Sheldon Draws Himself

Well, this is coming in a bit late...

At any rate, here is the blog entry for the picture that Sheldon "drew." It's somewhat more compact than his usual style, so you can assume his "mental illness filter" isn't distorting his visuals as much. There really is not much more to say about this picture, except for maybe something about his art and how Sheldon sees himself in art in comparison to how I draw him. I don't have much to say at all, so I'll keep this short.

Sheldon began drawing art as a response/coping mechanism for his mental illness. He originally just focused over drawing what he imagined his hallucinated voices to look like, but eventually, his drawing obsession to drawing his little sister, and then after a while, he simply branched out and drew other things. Not to say he was particularly enthusiastic about art as an artist would be, but he enjoyed drawing as it was something of an escape from his issues, though his illness kind of shows in how he portrays things in his art. In the beginning, he had the confidence to display his art, as kids will, but as he aged and lost confidence in himself, he almost never showed his creative works, despite his radical improvements, and came off as hiding his work jealously, even fearfully.

And now for comparisons once again between my portrayal of Sheldon and his own portrayal of himself.

• I draw Sheldon with eye tilting upwards. He draws his eyes almost drooping a little.
• Again with the eyes, I draw Sheldon with almond-shaped eyes; Sheldon portrays himself with squarish eyes.
• My portrayal of Sheldon's face makes him frustrated while Sheldon draws himself looking more or less fatigued or weary.

• Needless to say with his more realistic style, Sheldon draws his hair more realistically than I do.

That's all. Hope you enjoyed this shorter blog entry.

This picture is also on deviantART.
SS- Sheldon
GenreChowderStudios' homepage on deviantART

Later.

Protecting Fuzen

Here we have a new picture finally. Sheldon protecting little Fuzen from the ever sadistic Flyin Psi. I actually imagined this picture with only Sheldon and Flyin and with both of them being against a completely white background. But as I drew more, I thought, "Hey, what would it look like if I added Fuzen?" I liked him there, so I added color once I scanned it. After some deliberation, I decided the white wouldn't cut it, and I revisited a photo editing/drawing site someone put me to: Sumo Art. After playing with it for about an hour, I made the flooring you see here, only I changed the color in my preferred photo editing software, Adobe Photoshop Elements. With some Hard Light, some leaves on the wall, and lots of work to make sure the chibis interact with their surroundings, we have today's product.

The idea behind the pink crystal light things on the ground is that Sheldon and Fuzen are in Flyin's domain, therefore in her power. Plus, it also let me play with lights and find ways to tie the characters into the landscape.

Fuzen and Sheldon are pretty good friends (not in continuity with their own stories). While their relationship has many levels, they typically take on a big brother-little brother way of treating each other. Flyin, on the other hand, does not get along with Fuzen and Sheldon at all. Sheldon because he's an easy target as he's emotionally (and often physically) vulnerable, and because she doesn't like his "girly tendencies" such as large capacity for compassion, sort of low competitive drive, and soft-spoken nature. Fuzen because of his small size and childishness. While Fuzen is not easily scared by many things, Flyin can easily find a way to scare him. But though Sheldon is more easily frightened than Fuzen, he would try to keep any kid safe, especially one he cares about like Fuzen, even though he could suffer consequences. Despite that, you can still see a bit of apprehension in his face. I may draw a normal picture of them like this. You know, un-chibied.

I hope you liked the picture and the text that went along with it.

This picture is also on deviantART.
Protecting Fuzen on deviantART
GenreChowderStudios's deviantART homepage

Later.

GCSketch

Sometime during the beginning of April, I'll be setting up a second deviantART account: GCSketch. It'll be a place where I upload practice sketches and traditional pics. I don't wanna put them in my main gallery because GenreChowderStudios is for my professional works, and my traditional works are a little less than professional. Besides, I want it to be easier to see my sketching progress.

I'll still be active on my main account, and any sketches uploaded to GenreChowderStudios will remain there, but I won't be uploading traditional art, sketches, or linearts to my GenreChowderStudios account unless they're much better quality than the stuff I normally submit. With GCSketch, I'll try to upload a few pictures every week. If I get busy or something, naturally that'll disrupt my process. But hopefully, I can have a steady improvement that might even be seen in my other art.

First, I need time to finish up the other things that I'm doing. Or get further along with them as the case may be. That's why I'm opening my new account later rather than sooner. No time. But hopefully, with GCSketch, I can seize learning opportunities that I haven't reached yet. I hope this thing pays off. Wish me luck.

