Trying out different anime styles Takahashi Ai

I want to try out different styles, the quickest way is to do it digitally since I can redo every line and color as many times as I want.

It was a bit hard trying to contain my self and use simple color schemes, I just felt I could add more but it’s important to try and learn how and why these simplistic coloring styles work and hopefully will be able to create better works in the future. I was going for a 90s style.

reference used:

A more realist anime style:

Slightly more anime style:

Full anime:

That’s it for now.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 28, 2018 0

Miss X

I learned about Miss X a couple of year ago when I was looking at videos about the history of the King of Fighters. They briefly talked about SNK Gals where Miss X appeared. And now she… he? has appeared once again with the announcement for SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. I haven’t bought the game but it might be a good idea to do so just for the character model viewer. Though I’m tempted to get their special edition version… (≧д≦ヾ) Luckily I can record the things with the PS4 but I do wonder how well the quality would be.

Anyway I wanted to draw Miss X. After I was looking at the finished drawing, I noticed I made the feet too small so I will have to edit that digitally when I use it for the overall project I have in mind (more on that as it all comes together). Some of my Copics such as the darker purple I wanted to use ran out and I don’t have a refill bottle yet so it was a bit tough trying to get some of the shadows. Maybe I should have added some more values but that would have surely messed up the color scheme withe the colors I had (aside from the Copic that ran out).

This is the drawing done using Stabilo pens and Copic markers:

I wanted a rather dynamic pose (though those feet look so small…)

References used:

And this is the process:

This project will have more parts to it so look forward to it.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 12, 2018 0

Xochitl and her Macuahuitl from To Aru Majutsu no Index

Hey, another Mexican character in an anime! And what is this the second Mexican in the To Aru series? I really like her design and her powers. Sadly it was only for a few seconds. I wish there was a bit more screen-time between her and Etzali during episode 5… though it seems she has a run in with Saten at some point so I’m looking forward to that.

On another note, isn’t the pacing and editing of the third season of To Aru Majutsu a bit off? It seems to really be speeding through the story. And to make matters worse it seems like the characters have to really spit out a lot of exposition… cough, cough… that scene with Tsuchimikado going into that long explanation of what’s going on and how he defeated those robits … Σ(´д ` ﾒ) Hopefully that all gets fixed as the story goes through but I am left a bit disappointed. It kinda reminds me of how they edited down Jackie Chan’s movies to only keep the action scenes

Anyway here is the drawing done using Stabilo pens and Copic markers.

references used:

And here is the process:

Hope you guys like it,

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 11, 2018 0

Loneliness Tokyo Michishige Sayumi Artwork/process

So there have been some changes to Flickr and it seems like they will limit the amount of photos one can have in one’s account for free to 1,000. And I had almost 2,000. So I had the option to either delete some photos my self or have Flickr delete the first 1,000 photos. So some posts will have photos missing as of now. If you guys want any of the missing photos from those old post let me know and I will go back and fix them.

Because of that I had to find another site that I could use and that would not have a size limitation. I thought I got lucky and would be able to use Google photos but it seems like WordPress would have to download the photos and it would count towards my storage space so that wouldn’t solve the problem…

So I looked at the sites that would allow me to embed photos here easily and would not have a size limit. Begrudgingly it seems like I will have to use Facebook. A site I’m not too fond of… But I need it so I guess I will have to revive the old DarkCloud XERO Facebook page.

With that said and out of the way here is the new piece. I actually finished this on November 3rd. but decided to hold it off so I can space my artwork during the week. This piece is based from the previews that Sayumi has been posting on her Instagram for her new single “Loneliness Tokyo”. I took a screenshot and used that as a reference.

This is the painting:

Reference used:

It seems like I can post the whole gallery in one click so that’s cool. But it seems like to view it, it will take you to Facebook so I hope that won’t be a problem for you guys.:

I quite enjoyed making this painting. I started working on it on October 8th but had to wait till I finished Inktober. When I did come back to it I was surprised by how much easier it felt to paint her compared to when I first started a month before.

