As you can see, this week I do not have a video for this week. And that will most likely be the case from now on. More on that on Friday.
Rei Ayanami, the person that got me interested in Neon Genesis Evangelion (well her and the song “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis”) . Strangely enough, even though I wasn’t let down when I finally saw the series, Asuka stole my attention as soon as she appeared. I feel that in the remakes of Evangelion Rei seems to have more of a future (much like Asuka). I am really looking forward to see what happens in the last movie.
As for the drawing it self. Over all I was really pleased in how it came out. But while drawing this I made a lot of mistakes which led me to make a couple of changes that led me to create the blue shadow. I have always wanted to play around with these kinds of backgrounds but over all I think it brought down the quality of the drawing it self. I’ll have to work on that a bit more from now on. On the plus side, while adding the watermark it gave it a really cool effect.
This is the first drawing video of 2014, and to commemorate the new season of videos, I have created a new title and image. Drawing videos will now be called “Darkcloud XERO Drawing”. One of the new features for these videos is the availability to buy a print of the featured drawing (can be purchased in darkcloudxero.com ).
Back when I was first getting into anime (I was probably 11-12), I saw a preview of this really amazing series that contained one of the most incredible songs (“A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” which really fit) I have ever heard. I used to rewind the cassette just to rehear the song over and over again. I eventually learned that the public library had the series but it was in dvd, something I did not have at the time. It took me a couple of years to accumulate the money to buy a PS2 so that I could finally watch them.
Though much of the content was for a mature audience, I got really hooked and watched it till the end. I felt conflicted. I loved it yet I hated it? It had a lot of things that I enjoyed watching and exploring, but it also contained themes and characters (Shinji and Gendo) that I really disliked. I feel that this combination is what made it so memorable though. Something that surprised me was the amount of symbolism I was able to pick up despite my age. Most people will either love or hate it, but I will say this, watch it at least once.
While watching the trailer (before actually watching the series) I was captivated by Rei Ayanami. After watching the series though, that focus shifted to Asuka, who was both the strongest and the weakest character in the series. Despite her problematic past and trauma, she made sure to push forward hoping to forge a new path for her future (only to be demolished by Shinji in the “End of Evangelion”). Another reason that made me really dislike Evangelion.
After a couple of years I heard word of the new Evangelion movies, strangely enough I didn’t see them till just last year (all three of them). I really liked the changes they made to Asuka as a character (though I still dislike the fact that she has affection for Shinji again). And yes I know that I lot of people dislike the changes they made (to Asuka and the series), but I think this is for the best since it gives it a totally different spin on the original, which I greatly enjoyed. In this series, Asuka seems to have more of a future, the chance to totally change her and the remaining humans lives. Still, I’m sure that Gendo is acting the way he does for a reason. The problem is that we will not know completely till the final film.
I got really busy getting all the preparations for the Online Store and for my debut as a pro artist, so I had to sacrifice a lot of things. Among them was the production of my drawing videos. Luckily though, now that I have taken care of most of my plans and obligations, I can finally begin recording again. I plan to make two definite posts every week (unless there is an inconvenience or a situation that does not allow me), Monday will feature a new video (I have already made a short timeline of the people/characters/themes I am going to cover). On Friday I will put a status on the Artist Project I started last Friday. Sometimes I will talk about other things, but it will be mainly focusing on the Artist Project.
So for the first drawing (of this new segment and of the year I believe), I will be drawing Asuka Shikinami Langley from the new Evangelion movies.
I’m really surprised that this drawing took me so long to draw, but I guess it is expected since I decided to add some background this time around. The time accumulated for this drawing was … 19 hours and 10 minutes. In a way I find that astonishing, but believable since I was making up techniques as I drew. I’m surprised I didn’t get stuck and end up ruining the drawing. One thing I have learned though is that adding various colors to a certain object or objects will make it more believable and realistic so I made sure to go in with that type of mentality.
I’m sure many fans of the To Aru Majutsu no Index and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun know that a new series is being aired at this moment, it seems to be focusing on Misaka and her involvement with her sisters/clones. And I have to say, it is absolutely amazing. Both the story and the animation. I seriously wish more anime’s put in that much effort at least into the animation. In any case, this drawing is inspired by the fight between Misaka and Mugino Shizuri ( no. 4 as the strongest level 5, known as the “Meltdowner”). Their confrontation ended last week and it was awesome, plus it also left it open for some more “encounters of the level 5 kind” (yeah… I know, stupid joke).
