Chilled Lobster: E.B. Carman's Blog

Toni and Owain

2010-12-31T23:39:00.000-08:00

Funny how I always end up drawing people and their departed pets. This was done based off of a photo of my Aunt Toni and her golden retriever, Owain. She lost Owain somewhat recently, and it's been weighing.. rather heavily on her. Toni is a shrink, in the simplest terms I can put forth. Owain was a certified therapy dog who accompanied her to work for the past few years. They seldom spent a moment apart. That in mind, I can understand why she found the loss of him so devastating.

I did it in Illustrator, over a photo of her and Owain. I think the strokes on Toni turned out better than the ones on Owain...

The Astrum Chronicles - Dann and Aria

2010-12-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Here are the final two of the main cast. ... For the Tales of the Topaz Sea, at least.

Dann, was designed somewhere after 2007. I can't remember the exact date of his conception, as I can't remember Aria's as well. He was born from my need to add more males to the cast (which didn't work in the end because there are more females in the main cast than males, when I'd hope to balance them out). I kept him and Aria anyways, despite the gender imbalance, deciding it wasn't too important in the end. Dann, while listed as a Spitz Dog as a species, was actually based off of a favorite breed of my family's: the American Eskimo Dog. I can't refer to him as one, obviously, because America and the Eskimo tribes do not exist in the Astrum world. It was simpler to refer to him as a Spitz dog.

He's a very stoic character. Dann's own origin story is based off of a sad tale from my own life, inspired by the tale of my family's second Eskie, Frodo. Dann was a stray, by many standards, basically homeless and on the streets of Redwood City, the capital of Amber Island. He was taken in as the ward of an old human man, named Mr. Anthony, who taught him culture and history of the Topaz Sea. They moved into a wooded area on the other side of the island, into an isolated mansion, where Dann tended to the garden. When the old man finally passed away, Dann protected the property from intruders, including Mr. Anthony's greedy relatives that had come to try and pillage valuables from the mansion. His use of a shovel as a weapon was inspired by the shaolin spade weapon.

Aria was the final character designed, after deciding I needed another human in the main cast to.. even things out. I'm not even sure of the my reasoning for evening things out. I think it just went out the window, and I just picked out the number of characters I felt in my gut that fit. Aria, like Cyrus, was originally designed as realistic and anime-esque. In that form, she was originally based off of pop singer, Hikaru Utada, of whom I've a big BIG fan. As I simplified her, she began to resemble Hikki-kun even less. Especially after the decision to make her part of a culture inspired by Alaska Natives (Opal Island is the Alaska of the Astrum World.. in addition to being part of its Okinawa as well (Quartz Island is the other half of its Okinawa)).

Aria was raised in a village in Opal Island, until she was selected at a young age to being the right-hand maiden of a local holy-.. thing. I'd say Holy-man, but the creature she served under was not human or sentian in the slightest form, despite its benevolence. This creature taught her Etherics, as well as training her to be an Audiomancer, which is a warrior that uses a broadcast scepter to turn songs into physical/etheric attacks. She specializes in blue ether (as per her soul ether) spells, which correspond to emotion and sound.

If I were to ever get this concept adapted into an animation or video game, Hikaru would be the first choice for her voice actress. Barring that, Kristine Sa would be my second choice.

The Astrum Chronicles - Cyrus and Kimchi

2010-12-24T02:27:00.000-08:00

I really dragged my feet on getting the rest of these done, but I'll update with these two, then the final two of the main cast tomorrow.

This is Cyrus Mistral, the first human lead I designed for the cast. He was originally made in 2006, as a loose concept for an completely unrelated story. Funnily enough, I hung onto the idea of him as a character and adapted him into this universe. He was originally draw as a realistic/semi-anime character, though I changed his look, as well as the look of most humans in the story to fit with the look of the Sentian characters. I knew from the beginning that he was an engineer type character. Many aspects of his personality are taken from that of my late father, which might also be why he develops an strong friendship with Crunch over the course of the story. Crunch was always my dad's favorite of my cartoon characters.

