Mighty Mugg Entry- Cursed Knight

     This is my Mighty Mugg entry for stage 2 of the Maplestory Mighty Mugg design contest. I decorated it as the Cursed Knight/ Ice Knight. I included some of the photos I took to show the stages it went through from beginning to end.

     When I was deciding how to decorate the Mugg, I first looked at what would suit its shape. The Muggs are quite bulky, so I decided not to decorate it as anything female, delicate, etc. I wanted to make the Cursed Knight or Ice Knight as it's mostly recognized as because (in my opinion) the Muggs are more suited for superhero type designs, although the Ice Knight may be more of a villain.

     After deciding on the Ice Knight, I already had some ideas that I knew I wanted to incorporate. One of those ideas and my most favorite was to use an LED light for the flame on its helmet. I also had in mind how I wanted to make the cape along with the fuzz and chain. I'm glad that I was able to complete it as how I imagined (which almost never happens for me :P).

     Working on this was very fun, but did come with its challenges. Painting in the body and armor went pretty smoothly. I only had problems with how I was going to paint the waist because it's stick thin in the game. I decided to just paint the sides of the Mugg darker to create the illusion of it being at least somewhat thinner. My biggest problem was finding an LED to light the flames. I don't have any experience with electronics- even with the aid of tutorial videos, I wasn't sure how to fit all the components inside the flame without the light being too high or too noticeable. My dad helped me out with this. He had this head strap sort of thing that had an LED light on it for when you work in dark areas like the light on a miner hat. He took it off for me and removed the plastic dome lens to make it less bulky. I was able to set it on the top of the Muggs head, securing it with superglue and clay. You can turn it on and off too :D.

     Materials used: white primer spray paint, acrylic paint, glow in the dark paint (for the face), matte spray finisher, air dry clay, pom poms, gold ringlets & brads, black thread & fabric, wooden dowel, LED light, white tissue paper, and superglue.

Unfinished Sketch

     This is a redo of a sketch I made on my math book cover. I still haven't finished it, hopefully I will someday.

Woodblock Water Color Practices

     Drawing/ painting 2. These turned out well, but I left out the writing on the bird one. We had to practice replicating images from woodblocks to get used to the style for the final project which was a woodblock picture that incorporated something modern. I don't know where my final went, but it was a Mt. Fuji landscape with cranes and fog- I painted in a train for the modern part.

To Open Lift Seal And Tear

     Drawing/ painting 3 final project. Stencil, spay paint, acrylic paint. It started so well with the stencils, then I got to the right side and it just turned into blah. Thank you David, Darin, Juvi, Kelani, and Collin for letting me stencil you.

Lemur

     Yes, it is a lemur. Drawing/ painting 3 cubism project. I think I was a little too constructive with all the shapes, but I really like how it came out. It took a lot of time to shade each individual part. The background is somewhat down scaled compared to the lemur- I think I would do more shading if I could redo it.

Pipe Blow Out

     Directive studies project. Stencil, spray paint, acrylic paint and ink. I had fun with this project. I liked making the face and using a straw to blow paint across the canvas although it was quite tiring. I originally planned to paint hands on the instrument, but ran out of time and opted to leave them out.

If You Knew Me

     Expressionism project for drawing/ painting 3. I kept bouncing from one idea to another for this. I think I spent more time on the smoky swirly things in the background than anything and could have done better with the anatomy of the girl. The body looks a bit weird.

Tortoise

     Another sketchbook for either drawing/ painting 1 or 2.

Bag and Shoes

     Drawing/ painting 1 sketch book project. I still didn't understand that there were different types of pencils at that time and ended up doing the whole thing with an HB pencil. I think this is good for one of my first sketchbooks, but if you've seen the actual bag I used for the subject matter, then you'd notice a glaring mistake- the bag is black. I don't know how I drew it as an entirely different shade, but it worked somehow.

