Asuka Kato Ramen

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 22, 2022
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I finally painted my Asuka Kato drawing. This was first drawn for Inktober 2021 day 15. I felt Asuka was too lonely so I added Hina and Uchi. Thinking back, I guess I was imagining Asuka eating in a Ramen Stall or something. But I really liked the Ramen chapter so I decided to have them go back this time in winter. I accidently painted Hina and Uchi in their summer uniforms. Luckily it was a quick fix since they were drawn digitally. Once I had the background and Hina/Uchi painted, I then finished the painting with Asuka.

In this scenario, Yuri actually did get a seat next to Tomoko this time (when I read that chapter, I felt that…). Uchi is of course fixated on Tomoko who is on Asuka’s right (our left). Nemoto being able to read the mood, has noticed us looking at the super cute Asuka eating some ramen. Hopefully this time Asuka doesn’t have any problems again finishing it. One of the reasons I really love Watamote is that even beautiful and I guess idealized people like Asuka are shown to be, well, human. Having to deal with the same problems we all face, be it physical or emotional.

Hasta la proxima,

Nube

Chinami Tokunaga Start of 2022

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 21, 2022
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I really quite liked Chinami’s 2022 photo so I decided to draw her. She always has such pleasing and cheerful expressions. That’s always really refreshing.

Hasta la proxima,

Nube

Airi Sweater

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 19, 2022
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There was this photo recently uploaded by Airi Suzuki wearing a comfy looking brown sweater that I just had to draw/paint.

It was also a bonus that her hairstyle was specially cut for her end of the year °C-ute concert. I was just about finished yesterday painting Airi when my brother walked in and asked when I would make a painting that took longer. I was wondering if he meant that I was rushing through this painting and was leaving it too rough. But it seems he just meant that lately I have only been doing line art which takes only a couple of hours (Airi as well). That’s when I decided to add a background. Using the wall background would not do so I decided to make a winter scenery. I ended up mashing up a couple of reference photos (including some from Airi’s photobooks). It looks like the road crossing the train tracks is heading straight to the sea huh? I guess the idea is that there is a ramp for people to drive towards the beach.

I was a bit apprehensive about the details in the sweater when I was just about to start, but luckily with my current experience I know that it’s just a matter of painting and now stopping. Once that flow starts, it doesn’t take that long to finish. Once I added the background, I did have to tweak the saturation and values on Airi though.

I kinda wanna animate this painitng…

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Sayumi Temple Visit 2022

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 17, 2022
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This drawing is based on the photo of Sayumi visiting the temple this year.

Assuming I translated it correctly, this was for a January photoshoot. Having drawn a fortune during this shoot, she drew “Daikishi” (Super Good Luck). I really do wish her the best. I’m also really enjoying her Uruma city videos. I hope more cities invite her to be showcased.

You can see them here:

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Marin’s Room Lineart

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 15, 2022
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The anime for Sono Bisque Doll is finally out! And… I love it. The voice actors chosen are great, the colors and art style really fit the beautiful art style of the manga. It really does feel like the actual manga is moving. Animation has gotten to an amazing level. Speaking of animation, one can really see how much effort has been given to this series. This can really be seen in the expressive way Marin moves when she and Goujou are talking in the sewing room. Those little movements in the eyes, lips and ocassional head movements make the animation that more expressive. I really hope this quality is kept throughout the whole season. I do wonder if this is all hand drawn or if 3d anime has gotten this good?

In any case, I have various ideas for this series that I really want to draw. For this piece though, I decided to go for Marin in her room. It really mixes the Gal and Otaku aesthetic. It’s quite fun. Luckily the anime opening has already shown me the colors so I won’t have to spend any time deciding on that.

There’s something I’m still wondering about where I want to take the finished piece though. It’s currently flu season so should I incorporate that as if Goujou went to visit her or should it just be a warm cozy feeling of chilling in bed? I’ll have to decide this once I paint it.

For now, I will be drawing a couple of pieces and leave them ready for painting in the coming days.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

2022 Miyabi Line art

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 13, 2022
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There’s this artist named Criisalys that I really like. I’ve seen the art a while ago being used by Macross 82-99. I’m surprised it took me this long to find the actual artists Twitter and Instagram. It can be found here:

I want to try out this style. The model for this will be the beautiful Miyabi Natsuyaki. There are always great reference photos to choose from, but ended up going with this one:

I really like this look, it’s very Aesthetic and would fit with the coloring style I’m trying to emulate.

