Honedge Woodwork II

As to be expected this piece is taking quite some time to do. But I’ve been having fun doing it. I’m actually almost done. I should be able to start the finishing touches by the end of this week, then comes painting which takes a couple of days since I have to let it dry as I paint different coats and use different colors for the different sections that require it. With that said, here are some pictures of the process. There are too many so I will only post some here so you get an idea. If you do want to follow along and see all the pictures I took of the process, then just go here. The link will take you to my flickr account where I made an album that contains all the photos.

Before that, last time I mentioned that I had lost the photos of when I started making the Honedge blade. Luckily I found them. Here are the ones I managed to salvage.

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That last one really reminds me of the Dragon Slayer from Berserk.

Now back to where we left off.

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So that was a long post wasn’t it? Really long. Hopefully this much helps out you guys trying to build your own. I’m actually pretty close to finishing already. Now I’m working on the final touches so that I can start painting. I will add some more updates later.

As stated before, if you wish to see the full gallery of pictures I will have them up as their own album over on flickr here.

I will be working trying to enter an other art contest. So will update you guys on that hopefully tomorrow.

Hasta la próxima,

-Nube

Honedge Woodwork I

Right after NDK I got a commission, this time though I have a chance to work on some woodwork. It’s been quite a while since I’ve worked on wood so it was no surprise that I had to relearn all the techniques I used for the Keyblades years past.

This time I will be doing a wooden sword with a sheath. This means that I will have a lot of parts and details to keep in mind. Because of this, this piece will take a while.

Back when I was still in… was it 8th grade of middle school or my first year of high school? I had tried making a sword with a sheath. The blade was done using a flat piece of aluminum I had in my backyard and made a sheath out of some wood I also had laying around.

Keep in mind that I was barely getting into woodwork by this point so I didn’t have any woodworking tools. So I just used a hammer to bend the bar of aluminum (to give it that katana like curve), and this really thick chisel, and hack saw to cut the excess of aluminum and to shape the blade.

As for the wooden sheath and handle I really only had an unused knife that was no longer useful in the kitchen. So I used that to shape the wood. As for the finishing touches for both the blade and the sheath I did get to use a hand file tool that was owned by my father. While I was getting close to finishing I did end up having to buy some sanding paper in order to smooth it all out as much as possible.

So what was the result?

Here it is:

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If you look closely you can see some etchings on the blade and the sheath. Truth is that the aluminum bar had some really bad imperfections that I couldn’t take out, so I did the only thing I could think of back then, I worked some design around it. Now as for how I did it? I actually just used a screw driver and a hammer to etch it out.

The sheath was rather problematic since I had to hollow it out in order to make the blade fit and stay in place. I think it was a combination of cutting out as much as I could with the knife and then reducing as much as I could with the sandpaper. Although I don’t quite remember the details, I do remember that it took a long time to do. Luckily I didn’t mind sitting outside and working for long hours non-stop even back then.

Now as for sticking the two pieces together I used this glue that my father used for his work. The glue was made to stick concrete blocks together but wasn’t all that great for wood. But since that was all I had to use, I used it of course. To this day it is still in one piece although it has been cracking apart since then as you can see in some of the pictures.

At some point during high school about 2 to 3 years later I tried my hand at making another one. I wanted to make a long sword, my inspiration was formed from Enishi’s sword (from Rurouni Kenshin) Except this time I was using a steel piece of metal that was no longer being used. I don’t quite remember exactly where it came from, but I do remember that i had to cut it into shape from a bigger piece.

Once I had the shape I wanted I began hammering it into the curve I wanted and even tried my hand at smelting using a grill that was no longer being used. Of course this was at a time when I had even less knowledge of how smelting worked. All I know was that blacksmiths used it to make and shape swords so I felt I had to give it a try.

As to be expected I didn’t really get much out of it. I mean, using wood and some dried out grass and plants I had around me would only get so hot after all. Although it did get hot enough to start melting the protective coating in the outer walls of the grill. I forget how hot it got, but it was nowhere near what was needed to heat up the steal so that it would be easy for me to join a folded piece of the steel onto itself (which was the whole point of doing this now that I remember). But it did give the blade this nice black coloration which took the place of the hamon.

So yes, I knew very little about swords at the time, but I did want to learn. And since I didn’t have internet at the time I had to rely solely on what I saw on tv or on movies/anime. And since that was the only way to get information, I relied on trying to reproduce what I wanted to learn more about in order to get a better understanding of how it worked.

Again since this was supposed to be a sword I made the handle and sheath out of wood. I left this piece unfinished since I didn’t know if it would be worth finishing with the little basic tools I had at the moment (I won’t).

Before I forget, here are some pictures of said sword. It’s really long. In fact it was so long when I first made it that it wobbled quite a bit and bent when extended on it’s flat side. Even after cutting the tip by quite a bit I still had this problem, but luckily not as badly.

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But anyway, I bring these two up because they serve as the basis for this next project. Although the keyblades possessed quite a lot of detail, they were still only one piece. The Honedge will be made of essentially at the very least three pieces that I have to link together. And that of course require a large amount of measuring, planning, concentration and detailing.

But rest assured that I have started working on it since quite a while ago actually. The actual Honedge didn’t take all that long to make, about a weekend. But the sheath will. I haven’t done one in a while, in fact it has been more than what 7 years?! Woah. No wonder I had forgotten some rather simple techniques…

Anyway, all the planning and measuring was done a while ago so now it’s just a matter of making it.

Sadly I was only working on it for three days a week since Japanese class was getting the better of me. But I am happy to announce that I have finally gotten a good rhythm going so I feel I can put some more time into working on this piece, finally.

Recently I changed phones, and although I remember backing all the pictures from the phone before resetting it to factory settings, it seems I didn’t get quite all of them. I had pictures of the process of the Honedge since the beginning but I can’t find them anywhere… So long story short, I think I deleted them by accident…

I know they are somewhere, if I find them I’ll post them here.

For the time being here is what I have done so far. Nothing really to say, the pictures will do all the talking really (hopefully there aren’t too many):

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That will be all for now.

Hasta la próxima,

 

-Nube

As Promised

I’m finally back. It took a while to get some other duties done, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t working on the next artwork. I just couldn’t put any time to come over here and write a bit of an update. But as promised here is another update.

About a week ago I showed you guys an unfinished artwork, well here it is. It will be going into the gallery so that it can be purchased.

Print available now.
Print available now.

Artist Project Update 2/21/2014

Sorry. It seems I disappeared again. Luckily it was only for about a week. The reason being that I was working on an artwork for the “Lightning Returns Deviant Art contest”. I only had five days, and the weird format it had to be in was rather tough for me. I struggled a bit working on it because of this. I’d say doing the background was what made me worry the most. I had to come up with something that melded well with the actual drawing/design, but also not overtake the attention from the actual focal point. I worked with a lot of background designs, till I finally decided to make it as simple as possible.

Seeing the other entries, my hopes of winning are slim. It seems that quite a couple of them have a bit of experience in these types of formats and situations. I soon realized just how much I have to improve in  a number of areas. On the plus side I did learn a couple of cool new trick on photoshop that I plan to use and perfect for future artwork. Again, my biggest weakness is coming up with backgrounds. So that will have to be the focus of my training regimen. In any case, competitions really help hone one’s skills and show one’s weaknesses. Having that in mind, I will try to enter a couple of more in the coming days and see how much I improve.

 

Here’s my entry.

Lightning Returns Ace Swordsman

 

XERO Drawing OPERATION – Misaka Mikoto ( Railgun )

I’m really surprised that this drawing took me so long to draw, but I guess it is expected since I decided to add some background this time around. The time accumulated for this drawing was … 19 hours and 10 minutes. In a way I find that astonishing, but believable since I was making up techniques as I drew. I’m surprised I didn’t get stuck and end up ruining the drawing. One thing I have learned though is that adding various colors to a certain object or objects will make it more believable and realistic so I made sure to go in with that type of mentality.

I’m sure many fans of the To Aru Majutsu no Index and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun know that a new series is being aired at this moment, it seems to be focusing on Misaka and her involvement with her sisters/clones. And I have to say, it is absolutely amazing. Both the story and the animation. I seriously wish more anime’s put in that much effort at least into the animation. In any case, this drawing is inspired by the fight between Misaka and Mugino Shizuri ( no. 4 as the strongest level 5, known as the “Meltdowner”). Their confrontation ended last week and it was awesome, plus it also left it open for some more “encounters of the level 5 kind” (yeah… I know, stupid joke).

Throughout the drawing I really did not know what I wanted to do yet. I just had a goal to draw her in a pose I haven’t seen before. So I just made things up as I went along. As I was drawing I decided to have her injured but still willing to fight, and I also liked the idea of having her fight outside (meaning I would have to draw a background as well). One thing I did want to include was her shorts. Usually I don’t like upskirts in anime/manga but because she always has shorts I find her to be a really awesome character that doesn’t feel the need to flash in order to be popular. I seriously feel that more female characters need to be like that. Plus her shorts are pretty much her trademark (well that and electricity, gekota, etc.). I did feel kind of bad making her bleed, but I feel that makes her look more vulnerable and human like. As well as making the situation look dire. If anything I feel the drawing only needs a bit of rubbing/blending in order to make it smoother (mostly in the sky).
What do you guys think?
Any Questions/Comments?

