Haunted

I was going to draw a character poster. Then I was going to draw wallpaper. It ended up being neither.

But it's pretty, and I like it.

This is a picture from one of the opening scenes of the novel I'm working on, that features Orlestat.

For the (hopefully) last time, now, as I finally used to color pick tool and realised that the background levels were off.

Part 5 of "Keep Dong sane during exam period". This one took me more than 2 hours. Wings. Probably the reason why we have so few avians around.

But hey, it looks like I'm actually improving in perspective anatomy! This is Orlestat (©D.Ong Feb2006) coming out of a hypertwist (more tricking!) You might note that his leg feathers are more in tune with the plumage of a peregrine, and the striped underparts are more (but not entirely) accurate.

Ack, I forgot to sign it! Nevermind.

This is the first sketch of Orlestat I've done with the tablet, and hence the first time I've colored him in this manner. Previously it would have been far too bothersome.

Orlestat is an unnaturally irridiscient shade of blue. But eh, that's how I always saw him. I got super sloppy on the back anatomy but eh, whatever!

And voila; somewhat of a finished product.
From here the background looks like a right ol' mess, especially since it looks like a bunch of squiggles. Unfortunately, the inking part took 16 hours working time (or 4 days) and the digital moddying took 2.
A checklist of things to see if I've managed to balance the focus subjects as opposed to the details:
You should find 7 bodies, including that of X and A.
2 wrecked vehicles,
1 spent cartridge on the bottom left of the pic. This is actually the closest item to the viewer, but I left it 'redded out.' Did I do right?
Apologies for the terrible quality (i.e. MINIMUM), but it's still 214k as you can see :( It was 509k before.
Copyrights as applied to the other pandemonium drafts. (I cbf)

Utter and complete chaos. A black and white frame of Xinoeph (the kid with the bokken) and Aeryn 'working their way' towards the shadow hq.
The original size of this image is 1024x768. However, were I to make it that, the filesize would be 500kb at the lowest feasible quality. Not like you could see anything anyway, I realised too late that you can't lighten ink, but I tried anyway using a vinyl rubber. Not worth the effort. The texture is too thick and unbalanced towards the left, and the composition is cluttered...so some digital modifications were in order. (See sketches for process.)
Aeryn©D.Ong, Nov 2004
Xinoeph©J.Young, Nov 2004

Well I had totally forgotten about this little sketch...I actually did it a the start of 2004, making it probably the oldest item I have on account here. I certainly wasn't good enough then and I'm probably not good enough to have done this without a reference- and so I used a brochure for Optus broadband internet (they had the best TV ads but I reckon a recent Shell Optimax one with the Ferrari horse in it pipped them...anyhow...)

So you can probably guess what this is. Close up of a peregrine falcon. Duh. Slightly sloppy pencil work, otherwise fairly accurate- I probably used 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B which is overkill but whatever.

And Another Thing...

Normally I introduce characters by doing a sketch of them in nothing but skin/fur. However, for the purposes of the project "Strugglers", Quinn's white trackies with red stripe *is* her skin, so I had to work on that first and foremost.

I drew this to represent the kind of relationship that Quinn and Nes have, as well as visually constrasting the two. As a B-girl, Quinn struggles with feminist issues and chauvinism, as well as her own insecurities which has her reacting rather hostilely to new talent.

The other reason I drew this was to solidify my style for making a comic or something out of the project. Yep, that's right. Maybe webcomic. Haha. Don't expect it to be updated regularly: class is coming up.

Quinn © dong (strop), June 2008

Some background info is in order (as usual.)

Rael was the first anthro character I ever created. A green, digitigrade, bipedal half-dragon. Also in a perpetually bad mood, and hated people in general (see my forum sig: you might get it :P)
Now Rael is less angry and more confused (I think another uploaded txt file is in order here.) At any rate, this is the 4th version (drawing style) for Rael, since he's the hardest to get right of all the characters (figures, since I've been drawing him the longest.)
Most of the work I do is in pencils, 2B, 4B and 8B. I'm now branching out into inks and colours. Exciting!!!
Rael (var2) © D.Ong, Apr2002

The other side of grumpy-green-dragon. Normally when you see him, I bet you think 'jerk'. Or 'wanker'. Being another character from another project, there's a good reason why he's always like this. It's because he used to be an eternal optimist.
A brief note about these (var x) suffixes: there are currently 4 types of 'morph' concerning Rael (read txt file for explanation.) The 2nd (the one with the reptilian breastplate thingy) is the most done. So I don't know why I called myself randy-blue-dragon. Meh.
Rael(var2)©D.Ong, Apr2002

Collapsed- unconscious- or even dead maybe? No, not quite. Because Rael never dies. He gets shot, beat up, loses alot of blood occasionally, but being harder than a brick wall, he has an unrelenting grip on life. Or at last his body has an unrelenting grip on what his mind thinks is life. Um does a soul come into this anywhere?
Actually I don't give a shit about any concept of a soul here.
This particular sketch will be used in part 4, upon Rael's returning to Sanctuary. But right now, he's baking on the desert floor. Hence the lack of any real background.
Rael(ii)©D.Ong,Apr2002

'Kind of' the finished product...

