Good Wednesday people; I'm not up to posting a lengthy blog today, but as per usual I come in w/ a midweek update. This time, it's the finished inks for my Bilstein boss tribute entry. These should've been finished earlier, but I ran into the issue of working on multiple pieces. Some of those are on hold @ the moment as I continue painting this one (I'll probably post some painting progress next week if it isn't already done by then or close to being done by that time).
I'm still experimenting w/ line weighing to achieve the best results, and it doesn't help that-on the paper I use-my smallest pen (at least the Prismacolor one; haven't given the Fabel-Castell one any use yet as there's no need) still goes a little heavy-handed on some areas, tho I could use some further refinement in adjusting pressure of the hand on the surface. Indeed, I didn't really 'get' into the groove for the inking until around halfway through, and seeing as how I have to ink the image twice (once to cover details, then again to close gaps after erasing), I could've gone much easier on the 1st round. Notice for next time.
Also went ahead and changed his left arm quite a deal from what I had going for a while. The old position (not sure if that's in the WIP I posted earlier; doubt it) just wasn't convincing. Inking this image was somewhat a nightmare, and like I've said before the sheer amount of detail and non-organic features on Bilstein was a big factor. I definitely will be trying more inorganic, geometric objects to draw in the future (might as well go look for that ruler while at it) so characters and instances like Bilstein aren't as much of a problem.
Even so, I'm fairly satisfied w/ how the lines have turned out. Due to the way I paint, a lot of these lines will either end up getting chopped or trimmed down a lot, something I thought of doing w/ Mai but only sparingly did so. In fact, as I attest to in the opening, painting's already started. Hoping to have the flats done today (no biggie), and working on the underpainting w/ what time can be afforded. In any event it should not take long to finish this one, even tho the amount of detail is heavy, simply b/c the overall color palette is going to be smaller (if that actually qualifies for noting if anything's gonna be easier x3).
Next week I'll come back w/ an update on this, my Alita pic and the background image I'm using for the Pro-Spec blog (yes, I finally got around to the damn thing xD), all at various points of completion. Meanwhile I'll be drawing, living and tying up loose ends. Take care; l8r.
Afternoon all; thought I'd stop by quick to put up some progress for a couple of new pictures. I already mentioned one of these before, but she's being accompanied by her eternal rival. Meanwhile the Blue Mary picture will be resumed as hastily as possible, but it is a complicated beast, hence why I'll do these ones in the meantime.
Just some lines for structure as I get ready to paint them today. I'm definitely using my acrylics for these ones..the big question now is how far. If I fancy it I might complete them fully by hand, which would be nice, and I think I can do that now. But I've gotten some neat stuff out of Corel...oh if only my mouse weren't such shit xD!
I'll be steady w/ these two, have them done in a few days. Meanwhile I'm going to need to eat some lunch, so catch 'ya all on the flipside :)!
Not a biggie of a post here peoples; just following through on my promise to keep uploads somewhat consistent over the weekend while I work on these for that contest I mentioned yesterday. It actually ends Tuesday which is two more days than I thought, so I am gonna save the painting and final outlines until maybe Sunday/Monday respectively, and resume Poison on Monday (and finish her then too; just need to ink it now more or less).
I managed to get this one roughed here in maybe an hour and a half, not counting breaks and distractions. That also includes having restarted from a previous picture of her backside I just wasn't digging @ all, but that's my fault. Had no clear idea what pose I wanted doing this and in general I have a tougher time w/ backshots than front ones, which really needs to be worked on over time. Also, her left hand in particular gave me a really tough challenge; what's here is quite less dynamic of a posture for it than I was aiming for, but I scaled back b/c it wasn't looking too hot in the original form. Such is the life of drawing stuff like this w/ absolutely no handy references around whatsoever :S.
Again, did a nude mainly as some additional anatomy practice, and there's roughly enough detail in this and the front where I can just draw the rest of the outfit and proceed, 'cuz that's where the actual point of these entries is. But indeed, I'll never turn down some anatomy practice if I can squeeze it in there; the more the better ;)
I'll be back tomorrow w/ pics of the painting as it's done for them both; if able I'll pop back l8r tonight to post these ones again w/ the clothing on and then the paintings @ the end of tomorrow. Feeling really good in how these will turn out, since it's been a LOT of (undocumented, truly) time these past few weeks strengthening every aspect of my approach to my traditional drawing and digital painting, but I'll just let the results speak for themselves. Gonna eat egg rolls about now; have a gr8 Saturday see 'ya l8r :)
I'm back, peoples, and it's kinda been a long time. I skipped posting up any art last week b/c I felt I hadn't made enough progress (and the fact I've abandoned the Suzuka and cloud pictures, MOTL), and throughout the time since then I have just been focusing intently on finding my strengths w/ Corel and the real direction I want to take my stuff in. Welp, I'm back now; I feel like I've gotten a fair deal of tough shit done, some ample progress, and I'll also show off one of the newer pieces I'm now just starting on. So let's jump in there, eh?..
