Doodle 071 - Vampire Kitteh and Necomini Brainwave Ears

You know that feeling in between exhaustion and euphoria? It normally happens to me when my body has been running for so long on little sleep and adrenaline, that I can't quite tell if I am tired anymore or if I just want to go on ahead and stay up until my brain gives and then I can sleep for a couple of days to make up for lost time.

Right now I am nearing that feeling, haven't had much sleep/rest so far this week... sure I probably shouldn't have drunk that one giant pumpkin spice latte... the doctor did say "No caffeine!"... but... but... OK... fiiine, I have no excuses, I was just being bad and now I am paying for it.

Anyway, I managed to be in a good mood anyhow, why you ask? Well, first off, we scored spots to go to the pre-opening of the New Fantasyland expansion at Walt Disney World thanks to my D23 membership (it is an official Disney fan club, yup, I am a Disney geek, I could try and hide it, but... it would be embarrassing to do so, really).

Also, Andrei gifted me these:

Behold! Every other cosplayer and otaku's dream!

I kept looking at them during DragonCon and I guess he got the hint, overall when I kept repeating: "I soooo want a pair!" to what he would reply with an eye roll on time to time, because he is into practical gifts, but after 12 years of marriage he has learned... I am into silly ones, so he humors me.

He ordered them from thinkgeek.com, I love that store and I might just buy every single birthday/Christmas gift my geeky friends get from there... yeah, I love my geeky peeps.

The package got here today and I could hardly wait to get them out of the package:

Easy peasy instructions right on the top as you open the box.

Earsssss!

Ears on the headband.

So, according to the instructions I really didn't read... yup, that's how I roll... two sensors, one on your forehead and other on your earlobe, pick up signals that tell the ears how to behave.

Do they work? Yes, at least on me they do. To do a test run I wore them while playing Skyrim... because apparently that's my other all consuming hobby nowadays, Andrei took video... be warned, it might be overly long, boring and like 98% of the population, we both dislike how our voices sound when recorded, it's all a matter of perception I guess.

Yes, that's the top of my head... you can tell I have played the game a lot since my character kills bosses like it's no big deal.

After all that excitement I managed to come up with a couple of quick doodles:

Halloween Kitteh! - red and mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 7 mins.

Several of my friends have shared a cute (photoshopped) photo of a vampire kitten, so I thought I would draw my own version.

Also, I did a quick gesture drawing, it really has no back story, maybe it is a house keeper going over to see what her neighbor needs across the way:

The Neighbor Calls - red mechanical pencil on plain Moleskine notebook. Aprox 4 mins.

OK, and now I am off to bed.

Doodle 005 - Princess Bubblegum and The Morrow

Since I drew Flame Princess yesterday I ended up making a doodle of Princess Bubblegum today along with her giant bird, The Morrow.

Like most of my doodles this started out accidentally. I start with a couple of lines and just follow them to see where they go. Sometimes I end up with something, other times I just end up with a paper filled with nonsensical chicken scratches, but the way I see it: I have a bunch of paper and I can always just turn it to try again. No big.

Princess Bubblegum and The Morrow - 15 mins mechanical pencil and graphite on plain moleskin notebook

Today I decided to talk about what I use on my day-to-day drawing. Any tool is good really, from rollerball pens to any pencil you can find, but as you practice you might want to experiment with different leads and types of pencils.

Until very recently I didn't have more than some conte crayons, charcoal sticks and a 0.5 HB mechanical pencil. To cheer myself into drawing more I started to research what storyboard artists, character designers and animators liked to use (I follow a bunch on twitter and make a point to read their blogs regularly).

I am not sure who recommended it first, but it was through them that I first heard of JetPens. This online store carries quite an incredible stock of pens, pencils, fountain pens, leads, lead holders and an awesome collection of pencil cases and other totes, bags to carry all your stuff around.

Pretty much all I use every day comes from there, the prices are pretty decent and their shipping is so fast I can't believe they are all the way across the country from me.

My favorite tools at the moment are a Uni-ball Kuru Toga High Grade Auto Lead Rotation Mechanical Pencil, (I actually have 2, one loaded with 2B and other with 4B leads), an E+M Workman Pocket Clutch Lead Holder with 5.5 HB graphite leads and the Cplay Sevenroll Leather Pencil Case.

I use the graphite to quickly figure out shapes, then go back and find details with the mechanical pencil, I use the 4B lead mostly for this.

My drawing hand can't take a lot of work just yet, the softer the lead is the easier it is for me to draw without pain.

The Kuru toga pencil is wonderful, the auto lead rotation really does help. At first I was rather skeptical about it, but after using it mostly on the road to do some quick life-drawing I feel rather sad when I forget it at home.

The e+m lead holder looked chunky, but I gave it a try, I can say it is more comfortable than it looks and the lead leaves nice and light lines on paper that are easy to draw over once I know what I want to keep.

What I use most right now.