Asuka Kato Ramen

I finally painted my Asuka Kato drawing. This was first drawn for Inktober 2021 day 15. I felt Asuka was too lonely so I added Hina and Uchi. Thinking back, I guess I was imagining Asuka eating in a Ramen Stall or something. But I really liked the Ramen chapter so I decided to have them go back this time in winter. I accidently painted Hina and Uchi in their summer uniforms. Luckily it was a quick fix since they were drawn digitally. Once I had the background and Hina/Uchi painted, I then finished the painting with Asuka.

In this scenario, Yuri actually did get a seat next to Tomoko this time (when I read that chapter, I felt that…). Uchi is of course fixated on Tomoko who is on Asuka’s right (our left). Nemoto being able to read the mood, has noticed us looking at the super cute Asuka eating some ramen. Hopefully this time Asuka doesn’t have any problems again finishing it. One of the reasons I really love Watamote is that even beautiful and I guess idealized people like Asuka are shown to be, well, human. Having to deal with the same problems we all face, be it physical or emotional.

Hasta la proxima,

Nube

Airi Sweater

There was this photo recently uploaded by Airi Suzuki wearing a comfy looking brown sweater that I just had to draw/paint.

It was also a bonus that her hairstyle was specially cut for her end of the year °C-ute concert. I was just about finished yesterday painting Airi when my brother walked in and asked when I would make a painting that took longer. I was wondering if he meant that I was rushing through this painting and was leaving it too rough. But it seems he just meant that lately I have only been doing line art which takes only a couple of hours (Airi as well). That’s when I decided to add a background. Using the wall background would not do so I decided to make a winter scenery. I ended up mashing up a couple of reference photos (including some from Airi’s photobooks). It looks like the road crossing the train tracks is heading straight to the sea huh? I guess the idea is that there is a ramp for people to drive towards the beach.

I was a bit apprehensive about the details in the sweater when I was just about to start, but luckily with my current experience I know that it’s just a matter of painting and now stopping. Once that flow starts, it doesn’t take that long to finish. Once I added the background, I did have to tweak the saturation and values on Airi though.

I kinda wanna animate this painitng…

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

New Year 2022 1st Drawing/Painting

Happy New Year!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

あけましておめでとう!

Somehow I managed to finish it on time. This is the first drawing of the year. I decided to risk it and rest a bit after work yesterday and start the first drawing/painting of the year on the very first day of the year. Usually I start a day before and finish it on the second. I wasn’t too sure what the subject would be until I noticed that people were posting tiger themed photos on instagram. The tiger is my favorite animal so this actually made ideas flow much easier.

I had the idea of riding the tiger but felt that was a bit cruel. Then I had the idea of the tiger kinda hugging me like my dog does (well except he hugs from the front) and this concept was born. I drew it first without reference to come up with the pose and whatnot. I wanted a hopeful and determined theme, with the strength of the tiger behind our backs. Or something like that. As for the background I wanted to emphasize the winter weather and used a photo that I took years ago of a street where the mountains could be seen with a beautiful sunset.

Let’s do our best this year!

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Yamato

This is the painted version of the line art I drew before. It can be seen here:

I quite like her multicolored hair. I wasn’t too sure about the background so I made a simple swirling cloud patterns.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Indifferent Rei

This piece was much easier to paint now that I had the colors thought out with the Asuka painting. Where applicable I just used the eyedrop tool.

If paired with the previous Asuka piece, than I would think that Rei could care less about Asuka’s provocation and would have her mind in an entirely different place.

Posing and setting was inspired by Momoko Tsugunaga’s Rei cosplay done back in Hello Channel.

I just saw the trailer with Rei planting crops, now all that fan art I saw makes sense. I want to paint her in that scenario as well…

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Momochi 80s Shoujou

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

Momochi Sunset Study

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

Corel Painter 2021 Contest entry

My entry to the Corel Painter 2021 art contest. They had three categories; Illustration, Fine Arts and Photo Art. I guess this most closely resembles the fine art category so that’s what I ended up choosing.

The painting itself was done almost entirely with just the oily bristle brush except in some sections where I used the flat color brush but very rarely in some sections to try out working with some really dark sections. As it turn out, once we reach a certain amount of darkness, the brush doesn’t blend any more and whatever tint is used works in rather weird ways. It was quite an interesting thing to find out. But I gotta say, now I know why old classical artist used a black or really dark background. The colors used on the subject pop out much more and it makes it much easier to manipulate the values.

The subject is my dog. A couple of years ago now he had a bit of an accident and had to have one of those dog cones. Somehow he looked like he was wearing a ruff collar and looked very dignified. So ever since then, I decided that whenever I felt I was good enough I would paint him like he was royalty. Looking online it seems that this isn’t a novel idea although they are focused more on making parody paintings of actual paintings. For mine, I wanted my dog to actually be a dog wearing royal clothes that drape over him.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Winter landscape

This is a painting that I did for an entry to the Corel “WINTER LANDSCAPES PHOTO AND ART CONTEST”. Which can be found here: https://learn.corel.com/contest/winter-landscapes-photo-and-art-contest/#rules-and-resources

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.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Blood stained gift for her future

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.

You can see my past attempt here:

Traditional X Digital (Color) IV II Final

Actual Lelouch final

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.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Momochi Hiding

Today I decided to paint using the Corel Painter real watercolors again. This time I decided to use different brush presets and they definitely act differently. But I guess that is to be expected. Looking at the end result, they give off that watercolor and Copic look. I used the inktober day 26 line art of Momochi’s last photobook. I wanted to emulate the coloring style of classic manga.

I really want to draw more of Momochi. Luckily the Country Girls dvd magazine has plenty of references of her interacting with the snow. And I really want to paint her in the red outfit from her last photobook. But before that, I want to make a New Year’s piece, I already have an idea so it’s just a matter of doing it.

Hope you guys had a great weekend.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Nemo’s Anime Christmas

That’s number two down. I might just be able to finish the third painting, but we’ll see.
While Hina is having fun with her fantasy anime life coming to life, I can totally see Tamura being annoyed at seeing Hina get close to Tomoko and enjoying her passive aggressive tendencies.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

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