After finishing Nozomu chapter 24 (translation, final touch up, upload, scheduled, etc), and facing some incident tickets at work, I was pooped and took a breather.
So did a few exercices to continue the term 3.
Some 5 min gestures first. After the tips I recieved and tried, I've been enjoying making these a lot more, and I think I get more out of these exercices in return.
![](https://d1s0ws440m13mk.cloudfront.net/original/3X/1/9/1968db20b2cf0943c801a0f9cdc71e52d69b63d1.png)
Muscle exercices, mostly did them to help some fellow term 3 artists, but it also helps me practice muscle identification in references more.
![](https://d1s0ws440m13mk.cloudfront.net/original/3X/b/4/b4e826b923296654e09c2810fb69f8afbdfa0266.png)
![](https://d1s0ws440m13mk.cloudfront.net/original/3X/4/7/47238f52760fe21c2a2d50b996c0ecb8e8952eef.png)
And then more muscle exercices. Dressing up skellys.
![](https://d1s0ws440m13mk.cloudfront.net/original/3X/8/d/8d5b8a2da97edb73648074af74cdf136b3ba3024.png)
And finally came to the exercice to "Study (copy) a fully dressed character painting from an artist/show you like".
It's no secret I love Toriyama's work, and even though Dragon Quest 6 is far from my favorite, I do love the design of the main hero. This design is what I always aspired to when I was a kid. If I could make my manga look like this, I would be satisfied.
So here is the reference.
![](https://d1s0ws440m13mk.cloudfront.net/original/3X/a/c/ac372b142b8f14cedf4292490f7c0e69c65204c5.png)
I decided to get my lazy ass off and try to do proper to this exercice. I tried to do fine linework inking, and fill with lazo selection like marc does, and try my best to use gradient maps as best as possible.
![](https://d1s0ws440m13mk.cloudfront.net/original/3X/a/f/af00b5d6e44045066d479a50d58daa3731a358a2.png)
Took several hours, but finally finished it. I'm very happy how the study turned out.
![](https://d1s0ws440m13mk.cloudfront.net/original/3X/0/4/04f3149600aac7418ed6f6dbb09925893c0423d2.png)
I learned a LOT! I finally feel comfortable working with gradient maps, and I think I got better understand of when to use them, and when to add details manually. Going from auto fill/corrections to fill with lazo was also huge for me. and I even got a feel for proper resolution and details. So very happy with it all around!
No manga work for today, since I just wrapped up chapter 24, but now I jump to start work on chapter 25.
Have a great day! Cheers!