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

Quick drawing, Kamei Eri Mikan

Had to work at my other job today but after seeing the prompt for today’s theme on Pixiv I felt I couldn’t let the opportunity pass. And the prompt is Mikan (tangerine). Since that was the introduction song that got me interested in Morning Musume I decided to draw one of the members holding a tangerine. Since I have mostly been drawing Ai, Sayumi (specially) and Reina I felt it was only fair to draw Kamei Eri again.

I used a reference picture from her photo book “Thanks” and altered it to fit the theme. Could have played a bit more with the drawing but I am a bit tired and hope to rest for the hour I have before I need to call it a day.

Reference picture:

and that of the tangerine:

Just when I was about to post this post I noticed that WordPress did away with the tags, did they move them or are they now just gone? Will look into it when I have a chance.

Nevermind, it seems I’m more tired than I thought. I created a new page instead of a post so I had to redo it all again… （ー△ー；）

That will be all for now.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

December 2, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #25 Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong

Recently I have been remembering my time playing Donkey Kong Country back in the day. Of course the main thing I remember aside from the beautiful visuals was the music. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack since the summer. So I decided make a piece for them. I messed up Diddy Kongs star shirt and shaded the inner star… (＠￣Д￣＠；)

I do feel like making another piece for Donkey Kong some time in the future, but this will do for now.

Reference pictures:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/43755624250/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/31700448158/in/dateposted-public/

Here is the process:

That will be all.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 25, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #22 Michishige Sayumi Sports Festival

This time I decided to once again give the maru nib a try again. I looked up information on the net but it seems like a stiff nib is normal when they are new so I used some paper to make some lines and see if I could make the ink flow. It started flowing but it’s so small that the ink is a bit of a pain to make work. I made a small and quick drawing of Sayu doing the Usa-chan Peace. With the maru nib releasing ink I decided to finally do the drawing.

This is a picture from the Sports Festivals that Hello Project used to do back in the day. Those days sure were filled with a lot of fun events. Sad they ended by the time the Platinum Era was around… (︶︹︺)

In any case, although the maru nib gave me problems as I went along it did work remarkably. It allows me to make subtle shading quite easily and more precisely (when it decides to work).

Man… so freakin cute… ⸌̷̻( ᷇ॢ〰ॢ ᷆◍)⸌̷̻♡⃛

Here is the reference picture:

And here is the process:

Personally I loved the way the drawing came out. ◝( ′ㅂ`)و ̑̑

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 22, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #18 Bottle Fiji Water

Aesthetic.

Reference used:

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 18, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #7 Tanaka Reina

Today is the 7th day so I decided to draw Tanaka Reina. It may seem strange since she is a 6th generation member but back in the day when she first joined Morning Musume she was given the nickname 07 by (I believe it was Iida Kaori). 0 is rei and 7 is nana, so rei+na = 07.

In any case Reina was definitely one of my favorite members in Morning Musume. She along with Ai were the main vocalist for Morning Musume back during the Platinum Era. She always had this tough demeanor, but if one saw Haromoni one could tell she was actually quite soft inside. She was the type who had doubts and was very self conscious but overcame it all with sheer will power and did her best to exude confidence. During the final years that the Platinum Era was still together, it seemed like she was opening up more and getting comfortable… Shame that all things must end.

After leaving and forming LoVendoЯ it seems like she mellowed out and is more comfortable with the people around her. I remember reading a blog post or something of the like where she wrote how she wished she had opened up more with some members when she had the chance. I like to think she was talking about her time with the Platinum Era members…

This time I tried to really control the shading on the face and skin. And this time I made sure to not make the eyes too dark, instead I gave it shades. I believe it looks much better this way.

This is the reference picture used from Reina’s photobook RE (Return). I could’ve used any of them. Looking at them, I really get that sense of Fall.:

As usual, here is the process for those who are interested:

Hey, two days with no dumb mistakes. Not bad.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 7, 2018 0

Inktober #5 – Takahashi Ai

By now it’s obvious that I am a big fan of Morning Musume, specifically the Platinum Era (don’t really keep up with the new generations after my favorite members left). So since it was the 5th day of October I decided to choose a 5th generation member, and of course it would have to be Takahashi Ai who really made me want to learn more about Morning Musume. I was in high school when I came across this Japanese music video of a group of girls singing. I didn’t know who they were but they captured my interest right away. There voices were all different from each other and the music was really energetic. The girls themselves were incredibly cute but there was one member who just captured my attention. She had short hair, a beautiful smile and a voice that left me amazed and wanting more. I chose this drawing based on the scene that really stuck out and I had in my mind whenever I thought about Mikan.

Prior to this I wasn’t really interested in Idols, but this MV really changed my perspective and for a time really got me involved in the world of idols which made me see their struggles, work ethic, and triumphs. I’d say it had a big impact in my life. Whenever I went to a place like the summit of a mountain or of the tallest sand dune after the struggle to hike up it I had this urge to just play and listen to Mikan while I rested atop that accomplishment thinking, “I did it”. (Does this even make sense?)

Sadly I was super busy so I started drawing this piece really late at night and ran out of time. That was a mistake because I decided to use some brush pens that I forgot I had for … well some years now I guess. They are the Koi Coloring brush pen set from Sakura. This set contains three different values of cool grey and three of warm grey. One thing I should have done was to choose to use either the cool or the warm but not both.

Seeing as I was low on time, maybe I should have left it like this. Or went with the hatching technique to add shadows.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690015/in/dateposted-public/

But once I added these black areas the values changed dramatically so I had to continue. Plus I was intent on giving these brush pens a try.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216689935/in/dateposted-public/

It’s going alright but really rough and unfinished/ weird, I just had to keep pushing it even further.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216689915/in/dateposted-public/

So I added more shadows… But, well it’s just unfinished. I ran out of time, in a few minutes it would be the 6th of October and I had to go to sleep as well. So with that I had to call it quits and this is what I ended up with. It’s so close to being finished and looking right, and yet it isn’t. Because I added these shadows I changed the values quite a bit, thinking now I could fix it by adding darker values in other areas to lighten the shadows on Ai’s face. I will leave it like this since I believe it is in the spirit of this challenge to live with the difficulties and mistakes one makes along the way.

One other that could have helped was to make thicker lines in certain areas to make the areas that I wanted to appear lighter, well, lighter.

Here is the reference I used. I took a screen grab from the MV Mikan:

Here is the process for those who are interested:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690665/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690625/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690585/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690495/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690455/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690405/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690265/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690195/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690135/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690085/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690055/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216690015/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44407756054/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216689935/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44216689915/in/dateposted-public/

That should be all for now.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 5, 2018 0

Chavo del 8 – Barril is Unbreakable

This was inspired by some Mexican memes and of course Chavo del 8 (a legendary 70s Mexican show, that is still aired today and has been shown through all of Latin America). And well, by this point JoJo no longer seems to need an introduction since it kinda owns the meme world.

The name Barril is Unbreakable is not my idea, I first heard it from another meme I saw in Fresh Anime Memes from a Mexican Otaco’s facebook page.

This is the finished piece (finished on August 2nd):

I made it using my new dip pen (or at least it was at the time) using the g nib. It was much easier to use than I thought (the manga Bakuman made it sound much harder). What I like about these pens are that I can change the thickness and the lightness of my pen strokes on my command. The downsides are that the ink can dry up pretty fast and gunk up the nib, which means I have to clean it in intervals as I work. That and since the nib is quite sharp it can scratch off the paper fibers and get stuck on the nib’s wedge. So yeah, it does require quite a bit of upkeep as one uses it. But over all I really love the versatility. All of the illustration was done with the same nib which I find quite amazing. My lines are still not clean, but I can pick that up with experience.

I should have made Chapulin Colorado’s (the character/stand on the far right) pose a lot more dynamic to make it pop out more…

I don’t really remember if I was keeping track of the process, but what I do have is this:

If you notice I made a bit of a mistake and dripped some ink on the top of the paper.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/43786248795/in/dateposted-public/

I was actually planning on making it into some manga panels but in the end decided to just join them together. I first had to scan them and then join them together using Photoshop. The reason they are cut off is because I used a large paper that doesn’t fit on my scanner.

That it for now.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

September 15, 2018 1