Kurohiko's ART SUMMARY 2015

It’s time for my annual art summary! And for this year we have…

KARMA: Chapter 3 – Epilogue (unpublished); My Facebook Boyfirned… for REAL?! Novel #5; My Facebook Boyfriend… for REAL?! Manga Adaptation #2; CELESTIA #1; Trese Fan Art; CELESTIA #2 (unpublished); *Secret Project* (unpublished)

I’ve drawn the most number of manga pages this year than any other year of my career! I consider that as an accomplishment since I draw so slowly…

For 2016, I want to learn how to let go of not being able to draw too much detail, and to not draw perfectly, so I can be faster. I know I check and double check way too many times, which slows down progress overall! I blame it on my OCD with hair and faces and anatomy and everything else!

Although there is a bit of improvement with my speed, I need to be even faster! I know the clock is ticking away at my career, especially considering my current circumstances… but I think if my speed improves, I can keep drawing for another year or two!

I want to draw Crystal Shadows again too… It was supposed to be a short series, but these long hiatuses are turning it into a long running one!

Anyway, thank you everyone for your continued support! I will keep doing my best and improve a lot more next year! See you again in 2016!

P.S. This is my Facebook Page’s banner again too! Please visit me there as well! Thank you!

Prince Lumawig of Celestia

Ah… if only one of my series would become an anime… that would be a dream come true!

Anyway, this is a quick color of one of the panels of Celestia: Chapter 2. ALAS Book 2 will be out very soon, so I thought you guys might want a little sneak peek~!

I’m not completely sure about the color of Lumawig’s eyes and hair beads, but this will do for now. He does look very prince-like in this pale lavender color though~

Can you guess who said that line in the subtitle? Definitely not Lumawig, because he’s mute!

Gift: CELESTIA - Claire Angela Legaspi by Suoh12

Hello, everyone! Sorry I haven’t been updating lately! I’ve been so busy with work and life~ Which is actually good news for those who are living in the Philippines! It means more books are most definitely coming your way! Please continue to support us once they are out!

Anyway, I received this lovely fan art of Claire Angela Lee from Suoh12! Not only is he an amazing assistant, but he’s a great artist too, so please be sure to support him on Facebook!

During times when I’m about ready to throw in the towel, I always look through the fan arts I received and that gives me a lot of encouragement to continue! So thank you once again to everyone for giving me your support! I promise I will continue to do my best in drawing and writing stories! ‘Til next time!

TRESE Fan Art: Ang Halimuyak ng Sampaguita

Ah… I’ve made it? Maybe? I hope?

Trese is making an art book full of artworks by many different artists, and I decided to join in on the fun! However, Sir Budjette and Sir Kajo will be judging the entries and I’m so nervous that I seriously can’t even think straight! I feel like this artwork may have too much or too little details… or maybe the concept is way too simple, or that the characters just look too weird in my style!

When I’m in over my head, I need to just stop. Stop working on it, add whatever finishing touches I can, and hope for the best. There are so many talented artists out there, and Power-J said he will submit something too, so… I better stop worrying about it and hit the send button already!

Ah… Good luck to all… *sobs*

PS. …wow, ok, Alex looks so different the first time I drew her..! *cries more*

ALAS Pinoy Manga: CELESTIA

PSICOM Publishing Inc. presents... ALAS Bi-Monthly Manga Anthology!

Kurohiko will be representing the Spade variant of the 4 Artists of ALAS with her series entitled, CELESTIA.

Story synopsis:
Humans can't fly... unless they're on a plane. But they can't fly on their own, right? That's what Fine Arts Student, Claire Angela Legaspi thought so too, until she found herself on top of Quezon City Memorial Shrine! How did she get there and, more importantly, why are two beautiful boys following her?!
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人間は飛ぶことができない...彼らは飛行機にしている場合を除きます。しかし、彼らは正しい、自分自身で飛ぶことができないのですか？それは美術学生、クレアアンジェラレガスピは、もそう思ったものです。まで彼女はケソン市記念神社の上に自分自身を発見しました！彼女はどうやってそこに着くのですか？さらに重要なのは、なぜ彼女を次の二つの美しい男の子がいますか。

ALAS will debut at the Manila International Book Fair 2015! I’ll be there on September 18 for a short book signing event from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.

See you soon! (^^*)

She Died: Eros Fan Art

Whoops… It looks like I completely forgot about this fan art I did of Eros from She Died (for an entire year!). So here’s a much prettier scanned version, lightly cleaned up in Photoshop.

My sketchpad paper is getting a little yellow now. Come to think of it, I think this book is nearly 5 years old..! And I’ve only used a few pages so far… Maybe I should draw and color more traditional art?

Color pencils have always had a certain appeal to me… the same goes for watercolors. It’s like the colors are transparent, so you need quality paper to make the colors pop. And it emphasizes the texture of the paper too~ It’s just too bad it’s so time consuming…

Anyway, I hope you guys like this piece. I think I’ll continue hibernating for a few more days before I pick up my wacom pen again.

Gift: Dominic Hunter by Rabbit Edge

I’ve received this last week, but I wasn’t able to post it here since I was desperately trying to beat a deadline… Unfortunately, I lost to my deadline, but at least everything is finally finished, and now I have some time to sit down and write.

Isn’t he beautiful? I received this as a prize from Rabbit Edge, and it could not have come at a better time! As I said before, I was trying to beat my deadline, but when it became apparent that I was going to lose, it made me want to give up and just… sleep! It was around that time when I was feeling sorry for myself that I got this!

It looks as if Dominic was telling me to stop complaining and just do my work. Haha! And I did! I miraculously drew 4 pages in one day. FOUR PAGES!!! I hardly finish 2 in a day, and then I somehow managed to draw four?!

Anyway, please do visit Rabbit Edge on Facebook and give her a like or two. Or you can visit the websites listed on her illustration and follow her!

I’ll be sure to update again soon!

Gold Manga BEST #2 – Coming to MIBF!

This volume features Raykosen’s illustration of Alesana Marie’s “Talk Back and You’re Dead!” The first time Ray showed this to us, I got pretty excited, because the expressions on the characters’ faces look so intense! I can’t wait to read the manga adaptation!

The other 3 series in the first book will be entering their second chapter, but this marks as TBYD’s debut issue so don’t miss it!

MY FACEBOOK BOYFRIEND FOR REAL
written by Anne Bernadette Castueras
illustrated by Kurohiko

DIARY NG PANGET
written by HaveYouSeenThisGirL Stories
illustrated by Enjelicious

PUBLIC vs. PRIVATE
written by Hannalove
illustrated by Power-J

Thank you for your support as always! We hope you’ll enjoy this installment of your favorite local books! We’ll have another surprise for all our loyal fans very soon, so please stay tuned!

Fan Art? Or Self-Portrait? Or Both?!

I apologize for not updating in a while… I’m currently working on a new manga that’s super top secret! Ok, no, not really super top secret, but I can’t tell you guys about it yet! I will soon though, so stay tuned for updates!

For now, I wanted to show you guys this! It’s a fan art for Jackie’s one-shot manga based on the members of Studio 4 Eyes. He basically forced us to draw ourselves for his own benefit, LOL! But anyway… You can see this in “Kisapmata”, which went on sale last Indieket!

Speaking of Indieket though, it was too bad we couldn’t finish volume 4 of Studio 4 Eyes in time. But I’m hoping we can make it for Winter Komikon this year. I miss drawing Erin and the gang… And I’ll probably draw them differently now too!

That’s it for now! I gotta get back to work if I ever hope to beat this deadline! How you guys like this sketch!

Instagram-ing~! ♥

My manga buddies have somehow managed to convinced me into making an instagram account… I mostly post random stuff there, but there are some manga sneak peeks too! This is a panel from KARMA: Chapter 3 – Epilogue. The manga is completely finished, but I don’t know when they will be hitting stores yet. Please be a little more patient, guys!

I’ll be sure to post relevant photos from my instagram here, but if you prefer to see all of my nonsense, please do follow me at mei.kho!

Alright, back to work! Lots of exciting projects coming soon! I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted!

Gift: Kill la Kill x Crystal Shadows CrossOver

I’ve been so busy with deadlines lately, but I can’t even post anything about them right now that I have to resort to showing off even more gifts from Honey Den~ (Well, actually, no, I thought I was finished featuring all of the gifts I received, but it turns out that there are even more stashed away in this page..!)

Anyway, at the time when Kill la Kill was started becoming popular, Honey decided to draw Erin from Crystal Shadows in Matoi Ryuko’s uniform. I think it looks absolutely stunning on her, but Erin is usually very conservative, so I’m not sure if this will ever happen in the story.

If you like her works, please do visit her Deviant Art page and give her a favorite or two! Or leave comments, I’m sure she’ll appreciate that as well. Keep up the great work, Honey!

GOLD Manga #3 Available at NBS Fisher Mall!

Because I’m terribly excited to see how the latest book came out, I went hunting for it today at Fisher Mall. I though I had to dig around for them like last time, so I was surprised to see that they were placed on the top shelf!

I haven’t read all of the stories yet, but browsing through them, I can tell everyone worked hard in making their pages! I took photos of some of my favorite scene for each artist, just so you guys can have a little sneak peek!

For WISH*GRANTED, I am loving the new tones I used for this book. I’ll probably use the same tone count for the next chapter of FBBF, but I’ll tweek it a little more to get it as clean as possible. The highlighting is different too, but I’m still not totally satisfied with it, so I might use another technique later.

Anyway, please do grab a copy of GOLD Manga #3! We hope you’ll continue to support us! Go forth, GOLD Artists! Let’s try even harder in the next book!

Gift: Broken by DarkMotives

This week’s #FanArtFriday features Dark Motives’ fan art of Lily Santos from KARMA! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ From the image’s details, Darky gave me this back in February 2014! I wonder if she knew what would happen in the Epilogue of Karma: Chapter 3?

∑(;°Д°) …oops, maybe I already said too much? Haha~ but I bet Lily would be very pleased to see this fan art for herself. Thanks again Darky! Please visit her Deviant Art Account for more of her amazing artwork!

Meme: Pen Drawing

Tagged by Tres Vaclav

Rules:
- Draw using a pen.
- Do not correct anything.
- Tag 10 people.

My OCD is kicking in... there are so many things I want to correct in this sketch but I can’t, and it’s driving me nuts! Probably one of the last drawings I’ll ever make using only a pen.

Now to get back to work, before I chicken out in posting this and decide to try and make a better one. ((o(;△;)o))

Meme: 5 Day Art Challenge (Day 5)

Since it’s the last day of that art meme, I decided to post some of the stuff that I’ve been working on… As far as I know, these books are not yet available for purchase, so these would be exclusive sneak peeks!

KARMA: Chapter 3 – Epilogue is going to be published under Oh No! Manga. This panel is probably one of the highlights of the chapter, but it’s not the main plot..? So I guess it’s something to look forward to without giving too much away.

WISH*GRANTED is published in GOLD Manga #3 under PSICOM. It debuted last February 14 at the “Love at First Write” event, but I haven’t seen the book in stores yet. Hopefully it will be out very soon. I think I might be in love with King.

My FBBF (Manga) #2 will be published in GOLD Best #2 under PSICOM. We’re still working on the pages, but I thought Luke looked so adorable in this panel even though it’s not yet finished… also something to look forward to, I hope?

And this marks the end of my 5 Day Art Challenge! Sorry the last one is a bunch of panels from my manga works, but I hope you enjoyed them nonetheless! Until next time!

Meme: 5 Day Art Challenge (Day 4)

Most of you are probably aware of my near-obsession over wings with my recent artworks of Rei Kuassary: Wings and Belated Happy Hearts… I was going to add them for Day 4 too, but I suppose I should feature something a little older (aka: stuff that hasn’t been uploaded on my FB page yet).

