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General Art Random Paints by Charge 1

ChargewithSword

Zelda Dungeon's Critic
Joined
Jan 13, 2009
Location
I don't want to say.
suzaku__vermillion_bird_by_firemariowii-d3i2tm5.png


This is Suzaku, the vermillion bird of the south. (He is known as Suzaku in Japan; in China, it's just The Vermillion Bird.)
It is one of the four symbols of the Chinese constellation. It represents the fire element, south, and summer.


Though the bird has been illustrated multiple times, I decided to give its form my own design. I kept the colors of reddish orange as they were described but made up just about the rest from other birds I could find.

I suppose now I shall tell you the step by step details.

The design of the bird was very different originally. It more resembled all the other drawings of it, but then I did something unlike me: I made multiple designs of the bird!

At first, I believed the second draft design was going to be the finalized version, but the I gathered up the power in me to say: look at the flaws, then determine whether it is ready or not.

For once I looked at the flaws and began to hate the second design, and it was back to the drawing board again.

I didn't scrap everything though; I kept the general idea of the bird perched while looking upwards in an almost snooty rich-man fashion, since the bird is described as being this regal, and elegant being. I wanted the design to be smooth, but still holding this semblance of royalty. So the pose hasn't changed much.

The biggest flaw of the original draft were the ugly talons sticking out of it; I knew that in order to improve my talons, I had to look at birds for that. I did, and I must say that these are the best talons I've made.

So after fixing the talons, I moved on to the design of the head. I like all the designs but one which looked like some parrot who spent too much time watching Aliens.

Once design was hillarious, and I may want to use it again. It was this cool bird design with an awesome crooked beak, but the big problem was that I REALLY overdid the moustache, eyebrows, and hair on top!

Speaking of that moustache, it was actually based off the designs of great animator Don Bluth; he has a strange love for long moustaches, and I think it caught to me! Oh the horror! D:

So after I finalized this design I put it to the computer to ink it. I was originally considering using my markers to ink, but I had courage to use the Bamboo today, but it just wasn't working. That's when I looked at :TomPreston: ; he updated his Cartoonist comic with a subject on the Bamboo, and it made me keep up with the idea of using it.

Then I looked at some of his older stuff and came to a Slayers drawing, which had this link to the video I posted above. I examined the video and then began to notice some of the techniques he used.

They soon started to catch on, and before I knew it, I was coloring the thing to a wonderful extent (after I inked it with the Bamboo).

The background design was the last I thought of, which I made to resemble a Chinese painting, with the slight green hue at the top and the beige lines.

The tree is the only thing I am slightly disappointed with is the tree. It was supposed to be Bronze since I thought Gold would be too much, but it hasn't come out quite as good as I would have liked it. The one pink flower was supposed to be a fading Spring, though I'm not sure it many would catch that.

Wow, was that a word-full. I'm glad to have made this piece, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Overall, this drawing took me; 10 hours and 1 day to complete.

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blessing_upon_the_light_by_firemariowii-d3i4h4k.png


This little sketch was done as a request to my sister. She asked me to create imagery from one of her poems, and so I did.

Here is the full poem:

Love has no limits.
Pain is what we create,
limiting us to know love.
Love allows energy to flow.
Pain hinders movement.

Embrace love.
Relinquish pain.
Pain will grasp tightly unless awareness prevails.

Bring forth the light;
Darkness will vanish.

Awareness will set you free.



This took me about 3 hours tops, not including conceptualization.

This was my test with the pencil tool which explains why this went so fast. However, I don't think I'll be using it for a while.
 

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