Commission-Reflection

Thoughts

I really wanted to capture this moment of blade maintenance in a very sort of...romantic? Tender sort of way. I had never seen this done before until Ryushi(Client) had shown me a video for reference and thought it was really neat. I think perhaps there were ways I could have explored that thought further.

Asako is a ninja by trade and in my mind this blade is one of her most beloved possessions. Something she seldom uses unless it's a guaranteed perfect slice or an extreme emergency. I feel like that could have been captured better. Perhaps a different part of the maintenance but I wanted to show this distinct moment with the puff ball because it's kind unique and delicate in contrast to her imposing figure. Thinking on it I should have watched the Toy Story 2  Woody repair scene before working on this. lol

YOU CAN'T RUSH ART.

This has been quite the piece to get through. I'm not confident about drawing muscular women in an appealing way so I tend to struggle a lot with them. While there's still a lot I can learn when it comes to anatomy my problem lies more in how I choose to represent it in my work. A lot of conflicting ideas and doubts.

I'm not entirely happy with the composition. I think it looks fine but I know I can learn to do better. I tend to leave too much negative space in my work because I have this obsession of trying to show EVERY aspect of a character which ultimately weakens the composition. This is probably due to the fact that a majority of my work has always been pinup styled compositions.

I had a established a color palette earlier on through thumbnails and ended up throwing it out the window and repainting this toward the end. I could have spent more time early on trying different palettes.

So final thoughts. Slow down and think. I recently started to do daily write up on pieces images that I really like. Whether it's an R18 scene(Fuck you Patreon) or an illustration I try to write down the key notes on why I enjoy them in the hopes of improving my work.

 I need to make a better habit of recording these to share in the off chance anyone would be interested in seeing those struggles. 

My thoughts on pieces aren't meant to be "negative". It can come off that way sometimes and even harsh but I want to improve with every piece. I hope maybe they can help others or even myself find some perspective.