VR7's New Artwork Thread

[VR7]

Been a while.

Haven't done much in the past few months, except for some random doodles in my sketchbook.

http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/noel-scho ... -101328743
http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/hestia-doodles-101419097
http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/planez-101871327
http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/ardor-refining-101871815
http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/apollo-re ... -101919205

Edit: Meh.

[VR7]

http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/Raven-wit ... -106452451

[Seraphic]

You know, VR, I don't think we'd mind so much if you posted more often instead of slipping in those edits. I mean, I had no idea you had added in those other things. I like your work, so it should show up top, yah??

I really like your recent work on Raven. Her expressions are really good, and I guess you really like those miniskirts, hm? More mobility, I suppose. =p I think you use that hand gesture a little too often, though. (Referring to her left arm.) You're very good at experimenting with and tweaking your characters.

This is awful, but your struggles with Ardor make me giggle. Why should someone with as much skill as you be kicking himself in the balls over creativity? The previous edition looked like it had White Glint influences (pretty noticeable in its legs) and this one looks to have some Exia-ness to it (the geometric setup of its torso, the construction of its pelvic area, and the circular theme in its legs). Kawamori and Yanase are pretty good, no? I'd say it looks pretty solid, but I guess my comments might make you pull your hair out again. Sorry. =/ And what does AS stand for?

I really appreciate all of your sketchwork. It shows a lot of effort and progress going into your ideas, and we can see it change and grow. It's great. I'm looking forward to when you finish laying down the groundwork, too.

And I notice Noel is always kicking the shit out of people. Very violently and skillfully, too. What influences the combat style in your work? =p

[VR7]

Yeah, I have my (i can't think of a better word than emo so i'll just go with) fits of artist block rage every now and then. I think they're in gradual decline though.

Since the name of the comic is Andromeda System, I'm currently running with AS Drives and AS Particles (Kojima/GN particles lol) as the primary energy source and propulsion. AS is an abbreviation for Andromeda System.

On that note, I'm currently playing around with the idea of providing Aero Pods with AS Drives instead of relying on conventional power (i.e. thermonuclear turbine?), while at the same time still making them techologically inferior to Combat Frames somehow. I've also played with the idea of forcing them to be variable fighters, and I'm looking a bit at Macross, Sentinel, Gaia Gear and the like for inspiration. I have yet to act on any of those ideas though.

I consider the hand-to-hand combat style in my drawings to still be in the prototypical stages, so the best answer I can come up with for the last one is that Noel's kicking tendencies drew inspiration from Kisarah Westfield's kicking sprites from NeoGeo Battle Colisseum.

[crashlegacy14]

seems to be a common theme between us, concept work and lots of it. If I was a picky as oyu my own gallery would be completely in scraps though haha. like Sera said before me, I like seeing your designs and skills grow though those sketches.

on the technical end of oyur reply, perhapse I can supply some ideas. If you want to go with identical purpusion/power systems for the two differnt mobile weapon types, yet keep the areopods inferior, then perhapse 1) The areopods are still less mobile wither through slower reaction time (via the control system) or though them being more "weighted" 2) Aeropods might have thiner/plain old weaker armor -or the combat frames should have a short of primal armor shielding that the areo pods lack. 3) Aeropods are genraly lower quality because they are produced in bulk where as combat frames arn't and more expensive and higher proformance componets are used for the later's construction.

I'd personaly stay away from transforming mecha, expecialy in the case of macross where alot of the variable fighters are extremely similar once transformed into battleroid.

[VR7]

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x149 ... nPrev1.jpg

I just felt like posting this. I switched back to Photoshop for this, for some reason it's much more efficient.

Combat Frames will be massproduction aircraft. I'm thinking Combat Frames are going to rely on Andromeda as its construction material and armor, while Aero Pods still rely on conventional materials. As a result of the requirement for Andromeda, Frames will require some kind of neural interface that only allows extraterrestrials (non-Terrans) to pilot it. And because of the Andromeda construction, Combat Frames can produce extraordinary performance characteristics that Aero Pods cannot hope to achieve, even with a variable transform ability.

[crashlegacy14]

epic preview. the face is colored to a professional level. the bangs I'm guessing is nearly done could use alittle more color wor to bring it up to the level of work on the face, al in all very beautiful work can't wait to see the finished verson.

your paint jobs always makes me want to work harder to improve my own skills with coloring.

[VR7]

Updated. It's the same link as above. A large chunk of the drawing is inked and in colour.

In record time, too. It also makes me feel bad at the same time, since not only did I switch back to Photoshop, my endeavours are much, much more efficient than when I was working with Painter. In short, I wasted a lot of my technical development and laziness on trying to learn a program that I will probably not use in the long run.

[Seraphic]

Painter? Can't say that I've heard of the program, but why did you decide to switch over to it, if only temporarily? =p

And your color work looks pretty solid. I can even tell that you were more comfortable and efficient while working on it in photoshop. I guess I know that because I can't really pick up on anything that looks like you were having trouble or were testing stuff out. It looks pretty clean and crisp.

Could you render another close-up for Raven now that the color is more or less done in that area? The last one was very lovely.

SD Maria is hilarious.

And that vibroblade worries me. How many people get shanked with that thing??

[crashlegacy14]

10....

painter is another art program that focus more on emulating traditional media (paints pens pencils) then photo maniplation where photoshop is.

[VR7]

Close up, like this?

I updated it again. For all intents and purposes it is probably already done now, the rest is optional stuff.

I switched to Corel Painter for a good while, because I was horrible at getting that airbrush-blending effect that you see in a good digital artist's work. Also, Painter had features that I liked that Photoshop didn't have until CS4 came out. CS4's functionality (and reliability, Painter's save times are loooong) pretty much outweighs my justification for using Painter for colouring.

Maria is there for creative comparison. Then again, I could put Natsuki Kuga in there and it'd still have the same effect, I guess.

[crashlegacy14]

really, I have a hard time calling that a skirt. I mean seriously it makes the "skirts" hookers wear look decent ofcourse you oculd make that a bit of a gag in the comic when you ever get to it.

ofcourse that expression in the bust shot of her kinda give us her general additude about jokes at her expense.

[Turinu]

It'd be a shame not to show off her legs.

[VR7]

Oh wow, I posted the wrong link entirely. How did I do that?

That previous link was an (older) experiment with removing the leggings just to see what happened. I posted that for feedback elsewhere. Here's the correct link. The one I intended to post.

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x149 ... nPrev3.jpg

Edit: Raven's character design sheet is finished. I don't want to make a double post so soon, so I might as well slip this in.

http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/snake-was ... -108039772

[Seraphic]

Aha. I caught your edit this time around. =)

Thank you for the small request. She looks wonderful. ^_^ And, by god, the full character sheet looks incredibly good. Everything looks clean and the lighting makes everything very clear. I think her hair is the most impressive, and I also really like your shading work on all of the grays. Maria is even funnier in color. I just noticed the placement of Raven's pistol in the holster. That position seems slightly difficult to draw from.... But that's just me. I'm sure you put a lot more thought into it than I did in only noticing it.

Is there any place you have your story down yet, VR? I'm curious about what Noel and Raven are up to. Or are we all still eagerly awaiting your comic?

Snake looks pretty good for the amount of time you spent on him. Only an hour?? Is it because of a tablet?

I think a goal of mine for this year will be to comment in the art section often enough so that none of our artists will have to make double posts or edits that go unnoticed. The trouble is making helpful contributions in each post. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone could do that? =) Here's to progress in the new year. Cheers! =o

[crashlegacy14]

great coloring job. I think with the pistol, the main concern would be how much slower you'd draw a weapon from that possition. rather then the difficult in drawing.

[VR7]

I actually positioned her holster like that because that was how Maria Traydor's holster was designed. I figured that if she and Dante could holster their weapons like that, it probably works somehow. Noel also has her guns holstered like that.

I actually do have an idea of what kind of story I want to start off with, but it's only in writing so far. Don't know when I'll have actual comic pages.

Also, yeah, I use a Wacom tablet.

[crashlegacy14]

Dante's pistols aren't placed perpendictualr to his arm, rather they are moreo f a 45 degree angle.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/cr ... een014.jpg

not the best image but it gets the job done. also note that the holsters he uses are more are rather lose fitting so there's very little ressitance with the holster when he draws the gun.

[Seraphic]

I wasn't worried that their holsters are set behind them. That's a position that I actually like. What I found strange was the fact that her gun is literally placed in the holster upside-down. Doing that adds another movement for her draw: it requires her to turn her wrist as she reaches for the gun, and then again before she can level the weapon. Another variation on that draw has her lifting the barrel against gravity.

The placement of the gun itself is fine, but having it flipped gives extraneous movement in the draw that can be bad in the heat of battle. I would hate for either Raven or Noel to be hurt just from being less than 100% efficient. That would really suck. I'm just looking out for them. ^_^;

I find the 45 degree angle holster to be the most comfortable. But you really don't have to take me seriously, since I really don't know jack about handguns. And don't redo all of your drawings just because of what we might have said here. I would feel really bad! >,<

Story is still in writing? If you've got it in a novel format, I wouldn't mind it showing up in the fiction forum. I have your Andromeda System topic indexed in the Library. =) But transitioning to a comic, I think a script format would probably be the most beneficial.

And on another note, you got a new avatar! She looks like she is from a Tales game? The transition from black to hot pink burns the hell out of my retinas. I also made a bunch of avatars I linked in the Avatar Request thread (92 of them). Feel free to use any of them if you think they're nice. =)

['Dustin']

Ah, i remember all this. All very eye catching, especially Raven.

For some reason I think Appleseed when I look at your stuff. o: