Airi Rescue Beam Saver COLOR

Here is the Colored version of my Airi Rescue illustration. I’m uploading two versions. The second version has some static added to it to replicate the quality of a magazine print. One things I like in old anime are the glow effects they do with beams, so I wanted to incorporate that in this illustration. Adding some outer glow to the beam and adding some noise to the glow gave it a cool effect.

I want to convert this drawing to an anime frame at some point. You know, like those mid point frames when the anime had to go to commercials.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Airi Rescue Soldier Manga

I actually had a version of this drawing ready to go, but I’m glad I never uploaded it. Since I had a chance to rest on it and reflect on what I could do with it, I ended up adding some new ideas to it which I think look better. Before it was a bit flat but now it now looks like a title page at the beginning of a chapter. The beam saber looked a bit bland too, so I added some outer glow to it and also some grain so that it blended roughly with the background. Clip Studio has some cool stuff to draw manga, but it also lacks in others which is why I like combining it with Photoshop. The only bad thing about that is that the screen tone layers get screwed up and I can’t edit them again. There are ways to just make a quick new layer to edit if necessary, but that’s a real pain if I have to do multiple.

I wanted to download a stars brush to do them quickly but I ended up just painting them by hand. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. I like that rough look to them that the real g pen from Clip Studio gives it. The font it self I ripped from the music video.

Here’s the music video by the way. It’s a really fun one, I love it:

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Momochi visor

This time I opted to cover up my line art with colors that correspond to each section of the painting. I like it. This will be something I should just do from now on. I specially liked how I could blend better because of it. This was a great advantage when I was working with Momochi’s eyes and lips.

I’ve been quite busy lately with other things so I haven’t been drawing or painting as much. Hopefully I can get in the flow again soon. On another note, I noticed that Pixiv restarted my weekly upload combo. I guess it resets after the new year. Had I known that I would have taken note of it. But I guess if I do an uninterrupted combo this year I should be able to beat last years personal record.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Momochi visor line art Re-do

There are so many drawings that I have left unfinished. This is one of them. The original line art had messy and thick lines that I had to fix. So I just went ahead and redid the whole line art using Clip Studio. There are a few additions and modifications. Next comes the painting process.

Speaking of painting, I feel like there are so many painting that I can redo now. But maybe I will wait it out till I have more skills…

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Summer Stroll Momochi

Finally, we are in the tail end of the summer, there’s only three more days before we finally enter the fall season! Heck yeah! I like this outfit that Momochi used in her “Off Momochi in Okinawa” blu ray. I think it really fits the lowering temps. I made two versions, a more realistic version and an anime version where I simplified certain aspects of the face and enlarging the eyes. Using outlines helps make people pop out, but I wanted to see if I could make it look good without them.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Kimono Tamura Meimi

I’m surprised I haven’t painted Meimi before. I had seen glimpses of her in Haro Pro shows when she was still a new member. But it wasn’t till I stumbled upon this music video that I became a fan:

Although at the time it was only the short edit version.

At first I was surprised to find out that she was no longer in S/mileage which I then found out was called Angerme. Then it was her voice. It’s much deeper and really strong. Seriously, her singing is amazing. Because of her I went back to check out S/mileage and Angerme’s discography. I’ve been missing out. But more about that at some later date.

Lately she’s been doing stage plays which I remember she said she loved and preferred doing. Hopefully she will continue her singing career because she’s definitely great at it, and I just want to hear new songs from her (selfish, I know).

Pictures are from her instagram, fromfrom the Rurouni Kenshin stage play. She portrays Sanjo Tsubame, the Akabeko errand girl.

I would link them to her account, but they have been erased (she seems to like deleting old content every once in a while).

But there is video of the performance (she appears at minute 1:19):

I don’t know which version I should go with, the more muted colors version which is the original or the more saturated version which I edited afterwards.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Happy Birthday Miyabi 2022

It’s Miyabi’s birthday today! Welcome to the 30 year club. I hope this year is more prosperous and filled with happiness, thank you for everything you have given us.

I really liked this photo of her trip to Okinawa.
Seen here:

But just making a study is not that special (for birthday purposes) so I modified it a bit by having her bringing her sunglasses down but still having the wind blowing. I was thinking of having Miyabi wink, but the bonus accompanying painting I think fills that aspect perfectly.

The bonus painting is of her dancing with Karin Miyamoto “El Sonidito” Super Mario Bros 3 mix. Seeing Miyabi and Karin dancing Musica Regional from Mexico really made my day. It’s a shame Berryz Koubou never went to Mexico, that would have been a fun thing to watch like when ℃-ute and Juice=Juice did. So this was a nice surprise.

Hope you have a lot of fun today.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Miyabi Natsuyaki Aquarium

It seems like Miyabi is vacationing in Okinawa. There are a lot of beautiful photos of her trip but this one of her in the aquarium really called out to me. There’s just something magical with this whole composition. The beautiful Miyabi with the clear water in the background is just… I know I’m essentially just copying the photo (I did take off the face mask though so I could show Miyabi’s face), but I really wanted to study it. I’ve mainly worked with warm colors but have had problems with the cool spectrum. This painting really taught me a lot. Painting Miyabi’s face was actually the only section that had me struggling since the first iterations just didn’t look like her.

Reference image can be seen here at Miyabi’s instagram:

This whole painting was made using Anato Finnstark’s brushes. They are quite versatile. They will come in handy along with Toko Suzuki’s brushes whenever I use Photoshop to paint.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Tennis Momochi in 4 styles inked-hatched

I’ve had these inked and hatched Momochi drawings waiting for over a month, it is now time to finally upload them. Working with the line art, I also wanted the line art and inking to compliment each other. Somehow, less facial features works better. Once the details get too close to realism, certain facial features have to be drawn in a more realistic way otherwise it can make the face look off. I think playing with the line thicknesses can either help or hurt as well. I’ll have to experiment more to find out what works at certain times and what doesn’t.

Luckily there’s plenty of Momochi drawings I want to draw so I can practice more.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

Momochi visor Line art

There are so many drawings of Momochi that I want to give a try. This waitress outfit is hella cute.

Currently I can only use my surface pro to create art. This will be a perfect test to see what flexibility it can give me. I love that I can use my fingers to resize and can tilt the whole tablet to change the orientation of the workspace physically so that I have a more intuitive experience when drawing and painting. It’s giving me flashbacks to when I was a kid and used to draw with a clipboard. The only problem is that I don’t have express keys, I’ll have to see if I can add them digitally otherwise I will buy an express keys controller.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE