Helens' Doodles

e1n

e1n: You have no idea how shocked I was when I saw that YOU, of all people, voted for me. @_@ Seriously, I adore your work and you've been one of my favorite artists and art idols for quite some time now. You have no idea how much that means to me.
But, um, in all truth, as Rootbeer pointed out, I only joined in August of this year, so voting for me would have been pretty unlikely. Might have been something else?

i'm a stalker >_>

and stalkers don't come out and go "hey! i'm stalking you!" right?

Mr. All Sunday

@e1n:

i'm a stalker >_>

and stalkers don't come out and go "hey! i'm stalking you!" right?

You just did e1n.

I really like this one Helens, the pose in very interesting and I love Kaku's expression. The right hand seems a little funky, like his sleeve is pulled over his hand, but other than that it looks great.

e1n

i just came out of my closet.

Helens

Mr. All Sunday: Thanks! Yeah, that entire arm… Sucks. If I'm not going skiing tomorrow, I'll fix it then. That, or just be too much of a lazy bum to do anything. Place yer bets!

e1n: <3. :')

Robin with awful anatomy problems and a totally failed attempt at atmospheric lighting! She's also like... 10 years younger. Or something.

I'll make up for the crappiness of this pic, I swear.

KamenRiderNeko

<3<3<3<3

omg that Kaku is freakin' sexy!! And aside from Robin's face being kinda long, I think it looks awesome!

CosmicDebris

Aha, I've seen your DA name before, but somehow never got a look at your gallery. Now I shall stalk you too.

Yoska

I really really like that Robin actually. What software you were using, again? But, yes, although I have kinda been ignoring those award things, you do deserve the votes you have been getting.

Buuhan1

Crap! Why didn't I see this thread till today?!

I love your art! This is the kinda style I wanna master, I wanna be able to draw realistic characters while at the same time them not looking totally ugly. This must have took great practice…I'm so jealous...

HinaThePrince

When I grow up, I want to be half as awesome as you, and then I'll be the happiest person alive.

Seriously… your art is just... I have no words. I think it's safe to add my name to your most likely neverending list of stalkers.

Helens

Quick study of what I'd think Kaku's giraffe form would look like. :3 For e1n. Hopefully I'll find some time to do the half form as well, etc.
Exhausted.

e1n

@Helens:

[qimg]http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n230/comradebitter/giraffe.jpg[/qimg]
Quick study of what I'd think Kaku's giraffe form would look like. :3 For e1n. Hopefully I'll find some time to do the half form as well, etc.
Exhausted.

Oh

Dear

Gawd.

<333333333

AWB

@Helens:

gets down on one knee Marry me, Helens.

Helens

o__o;
It's… um... just a giraffe.
Rootbeer: I'll get back to you on that once I'm legal.

Something from the beginning of freakin' MAY that I finally put the finishing touches on... (Shuraiya from OP Movie 4, if someone isn't familiar with them.)

KamenRiderNeko

O_O omg…. wow.... Shuraiya~!!! You make him look soo awesome~ Not that he wasn;t already but.... wow

<3333

Mr. All Sunday

That giraffe is the coolest piece of art ever. Excellent job Helens, and also, what's thje big deal with this Shuraiya guy from Movie 4? A lot of people seem to like him, and I don't know anything about him.

AWB

@Mr.:

That giraffe is the coolest piece of art ever. Excellent job Helens, and also, what's thje big deal with this Shuraiya guy from Movie 4? A lot of people seem to like him, and I don't know anything about him.

For some reason, I've heard some people compare him to Ace…... I think that has something to do with his popularity.

Helens

Dunno. You should have asked me back in May.

Assuming you've watched Cowboy Bebop, I've always thought of him as the curly-haired little brother Spike Spiegel never had; in fighting style, agility, etc., etc.

And it has nothing to do with my love for curly hair. Nothing.

Toxicated

D'aww!
That giraffe is cute :3

And Shuraiya… I can't even say anything.
You rock so hard.

Tony Tony Chopper

-gets on knees-

We're not worthy.

These drawings are breath taking!!

PsychoticShapeshifter

My god, your so freak'n awesome. Thats seriously all I can say.

Buuhan1

@Helens:

o__o;
It's… um... just a giraffe.
Rootbeer: I'll get back to you on that once I'm legal.

Something from the beginning of freakin' MAY that I finally put the finishing touches on... (Shuraiya from OP Movie 4, if someone isn't familiar with them.)

