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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Took me about three weeks… but I finally have the first pass of animating my drawing of Momochi in her “Ai no Dangan” outfit. There are a couple of things I need to still edit, I also feel that making it twice as fast will help. Then there is the whole stretching and compressing when Momochi moves to make it more dynamic. There’s still so much I have to learn.
I’ve had the idea of drawing a piece in different styles. After telling myself that I finally did it. It’s amazing how a couple of details can change the whole drawing. This is a good exercise to increase my skills and develop my style.
I really love her solo music, I’m so glad others agree and her popularity has been increasing.
I’m quite late doing this painting but I have been quite busy lately. I also didn’t want to do a subpar painting either. I used references of her birthday pictures (from her instagram) for this painting. Her photos are always so fun. Surprisingly the balloons were not hard to paint at all. It was Airi that I felt I couldn’t get right.
I know that Kii-chan in the vol. 20 Special edition chapter is supposed to be a BABYMETAL type idol, but I liked my idea of her being punished Kii-chan. So with that idea in mind I went with a Metal Gear parody painting. When I finished painting Kii-chan, I felt it would be kind of funny painting in Tomoko as Big Boss. But not as an active soldier but as a weapons dealer like she mentioned back in her chuunibyo days.
I was kind of worried about the crow, but it was much more straightforward than I thought.
I really miss Buono! I’m so glad they have so many recorded media of their activities. What’s great is that there are a lot of new fans appearing. Their legacy continues to grow!
This painting took me longer than I thought it would but I’m finally finished. I went with an 80s anime style. I started with the background and then started painting from left to right. The line art was overlaid digitally then set to multiply. The base colors went in first then I started adding the leopard, polka dots and star designs, etc. I then created a separate layer where I multiplied the shadow layers. Then above all the layers for each member I created a new one for the lighting. To keep with the anime aesthetic I chose the typical anime hair colors so that they popped more. For their eyes, I chose their member colors.
As I was working on this painting I got reminded that Berryz Koubou’s 18th debut anniversary was on March 3rd. Sadly I wasn’t able to do a piece to commemorate it though. I still wan to make one though. I have an idea for one, but maybe I should save that one for their 20th anniversary. Or maybe I should just make that one, we’ll see.
A great intro to Buono! is Hatsukoi Cider. Check it out here (Their official video has over 5 million views!):
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