Mana Anzai Art Project, Part 2
On the agenda for today,a look at the second iteration of my Mana art project.
Today we'll take a look at a couple new components. Generally speaking I do a lot of straight costume pieces. In other words, I'm often either drawing a character in a different pose, or in someone else's clothes. in which case, figuring out what colors to use is a no-brainer. Occasionally, for whatever reason, I change it up a bit.
This Mana Anzai picture, for example, has Dark Magician Girl, her clothes switched out for Yomako/Yoko Litner's from Guren Lagann. I didn't do anything different to Yoko's outfit beyond changing the tie. As for the Dark Magician Girl, I made her hair longer and "bigger" and tied the end with a bow.
Beyond those physical differences, Mana'so hair and eye color are different from either Yomako's or Dark Magician Girl's, being pink and red respectively.
These facts were in place before I even began drawing Mana, so I knew them well ahead of time for this phase of the project. However, I had not reached a firm decision on the remainder of the color pallet. Do I match Yomako's color pallet for her outfit, or do I instead go for something that matches DMG's? Do I deliberately avoid matching up with either one?
Ultimately, given who Mana is, Yomako has little to do with the overall piece from a background perspective. My choice of using her outfit had less to do with Yomako, and more to do with her outfit being one of the more unique and memorable of any teacher characters in anime. As such, there was little incentive to match the color scheme if I had an urge to deviate. At the same time, there needs to be so much tangential connection between Mana and DMX for the sake of my story, I needed to make that connection in subtle yet not overly glaring ways. That meant taking cues from DMG's outfit, but not entirely mimicking it.
To that end, as every artist must do before painting, I sat down and decided what set of colors to use. I ruled out pink in her outfit because I felt it would be too overpowering to have both part of her clothes and her hair in such a vibrant color. That left blue as the remaining of the two predominant colors to DMG's outfit. I decided at that time that the torso section/blouse would be a variant of the color of the skirt. And, while I couldn't use pink, I did want to use a shade of that color family. A much darker color seemed like a good contrast against her very light colored hair and her generally bright persona.
To that end, since I wanted to play the blouse/torso off the skirt, blue became the only reasonable option for the skirt, a much lighter blue for the blouse part. I've gone with a navy blue on the skirt, and a light/sky blue for the torso. That left the jacket/sleeve portion for the darker red. I've decided I'll go with a very dark red, something closer to a burgundy since it will get just a little bit of blue to it.
For her boots, given that they have become somewhat ubiquitous across all DMG based images, I wanted to go with something very simple and basic on the chance I use them again in a different piece. So I went with black with white trim as black goes with anything, and white adds just enough contrast.
Other incidental color options include the pointer in her left hand, the book in her right, the buttons on her cuffs, the rim of her glasses, and the button-like decorations on her skirt.
The buttons, decorative or otherwise, will be golden. The pointer will be black. Her glasses will likely be a walnut brown, though I am considering a shade of blue as well. The book cover will be a beige/off-white color.
So, to wrap up for today, here are the next two steps, completed - the necktie and bow in Mana's hair, and her skirt;
So, until next time. I'll have a new post tomorrow or the day after. Hope you'll be back then.
Today we'll take a look at a couple new components. Generally speaking I do a lot of straight costume pieces. In other words, I'm often either drawing a character in a different pose, or in someone else's clothes. in which case, figuring out what colors to use is a no-brainer. Occasionally, for whatever reason, I change it up a bit.
 |
| Image of Yomako used as a guide |
 |
| Image of DMG used for reference |
Beyond those physical differences, Mana'so hair and eye color are different from either Yomako's or Dark Magician Girl's, being pink and red respectively.
These facts were in place before I even began drawing Mana, so I knew them well ahead of time for this phase of the project. However, I had not reached a firm decision on the remainder of the color pallet. Do I match Yomako's color pallet for her outfit, or do I instead go for something that matches DMG's? Do I deliberately avoid matching up with either one?
Ultimately, given who Mana is, Yomako has little to do with the overall piece from a background perspective. My choice of using her outfit had less to do with Yomako, and more to do with her outfit being one of the more unique and memorable of any teacher characters in anime. As such, there was little incentive to match the color scheme if I had an urge to deviate. At the same time, there needs to be so much tangential connection between Mana and DMX for the sake of my story, I needed to make that connection in subtle yet not overly glaring ways. That meant taking cues from DMG's outfit, but not entirely mimicking it.
To that end, as every artist must do before painting, I sat down and decided what set of colors to use. I ruled out pink in her outfit because I felt it would be too overpowering to have both part of her clothes and her hair in such a vibrant color. That left blue as the remaining of the two predominant colors to DMG's outfit. I decided at that time that the torso section/blouse would be a variant of the color of the skirt. And, while I couldn't use pink, I did want to use a shade of that color family. A much darker color seemed like a good contrast against her very light colored hair and her generally bright persona.
To that end, since I wanted to play the blouse/torso off the skirt, blue became the only reasonable option for the skirt, a much lighter blue for the blouse part. I've gone with a navy blue on the skirt, and a light/sky blue for the torso. That left the jacket/sleeve portion for the darker red. I've decided I'll go with a very dark red, something closer to a burgundy since it will get just a little bit of blue to it.
For her boots, given that they have become somewhat ubiquitous across all DMG based images, I wanted to go with something very simple and basic on the chance I use them again in a different piece. So I went with black with white trim as black goes with anything, and white adds just enough contrast.
Other incidental color options include the pointer in her left hand, the book in her right, the buttons on her cuffs, the rim of her glasses, and the button-like decorations on her skirt.
The buttons, decorative or otherwise, will be golden. The pointer will be black. Her glasses will likely be a walnut brown, though I am considering a shade of blue as well. The book cover will be a beige/off-white color.
So, to wrap up for today, here are the next two steps, completed - the necktie and bow in Mana's hair, and her skirt;
So, until next time. I'll have a new post tomorrow or the day after. Hope you'll be back then.
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