DaCeronNine - Art School Journey

[daceronine]

Thanks everyone! That was a lot fo good discussion. It's really motivating to keep the art discussion and feedback going!

Got some more time this week to work on the arts and stuffs. It's a good thing because this will probably be a busy weekend with other non art stuff.

Term 4

Just a few random sketch to practice gesture from imagination for a change. The quality does go down with no direct references, but it's still a good exercice to warm up.

Have I mentioned how much of a DBZ fan I am? I really like the SSJ3 desgin.

Now that we finshed the lower body anatomy video, we move on to the next exercice.

"Daily Anatomy 3 assignment 1 - Highlight all lower body muscles over reference photos"

Figured I would use a male and female for this one. I'm including the originals for reference in case anyone notices something wrong.

Legs have been a much bigger challenge, so I might have made a few mistakes. Let me know if something stands out.

Manga

One more page done!

1) For some reason I really enjoyed doing this one. Maybe becaue I didn't have to worry about BGs so much xD. I personally also enjoy a good fun conversation between characters. Lots of text on this page, but I tried to fit it all in in a logical way and following the standard zigzag method.

2) Placed a bit of extra effort on Sari's idealized version of the hero/prince dream. I don't know why I just found it be very funny with the sparkling tones and what not.

3) Also practicing overall page tone balance and compositon taking into account the text. First frame is dark to indicate the night mood, followed by a lot of white with the dream as a pretext, followed by a mix of lights and darks, it's why the last frame doesn't have any shadows on it, it contrasts better against the detailed background.

That's it for now! I'll probably be busy over the weekend doing personal stuff, but we'll see what more progress we can fit in there.

Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone has a great weekend! You guys rock! Cheers!

[patrycja.lerch]

Great work! Love that page and dream hero panel I can feel sparkles. It lightens up mood nicely

[alejorey.1995]

Nice gesture sketches, really expressive and dynamic. Those leg studies look scary for how complex they seem and the Page is great. There is a lot of information, but it is really clear due to the values between the background and the foreground

[gregorya]

For example, the fight has some clear beats to it, increasing the stakes as the fight goes on. There's a certain narrative to it (Which I forgot to mention before, an action scene or fight needs a narrative to it, in the end, it's all about telling a story), a beginning, some key points, and an end.

That's right, there needs to be a story in a fight scene. or it would just be a random fight. It also helps when the fight is creative.

Nice work on the leg studies. I don't see anything wrong with it.
The next page is pretty good.

[daceronine]

Thanks @patrycja.lerch @alejorey.1995 @gregorya!
@alejorey.1995 Yea! the leg and foot seems to be quite complex... granted once you are just drawiing, things get simplified a lot, but when looking into the actual muscles... it gets twisty.

Wew, very busy attending personal stuff. Still able to do some progress.

Term 4

Next exercice is "Daily Color and Light Theory 1 assignment 4", which is basically analyze palettes from media. While I did do this just by looking at some example, instead of writing down analysis and all that figured I would do it a bit differently to make it a bit more interesting.

Since I need to define some colors for a design, figured I would analyze, take a few palettes from media for "formal dresses" and try to apply them to this character to see which one looks better.

So, which of these do you think looks better? Or if you have an idea for a palette or colors to use, by all means feel free to suggest it. Most are Analogus or Complementary, desaturaded with some exceptions, since apparently that's what elegant dresses colors use.

Apologies for not including all references or analysis behind it, I'm a bit short on bandwith these days. Funny since it's supposed to be holidays.

Manga

One more page done!

1) Nothing too crazy. Just two people chatting a bit about seemingly random things, recounting some recent events. I dunno why but there's something nice about that.

2) Since it's a fairly straightforward afair, you'd think you can just copy the characters from frame to frame, since their poses don't even change that much. However, even in scenes like these there are subtle parts about the movements and angles that change to keep things a bit more visually entretaining. Like the movements of Sari's hand or body gesture. The change in eyes positions, the slight change in head angles. It's like how when people chat in real life, you don't really stay still talking.

3) At the same time we played around a bit with the contrast of the BGs so it doesn't become overwhelmingly dark. First frame is all white mostly to tie in the previous page to this one. The following frames have varying levels of contrast, using lighting to indicate the "camera" going back and forth. The starry night becomes more visible to keep things "interesting" as well as to give the scene a bit of a "charming" aura.

4) I read somewhere about the importance of keeping characters positions during scenes like this. You'll notice that Sari is mostly always on the left and Seki always on the right, with the last two frames moving them slightly off the center to accentuate their positions.

