Haru Ichiban's Blog - Posts Tagged "art"

Recently I've come to something like an artist's block. Not in the form of ideas, but in the way those ideas would be implemented. Simply put, I've come to hate my current skills. It can't be that I actually drew better when I was much younger. Instead of evolving, I feel I've devolved. I'd currently rate my artistic ability as a 6/10 or maybe 6.5/10. I can hit 8.5/10 if I really try, like in Forbidden's cover. But that's like giving my 120% and it takes me a lot of time and makes me tired.

Sooo... I've read over and over again that to improve, you should practice as often as you can, preferably every day. That's a bit too taxing, I'd say, and it looks more like a chore than pleasure. But like Steve Pavlina says, why not try it for 30 days? I did that trial once, and I'm still going on (it was about eating sugar only once a day. I felt so much better that I'm still doing it).

So, I think I'll start the trial tomorrow. I have plenty of ideas, but I freak out at the way they'll turn out. I also wonder if I'll be able to do one pic a day... but like it says, it's a trial. I gotta combat my perfectionist tendencies, and just do things.

For starters, I gotta finish the pin-up series (finish? I only have one pic of Lei) and start an Angel Power Compendium. In Forbidden, though there are angels flying everywhere and showing off their powers, I never really specified everything they are capable of, and who is (of course, a Dominion is capable of more things than a quartarian--even if Astaroth doesn't seem to think that way). Sure thing, we only saw four distinct kinds of angels in the first book (black-winged, red-winged, quartarians and Dominions, though gray-winged and blue-winged make a short appearance), and there are so many more books in the future that will have plenty of time to explain more of the universe, but I think it will be nice. If anything, I will add more pages to the Compendium when the time is right.

Okay then, I'll start tomorrow! Hope this kicks me out of this artistic plateau.

Yeah, day 5 was moot. I was kinda tired and didn't want to draw--on the other hand, I did write for a while. And now, day 6 I was out most of the day doing errands, so not much time. Since the subject was quite difficult, I decided to scan the lineart, since I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it on time. And anatomy is the thing I need to work on the most, right?
Anyway, it's Lei and Sween... x2. She's both in her daily (sunny) form and in her nightly (shady) form. Lei acts so tough near her, but I wonder about his feelings if he'd be in the middle of both Sweens... I kinda want to make a picture with both Sweens holding him, but my sexistly-conditioned mind tells me it'd look odd.

The specifics:

•Time taken: Approximately two hours. I think I never took so much time with simple lineart.


•Media used: Micromarker, black gel pen, black thick pen and cool white high quality drawing paper.


•30-day trial: Day 6/30, July 10th 2018

I was right not to color this picture yesterday, the coloring took three hours, much more time than I had. This picture in general took a lot of effort since the communal pose is difficult and I kept the use of references to a minimum. Left side for Sween's nightly form, right for sunny form. Instead of roughly dividing the page like what I see in pictures of this kind, I went for a smooth transition between light and dark, day and night. I kinda have a feeling Lei won't stay much longer in that pose...

The specifics:
•Time taken: Approximately three hours, plus the two for lineart.
•Media used: Color pencils, pastels, micromarker, black gel pen, black thick pen and cool white high quality drawing paper.
•30-day trial: Day 7/30, July 11th 2018
•Technical notes to self: Black, blackish grey and mouse grey get perfect coverage together, and good for that non-shiny black.

Gotta confess I cheated a bit on this one... I had this page half-made before today, heh heh. I spent a lot of time today writing, it can't be helped. Anyway, page 29 of the comic, page 16 from Day 1. Lei ate her trap hook, line and bait =D

The specifics:
•Time taken: Approximately an hour and a half (plus unknown time from before), not counting the digital alterations.
•Media used: Color pencils, pastels, neon marker, micromarker, black gel pen, black thick pen and cool white high quality drawing paper.
•30-day trial: Day 8/30, July 12th 2018

Hmph, I think I’m finally mastering making smooth textures with light colors in pencils. So first I use a light color all over, then a medium color for the shading, and then a low-quality white pencil that acts as blender. (I don’t own an actual blender). The white pencil has so little pigment that smoothens the colored pencil strokes without lightening them.

However, I still had to use a much darker skin coloring than I’m used to. I need to find a way to make really light skin and still colored (since the scanner won’t read icy colors)

Anyway, today’s pin-up pic is about Sween’s sidekick Mayii. She’s supposed to look six, but since I don’t have much practice drawing kids, I went with some anime-style design. Love the dress, it’s just as I imagined it (actually, I imagined it a bit darker and I was afraid it would look too heavy).



And now that I got Sween, Jason, Archie and Mayii’s designs I can start the Angel Powers Compendium! Can’t promise when I’ll start, though. Angels using their powers seems a hard thing to draw! I need to just do it, I guess. I can always redo them later, when I got sharper skills.


The specifics:

•Time taken: Approximately four and half hours.
•Media used: color pencils and black pen with some micromarker and pencil. Cool white high quality drawing paper.
•30-day trial: Day 9/30, July 13th 2018
•Technical notes to self: So I kinda mastered doing smooth textures in light colors in pencils.

Okay, so this is the first illustration for the Angel Power Compendium, the attack magic Jason used in day 3. I was right in fearing doing this, the pose is difficult as hell and the light from the floor looks too thick. When I get to the actual compendium page I'm gonna give it a revamp, but today I ran out of time. Doing a pic a day may be good practice, but it also means not doing the best if the pic takes a lot of time... But to be honest, I was a little tired. It seems four days drawing and painting for hours in a row is my wellbeing limit at this moment.

The specifics:
•Time taken: I can't specify it this time...
•Media used: Watercolor pencils and pencil. Warm white 75 grams watercolor paper.
•30-day trial: Day 10/30, July 14th 2018

Day 11 was nothing but rest all day, much needed rest since I developed a thumb tendinitis—not the artwork’s fault, there’s a couple things I do effort with it at home. So here’s day 12, I was feeling lack of inspiration (mostly because I can’t decide who to picture in next Angel Power Compendium’s image) so I just decided to make another comic page, this one from scratch.

Ohh, so Lei’s confusion only lasted a moment. Oh well. Last Lei appearance for a few pages, until Day 2. Sween’s dialogue partner now will become someone much more mysterious…

The specifics:

•Time taken: Pretty much all day, but I did all kinds of stuff meanwhile.
•Media used: color pencils and black pen with some micromarker and pencil, some pastel. Cool white high quality drawing paper.
•30-day trial: Day 12/30, July 16th 2018

Last three days we had two blackouts and two storms, the ideal combination for painting. Together with the curse, it made a fantastic environment for working. Not to mention, it makes me lazy--I'm only human. Yesterday I made this comic page, there was very crappy lighting thanks to the all-day storm so the coloring may not be so good.


The specifics:

•Time taken: Six hours, I think. I started sketching it the night of the 17th and finished it on the 18th.

•Media used: color pencils and black pen with some micromarker and pencil, some pastel. Cool white high quality drawing paper.

•30-day trial: Day 14/30, July 18th 2018 (actually uploaded on the 19th)

I've been wanting to do something like this for a while. Bold colors, police tape, Persona 5-style coloring, but I thought I would draw Lei like this (which I might do later). I also began sketching this last night, which might be a good thing to do for me sometimes.
Day 16/30... It feels like forever that I have been doing this... If only I had someone who would do the challenge with me or cheer for me would be much easier, I think.

The specifics:
•Time taken: Five hours or so. I started sketching it the night of the 19th and finished it on the 20th.
•Media used: color pencils but mostly pastels and black pen, micromarker and pencil. Cool white high quality drawing paper.
•30-day trial: Day 16/30, July 20th 2018
•Technical notes to mine: That cheap pastel is totally useless. Better use the good pastel for everything.

Well, I have been working less and less on drawing, but it does seem this trial makes my creative juices flow. The 21st I wrote about 1,500 words for my next novel (I know, not too impressive); the 22nd I made a cute box with lovely paper, glitter and felt (it feels very Christmas-like--I wonder if I should upload a pic?) and today I was going to make the Lei version of the police tape, but as I drew it, I thought maybe I would try typical coloring instead of the bold, solid color. So I didn't finish it. Also today I was taking off the paint on my bedroom wall and cleaning it up, which was like a craft. I was also watching one of my favorite series from teenagehood, and I thought about a cool idea for another Forbidden novel. (One published, another in the verge of doing so and seven more in drafts... Please end what you started first, Captain Haru!)

Wow, you can't imagine how hard is this pose until you've tried it... But still, I guess I am easing in my efforts because I am more satisfied with my current skill, and also because I can hardly follow a routine every day. I like creating every day, but my creative efforts can and will change direction with the day.

The specifics:

•Time taken: Approximately an hour and half.
•Media used: Pencil, black pen and micromarker. Cool white high quality drawing paper.
•30-day trial: Day 19/30, July 23th 2018
•Technical notes to myself: Stop using the sketching pencil for sketches that need to be erased.