Throughout the drawing I really did not know what I wanted to do yet. I just had a goal to draw her in a pose I haven’t seen before. So I just made things up as I went along. As I was drawing I decided to have her injured but still willing to fight, and I also liked the idea of having her fight outside (meaning I would have to draw a background as well). One thing I did want to include was her shorts. Usually I don’t like upskirts in anime/manga but because she always has shorts I find her to be a really awesome character that doesn’t feel the need to flash in order to be popular. I seriously feel that more female characters need to be like that. Plus her shorts are pretty much her trademark (well that and electricity, gekota, etc.). I did feel kind of bad making her bleed, but I feel that makes her look more vulnerable and human like. As well as making the situation look dire. If anything I feel the drawing only needs a bit of rubbing/blending in order to make it smoother (mostly in the sky).
What do you guys think?
Any Questions/Comments?
This is the second time I have drawn the original Gundam. Truthfully the last time was in my opinion a failure. Despite that, it did amass a good amount of views. So I figured I owed it to my viewers to create a better version now that I can draw at any pace I feel like.
For some reason though I just kept getting problem after problem. The first attempt the video got messed up because of a new sketch book that I bought. Then I just couldn’t get the pose to come out just right in my head so I had to redraw the whole drawing over and over again. That of course takes time away from the camera that is recording. Which then leads to the batter draining out and take some more time to charge up. In the end it was a whole mess that took longer than it needed.
Even so I was pleased with the way it came out. A background would have looked nice but trying to incorporate space (as in outer space) with color pencils is quite hard because of the amount of color you have to put in. I developed a technique for this using markers/water color paints but the paper would most likely start to buckle. So… yeah.
In any case here it is. Now that I have uploaded a version that I am pleased with I can finally move on into other mobile suits late in the future.
In commemoration of the new Dragon ball movie that has just recently been released in theaters (sadly only in Japan), I present to you my rendition of the newest Super Saiyan form… Super Saiyan God. I really like it, specially because of it’s simplicity. I had seen many renditions on the internet, some had Goku with really really long hair (probably taking Super Saiyan 3 and Super Saiyan 4 as inpirations). I wouldn’t doubt it if Toriyama sensei saw any of these, and because he likes to go against others and be different I’m sure really wanted to make a really simple design but still make it different from anything done before. And so with that we get a form that’s between Goku in his normal form and when he becomes Super Saiyan with the big difference that his hair, aura and eyes all becom red. Because of all the expectations many fans had, many were of course dissapointed with this design. But again to each his own. Its just how some hate Goku’s Japanese voice (which seems strange to me) and others love it (I have had the pleasure to grow up with the Spanish English and last but not least the original Japanese voice, and despite all the hate I absolute love the Japanese version). I really hope I can get my hands a copy of the movie soon. I’m sure it’s going to be great.
Once again, I seem to be late in uploading this. It’s really starting to get pathetic… Sure this time it wasn’t a whole month, but still. In any case I seem to be posting this two days late, so I’m sorry about that.
As the title states, this time it is Linlin’s turn. The second of the only two Chinese members of Morning Musume. She was definitely one of the funniest, if not the funniest of the members. Her energy was always high, and her way of viewing the world was inspirational. I remember seeing an interview where she said that she would laugh in front of a mirror in the morning in order to get more energy. I found that to be an amazing habit.
I would most likely get along best with Linlin since she is crazy about anime and Japanese pop culture. Plus since were are both foreigners (to different countries of course) we would have a lot to talk about. And we are actually about the same age, she’s just a couple of months older than me.
It seems that she will also be debuting this year as a solo artist, which I am extremely happy to hear. After hearing the song that she composed and wrote the lyrics together with Ai chan, I know for certain it will be successful.
It also seems that she is continuing with cosplay, which brings me to why I decided to draw this drawing the way it is. Since anime and cosplaying seems to be a big part of her life, I find it only natural that I draw her as though she was an anime character. Which is why I chose to do a cute but cool outfit, reminiscent of what you usually see in an anime. I feel that a cute but kind of punk style would suit her well.
So far this has been the hardest drawing (of a Morning Musume member) that I have done. The reference that I chose was probably the culprit (since her left side of her face was darkened by shadows making it hard to apply the right amount of contrast). I guess I’m still not as good as I should be… Plus she look rather different these days, she is most likely using circle lens? I hear those things make your eyes look really big.
After the first two “If they were real” videos, I feel like going back to drawing some more anime themed drawings. For this video I decided to draw characters from one of my favorite animes: TORADORA. It’s a really fun, serious, inspirational and emotional story. If you have not seen it yet I highly recommend it. For the most part the animation and art style are definitely really good. But I feel they could have made it even better. Truthfully the only reason I complain, is because of the time a certain side character dyed his hair (I really thought it looked a bit…).
In any case, this drawing took about five and a half hours to complete. But that was to be expected since I had to color it after all. Over all I wanted to try and bring out the feel of a certain artist I have talked about before, Banpai Akira. This time though I made sure to not look at any of his works and see if I could pull it off on my own. I had to do quite a bit of experimenting, and I really don’t feel I did too bad. The only complaint I have is with Aisaka’s hair. Maybe I should have done it a bit darker (more on the brown side, instead of the light golden hair). But oh well.
This was probably the hardest one to draw. Not because of the difficulty but because of not knowing how Bulma would look like in real life. In my view she could go either way in terms of looks (Asian or Caucasian). So I decided to do some research to help me decide. Much to my surprise that added more to my confusion. As it turn out it seems that Buruma was meant to represent Xuanzang, the Chinese monk (and protagonist) from “Journey to the West”. One would think that it would all end like that and I would just draw her as a Chinese girl, but after examining the original drawings for what would later become Buruma, I found out that he (Akira Toriyama) had a Western girl in mind
So, did that image still carry over to the Buruma that we all know? I was really contemplating and reaching the same conclusion that it could go either way. And since I pretty much imagine Trunks as seeming Caucasian for some reason as well as seeing her family which is made up of one blonde mom. At the very least she could be half and half. But to not complicate things, I will just make her a white girl. With that in mind I’d say that was probably the only character I feel they casted right in that horrible live action movie (too bad they did not give her the full light blue or in some eyes light purple hair). Of course since it was supposed to be based on the original Dragon Ball then they would need a younger actress (or at the very least, make her look , girlier). Not that the right casting would have changed the outcome of the film…
I also tried to pinpoint the source of the name. That of course would lead me no where. After all, as most fans know, Buruma means Bloomers. And again this would not give me a definitive answer since these are/were widely used in both Japan and Western countries. The origins of the garments would not help out much either. So I scrapped this as a deciding factor.
Any way, that is how I came to the conclusion of how to draw Buruma. I infact did use a model to draw this interpretation (from a picture I found in the internet of course, after searching for hours…). Here is the picture of said cosplayer:
As you can tell I borrowed greatly, and mostly just added the bunny suit, as well changed her hairstyle. I’d say she fits the part perfectly. She not only looks like her but also has that youthful look that reminds me of the early days of Dragon Ball.
I also had some other images in mind of course. Some that I personally preferred and would have used if I decided to go the other way. here are the links:
pic 1
pic 2
And so, there you have it. What do you guys think?
I found this really cool cosplayer on the internet and decided to use her pose for this drawing. She was lying down on the ground and extending her hand to reach whoever the viewer was. Also, her body was pointing towards the other direction (if that even makes sense). In other words her head would be by one’s feet and her body would lay (from our perspective) forward. Which is why I had to draw her upside down. Now I know what some of you may be thinking, why not draw her upright then just flip the drawing over? That would be the easiest and perhaps the smartest thing to do, but I thought that it could be more fun to do it this way. As a challenge. Surprisingly I didn’t do too bad, although I did have to cheat at the end when I had to redraw the head (mainly because I didn’t want to use too much time). I hope you guys give it a try too.
request (more like a suggestion) by: alleriaq
I was suggested to try and draw the supper popular Naruto, as well as Itachi. I found some really cool references on the web that I thought would look cool together.
Sword Art Online is one of my favorite animes of the year. I really enjoy how they skip months and go towards the important segments of the story. Except by the end of the first season where it felt more like fan service… Luckily that did not last long and the story progressed.
I’m actually not surprised that I was asked to draw this pair seeing as they are very popular these days. I thought I would make the theme be a sort of, before the battle kind of scene. Kirito forces Asuna to stay out of it while he goes off to fight alone. Something like that. It feels rather incomplete without any background doesn’t it?
Hope you enjoy it,
– XERO
This addition has been added on 1/31/2013.
This is the new project I’m starting for this channel. Which I believe I have mentioned before on one of the other videos. I’ll be taking old videos from my other channel and make a how to/tutorial of how I did it and also some light commentary. This is the second video that has gone through this process, the other one was about Marisa Kirisame. The only difference is that I have not added any voice over. I have become really busy lately so I have to cut any extra work that would monopolize my time. Even so I’ll try to becom more active in both accounts, so I hope you guys don’t wander off too far.
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