The Beat and the Timing

So I've not done much art recently, just not been in the mood nor have I had the time. I've been really limiting my time sitting at the computer in the evenings since I had surgery back in mid-October and that's one of the area's that had to give.

Only pieces I've done have been for contests over on the One Manga Forums, one for the manga coloring contest (theme = romance) and one for the WSAC #196 (theme = Touhou). So without further ado, here are my entries:


( See more... )

Okay, maybe that's a bit much, but some days I really do think I suck at drawing.  I simply don't practice often enough to get my skills up to where I can execute all the stuff in my head.  At least not my traditional drawing skills.

Anyways, I've decided that I'm going to start practicing drawing more and since my fat butt is usually sitting at a computer, I'll draw digitally.  And because I realize I have issues with my dark/light contrast values, I'm going to work in monochromes.  I'll pick a color for the background, a color to draw in, and that's it.  Those are the two colors I have to work with and no more.  I can play with flow and opacity, of course, but beyond that I'm not going to gt fancy.  I haven't completely decided about using brushes - should I limit myself to one brush size period, allow different brush sizes but it's all the same brush type, or change brush types as well. 

For now, here's my first attempt at a person drawn using a size 13 hard brush, black and very pale grey as my colors, and both opacity/flow set to 50%.  I still haven't decided if I was going for a male or female yet, which just adds to my suckiness.

( See the pic... )

Oh yeah, an update.  In under a year. 

Hrm, forgot to mention, in addition to my issues with contrast, I can't draw noses but at least the hair isn't completely horrible.

So we finally see Stark's release, and it's got to be one of the more unique one's out there (Why guns?  Why not!)  So I colored the excellent lines done by Hurqaline and it turned out pretty all right, if I do say so myself.

Teaser takes you to my deviantart page, because even my smaller versions are still pretty huge, and you can download the original (HUGE) size if you want over there.

So I did a straight out fanart piece recently - Sakura Haruno from Naruto.  I had an awesome reference photo that I worked from and did the entire piece in about 5-6 hours.  Not entirely happy with how the hair turned out, but I'll live.

Teaser:


Link to full size image on DeviantArt
Full size is 2048x1536, the full view image is only half-sized because it's so big, so download for the full image.

I've completely forgotten to post two panels that I've colored recently for Bleach.  The first one is Stark and Orihime from chapter 313, page 14, panel 1. 



The second is Rukia and Gin from chapter 145, page 12, panel 1. 



This one I did for a friend (Pansori) over on OneManga.com because she's such a huge Gin fan.  Based on some critique I got for this one, I'm thinking of redoing it slightly to change the highlights in Rukia's hair.  The lineart has that large area placed in it already, but it really doesn't work with how I did the hair, so what I'll probably do is just black that in and put my own version of the highlights in her hair.  That way it'll look more consistent with my style and won't bug me now that someone's pointed out how it looks.  Not that it's bad now, but I agreed that redoing that one spot made sense.

I've also started working coloring page 18 from chapter 213, Gin in his Espada outfit.  That will take a bit longer since I plan to do a full painting of it, meaning no lineart left.  I'm also about halfway done with a two-page spread of Mayuri, Unohana and Byakuya arriving in Hueco Mundo (chapter 298, pages 15-16).

And that's it for updates. 

More fanart, this time with characters from Bleach, FMA and Naruto.  Here's a teaser to whet your appetites:

So after watching Shippuden episode 34 and seeing my beloved Yamato finally animated and given a voice *swoon* I felt compelled to do something I normally don't - create icons.

I present to you 10 different icons with 49 variations. All can be used as bases (since adding text isn't my strong point) and I'd appreciate credit, but it's not a biggie. I'd like to see what others do if you use any as a base though. *smile*

( Space-saving no jutsu! )

Enjoy!

So I was reading the latest chapters of a fanfic called Duplicity over on FF.net by BeautifulSilverSilence (She's beautyissilver here on LJ).  In chapter 5, she describes the team (Kakashi, Genma, Raido, Asuma) needing to go undercover for part of their mission, and Genma ends up having to wear a kimono.  I loved the idea and felt compelled to draw it, so now I present to you:

Genma in a Kimono!

Well, I finished another (older) cover from the Naruto manga, this time chapter 158 featuring Shodai Hokage.  I think it turned out rather well actually and looking back at my first cover piece (the Kankuro one) I can see how much my technique has improved.  That's a good thing I guess.  So anyways, here's the final piece (teaser):

I decided to color one of the panels from chapter 296, page 10 showing Sakura after she was injured by Naruto in his four-tailed Kyuubi form.  I planned to use the image for an avatar, but wanted it colored first.  Once I got started, I felt coloring the whole panel instead of just parts was the way to go.  I also ended up leaving the lineart as part of the image but reduced the opacity some so that it wasn't too harsh appearing.  I'm not too sure I like how her hair turned out, but that's why they call this practice.