Sorry I’ve been gone for a while, but I have a couple of artworks drawn and ready to show. Lately I have been cleaning my files on my computer and categorizing my references so that I can find them easily and efficiently but there were thousands of folders I had to go through. I still have over two thousand I still have to categorize but I’m getting there.

The first artwork I will showcase after this absence is Shampoo from Ranma 1/2. I really like her as a character and love her character design. This is a bit silly, but you know back when I saw this in Mexico when I was a gradeschooler we called anime Chinese cartoons. We were quite ignorant back then … but to be fair, it also didn’t help that a lot of 80s anime and some in the 90s had a Chinese aesthetic (plus we couldn’t differentiate between the writing in the credits which was left in it’s original kanji+hiragana-katakana format). So when I eventually learned that anime was Japanese here in the States I was confused about the fact that a lot of Chinese elements were present in anime.  Eventually I learned that Japan went through a craze where they were greatly influenced by Hong Kong cinema and incorporated a lot of Chinese elements to their stories. This fact made me extremely happy since I was a always a big fan of Hong Kong martial arts films. So when I now see Ranma 1/2 and other Anime I can see some of the influences from the movies I have seen growing up. It’s a great combination really, sad that this era has ended…

By the way tirantes means Suspenders in Spanish.

Here is the final piece:

References used I really liked the flat colors of some of the some of the references I had so I decided to give it a try):

Traditional process, I used bristol paper but it seriously doesn’t take copic markers well. It becomes rather blotchy so I decided to color it digitally in the end.

Here is the digital process. I’m currently using krita, it’s so light and versatile. So far it hasn’t made my Xp Pen quit which has allowed me to continue working at my own work flow. The times it has quit, the pressure sensitivity has turned off but the pen still works. And to make it work again I just have to relaunch Krita and it all returns to normal (this is much better than having to restart my whole computer).

Hope you guys are doing well.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE