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dd's "Higher Education" chapter illustrations

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 8:18 pm
by woman22980
This post has SPOILERS for the story Higher Education - go read it first if you don't want to be spoiled, it's well worth it!!

For those who haven't read the story this is an illustation from a scene in ch. 4 of dd's fic "Higher Education". In the scene Kaname is walking down to the front of her classroom to explain cell structure to the class with Sousuke.
dd wrote:As Kaname walked down the stairs, she noticed the black look those girls were giving her. She smiled in return, lifting her nose in the air.

Too bad, ladies!

Not paying attention, Kaname tripped over an umbrellas someone had left in the aisle. She started to fall.

She never hit the floor. Sousuke had moved ever so swiftly, catching her.
ImageAnd below is the progression this picture took to its final stage -

**Original sketch page. I wasn't trying to figure out the layout at this stage, but rather get an idea of what each frame should have in it.

**Manga page layout. Transferred and redrawn onto high quality manga paper so it could be inked. Changed both K&S slightly in the main frame so that Kaname is more facing him, not simply seen from a profile view.

**Inked page. Inked on paper then touched up in PS some. Even though it's technically unfinished without screentones I think I like this one best.

**Shaded and finished - LARGE file. and for those on slower connections - Small file. To be honest I think I overdid it some, but practice makes perfect I guess. The feathers are custom brushes I downloaded off the web, along with all the patterns and two of the speedline graphics. The speedlines over Sousuke's face to the far right were a custom brush I made using this tutorial from PolyKarbon.com. Bless that man from now until forever for his wonderfully instructive site.

I'm so tired out from making this picture!! Manga artist have assistants to do backgrounds, shading, and screentones for a reason! I might just stick with lineart in the future... Nevertheless, it was lots and lots of fun :)

Feedback on both the inked and screentoned versions is much appreciated. I probably won't act on any suggestions for changes simply because I'm so tired of working on this picture at the moment, but I will remember and try to implement them in the future.

Next picture I'm doing is from this scene, mentioned in ch. 7 of the same story, but it actually happens offscreen. Kaname's been shot saving Sousuke from an assailant.
dd wrote:“Sousuke carried you all of the way here in his arms, even though he was injured himself. He wouldn’t let anyone else handle you. He sat with you through the night, even though he kept falling asleep.
It's funny what things really don't make for such great on-camera action in written form, but are THE scenes of choice for drawing. This is just the rough sketch, so page layout and the action in the frames themselves will be altered slightly when it's transferred to high quality manga paper.

A big shout out to dd again for writing such excellent fanfiction it actually motivates me to draw! I hope there's lots and lots more chapters past #9 for Higher Education to come, if I can keep myself from burning out there's many more scenes I want to take a shot at, and the story is just too good. (EDIT - I caught your a/n on ff.net, YAYAYAYAY!!!) One thing I should add - DUDE! how the heck do you write so much???? I copy/pasted the story into a word file to keep for myself, and it's like 56 pages! That's with minimal margin space and 9 point font!

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 11:24 pm
by dd
Final version looks really great. Nice work! :-D :clap:

To all readers: it's fun to write... a way to get creativity out of the system... but it's especially satisfying if people like the story.

So, folks who pass along praise or encouragement are helping to write the tale too. :dance:

How do I right so much? Don't know. I put some music on and just type what comes to mind for a few hours each day or night. So far, the well hasn't run dry. Just when it seems things have gone blank, an idea comes in from somewhere.

Sometimes the ideas come from things the readers say in their comments....

Waiting to see what you ink up next....

Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 11:51 pm
by woman22980
Final version looks really great. Nice work!
AAAAAH.... my idol has praised me!!! *faints*
Waiting to see what you ink up next....
Yeah... you and me both.... :-o -arm hurts from working on last picture so long....

*VWIP!!*
Image
*is suddenly looking like Excel* ... "But that's ok I WON'T let it get to me!! I CANNOT succumb to some as trivial as carpal tunnel syndrome at a time like this!"

Yeah... you know Excel's attitude fits... I shall now christen you LORD DAVEPALLAZO!! HAIL LORD DAVEPALAZZO!!!!!!

/me looks over at /me........
Get some sleep Jenn :sweat:

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 1:45 am
by Avlor
You did a wonderful job, Wo0. The textures/screen tones look good in there.

