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.
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.
I have been restoring some of my old drawings now that I have acquired some more copic marker colors and have also just recently obtained a couple of sets of pens. This will greatly give me control of my drawings. I want to make a small segment of that as soon as I get some more items being shipped as we speak. In any case I will be replacing these pieces with their counterparts. And I will be taking the kill bill/game of thrones drawing off since it isn’t such a good quality print. I have an A3 scanner but this will require something bigger, and looking for a place to scan them was rather expensive… I will have to find a remedy for that at some point. Anyway here they are.
As a side note, I learned that restoring the drawing made with color pencils were the toughest to make touch ups on. Copics are really hard to to use on them since they are quite slippery for them.
Print now available.Print now available.Print now available.Print now available.Print now available.
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.
I’ve finally decided on a title for the drawing I recently finished featuring Beatrix Kiddo and Arya Stark. It is now available as a print.
Print now available.
Now as for upcoming artwork. I got two requests on my Youtube page on how to draw Lelouch from Code Geass and kurono Kei from Gantz.
On top of that I have another commission dealing with Gundams (I have till the summer to finish that so I don’t have to rush).
But of course I also have to finish that Metroid drawing. I’m glad i waited though, I learned a lot from this last piece. So here’s hoping it comes out better than I had originally hoped.
I had drawn pictures that were large before (I’m talking about the 18 x 24 in. paper), but I never really thought much about time. What I found out was that it took longer than expected. I had hoped to be able to finish the drawing in about a week. But that didn’t happen. It actually took me two weeks and a half. And that is too much time. I feel I can probably cut it to about a week and a half, but that is still quite long. So I will have to increase the price on the detailed drawings for that size (18 x 24 in.).
Now as for what I’m talking about, here is the commissioned drawing I was working on for so long. The main points that I had to work with were, “The bride” from Kill Bill and Arya Stark from The game of thrones. I had to keep “epic”, Mount Everest, Pan’s Labyrinth and a couple of quotes in mind while I was given full artistic control. So this is what I came up with. I was thinking of the hardships they both had to overcome in the name of revenge. And of course, that will have it’s repercussions being represented by the maze up ahead. But if they persevere, there is light at the end of the path (represented by the mountain being lit by the breaking sun). There are other things going on, but I will let you guys discern the rest.
This will be made available as a print (got permission from the customer of course). I scanned a high resolution version, but in separate parts. Which means I have to piece it together first.
There are some more things I will be working on and of course I will finish the metroid drawing as well.
Sorry, I was working on a commission and that took longer than expected. But that does not mean I did not document a couple of things I was working on in the mean time. I just didn’t have time to post anything here. But I will be doing so, starting tomorrow.
So I was thinking about adding this piece about two weeks ago. But something else came up, which ended up making waste about a week of my time. Anyway, I managed to work on this a bit at a time trying out different ideas of what I wanted with this piece. I’m still not sure what to do with the background though… But I want to stay in touch as much as I can regarding new projects.
For now I will post this and keep you guys updated on anything new that has been added and of course the progress of when I start working on the final piece. I will also eventually show you guys another piece I was working on. But that is for later.
This was actually the first Studio Ghibli film that I got to watch. I first saw it when I was a grade schooler. I used to check movies out a lot back then from the library. I of course mainly focused on movies made for kids. I made sure to check out cartoons all the time. What’s strange is that I never really liked most of what I saw (looney toons, batman, or other cartoons that were popular at the time). But then I came across this masterpiece. Even then I noticed that there was something different about this movie than all the other animated films I saw at the time. It was a very magical movie for me. And so I decided to honor it by drawing this piece. I thought of what would happen in the future. Would Satsuki and Mei still be able to see Totoro and company? I fIgured they wouldn’t and after a bit of research it seems I was correct in thinking so. According to Miyazaki if they had kept in contact for any longer, they would not have been able to return back to the normal world and gotten stuck in the spirit world.
So with that in mind I decided to have Totoro and the other forest spirits hidden as they look over them. Most people tend to do parodies about the bus stop scene. Personally, I thought it is a bit overdone. At first I wanted to do it in a different location. But then I thought, why not use the bus stop, but make it different than all the other art out there. Which is why I made it daytime. Also I made sure to study the location by looking at the scene over and over again. In doing so I remembered that there was a fox shrine right next to the bus stop, almost nobody put that in their artwork so I decided to incorporate it into my own.
I really had fun drawing this piece, so I hope you guys will enjoy it too.
On another note. I will be adding a couple of more artwork to the gallery so look forward to that. I will also be working on some new artwork as well. I have so many projects running at once, but I will push through all obstacles.
I have been working on this weeks drawing quite a bit. Wasn’t too shure how to go about coloring. At first I wanted to draw it like a manga page. Meaning black and white, using only my pens. But I decided to instead make it like a color page in the manga and actually color it in. I decided to only use watercolors and my copics (they are really running low right now). I had to think about every stroke so that I didn’t waste any ink. While waiting on the next moves I drew a couple of rough drafts for what may become the next artwork. But that is for another time.
I named the drawing “Goku, Vegeta and the return of F” in commemoration of the new movie that will be coming out soon. I am actually looking forward to it. Even more so than the first one. Hopefully this will be a lot better (seeing as the other one was more of a reintroduction to all the characters). In any case here are some scans of the artwork in the process and the final piece. Wasn’t too sure since I spent quite a bit of time on it, but in the end I decided not to add it to the gallery.
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