Month/Year/Decade-end Highlight

To cap off each month, I've decided to do an end-of-month highlight on my personal favorite pieces of art that I've done for that respective month.  I suppose I'll also do year-end highlights as well.  But considering that this site started less than a month ago, the month/year/decade-end highlights will all be the same!

Anyway, here is my favorite piece that I've done this past month/year (that I've submitted, anyway).  Happy New Year's, everyone!  I look forward to seeing what 2020 and the new decade has in store for me, as well as this site!

Christmas Bonus 1/?

Merry (early) Christmas.

Here's an illustration of Magus from Chrono Trigger.  Easily my favorite character from the game.

I've always had a hard time drawing Magus.  I can't quite pinpoint what it is, but something about his face and jawline always throw me off.  Yet, (especially in the anime cutscenes) he looks strikingly similar to Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z, someone whom I draw very frequently with ease.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this drawing.  A few things are off, but I'll live with them.  I spent over two hours last night reworking his head.  In the original drawing, his head was way too big for the rest of his body, but I didn't realize until I had colored everything.  I love ArtFlow as my mobile device drawing app, but it does have its limitations--one of which being that I can't select and edit multiple layers at once.  So the outline layer and the various flat and shading layers all incorporated in his head had to be reworked independently.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Son Goku, Super Saiyan

I had fun drawing this.  I also tied something different.  Instead of starting straight away with the skeleton, I instead drew a very loose abstract of what I wanted the character to pose as, then layered the skeleton on top, ending with adding in details, checking for proportions, and finally, coloring.  Overall, I'm very happy with the results.

Some more sketches

I've just been tinkering around with some new techniques.  This is an original character of mine.  I don't have a name for her yet, and this is certainly not her final design.

I'm not thrilled with the body suit design.  It's gone under many different iterations over the years.  But I'm really liking the hair, which is something I've struggled with in female and even male characters for years.

Another quick illustration

Another Zero. Is quick and sloppy, but I had fun doing it. I've also figured out how to transfer works between my phone and tablet via the cloud, so if I start a project on one device, I can resume it on the other. The process is a tad bit cumbersome, but nothing too extravagant.

Quick Sketches

Just posting a couple of quick sketches.  I've been watching some recorded streams from Jim Lee lately, and have been trying to incorporate some of his tips and techniques into my style.  I'm looking how it turned out, but definitely need more practice.

In other news, I've decided on a new, more permanent web house, but I'm going to wait until the new year before I take the plunge, since I'll be paying for it (Blogger is free, but it's so very limited and buggy).

Mid Week Update

I've been tinkering with some rough sketches.  I'll upload them later.

I watched a Jim Lee stream the other day.  It's always educational for me to watch other successful artists work their magic.  I carefully study their techniques, and try to incorporate some of it into my style.

I've been spending a great deal of time researching alternative web hosting options.  A WordPress-style site builder is what I'm looking for.  I'm currently stuck between Host Gator and Blue Host.  Host Gator seems to be the cheapest option, especially with unlimited bandwidth and hosting, which will be essential for displaying my art.  However, Host Gator doesn't have true WordPress at that cheap option.  I'd have to pay quite a bit more money per month to get that.  Then there's Blue Host.  They're not the cheapest, but offer WordPress.  However, their cheapest option restricts bandwidth and storage.  At the early stages of this site's life, I do not necessarily need all that storage and bandwidth.  So perhaps I can get away with it for the time being.  But to get the unlimited option, I'd basically be paying double the rate.

Perhaps I don't need true WordPress at the start, anyway.  If Host Gator has a money back guarantee, I think I'll give them a shot.  If I don't care for their UI/site builder, then I can cancel and go to Blue Host.

I know I can get WordPress for free, but for right now, it's much to cumbersome to teach myself the basics of it and SQL.  I can learn as I go along, and perhaps it'll open up new avenues for me down the road.

Zero

We can't have X without his BFF Zero, can we?

Zero is always fun to draw.  Perhaps it's because of his jagged edges, wild hair, or the fact that he rocks a beam saber.

Nothing too radical or new in this illustration.  However, I'm pretty satisfied with how his green chest crystals came out.  Those have always been difficult to color because of the reflective nature of translucent objects.  One of these days, I'll teach myself how to properly color reflective metal surfaces (like his wrist cuffs, for example).

Small updates

I added some more (older, but recent) works to the gallery page (see the navigation bar above).

Also, I realized that this site looks horrid on mobile. Between that, the horrendous UI with Blogger, and its overall bugginess, I will likely be reworking this site through another (better) website builder. I used to know pretty advanced HTML and could have written this site myself back in the day, but I haven't attempted HTML since my college days (see early 2000s). The internet has changed so much since then. It will take quite a while if I am to attempt to relearn everything and more.

So in the mean time, if you're on mobile, switch to desktop view for this site. It may not be optimized, but it's a hell of a lot better than the mobile incarnation.

Also, I'm nearly done with next week's picture. I'll post it as soon as I'm done, since I'll likely need some time off for other personal matters.

Mega Man X

Here's my first submission, which is my latest quick illustration.  I've been using the Samsung Note series for many years, primarily for the built-in stylus.  It makes it incredibly easy to get out that itch I get to doodle something.  

I don't know why, but Mega Man X has always been something of a challenge for me to draw.  He has wild proportions with his exceptionally large hands/wrists and lower legs/boots.  Drawing his chest armor and helmet have also been challenging.  However, recently, I realized that I perhaps have been going about it improperly.  When I sketch the rough frame, I include the armor already in the skeleton.  I believe that screws up my proportions, as well as finding the anatomic landmarks I use to draw the rest of his body.  This time around, I framed X without the armor, then, when satisfied with the proportions, sketched the armor on top.  I went back with my inking pen tool, and traced over my skeleton WITH the armor, and was very satisfied with the results.

Coloring is so much fun for me to do, especially since I (embarrassingly) recently discovered what "alpha channels" can do.  It more than halved my coloring time.

Anyway, here's the Blue Bomber.  Hero to one of my favorite all-time game franchises (Mega Man X2 is my absolute favorite game in the series, in case you were wondering).

The Alpha

Welcome to ZXenoArt.com

I am ZXeno (the Z is silent...or the X... I don't care).

This is the foundation to my online blog/digital portfolio.

I am a life-long artist who is trying to reignite his passion for drawing, illustrating, painting, and other related art fields.  I primarily do figure drawing; however, as this site, my time, and my skills develop, expect more and broader submissions.

For the time being, I will be sticking to a schedule of one new simple submission (i.e. a quick illustration) by the end of day Saturday each and every week.  In addition to that, once a month by the last day of each month, I will submit a grander submission, probably along the lines of a larger pencil drawing, or other various and elaborate piece of art.

I look forward to sharing my artwork with the world, and seeing how my art, my passion, and me develop over time!