I Needed My Own Super Sentai-inspired Hero, So Here's Heliolux :D I Started A Big Overly Detailed Design

grabendolch said: Hey there, what’s that second tool panel just next to your taskbar? it looks like it’s from some art program but not a part of SAI

It's called Paint Dock, it's for slate PCs (samsung series 7 & asus eee slate) to make drawing programs actually useable. I have spent... a while... since getting my eee slate trying to basically work as something where I can be a couch potato digital artist :p WHICH REMINDS ME I did intend to properly review the computer. At least a little :p

Downside is that the harddrive is seriously 64GB. I bought a 120GB to replace it with but I'm not quite ready to bust open a $1k machine yet!! I did get a 128GB sd card for it though (yes they totally make those now!) which is enough to cram all my art-related stuff on so I'm good. The other downside is that the drivers are REALLY fussy and it took ages for me to get pressure sensitivity working properly and across different programs. I got it working in SAI and Photoshop, I haven't got it to work with Inkscape though I don't want to mess with it anymore. A few times I lost pressure sensitivity at the drop of a hat and the last time I spent FOUR HOURS uninstalling and reinstalling drivers to get it working again UGH. I was able to carefully write down all the steps I took this time so hopefully that will do the trick. The pressure curve utility makes it good enough for painting, it only has 250 levels of sensitivity compared to 2000+ on the intuous tablets but so far it's been good enough for me. My hand gets crampy a little more often due to having to press a bit harder (less sensitive means its harder to get really really light strokes) but I think with tweaking the settings a bit further I can get that a little better too!

The other other downside is that the MSRP is $1000 but for the most part it's only available for $1400, I got super lucky and it was $1k at the microsoft store but it's not anymore last I checked (plus getting it thru them it came with win7 ultimate and no bloatware!). It's definitely worth it at that price... at the higher price ehhhh, I'D still have bought it but that is what being a couch potato digital artist is worth to me XD becase it's basically a laptop w/o a keyboard it is a TRUE digital sketchbook that is fast enough to run photoshop! So yeah. it's awesome.

I adore her work and she deserves not only better, but the best things. She's already great and has been for ages, and the rest of us need to catch up.

hey guys you should support elicia donze

here is her kofi, her artstation, and her website. she also has an instagram & facebook, both of which with descriptive captioning.

who is elicia donze? just one of the most amazing and inspirational pop artists in this current time.

a prevalent yet underappreciated and absolutely slandered fan artist for the spn fandom, she’s a master at not just realism but adding a touch of whimsical beauty and etherealness in everything she does.

her job opportunities are and have been sabotaged by spn fans for years. how many years? over 10 years. i wasn’t a part of her followerbase until a few months ago, but just so you know she goes through so much fucking bullshit every day. just the usual death threats and lost job opportunities and panic attacks and so on that she’s had to manage for longer than i’ve been in school!

she struggles to make ends meet for herself and her two cats, and she’s got pills (? i don’t know for sure, she is mentally disabled though) and bills to pay for. wanna help? here is her kofi, her artstation, and her website. she also has an instagram & facebook, both of which with descriptive captioning.

can’t give her money right now? then follow @eliciaforever and reblog her artwork, reblog the bullshit she has to put up with, listen to what she says. like, actually listen. tell people about elicia. tell people about her art. elicia knows she’s good. she’s a fucking legend. but people don’t seem to like women artists who know their worth, so might as well flaunt it as much as possible.

and also, if you know people who can spare some change, here is her kofi, her artstation, and her website. she also has an instagram & facebook, both of which with descriptive captioning. a third time. just so you all know ;)

Hi! Your art is amazing! If you don't mind me asking, where are you getting your prints done?

Zazzle! I've been eyeballing their services for ages since they offer SO many different products (even speakers soon, so crazy awesome), and it was learning that they can print GINORMOUS posters that convinced me to give them a shot. I can't wait until I have the money to buy a huge print for myself, lol

I thought it might be helpful to post pic of character also because I feel bad for not having new art since I mentioned as an example. I have been tweaking her design a lot since I drew this but it is essentially the same.