Now you're making me wanna sit down and draw...(as if I don't have enough projects that I want to do...:roll:)

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:50 am
by Sgt. Sagara Sousuke
It's very nice. Although I think the second... second... oh, on the top right hand corner (the one with hair covering sousuke's face). You can draw eyes very well, so maybe the hair shouldn't cover the eyes to make him look alert. But all is good. 8)

I wanna see the outcome of the other pic!!! :D
Sousuke frowning while carrying 50 kgs? Maybe showing some teeth? Never mind me... :-D

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:13 am
by Kashim
*Kashim throws his arm into the air*
HAIL LORD DAVEPALLAZO!!! ...need a smiley like that

EDIT: nice pic btw. lol

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 5:20 am
by HELLFIRE
Nice illustration work there woman! Methinks you and dd should go over
to Japan and help Mr Shoji Gatoh pen and illustrate some more FMP! :-D

Keep it creative!











Regards

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 5:33 am
by woman22980
HELLFIRE wrote:Nice illustration work there woman! Methinks you and dd should go over
to Japan and help Mr Shoji Gatoh pen and illustrate some more FMP! :-D
Thank you for the compliments! dd-sama doesn't need to improve any, but if I could be HALF as good as either Shiki Douji or Retsu Tateo I'd be about a HUNDRED times better than I am right now. I'm still learning, and have a long way to go. My rough sketches alone are evidence of that unfortunately. But hey! dd's fics inspire me to draw, and practice makes perfect, so I guess I'll ride the wave until I can't stand it anymore ;)

Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 5:46 am
by Kashim
yes, woman, practice makes perfect, but obsession makes better. bear that in mind...

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 7:57 am
by woman22980
HAIL LORD DAVEPALAZZO!! I have continued working on my mission SIR! It will be completed in a minimum amount of time SIR! :-D

@Kashim - *LOL*

If anyone's curious I've gotten the basic ideas onto the manga paper and the layout is done. I will probably end up changing little stuff about the figures or background before I ink it in, but you get the general idea of what it's going to look like. If anyone has any issues speak now or forever hold your peace.... (but ignore the problem with the tree, I know it's not to scale and I'm going to try and fix that.)

In case you're wondering the vanishing point is right on the tip of Sousuke's chin. The horizon line is usually assumed to be at 5 feet, anything below the horizon line is below 5', and anything (like the top of his head) above is greater than 5'. So, since Sousuke's like what, 5'10"? 5'11"? it makes sense. Not that I consciously chose it to make sense... I was just thinking Man, it'll focus attention on his head if the vanishing point is there! Lucky me that it works, cause I sure as HELL wouldn't be doing it over again.

@SSS - your comment on Sousuke showing his teeth is what inspired me to change the pic to show him gritting his teeth together. I think it shows more emotion than the frown but at the same time is not a look that's foreign to Sousuke. So thanks! And at least in this one you get to see his eyeball too right? :) In the first pic, I really can't describe why I felt that his eyes would be covered, it just felt right to do it that way. It probably comes from Tateo's tendency to obscure an eye on Sousuke (and sometimes Kaname too) when they're feeling strong emotion or intense things are happening, or to add an element of mystery to the character's feelings.

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 10:51 am
by Sgt. Sagara Sousuke
*sniff sniff*
It's so beautiful. Good work. I guess Shouji Gatoh always need an extra hand. :-D

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 1:18 pm
by PookaKitten
woman22980 wrote:In case you're wondering the vanishing point is right on the tip of Sousuke's chin.
That worked extrardinarily well. I can't really explain why, but it does. Your experiment came out wonderfully and it's a pity you won't be using the technique in the future.

Samantha

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 1:45 pm
by terran empire
EXCEL I LOVE EXCEL
dont ask why but i also love Rei
good work

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 3:24 pm
by woman22980
PookaKitten wrote:That worked extrardinarily well. I can't really explain why, but it does. Your experiment came out wonderfully and it's a pity you won't be using the technique in the future.
Thank you! And don't worry, it's not that I won't use 1 point perspective again, it's that I wasn't willing to redraw the background on that frame if it didn't turn out right. Backgrounds are so tedious it's hard to work up the will to fix them if there's something wrong, so it's either right the first time or not.

Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:29 pm
by Taurec
Couldn't do it better myself ;) :-D

Thanks for the helpful links and sketches.