Quick Update 10/21/16

The deadline for voting on the winners of the art contest on DrawCrowd was yesterday on 10/20/16 and yet only the cosplay category winner has been announced… None of the actual Corel winners have been mentioned at all. That’s truly strange, I wonder if the winners have been notified yet? Having said that, there are two pieces that I feel should be first and second place (of course this is just my top picks).

For second place I would choose this one:

Artist – 녹충

She appears to be an artist from South Korea.

I really like the way it looks, it’s simple and gives a scene that would happen in real life.

My pick for first place:

Artist – Miimork

She appears to be from Thailand.

This one has so much going on. And without words you get a story out of this one image. I really like it and feel it deserves to win above all other entries. The description says it all though, “This is the illustration of my friend who’s studying architecture. Back to school, new project, and old friend.”

In any case, good luck to the winners.

As for my work? I have been uploading artwork to DrawCrowd in intervals and at different time periods to see when it is most effective. I started with a Reina Tanaka drawing, uploaded at night which got over a hundred views in a day. That amazed me.

It was this one:

Tanaka Reina photobook study — Are you interested in it as a print?

Uploading to Pixiv you barely get a hundred if that in about a week and let’s not even talk about the abysmal views on DevianArt. After I believe five days it is getting close to 500, amazing huh?

After that I uploaded an Ai Takahashi drawing about two or three days later in the morning. And that one exploded in views. In one day it got around 6,000 views! I’ve never had that many people look at my work in such a short amount of time. After two days it is getting close to 9,000 with two likes and one promotion.

This one:

Ai Takahashi pencil drawing — Are you interested in it as a print?

What does liking and promoting mean? DrawCrowd is pretty interesting in that you have two options to let the artist know how much you like their art. You have the standard like option. By liking an artwork you are making a personal and private list of work you liked while letting the artist know that someone liked their artwork. Promoting an artwork on the other hand compiles a public list that is shown in your profile showcasing artwork that you deem good enough to recommend. It’s a really good system that creates a chain reaction of exposing artwork that others that follow said artist might like as well.

Now back to the third piece I have uploaded thus far. The third piece is the Halloween painting of Yuzuki Yukari I made last year. I uploaded it today in the morning and it has already reached close to 20,000 views! In just one day! This site is incredible at giving exposure to one’s work. I’m really glad I decided to give it a try. It did so well in fact that it has made it to DrawCrowds daily ranking! These daily rankings are a list of artwork that are popular during a day and are showcased on the homepage of DrawCrowd giving the artist and art piece more exposure. I debuted at #195, so I still have a ways to go compared to other artists. I wonder if I can reach the top 100?

This one:

Yuzuki Yukari - "Halloween Pumpkin Smash" — Print now available.

Well that was a quick update. I also have another announcement but I will leave that for tomorrow. Till next time.

Hasta la próxima,

-Nube

October 21, 2016 0

Next project/s 12/03/14

After much thought I figured I had many good artworks that were good enough for the Restoration Project, but I also found a couple of works that had some good potential but are not up to par for me to restore them. Instead I will be redoing them with my new skills, trying to bring out my original ideas and feelings and making them even better.

In any case I have a large collection of drawings that go well over fifty ( I haven’t counted them, but that seems to be about right). Anyway, aside from that I also want to do some Studio Ghibli artwork as well. Focusing on my favorite films. Another thing I want to do is make some winter and Christmas artwork as well, seeing as we are already in December.

But, before I do the winter theme artwork I want to work on a piece to commemorate the release of Kingdom Hearts II.5 release.

Here is a peek at what I will call the “Re-do Project”.

The first drawing to go under this process is this Aqua painting.

I had a good idea, but the drawing is very rough. I had never really used watercolor before (at least seriously) during this time, so the results leave a lot to be desired. In any case this is the drawing I will using for the next project.

Here is a peek.

Till next time.

-XERO

December 3, 2014 0

New additions to the gallery!

Sorry I know I tend to disappear quite a bit, but I had to take care of some paperwork that decides my future for the next two years among other duties I had to keep. But fear not for I was also working on some artwork along the way. I guess what I will be posting is not new, but it has been refined now that I have leveled up my skills. There are some other artworks that will be getting this treatment so look forward to that. If I have some more time I will also be adding some more info on other posts I left unfinished as well. Now that the year is ending I’m actually getting a bit more time to work on all this so I hope to add some more content. Please look forward to that.

A couple more pictures will be added momentarily (these will be added to the gallery soon).

November 14, 2014 0

One more year…

So one more year of life has passed by again… this time I didn’t really make a drawing though… I guess I will instead use this yearly post for something else, to talk about, well, life. Not all of it, because I probably will not stop writing. No instead it’s about things that influenced me and thoughts about what I should have done differently.

For one, I have always liked drawing. I don’t really remember a time when I wasn’t drawing at least once a year. Sadly though I didn’t really like showing my artwork. Not because I wasn’t confident in my artwork but because I didn’t really like others to make remarks before I was done with the drawing. People always had some remark about what I needed to do. Although people might not know, I’m actually a really proud person (though others might just call it petty) so I didn’t want others to take credit for what I was about to do. For that reason I tended to draw when no one was present and hid the drawing when someone entered the room while I was drawing (this had some really bad repercussions , which I will touch upon later).

Despite my “shyness”, I actually did built a reputation at school for being good at art.

“will continue this tomorrow.”

November 2, 2014 0

Hatsune Miku Update II

As promised, here is the next update to the current artwork that I am working on right now. This is only the base with some shadows added. This was done with both water colors and Copic markers. Now I am in the final stages. What I will do now is add some more colors with my color pencils. And that will be my final step, so next time it should be the final piece.

