My contest entry for the Punishing Gray Raven illustration contest. This painting is for the fan art category. While looking at the designs, I was really drawn to Nanami. It seems that at some point they changed her design from the promotional trailer of her and what is now Nanami Storm. I really like the cat ears motif so I decided to go for that version of her costume. When I finished painting and was getting ready to upload my entry I noticed that there was reference files of Nanami and the other characters from different angles to help in understanding their design. All in good quality… Because I didn’t notice this, I went around the internet and took low quality screenshots from Youtube videos. There is another category where I can design a different variant for one of the characters, haven’t yet decided if I will do it though I am tempted.
This is Colored version of the line art I uploaded yesterday. Overall the painting is done using solid colors added in layers, except for the lights (headlights, tail lights and console lights). For those lights I used the outer glow Layer style. I will at a later point actually add a background and add other elements to it, but that will be at a future date.
While looking through my references I came upon one of the Akira Bike, the details were a bit different from the anime version (I’m glad I decided to look at other references before committing to the design in the ad). Looking at figure reproductions, real life versions of the bike it seems that they all stray away from the animated version a bit. Looking at all the designs and the one used in the manga, it seems I have also created a slightly different variant as well.
When I finished the inking process I noticed that I made the hind tire a little too large so I had to edit it digitally.
Here is the colored version of the walkman drawing I made on Friday. I wasn’t really planning on makin a reflection like in the reference photo I used, but when I decided to just give it a try I noticed that it wasn’t that straightforward. Because the Walkman and cassettes are at an angle, I had to cut the base painting into different sections and erase certain sections. The effect isn’t completely clean but it does do the trick. The line art was either removed, used multiply or color burn. Color really completes it.
This will make the second contest I enter this year, and there are two more contests that I’m aiming to enter next.
A painting using the tapered oil brush for the whole of the painting except for the sun and it’s rays in which I used the digital airbrush and the effect to add lighting. The scene it self is of a mountain trail in Colorado that I visited about a little over a year ago I believe. I was aiming to end this in one day but it ended up spilling into a second day.
It’s a simple drawing and yet it took me longer that I thought. Annoyingly a droplet of ink dropped on the corner of WM-F20 Walkman, which I had to clean up using Photoshop. I want to color it, but haven’t really decided in what way.
I learned about the using the filter abilities that Photoshop offers, one of the options is grain, which really gives off old analog TV vibes. I’ve done something like this before when I painted my Saki Shimizu drawing.
For this painting wanted to do something more flat, but in the end I felt it would look better with some shading. I feel that if I did want to use super flat colors, I need to make a simpler design for the line art. I think I will make that my goal for tomorrows piece.
I’m always a bit late to this things, and seeing how fast memes live and die these days, one day is already too late. But I still wanted to make my contribution to the wholesome meme that sprouted from Bernie’s ever so sensible presence. What I like about him is that he not only talks, but he also walks the walk. He is a man of action and someone who leads by example. My brother said it would be funny if I drew him like Gendo Ikari from Evangelion, doing his signature observation pose. I don’t like Gendo much, but I have to admit that the guy emits a strong and confident presence. It’s good to see that Bernie is still ever so ready to get right to work for the people of this country.
The line art was first done for inktober 2020 day 21. This painting was done on Sunday but decided to upload today. For this painting I decided to go for a simpler anime style which can be quite aesthetically pleasing. I wanted to add a good amount of detail but still keep it quite simple and not over work it. I really like this image from Kiss!Kiss!Kiss! I believe this is my second time drawing it but first time painting it. It was a relaxing and pleasant experience.
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.
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.
Darkcloud Xero's Online Shop 
