ffyrebird

May Manga Mania Day 31

The last MMM and it is a request from my last child, my youngest son.  I love ya, buddy!!

May Manga Mania Day 30

 The 30th manga drawing is a request from my daughter, I love you Princess!!

May Manga Mania Day 29

I'm still a day behind, bummer....  Today's drawing is a request/dare from my second oldest son.  When I first started drawing manga he asked if I could draw a chibi version of a Predator.  I told him that I was willing to try if he could find a good refence photo.  He started searching the net and I thought he'd end up bringing me a movie still or promo shot.  Instead, he came back with this little AVP Scar Predator toy with a huge bobbly, chibi style head.  Cool!  We searched for a few more closeups of weapons and armor today then it was off to the drawing board, literally<G>.  This is the result, definitely a little different...  MMM has become quite the family affair here, with the whole gang helping and encouraging me.  As Rachel said, "Who'd have thunk it!!"    PS . Kiddo #2, I love you too dude!!

May Manga Mania Day 28

It is a day late, but here is MMM#28. This is for my oldest son, a Teen Titan fan.  We spent a lot of time together on the 28th looking for just the right shot of the characters before deciding on the opening credit screen.  Between that search and the actual drawing of the group it took two days to finish!!  It was worth it to be able to draw his request. I love you, kiddo!!!!!

May Manga Mania Days 26 & 27

Two more ala Coope.

May Manga Mania Days 24 & 25

A couple of faces from over the weekend ala Coope.  She has a bit of a style shift from the previous ways of rendering manga.

May Manga Mania Day 23

I'm just getting around to posting the EDinM sketches from the long Memorial day weekend.  MMM 23 to 27 are all from Katy Coope's books.

May Manga Mania Day 22

Another girl from Hart's books...

May Manga Mania Day 21

My youngest son saw this little gerbil in a jar in Hart's book and asked me to draw it, so here it is..........

May Manga Mania Day 20

 A manga collection just wouldn't be complete without at least one drawing of a flying sidekick.  Here is one ala Hart.   Kihapppp!!!!

May Manga Mania Day 19

Who knew drawing manga could be so cathartic? Drawing this little irate character let me vent some frustration at three very loud and very rude ladies from the opposing team last night. I understand that at the games parents want to support their children and get caught up in the excitement. However, when the cheering turns malicious and you are doing unsportsmanlike things such as taking flash photos repeatedly from behind home plate after dark in an effort to distract the batters, that is going a little too far. I felt a lot better after my little chibi got done yelling at them to grow up and behave!!!

May Manga Mania Day 18

We watched the cheerleading movie, Bring It On during dinner tonight.  I think it may have influenced my manga drawing (ala Hart) for today just a teensy tiny bit.....

May Manga Mania Day 17

After reworking my little softball player I needed a bit of easy mind candy to draw.  My Dear Hubby flipped through one of my books by Hart and found this little manga birdie.  So, here is another group effort for MMM.

May Manga Mania Day 16

Here is my daughter, the manga softball player!  We went out for pizza after the game Friday and I started this drawing while we were waiting for our food to arrive.  Something seemed off so I let it sit overnight.  On Saturday I got some expert input from my boys and finished her. Lots of fun and a group effort!!

May Manga Mania Day 15

Hmmm, decisions, decisions.... Some days it just is hard to pick an idea to draw. I'm feeling lazy today, so I went with a random demo ala Hart.

May Manga ManiaDay 14

We had a late softball game tonight.  When the sun went down, the temperature dropped like a rock.  We bundled up in jackets and blankets and still froze.  I felt so sorry for all the poor little girls playing in shorts and sleeveless tops.  The game ended up as a tie.  They didn't try to break the tie because we had run over the time limit and it was a school night.  I just think the umpires wanted to go home and thaw out, I know I did!!

May Manga Mania Day 13

I saw a young lady at the ballpark with such an unusual, striking hairstyle that it just stuck in my mind's eye.  She had  shaggy, close-cropped white hair in front to her ears, then it swept up abruptly into a jet black ruff of hair that reminded me of a tom turkey with it's tail-feathers fanned out.  The hairdo looked perfect for a manga character, so I tried to recreate it for today's drawing.