I think there's a lot of mixed opinion about what qualities make a good protagonist, they have to be relatable but not looking for a full self-insert (though I GUESS that's fine depending on the story), and relatable characters can be pretty subjective too unless you have a really narrow audience? Edie is meant to be, well, ordinary, which is relative, but I think in a fantastical setting it's important to have the protagonist be mostly human, and that doesn't have to be literal, btw, but it's gotta be deliberate "humanizing" characteristics given to someone the less you can take it for granted that they are relatable (like say your protagonist is an alien blob or a serial killer).

blurb:

Edith St. Eisenmädchen's father was a widower from Austria, he was a very talented mechanimancer but fell into extreme debt due to plot contrivance, and then he DIED. Edie lives with her stepmother Hortencia Casamaestro and both of them work two jobs to pay off that asshole's debts fffff

She works for the Royal Axiomatic Mechanimancer corps (RAMcorps) as a low level engineering technician/grunt. She is somewhat odd there being a woman and all, but its not unheard of, it would be like finding a female mechanic in an autobody shop... well, TODAY. Her second job is helping out part-time at Bridgemason Bro's Repair & Resale which is owned by a family friend. In her free time she likes to make and sell musical instruments that play themselves, and stomp around in the city underground (sorta identical to seattle underground) scavenging for parts and scrapped equipment.

Awww shit as a random aside I looked at the wikipedia entry for Dexter and got season 5 spoilers DAMMIT WHY DID I LOOK.

I posted on your deviantart.. I found a company on ETSY using your TEAM TARDIS image to make iPhone covers off of.

Man I know someone was using that pic for iphone cases on redbubble and selling them for FORTY bucks too. Possibly the same asshole. I dont even have time to deal with thieves cos when Im working my shifts are 13+hrs/day, many of the online sales services have convoluted and hassly reporting procedures, and its just a big game of whack-a-mole. I dunno, I'm always resisting putting gigantic hideous watermarks on my work but this is what'll keep happening if I don't. I don't make a living off my art so it hurts me less than it could, but people like this steal from anyone so that doesn't even matter. The irony here is the double-infringement of stealing fan art of all things! I've gotten requests to sell prints of that piece but I won't. And scumbags come in to fill the gap. I'm ranting I guess. I go long periods of time without sharing my work but stuff like this evaporates any regret I might feel. I honestly dont have the energy or time to deal with this stuff so I'm not sure what the solution is :(

Thank you for being honest about how your college life killed your art. I've completely stopped working on my art. I only doodle at work now. Your art has always inspired me and it's good to know that I'm not alone in feeling stressed anytime I want to sit down and finish something more than a doodle. Someday I will draw again, or maybe I won't but at least I won't feel the same level of shame & betrayal to my supporters anymore. I gotta heal up and find my motivation again, my reason for art.

-octopusowl

I had an old post talking a bit about how much I hated art school… heh. I KNOW YOUR PAIN THOUGH. I UNDERSTAND. I have SO much unfinished art that I think could be really great but I just... can't. I've always avoided persuing art jobs cos it's hard enough for me to draw the stuff I *like*. I see how much even my most talented and well-connected artist friends struggle and they actually love what they do and I'm just like nope. Not gonna.

I'll be real with you, this is gonna freak some people out but I don't love drawing. I hate drawing comics because it is too much damn drawing, and discovered very early that I could never be an animator despite how much I love it because the thought of drawing that much fills me with existential horror. I love CREATING. Drawing is just the best way to get my ideas out. I was driven to draw well so I could convey my ideas clearly. I actually enjoy making stuff so much more, but crafts and fabricating is EXEPENSIVE and drawing is practically free. Making things requires tools and workspace, drawing at the minimum requires a pen and paper and you can do it anywhere. So basically 99% of what I draw is stuff I want to make but can rarely afford to :C My dream is to someday have a props/costumes shop where I just make so much cool shit (for example dyeing and styling wigs with weird colors and crazy anime styles is SO much fun omg- PLUS I'm currently obsessed with the idea of making glowing fiber optic wigs but once I calculated how much it would cost... uh. Augh. Still totally gonna make it happen eventually though). That's why I care about practical costume design, when I'm drawing clothes I've pretty much already drafted the patterns in my head and have chosen the fabrics, etc. I make decent money right now so that's actually what I'm working toward and yes holy cow it costs SO much. And next on my to-get list is a high quality sewing machine I can feel my bank account crying already :C

UM SO my theory is sometimes its possible that the thing you struggle to do is actually tangential to the thing you REALLY love and that's why it can be difficult and unsatisfying, despite seeming like its something you "should" love. I hope you can find that thing. I only just realized this about myself recently. And even if that's not true for you, at some point you may end up in a better headspace and find joy in it again, because if you did once, why not again? I can understand the guilt but just remember that art is a gift, given freely *when you can afford to*, and you don't owe anyone gifts.

working on a color based battery life indicator, just got the colors mapped to analog input yaaaaay

Hi! I have followed you on DeviantArt for a long time, like 5 years? I just want to say thank you for always being an inspiration to me. I recently went back to look for you on the internet but I find you are like a ghost! You are soooo talented and you should share your work more often! You wouldn't get judged for what you do. Well anyways, thanks for still being around. Your work inspires me greatly! :)

Imma reply to this! Since its kind of an ongoing thing with me since I stopped using the internet as an active participant when i was aaaaa teenager? Anyway will try to sum things up for recent times.

Long story short I had a full time decent paying job for 3 yrs but was working 80-100hrs/wk regularly. I got laid off, moved in with parents and now I am making minimum wage retail while I try to finally finish a degree that hopefully leads to a “real job”. I have… No Idea At All how anyone manages work AND school I am So. Tired. Im not even taking a full courseload so who knows for how many years this is my life now. Anyway. When I have time and energy to spare for art stuff its been more on experiments and learning skills I dont have (tryna get better at sewing… last year was fiddling with electronics… And this year i have access to a GARAGE so its time to BUILD THINGS)

If it makes u feel better here is a yellow ranger i drew last week when i should have been studying.

Aaaaand Im replying to this when i should be studying because i have an exam in the morning and work in the afternoon so. Bone thrown xD Thx for the msg and compliments and sorry for bein so defensive.

I love Steam Powered Giraffe SO MUCH omg. I heard of em a little over a year ago, and it totally freaked me out since I have a story about musical steampunk robots and here is a band doing that as a THING. WHAT. I avoided them forever cos I was worried I wouldn't like their music... I've had my heart broken too many times by theme bands that look interesting but have crappy music and if that were the case with these guys I would have taken that PERSONALLY. Because STEAMPUNK ROBOTS. Thank goodness it ain't the case here. Mind you most of their older stuff is too damn folksy for my tastes but it grew on me and I love it too now. I just prefer music I can groove or rock out to. MKIII tho? AAAGH. They promised something for everyone and totally delivered, I don't mind listening to it all the way through at all. They're pretty shamelessly nostalgic and I love it, Rollerskate King totally triggered that with me. When I was little my favorite radio station would play disco on saturday nights and my mom and I would dance around the house (she'd teach me all the moves she knew from her disco partying days) driving dad crazy cos he hates disco. :D If I HAD to nitpick it would be with the use of synth horns because I used to play saxophone and trumpet, and synth horns hurt my feelings. Not a fan of synth strings either tho those can sometimes sound good... enough. Next time I hope they find a friend who can play or bribe a music student with pizza to record the real thing or SOMETHING cos weh! Otherwise perfect album is seriously perfect. All of my favorite songs turned out to be Hatchworth's, ohmygod I can't even listen to Go Spine Go without losing my shit it's so ridiculous XD I'll love Sam forever for getting David to sing in a torchy jazz style even if it was just a little bit cos rooowwwwrrrrr. Hatchworth's pretty much the reason I'm such a stan now when I wasn't a year ago. I live a Sam Luke appreciation life :p Bleak Horizon just makes me ache for a Steam Powered Giraffe: The Musical *flail* UGH I want to see them live uuuugh ugh feels etc

The JUICEBOX is my ongoing struggle project to make a useful (and *safe*) powerbank for big powerhungry costumes. I'm not there yet at all lol! But I keep hacking at it occasionally. Holds 6 rechargeable NiMH D cells- for juice to last up to full day of running leds depending on the number of lights of course, as well as the animations and colors... And brightness.. etc... Uhhh battery life depends on a lot of factors... Why NiMH though? Lipoly batteries pack more power into a smaller package but thats also what adds to the risk. So thats why I decided to go with D cells instead. If you've seen the videos of phones and laptops combusting and then imagine the abuse a costume goes through, maybe you too can reconsider strapping one of those to your flammable human body! PLUS if they're drained and you want to repower your costume NOW its easy enough to go pick up fresh ones from a store. The Juicebox outputs about 6-7v, good for servos, fans, speakers, and small motors. 5v/15A UBEC to run mostly neopixels! Up to 200 at full power if you're crazy. 3v voltage buck for sensors and microcontrollers. I used a different style of connector for each output for foolproofing, its not attractive but hey at least you wont fry anything by plugging it into a higher voltage output xD this is still something i'll be redoing because I have some other ideas Id like to try. Each output also has a fuse so if you cant resist the tempation to plug in a million things or miscalculated somewhere you wont overheat the pack. The enclosure is the molded EVA kind for headphones or other various gadgets so its easy to cut holes into! Unfinished things- tiny cooling fan for the UBEC, an ammeter, tiny OLED display for detailed info on power usage, and a neopixel programmed to battery life color indicator on the end of a long cable so you can route it to an easy access part of the costume, to check the juice levels at a glance. All of the code I consistenly fail to get working runs on an arduino pro mini lol If you're still actually reading this and havent fallen asleep you might be interested in my and @maddycatcosplay 's new maker discord for crafty costumers! Invite in bio! https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Tx9-Jjcig/?igshid=91wqvlq99sjf