Sketchblog Edition 38: OUterwear As Opposed To Innerwear

Last day of the Weekend of Epic!

Heidi and I got to finally sleep in a bit and then went out to eat at Saigon Flavors with Lilly,
where I hunkered down on the Free Sketch of the day,
which goes to the ever-impressive Erik Kenworthy, Emperor of the Universe.
Being the amazing man that he is, Erik requested the following (word for word):
"I should like to request one, please! A sad, tall robot who is comforted by his friend (a penguin with an umbrella) as if to say "It's gonna be ok, bud. You can still shoot lasers out your eyes." (simplify as needed) : )"

You can imagine my excitement.
Here are the results:
Enjoy!


After lunch, we went to the Oglethorpe Mall and did some shopping.
I bought an armload of coats, a hoodie, a cardigan, and new jeans.
It was quite the excursion and I made a lot of great finds that were well worth me spending my Birthday money. XD
Below you'll see an illustration of one of the coats I bought.

We returned to my house where Vanessa joined us for dinner.
Heidi made delicious beef kabobs with meat, veggies, and canteloupe from the Farmer's Market in Forsyth yesterday.
They weren't really kabobs, though, since they weren't skewered,
but who cares!
They were absolutely delicious!
We watched a bit of an MST movie,
then got distracted and started playing Tetris and Dr. Mario late into the night.
We polished off the ice cream cake from Kate's birthday, ate most of the rest of my ice cream, and nearly finished the Ice Cream Sub we made for my birthday on Friday.
It was quite the evening.

After Vanessa and Lilly left,
Heidi started getting ready for bed while I did some sketching.
I'm diverting from the Tsubasa No Negai redesigns for a little bit and approach the characters from RavenCrest from a slightly different angle.
Here's a somewhat different stylistic sketch of Torishou, one of the two main characters.
What I especially enjoy about Torishou (the Bird King) is that he's very effeminate,
in direct opposition to the other lead character, who is a tomboyish young woman.
I'm trying to keep that aspect, while making sure to give him some masculine features as well.
I'm going to experiment with the shape of his face and nose a little bit.

I was thinking more about the Summer,
and started wondering how much it would cost me to get my moped shipped from here to home.
I started researching prices, and it can get a little expensive,
so my friend Sara suggested I simply ride it home.
Setting aside the fact that it's illegal to ride a moped on highways,
Sara thought this would make for a pretty humorous sight.
I guess I'd agree. :P


Today I'm going to start a new section of the sketchblog entitled "Guest Sketch."
The first Guest Sketch is by Lilly,
who thought I was being a bit silly for talking about how crazy it is that I already have so many appointments with people back home over the Summer.
This is her interpretation:

Thanks for your contribution, Lilly!
Go check out her website/blog here: http://lillylui.com/


Thanks as always for reading!
Love you all, and have a great night!

<3,
Emily J Sampson



p.s. Heidi leaves tomorrow morning. :'(

Sketchblog Edition 35-37: Teach Your Children Well

TO START:
I'm sorry for making you all wait so long for my next update.
If it wasn't obvious by my last hustled post,
I have been very busy running about Savannah with my visiting family and friend Heidi.
The 27th (Thursday) was my birthday, my Grad Thesis Show, the last day of classes, and the day my family got in to visit.
The 28th (Friday) was the day Heidi got in to visit, the day I had to tear down the pieces from the show, and the day I had to show my family around Savannah.
The 29th (Saturday/today) was the day I had to give one last tour to my family and see them off, unclog my toilet (thanks for the parting gift, family XD), show Heidi around town a little, and eat with friends and people.

Clearly, it's been jam-packed,
and that's the lame reason I didn't upload for the past couple days.
BUT,
here we are, with three days' worth of sketches,
so prepare for BOMBARDMENT.

Let's start with all the free sketches I owe people:

Thursday's free sketch was for Ellen,
who gave me a wonderful birthday gift to give to myself:
Me as a centaur.
For requesting something so awesome on my birthday,
I decided to give her a bonus sketch.
I cruised her gallery for some characters and found this little gem.
Her character Kinapeke is pretty neat,
and as I was looking at the illustration,
I found myself wondering...
What exactly is behind that mask???

