Morecado's Artblog & Stuff

[morecado]

Feeling very concept artist-y today as I used Blender to help create the room for my character to be in. While I don't find it too difficult to just draw it, it most certainly can get tedious very quickly.

My Blender skills are a$$ for now. I used to do a bit of Maya in the past, so I'm not completely lost. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like everything translates directly between the two and some learning is required.

This piece is one that's been on my to-do list for a while now, as it's a directly connected to one I previously made a couple of days ago.

[morecado]

Progress has been made.
Didn't think it'd take so much time just creating a bunch of clutter.

Right now, there doesn't seem to be anything that guides the eyes.
It's just a lot of stuff, without "direction".

I'm thinking, maybe I could add some cables going across the floor to help lead the eyes and then maybe some papers that fell down from the table?
Those would then help carry the eyes up across the floor and up on the table.

Also, I just realized that I could (and totally should) put an old unrelated artwork of mine on the screen next to him. It'd be a fun little throwback for myself.

[morecado]

Study of dark skin tone.
A lot left to practice though.
Not having drawn or painted much of it for the majority of my artistic journey does result in a lot of catching up to do.

[morecado]

Another study. This time of back muscles.
I don't know why I went with orange rimlight. I don't like it at all.
Too lazy to change it - besides, it's just a practice piece anyways.

[morecado]

I hit 500 followers on IG.
Took me 4 years to go from 100 to 500, so I decided to do a similar celebration piece.
The old one was also of my OC Setsuna. Both me and her have come a long way since.

Cubebrush played a big part in this growth.
I know you're watching my stuff.
Don't be shy - say hi! 😈

Nah, but for real though...
The recent shoutouts/features on their social media platforms were something I didn't expect. I'm extremely flattered and happy that they thought my art was worth sharing.
Thank you for that!

[morecado]

I'm starting to get pretty comfortable with her design and how I think she'd move and pose. I suppose I'm starting to really understand her character that is.

The sleeves aren't too bad when hanging down, but I've never drawn fabric like this before. I wanted it to look like a light material, kind of like those uhh Victorian blouses for men? I think that's the one, not sure though.

Think of the loose shirt that Orlando Bloom wore in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Something like that, but preferably more see-through. I need more practice and studies before I can make it work.

Anyways, it felt like it had been a while since I did a full render portrait, so I did one.

[morecado]

I got a comment on IG asking about how my low follower count. Since I believe part of it is that I don't draw as much fanart as other artists might, I drew this as a joke.

It was strangely well recieved (fanart does that I guess) and since I actually like the design of Eula from Genshin Impact, I decided to do it again, but take it more seriously. Still, it's but a sketch.

Which brings us to present time.

I've adjusted the pose a little, done much finer lineart than usual, done my gradient mapped AO pass and put down my flat colors. The light direction has also been set up... to some degree.

Once again, the chosen process is one I haven't done much of, if at all. Given how controlled it is, the foundation for the render stage is really solid. That said, I will of course spend most of my time in the render stage and hope it solves every single issue I might have/find with this piece. It usually does.

[cedricgo]

Wow! So much cool stuff in here! I really like all you've posted and I hope to see more in the future. Keep up the great work

[morecado]

@cedricgo Thanks a lot man!!

[morecado]

Progress on the Eula piece so far:

• Background isn't all that fancy, since I plan on adding in effects that probably will cover lots.
• Skin needs more reds. Looking a bit too mustard-y for my taste right now.
• Cape-scarf-thing needs to be changed.
• Sleeves needs more details.
• Chest and shoulder decorations need to be added.
• Everything else needs to be rendered until target level of detail has been reached.

The process is starting to feel like a hodgepodge of the one Marc Brunet shows on his YouTube channel, Sakimi-chan's and my own. There are plenty of moments where each of them get to shine individually, but I'm not really feeling any noteworthy synergy between them.

The early phase when I sketched and put in rough colors/light/AO was totally Marc's, the rendering method of choice is my own and the heavy usage of masks and drastic changes at any given time - more or less what you'd find in Sakimi-chan's early tutorial content.

There's so much detail I can barely tell if I'm making any progress or not, unless I actively check an older version of the file

[cedricgo]

I think it's coming along pretty nicely. There's definitely good progress since the last update. It's going to be really cool once it's done. I mean it already looks cool

[morecado]

Update on the Eula piece!
I'm like 80-90% done, with the last 10% being the effects I have yet to add in.

Since last time, It's been rendering and refining the details.
Turns out her hair was more pale grey than what I had, so tweaking that extended the work somewhat.

I think the only things left are to just give the hair and face a final pass to make sure they look better than everything else (it's the focal point after all). The tie also needs some work to give the golden bits some three-dimensionality, but it should be a quick fix.

After that I'll give it a final pass to check for artifacts (Genshin pun unintended) and ugly edges.

Top that off with the adjustment layer passes and cool effects and we are good to go.
(I'm making that sound easy, but it's probably not going to be the cakewalk I expect it to be).

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I think it's coming along pretty nicely. There's definitely good progress since the last update. It's going to be really cool once it's done. I mean it already looks cool

@cedricgo Appreciate the support! So close to the end now

[morecado]

And so that concludes this chapter.
Eula is complete.
Eula did not come how in-game, so this is now my mourning piece. (jk)

The FX did not take long at all to finish and since I've gotten a bit better att choosing my colors and values to begin with, not much was needed to adjust. I still did adjust it a bit though.

By the end I felt like I started to get into shape. My process improved and I stopped worrying about stuff that got a little painterly - which is what I wanted in the first place.

As cliché as it may sounds, I believe I need better brushes. At the very least an improved "main" brush. The one I use now is just an oval one I made for myself in the past, but it sometimes leaves edges where I don't want them.

I don't think the super rendered look that artist like Sakimi-chan uses is for me. Painterly and a bit messier allows for more breathing room and "happy accidents". That's something I much rather would work with.

What's next?
- More sketches and rougher work most likely.
- There was a piece I started working on in which my OC Grith was tinkering with some tech in his room. That one is the next "big one" for me.

[cedricgo]

Looks great! It's cool that you learned a few things about your workflow and things you want to do thanks to working on it. I look forward to see what you'll come up with next

[morecado]

I got sick around the time of the previous post.
Because of that I had to focus my now reduced energy on work only and leave the personal grind for later. With that out of the way, here's what's new:

During work I ended up developing a new process/workflow for quickly sketching and coloring to bring ideas to life. This method heavily relies on masks and the lasso tool to systematically block out colors as fast as possible.

The end result is rather rough around the edges (although the edges themselves are crisp af), but it does such a great job at "getting to the point". If I want to, I can then take it further than this or leave as is - in this case I'm already satisfied with it.

Sidenote, I saw my OC for the second time at the Cubebrush Instagram/Twitter. I'm happy that's what they chose to share and how well it was recieved, as tend to use my own personality traits as a foundation for the OCs I make. This results in them being hold a greater personal value to me than any of my other works. Thanks for helping me share it with the world!

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Looks great! It's cool that you learned a few things about your workflow and things you want to do thanks to working on it. I look forward to see what you'll come up with next

@cedricgo I have a hard time settling for one set process. I tend to have some methods I favor and enjoy using, but not really a set workflow that goes all the way from start to finish. Constantly trying out new ways has become part of my daily routine from an artistic standpoint!
Once again glad to have you around!

[cedricgo]

That last illustration is pretty cool! A bit of a different style than your other art, but still very nice. I love the ambience and the contrast of colors between the blues and oranges.

And I can relate with what you said about not necessarely having one process. I am a bit all over the place too in terms of technique and I have a hard time staying with only one approach, whether it's with traditional or digital mediums. NIce to see someone else like that

[morecado]

Haven't done much painting/drawing for myself as of lately, so here's a DITYS that I found on Twitter.

I was working on a project where the client asked for a lot more out of nowhere and on top of that they were entering crunch... This led to a pretty intense weekend of work, but I'd like to think I did well.

Unfortunately, I am not allowed to post the work I have done for them in my portfolio, even when the product is out (as is the case with one thing that's already out and done). This kind of stinks and I'm not sure if it's fine or not to just mention what I did.

Anyways, back to what I started with. Once all that work was done, I saw this DITYS by @inesmbravo on Twitter [link] and decided to spend my free time on it.

One of the main challenges for me was to not stress over details that weren't in her face or on her chest. As that would most likely be the area where your eyes start, everything else could be a little messier with more noticeable brushstrokes. I say that, but she's pretty evenly rendered throughout.

The biggest success with this one was the jacket. It's a bit poofier than the one Inês originally drew and it's full of visible and confident brush marks. I used the combo of "large confident brushstroke + smudge tool" a lot on this piece and it's really helped me prevent me from overrendering.

[truemakar]

All great stuff! Keep it up!

[morecado]

It got really hot all of a sudden (summer snuck up on me), which made it really difficult to sit down and draw on my computer. The heat from outside, paired with the furnace that is my computer during summer...

Anyways, now that it finally cooled down a little I updated one of my OCs - Pam.
She previously was more of a petite thing, with little to no story being conveyed through her outfit. It no longer fit what I want her to be, so it was time for a change.

The more tactical and androgynous look of the new version is way more in line with how I see her. While she keeps her two guns, she's meant to be a very capable sniper - hence the shift from coat to cloak.

Since I chose not to paint/render her as much as before, she does feel a bit lacking... for now. I'm certain I'll be giving her a dedicated illustration soon enough.

Btw, she's meant to be rather short. She feels a bit taller in the new version, but she's most certainly like 160 - 170cm tall (5'2 - 5'5 ish).

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All great stuff! Keep it up!

@truemakar Appreciated! Thanks for stopping by!

[morecado]

It's been a while.
Over a month to be precise.

Work, a one week vacation and the release of the Inazuma region in Genshin Impact are the main reasons as to why I've not really done any art for myself. Sure, I did a lot of cool art for work, but that wasn't really for myself, nor am I allowed to show it - so I might as well just say that I didn't make any new art since last month.

I saw this template on Twitter (by @GurepyonArt) and was really intrigued by it. From my point of view, successfully filling this out would help me solidfy more of my characters' personalities (and to some degree their artistic capabilities).
"How would they choose to portray themselves?"
"What techniques would they use?"
"How good is theyr technical skill?"

Overall I found it to be a success. If you want to look into it, some of the character interactions can be seen:

• Setsuna and Bii grew up together, so it's likely that they drew a lot during that time and learned from each other.
• Jarnhand tried to draw like Seraphelle, but his version is much more blocky and rough compared to her rounded shapes, which does reflect some of their personality traits.
• Grith is quite skilled at drawing from life, since he has a lot of experience from drawing blueprints for his gadgets.
• Pam's entire personality is on display, being the grumpy and edgy kid of the group.
• Lastly, the oldest 3 characters used colors in their drawings, and the youngest 3 didn't. Perhaps it is a reflection of how they view the world, with the older ones recognizing it as being more nuanced - as opposed to the much more straight forward worldview of the younger characters.

Anyways, it's just a for-fun piece. Doesn't need to be that deep.
There's a lot of work coming in, so it might take a while until I get the opportunity to draw for myself again.