I had to fiddle around with the gimp for a coupla hours before I got the motion blur right. I suck at sand effects, so fyi that mess on the left was supposed to be the sand getting whirled up by Rael's *amazingly rapid dash* over it...kinda worked.

The sky was meant to be blended in the same manner as the second Macroped pic...but I kept stuffing up the blending, since it WAS half-past-three in the morning and I kept selecting the wrong shades. I ended up using something in the ballpark of 30 different shades...and I'm still not entirely happy with it.

Still, it's good enough for now.

Rael(ii)©D.Ong,Apr2002

When I was slightly younger, say year before last, I always thought that big swords were cool to swing around. Until I tried practising sword forms with a 5 kg clothes-line pole (about six feet long), lost concentration and whacked myself on the temple. It hurt. Nonetheless, Rael here has not one but 2 big swords that he's twirling around while whooping maniacally. What a psycho. I guess you could say this was a kind of logo- or simply a representation of part of my persona, and related concepts. You can tell this is an old pic since Rael's feet are still relatively human-sized. I wonder what would happen if I used the chrome effect in photo-deluxe...

Rael(ii)©D.Ong,Apr2002

Another logo, done at the same time as the psychosis one. This was done before I knew the value of pens, textas and other implements of bold, even textural application. Looking back at these I feel a-bit-of-a-retard but hey, everybody makes mistakes.
The other thing is that I somehow insist on doing my own lettering, manually. What a waste of time.
Rael©D.Ong,Apr2002

Because of Rael's elongated neck, I am forever unsure of how he'd adapt to actions involving interaction between his head and hands, such as scratching, cracking joints (in the neck...a habit he regularly engages in). The wings are even harder to get right.

Hence: A slightly adapted foetal position favored by Rael when sleeping. Also a position favored by those who shield themselves from an injury they know they will receive. But Rael is not hunted, so why would he be scared?

Quick pencil (0.5 pacer actually). I was intending to add some sunlight effects when I realised that there is no sun in Sanctuary. And so far about 7 people would know what Sanctuary is. But no-one knows why there isn't a sun there. More on this later.
Rael(ii)©D.Ong,Apr2002

This is my 'earliest' drawing on the VCL at the moment, being done sometime in December 2003. Despite that, this is still my favorite pic of Raine- another character from Metamorphosis (incidentally now a whopping 11 ppl have attempted to read my garbled thoughts on that project...I'm amazed.) Of course, since this is the first pic of Raine here, none of you would know what part he plays in this giant mess. Try reading the text- I'm in a rush right now and couldn't be bothered transcribing it here.

Raine©D.Ong,May2003

Ravensuit (wingless)

Aiee, I can't believe I forgot to upload these here, even when I did on DA and FA.

Anyway, the latest in the long string of unfinished projects I have is this sci-fi. At least, again, it's supposed to be for one of those free-form text RPs but I've already made headway on a novel based on it, heh. This is one of the characters in it- or, at least, the design for his freaky suit. Note that there's some transparency because I actually drew the lineart to tell myself where everything was supposed to go.

Corvin (Icarus)©Strawcat, July 2007.

Ravensuit (activated)

And this is where you see the entire point of that gizmo on the back. Corvin (the character modelling the suit) is actually human (barring those scary hybrid grafts that serve as his feet...) and the entire aim of the suit was something patchy, something that showed both what it was intimating towards, and yet revealed its own craft.

The wings were the fun part. I was originally going for a clean effect but I only have a mouse so since I suck, it came out looking craptacular. Cue motion-blur and smudge tool. Then plasma filter, overlay and a bit of lighting source trickery and erase tool.

Corvin(Icarus)©Strawcat, 2007

Ryan's kamikaze combo!!!

This is yet another "on lined paper during class" ballpoint animations, and as you can see, it's another subtle hint that I really *do* need a Wacom. And yes, the bit at the end is in fact a doubleleg, back full, dropkick, so I'm not bsing on the thumbnail.

Ryan's another character I have no connection to anymore, but again, since I penned this one just after I penned the one of Chance, here you go! This time, you get to see seven seconds of his barely-out-of-control personality!