Enjoy!

Friday's free sketch goes out to a long-time deviantART friend, Ryan.
This is his character Shuuya, who's got pretty awesome hair.
Enjoy!

Today's free sketch is for my very very good friend IRL, Lilly.
She likes coconuts and octopi,
so when she heard about the coconut-carrying octopus,
you can imagine her excitement.
She requested an octopus running/hiding with a coconut...
But when I read it again today, for some reason,
I thought it said "coconut running/hiding with an octopus."
This is what I imagined:
Enjoy!


Now on to the normal sketches!

This is just a random animal cat mongoose thing.
It was all I could manage to get done on Thursday before everything went down.

When my family and Heidi and I went to breakfast at Clary's on Friday morning,
my mom stabbed Heidi's pickle with a fork in a very violent manner.
She just wanted to eat it, but it was unexpected,
and the damage was done (mostly to the pickle).

Later, at Back in the Day, for lunch,
Tyler joined all of us,
and also contributed to my sketchbook.
Over the speaker in Back in the Day,
they started playing Bohemian Rhapsody.
It was too good to resist, and immediately,
Heidi, my mom, my sister, and I,
all broke out in song.
Dad and Tyler were not impressed.

Later, the cashier came out and said that it was like stereo since the guys in the kitchen were also singing the song. XD
As you can see above, I've introduced another cat to my sketchblog.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
Filler Cat.
(Also, Heidi's cat Natsu.)

Today, Heidi and I hung out with Lilly and Disney after my family left,
and after lunch at the Toucan Café,
we went to City Market and got some gelato to eat by the fountain.
After observing the many ecstatic children dousing themselves in the patterned waterbursts,
Lilly and I could no longer contain ourselves.
We threw off our sandals and reverted to infantilism (not a word- don't care).
Needless to say, we were doused,
but happy. :)

Later that evening, Tyler called me and invited Heidi and I to join him and his parents at Moon River for dinner.
It was a delightful meal with delicious food and wonderful company,
and to top it off the Cubbies were totally schooling the Cardinals on television in the background. :D
What's more, Tyler's parents were generous enough to treat us to the meal.
Thanks!!!
It was definitely one of the best meals I've had in a while! :D
Tyler also demanded I draw Southern Drawl Cat stealing my moped.
That rebellious cat.... *shakes fist*

After dinner, we all went back to Tyler's place to watch his movies,
which never get old to me. :)
Then Tyler's parents went back to their hotel and Tyler drove Heidi and I back to my place so we could all enjoy some leftover Ice Cream Sub (it's like a giant ice cream sandwich made with Oreos and vanilla ice cream... we made it for my birthday party/BBQ on Friday :) ).

Tyler had earlier helped me unclog my toilet,
then returned later in the night to give us his leftover milk so it wouldn't just sit in his house all Summer and go to waste.
100 Man Points awarded.
(Note: Man Points cannot be exchanged for nor are they equivalent to Boy Points.)

After Tyler left, Heidi and I made popcorn and watched an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
I tell you, even 20 years later, that show does not get old.
20 years.... it's really been that long?!?

Anyway, it reminded me of something my sister and I always say to each other.
XD
Sorry... I can't help myself.

To wrap up this uber-sketchblog,
I present you with the possible beginnings of another character redesign.
This is another character from Tsubasa No Negai,
and I'm still on the fence on whether or not I should cut it from the story.
It's a cat-like spirit guardian or something like that.
Her name is Tategami (name could change).
Anyway, here she is, in normal cat form:


Thanks for being patient,
and as always, thanks for reading!!!
Love you all so so much!
Thanks to everyone for making this the best birthday I've ever had in my entire life!
Love LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE you!
Goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson

Today's Sketchblog (May 27th)

Hi all!
Since today was such a crazy day, I haven't met my sketch quota for the day quite yet,
so it's going to be delayed in uploading.
Just wanted to give you a head's up.

In the meantime, check out the official EJS Creations website that just launched today!
Many thanks and props should go to Tim for getting it up and running for me by the last day of classes!
You're awesome, man!

Alright,
I'm out (for now),
but I'll be back with an update very VERY soon!
So much to talk about!
8D

Thanks for your patience!
Love to you all!

<3,
Emily J Sampson

Sketchblog Edition 34: Day of the Digimon

You read that right!
Today it's ALL DIGIMON SKETCHES!!!

My good friend Andy Mai requested I draw "DIGIMON!!!" today.
He didn't say which one, or how many,
so I went with it full force!

The official free sketch is Renamon, who is by far one of the coolest Digimon out there!
I did this from memory, so her design is a bit out of whack, but it's close enough. XD
She's so awesome.



Tyler helped my sketches along with a... um......
I'm not sure what that is, but it looks like a Trekkie alien picking its nose,
so we'll go with that.
Thanks, Tyler.

I decided to also draw my all-time favorite Digimon,
Antylamon.
Yet another female Digimon (at least in the anime she is, and since that's what I've got pictured here- you can tell by the scarf around her neck- that's which version it is :P).

I didn't want to draw all copyrighted characters, so I went back to my roots...
In High School I'd constantly be creating my own Digimon.
I know, I'm a nerd, but let's face it... any Digimon fan did the same thing.

So, what I decided to do for today's remaining sketches,
was to recreate my character SeiRei as a Digimon!
SeiRei already resembles a Digimon, so I just went through all the digivolutions and created new breeds.

The "Fresh" or hatchling Digimon form of SeiRei would probably be called Kaemon,
In-Training: Hinamon,
Rookie: Trimon,
Champion: Sanmon,
Ultimate: Aunmon,
Mega: Seireimon


That's right.
I'm a nerd.


As for my actual day, it was pretty productive.
I did some thumbnails for TAoCKF and then went to Norris to finish framing my pieces for the show tomorrow.

Tim worked some more on my website, and it's really coming together.
Tomorrow there should be some stuff in the galleries, so keep an eye out! ;)

Later in the day, Tyler and Lilly and I went to Loco's for some delicious foodstuffs.

Then, Tyler joined me in delighting in some delicious leftover ice cream cake and some Dr. Mario.

That's about it for the day!
Yup.... :B



Thanks for reading!
Love you all and goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson


p.s. Tomorrow... it's totally on.

I will be 25.

Though by the time you'll be reading this it's already happened.
YAAAAAAAAY!!!!
Today my family comes, my thesis show occurs, and classes officially END.
I is are excited, yes indeed.


Also,
my roommate Susannah just gave me my first birthday present.
This is the best thing in the history of today.
Thanks, Susannah!!!!
Herpy Birfday to me!!!! :B

Sketchblog Edition 33: I Bleed Good Luck

I'll not lie.
Today was pretty amazing.

It was a long day since it's a Tuesday and I have back-to-back morning classes,
but it was full and exciting.

Before I get started though,
here's another Randomian creature.
Think of it like a giant Hornbill crossed with a mole-cow.... or something.

The free sketch today goes to my good friend Reed,
who requested Dr. Horrible.
I think he's kind of gone mad from the loss of a certain someone.... Poor guy.

So, as for the day....
In class I finished cutting all 117 of my business cards (some of which are derp cards, and will be saved for emergencies or close friends who already know my contact info),
and then I began framing my 4 pieces for the Grad Thesis Show.
Unfortunately, Ex Libris didn't sand down the edges of the glass they gave us,
and I received a somewhat nasty cut.
I went down to Trisha's office (the Building Manager), and she gave me a bandaid.
Then she stopped and looked at me.
"Oh yeah... Why aren't you walking in the graduation ceremony?"
I shrugged.
"...Because you know you got nominated for an award, right?"
@__@
"Wh... what? Really?"
"Yeah... Nobody told you?"

Nope. Nobody told me that I was the first choice for an award,
and since I didn't know this, I didn't think walking in graduation would be such a big deal.
However, since I'm not walking, they won't be presenting me with the award.
It was both good news and bad news at the same time.
More good than bad, though, since lately I've been feeling a bit discouraged about my artwork,
and wondering if I'm doing this whole comics thing right.
To know that my GPA was high enough and that I was the first pick for this award really gave my confidence the boost I needed.
Plus, Trisha is kind enough that she promised she'd do what she can to get them to send me the award regardless.
Even if I didn't get it, I can still add the nomination to my resumé,
and it's still highly encouraging for me to know that people have that much faith in me.
:)

With my newfound energy, Lilly and I went gallivanting all over town on mostly useless pursuits,
and eventually tired ourselves out to the point that I had to go back home and take a two-hour nap. DX
When I finally woke up, we went to Loco's for dinner, then enjoyed a Mud Pie Shooter for dessert. :P

Lilly dropped me off back home and I got to sketching some more old characters.
This time I revisited a character I created back in my Junior year of college.
Her name is Imiru, and she's an assassin from the story WorldWide Collapse.
Her design has come a long way from when I first created her, and she's a much stronger character now.
She's extremely fun to draw, in case that isn't glaringly obvious.
Imiru has a lot of issues in her life, in case you couldn't tell.
Not only does she have to deal with the stigma that comes with being an assassin,
but she's also an outcast in her own clan for not fulfilling the biggest mission of her life,
and now she's being hunted by her own sister.
To top it all off, she's got a nasty demon possessing her,
so not only are the government and assassin guild after her, but even the Church is against her.
Luckily there are a couple people that are looking out for her (whom you wouldn't really expect).


That's all for today!
Hope you enjoyed it!

Keep truckin', students and teachers!
The week is about halfway over, and you only have to give one last big push,
then you can go home and kick back and relax!


Thanks for reading!
Love you all, and goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson



p.s. TWO MORE DAYS!!!! 8D

Sketchblog Edition 32: The Derpening

Well, kids.
It's officially Finals Week here at SCAD,
and everyone is bustling about Savannah like a pack of rodents scurrying to through a maze.

It's also officially my birthday week.
How am I celebrating?
How I've always celebrated my birthday for as long as I can remember:
studying, working on projects, preparing for the end of the school year, etc.
Ah, the only disadvantage to a May birthday.
That's okay, though.
I like having a birthday right in the middle of the year,
so that Christmas presents aren't too close to Birthday presents. :P

I'll be honest,
I don't remember most of the day.
At least not the beginning part of it.
I woke up early and got down to work and the whole morning just flew right by.
Before I knew it it was 1:30 and I was ready for lunch with Lilly.
(However, I've determined that I can only have Juarez twice a month max.)

Today was indeed productive, though.
I spent the first half putting the finishing touches on the images for my website galleries,
making thumbnails out of them,
and making gallery inventory and caption lists.
Upon finishing, I sent them all off to my loyal codemonkey Tim,
who is working feverishly on building the website for me.
So far, we only have the header and contact information, and a super-secret image that will be revealed once the home page is completed.
You can view my site under construction here.

You may remember the mythical creatures called Turmusi (plural of Turmus),
which are rodent-birdlike animals in the world I created for a story of mine.
The Casumarsupus (also called Casumars or Royal Bloodletters) are distant relatives of the Turmus,
and much larger in comparison.
They're about the size of an ostrich, but can be bigger or smaller depending on the region they're found in, and on the domestication and breeding.
They're like a cross between a Cassowary and a Kangaroo.



Today's free sketch goes out to Matt,
who asked for a drawing of himself.
Here you go, you epic bearded man, you.


Today was also Timuchan's birthday,
and seeing as he's always had a little girl inside of him (don't ask),
I figured he should be allowed to free her at least for the day.
Run free, little Timma. Run free.
(Really... don't ask. I don't want to explain this. >___>)


While going through my artwork for the website today,
I rediscovered some sketches I did for a somewhat older story of mine called Pandora's Box.
Anna, who is basically the main character, gets put through a lot of craziness in the story,
including having her entire molecular structure reconstructed by the monsters called the Purge that have invaded the Earth.
In a nutshell, she's become a human-Purge hybrid.
Her entire body is malleable to her will, but the human side of her is slowly corroding away, and if she doesn't figure out a way to purify her body of the virus, she'll soon become another mindless beast.
Pretty dramatic, I know.
Anyway, she's always been one of my favorite characters of my stories,
simply because of the complexity of her personality and the story of her life.
Plus, she's pretty awesome-looking, amirite?
Not sure if I want to redesign the Pandora's Box characters just yet, since their redesigns are actually fairly recent.
We shall see.