[qimg]http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n230/comradebitter/shu_sketch4_2.jpg[/qimg]

OMG…that coloring style.....must...learn...copys your brain

Helens

Aww, really glad you like it guys. :')

Some quick stuff from paintchat last night (basically like MS Paint, except without zoom. )

Arg! I'm jealous! I wish I could draw so well XD.
tries some more and more and more

You really have a talent for this :D. Great works!

Helens

I drew something? NO WAI.
For OP Exchange

Ms. Suave Debonair

Helens, don't ever stop.

Zulen

Seeing Robin as a real person makes me slightly less attracted to her. -_-

Awesome job, though, anyway. I like the snowflakes and the scarf.

Helens

More of the same.

God damn it, Kaku.

e1n

"oh i just can't wait to be king"

Helens

Since I have a vague suspicion that a lot of people here like Bleach…
Started watching it yesterday, so here's some fanart.
And to kill two birds with one stone, it's also in Photoshop, which I can't use to save my life. Hence, practice.

Bleached!

!

HinaThePrince

Holy shit, that's the sexiest Chad ever. Took me a while to recognize him, though. XD Urahara is incredible, too. DEAR GOD THE SHADING. Can't use Photoshop to save your life? Who are you trying to kid? T_T

Den Den

I am utterly shocked. i was expecting doodles and then WOOOSH!!!!!just awesome.
Dear Helens, please keep up the great work and please STOP saying things like "i can't use photoshop" because it's not convincing and gives me another shock when i try to imagine what you would consider as being able to use photoshop.:blink:

love the giraffe!

Buuhan1

Holy hell you work fast! I'm so envious of you, teach me your photoshopping skills, Master!

KamenRiderNeko

Mmmm I love that Urahara~ <3333

Excellent job as always!

Helens

Aww, thanks a ton, guys. : )
What I really meant was, I can't use it comfortably. If I try to color something in Photoshop, SURE, I can get it done… But it's going to take really long and I'll be confused the entire time. ; ) Like I was with those two.

More Kisuke, this time with Painter. And it sucks more than the previous one. Great.

!

Bounty1Berry

I must say, for the first time, you've made half-Zoan Lucci look remotely as attractive as full-human and full-Zoan forms.

I notice your style is very lacking in b;acl lines for details hard edges. Is this deliberate? It's unusual for fanart which is based on a series having those aspects.

Now let's talk about how much you want my vote for best artist. :rubs hands together evilly:

Helens

The black line stuff is intentional. I hate using lines (they're there in the initial version, but then they get painted over and blended into the image. In the images you DO see black lines (i.e., that last Kisuke), they're painted back on AFTER coloring). It's mostly because I hate being neat or clean, and cleaning up lineart is a pain - especially MY lineart. Trust me. Horrid stuff.
Hard edges… Yes and no. I'm not a big fan of cellshading (I like it when it's pulled off well, but I couldn't do it to save my life), or again, neatness or anything. I like the more painterly, blendy approach far more. If you're referring to the lack of distinction between core and cast shadows, yeah, that's a problem I really need to work on. The technique I use to color makes it somewhat difficult (read: it would take work and I am lazy), s-oo...
Yeah, I don't draw in Toei's or Oda's style, or even anime style: if I wanted that, I could just read the manga or watch the anime. (For one thing, I'd suck badly at it.) I think it's far more fun to reinterpret the characters in a different style: one that I can actually pull off and have fun using.
Some people like it, and for others, it's not their cup of tea. But hey, as long as at least some people fall in the former category...

For the best artist vote... I SERIOUSLY didn't even know there was a contest before I was nominated like, 5 times. What the hell you guys. So that probably says it all.

KamenRiderNeko

Looks good to me, but we know that artists are thier own worst critic XD

I think the messy look is nice, though maybe the black lines in that one are a little overbearing, if that makes sense…. I love the soft feel it has though, like in his hair

P.S. - I forgot to mention earlier that I adore that Robin~ She looks so pretty like that!

Buuhan1

cuffs to Helen I must become your student slave!

Helens

Alright!
Your first assignment: finish writing my college essays!

"What influenced you to apply to Harvey Mudd College?
Please limit your response to 500 words"
and
"Tell us about yourself. We know which activities you do and what your academic record looks like, but what don’t we know? What fun, cool, or interesting things about you won’t fit into the categories on the application? Feel welcome to be clever or funny, or write in a way that reflects your personality."

You have until… er... an hour ago. Go!

Buuhan1

….if you want to actually get somewhere in college you do not want me to do your essays.

I have a high IQ but after the 5th grade I got massively lazy and stopped using most of my knowledge, my mind got plugged into being a imagination center.

e1n

@Helens:

Alright!
Your first assignment: finish writing my college essays!

"What influenced you to apply to Harvey Mudd College?
Please limit your response to 500 words"
and
"Tell us about yourself. We know which activities you do and what your academic record looks like, but what don’t we know? What fun, cool, or interesting things about you won’t fit into the categories on the application? Feel welcome to be clever or funny, or write in a way that reflects your personality."

You have until… er... an hour ago. Go!

harvey mudd, eh? my cousin went there for biomedical engineering. he just graduated the last year from there. i heard from him in harvey mudd they have a specialized dorm of geeks, nerds, gamers, etc and another specialized dorm of drunken frat dudes. there are 2 other different types of dorms, but i can't remember what they specialize in.

apparently, contrary to popular beliefs, despite the excessive number of smart people who enter harvey mudd, harvey mudd IS A MUCH BIGGER PARTY SCHOOL compared to the other claremont colleges (pomona, scripss, and claremont mckenna). lotsa smart drunk people in there. xD

he also said that harvey mudd PAYS for their students' alcohol and parties. so you'll get to see a lot of drunken idiots on the weekends, drinking in public on campus. heard there are lots of streaking too. the administration said that they allow drinking on campus because this way the students don't need to go OFF CAMPUS to drink, and no one would get into drunk driving accidents, so they'd rather have all the parties contained within the campus environment, because then, no matter how wild the party gets, they have control over it because it's on campus.

i think you'll have lots of fun there. xD

Helens

I've heard something similar, though I didn't think it'd be THAT extreme.
Though apparently some Mudd party got into Playboy Top Ten Parties or something, so that's some definitive proof right there…

...crap, too bad I can't hold my alcohol.

Hold on a second, SWEET, I have an answer to the first question! "e1n told me to!"
Thanks e1n.

Dahna

great, after seeing your pics I developed another complex =_=

WHO IS GONNA PAY MY PSYCHIATRIST, HUH???? XD

But they really are amazing ^^. So realistic and your shading is awesome!

Bounty1Berry

The only thing I know about that college is that some kid from there won the college Jeopardy a few years ago.

State colleges FTW!

Application task at my state college: "Don't soil yourself while filling out the form"

Helens

I've been busy. : P
Lots of bleach arts and a really old Kaku doodle below.

!

So now, a dilemma! I'm really pissed off at myself today: if you look above, you'll probably notice why. I always do the same thing. Same pose, all portraits, same lighting, same angle… All that differs are the characters. And it's REALLY, really annoying.
Anyone have any advice for getting over it? Or any way to motivate myself to practice/work from reference/etc. more?
I'm thinking of starting a sketchblog for that purpose, but I don't know how long I'd stick with it. : P
Any advice more than welcome!

Bounty1Berry

Why not draw something completely different… a building or machine?

e1n

here's a suggestion: instead of just drawing one character, draw two or more, and make them interact. a picture becomes more vivid when there's interaction and a story to tell. you don't need to tell the audience what the story is about, but it's a good start to get an inspiration for a picture. a way to get a story going is by asking you

for example: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/31829657/
stolen straight from your gallery. xD

that piece looks more lively to me than the other stuff in your gallery, simply because there's interaction between the people. many things can come out of it: are they a couple? when and where did they meet? in a hot summer afternoon? he's a mafia, she's an aspiring dancer, blah blah. you might never thought of these, but the piece makes the audience (me) think, so it's great.

think about things like "what if luffy and usopp found a talking fish?" then imagine what would follow. luffy tried to eat the fish, fish and usopp tried to stop him, luffy thinks the fish is cool because it talks and asked the fish to join the crew, fish becomes luffy's pet… etc etc. let your imagination run wild from just one silly question.

Helens

That piece is also from a reference, so I can't really take credit. ; )
But thank you SO much, that helps a LOT! I'll definitely be doing more pieces like that.

AWB

Your artwork is incredible and all, but they lack expression. You need to draw people in motion; showing different moods. Drawing people standing around with little smiles gets tedious and unintersting. The pic of that girl with the ponytail is a good example of what you should be drawing more of, though even that one isn't too lively.

Try starting a notebook just for drawing facial expressions.

Buuhan1

Aaah….Yoruichi...(big Yoruichi fanboy)..you did a great job. Tho you seem to have made her skin and shirt the same color, I thought she was topless for a minute there.