I've been doing a lot of free sketching this week - aimlessly drawing without a particular plan or concept in mind. These types of drawings rarely turn into postable sketches, and often are incredibly pathetic (here is an example) Yet there are those rare times that an aimless sketch results in a pretty good drawing, like the one I did last night.

Usually when I start sketching something out, I know more or less what I am trying to draw. For instance, I might be in the mood to draw Kimiko in a bath towel (hasn't happened yet) or a character from some anime or game. It really depends on what mood I am in, and sometimes what's on TV. :P I'll typically curl up in a chair with a sketchbook to draw (which tends to draw the cats who like to curl up right there on the sketch pad surface - an annoying habit they have).

As you've probably noted, it's rare that I'll draw a nameless characters, or just pretty faces. I like to give a little depth to what i draw. A lot of times, I'll end up with a drawing that looks attractive, but doesn't have any real 'feel' to it - there are no real emotive qualities. Those just get left in the sketchbook rarely see the light of day.

When i am free sketching, and really *don't* know what i want to draw, things sometimes come out of the blue that really work well. Kimiko, her design, her look, her hair, her personality, all came from a free sketch session that resulted in this drawing. It just sorta happened, and as I fiddled with it, i started to get a sense of what her character was, her strengths, her weaknesses, her personality quirks - everything. Her whole character came from this drawing and the one i did immediately following. It essentially replaced the original design, which always seemed to be lacking something.

To me, this is the real interesting part of drawing - once you've got a good handle on the fact that your drawing will at least look a little like a human being, it starts to be come a tool for the creative process. A good chunk of Megatokyo (the parts that I came up with), as well as Warmth itself were developed curled up in that chair fighting off the cats. :) I'm grateful that it seems that some of the ideas and emotive qualities I try to put into these drawings are decipherable by other people. That's where the gratification of art comes from - being able to really communicate what you want to evoke with your art.

Most of the fredart stuff is pretty rough. If you go back far enough, you can see that there are some really bad drawings in there. For some reason, i really like the idea that YOU can see things from the 'inside' - rather than just getting the finished product. For me, I enjoy the feedback, and the immediacy of just throwing stuff out there. Would everyone like Megatokyo as much if largo and I didn't share our thoughts, sketches and meaningless prattle? Imagine if we kept the existence of Ping-chan, and other details secret till they showed up in the comic? To me, this wouldn't be as much fun.

The final element to this, which to me is very important, is the forums. The participation in the forums blows me away, it really does. I like to think of them as an extension of MT itself - and largo and I are batting around a few ideas to make the forums even better. I read thru the forums every day, and dammnit it takes too long! @_o;;

Finally, I think I've decided that 'warmth' will take the form of some sort of simulation/visual novel format. I am working on some flash 'prototypes' that all of you will get a chance to play with. I did a LOT of thinking about this over the weekend - now i just need to quit my job so i can actually do some of them. :P I'll let y'all know when they are ready for testing - it might be a few weeks.

ah... ok, I'll shut up now. :)