Portraits of a drunken, cross-dressing elf (art thread)

[Kairanha]

Thanks. I was worried about it being a bit too busy since there's more going on in the scene than what I usually do.

Onto future plans that might not be turned into anything... I saw this and I thought, hey I've never drawn Kai and Kaori together and the idea of modding the image to look like them had me lulzing. Hard.



For those that don't know... Takanashi thinks small things are cute and this includes any inanimate objects as well as long as they are small. Coincidentally has been forced to become a trap on occasion. emotion_awesome  

[ThisEmptySoul]

I tend to not like when a picture is cluttered, but this one doesn't seem that way. It actually looks a lot better with all the accessories added than it did before they were.  

[Kairanha]

Minor updates. Part way through the coloring phase.

 

[ThisEmptySoul]

Shiny emotion_kirakira  

[Kairanha]

Yeah, there's a lot of blacks and grey tones close together so to keep things from overlapping and blending together I've put effort into making sure everything has high contrast and textured more realistically. Still need to smooth out and blend the gradients a bit better in some areas.

Pulling back and looking at the overall coloring work... the lower lip needs more volume. Mostly just extend it over to the hand to make it appropriate to the width of the mouth. Now that I've noticed it... I'm going to roll with the blue Terminator eyes I've got going. I'll play around with a little blue reflected light on the eyelashes to see if it supports the internally lit eyes I want to go for. I'm kinda liking the look. I might make it a more permanent part of my style.  

[Kairanha]

I've been wondering about this for a while...

Is it weird that I don't identify myself as an artist? If someone asks what my hobbies are I often don't include drawing in the list. A lot of my family had no idea until I started posting things on Facebook last year. Maybe the thought of giving myself titles and such feels a bit pretentious.

Maybe it's a result of trying to keep different parts of my life separate from each other. Generally speaking I have 3 independent lifes that rarely have interaction and that's usually only when I make a small slip and forget where I am.  

[Lil Brat]

Maybe Kai doesn't want to be labeled ~ and stuck... unsure what he wants to do when he grows up. Or you are just in-touch with your feminine side and reserve the right to change your mind and be unpredictable ~ however it is maybe not so weird.  

[ThisEmptySoul]

I call myself an artist, because then I can get away with stuff like this emotion_awesome  

[Stranger_Lady_Endare]

O.O rofl  

[Kits Rose]

cat_rofl Gotta agree with Tes... people expect artists to be a little odd anyway, so you can get away with more stuff. cat_xd Though, I usually say art student. cat_ninja

I understand keeping different parts of your life separate, though. Most of the work I do in my art classes is nothing like the drawings I do for fun. It probably (at least for me) has something to do with anime style not being seen as serious art by a lot of people.  

[ThisEmptySoul]

Ah yes... the whole "anime isn't -real- art" thing. I got that from my brother a lot when I first started taking art a bit more seriously in my late teens. I think that idea springs from people believing that you can't have your own style with it because you're copying something else.... which isn't really true. Anyone who's actually into anime/manga can see that there are many style variations within the genre, and individual artists will have their own way of doing things. Calling it "anime-style" is just an umbrella term to describe the general look, just like "cartooning" covers all sorts of different artists' styles.

Most of my family is aware that I draw and I write.... but what exactly I draw and write is another story.  

[Kairanha]

And here's Yanderella. First art of the year.



Anime as art. My general opinion starts at about 2:45. But overall a lot of valid points, but he does get distracted and go off into tangents a lot. xd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa4-j182w5E

Anime is a general catch all term used, but nowadays it's more like saying someone is an anime fan is almost like saying someone is a TV fan. There is just so much out there with so many genres and plot lines and styles and so much creativity that saying you like anime doesn't mean much anymore in itself.

Oh. I'm embracing my feminine side like a boss, but now I can see how calling myself an artist can be useful, because believe it or not, I do some strange things on occasion. rofl  

[Kits Rose]

*looks at Yanderella, then at current avi* Huh... interesting coincidence. cat_lol

My roommate and I have been getting that argument for years. In fact, at one point she was banned from having anything even anime-inspired in her work for class. cat_rolleyes As if that's even possible. You pick up ideas from everything you look at.

I've heard so many arguments against anime being art, it's not even funny. emotion_facepalm I don't purposely separate the drawings I do for fun from what's done for class, it just depends on what the instructor's looking for. My family is definitely aware of what I draw, they've seen and have a lot of it. cat_xd  

[Kaori Silnaak]

Putting skill level aside, as long as someone is expressing creativity, shouldn't that be considered art? I know anime isn't fine art and isn't going in a museum any time soon, but to simply group anime into one box and reject everything that fits inside that is a bit fanatical and extremist.

I can draw realism fairly well and I can appreciate those who are at the higher levels, but I don't particularly enjoy making it very much and when I go to buy art it's not really what I'm looking for. I'm more bent as a cartoonist and surrealist. If I ditched anime and learned to draw things like Dilbert or Charlie Brown, would those people who don't like anime consider me an artist after that? cat_rolleyes

I'm not one to argue about it since style is more or less just the chosen medium someone is using to express their art in. What's important is the impression it makes and what is trying to be expressed by the artist in the first place. After a certain point, I have to say you like what you like and I like what I like and I don't plan on changing what I do because someone isn't a fan of my art. My desire and passion aren't so easily swayed by an opinion.

Real artists don't get famous until after they die anyway. cat_xp

I can empathize with the old school traditionalists as I can understand that they are just trying to keep the spirit of some of the great artists of the old world alive in a age that is dramatically changing due to the rapid exchange of new ideas and technologies. After a certain point though I have to choose for myself what fits me best to express myself through experimentation and trial and error and what will come out on the other side, if I persist and practice long enough, will be a style that is uniquely mine.  

[ThisEmptySoul]

Kaori Silnaak

After a certain point though I have to choose for myself what fits me best to express myself through experimentation and trial and error and what will come out on the other side, if I persist and practice long enough, will be a style that is uniquely mine.

This is my ultimate goal. While I have an appreciation for those who can do realism very well, what impresses me most is when an artist has a unique style... where you can see something by them and know immediately that it's theirs. It shows imagination, which I admire a lot more than just skill.