Yuki Matsushita Feeling Yamaha

Here is another ink painting using Corel Painter 2023. I do wonder though, can I get similar effects just using the blending sargeant brush? I guess mixing brushes are now part of my style because I wish I could blend instead of having to glaze over and over. Its not supper time consuming, but it would be quicker to blend. Either way, monochromatic paintings are quite soothing.

I really love the ad for the Yamaha SHS-10 or the Sholky (which appears to mean shoulder keyboard) with Yuki Matsushita jamming. The actual CM is even more fun and has some fun poses that I want to draw. I’m no musically inclined so I wonder how a shoulder keyboard stacks up as an instrument?

This is the ad used as reference (seems like there was also another variation):

and this has the CM I was talking about:

On another note, I had long had two things that I needed to do. Buy a new chair and modify my desk. My old chair I bought because it was a drafting chair which was high enough to match my desk but it was super stiff and limited the amount of comfort over the day. It was torture after a while. The desk had a rather tight entrance where I could barely come in with my chair. I put up with it since I didn’t have any arm rests, but when I finally bought my new chair, the arm rests were needed to connect the backrest to the seat. After about two weeks of use I became very aware of the lack of movement I could do, specially with the arm rests. On top of that, the right arm rest was getting scratched up (it has that fake leather), so before it became worse I had to finally address the desk.

The plan was to have the side walls point outward, and that was it. So after my other job on Sunday, I just decided to go straight into it and hack the side walls off which also house to input fans, the i/o and bluray player. Luckily it seems I had the forethought to make it easy to remove when I built the desk. Surprisingly it took me about have a day to modify the desk and get it built up (for the most part). But when I reconnected everything and turned on my computer, the screens were black…

It was already pretty late so I called it a day and would figure it out the next day. So it took me half the day to finally figure it out, the monitor switching program had forgotten all of my settings and was having problems with all five screens connected. I noticed this all before I switched my gpu to the motherboard from the stand mount. That was annoying. The next part was my drives, half of them were no longer visible. Doing most of the basic troubleshooting didn’t work. That’s when I decided to check if it was seated correctly on the motherboard. It wasn’t. The last problem left was the audio. First there was no audio and when I finally got that working, the sound was too low. As of now, I have yet to fix this. I tried resetting the drivers, updating, but nothing worked. Who would have thought that modifying the enclosure of a computer would create so many software issues. Despite everything, for only two days of work it was all worth it. I’m using a super old receiver I got from thrift store which I was planning to upgrade anyway. So I will fix the audio later. There’s some small details left, but the desk is essentially done. Though I have to figure out what do do about my lightbox which will no longer work with these new dimensions.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Happy Birthday Miyabi 2022

It’s Miyabi’s birthday today! Welcome to the 30 year club. I hope this year is more prosperous and filled with happiness, thank you for everything you have given us.

I really liked this photo of her trip to Okinawa.
Seen here:

But just making a study is not that special (for birthday purposes) so I modified it a bit by having her bringing her sunglasses down but still having the wind blowing. I was thinking of having Miyabi wink, but the bonus accompanying painting I think fills that aspect perfectly.

The bonus painting is of her dancing with Karin Miyamoto “El Sonidito” Super Mario Bros 3 mix. Seeing Miyabi and Karin dancing Musica Regional from Mexico really made my day. It’s a shame Berryz Koubou never went to Mexico, that would have been a fun thing to watch like when ℃-ute and Juice=Juice did. So this was a nice surprise.

Hope you have a lot of fun today.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Iori Yagami possessed

Ahhh man, I’ve been wanting to paint Orochi Iori for a couple of years now. I seriously can’t believe it took me this long to finally do it. Looking at the gameplay animations I decided upon this pose. Having him slash there really isn’t any visual flare, but it seems in the newer games it has been added. So I decided to add a bit of flare. I thought it would look weird to have him slashing at nothing so I added some blood splatter as though he hit his target. cough cough… Kyo..

I wanted the background to fit Iori’s state, since we had a couple of rainy days where I lived I was thinking of that, or maybe a night scene. But while looking at some reference pictures I found one of a sunset that I felt would fit very well.

