Nov '24

Thank you so much @patrycja.lerch @uggievang @mitsuki-youko @snakker @gregorya @jasminerosepowell!!!

@uggievang @mitsuki-youko Haha, pretty boys is not my preference, but it was still a lot of fun to work on that piece, and it's good practice since I want to be able to do good looking guys and gals :wink:

@snakker @gregorya I kept using references for poses and stuff, at my level I still need to keep building my mental library, but I'm happy with the results so far :muscle: . I've no idea how Mevia could wield that axe xD and to be fair, the original description only said se had a great axe, not that it was massive. I just did it huge as I thought it was funny xD, but it's not out of place with some of the fantasy tropes.

@jasminerosepowell It certainly felt overwhelming at first! Many of us are quite shy and introverted, so interacting with other artists, and especially exposing your work can feel very daunting.

Like everything, its matter of taking things one step at a time. I only started to interact with a few people here in the forums, who have been very welcoming and friendly. This in turn game me confidence to interact more and expand the online social circle.

Discord was crazy at first, there are updates almost by the hour at times. And keeping up with socials can almost feel like a second job if you don’t enjoy it. But it’s just like drawing, if you find the joy in it, you just want to do it more!

It can also be a double edge sword, in the sense that if you only do it for personal gratification, and you focus on the likes and what not, your enjoyment depends on others and not necessarily on the experience. Every hobby, and especially social interactions, can become toxic to yourself if not approached in a healthy way.

Overall, it’s mostly about trying to remain positive, focus on helping others and trying to make them feel the way you’d like them to make you feel.

On regards to giving advice, if you don’t feel confident, you don’t need to, and that’s fine, but if you feel the desire to share something, just be sincere. Know that it won’t always be right, and someone with more experience might even correct you (I’ve been corrected hundreds of times), but that’s fine and it’s just part of learning.

Still, if you try to keep it positive and sincere, people appreciate the thought. Try to think of “how would I feel if I was the one this is directed to”, and it’ll be fine.

Nov '24

thank you for that it can definitely feel overwhelming espcially being a part of several discord servers then trying to keep up with forums and instagram, i think overtime i'll develop a technique to keep up with them all haha.

Nov '24

That's true. Thinking about it, that axe might be normal-sized then. At least compared to fantasy. Kind of Like Guts Sword from Berserk, or Asta's Sword from Black Clover.

That's some good advice on interacting with artists.

Nov '24

Reply to

daceronine

Another week! After the OCtober challenge was done, I took a few days to recharge and relax a bit. But now it's time to start ramping up again.

No Artschool progress at the moment, though I intend to resume very soon. For now I wanted to do some progress on Nozomu since it's been a while and I feel I needed to do some progress on it. It's been relaxing coming back to it after more than a month.

3 new pages done for chapter 32, but I'll add the previous pages done as well since I had to remind myself where I left off with this chapter.








I'm trying to stick much closer to the 70% rule to keep moving at a more brisk pace.

1) Added a "film grain" effect to distinguish the memory sequence from the rest of the scene.
2) Also been trying to move focus from other elements to try to vary pages a bit more.
3) Bit of a spoiler but not so much? "Shadow" actually has several scars on his face, it's partially why he wears the cover, it's what you can see slightly over his face in some frames, though lately I was wondering if I should keep the scars on the lower portion of the face, similar to the last frame. It's part of his backstory, and will come into play later one. Will think about it a bit mroe.

Feedback always welcome!

Also haven't forgotten on sharing about the short story. Should be able to touch up on it these days and hopefully share it soonish. Trying to wrap up this chapter to upload an update to webtoon.

That's all for now, hope you all have a great week! cheers!

Nov '24

Nice work on the film grain effect. It helps with the flashback sequences. In manga, they just darken the panels.

That sounds good.

Yes. that sounds like a good idea especially if it's part of the backstory, and if it will come into play later on.

Nov '24

Oh, I should have worded that better. I will absolutely keep the scars on the lower covered half of the face, but not sure if I'll keep them on the upper part of the face, mainly between the eyes and forehead. I think I will, since I've been adding them so far, no reason to change it. So I'll add them to this page.

