Art of Red

[Kai Schulen]

(A REDUX!)

Once upon a time, a certain pokemon trainer had an art thread in this here forum.

And then depression happened and said pokemon trainer just didn't care about a lot of things. And then things in life happen, (like having massive health problems with my wrist) and blarrrrgh inspirational death spiral, yay!

So in an effort to get my shit together, and because I honestly miss posting my art online, I'm going to repost some of my art I did in the past, and start posting more of my art in general.

But Red, why don't you post in your old threadNEW YEAR NEW ME NEW THREAD Ignore the fact that it is halfway through April, what.

Spoiler

Who would I be, if I didn't kickstart this with this with Cloud? Good old Jenova eyes.


(x)

Cloud and Terra in modern clothes?

Proof that I do something other than draw Cloud all day every day. x

A failed attempt at practicing colors. I might redo this at a later time.

Also some more at my art tumblr *wink wonk sparkle sparkle*

Also, I'm very open to the idea of art commissions. *more wink wonking and sparkling*

 

[Ghost X]

I like the animation.

The "failed experiment" in colours ain't so bad so far, I'd just say it is unfinished, but then I dunno what you want to do with it . Has a lot of potential.

 

[Kai Schulen]

I like the animation.

The "failed experiment" in colours ain't so bad so far, I'd just say it is unfinished, but then I dunno what you want to do with it . Has a lot of potential.

That's the problem, I've been bad at understanding colors and shading my whole entire life. I like to think that if I keep at it, I'll get better, but in reality....


....it's very time consuming to clean up your own lineart especially when your lines are messy as fuck. XD (maybe I just need a better process for doing lineart.)

I definitely should do more animation, and I'm hoping that my wrist has recovered enough to let me draw for longer periods of time.

 

[Ghost X]

Depends what kind of colouring you're after. Also, practice doesn't make perfect unless you consciously know what you have achieved and what you are aiming towards. My suggestion is to look at the styles of several other artists who you admire, and see how they do things, and try them out yourself. That and research tutorials on stuff you want to learn about. You won't master it straight away, but it'll eventually sink in.

Going by the sky of that "failed experiment" image (which I like, btw), I'm guessing you're after some sort of representative (real-looking) colouring scheme. The trick to depicting light (and thus shade and colour) accurately is to know the properties of both the object and the direction from where the light is coming from, and how it interacts with those properties.

I liked these guides I found a while ago by deviantart's kingkostas:
- http://kingkostas.deviantart.com/art/ResearchCanvas-SpecularReflectionsTutorial-654544650
- http://kingkostas.deviantart.com/art/ResearchCanvas-ColorTutorial-654543088
- http://kingkostas.deviantart.com/art/Research-Canvas-9-654541728

TL;DR: Be mindful of your light sources, and where your reflected light is coming from, and lack thereof (shadow) on your object, and your shading and colouring should be accurate-looking. If you're aiming for a cartoony depiction, then you simplify things. Then again, it depends what you're after, and that's up to you to decide .

 

[Channy]

I asked you about commissions and then you disappeared on me

 

[Kai Schulen]

I asked you about commissions and then you disappeared on me

I did, and I feel terrible about that. Depression sucks balls. =a=;; I swear I'll try not to go ghost this time though.

 

[Kai Schulen]

Spoiler

I want to animate something interesting, but I'm bleh and and there's nothing coming to mind, so I ended up coloring in a doodle of my original character instead.

Also, I just discovered a new brush in the program I use to animate, here's hoping it's the brush I was looking for. XD

 

[Kai Schulen]

Spoiler: In loving memory of Cloud

He's not dead, I just want to remind everybody I love him.

When was the last time I drew Cloud and liked how it turned out? Too long. (even though I always draw Cloud's headshot the same exact way every time. hurrrrrrrrgh I'm stagnating)

Also trying to wean myself off from always using stumpy pencil as my default brush for everything...by using the default brushes in photoshop. Logic.

 

[Anemone]

His expression is perfect!

 

[Kai Schulen]

Spoiler

So my friend graciously got me a copy of Corel Painter last month, so this is really just a test doodle with the default brushes.

.....I love the brushes in Corel Painter (they're better than the brushes in Photoshop!) but it sure crashes a lot. I had been hoping to narrow down my workflow from 2 programs to one program, but since Corel crashes often...I think I might just keep doing linework sketches in PS and do colorwork in Corel. (I used to use TVPaint for colorwork, but TVPaint isn't exactly the best program for when I want to paint something, since it's an animation program.)

Incidentally, not sure if it's because I'm depressed as fuck or if it's because because I'm feeling insecure about my art, but I feel like deleting my art tumblr and starting over again. I really need to knock that shit off. (As a happy compromise, I'm just going to delete the art I don't like.)

