For those who don't like reading, I always make a process video and commentary to accompany these pieces. You can check it out here.

This is my first attempt at trying a finished-ish painting in a very long time and given that I'd recently read through the Shield Hero manga, I figured it would be fun to see what I could do with the characters. The idea was to portray them as sort of veterans of the world in the far far future, after years of fighting and this is a snapshot of them training together. As a disclaimer, I have NOT read the light novel so I apologise if this sort of design extrapolation is incorrect.

FAQ:

What software did you use?

http://www.clipstudio.net/en/ < Recently added a new colorise feature to autocolor your lineart! Very cool and much more affordable than a photoshop subscription. Especially recommend for its line quality.

How long did this take?

Roughly 25 hours judging from footage recorded and off camera work. I am VERY inefficient though, as painting is waaaay out of my comfort zone hence there was a lot of faffing about. I spent ages just trying to figure out how to juggle value and color control. But eh, neverending frustration is part of the learning process.

What is your opinion on the manga?

It's okay, the inks themselves are not bad though I would say the light novel illustrations are far and away better for obvious reasons. The art style as far as Light Novel adaptations go is pretty generic, so no real comments there. The story is pretty good at least for the first arc though I feel after the 50 chapters or so I have read there's a bit of a lag in the pacing as if the writer was trying to come up with a second character arc. I'm told this is the case by people who have read the light novel. There are also quite a few missed opportunities with some of the character interactions and especially that of the first arc primary antagonist(?) but overall I would still recommend. As an isekai, it definitely avoids a lot of the fan service tropes and tries to establish a set of unique world mechanics.