Despite the end of last year being quite dry, the start of this year has given us quite a bit of snow. I quite like the athmosphere this creates which is why I decided to use it for the painting this time around. The line art was done for Inktober 2021 day 27 which can be seen here:
The model for this painting is Sayumi Michishige. I really love the outfit and colors. I debated on how I wanted Sayu’s colors to be overall. Light and faded, or darker, affected by the scenery. I opted for the darker route.
Reference photo of Sayu can be seen here (7th Photo):
Every once in a while I check out the Goodwill auctions and was surprised when I found a Surface Pro 5 being sold. From the pictures shown it seemed to be in pristine condition and had the keyboard cover included. So I decided to take a chance and bid on it. And to my surprise I won. It took a while to get to me which sucked but in the mean time I ordered the accesories that were missing (these being the charger and the surface pen). Luckily I managed to find a genuine used charger and the pen was on sale for that week I was searching for it. When I finally received it I was surprised that it came with the original packaging. The actual surface pro was a bit dirty but looked almost new after I cleaned it. It has me thinking just who bought it and why they decided to donate it. I got the i5 with 8gb or ram which worried me since Corel Painter works better with stronger specs.
You know it’s funny, I was a bit stressed since I had to remind the Goodwill to send it. Which made the wait time longer than it should have been. But by the time it arrived, it was pretty much already October… meaning Inktober. It wasn’t till just the end of last week that I had a chance to finally test it out.
And the first model to be painted using my new Microsoft Surface Pro 5 is Momoko Tsugunaga. This time I used some screenshots I took from her last Photobook where she was inside an ice cream parlor. There were many amazing scenes to choose from, but I decided on this when where Momochi was looking out the window pensively as she was reflected off a picture frame. I painted the background first, then to Momochi and finished with Momochi’s reflection. I think she came out super cute.
So, how did the Surface Pro handle Corel Painter? To my surprise it was quite smooth. Although some things were a bit slow to react (such as making successive brush strokes or changing the brush size using the bracket keys), it wasn’t really by that much. All in all, as long as I have it in high performance during painting sessions it works without any problems. I’m actually quite amazed. Now, I haven’t really been keeping track but painting nonstop with High performance enabled gave the battery about 3-4 hours of life before I had to recharge it. Recharging is also quite amazing, it takes about 30-45 minutes to fully charge it. After a full days worth of painting the Surface Pro did get warm but it wasn’t uncomfortably hot at all which again was also very surprising considering just how thin it is. I already made a second painting so this quick first impressions is taking into account both experiences. What’s great is that it works as a tablet with the power of a computer at all other times. I was worried that I may have had to upgrade to a new stronger version but this works amazingly well.
The recent photos that Sayu has been uploading are extremely beautiful. Many of them really capture the fall season (there’s so many I want to work with). I quite like the ones where she is sporting a cute mask. The pairing with the newsboy cap is a nice touch.
I was going to add some hatching to mark the darker areas and the patterns in the mask. But time was quite limited today so that will have to be another time.
This painting is somewhat bittersweet. On the one hand, it is the first painting done with my new drawing tablet but that is because my old Xp pen was no longer working properly after the latest Windows update. (I’ll probably talk about it more later at some point). I recently got a third job so time for painting has decreased by a good bit so I will probably be posting less than before. Maybe that’s a good thing though, it will give me some time to step away from a painting and look at them with fresh eyes.
Although I have only had my new tablet for a couple of days, I am enjoying it. The new monitor setup is a lot more comfortable as well. Man, it feels great being able to use Corel Painter again. I’m still a bit rusty with the oil brushes so this whole painting was mostly done using the sergeant brush. The model that will be the first painting is Momochi. I got the reference from a screenshot that I took from the making of “Hatachi Momochi”. Video Photobooks are great because I can get more references. Man, I’m glad I live in this amazing era. Thank you Momochi for making so many video appearances!
