"A Hopeless Dream Chaser"
I’m two days late, but happy birthday Sayumi! Wasn’t too sure what to paint this year, but I went with this. I used two reference photos from Sayu’s instagram.
References used: 7th photo and 9th photo (for the second link).
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Last week I started the line art for this painting (finally had some time to work on it a bit on Monday night and the rest on Tuesday night). I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to do so I was just sketching whatever came out. I then had the idea of having Kenshin look up, which gave him a sorrowful feeling. I then wanted some movement so I made his hair to blow in the wind. I was surprised how quickly the drawing came out, I used to take hours just to draw something even if it was simple line art like this one. From there I was looking at reference pictures of what I could use as the background. I found this really cool one of a shrine (turned out to be one from Nagoya when I researched it) but then I started thinking that a shrine doesn’t mean it’s a graveyard (plus it wasn’t in Kyoto) so once I had to work on the space right behind Kenshin I looked around google and found some references of graveyards. I used the impressionist brush for the texture but it looked really weird compared to everything else. But it turned out to be an easy fix when I started glazing and blending the graveyard pillars and steps. I thought of adding writing on them but that would take too much time to research, come up with and paint the intricacies of the kanji. So I just made some brush strokes that from a distance might look like actual writing but they have no actual meaning, they are just scribbles. The overall look I wanted to go for was the style used in the 90s anime which I believe holds up very well. Specially during the Kyoto arc.
Just as I was about to upload this painting I noticed that I hadn’t painted in Kenshin’s iconic cross shaped scar. Good thing I was too tired yesterday to upload it or he would have gone with out it.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Have been super busy lately with school and work so I missed it by a day but happy birthday Miyabi. It’s still the 25th of August over here though. I really love the recent photos she uploaded with long hair and her white dress. It makes her look like a cute elf or fairy. So with that in mind I searched for a photo that incorporated foliage and summer together. Seems like the reference for the background I used is from the movie “Secret Garden”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. I wonder if people will know just by looking at it though.
I hope you have a great year in these coming months Miyabi. It makes me really happy when I find out that you not only see my work but also like it. I hope you like this painting as well. I really loved doing it.
Miyabi references used: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEJsut9FIX1/
Reference picture of the background: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/586875395162024592/
I hope you have a great year in these coming months Miyabi. It makes me really happy when I find out that you not only see my work but also like it. I hope you like this painting as well. I really loved doing it.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
Just a really quick piece for the end of summer 2018. Wanted to play around with flat colors, so I did just that.
This is the process. Done traditionally then painted digitally.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/29909639797/in/dateposted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/44845764771/in/dateposted-public/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/darkcloudxero/29909639657/in/dateposted-public/
I then scanned it so that I could paint it digitally.
Hasta la proxima,
-NUBE
I have been in my real summer vacation for about a week now, and I managed to take care of quite a bit of obligations I was putting off. I feel a whole lot more free and at ease because of it. Now I want to focus on strengthening both my body and mind now that I have some extra time. This will of course help in keeping me focused when working on some more artwork so I am quite excited.
Strengthening my body will of course come from training (or physical exercise), due to some prior accidents I wasn’t able to really be too active, and add to that an artist who is also a university student and you have someone who is for the most part stationary and sitting down. That of course will take it’s toll on the body… I plan to be close to how I was in high school at the very least. I really don’t like having become so weak recently so I will undo it all starting this summer now that my body can actually take the physical stress again.
As for my mind I also want to increase my knowledge on digital mediums seeing as I can work a whole lot faster that way. I don’t ever plan to leave traditional artwork of course, digital will always be secondary but I do have to understand and use it so I rented these books from the public library.
I also want to finally finish learning Japanese (well learn how to speak it fluently, I will probably never be able to master it since I will never stop learning huh?). I will be taking Japanese classes starting next semester (I also needed the credits in any classes so this all works out) so I went and bought the textbook to refresh my memory (I took a year of Japanese in high school) and be ready for classes.
I also really want to see more of Colorado this year. I’ve lived here most of my life and there are still so many places I have yet to see, it’s really a shame. So I want to visit new places this summer (focusing on hiking areas since I really love the mountains).
Overall I plan to make this summer the best I can and really enjoy it. New work will come of course so please keep coming back to see new updates.
Hope you guys also get to enjoy this summer (or winter for some of you) as well.
Next post I want to talk about my plans for the next artwork and some reference materials I bought.
Hasta la proxima,
-XERO
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