty planet kingdom…or pieces of it. Hey, all the other kingdoms and realms would be so jealous of her blessings: the abundance of forests and creatures, the clear light purple sky and blue clouds, perfect weather year round, and so much land and water. Now, Johnovia is just a tragic victim of a Dilyefilla gone astray from its distant home, the Outer Walls.

There is only one muliverse, an enormous universe with many little universes inside of it, in existence. Our muliverse, Engu. Surrounding Engu, there is Chaos, or the Johnovians call their creator god, AllTime. Keeping Engu safe from the randomness and the chaotic nature of AllTime is the Outer Walls. Within the Outer Walls is the Inner Walls. Within the Inner Walls are universes, realms, and worlds; the Inner Walls keeps them safe from the Outer Walls' vacuum… normally.

The people of Johnovia didn't know about the Dilyefilla, the Inner or Outer Walls. They didn't know that once every hundred years or so Dilyefilli, fragments of AllTime's power or pure chaotic matter, would break out from the Outer Walls and into the Inner Walls of time and space. And from there, one or two or maybe even twenty Dilyefilli passes by their opposites, the Illifeylid, and make their way into the universes in the Inner Walls. One just happens to hit Johnovia's universe. This sort of event is completely unpredictable, even the priests of AllTime wouldn't see it coming. Johnovia didn't see it coming.

What are even more unpredictable are the effects of the impact or the entry of a Dilyefilla. Anything can happen when it made close enough to a universe, from changing the universe's natural laws to transforming the organic inhabitants into solid metal or liquid. Sometimes if two Dilyefilli hit a universe simultaneously, they turn it inside out, hurling any living and nonliving thing in to the mercy of the Illifeylid of the Inner Walls. In Johnovia's case, the Dilyefilla entered the universe without doing anything harmful at all until it hits a planet or a star.

Johnovia was so lucky that AllTime made it a utopian planet that lasted for billions and millions of years, yet so unlucky to be in the path of the most random and destructive force in the entire Engu… it makes me wonder, why? The Johnovians had great faith in AllTime, they conquered planets and realms in his name, discovered new technologies and cures, built an empire spading several hundred dimensions, and they gave all the credit to Him. But, why did AllTime allow the destruction of Johnovia?

Sigh, maybe He got tired of them or left them. Or He stayed and watched them suffer.

…

Or maybe He gave them a challenge, a challenge that if they make out of this alive…maybe if they are still alive…or even still exist…

I-I don't know. Silly idea. There is no way they're still alive. Then again, I might be wrong…

END
........

This short story was for an assignment for a British literature class in high school...I really don't know what it has to do with British literature but it's about my characters in Johnovia. Once agian, beware of weird writting:

Ashan, my Guardian

I was sleeping, turning, trying to find a soft spot, sleeping, turning again, searching again, sleeping again, and then I turned…..again. I heard a sigh and I pushed back the soft green and white covers from my face. There he is, standing in the middle of my messy room with his large gold and silver wings folded and his twitching tail behind him. Angelian, he is, part human and part angel born in Dimension 444.23pi42 (Dimensionnos Drajazra). He was raised by Archangel Gabriel in my universe, according to my imagination. He wore a long white robe with silver angelic symbol on the sleeves, brown ancient sandals, and with a great blue and silver sword by his left side. He looks elfish with his long oval face, pointed ears, and golden hair growing past his shoulders and-

            “Legacy, why are you staring at me?” said the Angelian as he turns to face me, smiled, and put his hands around his face.

            He interrupted my thoughts.

            “You like my golden hair and long oval face?”

            “Stop reading my mind, Ashan!” I scream in my thoughts, “I’m sorry, but it’s annoying when you do that!”

“It’s annoying when you stare at me.” He said as he sat on an old chair facing me, “Why can’t you wait ‘til morning to observe me while I am at the Cathedral.”

            One of my alternate selves in my imagination, the Cathedral, is the secondary life source of all the imaginary creatures of my mind; by theory, if I go, she stays. The Cathedral is a large multi-dimensional marble tower that is a place of worship to our God and King, a theater and a concert hall, and a city-in-a-building. She continuously grows from Johnovia, my world/universe, to space and to a bunch of other places I wish I can name but I can’t because certain parts of my mind are undiscovered.

            “What is she up to now?” I asked as I sat up in my bed, tired and groggy. The Cathedral has a mind of her own and can cause much trouble and chaos if Ashan of I don’t keep watch over her. She loves to mess with people’s minds and lives. Like a few months ago, four or six human troops came out of a star portal the Cathedral created. She let them wonder around in her chambers a bit, then, just when the humans thought it was safe, she ‘pretended’ to crush them, cave in on them, and destroys the star portal. Fortunately, Ashan was patrolling in the Cathedral and heard the panicky screams from the humans. To make a long story short, he was able to save them and I sent them back home.

            “Well, it’s not the star portal thing, again.” Ashan said; he was reading my mind again. “It’s our sons. They asked her to create a separate enchanted forest haven for a family of European Unicorns so they won't live in fear of the centaurs of the Vadrodrean kingdom. The Cathedral won’t obey them. She said ‘They be young to order me around’.”

            “WHAT!” I scream in my mind again. As I repeated the word over and over again, my messy room stretched and whirled and grew dark and gray. The walls became stone and my bed became a nest of dead tree branches, giant leaves, and with small pieces of shiny objects in between. The green carpet transformed into a sea of small pebbles. My dresser, TV, DirecTV, PS2, mirror, and all the things of my normal human life disappeared and in their place were slabs of stone and marble. My messy room transformed into a cave.

I, too, also changed. My neck grew long and thick and my hair morphed into giant heavy purple scales. My face grew long and I grew four horns on my nose. My arms and legs stretched and become covered with dark blue scales. My hands and feet became talons with great hard nails. I grew light blue horns, black spikes, purple feathered wings, and a long brown tail with feathers at the end.

 In my world, I am a Great Horned Dragon, a beautiful bronze and metallic purple creature designed for speed on land and in air, telepathic communication, space, time, and dimensional travel, and an eye for art. An amazing creature I would be, except for my temper.

Anger drove me into a mad dash to the Cathedral. Furious, I jumped out of my cave and I flew as fast as I could, tearing every bird or other flying creature in my path. Now you’ve done it, Cathedral!! Nobody disobeys the Guardian’s family, I thought in my fuming mind, NOBODY, NOT EVEN THE CATHEDRAL!! Suddenly, I stopped. I hung there in the air and thought, what in the Davy Jone’s Locker am I doing? What have I become? I can’t be like this with murderous rage……

Legacy……

It be a voice?

Legacy……

It is a voice.

Legacy……it’s me, Ashan……

And it’s coming from my back.

It’s ok……don’t let the anger control you……

I forgot that he be a rider, a dragon rider.

Legacy……Land

I landed in a field of Mallengrol, pretty flowers with nine white petals and nine green leaves. They smell like cinnamon and apples. They taste like cinnamon apple pie. After I landed, I made a heavy dragon sigh and I lay down on the flowers. I stretched out my wings by my side. I felt Ashan descend from my back. When he came to face me, his hair was a mess, his robe was torn one side, and he was missing his sword. I made another sigh and said “I’m sorry, Ashan.”

He just looked at me and said nothing.

“I don’t know what came over me.” I continued.

Then Ashan turned away and I saw his wings covered in twigs, dirt, and pebbles. I think he tried to stop me from going, but only get dragged out of the cave and crashed against some trees. He turned around again, walked towards me, and he put his hand on my cheek and smiled. Then he hugged my neck, or at least tried to, since my dragon neck was so thick and scaly.

“It’s ok.” He said calmly. “It’s ok, Legacy, I forgive you. It will take more than a crash course to kill me and I love you too much to be angry at you.”

I was confused and said “But the murderous rage and the screaming and the-”

“No, no, I’m not worried about that.” He said. “I love you too much.”

“Love,” I said, understanding. “Even when I had done this to you, you still love me.”

I turn back into my human form and I hugged Ashan. . What a loving and caring Angelian! He still loves me in spite of what had happened. The dirt on his robe rubbed onto my clothes but I didn’t mind, love is more important.

“Let us go to the Cathedral together.” said Ashan.

“And give her a piece of our mind?” I said.

“Yeah, that too.” He said.

END

Works in progress and other stuff...

I'm working on a DeviantArt ID picture:
It's a self-portrait in color pencil of myself and my mildly crazy imagination!  Blue is my favorite color, there's Vistalgia on my left shoulder and the unnamed dragon on my right, my pet cat is eating my hair, weird frog-like creatures are coming out of my hair, and Jesus (that little mouse-looking thing) is sleeping in my hair...

I'm also working on a banner for my blog. I have two sketches, one a self-portrait and another of Vistalgia.

This one will be done in Photoshop or traditionally in color pencils. Characters in this one: my pet cat, my grinning cat ego, Jesus (the lion thing in the back), and...I don't know about the bug-eyed alien thing.

Here's Vistalgia in all her fierce dragonness  beauty. I had trouble on the feathers and scales on her tail; I want them to be stiff and stand out, not limp and weak.

And I have a new idea of a dimensional being (not a zombie)

It's supposed to be an energy based being with partially translucent skin where you can see bones or muscles. This being also have large feathered wings, so it's a zombie angel angel like being.

And I forgot to add this in my last post. It's the unnamed dragon under Vistalgia's picture, this is his second concept drawing.

Character design and Development

Many years ago, my imagination was bursting with creature of all forms, people from unknown cultures, and lands filled with an abundance of life and freedom.  This was a world filled where adventure was at every corner, lost ancient ruins dotted the land, and kingdoms and grand cities rise over the canopies of the untamed majesty of the great forests.  Civilizations on different planets and in different dimensions stayed in contact though magic and science.  I, traveler and Guardian Legacy, had traveled these amazing places and discovered an entire beautiful and glorious world of...Johnovia.

I made stories in this "Johnovia" about world travelers, adventures, wizards of magic and science, masters of time and space, and God, the universe's greatest engineer.  A million chactacters and creatures populated the world of Johnovia and I followed every signal adventure they get themselves into.  My character was a famous ruler and explorer of this world; her fame had inspired many people to become world travelers.  She touched the most distant of stars and planets and explored the most powerful of kingdoms.

Legacy was not alone in her journeys, she had friends and families to aid her in difficult situations such as wars, natural disasters, and terrible enemies who sought to bring down the peaceful and chaotic world of Johnovia.  Her friends and families came from distant worlds that were also full of amazing things.  Things like flying airships in the shape of living dragons, vast underground cities, clockwork angels and steam-powered robots, talking mailboxes, and flat planets. 

I still have this imagination of Johnovia and all of its amazing majestic beauty and power, but now it's more mature in its form, story, and originality.  This year I’m working on a real story in comic form based on the same ideas I had when I was younger.  I’m delving deeper into the unknown reaches of my imagination and rediscovering my childhood dreams to build a world for world travels and adventurers.

To put it simply, this story is set in worlds within a world within a world, a Multi-Verse, one of the rare dimensional anomalies existing in a never-ending energy ocean of Existence-Itself.  The story is called The MULT in bold golden letters with a mysterious faded background of the face of God.  This will be a long tale of adventure, power, faith, imagination, good and evil, order and chaos, and possible and the impossible.

It might take me a year or more to get this together.  It will take guts, my artistic skills, my imagination, and help from my friends and family to take on this task to create the most original and amazing concept the world has ever seen.

Anyway, after all that epic writing, here’s what I have so far:

Some concept art…

World Traveler Briell Fetcher/Vistalgia, the main character of my comic.  She is a shapesifter who is both human and dragon, this is her in her human form (World Traveler Briell Fetcher). She's a black female character with a careful and timid personality. She perfers reason and critical thinking to blind random destructiveness.

Experiment with Briell's hair and head shape.

Taking on the 25 expressions challenge by napalmnacey  in these two pictures. Only twelve expressions to go!

Briell Fetcher/Vistalgia in her dragon form (Vistalgia). Vistalgia is a beautiful dragon with a violent and reckless personality

A male shapeshifter character who's a friend of Briell Fetcher/Vistalgia. This is his dragon form. And if your wondering, yes these shapeshifter characters have two personalities, but they live within one body; I'll explain later what they are.  Also, not all of them are dragons.

A male alien (not a an elf). I do not know what his role is yet.