My first Tablet sketch.

When I first purchased my (ultra cheap and local) drawing tablet in February, the first thing I ever did with it was to trace an image of Saber from the Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Visual Novel.

Original Wallpaper of Saber. There was a similar scene in the original "Fate/Stay Night" Novel

I used Adobe Illustrator CS 4 to do the tracing process. That time, it took me about an hour, but that time, I felt very satisfied with what I had done.

My Tracing for the above wallpaper.

However, do note that this is probably the most lousy trace you'd come across on the net. :-/ The lines are not clean and there are too many minor errors. In other words, this isn't something one would sit to seriously color. But yes, I have to admit, even tracing out many images is fun. It is hard work to do it nicely and professionally, but still, it's fun :)

The next image I traced was of a Wallpaper from "Jigoku Shoujo" (or Hell Girl).

Original Wallpaper of Enma Ai.

My (well) traced version. It's PNG. You can download and try coloring it yourself if you want ;)

In this trace, I specially tried to make sure the lines were cleanly done and that it was colorable. The complete tracing process alone took me about 3 hours, and the hairs were the toughest thing I had to tackle in this wallpaper. I even tried to color it, but then I was stumped when I had to do a background and work on highlights... -___- Copying things is turning out to be pretty hard work, I can only imagine how difficult it is going for me to make my own original creations... but I'm actually looking forward to that challenge.

The only trace that I've managed to color myself is this one. Also right now, I've traced an image of Belladandy and her two sisters (from the series Oh! My Goddess). I've already done the base coloring, but because I had some greeting cards to make for my friends upon their request, I couldn't quiet pick it up to completion. But I will complete it and post it on my blog :D

Belladandy and Her two sisters. More about them later. Color them if you want ;)

5 Weeks Later...

I originally wrote this as a facebook note. Here it is, in blogger where it should really be. Somehow, I don't like the Facebook notes thing. :-/ I have just copied and pasted the whole thing. Just remember while reading this, that this was originally written on May 10, 2011. This is the date that actually came 5 weeks later...

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For the past 5 or so weeks, I've been giving 15 to 20 minutes daily trying to "Cel shade" a Sketch. The sketch isn't entirely my own original creation. I was watching the opening sequence of some animated series (it was "AIR"). I came across a scene where a girl was spreading out her arms. I took a snapshot and then decided to remake this in my way...

TV Original

Yes... easier said than done... specially by a guy who still isn't comfortable with digital inking and coloring...
Nonetheless, I accepted this challenge I put myself through... and then traced out the girl and the birds... or some birds... I couldn't do all of them... using Adobe Illustrator. I finally had this.

Traced in Adobe Illustrator

Things going nicely so far. But then I realized how difficult coloring was. I had to read and learn a lot of theory (yes... UPTU grade theory) on coloring, mixing and cel shading. I tried applying it on this outline, and somehow, it worked.
Many Many days later, I finally had this.

Colored version 1

But I realized the hair was too flat. On comparing with the Original, I find that I haven't outlined the hairs properly... :-/ It's an ultimate proof of either my carelessness or laziness... oh well... I draw the outlines in photoshop itself (instead of Illustrator) My untidy and unstable work is evident now...

Colored version with messy hair outlines...

Upto this point, I was coaxing myself for not being good enough with coloring and sketching. I told myself that cel shading is difficult and needs hard work... But what I found really really difficult and time consuming was the background. It's not easy to paint clouds realistically and above all - Beautifully. I had a lot of problems doing the clouds. I mostly copied the pattern of the original image. But this drove me nuts... Still I was able to make something.

My Final Version with these... umm... clouds.

I've done even a more lousy job with the background. The colors are out of control... the "Glare" effect is done badly... and the clouds look so... so... errmm... I don't even have the proper word to describe it's incompleteness or unrealism.

To conclude this note, I think I've learnt many new things in Photoshop and Illustrator alike, but above all... I realized I've a long way to go before I even dream of becoming a pro in digital arts... :-/
5 Weeks later... I feel morbidly discouraged... T__T

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And thus, this concludes what I posted on facebook a long time ago. Well, this was my first attempt at coloring a complete frame myself. It was hard work...

P.S. - Yes, despite my negative post on Facebook, I did receive a lot of encouragement. Thus, I'm now in lookout for some more interesting frames that i can remake... :D