Lynn Minmay Update VIII FINAL?

I say final but I really think I have to do a couple of more touches a little later. In the end I ended up using all the ink in some of my markers and need to buy some refills. I will have to put this one on hold for a little while, I’d say it is at least 95% done. All that is left is a couple of more details really. I am considering adding a shadow behind her due to the lights lighting her from the front, but I am still over all undecided. What I find kind of irritating is that from afar the face (or maybe expression better describes it) I drew and wanted people to see changes quite a bit, if you look at it from a closer point then the real expression becomes more noticeable. I’ll have to look at it a bit more later when I have the markers ready to go again. I really want to emphasize movement as well… hopefully when I come back to it I can make it possible. For now I will leave this here, and as of yet unfinished piece.

Hasta la proxima,

-XERO

June 3, 2016 0

Lynn Minmay Update VII

I’ll be posting another update later today. Sorry for not posting on Wednesday, I actually decided to give the drawing a few days so that I could review it with fresh eyes and make a decision on whether the way I left it was ok or whether I would change it a bit later. Results of that will come with the second post, so please look forward to that. For now see what I have as of now.

Hasta al rato,

-XERO

June 3, 2016 0

Lynn Minmay Update VI

I actually had most of this done since Friday, except the last two scans but I kind of took the weekend off to think and rest a bit, so sorry for those who were awaiting the latest updates.

I’m quite surprised I was taking as long as I was to color the background. As expected dealing with darkness is quite tough, especially when not doing a stylistic approach to it. I had to really think before adding any colors and going over and over (repeating many times) till I had the right shades in place and then eventually adding darker areas around the parts that were supposed to have light both from the light sources and the light being reflected on the ground. I really wanted a shiny floor no matter what since I don’t really deal with such backgrounds due to knowing how hard they are but in the end I decided to go at it anyway. Over all despite the amount of time it took and cont less retouches I felt pretty confident on what I managed to bring forth. Now it is time to actually focus on Lynn Minmay herself which I had a hard time deciding on what color scheme her clothes would have. I actually did quite a couple before scrapping them and coloring them over with what she has now.

In the scans she looks quite darker than in real life, and the hair having no color surely doesn’t help things either. But trust me it shouldn’t look too weird once I have everything else in place. I’m hoping on finishing this tomorrow, here’s hoping it goes along well.

Hasta la proxima,

-XERO

May 30, 2016 0

Lynn Minmay Update IV

I think I have everything that I wanted drawn, now it’s just a matter of coloring… I really hope I can pull it off.

Hasta la proxima,

-XERO

May 17, 2016 0

Lynn Minmay Update III

I’m really contemplating on how to go about this piece. I need to stop overthinking it but I feel I can probably come out with a nice piece if I do this right and on top of that learn some new techniques… Anyway this is what I have so far.

I went back to basics and bought a pencil set so that I can start using H level pencils again. Since they are so light they give me less problems when erasing them and if I do it lightly they don’t leave a mark either. I should be able to get better and cleaner work this way. The drawing is almost done now, I think I will change the background lights and make them smaller so that it appears as though the stage is much bigger. The hair is rather tall and fluffy huh? I was thinking of making it a bit smaller but after modifying it a bit I decided to not alter it too much so that I can make it look as if it was bouncing as she was dancing so that it looked like she was in the middle of movement. After adding that and a couple other details I should be ready to color. Here’s hoping I can pull off what I am imagining.

Hasta la proxima,

-XERO

May 14, 2016 0

Lynn Minmay Update II

I had two final classes this week but I still have to do a couple more things until the 27th but over all I should have more time to focus on art (among other activities that will benefit my body and mind). Hmmm. I had a couple of days worth of searching for some more references of Macross and the main idols (Akina Nakamori and Seiko Matsuda) I will be using for this piece. Although I kept working on the piece throughout the week I didn’t really get much progress since I couldn’t decide on the outfit and the background.

Macross is quite interesting isn’t it? It has a very obvious 80s feel to it (it makes sense since it was made in the 80s) and yet is set around this time period. With that in mind I can actually modernize it if I felt like it. Though one can argue that the fall of the Macross on earth and the war that came from it might have stopped the progress of innovation when it comes to music and fashion. I think about things too much…

Anyway I decided to keep with the 80s feel so I set out to look at the concert performances during that time. I mostly focused on Akina Nakamori and after a couple of videos I came up with this:

I wonder if it even makes sense? I want to make this so 80s it brings nostalgia for those who actually lived it or saw the movies and music in the 90s.

Hasta la proxima,

-XERO

May 6, 2016 0

Next project 5/1/16: Lynn Minmay

I have decided upon the next project for my next piece, and that is non other than Lynn Minmay from Super Dimensional Fortress Macross (my all time favorite anime). When I first watched Macross I really came to dislike Minmay, she seemed to fickle and self-centered. But upon re-watching last year now that I am older I came to really like her. She was written in a way that doesn’t make her dislikeable, in reality she only saw Hikaru as a friend and nothing more (at least throughout most of the series) so seeing her not treat Hikaru as anything more than a friend is quite understandable (having experienced it myself).

Anyway, despite what people might think regarding her personality and actions she is quite cute making her a good model to draw. I went on a binge of downloading and searching for references. Eventually I got the idea to actually search for actual photos of idols from the 80s to serve as a firsthand visual reference to make something a bit different and more in tune to reality. That’s when I learned that Minmay was actually based on two of the most famous idols of the 80s in Japan. Those idols being Akina Nakamori and Seiko Matsuda. They are quite famous even now, I was actually quite surprised how much of a fanbase there still exists. And I’m glad because I found treasure troves of reference pictures to make my artwork come alive.

I can really see the influences in Minmay after looking through the photos. At first I was thinking about using a Chinese model for the drawing but after learning that these two were the influences I decided on just using them. And just before writing this I learned that Lynn Minmay is actually half Japanese from he mothers side so it’s ok if I just use Matsuda and Nakamori as the models.

I’ve written quite a bit so I will just leave it at that, here is a little taste of what I have done so far:

I know it doesn’t look like much yet, but I am quite happy with the base I have so far. I want to start incorporating movement into my work. And I truly think this is a good chance to do so. Drawing shouldn’t be hard anymore, what I worry is when I add color (which I still haven’t mastered).

Here’s hoping for the best.

Hasta la proxima,

-XERO

May 1, 2016 0

RebelsRebels vs the Empire – A fight between father and Son

Sorry for disappearing again, the end of the semester is coming upon me and things got a bit out of hand. I just need to finish a paper and I will pretty much be free of school obligations.

Anyway, after much thought I think it is finally time to make this piece go fully live. And like with all my previous works I have finally decided upon a name (although I had one a long time ago but I forgot), “Rebels vs the Empire – A fight between father and Son”. The theme of this piece is set in the 1940s when WWII took place. A lot of influences were drawn from Germany for the Empire after all, and of course there’s the whole Japanese influence (mainly the ideas of samurais, ki, etc.).

So with that in mind I had Darth Vader use a German uniform. I really liked the baggy pants which aviator divisions (among others) used. I thought of making his buttons different colors, but decided against it. The idea of making a communication device provide those light did come to mind, but the place I wanted to place it on would be covered by his arms so again I decided against it. I thought of making him go in all black, but I decided for a mainly three color scheme of black, gold and grey. I really wanted some more variation within Vader’s uniform. Plus I had the idea of having some type of armor beneath his jacket and pants (some of which can be seen on his arms). The idea is that the technology isn’t there for fully robotic prosthetics, so what if he just had his burnt skin replace with metallic armor?

As for Luke I wanted him to portray some influences of Japan, but also the Allies from WWII. I eventually decided on a combination of Yankis (specially since he represents the rebel forces) and some parts of the uniforms of the allied forces (which pretty much just ended up being the boots, undershirt and maybe, just maybe the pants). I could’ve gone for a camo pattern, but since he is supposed to be like a delinquent he wouldn’t follow the rules would he? So the decision was made to have him in all black like in the final movie (0f the original trilogy).The jacket I wanted to look like those that Yankis wear. They tend to put nonsensical (usually) kanji together that sounds cool and tough into a completely made up word or phrase. So I decided to do the same. It was actually quite fun to do and now understand why Yanki do this (and why they get some weird words and phrases that don’t make sense). I used Kanji for “Rebel + Alliance” on the right arm and “Defeat + Evil Spirit” on the back. I was going to add something else to the left arm but decided (mest up/forgot) to not put anything on it… The Rebel crest is also there. As for the red cloth on Luke’s left arm, I was thinking of the headbands used by Yanki, but I decided to put it on his arm.

Finally, as for the swords, I used the colors from their final confrontation.

The setting was originally going to be inside a battleship, much like in the movie. But after much thought I figured I could do more on a cliff where I could add air and sea battles to the background.

This was a bit of an annoying piece due to the amount of details and objects I had to keep in mind as I worked on it. Not only that, but as I added new objects and colors I had to go back to previously finished areas to have them meld well together…

But it’s now, finally, officially done.

-XERO

April 11, 2016 0

Star Wars art piece update V Final

Man, I have been busy these past three months like crazy, because of that I haven’t been able to work on this piece except every once in a while. But now I have finally finished it. Here it is.

Now that I have finally finished it I can start focusing on other projects. Now the question is, what will that new project is.

Hasta la proxima,

XERO

March 18, 2016 0

I’m finally free for the winter!

Finals are finally done, so I can start having more time to focus on my artwork again full time.

Of course, despite not posting things here, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been working on work behind the scenes. I have made some progress on the cosplay. here are the boots for Camus.

Now, as for the second armor, here it is. This time it is Gemini’s armor.

All that is left to finish is the shoulder plate (which is a bit tough) and the arms.

Aside from this, I got a new request for my youtube channel. This time I have to draw Levi Ackerman from Attack on Titan. Here is the rough draft of what I will be working with. It was requested that I use color pencils. It seems like the requester doesn’t have the funds to afford the more pricey art supplies, so I will be using my crayola brand color pencils. This will give a good indication of how much I have improved since the last artworks.

Here it is.

Well, I’m off to work. And since I have more time, I will try to post things more frequently.

December 10, 2015 0

Samus Aran artwork (FINALLY)

The past week I have been working on the Metroid drawing and have finally managed to finish it. I’ve notice that I have become much better, but it still takes me a while to make decisions regarding how to go about accomplishing what I have in mind. I have gotten much quicker and know how to get certain effects, but I’ve noticed that as I learn a new technique, another possible technique emerges. Which is good, but it does let me know just how much I have to learn. A small part of me does feel a bit disappointed that I’m not better, but I’m glad that I feel like I can still grow as an artist. One thing I’ve noticed is that papers tend to give different effects. With that in mind, I will be trying out Bristol paper that seems and feels much better (time will tell). In any case here is the Metroid drawing.

So as many people know, Metroid is based on the Alien franchise. Can you believe that I just barely saw those films last year (only the first three, and I believe only the first two are the one’s to watch). Anyway, they both take the viewer to places that explore our fear of being isolated and in constant danger from an unknown force. So I decided to use that as a base for this drawing. I first contemplated about having Samus in a confined area to give the iconic claustrophobic feeling of both the game and the movies (Metroid games/Alien movies). But instead settled on an open world that was isolated giving that same feeling of being alone. As for Samus Aran herself, I wanted her to be struggling in this piece. So I had her exploring the land and showing that even she gets exhausted and has to take breaks along the mission, but she is definitely not defeated. I wanted to add a couple of more effects but worried that the drawing might get too jumbled, so I decided against it.

What do you guys think?

Hasta luego,

-XERO

June 16, 2015 2

New Youtube videos and an UPADATE

I got asked to help draw Lelouch Lamperouge and Kei Kurono, so that took about a week. It has been quite a while since i last did a video so I had to relearn somethings. This also took some time because I took some time deciding about the the format that my videos had. I felt it was time to change it. So, after much thought, I decided to just draw straight from a reference. This is for a couple of reasons. I be able to make the videos much faster. I’ll have a reference that anyone can use to follow along and I will be able to make more videos if needed at a quicker rate. This also means that after finishing a video I can go back to my own projects. Aside from just using references, I also decided to divide the workload. I will not be coloring or shading the drawings in the videos, instead I will only do that if and when I am asked to do so. And also do so in the medium they wish to see. This way the viewer will learn what he/she wants to learn instead of seeing me use a medium that they don’t care for. Again, this also lessens the time i spend making the videos and only put time in the drawings that the viewers wish to see.

Here they are by the way. Hope it helps out some of you guys.

Lelouch

Kei

On another note, I had run out of ink for my Copic Markers so I had to postpone a couple of pieces including the Metroid drawing. But I am happy to announce that I have finally managed to order some refills and also some more markers. This is something I am very excited about. With more colors to play with, I can make more color combinations possible. I hope this helps me produce better drawings.

Well, till next time.

-XERO

May 22, 2015 0