Blood stained gift for her future

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 19, 2021
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This is based on a drawing I did way back in (at least from a quick search) 2016. At the time I was completely new to digital painting or using colors really. I was more into drawing and was really struggling with color. I seriously thought I could bypass that issue by focusing on the values using my pencil and then hoping that Photoshop would deal with the colors on it’s own. Of course, nothing is ever that easy.

You can see my past attempt here:

https://darkcloudxero.com/2016/08/06/traditional-x-digital-color-iv-ii-final/

https://darkcloudxero.com/2016/08/09/actual-final/

I can proudly say I have made some progress in the last 4 years.

I used the line art as a quick map of how I wanted to set up the painting, but overall the line art would be left out. Once I had some reference photos of how castles and the sky could look like I began painting. I started with the castle first and that took me a while since I kept working with the way I believed the shadows would look in my scenario. But I made the mistake of not painting the sky so I could figure out what colors I would eventually end up using. With a bit more experience I should be able to figure this out in a couple of minutes but setting up the lighting for the background took me a couple of hours. Once I was satisfied with what I had, I then began working on Lelouch. But since the colors for the background were dealt with, getting his colors was much easier. Dealing with him did have to be finished today though. I want to be fast enough to paint something like this in at least one day, but for now it is taking about two days. For this painting I decided to use the spray paint for the sun’s lighting and in some sections of the clouds and the castle. I seriously should use it more since it made the effect I wanted much easier.

My brother has recently started watching Code Geass for the first time, so when I asked him for a suggestion of course Code Geass would be the option. I figured that would be a good excuse to retry doing this painting.

Bloodstained gift for her future

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

K’ Square Up

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 18, 2021
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The painting I was working on is now ready to be showcased. It’s K’ from King Of Fighters. This was painted using Clip Studio Paint.

K' Square Up

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Work in Progress Background

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 15, 2021
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Was having a bit of hard time coming up with something to paint or draw today, but I eventually did get an idea of what I could work on. But I will showcase that next week. For now here is the background. First time working on a wet reflective surface. Really want to learn how to do them in all mediums.

Work in Progress Background

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Random Fight

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 14, 2021
Posted in: Artist Project, between light and darkness, Chance!, Traditional X Digital, Update. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Just a practice piece so that I can play around more with screentones, hatching and whatnot using Clip studio Paint and Photoshop. The background is of a cool area in Downtown Denver. I made it into a screen tone using Photoshop’s filter, sketch, halftone option. I inked and then hatched it using Clip Studio. Characters are from an idea of a story I want to work on.

Random Fight

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Best Smile DarkCloudXERO entry

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 14, 2021
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Yesterday night I learned about the Clip Studio contest, with the theme “The Best Smile”. I only had a couple of hours to work on it today since I had some obligations I had to take care of so I didn’t really have any real plans and just started painting. Although not required I decided to use Clip Studio Paint and was amazed at how good it felt to use their oil paint option. I think I may actually like it more than Corel Painter since the oil paint size is controlled by the pen pressure. I’ll have to play around with it more.

Best Smile DarkCloudXERO entry

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Miyabi Natsuyaki’s New Year Temple Visit 2021 watercolor

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 9, 2021
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I finally finished. I guess because there’s so many details it took quite a bit of time. But overal I like the way it turned out. The Holbein Watercolors do exactly what I want them to do, I don’t think I can go back to any other watercolors at this point. And this is using Master’s Touch watercolor paper which isn’t really that good quality (although I highly recommend it since it’s the best paper at the price range). At some point I should try painting on some higher quality paper which I tend to neglect since they are, you know, quite expensive. But I feel confident enough to try it now. Once I again I am using watered down ink for the outlines which works really good when applying color on top of it since it’s also translucent and reacts with the color one applies on top. This leaves it open to apply more color to the outline or ink to make it darker. Although I did add some shadows to give the background some 3dimentinality, I decided to make Miyabi’s colors flat so as to not overwork the painting which I tend to do. Doing so gives the finished painting a much cleaner look that pops out quite nicely (Thank you Little Thunder for showcasing your artwork! I always learn so much looking at it.).

I really love the colors that Miyabi chose for her kimono and her makeup. They really fit well with the background colors. I was planning to add the color variations to the kimono. But as I was playing around with the way Mars Violet interacted with the yellow mixture I used for the Kimono base color, I decided it would look best as a simple color. Hopefully I managed to replicate Miyabi’s beauty through my brush.

We are well into the New Year now, so I will now focus on some winter drawings/paintings before the season ends.

Miyabi's New Years 2021

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Miyabi Natsuyaki New Year Temple Visit 2021 line art

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 6, 2021
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https://darkcloudxero.com/2021/01/06/miyabi-natsuyaki-new-year-temple-visit-2021-line-art/

I really loved Miyabi’s New Years photos. She looks really beautiful with her kimono. She mentioned it was a retro look, so I’m guessing this is a Showa era style? It really suits her. She looks so ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ with the shrine in the background. I think an 80s/90s anime style would look good but I feel it will also look good in watercolor. Just recently on her Twitter she mentioned that she has been getting nostalgic for Berryz Koubou. She also gave the impression that there might be a reunion of some kind.
･:*+.(( °ω° ))/.:+

Thank you so much for this past year Miyabi, hopefully this year will be great for you.

Miyabi's New Years 2021 Line art

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Momochi’s Dangerous Upward Glance Watercolor

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 5, 2021
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I’m going to be practicing with watercolors for a bit. I wan’t to see what I can do with the media. The first watercolor of the year is Momochi, using the first drawing of the year. I was a bit worried as I was painting but things were becoming more clear as I kept going. She looks so cute. It’s a bit of a shame the background didn’t get picked up by the scanner.

Momochi's Dangerous Glance COLOR

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE