Weak Arm, Strong Heart Title Page
In pencil?
Marth Manga Cover
drawn Sep 8, ’05
Zelda added Oct 18, ’05
Colour version finished Aug 6, ’06
posted for June 23, 2007
(205)
Much explaining here: This was a long term project, that took almost the entire course of a sketchbook (this is the first picture total of that sketchbook) to draw ten pages, and began because I was depressed. I don’t think that “a true artist needs to be depressed to create”, I rather think that artists will turn to art to heal them of depression, or rise above it, or something. I didn’t rise above my depression, but something came out of it…
My story begins as I’m happily playing Super Smash Bros. Melee with Kevin. SSBM is a Japanese “hitting game”, in this case where you take control of one of your favourite popular Nintendo character (Link, Fox McCloud, Samus, Pikachu, etc.) and procede to beat up the other guys. Kevin often takes Roy, and I take Marth. And Kevin consistantly wins. And wins. And wins. And I’m not so happily playing anymore, I want revenge for losses, and I dearly want veangance for hearing Marth called wimpy (again). So, driven to tears, one night, I began to imagine things from poor old Marth’s point of view. And this was what came out.
The Photoshop version took a long time to do, also, as I was new to doing giant projects like that. It’s much bigger than the elf picture for yesterday. And that took a long time, trust me. I also went back about two months after I finished it and rearranged it so it took up less room. This one, done in a specific style derived from manga and other things seen on the Internet, was a bit more frustrating to get right, amplified by the fact that I didn’t know what half the tools in Photoshop did. I also have a rather old version of Photoshop… I think I might try to get a new one next year, about the same time I get my very own laptop, bought with my money (squee, I will be excited when that happens). Thus far, this is about the only page to have colour, but as the quality improved in drawing (page 1 was just scribbly, supposed to be a first draft, but page 2 was better, and by page 3… well, prelim work was a lost cause. I’ll redraw page 1 someday to match the rest) I got more and more amenable to putting colour on the other pages. I hope the characters look as good as they do on this page… but I do plan on using a different style for the inside. I’m not sure. Stay tuned… but not too closely, as it will take me MONTHS to get any pages fully finished.
I’m quite pleased with this page, overall. Not many I can really say that about on this project. I hope the first few pages don’t make you eager to see ‘how it all turns out’, since it will take me about three months to get to the last page although this thing is ten pages long.
And yes, that is a cheesy title. Sorry. I couldn’t think of a better one.
Still working on Chapter 2 of MoDttIoD. Please hold. Until Wednesday, preferably. I have to go study the respiratory system some more.
Yesterday I made a new set of original characters based on a dream I had two nights ago. I also drew a picture, so you’ll see them sometime next year. Leonard Griffith is the big guy, who was wrongfully convicted of a murder. He’s only nineteen. Mona Jenkins is a logical young woman who was evicted from her home after her mother died, leaving her an orphan with no other family. Puni (‘poo nee’) is a kitty-girl who can fly! Lastly, Sally Tyler is the very young, but clever daughter of some rich parents. She ran away from home.
I’m not sure how this group gets together just yet, but there’s a lot more there already. I think I may write a story about them, and that will perhaps inspire me to write my story about two guys named… uh… Carl and Mark. Yeah. I should work on that… After Zelda. Huh. And I should finish Red and Rillandur. I will be working on fanart tonight, though, and it will be better than today’s picture! And then I will study.
