Natsume Takashi

I've been watching a lot of the anime Natsume Yūjin-chō^. A friend turned me on to the series and I'm really enjoying it - there's a sense of melancholy to it that took some getting used to at first, but I really began to appreciate it after a bit. The opening and ending sequences for the second season take place in the Fall/Winter time, and the characters are shown in cold weather garb. I took a moment from watching to do tonight's sketch, and I had originally attempted to finish a watercolor fashion sketch from a session I attended last month. But I wasn't happy with following a photograph that wasn't even in the same view so after a few more strokes, I figured it was done. That sketch is below.

One thing that the instructor/moderator of the session had told me was perhaps I should consider painting directly without initially doing pencils, so with the image of Natsume in mind, I tried to paint the main character, in my own (non-anime) style. I rather like what happened: I layered really light tones first to lay the foundation of the face and body, then slowly built it up with depth and detail. It's still somewhat tentative, but because I went in without any preconceived notions of what I should really do, it turned out rather nicely, I think. Natsume himself looks like some real boy - I gave him a very particular mouth with upturned corners that I've been favoring lately. I may have to do more of these exercises.

Oh, and having good paper helps.