2016: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Another year, another "timely" Christmas drawing, haha. I wish you all a wonderful and safe holiday!

Artwork: Red Haired Girl

Drawn By: WrittenDusk 

I decided to do this artwork on a whim and took the chance to revisit my school days in art with a simple composition. Ever since I stopped taking art courses I have never really painted an artwork from start to finish again. I always feel more comfortable and confident having lines in my drawings. But this really widen my comfort zone. Things really do tend to come around full circle unexpectedly and unintentionally.

Collaboration: Moonlit Spear Dance feat. JoonHo Seo

Drawn By: WrittenDusk
Edited and Enhanced By: JoonHo Seo 

After showing my friend, Joon, this artwork he decide to apply his Photoshop skills on to it. What came out of this kind of, rather spontaneous, collaboration was much more fruitful than I expected; and I had good expectations considering my friend's skills.

Passing the artwork through Photoshop, the feeling changed noticeably. The ethereal atmosphere was replaced with an air of importance and scale. This was achieved through reducing the glow on the person, darkening the shadows and background, and the addition of tall clouds in the sky; directing more attention to the girl than in my original drawing. 

Another point worth noting is the blade of the spear. It looks tough! Haha. The darkening of the blade and the addition of the glares makes it look harder, sharper, and more powerful. 

There is much to learn through this edit, seeing my friend's interpretation of my drawing. The range of colour especially; the trees looks closer to how I wanted it than it does in the original. 

Hope you enjoyed this special and unexpected post as much as I did. I'd like to do this again, maybe even get my other friend in on it. Maybe I can interpret one of my friend's artworks instead.

Artwork: Moonlit Spear Dance

Drawn By: WrittenDusk 

An artwork based on my most recent story idea. The scene this artwork depicts is a moment where the heroine dances a festival dance, but in a way different from what it was intended to be danced in; expressing a feeling that is similarly different. 

The main reason I decided to draw this specific scene is simply because of the spear dance. The elegance and strength within a weapon dance really inspired me, and felt extremely picturesque.

Fan Art: Street Fighter V - Juri

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

My first fan art in a while now and oddly enough it is on Street Fighter. This is my first attempt at doing fan art in more of a character design illustration way. I'm happy with the results, but oddly unsatisfied at the same time; a first for me as well in this aspect. 

This is Juri in her alternate costume in Street Fighter V(5). 

Drawing a Street Fighter fan art is odd for me because I was not a fan of fighting games until recently, and I was not a fan of Street Fighter's art style; until now. I only became aware of what "traditional fighting games" really were after I played Blazblue Calamity Trigger (created by Arc System Works) on PSP. It got me into Blazblue as a whole, and later into watching the tournaments. 

Having found an appreciation for fighting games I decided to see how other fighting games compared to Blazblue. Street Fighter being one of them obviously. But at the time Street Fighter IV(4) didn't catch my eyes like Blazblue did. The character art and design wasn't really to my liking as well, so it just wasn't my thing. But Street Fighter V really caught my attention.

Although I still prefer watching Arc System Works games as opposed to other companies, Street Fighter V's overall art style made me like, and appreciate the designs of, a lot of their characters. But what really made me like it, were the animations. The weight of their moves can really be felt; especially in certain throwing moves. This feeling of weight grounds the game to reality appropriately making it enjoyable to watch just to see the characters move. 

But it was not until I saw matches of Juri that made want to draw a fan art. I've seen her in Street Fighter IV and liked her design, but I didn't really get the same feeling of personality and attraction from her as she does in Street Fighter V.  After watching a few matches of her in Street Fighter V, this image just popped into my head. I just felt inspired and wanted to capture her charm in my own way.

I intended for this to be a quicker drawing without too much thinking; kind of as an exercise for making quick non-sketch artwork. But it was much quicker than expected. Maybe it's because I got better without knowing, that I achieved my desired result without the amount of work I predicted I'd need (haha self-praise). I actually put more time and effort into the effects than I did colouring Juri herself.

My dissatisfaction is in the completeness of the drawing and the level of the charm that I captured. Close up I feel like I did a good job, but zoomed out I feel like some thing is missing in both departments. I don't know what at the moment still, but hopefully I find out why later. My guess is that the pose and the expression isn't wild enough.

I'm still proud and exited to share it despite my complicated feelings. ( ^ w^)b.

Let me know if you have any ideas to what is missing or any ways of making it better.

Coloured Sketch: Apology

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

This is the first time I did some editing after finishing a drawing to add some effects. Let me know what you think about the blurring. I feel like it adds more of a photo/movie feel, but this drawing doesn't benefit too much from it. Also I played around with the framing of the drawing.