5) Writting is hard! Just trying to have a conversation make sense and not force certain points is a bit of a challenge. Or maybe I just need to get better at it. There's some information I'm trying to make clear to the reader here, how Seki is not all that 100% noble, but at the same time can be quite self-critical., and some of Sari's motivation which will become more important later on.

That's it for now! Still got a lot to do, so I'll be heading out to keep truckin.

Have a good one everyone! cheers!

[mitsuki-youko]

So, which of these do you think looks better?

Yooooo these all look SO good!
My fav color is turquoise so im totally biased to # 2 and 4.

1 and 2 are a close second!

At the same time we played around a bit with the contrast

Oh yea i see you say we, are you working on the comic with other pplz too? At first I thought it was just you XD

5) Writting is hard! Just trying to have a conversation make sense and not force certain points is a bit of a challenge. Or maybe I just need to get better at it. There's some information I'm trying to make clear to the reader here, how Seki is not all that 100% noble, but at the same time can be quite self-critical., and some of Sari's motivation which will become more important later on.

Haha yes! I'm still plotbuilding my story and roughly doing the dialogue but eventually ill dive into making the dialogue a lot better than it is now XD

[daceronine]

Hehe, thanks!

Oh yea i see you say we, are you working on the comic with other pplz too?

Huh, I have this weird habit of talking about "we" when I do stuff... not sure were I picked it from, but yea it's just me for now xD.

[patrycja.lerch]

Sari looks lovely! My favourite are 2 and 5

2) Since it's a fairly straightforward afair, you'd think you can just copy the characters from frame to frame, since their poses don't even change that much. However, even in scenes like these there are subtle parts about the movements and angles that change to keep things a bit more visually entretaining. Like the movements of Sari's hand or body gesture. The change in eyes positions, the slight change in head angles. It's like how when people chat in real life, you don't really stay still talking.

I like that you did it this way. It's more natural and even the smallest movements can show a lot about character

4) I read somewhere about the importance of keeping characters positions during scenes like this. You'll notice that Sari is mostly always on the left and Seki always on the right, with the last two frames moving them slightly off the center to accentuate their positions.

There is 180 rule where you keep camera on one side so characters doesn't suddenly swap places confusing viewer

[alix28]

I love the dress designs you came up with! I'd have to say 2 and 4 are my favorite. Just out of curiosity, I wonder what it would look like if you played with a lighter color being the primary, and using the other colors as highlights! It may end up looking too much like a wedding dress but I feel like it would look cool idk lol. Just a thought!
Also your comic is looking way cool as always! I really love your style!

[daceronine]

Hey thanks so much man! Since you were wondering, and I had the file at hand, figured I would give it a quick try based on a lighter palette (bluish/white with complementary light red/orange)

I guess it does kinda look closer to a wedding dress xD.

Funny note about the style, I started very close to emulating Toriyama since I love his style (Pretty obvious when you look at the MC), but for girls, I leaned closer to Rui Araizumi (Slayers) and Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma). At least those are the ones that come to mind, there's a weird mix of some of my favorite works in there.

[mitsuki-youko]

OH XD sometimes i do that too actually but only when talking to myself XDDDD like writing to myself LOLOL im like wait its just me who am i talking to lmao and im like it's me, myself, and I

[gregorya]

So, which of these do you think looks better? Or if you have an idea for a palette or colors to use, by all means, feel free to suggest it.

I like the first, third, and fourth dresses.

2) Since it's a fairly straightforward affair, you'd think you can just copy the characters from frame to frame since their poses don't even change that much. However, even in scenes like these, there are subtle parts about the movements and angles that change to keep things a bit more visually entertaining. Like the movements of Sari's hand or body gesture. The change in eye positions, the slight change in head angles. It's like how when people chat in real life, you don't stay still talking.

It's a good idea that you don't copy the characters frame to frame. I've seen comics that did that or just have one picture with at least 3 paragraphs of text.

I guess it does kinda look closer to a wedding dress xD.

It does look like a wedding dress.

[alix28]

Yeah, it's definitely got wedding dress vibes haha, but it's still really cool to see! And I can see all those artists styles in yours, but it's still really unique. It's cool to see!

[daceronine]

Thanks @mitsuki-youko @patrycja.lerch @alix28 and everyone else stopping by!

@patrycja.lerch Yes! the 180 rule, that's what I was thinking off. Granted I don't have like a checklist of the overall rules and i'm sure I break some frequently, but for the most part it's good to know of them.

Kinda rushed this update a bit, I'll be heading out to a ranch tomorrow, and probably stay there over the weekend, then come back only to head out directly to work for all of next week, so it'll probably be a while before I get to upload another update.