And now for something I've never ever tried before: anthropomorphising aquatic life forms. Seriously- their morphology is completely different, no limbs...their locomotion is defined almost entirely by their tail...

So yeah, it's always been a bit ridiculous for me to think about. But here you go! I know some people have done it before, I didn't know how it was going to turn out, and I guess it looks okay. And yes, I wasn't aiming for subtlety here.

MS Paint is awesome.

I don't have a name for this guy. All I know is that he really needs to lay off the steroids.

Forest Jump

Quickfire animated .gif sketch of strop doing his ninja thing in a forest.

It's hardly perfect but it was fun and good practice. I might do a few more of these or something and might do a casual b&w flash animation sometime. Just something pokey and light-hearted.

Strop character sheet

This is the official version of Strop, as he stands right now. Ever since last year I've gained the online reputation as a ninja pony, and so I've grown into that and will no longer use my real life nickname online.

The dimensions are now genuinely mine, as opposed to being exaggerated as in the past. Strop seems to be the ninja name, but in some capacity this character is still Morgan, and has retained his archery (despite the fact I'm not an archer myself). I just like the notion of stillness.

In other words, if anybody ever wants to draw strop, this is the basic template. Strop does not wear fancy stuff and tends to be quite minimalist, so will not carry a whole range of equipment, and sometimes carries nothing at all. Final note: I'll put in holes for the ears: works better.

Warrior Mazzelh

Mazzelhs are the intellectual property of Zophia: http://mazzelh.deviantart.com/ Used with written permission.

So yeah, this is like, a rare piece of fan-art. First things first, the head is a bit off-shape, the eye color is not typical to the character species, and she's definitely skinnier than is typical, but most of this was intentional. And I think she possibly could be drunken boxing...

Anyway, yeah. Greeeeeeeeen.

Strop of the Night

One of the early sketches of revamped Strop. Because he was skulking around, I made it a night-time sketch.

The anatomy is horrid- the thighs are way too long because I moved things around improperly between sketching and coloring. Also the costume was far from finalised- I removed the armbands and the kunai pouch (which you can't see anyway). Also this strop's arms are too big.

But the lighting is kinda funky and I was still not used to the tablet by this stage so here you go.

Strop blown away

I swear the image is the right way up.

On Armorgames, there's a grand tournament involving the characters from the userbase. Since I'm a moderator there and everybody knows Strop the ninja-pony, I got roped in.

So here's Strop getting sucked into another world, another world of mystery and the sadistic machinations of another user. But I shall prevail!

And if I don't I'll just bring out the banhammer :D

Karate Bunny

Nes doesn't do karate, but it's an injoke.

As one of my final 'tests' in .gif format before I got my tablet, I decided to step up my animation one more level. However, any more levels and the computer can't handle it, so I'm getting flash. I believe I'm justified now :P

This is supposed to run at 25fps...however it may chug in slower computers (like mine) in certain parts. It's not meant to. I already had to shrink it to half its size so this is nowhere near the quality of the original.

Strop techniques page 1

VCL compressed version

I'm not sure what to say. I was sick, struggling to study and needed some motivation so I kicked this one out. Plenty more where it came from.

What a ninja does in private...

...should really stay in private!

Based on a running joke on the ArmorGames forums. Since I'm a moderator, I get poked fun of a lot. It's...a bit of a long story but essentially I'm now the resident cross-dresser.

Despite not being interested in cross-dressing in real life. But hey, apparently it's cool now :P

Testing out the new comments feature! Goodbye overly-truncated descriptions: for full details just visit the link.

This is another ballpoint scribble- part 6 of "Keeping Dong Sane" and probably the 2nd last as my final exam is tomorrow. I spent way too long on it- started as a basic sketch while watching this fight scene from a Korean film I can't remember the title of...pitching Lateef Crowder against Tony Jaa. Then I started doing background and yeah, that took me 6 days of on-and-off. Then I scanned it and played around with it on GIMP for god-knows-how-long instead of STUDYING. So you get this: Rael and Arael sparring Capoeira style.

Rael, Arael©D.Ong, May 2002

Take Care of Yourself

Life can be complicated but this image seems to convey what it needs to.

Machine Becomes You

Non-furry.

I wanted something arty and edgy, and I think I ended up with something completely like, psychadelic. The reason is I originally wanted to go with contrast between dull mechanical hues and rich fleshy tones, and ended up with artificially saturated tones on mild fleshy tones. Converses don't apply however and so I end up with something visually overly busy. I was disappointed when I finally realised where I went wrong but now I look at it again, it's not *too* bad. Interesting.

Quite a few references, see if you can get them all. Some of them are merely the result of my spending too much time in operating theater. It's like...well this is something I've always wanted to do and will do more of in the future.