"A Hopeless Dream Chaser"
Was having a bit of hard time coming up with something to paint or draw today, but I eventually did get an idea of what I could work on. But I will showcase that next week. For now here is the background. First time working on a wet reflective surface. Really want to learn how to do them in all mediums.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Yesterday night I learned about the Clip Studio contest, with the theme “The Best Smile”. I only had a couple of hours to work on it today since I had some obligations I had to take care of so I didn’t really have any real plans and just started painting. Although not required I decided to use Clip Studio Paint and was amazed at how good it felt to use their oil paint option. I think I may actually like it more than Corel Painter since the oil paint size is controlled by the pen pressure. I’ll have to play around with it more.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
I really like painting Guts. I had another idea of painting him traversing through a forest covered in snow. But that idea might get changed when I work on it once the snowy season starts this year. In it’s stead I decided to work on a piece where Guts is travelling through a forest at night, trying to reach the end and seek the warm safety of the light.
This time I’m working with blue as the background which I have yet to fully understand. All the colors work differently here so I had some setbacks at times. What I did in some cases was putting top layers of different shades of blue and used multiply on guts and some of the surroundings to darken areas around the background. After I felt the colors looked good together I then added some other layers to try and mesh Guts with the background. On top of all of that I then added more paint to add highlights and shadows so that I could try and integrate it more as a whole painting. For the end result I wanted to have it look like it is both painted but still has some aspects of the original manga art style. Hopefully I accomplished that.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
While I was looking through some reference pictures last Friday, I came upon a picture of a model that looked a lot like Misato. While I was looking at the source of the photo it seems that the person in the photo is a model by the name Angela Yeung Wing, known as Angelababy. Seems like she is a Hong Kong based model, actor and singer. Here is the reference photo I used: https://www.instagram.com/p/BKQVP9NgAIs/
I was amazed at how fast I was going when I was painting her, but I then struggled with her face and hair. But after giving it a time to step away I noticed that some areas were just not in the right values. What helped was putting away the reference picture and just working with the painting I had. Not only did that help fix the issues but I also worked faster. I should probably try that out more later.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Many of the side characters in Captain Tsubasa could’ve been very generic stereotypes but I really do believe almost every single one of the main rivals that Tsubasa encouters are not only very interesting but interesting enough to be main characters in their own series. Truthfully I prefer almost every one of those rival characters to Tsubasa who I find to be really boring (but I guess that is usually the case with most protagonists of shonen series.
In any case, I have said it before and I will say it again. The best character is Hyuga Kojiro who very easily could have been that cool bad character that one loves to hate but is usually very one dimensional for most of the series until they decide to flesh them out. But instead they decided to show just how much of a hard worker Kojiro is and how selfless he is as well right from the start. Aside from his rather combative and harsh personality in the field, he is a person that one could look up to and admire. His life is not easy, as he has to support his family who is struggling financially by both working and taking care of his siblings. He not only does it but he understands the situation and doesn’t hold a grudge against anyone for his predicament. And finally, despite all that going on, he decides to continue doing what he loves and works towards his dream of being a soccer player. He truly is the antithesis of Tsubasa who was born a genius soccer player with a whole family who not only loves him, and has financial security but they also do everything they can to allow Tsubasa to pursue his dream of becoming a pro soccer player. One has everything given to him and the other has to struggle to achieve his goals.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Have been super busy lately with school and work so I missed it by a day but happy birthday Miyabi. It’s still the 25th of August over here though. I really love the recent photos she uploaded with long hair and her white dress. It makes her look like a cute elf or fairy. So with that in mind I searched for a photo that incorporated foliage and summer together. Seems like the reference for the background I used is from the movie “Secret Garden”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. I wonder if people will know just by looking at it though.
I hope you have a great year in these coming months Miyabi. It makes me really happy when I find out that you not only see my work but also like it. I hope you like this painting as well. I really loved doing it.
Miyabi references used: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEJsut9FIX1/
Reference picture of the background: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/586875395162024592/
I hope you have a great year in these coming months Miyabi. It makes me really happy when I find out that you not only see my work but also like it. I hope you like this painting as well. I really loved doing it.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Seeing as Kill la Kill was influenced by series like Sukeban Deka I wanted to make a painting depicting that connection. I also wanted to make as many summer paintings as I can before the season ends (finally). This is an homage to Yuki Saito’s photo. Which can be seen here.
Using references from the anime it self, I did have to make various changes to the body type and the hair a bit so that it would look more like Ryuko. Seriously, Ryuko has a tiny waist. As for the hair I wasn’t sure if I should have left it down or pull it up into a ponytail like in the reference photo. In the end I decided to try and figure out how it would look if Ryuko decided to put it up.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Really like Miyabi’s pink jumpsuit. And the way it matches with her mask really gives her a yankii look. When I was painting the drawing I decided to slightly change the background a bit so it looked more like a dance studio.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Today is the anniversary of when the first game in the Ace Combat series was released. I was working on an another painting that I couldn’t finish yesterday, but I was somehow able to paint this quite quickly as soon as I was done with the other painting. It’s not very refined but it gets the main idea out quite well.
I would like to thank the Ace Combat team and community for allowing this series to still be alive and releasing more games which are definitely among my favorite games of all time. My favorites being 5 and Zero. The Berkut is my favorite jet in the game by the way.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Let’s start off by saying that I really love Buono! There was just something magical about this formation. Such a shame I will never get to see them live in concert. I’m really jelly of those who got to experience it. Thankfully the concerts are now being released on Youtube for more people to experience them. This premiere that happened last week was the closest I could get to experiencing one of their concerts live. A shame I couldn’t enjoy it all the way through since it started at 3 am in the morning where I live and I had to get ready for work. I couldn’t even get to enjoy Airi’s live video about Buono!… On the bright side this was done on Youtube so I can at least rest easy knowing that it won’t disappear and I can watch it as many times as I want. Man I really wanted to have this painting done on time last week. I actually own the concert but I’m glad it’s on Youtube so that more people can get to watch it and interact amongst fans.
I was working on this since the beginning of last week in the hopes that I would be able to finish it in time for Youtube’s premiere of the Buono! Pienezza! concert. But my other job has been extremely busy so I only managed to get the background and the main outlines and colors of Momochi, Miyabi and Airi. I don’t know if it was because I was tired from overworking or if I just had no idea of how to continue with the painting process but I got stuck and couldn’t continue working on it when I had some free hours to work on it. I finally managed to get some time to work on it again on Tuesday and started to use a new technique (for me) using Photoshop. Which basically just consists of putting in the base colors on one layer, adding a multiply layer for the outlines and another multiply layer for the shadows on them. It took me a while to come up with a system so that I could work faster and more efficiently (although it took me a whole two days to really know what I was doing).
Thank you for the music and fun all these years. It really warms my heart to know that they are still remembered and loved.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
I’m currently watching the To Aru Kagaku no Railgun T anime. I’m really pleased with it. Unlike with To Aru majutsu season 3, they didn’t rush the series and the animation looks really beautiful. There were a couple of shots that used cgi that were moving a bit too fast and weird at the beginning but it seems they got used to it in the later episodes.
I really like Sogiita Gunha’s character so seeing him fight right next to Touma is amazing. Because this is one of my favourite scenes I decided to paint it.
Surprisingly this piece only took me three days to do. I guess I have been improving…
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
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