I wanted to try another pixel art piece, this time with Momoko. I used a photo of Momochi camping from her “Momochi Zukan” photobook as reference. I started with a 200×200 canvas, but it was a little too big for the effect I wanted. So decided to make it into a 100×100 instead.
reference used:
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
It’s been almost a month since I had painted this piece, I can’t believe I have been pushing it back by that much…
The reference comes from Momoko’s final photobook.
The ink painting used can be seen here:
This follows my current practice working with ink brushes, the translucence it contains and the application of paint and how it interacts with it. I have a couple of other pieces that I can use to continue this practice. It’s amazing, but it does have it’s limitations on what can be done (coloring wise). On the other hand, the effects and textures are really unique and interesting.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Main video:
Extended version:
When I first used the the Sargent brush I wanted to try out it’s full capabilities and the first painting I used this on was with Momoko Tsugunaga. One other thing I wanted to try out was a painting with water drops and condensation. With that in mind, I chose Momoko’s photo from the variety show (I believe it is London Hearts) where her entire look was given a complete overhaul. It seems that these were for a calendar where different talents were all given the same treatment. It’s a shame but I couldn’t find any recordings of this online, only some screengrabs (this means someone out there does have it/had it). Based on said screen grabs there were about three different photos that I could have used (maybe for a later painting). There’s no denying that Momoko looks really cute with this look, but I prefer her more natural look better.
I mentioned this before, but I think I am finally forming my favorite tools for painting digitally. I’ve been slacking on watercolors though, so I should do some more traditional paintings soon.
As can be seen above, this painting comes with two Youtube links. I already have a couple of paintings that have been recorded and another one that has been edited and will be live this Thursday. Aside from speed paints, I want to make instructional videos where I focus on one technique/topic and just some videos about things that interest me (although I haven’t figured out how I want to structure them yet). Luckily Youtube is allowing songs to be used as long as the owners are cool with it, of course this also means that these videos get no monetization capabilities. Which is a good trade. I actually lost a past channel because of the old methods that Youtube had implemented.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
I didn’t have any image in mind at the beginning but as I kept drawing I ended up with a pose that remind me of the music video for “Fighting Pose wa Date ja nai!”. While I was working on it, I finally remembered that I had turned off the smoothing function since my old computer setup couldn’t keep up. But that no longer is an issue. And it really makes the difference since my paint lines keep wobbling all over.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
A bonus painting for Momochi’s birthday. Reference used was from her blog photos. I wanted to try out a cute shoujo 80s anime style. Happy birthday Momochi.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
I recently saw an artist that worked with light colors and used that as an aesthetic advantage. Usually when I paint, almost every time it looks really light so I worried whether it would look well to others or not. So this time I have decided to just paint like usual and try to not overwork the painting too much. What I did want to try though is a version where I just painted and let the colors separate the whole piece as a whole. In the second version I added some lighting to the hair, darkened the lips and added some linework. Personally I prefer the original version more although I do like the the linework version as well. I went for a semi realistic/anime style. This mainly entails that one keeps the detail on the face as flat as possible and making the eyes bigger. Of course one can play with the style and how far to push the details which will give different effects. I chose to add a good number of facial details but using very light tonal changes that are noticeable but that are not very abrupt and still keep the coloring style a bit flat. As for the eyes I decided to keep the main shape and colors intact but made them bigger and enlarged the eyelashes a bit.
This study was done using a photo from Momoko Tsugunaga’s last photobook. Happy Birthday Momochi, thank you for everything you have done. Even now your work still makes everyone happy. And this of course includes me. Now that more media is becoming available to us overseas fans and that I can understand a bit more Japanese, I have so much media that I can now enjoy for the first time. It’s a shame my skills were not good enough back when you were still active. Although I love that not only did you have a goal in life (as a teacher), but you accomplished it on top of all your idol activities. The motivation you emanate is absolutely stunning. I truly hope that you are doing well and enjoying life. I can only hope that my art reaches you and makes you even just a fraction of the happiness you have given me.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
I wanted to do a really simple painting of Momoko today. Keep warm and safe out there.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
For the first painting of February I will upload some pixel art of Momochi. The one with the yellow sweater is from her photobook “Momo16 Momoiro”. It was painted using Pro Motion Ng.
And the other one with the crown is from a promotional photo for the single “Cha Cha Sing”. This one was painted using Photoshop. Photoshop had some advantages but despite painting with the smallest brush size, Photoshop couldn’t pain only one square so it tended to add blend it’s colors onto the surrounding squares. It looked cool when the size was 36×36 pixels wide, but when I enlarged it those colors melded together and created a mess. Luckily I could fix this by choosing the resizing option that chooses the closest color so that the pixels remain intact. This did have the repercussion of messing up certain areas so I had to paint over it again using the wand and square selection tool to fix any areas that had to be retouched. Sadly I save over the original pixel art which I could have enlarged and screengrabbed but that’s just the way things turned out. One other thing that Photoshop has over using Pro Motion is that I can use any colors I want, although I’m sure people like pixel art since people use the limitations of the colors to create cool effects and interesting ways of dealing with said limitations. Personally I like both.
Hopefully I can do some more pixel art work later on.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
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.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Happy New Year 2021!
For the first drawing of 2021 I drew Momochi. My original plan was to paint it with watercolors but I decided to make two versions of it, an inked version and a painted one. The painted version I plan to do next. As I thought, the DVD Magazines had plenty of references for me. The upward glance she gave while travelling up the mountain was killer. It’s probably even more potent if she did that in person.
I used a mix of ink and in some sections a more diluted ink for sections I wanted to keep light but still give shadows to. This time I made sure to hatch it slower so that the end result would look cleaner. My plan is to continue doing that from now on. The process didn’t take that much longer anyway. I got really lucky that Momochi’s face wasn’t ruined actually, a huge blob of ink just poured out of my pen below her chin. Luckily that section was supposed to be blacked out and the ink didn’t spread to her face. I won’t lie, it was an agonizing 25-30 seconds while I tried to find some tissue paper to soak up the ink before it began going everywhere. I feel like the drawing wasn’t complete until I added some blush lines, I really like the end result.
Hope you guys had a great start to the year. Here’s hoping for the best.
Happy New Year!
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
