Cronus Point

Sailor Moon (c) Naoko Takeuchi/ Kodansha Ltd/ Toei
Art (c) Candace McDaniel/ Kitti606. Please feel free to download for personal use ONLY. Do not redistribute, sell, host on other websites, or alter in any way without obtaining permission from me.

The first thing you need to know about this picture is that I referenced a picture of Sailor Moon from the Sailor Moon Scout Guide for the pose. (I believe it also appears in an episode of the anime, but I don't know/ remember if I've seen it or which episode it was.) There was absolutely NO TRACING involved in this (the image in the Scout Guide is quite small compared to my drawing). I've done many sketches using the original Senshi as pose references, as well as from other sources, and the process has taught me a lot about art. I highly recommend it as a means to improve your art skills, with, of course, the caveat that you should NOT attempt to pass it off as your own, original artwork.

Here is Sailor Cronus telling off an unidentified enemy of some kind. XD I suppose a dramatic pose like this comes with some sort of speech, typical of Magical Girls taking the time to strike a pose. (Maybe pointing isn't exactly a *dramatic* pose, at least not as dramatic as some of the poses the original girls have pulled off.) So, stop stealing Memory Pearls from people... 'n stuff...

Anyway, this is me improving my skills in Photoshop. I've learned a lot about the pen tool and I can control it much more easily than before. I like the dynamic effect of the pen pressure option, and I mixed it up with solid, non-dynamic lines throughout the image, depending on my needs. It's not 100% consistent, because I started to forget what I was doing with some of the lines. XD My main regret is using a brush too thick. I'll have to remember that for the next time.

While the main point of this image was to flex my inking skills, rather than coloring, I chose simple anime-style cel shading for this piece. (As of this writing, it's not completely finished yet, I still have a few things left to shade.) But as it stands, this is the most accurate color and style for her so far. (I've goofed up some of my past pictures of her with either the wrong colors or wrong shades of colors.) She has caramel-colored hair; eyes a slightly lighter shade of violet than her uniform (I've colored them lavender before, and while you might not notice the difference nor care about it, I do... so much!); the uniform itself is tinted toward the red side of violet (rather than toward the blue side as Saturn's); the ribbons are raspberry (NOT pink! Ever! Previous examples were due to not having the correct shade or shade mixture in the media I worked with) her jewelry is primarily silver (not gold, and there's a reason for that); and yes, the gloves match the collar and skirt-- she does NOT do the reversal thing Sailor Moon does.

So, as you can obviously see, I am quite happy with the way this one came out. It's terrific, and I hope the rest of my art will be as good... or better, haha.

Edit 3-15-16: Wow, I... kind of forgot this wasn't finished. Well, it is now. All I had left to do was finish shading her hair, put in a background, and a few minor adjustments.

Background is by magical-mama.deviantart.com/

Pose reference: gallery.missdream.org/albums/r…