Some work in progress

Here's a preview of an artwork I'm working on. It's an emulation of the Japanese animation style of characters and background, but set in London. Lately I've been watching more anime, and I'm still surprised how captivating some shows can be. I was also shocked by how the detailed background paintings really add to the experience.

I've always wanted to properly render London, but was scared off by how detailed the cityscape is. It's also immensely populated, so emulating it truly would be a real challenge. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a go.

The subject here is based on Columbia Road Market. Though I lived in East London, I've only been to this market once in three and a half years. I have no interest in flowers, which this market is specially known for. But I did enjoy the scenery, the colours , and the coffee.

Here is a picture I decided to base my artwork on. London is full of alleyways, and this one is memorable for its coffee, which I needed after walking up and down that market.

I'll post more as I progress with the artwork.

Lumpia

Oh look, eggrolls!

I figure I should draw some food, because everyone loves food, especially deep-fried eggrolls. They seem cheerful despite knowing they will be eaten up.

Paint Tool Sai Practice

Forward!

I finally made a finished piece of art on my Cintiq Companion. The program I used was Paint Tool Sai, which is an application made specifically for drawing. It's used often by Japanese manga artists.

It has been a while since I posted a more polished work. With work being not as busy (relatively!), I've slowly been getting back on track with my own personal artwork. Though this artwork here doesn't have very much to say, it's a good practice for gesture, anatomy, textiles, expression and colour. Unfortunately I could not incorporate some interesting story into the image...

Unless you count the story of the trouble I went through to even finish this image. The original gesture drawing had the character smiling. As it was a long weekend, I was looking forward to getting a lot of drawing done. However, as of late I've been feeling anemic, and had to take quite a lot of iron pills. As soon as the long weekend hit, my energy plummeted, and I was too exhausted to sketch. I was frustratred that I couldn't even find the energy to practice my art. I wasn't going to lie down all weekend, so I tried very hard to fight my fatigue. When I cleaned up this sketch, the character went from smiling to angry. You could say determined.

Though I'm not happy with everything in this work, I'm just really happy that I even achieved my goal! 

Another interesting thing about this picture; the colours display very differently between both Cintiqs. I accept that difference though, but it makes me wonder, which display is more colour-accurate? Hmmm...