I impulsively did this sketch after one of my friends showed me a video on Youtube. I will have the video linked below. The video is a clip from a Japanese variety show with the guest actress being, Ishihara Satomi. During the segment within the video, the actress is given the challenge to convincingly apologize to the male actor in a short skit. 

I was surprised at how effective her apology was. I'm honestly convinced that any men would melt after seeing that expression in an apology, haha! That expression is just so good! I had to make an attempt at drawing it. 

It was much harder than expected. I did purposefully try to draw it in my own style, to see if I can make the expression work in as a cartoon, so that maybe part of the reason it was so hard. I also made an effort to avoid making the girl look too much like Ishihara Satomi, but it kinda ended up looking similar anyways; her likeness helps with learning the expression. I think I did an okay job, but it probably would have been better if I did a portrait of her expression first then drew it in my style. 

The two things this exercise has taught me are probably some of the most important things I've learned since starting this blog. The first being that some more subtle expressions are actually conveyed in a sequence; as in there are multiple facial movements used to convey one emotion. Secondly that subtle expression are subtle, haha! 

As obvious as that sounds, we actually notice smaller changes on a person's face than we are normally conscious of. You are unaware of what really changed on the face, but you can feel that something changed and is different from before. It makes it difficult to capture in a drawing.

I'd really like to get better at subtle expressions. I feel like this is where animation lack in comparison to live action. This is likely one of the aspects of what we artists and art enthusiasts refer to as "essence".


Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqul48dI9UY

Coloured Sketch: Lady A

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

A simple portrait composition piece. It's been a while since I did a portrait like drawing. 

I just wanted a little break from experimenting and learning new things, haha.

But even though I said this is a break, I still took this chances to put what I have learned these years to use. The style I choose to draw in, the colouring I still fumble with, and the lighting I just realized about. It's always cool to compare my current works to my earlier ones, and seeing the concrete evidence of my growth. 

Also in addition to putting my current skills to work, I also took this opportunity to experiment with some different techniques and stylistic choices professional artists use and make. The first thing I experimented with is the fullness of the face. You may have noticed that my drawing style lately has a purposefully flat edged face. I thought my style doesn't do well with a fuller face edge, but I guess not anymore, haha. I'm not completely confident with it yet though.

The second is the shading. There are two aspects. The extra tones and the more gradient shading. The gradient, or traditional, and cel-shading combo started since my Character Concept: Amidst the Battlefield Ver. 1, but was applied in a more stylized direction. It is not until my Final Fantasy XV fan art that I decided to take advantage of it in a more traditional way, giving the character another layer of depth beyond the cel-shaded areas. This drawing is an extension of that experimentation. The extra cel-shading tones is a stylistic technique I've been wanting to try after seeing artworks of the newest Atelier game; Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book. Seeing how great it looks to have one value of shade for natural lighting and a darker one for cast shadows, l just had to try it out once.

It all turned out really nice, so I'm hoping to use this style on my next drawings.

This turned out way longer than I intended, haha. Hopefully those who read this far enjoyed reading my discovery and learning processes. For those who wonder why "Lady A"... tune into the next chapter of "Someone"! 

Oh, and I learned to do a new type of ambient(?) background.

Clothing Reference from YesStyle: 
http://www.yesstyle.ca/en/romantica-pleated-chiffon-long-sleeve-dress-purple-2xl/info.html/pid.1048664790 

Contest Entry: Final Fantasy 15 Uncoverd Event Fan Promotional Item Contest

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

This drawing was done back in February to enter the Final Fantasy XV Uncovered Event Fan Promotional Item Contest. I decided not to post it until the Uncovered Event is over. Though I did not win, (T-T), I am very happy with this piece and posting this now is a great way to celebrate the release date announcement of the game; September 30, 2016. The characters in the drawing are Luna and Gentiana.

I was initially planning for a more chibi styled artwork since they have a high affinity with merchandise. But my brother and friend suggested me not to. I personally feel that chibi or something more cartoon-like would be more suitable, but this drawing really turned out nice and I learned a lot more doing this comparatively.

The thing I am learning the most recently, and improves my drawings most, is lighting. This drawing really shows how different lighting can make a drawing look. For a long time I only learn how to shade, but shading is not the same as lighting. I always thought it was the same thing. With shading alone a drawing appears very flat like looking at a printed picture. But when you add lighting, which is usually based on the setting your drawing is set in, it feels a lot more like you're looking through a window. 

I had to start a twitter to enter the contest actually. Still thinking about how to take advantage of twitter properly, haha.

For those interested it is https://twitter.com/WrittenDusk and @WrittenDusk. I have yet to tweet again, haha, just a heads up. 

