“I bring you big lunch Ranma!”

Self Critique: The perspective of the table is a pretty jank compared to the floorboards. I should’ve bent her foot downwards instead of keeping them straightened out like that (She was previously gonna be right on the floor instead of on a cushion).

You can go ahead and blame Artzie Music for this. Last year heard a song he posted and in the accompanying video he put up, there was Shampoo from Ranma ½. Now, I’ve never seen the show (that is until recently when I saw an OVA thanks to my bud Sutorippu). But I do know there’s fans of her (and the show in general). I had intended to draw her and actually announced it. But I ended up forgetting about it. That is, until I recently saw another vid Artzie had featuring Shampoo some time later thanks to Youtube Recommendations, and again I was reminded to draw her. This time she got added to the list.

The pose was actually a salvaged one. The initial schematic sketch was absolutely awful, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep the pose. However I redrew the schematic again, this time on the computer and with a clearer head. I still had my reservations, but sure enough things started to take shape once I finished the 1st sketch phase. When it came to designing Shampoo’s qipao, I was ready to make it based on the one from the anime. But then I spotted the one from the manga, and it looked A LOT nicer than the anime. The same applied to her hair accessories. So I decided to do a mix of the two. She would keep the hair accessories from the manga, the qipao design from the anime, but the qipao pattern from the manga. There were a few extra things I added too, like the two bracelets, an anklet, and a couple more accessories on the other variants to this.

The background was also planned to be on the simpler side, with a plain background with some Chinese motifs and the panda from the show in the background. After watching that OVA, I settled on just putting her inside her house. However I had no idea just how detailed I would end up making this! I took this chance to really start putting to the test using the Watercolor Brush for shading, as well as the “Selection from Layer” command, which works much better than the magic wand ever could in Clip Studio Paint. I think what I’m most proud of here are the food and the floorboards. The food I shaded in with one of the more rougher brushes give the dumplings and steamed buns that textured look. The floorboards I used a standard Smooth Watercolor brush. But something I did for a commission a couple of weeks ago helped me to better render tiles. So I figured I could use this same technique on wood floors. Even better, I can fudge it a little bit to give it that man-made look (like that part under the table there). When everything I done, I wondered if I should add dust particles and steam from the food. But I think it’s best I left it as is.

Done on Clip Studio Paint Pro. Intuos4 Tablet used. Body-chan model traced for schematic skeleton, then drawn freehand the rest of the way.

Shampoo and Ranma ½ is (c) Rumiko Takahashi.

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