Saturday, July 29, 2023

Professional Lover (プロ愛人)


"As a professional in the art of young love... Allow me to teach you all of its ways."

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MacRoich's summer variant came home to me. ✨ I promised myself I'd paint him if I ever did. Looking back, I was rather unsatisfied with my last attempt at painting him, so I wanted to do better on this painting.

This certainly... Exceeded my expectations.

The whole process of this was me attempting what I call the steak style (look I dunno the official name so bear with me, m'kay)🥩 This is an art style for characters that emphasize three main characteristics based on my own personal observations:
  • Bold line art for the character's outline, which become mere wisps and light brushstrokes when enhancing corners and contours;
  • The predominant use of shading with gray values instead of black line art when shaping muscles, coupled with an effective use of highlights; and,
  • Vibrant colors, at least, in a daytime setting.
I have been taking pages out of a friend's art style and this Twitter artist in order to accomplish this. Coupled with what I already know, this painting became the result of that potluck of styles. I love how the character just properly pops up with the background.

Starting out though, I didn't intend to really attempt to learn it because the last time I tried, I was left feeling more disheartened than anything. Somewhere in the middle of this painting I decided to give it another shot. A lot of trial and error was involved, and the result was worth the struggle. 🥰

I'm genuinely looking forward to all the art pieces I can now make using all the knowledge I learned out of this one. ✨

Sunday, July 16, 2023

Naka-Furano Summer (中富良野の夏)


"Lean back, my hero."

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Oh, boy. The summer is here, friends. Bring on all the sunny, summery art. 🌅✨

This is a piece that's been long overdue for a friend of mine. This was meant to be his birthday present, but I decided I would start on it after I went to Hokkaido so I can find some inspiration for the background. I went to Naka-Furano, a town renowned for its flower fields every summer. While it was unfortunate that the flowers weren't in season just yet at the time... I managed to get a good enough feel of the area and took several nice photos I eventually used as reference.

Next up from here ought to be that Summer Arc variant, but I can still put it off for one more project, or two... The summer is still quite long, after all. We really ought to take our time and just take it easy. 😎

Friday, July 7, 2023

Arc's Wardrobe (Part 1)


"Can we go home yet?"

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I heard some unscrupulous individuals were slandering my favorite enby for not being representative enough for the enby community... And one mentioned to me their lack of a colorful wardrobe. Neurons were activated, and thus this sketch sheet of them wearing different clothes came to be.

I have a bunch of other ideas for what possible outfits to give them, but I've decided to just post this for now, as I have another painting I simply must attend to, post-haste...

Monday, July 3, 2023

Sunset Kiss (夕暮れキス)


"Arc..."

"Yeah?"

"Kiss me... A little more."

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The fact that this took over two weeks to finish... 😩

This was delayed longer than it was intended, mainly from me backtracking on the painting techniques I applied on both characters. I attempted to try a new style with this painting, but I found myself going back to my current style by the end of it. I'll reattempt the new style again in a future piece, though, after some practice. 😋