Here's my coup de grâce as far as posting old work from college--my animation class final project. It didn't have to be in color. It didn't have to have backgrounds or sound effects or music. It didn't have to involve giant robots with complicated designs. I just decided to go all out. Again.

Like the midterm, I animated this in Flash using traditional animation techniques. It took me about a month of working pretty much almost every waking hour from the time the teacher announced the specifications for the final, to about a week before the due date, after which point I'm pretty sure I collapsed in a delirious stupor.

Looking at it now, it's really rough, and there are some definite pacing issues, but I think I deserve points for being ambitious.

I recently went through my storage bin full of old art and found some stuff that either was actually pretty good and I never posted here, or is just kind of amusing, so maybe I'll start taking pictures and posting those.

 Sometimes I dabble in watercolor!

This was a design I concocted in college for a tabletop roleplaying campaign where my character was an eccentric mechanist in a world with Renaissance-level technology--kind of like Leonardo da Vinci, but female and questionably sane. It's always a great day when your character's skillset allows them to build their own combat vehicles with a few good dice rolls. (She ultimately ended up building her own airship, so that was fun.)

As an aside, I like the idea of tabletop roleplaying, but I haven't participated in any of it for a while because I had some bad experiences with groups who were unpleasant and unfriendly. I think if I were to do any more roleplaying, it would have to be with family and/or close, trusted friends.*

*I actually wrote a Neopets fanfic about this issue that I never bothered submitting to the Neopian Times. I'll get around to posting it on this blog eventually and ranting more about the importance of being a decent human being during highly social games that have to do a great deal with both group synergy and treating every player with respect and kindness.

What's this? A wild cover reveal appeared!

I've finished the cover for Blue Diver, and it was a lot of fun! Plenty of interesting stuff on this cover to tease the book! What's that thing on the right? A giant orange? Who are these motley creatures (including a Canadian)? Also, GIANT ROBOTS.

I'm also very pleased with this cover because I did some fiddling around with Corel Painter, and while it doesn't have the most sophisticated text generation options, I did discover some tools that allowed me to get some much better text effects than I've been able to with previous covers. And yeah, if you think the font looks familiar, you're not wrong. :) I liked that graphic so much that I decided to use it for the actual cover (in English, of course)!

Look forward to Blue Diver coming to the Kindle Store very soon!

 

And finally, to complete the set, here's a concept doodle of Renny's PT! The CosmoWorks SLO-64 Slipher is a high-end model given to Renny in recognition of her excellent service in the galactic police and her ace Diving skills. Piloting the Slipher, Renny has become a force to be reckoned with and the bane of space criminals everywhere. With its custom red paint job, Renny's Slipher is unmistakable on the field of battle and sends a very clear message to her foes: prepare for a smackdown.

Renny believes that the best defense is a good offense, and the Slipher is a power-oriented PT which nonetheless possesses a great deal of fortitude, allowing Renny to afford to take a few hits in the process of mowing down her enemies. The tradeoff for this is below-average speed and mobility, but when you're not trying very hard to dodge attacks in the first place, those things don't really matter, do they?

The Slipher is armed with both a sword for melee combat and a laser rifle for ranged attacks, making it versatile in any situation. Such a high-end unit is the envy of many of her fellow officers, but Renny definitely has the skills to deserve and handle this potent weapon.

Thanks for your patience while Blue Diver is being edited! I'm really hoping to get it out by the end of the year. It'll be fun, just you wait!

Concept sketch for the  EX-β006 Karkadann from Blue Diver!

Blue Diver is still at the editor's, so I'm taking the opportunity to brush up on my art skills. I've been watching technical tutorials on YouTube and following along... with my own subject matter, of course. :) This sketch came about while watching a tutorial by vehicle designer Dwayne Vance.

The Karkadann is an experimental PT model, its primary weapon being a pair of arm-mounted laser ribbons for mid-range combat. Its computer is also equipped with sophisticated combat algorithms developed by a martial artist. As a result, the Karkadann is a highly technical PT that most Divers have difficulty handling--but Auva, a trained martial artist and test pilot hopeful who wants to make a living out of flying innovative vehicles, takes quickly to the Karkadann. It's a speedy, lightweight unit that also packs a powerful punch, with a tradeoff in the defense department.

On Borrowed Wings sketches!

Nimbus, Jacob, and Audrey being glowy Dolens. These sketches also show how powerful they are compared to each other--Nimbus barely knows how to work her powers, Jacob's pretty good at it, and Audrey is just terrifying.

And the concept sketch for the cover art!

I've got a big surprise for everybody... I've gone ahead with production of the On Borrowed Wings audiobook! Once again, Benjamin Fife is gracing the audiobook with his awesome narration and voice talents. I've listened up to chapter 4 so far, and it's fantastic. I'm so excited to share it with everyone!

To celebrate, I thought I'd share an old character introduction thing that I did back in 2017, when I was writing the book! There's these things called "art memes" which aren't like the memes you see on social media; they're fill-in-the-blank questionnaires that you answer with drawings. I did quite a few back in the day, and this one happens to be about Jacob!

Note that because this meme was drawn before the book was published, there are a few discrepancies. One of the most obvious is that Ad Infinitum was the working title for the book; my editor convinced me that "Ad Infinitum", while cool and mysterious, is only vaguely relevant to the subject matter.

Ben is doing a super job making Jacob totally adorable. I hope listeners like him too! He is definitely the most dynamic of the main characters. And you can't go wrong with a Brooklyn accent! Especially coming from a squeaky thirteen-year-old.

Also, yes, Greg is a tremendous geek. He will go on like that for hours if you let him.

Well, the Kickstarter campaign didn't pan out. But that's okay. It was my first time and I'm sure there's a lot I could have done better.

