I was hoping to do a bit more artwork for the seasons, that way I had a bit more to aim for and to just get into the spirit of the holidays around the year (I feel that if I continue not to do so the years will just continue to feel monotonous and boring). I might do another quick one for Halloween before the actual day. Though Dia de los Muertos is also approaching…

It’ll be fine…

I guess that midterm and the extra work that piled up really did a number. But that’s life I guess.

I want to be able to meld reality and anime a bit more, so I want to play around with that a bit more. And this is one of the paintings where I am giving that a shot.

I am wondering if the way I do watercolor paintings look good to others or If I should make them look smoother so that the grain of the paper isn’t as noticeable. I can do that a bit more if I use color pencils to go over the watercolors I already put in. I have used this technique before, but I want to get better with just watercolors first so that I don’t just rely on color pencils to fix my inexperience. Once I get better I will try to combine them again, but hopefully this time correctly.

In any case this is the painting in question:

There’s something about the character design of the ghost girl from Pokemon X/Y that I really like. So that is the theme for this year’s halloween painting. I was also looking forward ot seeing if I could make her zig-zag mouth look like it could belong to our world (what do you guys think?).

The painting itself is largely inspired by this picture I used as reference:

Cosplayer: Cherry Neko

One other thing I really wanted to try out was seeing if I could choose the right color schemes despite the reference pictures having different colors. As I’ve mentioned before color is still something I’m struggling with. So this was designed to be a good challenge for me to play around with that. I’m still relying on references but I will learn faster this way, and I will have a better understanding of how colors work as well.

I’m starting to get the hang of watercolors a lot more, to the point that I’m no longer afraid to try new techniques and push ones I’ve used before further. I still get a bit frustated when the sessions go for too long and I can’t quite get it right, but that’s fine (nothing a little rest can’t fix).

Strangely enough I actually drew this picture various times (four times) and colored it twice. Once with Copic markers and the second one with watercolors which is the one you see above.

Here is the original sketch/drawing:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37997922582/in/dateposted-public/

Here is the Copic version done with one of said four drawings:

The copic version exists because I wanted to first try out the color schemes that I thought would work. I did this because I didn’t want to use too much time painting only for it to come out wrong. And since Copics are faster to use and dry almost instantly it was a perfect medium to try out the colors. I was almost thinking of just using the Copic version as the final piece, but then I ran out of a couple of colors and buying replacements would be too costly so I just decided to start all over with watercolors. In other words I made this piece twice which is one of the reasons I haven’t posted in a while. But I’m finally done.

For those that are interested here is the process:

From this angle it look like a good start, but I would later learn that I had made quite a couple of mistakes.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975118286/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/26252727129/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975115126/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/26252725479/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975112316/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/26252724059/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/24176567568/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319671004/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/24176565838/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319668314/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/24176563958/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319665864/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319664754/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319663354/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319661714/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319659964/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319658714/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319657424/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319656314/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975099496/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975099066/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975098526/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975097926/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319650324/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975096866/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319648004/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975095856/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319644924/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975094196/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37319641914/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975092656/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/26252707219/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975090236/in/dateposted-public/

Thinking I was pretty close to the end I noticed that the proportions were quite off. The head was much too big for the body, the shoulders were too small and so were the hips.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/38029011271/in/dateposted-public/

On top of that, after taking a break from painting when I came back I decided I needed to make even more changes to it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/37975444346/in/dateposted-public/

And this was the final version I decided to go with:

Well that’s it for today. Hopefully I can get another piece out before Halloween (though it will be simple if it is).

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE