DaCeronNine - Art School Journey

[daceronine]

Wew, been busy and tired, but generally all good.

I think there was some good progress this week.

Term 4

10 more feet! I'm finally done with this. I'm also still a bit sick, but I'm heeling well.
It felt like this exercice dragged it's feet near the end, but it's still a step in the right direction!

Based on feedback from @snakker, I also reviewed the pose and lower body of "Lance".

I basically took a photo of myself in the same pose and the legs aligned pretty well despite the position of the pelvis being at a slight different angle. Not like I was trying to force the pose eihter, I think it's just because of how legs rotate. There were some adjustments to do, mainly on size and shading, and I did adjust the position of the calves slightly. Changes are subtle though.

Also if anyone can think of a good name for "Lance", I'd be grateful.

Personality wise he's the "perfect pretty boy that protects others", he's trying to hold up to the high expectations from his family and legacy, but feels he falls short at different areas despite being pretty much perfect on most aspects (has a bit of low self-esteem). His path eventually crosses with Seki and the others in his pursuit of self-improvement (turning around the heads of the girls).

I just called him "Lance" on a whim thinking of "Lancelot", but he probably needs a better name. I'm thinking "Julius", though still need to think of the family name and a proper first name.

Next is... "Study (copy) the full body anatomy of 10 characters from professional artists/shows/games you like (references ideas: Capcom concept art, Marvel/DC comics, fighting manga, fighting game concept art)" That's gona take a while since I like to practice rendering along with it, but it's also a pretty great learning experience.

Manga

I was humbled by the feedback of the draft, really pumped me up to get going!

Page 1 of 14 from Chapter 31. Because of the fanservicy content, I ended up adding a bit of preemptive censoring that will undoubly be needed before I eventually publish it.

Censored and Uncensored versions below.

1) Other than the obvious fanservice part of this page, the idea is that Iris is taking a look at her "true naked" self. Tilts her head to the left to show the sad part, tilt to the right to show the happy part, and then straight forward combining both, along with the text to indicate she is conflicted but in the end does what she thinks is best, facing it with a smile despite how it feels, setting the mood for her for the rest of the chapter.

2) Learned a bit about onomatopeyas, too much to compile here, but one main point was that onomatopeyas usually feel better when they are "textured" of the same material of what's making the noise and follow the flow along the object making the noise. There's a lot more to it, but for now I tried to apply some of these lessons here. The "Scrnn" sound of the seat moving is also meant to pull the eyes to the right, since without it it seemed like the eyes simply went up down and skipped the overlaid frame on the right.

3) Playing a bit more with textures as well to prevent the page from feeling "flat white" while still not being overwhelming. Also continuing to try to push that framing to the edge.

As I thought about the work for the following pages, though I do have in mind the look for Iris and Sari as well as the bedroom, I figured I needed a reference for the different values / mood and designs. So that's what I did.

As usual, the designs are fairly simple so drawing them again and again doesn't become too much of a burden. You can also notice some of the more subtle differences between Iris and Sari here. Iris in general is slightly bigger than Sari, even though she's only one year older. Sari is also a bit more conservative and modest, and still likes to carry around her teddy bear to sleep with. There's quite a bit of psychology behind some of these nuances, but we'll save that for another time.

Wew, I'll probably take a bit of rest for now. It's been a heavy week and there's still a lot more to do over the weekend.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read some of my babbling. Have a great weekend!

[mitsuki-youko]

Eyy noice! I feel like i get to fastpass your manga here XDDD

The designs look great!

Lance looks like a.. (random name ideas, that i thought of when looking at him, below lol)

• Ace
• Blue
• Cal
• Demi
• Echo
• Falok
• Gaz
• Hak
• Ian
• Jam
• Kaz
• Lima
• Maven
• Nova
• Oz
• Puma
• Qil
• Ruka
• Soren
• Tep
• Uesop
• Voll
• Woz
• Xan (however you even pronounce that XD)
• Yaz
• Zack

My personal fav is Soren or Maven tho but hopefully that gave u some inspiration for some names

[daceronine]

Wooo, thx! Truth is I was very shy about sharing my manga works before, but thx to your feedback and everyone else I feel more confident about sharing the work in progress and have since learned that by sharing and getting early feedback I can improve it for the better!

