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maiji · 8 months

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fight / flight part 3 thumbnails and page sketches

This is the behind the scenes work-in-progress overview for fight / flight part 3!

I feel like I’ve exhausted my current level of ability to compose and draw fight sequences. It was a struggle, to say the least! But it was also a lot of fun and deeply satisfying when I figured out how to get (something close to) the effect I wanted to achieve. I started the thumbnails and page sketches in early August and worked on it intermittently, with a chunk of about a week or two where I got most of the pages inked (on the computer). Then it was more intermittent progress until this past weekend when I finally powered through the rest!

All sketches of the pages are below the cut, spoilers for Part 3 progress.

With regards to the thumbnails versus the final pages:

I learned from last time and did my thumbnails bigger (2x2 instead of 3x3 a page) so that I can better compose the sequences and tell what the heck is going on.

You can see I actually started the first page as Hokushin stretching his arms out to grab for both swords. At some point I decided to then squeeze another page in before that one, giving a bit of a pause for Hokushin to collect himself before he charges at Otake. The goal was to build up that scene a bit more. The text on page 16’s thumbnail reads “slowly getting up first?” and I think we lost the sense of that in the page by itself, but the reader can (hopefully) make that connection in their brain when actually reading from Part 2 to Part 3 without a break). The important thing is that still maintains the pause, so.

Page 18, the head-on charging page. I was already thinking about this moment back in 2021 - it’s the test panel here of Hokushin crying with rage/despair as he attacks Otake. It seems like a no brainer now that this section is done, but when I first started scripting/thumbnailing, I actually wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to work in the scene. But I did it! It’s just drawn from a slightly different angle and with more details only possible now that I’ve gone through this part of the story, which I think works better to convey the forward momentum.

Page 19 is pretty much exactly as I thumbnailed. I was very happy with this page and the dialogue! Also it was lots of facial closeups so that is always a joy/relief to draw, hahaha.

Page 20 also pretty much as I thumbnailed

Pages 21-23 were the most difficult and last pages I finished. This is mainly because I didn’t figure out the panelling on page 21 till the very end. That page was very tight, trying to pack in an eventful but short sequence of Otake getting more injured, dropping his sword, and doing some sort of attack that would land Hokushin on the ground. At the last second, when I was pretty much done inking everything else, I came up with the idea of basically smacking Hokushin across the head hard enough to flip him over - and snap his neck, if he weren’t a rokurokubi. (I always like to take advantage of opportunities in the story that highlight Hokushin's stretchy nature.) Then I had to redraw a batch of panels on the following page to make it better follow the motion. I still think it could use more work, but short of reworking a lot more - it is what it is, which is done!

Pages 24, 25 also pretty much the same.

Other thoughts:

Continuity was a challenge. I kept forgetting what damage Hokushin and Otake had already sustained and had to keep going back to retouch pages. In fact, after I reposted to tumblr (which I usually do last, after waiting a day or so in case I catch more errors I want to fix before sharing it there), I then realized I had forgotten to draw all of Hokushin's upper arm injuries from Part 2, sighed and reopened the files to blob some more blood on him. I also realized some of his facial injuries/cuts are not technically rendered the same but at this point it really is a "probably only I would notice if I didn't say anything about it" so eh. May the record of this inconsistency serve to educate lol.

Had a bit of a hard time trying to get Tomoe Gozen to look on-model from how I drew her in Survive.

I am very grateful for splatter brushes. Splatter splatter wheee. There’s a fine balance of… finding the balance though, as I found sometimes the blood splatters got in the way of actually seeing and conveying the impact of the action. But between blood splatters and speed lines that helped a lot with creating a sense of action and FIGHT without having to draw every single blow.

I’m still not entirely happy with the finished pages. Currently the thing that’s still bothering me is Hokushin’s position on page 23, in terms of the angle he’s lying at and how far he is from Otake. At one point I debated even repositoning them so that Tomoe was stepping over Hokushin to block Otake, instead of standing in front of Hokushin. But I don’t want to redraw the rest of that page because getting Tomoe Gozen’s pose looking decently believable took me a lot of wrangling, haha.

Here are all of the page sketches - without the text.

[Image set follows, showing the rough sketch stage for all 10 pages in part 3 of fight / flight.]

A few more things to note:

On the opening page, you can see that there is a panel of Hokushin taking a step towards Otake that I dropped. It seemed to interrupt/disrupt down the pace between this and the next page in a way I didn’t feel was effective.

On page 22, the angle of Hokushin crashing into Otake is a lot more extreme/exaggerated, but when I started inking it ended up looking a bit ridiculous, so I rotated them to a more conventional angle.

Here are the two panels for page 22 top left that I had finished and then decided to completely re draw after figuring out the progress of page 21. You can see Hokushin has landed on his back instead and dramatically coughs up some blood. (Then I was like, "Oh I made him do that in Part 2 already. Seems redundant.") His landing also didn't make sense anymore with the action/impact coming from the side in the previous page.

Phew! Part 4 will have a lot less people whacking each other with swords and a lot less Hokushin being flung around. Thankfully!

#yu yu hakusho #hokushin #otake #wip #sketches #thumbnails #comics #fancomic #making art #making comics #comics process #yyh north bound #art by maiji/mary huang

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hexfloog · 3 years

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Draft version here!!

After taking my heart around the WORLD (see: how I thought I had lost a whole entire month's work after the master file exploded one night) this is done at long last, and I am so so happy with how it came out kdhsgds

Technically a redraw/reinterpretation of my favorite panel in Magic Kaito Volume 2 (from "The Boy Who Bet on the Ball") which made its way to this stage after I listened to The Phoenix about 745 times--

Some more thoughts below the break, spoiler warnings for Magic Kaito 1412:

At this point in time, I don't have much to postulate about Kaito like I do Shinichi... but given they're basically two sides of the same coin, I'm sure I'll eventually have more to say about him once I'm more caught up on everything. I did finish Magic Kaito 1412 a couple of days ago but, sadly, thought it fell short except for the two seconds they use to tease me about magic lore and the apparent RIVALRY between genuine magic users and magicians-- *EXPLODES*

To its credit, I did enjoy a few things about the show-- there were some isolated scenes which tickled me, maybe a few arcs which captured my interest, and of course the implication that Supernatural Elements do indeed exist in the background of the DCMK universe-- but generally I think it's done better and far more effectively on the DC side. Kaito is, in my opinion, a character who works best when shrouded in mystery, and it's just harder to keep the audience guessing when he's the protagonist of his own show. His presence in DC feels much more impactful because it's both waaay more restrained-- in a "less-is-more" kind of way, I mean-- and is also bolstered by the relationship he has with Shinichi/Conan as the Frenemy, the Foil, etc (something which, although present, I still found to be woefully absent in Magic Kaito 1412).

Once or twice I did find the imagery quite poignant. Kaito's world is clearly meant to be taken much more lightheartedly than that of Shinichi's (it's a fun romp in general), so... perhaps ironically, the darker moments do hit a little harder when they come. Instances which come to mind are the final exchange with Chat Noir, the encounter with "Toichi" --that was 100000% a Real Ghost btw, I refuse to budge on this-- and the brief moment when he wonders out loud whether the KID charade is all there is for him in life. Respectively, they all evoke motifs of empathy, grief, and futility, the last of which is the strongest in my mind-- themes which, naturally, are barely explored in official content. Imposters hold some presence in MK also, but they hit as less thematic elements than in DC and more of a gimmick that's either played for laughs or as a segue into other themes ("Legacy," perhaps? Kaito's motives for emulating his father in both civilian and underground life certainly offers a little food for thought).