Reunion is my first commission on Deviant Art. My commissioner pretty much let me do whatever I wanted with her characters, Adiv and Altair. Despite being battle worn, they still have amazing hair, haha!

Ryo is Eclipse’s character. She won my 25k kiriban on Deviant Art, and she asked me to draw her character, who also has wings! I need to re-draw that cake though, it looks so weird.

Knite is a webcomic by Yuumei and Lee Mei Hua is my character entry for her contest some time ago. I didn’t win, but she was a lot of fun to draw, and I managed to think of a background story for her too! Those aren’t her wings, by the way, they’re the wings on her kite, but I thought the illusion looked great.

Last day of the meme tomorrow! I hope I don’t forget! Woot!

Meme: 5 Day Art Challenge (Day 3)

For the third day, I decided to choose a bunch of my OTPs (One True Pairs) from various fandoms. I apologize in advance if the pairings are strange and weird, but yeah, I guess I’m a little weird…

Kurama / Minamino Shuichi x Kitajima Maya (Yu Yu Hakusho) – Back in high school, I was upset how many people called Kurama “gay” and they weren’t even anime fans. I was happy to find out that canonically, Kurama once had a girl he liked! I’m forever defending that Kurama is straight despite having long hair and getting a girl’s voice in his Tagalog dubbing by mistake!

Hiiragi Keiichi x Kurumi Nui (Onegai My Melody) – After working for Sanrio, I got into “Onegai My Melody” for a time, and started shipping these two to the point of obsession. They were the reason I got into role-playing for a few years, and I got to meet a bunch of fantabulous people! Mallory will forever be my Hiiragi, that much I’m certain of.

Kuran Kaname x Kuran Yuuki (Vampire Knight) – I get it, I get it, they are practically grandfather x granddaughter, but heck, Kaname deserves some happiness after all the sacrifice he’s made. And Zero is too emotional for my tastes, so yeah… But I’m not getting into the VK fandom ever again since the fans are way too crazy in bashing one another.

Zero x Iris (Megaman X4) – Probably the first Megaman series I ever got into thanks to the anime cut scenes. It was the first time I ever saw a female robot in the franchise, and I loved using Zero and his close combat techniques better than Megaman. You have no idea how much my heart broke when I had to kill Iris…

Kurumi Nui x Agatsuma Soubi (Onegai My Melody x Loveless) – Ok, this is probably the weirdest pairing yet, seeing how Soubi is a pedo, but… pairing him with Kurumi seemed better than Ritsuka and, since Kurumi looks a lot like Ritsuka, I thought he’d consider it..?

Now I’m going to bury myself in paperwork so that I won’t feel too embarrassed, ok? See you tomorrow!

Meme: 5 Day Art Challenge (Day 2)

For the second day of this art challenge meme, I thought I’d feature my first webcomic, A.illusions. I never got to finish the series, because I never knew the world of hacking is so complicated! I basically ran with the idea, and found there were a ton of loopholes in the original script, so… I’m stuck! Unless someone is willing to help work out the technical details?

Eri-hime is an illustration I did for my characters page. There were so many characters that I had to think of poses for that I decided to draw the Durara Meme instead.

I Am Alice was a contest entry for when Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” film came out. I didn’t get to finish on time, but I thought it looked great anyway and decided to finish it.

Feline Sisters features automatons Eri and Naru, who are owned by brothers Shijirou and Soujiro. I thought it would be appropriate to give Eri cat ears, and this was also a contest entry in Deviant Art.

Act Two – Fourth Stage is the cover for the webcomic chapter of A.illusions. It was the beginning of the main plot, but again, technical issues made the script unrealistic.

I think Eri was unknowingly my most favorite character from the series. Hopefully, I can work on this again one day soon.

Meme: 5 Day Art Challenge (Day 1)

There’s a meme going around Facebook lately, and since I’m busy drawing manga pages, I thought this would make a great update here.

