H.C.Staff

Just a little something to show that I’ve been working hard on Love in Space as usual, and not slacking off and watching Shrine of the Morning Mist or something like that.

…

Whoops.

(more…)

Stage 1: Sketch (~1 hour)

Stage 2: Line art (~16 hours)

(more…)

This is the first scene in the script.

Oh wait, that’s Haruka and Sora’s journey. I’m getting my light-haired little sisters with ribbons and stuffed animals mixed up.

(more…)

Here is an introduction of characters in Sunrider: Love in Space. First is Sora Kanzaki, (神崎 空 Kanzaki Sora) the little sister of the male lead Kaito Kanzaki (神崎 偕翔 Kanzaki Kaito).

(more…)

The first order of business in creating art for Love in Space is the character sprites.

The sprites will be wearing various outfits, and will be depicted in various poses and expressions, and thus we have to create multiple layers to swap on and off of a base, like a paperdoll.

However, in order to accommodate outfits like swimsuits, underwear, and bath towels, it is necessary for the paperdoll bases to be wearing a bit less clothing than in the example above. Which is to say, we need to draw the characters naked. It’s only mildly provocative, and certain anatomical details are not drawn. Nevertheless, we cannot escape the fact that we are depicting underage-looking characters (technically, all characters shown are at least 17 years old) with no clothes on.

Not safe for work after the fold.

(more…)

The plan was for a series of character posts, complete with detailed descriptions, character quotes, and design process descriptions, but we felt it was better to spend less time advertising and more time creating content. So all you get are the sketches, just enough to show that I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing these last two weeks.

(more…)

After Miao Diary finished, there were three parties who wanted to recruit me for their own long-term projects, all visual novels. The friend (who still wishes not to be named) who had asked me to do the Ravnica: City of Guilds project wanted to expand it into a full visual novel. Samukun, of Sunrider’s Landing, had openly invited me to illustrate his visual novel that was a dating sim in a space opera setting. And let’s not forget Rocket’s standing offer from way back to join his team, which was also a visual novel about love in space.

After Hinano’s New York City Weeaboo Chronicles showed the blogsphere the proper pace at which to produce a visual novel at the amateur, low-budget level, and after I had learned to strike a balance between speed and quality with Miao Diary, I figured I had learned what I needed to be a useful contributor to someone’s visual novel. I did consider producing another comic of the same scale as Miao Diary, but decided against it because I felt that my coloring techniques needed more work.

The thing is, each of these projects would 1) require a commitment of at least 10 hours a week for over a year, and 2) pay me nothing. While I do have enough time on my hands, and I’m no closer to getting a job as an artist than I was when I lost my first and only art job, I would prefer to work on a project where I like the subject matter. And while I am a loyal Magic the Gathering player, I can’t imagine myself drawing characters like these for a whole year without getting paid for it. When I work for free I demand moeblobs, and that means no Magic.

No Magic for you.

(more…)