Suuper's Artworks & Illustrations

[Echo_River]

CHIBI!! She’s so cute =w= Her form and proportions look good!
Liking the look of the clothing wrinkles too c: not too detailed but believable

[Suuper-san]

thanks! believable clothing was what I was aiming for, as much as I would like to add more details I just haven't learnt them yet XD

[Suuper-san]

I managed to do another set of 12, but it was a bit of a struggle. Well, drawing past 9pm is a bit of a recipe for failure, but they turned out passable enough.
247/365



ALSO: Out of sheer chance, I was re-reading this thread and realized that today marks exactly 1 year since I started my new WIP processing workflow/concept, so happy Wip-versary to me!
Click here to see the first finished WIP I posted!
Wow the time has gone fast this time indeed, probably because I've kept myself very busy. A whole third of the comments on this 8 year old thread were made in the last year, which is a testament to my (and everyone who commented) increased activity.

I think a speech is in order, well, some thoughts on how it has gone since I started.

• As with most of my regimes/challenges/workflows, I found the way I processed my sketches changed with time and experience. It's good to be flexible to be able to adjust to new ideas and workflows, and not be too rigid, because that can prevent you working at your maximum.
• I have definitely found true the statement I made a while back, that "you can only improve what you have actually done, so just do anything and it's better than nothing, and you can improve it". I didn't realize how profound that was at the time, as later I found that doing another iteration over any sketch resulted in even more detailed and precise works.
• I am very glad I discovered this whole WIP business, and it amazes me that I didn't realise it sooner, given that a lot of artists do this (although not probably to the mass level that I do). Maybe that's because I was working digitally similar to how I work traditionally, with a pen which I can't erase. So a lack of knowledge/understanding with using the tools at my disposal was partly to blame I think. Also I liked to treat a sketch like a project – don’t have too many open at one time, so once a sketch was drawn, that was it and I moved on. I shudder to think what would have happened (or rather what wouldn't have happened) if I didn't realize this new workflow.
• I have overcome a large amount of "anxiety" towards finishing off my artworks. I don't know if this is partly because I have gained in confidence or not, but I'm sure part of it is related to not worrying about having to finish the artwork all in one go, just one level, so I relax more, and produce better work because of it.
• Something that I found difficult was choosing which WIPs to work on next, as I sort of wanted to do them all justice, but I also needed to have some "sacrificial pieces" to actually improve my skill on first. I got over this by having a simple random image picker (that I programmed), that will pick a certain number of random images from a folder. Because "it" is choosing for me, I felt that "I" wasn't making that decision, and so I didn't have any regrets if the images chosen were ones that I liked. I’m hoping I can take a similar idea to work on my one-shot manga ideas, to stop me from treating them all like precious seeds and just water a bunch and let them grow.
• I try and treat almost all of my WIPs as experimental/practice pieces (in an attempt to reduce the pressure to draw well), and keep a few favorites in a separate folder for when I'm feeling extra confident. Otherwise, I try and keep focused on the future skill that I will be gaining, and any image drawn badly, or drawn well, doesn't matter as long as I am learning and improving.
• Efficiency has always been an important part of my art, and well, my life. So I try and balance detail and accuracy, with time and energy. Having the WIPs sorted into different types and stages helps to work out how much detail is necessary and each stage (no point drawing detailed frills on a thumbnail sketch for an extreme example). Originally my stages were not very well defined, and I was producing linearts that really needed another layer of detail and fixing, but I think I've finally managed to balance the (currently 4) stages: thumbnailing, concept/sketch, cleaned/resolved, lineart.
• I found, and still do find, that my creativity drops when I am trying to be more precise. I think this won't always be the case, but while I am learning, it takes a lot of effort to both think of a creative idea, and also to draw an idea accurately. So doing both at the same time generally doesn't work. So being as creative as possible in the earlier thumbnailing and sketching stages (when I don't need accuracy) means when I get to cleaning up the sketch, I have a creative idea already in front of me, and I can focus on accurately drawing it.
• Related to the above point, I also found that when working on a handful of sketches, it was hard to come up with original poses or costumes, and they all seemed similar. However, I didn’t have this problem when doing the 1000 figure regime, which made me realise that when you are immersed in an area, you are able to be more creative in it. I then broke down my stages into different layers of processing, so rather than working on an image, improving it, then moving onto the next, I went through each of them and drew the pose, then went through each of them and drew the face, then looped again for the clothes, details, props, background etc. This extra level of focus on each type of detail made it much easier to come up with more variety and to be more creative, because I’m thinking about the subject for much longer rather than keeping jumping from pose to clothing to next pose to next clothing etc.
• Generally speaking, the average time taken to deal with the different stages has increased since a year ago. I'm thinking that's probably because I'm adding more details, or being more precise when drawing. Once again I am forced to admit that good art takes time, as much as I hate the idea.
• All this processing of my older WIPs has been, and still is, a huge undertaking, that really only started because I felt guilt tripped by my past self for never finishing all those sketches and ideas that I had. So it has slowed down my schedule quite a bit but it has cleared a lot of mental baggage, and given me a lot of nice sketches to show for it. So my confidence for future projects has increased quite a bit, and I have a bulletproof workflow to handle it.
• As you all know, I love statistics, and something I am looking forward to very much is working on manga pages in the same WIP processing format, to see how a page compares to an individual sketch, and how long it takes me to produce pages. That will help me to see if I actually have the time to produce a serial manga regularly for, say, a year. Or I will be able to work out the size of the manga that I CAN produce.

My major goal of processing 1000 WIPs has progressed quite far:
(The top two are actually the same type of stage so really they only needed to get to 500 each but never mind)

Headshots that I have added a body:	841/1000
Rough sketches that I have added details:	804/1000
Sketches I have cleaned/resolved:	330/1000
Clean sketches I have inked:	99/1000
Linearts I have coloured:	34/1000

Once they all reach 1000 then I will have produced 1000 coloured finished illustrations.
Taking my current averages to predict the amount of time remaining results in just over 27 months-worth of work. Bearing in mind that I have been spending my time doing 1000x regimes as well as countless studies, that's not such a bad figure. I doubt I'll get to colouring 1000 to be honest (at least, not "short-term"), so ignoring the colouring brings the estimate to 13 months which is not bad at all (if my colouring speed increases then the estimate will improve anyway, but it's the hardest and longest stage).
Regardless of numbers, I've got a lot of work ahead of me, of all sorts. Even when I finish something, another task or project will take its place so it's a never ending cycle.

Goodnight MR and thanks for listening!

[Suuper-san]

Oh I figured out why lately it's been taking longer to do these sketches - I added a couple of extra steps to increase the quality XD

Originally it was:
Body-Face-Clothes-Hair
But I changed it to:
Body-Face-Clothes-Details-Hair-Body Redraw
so of course it would take longer
drawing the body twice is once for the clothes to have a guideline, and finally just redrawing the parts that are visible (face/hands etc)
that way the body guidelines don't show up and confuse my when I am inking, and give me a final chance to fix details before inking.
the details stage give me a change to add stuff like patterns and frills to make my drawing less generic (I do this step twice)

259/365

[Walter B]

NIce attire! The shoes are good.

[Suuper-san]

@WalterB thanks! I'm working on improving my shoes so glad they look nice. It helps being able to draw feet correctly as well I think :P

271/365
worst ovals of my life in retrospect. good job it's not final :P

[Echo_River]

Woooo! Happy WIP-versary suuper! c: It's been amazing seeing all the work you put into your drawings.
Creativity dropping when trying to be accurate/precise is a good point.
I like the look of the darker lines in the second last drawing. And great to see different body angles. Keep it up!

[Suuper-san]

@echo thanks v.much :P
yeah I'm always thinking when I'm drawing so I end up having lots of revelations and eureka moments XD
generally darker lines is where I was more confident. When I get to lineart hopefully it'll all be confident XD

latest again, managed to do some drawing before work today :)
283/365

[Suuper-san]

well I feel kinda rubbish.
not unexpectedly, since my Nan passed away yesterday, for those that haven't read the chat thread.

did some copying for a change. they're faint because I was drawing extra lightly.

Spoiler

and finished sketching 12 WIPs, not cleaned so they don't count for my regime.
I noticed that a few felt like they were ready to be cleaned without a finishing step, so I think my workflow stages have shifted slightly since May when I did the 1000 finished WIPs. Also I feel a lot more confident. I'm definitely thinking I'm improving, especially looking at my old linearts from Jan/Feb, I think I've got a lot better in the last 6 months, but until I make some linearts or final pieces I've not got anything concrete to compare.
Also I originally started working with my really OLD WIPs, which were extra poor proportions and needed extra layers of work, and I don't think the sketches I produce now need the same level of adjustments, so I can skip the fixing proportions step. In a year or so I think it will have evened itself out a bit better, as the older WIPs get processed out of the way, and my workflow will be a bit more stable.

see in this example, I actually spent less time the second time round than the first sketch, and most today were like that, like they didn't need fixing hardly at all. So now I have to re-sort my drawings AGAIN. *sigh*

[Walter B]

Nice to see al those different hair styles. Could be used as hair reference.

[Echo_River]

@Suuper Nice sketches. I really like how natural the hair looks with all the separate little strands.
It's great that you're feeling more confident! Keep up the good work c:

[Suuper-san]

@WalterB thanks! Well they are copies so I suppose they already got used as reference? haha

@Echo thanks! I'm hoping that I can pick up some tips for when I draw the hair styles from scratch. there seem to be so many different ways of drawing things that my own style seems to be lost in a sea of possibilities. very much "the fox and the cat" fable.

