Amy Price [46Kibahime] - Art School Journey

[46Kibahime]

Hi All! I'm Amy (or Kiba, whichever)

I'm in Durban, South Africa, and am busy upskilling myself as a comic / character artist with the hope of leaving the country someday (preferably soon).

I've been drawing for as long as I could hold a pencil, but only started to see a marked improvement in my highschool years. I first started digital art around that time, finally upgrading to a graphics tablet and Manga Studio Pro... before it rebranded as Clip Studio, I guess that was a while ago?

Since then, I've been drawing for my sanity during my tenure as a clinical trainer for aesthetic technology, while simultaneously being my company's local graphics person for marketing material. I've done a decent amount of photomanipulation and illustration, but my passion lies in comics.

Last year I launched my own company with the intention of publishing anime-illustrated novels and light novels, as well as webcomics. Our first illustrated full-novel is on course for release mid-2022, while myself and the author are also developing assets for the webtoon version to start thereafter.

While the goal in the long term is to grow a team that can run several comics simultaneously, I would prefer if the company could relocate internationally first for the sake of market accessibility. That's something that is still being investigated in terms of legalities and logistics, but, it is the dream.

In the meantime, solidifying foundations and refining techniques are key priorities, and I am eager to learn alongside you all.

[46Kibahime]

I'm just dropping a few of my pre-Art school pieces from last year here as my 'starting line' - not all of them are relevant to where I want to go, but they do say something for what I am already capable of, and I look forward to surpassing that limit.

[M-21 and the Awakened Cat from the manhwa/webtoons Noblesse and Eleceed, respectively]

[Atlas, from the webtoon Code Adam by Atterozen]

[Hibino Kafka, from the JUMP manga, Kaiju #8]

And finally, my BIG illustration from last year....

[Archon mode Zhongli and Xiao, from Genshin Impact]
Up till now I haven't had the time/temperament to dedicate to large, fully fledged illustrations like this one regularly, but I feel like if I knew what I was doing rather than simply floundering through the process, I could handle it better.

On a less polished note, some original characters:

[Lockenheim]

Wow Amy, very impressive! You have a ton of skills already I can't wait to see your improvement! Welcome to the forums!

[Strawberrow]

Hello Amy! Your artwork is really good!!

Welcome to the forums and I look forward to see progress from you!

[46Kibahime]

DAY 2 (after watching all of term 1's videos)

One of the things I always struggle with is stroke control, so I am totally adopting this as a daily warmup exercise.

I am still sourcing photos I like for the photomanipulation assignments - I use Clip Studio Paint as opposed to photoshop, and the majority of the photomanipulation work I've had to do as the graphics person of my dayjob has been extending backgrounds, cutting out models and products, and doing colour and lighting adjustments. I don't foresee myself spending time on photomanipulation on a regular basis, but I am still going to do the exercises.

I did however manage to do the basic proportion and figure drawing exercises today. Some things in the proportions drawing feel... off, and in the 'fancy stick figures' section I did a little bit of self critique to pay attention to, but if anything else stands out as something to be aware of, I would love to hear your thoughts. I chose a few more complicated references intentionally.

[LesleyCarol]

Oh that's an exciting goal! Love the compositions and colors you use now, can't wait to see your progress.

[Lockenheim]

Great idea on the daily practice! You will see big gains!

[46Kibahime]

Didn't really have time the last two days, but spent this afternoon on my photomanipulation assignment. I could probably spend another six hours on this thing if I were making it for a client, getting more source images and making all the corrections on the tiny things that still bug me, but overall I'm satisfied with displaying my capacity to splice things passably believably together.

For anyone curious, this was done in Clip Studio Paint, and you can see a timelapse of my process here:

[Lockenheim]

Wow this is one of the best ones I have seen! Well done!

[46Kibahime]

First attempt at the measurement exercise. As always, there are mistakes you only see on the upload phase. Ah well. Torso is a bit wide at the waist, back muscles a little too vertical, and legs are slightly misaligned.

[Lockenheim]

Very well done! Quite accurate. I am not in term 3 yet but the muscles look pretty good to me also! Keep it up!

[46Kibahime]

Been a bit busy on IRL fronts so not getting the daily drawing time I crave, but working on making the time I do have count.

Started with the perspective exercises today. Photos were taken by me in Durban, South Africa, about five years ago.

ANNNND the big one for the day. Not going to colour it at this stage, but I'm happy that everything makes sense. I do feel the chair legs are a bit stumpy, I found that gauging their height was a bit of a challenge. I do think I put the entire table set a bit too close to the camera in relation to how deep I assume the room to be, and I think that contributed to it. Oh well.

[Lockenheim]

Very nice work! The details on this are fantastic! I did notice a few things I hope you dont mind I did a draw over.

The main thing I noticed was the height of the table and chairs. I drew a human using the door frame as a general reference for height and then translated that human next to the chairs. The bottom of the chair hits the person at mid calf so I think the main issue there is that they are just to low, it feels like a children's table. The other things that stood out to me are the wedges under the left shelf felt off. The lines on the angles of these are divergent which causes this issue. Those lines should be parallel to avoid this effect. I think the other issue with the table is that it felt off center and tilted so I just tilted it slightly, I didn't construct it so its not perfect. Overall this scene is awesome. I love all the small details like the cat head, pots and pans and it is very quaint. The video was also awesome as well! Great job!

[46Kibahime]

Thanks for the feedback! I think looking back at my process video the height trouble with the table and chairs started by not mapping out where on the floor it is, and jumping into building the top before anything else. Furniture and relative height is definitely something I'll need to work on next time. Will attempt to adjust and repair this over the weekend.

[46Kibahime]

So, in April last year some things happened, and I wasn't able to pick up the course again since.
Finally getting back into it, starting with a take 2 on the 1-point perspective exercise. This is just a WIP for now, still going to do refinements on the corkscrews on the pillars before planning the furniture placements.

I did make use of the Radial Ruler tool in Clip Studio to ensure consistency in my vanishing point, but at this point in time I have yet to learn what all the handles in the perspective ruler tool does, so I am going to be doing all my multiple-point perspective exercises without that technological aid... no danger of me cheating in that department
(off-course I am definitely going to need to spend the time learning that tool to save time later, though)

[olashamala]

Welcome back Amy! Great work on this piece.. Can't wait for the final drawing