Art Post – Page 18

More Paintings on the Wacom Cintiq 22HD

Posted onAugust 8, 2012October 16, 2012

Avengers Black Widow and Batman Painting

Ever since I got my Wacom Cintiq 22HD, I haven’t used anything else to draw or paint. There are so many things I want to paint and experiment with as the painting process is smooth and natural with the Cintiq–as natural as it can be on a computer. I no longer have to struggle with not having hand-eye coordination. If you want to know more about the new Cintiq 22HD. Check out my previous post:
Review of the Cintiq 22HD.

Here’s what I been doing on the Cintiq. This Black Widow painting is based on Brooke Mason, an aspiring model. I don’t know her but her mom, Tamsin, is a friend of my wife. Tamsin has been supportive in my wife’s Pouchy Pals (customized animal plush) hobby. To return the favor, I decided to do a painting of her daughter who is an Avengers fan. I like the way this painting turned out. A beautiful face will always draw the viewer in. The simple red background helps to accentuate her face even more I think.

Another quick painting is my black and white Batman. I really don’t like the newer Batman designs in the movies. With each Dark Knight movie, the Batman uniform has been more and more heavily armoured. Maybe I’m just old school, but superheroes don’t need armour in my opinion. This is a doodle on the Cintiq on my version of the Batman uniform. Looking at this Batman now, it’s starting to look like a football player=).

I’ve also started on another painting, which is a Frankenstein painting based on Basil Gogos’ art. His use of colors are incredible. I’ll try to replicate some of those vibrant colors in my painting. You can see my initial rough sketch on my Facebook page.

Trying out the New Cintiq 22HD

Posted onJuly 30, 2012October 16, 2012

Last week my Cintiq 22HD arrived through Wacom. I’ve been wanting to get the Cintiq ever since the 21UX came out–it’s been a long time. At Comic-con 2012, Wacom had their usual booth so I tried out their new Cintiq 24HD. The size and construction of the 24HD blew me away. Even at the price tag of $2500, having tried it out, I was hooked. I knew then I would have to get one. Then I looked around and saw that Wacom had a smaller and less expensive model, the Cintiq 22HD. Priced at $2000, this was easier to swallow. So then the question became which model to get? Well, I ended up with the 22HD. Mainly on two factors, price and size.

Reviewing the Cintiq 22HD

I’ll do a full review the 22HD soon. Maybe you’re on the fence on whether to get one for yourself. I’ll be able to answer some of your questions you will undoubtedly have had about the Cintiq. If you’re an artist, I’m certain we have the same questions. It’s an expensive item and some might consider it a luxury item. But after having it for just a few days, it is not a luxury item–it’s a necessity item. More on that later. Right now, I’m just having too much fun drawing on it.

The images here are quick sketches on my Cintiq 22HD. Do join me on my Facebook Page for quicker updates. It’s much quicker there for me to put up images as I don’t have to type about it.

How to Draw Manga with 3D References

Posted onJune 26, 2012June 2, 2014

3D render of an anime manga face. How to Draw Mange reference.

3D render of an anime face. Modeled in Maya and rendered in 3DS Max. 4400 x 1200 pixels.

On a previous post, I have mentioned how I was able to draw better anime faces after having to model them in 3D in the past. Well, here is a 3D render of an anime face that I’ve modeled. The manga head render covers a 180 degree turn from three different angles. This should assist you in your manga drawing, because by seeing the proportions from different angles, it will help you make sense of the stylized anime face.

Most of the time the manga artist will draw the faces rather flat, especially in the three-quarter view. In the 3D anime face render, you can see that the eye sockets are sunken in. But most manga artist will ignore that realism and draw it flat. It is anime after all, so rarely does it have to make sense. Just as long as it’s cool looking, it’s good enough.

There are endless stylizations of anime faces; this 3D model is perhaps the most generic looking one. Actually from this model, I can make many face variations quite easily by playing with the proportions in 3D. That could be kind of fun. Maybe I’ll do a “How to Draw Manga with 3D References” series, with this being the first image. Anyhow, hope this helps you in your manga drawing.

Tsutomu Nihei – Awesome Manga Artist

Posted onJune 13, 2012

I just stocked up for my eBay store, the manga series titled Biomega. The artist is Tsutomu Nihei. I first learned of him after seeing his old manga series, Blame! What caught my eye was his incredible ink work and architectural vision (I’ve since learned that he is an architect). His black and white art is absolutely spectacular. It’s dark and mysterious, and at times, grotesque. It is definitely not for kids to read. His style is what others describe as cyberpunk. But whatever, I just call it bad-ass art.

The covers are much better on the Biomega series than on the Blame! series. It’s got some color work on the cover and the back, which is a nice addition. I haven’t read it but it looks very similar to Blame!, or his earlier manga, Noise. The covers inspired me to pick up my pencil; so I did a quick sketch from one of the Biomega covers. Here’s how the sketch turned out. Not anywhere near as cool as his.

For this drawing, I started without thinking too much about it. Once I had finished sketching in the outlines, I wasn’t sure how to shade it. After some back and forth, I ended up with cross-hatching shading. Then I used a 2H pencil for some light shading. It’s an odd combination, but whatever, my intentions were to just do something with his art. It didn’t matter what.

I wish Tsutomu Nihei would do some more work, because my online searches of him yields very little content. Looks like he did something involving Wolverine from Marvel, titled Snikt! The Tsutomu Nihei facebook page is rather sparse too. A “How to Draw Manga” series by him would be nice=). Anyhow, check him out for inspiration!

Drawing Manga – Anime Faces

Posted onJune 8, 2012October 16, 2012

Looking at my old anime watercolor paintings reminded me of how I use to love drawing manga. I grew up watching anime, and loved drawing those sexy female characters. It was difficult for me draw back then. The proportions and foreshortening is very tricky on anime faces. It’s a lot easier for me now as I am a better artist today. Having said that, I think my improvement comes from the fact that I have modeled quite a few 3D anime faces earlier in my career in 3D graphics. That allowed me to better visualize the shapes in my head. And the more accurately you are able to visualize it in your head, the better you can translate that to paper.

There is a popular series of manga drawing books titled How To Draw Manga. I use to carry some of them in my eBay store. This How to Draw Manga series has countless volumes, covering every aspect of manga drawing. But seriously, you don’t need any specific training to draw manga, you just have to know how to draw. And people tend to think that manga is easier to draw because of its simple lines and shapes. But don’t be fooled by their simplistic style, they are difficult to draw, like anything else.

Here is a quick video of my manga sketches.