I don't really know where I was going with this Ted Talk this time, lol. I haven't thought about/been exposed to enough Kaito to confidently know what I think about him, so maybe this is a start...? He takes a very different path than Shinichi in his revenge story, which automatically makes him intriguing since Kaito is very much a sinner to Shinichi's "sainthood" (and I have expressed before that I would like to see more of Shinichi as a sinner). And I do like him even without that comparison! My thoughts on this in particular are not very fleshed-out. His story captivates me in itself, and perhaps the fact that there exists disproportionately fewer, official Kaito-centric developments is what keeps me wanting to pour thought into him... ironically, going right back to the whole "less is more" meta appeal, ahaha

#art #detective conan #dcmk #magic kaito #kaito kid #kaitou kid #kuroba kaito #kuroba kaitou #kaito kuroba #kaitou kuroba #phantom thief #phantom thief 1412 #magic kaito 1412 #internal screaming hours #mind this is coming from someone who has seen a grand total of like... 6 DC kaito appearances so far rip rip rip #pls be gentle lol

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ivory-sunflower · 3 years

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Arty Art Things ✨

Hellooo!

I've decided to post some of the arty things I've done either recently or in the last few years, well the pieces I'm somewhat proud of at least. All my posts tend to be a lot more wordy than they need to be but hey it's what I do here!

Conchúr White

Anyone one who's been on this blog for a bit will have probably have seen me talk about this lovely Irish fella. The pencil drawing is actually a year old as of yesterday, I only know that because screenshots of me flipping out about Conchúr following me on twitter popped up in my memories yesterday. I think I'd sent it to him at about 3 in the morning (I was not in a good head space at that point in time), so probably not what he was expecting to see when he opened his phone in the morning aha

The biro version is much more recent: I got bored while sat at my desk and doing research about university courses, saw a biro, saw my old drawing of Conchúr, had an idea. I revisited my GCSE art techniques and here we are. Again, I put this up on Twitter and now (at the the time I'm writing this) when you google "Conchúr White" it's the third top image of him which is a bit mad really. I think I spent all of about 20 minutes on Conchúr but another 45 minutes on the words behind him. The words are the names of the songs on his EP 'Bikini Crops', he doesn't just really love the idea of Channing Tatum driving him around at night in a daisy print bikini... Well maybe he does but what he does in his spare time is none of my business...

TechDif

So I mentioned that the pencil drawing of Conchúr came from a rough patch in my mental health and this one is no different! In fact this one came from an even worse circumstance so we love to see it. I had a bad, bad time in July and this started as a way of distracting myself from what was going on in my head. Without it, I can't honestly say I'd still be here so even if the final product of this had been a terrible mess I would still love it for keeping me alive. However, it did not turn out to be a terrible mess!

Now that the origin of this is out the way, where do I start with TechDif? Unlike Conchúr, I haven't really talked about them on here (unless you count one brief post about Citation Needed) before so I guess I'll do it here. The Technical Difficulties are a wonderful group of 4 British fellas who have had their fair share of fun online and even before. They did a radio show at university together, which went on to become their Reverse Trivia Podcast, later moving on to a panel show called 'Citation Needed': and a game called 'Two of These People Are Lying'. All of which I would thoroughly reccomend, they're one of my go to things when I'm having a rough time. All 4 of them are excellent! Tom Scott (red top, blue jeans on the picture) has his own YouTube channel which does content aside from TechDif. If you're quite nerdy and like science, linguistics, computers, or any number of other things you may enjoy Tom's channel. He is probably best described as "The Moderator" of the group, much like a tired teacher he tries desperately to keep everyone on track with what they're meant to be doing, but usually it does not end well for him. Then we have Matt Gray (space top, holding an ice cream) who also has a channel away from TechDif stuff, he does techy electronic things and has a series called 'Will it Soft Serve?' where he puts all kinds of strange things through a soft serve machine. Matt brings a very specific energy to TechDif and I can't fully describe what that vibe is but I love it. Matt and Tom also share a YouTube channel where TOTPAL is posted and they had a series called 'The Park Bench'. Moving on to everybody's favourite Gary Brannan: Gary Brannan (SATIRE hoodie, glasses) and can I just say, what a fella he is! He's just excellent! He is the one that will argue and rip into Tom the most (not in a malicious way) and hilarity ensues. There are some episodes where he is absolutely on it, getting all the points and others where he very clearly has no idea and that's where some of his funniest quotes come from. Given how badly I was doing at the time I made this, his response to it on Twitter was so so lovely. I specifically remember one tweet where he said I'd made him happy and although it was probably a flippant comment, it just made feel alright for a bit. Yeah I might be feeling awful right now, but I've made someone else happy so that's a nice feeling. Then last but certainly not least, we have Chris Joel (buffalo check shirt, beard)! I would be lying if I said he isn’t my favourite... His sense of humor is the one I vibe with most, he can get rather dramatic in parts and can chat bollocks like a champion. He has absolutely no online presence away from TechDif and, like Rens from Temples, I fully believe he’s a cryptid and lives off in a tree somewhere.

