Future plans and thoughts 9/19/15

This past month has been a good one. I have been doing some good progress overall with my artist project. I actually got some of the artwork bought. So things have improved a lot since last year. What a sad year that was… But now I just have to keep pushing forward.

To do that, I figured I have to be ready for anything. I noticed that one of the things that holds me back is not having ideas on what to do as my next project. So with that in mind I decided to fully catalog all the old artwork that will be part of the “RESTORATION PROJECT” that I announced a long time ago. I just went through all my sketches and sketchbooks and have a nice amount of work to use. This gave me a respectable 80 pieces of different work that I can work on in the future. But of course I also have to keep in mind to do completely new work as well. After all, as an artist I have to give my customers what they want, so I have to make sure at least half of my work is even relevant to the tastes of “today” whenever that is.

I wonder how I can increase my exposure on Pixiv, or Deviantart for that matter. I guess I have to be more social huh?..

Well better find someway to increase my popularity and soon.

Para El Futuro!

-XERO

September 19, 2015 0

Update 9/7/15

So that big commission is finally accomplished. Now I have to start on the next projects. Truth is I haven’t been working on any new work yet. That is because of two reasons. This past weekend was Nan Desu Kan, an anime convention that was held downtown this year. So I was there from Friday to Sunday. In my free time I was migrating all my data to my external hard drives because I decided it was time to upgrade my computer to windows 8.1 since it was more efficient and would make my computer’s reaction time quicker. And I just finished doing that. Ah, I almost forgot. I also have to study for my test on Wednesday. So that has been my day all of today. I just finished studying and adding all the drivers to my computer, well almost all. I still need two more. But that shouldn’t take long.

Anyway, after I install the drivers, next would come reinstalling all my programs. But that definitely shouldn’t take more than the morning tomorrow. Then after a bit of studying I will finally start on the next artwork and let you guys know about it.

In any case I leave you guys some pictures of some of the cosplayers I took pictures of. In fact, I might talk about some other things I found interesting about the con next time I give an update.

I’ll leave you guys with these for now, I’ll post some more next time. By the way, if you guys click on the pictures of any of my posts it should take you to the original size that I uploaded if you want to see it better.

-XERO

September 7, 2015 0

3d Gundam Project V FINAL

It took longer than expected, but getting sick was definitely something that didn’t help. But after some good extended sleep (which is why I didn’t have this post yesterday, sorry), I have finally recouped my energy and am no longer feeling lethargic.

Over all this project used a lot of different techniques. I felt that the adding of actual tangible objects were easier to incorporate than the drawings/2d art themselves. But that was because I had to make both the 3d sections and 2d artwork mesh well together, and for a good amount of time it didn’t. After trying out somethings, I noticed that if I increased the contrast in the 2d artwork, it would pop out much more and would meld with the 3d objects. I did this by increasing the darkness of the drawings so that the lighter areas would appear more like highlights. I also added black where I could and this this increase the effect more.

You can see this in the pictures posted below. They are bit fuzzy because of the lighting, but I tried to correct it with the final piece itself.

Over all this style is not perfected yet, I have other techniques I will try out next time I do something like this. But over all it came out great.

Now that I have finally finished this piece I can start thinking about other projects I can pick up. There are two contests I still want to enter, so I will start working on those.

Till next time,

-XERO

September 3, 2015 0

3D Gundam Project + other Updates IV MINI

The project is now officially finished. I showcased it to my client and he was really pleased with it, which is great. I have some other duties to take care of, so I will post pictures and other comments tomorrow. I was feeling rather nauseous and light headed all throughout this past week, it was especially bad today. I’ve noticed that I had insect bites every week for a while now. And looking around I found a nest of spiders around my bed. I guess the venom is now taking effect. The heat these past few weeks hasn’t made it easier either. I just cleaned my room which was full of materials and art supplies that I was using for the project, but now that is finally cleaned out. Now I just have to make sure no more spiders are near my bed, which is hard since it is right next to a window to the outside that has spiders right on the other side of the wall….

Anyway, I have to study a bit for my class tomorrow, so until then.

-XERO

September 1, 2015 0

3d Gundam project Update III MINI

Alright! I have finally finished the drawings for all the Gundams/Mobile suits that I will be using for this project. Now I just have to color them and arrange them so that it all gets finalized. I had to make some changes which is why it took a bit longer than expected but all is going well. I also found some more materials to make this piece even better. But that will be shown later (probably when I’m done). Man, this last week has been quite hectic. But I have managed to still make progress on this project which is already in it’s final stages.

