katoo

How to escape the cycle of death and rebirth by playing Beatmania

i hope you're all having a relaxing and decent holiday 🌟 this is a character study for another short story about a maladjusted nerd who accidentally attains enlightenment while trying to improve his gaming skills. 

for this project i'm using DALL-E generations to create some textures/patterns/motifs i intend to play with later on. i believe AI has strong potential as a tool for artmaking but like most people i take issue with the usage of artists' IP and so on... i'm largely steering clear of the entire conversation until all the techbros get bored and leave.

anyway here are a few of my favourites, i'm thinking mainly about using psychedelic trip imagery to communicate a sort of tetris effect slash "Neo sees the code" pareidolia, which AI is actually perfectly suited for.

Thanks for looking, and thank you to everyone who has stuck around for another year <3 reminder that i have now uploaded my portfolio onto instagram, which includes works from 2018 onwards. in light of twitter going down the shitter (lol) i'm planning to stay active there 👇

https://www.instagram.com/_cckatoo/ 

I/O

Crossposting from twitter. this was another digital watercolour piece in CSP that i had a lot of fun with, it's Sonny standing in front of one of the Wyvern's forelegs (plus inadvertent reveal of his halterneck pilot skins..) sketch below!

Sketchbook aug - dec '22

cw for some minor nudity

a backlog and some newer stuff, click the images through for captions. i've recently upgraded my setup with an iMac and some other things so i've had to spend a bit of time readjusting, but hopefully having a legit professional workspace will mean artmaking becomes easier. fingers crossed. tremendous thank you to my partner for lending me the computer :') <3

Wyvern chapter 1 has also been thumbnailed (see below) and is being sketched now, which should amount to ~26 pages. i'm looking forwards to introducing Sonny's perspective and getting to kick off the story for real!

life wise it's business as usual, i've needed to pay a lot of medical bills lately which my patreon income has been invaluable for. btw i am still offering sketches for $50+ donations on my fundraiser :) thanks again everyone for your support, as always <3

Three paintings in Rebelle

i've been trying out Rebelle over the past few weeks and i'm pretty impressed with it so far. i've been mainly using its oil painting brushes and the way the paint mixes, blends, and creates texture is pretty satisfying. never totally as good as the real thing but as a digital painter who tries to recreate traditional techniques it suits me quite well.

Patch/logo designs and an update

first of all, an immense thank you to everyone who joined last month. i'm blown away by the level of interest in my work and i'm really excited to show this story to everyone. since posting the prologue for Wyvern i've spent my time drafting the pitch, so a big thank you to friends who have been helping me out with that. i've also been thumbnailing chapter one, so i'll hopefully be able to show some WIPS soon as well as some more exciting art lol

there are a number of designs that will be making frequent appearances in Wyvern so i'm trying to nail each of these early. i would also love to make some of these into real patches one day. i'm not especially good at graphic design and CSP is not a good program for it either, but a lot of real mission patches don't tend to be pinnacles of design either, thankfully.

lastly, you may know that i've launched a crowdfunding campaign for my top surgery. i'll be making a seperate public post about it later, but i also want to thank everyone again for your support here bc it is really helping me out. again, if you donate $50+ shoot me a message with a character reference and i will do you a sketch. as always, thanks for reading <3

https://www.gofundme.com/f/rxgxsa-adrians-top-surgery-fundraiser

FAQ

Last updated 16/07/2024

Who are you?
I am average 20-something Australian man living and working on unceded Gadigal land (Sydney, NSW).

What do you do?
I am a comic artist, illustrator/painter, and writer. At the moment, Patreon is the only source of consistent income I gain from this so I also work an unrelated day job. I also have a Bachelor's degree (hons) in biomedical science and a million additional hobbies.

How do I contact you?
Please email me at aschweinsberg.art@gmail.com as I don't answer DMs anywhere else!

Are you open for commissions?
Currently I am closed for commissions. I may announce occasional, limited openings here and on Twitter/X. If you've got a special project in mind, shoot me an email at aschweinsberg.art@gmail.com.

What programs/tools/hardware do you use?
Software: Clip Studio Paint EX, Rebelle 5, Blender
Hardware: Huion Kamvas Pro 24 (4K), iMac (2017)

What brushes do you use?
My paintings made in CSP largely use this gouache brush set. For digital watercolour I use some Kyle watercolour brushes and the default "realistic watercolour" set. Most of my inking is done in this pen. I'm also a fan of this Xerox pencil brush. I usually tweak my brush settings and add textures to them.

Can I publicly repost your artwork?
No. Usage for anyone who has bought a commission from me is outlined in my commissions TOS. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about this.

Where do you post your art to?
At the moment I only share new work to Twitter, Instagram, my portfolio website and Patreon (here). Any of my art found on Reddit, Tumblr, Furaffinity, DeviantART, Imgur, Pinterest, forums/imageboards/boorus etc is not posted by me and is there without my permission unless otherwise stated. Commissioners following my TOS are exempt (as above).

Where can I buy your art as a shirt/print/sticker etc?
I sell merchandise at a few local Australian furcons. So far I've appeared at FurDU and Aurawra. I have plans for an online shop at some point, but merch isn't my main focus. Overseas con appearances may happen in the hopeful future.