Nominated by: Jaden Kaiba and Bokimkatje Komiks
RULE: If an artist nominated you, you have to post at least 3 artworks per day for 5 consecutive days & nominate an artist each day.

Ok then, let’s start with some of the first uploads I ever made on the internet (aka the times when I had no knowledge of photoshop or wacom tablets):

Rurouni Culture Crash is my first illustration that was ever published in the local books. I drew this as a thank you to the people in Culture Crash for putting up with my questions for my thesis. They helped me out a lot as well in terms of illustrating manga. I still remember how Sir James told me to “play with the camera” when I draw my panels.

One Day, Isang Diwa was drawn for CFAD - Red Cross Youth’s activity where we invited CC’s artists to talk about manga in UST. There was a bit of a crowd, but our marketing was all screwed up at the time, and most of their fans found out too late. (We couldn’t help it… there was a lot of massive red tape to go through.)

Peace of Silence is my fan art contest entry at Canada’s Anime Evolution 2004. I won first prize at the traditional arts section, and they let me keep the original illustration too! They gave me a Sailor Moon pin as a prize, hehe!

More embarrassing illustrations coming up tomorrow! Watch out for it..? Maybe?

Gift: What If DarkMotives Became An Angel? by DarkMotives

After updating my Gifts Page, I realized that I haven’t featured quite a few fan arts given to me yet… So for now, I’ll schedule some posts to automatically come in live every Friday- #FanArtFriday! ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦o)

I received this one from Dark Motives last December 2013. I remember that she had a request for me during Free Comic Book Day on April 2013 to draw her as an angel in KARMA, but I never got to do it since she decided to ask for something else during the event instead.

I think this looks very awesome! The rose detail on her sword’s pommel is beautiful, and it makes me think she’s an earth angel like Tori~ ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ

Anyway, please visit her Deviant Art account~ She’s got an amazing gallery there and I’m sure she’ll appreciate the support! Thanks again for all the amazing fan art!

Gold Manga #3

Late post is very late, but to everyone who went to the Love at First Write Event last February 14 in SM Megamall, thank you very much for your overwhelming support! (´ω｀★) I apologize for not attending the event, since I’m busy drawing manga pages… I’m a very slow artist, so I have to work extra hard to keep up with my deadlines! ヾ(´▽｀;)ゝ

The beautiful writer of WISH*GRANTED, Kkabyulism took this photo of the actual book during the event. We’d love to hear what you guys thought of the story and art, so please feel free to comment here or on Facebook! (｡´∀｀)ﾉ

I can’t wait to grab my own copy~ ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ～❤

Next Episode: Angel of Fire

Well, ok, this “episode” already “aired” in Oh No! Manga Anthology Book 2, but I heard a third book is in the works, so… it seemed like the appropriate time to post this. (*≧▽≦)

I’ve been meaning to make a fake screenshot of KARMA for a while now, but deadlines keep getting in the way. I’m glad I got to do this panel since I’m very proud of how it turned out.

Oh, and I’m also very happy I got a new pen nib for my Wacom~ ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ Now back to work! Good morning, everyone!

Tutorial: How I Draw Anime Screenshots

I’m not very good at teaching how to draw, but here is the step-by-step process of my drawing of Masato. Some knowledge of Photoshop Layers are needed to understand this tutorial though… I hope many of you will understand!

