Lunar Threads

Speed Paint, 2 hours. Ryu from Street Fighter IV

Very nice! Were both of these done within two hours (each? together?), or just the first?

The coloring is very good. I like how you've moved Giga Girl to a more realistic look while still keeping the anime touches of hair color and eyes (only slightly larger than usual). Her face is less stylized, and some may consider that to be less pretty or perfect, but she looks like a real person with some character there. (One breast also looks lower than the other, but that too is realistic.)

I just realized her head's a bit big for her body, but it took me until now to see that. I am just so impressed by the shading on both that I wasn't seeing the big picture, so to speak.

Oh, I should say something about Ryu. At first I thought his ear might be a bit low, but now I'm not sure. My usual check is to visualize him wearing glasses, to see if the arms/legs (depending on which side of the US/Canada border you're from, heh) of the glasses would be able to rest in the correct place on the ears for the eyes to see through. If I had time I'd use Photoshop to draw eyeglasses on him (and if I had a sense of humor to match they'd be Groucho Marx ones with eyebrows and nose/'stache) but looking at it I think it's OK. The eyes themselves feel a bit flat, like there should be more shading under them,and if he's looking forward I'd think just a bit more iris would be in view from the side. But I'm writing this as a post edit and can't look at the picture just now.

Ryu took two hours. Giga took a little more than three. I've shown it to some people and most people like the Ryu, but not the Giga.

I was just kinda in the mood to try it out, glad you liked it. ^_^ I'll keep the ear-reference in mind for future paintings. (Now that I look, Giga's head is a little big huh? >>)

I like Giga Girl! I think the problem is that the Ryu picture is quite intense, so then Giga Girl doesn't have much effect on the viewer.

Hmm, I can't really give artistic input, but I think Ryu's ear is fine...it does look low at first glance, but when I compared it to other pictures (and my own face - yes, I did this) it seems a lot of ears are placed on the face where Ryu's is...the top of the ear being more or less aligned with the corner of the eye.

Anyway, great work, I always really like your art

Thanks.

EDIT: I'd like to ask for an opinion if I may. I'm trying to develop something of a hybrid style for my book, and I'd like to hear some thoughts.

http://www.studio-zel.com/images/GigaEXP_comp.jpg (linking instead of image because it's quite wide)

Thoughts? The idea is to have something that looks like a hybrid of manga/realistic features. I'm kinda leaning toward #2, but would like to hear opinions/questions/concerns etc.

bump to get the edit noticed (better than starting a new thread me thinks)

I like number 1, except for the eyes. They're just... not as striking as number 2's eyes. I don't even know what it is about eyes in general. I guess I want to see some sort of life in them, some sort of awareness, and maybe making them larger makes that easier. But it might just be that number 1's eyes aren't looking at me, and number 2's are. Narcissism, maybe?

I like the silhouettes for 1 and 2 as well. It seems like both of them can be real.

I'm conflicted between the two. 1 is more realistic, and looks brazen. 2 is more of an idealization that could still be imagined as real, at least in part (maybe the eyes are too big). She's more beautiful, but that's not to say number 1 isn't beautiful. They're different emphases on beauty. But I'm not sure which you should prefer, or even what precisely the emphasis is.

As for #3, I don't like it as much. Maybe I'm responding to the amount of shading and detail.

So a combo thereof?

I like 2 the best...just the shape of the face is more attractive to me than the others. I know that's really subjective, but I'm with Sonic about the eyes. They don't grab you the way 2's do. I think it depends on your theme. 2 is realistic enough, 3 gets a little too anime-y, and 1 sort of reminds me of a sketch from a photo or something.

Blue_Sycro wrote:I like 2 the best...just the shape of the face is more attractive to me than the others. I know that's really subjective, but I'm with Sonic about the eyes. They don't grab you the way 2's do. I think it depends on your theme. 2 is realistic enough, 3 gets a little too anime-y, and 1 sort of reminds me of a sketch from a photo or something.

#1 was a sketch from a photo. A friend took her picture and sent it to me to use for reference, since a lot of Giga's inspiration comes from her anyway. ^^

A new design, based on my friend Jerome (yes, with his permission ^^)

Jerome looks intense ^^ i hope he isnt angry, what did you do to him nobi?

p.s i like the hair a lot

Nah, he takes intense photos, but he's a pretty cool guy.