Misaka and Misaki’s Christmas 2018

How about a Christmas themed painting! (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))

I really like the pairing of Misaka Mikoto and Misaki Shokuhou. The way they banter against each other is really cute, even more so when they have no choice but to work with each other. It was a smart idea to make them both rivals and allies at the same time. Definitely one of the best duos in the series. And seeing as they can hack into all security systems to delete their presence digitally and the power to also erase and manipulate peoples memories they really could get away with any crime. Whenever there are hints that they will pair up again I get really happy.

This painting was actually started last year. But I didn’t finish it on time. It still needed a background after all. So I decided to save it for this year’s Christmas. I was bogged down with other work but I managed to finish the background just in time to maybe even start a new Christmas piece. In any case I had to find a suitable reference picture. The one I found was in portrait mode so I had to make up the rest.

It was painted using my Kuratake Gansai Tambi watercolors and my Nicker Poster Colour paints.

Here is the final piece:

References used:

And here is the process:

drawing-

painting of Misaka Mikoto and Misaki Shokuhou-

process of the background:

And the process done digitally to combine both pieces:

Hope you guys like it. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

December 19, 2018 0

Suiryu JC stance

Since I finished that Fubuki painting I felt it would be good to draw Suiryu one of my favorite characters from One Punch Man. Definitely at the top (probably my favorite male character). It’s awesome to have another martial artist be a part of the story. I’m really interested to see what will become of him after the end of the tournament. Will he become even more powerful by training more diligently? It would be nice if at the end of One Punch Man someone would finally be able to put a decent fight against Saitama, and my money would be on Suiryu.

I really love his character design and fighting style. I don’t usually like cocky characters but he has a rather interesting arc. I really hope they continue to show his development as the story progresses.

The painting (done with a G pen and then shaded with Photoshop):

references used:

The pose was from this photo of Jackie Chan:

Process:

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

December 12, 2018 0

Fubuki CD Cover

Man, I started this piece a long time ago. I figure it was about time I went ahead and finished it now that I have a bit more time to work. I had a different version made during the summer but I was not satisfied. Not only did I decide to edit Fubuki herself but opted to redo the whole background. It took around three, five separate attempts over a couple of months till I was finally able to finish. I felt a lot more confident in my technique and color selection. Hopefully this means I will be able to create more paintings at a faster pace. I also noticed I knew a lot more shortcuts and time management techniques which allowed me to keep a steady workflow. As for whether the painting actually looks good I don’t know. I’ve been working on it for a bit so it’s hard to know.

Any way this piece was based on the chapter covers of One Punch Man where Fubuki is drawn like in a CD cover (this sentence is written weirdly).

The paintings:

references used:

Can’t find the chapter art covers I mentioned, if I do find them I will update this post.

Man that was long…

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

December 9, 2018 0

Kanzaki Kaori Fallen Angel

In episode 8 of To Aru Majutsu No Index III everyone was left hanging with the scene of Kanzaki Kaori wearing her Fallen Angel cosplay for Touma as a thanks for helping the Amakusa followers. So I figured I would draw her after finishing up the Kojiro painting. When I was done with the Fallen Angel painting I went ahead and watched episode 9 of To Aru today and much to my surprise they did show a bit more of Kanzaki with her cosplay (a lot more…) (#ﾟﾛﾟ#)

Hmmm… I made her outfit much less revealing but figured it would only take a couple of edits to change it to fit more closely to the one shown in the anime, though looking at it closely I’m amazed by how much of her cleavage is exposed (to the point it doesn’t make sense)! Σ(ﾟДﾟ;)

So with that I decided to make two versions. This was done using a G Pen and then colored using Photoshop.

Original:

More exposed version based on the anime:

References used:

The image that made me make two versions:

Here is the process:

I am contemplating make another version that has more details to see how much I can push it but still have it look good. Personally I really like the way this version came out. I’ll keep practicing these simpler color versions. I need to be as versatile as possible to be a good artist all around.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

December 7, 2018 0

Kojiro Hyuga Tiger

So I don’t know exactly how it happened but I seemed to have missed the announcement of a new Captain Tsubasa anime. When Japan released the announcement of them hosting the olympics there was this really cool advert that really embraced their pop culture. Among the many animes that made an appearance was Captain Tsubasa. And let me tell you that animation was gorgeous. It seemed to have a lot of it’s aesthetics based on the manga which I felt had the best anime interpretation of Tsubasa that had been released at that point. I really wished that the prospect of there being a new anime would happen but alas there were no plans at that time.