Later.

Exclusive Picture - At the Window

Here is a 9 year-old Sheldon in his painfully messy room, hanging out the window, looking miserable again. If you're wondering where his bed is, he's kneeling on it. And the inside light source is coming from that a bedside light he has.

At this time in Sheldon's life, he was supposed to be on medication for his psychosis, but he thinks it's poison, so he'll have nothing to do with meds of any kind.

You'll notice that in the background, there are what appear to be pictures of flowers on the wall and on his closet doors. There are flowers, so yay for you being right. Sheldon has a thing for daisies in particular because of this obsession he has with his little sister, Daisy, and he draws them obsessively. On a related note, when he's not drawing with a pencil, he's drawing with his favorite green marker, which is on his bed next to him, out of sight from this angle; when he talks about his marker, he heavily exaggerates its worth by using positive adjectives. E.g. "My wonderful, beautiful, amazing, extraordinary green marker." His mother is always telling him to stop drawing on the walls, but clearly, he hasn't listened yet.

This pic was a murder to color; the details were tedious to finish and there are a number of effects I had to spend time on in a single layer. But I'd be lying if I said Adobe Photoshop Elements was a waste of my time. And on a triumphant note, I finally figured out how to use a one-way perspective vanishing point! I personally think the picture is so much better for it. Plus, I used to not be able to pose characters that convincingly in positions like that. Now I am, and I'm happy I can improve.

By the way, you probably can't see it without getting that close, but he also wrote Daisy's name on the wall a number of times.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit about Sheldon Lamar.

This picture is not on deviantART, 'cause it's an exclusive picture on my blog for my blog only. However, here's my homepage anyway. If you look hard enough (calm down, it's not that hard), you can actually find more stuff on Sheldon and other Sanitize Trilogy characters there.

GenreChowderStudios' deviantART homepage

Later.

Raven and Sheldon

I'll make sure not to bore you guys. *rye laugh* These are two important characters from my Sanitize Trilogy novel series.

The relationship between Ravenna Greenwich (lavender) and Sheldon Lamar (grassy green) is one of close friendship. When they first met, they didn't fight but they didn't hang out for a very long time. As they grew closer, they turned into very good friends, and Ravenna started hanging out with Sheldon and his closest male friend, Ethan. Soon they became closer than this and got to the point where if one of them had a fallout with one of their other close friends or family members, they went to one another for company and comfort.

Raven, as Sheldon calls her, is Irish by birth, intelligent, law-observant yet not rigidly rule-abiding. Her smarts are geared towards figuring out how to do-or-die in spades, or trying to see her whatever to the end and doing it to the best of her abilities. Raven doesn't exactly fit into the category of "fun-loving," but she's perfectly capable of having a good time. And instigating a few here and there. Though, she has the (unhealthy) tendency to bury her emotions and personal desires when in stressful situations and not uncovering them afterwords. It is easy for her to keep a level head, and she has bravery enough for several people. Not many things scare Raven, and she has said that one of the few things that do is when Sheldon is having an episode. We can see a caring side to her in this sense. But the defining characteristic of Raven is honesty and earnestness, something that Sheldon, who suffers from paranoia, is grateful for and drawn to. Originally, I had her very reserved, but now she's more open to explaining her ideas, how and what she thinks, and other things. She uses adverbs like "incredibly," "truly," and other words of that nature a lot to emphasize her point. Not to mention she brings attention to things when she notices them. For better or for worse. In fact, she's not afraid of using brutal honesty if need be.

Raven, like many of my characters, has the propensity to stare at things and people. Sometimes for no reason, but mostly for various reasons. Raven doesn't always smile when she's happy. It's regularly when she's amused, like in her picture above, or interesting in something. Confidence is a fair part of Raven's persona, but her appearance, especially her blank eyes and tiny eyebrows, is a touchy subject with her, though she doesn't show it outwardly. But slights on appearances don't bother Raven nearly as much as they bother Sheldon.

By now, you lot have heard about Sheldon, so I'll spare you the total personality dissection.