The Corel Painter 2023 Sargent brushes are so much better since I have more control to their thickness while also having blending abilities.

Hasta la proxima,

-Nube

Akemi Homura glance – Corruption

I wasn’t really sure how I would merge these two paintings. I know I wanted them to be back to back, so I flipped them accordingly. The colors were also not where I wanted them, so I adjusted them to their current form. When I put them on the same canvas there was a gap between them which had me stumped. At first I filled it in with some solid colors that made a clear separation between them. But that was just too simple and boring. Then I finally figured out that I could just merge them and have them interact with each other. I first had the backgrounds blend with each other. As I kept working I finally came to the realization that I could have both versions of Akemi back to back with their clothes appearing on each other’s side of the canvas. Then the idea of having hair strands move from the shy Akemi to the hardened Akemi came to my mind. Luckily the idea worked out. There was still something I felt was missing though. That’s why I decided to add the soul gem between the two Akemis. Behind the soul gem I wanted light to be emanating from it, but when I darkened the left side it looked a lot like feathers so I changed the original concept to be a wing motif. I think this version of both of them together looks much better.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Cyber Oni

There’s a new brush that I wanted to try out an ink brush that has translucence. This reacts a lot like real ink. With colors, it should work a lot like watercolors so that I can glaze and paint in layers. For now I just wanted to practice with it. In the middle of painting I noticed that I was pressing down really hard. Then I noticed that I hadn’t calibrated the tablets pressure sensitivity properly. Putting it at a lighter setting is night and day. As for the brush it self, I really like it. This will definitely become one of my new favorite brushes that I will be using.

The oni girl is from this photo:

Hasta la proxima,

-Nube

Kimono Muscle Girl drawing 2

It’s been a while since I last worked and uploaded one of the three drawings (inked) of Michiko Nishiwaki from the movie My Lucky Stars. Once I learned how inking works, I can just jump in and draw without much thought. Even more so doing it digitally since I can undo any sections that I don’t think quite work. It’s actually quite therapeutic.

Hasta la proxima,

-Nube

Miyabi Natsuyaki Aquarium

It seems like Miyabi is vacationing in Okinawa. There are a lot of beautiful photos of her trip but this one of her in the aquarium really called out to me. There’s just something magical with this whole composition. The beautiful Miyabi with the clear water in the background is just… I know I’m essentially just copying the photo (I did take off the face mask though so I could show Miyabi’s face), but I really wanted to study it. I’ve mainly worked with warm colors but have had problems with the cool spectrum. This painting really taught me a lot. Painting Miyabi’s face was actually the only section that had me struggling since the first iterations just didn’t look like her.

Reference image can be seen here at Miyabi’s instagram:

This whole painting was made using Anato Finnstark’s brushes. They are quite versatile. They will come in handy along with Toko Suzuki’s brushes whenever I use Photoshop to paint.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Captain D and Atarashii Gakko

By now, any Captain Disillusion and Atarashii Gakko fans have seen their collaboration video by now. It was great for one, and it melded each other’s abilities quite nicely. Seriously, who would have thought that this collaboration was even possible? It’s like when Night Tempo and Sayumi Michishige made a song together. I’m hoping there are more crossovers of things and people I like in the future.

Captain D’s videos:

There were a couple of ideas of what I wanted to draw, but passing up the opportunity of the Captain dancing with as a member of Atarashi Gakko was something I didn’t want to pass up. It was incredible. Thank you both for giving us this gift. No wonder the Captain was gone for so long. If you guys have a chance go through both of their works, they are amazing.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Tennis Momochi in 4 styles inked-hatched

I’ve had these inked and hatched Momochi drawings waiting for over a month, it is now time to finally upload them. Working with the line art, I also wanted the line art and inking to compliment each other. Somehow, less facial features works better. Once the details get too close to realism, certain facial features have to be drawn in a more realistic way otherwise it can make the face look off. I think playing with the line thicknesses can either help or hurt as well. I’ll have to experiment more to find out what works at certain times and what doesn’t.

Luckily there’s plenty of Momochi drawings I want to draw so I can practice more.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE