[Art] Kipiru Starrider's Art- Space Adventurer Tania(Updated 11/08/09)

[Kipiru]

llearch and Fox- you guys train knight fighting?  Awsome! Wish I could do the same!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Nyet. He does, I poke about with Mau Taiaha, which is a spear based martial form from New Zealand.

We've just been discussing the comparative disciplines...

[WhiteFox]

Part of producing art is that you have to be efficient about your time. If you can get a 10% improvement by taking four times as long, it may not necessarily be worth it. Either don't take the extra time, or find a faster way to work. That's the real trick to developing techniques; to be fast and effective.That's a hard lesson I learned early on when I was first doing DSOF. Of course, if taking a little bit more time will improve the quality measurably, you gotta take the time to do it right.

Time over quality equals efficiency. Gotta keep all three balanced.

llearch and Fox- you guys train knight fighting?  Awsome! Wish I could do the same!

Well, strictly speaking, I practice medieval recreation (re-creation, not rec-re-ation) rapier combat. Typical Three-Musketeers sort of stuff. (If you've seen the modern Count of Monte Cristo movie, or the classic Princess Bride, you know what I'm talking about.) I have plenty of friends that do "Heavy" AKA "Full Armored" AKA "Rattan" combat. (Kingdom of Heaven and The Messenger are good examples of what Rattan combat is like.  It's pretty bloody and a real mind screw too. LotR is a close approximation too, but it's really Hollywood-ish.)

[Kipiru]

You know, all that about you guys doing weapon training has inspired me to make a picture portraying it, but I'm going to need some info for it. Like for example llearch can you give me an idea for the traditional attire you use for your training( with Fox it's kind of simple- knight armor) and maybe a you tube clip showing the typical moves. Plus I think of using llearch's ermine char for the pic, but I'm not sure for Fox- do you have a fursona you prefer being portrayed as or should I make one up using your avatar (the snow fox).

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Heh. "Traditional attire" is, usually, tshirt and sweatpants. When training, at least. Demonstrations is different.

As for what would have been worn, there's a pic or two on wikipedia.

There's also a number of taiaha videos on youtube. I'm not sure many of them are much good, though - when we whawhai, we usually go _much_ faster than most of them are. But then, we're also adults, and most of them appear to be teenagers or young folks.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FfXlskpaFc0 - watch the guy on the right. It's more te wero than the whawhai, though - demonstrations used as a welcome challenge, usually by the best warrior in the tribe, rather than the training.

There was a video of some decent stuff, but it's not up on youtube. :-/

Edit: Hmm. this one has a few of the moves towards the end of his "demonstration". Two knee slashes and a face strike. You can see why they're lethal. ;-]

[WhiteFox]

I have to restate: I do not do full armored combat. I do rapier combat. Medieval fencing.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) has some good examples of what some of our moves look like, and there's a scene where the old man is teaching him about sword work being about speed. That's entirely true. Here's the final fight sequence. Once they get their swords back, they get to the sort of stuff we do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbkiAHaGJQo [edit] Whoop, wrong video.

And just about everyone who fences has half of the Princess Bride memorized. http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1741137zzN29A6s Another pretty good example of what I do. Maybe not as showey, but that sort of thing. Notice the foot work, especially near the end. The feet never cross, the forward foot stays forward. It's a good example of what our stance looks like. All of the attacks use the tip of the blade, even when slashing or cutting. The whole style is about keeping your distance, hence the importance of foot work. The parries they use are very large motions compared to what we use, but are pretty similar in style.

As for what I wear... I dug this out from a few weeks back.

(I'm surprised the board didn't shrink that down)
The shirt is your typical poofey sleeved ren-faire shirt, in a bronze satin. You'd be surprised how hard it is to stab some ones arms when they're wearing one of these. The coat is a dark blue-gray, almost a canvas. The pic isn't quite accurate: it should go down just below my knees.The gloves are black leather. Not shown are the knee high leather boots.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

(I'm surprised the board didn't shrink that down)

Your browser will cache, and override, the board shrinking. Everyone else will see it shrunk. Just FYI.

[Kipiru]

Here is some old B&W concept art I did for a strategy computer game. The game unfortunately didn't reach completion.

watch tower

workshop

barracks

[Kipiru]

Here is a little somthing I did for Lysander, sort of my version of his fursona:

Lysander

[Lysander]

Wow, man. You're awesome.    I like what you did with the dagger and the sweet gloves, I may have to use them when I draw him... Good work with the shading on his hair and coat too. Thanks beyond words.   

[Tapewolf]

I'd always thought of Lysander as a canine - he looks a little feline in that.  Looks nice, though.  I love the sacrificial dagger thing.

[Kipiru]

I'd always thought of Lysander as a canine - he looks a little feline in that. 

  I though that there might be a problem there. As far as I know Lysander is canine indeed, but I still have problems with drawing animal faces, I tend to try and make them more human like and thus shortening them beyond species recognition!
But I'm glad Lysander likes it!

[Kipiru]

Here is a pic done by one of my best freinds, I only did the color. His specialty are dinosaurs and dragons, but as you can see he copes with the human body quite nicely! 

Female elf by JB -NSFW

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Nice colouring. I'd avoid commenting on the drawing itself, but I just can't help myself.

One, the left hip is a little too far out for the width of the waist. Secondly, anyone with that sized "tracts of land" is going to find they end up with a line down the right hand side of them (if right handed) from the bowstring, and hence will more than likely wear something to hold them back. From the way they're coloured, it looks more like a filmy harem-style see-through top than armour; the way the nipples are showing suggests that it's not exactly warm. Either that or she really likes what she sees...

All in my totally arrogant opinion, of course. ;-]

Edit:
On second glance, the feet are a touch small, as well. But again, that's the art, not the colouring. The colouring is quite well done - I particularly like the hair.

[Kipiru]

Well placed comment llearch, the picture is quite old so a lot of problems are present, mostly anatomical. As far as clothing goes, the picture was meant to be more erotic than accurate in terms of practical armor.
And yeah, the hair did come out great! 

NOTE: I forgot to mention that the color scheme was of the artist's own idea and I have no credit to take for it.

[WhiteFox]

As far as clothing goes, the picture was meant to be more erotic than accurate in terms of practical armor.

Two words: Boris Vallejo. I suppose you're friend's responsible for the outfit, tho. 

I just noticed the lines in your work look gray, and the darkness varies. Are these pencils colored digitally? I've found a drawing always looks better if it's inked.

[Kipiru]

Hahaha, Fox, you just pinned the tail on the donkey! My friend was indeed inspired by Vallejo's art and yes, the original of this drawing was done with a pencil and this is a scanned version of a copy of the penciled version, so the lines are a bit flawed.

[Kipiru]

Here is my view of Gabi's fursona!

Gabi

[Tapewolf]

Here is my view of Gabi's fursona!

Very nice.  I do wonder if you went a little overboard trying to make her look seductive, though it may just be me.  It'll be interesting to see what she makes of it.
Anyway, I look forward to more of your work.

[Kipiru]

I wasn't really going for seductive, just fresh looking.

[Gabi]

I think you made me look like a model.

But your drawing skills are impressive. And, as I said on my PM, I like the clothes a lot. Especially the glitter.

I guess it must be the red lips that cause the seductive effect. I never draw lips on my fursona (nor would I make her that skinny), but it's a matter of style. I think it does look good.

Thank you!

[Kipiru]

I'm glad you liked it! Sorry for the inaccuracy in terms of body, but i haven't really seen you!  This was more of a mental impression of your fursona, rather than anything!

[Kipiru]

Here is a picture of a naughty Santa outfit!

naugthy Santa outfit -NSFW

[Tapewolf]

You might want to tag that NSFW (or "may not be SFW").

[Gabi]

I'm glad you liked it! Sorry for the inaccuracy in terms of body, but i haven't really seen you!  This was more of a mental impression of your fursona, rather than anything!

It's perfectly understandable. And judging by your last drawing I guess it's just the way you like to draw, which is ok to me.

Nice picture, by the way! The question is... will she be able to lift the bag?

JP: NSFW? She's not showing any 'naughty bits', nor even a part of her underwear.

[Tapewolf]

JP: NSFW? She's not showing any 'naughty bits', nor even a part of her underwear.

Depends on your work, I guess.

[Mao]

JP: NSFW? She's not showing any 'naughty bits', nor even a part of her underwear.

I'd get in trouble for it.   

Stupid ultra-conservative scared of offending anyone (except for non-Christians) work place.  *wanders off muttering to himself*

Either nice work Kipiru.  While many may not see Gabi's character as a symbol of attraction it's still refreshing to see a picture that shows it as a possibility.  It's very much a testament to your ability to be able to both envision and bring that image to life.

In the case of the santa one, I have only one complaint (and it's less so a complaint but a curiosity I might add) and that is that the hip and stomach on what would be her left side seem to be a bit odd.  Maybe it's just the shadowing or my poor creative sense but it doesn't look quite right to me.  Other than that I really like it.  It's more 'cute' than 'seductive' (not that my office would care, but no one is in yet other than me) and I like that.

[Kipiru]

In the case of the santa one, I have only one complaint (and it's less so a complaint but a curiosity I might add) and that is that the hip and stomach on what would be her left side seem to be a bit odd.  Maybe it's just the shadowing or my poor creative sense but it doesn't look quite right to me. 

Yeah, that shadow did come out somewhat wrong and screwed up the whole hip and waist, but at the time I kind of went with it, as this was one of my fast projects!

[Kipiru]

And here is personal favourite of mine, I've been making this pic for about 3 years now- a little bit at a time! It was actually the my first attempt at photoshop coloring. Now it's finished!

scorpicore demoness

[Tapewolf]

And here is personal favourite of mine, I've been making this pic for about 3 years now- a little bit at a time! It was actually the my first attempt at photoshop coloring. Now it's finished!

I'll let others judge the anatomy as it's not exactly my strong point.  By the looks of it she may have back problems it later life, though 

As for the colouring, I'd be interested to know how you did the base colours.  I can see a few white bits in the lines, which suggests to me that you scanned the inks in greyscale and didn't redraw them digitally.

A quick-and-dirty technique to solve that - the one I use - is to scan the lineart in high-res and reduce the bit depth to straight black-and-white.
From there you can join up the lines into segments and flood-fill them to get the base colours down.  If there are still while bits afterwards, you can do a select-by-colour, exclude all the bits which you want to be white and flood-fill the rest of the selection black.

If you've still got it in a higher-resolution, multilayer form you might want to give that a go as the lines do look a little bit odd.  Another thing is the hair... to my mind, the soft-focus effect jars with the fact that her face is crisp-looking.

Anyway, the figure's decent, and I like the armour design, but there seem to be a few rough edges with the colouring.  Hope that's a useful critique.