It’s strange how I’ve started naming my drawings by date rather than giving them unique names. It’s very Masamune Shirow. It’s almost like I can’t be bothered for some reason. I know I’m going to regret it down the line when I’m trying to look up a particular drawing and have to remember it by date. 😛
But now you can tell when I drew this, which was quite some time ago!
This is my second attempt at learning how to use Easy Painter Tool Sai. Already I’ve started to forcefully familiarize myself with the tools. It’s the only way to learn.
[pro-player]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxvCoPOKazE[/pro-player]
The music seems most suitable…
You will notice from the video that after the initial paint over, I do drag it into Photoshop to apply color and finalize. I had attempted the usual technique of greyscale painting followed by color overlay in Sai, but Sai handles its color blending very differently than Photoshop and is quite limited in that regards. There’s just no way for me to get a good color tone from it. I might as well be mud-wrestling a crocodile. You know that wouldn’t be a pretty sight too.
My inspiration for this to start was the cover art for the latest Apple Volume 4
Initially, her brows were pretty normal. I decided to angle them until they were almost touching her eyes to create an more artificial look for her. During the coloring process, I also smoothed her face out dramatically, again for that sort of artificial look.
I think more could have been done to make her look even more artificial. I think my coloring techniques still need a lot of work. I know that my anatomy is probably off too, but judging from most anime art that I’ve seen, even ones that are good, the anatomy is typically off anyway.
After I was done though, watching the video again, I have to say that I liked the initial black and white more than the final color for some reason. Something about it looked nice, even though the final image gets my idea across a lot clearer.
I really like the piercing glowing eyes. I did more enhancements after the video was completed, to bring those eyes out even more. Looking at her is somewhat disturbing, I think…
Again, like my previous sketch, I left the background white. What do you suppose is happening here? What sort of feelings are you getting from this drawing?
Read more!
With all those cables coming out of her, it looks like she just stepped out of something used to recharge her. Those two dots between her eyes make her look like an alien. The feeling I get is that she’s not too happy about something.
haha when I am looking at it, I have a fear that she’s going to kill me for one reason or another. 😛
3 posts in 3 days, color me impressed! 🙂
The first thing I noticed when I saw the image was her face. I totally missed the cable wrapped around her arm until I watched the video. It’s just the high contrast of the face makes everything else fade out.
I agree with you that I really liked the non colored version. Especially the line art, it’s really nice. Though I am a bit iffy on the pose. It’s quite an elegant pose, with one arm over her head and the other hand gently resting on her shoulder. It’s a very gentle, but her face says otherwise so it gives me a little bit of a mixed message. On the other hand, the pose is good in a way that it frames in the face, which I assume is the focal point because that’s all I really focus on.
I’m starting to ramble…
Good work though. I can see improvement on your line work in Sai. The lines don’t seem as stiff as previous drawings you’ve done!
Really enjoyed the music in the video as well.
How are you liking Sai after using it for a while?
Sai is nice. Sai is REALLY nice. Doing line art in Sai beats Photoshop any day. To say the least, I’ll never do line art in Photoshop ever again if it can be avoided.
I actually did go back into photoshop one day to do some quick line work for something, and boy did I regret it. Actually, I’ve found that my line work in photoshop looks worse now. There is a possible insidious downside to Sai then. The stabilizer actually makes you “unlearn” using the stylus to draw proper lines. Either that, or I’m just now spoiled with Sai that I can’t accept the crap Photoshop gives me with my line work. I guess I’ll take a look at my older line works in photoshop before reaching that conclusion…
I think one of the reasons why the sketch line and non-color version looks good is because I actually suck at color, and I suck at proper clean line art. 😛
Wow i love the light and shade on this, especially how the light hits her arm shadowing the rest of her body. Those eyes just draw you right in!
Thanks! I’m glad you like it! 🙂
I felt like I saw Haman Karn getting androidified..with a touch of Aegis and Kerrigan at that. xDD
The cable end looked better at angle though, laws of physics and computer buses aside. xDD Anyways, it did look better in the pre-colored form..because I’m biased towards sketches that way, and partly because the lighting felt iffy since I initially thought you were going for the “I have descended from the sky and I have a mini-sun behind me” sort of lighting..dunno ^^;
I have to say that I’m not 100% convinced of this piece now that I look at it. I could probably do better. I think the biggest problem is definitely the lighting and color. But since this was mostly a sketch exercise, I would rather move on than try to fix this sketch…
Those eyes… wouah. It is hard to look away from this deep red gaze. Right now, I am thinking “eeeh, why are you looking at me like this? did I do something wrong? spare me!”
It is funny how this art is inspiring for me. Actually, I lead a role playing game (you know, the original thing with dices and character paper sheets ^^) which plot takes place in a futuristic Tokyo. And your art can really represent one of my NPC!
She is a biodroid – android made of flesh clay, artificial blood and bones but cybernetic brain – who works with police forces. She is very effective but lacks of emotions and hardly know how to deel with human feelings. And she always looks very serious.
Well, not something very original, but it is fun to have this kind of character interact with my players ^^
I might print this to show them hehe.
That would be awesome. I most certainly wouldn’t mind!
kinda like dungeons and dragons? XD how fun
Ah, absolutely beautiful artwork! I love what we can do with technology!!! Keep up the fantastic and creative artworks!
what does it take to make an iphone app? lol my friend got an itouch and he says me and him should make some apps >.<
omg. It takes A LOT to make an iphone app… and I’m talking just about getting set up with the proper SDK, registration, etc. It’s a huuuge headache.
After that, the development process is crazy too. You have to know Objective C, and you have to have a good idea for an app, otherwise you’re wasting your time. (been there, done that).
THEN, you have to submit your app, and most likely get rejected several times, after several weeks. When it finally gets to the app store, you have to pray that someone will buy it. It’s seriously tough business.
Doing line works in photoshop is painstakingly slow… I’ve been thinking about switching over to SAI as well. Anyways, very very lovely work. It’s really nice to see how you go about creating it too. It’s inspiring. ^ ^
I highly recommend Sai. After I switched over, I honestly can’t go back anymore. I am not skilled enough to paint in Sai, so I go back to Photoshop after the line art is done.
Cheers! 😀