September 30, 2014 0

XERO DRAWING – Godzilla x Gypsy Danger PART II

Time spent: 11 hours 48 minutes (total: 17 h 08 m)
Materials used: Sakura 0.7 mechanical pencil, Faber Castell Perfection 7056 pencil eraser, eraser,
Sakura Pigma Micron set Black 03,
Sakura gellyroll White,
Uniball Signo White
Reeves Water Colours 18 set: Ivory Black, Phthalo Blue
Copic Markers: 100, C1, C3, C5, C7, W1, W3, W5, W7, Y11, Y15, Y17, Y26, YR04, YR68, B0000, B01, B05, B21, B24, B32, B34, B45, B97, BG10, BG13, BG72, BG75, BV00, E04, R00, RV14, R27, V01, G21, G24, YG03, 0

I’ve finally gotten done with this drawing! It took quite a long time. It took a total of about 17 hours and 8 minutes. The longest so far (I think). In any case, I’ll probably make a couple of slight modifications like adding more details to it before I add it to deviant art.

I made the drawing with them at the start of the conflict but ready to go with their strongest attack. I also wanted to try out a couple of new techniques, so I decided to make the scene dark, something I rarely do. Over all I am satisfied with how it turned out, but I also feel that if I were to do this again it would look at least a bit better and cleaner since I have a better understanding of the process I have to take to make certain effects like on the water, or making light.

As for who I like more? Obviously Godzilla. I seriously enjoyed the Pacific Rim movie specially because it was done by a paisano but, Godzilla has a lot of sentimental value to it. And I enjoyed the Heisei movies more (even though they were a bit cheesy at times). This goes for who would win in a fight as well by the way.

-XERO

August 30, 2014 0

Long time no see.

Man, no matter how much I tried I was just not able to continue posting (finals and other things have been piling up quite badly, but I will be done this week). But that does not mean that I wasn’t thinking about what I should be doing. It’s obvious that many of my drawing videos have not being doing too great. Mainly of course because I have not maintained consistency which is of utmost importance, but also because I have not been doing what people actually want to see. It seems that for most videos, specially those with minor movements and whatnot need to have commentary to have people drawn in. Also this helps viewers have a connection to the creator. I knew this before of course, but I wanted to test out if I could break free from those restrictions. The end result was mixed, some got quite a few views while others were abysmal (which sucks because the drawing it self was rather good). Another reason was because of the background noise that would appear. So my original plan was to buy a good microphone, but that would take too long, and it wouldn’t be good to invest in something that would not guaranteed results. So I will be using my phone instead which surprisingly has a good microphone built in. And luckily there are plenty of freeware audio editing software to edit the recordings if needed. So when I finally come back, that will be what I will be doing with my videos from now on. Whatever the reasons I would like to apologize for disappearing yet again, I can’t control the outcome of events to come, but I will do my utmost to overcome them whatever they may be. Specially since summer vacation is finally here.

Now for my other plans… my main channel will now be taking requests again. I’d say I had enough time to draw what I liked, so it’s time to give back to others. One difference is that I’m thinking of giving the artwork away, but I have not thought out the specifics yet so more on that later. My other channel darkcloudxero.extended will be used to answer questions (that I do not do in my main channel) and talking about any other things regarding art or anything in general.

One third thing, I would like to create one third channel, this one will be used for myself mainly. If you have been following me lately, than you know that I really like Morning Musume … well sort of. What I really like is the time between 2007-2010, what I and many other fans of that time like to refer to as the Platinum Era. There I will be doing different types of videos regarding that specific formation. It’s kind of funny how 4 years have passed now, and I am still thinking about them nonstop. It’s crazy in a way. But that’s how influential they have been in my life so I will be supporting them for as long as I can. Specially now that that last remaining member of that Era Michishige Sayumi is leaving (and in a grand way might I add). The sad thing is that the Platinum Era is being blamed for their popularity drop even more so now that the current Morning Musume has gained a lot of popularity lately. So I will be giving my own opinions on that and everything else in the channel mentioned before.

On a side note, it has been raining nonstop where I live. Some people don’t seem to like the rain, but I love it. And now it has me in a nostalgic mood.

Till next time,

-XERO

May 11, 2014 0

Darkcloud XERO Online Shop is now completely open

Just as the title implies, I have started my own little shop through my website. This is something I have been wanting to do for quite some time, it took me while to have it ready. But it is finally done and ready for action.

The website space will be divided into three sections. The main section will be the Drawing, Paintings Etc. section where I will post drawings. Some of the original drawings will be for sale, while others will only have the option to order a print (signed poster). They will all be marked accordingly. I am also taking commissions, so if you have an idea of what you want, allow me to make it a reality. If you want to make an order the prices will be in the Prices tab.

The second section will be for purchasing my handmade original Bracelets. Here you can purchase one of a kind bracelets in 6 original styles.

And lastly, the third and final section is for my Replica Woodwork/Craftwork. Here I take orders for replicas. You have a certain item from a game, movie, anime you want crafted? This is the place to do so.

Just enter into any of the galleries that are under the Browse Gallery tab and see if there is anything you like.

If you wish to order anything, go to the Prices tab, there is a form one must fill out and e-mail me in order to make the transaction. Free shipping world wide. Do not pay before contacting me.

-XERO

January 20, 2014 0

Addition to the Newest Creations Page

I have added some more of my artwork to the “Newest Creations Page” located under the “Browse Gallery” and “Drawings and Paintings” tab. So I hope you guys go and check that out.

April 30, 2012 0