Like I just said earlier, Suzuka and that cloud painting have been put on hiatus, indefinitely. I've learned a great deal from the effort put in both, but finishing them won't allow me to do that much in terms of reflecting what I can do *now*. And, that's what it's really about; I need to do pieces that reflect relatively well where I'm at right now. I drew those Outlaw Star pics weeks ago (my drawing skills have improved dramatically sense then, if I do say so myself ;) and the clouds one was just started on a whim to get used to painting them (which I am now,...well, at least cumulonimbus clouds are x3). It's probably true that you can turn anything to a high level of polish regardless of its starting state, but everything can only be improved by such a measure, if the underlying foundation can accommodate. That's why I've moved from those pieces for now; I have a pursuit to push myself to the levels of the artists I admire such as Joe Vriens...
Genzoman...
and Artgerm....
....and it might seem a little impossible to try and cram so much effort in so little time but I'm just that hungry to improve, I'd say. Of course, I can't neglect what progress I make at any time or depreciate that feeling of satisfaction over any piece, so even w/ these works I have discontinued, I feel eternally grateful for what they've helped me learn, as all of that carries over into the newer works (the ones here, I WILL be finishing btw!).
Newer version; grainy, rough, but the foundation's there...
This is the new 'Blue Mary' piece I may or may not have mentioned a while ago. I think this drawing's about maybe 2-3 weeks old by now (if not older), but it's still newer than Poison. I've always been a sort of semi-closet fan of SNK's characters; the original FF3 movie got me hooked into ther aesthetics and universe, and while I may tend to favor Capcom fighters from a pure playability POV, in comparison to the older SF games I think many of the later FF and some of the KOF games more than hold their own. One thing that's always impressed me w/ them is their sense of detail and atmosphere in their backgrounds; by comparison I don't think it was until Darkstalkers where I began really caring for backgrounds of Capcom's fighters, but SNK had that on-lock from the original FF. A small cavet sure, but still...
A much older drawing done back February of the same char
Anyway, I actually decided to do Blue Mary b/c I had drawn her a few months ago and inked her out, but never finished. I was going to color her digitally and all, but I just kinda moved on. Looking back, I can appreciate what I was able to do w/ that one then, but I knew I could do a much better job now and henceforth I'm carrying onward w/ the new rendition. I'm really trying to push for 'full-inclusive' sorts of shots now; work in some focus, some drama, some strong sense of perspective, proportion, foreshortening and composition. It amazes me sometimes how some really technically awesome artists, when you really think about it, stay in some very basic rooms on some of that mentioned stuff. That's the sort of box trap I'm hoping to avoid. Certainly I can see why some may be that way, b/c personal struggle @ this moment indicates that just getting one or two of that sort of stuff down is very challenging, and w/ different subject matter only that much more so. But yeah..back to the picture (lolz)..at the very least I hope it seems like Mary is "reaching out" to the viewer.
Although painting has started on this one, it's so crude @ the moment I'd rather not upload it just yet. Next week tho, I can definitely put up the painting (for all I know it might be finished by then too...just shot myself in the foot, didn't I?)
I would've put the coloring for the jeans and shirt up, but the shirt is terrible atm and why put up the jeans w/o the shirt x3?
P.S: Also, still no lines; haven't inked them yet :S
Now w/ Poison, I've finally gotten most of the base work done; the areas to tackle from here are the textures and lighting. Oh, and I still need to do the linework as well (the paper will be getting got TODAY, thankfully). It's been a tall order, and in-between the week I've had to really reorganize some files to make them easier to access and compressing active memory consumption, but all the effort's been worth it.
The original reference photo...
Somehow, I seem to be pushing for a more realistic look, not necessarily hyperrealism but not quite as simple as some of the more 'basic' anime shading either (which would actually be harder w/ my mouse setup, plus the fact I don't tend to use colors directly, aka I'm a Glazeman). Somewhat unexpected but maybe just natural coincidence. Yesterday alone I spent a good deal of time trying to paint some convincing lipstick/lipgloss and some skin texturing...the issue of constraint and finding a balance btwn too little and too much realism is really daunting, but one step at a time, I would suppose.
Btw, a closer look at the lips: busted my ass trying to somewhat replicate the ref but not ripping it. Some more tune-up work and could have something to go w/ for real ;)
..and my result, many layers and strokes l8r...
I'll leave it @ that for today's update. I do have an inkling to catch up on some games and films I haven't had the chance to do so w/ over the week, but at the same time...I REALLY don't wanna stop drawing and painting x3. Will definitely continue to try painting more of both pics throughout the day and just noting what works for me and what doesn't. At the very least, it feels good to have a head filled w/ some useful jargon again. Hope you all enjoyed the stuff, pleae look forward to next time. L8r and have an awesome weekend!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
---------------------
Howdy everyone; it's another Saturday and that means it's time for another art update. Before I begin, you'll probably notice that this one will be shorter on the text than usual. That's because I'm actually finding it harder to get the energy to talk about these lol. Between actually working on these pictures (which over the past week's meant neglecting some of them and figuring out how to dramatically streamline my process to set up an environment where these pictures can get done in roughly a day or two, as it should be ;) and life in general, there isn't enough time to devout anymore in writing up a bunch of stuff for these uploads. I'm just getting more into the set of working to actually get stuff done nowadays, so everything here is pretty much on some level of near completion...almost everything...
If this looks like she has a facial cleaning mask on, then I've succeeded.
First up is my current work on Suzuka. This one got neglected later on the past couple of days, so there hasn't been as much done as there should be. However I'm likely going to take a day out to work solely on it, and get her done then. Possibly early next week on Monday..in fact I might just do that w/ all three of these. Take one day out for a few hours and just finish them..should work that...
Okay anyhow, the picture itself really needs to be injected w/ a bit more life, and the colors and value mapping needs to get done as well. At this point I've gotten the process streamlined to a point where this should be finished faster than I originally thought, just keeping fingers crossed everything holds up well.
Probably needs a little glaze of some Burnt Sienne-ish color...
Like Suzuka my cloud painting's gone unworked on the later half of this week. But, I still managed to inject some color in there, to where it's a bit closer to the source image. All I have to really do is blend a bit more in most spots and add in the effects, and it should be done. But, chances are I'll hold off until Suzuka's finished to tackle this one.
Still a ways to go, but at least it can get done much faster now
This Poison picture managed to surprise me w/ it's original size. @ the moment it's practically life-sized, and this version imaged here takes a hit as a result of the resizing I had to do and the compression of the JPEG format. Actually, I've been wondering if it's best to scale down the image size period, but if this scale-down has proven anything it's that there might be too much data in the original to scale down too small before producing some ugly aliasing and artifacts. As for work on the pic itself, yesterday it came to my attention I was moving WAY too slowly on this, so I've begun moving at fuller blast and it's paying off big time. I'll get some more done on her Sunday but put off until Wednesday to get the bulk of the rest finished :)
Actually, this whole "slowness" deal has always been a problem for me. I've always been very meticulous about minute little details. That in itself isn't bad, but something felt wrong about me tackling that level of precesion right off the bat. In other words, I don't think I've been tackling my pictures w/ the right amount of "energy". Ever since I revamped my drawing process those have been coming along much faster than usual from basic concept to realization (inking is another matter; I could get inks done much faster now but I have another idea for doing them which would require a printer w/ working cartridges, as far as inking digital work, given I lack a tablet and wouldn't dare use a mouse for something like inking), but I didn't bother to take the same effor w/ the painting. And yesterday, when I was yet again going through meticulous stuff w/ Poison, I thought "this is boring. Let's bring some ENERGY!".
At that moment I recalled an article of a traditional artist who said that some of the most expressive stuff utilizing all the possible variety of tools and techniques available to the artist. They mentioned, for instance, that the first few stages of a painting should be where the energy is exploding, perfection be damned. Let loose and refine later on. Well,..it wasn't *quite* like that, but all the same. I had been doing the opposite even w/ these digital paintings, and it just wasn't feeling right. So, at least on some level, I agree w/ that notion and I've been pressing fuller tilt on at least Poison since, which has resolved my eagerness and confidence. That fits my mindset just fine, b/c I actually DON'T like spending a long time on these pieces; the onset of new ideas tends to draw away my interest of old ones pretty quickly so it's best to fufill them to their peak in the short while they hold my attention.
Lol, it's like Chop Shop Master Onion meets Mr. Potato Head!