Sheldon Quincy Lamar is American, but his grandparents were Swiss-German, and he enjoys recognizing his heritage in his clothing and other things. Despite his looks, he is more or less gentle in nature. As someone with rather untreated undifferentiated schizophrenia, Sheldon has numerous paranoid and bizarre delusions and emotional and cognitive issues; he also experiences a number of hallucinations that support the delusions, and naturally, what he experiences makes him act strange and often extreme ways. But his personality can be seen as clever, creative, sensitive, and pure-hearted. Yet, as Sheldon very often shows, he has a sarcastic streak coated with stubborn cockiness. With quite low self-esteem, most, if not all, attacks on his mental illness and unpleasant appearance are taken personally. Spending time with a calm, patient person like Raven is nice for him when he wants to get away from insults.

Sheldon feels miserable much of the time, and it shows on his face. The look on his face above is pretty much the face he normally has. He also has the tendency to stare, but it's more of a suspicious stare than Raven's you're-there-so-I'm-looking-at-you stare. Also, as honesty is Raven's most notable trait, creativity often interpreted as eccentricity is Sheldon's. This can be seen in the way he talks, how he approaches art, but especially how he solves problems. Because of his mental deficits, he's used to trying to find ways out of doing things he's not good at or able to do.

At times, Sheldon takes his frustrations or his suspicions out on Raven, and she sometimes reacts badly. But mostly, they have a trustful, innocent relationship. Both Raven and Sheldon are quite creative; they enjoy bouncing ideas off each other and expounding on things they hear. There are instances when they do great things together because of what they come up with. When Sheldon is having a "bad day," Raven is content to being a listening box. And Sheldon often shows her some of his artwork or something interesting for her valued input. In terms of leading their duo, it's usually Raven, but often, she's following Sheldon while he wanders. Sheldon does possess leadership qualities (they're latent and buried and stuff, 'kay?), so Raven does tend to push him to take charge. He doesn't usually give way, 'cause he prefers to follow her...

Well, I hope you enjoyed this analysis of Sheldon and Raven's relationship. Thanks for reading!

These pictures are also on deviantART.
Raven's picture
Sheldon's picture
GenreChowderStudios deviantART homepage

Later.

Sheldon and Daisy's New Year

So, for the new year's here, and I did a pic for it. It's kind of funny' cause I've never drawn Sheldon and his little sister, Daisy, together before; I never realized how big Sheldon is. Hah hah...

Sheldon and Daisy have a very strong connection emotionally, mentally, and often physically, as one comforts and protects the other and vice versa. Now concerning the weather, Sheldon actually prefers the heat to the cold, but he'll literally try to do anything for his sister, so he went out to see the new year's first weather. In this case, snow. Quite frankly, the fact that his sister likes the cold would make him like going out even if he got frostbite and lost his hands or something. It's snowing pretty hard as you can see.

They're brother and sister, but clearly, and I mean clearly, they look almost nothing alike. While Sheldon is pallid with a wide, large mouth and bland blond hair, Daisy is ruddy with platinum blond hair. Daisy doesn't really look like any of her parents, though maybe a smidgen of her mom in the nose and eyes and touch of her father in her easygoing manner. Sheldon takes a lot more after his parents. He looks very much like his mother, and he shares his father's presence. They have an older sister, Ophelia, and she looks like her father. Not to mention they have extremely different faces. Both Sheldon and Daisy work out a lot, but 'cause of Daisy's puffy coat hides her musculature.

Sheldon's wearing only green because Daisy's eyes are are green. He believes that protects him from the "Brown Police," policemen and women in blue after anyone (meaning him in Sheldon's mind) wearing brown. After a while, that just became part of his lifestyle. If you're not aware of it, Sheldon has undifferentiated schizophrenia which explains his delusion.

As I mention on deviantART, I really like this picture. I deliberately made Sheldon look unpleasant to the point of looking threatening to throw people in the story (and possibly readers) a loop. But Sheldon is really a very kind person, and his tenderness shows in this pic with the way he's with his little sister.

This pic's obviously also on deviantART.

Later.

Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days - From Chapter 15

Today's excerpt is gonna be from Chapter 15: Base 026.

When Bay Unit is replacing devastated Russet Unit in New Guinea, Sheldon is not as close to the transport as he should have been when a bomb raid hits and... It's better if you read it. You know the drill, first draft out of context.

There's no strong language in this excerpt, but clearly being bombed, you know, I'm pretty sure that counts as violence. So maybe E10+ would be suitable for this.