Cyrus is also one of the few characters I've conceived who is living with a recurring, life-long illness. Although I don't plan on using it as a huge plot point or as fodder, Cyrus lives with an ailment called Iron Lung Disease. The disorder is completely fictional, but it comes from working in mines for an extend period of time. Specifically, hot metal fragments blown off by the equipment are inhaled and build up in the lungs as obstructive iron deposits. Cyrus worked in a mine from his adolescence to his early adulthood, before becoming an inventor and cargo transporter. His case of the illness is not as severe, as he's more than able to live a normal life, with some limitations; whereas people who worked much longer as miners tend to develop cases so severe they succumb to it.

Cyrus is also responsible for an engine that runs on ether-based technology, to heat steam and spin a turbine, called a pyre rock engine. It powers his other grand invention, an airship called the Kestrel.

This devious creature is one Kimchi Jessica Nova, aka "Kimchi the Red", a Sentian Red Bobcat with ambitions of becoming a Pirate Queen. She was designed in late 2006, alongside Lola. Originally, I based parts of her personality off of two friends of mine who I find very inspiration, Deebs and Kichigai; though as she's developed, she's become somewhat like a female Luffy, from One Piece, with only some fragments of Deebs and Kichi's personalities. Funnily enough, she resembles Kichi's online avatar, while her middle and last names are actually the real given names of both Deebs and Kichi respectively. Her given name (Kimchi, Korean pickled cabbage), ironically, is also one of Kichi's favorite foods.

Kimchi, as a character, is very much a neglected daddy's girl. Her father was a notorious Pirate, named Red Krout (yes, I'm aware of the corny factor here), who took off when she was very young, ultimately disappearing. Her mother raised her with tales of her adventures, which lead to Kimchi aspiring to be like her father, though an unconventional pirate-in-the-making she became. Kimchi also enjoys salvaging junk, as she feels she can make something useful out of the most useless things. Her pop-flail (the weapon she's holding in her profile) is an example of one of her creations, though her later inventions don't result in her accidentally putting out her eye. ... Yes, that's just a cheap way to explain the eye patch, but it works.

She also has an odd idea of how things work in the real world, and is unwilling to let her pride take a fall. At one point in the story, she single-handedly attempts to commandeer Cyrus' airship as her vessel. This results in him, Crunch, and Lola allowing her to think she's captain of the ship (while she really isn't), just to keep her along and out of trouble.

The Astrum Chronicles - Crunch and Lola

2010-12-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

The Astrum Chronicles (Astrum prounounced "Ah-strum", rather than how you'd say Astral) is a story concept that I've had laying around for years, though I've yet to do anything with it outside of doodles and story plans that are left to rot in the recesses of my hard drive.

I decided to get off my rear in my spare time and do "character files", basic profiles of the characters. I'll be putting them up two at a time, including some of my designer's notes. Today's subjects are Crunch and Lola.

Atticus Crunch Lobster, or just Crunch as he prefers to be called, is a character that's been with me since I was 16. In the time I've had him, he's evolved a great deal from what originally was. I designed him in 2002 as a joke Sonic the Hedgehog fan character, in an attempt to prove to Sonic fans that I could be sillier and more creative than them. I've spent the last 8 years tweaking his design to make him something other than that. At this point, I'd wager that his overall design is a little too complex to be a Sonic character, while still showing some inspiration from Naoto Oshima. His personality, as well, has greatly evolved. In his infancy he was an obnoxious, Looney Toons-esque character with little to no personality other than shouting random and obscene things at the top of his lungs. This changed greatly over a span of four or five years.

Crunch became a very distrusting, lazy, and stubborn character. Yet, these traits are not intended to be permanent markers of his personality. The Crunch from the beginning of his adventures and the Crunch from the end of his adventures are going to be two very different lobsters. Both are, however Homarus Americanus (Maine Lobster), in terms of species; though I can't refer to them as that in the story, as America and Maine do not exist in the Astrum Universe.

Crunch was hatched on Quartz Island, of the Topaz Sea, which is the hub of Crustacean culture in that region of the world. He was raised from a larva by his foster father, a kindly red crab named Christoph Natalis. Due to being the only lobster on the island, he's not had an easy childhood. Also, his larva stage, which I have sketches of somewhere, looks like some sort of screaming lamprey/shrimp monster. I've decided infancy for crustaceans is not a pretty sight.