May Manga Mania Day 12

We had two more ballgames tonight.  We won the softball game and lost the baseball game.  It was so windy and chill outside that I feel like all my energy has been completely blown away.  Ugg, I'm a zombie!! I dredged up enough energy to come up with this little chibi from my exhausted, dazed brain.  I'm off to get some sleep before I start drooling on my computer.

May Manga Mania Days 10 & 11

This has been a very busy weekend, I barely got in any time to draw.  I started #10 (ala Hart) on Saturday then sat it aside to go shopping with the family.  It was so late when we finally got home I just vegged out instead of finishing it.  Sunday, of course, was Mother's Day so we went out again for dinner.  I ended up finishing the drawings in the very, very wee hours of the morning.  So much for reversing my night owl tendencies!!

This little one from Sparrow's book seems a bit 'cuter' and more to my liking than Day 9.

May Manga Mania Day 9

The post today is just a teensy bit different than the previous manga sketches.  I thought I'd try something a little more complicated.  Whewww! Was it ever!  It is finished, and I'm exhausted.  The demo in Hart's book makes it look so easy, I didn't know it would take forever to do.

May Manga Mania Day 8

Another day, another manga drawing.  Slowly working my way through Hart's books.

May Manga Mania Day 7

Just another quick, fun chibi from a C. Hart book using Inktense pencils wet.

May Manga Mania Day 6

I sketched this chibi from C. Hart's book while watching the boys warm up for their game.  It had been sprinkling off and on all day and the sky looked pretty gloomy at game time.  Thank goodness we were able to get the game in before the rain hit.  We won!!  YIPPEEE! I colored in the sketch later, while watching The Late Late Show.  I should go to bed earlier, but i'm hooked on that show.  Besides, laughter is supposed to be good for you!

May Manga Mania Day 5

Today to celebrate the kiddo's first baseball and softball games of the season, I drew a little chibi  ballplayer from C. Hart's book.  I had it penciled in before I left for the softball game and was able to ink it at the field waiting for the game to start.  It was a bit of a conversation starter for the lady next to me.  My first public "Wow, did you draw that?" moment.  Cool.

May Manga Mania Day 4

I love my daughter, but her softball practice today was sooooo boring.  Luckily, I had my sketch kit and watercolor set with me.  Instead of wasting time being bored, I was able to do my first manga drawing straight from my imagination.  WOOHOO!!! 

May Manga Mania 2 and 3

It's late at night and I'm finally able to get into the computer and scanner, so just a quick Every Day in May post for days 2 and 3 (ala Hart) before I zonk out..........

May Manga Mania

It's May and time for the Every Day in May drawathon to begin.  I just learned about Every Day in May this year and am committing myself to doing a drawing a day for the month.  Unfortunately, May is also the beginning of our busiest time of the year as a family.  We always seem to spend nearly all our time going to and from practices and games and living on fast food for the next few months.  One of the reasons I decided to join up with the Every Day in May is because I was afraid I would slack off with my drawing as normal life is suspended during the summer.  Hopefully, this will force me to keep drawing. 

I chose Manga as a theme because, frankly, I didn't want to be stuck with a terribly difficult, time consuming theme.  When I was feeling sick a few weeks ago, I was still able to do a few cartoons so I think I'll be able to squeeze them in during my few free times in May.  I've also always wanted to learn to draw cartoons, especially after seeing a lot of art journalists using them as narrators for their text.  I bought a few books on cartoons and found myself intrigued with the Retro and Manga cartoon styles.  Normally, when I draw something my family just pats me on the head and says it is OK.  When I drew a little manga cartoon, my oldest son actually stopped, looked at it, and launched into a conversation about it.  Seems he was a little confused about why I was interested in drawing manga when I won't read comics.  We ended up discussing comic styles, the different types of manga, super deformed characters and chibi.  He even ran upstairs to get some of his collection to show me how the chibi can sit in the margins and comment on action happening in the main frames of the comic.  It is pretty hard as a middle-aged mom to find things that I like and that my teenage son thinks are 'cool', so I'm going to run with the manga theme for May.

OOOPPPSS!  I almost forgot to say that as I am learning to draw this style, I will be using Christopher Hart's manga books and drawing from the tutorials in them.  That means that these are not straight from my imagination, original drawings, at least not at this stage in the process.