I’ve been itching to do another Naoko painting lately. While looking through my references I came upon what looks to be a poster that says “[Seikodo] Lady Naoko” (another poster did not have Seikodo on it) and some more text below tI’ve been itching to do another Naoko painting lately (I still am). While looking through my references I came upon what looks to be a poster that says “[Seikodo] Lady Naoko” (another poster did not have Seikodo on it) and some more text below that which I can’t quite read but I believe a part of it has Naoko’s full name. On the top right of the poster is some kanji that I translated as “girls bloom”. On the side is some small text that’s also hard to read (I think it has this text: “夕女は。悪いて大人になる” although the kanji is quite hard to make out since it’s so blurry)If anyone knows what this poster is for, do let me know. Just searching for Lady Naoko yields no results.
This is the colored version of my Sayu drawing done with Copics. It was painted with Corel Painter and then used the layer styles from PhotoShop. Each style changes different aspects of the painting when it interacts with the line art and the painting layer. I think each one has it’s appeal. Soft light gave it a pastel look which I really liked. Because the copic ink doesn’t completely cover the texture of the paper and it also doesn’t always completely cover an area (there are some patches that are lighter), these can give interesting effects when painted digitally and played with the layer options. This can be affected even further when playing with the layer transparency.
It’s always fun when I draw Sayu. Recently she cut her hair down so I really want to do another piece with her new hair style.
I wanted to work with my Copic for the line art step. I have done this before and really like the effect that I can get out of it when I paint it digitally. Sadly it seems like my copic tips are getting worn out, they have this gummy feel to them now. I guess I’ll have to replace them soon.
When I first used the the Sargent brush I wanted to try out it’s full capabilities and the first painting I used this on was with Momoko Tsugunaga. One other thing I wanted to try out was a painting with water drops and condensation. With that in mind, I chose Momoko’s photo from the variety show (I believe it is London Hearts) where her entire look was given a complete overhaul. It seems that these were for a calendar where different talents were all given the same treatment. It’s a shame but I couldn’t find any recordings of this online, only some screengrabs (this means someone out there does have it/had it). Based on said screen grabs there were about three different photos that I could have used (maybe for a later painting). There’s no denying that Momoko looks really cute with this look, but I prefer her more natural look better.
I mentioned this before, but I think I am finally forming my favorite tools for painting digitally. I’ve been slacking on watercolors though, so I should do some more traditional paintings soon.
As can be seen above, this painting comes with two Youtube links. I already have a couple of paintings that have been recorded and another one that has been edited and will be live this Thursday. Aside from speed paints, I want to make instructional videos where I focus on one technique/topic and just some videos about things that interest me (although I haven’t figured out how I want to structure them yet). Luckily Youtube is allowing songs to be used as long as the owners are cool with it, of course this also means that these videos get no monetization capabilities. Which is a good trade. I actually lost a past channel because of the old methods that Youtube had implemented.
A bonus painting for Momochi’s birthday. Reference used was from her blog photos. I wanted to try out a cute shoujo 80s anime style. Happy birthday Momochi.
Today’s Pixiv theme is “idol” so why not draw and paint the eternal idol Lynn Minmay from Macross. It’s funny, while looking for references for the pose I would use to draw Minmay. I came upon a photo of Naoko Kawai wearing almost the exact same clothes that Minmay used in “Do you Remember Love”.
This time I used inspiration from a photo of Rie Hatada’s single cover. When I saw the color scheme it reminded me of Athena. As for the art style, this time I wanted to use Masakazu Katsura’s (artist of Video Girl Ai). I really like the fusion of realism and the manga illustration style.
I attempted doing an ink drawing of Sayu with her short hair back in 2018 for inktober but wasn’t satisfied with the end result, so I decided to draw her again. This time I used a combination of both ink and digital hatching and some small manipulations to the diamonds below the table which were done in the wrong perspective.
Really love the way short hair compliments Sayumi.
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