He's oursss! - page 7

STGCC

Okay,  I got my pass and the map.

I'll be surrounded by toys (tokidoki mostly).
That is my booth at the STGCC, the one that says NYP in red and blue.

The God of pvc loves me hahaha.
Anyways I will be there saturday and sunday mornings from 9 to 2pm.
Come and visit if you are nearby.

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He's oursss! - page 5

Singaporean readers: I will be at STGCC this coming saturday and sunday.

You can find me at the Nanyang Poly booth in the mornings! So if you would like to have a free drawing of the pirate Balthasar do not hesitate to stop by and say hi! (and ask)

Style n. 5

Thank you all for helping with these.
I have a few more ideas to explore and just to give you a fair warning they will be even weirder.

Some of you requested for more regular proportion. Actually I have a feeling that these drawings seem off because we are used to the regular Castalia and compared with the other style these are less realistic. Ha ha ha Okay, we need to switch mindset a bit... think of this special as if... meant for Cartoon Network instead. Alright... one, two, three... done!

 Truth be told I expressed the wish to do this special using a cartoon style for a reason: I come from the animation industry and at times I seriously miss it (not the stress but the creative process). So when you think of cartoons you have to think about: Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack, Fairly Odd parents - but with a bit of fashion in it (inspired by toy makers or illustrators such as Tim Biskup or even Mike Mitchell).

The reason why I want to move away for just two or three pages is that every now and then I need to move back to concept design and refresh my head. I have been doing the other style for two years and at a very high speed - the speed I use for storyboard. I want to slow down a bit and produce something more on the "production" level.

Realistic is more popular and common in Comics but I do wonder why can't we try a bit of a cross over every now and then? It should be fun! So when it comes to animation proportions must be pushed around because regular proportions are a bit constraining and by most considered... well boring.
So here come the big eyes, the long arms or the long legs (think of Dee dee from Dexter's Lab) or sharper/flat shapes like Samurai Jack.

 The big eyes help expressing emotion, a character with big eyes can express emotions - such as fear or surprise or happiness - in a much stronger and direct way (in case you were wondering why manga/anime characters have big eyes is because, back in the days, Osamu Tezuka was inspired by Disney and Ub Iwerk's works and noticed that characters with wider eyes were more expressive - it evolved from there). The longer limbs allow the character to strike stronger poses in very interesting silhouettes, which helps creating interesting design within the composition of the shot.

In my case would be the panel. This short special will be somewhat about Castalia's being somebody else's nightmare... because she is bad-ass, feisty and a fierce little kitty. She is going to pick a fight with another female warrior and will trash her big time hahaha but it will be in a funny way. I am going to make fun of some famous tropes / some people might hate me for it hahaha... If you noticed, in the regular series when I need to have comical relief I already push the characters into simple super deformed, mostly facial expression driven/featureless creatures. I do it a lot with Cassandra (even within the current special, where she is going shallala mode - and I did it with the episode of her stealing the lemon and then turning into the sleepy head monster).

Some things cannot quite work in realistic style, that's why they need to be simplified and cartoony (you can have squash and stretch and other fundamental principles of animation). If I did the project in the regular style or with character with normal proportions there's a risk that it might be taken seriously, but I want it to be super slapstick and exaggerated instead, something out of a dream / for us / a nightmare for the other female warrior.

So I hope the next style won't freak you out too much. They are not really that freaky when you look at them individually, they only seem weird when compared to the regular style

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Style n. 4

I think this one is more normal, right?
So which one of these do you prefer?

He's oursss! - page 1

Test style n.3

Alright, this is style n.3, what do you think.
This is probably the weirdest style I've come up with.

I am telling this special, will be very short and all but it will also be kinda weird and we need to see Castalia at his worst cat-like behavior... think of her fskkking around and stuff.
It will be super funny too.

He's oursss! - Cover

Hugs - The End

The end.
I hope you enjoyed this story, it wasn't and easy one to tell... particularly because Kane's choice is not the most popular, but at least he is true to himself.

Tomorrow's special is a: what happened that night!

If you ever wondered how delirious Kes and Wes' wedding was... you are about to find out.

Test n.2

Alright guys, this is style n.2
Which one do you prefer the most?

Hugs - page 15

They were six - fan art

I got a new fan art from eliafreak, today. Click here to visit her Deviant Art page and leave her a nice message. This is Cassandra, of course, who else should be doubting the fact that the donuts were six?

Not to mention, if you happen to pass by Deviant Art, that koorihimesama  is still churning plenty of animated gifs (I tried to upload some here but did you notice? I think blogger does not like gifs and breaks them). She has now reached Pifo and Josh. ;D

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Test n. 1

Hi guys, after hugs there will be a 20 pages long special belonging to the series "The balthasar that never was" (yes, I cut out a very long scene).

 After that there will be a bit of a funny story, quite short, but I want to do it in Illustrator so I am looking for a cool style.
 I thought I might let you participate in the creative process.

 This is style n.6 (I have six more to come and yeah, I started from the back LOL). Which one do you like amongst these gals?

Now that I look at it... quite creepy to see all the lined up Castalias! hahahaha

Hugs - page 12

Hugs - page 11

There was an interesting proposal: to draw the cast as animals.
What kind of Animal do you think they are?

Aside from Castalia being a cat... do we want to stay with Cat and Foxy being literally a Cat and a Fox or do you see them as something else?

Hugs - page 10

In chase you missed the message yesterday: In less that in 30 days is "Talk like a pirate day".

We are going to make that day special all over again, so this is the time to request (because it takes me a month to plan it all hahaha)... What would you like to see that I haven't shown you yet? :P

Talk like a pirate day coming soon.

Alright guys, so in less that in 30 days is "Talk like a pirate day". We are going to make that day special all over again, so this is the time to request (because it takes me a month to plan it all hahaha)... What would you like to see that I haven't shown you yet? :P

Hugs - page 9

Happy MidSummer day.

Buon Ferragosto! Happy Mid Summer Day! Have a nice Mid Summer dream... and since today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year, have something hot and cool to keep you company!

This is what the guys will look like two years from now.

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Kane Conturbante

Allow me the play on words, in Italian Con Turbante means with turban and conturbante means sexy XDD

Ahahaha, it's been ages since I last drew an illustration, right? My schedule has become so tight!
I should produce a few more for the other guys too, all with turbans XDD

Hugs - page 4

Hugs - page 3

Callista and Pearl - fan art

There! You have to see this, it's sooo cute.

So eliafreak has produced another one! This is a beautiful drawing of Callista and Pearl.
Please visit eliafreak here and leave a nice comment under her drawing :D

Hugs - page 2

Happy Birthday Singapore. Todays is National day here... so I finally get to rest a bit and draw the whole day to my heart content.

Hugs - Page 1

Special - Hugs - Cover

A new special begins today.
Also yesterday was monday so...
You can read The Flower and The nose here
and the Pirate's wife here

New Fan Graphics

Hi guys, if you are on Deviant Art and are familiar with stamps and in love with animated gif, koorihimesama has started producing her graphics (like I anticipated in a previous post).

She is accepting requests. Here are some of the Cat and Callista gifs she is creating, she also started producing some for Foxy.

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I am back! :D

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Hi guys, look, I was interviewed!

Here

She was so patient with me, I'm such a blabbering person hahaha.
Have a good weekend, mine starts early this week.
I will be away until sunday but you won't miss an update.

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