An Attempt to Table at Doujima

I went for a holiday earlier this month and had some time to get away from work and arts. I had a disconcerting realization that I did not have a real goal for a while now... One of my goals is to table at a convention, so I applied for a table at Doujima 2026. It was time to reflect on my past artworks, evaluating if they are worthy to be prints.

In this post, I will cover "Dream Beadroom" from 2022.

How it started...

I thought this image looked unfinished, thought I could not yet tell what was missing. Perhaps the bedroom portion uses too many similar colors. I began by making the colors more varied. While I was at it, I experimented with darkening the girl's hair.

Varying colors on bedroom section

Darkening the girl's hair

I found varying colors helped, but darkening girl's hair took the attention away from the bedroom. This informed the next iteration: how can I keep viewer's attention to the bedroom area? One way is the add a frame.

Adding a frame

The frame gave the feeling of a manga chapter cover, which I liked. However, the rim light around the girl's hair was now attracting attention. It needed toning down.
I also found the lighting on the flowers look strange, so I removed it.

Toning down rim light on girl's hair and removing lighting on flowers 

At this point, I felt the itch to refine the rendering of the bedroom elements. While painting, I thought the girl's face look too different from the bedroom elements. Making her closer to pink should be better.

Refined rendering and making the girl more pink

Finally, the top half of the image looked empty. I could introduce either a title text or graphic elements. I decided to go for the latter. I experimented with different shapes and colors before settling on the final image.

The final image

Robo Rider is Born

Final painting

I described drawing process for this piece in an earlier post. Basically I watched Kamen Rider Black RX on TV growing up and wanted to draw Robo Rider because I remembered how cool he was. After drawing the pencil art though, an idea struck me for a Bio Rider piece and I drew that too. Despite getting caught up in the excitement of drawing this new idea, I did get myself to finish painting this piece.

When starting, my main inspiration was a piece by Jake Parker titled "Sentinel of the Fifth Sun". The idea was painted background with comic-style figure in the foreground. However, my goal this year is to create images that evoke emotional reaction. I had to aim for something more striking. What was it about Kamen Rider and other Japanese tokusatsu shows in the 80s that I found striking?

The image I started with was one shot in Jiban opening. I can find only a low res image of the shot, shown below; my memory was even more blurry. I remembered the contrast was more dramatic. Main ideas I wanted to capture were (1) dark background, (2) overall low key image, and (3) strong rim lights. 

The shot in Jiban opening

After some searching and head scratching, I gathered the following reference board. (The image of Janperson head was a surprise find. It looks good and is high res.)

References for painting

It was time to start painting. The opening steps were as expected: adding base color, lighting... and not liking the result.

Opening steps. Lineart; base colors; lighting; glow.

I was struggling at this point. I followed my plan but I did not like how it looked. Still, I started painting the rim lights, making the fill light white color (instead of red) and it started to look the way I wanted.

Rim light added

To make Robo Rider stand out, I added rim light to the head as well, effectively giving him a white outline. Next, I darken RX head in the background to improve the contrast.

Making Robo Rider stand out from the background

Finally, I painted RX eyes, adding dark core shadows. I soften the outer edges around RX to give the illusion of depth of field. I painted in colors using a sparse brush; but the result does not look good. I probably should have used the smudge brush...

Working on RX in the background

At this point, the painting was mostly done. Only small details on Robo Rider remained: highlights on the eyes and belt gear details. (While working on this painting, I realized how different Robo Rider belt was compared to other forms. I wonder if the designer was different.)

Final painting

I hope you enjoyed this process post. Next I will paint "Piltover's Finest" while continue drawing "Bio Rider".

When Concepts Clashed, a Fanart Duology Hatched

Kamen Rider fanart: Bio Rider with Black RX in the background

While drawing a Robo Rider fanart recently, a clash of concepts sparked an idea.

First, I formulated my drawing goal this year:  "I would like to create images that evoke an emotional reaction. Maybe through dramatic expression and posing."

Second, I was painting "Piltover's Finest", an Arcane fanart, which kept a few pose ideas in my mind.

And so as I was drawing the Robo Rider fanart mentioned above, an idea came to me of how to depict Black RX turning into Robo Rider. I saw in my mind the scene in Arcane Season 1 Episode 3, where Vi screamed in sorrowful agony to the sky, hands in claws. I imagined Black RX, in a great sorrow, in the foreground, with a moody Robo Rider in the background turning away.

Here is what I scribbled in my sketchbook to capture this idea.

Idea for Black RX turning into Robo Rider

My mind was racing and I got a secondary idea for Black RX turning into Bio Rider in anger. As the scribble below showed, I used what I remembered from the Arcane episode as RX's pose. I was not as clear about Bio Rider's pose. He was bent with claws, a typical Bio Rider pose.

Idea for Bio Rider

These were scribbles I drew on a bus ride. Later on, I drew thumbnails based on these ideas. With some time to process the ideas, the core concept became clearer. The problem to solve was expressing the concept in a composition. I spent more time on the Bio Rider idea because I already finished a Robo Rider drawing.

Thumbnails: Bio Rider (upper half) and Robo Rider (lower half)

The series of thumbnails showed me that landscape orientation worked better. Also, Bio Rider head was unexpectedly difficult to get right. I drew a couple of sketches to understand its shape.

I used to finalize a thumbnail before scaling it up to A4 size. For whatever reason, I did not do so this time. This meant I made mistakes as I drew the image on a larger paper. Below is my first attempt to draw on an A4 paper. (Apologies for the noisy image. In this early stage of drawing, I employed a blue pencil, drawing in thin strokes. This made noisy photos.)

Pencil drawing, first round

My priority was getting the overall composition. Placement of elements was important to get right. I drew Bio Rider on the foreground multiple times to get the best combination of placement, size, and posing. Black RX was too small, making the drawing look empty.

I redrew Black RX, making it larger. The constraints/guide I followed were: (1) the head must be just below the top of the image; while (2) the pelvis must be just above Bio Rider's leg. Below is the result. I also started to draw the claws because I considered them to be rather important. (On hindsight, this was probably premature.)

Making Black RX larger

I was satisfied with the relative size and placement of the large elements. Now it was time to proceed to smaller elements like the heads. Drawing more details to the heads should make the characters recognizable.

Another element to get right at this stage was posing. I started to feel that Black RX's pose felt rather comical. It had the feeling of "a nerd freaking out" rather than "a rage so great it manifested physical agony".

So here is the next stage of refinement.

Improving Black RX pose and adding details

I decided to make RX's pose asymmetric by lowering his left arm. I thought it was successful enough to remove the nerdy rage feel.

For detailing, I used a Black & Black RX S.I.C. figurine I happened to own. Drawing details is why I love drawing. I had so much fun drawing that I did not notice that I was drawing Kamen Rider Black, not Black RX. Not a big issue; I redrew Black RX details and had another round of fun. 

Adding Black RX and Bio Rider details

This is as far as I went this month. I drew exoskeleton details to Bio Rider, but I had second thoughts. The head, which is faithful to the costume, looks out of place with the body.

Further, RX pose strayed from my original intention. There is not much agony here... These changes will have to wait for another post. I hope you enjoy this draw-trough post!

つづく

A Fanart of Kamen Rider Black RX

One of the TV shows I grew up watching was Kamen Rider Black RX. I remember the show fondly even if I am far from being a hardcore fan. So when I was brainstorming for fanart ideas in late 2024, Black RX was one of the ideas I considered. An initial idea came: a pair of Robo Rider and Bio Rider fanarts, depicting Black RX alternate forms.

To begin, I drew sketches with Robo Rider in mind. My impressions of Robo Rider were heavy, sturdy, and armored. I ended up drawing thumbnails of a fairly standard heroic pose. I thought I would play around with the background elements to grab interest.

Thumbnails

At the start, I thought of a portrait canvas (see the two upper thumbnails). After thinking about background elements, I decided on a landscape canvas (see lower right thumbnail). I had the most fun drawing the armor detail in upper right thumbnail.

Scaling up the thumbnail to A4 paper took two sittings. I needed another sitting to add the details for Black RX in the background and Robo Rider armor.

Pencil drawing

Christmas and New Year holidays interrupted the drawing process. I ended up started drawing "Piltover's Finest", an Arcane fanart and stumbled upon the breakthrough idea of adding elements that elicit strong feelings or discomfort. At this point, I definitely felt that this drawing was boring. Still, "finished not perfect" mantra came to mind and I resumed this drawing.

I found Robo Rider's head misaligned relative to the body; I revised it here.

Revised pencil drawing

Another complication arose. Something clicked and I got an idea that I really liked for the Robo-Bio Rider pieces. Sad RX for Robo Rider & enraged RX for Bio Rider. I captured this idea in sketches and thumbnail; but the drawing is still in early stage. But this will be another post...

つづく

 

Drawing "Piltover's Finest"

Pencil drawing

Happy new year!

I spent some time thinking what direction I wanted to take this year with my art. One idea I arrived at was "dramatic character posing". I got this idea while reading Yakuza Fiance manga. The series has striking cover images that elicit strong feelings from me (and a little discomfort). I thought I would like to draw images that elicit emotional reaction. Maybe through dramatic expression and posing. Maybe though eye-catching costumes.

Meanwhile, I watched Arcane season 2 and felt the urge to draw Caitlyn and Vi, my favorite ship characters in the series. With "dramatic character posing" idea in mind, I started sketching thumbnails.

Starter thumbnails

The numbers reflect drawing order. I began with the triangle composition (a trick I learned recently). The triangle is especially obvious in #1 and #2. By the time I drew #3, I was thinking about Caitlyn silhouette as a vampire silhouette. (I learned about "Count Fagula" later on. Good to know I wasn't the only one.) I needed to figure out what to do with Vi.

I liked the framing in #4, so I redrew it in #5. I added as much gay look as I could to their expressions.

Thumbnail redraws

At this point, I locked in to the idea in #5. I added the handcuff in #6 as the discomforting element. Finally, as a first step to scaling up the thumbnail, I drew #7 on an A5 paper. It was not to my liking: Cait's head is too large, I couldn't figure out Vi's arms. But I learned what to look out for and it was time to draw on A4 paper.

Penciling the important elements

I began by placing the major elements and getting their proportions right. I drew elements that I felt was important:

• Poses determined how the elements were placed on the image;
• Hair was important for me to recognize the characters;
• Expression suggested the mood.

Next step was adding details to make this look finished. In addition, fix any element I was not happy about.

Adding in costume details

The biggest deficiency was costumes. I knew Caitlyn's costume; what about Vi's? I decided that she would be in her black jacket. In the show, Vi left her right collar of the jacket up. In this image, it would cover Caitlyn's hand so I folded it. Adding arm bandages and the handcuffs were a natural extension of getting Vi's costumes.

I fixed Caitlyn's hair line as well.

Refining details

It was time for refining the details. I used references heavily in this phase.

• Add definition to Vi's hair.
• Finalize Caitlyn's hand.

As I was drawing Caitlyn' shoulder pads, I second-guessed her face. In the thumbnails, her face was in profile. I drew this change and she looked more masculine.

Final drawing(?)

I have not inked this drawing because I am still second-guessing Caitlyn's face. I guess we will find out soon. Please look forward to it!