Do your pages have an age restriction?
My Twitter account is generally 18+ as I sometimes post or retweet sensitive content and it is not always tagged. Occasional NSFW and sensitive content posted to Patreon is usually tagged in the description/title. Patreon has its own age restriction rules that need to be followed.

Does Wyvern have an age restriction?
Wyvern is rated (Australian) MA15+. Appropriate content warnings will be supplied.

What is the release schedule for Wyvern on Patreon?
I plan to make it available to download chapter by chapter in PDF format. At the moment there is no schedule.

Will Wyvern be released on other websites or in other digital formats?
I am planning to release it outside of Patreon depending on how things work out after the launch. An EPUB version will also be made available if I can figure that out.

Will Wyvern be released in print?
If I can find someone willing to publish it as a book, then yes.

Can I make fanart of your characters?
Yep, absolutely.

Is this artwork a reference to XYZ?
I don't know. Are you a reference?

I want to get into the Gundam franchise. Where should I start?
Watch the original 1979 anime. If you're short on time then you can watch the film trilogy instead.

What's this about a snake?
I own a Children's python (Antaresia childreni) named Baby. She is about 4 years old now and just over 100cm long. Antaresia are the smallest members of Pythonidae.

Bye Baby!

WYVERN - PROLOGUE

HOW CAN I LEARN TO LIVE –

          In a near future, Faster-Than-Light travel has allowed humanity to settle beyond the outskirts of our galaxy. As part of the deep space exploration effort, 18 year old Sonny Strekalov is chosen to test pilot the biomechanical prototype machine known as the Delta-00 “WYVERN”, but a devastating accident in the Wyvern’s cockpit leaves Sonny with deep physical and psychological scars.

The way forward now unclear, Sonny is sent to the remote space station Astrolabe where he unwillingly continues his role as pilot of the Wyvern. Aboard the Astrolabe, Sonny’s life becomes inextricably tangled with those of the crew, his squadmates, of space pirates, bureaucrats, bounty hunters, and the settlers of the planet below as they all struggle to exist 12 million light years away from Earth.

But underneath it all, a vein of corruption begins to bleed through.

– IN A WORLD THAT WILL ONLY HURT ME?

The whole chapter is finally complete and ready to read. thanks everyone for sticking around, this took much longer than i would have liked due to an extremely stressful and turbulent 12+ months but i'm hoping good things are coming for all of us. the PDF is attached below, please let me know if you have any trouble with the download. and if you can, let me know what you think. thank you <3

Prologue pg. 15-18 INKS

and with that the prologue is now fully inked! hooray! 

there are a few more pages that need toning and cleanup but once everything is ready i'm going to put the chapter together into a pdf that you'll be able to download here. almost at the starting line lol!

Prologue pg. 15-18 Pencils

the last few pages left in the prologue. once this is finished, that'll be one down and only... 50+ more chapters to go... LOL. i need to start sending some emails to publishers soon. 

thank you everyone for your support this month <3

Prologue pg.11-14 INKS

approaching the end of Wyvern's opening sequence. it feels like i'm finally hitting a stride and it feels good. "the next chapter will surely be easier to draw" i think to myself, and will likely keep thinking to myself for infinity.

here is a bonus sketch of Commander Dawn:

as always, thanks for looking <3

Comic update

hi! i'm back to work on Wyvern and i should hopefully have the prologue finished soon. after that i start pitching to publishers (!) and drawing chapter one. i've been listening to eurobeat to make myself work faster. not much else to say other than my life situation seems to finally be stabilising, so here's hoping it stays that way.

thanks everyone, as always, for sticking through another month <3

Cosmodrome

my first commissioned painting, for eridanusexpress on twitter. thank you for the opportunity! i've also attached detail crops, sketch, colour thumbnail, and a WIP shot in that order.

Cricket episode

last post to make up for being so quiet for the past month lol!! i'm not good at playing cricket whatsoever but that's why its fun to make my characters do it. because at the end of the day my second favourite thing to write and draw is people hanging out... i would probably pursue slice-of-life fiction more seriously if melodrama wasn't my first favourite thing to write and draw.

Election night

a painted-over screenshot of well known australian election analyst Antony Green. apparently the field of political science associated with polling and elections is "psephology".

Sketchbook april-may '22

mostly piled-up commission sketches and a few doodles. sometimes i like the refined commission sketches just how they are, so its nice to have a place to post them all. the third pic is an idea for a rhythm game lol... i'm envisioning something like taiko no tatsujin in terms of gameplay and looks, but the characters are all cockatoos and the music is mostly hardcore techno (the game of my dreams)

Tier and payment changes in effect

Hey everyone, as mentioned previously I've adjusted my tiers and payment settings, so I'd appreciate if you take a moment to read.

First of all, pledges are now charged up-front, meaning u will be charged on the 1st of the month now.

Changes to tiers are:

$1 tier (Rookie) is now a general support tier. You will still be able to temporarily access my post archive but all future posts will only be accessible at the $3 tier. However, you still get early access to occasional commission openings and you still get a discount :)

$3 tier (Ace) now includes all benefits & unrestricted post access. If you are already pledging $3+, please pledge directly to this tier to keep getting ur benefits! 

