New manga markers!

For my birthday, I bought myself some new manga markers with the Amazon gift card my parents gave me. I am so excited to learn how to use them! I also bought some new manga paper to see how it differs from the multipurpose computer paper I usually use.

Things purchased:

• U.S. Art Supply 9"x12" manga-marker paper
• Master Markers Manga & Primary Tones 24-pack
• The Art of Vampire Knight - Matsuri Hino Illustrations

Rather than be reasonable and practice in short sessions with the markers and paper, I dove in and recreated one of my favorite panels from my other favorite manga/anime: Vampire Knight. It turned out better than I anticipated, so I decided to post it as a new milestone in my mangaka journey.


Some notes:

• Yup, I am aware the Day Class uniforms are black. At the moment, I only have a weird mix of primary colors and grays. No black marker in the set. So I improvised with blue! Same with Yuki's hair color, improvised with the sienna brown marker I have. 
• Character names are Zero and Yuki, brought to you by the incredible Matsuri Hino. 
• Therefore, this is fan art...while I try to figure out my own style. 
• The paper I purchased does NOT let you erase once you have inked, so I'll be looking for a different long-term paper. Hence the pencil marks.

I hope you enjoy the new art, which will be posted sporadically as I find time on weekends between teaching, my doctorate studies, and life in general.

Yuki and Zero from Vampire Knight.

I anticipate that my own art and characters will be a hybrid of Hiromu Arakawa + Matsuri Hino + Hayao Miyazaki, since they are the artists I enjoy the most.