To show my appreciation to backers, I went ahead and put together one of the pledge prizes anyway: desktop backgrounds of Azimuth and Eloreth! I created the background as one image, and also split it into two separate images, to fit different monitor layouts.

I had a lot of fun drawing Az and Eloreth again; it's been a while, especially for Az. I removed a lot of the bells and whistles from my initial concept for him, which made him much easier to draw. I've learned a lot about mechanical design since then, and one of my cardinal rules is that if a design element isn't mechanically necessary, and is making the aesthetic too cluttered and complicated, it's got to go. I try to make designs that "read" well to the eye and also perform all necessary mechanical functions.

I'm going to start working on Blue Diver very, very soon, and I'm so excited to have fun in this world and take you guys on a wild galactic adventure! Until then, here's another mech design!

The MMS (Mixam Mechanics Special)-48 Edinrog is a specialized heavy artillery and defensive PT commonly used in the Challinorean Space Navy in some sectors. Edinrogs sacrifice speed and maneuverability in return for raw power and sheer tank-ish-ness. Common armament for Edinrogs is a pair of hip-mounted railguns, as shown here.

In the book, space pirate Mireya Golm pilots an Edinrog that she stole from her world's military when she deserted the Navy for personal reasons. She doesn't particularly enjoy being a pirate, but she also hated being pigeonholed by her society and forced into a job she didn't want. Hopefully somebody can help her and her crewmates resolve their issues...

In contrast to the Glynnlunni, I went a little more "traditional" with the Edinrog, trying to evoke the aesthetic of a very function-over-form military design that's not at all trying to be sleek or graceful, just trying to get the job done with no fuss and no going outside the box. It fits well with Mireya's society and the reasons she abandoned it. Despite this, the Edinrog was what she learned to pilot in the military and it does work well with her personal combat style, so she's kept it.

Okay, I knowwwww everything is about Thunder Girl right now, but I couldn't help doing some concept sketching for my next novel!

This is an LM (Light Model)-103 Glynnlunni, a PT built for speed and agility in melee combat. The inertial stabilizing fins on its head allow its pilot to perform all sorts of acrobatic feats in space, the environment that the Glynnlunni was developed to perform best in.

Props if you know where I got the name. 😉

In Blue Diver, space pirate Kee Kitwhit pilots a Glynnlunni armed with two wakizashi (Japanese shortswords). She's decorated her unit with some sporty detailing, not shown here, but I may do an edit of this image to include her customizations.

Kee is a Gizmim, a species of cute but hyperactive vaguely vulpine aliens. She's a friendly person, but her off-the-wall personality tends to grate on the nerves of more serious sentients, and Gizmim generally have difficulty fitting in to the dignified demeanor of the Challinorean Empire. Kee turned to piracy because Captain Jahaira Vorrh specializes in taking in misfits and refugees and giving them a home and a purpose on her pirate ship. It might take a newcomer to the galaxy to convince the captain that you don't have to use crime to help outcasts find a place they belong.

Thunder Girl coloring pages!

A tradition of Brad Swift's readups is to have coloring pages available so kids (and parents!) can color a scene from the story while listening to Ben Fife narrate. For the Thunder Girl readup, they asked if I wanted to provide illustrations, so I put together some coloring pages!

I had a lot of fun doing these--especially Ceres, who I've never actually drawn before. I had a lot of fun making her look super alien and menacing, which of course completely contrasts with her personality.

You can download all three of these pages at full-resolution here. I've included both print-ready PDFs and the raw high-quality PNGs, whichever suits your fancy (especially if you want to color digitally).

Happy coloring, and I hope to see you on the 17th!

I hung out with my art pupil today and she let me play with her Copic markers on her graytone paper! Fun times were had.

Here's Zuben being adorable.

And then she wanted me to draw a posh rabbit. Why not?

 Here's my (contemporary) design for Terros, the crystalline scorpion guardian of the Earth element from a cheesy old story I wrote in junior high. Despite the story's super cringiness, I still love the idea of a crystal scorpion, and when my pupil suggested I draw it, I couldn't resist. She also said she'd like to see a re-imagined version of the story someday, and I agree that it's not irredeemably bad. I'll have to give it some thought!

It's time for a cover reveal! :)

I worked super hard on this cover and had a lot of fun with it! What a relief to be done! Now all I have to do is wait for my proofreader!

I also like the hybrid painting/graphic novel approach I took with this cover. The background was considerably easier to paint than draw, while the characters were easier to draw than paint. I will likely use this technique for book covers from now on!

Excited for the book yet? :)

I was chatting with my art pupil the other night, and we were doodling, and I ended up doing a bit of concept art for Earthkeepers! 

This is one of the main characters, Apparat Drone Model 473 Alloy, a.k.a. "Zuben". He's a friendly, energetic little fellow who enjoys perching on shoulders and exploring the world around him. Miette and her friends found him lying defunct in a secret passageway, and Yonwin restored him to working condition.

But why does Zuben have the same name as the Graling folk hero Zuben Elgenubi? And where does he come from? The answers will change Miette's world forever.

I'm not super great at mechanical design, but I actually got Zuben's design from a dream I had once about this little arthropod creature. When I started brainstorming about Earthkeepers and Zuben, I just couldn't picture him with anything but that creature's design in mechanical form. I use arthropods for mechanical design inspiration a lot because their exoskeletons remind me of metal plating. :)

Those red feather things are aether collecting vanes. Zuben uses them to collect aether from charging streams, as he and the other Apparats run on aether.

Also he speaks Old Gralish, an ancient form of the Graling language, which is represented in the book by Shakespearian English. When the idea first popped into my head, I wasn't sure how well it would work, but as I kept writing it, I liked it more and more. :)

I'm working on some revisions to the manuscript, and I hope to have it ready to send to the editor by the end of the week!