GunParade March: Mai Shibamura

TV Show: GunParade March ( Aratanaru Kougunka )<br />
Name: Mai Shibamura<br />
Birthdate: 1981-01-30 ( Aged 18 )<br />
Height: 158cm ( 5'2" )<br />
Ethnicity: Japanese<br />
Occupation: HWT ( Mecha ) Pilot and student.<br />
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Program Used: Photoshop 7<br />
Time Taken: ~16 hours<br />
References: Face partially referenced<br />
Frustration Level: :frustrated:<br />
Notes: Fun trying to make an anime/manga person appear like a real girl. In my own interpretation of course.. I am proud of doing nearly everything completely unreferenced. The anatomy, the hair, the pilot suit, etc. :D Just the face needed some references.<br />
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This is Mai Shibamura, the not so sociable (main) character from GunParade March. The show being just 12 episodes x 20 minutes long ( = 4 hours), I saw the whole thing in one morning and it made a strong impression.<br />
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I had very different ideas at first of what it was going to be. Her slouching when sitting down on a bench or chair, with perhaps Taka (the womanizer) leaning over her babbling, and her ignoring him. Or her sitting on a sunchair under a parasol on a sunny hot runway with heatstreaks, drinking that Sweet Rice Drink as they call it in the TV series. Then I was going to sneak in some dropships from the show, and tried two differently sketched versions, one behind and one above, but neither worked with the picture.<br />
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The horizon became quite surreal looking. Maybe it's a snowy landscape, maybe it is above the clouds.. Who knows :) At one point, I spent 1-2 hours painting the face, only to realize I had completely screwed it up and had to revert to the older version.<br />
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My homebase is actually http://mikkow.deviantart.com