Congratulations on the new single Sayu! ₊·(ϱ॔⌄ᵕ๑॓)‧*

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 9, 2018 0

Shampoo, Trying out my new azure markers

I was at a Burlington store a couple of weeks ago, more than two months? Anyway, as I was browsing around I found a pack of markers by Royal Langnickel called azure. They were a pack of pastel colors and seem to be blendable (so similar to Copics). I didn’t get the chance to try them out since I was busy with other projects, work and school and then Inktober ate up a good bit of time… ヘ（。□°）ヘ

But things seem to be clearing up a bit so I will try to make as many new artworks as I can since I have seen a great improvement after doing a drawing everyday in October.

On top of trying out the azure markers I also have a chance to try out some of my new colors that I bought for my Stabilo pen collection. I really loved the ones I had before and after using some of my new colors on this drawing I can once again fully recommend them. I’m so glad I gave them a chance! ⸌̷̻( ᷇ॢ〰ॢ ᷆◍)⸌̷̻♡⃛

Now as for the drawing itself. I decided to draw Shampoo from Ranma 1/2. I remember watching Ranma 1/2 when I was a kid in Mexico. I really loved that series, along with Macross and Dragon Ball. The character that really caught my attention was Shampoo, not only did she have a funny name but she was so pretty and a really good fighter. I want to make a couple more drawings of her but that should wait till I re-watch the series.

For this drawing I decided to go for a simplistic style and would limit my self to only using a couple of my Stabilo pens and the colors that came in the azure set of markers.

References used:

And here is the process:

The new addition to my Stabilo pen set:

The azure pen set:

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 5, 2018 0

Another year of life. 2018

Another year has passed. This year was rather nice and productive. I was planning on my making two pieces today but it was rather busy today so I could only start drawing quite late today. ＼(;´□｀)/

The plan was to make a calabera of me drawing but making and planning the design would take too long and I have work tomorrow morning at my other job so that will have to wait. I think this will be the base design and I will keep adding designs as I come up with them. Something that represents me. ｢(ﾟﾍﾟ)

I hope to make this coming year even better and more successful. Hopefully you guys do as well. I would like to take this time to thank you all for visiting my site and looking at my work. Here’s to another year where you and many more people become aware of my artwork. (≧∀≦ゞ

Feliz dia de los muertos! (ノ＞▽＜。)ノ

As I’m writing this the wind is rather strong at the moment and blowing the leaves around my town… I really love the sound of the wind, this is a great present on top of the ones my family has given me by being along my side all this time. ⸌̷̻( ᷇ॢ〰ॢ ᷆◍)⸌̷̻♡⃛

In any case here is the base drawing that I will be designing throughout this year.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 2, 2018 0

First painting corel painter 2018 Sayumi Michishige

This painting was finished on August 15.

I’ve been wanting to learn how to add color to my pieces so the best way is to study photos and also see why other peoples paintings work by recreating them. Using the eyedropper tool is quite useful but I want to practice and learn how to choose color just by using my eyes and instincts. Doing it traditionally is easier since I’m limited to the colors I have in hand. But digitally I have to really focus and think about it since I have every color imaginable at my disposal so it can get a bit overwhelming and the chance of screwing up is quite a possibility.

At the time of this painting I had invested in upgrading my Corel version up to 2018. So this is the inaugural painting I did for it. Corel and Photoshop are quite different. Photoshop is quite versatile and one can do a lot of things with it quite easily when it comes to editing but I feel that Corel is the better program to paint. Something about it makes painting more intuitive. But I tend to switch from one to the other when creating new paintings regularly. Sometimes I hit a bump and for some reason seem to find it easier to do on the other program. (・∧‐)ゞ

In any case I of course chose Sayumi Michishige as the subject, as you can guess I really love her aesthetic and her photo books are filled with a lot of great pictures to choose from. As stated before I chose colors by eyeballing it and am surprised I wasn’t too far off. If you compare my painting to the photo of course there are a lot of differences but I feel like I managed to capture the essence and you can tell it’s Sayu right? (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

This is the reference picture used from Sayu’s photobook “La”:

Here is the process:

The eyes were too big so I had to resize them.

And that should wrap it up for now. I really loved working on this painting and am glad I was able to get it to this point. It looks realistic but also like a painting which I really like.

Hope you guys like it.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

November 1, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #31 Osaka Knife Final Day!

I… made… it….. ヘ（。□°）ヘ

I guess it was a bit tougher than I thought after all…

This time I had the idea of Osaka from Azumanga Daioh. Since it’s Halloween I kept remembering the scene where she had a knife. It started with that then I eventually evolved to what I ended up with. But because I didn’t really have anything in mind I just made up things as I went along. Eventually it turned out kind of like a slasher movie scene. I wonder how I could have made the background look better though? (・_・ヾ

So, yeah that perverted lolicon teacher was a thing. I remember laughing a lot at it when I was a kid but now as an adult… that situation truly is very spooky scary skeletons. Poor Kaorin. (●ฅ́дฅ̀●)

In any case, Happy Halloween!

While I was drawing Kimura sensei and I put him behind the bush I noticed too late that the position of his hands were in a rather … dangerous position so I had to change that in any possible way which luckily didn’t look too bad. ╭( ･ㅂ･)و ̑̑ ˂ᵒ͜͡ᵏᵎ⁾✩

References used:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/45607395612/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/31785430738/in/dateposted-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/31785430858/in/dateposted-public/

Process:

It was at this point that I was seriously in a spooky situation so I had to think fast and fix it.

Doesn’t look good now at all but I was hoping that the future me at that point would be able to fix it.

Welp, that’s it for now. This Inktober experience was quite enjoyable but it was also … stressful? I had to keep this rhythm going which was comforting but there were times where I didn’t have enough time to work on any drawings so I had to rush it and try to beat down the clock and also upload it here, Pixiv and Twitter. Yet despite everything I managed to do it.

I’ll try to be a bit more consistent with my updates from now on but using color is something that still takes me a while to do. I hope to be able to do so at least once a week.

In any case,

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 31, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #30 Schierke

Hey it’s almost Halloween so how about drawing a witch girl from Berserk. Schierke was a great addition to Guts team. She is definitely at the very least the second strongest member. I really like her design and personality.

Almost at the end of Inktober… it was much easier than I thought surprisingly. oh!((ﾟoﾟ#

References used:

And here is the process:

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 30, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #29 Mimikyu

I know that a lot of people think that the Pikachu-Like Pokemons are lazy but I really like this Mimikyu design. Having such a gloomy Pokemon that feels it has to hide his true identity with a Pikachu costume is quite amusing for me. It really makes one feel for Mimikyu. That whole segment of the game was one of my favorite story-lines of the game actually.

Reference pictures:

Process:

Hope you guys like it.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 29, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #28 Akko Kagari

I finally watched Little Witch Academia!

I happened to have a bit of time last week and saw the OVA and loved it. It was so fast paced and the animation was absolutely beautiful and the amount of movement the characters did was really fun to watch. After that I of course watched series. It got slow from time to time but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It touched me quite a bit in certain episodes, I was rather surprised and pleased. I want to talk about it more but I will save that for another time.

As for the drawing it is a quick one.

Here is the reference picture:

And here is the process:

That’s it for now.

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE

October 28, 2018 0

Inktober 2018 #27 Berserker Armor

I’ve been mesmerized by Miura’s artwork when I finally decided to read it I think two years ago. Truth is that I probably would never have given his work a chance if not for my brother. I’ve seen covers and anime previews about Berserk but the promotional videos made it look like a generic anime about a guy that created a lot of bloodshed and gore. And it’s not that the series doesn’t contain this imagery but it is so much more. In short it is a masterpiece. (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

The protagonist Guts has so much tribulations and yet despite it all he continues to fight, though more importantly… live.

One of the cool additions to Berserk was the addition of the Berserker Armor. The way it can amplify his ability to fight beings far beyond humans capabilities but at the cost of his body is such an amazing idea. Dragon ball did this back in the 90s with Goku’s Kaoiken but since Toriyama was forced to continue writing all of that was thrown out the window with the Super Sayajin transformation. I really feel that the idea of having to think whether sacrificing ones body would be a good idea or not was a really interesting concept that would have made Dragon Ball Z better. Luckily Miura used this concept in a very interesting way that really makes one feel every fight that Guts has to go through with a lot of anticipation and excitement. If you haven’t given this series a shot please do. Just make sure you are of age since it has a lot of mature themes.

For this drawing I used three different pens. I used the G pen, the felt tip and the brush to paint the cape and the lower body. I was quite surprised that I was able to do everything that I was imagining quite easily. I was worried that I would have had to do Guts cape with my G pen. Thankfully I didn’t have to. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°