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Description
I don't usually do "Draw my OC" contests, if only because my own OCs barely get enough attention, but the fact that KitsMits has commented at various times on how much easier drawing short hair would be (as opposed to Kaiya's waist-length mane) and how giving Kaiya tattoos might have been cool, this idea I had proved irresistible. So, here's KitsMits' Kaiya, a character she created for her own stories based in the universe of Naruto, with some new ink, a little more metal, and a lot less hair.

I have to admit, I'm really, really unfamiliar with Naruto, so I mostly relied on KM's posts and some internet searches and I can only hope I didn't make any egregious offenses to the fans. That said, this was really, really fun to do. I mean, I had almost zero creativity when it came to the tattoos, but still -- coming up with a new look for someone's character and then putting them into your own style is kind of cool.

Anyhow, most of this was my now-usual technique of laying down greys and then putting color over them, except for the tattoos themselves, which were set as "hard light" layers lest they either fade too much or force me to create a greyscale base for them alone which probably would have driven me mad. It's now one of my goals to find a good way to get tattoos to follow the value shifts of shadows and highlights without completely fading to the values the pale-ass women I draw usually have.

The background is kind of a throw-in, just because having her in a chair on a blank or basic background struck me as a bit odd. I can guarantee it could be torn apart easily enough if you wanted to, and I wouldn't stop you, but -- I'd be more interested in hearing what you think about the main subject herself. So, any comments, critiques, or advice you have is welcome, as always.

Kaiya on a normal day:

Kaiya belongs to KitsMits
Naruto belongs to... someone else. Definitely not me, that I know.
____________________________________________
Disclaimer: I’m red-green colorblind. Because of this, it’s difficult for me to tell similar shades/hues of different colors apart, and, therefore, I need to work with very limited palettes when I color pieces. For shading and highlights, I’ll generally adjust the ‘value’ portion of the HSV setting to make the base color lighter or darker; I’m unable to ‘cool’ shadows by adding blue or anything like that. I’ve often been told to be bolder in my highlighting and shading, and I’m trying to be so, but… sometimes it still seems pretty tame. I’m just saying this in case you mentioned I need to do that on a previous piece – I’m not ignoring you, and I appreciate the input. It’s just not very easy for me to implement confidently.

Description
I don't usually do "Draw my OC" contests, if only because my own OCs barely get enough attention, but the fact that KitsMits has commented at various times on how much easier drawing short hair would be (as opposed to Kaiya's waist-length mane) and how giving Kaiya tattoos might have been cool, this idea I had proved irresistible. So, here's KitsMits' Kaiya, a character she created for her own stories based in the universe of Naruto, with some new ink, a little more metal, and a lot less hair.

I have to admit, I'm really, really unfamiliar with Naruto, so I mostly relied on KM's posts and some internet searches and I can only hope I didn't make any egregious offenses to the fans. That said, this was really, really fun to do. I mean, I had almost zero creativity when it came to the tattoos, but still -- coming up with a new look for someone's character and then putting them into your own style is kind of cool.

Anyhow, most of this was my now-usual technique of laying down greys and then putting color over them, except for the tattoos themselves, which were set as "hard light" layers lest they either fade too much or force me to create a greyscale base for them alone which probably would have driven me mad. It's now one of my goals to find a good way to get tattoos to follow the value shifts of shadows and highlights without completely fading to the values the pale-ass women I draw usually have.

The background is kind of a throw-in, just because having her in a chair on a blank or basic background struck me as a bit odd. I can guarantee it could be torn apart easily enough if you wanted to, and I wouldn't stop you, but -- I'd be more interested in hearing what you think about the main subject herself. So, any comments, critiques, or advice you have is welcome, as always.

Kaiya on a normal day:

Kaiya belongs to KitsMits
Naruto belongs to... someone else. Definitely not me, that I know.
____________________________________________
Disclaimer: I’m red-green colorblind. Because of this, it’s difficult for me to tell similar shades/hues of different colors apart, and, therefore, I need to work with very limited palettes when I color pieces. For shading and highlights, I’ll generally adjust the ‘value’ portion of the HSV setting to make the base color lighter or darker; I’m unable to ‘cool’ shadows by adding blue or anything like that. I’ve often been told to be bolder in my highlighting and shading, and I’m trying to be so, but… sometimes it still seems pretty tame. I’m just saying this in case you mentioned I need to do that on a previous piece – I’m not ignoring you, and I appreciate the input. It’s just not very easy for me to implement confidently.