Lilly came over and set aside some of her valuable time to keep me company and watch Adventure Time and then eat soup and ramen and watch House of Five Leaves with me.
Thanks, Lilly.
You made my evening a little more bearable. :)


To everyone working on finals, I say again to you,
Don't stress out!
Keep working hard, but be sure not to overexert yourself.
Take breaks every couple hours or so to reward yourself for working so hard, and you'll get through this no problem.
This is the 14th set of Finals Weeks I've been through in my professional studies, and I'm still alive (barely). ;)

頑張れ!


Thanks for reading,
and have a great night!
Love you all!

<3,
Emily J Sampson



p.s. Just a few more days till EPIC happens!
(By that I mean, my family comes to visit, it's the last day of classes, it's my Grad Thesis Show, AND it's my birthday!
Have I already said all this?
Yes?
Well, too bad, you get to hear it OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. :P)

Sketchblog Edition 31: Love Conquers All

What an interesting day.
(Then again, it seems that lately I've been having nothing but interesting days.)

I awoke early to go with Lilly to OfficeMax to print images for our Grad Thesis Show,
only to find that the line was literally 3 and a half hours long.
While we were waiting, I decided to do some sketching.
(Hey... I had nothing better to do.)

I started by doing some more Tsubasa No Negai redesigns.
This time, it's Michael's turn.
(I've since changed his name from Maikeru to Michael to make the story more relatable.)
Michael seems to be the hardest to redesign so far.
I like aspects of his Angelic form, but it definitely has a long ways to go.
His human form also needs a lot of work.
I need to find a way to keep his powerful angelic visage while still appearing human.
I may widen his eyes a bit, but that may make him more "innocent."
Lots to think about.
His clothes DEFINITELY need a redesign.
They're not working right now.
And what to do with that hair of his....

Lilly and I discussed many things,
including making a Duncan plushie.
If I have time during the Summer,
it's going to happen.
Here's a concept sketch for it.
After we finally got through the line and got our things printed,
we headed off to do fooding at Moe's.
Unfortunately, this did not sit well with my stomach.
I quickly recovered after going home and resting up, however,
and got right back down to business.

I ran plenty of errands and got lots of work done.
It was quite the productive afternoon/evening, if I do say so myself.
However, that lonely anxiety started creeping in again and I began worrying that I had driven another friend away,
but after some deep breathing and focusing on work,
with the help of the Scissor Sisters and some energetic room-dancing,
I was able to overcome it before it got too bad.

The thunderstorm outside was raging,
but my spirits were high.

So I used that energy to draw today's free sketch request.
This goes to Nikki, who has been very kind to me even though we've never actually met in real life.
She's a sweetheart, and I was delighted to do this sketch for her.
She asked for the most adorable thing ever:
A squirrel in love with a fish.
Ah, two star-crossed lovers,
a tale as old as time itself.
Squirrels and fish, separated by air and water.
But love finds a way.
:)

Enjoy!


That's all for today!
It's been quite the full day indeed.

Good luck and all my prayers go out to those students and professors feverishly preparing for finals week!

Thanks for reading!
Love you all, and goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson

Sketchblog Edition 30: The Many Breeds Of A Burp

Today got off to an... interesting start.

I'll only say this:
If you're desperate for something,
you'll take extreme measures,
and sometimes stoop to the lowest of lows.
But it takes something really amazingly awful to drives someone to turn against their own loved ones.
Fortunately, that will never happen to me.
I love my family,
I love my friends,
and I will
NEVER
EVER
do anything to hurt them,
make them upset,
make life harder for them,
or drive them away from me,
even if it means a chance at personal gain.
That's because material treasures are fleeting and will always fade away,
but friends, and especially family, are forever.
Someone very wise once told me,
"Your sibling should be your closest friend.
They are the ones that will have known you the longest,
so make sure you develop a good relationship with them."
The same goes with your family.
They have always been there with you, since you were born.
It's important to be on good terms with your family and try to work things out with them.
Always remember that.