The picture took me about 4 days to complete, well 4 nights because I did most of it between the hours of 12 a.m. and 7a.m. - I remember watching the sun come through my window each morning. It’s made up of lots of little pieces, all cut out and stuck on; even the sky and hills are made of separate pieces of paper. Nothing was actually drawn on the piece of paper it’s all stuck on, it’s not how I usually do things but if I messed up one little but I could just redraw it rather than ruining the whole thing. The most tedious parts to make were Chris’ shirt because I had to draw each square individually and then join the as well, and cutting out the ban-hammer in the bottom right was surprisingly hard. Every single detail of the picture is a reference to the podcast/shows, I still have the plan sketch and reference list knocking about somewhere. I listened to a lot of true crime videos while making it to the point that certain parts remind me of different cases: the brandy now reminds me of Peter Tobin, and the big spiral thing reminds me of Tim McLean (very harrowing case) - sorry that fact is a bit morbid but interesting nonetheless.

I did post this for a little bit back in July, but I received some rather awful messages so I took it down. Generally, Tom Scott/TechDif fans are lovely but there’s been a few that have taken a disliking to me for some reason so I’m hoping they don’t resurface again. I’m in a better head space now though, so even if they do I’m more equipped to deal with it this time.

Hozier

This was a quick sketch I did in April, I was getting bored with lockdown and decided to summon the bog man himself. There’s not really much more backstory than that, no poor mental health story, no fun twitter story - he’s just here. He’s vibing. I will say I’m particularly proud of his nose, I just think it’s one of the best noses I’ve ever drawn. His hand is okay, but I think that the hands on my Conchúr drawings are better. So there is the Hozi-Boi...

The Corpse Bry

I’ve talked about Bry on here before as well, I love him, he’s excellent, top lad. He is a living Tim Burton character, he’s 6′6, very skinny, and his legs are longer than my will to live. I was watching ‘The Corpse Bride’ a few weeks ago and suddenly had an idea and so ‘The Corpse Bry’ came to be. I gave him a little panda friend because the panda has always been his animal - he used to wear a panda beanie all the time and his album had a panda on the cover. Again, there’s not really a fun story behind this one, I guess it’s somewhat fun because it’s the first art I made after finishing my psychology exams in October so it was nice to actually have the time to draw.

James Bagshaw

Ginger talking about Temples for the third post in a row? it’s more likely than you think! I did this one last week, I’d had a bit of a wobbly day and had group therapy on Teams in the evening and I just couldn’t concentrate on what was going on and I ended up doodling Mr James E. Bagshaw, the glitter crying fraggle man himself. It’s a bare-bones drawing that I could definitely work into more but I’m happy with it as it is to be honest. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit and add the individual bits of fringe to his jacket, just thinking about doing that makes me tired. Maybe I’ll get around to drawing the whole band at some point...

Alice in “Wonderland”

This one is from about 5(?) years ago, it’s not my typical style and was a “study” based on another artists work (basically i just had to copy this fellas work). I’ll be honest, this one has a sketchy backstory that I won’t go in to because it’s not exactly a nice one, and because of that I also won’t say who the artist is that it’s based on. Despite this, I’m still really proud of this one and I’m so sad that I never got this piece back after I got taken out the class. I’ve considered trying this style again, I’ve even joked about doing another Conchúr drawing in this style as a nod to my progression through GCSE art, eventually leading to Conchúr drawn in ink on music manuscript and stained with neon paint and dyes - it would be quite the project!

So this has been quite a lengthy post so apologies about that but life goes on. Similar to the vinyl post, I’ll probably add to this as and when I make more art. Even if no one is reading these posts, I’m enjoying making them so that’s the main thing. It’s just nice to document things and the feelings that go with them. 💕

~ Love Ginger xx

29/11/2020

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just-like-playing-tag · 4 years

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A totally self indulgent compilation of my favorite works on this blog of the year June 13, 2019 - June 13, 2020

I wanted to do this for the blog's first anniversary but then completely forgot about it lol.

The following lists are all in chronological order according to the date each post was first published.

Top 10 panel edits:

#1: Don and Gilda - Chapter 138: Demon serch (1)

Date: Jun 14th, 2019

Time: ~ 1:30 h

My very first redraw from my very first edit posted here, so it deserves an honorable mention. Back then I was young and inexperienced, I didn't even apply a gray filter (lmao I was so unskilled I even unintentionally scratched the picture, I hadn't realized until today). I'm actually very happy my first redraw was of Don, boy deserves all the love.

#2: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 28th, 2019

Time: ~ 1 h

Back then this looked like so much work to me!!! And to this day, I think it turned out pretty well. I'm particularly proud of how the bow turned out. This is one I was really proud of right after having finished it; it gave me the confidence to try redrawing bigger areas. Also, the edit were I first applied the opacity of layer / opacity of brush for the gray filter that would have stuck with me.

#3: Krone's birthday edit

Date: Jul 15th, 2019

Time: 15 mins

I don't know I just really like how Krone's hair vanish to a more sketch-like style here– and consequently, how I managed to replicate such effect. I think Krone's beautiful.

#4: Emma, Norman and Ray - Chapter 153: Coward

Date: Oct 4th, 2019

Time: 4:07 h (and 67 layers lmao)

Probably the single panel redraw I'm the most proud of. That Norman panel was beautiful and very poignant at the end of a chapter I adored, so I believe it deserved all the time I've spent working on it. It's far from being perfect - the back of his head is too plain, and the difference between my brushes and the original brushes is pretty visible - but I still like it very much and am extremely attached to it. The horn looks kinda big but I honestly believe it to be more of an issue with the original than with what I had redrawn lol. Funny enough, the whole picture didn't make it to the final edit and had to be trimmed.

#5: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 11th, 2019

Time: 29 mins

I don't have a particular reason for this I just think Emma's hair turned out amazing. It took just half an hour and I didn't even use references like. Wow. @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back

#6: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 17th, 2019

Time: 2:09 h

Sis I love this so freaking much. The shift from redrawing almost exclusively people and clothes to redrawing this mess was so fun and refreshing. Even though it's a mess I think it turned out very clean and overall it looks beautiful? I remember after finishing this I felt so powerful, like now that I had redrawn this thing I would have been able to redraw anything I set my mind on lol.

#7: Emma - Chapter 161: Never Be Alone

Date: Dec 13th, 2019

Time: 57 mins

Again no particular reason except this is a very cute Emma and I think the redraw turned out pretty well. There's this big lock on the left that doesn't make a lot of sense but overall I really like it. Cute Emma is cute, and I love her determination.

#8: Emma - Chapter 166: Going Back Home

Date: Mar 9th, 2020

Time: 3:45 h

I'M SO FREAKING PROUD OF THAT RIFFLE I have not the slightlest idea why this took so damn long BUT I'M SO PROUD OF IT

#9: Norman's birthday edit

Date: Mar 21st, 2020

Time: 1:04 h

This is cool! I didn't know I could manage to draw this, but I did it! The feathers were particularly hard to clean but I think they turned out fine.

#10: Full Score Trio - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 6th, 2020

Time: 2:11 h

I just think they're very pretty? I can't understand if I like Ray's face a lot, or not at all, but I think overall there was a lot to redraw and it turned out pretty cute! Sorry Gillian.

(Also insert pretty much every panel from the chapter 177 Isabella edit– I've spent so many hours on basically every panel there's no way I could choose only one).

Top 5 edits as whole:

#1: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 29th, 2019

Complessive time: 2:57+ h

The very first edit I'm actually proud of; I'm really attached to it. It's the first edit I had put all of my effort into, and I remember feeling anxious people would have left it without notes. It kinda feels weird to think about it now, because I really don't care about notes anymore; yet, it somehow makes me happy to think that past-me wasn't let down. Thank you @neverlandstrio for your support, you may not remember but it really meant a lot to me back then! And it still makes me smile. You're the best!!!!!!

#2: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 20th, 2019

Complessive time: 7:12+ hours

This whole edit was an hella wild ride. It's midnight before a school day, when I think: "Mh, it's been a while since I last made an edit, why not make one about Musica and the queen from the last chapter?" And seven hours after this was born. I'm particularly proud of the queen's redraws on the 3rd, 7th and 9th picture (ofc), the areas which have been redrawn are pretty huge yet I think the difference with the original is almost impossible to notice?? @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back (part 2)

#3: Emma - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 12th, 2020

Complessive time: 6:53+ h

I think the panels that were selected work very well together, especially considering the close-up / full body alternation. I love Emma, and I've always been kinda sad noticing that edits that focus one her take the less notes... She deserves all the love. Also, fun fact: for the last but one panel, I had redrawn Emma's whole left ear before remembering she doesn't have one, so I had to redraw the panel from the start. Besides from the error with the ear, the reason why this (and all the others after) took so long is because official panel take way longer to clean.

#4: Isabella and her children - Chapter 177: Mother

Date: May 22nd, 2020

Complessive time: 13:41+ h (ahah.)

Lmao tbh I can't understand how this has so few notes it's like. Technically speaking, probably the best edit I've ever done. I don't even like Isabella that much, I haven't got the slightlest idea why I decided to spend so many hours on this. Anyway, I find the composition (full body on the left / headshots on the right) really good looking in this as well! And I think the redraws turned out fine, especially Isabella's.

#5: The Promised Neverland manga ending countdown→ 1/7 chapters: chapter 1 - Grace Field House

Date: Jun 9th, 2020

Complessive time: 1:59+ h

I don't know how I came up with that idea for the composition but I find it really beautiful??? I think it does a pretty good job conveying the sudden, terrific shift of atmosphere from the first chapter, and I think that sharp bridge is very nice. I'm very, very proud of this.

Honorable mention #1: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 13th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:44+ h (+ 1:13 h of working on a panel that ultimately didn't make it to the final edit)

A very good chapter, and the edit turned out surprisingly amazing??? All the redraws look great and make it almost impossible to distinguish them from the original; honestly I feel like I'll never be able to redraw so neatly again lol.

Honorable mention #2: Don and Gilda (+ Norman) - Chapter 160: Shackles

Date: Dec 11th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:14+ h

That one is really one of my favorite scenes; I'm telling you peoples, Gilda and Don are a blessing to the earth. I think I've never mentioned it, but Gilda's hair is a nightmare to redraw??? More specifically, it takes me h o u r s to fill the texture without making it look too weird, it's the worst.

Honorable mention #3: Norman and Ray - Chapter 179: Compensation

Date: Jun 6th, 2020

Complessive time: 4:16+ h

I was so glad to finally be able to make a Norman / Ray edit, and it turned out it was just in time before the series' finale. I like how it turned out and I'm pretty satisfied with the redraws (even though my sister helped me with the lineart of some panels - it was exams time and I really couldn't afford to spend more time on it), too bad we didn't have more chapters that focused on the boys. Ray sweetie one day I'll fix your ear it's just today's not that day.

Btw, I justed realized I have never done an Emma / Norman centered edit? I'll have to make one eventually. I remember considering focusing on them alone for the chapter 154 one, but then I thought "even if the manga is gonna ignore Ray, I will chose to do not" lol.