I like the name Soren from that list! And a quick google search shows that except for a fire emblem character, it's not too widely used. It also means "sever, strict, serious", which applies fairly well to the character. Though I still like the sound of "Julius", I think I have an idea to accomodate both.

Still thinking about the last name, following the theme of conjunctions of different words, the first thing that came to mind is "braveshield" or "Stoneheart" (which ties a bit to his relationship with Iris). There's also a long list of medieval last names like:

• Hawthorne
• Oakshield (which also ties in with Sari Oaks)
• Guinevere
• Pendragon (chief dragon)
• Wulfric (Wolf power)
• Lancelot (first thing that came to mind, means servant)

There's still time, so we can keep brainstorming. At least now it's getting somewhere.

[patrycja.lerch]

I'm thinking "Julius", though still need to think of the family name and a proper first name.

I am stuck on naming my pretty perfect boy as well. Funny I also had Julius on the list
Soren sounds nice

@mitsuki-youko thanks for the ideas

Iris looking at mirror hit too close. I felt it

Designs look great

[snakker]

That's awesome work, and that's really cool, using self reference for the pose

cheers

[daceronine]

@patrycja.lerch Thanks! Aye, I think many of us when going through rough stuff tend to do some self-reflection while showering, which is why I felt it proper to include it like this. For japanese culture, I believe it goes even further, and they consider bathing a time to cleanse the body and soul, hence why it's more common to use tubes vs the west where it's mostly showers.

@snakker Thanks! I used to be hesistant about doing it this way (taking photos for construction), but after seeing how much it helps it has become a bit of a habit. For some simple stuff i'm fine with basic construction from imagination (standing, 3/4, extended hands), but for more complex poses I'll do it quite frequently. I didn't initially do it for Lance, but doing it later to confirm the pose and legs really helped.

Had a busy but nice weekend. Still had work to do, but also had time to do some progress in the arts side.

Term 4

1 of 10, "Study (copy) the full body anatomy of 10 characters from professional artists/shows/games you like"

I always loved the designs of the Darkstalkers, to me they are some of the best I've seen. Later with other games Capcom redesigned most of the cast to be more... normal I guess? They slimmed down Dimitri, simplified some other characters and what not, but for me the original designs are still the best.

So we started this with Demitri Maximoff. I've always found his exaggerated body and demeanor very cautivating, a buffed up Dracula ready for battle, oozing with power and energy. I've sketched him before but this is the first time I really try to study and copy him.

Reference:

Study:

I tried to change rendering a bit while still staying true to what I saw in the original piece. his geometrical structure was really fun to work with. I really like how it turned out.

Manga

One more page done! pg 2 of 14 of Chap 31!

1) The BG on the first frame is actually from a past Term 4 exercice I did, pretty much with this chapter and page in mind, so it was easy to slide it in and reuse it. Speaking of BGs, last frame BG was done with the usual "slap tones together to simulate and environment, blur it, done". It works well if the scene was already detailed in a previous frame and is not the center of the current frame. Gives the illusion of BG without actually doing it proper.

2) Closer look at Elizabeth's potrait:

Not as refined as an actual potrait, but good enough for what we needed it. She's based of Karin from Street Fighter, I think the resemblance will be evident to those who know her. She's a minor side character, but since her potrait appeared on this page, figured I would do a drawing of her.

She's this guy's daughter.

Becuase he has a daughter himself from his late wife, he's actually sympatheic towards Iris and Sari. Tries to not show favoritism, but helps them as possible. He actually helped Sari's father get Sari enrolled in the university, since that's where his daugther is studying as well and has some pull with the council.

3) Adjusted Iris design, since the nightgown sticking to the hips looked kinda weird, so I looked at some references and loosed it a bit. Also adjusted the top part based on some feedback.

4) These 2 first pages are probably going to be the more detailed ones from the bunch, since they establish the setting and mood, and following pages are mostly just conversation shots.

That's all for now! As always any and all feedback is welcome!

Time to get back to work. Have a great week everyone!

[gregorya]

Nice page of the manga. I'm okay with both versions.
The sleepwear of Iris and Sari looks cute. Also, a good idea to use your environment studies for your work for the next page. The portrait looks good as well.

[mitsuki-youko]

Becuase he has a daughter himself from his late wife, he's actually sympatheic towards Iris and Sari. Tries to not show favoritism, but helps them as possible. He actually helped Sari's father get Sari enrolled in the university, since that's where his daugther is studying as well and has some pull with the council

Aw that's sweet!