Righties...so that'll complete it for me as far as today's concerned. I'll likely spend some time catching up on games and watching a few films, or just visit a good friend. In the meantime, and until next week, I hope everyone does their best to find some enjoyment and stride in their pursuits. I'll be back w/ something Wednesday, and finally put an end to this WIP madness next weekend and maybe let crack on a few other pictures in the wings. So until then, take care and prosper. Catch 'ya all next time; l8r :)
What's up people? I FINALLY managed to beat that bastard Mongolor in the Tower of Hera. Man, what an annoying boss. Something felt terribly off about him compared to the other two bosses..it didn't help that the sword was about the length of a broken toothpick. And to add insult to injury, you get the Master Sword right after that. Well, I have that now, the witch stuff and something that looks like the Triforce symbol from Ocarina of Time...wow I suck at naming shit lol.
Anyway, the reason I'm here is to post up a new picture. I'll post up my current work on Poison tomorrow (maybe), but for today I'll be showing what I managed to get done on Suzuka over the past two days. Actually, before getting to that, I'd like to take the moment to mention that the OS and Valkyrie painting I had been posting here for some time now are both on hold.
The OS picture (w the three girls and Jim) was really just a freak exercise in getting used to outlining and shading w/ a marker/pen again. Certainly, it's been a huge help. I will most likely finish it this week in-between much newer pieces. As for Valkyrie, the painting is just hanging on hold while I come to grips w/ "something" (it's a heavy thought; better saved for much later in some other entry). In the meantime, what I'll try doing is paint the character again, but this time I'll use Corel. "Huh?", you ask. "But that's a digital program!"....read on...
Suzuka here, as you can likely guess, is being painted in Corel. I got the program a few days ago and spent the bulk of the first half of this week learning how it worked, seeing the strength of the brushes and the mixer tool, and making test color palette sets, that sort of stuff. I probably didn't get to painting her until Wednesday. So far I'm just adapting what I would do by hand to the computer screen, and it's going pretty well. There's no doubt about this: this will be my companion in all future art pieces, for sure (though I would like to use the paints again).
While I'm still familiarizing myself w/ the program, it hopefully won't take too long. I'll also be getting a jump on painting the Poison one sometime next week, or at least come up w/ a color palette for it. Between them it's off to get a couple more ink cartridges; the printer has been out of stock on both for about a year :S. And more computer paper...yeah...
So tomorrow, I'll put up the lines for the Poison pic...most likely. I'm actually more inlined to wait until at least the base painting has been done, and that should only take a day or so. So if it's not up tomorrow you know for sure I'll post something of it next weekend. And by that time, I'll have Suzuka and Valkyrie (in yet another unsurprising revamp xD) done. The time of the WIPping boy is almost done people, just be patient.
I'm out for now; take care and keep kickin' it. L8rz.
What's up everyone? Today I have some more WIPs (oh, as usual, the dredgery x3); I can only roughly gauge out how much longer it'll take both, but I'll try keeping the updates from here on to a minimum. Let's not waste any time then, shall we?...
First, Valkyrie. The progress so far is about to the halfway point of the finish. I went ahead and added in much more detail for pretty much everything, basing it around the concept that I'd be using this layer to represent texture, shape and solid definition. Henceforth, that's the same reason I have not done the same w/ the sword, gown, and skin; these things do not have normally solid textures or hard definitions; they are more subtle and dependent more on the effect of light. So the next round of painting will involve carrying that concept throughout the whole piece, using more values and pushing around the hues a little in thinner glazes to (hopefully) achieve a softer and more realistic look. I say hopefully b/c-like almost everything else in this piece-I'm learning as I go.
Actually, yesterday I had a major fuck-up with the hair, getting the values all wrong and contemplating if I should just let it slide or re-block it. The former would've been a dick move, but the latter had me worried simply b/c I didn't wan to EVER layer the paint on so thick for one step, worrying about cracking. To my surprise, taking the latter route has benefited the picture immensely. Her hair is closer to what it should've been the first time, and the paint layed down extremely well w/ no cracking (and maybe just minimum chipping). Even so, I think for future pieces I'll use some gesso on the ground to support this technique better in the future.
This one here is being done moreso for myself and possibly portfolio reasons (depending on how well it turns out) than a client. The characters are-from left to right-Suzuka, Melfina, Aisha and Jim, from the 1998 anime Outlaw Star. I remember OS coming on Toonami way back in the day, I must've been in middle school, certianly. Didn't give it the time of day then due to being so infused into DBZ, but it's easy to tell that it's aged much better than Akira Toriyama's epic (though, given they're quite different in so many ways, that isn't too fair to say). I've really been enjoying this show recently and wish I had watched it sooner, but that's alright. Now I can do these awesome fanartz!!
