I’m currently working on a Christmas painting but time has been reduced a bit lately. So although I wanted to leave this painting for later I decided to finish it today. There were a few tweaks that I had to do last minute today to fit in more with Rin Shima’s gear. I had added some falling snowflakes but decided to omit it and only left some lit particles on the fire.
This will be the background for a future piece. Based on a wonderful adventure. debating whether to add more characters or leave it as is. I’m really tempted to add more but it would be 4 more… Thinking about it now, I think I will leave it as is.
Because of my painting style using my ink line art doesn’t work well together. And because I was trying to work around it, I kept getting the hues and values wrong. Well, that and brute forcing my growth by trying to paint as fast as possible. Color theory is tough. Unless I want to paint in flat colors, keeping my line art was doing me a disservice.
Today’s painting is of Bowsette, originally painted back in 2019. This time I wanted to draw Bowsette’s whole body. I remember skipping her feet because it would have been a bit tougher, so painting them this time would showcase a growth in my skills. Having only Bowsette looked a bit lonely though, so I added Mario in this Re:do. But that also felt a bit lonely so I debated on whether to add some of that fire I had in my original painting. Depending on how much fire I added though I would be covering up some of my background so I was a bit apprehensive. Adding it was the right move though.
It’s annoying because now that I have done a couple of more paintings I see more things I can change and do differently. Maybe some other time.
I just got Corel Painter 2023 and this is my first painting using the updated program. I’ve gotta say, it feels a lot smoother and my favorite brush (Sergeant brush) now has a version that has blending abilities. And I’m not even using the full capabilities of it. It seems like I can also make my own brushes so hopefully I can play around with that at some point.
To commemorate and try out this new version I tried out painting this night fireside scene from Momochi’s “Hatachi Momochi” making of DVD. I really like the colors and expressions that Momochi did during this photoshoot scene and wanted to try and paint it. But I wasn’t too confident a while back so I didn’t do it till now. There’s more scenes in this location that I want to give a try at some point. While Painting I wanted to also paint different paint expressions which led me to the idea of making a simple animation, having moving waves and a flickering fire along with Momochi’s changing expressions. I really enjoyed working on this piece.
As were getting closer to Christmas I felt that I should make some paintings to fit the season. At this point painting Fubuki and Tatsumaki has become somewhat a tradition so why not continue. I didn’t have a plan starting out but it eventually morphed into the sisters sitting in a staircase. I had the idea of having hats/ head pieces but decided to paint them at the end. This worked out well because I could have two versions, one wearing hats and one without.
I wanted to have a bit more of an anime painting style this time. When I was done, I wanted it to look a bit more textured. So I ended up using a rough paper overlay. I ended up using both Corel Painter and Photoshop. While looking through the Rurouni Kenshin anime, there was a scene where Shishio’s eyes are glowing purple (episode 60). Just for the heck of it I wanted to give it a try and it just fit so well that I decided to keep it that way.
Today’s theme was blade, there were many options but for some reason I wanted to draw Makoto Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin. Definitely one of the best villains. His character design is also really unique and awesome. One of the coolest techniques he has is the Tsui no Hiken: Kaguzuchi, you know, the one where he creates a swirling fire stream around his sword. I looked at the manga and the anime and they both had a forward view of Shishio performing the technique. So I wanted to change it up a bit and draw Shishio from the side. Since I had a bit more time today I decided to add some hatching and inking. Hopefully I can do some more in the drawings to come.
I was a bit scared I wasn’t going to be able to make it this year, and to think I was thinking about making two pieces for today…
I am a bit surprised at how quick I was able to finish it in three days (I usually take a week). I was struggling deciding on the colors and the style I would use. When it comes to watercolors I really love Little Thunder‘s art style. I wanted to emulate it but I always end up doing it a bit different. I have to paint more so that it all becomes a natural process.
Originally drawn on May 9, 2019 and painted on August 16, 2019.
Back when Bowsette was introduced to the world I gave it a shot too (it can be seen here). I wasn’t happy with how it turned out so I wanted to give it another shot. I first drew it with my dip pen and started painting it with Photoshop. Well, at least I painted the fire balls and left it at that for a while. Eventually I started painting using Corel Painter. I was thinking of adding a door or something in between the pillars but liked it without.