I don't remember where I saw this but it has got to be the best thing EVER!!
In regards to Sephiroth and his sword: "It's not overcompensation, it's advertisement."

So, just thought I'd let yawl know that I'm currently deciding on the pose and reference shots for the next picture . . . Cloud. I'm torn on what sort of pose to give him as I try to link up the poses with something I see in the character. Seeing that Cloud is a pouty emo boy, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do.
I'm also considering a redo on Zack, I think I could do better.
The other ones I'm considering for the upcoming few are Reno and Rude (haven't decided if I'll do them in the same picture or seperately), and Rufus. I have an inspiration for Cid but I'm not sure when I'll do him. He definatley won't turn out to look like the gaunt, crack head hillbilly he looked like in Advent Children.
Forgotten from the list was Reeve . . . not sure if I'll do him yet.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone as I reach 100 watchers!

Much love!

Shonna

I only draw Sephiroth when I'm really inspired. This comes from my uber geekdom about him and having to have my drawings do him justice. Right now I'm VERY happy with the picture and am excited about posting it. The only thing standing in my way is finding appropriate hand references.

I used to be really good at doing hands by memory but all in all I haven't done a lot of work on hands recently and am losing my touch. That kinda sucks because I used to do really really good hands. There was a time where I drew better hands than faces!

On a different note, I'm completely stumped about something. Over the last 3 days I've had a SHIT LOAD of people favoriting Sephiroth - Collection 1; my original Sephiroth pic. Its out of no where. I have no idea why, but if its because of someone, I'd like to thank them. When this happened with Zack Fair - At Long Last, it's (I'm assuming) because the picture showed up on page 3 of the Google search of Zack Fair.

Stumped I tell you!

I'm drawing all the FF7 men in with the same lighting direction and to keep in mind one thing...when the whole series is completed they are going to be put together in one master compilation peice. This will have a significant amount clean up done to them while maintaining the original look and feel.

Featured will be:

Sephiroth (completed)
Vincent(completed)
Tseng (completed)
Barrett(completed)
Zack (new Zack picture will be done for this)
Cloud
Cid
Rufus
Yazoo
Loz
Kadaj
Reno
Rude
Genesis
Angeal
Lazard
(No...Hojo is NOT making it in.)

I don't think I'm missing anyone but please let me know if I am and I'll decide whether or not they're going to make it in.

I began work on the next Final Fantasy 7 picture which will be done the same spirit as the Sephiroth and Zack pictures. I picked the hardest one I could think of to do first; Barrett Wallace.

I've completed the body and have to work on the gun arm and the face, which I've erased probably 5 times already for various reasons.
He's really hard! I say that for a host of reasons:

1. He always looks so pissed off, or like he's going to pound on someone. So all the references I have of him he's got cranky face on. Stripping that away and maintaining his look has proved to be difficult.
2. He's doesn't have the typical look which I'm used to drawing.
3. His features are harsh. Broad chin, charp cheek bones...
4. I'll admit, I've rarely drawn black guys and he's an asian/black combination it seems (based on the eyes). The features are a stretch for me. The nose was hard at first but then I redrew is so often that it doesn't look so strange to me anymore. Its the boxy shape of his face which is getting me.
5. He's a big guy. Seriously, he's overly muscled. I've tweaked the other guy's body shapes a little so I've messed with his...just a bit.
6. He has a freaking mechanical hand!
7. I'm trying not to give him the gangsta look he seems to have.
8. A lot of the reference shots I'm using have him with rotating features! Seriously! In some his eyes are small, in others they're large. His tattoo seems to float around his arm and change size. In some shots it takes up his whole upper arm, in others its just up on his shoulder!

Anyway, so the body is done and there's only a few things left to do (yes I'll draw the body before the head. I know that seems a little ass backwards but its what works for me. I also draw the features first before the face shape...I'm crazy that way. Its not how I learned but I find I get the face shape more accurate to what I want and get it to match up with the features easier that way.)

I'm not sure who is coming after this one but this is the list:

Cid
Vincent
Cloud
Reno
Rude
Rufus
Genesis
Angeal
Kadaj
Yazoo
Loz
Tseng (added thanks to *RavynneNevyrmore )
.
.
.
Dante
Squall
Tidus

Its an ambitious list and I may add some others on there as I progress. Let me know if you think someone needs to be added to this. THEY NEEDN'T BE FINAL FANTASY RELATED.

I'll consider any character suggested (males only, not too interested in doing females right now).

First off I want to say WTF? Apparently my You'll Thank Me Later picture made someone mad?!?!? What's with that?

Anyway, I've line up a couple things I want to sketch out in the next little while, child permitting. (Colicky babies are fun!)
Not in order, I'm looking at doing pin up styles of all the FFVII men as a series (at least the original men) and possibly a few from other FF. I'm also thinking of doing one of Dante, I just don't know which version of Dante I want to use.

So I finally have a new scanner. sort of new. New to me. I mentioned to my sister in law that I had to pick up a new scanner and she just happened to have one laying around that she never used, so she gave me her scanner!
Woot!
That being said, I haven't done much and might not do much in the next little while as I said. I need to finish the rough draft of the commission and then work on that, but I'm not certain when I'm going to get much in the mood.
Reason for this is some rough news I've recently gotten which has pretty much sapped the passion and motivation right out of me.
Generally speaking, I went in to get something checked and while that turned out to be nothing they did find something more serious going on. My pregnancy is fine though I'm now in the high risk category. After the pregnancy is when I get to find out if I have to have heart surgery.
I'm not dying but if I plan to stay that way it MAY involve surgery. How serious this is however, is a mystery until I've had the baby and the can look into it properly. In the meantime however they aren't concerned that this is going to get too bad, but I'm being monitored soon to be fairly closely to make sure that doesn't change.
So as you can imagine, that is doing a number on me mentally.
Normally, it would be hard to deal with but I'm also horomonal right now.
So while I have no intention on quitting, I have a LOT of crap going on in my life right now.
Still, I have a scanner and hopefully I'll have some stuff to put up in the next little while because I have done SOME stuff recently.

Actually am doing a commission! A colour one so it'll be a bit.
No details on it though, sorry.
It will be posted but with a heavy watermark probably and only after the client has had it for a while.
I'm also getting a new scanner this week. Two are somewhat related.

Having a bad time with technology lately though. First the scanner went, then the computer, now my camera...WTF????

Not sure how much drawing I'm going to get done in the next while other than stuff which is paid, sorry. We'll see how it goes. Working full time, having a husband and a five year old, being 5 1/2 months pregnant and sleepy all the time and writing a book are cutting into my drawing time.

Anyway, speaking of sleepy, I have to go to bed.

So I haven't been drawing much since my scanner went kaput but I've decided that when I get my tax return I'm off to but a scanner.
Which means I need to draw something to put up other than my Fourth Edition D&D Teifling character.

So you'll start seeing things from me again once my tax return comes in! (and once I find my photoshop cd)

In other news, I need that CD because I'm now on a new (to me) computer. Its a friend's who decided to buy something better and gave us his old one. Either way, it apparently kicks butt on my frankenstiened peice of crap which once had been top of the line until the video card killed everything with it's heat ray.

I'm hoping this will mean that things will work faster on Photoshop.

I guess we'll see!

SO just as I thought I'd be able to get more productive with the morning sickness going down, I can't...sigh.
See, first trimester was fine, I was nauseaus but didn't hurl, now I"m not so nauseaus but am hurling now that I'm second trimester and its supposed to go away. I'm an odd one.

As is I get very very detailed, epic dreams. I love my dreams especially since it seems I dream in a lot more detail and remember a lot more than most people. I ama lucid dreamer, although, lucidity only happens when you're brain ALLOWS you to control your dreams. Typically I realize I'm in a dream, then I can manipulate it however I want, typically.

So lately I've also been really drained because really horrible, epic style nightmares have started.

You see, me and pregnancy don't get along. I didn't get along with pregnancy on my first kid and I'm deffinately not now.

All in all, its not that bad, I get put in bad moods from all this crap but for the most part, I'm fine. Though I can't wait until this is over.

And BTW, had my first Trimester Screening ultrasound done...two hands, two feet, perfectly beating heat, no signs of any problems whatsoever. I have pictures up in my Facebook Account (Shonna White).

Don't know yet if its a girl or boy, but maybe in a month and a half when I have the next ultrasound....I'm putting in my bet right now that its a boy.

Now I have been behind on the updates because my scanner is broken but also because, I'm working on something big...a baby!
So lord knows how updates will be in the next while.
My due date isn't until August and hopefully I'll have a new scanner by then!

So I'm updating the photo prints I have available since their size is apparently no long useable. Which means I had to delete the old ones.
I'm also adding new ones.
Hope you like.

Still waiting on being able to afford a new scanner so I can upload sketches...

Well, so I've done a couple of sketches but I can't put them up...my scanner is broken. Everything comes out really blurry! I can't afford to replace it at the moment so I'm not sure when my next update will take place.
SAD!

While it might appear as if I'm doing nothing, I'm actually working on something big right now.
Its Lost Infernal based, taken from probably one of the coolest, darkest scenes of the book.
I've been planning on doing this one for a while but the amount of work for it put me off. Bacially, four people, getting their asses handed to them by one guy.
Each of the four people are on their own page and I've completed the sketch of the man kicking their asses, right now without the jim jam of what he's doing, he's totally got jazz hands. It makes me laugh when I see it.
I'm just about done Estellia, the main character of the story. Her feet are off the page so I have to draw them in seperately and merge them electronically (yes they're that important. . .strangely enough). She actually turned out larger than I had originally went for but I found to draw the expression on her face with any talent, I had to. Also she's not exactly a stick figure, she is a lithe fighting machine with curves.
She's only partially conscious in the pic and strung up like a marrionette. She's totally got the short end of the stick in the scene, and the ones to follow which get increasingly dark. (Just as a note, she's not the victim 'needs to be rescued' type...but she's TOTALLY getting her ass whooped by someone with god-like power at this point)
I found this one particulary hard because although I started out by drawing women, I actually find it easier to draw men and that's all I've really drawn in a while. I'm not particularily happy with the Diana picture and it may later get redone. That's just the face, not the whole body.
Now I have to draw Priam (a big greek tank of a man) and Dr. Arneau (an angelic looking pyschiatrist who is also adept at martial arts), both of which I'm anticipating being actually fairly hard to draw because of the positions they'll be in. Not just body but facial expressions.

AAAAFter all this is drawn, I'll put up the sketches merged randomly onto one, and do WIP updates as it will probably take some time for me to colour this. Its a dark scene, not just in the brutalness, but in the fact that it takes place in the dark and its shadow heavy which will mean getting the balance right will be hard.

Anyway, to make this pciture more difficult is that I'm doing it in a sort of comic book style to work on my ability to do line art. How I typically draw is I start with eyes and work out from there, letting shading help me shape the features. There are few times that I start with an outline so with line art forcing me to draw clear lines and work without shading, whilst drawing positions and facial expression I'd normally have difficulty with.

I'll probably work on other stuff while doing this one but between family, working out, writing a book (an online novel which I'm SOOOOO far behind on) and doing this I'm not sure when that will be. I'm sure there are going to be several times I get really really frustrated with this pic so...maybe not too long.

Any suggestions on who I should draw next? The one with the most votes gets drawn! Pic any character Final Fantasy or not.

Things are about to slow down for me again, so YAY!
Tomorrow, I have a 14 hour day because I work then am at the Calgary Business Hall of Fame Gala in the evening which is put on by my company. I haven't had too much to do with any of that other than making ads for magazines, but it coincides with slower times. Including having Friday afternoon through Tuesday off.
So the plan is work out like mad, work on my book, do some drawing and get back ahead with the Bloodstar again.

I've also started a new regiment which I'm hoping to see increase my energy levels and creativity again. Its called working out 30 - 45 mins a day on the Wii Fit, UBER women's multivitamins, a pro-biotic suppliment and cutting out the procrastination.

So I bought a Wii, a Wii Fit, a new dual flush, low flow toilet (oooooo, exciting!), and a new Sephiroth figurine [link] from Phoenix Comics.
I plan on getting the Vincent as well.
I had actually been looking for the Zack figure, but no dice.
Damned Sephiroth. Now I have 5 Sephiroth figurines!
My busband is complaining that my figurines are overflowing onto "His Shelf"

Hmmmm. I guess the title about says it all.

So a Bloodstar update WILL be up tonight but in the mean time, you'll notice I've made a change to my DeviantID. It is the picture from earlier in my gallery, with my name put beside it, but also I've put a rather informal blurb about me below which is more than just "I love Sephiroth", "FF7 Rocks my world" and other SCREAMINGLY obvious things like that.
It does however explain just how I am just a complete and utter geek.
I've also cleaned up the gallery and removed some stuff I didn't want anymore. I'll periodically do this without warning because I don't like clutter and would rather not display stuff I don't believe is my best work.
Anyway, back to writing!

Well it was a long weekend here and things are pretty much back to normal.
I'm working on the next installment and finding its taking me sometime as something big in it is forcing me to write in a different style than I'm good at.
It'll be up shortly I'm hoping but yeah, this is draining. Whew!