• STEP 1: SKETCH - I used 2 layers for this sketch. The first was just to see how Masa’s pose would look, then the 2nd layer is for detailing his face. I flipped the image several times to check for errors.
• STEP 2: INKING - Because I intended to blur Masa’s hand, I only inked up to here in one layer, then used a second layer for the rest. I also changed the ink color of brown and set the layer on “Multiply”.
• STEP 3: FLAT COLORS - I used a reference for his clothing, so I just used the eye dropper tool for his colors. I use one layer for the hair, another for the skin, and a third for his clothes.
• STEP 4: SHADOW - Because the ink layer is set to multiply, some of the brown ink will turn black in darker areas, while others remain brown. I blurred the lines and colors/shadows on Masa’s arm at this point. I change the layer modes and use “Multiply” for skin, and “Linear Burn” for hair and clothing. In Linear Burn, I usually use gray colors for shadow, but for Masa’s jacket, I used pink / purple color.
• STEP 5: HIGHLIGHTS - Since this is meant to look like an anime screenshot, I only added highlights to Masa’s eyes and hair.
• STEP 6: EFFECTS - I made a new layer and used “Soft Brush” to add the light around Masa. Also added petals then used “Motion Blur” filter on PS to show
  movement, then added a subtitle and signature!

If you guys have any questions, feel free to let me know! I’ll do my best to explain~

Thank you, Chie-san!

I’m probably going to get into a lot of trouble by morning, since I have several other deadlines I should be taking care of-… but anyway!

I’ve been watching Uta no Prince-sama Maji Rabu on Facebook for a while now, and one of the admins, called Chie, is actually living in Japan and posting news about exclusive UtaPri events… in English! Of course, because of that, many of her photos and news are being stolen by other sites without crediting her page.

I know how that feels… Not only are my fan arts often stolen from me, but my other blog, Cosplay Holic, has fallen dramatically in ranks because many people steal my articles too. I’ve completely given up on reporting them all, but I keep the site active anyway because, even now, I still want people to find the cosplayers behind the amazing photos. However, it doesn’t mean that I no longer feel hurt when people steal content from me.

And so, because I have no advice to give in handling situations like these, I wanted to cheer Chie-san up in the only way I can. If I remember correctly, she like Masato the most, so I drew him reaching over to pat Chie-san on the head.

Have a good break, Chie-san… please don’t let the idiots of the fandom get to you.

Gold Manga: WISH*GRANTED

Since everyone is posting their sneak peeks, I guess I can post mine too! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ

WISH*GRANTED is about Louise, a teenage girl who has a crush on her schoolmate, Harry. Like any love struck teenager, all she wanted was for Harry to notice her, and maybe, ask her out for a date. Would making a wish in their school fountain help make her dreams come true?

I really like this story, so I did my best in illustrating this manga as best as I could! I don’t know when it will be out in stores yet, but I’m sure it’s coming very soon! o(≧∇≦o)

Thank you, Kkabyulism, for the chance to work with you! And of course, the lovely Miss A.B.Castueras for her mad editing skills! I hope you guys will enjoy this story! And please check out Enjelicious’, Power-J’s, and RAYKOSEN’s posts on Facebook too! ☆~~ヾ(>▽<)ﾉ｡･☆

Chibi Lei and Cinna-chan’s Christmas

Lei-Lei commissioned me last December for a Christmas label. She made her own gifts last year and wanted to personalize it with a chibi version of herself and her pet, Cinna-chan. (｡´∀｀)ﾉ

I think it turned out really well! I especially loved the green santa outfit and how fluffy the lining came out. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) ♫･*:.｡. .｡.:*･ Cinna-chan looks a little awkward though… I haven’t drawn him in a long time…

I wonder what the recipients thought about these labels? (m*´∀`)m Lol…

Kurohiko’s ART SUMMARY 2014

Another year has come and gone, and I’m happy to say that I had even more manga projects for the year 2014! I’ve learned a lot last year, including being patient with myself, as I’m less industrious than the younger generation of Pinoy Manga Artists! I’ve also realized how much hard work and dedication it takes to go from one manga to the next, not to mention, adjusting styles to better suit the story entrusted to me! (´ω｀★)

Most of all, I feel incredibly blessed to have fellow artists as my friends and rivals as we push each other to become even better than we were before. Thank you, Enjelicious, Power-J, and Raykosen! And to my idols, Sir Memer, Sir Ilog, Miss Tepai, Florineil, and Kuru-san, I promise to work even harder so that one day, I can proudly say that we have become rivals!

Let’s go, 2015! I’m ready when you are! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