I feel like rooms should have a "s" here...

Portrait looks awesome

also.. Buff dracula XD didnt know that was a thing lmao

[daceronine]

Thanks @gregorya @mitsuki-youko !!

@mitsuki-youko honestly not sure if it's room or rooms, my thought was saying "three of my rooms" gave the impression she has 3 rooms, when she's trying to say her room is 1/3 of this one. It does kinda sound weird though, I might change the expression a bit.

Darkstalkers in general was pretty famous around the 90s, the anime was great for it's time. Pretty much all classic monsters on steroids going at each other. Most people probably only know Morrigan since she gets inserted in almost everything Capcom touches.

[uggievang]

Nice study I always love looking at pictures and now being able to understand the anatomy and how the artist draws characters in their own way while applying anatomy. I mean I know artist always did that but since I learned anatomy my understanding and appreciation for getting this class and taking this art journey has made it feel worth it.

[patrycja.lerch]

Great work! Portrait looks really good

[daceronine]

Thanks @uggievang @patrycja.lerch!

Yep, I also really appreciated these anatomy lessons. I also had a superficial understanding of some anatomy parts, but seeing all the main important muscles to draw, and more importantly, how to further that understanding from references, has helped a lot.

[mitsuki-youko]

my thought was saying "three of my rooms" gave the impression she has 3 rooms, when she's trying to say her room is 1/3 of this one. It does kinda sound weird though, I might change the

lets see..... the sun is x times the size of the earth...

this room is 3x the size of my room? XD idk

[daceronine]

Did a little change, I think it reads better now xD

Thanks for the feedback!

[mitsuki-youko]

noice, only thing i'd change is to have it say: "it's at least three times the size of my room"

[daceronine]

Oy, true, that makes sense. I'll adjust it

[daceronine]

Haha, I've been procrastinating too much work and stealing time to do arts xD I'll have to catch up with work eventually, probably over the weekend, but for now we got to do some good progress!

Term 4

Continuing with the darkstalkers theme, I guess the obvious choice for female would be Morrigan, but personally I like Felicia a whole lot more.

I'm sure the fact that I have about 7 cats is mere coincidence (all rescues).

Reference:

Study:

As you may have noticed, I like to shake things up even if it's a copy study. Still trying to keep faithful to the reference's main points, but trying to spice things up as possible.

There are some interesting subtle details in the drawing I noticed as I worked on it. For example I couldn't quite capture the twist of the torso completly, and there are some slight indientions around the hips to indicate the location of the pelvis. I think it's those small details that really set these pro artists apart.

In this case I chose to change her color palette to another one I liked more from the games, and used her pixelated stage from the game as well. Also trying to test out different things with rendering, such as shading and lineart.

Though I do really like how it turned out, I do feel there's a certain "blurriness" or "mudiness" to the shading in some parts (like part of the hair or legs) I could improve further. The tail was a bit deformed, but noticed too late to change it. Need to keep moving ahead though, so wrapping up this one and moving to the next item in the queue.

Manga

One more page complete!

1) I saw the oportunity for the cliche anime boob joke, and I took it.

2) This page is what I call a "transition" page, not much going on, but still important for flow and pacing, as well as throwing in a few information nuggets.

3) BGs are fairly simple, the focus is shifting to the conversation, so BGs are just blurred pieces to give the illusion of setting.

4) Also worth noting framing like this would have seem complicated to past me, but after learning and experimenting with how frames work for a while now, I'm fairly happy with how I can move, shift and cut frames and bubbles around as desired. It helps keep a simple conversation a bit more interesting as well as assist directing the eyes through the page.

I'll bite my toungue from elaborating further, we'll keep it at that for now.

Need to go back to work. Welp, it is what it is. Many thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend!!!

[patrycja.lerch]

Great work! I like the color change on study

I'm sure the fact that I have about 7 cats is mere coincidence (all rescues).

Aww I love seeing them at the end of Nozomu chapters

Manga is great as always! Expressions came out really good

[daceronine]

Haha, thx! was wondering if people took notice of those pictures xD Always fun to select which ones to show.

[gregorya]

Great work on the new page and the Felicia study. It looks like a palette swap that could be in a game.