Since I had some time yesterday, I decided to try out my new calligraphy brush. The model that will be the first to try it out is Momochi, using a photo from her last photobook as reference. I’m surprised at how accurate the brush the brush can be. I really enjoyed the experience. For this painting I decided to do it freehand which can be pretty dicey but it does speed up the process by quite a lot. And sure enough it did, but I did do one mistake. I put the mouth and nose too low so I made the decision to alter that using Photoshop.
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.
This time I wanted to try out different styles. First, now that I had a stronger pc I wanted to try out the watercolor brush that Corel Painter has. Before in my old system, the program would take a long time to process one brushstroke. And this computer just did it like it was nothing. I then moved over to the real watercolors brush and I only had to wait probably about 1/2 a second for my computer to process the realistic watercolor painting. I do have to practice with them a bit more, but I’m amazed at how realistic the way the paints interact with each other and how I can layer the paint, glaze and pretty much anything that can be done with real watercolors. But with the advantage that digital painting has. I painted rather quickly and that shows, but I’m sure it can be polished to a high degree.
For the second painting I tried the oily bristle brush so that I could compare. It looks good, but I should probably spend more time to blend or make the transitions between colors a bit more cleanly.
For the third painting process I went for a more pop manga style. I’ve been following a couple of artists these days, but I was specifically looking at the art of __tree_13 : https://www.instagram.com/p/CH0WQnCnsYn/
The artist does a great job of bringing back that 80s style and I really wanted to have a go at it. For this one I used a combination of Photoshop and Clip Studio for the screen tone. I’m really glad that I can open a .psd file with Clip Studio and Painter.
This drawing was started back in October 27 when I got some new lead that was 2h I believe. Now that I had some time to look at it again, I made some changes and inked it. I really feel that the ink and changes I made, created a much better drawing that looked more like Momoko.
Reference used was from Momoko’s last photobook Momochi.
Next time I want to try out the pencil with watercolors, but I think in this case ink was the way to go. Momochi looks so cute with twintails.
This is a digital painting using the line art from day 7 of Inktober 2020. The theme was fancy that day. When I started painting I just had the idea of keeping it flat and simple. I focused on Momoko first then I spent a good bit of time on the chair. I just started adding colors to see what would come out and when I was done I got the urge to add some stitching to the seat cushions. Getting the right colors was a bit easier when I used the hue ability of Photoshop. When I got the shape and colors at a state I was happy with I added some texture to give that stitching look. I tried a couple of techniques but I feel that making some skipping hatching worked. Keeping it uniform and in the same orientation keeps it looking clean. The background it self I wasn’t too sure about. I then just started adding background elements to make it look like a tea house. The hue used to be more yellowish, but when I was playing with the hues, I arrived at this whiter background. It’s been a while since I last painted so I was a bit worried, but I noticed that I was able to paint with a lot more calmness and ease. Soon I should be able to clear up some more time to use for art. I can’t wait to try more things out.
Today’s prompt is hide. After a little bit of thought I decided to use the scans of Momoko’s last photobook as reference to draw today’s drawing. What I did differently today was just learn from the clothes and the tree used, I wanted to make my own pose. I was imagining a scene where Momoko was playing hide and seek and decided to give up her position in a cute way.
Today was a rough one… But I still managed to get some time together so that I could make a drawing today. Today’s theme is fancy. I was watching a segment of a variety show where Momoko was dressed by someone else. And in this one she had a black blouse with a slit in the back and a skirt. When I saw her in that I knew I wanted to do a piece in some way. And keeping with the theme I felt I should have her in a fancy tea house with her iconic pinky out. I also was looking at antique chairs and found this really cool one that only showed the front but I figured I could just make up how it would look in the back. I really like the way it came out. But due to the limited time today I decided to just leave it at the line art stage. Once I have more time I will go back and figure out what direction to finish it.
This is a study from Momoko’s photobook Momoko Momochi Zukan. I actually wanted to try something new but ended up trying to do a realistic take by using hatching and cross hatching. I wasn’t satisfied with the way it came out since some lines came out too thick for the shadows. But I figured if I thickened some of the line art and darkened certain areas to change the values and lighten the hatching I made for the shadows. And sure enough it worked. I could push this effect more if I added more shadows around Momochi. Maybe adding interesting hatching would give it a cool aesthetic.
I had finished the first draft of this painting a couple of days before but wasn’t truly satisfied so I gave it some days and had a go at it again today. I think it looks better than the first version. This is a study of one of her photos from her Momochi Zukan Photobook.
Man, this one is already about a year old now. I was planning on releasing it at some point but it never happened and ultimately I decided to release it when it got hot out again. And seeing as the weather has been getting hot lately (plus I haven’t uploaded in a while) I figure now would be a good time to upload it. The painting of Momoko is the same that was done a year ago but wasn’t pleased with the background so I tried out my new pc upgrades with this piece by painting a new beach background. There is no more stuttering or slowing down anymore (although the temps of the CPU are a bit worrisome). I tried out some of the other brushes that Corel Painter offers and saw no problems at all. Last time I tried it with my old components my pc couldn’t keep up. Although it could handle my favorite oil brush it tended to close up (Corel) on me from time to time. The last time when I was painting the Buono piece I lost half an hour’s worth of work which really sucked. I was going to wait on upgrading for a bit longer but after that happened I decided to pull the trigger. And I’m very happy I did.
I really like Momochii’s Yurushite Nyan pose so I went with that when I first drew her. My thought process at the time was to try out 80s/90s style painting which can look extremely beautiful if done right. But as mentioned when I was looking at the old background it just wasn’t up to par so I made a new one that would fit Momoko.
I’m planning on making more paintings throughout the summer ( I actually have had some ideas floating around for a while now). But work and my decision to make a desk computer will be keeping me busy for a bit longer. Hopefully the extra space in the desk will help cool down my cpu and gpu if not I’m going to have to invest in a new cooler…
It has also been a while since I’ve done some traditional watercolor paintings so I hope to get back into that as well.
For the last day of Inktober which of course lands on Halloween, I decided to draw Sayu and Momochi saving me from Imhotep (the mummy). It can be found here. This is the first painting I have done after at least a month. I felt quite comfortable painting despite the gap surprisingly.
Within the movie there is two scenes where Imhotep is scared of cats due to him being cursed and punished in the underworld. I thought it would be funny if he got afraid after seeing Sayu and Momochi acting like cute cats.
I really enjoyed adding the effects on top of the painting, it makes everything pop.
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