Hope you enjoy it,

– XERO

XERO Drawing OPERATION Gundam RX-78-2 II (COLOR)

This is the second time I have drawn the original Gundam. Truthfully the last time was in my opinion a failure. Despite that, it did amass a good amount of views. So I figured I owed it to my viewers to create a better version now that I can draw at any pace I feel like.

For some reason though I just kept getting problem after problem. The first attempt the video got messed up because of a new sketch book that I bought. Then I just couldn’t get the pose to come out just right in my head so I had to redraw the whole drawing over and over again. That of course takes time away from the camera that is recording. Which then leads to the batter draining out and take some more time to charge up. In the end it was a whole mess that took longer than it needed.

Even so I was pleased with the way it came out. A background would have looked nice but trying to incorporate space (as in outer space) with color pencils is quite hard because of the amount of color you have to put in. I developed a technique for this using markers/water color paints but the paper would most likely start to buckle. So… yeah.

In any case here it is. Now that I have uploaded a version that I am pleased with I can finally move on into other mobile suits late in the future.

What do you guys think?
Any Questions?

Hope you enjoy it,

– XERO

How to Draw Challenge – Asuna and Kirito

request by: MrEndcraft 

Sword Art Online is one of my favorite animes of the year. I really enjoy how they skip months and go towards the important segments of the story. Except by the end of the first season where it felt more like fan service… Luckily that did not last long and the story progressed.

I’m actually not surprised that I was asked to draw this pair seeing as they are very popular these days. I thought I would make the theme be a sort of, before the battle kind of scene. Kirito forces Asuna to stay out of it while he goes off to fight alone. Something like that. It feels rather incomplete without any background doesn’t it?

Hope you enjoy it,

– XERO

 

This addition has been added on 1/31/2013.
This is the new project I’m starting for this channel. Which I believe I have mentioned before on one of the other videos. I’ll be taking old videos from my other channel and make a how to/tutorial of how I did it and also some light commentary. This is the second video that has gone through this process, the other one was about Marisa Kirisame. The only difference is that I have not added any voice over. I have become really busy lately so I have to cut any extra work that would monopolize my time. Even so I’ll try to becom more active in both accounts, so I hope you guys don’t wander off too far.

Hope you enjoy it,
-XERO

How to Draw Challenge – Bayonetta

request by: jojo97Revenge
And so my week of rest (sort of) is over. Yesterday I opened a new account to take care of videos that contain narration and that are also much longer (around 30 minutes long). The reason I created it was because I was asked by various viewers over the months. Eventually I had to make it come true. Although the workload has increased, I’ll try to keep making two videos a week for this account like before. And only one for the other account (well one whole video, divided in a couple of parts). This account is for more advanced artists who already have their techniques and style, but may need a bit of help achieving a certain character or drawing. The new channel will be for those who may need a bit of more help. The videos will have somewhat, step by step instructions and a much slower and “clearer” display of my techniques and process. I would greatly appreciate it if you stop by. And also give me the next objective (the choices will come from the videos I have posted here). Here is the link, the channel is named XEROEXTENDED:

http://www.youtube.com/user/XEROEXTENDED?feature=mhee

The next objective for this week is Bayonetta, a character from the game of the same title. I haven’t played the game yet, but all the descriptions always compare it to the Devil May Cry series. I saw a couple of trailers and I gotta admit, I was impressed. It seriously looks really fun.

I made sure to take my time in this drawing, seeing as most of my drawings are done quickly and are not showing all of my potential. So I will do my best to show that from now on.

Hope you enjoy it,

– XERO

How to Draw EXTENDED EDITION – Marisa Kirisame PART I – II – III

request by: DJKrisyKrisdude
So here it is, the first video to posses narration. And the honor goes to Marisa Kirisame. But because this is a new account I can’t upload 30 minute videos yet, so I have no choice but to split the videos for now.

Man was it annoying uploading it. First I had to make the final touches then I found out I can’t upload the whole video. And so I had to restart varios times. And what’s worse is that since the second part is over 15 minutes I have to split that as well…

In any case welcome to my new channel and I hope you guys like it. My first channel will be for advanced artist, while this channel will be dedicated for those who still need a little bit of help. As always, if you have any questions let me know. I would write more, but youtube already erased my description once, and I don’t feel like doing it again.

Anyway you can see the original piece here: http://www.zerochan.net/73526

And the reference I used for the pose was found here:

Hope you enjoy it,

– XERO