Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Yahfi's Back


Okay that was an unexpected two month Yahfi drought.  Work and life had other priorities for me.  And getting back on the drawing horse always seems slow and painful to me.  I'm either full steam or dead stop.  I'd like to discover a few gear in between.  Anyway, I'm relaxed now.  Back to Yahfi!

- Ark

Friday, February 12, 2016

Marrok

Watching the WOTC Out of the Abyss live stream and sketched one of the mushroom infected characters. :)


- Ark

Monday, February 8, 2016

Rat Queens

While I'm posting about adult fantasy comics, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Rat Queens.  It's an actual print comic from Image, and while not as 'adult' as the last four I mentioned, it is certainly grown up.  Rat Queens follows the exploits of Violet the hipster dwarven warrior, Hannah the rockabilly elven mage, Betty the thieving hippie 'smidgen,' and Dee the atheist Cthulhu warlock.

What sold me on the comic was Dee's Intro - "My parents worship a giant flying squid.  Holidays get weird." It has not failed me.  I don't remember laughing quite so much at a comic book in a while.  Out loud.  Rat Queens is one of those things that are worth buying.

- Ark

Saturday, February 6, 2016

My Favorite Adult Fantasy Web Comics

Clumzor's The Party, Rupert Everton's I Roved Out in Search of Truth and
Love
, Totempole's The Cummoner, and Trudy Cooper & Doug Bayne's Oglaf 
I read my fair share of comics - from sci-fi to superhero - but what really warms my heart is fantasy stories with plenty of boobs and butts and jokes about dicks.  So, without further ado, here are my four favorite-ist.

Clumzor's The Party - This comic is about a D&D party who's leader, Bug the Gnome, never has any luck in the romance department.  They go on adventures that usually end up with lots of nakedness.  Bambi, the Tiefling Warlock, is my waifu.

Rupert Everton's I Roved Out in Search of Truth and Love - I just ran into Roved the other day, an it's an immediate favorite.  It follows the adventures of the elves Cinder and Maeryll.  The poetic landscape and painterly images really capture a wonderful fantasy feel.

Totempole's The Cummoner - This is the story of the witch Vilga and her unfortunate travelling companion Tuck.  Vilga's magic power is fueled by sex, and poor Tuck is her Energizer Bunny.  It's pretty much exactly what you would expect. :)

Trudy Cooper & Doug Bayne's Oglaf - Okay, what rock have you been living under if you haven't heard of Oglaf?  The weekly strip is full of sexy humor.  Sometimes there is a story - sometimes not.  But there is always something really fucking weird happening that will burn into your retina.

All of these strips are very NSFW - unless you work in an adult book store or a brothel.  Enjoy!

- Ark

Friday, February 5, 2016

Yesterday You Said Tomorrow

I just put the finishing touches on the 5th Underfeet strip for next week and I'm exhilarated and exhausted all at the same time.  I've been getting this lovely endorphin and serotonin cocktail from drawing.  Like Rob Thomas says, "I get this funky high on the yellow sun."

It's hard to believe that just a month ago, the Underfeet comic was only a hazy dream and some nervously scratched sketches.  The fears that I had - that I couldn't draw well enough, or that I couldn't pull the story off - have simmered to a low boil on the back-burner.  Unlike previous comic attempts in the past - if I have a panel idea that fits the story - I DRAW IT.  I don't adjust the story to images that I think I can draw.

One of my big hang-up with drawing goes back to my childhood days tracing Peanuts cartoons - a fear of not being original.  For years, I've had this idea that I should be able to plop down, alone in an empty room, with pencil and paper and spew out anything in my mind.  Well, you know what?  That doesn't work.

I need references.  For each panel that I work on, I have between 5 and 10 pictures open on my other monitor to stare at.  A body shape reference, a pose reference, a face reference, and several style references - pictures by artists that I like who do noses or ears or eyebrows in a way that I find pleasing.  And I've also got my own strips up there too as a reference, so I can aim for some consistency in character model.  I 'cheat' off of the entire world - even myself.  The better I cheat - the happier I am with my art.

So, are references really cheating? Well, no.  They are a crutch, sure.  Like using a car to get from Texas to Colorado.  I could hoof it.  But honestly, I'd prefer to use a tool to get me there more quickly.  A crutch is just a tool.  References are a tool.

No duh.  But I had to learn that.  Over and over, apparently.