I'm really aiming to get more work done on Wyvern over the coming months. hopefully this change isn't too much of an inconvenience, and i hope to be able to show you some cool stuff very soon. big thank you to everyone <3

Infinite Edge

Painting made between commissions work and regular work. this is the first time i've tried using a 3D model in my painting process. i hadn't even originally intended to paint directly over the model of the helmet, but things fell into place early on and i decided to go along with it.

painters have been using physical models as reference for ages, such as with James Gurney's dinosaur paintings, and i've also seen digital painters make simple 3D material lighting references rendered on spheres to colour pick from. i considered making a render of the helmet to get a more accurate lighting reference, but i couldn't be bothered waiting and just used CSP's primitive viewport render instead lol. still i'm very pleased with the result and will probs use this method in future paintings.

inspiration for this came mainly from John Berkey and Cliff Spohn.

for patrons, changes i mentioned in my last post will be implemented by the end of this month, so if i do everything right you will be charged up front for May. once my commission queue is clear, i'll also hopefully be able to focus on project work and posting here more often. thanks so much for your patience and support 🙇

Sketchbook jan-march '22

a bunch of bits and bobs and commission sketches that i've been accumulating. life is horribly stressful right now but i'm hoping the end will be in sight soon lol!!

starting next month, i think i will also finally increase the minimum pledge to $3 and start charging upfront, and do some general housekeeping. so heads up! thank you everyone for sticking around, i'm incredibly fortunate to have your financial support, as always <3

Commission sketches 25/02

hoping to finish my current queue soon but might take on another small batch this weekend, anyone interested?

Pinhole

A quick proof of concept i made tonight, based on a scene i wrote the other day. i realised i haven't drawn or painted anything for myself in ages lol. have you ever seen a pinhole effect produced by drawn curtains? i've seen it twice, both times tied to very distinctly different points of my life

Commission sketches 29/01

Sketches for previous and upcoming commissions :) i've found that adding forced perspective on some fullbody shots is a good way to add more visual interest + depth

Prologue pg. 10 inks

realised i forgot to post this! i really want to be able to work on the comic right now but my life situation has been screwed up again :') happy new year? 

Opening for more B&W commissions

doing another round of these! as always, you guys get first go and a 10% discount.

- price before discount for fullbody is $90 USD, bust is $70 USD (via paypal, upfront)
- plus extra $ for another character or complex props, etc
- SFW or NSFW is fine!
- visual references only, please.
- DM me here or on twitter for a slot.
- my TOS can be found here: https://bit.ly/2UwMtjJ
- you can check your status on my trello here: https://trello.com/b/RzJuRCJG/commissions-2021

EDIT: forgot to mention that completion time might be a bit variable as I am still working part time and will be having a short holiday over xmas. I will be aiming to get as much done as possible before then but depending on my workload you might get your commission in Jan, so just a heads up :')

Prologue pg.9 inks + small update

More inking finished. drawing on the Mari Llwyd's "hair" in each panel is very satisfying.

so i heard back about the arts grant i applied to and i was rejected. which is a huge bummer. i'm going to move onto pitching the comic to publishers, and if that doesn't amount to anything either i will just be going ahead and releasing Wyvern as a webcomic. meanwhile i need to start looking for a new dayjob as well.. ...and on top of everything, if patreon decide to go ahead with its nft/crypto idea, i properly won't know what to do with myself any more :') happy december :')

Sunshower

Last crosspost from twitter for now. Sonny and Martin wait for the bus. i had been wanting to make this drawing for ages, mostly just to put the bunnings umbrella in there. i'm conflicted about putting brand logos in my art because i hate doing free advertising, but when it comes to flagging "australian-ness" i have to concede that branding is a certain part of the mainstream national identity, lmao...

Strangler Fig (Coloured)

i got a message from a very kind patron asking to crosspost more of my art here for anyone who doesn't use social media or doesn't get to see my art appear on twitter as much, and i'm happy to oblige! patreon also doesn't destroy image quality as badly as twitter does which is another incentive lol

starting with this, which uses traditional ink+wash from 2018 that i digitally coloured more recently. the original was a crappy phone pic so i decided to work with the grainyness instead of fighting for a clean image.

Prologue - pencils pg 9-11

and the battle rages on !

not much to say bc i'm very tired... almost at the end of this chapter... haven't heard back about the grant yet... got a new job as well which is going pretty ok. thanks for looking everyone <3

Sketchbook sep-oct 2021

CW for drug mention in captions

some bits and bobs from the past couple months. character designs/art, some experiments with a new set of paints my boyfriend gifted me. hope u enjoy :)

Prologue - Inks pg 6-8

Well these were some of the most technically complex pages out of the entire chapter so i am glad to get these fully inked finally! the Mari Lwyd makes its debut...

October update

hi everyone, sorry for no posts last month! billing has been paused to reflect this. the reason is the usual sort of thing (burnout, mental health etc etc) but i'm back on track with the comic again. i hope everyone is doing well. more things to come soon..