Nov '24

Reply to

daceronine

This is so so good! As for the scars on the face i think its a nice touch and adds curiosity to the character but then you think he'd try to cover more of his face with a face covering.

Nov '24

Thank you! Yes, that's what I was thinking as well! At one point I just covered most of his face in bandages except for one eye, but it was getting quite cumbersome and hard to drive expressions (not that he has shown much yet).
The worst part is definetly on the lower part of the face, so I guess it makes sense he covers that. I think I'll add them back again for these frames and keep them moving forward.

Bit of a spoiler, granted, he eventually recovers from them, but there's a long way to go before that happens.

Nov '24

ooh lookin great! :smiley: glad to see you working on Nozomu again :smiley:

Dec '24

Reply to

daceronine

Thanks everyone for stopping by! Been a bit slower since I've been a bit busy with work, though we are staying fairly active in Discord and we continue grinding as usual!

Term 4

Did a few exercices and doodles out of Term 4 for practice

Tried a different approach for these next gestures. Tried to imitate a fellow artist, by skipping construction and focusing on outline and lines. It was interesting, since you have to "imagine" the constrcution. I did enjoy it, and feel like an exam of what I've learned so far. Will probably try to do more of it.

And more env practice!

And also resumed the term exercices. Next is deformation/exaggeration of the body. Only did a few, but at least we’re starting to move along the art course again!

Daily76.png4444x2480 2.19 MB

Wow putting it all together like this makes me realize I actually did more practice than I thought.

Manga

A couple more pages! Would be nice to wrap up this arc before end of year, but we’ll see how it goes.

1) Trying to show a more menacing side of Seki. Shadow is starting to overstep, and he’s not having it.
2) Captain Kraken arc is going to be quite… complicated, but we’ll get to it next year.
3) Pages are fairly simple in structure and content, it’s all about allowing the reader to get in the middle of these two, and feel the tension brewing. For whatever reason I do enjoy making these face close ups.

3 more pages left! Also got a treat that goes along with the end of this arc, hopefully we finally share it by next weekend.

Hope you all have a great week! Cheers!

Dec '24

Oooh these look amazing! Lighting in manga is great, I love the last panel

Nice work on studies!

Dec '24

Oh, okay, I understand now.

I like the portraits of your characters. The shading is nice as well. The screaming expression and the angle of the man look great
The gestures are pretty good, the poses look pretty accurate, and the studies of the environment are pretty good.
The male's deformation exercises suggest he could be an MMA fighter, and the woman's looks suggest she could be that tall female Yokai, Takaonna. Nice work.

Dec '24

Reply to

daceronine

Thanks @mitsuki-youko @patrycja.lerch @gregorya!!!

Still busy, but we still going at it!

Term 4

Just a couple more exercices. I think I’ll stop with body modification here, might as well start the last piece to wrap up term 4.

Also bonus doodle! Someone gone and pissed of Seki!

Manga

A couple more pages! Just one more page to go, then cover, some editing and we’re finally done with this chapter. Took forever due to the October event.

1) Seki trying to seem intimidating. Shadow doesn’t seem all that surprised. Some unspoken stuff going on here.

2) Shadow’s final parting words are meant to confirm he was indeed the one to help Seki, for as of yet unknown reasons. It’s ambiguous enough that it could just be him underestimating Seki, but given the context the reader has, it’s bound to mean something more. Why is Seki “stupid”? Just him being condescending? Or is it because Seki is playing according to his plans? Or because Seki is chewing more than he can handle?

3) Seki on the other hand, might not be the brightest character around, but he does seem to understand more than is being said. The fact he just let’s Shadow leave implies a certain degree of respect, perhaps out of being grateful, but letting go a potential menace could be stupid to some people. As I mentioned, there’s a bit more going on that will hopefully be communicated by their attitudes more so than what they are saying.

That’s it for now! Getting into the holidays, and decided to participate in yet another event. Only two pieces to do though, but considerably more complex than previous ones. Will probably post them until after the holidays.

Hope everyone is doing well! Have a great week! Cheers!