being busy

Well, I can make all kinds of excuses for not being able to update this blog, but there's one thing that explains it all:




early Christmas present by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART



or




handshake by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


Yeah... a new baby decided to drop by in the middle of Dec 2010 and was busy preparing and taking care of her lately.


Anyway, here are stuff I've created since the last update:

train by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


snow by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART



moment by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART




light bulb by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


and the latest:


dog by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

Illustration: Concept Art Practice 10

concept art practice 10 by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


Concept art practice.


What I did different this time was to not use default round brush but customized it to square shaped brush for eraser and brush.


Result was... it was not much different from a round brush.


I also tried to use more layers this time than before so I could play with layer effects. I used blur for motion or movement(don't know the exact translation for this) to add some movement to the illustration. However, doing too much seemed a bit distracting.

Anyway... I saw some improvement from my last painting I did for fun:


after I got this from my relative (shitake) :p




I started off with white base color, and that made the illustration a bit blurry. As a result, I used black from the start for my recent illustration, and it showed some improvement. Hopefully, I could improve more on the way.



IllustStudio
Photoshop CS3
2-3days (actually worked on this for a few hours over those days)

Wallpaper: flowers

Before the wallpaper (for personal usage only), sunrise I took this morning with a mobile phone:



and wallpaper:

flowers by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

I combined the wire frame and render I made with global illumination in Photoshop.

This is the first time I created stuff from polygons and painted directly on 3D CG using the Body Paint function in Cinema 4D. Hopefully, I improved a bit in my 3D CG skills.


Cinema 4D R11 studio
Photoshop CS3
~3nights（1 hour of rendering(Global Illumination)）

A practice similar to this I did a few nights ago:


For this one, I didn't make from polygons but just changed the shape of a rectangular cube.

Silence by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

Wallpaper version is here:
http://Waterdroplet-s.deviantart.com/art/Wallpaper-pack-silence-147044281

1920X1200 pixel
1600X1200 pixel
available for download for personal usage only



Cinema 4D R11 studio
Comic Studio Ex 4
IllustStudio 1.0.10
Photoshop CS3
~1 month

Wallpaper: Yakizakana (Broiled fish)

Wallpaper: Yakizakana by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART



This was for my best friend's birthday.

hahahahaha （＾皿＾）



You can download it 1920X1200 pixel size (for personal usage only).

It's never served like this on an expensive Japanese lacquerware with shell pieces (ragan, 螺鈿) and gold foil.


But, I think it's the yummiest fish of all.


Although it looks like a sardine, it's Pacific Saury.



WIP:




I didn't use any external textures. I painted them all :D


IllustStudio 1.0.10
4 nights

News + photos + images

Since last Fri or sometime around then, my photo I took before I was stuck at home for a week due to flu,

Okayama by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

has been featured in the main page of loftwork website, a Japanese website that has more than 13000 creators of different genre. It will be posted there for ~ a week- so it will end probably this Fri or Sat.


Thank you very much for the feature!


This is the first time I had my photograph featured in a Japanese website. I had manga and illustrations featured before in other Japanese/international sites, and photograph/illustrations occasionally in individual deviantART news. So I'm happy :D



And... one more great news is that my collab partner got back to me over last weekend- so it will finish within a few weeks probably. We were working on it between our free time between our busy schedules, so it took long- since May. However, the illustration theme is set for winter so I think it's perfect timing... perhaps a bit early.


Following are photos I took over last weekend in Kobe and Kinosaki. I took all of them with a mobile phone, mostly with a new function I discovered over the weekend, so they are weird in some areas:

This is Herb Garden on top of a mountain near 三宮　Sannomiya, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Since it's a bit off season, there were mostly leaves... not much flowers other than two-three types. So, enjoyed the view while munching on a lavendar soft-serve (ソフトクリーム）.

Front:
Back:

Somewhere mid-way:

Tried to take a shot diagonally:

Ate the soft-serve and went back home:

On the next day- Sunday- I went with a friend to Kinosaki 城崎 for a ride after a bit of important meeting (nothing related to art) :D

Kinosaki is in Hyogo Prefecture but on Sea of Japan side- so I guess my weekend was spent moving around places for over 300 km. Probably with train rides and all- covered 400 km.

Since I had to swing myself around 180 degrees to take previous photos, I decided to take the easy way- by taking a photo while my friend was driving.

Result:

Gaaaaaaah!!

And... a town next to Kinosaki (forgot its name):

nice sunset in a town close to Sea of Japan.

Anyway... I'm currently working on series of wallpapers. Manga needs slight fixing since I'm trying to condense the story into a fewer pages as possible. In meanwhile, wallpaper I'm working on is based on a little survey I put out a week ago, asking people in deviantART about what genre they prefer in wallpapers. I will try to improve the composition on the way.

This is the result:


Thank you very much for answering my survey! :D


Ok... so my purpose of doing this is that I could determine which genre I should start on for series of wallpapers I'm planning to create so I could practice in an organized matter. Since I randomly pick topics often, I wanted to create something that's according to a set schedule. I am currently making wallpapers with genres that had greatest number of answers to least.

Therefore, the current topic I'm working on is fantasy, and I must say I faced a bit of an art block for a week. I would create an illustration and botch it in two days of working on it. So... the first one that I botched was this:

How it looked like in Photoshop:



I used two vanishing points for this one (although I drew a third here but didn't use) then... I began to not see the difference between fantasy and Sci-Fi genre in this sort of drawing. In addition, it looked like something a pre-schooler could draw. So... I botched it.


I had two other drawings I started and then botched. The second one was a bit of Japanese themed fantasy- then botched it since it looked flat. Then, the third one was space drawing. I might use that later but not for these wallpapers probably.

Did a bit of 3D CG practice to get my mind off:

Created this in Photoshop:
and used alpha in the material setting to get this effect:

There are many ways of cutting models- Boolean and by clicking one surface one by one- but I think this was the best method to get windows for the building.

I think I will incorporate this skill in the future.

Then, yesterday... I finally got what I wanted for the wallpaper.

I finally settled on something from Aesop's fable, The Honest Woodcutter.

Following are wips:

DAY 1
First, I doodled in SAI, thinking that it would be a 1920X1200 pixel wallpaper:

I meant it to be a guy looking out from a space between buildings or walls- to a bunch of jellyfish or something floating in the space.

SAI had too small brush so I switched to Photoshop and colored in "walls":


Yeah... then I thought it was a crappy idea since it was similar to lines of:

The World of bits 2 by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART
I worked on the beginning of this year, and

Wallpaper: Night flower by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

a wallpaper I worked on a few weeks ago.


So... I decided to use a different approach by making the bottom right side as water related place:




I've done stuff on shores looking out to water but not this angle so I thought it was suited for this time. Then, it was sort of boring just having a guy and water so I added a nymph, goddess or something from Aesop's fable:



Honest Woodcutter- was it?

Then, started coloring:



I'm planning to not do this in a oil painting style but in lines of semi-realism like:

Room by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

To be continued~

3D CG+digital painting: gone fishing

Oops! I forgot to post it here.



gone fishing by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

It's whole view


Cinema 4D R11 studio (modeling: 1-2 hrs, rendering: 53min)
SAI
Photoshop CS3
2-3 nights

Doodle: stairs (3D CG+digital painting)

stairs by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


Only the brown part is 3D CG. Other parts (including green stuff) are digital painting done in SAI or Photoshop. Since this was a concept art practice, I used 1/3 composition rule or whatever it is called.

Since my last 3D CG as front, digital painting in the back illustration did not go well, I did a bit tweaking on the texture of 3D CG. Since it was kinda boring with just a brown muck, I added plants, using reference from a forest photo from Yakushima Island, Japan.

I finished this early since there's a stuff I want to work on next, which I think is more interesting.


Photoshop CS3
SAI
Cinema 4D R11 studio

4-5 evenings

Doodle: City sleeps

city sleeps by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

My latest concept art attempt turned into painting.


Wanted to make it interesting to look at. Use a lot of black but not too dark or quiet. :p

Corel Painter X
Photoshop CS2

4 (probably 3) nights

Doodle: Room (Sci-fi themed)

Finished the doodle at day IV.


Room by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


It's progress in nutshell:

Room- Progress by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


SAI
Photoshop CS2
commercial stock photos (marble, rust) (Sozai Jiten)

DAY 2

I added slightly more details today:

After I went out drinking with friends and came back (slightly tipsy but... decided to paint slightly more):

I added more colors to skin with water color and added more details and etc. with acrylic. I'm working mostly in that acrylic brush with this piece of work.


Anyway... sleepy now so off to sleep.

to be continued...

Doodle: ROOM - SF styled painting (DAY 1)

This is the latest doodle I'm doing in an attempt to do SF style since it didn't work the last time :p

This is the DAY 1 steps I made- from a basic sketch to simple coloring yesterday. I will do more later.

Ok... so I will use SAI this time since I'm on Windows Vista. This could be done in Photoshop or Painter but... since I need to practice SAI I got last week, I will use this.

Brushes I used in this:

Pencil

Eraser

Acrylic (for thick ones)

Water color (for light shade)

Blur (? I'm not sure what it is exactly called in English version since mine is original Japanese one)

I did a basic sketch of the scene and made rough outline with acrylic brush. During these processes, I am constantly changing the brush settings- mainly thickness of the color (opacity?), how much water there is in the brush, and sometimes, brush tips to default to 丸筆 or round brush. Every single time there's image in this entry, please think that I created a new layer.

Now... shading. I used mainly water color brush + blur
More details and shadows with acrylic brush, with thicker black color:

slightly more detail with acrylic brush, white this time:

Now, start the coloring. First, skin with water color:

Now some hair and shirt...

More colors

And... this is where I passed out last night. Off to sleep

will be continued... perhaps on Sun since I will be drinking out Fri and Sat nights with friends :p

SAI

a few hours

Illustration: .S.A.K.ura.

.S.A.K.ura. by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

since the file became >100mb, can't work on it anymore. I made this since I wanted to do some hardcore painting for change though fully digital.

This was meant to be a normal street scene and as I was playing with bokeh concept, it became 桜(sakura- cherry in Japanese). So, I changed the fellah's shirt to make it look slightly Japanese-ish. Or intended to.


Softwares used:
Comic Studio Ex 4.0
Photoshop CS2/3
Corel Painter X

Time it took:
3 days

Doodle

pieces by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART


another water coloring practice


Once done with the next manga page, I think I will restart working on a contest submission materials (manga).
...


Oi... I better draw an illustration for the monthly gallery coming up...

Another doodle

Waiting by =Waterdroplet-s on deviantART

to practice digital water coloring and typography


Softwares Used:
Comic Studio Ex 4.0
Photoshop CS2
Corel Painter X

Time it took:
6 hours


Now... off to do manga tonight.

A photo of Mt. Fuji on the way home from vacation:

Gaaah!

Couldn't paint properly last night. I did two types and erased completely two times since I couldn't find the right color of the image I have in my mind.


I guess my ability to do oil painting (well, CG this time though) has slacked off over the years. Gaaaaah!


Anyway, I finally got it so I will try to restart it again tonight or tomorrow.