So last time I showed the roughs for what I was working on. With that done, came putting color. What I’m doing now is seperating the focal point from the background.  This is done so that I can focus on one thing at a time and it makes it easier to draw/paint a background withought worrying of encrouching on the space of the focus (usually the character). It does come with it’s weaknesses though, by not having them together (background and focal point) I can’t merge and control the colors as effectively, at least not at my current level. Once I understand color a bit better I should be ok, we’ll see.

This is the background reference picture, which I got by going through the Legendary Meneauver episode and capturing stills.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570290332/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570290862/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35608325991/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570293682/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35608327751/in/dateposted-public/

And here is what I painted.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570635282/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570634502/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570632452/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35739919955/in/dateposted-public/

The colors came out much smoother and vibrant than with any other watercolors I have used so far. But I still have some more learning to do. I didnt want to add too much contrast yet, seeing as I am still learning. Plus I wasn’t sure if things would have changed as I put the background and the characters together.

Next is painting Sora and Layla.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570726422/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570726142/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35570725832/in/dateposted-public/

It doesn’t look bad on it’s own, but I didn’t take into account the lighting that would be required from the background. I had to think in terms of blueish tints as opposed to what I had used here. I could have done it traditionally but decided to wait and do it digitally so that I could take my time and learn as I went along.

And fool (a very important, and funny, character in the series), those who saw the series know why he is there.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35742285725/in/dateposted-public/

So this is how it looked like when I tried adding it to the background before trying to match the colors of Sora and Layla with the background. (Note that I did add a bit of more shadows by this point thinking that it could help). I was also experimenting with the sparkles around them  (didn’t really go as planned).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35702583176/in/dateposted-public/

Doesn’t really meld well together, so I went and tried to get them to a closer level.

Made it darker and added some glow around them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35707963146/in/dateposted-public/

Kept it going, will now show without glow and with glow.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/34907174144/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35707956936/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35617173951/in/dateposted-public/

By this point it was getting close, but I had to push it a little further and actually change colors to their blue counterparts (if that even makes sense).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/34939511643/in/dateposted-public/

By this point I have two options, go with the darker one or the one with more light. I still haven’t decided which one to use yet. And on top of that I want to make something a little different with the drawing of Sora and Layla by adding a totally different background and maybe even changing the paint on them too.

On top of that, I also changed the position of Laylas arm since it looked a little too still where it was originally.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/35617819221/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/34939515893/in/dateposted-public/

I feel like the background is still too dark, maybe adding a light haze like in the reference picture might make it better. I’ll have to try and see if it makes a good difference. I’m still unsure of how it looks, I wonder what other people think.

But for now it is done. I will have to think it over for a little while if I will leave it as is or make some changes.

Hasta la proxima,

-Nube