Series Concept: Concept Community

Drawn and Created by: WrittenDusk

A group of characters based off of concepts of human ideas and aspects. These are a few of all the characters I have in mind at the moment.

The main aim is really to create a batch of merchandise capable character designs and ideas. I just suddenly wanted to create a website dedicated to and decorated by my own cool characters, and sell them on t-shirts, cups, hats, etc.

The style is inspired, most recently, by the manga "Ice Revolution" or "I-Revo"; story by Tsutsumi Aya and art by Takemura Youhei. I'm pretty sure there has been other artists that I've seen using a similar style for their chibis; "Katekyō Hitman Reborn!" by Akira Amano, is another.

The theme is oddly inspired by the song "7 Years" by Lukas Graham. This is odd because of my habit of preferring east asian entertainment and avoidance of western entertainment; minus animated films, haha. It was purely by chance that I heard it on the car radio.

I feel like this has potential. (^_^) 

Also watermark debut!

Story: "Someone"

Written By: WrittenDusk                                                                                                                             

On a normal everyday evening, under the clear spring sky, a young salaryman in his mid-twenties makes his way up a slope within the city. Dressed in a simple suit and tie, with a briefcase in his right, he struggles with his climb up the slope.

Salaryman: Argh. This damn slope is getting harder to climb everyday. I swear it must be growing, or something. Huff, huff. I don't remember it being this steep when I first moved here.

The salaryman takes a break holding his knees, halfway up the slope. People looks at him weirdly as they breeze past him walking up the slope. After a few moment he continues his climb.

Salaryman: Huff..huff..huff. Just a few more steps till the top.

He takes a step forward, but it looks as if he miss the ground and steps on air instead. His head falls straight towards the ground.

Salaryman: Huh? Why’s the ground so clo… (Thud).

The salaryman faints on the slope.

2016: Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂!

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Happy Chinese New Year!  新年快樂!

恭喜發財! 祝大家身體健康 , 萬事胜意.

I wish everyone great health, prosperity, and joy; that everything you do this year would exceed expectations.

The meanings of the words to the left roughly translates to: "When flowers bloom, riches come", "Good things comes in twos".
                                                                                                                                                     


This is the first Chinese New Year drawing I've posted here, hopefully I could kept this up like I do with Christmas drawings.

Honestly this drawing started off a bit uninspired, but I slowly got more inspired as I continued working on it. There are actually some Feng shui elements in it, haha.

The colours and patterns on the clothing were the hardest portion of the drawing. Trying to mimic the clothing I see in Chinese period dramas needed more thought than I expected. Firstly, I found that patterns needed to be coloured only slightly different from the main fabric colour. This barely visible colouring variation creates an illusion effect that parts of the clothes is brighter than other parts; kind of mimicking the effects of silk embroidery. Secondly, since I was only using one shape for the patterning, varying the shape's size looks much better than just using the same size throughout. I wanted to cheat with just one size, but it just didn't cut it, haha. Also I felt that, after looking up more examples, a more mechanical patterning looks better and is more accurate. Mechanical meaning a set patterning order for example: 1100110011; as opposed to a more random patterning.

The second hardest part was the tree in the back. Its a plum tree by the way. I took a good amount of effort to mimic the traditional Chinese brush painting, but not nearly as much trial and error was needed compared to the patterning.

Concept: Story Concept Art

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Despite the pen name I picked, I actually don't do much writing at all, haha. But that doesn't mean I don't have stories I want to write. I have something planned. Hopefully I'll post some writing again soon.

This drawing is based on a really recent story idea that I was inspired with when I listened to a music box rendition of the song "Hitori Omou" by Renka; the opening theme of the upcoming Fire Emblem game "Fire Emblem Fates", or in Japan "Fire Emblem If". Uploaded on youtube by R3 Music Box - English. (The link will be down below for those interested.)

After thinking about the story idea for a while, I just couldn't help but want to try and capture the feeling that the story in my mind had. As a result I drew this rough sketch. I'm pretty happy with it. 

Honestly it's about 80% of what it really could be. From how accurate it was to my mental image to the actual technical aspects, this was not giving 100% effort. But because of that it was a much needed relaxing drawing session, haha. There is one thing that I am quite proud of in spite of the lack of effort. It was the environmental atmosphere I created for the girl on the left. It's the first time I succeeded in doing something so different with the background. (Now that I looked at it again, the girl looks like she was unconsciously inspired by the new Fire Emblem heroine, haha.)

Youtube Video: if ~Hitori Omou~ /Renka [Music Box] (Nintendo 3DS "Fire Emblem if" Theme Song)