 

[Kai Schulen]

Noot noot. (Some Darker Than Black fanart~) I'm posting this because I like how it turned out:

Spoiler: though if you have epilepsy, you better not look at this.

(Longer version here~

I meant to finish this on Halloween, but 1. I got super distracted and ended up rewatching Darker Than Black again and 2. I got really obsessive about the details. (I wanted to do a thing where the static flickers on and off before the whole thing goes to black like a sudden outage, but I couldn't find a tutorial for it. Weh weeh weeh.)

3rdly, I'm starting to get a slight headache every time I work on this for too long.

 

[Ghost X]

Would that really trigger epilepsy? I thought it was just pokemon flashy colour stuff that did that .

 

[Kai Schulen]

Can't hurt to be on the safe side, right? (also, I kinda figured that if this made my eyes twitch like crazy, well... ....okay maybe the eye twitching thing might be from a lack of sleep + annoyance at the UPS combined. I'm calling them fucking tomorrow. )

....also it just occurred to me to just import the damn thing into after effects for the effects I want, so maybe I'll fool around with it tomorrow. OTL

 

[Kai Schulen]

I was cleaning out my old files when I found a doodle of a kitty and I actually liked it enough to not baleet it 5ever, so I fixed it up, slapped some gradients on that shit and made it a new icon for my art tumblr and new art twitter.

 

[Anemone]

Awww, what a sweet picture! I love that you added the stars to the kitty's fur as well. :3

 

[Kai Schulen]

Spoiler: More Darker than Black stuff for November 11

Spoiler: No November 11 tribute is complete without his naked ass.

I meant to finish this on the 11th, but I was dead asleep for most of 11/11. (The joke being there's a character called November 11 in Darker than Black, so...yeah.) I'm also aware that I'm really, really rusty with anatomy and I should start taking life drawing classes again.

I'm not used to updating this much, but I keep hoping that if I keep this up, I'll suddenly find the motivation to keep on going. Or at least, find the motivation to finish the 20 bajillion projects I keep starting and trashing.

...also, is it weird to want to make art prints that you want for yourself instead for the sake of selling? Or narcissistic?

 

[Ghost X]

Nothing wrong with making art for yourself to have.

 

[Kai Schulen]

I'm suffering from art block (when am I not), so I decided to try something...not exactly new, but revisiting/revising the way I sketch digitally:

Spoiler

On one hand, it's really easy for me to practice anatomy, do gestures, do (single tone) value study, but on the other hand it's always a bitch and a half trying to clean up this style for line art. Also, it involves like 50 layers of sketches and hell.

(I didn't feel like drawing human faces, so I stuck animal masks on them.)

 

[Kai Schulen]

Spoiler: quick doodle

I'm trying to draw faster and I like to think I am? Kinda? Sorta? maybe...

 

[Kai Schulen]

Moar cat doodles

Spoiler

sorry for the blurriness, but TFW no scanner.

(also, doodled them on scrap envelopes)

 

[Kai Schulen]

Spoiler: I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can...

I'm being lazy and self indulgent, but until somebody pays me for my art I don't feel bad about it all! (also, I hope that by slapping gradients on muh sketches, it looks more...well, feels more polished than it is.)

....also if the VIIRemake doesn't include sunglasses as DLC, I'll be so sad.

 

[Kai Schulen]

Spoiler: AquaNort

Sketchbook doodle of AquaNort cause she had me s h o o k. Also, it's rare that I draw in my sketchbook anymore because I don't have a scanner anymore and I hate taking pics of my sketchbook and posting them online. Feels....tacky.

 

[Kai Schulen]

Squall sketch, cause I think it'd be cute if Squall's jacket had a fur trimmed hood.

Spoiler: but maybe he's a lion

(who did this. was it Selphie? it was Selphie.)

edit: also, tried out FireAlpaca after not using it for a long time and I forgot how annoying that program is. not sure if I want to keep using it cause it's got neat brushes, or just keep ignoring it because I'm a 1 trick pony.

 

[Kai Schulen]

an old WIP from last year oh my god, but I decided that I want to try and finish this, at the very least. (because I have no time and energy for new stuff because of the bookstore I'm working in weepweep) I have to think about the colors for a bit, so...any suggestions? (I was thinking maybe interior nighttime/dusk colors, but...)

 

[Kai Schulen]

I rise from the dead only to fail. Classic me! Work in progress of Esper!Terra. I'm struggling with how I want to draw Terra's facial expression at that angle, hence the henohenonoheji face. :< I'm also struggling because the line quality is not as good as I want it to be hrrhrrrhurrdurrrhurrrrjhrkjrgjwjsghdeghjwfdsmghwerj

The pose is a reference to Maduin's summon, cause like father, like daughter??