Since it's summertime, I just wanted to take the three leading ladies and the easiest male pushover and do something fun and tropical w/ them. Although, the excessive shading might be at odds w/ a supposedly "lightweight" and "fun, tropical" theme...but atleast there's an ocean above and fish swimming! See?!? They're riiiiigggggghttttttt...........there! Lolz; seriously though, I took this one up as an opportunity to sharpen my pure lining and shading skills, which have gotten complacent the past few months. I haven't tried a drawing this shading-heavy in a few years, actually :S. It's also been a good excuse to use up whatever amount of black marker I have left..in fact the only reason this one might take longer than it should is solely b/c of that marker drying up at the halfway point (though I hope that doesn't happen) delaying the finish. The other colors are okay atm though. I just don't want Aisha to find out my little confession involving the black marker...she's gonna have a fit w/ me taking so long xD.
Well there you go peoples; I won't be posting anything else on Valkyrie for another week or so, and w/ any luck I should have the Outlaw Star piece done by middle of next week. So to my fellow artists out there, I wish you the best in your pursuits and don't let frustration knock 'ya down; it's just an invitation to try harder ;). Take care you all and have a gr8 week; l8r.
Hey everyone; today's feeling almost too good to stay cooped up inside, so I might go see a buddy of mine and just relax w/ 'em. However, while sitting around on the computer inbetween looking at various nothings and cooking lunch, my eldest niece bought to me a very cute little drawing she did w/ markers (Crayolas, I'm assuming; hell if I ever could get this level of clarity out of them) on writing paper. I think it merits some exposure, and so I present The Sunshine's Geisha..
Just goes to show you that a passion for art and creative endeavors can begin at any age; she's just eight years old and already experimenting w/ color in a fashion most of us probably didn't start doing until we were teenagers or later. It's interesting in seeing how a child interprets color, b/c I think they have a natural affinity and raw eagerness in them that we naturally lose grasp on as we become adults. Sure, we can learn all we want about color theory, temperature, harmony and concord--and I'm certainly not saying an adult's understanding of advanced color properties is never utilized to stunning effect (or that studying those concepts is hurtful; in the end it's a more beneficial route of knowledge)-but sometimes all the theories and studying, all the formulating,..it can rob us of our ambition to just "let go" and be childish in using color to accidentally stumble on some fantastic mistakes.
In any case, at least children don't become so pretentious and serious w/ their works as to seem cold, uninviting and overtly analytical of others and grossly overestimating in their own abilities. As adults we unfortunately take on those qualities (even in miniscule doses) naturally as we understand the concepts behind the talent more concretely. I think there's a saying in "too much knowledge can be destructive"...I'll just probably leave it there.
Okay, off for lunch and enjoying the rest of the day. Hope to post a WIP of a current painting or two over the next several days. Everyone just enjoy the weekend and kick it mad stylin' like (oh the horror in the infidel's meager attempts for teh "coolnez" x3). L8r.
Been a few days since I posted anything up so far..I'd upload the current progress on my Mai painting but actually figured to take a break from that and switch to something else. This is a quick post of my very early-in-the-rough WIPs for a Ronin Warriors and Resident Evil character, combined here for convenience. I'm gonna get cracking on them (and another pic) tonight in just a few...no stream tho sorry (lolz, who would watch anyway?).
I would try to finish these up but I have another painting to get started on first for a 1Up friend of mine, and a simple drawing/painting for my eldest sis's science class project (which was fun in it's own right to try, since it gave me a damn good excuse to use my Prismacolors once again). And then there's the Mai picture, which will likely end up coming out btwn a few of the others, if time is on my side (it never is tho).
In other news...welp E3's come and overall it was sorta a mute show. Not that many big announcements. I didn't bother to watch either Microsoft or Sony's shows, mainly b/c I wasn't captivated to do so. Microsoft stuck mainly to Kinect and badly timed gaem reveals, while Sony actually did announce some cool stuff like Sly 4 and Vita, but it was pretty much Nintendo's for the taking. Actually watched their press conference, and it was quite nice; always good to see Shiggy on the stage (but whatever happened to that woman who used to speak...u know, that very Sarah Palin-looking woman?). Mario for 3DS looks good though a bit different than other Mario games (mainly to do w/ the camera, which reminds me so much of Saturn's Bug! games it's not even funny), but Wii 2...ouh I mean Wii "U"...nice.
Nice controller (they hit a home run w/ the golf game example in the reel) and acts almost like a handheld console of its own. I don't like the Apple-like design philosophy they're continuing w/-and the console looks nothing like the SNES-inspired thing they mentioned earlier-but it seems like they've put a lot of thought into the controller and it could open some hard-locked doors in the Creativity Room.
So, uhm, that's it for now. Dinner time and drawing time, basically, so I'll see u all sometime l8r. Byez.
