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Description
Will Vandom from W.I.T.C.H.

I grew up with Marvel and DC comics in the house--the first comic I remember reading was a Hulk issue being given away for free upon the release of the 2003(?) live action Hulk movie--but superhero comics didn't really inspire me to try making my own comics until I read W.I.T.C.H. I think my mom got an issue while running an errand somewhere, and after she gave it to me I took it everywhere. Since this was also around the time I got into Sailor Moon, I was all about the magical girl genre (even though W.I.T.C.H. is French in origin.) While I came across Sailor Moon first, when it came to trying to make my own comics W.I.T.C.H.'s layout seemed a bit more approachable to me.

I remember trying to make my own comics while referencing the W.I.T.C.H. comic books, though sadly none of those turned out very good. Regardless, those first attempts were very important to my increasingly heightened interest in comics. As a kid, I only really read up to the conclusion of the first arc (The Twelve Portals) because that was all that was available to me at the time, but recently I was able to get further along in the story of Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin. It was a fun nostalgia trip, and I'm glad to see that the series seems to still be doing rather well!

HAHA, I COMPLETED THIS BEFORE THE MONTH WAS UP!

From the very beginning, the A-Z Character Challenge was not only a challenge of putting out two-plus illustrations per month, but also as an excuse to experiment with different methods of how I want to execute art. I've found that I prefer reduction-style shading; that is, filling the entire flat layer with a solid shadow color (usually on multiply at a lowered opacity,) and then taking away portions where the light is hitting, and then duplicating that layer and erasing more for dynamic shading. I found this out because I don't like the way the shading on Will turned out. I instead did all the flats, then erased portions of the flat colors to reveal a darker color underneath. The result came out fairly uneven, so much so that I had to go back on top of the finished product and add in additional shadow layers to try and strengthen the values. It worked, but it's not something I want to continue doing unless it adds to the piece instead of attempting to fix a mistake. ( - _ - ')

Now there are only three letters left!

Join me next time for the letter X!

Description
Will Vandom from W.I.T.C.H.

I grew up with Marvel and DC comics in the house--the first comic I remember reading was a Hulk issue being given away for free upon the release of the 2003(?) live action Hulk movie--but superhero comics didn't really inspire me to try making my own comics until I read W.I.T.C.H. I think my mom got an issue while running an errand somewhere, and after she gave it to me I took it everywhere. Since this was also around the time I got into Sailor Moon, I was all about the magical girl genre (even though W.I.T.C.H. is French in origin.) While I came across Sailor Moon first, when it came to trying to make my own comics W.I.T.C.H.'s layout seemed a bit more approachable to me.

I remember trying to make my own comics while referencing the W.I.T.C.H. comic books, though sadly none of those turned out very good. Regardless, those first attempts were very important to my increasingly heightened interest in comics. As a kid, I only really read up to the conclusion of the first arc (The Twelve Portals) because that was all that was available to me at the time, but recently I was able to get further along in the story of Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin. It was a fun nostalgia trip, and I'm glad to see that the series seems to still be doing rather well!

HAHA, I COMPLETED THIS BEFORE THE MONTH WAS UP!

From the very beginning, the A-Z Character Challenge was not only a challenge of putting out two-plus illustrations per month, but also as an excuse to experiment with different methods of how I want to execute art. I've found that I prefer reduction-style shading; that is, filling the entire flat layer with a solid shadow color (usually on multiply at a lowered opacity,) and then taking away portions where the light is hitting, and then duplicating that layer and erasing more for dynamic shading. I found this out because I don't like the way the shading on Will turned out. I instead did all the flats, then erased portions of the flat colors to reveal a darker color underneath. The result came out fairly uneven, so much so that I had to go back on top of the finished product and add in additional shadow layers to try and strengthen the values. It worked, but it's not something I want to continue doing unless it adds to the piece instead of attempting to fix a mistake. ( - _ - ')

Now there are only three letters left!

Join me next time for the letter X!