akaiitori - Tumblr blog

akaiitori · 28 days

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Assorted Mikas

He's my muse whenever I don't know what to draw. The small angry chibi was made using this base!

#vagrant skies #sketch #mika azure #wings #winged people #feathers #digital art #glaze decimated the quality on these but oh well #original character #claws

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akaiitori · 1 month

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Right then, Arrow was certain that the sun had to be envious. It would never channel the warmth that this beloved Avian beamed with his smile. It enveloped him in an embrace like no other, a promise that whatever he had done before didn't matter that much. A proof that he can actually do better when he tries.

Oh, and he would do so much better. He would shatter himself and solder the pieces into something worth loving if it meant another laugh from his golden boy.

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akaiitori · 1 month

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Migratory Birds

I belonged with you, once.

Big thanks to the folks that joined the stream for this one :)

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akaiitori · 1 month

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Migratory Birds

I belonged with you, once.

Big thanks to the folks that joined the stream for this one :)

#digital art #sparrows #migratory birds #fantasy #bird art #wings #feathers #illustration #original character #vagrant skies

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akaiitori · 1 month

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Character questions Pt.3

As usual, more trivia after the cut! Also, want to formally thank tumblr for allowing gifs, because trying to format that for instagram was a nightmare.

Q1- Ari is dressed up in the historical outfit of a Tarrukar Empress. Tarrukar has a long history of conquest, and their emperors and empresses would wear rich robes of solid colours with their battle armour hidden underneath. The crown has feathers at the back, almost forming a veil. Birds are sacred animals in the Tarrukar culture. In current times, Tarrukar has different royal clothing as they don't engage in territory wars anymore. Kae is dressed up as a mountain child, a mythological figure from Teotlan culture. Ajahuana has many many mountains untouched by men, and in rural towns there's the legend of mountain children. Basically human kids that get lost or abandoned, so the mountain adopts them and it progressively starts turning the kid into an animal. It's a legend that resonated a lot with Kae when he was a kid, since he didn't know why he had wings or why was he so different to other human kids. Mika is dressed up as a catboy vampire. Yeah. Q2 & Q3 - Avians can be very passionate about food :P Cyclones in particular need LOTS of calories so, they are predisposed to enjoy the fast energy that carbohydrates give out

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akaiitori · 1 month

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⚡ / / STORMCHASER / / ⚡

🎜Do you wanna stick around to see, How bad a boy can be? 🎜

Progress video and wireframe view after the cut

Made with Blender 2.9 (+ rendered in Cycles), Marvelous Designer and Substance Painter

#thinking about reworking this model #mostly the hair and wings hmm

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akaiitori · 2 months

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Queenie

Ari rocking a dress to welcome the warmer months ☀️💃

#winged people #wings #feathers #dress #digital art #sketch #original character #vagrant skies #ari sidewinder

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akaiitori · 2 months

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Rafael Bosco

Rafael has always been an outlier between Cyclones. Created as a war weapon, he chose a path of care and compassion out of love for his siblings. While his personality is a bit rough, he despises confrontation and tries to only bring positive experiences to people.

He's a trained field medic, specialized in attention for Avians of all kinds. After losing his wing and being declared dead, he lives as a Stray while still continuing his path as a medic in a Stargazer village.

Trivia!!

He lost his left wing after a crashing accident during a blizzard. His right wing and tail were left intact, but he clips the feathers for convenience.

His saliva is charged with venom. It's only lethal once introduced into the body, so he takes precaution to never bite when fighting unless he's out for the kill. [it also means he can't kiss his partner :(]

Usually pretty overworked, but during his free time he likes woodworking and watching crappy medical dramas.

Despite his generally disheveled appearance, he takes hygiene and cross-contamination VERY seriously.

You will not catch him walking on all fours. Unhygienic.

He has an old black dog called Samantha (always shortened to Sammy, though)

#rafaaa i love him #he looks like an unwashed trucker #but the man can do emergency surgery in the middle of the street #and name all avian-safe nebulizer medications from the top of his head

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akaiitori · 2 months

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Reven [2024]

As loud as their feathers are bright, Reven has learned to bite and never let go. They are outspoken and passionate, willing to go to the ends of the world in pursuit of freedom for their species.

Updated design for Rev! >:) Some trivia below

Genderqueer, uses any pronoun except 'it'

A passionate artist, they focus on street art and tattoo designs. Also a decent drummer.

Well-connected, they probably know a guy for anything you need.

Blueberries are their favourite food.

Showy and loud, they are terrible at anything stealth-based.

Really good at flight, but their skill is entirely empirical. Words like 'angle of attack’ or 'drag coefficient’ are gibberish to them.

Wings are broad and short, with gentle slotting. It allows for good maneuvering while still getting to soar, though not as effectively as a vulture.

Very, very good memory!

Stands at 160cm (of pure SWAG)

Loves wearing jewelry, in particular chain necklaces, bracelets and rings. They like anything that sparkles, but know better than to wear anything actually luxurious as it's likely he'll lose a few mid-flight

#fucked up when posting this one #so here's a reblog

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akaiitori · 2 months

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Reven [2024]

As loud as their feathers are bright, Reven has learned to bite and never let go. They are outspoken and passionate, willing to go to the ends of the world in pursuit of freedom for their species.

Updated design for Rev! >:) Some trivia below

Genderqueer, uses any pronoun except 'it'

A passionate artist, they focus on street art and tattoo designs. Also a decent drummer.