That's why I love my sister to death.
She will always be there for me,
even though my friends come and go.
She's the one that will know me from birth to the end (hopefully).
I don't know what I'd do without her.
Love you, Liz.
<3


That being said, today was quite productive.
Went on a Wal-Mart super-run with Tyler to get some things of importance,
including a mini-grill for our BBQ on the Beach party next Friday!
So excited!
Tyler had his movie screening today.
It's so amazing!
Y'all in Savannah better be sure to make it to the official screening next Thursday at 8:00,
because it's gonna be EPIC.

Today I tried experimenting more with Tsubasa's expressions,
which didn't turn out too well.
The style kept changing, and without reference for the mouths,
somehow it was extremely difficult to maintain the feel of the character.


So, what I did instead was go back to basics.
I took the solidified Tsubasa profile and went through the vowel set,
trying to see what she'd look like if she said each of them.
It was actually pretty fun.
I may go through the whole alphabet eventually.
For now, this works great to get a feel for drawing her,
though it still needs tweaking.



Typo of the Day: "Brad grab."
(It was supposed to be "grab grab.")
See, Tyler?
I told you I wasn't drawing an Angry Tyler. :3


Today's free sketch goes to Grace,
who very generously requested that I draw Emma and Chester (from my webcomic TAoCKF) going on a date together.
I've drawn "derpy Emma" and Chester on dates, such as getting coffee, going for a swim, going to the zoo, and rock climbing,
so I wanted to do something different.
Emma's idea of a date is probably something simple and fun,
that a child would enjoy.
Hence, swinging in the park.
Alas,
poor Chester is too big for the swings.
"How does this work?"
"WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

Enjoy! :)

That's about all for today!
It's my roommate's birthday, so wish her a happy one!
Happy Birthday, Kate!!!!
I'll help you enjoy that delicious Oreo Ice Cream Cake I got for you, if you like. ;)


Thanks for reading, everyone!
Love you all and have a great night!

<3,
Emily J Sampson

Sketchblog Edition 29: Ye Olde Telepathic Undead Ploy

So I'll be honest.
I'm exhausted at the moment,
and can't think straight right now.
A lot happened today.
Most of it was good.
I'll just leave it at that.

Instead of me talking,
I'll just get to the sketches.

Here are more redesigns of Tsubasa's "mask."
I'm toying more with the idea of it simply becoming "ears" instead of a full mask, like her original design was.



Today's free sketch was for my very good friend Lauren,
whom I love dearly.
She requested "something cute, like Chubby Rain,
or maybe just Chubby Rain."
So I gave her Chubby Rain engaged in fisticuffs with Passive-Aggressive Rain.
Tyler added a little flair to the upper left-hand corner.
Enjoy!

In case you didn't notice,
I've added a new link to the "My Other Pages" sidebar.
I've opened up a second Twitter account,
this time making this one public.
It will be for the sole purpose of discussing artwork,
posting updates to the sketchblog, my webcomic, and my commissions,
and generally sharing tidbits of information and inspiration.
Follow me at EJSCreationsArt on Twitter!


Thanks again for reading!
Love you all, and goodnight!

<3,
Emily J Sampson

Sketchblog Edition 28: From Limber to Pachyderms

YESSSSSS.
Wait, no.

Oh, I don't know.

It was actually a good day, for getting up at 6:30 (less than 4 hours of sleep),
going to an 8:00 class, backed by an 11:00 class, and getting almost nothing done that I intended to get done. XD

POSITIVES THOUGH!
As a (mostly) class, including our professor, we got ice cream between our 8 AM and 11 AM.
It was delicious.