Seeing Music

     Directive studies project- acrylic paint, color pencil, ink, and water color. This project was such a disaster. It started out pretty well and I had a few ideas that I knew I wanted to incorporate like the gold fish plant and music box, but the execution got sloppy. I think there's just a few too many random things on it. Stop looking at it.

Skater

     This was done a few years ago, I think for drawing/painting 1 or 2. It's an ink painting of speed skater Krysia (original photo taken by Ted Szukalski). I was so thrilled at how well it turned out especially after running into a few problems while working on it. For instance, while I was painting in the faint shadow on the ice, I accidentally dropped a dark splotch of ink. I tried water it out which kinda helped, but it was still too dark. I then resorted to white ink to cover it up, but the white ink was whiter than the paper, so I painted in all the ice with white ink.

Willow

     Directive studies project. Acrylic painting on paper board thing. I wanted to do something different so I tried to use a softer palette of pastel colors this time. The tree is a bit squished up at the top, but I think it alright overall. I can't remember why I even chose to do this- maybe just to experiment.

I AM AN AMERICAN RAWR

     This is an acrylic painting featuring Darin with a domo, paper cranes, and the American flag. This project was painted using the Van Gogh style which incorporates hatching lines throughout the painting.
     I thought it would be pretty cool to use this style, but now that I've finished the project, I can say that I don't really like it. It turned out pretty good. I think the flag was done well.
     Originally, the photo of Darin had a classroom background and nothing on the table. I wasn't sure what to use for the background and table items. I thought about using the background from the Van Gogh picture that I used as a model, but it seemed too plain and I thought I could make it better. I decided to put symbols that represented Darin in the painting. He makes paper cranes a lot, and likes domo, so I painted those. Darin is also always saying that he is an American, hence the flag and of course the title :).

Panda Blah

     Mixed media/collage project. It didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to, but that's what I get for procrastinating :\. At first, coming up with an idea was troubling me. I had several ideas, but kept changing them. I had drawn a small picture on one of my notebooks earlier in the year so at the last minute, I decided to use it for my project.
     The background is acrylic paint with inked metal pieces. I tore, painted, and pasted tissue squares on a swirly cut out then pasted that onto the paper. I then pasted the panda and dripped ink throughout the paper.
     It felt like a good idea, but after I pasted the tissue paper, I wasn't too confident. I think it's the color that I'm not happy about. I could have made the picture bleed off the paper a bit too.

Black and White Acrylic Painting Project

     This is an acrylic painting of a woman in a gas mask, painted during quarter one. It turned out great but came with its challenges.
     Starting the painting went well. I was able to sketch it out fairly fast and begin painting. I started painting the face first so that I could cover any excess with the black paint used for the gas mask. However, actually painting the face took longer than I thought. Making the lighter shades and gradients was difficult. I would often have problems getting the color right or smoothing out the gradients. At one point, there was a dark splotch on the nose because part of the paint had lifted up. I put so many layers of paint on the face that you can barely see the tooth of the canvas.
     In a way I sort of of cheated. After I had finally gotten the skin right, I moved on to the eye. I didn't want to screw up on the make up and have to redo the skin, so instead of making smooth gradients, I used a tiny brush to make small hatching lines.
     The gas mask didn't give me any problems, it just took time to finish it. I painted the hair last which was the easiest part then I was finally done :). It only took one quarter to paint it...
     This was also based off of a photo I found on google. I haven't been able to find the original again to credit the photographer, so if anyone knows, please let me know.

Rana's Pond Slide Pictures

     Slides used for a picture drama. Representing the story of a ninja fanatic named Kenny who kicks a frog one day. Unknowingly, Kenny has kicked the deity of the pond. Rana, who then turns Kenny into a tadpole. The pictures were drawn on 4''x4'' paper then scanned onto the computer which were then colored using photo shop. These show 22 of the 77 slides.

      I worked very hard on all my slides, even though they seem kind of simple. It was my first time using photo shop to color which was an interesting and frustrating experience at the same time, but I'm glad I pursued the method because the pictures wouldn't have looked nearly as good if i used the paint program alone.