Anywho I managed to unlock a new drawing ability by shifting my creativity to its maximum and my accuracy to it's minimum. I must come up with a cool name for it. Well, it's just thumbnailing haha
It's a lot easier to come up with an idea when you arent bothered about the accuracy or proportions at all. Back in my old drawing days, when I never finished a drawing, it had to be good then or never, so I was always too focused on getting it right, to get it good. Now I know with certainty that I will fix and finish the sketches that I produce, so I can be more creative in turn.
As far as I can tell no-one has ever mentioned this sort of thing as advice for artists, so maybe it's only applicable for someone like me, who has difficulty focusing and overthinks everything.

reminds me a bit of something Lego would draw XD


on reflection my life simply isn't long enough to handle too many of these 1000x regimes haha should really start some stories soon....

I've got some masterpiece artworks lined up because I have no idea what my top level is at the moment and it's been at least a year since I was "serious", and even then I didn't have this whole processing levels thing going on.

PS also I've been doing more programming lately (not the VN, sorry!)
I'm making a CAD program, because, I don't really know why, because it's difficult I guess?
I've gone past 18 A4 pages of notes like this and still the entire thing is a mystery to me XD
I'm past 4000 lines of code which is nice but not a metric for achievement nor progression unfortunately :P

Spoiler

[Ryan]

I can relate to the idea that there are "so many different ways of drawing things." One of the elements of style is that the work (for example, a manga series) appears to be drawn by the same person throughout.

The way to go about creating that feeling of consistency (thus, style) is by running your own filter on top of new material. Essentially, you're giving birth to the newly acquired drawing skills under your own roof.

What you're doing in this process is essentially combining two aesthetics together. Which side comes out greater ("you" or the foreign/not-your interpretation) is not too important. As long as the outcome is at least still 20-30% you, I think it will "read" as your art.

Determining your style filter is no easy feat. For a long time, I was waiting to find something that I thought would stand above everything else. Something I liked so much that I would never be swayed to considering or seeing the beauty/value of another style.

This superior existence, in my opinion, simply doesn't exist. It's similar to trying to find a romantic partner that is *perfect* for you—somebody that you couldn't help but love. Somebody that draws the love out of you.

But, that kind of love is only on the surface. You could call it puppy love. I can't even count the amount of times I've been in puppy love with a style. It just never lasts though.

Instead, I think now that style is something that you cultivate. You literally create the destiny of your own style. If you choose something and move towards that direction, you will end up creating the feeling that it was your destiny all along.

People like to think that someone out there is their "soulmate." In reality, there are many suitable partners. The same applies to style. Don't get caught up with trying to find the right one. Pick something you like, but it doesn't need to be something you know to like above anything else. Dedicate yourself. We create the destiny of style through the efforts we make. If you can keep making effort in the direction you're moving, keep moving forward in that direction.

[Suuper-san]

thanks for your comment :)

It's not so much consistency that I'm worried about, although that is a pain anyway, but more that I love so many styles that I can't pick one!!!
At one point I did have the thought "I want to have my own unique style", but along the way it's diverged into "I want to have so many styles and copy-styles that I get accused of stealing work". To me, it's doing the things that are the hardest that give me the greatest fulfillment, so I think I'm likely to lean towards copying other artists styles (not their actual art!) exactly, at least for part of my work. I don't know if I want to give my own flare to it, or copy it perfectly, but I'd love for someone to say "hey that's [artist name]'s work you thief!!!!" XD
but equally I want to have a few different styles that are my own, developed from zero with planning and thought. Like I sit down and say "Ok today I'm going to add a new style to my portfolio", and just keep sketching and changing stuff until I like what I see
that sort of deviated from what I was trying to say but that's my thoughts

Yeah I totally agree on the "one perfect style" not existing, since at least a while ago I've wanted to have multiple styles, especially for drawing in different genres of manga. ie Ajin style vs lucky star style - both are great because they fit the genre.

I think my style will come naturally once I get my proportions and other basic concepts down a bit better, as part of a style is drawing proportions the same way, and I can't draw proportions any right way yet lol
same with shading and folds in clothing, you need to understand the fundamentals to give it your own twist. At least I want my style to be based in realism, even if I play around with the proportions afterwards and end up with a chibi.

my plan for getting a style will most likely come as a training regime, where I will pick a past drawing of mine which I like the style and say "ok this is now my only style", develop it and then draw 100 illustrations in that style.
I have about 10 different distinct styles from my past artworks that could be a nice base for a permanent style but I'm probably going to focus on fundamentals first. within a year I might have started on a personal style but we'll see :P

edit: finished a bunch of sketches.



I'm gonna be busy for the next couple of weeks until probably the second week of September, so if I'm AWOL, that's why :P

[Suuper-san]

301/365
nearly done. quality varying like anything though :P
Also all the close work lately is starting to hurt my eyes, need to rest more.