Lola was originally conceived as a character in late 2006, after deciding I needed a female lead to go hand-and-hand with Crunch. I naturally chose a sea otter because they're natural foes of lobsters, thus leaving me room for hilarious conflicts. She was the healer and mage of the group even from her birth, though I wasn't sure what weapon to equip her with. Crunch and the others came together so naturally in concern to what they armed themselves with. I eventually decided to equip her with a pair of baoding balls, chinese medicine balls, as a weapon. I felt that such an unusual armament would fit well with a mage, and that she could make them levitate and seek out foes through the use of her Etherics* skills.

Like Crunch, I've left a good deal of room for personal growth of the character. Lola was raised in a Monastery, and thus never really experienced much of the outside world until her adolescence. That in mind, she has no idea how to swim. You heard me, yes. An otter that doesn't know how to swim. Dont' worry, she learns eventually. However, her naivety becomes a recurring problem throughout the beginning of the story, at one point getting both her and Crunch robbed blind by another character.

She is intended to be one of the more developed characters in terms of ether manipulation, due to her time in a Monastery. Though it's rare for Sentians to close themselves up inside a temple for years, Lola's circumstances are.. special. She was originally training to be an Astrean Priestess, though that got cut short for certain reasons.

*Etherics, the art of ether manipulation, is the basically the magic of the Astrum world.

Grad Work, Network Society and Post-War Society Posters.

2010-08-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

I began work on my MFA through Full Sail University in beginning near the end of June. My first course was last month, and now I'm starting on my second one. It's basically one class a month until I'm done.

Last month was "Designing Success", where we reviewed various design eras, time-management, and social media uses. As part of the course, I was asked to produce two posters, each based on one of five eras preceding our current design era.

I chose Network Society (1982-1997) for one, and Post-War Society (most of the time after 1945) for the other.

For the Network Society poster I

did an ad for a little-known contraption called the Apple Power CD. Keep in mind, by today's standards, this thing is a piece a junk. However, in 1992 when it was released, something that could let you look at photos and listen to music, all on the same medium, was something to get excited about. Unfortunately, like most Apple products, they priced themselves out of the market.

I based a tiny bit of its layout on a notoriously bad SEGA Saturn ad from the mid-1990s, featuring rapper Ice Cube. The actually ad can be seen here, near the bottom of the page, next to the words Poor advertising campaigns. Just click on the thumbnail to enlarge. The ad itself is fairly mediocre, and probably wasn't the best basis for ANYTHING for me to work on, but I just couldn't turn up an opportunity to pay homage to SEGA's bad advertising from the days of my youth. Did I mention that I was the only kid on my block who owned a SEGA Saturn? Sad days.

The second ad was done based on Post-War Society. Now, let's set the atmosphere here... World War II has just ended and printing presses suck so much that all they can product in addition to basic grayscale print are variations of the colors blue and red. This would be the reason that Coca-Cola and Pepsi's logos utilize only these colors, in addition to white and black. Back in the day, print was very limited and you had to be very resourceful to make its limitations work for you. Hence why Coke's logo is white and red, while Pepsi's is red and navy blue with bits of white.

I got a bit gutsy and decided to try making my own product, in homage to the soft drink brands of yore. I immediately sketched out a cartoon mascot in the style of the day on paper and digitized it. I chose a child, since "mascots" of those days were seldom cartoon animals. I played a little trick on the bottle label as well, if you can look for it. Cola Kid to the infinite power, if you will.

This was pretty much all of what could've been considered art in my first month.

2010-07-21T01:27:00.000-07:00

I awoke to find myself lost without words, facing the most gruesome of beasts.

Gruesome, for no sword or spear could quell it; my sorrow, the shadow on my heart.

It does not scratch, nor does it bite, it merely lingers.

Looking down upon me with glimmering, sullen eyes.

It whispers in my ear "I'm here to stay".

Unenthusiastically, I utter two words: "Oh, joy."

Anime and Fantasy: Ruach

2010-05-06T22:37:00.001-07:00

This was one I was waiting quite impatiently for. I had a sketch draw up for AGES before I ever got to work on the actual assignment. Being a bit of a Kingdom Hearts fantard, I drew up a fan avatar of the franchise for the project. Complete with keyblade and Birth by Sleep armor activator.

The keyblade, unlike the ones in the games, is based on a one-sided pin tumbler key; the ones in the games being based off of skeleton keys. For those not in the know, Keyblades are mystic weapons that allow a chosen user to open and seal doors between worlds, as well as vanquish certain evil creatures. There are many of them, and each one usually designated its own master, etc. They're the part of the game series I'm fixated on.. mostly due to my primal need to whack things with an over-sized key.

For the project, they gave me 7 ft of watercolor paper. I got to work, settting up on the ping pong table downstairs in my dorm. The figure came out rather stiff, as I wasn't used to working so incredibly large. It was nice to work in gouache again, as it was the medium I started in. By the time I was finished with this, though, I'd given myself a colossal Charley Horse by standing for so long (and probably from crouching over the paper the whole time as well).

The avatar himself is named Ruach, which is derived from the archaic Hebrew word for "wind".

Genre of Choice (Color): Louisiana Voodoo

2010-05-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

Being of the Gypsy persuasion (well... at least an 8th, as far as I kn0w), I tend to get really into Paganistic and alternative cultures/religions. Voodoo particularly. I like a lot of the motifs, and overall, some of the views (Haitian Voodoo actually welcomes same sex unions, for one). I had my fun doing my research and stumbled upon an interesting figure in terms of Louisiana Voodoo culture: Marie Laveau.

For my piece, I was only allowed to use a fixed set of colors; primaries and secondaries. No black, no white, no thalo blue. Nothing outside the ones that'd been specified. I took it as an opportunity to break out my watercolor crayons and gouache.

I located a piece of watercolor paper and sliced it out into the profile of a voodoo poppet. Then after doing an overly extensive (and far too dark) paper treatment attempted to draw atop it. I personally think it didn't turn out too well, but I got a surprisingly amount of positive feedback.

Goth & Kitsch: "Night Over"

2010-05-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

I set out to do my last black and white slightly inspired by the nightmarescapes of Lynne Triplett (referenced in one of my previous journals). The whole nightmare theme fits well into general goth, in terms of the dark and brooding environments people usually expect of nightmares. I just used a generic boogeyman character in the background. The little girl is actually taken directly from my old sketch books, ironically being a NiGHTS fan character. Her name is Tanya Harnell, for anyone who cares to know. .. I haven't exactly developed her much beyond that.

I sewed together four pieces of watercolor paper (which made the piece even more portable, because I could fold it up and tuck it away when I wasn't working on it). I used primarily white, black, and grey ink with acrylic matte finish. In the earlier stages, I used soft pastels as well. I also stepped outside of the greyscale requirements and made the eyes of the flowing shadow in the midground red.

Cartoon Art: Astrum Chronicles

2010-03-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

I've been delayed in uploading for a while due to lacking the skills to properly capture many of my larger pieces. There really isn't much to say about this piece other than it was supposed to incorporate linear perspective and cartoon art. Naturally I have my own style for cartooning already. I wasn't looking to do anything too complicated in terms of layout, but I just used it as an excuse to draw the updated designs of the Astrum Chronicles characters.. who I really haven't showcased to ANYONE. The animal-based characters are referred to as 'Sentians' (a mash term made from 'sentient' and 'animal').

From left to right

Aria Karmina - A human audiomancer, very proper, though not naive. The weapon in her hand is a microphone-inspired spell casting conduit. Basically it converts songs into magical attacks.

Dann Trowel - Dann is a sentian spitz dog, a bit of a loner, untrusting, etc. He carries around a giant shovel as a weapon, though he occasionally uses it as a tool. Him using a shovel was inspired by the shaolin spade weapon, though Dann's is much bulkier.

Atticus Crunch Lobster - Crunch, who goes by his middle name and hates his first is a sentian lobster (homarus americanus specifically). He's a grappler (he fights hand-to-hand), though the bracelets he wears are weights, which increase the force behind his blows. In his upgraded design, I gave him tusks, which are meant to represent crustacean mandibles. I think it's a nice touch.

Lola Sityra - Lola is a sentian otter, who is a typical healer, and a priestess in training. I really can't describe her fighting style, other than it involves leviation/motion magic and a pair of baoding balls. She's very naive, and since I have a cruel sense of humor.. since she spent the majority of her life in a temple, she has no clue how to swim.

Cyrus Mistral - A human engineer, gruff, loud, very to the point. The steam-powered airship in the background, the Kestrel, is his creation. The weapon he's holding is based on a x-acto knife, and was originally intended for cutting large pieces of sheet metal.

Kimchi the Red - Real name, Kimchi Jessica Nova. Kimchi is a sentian red bobcat. She's insane, particularly in concern to her need to collect junk and turn it into dangerous weaponry and other inventions. Her pop-flail (the weapon she's holding) was one of her first creations, and also the reason she lost her eye.

.. That's pretty much all I got.

Featurette: Lynne Triplett

2010-03-05T14:55:00.000-08:00

I've been neglecting to do another featurette, due to lack of inspiration to do one. Then earlier when I was moving this week, a padded envelope fell out of one of the boxes, almost beckoning me to look inside. It contained a piece of art I commissioned from a friend AGES ago, that took her almost 2 years to finish (pictured on the right). It made me want to do a feature on her, here on my art blog.

Lynne Triplett hails originally from Edinburgh, Scotland; though she currently lives in London with her fiancé, Niyazi Sonmez. The two of them are in collaboration on her comic Engelbaum, Lynne being the artist, Niyazi being the head writer; both of them working together on the overall story.

Lynne has always been a good friend. She's also one of the people I emulated when I was learning how to draw, having been sent off to college with no real clue how to create art without a computer. A lot of her original art was done mostly with gouache and pens, one example being the first image "Odyssey". In a way, I suppose I could consider her a mentor.

Currently, she utilizes a combination of traditional and digital methods to do her art. She inks out her initial drawing onto paper using a quill and india ink, then she scans it into her PC. From there she utilizes the digital black magic known as Photoshop to color her work and add any frilly, likely unnecessary, but overall pleasant to look at finishing touches.

I feel I should also mention her uncanny ability to cram as much detail as possible into a single page. The accompanying image is an excellent example (click on it to enlarge). The tendinitis in my hands flairs up just looking at the ink work on this page. There are literally HUNDREDS of characters on this two page spread. One can only imagine the painstaking hours it took just to do this single page (which might also explain why she's been so delayed in getting the second issue out... hint hint, Lynne).

She's currently working on doing a reprint of Issue 0 of her comic, to fix some minor errors in the original release. If you want to check it out, there's a preview on her site, and you can order a copy through the site as well. It's definitely worth checking out.

All accompanying images are copyrighted to Lynne Triplett and Niyazi Sonmez.

Geek Art: Internet Memes

2010-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me and has lived with me in Nerland Hall knows about my attachment to the internet meme Foul Bachelor Frog (You can make your own variations at the link).

For my third project, I found myself in a rut as I'm not exactly one for creating "Geek" art. I found some weird art of internet memes and that was my initial inspiration. Using black and white ink, I produced the following.

I just wish my stencil hadn't slipped around so damn much.

Let's go Steam Punk

2010-02-26T02:35:00.000-08:00

Boy oh boy, I'm certainly not good at keeping on top of these updates. This is about my second project in Advanced Drawing. We were asked do a project relating to one of the many punk genre; punk, cyber punk, steam punk, or diesel punk. I chose steampunk.

Inspired by the Steam Punk Workshop's nifty gadgets, namely the Victorian all-in-on PC they have posted on the site, I set out to take a recently growing appliance and make it utterly useless (if you don't count aesthetics).

I originally considered a cellphone, set on a clam-shell design from the start. After listening to input from several people, I understood the necessities of a steam punk design: wood paneling, brass plating, and useless bobbits (such as winding keys, or watch chains). I went through a couple of sketches, and eventually a cellphone evolved into a smartphone.

It comes complete with a coal-powered processor (please note this will probably get expensive), fully qwerty typewriter keyboard, back-up wind-up power, and gear-shift styled mouse.

I think I enjoyed designing it a little too much.

Crabs and Tribal markings

2010-02-23T03:09:00.000-08:00

For my first out of class assignment in the Advanced drawing class this semester, I was required to do something "tribal". Keep in mind tribal in the art world, is a very broad term. I specifically chose tribal tattoos as my inspiration, since I'd probably be covered with them if not for my crippling phobia of needles and overall sound common sense. I like tribal tattoos. I can't exactly phrase why.

Naturally, I chose two things to incorporate into this project for my own personal touch; 1) a crustacean of some sort, from my love for my arthropodic friends at the bottom of the sea, 2) my family crest (see the image on the left), which I designed back in 2005 and see tribal inspiration in.

For my crustacean, I chose the Christmas Island Red Crab, a colorful little fella that is native and endemic to the small island in the Indian Ocean. Their only natural predator died out when people settled on the island, so there's nothing for them to do but "be fruitful and multiply" so to speak. They migrate into the island's interior every year to mate. Then shortly after they migrate back, a huge swarm of little red crab spawn make their way to the coast to live with their folks. Despite their beautiful coloration and overall.. delicious appearance, they are not edible in the least. The locals don't seem to mind. I decided this would be my crustacean for the project.

After doing a mildly complex wash over a large piece of watercolor paper, I got to work.

As you can see, it turned out rather well. My family's crest found its way onto the pincers, ironically. Ironic because the crest itself is an abstracted crustacean claw. I used a combination of Higgins india ink and Pilot Permaball pen to do the outlines, then did a second wash of white ink inside the lines, then inked over the lines again to refresh any outlines I might have accidentally covered up with the wash. I'm happy with how it turned out. ... I just wish I hadn't used so much salt for the first wash. Stuff is a pain in the neck to get off the paper sometimes.

Saturday Morning Sonic

2010-02-20T22:52:00.000-08:00

It's worth mentioning, whether you like the Blue Blur or not, the Saturday Morning Sonic cartoon is definitely worth going back and watching (I have the DVD boxset for anyone local who'd be interested in borrowing it). If you frequent UAF's art department, you can see a short one-page report I wrote on it posted in the glass display case outside of the drawing studio. It's basically a brief version of this, though the one posted there had 3 different parts.

Sonic the Hedgehog was a Saturday Morning cartoon that ran on ABC from 1993 to 1994, before its cancellation. The series, written by Ben Hurst and Len Janson, and based on the character designed by SEGA's Naoto Ōshima; produced in a triple partnership between Sega of America, DIC Animation, and Buena Vista Television. It featured a dark, post-apocalyptic setting that departed from the games' Japanese storyline. It used traditional cel animation and is commonly referred to as Sonic SatAM by fans, due to the fact that it ran on Saturday mornings.

The plot is slightly complex, though almost simple at the same time. It takes place on a planet similar to ours. At the end of a great war, the kingdom of Mobotropolis was at peace. However, the former Minister of War, Julian, staged a coup and overthrew the king; taking the name Doctor Robotnik as he did so. Ten years later, a group of Freedom Fighters who were children at the time of his coup fight to bring him down. They are lead by Princess Sally Acorn, a ground squirrel and the daughter of the former king and also by her main squeeze, a speedy blue hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog.

The series' formula, despite this deep plot, was quite simple: each episode has both gains and losses. For example, Sally finds information left behind by her father? Well, then Robotnik captures and roboticizes one of their fellow freedom fighters. Did I mention robotization? A process by which Robotnik can permanently convert a flesh and blood creature into a robot without any concept of freewill. It's one of the many concepts that makes Robotnik a FRIGHTENING villain.

Unfortunately, despite all of the awesome that IS this series, it was cancelled by the end of its second season. Why, you ask? Because the geniuses at ABC broadcasting decided to put it in a timeslot on Saturday mornings that ran adjacent to FOX's Power Rangers. While the show was good, it apparently wasn't good enough to draw the attention of America's children over Haim Saban's recycled Japanese crap. So it goes.

Though, I have to say, after reading the plans for 3rd and 4th season that Ben Hurst leaked... Well, I think I'll remain pissed off at ABC for the next 10 or so years.

Welcome.

2010-02-20T22:36:00.000-08:00

Lemme just start this blog off on the right foot. Previously, I haven't used any public sites for my art, or anything of the sort. Slightly inspired by my professors, I decided to take it upon myself to start one. There isn't really going to be anything interesting for this post aside from an introduction. I'll be making posts on my art, as well as posting some art reports done on artists I admire and/or follow.