I’ve been looking back at my own artwork again, and since I haven’t painted in a long time, decided to try some exercises.
I want to move more towards realism, in whatever way I can, and try to create things that are unique in both anime and realism – a hybrid as you may have heard me talk about it before.
One thing that I did want to improve upon was understanding light and shadow more. So I did a couple of exercise studies and painted a few things that I saw on my desk. It wasn’t very fun until I decided to give Miku a try.
The cool thing about Nendoroids is that they are very simple and clean in shape, making their features very easy to define. I figured that if I was to do some studying, I should have fun doing it.
This is a retrospective photo that I took after I was finished painting. The photo looks way darker compared to what it actually looks like. The color is also off. Miku’s hair is more green than blue. Overall, it’s not an accurate representation, but there it is anyway.
I started off as usual with a rough sketch. I had full intention of discarding the sketch, but it’s important to have one so that when you paint, you retain the shape.
Here’s some rough color. I tried to block in as much of the shadows as I could, studying how dark and how light things appear in relation to each other. Already, we’re starting to see some form and depth.
Some refinement begins to take place. I had a lot of trouble with the pleated skirt, and trying to make the hair appear concave on the inside.
Cleaned up some more and added legs. Of course she needs legs!
Did some more refining of the shapes and shadows, and added Miku’s face. I decided to put the face on a separate layer, and it turns out I was wise to do so, as I made some significant tweaks to the facial structure later.
At this point, you can kind of already see how the light and shadow are working to bring a bit of photo-realistic depth to the image, but it’s still looking a bit flat.
After 4 and a half hours of painting, the end result! I relocated the nose, and added saturation to the mouth, and added highlights and deeper shadows to really bring depth to the painting.
Even though it’s still a little off here and there, I’m pretty happy with the result. Not bad for a true first attempt at painting an object digitally.
Well, that’s another post. Hope you enjoyed my painting! Hopefully many more to come!
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Woah awesome job Radiant, the painting is magnificent and your a good artist:)
Well I believe this is the first time we met so Hi^-^ The name is Roy,honor to meet you:)
Is this painting like on paper or on computer, I cant tell, it looks so realistic and 3D haha thanks
kawaii! and dude did U see my lastest e-mail? I din realise you used THAT chatplace before! lol and I like how she has a very painted feel ^^
Man Miku is too cute. I love the attention to detail you put on Miku’s skirt, it really shows. I also really like the painterly feel you got in this even if it’s done on the computer.
I know it’s the way the figure is posed in the photo, but it seems her body is positioned at a slight angle so that I have a feeling that she’s not balanced. She looks like she would topple over because of her massive, but cute, head.
Well done man, well done.
Wow, incredible. Truly a spectacular artist u are. ^^
If there was a museum dedicated to miku, this will be in it. ^^d
awesome! very nice indeed!
eh, I thought I’ve commented this one =\
pretty drawings, i like the coloring 🙂 you should put unique expression tho 😀 the one you can’t get using camera 😀
Good job, though I couldn’t find a definition for “realism,” online TBH 😛
I notice (here and elsewhere) that to distinguish the subject from its shadow that there’s a halo (on her right arm); is this actually light bouncing from behind?
I haven’t seen her regular face with her simplified hairdome and it doesn’t bother me, but I’m just thinking too much, as usual.
It’s so realistic it’s freaking me out xD. That’s pretty cool that you can do something like that ^^. Ever think about selling your art, or maybe sending it over to me for free ^^.
Thanks everyone! I’m glad you are enjoying my work! I’ll definitely keep at it and creating more artwork as time goes on!
@blueplains : The whole thing was done digitally on computer. I’ve found it time consuming to draw using traditional methods now. It’s also very messy. But that’s not to say traditional methods are bad. It’s still one of the best ways to paint!
@chun : Thanks! Yeah, those were the good times… sorry I didn’t reply to your email… again! -_-;
@kin : Always glad to hear from you, man. Yeah, it does seem like she’s off balance. The truth is, it’s her pigtails that hold her up! I think if the shadow was positioned better, it would actually help a lot.
@anonymous coward : thanks! I like your handle, and your avatar!
@ ron : unique expressions would be cool! Actually, I had thought about the new exclusive Miku with the blank face while I was painting this. 😛
@ nanu : that’s correct, the lighter color on her right arm is radiosity from the back wall. It’s hard to tell from the terrible photo though. I think I screwed up the proportions a little. This Miku seems a little too round and fat!
@ AS : I do sell my art! Actually, I do commission work. So if there’s anything you want me to draw for you, enquire and we can work out a quote!
Interesting how you use Nendoroid Miku as your subject on perecptions and painting skills. I personally used to sketch, though that was a while ago already; it definitely is time-consuming, but it really is worth it if you do take it in the long terms.
While I didn’t like making rough sketches and outlines due to horrible laziness, I strongly agree with you that they are crucial to see what you really are really going while not going off-track and getting too focused on one or two parts.
As usual, keep up the good work!
hey thats cool Danniel just was flicking through your blog
Sweet blog. I never know what I am going to come across next. I think you should do more posting as you have some pretty intelligent stuff to say.
I’ll be watching you . 🙂
omg if you could get that on canvas peeps would pay a ton of money for it! I know i would.
would you really? Where would you get the money?