It was a very interesting time in Chinese history, the early days of communist rule. And, come to think of it, the middle days. And the later days. ^_~
fgsfds that's beautiful! Ah, I could stare at China's soft, silky and wonderfully shiny hair all day long~ I've never thought I'd think plain white highlights are a good idea, but they add an interestingly glassy quality to the image. Russia's unusually solemn expression is very welcome. He looks very Slavic, too - well done! I really like how you can guess at their nationalities from their faces. (China's cheekbones could be a little more Mongolian, though.) Please do keep on using your style! It's a lot more interesting than the "standard anime" look.
I'm a fan of pencil outlines, I like how you've kept them here. They look a little harsh, though - your scanner must be old?
You're absolutely right about the cheekbones! I should've been looking more at my Chinese friends than at shiny boys on the Internet. ^_~ And thank you. This isn't precisely my style--my own owes much more to western animation--but it's definitely closer than that other bit. Maybe eventually I'll do some Hetalia art the way I draw, rather than trying and failing to imitate a style that's not comfortable for me. ^_^;;;
It is indeed very old. I've been playing with blending options trying to soften them; the other pic I posted seemed to resolve that issue better than this one, so I'll just keep poking around with multiplying and transparencies until I get something nice. I do like a subtle line, as opposed to the huge black outlines in most of my art; it's something to keep working on.
Ah, the temptation of shiny Internet boys. I've succumbed to it fully, myself...
You know, the Gimp has a pretty useful filter for outline-softening, and it is also free. I keep that program installed for just that purpose, because my scanner is very old too and the harsh outlines it spits out have been bothering me. Also, I've found colouring the outlines - I mean, outlining skin in a darker version of the skin colour, the hair in a darker version of the hair colour, etc. - often makes them appear softer too.
The Gimp? What's that, and is it compatible with Photoshop 6.0? I've tried colouring outlines, myself, but found it rather ineffective so far. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. ^_^;
The Gimp ("GNU Image Manipulation Program") is a completely standalone program. You can download it at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=121075 . Perhaps you'll also have to download and install GTK+ from the same page - I had to do it, but maybe they've integrated them since then. The filter in question is under "Filters->Artistic->Soft Light"; the Filters menu appears once you open an image.
Hmm, what layer settings have you used? I usually set the outline-colouring layer to Screen.
Oooh, this is interesting. I shall have to check it out more carefully.
I've tried just about everything--screen, colour burn, hard light, soft light, every degree of transparency; I've more or less settled on 'multiply' as the most likely to look half-decent, although I've started doing some hand-wavey things with the colour layers that seem to mitigate my problems with the lineart layer.
Hand-wavey things? Sounds interesting! I usually have general colours set to Multiply on top, then outline-colours set to Screen in the middle and the plain lineart on the bottom.
Hmm. I always do lineart on top, colors in various layers on the bottom, and shady bits in the middle. I'll try your order next time, and see how it goes! (And I'm poking my way through your draft, swear it.)
Hmm, I see! I guess it really wouldn't work in that order - unless you coloured the outlines first, then combined it into one layer and then started adding the colours underneath that layer? But that's probably too much trouble.
I used to do shadows on a separate layer too until I found out that in Corel Painter it works out better to paint them directly onto the colours layer. I guess it'd be different in Photoshop, though.
Doing the shadows as a separate layer only started when I got lazy and decided to cell-shade. Before I was lazy, I'd use dodge and burn for shadows and highlights, so they were on the same layers as the colors. Now that I'm migrating back to my old style, I'll probably start doing that again.
I wish switching to cel shading counted as getting lazy for me! Unfortunately I cannot draw a straight line, much less a curved one, so me and cel shading do not mix.
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hetalia2008-09-07 09:18 pm
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I'm a fan of pencil outlines, I like how you've kept them here. They look a little harsh, though - your scanner must be old?
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It is indeed very old. I've been playing with blending options trying to soften them; the other pic I posted seemed to resolve that issue better than this one, so I'll just keep poking around with multiplying and transparencies until I get something nice. I do like a subtle line, as opposed to the huge black outlines in most of my art; it's something to keep working on.
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You know, the Gimp has a pretty useful filter for outline-softening, and it is also free. I keep that program installed for just that purpose, because my scanner is very old too and the harsh outlines it spits out have been bothering me. Also, I've found colouring the outlines - I mean, outlining skin in a darker version of the skin colour, the hair in a darker version of the hair colour, etc. - often makes them appear softer too.
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Hmm, what layer settings have you used? I usually set the outline-colouring layer to Screen.
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I've tried just about everything--screen, colour burn, hard light, soft light, every degree of transparency; I've more or less settled on 'multiply' as the most likely to look half-decent, although I've started doing some hand-wavey things with the colour layers that seem to mitigate my problems with the lineart layer.
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I usually have general colours set to Multiply on top, then outline-colours set to Screen in the middle and the plain lineart on the bottom.
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I used to do shadows on a separate layer too until I found out that in Corel Painter it works out better to paint them directly onto the colours layer. I guess it'd be different in Photoshop, though.
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Doing the shadows as a separate layer only started when I got lazy and decided to cell-shade. Before I was lazy, I'd use dodge and burn for shadows and highlights, so they were on the same layers as the colors. Now that I'm migrating back to my old style, I'll probably start doing that again.
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YES!
Re: YES!