On monday I was in the mood to just draw a couple of pieces with pen and no rough draft. Some were good, and others were a bit off… The original drawing of Naoko was ok, but I decided to clean it up digitally and make a simpler version by using less lines and details and rounding out some areas.
I’ve been itching to do another Naoko painting lately. While looking through my references I came upon what looks to be a poster that says “[Seikodo] Lady Naoko” (another poster did not have Seikodo on it) and some more text below tI’ve been itching to do another Naoko painting lately (I still am). While looking through my references I came upon what looks to be a poster that says “[Seikodo] Lady Naoko” (another poster did not have Seikodo on it) and some more text below that which I can’t quite read but I believe a part of it has Naoko’s full name. On the top right of the poster is some kanji that I translated as “girls bloom”. On the side is some small text that’s also hard to read (I think it has this text: “夕女は。悪いて大人になる” although the kanji is quite hard to make out since it’s so blurry)If anyone knows what this poster is for, do let me know. Just searching for Lady Naoko yields no results.
This painting is influenced by the poster of “Maboroshi no mizuumi”, it reminded me of the first episode of Ranma where we were shown how diligent Akane was in her training. Looking at the plot of the movie though, it has a rather sad plot. That was a bummer. I wanted to do an 80s anime style where I try to replicate Ranma 1/2s look.
This is the painted version of my drawing of Isako Washio. I can’t quite read the kanji for what the actual campaign she was modeling for in the reference picture I used, if you know what it is do let me know.
reference picture:
I quite liked the tan and shadows that compliment the lighting. I decided to have her in a beach as opposed to being indoors, so of course the lighting changed slightly to a brighter one. It’s been raining where I live quite often these past days so I was tempted to make it rainy in this painting as well. But I should do all types of weather types. Seeing as the temperature is also rising, going to the beach is not that out of place.
I wasn’t paying too much attention but Isako was wearing a bikini underneath, because the reference picture I have is a bit too pixelated I thought it was lace underwear.
It’s been a while since I last painted with watercolors. Truth be told, I was really afraid to go at it. But after looking at a couple of pictures from one of my favorite artists, it gave me that push to just start painting. The artist I’m talking about (and that I have mentioned before a couple of times) is Little Thunder. If you haven’t seen her work I really suggest you go and check it out. It’s absolutely beautiful and definitely one of my artistic inspirations. I tend to overwork my paintings and not use color theory to my advantage. I still don’t fully comprehend it but I do know when colors look right when used with each other, so I have at least developed my color abilities to that level. Having said that, I still was guided by Little Thunder’s artwork as I painted.
I really like Japanese 80s music, and one of my favorite artists during that time is Naoko Kawai. Her voice and music are amazing and brings me joy when I listen to it. On top of that she is super cute. So of course I would do another piece of her. This time I wanted to try something a bit more difficult that had various variables, and well I just plain liked the photo of her in the Jeep. I was surprised I was able to finish the painting so fast. It was three days, (a few hours on Wednesday for the rough draft, Thursday I finished the rough draft and focused on inking, I then got all my courage and actually started painting today Friday). I really love the way watercolors look. It changes my art style quite a bit. I’m planning to do more paintings but October is coming so that means Inktober, plus I need to write three essays… It’s gonna be a rough month. But I’ll give it a shot. I was amazed when I saw Little Thunder finished a drawing/painting in 15 minutes. That’s a good goal to aim for.
Was looking at my Japanese vintage ads folder and came across one for Grace Jones advertising the New Celica. After that I learned that she was not only a model but also an actor (quickly found out about her role in the Conan movie) and a singer. My favorite song of hers is “I’ve Seen That Face Before”. I’ve never worked with such dark skin tones before so I really wanted to give it a try. There are more blue tones in the reference photo but since I used a red background I changed the tones accordingly. While I was at it I also changed the pose a bit.