It'll be good for a change of scenery, though I won't get to advance much for the next days.

Term 4

So I asked around in various places and the votes for Sari's dress colors came out as follows:

I plan to do a color piece with her, so that settles the base palette. Though I did't include my vote, the 4 one was actually my prefered one as well!

Moving on to the next exercice, it says " Study (copy) 3 environment drawings from professional artists/shows/games you like (lineart + simple coloring)"

Environments and BG are not quite my thing, not because I dislike it, it's just because they take so long to do properly.

Though it says "study (copy)", I figured I would use the oportunity to create some environment bases for the 2 remaining chapters of Nozomu.

First is the Red Fang's lair, Big Red's main office/room. Since Big Red is partially inspired by the penguin from batman, and I love the Arkham games (been playing a lot of Arkham knight lately), figured I would use the penguin's lair as a study base.

Not sure who the artist is, but the Arkham series has some of the best environments I've seen in games. They drip atmosphere through every pore.

Changing a few things here and there, but sticking to the main design.

Still very much a work in progress, need to clean up and work on the lineart further and look into the color schemes.

Also did a very quick color test, but still need to work a lot more in the whole thing.

As I mentioned, I am basing it in the orignal arkham concept art, but adjusting the scheme and some stuff here and there to fit it into the world of Nozomu. Color wise, I'm lighthing the room a bit more and switching to a more brown/red palette, but still keeping similar focus points and structure.

About 4:30 hours so far. These env pieces just take me too much from me for now Maybe I'll eventually get better at it.

However, as an exercice, it definetly helps a lot to make these studies. It forces me to look into the detail of an environment, the placement of objects and how lighting affects the mood and the scene. Even how it will work story wise with the window into the warehouse, the torture chair, the main workdesk lighting. I really enjoyed it. It just takes time.

Manga

One more page done! just one more and I'm done with this chapter. A shame it will have to wait until next week. Not to mention there's still translation work and cover pending.

1) Really tried to put a bit of extra attention to that first frame. I'm sure this will be a happy memory for Seki. The moon light glow giving it a bit of a dreamy feel. This pretty much closes the chapter for these two for now, so I felt it was a nice happy way to end it.

2) I actually rewrote this page like 3 times. Some of it moved to the next page, some of it was discarded as it was just too cheesy. In the end I reverted back to the original script and tried to keep it simple.

3) Funny note, the sky has been getting progressively stary, which is partially intentional as the glow of the party is left behind. I also felt the silhouette of the characters was getting lost in the night sky, so at one point I added a white outline to them, but it was too distracting. Then a gray one. But overall it was inconsistent with the previous pages, so I lowered the opacity of the sky instead and added the soft light from the party room.

I think that's it for now! I'll take a few days off the arts to go to the ranch and take care of other business. I'm sure I'll be back at some point next week.

Have a good one everyone. Best wishes to you all, cheers!

[mitsuki-youko]

eyy these look great! the enviro one looks awesome!! great manga page as always! and ooh the other girl is approaching. dis gonna be a love triangle?! XD

have fun at the ranch!

[daceronine]

Thanks a lot!!

Just got back, it was quite the experience. I called it ranch, but it's really just a property out in the desert in the north of Mexico a family member needs help cleaning out, so off we went. It was quite heavy, this morning I could barely move my left hand. Luckily I draw with the right one so all's well. I also got to eat chicken with chile habanero and taquitos of chicarron.

and ooh the other girl is approaching. dis gonna be a love triangle?! XD

hehe, we'll have to wait and see what happens

cheers!

[JimSt]

I just wanted to say that I'm liking your comic pages you've posted over the last month. I loved this exchange in particular. The combo of "Yeah! That guy" with the pointing was perfect!

I would have voted for dress color #2.
Studies are looking great too!

[daceronine]

Thanks man! It's always reassuring to hear people enjoy the works. We'll keep at it!

[gregorya]

That's a great environment study. The reference looks very crowded and very detailed. I can see why it took such a long time.

3) Funny note, the sky has been getting progressively stary, which is partially intentional as the glow of the party is left behind. I also felt the silhouette of the characters was getting lost in the night sky, so at one point I added a white outline to them, but it was too distracting. Then a gray one. But overall it was inconsistent with the previous pages, so I lowered the opacity of the sky instead and added the soft light from the party room.

The soft light is a very nice choice. I think the outline would make it like they were celestial beings.

[Kaz_0]

Great work! The manga page has a nice atmosphere to it. It has that dreamy fell you mentioned. I feel similarly about BGs. I love to look at them but drawing them is another story