Renji -- Title page of 173

[Sakura Kaijuu]

I saw this pic and decided I needed to draw it. It's the title page of 173. I know that Rukia was originally part of the picture, but I a) only wanted Renji, and b) was afraid that if I put Rukia in the drawing that it would ruin the composition. She would've just been a face in the lower right-hand corner. That wouldn't have been cool at all.

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2218/renji074bk.th.jpg (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=renji074bk.jpg)

I spent most of last night on it, from about 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. The tattoos on Renji's arms and back are a bitch to draw...

[GradeSchoolNinja]

That's just...awesome. Seriously, I couldn't tell if it was your drawing or that you Photoshopped Rukia out of the cover until I looked closely. That's how good it is.

[Sakura Kaijuu]

Thanks! :laugh The only thing I did to it once I took a picture of it was make it smaller and a little darker because the black in the image looked kind of gray.

This was the labor of many hours of meauring using Renji's head as a basic reference of length. This is also the first time I've drawn Renji from a direct reference, and one of the only times I've drawn a character from the back. I'm very happy with it. :laugh

[Yondy]

Awesome :kthumb

Shading, inking...perfect!

[Slips]

Wheres that dam amazed smiley gone. Ah here it is :amazed :amazed :amazed

One of the best sketches ive seen for a long long time. Stunning job

*Rep worthy*

ekk post 666 evil :P

[GradeSchoolNinja]

Do you have any other artwork up, Sakura Kaijuu?

[Brandt]

Damn, that's pretty sweet. Awesome stuff! :thumbs

[Sakura Kaijuu]

Do you have any other artwork up, Sakura Kaijuu?

Aww...I feel loved... :laugh

Anyway, I have two other threads in the Bleach Fanart Section, and in the Artist's Gallery I have some things of original work (one of which is the comic hidden by the spoiler tag in my sig). I haven't done a lot of copy-art lately though. Ooh...Except on my bookcase I'm painting a picture of Ichigo, and I'm planning on putting more stuff on there. I don't have time to post them now, but I promise that in a couple hours I'll post something.

I'd do it now but I'm going to a nerd party. I'm all anime'd out. Mostly Naruto, but I have CCS and FMA dolls in my pockets. After that it's off to a masquerade party where I'll be wearing a seventies dress. :amuse

[RockLee]

I lol'd at your comic.

I'm amazed a lot by the quality of the inking. I draw covers and scenes at times, as you do, but I never ink, for fear of fucking up. :P

So, uhhhhhh, how do you ink?

[Sakura Kaijuu]

I drew this on bristol board, and I only lightly outlined where the hatched areas were supposed to be. I used a Pigma Micron 02 (3 mm) archival ink pen to outline everything, and then did all the little hatching. Then I waited a couple minutes before I erased (I have been foiled by smearing before...:notrust ).

Then I used a Prismacolor doubletip black marker and just colored everything with the thick side. That took forever because for some reason it went on in really light layers. Then I used the fine tip side to do the general outline. This morning I looked at it and it was still kind of gray, so I went over the black again.

After that I did the hair. I'm mostly happy with it, but it probably would have been better if I had used a straight edge for uniformity.

For the most part, inking is a matter of patience and hoping you don't screw it up. If you look closely, there are a couple places in this image where I slipped up. If you take your time and don't think about it too much (that can be a fatal mistake...) then it should turn out fine. If I think about it being ink and being permanent, I find myself getting shaky.

Remember not to go too hard with the pencil, or the ink won't reach to the paper and you'll have a higher chance of having it smear when you try to erase. And if you're using normal paper don't go crazy with erasing. You could crumple the paper by accident...I've done that...

I think I made that sound way more complicated than it is. Oh well. :laugh

[kknaruto24]

wow awsome job

[Motoko]

Great one!

[HugeGuy]

You drew this? Awesome!!!

[Helba]

Thumbs up and saves on hard drive

[Sakura Kaijuu]

You drew this? Awesome!!!

Damn straight I did. :laugh

I showed it to my drawing teacher and he said it was awesome and my composition of it was awesome. My reaction:

Sweeeeeeeeeet...:grin

I also have the coolest drawing teacher in the world with a healthy appreciation of anime (his favorite series is Hikaru no Go). So when he said we were going to do master copies, I asked if I could do something anime, and he said sure. So here's what I've got so far. :laugh

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1349/ichigorenji017hp.th.jpg (http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ichigorenji017hp.jpg)

For those of you who don't know the reference image:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/2158/group290ed.th.jpg (http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=group290ed.jpg)

I'm only drawing Renji and Ichigo. When I initially went to print it out of photoshop, it gave me a really interesting crop of Renji and Ichigo, so that's the one I used. If you look at it, you can see that Renji is bigger than Ichigo, but fortunately, compositionally it still works.

I'll post it when it's done too. :amuse

[zizou]

omg.... congratulation! It's really amezing! Excellente work! =D

[Pepé Le Pew]

Damn...thats freakkin awesome!:Gaipose