sadhoot

He's having a bad day

Added 2023-01-12 20:18:06 +0000 UTC

This took way longer than it should have, but not necessarily it’s work-time, but the time it took to actually finish it. I usually finish things quick as soon as I start them. Because of that, I had so much time to think about it and see inconsistencies. You can take that as a good and a bad thing:

I had some problems when drawing his (upper) hand. While it was a bit trickier than usual, it was actually the pose by itself that made me reconsider. It’s incredibly stiff! I made my boyfriend do this hand pose for me for reference and he complained about it being so strained and unnatural.
I thought about changing it, but I thought “Well, it’s a snapshot of a movement, it could be rather stiff for a moment” so I chose form over function and stuck with the concept.

I also thought about the whole “not feeling any pain” thing… if he had a bloody nose from falling or getting punched, would he care? Yes! He was knocked out by Gran Torino and Shoto by a punch! I guess his pain resistance and numbness is just referring to his skin/surface layer.

Another thing that made some problems were his head/eyes: I think his expression is really important here – I wanted him to look … pissed? I had the right tilt in the concept, but because I don’t care about e.g face structure in my rough sketches, it changed drastically when doing the Linework. The bottom waterline of the eye needs to be curved much more than normal, but this changes the shape too, and – since it’s just an anime character – doesn’t look right.

I also tried out to make the accents on his coat look more like embroidery than stitches! I used the Border Layer Option for that and you guys on IG seemed to like it! It always bothered me, but it was just too much work with my old method…

Coloring went smooth, since it wasn’t anything complex and a blue hue (which I am very familiar with ahem) but it seemed a bit boring… but I needed to correct the glow effect right behind him quite some time.

What I absolutely hate about blue ambient light is how it drowns blood accents. I really like the muddy tone sometimes, esp. on dried blood… but not for fresh, glossy drips and wounds.