Each weekly strip is taking 8 days to complete.  Yeah - the math is bad on that.  I've got to figure out a way to do a weekly strip in at least 7 days.  I don't want to cut corners, but I'd like to cut down on time.  Not sure how to do that, but I'll figure it out.

Currently, Underfeet is being posted to five places:

Rather Gamey Blog - http://rathergamey.blogspot.com/
Studio Arkhein's G+ Page - https://plus.google.com/u/0/+StudioArkhein/posts
Studio Arkhein's Tumblr - http://studioarkhein.tumblr.com/
Arkhein's deviantArt Gallery- http://arkhein.deviantart.com/
Underfeet Hentai Foundry Gallery - http://www.hentai-foundry.com/user/Underfeet/profile

Some of those places only get like five hits per strip, but as long as people are reading, I'll keep on posting to those places.  Others, like tumblr, never say how many hits - just likes.  So, if you are enjoying the comic, please comment or like or thumbs up or heart or share or repost or whatever.  That gives me a good gauge on what and where I should be posting.  Feedback helps. :)

Again, a big thanks to all of those who have supported me - my family, my gaming group, blog readers and art looker-at-ers.  I appreciate it!

- Ark

Monday, January 18, 2016

Yahfi by CowsGoMoose


CowsGoMoose did this amazingly awesome picture of Yahfi the wild child.  She can be seen here at a Menzoberranzan nedeirra, or sweat dance (rave) that the young drow indulge in.  Well, that is in our D&D game in which I play Yahfi.

The comic strip Yahfi isn't located in the Forgotten Realms, has never heard of Menzoberranzan, and is instead a dökkálfar from Norse mythology.  You know, for IP reasons. :)  Although with the new OGL, she might be completely legal.  Well . . . no . . . most likely the comic would violate 'community standards' . . . okay, the comic will violate ALL standards, so no, Yahfi has nothing to do with WOTC.

Again, CowSoMoose did an amazing job.  Go visit her tumblr!

- Ark

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Blog Header Image Change (NSFW, of course)

You may have noticed a slight change around the blog.  I updated the header image for the first time in like five years.  The previous image was drawn for me by the wonderful artist Angel Ureña.  But this blog has become increasingly about my art, and my foray into comics, so I felt a change was needed.

It's been a fun, scary, and hectic time working on the Underfeet story.  I'd like to thank everyone for their support of my arting over the years, and this current comic in particular.  It meas a lot.  For me, drawing is like trudging into a dungeon and taking on a fire breathing dragon.  The armor chafes, my hair goes up in flames, but when I look back on what I've done, the carnage makes me smile.  I'm glad I can share the experience.

- Ark

Friday, January 1, 2016

Underfeet: Subsurface Swords and Sorcery

Happy New Year!

When I was little, my sister and I used to trace characters out of the Peanuts comic strips and tweak them to make our own.  Since then I wanted to come up with my own characters, my own art, and my own strips.  But I could never put down on paper the images I saw in my head, and by my mid-teens, I had given up on drawing.

Mostly.

I'd crank out a picture every other year, armed with a how-to drawing book.  I was never happy with them, even though I'd fiddle with the lines for six months.

Come to find out you can't read your way into becoming an artist.  You have to actually ART.

Five years ago I decided to ART.  Really.  Eventually I started to art every day.  There were ups and downs.  I started a failed comic strip or two.  Or three.  Or five.  But dammit, I wanted to tell cool stories with pictures.  And draw boobies.  For the rest of my life.

So finally, 2016 is here.  I've achieved the minimal art skills I deem necessary to pull off a weekly comic strip.  Well . . . okay . . . there are plenty of artists who make really great comic strips with just stick figures.  Or just really bad art but great stories.  So it's not art skills, per se, but confidence.

I finally have the confidence.

This year I'll be publishing a comic strip called Underfeet: Subsurface Swords and Sorcery on Thursdays.  It's not one of those strips that goes on forever.  The initial story is forty strips long, per my outline, and has a beginning, middle, and end.  More Underfeet stories may follow, or I may move on to a different story-verse.  Who knows.  But I'll be ARTing all over the place.

Warning: the story will be NSFW.  Boobs and butts mostly.  I may add in "extra" strips as well with more explicit content - but I'll post those on sites that are more kind to those sorts of things (I'm looking at you tumblr.)

The cover page for Undefeet goes up next Thursday, followed by the story proper on each Thrusday after that.  Enjoy!

- Ark