Street Fighter 6 Cammy

Final painting

After many months leaving this as a work in progress, I took the time to paint this image starting in December 2023 until this month. I drew the pencil in July and finished inking early August. My goal from the start was to finish a painting complex enough for my current skill.

Inked image

On hindsight, the composition is rather simple; it felt complex during inking stage. What I remember most, though, was how tough painting was at the beginning stage. There were more elements than what I was used to and I painted myself into muddy look. I did not know what to do to improve the painting, so I left it in WIP stash.

State of the painting when I left off

When I resumed a few months layer, I still did not know what to do, lol. I simply went back mentally prepared to really work on the painting. I began with tidying up sloppy areas. Soon I was trying to make the foreground Cammy warmer (yellow/orange) and the midground cooler (cyan/blue).

A little better with warm and cool colors

The big improvement jump was getting value grouping right. I brighten the foreground Cammy so much that I was certain that I was doing something wrong.

Big improvement due to value grouping

After this step, the painting felt much easier. I made another dramatic change that I was certain to be wrong with the "ink" behind foreground Cammy: I darken them so much that they no longer looked like the ink effect in the game. To compensate, I added halftone pattern to give them "graphic" look. The final touch was the graffiti text to mimic the street style of the game.

I am really happy with how this image turned out. Here is a progress video just for fun.

Cold Weather

Pencil drawing

This drawing is the first one I posted in 2024. It was a surprise for me—I did not plan this drawing in my schedule. I was drawing in my sketchbook and to my surprise I liked the image. I immediately transferred the image onto an A5 paper—a break from the usual square template.

Life was a bit harder than usual when I drew this. My Dad was hospitalized and later diagnosed with colon cancer. My family banded together to face this, but the difficulty was real. Probably I was just doing something I took comfort in doing. Happily, my Dad still has a chance to recover.

Pen drawing

Greeting Ms Moon

Final Painting

It is December and Christmas is coming. I decided to continue working on this piece I drew and painted last year. I could not finish it on time for Christmas then.

Reworking a painting felt different from painting from scratch. Recalling what I wanted to paint was not easy. One thing I recalled wanting to do was adding depth to the image. So I started with painting over the background. I think I was fairly successful to give the illusion of depth.

I soon realized that I did not plan the lighting when I drew this. Both light sources are from the right. Further, Ms Moon looks further into the image compared to the three characters. I tried my best to ignore these and painted warm-cool colors while keeping the lighting looks believable even if it was not correct. I was not totally happy with Lise's face (the girl), but I was at a loss about what I could fix.

I think this piece taught me why night scenes are more difficult to paint than day scenes.

Well, it is December and Christmas is coming. I hope everyone is doing okay. Happy holidays!