Alfisti's Sketchings

Even on a perfect day in Paris with a perfect coffee brewed by an awesome barista, Monty can still be grumpy.

TeaTimeNinja wrote:holy crap man thats amazing work. so much to take in!

PSVT wrote:Really awesome job on your latest pic, Alfi! It's pretty cool to see most of your rather disparate characters together in one scene (OK, Sayaka belongs to Nsio, but still...) and have everything and everyone feel like they actually belong. The amount of detail is amazing too, not just in the still background but in the activity, the little touches that make the scene look alive. I like it a lot.

Cheers chaps. It's been awhile since I did one of these sort of detailed, slice of life, type pictures, and I've always enjoyed the exercise of trying to give an environment a lived-in feel, so it was a nice thing to return to. I've also always quite liked the idea of characters on similar timelines (or in similar feeling universes, see some of those old Firefly/Aria pics) brushing past each other without really meeting. While it's very unlikely that an actual crossover between any of these would work, there's also nothing to really say they can't operate in the same universe, just that they operate in different, non-overlapping parts of it.   

Kiskaloo wrote:Even on a perfect day in Paris with a perfect coffee brewed by an awesome barista, Monty can still be grumpy. 

Well it is Monty. That said, at this particular moment I suspect she's somewhat more concerned over what Interpol is doing nosing around on the other side of the street.

dA version

Quick expression and pose practice with Lettie. I love Monty to bits, but she's basically useless for this sort of thing. Also trialling a lower effort rendering style for doing, well, exactly this sort of thing with.

Not certain how I feel about that brenton stripe on her either yet. I like the look, but have yet to figure out how much I want to vary her outfits as, up to now, she's always been pictured more as the sort of person who has a "uniform", a general style of outfit that she does not vary much from.

Very cool, Alf. The new rendering style reminds me of your Belgian-comic tribute, but slicker. I like that, as you say in your DA account, you're developing her background and personality as a literary character by drawing her. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words.

Re Monty: In your earliest sketches, Monty was quite expressive: when she accidentally used too much explosive, when she snatched her camera back from 'Etta, when she and Jethro were arguing over a map. Don't sell her short in that regard. She just gets few opportunities to be surprised or put on the spot in your fics. I'd much like to see a sketch of her and Jethro at the dining hall table the morning after his night out with the boys. The range and subtlety of expression between them at the moment he gave her the newspapers would be challenging to portray, I think.

You know what they say about stripes, Alf: vertical ones are slimming, horizontal ones are ... not. Lettie must already be going through teenage hell at school because of her figure; an outfit that makes her poor tatas pop out even more would have her holding her books to her chest all day(I suspect that her brassieres are as sturdy, carefully-engineered - and sexy - as suspension bridges).

The new style looks pretty fresh. and holy crap for a 15 year old she is pretty... well developed

TeaTimeNinja wrote:The new style looks pretty fresh. and holy crap for a 15 year old she is pretty... well developed

I think you could delete the 'for a 15 year old' part with complete confidence. Clearly Alfisti was, after Monty, ready to draw a girl who was a little different. And Judging by Odile, Alfisti looked upon what he had wrought and judged it good.

Alfisti wrote:Quick expression and pose practice with Lettie. I love Monty to bits, but she's basically useless for this sort of thing. Also trialling a lower effort rendering style for doing, well, exactly this sort of thing with.

It would be "Monty looks bored", "Monty looks really bored", "Monty looks annoyed", "Monty looks really annoyed", etc.

Excellent job with Lettie there, Alfi! It's quite a sharp distinction this rendering technique from your usual method, but I think it works rather well here. There's certainly less shading by comparison, but I think the ability to see more of the line work makes up for it in certain situations. Either way, though, Lettie's expressions are great, and I think you've done a really nice job in portraying her various emotions in a real way despite the incomplete scenes. Though, I have to agree with TSM that you shouldn't sell Monty short regarding her own expressiveness.

Thescarredman wrote:

TeaTimeNinja wrote:The new style looks pretty fresh. and holy crap for a 15 year old she is pretty... well developed

I think you could delete the 'for a 15 year old' part with complete confidence. Clearly Alfisti was, after Monty, ready to draw a girl who was a little different. And Judging by Odile, Alfisti looked upon what he had wrought and judged it good.