One other notable thing to mention has to do with my new Xp-Pen tablet/monitor. So I have a set up of multiple monitors and have now added monitor profiles to switch some of them off. This has the added effect though that some of my windows get scrambled, including what monitor is selected for my Xp-Pen. But I noticed that I could move the cursor on other monitors. Today I decided to try it out and it works great (I was cleaning up the drawing). There doesn’t seem to be pressure though… but for simple and quick fixes/painting this works out great.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Ranma and Akane skating

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 11, 2022
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I started this painting back on Saturday and worked a bit on it Sunday morning but for some reason felt like I wasn’t making much progress. It started to become a slugfest, so I decided to take the rest of Sunday off and not work on it on Monday. I felt a bit guilty but when I continued working on it today I definitely felt more refreshed and the wall I was fighting before was suddenly non existent. Although the background and the poses were mostly left finished on Sunday, there was still quite a bit of work to do figuring out how I wanted the colors for Ranma and Akane. But once I got the base colors done, the work just flowed after that. It was just a matter of working and tweaking things. I’m trying to render things a bit more so that they don’t look too rough. I’m also gonna play around with the line art digitally. Doing so I can get a my style that I’m currently developing and traditional anime working together. Judging by how things tend to work out, I’ll be adjusting and hopefully refining it as I go along.

Background is a mismatch of different ideas and photos but the ice was from a photo I took a while ago:

The idea for this painting was mainly jus to have Akane skating when I saw this photo of Yū Hayami (I of course used the opportunity to change the K to an A):

But I felt like Akane would look too lonely so I added Ranma. I remembered that he had trouble skating in the first seasons (did he ever learn?) so I wanted to paint him struggling. That’s how I came upon this pose reference (Can’t find info on the model for some reason):

Ranma’s outfit:

I was pretty much done when I suddenly by the end felt it would look even better if I had Ryoga in his boar form jumping off of Ranma. Then I noticed that Akane looked too stiff so I decided to have her hair flutter as if she was in movement.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Yuri Tamura Listening in the snow

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 7, 2022
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Today’s Pixiv theme was earphones, I wanted to make a winter painting. So I combined both ideas. The subject is Yuri Tamura. She is often seen wearing her earbuds so I felt this was a great fit. Although I can’t really tell since the manga is black and white, but her earbuds are most likely white huh? I felt black would fit better in this painting though. I wasted more time coming up with the concept than actually painting it feels like.

I added some snow to the platform but that’s probably cleaned up properly before it get’s piled up in big cities right? Oh well, let’s just call it artistic liberty.

Just when I was about to finish most of the painting I decided to add Yuri’s hand holding one of her earbuds. I think it adds more to the scene. One other thing to note is that when I do full digital paintings I feel they look good without outlines, but when I add them in they look better somehow. I’ll have to keep experimenting with this.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Winter Classes Tomoko and Yuri

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 6, 2022
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This painting is done using the line art I made for the first day of Inktober 2021. I kinda wanted a winter setting but the class setting kinda limited that. Even so, I really like the lighting that came from the window. I erased some sections of the lineart on Yuri but overall it was left unedited. I’ve notice another increase in speed when painting. Here’s to painting more throughout the year.

I really want to paint Tomoko in her “land mind” makeup…

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

New Year 2022 1st Drawing/Painting

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 1, 2022
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Happy New Year!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

あけましておめでとう!

Somehow I managed to finish it on time. This is the first drawing of the year. I decided to risk it and rest a bit after work yesterday and start the first drawing/painting of the year on the very first day of the year. Usually I start a day before and finish it on the second. I wasn’t too sure what the subject would be until I noticed that people were posting tiger themed photos on instagram. The tiger is my favorite animal so this actually made ideas flow much easier.

I had the idea of riding the tiger but felt that was a bit cruel. Then I had the idea of the tiger kinda hugging me like my dog does (well except he hugs from the front) and this concept was born. I drew it first without reference to come up with the pose and whatnot. I wanted a hopeful and determined theme, with the strength of the tiger behind our backs. Or something like that. As for the background I wanted to emphasize the winter weather and used a photo that I took years ago of a street where the mountains could be seen with a beautiful sunset.

Let’s do our best this year!

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE