So here I am with my first art process blog. I posting this because I'm hoping in doing so I can formulate new avenues of approach and also allowing people to give me opinions on a better platform then DA. This way you and I can see the step by step way I execute my compositions without me having to reload and hope that someone notices the changes.
Anyway, the top portion was the finished line work for Luna Inverse, Lina Inverse's big sister in the Slayers universe. She is an enigma of a character that I have taken a great fascination with. She and I connected on some level, mostly because as personality and situations go we have a lot in common. She's militant, I'm militant. She's a waitress, I'm a waitress. She's the oldest, I'm the oldest. She's scary, I'm scary. I swear it's creepy. Except I would NEVER wear that GOD AWFUL pink thing she's wearing. Ever. NEVER*.
*You know...unless I somehow managed to land myself an otaku boyfriend who was into that sort of thing... >.>
***ANYWAY***
I eventually finished the background characters as shown below. I believe Gourry and Dilgear (aka Spot) still need a little bit of work and I might tinker with Xellos a bit more just to give them some more life but we'll see. I don't want them to overpower Luna who is the exhibition in this piece.
I then laid out the first run with colors. Again, I think the pink she wears is just terrible. It's doesn't say "I'm the most powerful human in the world" at all BUT that's one of the reasons why I like this character so much. She's insane powerful (as my interpretation of her goes) and you would have never known by these colors. For her traveling outfit I mix some deep violet, teal (to compliment her hair) and silvers.
I am still trying to find my thing. My technique..something that is recognizable as mine, but I'm not sure how well that's working out. Granted, people know my style and the way I draw but not the way I color. I know I can do much better and I've been practicing, I promise. For the bottom preview, I started working more with different tools: Water, marker and blend. I like them all except the marker tool. For some reason I can't get them to reproduce the results I want that others seem to get. When I watch videos on SAI nobody talks about what tools and settings they use so I generally have to wing it. Lately I've just been watching the video and working towards my own results and I've gotta tell you, I've dabbled in just about everything, but I think it may be coming around. I think my use of colors will also improve once I figure it out.
And finally we move onto where I am now. I finished her skin, hair and boots and changed her top to white, following a little closer to her canon picture. I also adjusted the color of her boots just a touch. Another problem I tend to have is I think too far ahead with my work. I'm always trying to rush so taking my time and doing a good job is a recent phenom. There's another piece that has stark light behind my Troll hunter and that one is kicking my ass. It's not the detail I'm having problems with, it's lighting and color choices. So this is going to be a good test, but I'll tell ya'. I have about 4 pieces I haven't submitted because I had the expressed intention of coloring them but am hesitating.
I promise I'm working on it. I want to get better so the message I'm trying to convey in my stories will come across better. especially in my colored pieces.
~DJ~