***

The night came, and the next day took it over. We assessed their situation, and after the engineers had gotten the radio to work for a minute, Captain Rowery contacted HQ. I wasn’t there when it happened. But I do know they were pulling Ivory away from here. They were moving them to Ethan and Sosa’s vehicles. The ones in the worst conditions were brought in on makeshift stretchers. Raven was next to me, below but not directly under the overhanging ledge of rock. Heimer and the girl I subbed for were moving the last of Ivory’s stuff damaged but reparable. Ethan’s ship was too full with Ivory soldiers and Ivory-owned property, so a number of the stuff was left here. They moved in single file, stepping in as perfect unison as they injuries would allow.

I will never forget how I tackled Raven a full two seconds before the first bomb hit. The noise blew out whatever hearing I had in both ears. Debris skyrocketed into the air and upset the whole Earth. Rocks came crashing into our space just when another went off. The ledge caved and buried shrieking bodies, Raven’s and mine. More screams from above. Ground cracked and sucked in dirt. Another roaring crash wrung my guts and stomach and my heart was about to choke me if it stayed in my throat too long. Raven’s arms bent painfully on my chest, and I knew my over two hundred pounds including the wreckage on top of me was crushing her. So much broken boulder masked us, we could barely see the sunlight. The fourth explosion shoved the stones closer in on us. Fifth and closer. I started feeling sickeningly claustrophobic. The air was hot and close, and I was begging myself not to throw up on Raven’s head. The screams were gone, but the collapsed rock on me was so heavy, I could hardly think about anything else but for the humans not to drop a bomb right on our mound. We couldn’t move if we wanted to; my concentration was in too many different things for me to teleport, and we were better off not moving. I didn’t know how many other bombs there were. I couldn’t hear a thing, and I was terrified I was permanently deaf. But I got my answer soon enough. Tremors. Tremors I couldn’t count shocked the earth into sudden jolts that shifted the rocks into tighter, more painful positions for us. They came too fast, and they went on and on. They would not ever stop. We were going to die if we weren’t dying already. Less light now. Just the top of Raven’s head was visible. I started flickering Daisy, Ophelia, Mom, Father, Da, Jason, everyone I cared about, remembering things we did, fun times, happy times. I shouted when a rock dug into my side and cracked a rib. I clutched onto the last thing I had from my life. A ruthless shot of pain went into my head and shoulder. A stream of hot something flowed down from where the rocks stabbed. Over my right eye, cheek, and down my chin. I tried to tell Raven I was hurt, but all that came out was a whimper. And darkness took over.

***

Well, that's it. That's also it for the excerpts. If you haven't read them all, why not go back and read the three? Some of them have mature content, so if you're a minor living with your parent(s) or legal guardian(s), you might wanna check with them first before reading them.

Later.

Trapped in Your Lie

I actually drew this in the beginning of the fall, but I had so much other stuff to work with, I kind of pushed this aside until 12/3 morning. Then I waited until I was finished posting excerpts to upload this particular pic.

Originally, this was part of an experiment I did in the summer to see which worked better as of that moment: my Sakura ink pens that I regularly use or the new crow quill I got. Whichever was the best, I would color. I prepared the experiment by drawing the picture in pencil then scanning it into my CPU. Uploading it to Adobe Photoshop Elements, I turned the grayscale image blue, copied the image, and pasted it to the side of the first image. Then after printing it (much later), I inked it with my usual tools and then the newer ones. In the end, the Sakura pens won out. I'd only ever used a broken in crow quill pen before, so my performance with my new tool will improve with time. But for now, the Sakura pens are the way to go for me.

I realized I would have to give Sheldon's face, seven years-old in this picture, a slightly healthier tint than teenager Sheldon. You'll notice how the youngster flush kinda uneven, but I like it that way. Makes it look more natural and has the vague effect of balancing the red of the baseball lining. But red in his cheeks would make him look too similar to his baby/toddler age, so around his face works better.

The eyes are always a treat for me, and they were fun and quick to do. Because he's fibbing, I wanted to make his eyes stand out with extra shine. To indicate his "Please believe me" face. I did his upper lip in the same layer as his eyes. Overall, this part took me 5-10 minutes.

His hair took a lot of time not only 'cause I had to tailor it down to size, but I couldn't figure out what shade of goldish-yellow to make Sheldon's hair. The light source is coming from in front, clearly, so the main highlights would be in front and the shadows would, as few as there are is Sheldon's hair here, be behind objects in front of the light. His youngest sister, Daisy, has platinum blonde hair while Sheldon has darkish blond hair, so since he compares them a few times in the book, I wanted to be sure there was some distinction here. His hair was more "lively" and less limp than Sheldon's teen hair. I allowed myself more color saturation than I normally add. I must have been at it for about 30-45 minutes.

His clothes were easy, though I used multiple layers for it. He wore this top in another picture, so I didn't have to think about its color scheme. I put orange, did random burning and dodging and then used the Impressionist brush to give it that blotchy look. It's hard to see from here, but it creates a slight texture you wouldn't get if it were a solid color. Then I shaded it with grey in another layer and used the same layer with the jeans. There's actually a texture fill (denim) on the jeans that gives it a better look. His shoes were simple, but it took me a little time to realize I had to factor in the shape of the shoes...

The ball and vase were simple. Just a few minutes coloring and shading. In my Hard Light layer, I made them shiny.

The background I did in another file altogether. I made most of it, pasted it behind Sheldon, and completed our light source effect. There's a faint glow around Sheldon's outline that makes the shadow seem sharper. With the final touches in place, "Trapped in Your Lie" is finished.

Maybe you found that interesting, maybe you didn't, but if you're still reading this, you probably found it at least worth your time, and for that, I'm grateful. Stay tuned for more another time!

Later.

Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days - From Chapter 21

Today's excerpt is from Chapter 21: The Fate of the Army.

It's basically about the General of the Army sitting at his desk, musing over his army, one of his officers, and human teeth. The General's waiting for said officer to come to his office, but he's hasn't arrived yet. Again, this is a piece of my first draft taken out of context, so bear with any weirdness, please.

Unlike last excerpt, this passage is "rated E10+" and can be viewed by everyone over ten, in my opinion. The only somewhat dodgy thing about it is the fact that he's thinking about death and war, but there's nothing gory or explicit about it. So read away, tweenagers!

How many children was he killing? The youngest paranormal offspring here could not have less than seven years. He had made sure of this. But it seemed the majority of the casualty list he posted every Saturday was comprised of prepubescent children. When he had gone to find said children, many of them had loose or missing teeth. And what of the others he was sending to die for him? The grown men, women, teenagers. How many of them was he killing? Who would return to their families and who would he have to watch buried?

Osiris sat solemnly at his desk, his head turned to the rain-washed window. Ankh should have been here by now. He would never strike the boy, but what would it take to get his Logistics Officer to appreciate the need for haste in wartime? It aggravated him, aggravating being such the appropriate word here because Osiris was always facing one form of irritation or another nowadays. Ankh’s apparent intrinsic need to linger did not help. For a boy with the ability to move at speeds above 250 miles per hour, Ankh did not move very quickly when asked. Ordered, rather. Deciding it would not do to dwell on something that made him angry, Osiris put the thought to the back of his mind and returned to the subject of missing teeth.

What was it like for human-based beings to have molars, canines, and bicuspids detach themselves from one’s gums? Of course, he had had teeth fall out in his early years, but human teeth fell out only once if they weren’t knocked out, and then once adult teeth were gone, they did not grow back. Having had many dental mishaps in his youth yet still equipped with a full set of flush, white teeth, Osiris could only imagine the inefficiency of human teeth. A clap of thunder rumbled quite loudly, and the five pencils, fussily placed exactly half an inch from each other, rolled out of position. He readjusted them without looking and did the same with the other items the sound wave had disturbed.

So few. They had so few paranormals to work with. Paranormals are rare compared to the humans. With over eight billion humans roaming the Earth, less than a million paranormals occupied the world’s overall head count. Osiris always had his qualms about humans, but he did not want to see the population of Earth drop to numbers low, the human creature became endangered and then irretrievable. Paranormality would surely perish as a human derivative if humans could not breed in a vast gene pool. That was why every loss burned like fire. Particularly any dear child who departed from this life before it was their time. And every loss was one less attack inflicted on the Morri. There were many species with special and supernatural abilities, as Osiris very well knew, but the one that mattered was the paranormal aspect. This was the one species that could produce attacks that could affect the Morri unbeknownst to most humans except his special Communications Officer. Ms. Dexter, at least, had a sense of promptness that Ankh somehow lacked in leaps and bounds. Another rumble of thunder caused the pencils to roll, and Osiris positioned them once more.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed this excerpt. There's more stuff to come later on, so keep yours heads up.

Later.