In Winnipeg, there is an anime convention every summer called Ai-Kon. I've been going to it since 2005, and although I wouldn't really consider myself an anime fan anymore, I still really love going to the convention. It's a really fun environment, with a lot of really great people who are just as nerdy as I am.
In the past few years, partially due to my dwindling interest in the anime part of the convention, I have become one of the frequenting artists. By this I mean for.. I think three years straight now I've had my own art table with my own art to sell to the attendees.
On a related note, the convention also has a mascot, "Aiko". Each year they hold a contest for artists, where they draw Ai-Kon according to their very open guidelines (Pink hair, blue eyes, cheerful, family-friendly), and in recent years in accordance to the theme. First prize is a free full art table, free admission, and an Ai-Kon t-shirt (which has your art on it!). The two runner-ups get a free half table.
I have entered the contest twice now, with not much luck. But this year, I think I've got a real chance.
The 2013 theme is "warrior", which gave me immediate inspiration. The contest was only announced Sunday evening, but by the end of the next day, I had already finished my sketch, lineart, and most of my base colours.
Here's a bit of a walk-through of what I did.
I started with a sketch, done on PaintToolSai. I use this program primarily for my lineart, and occasionally for colour. I greatly prefer this program over Photoshop when it comes to crisp, clean lines (without being vector).
I sketch the entire body alone first (meaning no clothing).This way, when I do get to the clothing, I know exactly where to place it and how to drape it, as I already know what the body is doing and don't have to fight with proportions and clothing at the same time. I did draw the sword early though - this is because I couldn't draw the right hand before drawing the sword.
I've recently started drawing each different part of my sketch on a different layer and in a different colour. Things get messy during the sketching, and this just helps make a nice, clean sketch. You can differentiate between all of your mangled lines, and easily erase one line without being concerned about the others.
Once I have things the way I want them in my sketch, I erase my base body lines that have become unnecessary. As I mentioned in my post Faces: Simple as Circles, I find extra lines to be very annoying and distracting.
Once all my sketching is complete, I go around and clean up messy and confusing part, so that I know exactly what I'm doing when I start my lineart. Once this is finished, I end up with something like my above photo.
Next up is the lineart!
This, of course, I also do on PaintToolSai, with just the brush tool.
There's not a lot that I have to say about this - it's really just tracing.
Tips:
- Take your time! It's easy to tell if you've rushed a line.
- Don't think that every line has to be done in one shot. Many of my line are actually a multitude of lines that I've just magically merged together!
- The eraser and ctrl+z are your friends. This is the best part of digital art. Use them well.
So, yeah. This is how my lineart turned out!
I was extremely happy with this outcome. I honestly feel like this is my best drawing yet! I'm still not the best with facial expressions, but at least the rest looks awesome!
I was planning on stopping there for the night, but I was just too caught up in my excitement. So I switched over to Photoshop CS for my colouring.
I knew that if I started doing some serious colouring, I wouldn't be able to stop. So instead I decided to just do my base colours to get a sense of it all. I like to know where I'm going before I start something.
So, here we are:
The base colours aren't quiiiite finished yet, but I'm still very happy. The colours are a bit dull though - I played around a lot, but Photoshop wouldn't let me do colour adjustments to the entire image. So, sadly, I will have to wait until I finish everything to do that.
That's about all I have for now, readers. I will keep you posted on my progress, and of course the results of the contest! Winning first place will save me almost 100$, so I reeeeally hope I get it this year!
If you have any questions or comments on my process, don't hesitate to post here!
Bye for now, readers!
No comments:
Post a Comment