Suzuki Airi Tirantes 80s Anime D

I had attempted to draw this and paint this for New Years but I didn’t really like the way it came out. So I attempted it again, but since I had already painted the original lineart I had no choice but to go at it digitally. I would say that the painting process isn’t taking that much time, but getting references does. I decided to use the coloring style from the movie Macross: Do you remember love. Aside from coloring it I also wanted to edit some other parts of the drawing it self. The first part was the mouth and lips. I decided to take out the linework of the upper and lower lip. I would form it wit color instead. Of course this and all the other changes were dictated by the references I got from the movie. For the mouth, I also resized it and made it smaller while also repositioning it. The Eyes were moved down a bit and I erased most of the eyelash strands. Eyelashes were also thined and shortened a bit. To my surprise, when I was screen capturing the final reference shots I came across a scene that is almost the same background like the Airi Suzuki picture that I’m using. I quite like the addition of the shadow. I feel like I could’ve added something on the left side of the painting. But this works. One thing I do know is that it looks quite good using a diluted ink linework so that the color influences it when applied.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

March 18, 2020 0

Ranma thumbs up Don’t give up

Was working on this last week but didn’t get to finish the painting process till just now after work. The line work was done using my Stabilo pens. It’s been a while since I last used them. I wanted to see what kind of effect it would have when I underlaid it digital paint. It’s not a bad look, especially in the skin tones but, I think the blue is a little too well blue. I’m thinking using a grey pen on most parts except on the skin tones would work better. But at least now I know. It’s a shame they don’t really work well with watercolors (they smear and bleed). Well at least they work with copics. It’s a shame really because when it comes to traditional painting/coloring I now prefer to use watercolors. As for the digital painting process I tried to replicate the anime coloring style which I just absolutely love. Will definitely try doing it again. I’ll also do try doing this using my traditional paints.

Things have been getting rather hectic lately. Stay safe out there, and never give up.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

March 16, 2020 0

Seiko Matsuda FireAlpaca test 01

My brother was telling me about whether I had used FireAlpaca. I actually hadn’t heard about it before. He told me to check it out since it was free and his friend used it so he was wondering what I thought about it.

Just as he said, the program is indeed free. The program it self is lightweight and easy to understand. There are a number of functions that are missing compared to Corel (realistic brushes) and Photoshop (it’s photo editing features) but it also has a number of functions are pretty cool. It has functions to upload directly to Pixiv. One of the things that really surprised me was how fast and responsive it reacts. It opens fast and it paints smoothly. I decided to use their watercolor brush and it reacted pretty closely to the oil brush from Corel Painter which I loved. I was planning to just paint a quick test but it eventually led to actually finishing the painting (I just couldn’t stop once it begin to take form).

Conclusion about the program (as of now), there are some features I miss from Corel and Photoshop but it is a solid program that people should get. Especially if what you are looking for is a free art program. Give it a try.

I’ve been wanting to make a painting using the 80s references I have been archiving for quite a while now. So I used this as an excuse to give it a try. As mentioned above, it was just going to be a quick rough draft to try the program but ended up finishing it. Seiko came out really cute, I really like the the washed out colors used and the way her expression came out.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

January 27, 2020 0

Suzuki Airi Tirantes 80s Anime

This is actually the last drawing of 2019 and the first one as well as painting of 2020. I’ve been wanting to do a piece of Airi Suzuki for a while now. I wanted to also practice with my Holbein watercolors as well as try out my Fabriano paper which contains 25% cotton. This is my first time using hot press papers. They are quite smooth. The paper it self didn’t buckle as much as the watercolor paper I have been using from Canson. The Holbein watercolors go on quite smoothly. Thinking about it now I have been doing a lot of first right off the bat this year. I finally tried out the mop brush I bought in mid 2019 but have yet to use till just now. I’m amazed at how much area I can cover with it and how even I can do so. So far I really like the way the supplies I’m using react work. Will have to make more tests to see how much more they can be pushed.

For the painting I decided to make a simple 80s anime style. It was really hard to stop myself from adding more to it (really hard). But it was worth holding myself back because I like the way it turned out. The background color was too close to the skins so Airi looked a bit bland, but once I added more yellow to the background the whole picture and Airi came to life and looked so much better. I do want to do another piece of Airi but push to a more detailed painting with more colors. I just love the way the Holbein watercolors get painted on the paper and look when combined.

reference picture from her instagram:

Happy New year! Let’s give it our best this year as well!

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

January 1, 2020 0