It's just an observation. Am i misunderstanding something??

I was observing too. You said she's well-developed for a 15-year-old; I agreed and even elaborated, saying that she's well-developed for a woman of any age. Then I compared her to Monty, and remarked that, since Alf's next young woman OC, Odile, was cut from the same cloth as Lettie, so to speak, he must have liked the change.

oh okay, i guess i just misunderstood or something. thought you were ticked off at me for saying that. It's hard to pick up tone via text messages. sorry.

again alf, im digging the different style. 

Kiskaloo wrote:

Alfisti wrote:Quick expression and pose practice with Lettie. I love Monty to bits, but she's basically useless for this sort of thing. Also trialling a lower effort rendering style for doing, well, exactly this sort of thing with.

It would be "Monty looks bored", "Monty looks really bored", "Monty looks annoyed", "Monty looks really annoyed", etc.

...But you forgot her standards: "Monty is unimpressed", "Monty looks really unimpressed", "Monty is looking at you like she thinks you're a moron". 

Thescarredman wrote:Very cool, Alf. The new rendering style reminds me of your Belgian-comic tribute, but slicker. I like that, as you say in your DA account, you're developing her background and personality as a literary character by drawing her. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words.

Re Monty: In your earliest sketches, Monty was quite expressive: when she accidentally used too much explosive, when she snatched her camera back from 'Etta, when she and Jethro were arguing over a map. Don't sell her short in that regard. She just gets few opportunities to be surprised or put on the spot in your fics. I'd much like to see a sketch of her and Jethro at the dining hall table the morning after his night out with the boys. The range and subtlety of expression between them at the moment he gave her the newspapers would be challenging to portray, I think.

PSVT wrote: Either way, though, Lettie's expressions are great, and I think you've done a really nice job in portraying her various emotions in a real way despite the incomplete scenes. Though, I have to agree with TSM that you shouldn't sell Monty short regarding her own expressiveness.

Well, to be fair, those early sketches were precisely that: early sketches, before Monty's character had had time to distil, solidify and stabilise into what it is now... or, at least, what it currently is. In many ways she is still evolving though, unlike those early days, she's no evolving with the story rather than as a result of me not having a full grasp on her.

Part of the reason for doing this exercise in the first place was to remind myself to not just follow down the same path with Lettie (that, and I was looking through a Range Murata art book and thinking I could probably stand to do a sketch page).    Perhaps doing this with Monty would be a different challenge, as she is much more subtle when displaying emotion.

TeaTimeNinja wrote:The new style looks pretty fresh. and holy crap for a 15 year old she is pretty... well developed 

Thescarredman wrote:I think you could delete the 'for a 15 year old' part with complete confidence. Clearly Alfisti was, after Monty, ready to draw a girl who was a little different. And Judging by Odile, Alfisti looked upon what he had wrought and judged it good.

Well, poor Odile was something of a victim to characterising her handler, but yes, having drawn Monty a lot, Lettie was very much the result of feeling in need of something different...

...for a character who started off essentially as an excuse to draw tits, I like to think she's doing okay. 

TeaTimeNinja wrote:The new style looks pretty fresh.

PSVT wrote:It's quite a sharp distinction this rendering technique from your usual method, but I think it works rather well here. There's certainly less shading by comparison, but I think the ability to see more of the line work makes up for it in certain situations. Either way, though, Lettie's expressions are great, and I think you've done a really nice job in portraying her various emotions in a real way despite the incomplete scenes.

Glad you blokes like the look, I'll be trying to use it a bit more to crank out things that would have otherwise been classified into "not worth the effort" or, like this, just left as sketchbook pages.

Odd you should mention the more distinct line work fitting purpose here. The more in-depth rendering style I often find the definition on expressions being lost somewhat during the rendering process. Stronger line art seems to make those easier to display and keep distinct.


Cheers chaps.

Alfisti wrote:

dA version

Quick expression and pose practice with Lettie. I love Monty to bits, but she's basically useless for this sort of thing. Also trialling a lower effort rendering style for doing, well, exactly this sort of thing with.

Not certain how I feel about that brenton stripe on her either yet. I like the look, but have yet to figure out how much I want to vary her outfits as, up to now, she's always been pictured more as the sort of person who has a "uniform", a general style of outfit that she does not vary much from.

Ahh, expressions, emotions. luv it!

On a slightly related note, I now have a Twitter (yes, I know, Monty would be horrified). It's intended to be primarily illustration and writing related, maybe with a bit of day-to-day thrown in.

Quick one of Triela as part of weekly sketchings...

I've already dropped a comment on DA, but I'll gladly add one here. I love her pensive, almost-troubled look, and the vague shadow-men in the background who may or may not be watching her.

"Hilshire, next time I'm picking the rendezvous spot."

I actually kinda wondering if she's waiting for Hillshire to come back out of the Trattoria.
XD

Cheers chaps, I am pretty happy with how the background came out.

As to what she's doing there, well, feel free to make up your own minds, because you've probably about as good of an idea as I do.

I really do like this picture as well. Makes me wonder if she's out on a mission going separate ways with Hilshire or returning to her handler as TSM mooted. Either way, it's certainly a little spooky and pensive.

As I said, up to you as to what she's doing.

Cheers mate, I'm pretty happy with how the background and atmosphere of this one came out (even if the yellow chosen could possibly stand to be a little less sickly).

I've been a bit lax adding drawings here, but this one's probably worth putting up, cue the music.




"We were sweltering through the worst summer Rome had seen, hot and wet, incessant rain lacing air with a humidity thick enough to chew. It washed the city's grime from public view to gather underground in already trash-clogged sewers, ready to spill forth under the pressure of its own concentrated filth. Until then though it cowered hidden in its hole, and time was ticking. Something big was coming, and our list of leads was about as thin as our masters' patience. Petris was making habit of dropping by to remind us that the Politicos were expecting return on investment, but no-one's out committing terror while Noah rounds up stray dogs off the street for his ark..." 

Hilshire and Triela, but hard boiled.

The Princess does look rather more worldly wise than usual...

Great sketch, Alf. And a very nice intro for a GsG noir detective story. No doubt it's somewhere on your to-do list.

I'm guessing that's whisky in the tumbler, then...

Ah that's such an amazing sketch! Love the shading and overall atmosphere. ;___;

Thanks all, glad you like it.

Thescarredman wrote:...And a very nice intro for a GsG noir detective story. No doubt it's somewhere on your to-do list.

Perhaps not so much Noir, but certainly a Hilshire/Triela detective story is one of the two leading ideas I have should I ever return to fan fiction.

taerKitty wrote:I'm guessing that's whisky in the tumbler, then...

Could be, could be something else. TBH I had to go and check whether Hilshire smoked or not for this one.

Triela wrote:Love the shading and overall atmosphere. ;___;

Thanks Tri. I've been trying to pump a bit more mood and atmosphere into my drawings. Maybe I need to take a leave out of 47ness' book and start working on 50% grey Canson.

Your stuff is beautiful as-is, Al.

Thanks taer.

"They are crazy these terrorists!"


Rico the Cyborg. Presented with sincerest apologies to Yu Aida, René Goscinny, and Albert Uderzo... but it's been stuck in my head for ages and I needed to get it out.

Very different style. You've been experimenting again. Is it drawn in the manner of the cartoonist?

An approximation of Uderzo's style as best I could without losing too much of Rico either. The image it was based on is:

Well done, sir.

That's too good, lolz.
I had all but forgotten of that cartoon, and I can say you honored all three gentlemen well with your ever-evolving art form.

Thanks mate, glad you like it.
I still have Asterix books at home, usually try to pick up one or two French comics every time I'm over there.

Alfisti wrote:I've been a bit lax adding drawings here, but this one's probably worth putting up, cue the music.




"We were sweltering through the worst summer Rome had seen, hot and wet, incessant rain lacing air with a humidity thick enough to chew. It washed the city's grime from public view to gather underground in already trash-clogged sewers, ready to spill forth under the pressure of its own concentrated filth. Until then though it cowered hidden in its hole, and time was ticking. Something big was coming, and our list of leads was about as thin as our masters' patience. Petris was making habit of dropping by to remind us that the Politicos were expecting return on investment, but no-one's out committing terror while Noah rounds up stray dogs off the street for his ark..." 

Hilshire and Triela, but hard boiled.

Ok I was re-scrolling your impressive art catalog and was like how the heck did I miss this gem? I swear, your never fail to impress.