It is the end of Spring. This will be the final Spring painting for this year. Since the last time I uploaded the background, I decided that it just didn’t look right. It became super apparent when I added Shiro. This time I decided to go for a flat anime style.
Crazy but Spring is coming to a close, I have one more Spring painting before we move on to the Summer.
The original idea for this painting was from an Inktober drawing I did back in 2024 day 8. I was a bit overwhelmed throughout the whole process but eventually got into the flow of things.
I wonder how long it took Ryoga this time to get back home?
When I painted the flower background I decided that I wanted to have someone frolicking through the fields. I didn’t really have anyone in mind. Then while playing Battle Cats I came to the realization that I have been playing the game for about a decade now. That’s crazy. I also can’t believe I haven’t really done much art of it either. I felt Red Riding Mina would be a good option since she fits the scenery and she is always frolicking. I could have just had her in the painting but decided to also add in her animal companions as well. I also thought it would be fun to add in a cat in the foreground.
One of the problems though when I was planning where to add in Mina I noticed that I made the scene to cropped so I decided to add in more to the surroundings… if you look at the background I uploaded you will know what I mean. Hopefully I get to make more Battle Cats artwork in the future.
Even in the last minutes I was making some last minute touch ups to the hues and values. I also went back to the window to repaint all the raindrops since they were too big. I should have noticed that before when I painted the background but it became really apparent when I painted in Karin. Speaking of Karin, despite my instincts I tried adding in more blue/green hues to the shadow areas on her skin. I’m still rough but it definitely made the colors pop.
When I first started I was a bit overwhelmed due to all the details. It got to the point that I had to take a week or two after I started. But once I came back to it, it wasn’t too bad.
I love Spring, I love rain and I love raindrops on windows. But man does it take a long time to paint every single of them. I believe the last time I painted them was for my Momochi study I did years back. Hopefully I get to do some more before Spring ends.
Now that it’s Spring, it is finally time to showcase the painting of the main love triangle (Akane, Ranma, Ryoga). While painting I was wondering what sort of style I would go for. I’m always split between flat anime styles or more realistic painterly styles. In the end I went for an anime style. After that I decided to add some lighting glare that really brought the background and the subjects together. One thing I leaned from this painting was that it looked better when I added separate lighting for each character on top of the main glare that covers the whole painting.
It’s time to reveal the main subject that corresponds to this background. It’s Meimi Tamura. The reference I used is from her music video Butai. I really love the song and music video it self. There are many scenes I want to give a try in painting but that will be for another time.
Here is the music video, do check it out:
We have come to the end of Spring, my second favorite season. I managed to make a few seasonal paintings to celebrate but I had more ideas that i didn’t get to do this time. Hopefully I will manage to do better next year. Next paintings will be about the Summer (my least favorite season due to the heat).
For today’s background painting I am continuing the Spring theme (which is getting closer to it’s end). I was worried about whether I could bring to life what I had in mind. I had to take in steps among a couple of days to figure out how to make it work. Not rushing things and taking time off away from the painting has really helped me. Now I understand why other artists do it.
The actual painting is actually now finished, but like other paintings I will upload it at another date. This will help me as well to look at it at a later date with fresh eyes.