I went through all my artwork from the past few years and picked which ones I want to put on my website, as well as ordered them.
Now all that's left to do is resize them and save the thumbnails, then write out the captions.

After class, Lilly and I went to Back In The Day to split a Super Chicken sandwich,
where I brainstormed this little fellow:

You have no idea how much I really want to make this thing!
It's like a Munny- fully paintable and customizable,
but doubles as a speaker for your mp3 player or cell phone!
(I brainstormed other options too, like a pencil sharpener or a keychain light,
but for now it's just a minispeaker that holds your mp3 player/phone and plays the music.)
I think it's a brilliant little thing, and I'm really loving how the design is turning out.
I want to make one- even if it's not a working model.

Today I promised more redesigns from Tsubasa No Negai, and I deliver.
I'm in the process of redesigning Tsubasa's sword,
which will no longer be summoned with the use of a necklace charm,
but rather will be materialized from thin air on command.
The old design isn't horrible.
I still like the idea of the double-bladed sword.
However, it really needs to look more elegant.

I'm still not hitting the mark, but it's getting there.
These are just the initial stages of the redesign,
so I'm not too disappointed it's not turning out how I want.
I have plenty of time to rework it however I want,
as I'm probably not going to be anywhere close to getting around to this story anytime soon.
(As you can see, I'm not all that great with technical designs.)
This design for the tip of the sword looks too much like bat wings,
so I think I'm going to throw it out.
I need to get back to basics and design a simple base first.
Maybe I'll try starting from the old design.
Recognizing that it was going in a direction that I didn't want to go in at the moment,
I set aside the sword designing and moved on to Tsubasa's wing designs.
Previously, she had very simple and somewhat frazzled brownish-red wings.
I have always toyed with the idea of wings made of shafts of light that are more like tentacles than anything, but I don't think that's the direction I'll take this time.
I also may redesign the mask.
It seems too bulky, and I want to see more of Tsubasa's face and eyes.
That will come next time.

Here I have more traditional wing designs.
They're more like mops than wings, but, like I said, I'm patient with this project,
so I'm not that frustrated that it's not turning out just right.
The lower design is getting there, however.


Today's sketch assignment was requested by someone who has very generously commissioned me a couple times, Ryan,
and this time he asked me to do something for his friend.
This is his friend's character, Shun-Yu, who is a jiangshi.
I have always loved the fascinating origin story and mythology behind jiangshi (Chinese zombies),
and have secretly wanted to design my own jiangshi character,
especially after watching Yozakura Quartet,
so this was really fun to do.
I love how it came out, though I should have referenced the facial expression to get it more accurate to how I imagined it.
Still, this was so enjoyable!
Thanks for the request, and I hope you like it, Ryan!

Today was good for sketches, mostly because I felt motivated to do them,
and got a lot of inspiration flooding in.
I went to my first CAS (Contemporary Animation Society) meeting, even though I'm not an Animation major.
Why?
Because, Tyson Hesse, who created the webcomic Boxer Hockey,
was talking at CAS tonight.
It was a fantastic discussion too!
It really got me pumped for my own webcomic,
so hopefully this summer I'll be pumping out more TAoCKF pages! :)

After CAS, Tyler and I went to pick up some dinner.
Not much was open at 10 at night, so we took a huge risk on my stomach and went to Taco Bell.
It was the first time I had eaten any sort of fast food in... possibly months.
It was definitely the first time I'd eaten Taco Bell in the last year or more.
I was apprehensive, but quickly gobbled up the delicious Crunch Wrap Supreme and so far have felt no repercussions.
*Fist pump.*
I think my nervous stomach is finally settling down. :)
Maybe I'll try Juarez again later this Summer. XD


Well, that's all I got for you today!
ONLY ONE MORE WEEK UNTIL FAMILY AND HEIDI VISIT!!!
I am SO excited!
I bought an extra set of sheets and pillows for when my sister and Heidi stay at my house. :)

I also splurged and bought a few things for my house and myself at Target,
including a retro kitchen clock to match my decor, and the Monopoly game.
:D


Thanks for reading, everyone!
Love you all and stay awesome!

<3,
Emily J Sampson