For the first time in over one month, I once again drew something digitally. And that's a feat for me, considering the art slump I'd been in, and the sort of schedule I have lived by.
To get me going, I once again participated in ArtPark's Anime DTIYS challenge on Noise.Cash. Every week, the ArtPark engages its members in challenges, mostly DTIYS of anime randomly selected. I've joined in on the fun quite a few times, and the prior week just had to have any Rurouni Kenshin characters as the main subject.
Rurouni Kenshin
My earliest memories of the anime was around 4 years old. It showed locally in the afternoon, and my sister used to be a big fan. I would watch it when she would, but I couldn't really remember much of it except for Kenshin's red hair, and Yahiko's and Sanosuke's character designs. Don't ask me why I couldn't remember Kaoru at the time... she just didn't. LOL.
Eventually, it re-aired once again when I was around 11 years old in another local channel, and it was at 7:30 PM. I religiously followed the series, making sure no to miss an episode. I really appreciated the story and the characters. And yes, this time, Kaoru did leave significant impressions to me.
I wouldn't forget that one time in 5th grade (I think), when my big sister and her friends decided to gather up and I was, for some reason, pulled in. When it was apparent it would continue into the late night, I almost grovelled to go home because I was sure to miss a Rurouni Kenshin episode. It was the height of the Shishio arc, and I was really in a sour mood when we arrived home and I was greeted with the ending credits.
Drawing the Battousai
ArtPark members were free to choose who to draw, but I chose Kenshin, the Battousai himself. He was a very impressive character. I don't think anyone could possibly hate him (if there were some, I'm sure it's not hate hate).
I started drawing without really knowing what I was going for. I ended up looking at Pinterest for potential reference and ended up using a Live Action scene for the artwork.
I was thinking about going for the pastel route, as I realized it would be interesting. However, it was a lot more difficult than I realized, and ended up doing it my own style.
It was during the part that I was done drawing and painting Kenshin that I had a lot of difficulty. I was supposed to draw red poppies, but... I eventually got bored. LOL. It seems that drawing flowers still don't sit well with me so I had to recycle the spider lilies from an old drawing.
Yep, the red spider lilies in this Kenshin drawing were recycled from this particular drawing. LOL.
I was going for flowers that mean death, as the anime and manga generally revolve around this subject, and red spider lilies are widely used to symbolize this. OK, so there are flowers. And there's this awkwardly put pink background.
For me, it wasn't going well.
So I had to think hard. Was there anything that would fit this kind of atmosphere? In the end, I decided to draw a background. I was not sure how I was going to do this in Medibang, but I sure knew how I used to draw backgrounds like this with Photoshop's pen tool and eraser tool.
With my dying personal laptop (I still haven't got a new, more powerful one), I drew in the background. I had to download free tree brushes, though. I couldn't decide what kind of colors would fit the background, so I played around with the hues for a while.
Finally, below is another version of the drawing, with a differently colored background. :) I'm an indecisive person, so I decided to just put this one out here, too.
Notes
I sure hope I'd get to draw again soon! TTYL! :)
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