Tag: light

Winter Lamp Background

I saw this beautiful photo of a lantern lighting up a tree and snow that I wanted to try and paint. Perhaps in the future I might use it as a background but who knows.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE.

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Domon Winter

It surprisingly didn’t take me too long to paint Shining Gundam and Domon, along with their reflections and snow. Checking mountains in parts of Japan, there are actually quite a lot of types of shapes. Including the pointy ones that are common where I’m currently at. So I just modified them a bit.

Shining Gundam was the main focus and what took the longest for this segment of the painting. The main form and base colors were easy to choose From there I tried to make out the form to showcase the most prominent forms. But since I wanted to emphasize that the Gundam is far away, I made sure to use more muted colors and as little value changes as I thought were needed. Then came the snow. I felt a bit bad about covering some areas with snow and water, but I feel that really ties it all together. As for the reflections I used the same techniques as with the torii, but I made sure to add highlights to create waves moving away from Shining Gundam as it rises up.

There were a couple of ideas about where to place Domon. Walking in the frozen ground, atop a small boat or standing on the torii. But ultimately I came upon the idea to have him leaping towards it. This I feel really fits the fantastical elements of G Gundam after all.

I made two versions, one where it’s all quiet and peaceful and another where snow is falling. Although I do like the snow, I think it looks better where it isn’t present.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

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Work in Progress I D Mountains

I’m currently working on a new painting before I try to make one or two for Valentines. I’ve actually been planning to make a painting of this sort for… damn. A couple of years now. I’m surprised it took me this long to finally give it a shot. The background is mostly done. I’m actually quite a bit ahead of this but I quite like the atmosphere of where the painting is at this point. Although I can render the painting further, I wonder if that will detract from the focal subjects. So for now, I will leave it mostly as it is.

This is the reference photo of the background, modified to have snow of course:

I just did an image search to find the original creator and it seems to be from a photo manipulator that put different assets together to create this. I found it strange that the pine trees and mountains looked somewhat Western. Now I know why.

With that in mind, I will go back and edit a couple of the trees so that they fit Japanese ones. Among other changes. I wonder if there is a place in Japan that will actually fit this scenery?

The Toori is actually painted already, along with the reflection. I’m surprised at how easy it was to emulate. You guys will have to wait till next time to be the judges though. Luckily I won’t have to edit that part of the painting.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

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Momochi ice cream float 1st Surface Pro 5 Painting/ Review

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.

I recommend.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

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First XP Pen Artist Pro 16 Painting

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!

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

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Momochi Sunset Study

I recently saw an artist that worked with light colors and used that as an aesthetic advantage. Usually when I paint, almost every time it looks really light so I worried whether it would look well to others or not. So this time I have decided to just paint like usual and try to not overwork the painting too much. What I did want to try though is a version where I just painted and let the colors separate the whole piece as a whole. In the second version I added some lighting to the hair, darkened the lips and added some linework. Personally I prefer the original version more although I do like the the linework version as well. I went for a semi realistic/anime style. This mainly entails that one keeps the detail on the face as flat as possible and making the eyes bigger. Of course one can play with the style and how far to push the details which will give different effects. I chose to add a good number of facial details but using very light tonal changes that are noticeable but that are not very abrupt and still keep the coloring style a bit flat. As for the eyes I decided to keep the main shape and colors intact but made them bigger and enlarged the eyelashes a bit.

This study was done using a photo from Momoko Tsugunaga’s last photobook. Happy Birthday Momochi, thank you for everything you have done. Even now your work still makes everyone happy. And this of course includes me. Now that more media is becoming available to us overseas fans and that I can understand a bit more Japanese, I have so much media that I can now enjoy for the first time. It’s a shame my skills were not good enough back when you were still active. Although I love that not only did you have a goal in life (as a teacher), but you accomplished it on top of all your idol activities. The motivation you emanate is absolutely stunning. I truly hope that you are doing well and enjoying life. I can only hope that my art reaches you and makes you even just a fraction of the happiness you have given me.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

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Ame and Obscurus Halloween Party

Originally meant for a contest that was supposed to close today, but apparently the creator meant that that they would not be accepting any more entries on the 28 of October. Oh well. I pushed my self to finish it but I guess it was not enough.

In any case since it will be Halloween I decided to post it anyways. I’m still taking a bit of a break so I wont be posting any more videos till the end of the this week. Hope you guys look forward to that.

The drawing it self looked a whole lot better without color. I feel that when it comes to drawing backgrounds, color pencils have a major drawback. I am in serious need of some Copic’s. When I draw characters in color pencil, I can manage since I can add as much detail as I want, but when the area is too large (which most background are), it takes far too much effort and time to make it look “incredible”. I’ll have to find a solution to this…

Hope you enjoy it,

– XERO

 

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Sora and Riku playing with Obscurus ( ArtByKarenEHaley Entry )

I’ll start off by saying that I want to enter this into the “Professional” category.

The characters are from Kingdom Hearts (specifically Sora and Riku) and the the other character in the tv screen is Obscurus (my Original Character). I’ve also added a photo of Kairi in a poster posted on the wall (giving the impression that she is an idol, or something similar).

I don’t know how others see things when playing games, but I feel like I am right along side Sora (or Riku in the latest installments) on his adventures. In other words we are “hanging out with each other” (sorry I know the description is kinda weak, but I hope you guys get the point). So I thought I would reverse the position and make it seem like Sora and Riku are playing alongside Obscurus on his adventure. In this case Sora and Riku are playing versus mode. Riku having beaten Sora too many times decides to play blindfolded and is still sweeping the floor with him.

Hope you enjoy it,

– XERO

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Strange Figure In the Sky

Today while me and my younger brother were walking on a path back home at around 8:20 – 8:25 we witnessed a strange light over our heads. My brother was the first to notice it. At first glance he believed it was a star, and he excitedly told me so as he pointed up (he was excited because it was not dark outside at all, in fact the sun was blazing through all our sky by this time). As I looked up I almost instantly saw the light he was talking about, and for about a second I was about to confirm him. But by chance I stayed looking at it and noticed something weird about it, it was rotating in a weird fashion. And what was even more odd was that the shape was not spherical, it was elongated. The thoughts began to form in my mind about what it could be, the first thought were that it might be a balloon of some sort but as I kept staring I couldn’t help but rule it out. No whatever it was, this object was much larger considering just how high up it looked in the sky. I deduced that it was hovering above our athmosphere The next thing that came to mind was a satellite, I was almost possitive that it must have been that, or at least I wanted myself to think that way. But as me and my brother kept staring we just couldn’t help but think it might actually be extraterrestial, the object was rotating far too fast and was also zooming past the sky at an incredible rate (considering the distance it had to travel if it truly was in space). After a couple of short minutes the object was beggining to mask it self within the glare of the sun until we lost site of it. Now I wonder just how many other objects we are missing because of the daylight through our lifes, especially because almost all of us have lost the ability to look up and wonder what might be there?

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