Here is the video. Looking at it now I do wonder if the first segment was in fact from the original series, it looks really good (the whole video is pretty awesome so I recommend watching the whole thing, but if you only want to see the Tsubasa segment it starts at 0:32 and has another segment at 1:08):

Now jump to about two weeks ago and I just happened to stumble upon Captain Tsubasa 2018. It actually looks quite good (definitely better than the 2002 version which I really did not like their art style and coloring). I personally still prefer the effects and animation from the original but this one is great. Or at least it got that way as the series kept going. The second part is definitely superior. But I do have to say, the opening animation was absolutely amazing. It looks even more like manga artwork was being animated.

Not the best version of the opening but here it is (you’ll see the segments that I mention as the opening reaches the end):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkSxkm63GPE

I really love Captain Tsubasa, although I really don’t care much for Tsubasa and his team. Truthfully every other important character from the other schools around Japan are much more interesting and appealing to me. As this post and artwork will lead you to believe, of course Hyuga is my favorite character out of all of them, though I do have some more that I really like. But Hyuga is definitely my number one.

Here is the artpiece:

It was done first with dip pens and then colored using Photoshop.

References used:

Here is the process:

Do any of you guys like Captain Tsubasa? If so who is you’re favorite character?

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

December 5, 2018 0

Pixiv School Girl prompt

Hey, let’s keep playing around with the Pixiv prompts. This time it’s sailor uniform. I’m still trying out different simple coloring techniques. No matter how I look at it I prefer to add a bit more colors. Leaving it too simple just doesn’t seem right. I guess my style is starting to develop. (・∧‐)ゞ

I should be able to push it even more but I don’t want to spend too much time on one piece right now. I just have to keep drawing everyday and let my skills develop naturally. Once I get to a level I feel is good and also feel my speed is fast enough then I will start playing around with adding backgrounds.

Let’s see what happens.

The finished piece:

Reference used, altered to fit the theme among other things:

I drew it and inked it traditionally first. I truthfully prefer drawing this way though I have gotten used to doing it digitally.

This flat color style doesn’t look bad.

That’s it for now. I’ve been working on other pieces but I feel I should try to make and upload a piece a day so I can brute force my development.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

December 3, 2018 0

Trying out different anime styles Takahashi Ai

I want to try out different styles, the quickest way is to do it digitally since I can redo every line and color as many times as I want.

It was a bit hard trying to contain my self and use simple color schemes, I just felt I could add more but it’s important to try and learn how and why these simplistic coloring styles work and hopefully will be able to create better works in the future. I was going for a 90s style.

reference used:

A more realist anime style:

Slightly more anime style:

Full anime:

That’s it for now.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 28, 2018 0

Miss X

I learned about Miss X a couple of year ago when I was looking at videos about the history of the King of Fighters. They briefly talked about SNK Gals where Miss X appeared. And now she… he? has appeared once again with the announcement for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. I haven’t bought the game but it might be a good idea to do so just for the character model viewer. Though I’m tempted to get their special edition version… (≧д≦ヾ) Luckily I can record the things with the PS4 but I do wonder how well the quality would be.

Anyway I wanted to draw Miss X. After I was looking at the finished drawing, I noticed I made the feet too small so I will have to edit that digitally when I use it for the overall project I have in mind (more on that as it all comes together). Some of my Copics such as the darker purple I wanted to use ran out and I don’t have a refill bottle yet so it was a bit tough trying to get some of the shadows. Maybe I should have added some more values but that would have surely messed up the color scheme withe the colors I had (aside from the Copic that ran out).

This is the drawing done using Stabilo pens and Copic markers:

I wanted a rather dynamic pose (though those feet look so small…)

References used:

And this is the process:

This project will have more parts to it so look forward to it.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 12, 2018 0

Xochitl and her Macuahuitl from To Aru Majutsu no Index

Hey, another Mexican character in an anime! And what is this the second Mexican in the To Aru series? I really like her design and her powers. Sadly it was only for a few seconds. I wish there was a bit more screen-time between her and Etzali during episode 5… though it seems she has a run in with Saten at some point so I’m looking forward to that.