Here are the scans of what will be used for this project so you guys get an idea of what is going to be used.

Well, till later.

August 25, 2015 0

New 3D Gundam project update

Here’s a bit of a sneak peek at the commission I am currently working on. My customer liked this piece from a couple of years ago:

What I had in mind for this piece was to have it translucent and have light shine through from the back to really make it shine and pop out. But I needed a lot of more experience at the time to pull it off. Looking back and I have a lot of ideas that could have made it work. But in the end I instead painted the background with black paint and added more details like stars, explosions, etc. with some watercolors. It actually doesn’t look bad at all. I noticed that the colors on the Gundams/Mobile Suits have faded quite a bit (this was because it was in an art gallery that was hit by the sun at almost all times of the day directly. That is a shame.

Anyway for this next project I plan on making it a bit three dimensional to add some depth and to play around with the skills I have acquired these past years. I will keep you guys updated on the process. So far about a week has passed by. Hopefully this is a two week project.

Some pictures of what I have so far.

see you later,

-XERO

August 14, 2015 0

I’m finally back!

Sorry, man can’t believe I disappeared for about a month. But I was working on some projects (entering more contests on Deviantar). But I really don’t feel they are worth putting up here. I felt a bit weird drawing some of them so I wasn’t really able to produce anything that can be considered “good”. To be honest I used it as a chance to experiment on a couple of new techniques and see why some of my artwork looks so bad when I outlined them with a pen. And I have found the answer. If I don’t make the colors in the drawing simple and instead add a lot of details like I tend to try and do, it doesn’t mesh well and looks really bad. So I finally solved that mystery (though was it really that hard to figure out?).

I have been uploading some of my artwork to Pixiv, surprisingly I have not been doing abysmal there. Having been there for just a couple of weeks I have already obtained a couple of followers, something that took quite a while in deviantart. My views have not gone over 300 yet, but that’s something I hope can change soon.

This was my last artwork by the way:

It doesn’t look bad, but it does need some polishing (this was a contest entry by the way). I noticed that Copic markers don’t react too well with Bristol paper. There seems to be some blotchiness and that is a bit annoying. On the plus side it does give way to using it in conjunction with color pencils.

I also want to revive my youtube channel, but that will have to wait a bit more.

In any case, I will be working on some more artworks so I will keep you guys updated.

-XERO

August 7, 2015 0

The final update on the “Draw Our Mascot” contest entry 7/2/15

I finally finished that drawing I was talking about. Here is a link to the contest just in case you guys want to join, theres still 18 days left: http://anime-x-life.deviantart.com/journal/Draw-our-Mascot-CONTEST-18-DAYS-LEFT-533616298

There’s another contest I will enter which will end in 8 days on Youtube, more on that one later. I also have a commission I will start soon and another contest, but that contest will end in December.

I will write a bit about this drawing tomorrow and what I was thinking when drawing it.

July 2, 2015 2

Working on a piece for a contest on DeviantArt

One way to increase my level is to compete with other artists head on, so I decided to start working on pieces for contests. I will explain on this a bit more later.

Anyway, here is some updates on what I have so far.

July 1, 2015 0

Trying to showcase my art around the world using the internet.

My skill have been rising, though I will improve much more, it is finally time for me to start trying to showcase my art around the world. So with that in mind I will start uploading it to various sites such as Pixiv, Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook and DeviantArt (which I have already been doing). I placed some test drawings that I hope will get my feet wet and allow me to understand how best to post art and link it to this website.

Here’s hoping it all goes well.

-XERO

June 22, 2015 0

Details

One thing I’ve noticed is that I really crave more details in my drawings. But because of the size of the drawing I don’t always manage to add them. My tools aren’t quite as precise as I would wish them to be, and that is a problem. Now if I made the subject larger I wouldn’t have a problem, but that isn’t always an option. I have to find a way to remedy this without having to use photoshop to refine my drawings. I actually had to use it a bit on the eyes of the recent Samus Aran drawing. Although it wasn’t much that I had to do, I stilled used photoshop, and I prefer not to. I’m going to be changing gears a bit on the next drawings. Instead of full backgrounds, I will do either none or very simple ones. We’ll see what happens.

Hasta luego,

-XERO

June 18, 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