irisillych - March-April Prime 2023

Immediately after I had finished my first Touhou February, I jumped into painting Prime Warframes. New day, new frame, I rarely spent more than the allotted 24hrs on each. I also didn't post all of them, because this was always a sort of test to make sure I wanted to make art for the sake of art, and not just posting on my twitter. However, I'm omitting some frames, as I feel they weren't good enough.

Pose references will be marked with [P], and they'll have a number for how hard they were to draw, on a scale of 1-10.

Excalibur [P]

I wanted it to be big. I wanted Greek God shit. When I saw the pose, with the cloth in the model's hand, I instantly thought of some Warframe concept art and referenced it. I added in the side heads to sort of show...the legacy of the whole prime thing. It's also on top of the frame you see when you log in. 7

Frost

I bought new brushes for this one. Felt amazing to finally have a GOOD, professional brush... I wanted him to blend into the snowglobe. 5

Mag [P]

I found these really cool pictures of girls in a pool, and I wanted to use one for this. But this is where my weakness in Warframe started: friggin arms and armpits. I don't remember why I wanted her arm stretched down, but I know it's because my brain was hurting, trying to figure out how to draw her arm upside down. 5

Ember [P]

she was fun, until I had to conceptualize how her leg lifted up looks. The weird leg-cage she has made it really annoying... 6

Rhino [P]

The problem with armpits on warframes, is that there's no easy way to look at them, without going into captura. The "arms-up" dance is good for it, but it's annoy. I used my gold paint, the one I made, to try to get an armor-like sheen on him. 4

Loki [P]

By this time, I had started saving pose inspirations beforehand. I wanted this to be him reaching through his doppelganger, casting it infront of him. 4

Nyx [P]

I saw this pose, and KNEW I had to use it for Nyx...
and then i goofed on her head, but I kept it in. I just painted the weird eye motif to try and confuse the viewer, to try and camoflage my mistake (i hope this worked) 8

Nova [P]

I was INSPIRED when I did Nova. The circles, bitch, THE CIRCLES! And I put salt on the circles to mess with the paint, and how it dries! I posted it on Twitter with a Touhou track name, "Gensokyo Millenium~History of the Moon" 3

Volt [P]

I dissolved epsome salts in water, and used that to paint the drips. The epsome salts them recrystallize, and it looks badass. 2

Ash [P]

If you've ever seen me tweet about Warframe armpits, this is the main catalyst. Figuring out how to draw his arms just... I gave him the big piece of cloth just for this reason. I couldn't draw the underside of the arm that's up in the air. And while I feel that the cloth is a good addition, and really looks great, the Great Armpit Problem left a scar on me. I also used some of the epsom salt paint from Volt on here, and gave Ash a Dagoth Ur kind of vibe. 6

Trinity [P]

I don't remember the exact day, but I know the day I was asked to join the Warframe creators program was the same day I posted this. I put the lyrics from, "Heartaches" in the tweet. More epsom salt paints! 7

Saryn [P]

I won't say a lot, but I was feeling a lot of pressure by this point. Looking back, I'm very happy with how it looks! But I know, in the moment, I didn't like her as much. 5

Valkyr [P]

Along with armpits, it's also hard to do profile shots, but that might just be me. I also realized, at this point, that pre-soaking my watercolor paper made it hard to paint lol 7

Banshee [P]

I really liked the musculature on the model I referenced for this. In high school, I had to build a model with all of the muscles of the human body, and that really helped with this art challenge. I wanted to only paint the parts of her that were highlighted by her ability, or something like that... But I lost focus, and just started painting, and had to retcon it with the echolocation lines, whoops! 4

Mirage [P]

Upside-down Warframes are also hard. I blacked out part of the drawing because I was being hyper critical, and I messed something up. I figured the harsh shadows would work to hide the mistake, and thematically be ok since it's Mirage. 4

Khora

While incorrect for the order of Prime Warframes, I jumped her up the list because it was my cat's birthday. That's him, the greyby. He turned 12! 7

Zephyr

I could've sworn I used a pose reference, but I guess I didn't? I probably thought the feathers would be annoying to account for... I was probably right. 5

Limbo [P]

I used a thing where you put down saran wrap on very wet paint to get the bubble effect. I remember the pose bothered me, because he wasn't... Leaning enough. 3

Chroma

I wanted to do naked Chroma, with his pelt up, and his fourth ability active. More epsome salt crystals! 3

Mesa [P]

I wanted her to be sepia toned, like an old print. I don't think it worked out, but I still love her. 5

Equinox [P]

One thing I really learned from these, and the Touhou challenge, is framing, and centering my figures. It's hard! I wanted to finish this one for Warframe's Anniversary, too. 8

Wukong [P]

If you've looked at my pose references, it should be very apparent that I love ballet and dancers for posing. But there's another layer: most of the mens poses are for dancewear. This is purely coincidental. I mostly just wanted to work on shadows on him. 6

Atlas [P]

Atlas was another limited-palette, with me trying (and failing) to paint his rocky boys behind him. Also, another dancewear pose. 7

Ivara

I wanted her to look like she was dissolving into the back, and I was thinking of Monet's Waterlillies. I had the privilege of showcasing this at Tennocon, for their museum exhibit. ♥️ 6

Titania [P]

I was getting excited for the upcoming They Might Be Giants concert, so I had this song stuck in my head. I pressed real plants into the paint for this, but it's all a little mushy, haha. 4

Inaros [P]

I swear that's not the pose I used, but I also swear it is? It's crazy. Same thing happened to Inaros as what happened to Ash: I wasn't happy with the pose, so I added the cloth. 7

Nezha [P]

I painted the blue swirls, and then got mad at them bleeding, so I painted the shadows on Nezha to tie it together. and of course i used a female model for nezha :P 7

Gara [P]

im workin on it

Nidus

I was burning out, so I kept it simple. But it was still hard. He's got so many ridges. 9

Harrow [P]

so like, I was burning out, I was stressed from work, and I was putting stress on myself over commission work..... so I painted this. And I would just periodically hit it with the squirt bottle, to wash away paints. Helped with the anger. 7

Garuda [P]

I finished the linework that day, and I paused painting it. I was really burned out, and worried about things.
...on the same day, late in the night, my parrot died in my husband's hands, as he pleaded with a vet for help. I'll never forget the screams.

I didn't finish this for a year. Spider lillies are associated with death in some cultures, and that's why I painted them here.

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