On another note, isn’t the pacing and editing of the third season of To Aru Majutsu a bit off? It seems to really be speeding through the story. And to make matters worse it seems like the characters have to really spit out a lot of exposition… cough, cough… that scene with Tsuchimikado going into that long explanation of what’s going on and how he defeated those robits … Σ(´д ` ﾒ) Hopefully that all gets fixed as the story goes through but I am left a bit disappointed. It kinda reminds me of how they edited down Jackie Chan’s movies to only keep the action scenes

Anyway here is the drawing done using Stabilo pens and Copic markers.

references used:

And here is the process:

Hope you guys like it,

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 11, 2018 0

Loneliness Tokyo Michishige Sayumi Artwork/process

So there have been some changes to Flickr and it seems like they will limit the amount of photos one can have in one’s account for free to 1,000. And I had almost 2,000. So I had the option to either delete some photos my self or have Flickr delete the first 1,000 photos. So some posts will have photos missing as of now. If you guys want any of the missing photos from those old post let me know and I will go back and fix them.

Because of that I had to find another site that I could use and that would not have a size limitation. I thought I got lucky and would be able to use Google photos but it seems like WordPress would have to download the photos and it would count towards my storage space so that wouldn’t solve the problem…

So I looked at the sites that would allow me to embed photos here easily and would not have a size limit. Begrudgingly it seems like I will have to use Facebook. A site I’m not too fond of… But I need it so I guess I will have to revive the old DarkCloud XERO Facebook page.

With that said and out of the way here is the new piece. I actually finished this on November 3rd. but decided to hold it off so I can space my artwork during the week. This piece is based from the previews that Sayumi has been posting on her Instagram for her new single “Loneliness Tokyo”. I took a screenshot and used that as a reference.

This is the painting:

Reference used:

It seems like I can post the whole gallery in one click so that’s cool. But it seems like to view it, it will take you to Facebook so I hope that won’t be a problem for you guys.:

I quite enjoyed making this painting. I started working on it on October 8th but had to wait till I finished Inktober. When I did come back to it I was surprised by how much easier it felt to paint her compared to when I first started a month before.

Congratulations on the new single Sayu! ₊·(ϱ॔⌄ᵕ๑॓)‧*

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 9, 2018 0

Shampoo, Trying out my new azure markers

I was at a Burlington store a couple of weeks ago, more than two months? Anyway, as I was browsing around I found a pack of markers by Royal Langnickel called azure. They were a pack of pastel colors and seem to be blendable (so similar to Copics). I didn’t get the chance to try them out since I was busy with other projects, work and school and then Inktober ate up a good bit of time… ヘ（。□°）ヘ

But things seem to be clearing up a bit so I will try to make as many new artworks as I can since I have seen a great improvement after doing a drawing everyday in October.

On top of trying out the azure markers I also have a chance to try out some of my new colors that I bought for my Stabilo pen collection. I really loved the ones I had before and after using some of my new colors on this drawing I can once again fully recommend them. I’m so glad I gave them a chance! ⸌̷̻( ᷇ॢ〰ॢ ᷆◍)⸌̷̻♡⃛

Now as for the drawing itself. I decided to draw Shampoo from Ranma 1/2. I remember watching Ranma 1/2 when I was a kid in Mexico. I really loved that series, along with Macross and Dragon Ball. The character that really caught my attention was Shampoo, not only did she have a funny name but she was so pretty and a really good fighter. I want to make a couple more drawings of her but that should wait till I re-watch the series.

For this drawing I decided to go for a simplistic style and would limit my self to only using a couple of my Stabilo pens and the colors that came in the azure set of markers.

References used:

And here is the process:

The new addition to my Stabilo pen set:

The azure pen set:

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 5, 2018 0

Another year of life. 2018

Another year has passed. This year was rather nice and productive. I was planning on my making two pieces today but it was rather busy today so I could only start drawing quite late today. ＼(;´□｀)/

The plan was to make a calabera of me drawing but making and planning the design would take too long and I have work tomorrow morning at my other job so that will have to wait. I think this will be the base design and I will keep adding designs as I come up with them. Something that represents me. ｢(ﾟﾍﾟ)

I hope to make this coming year even better and more successful. Hopefully you guys do as well. I would like to take this time to thank you all for visiting my site and looking at my work. Here’s to another year where you and many more people become aware of my artwork. (≧∀≦ゞ

Feliz dia de los muertos! (ノ＞▽＜。)ノ

As I’m writing this the wind is rather strong at the moment and blowing the leaves around my town… I really love the sound of the wind, this is a great present on top of the ones my family has given me by being along my side all this time. ⸌̷̻( ᷇ॢ〰ॢ ᷆◍)⸌̷̻♡⃛

In any case here is the base drawing that I will be designing throughout this year.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 2, 2018 0