Well-connected, they probably know a guy for anything you need.

Blueberries are their favourite food.

Showy and loud, they are terrible at anything stealth-based.

Really good at flight, but their skill is entirely empirical. Words like 'angle of attack’ or 'drag coefficient’ are gibberish to them.

Wings are broad and short, with gentle slotting. It allows for good maneuvering while still getting to soar, though not as effectively as a vulture.

Very, very good memory!

Stands at 160cm (of pure SWAG)

Loves wearing jewelry, in particular chain necklaces, bracelets and rings. They like anything that sparkles, but know better than to wear anything actually luxurious as it's likely he'll lose a few mid-flight

#winged people #digital art #wings #feathers #illustration #original character #reference sheet #character design #vagrant skies #reven

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akaiitori · 2 months

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Burn down the sun 🔥

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akaiitori · 3 months

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Serenity

Been reworking Kaelan's character and backstory :) I had an illustration assignment pending for uni so I took the opportunity to do some concept art of him. His flight feathers are clipped here, which is why his wings look a bit smaller than usual.

The horse-goat critters are called Tercoros, they are domesticated animals that can be ridden and provide the mountain communities of Teotlanco with milk and wool. They are much slower than horses, but have better endurance and overall health (the wonders of not walking in a single finger...)

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akaiitori · 3 months

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Fortitude’s burden

I keep forgetting I have this account teehee. Here’s Ari after a workout

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akaiitori · 3 months

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Attack Dog - Rendering Breakdown

OK here's an attempt at explaining how I go with illustrations. This isn't necessarily an 'effective' way to paint, but rather it's a process to maximize my personal enjoyment. I encourage you to do the same! Find those steps you have the most fun with, and exploit the hell out of them.

For this post, I'll be going step-by-step for this illustration

1- Sketching

A Mess. I don't like making lineart unless I'm super in the mood for it. In this case, I couldn't be bothered to spend a lot of time in the sketch. I often use 3D models as a base for paintings because, if I'm making a painting I only want to paint, not to stress out on anatomy.

2- Blocking values

I only start painting with colour if I'm certain about what I want to do. In this case, I wasn't. When it comes to visual information, values (light and shadow) are more important than colour, so it's easier to block those out first than trying to improve the values in an already coloured piece.

This is a very insightful video if you want to see if a greyscale-first process could be useful for you. Marco Bucci's content in general is a treasure.

Here's a link to the head model used for light reference

3- Paintinggg hell yeah babyyyyy

Not much to say here except, look at a lot of reference. I only limit my canvas to one or two reference pics to not get it super crowded, but I'll always have more pictures open on my browser, tablet, etc.

There's this little app you can use to compile reference pics. I don't use it because the act of opening it is too much work for me but, it's a neat tool.

The main brushes I use for rendering are the following:

Regular round brush with pen-pressure opacity.

Custom triangle brush. It's just a triangle with some texture layered on.

Clip Studio Paint's textured paint. Unmodified.

Custom square brush. Same as the triangle, but it's a square.

Clip Studio Paint's gouache brush. Unmodified. Good for blending.

"Fur block-in" from this pack. Excellent for blocking in feathers.

"triple line" from this pack. Very good for adding texture.

You don't need this many brushes, but I like the variety to keep things interesting. I'd say that only #1, #2 and #7 are essential to me.

A quick trick I used for the muzzle was to make the wires with a white brush, on a layer with border effect.

I considered explaining how to shade feathers here but, it was making this post a little too long. Even more than it already is. But, let me know if a guide on drawing feathers is something you'd be interested in seeing!

4- Colours

For this one I kept it simple. I liked the values and I wanted to have a very stark contrast with the red blood. I made some quick tests with gradient maps trying out different palettes, using gradient maps and overlay layers.

While I enjoyed #1, at the end I went with #5 as it worked better narratively. The clinical white and silvery shadows give a stoic indifference to the blood, which fits with Blackbird's character.

The muzzle and situation on itself aren't a canon event happening, so it also felt more fitting to keep a more stylized 'colouring' rather than actually putting in the character's colours and scene. For this colouring, I only used a single gradient map, but it's not rare if I end up using several, placing masks for areas of different colours.

When it comes to colouring greyscales in character colours I follow a different process, for which I'll use another illustration as an example.

(this is Loketh, he belongs to my partner)

So, for this drawing I also started with a grayscale, but started adding colour in much earlier.

1- Black and white base render

2- New layer with a flat colour, put it on overlay. This will serve as a base for colouring, kinda like glazing on a canvas for a traditional painting

3- Adding character colours, in a new layer on overlay mode. You can do this in a single layer, or make new layers for each new colour. Just keep it loose, no need to add all detail yet.

4- Colouring the shadows. I used a gradient map adjustement layer, set to overlay. Made the lights green, and the shadows purple.

5- Flatten and paint! Now this is the step to add all intricate colour details missing from step 3.

5- Post-Processing

This is a term more used in 3D renders, where it refers to colour corrections and final tweaks. Things like adding depth of field, motion blur, vignette, any final filter.

For almost all my art I'll add a grainy noise layer and chromatic aberration, I just think it looks neat. You can also add paper textures or flat colours on top of you image and set that layer to overlay, it helps to tie everything together.

AND THAT'S ITTT

I hope this was useful, and remember to just have fun with it :)