Carciphona: Veloce

I’ve been following Carciphona (originally titled “Blackbird”) for years, and I thought it was about time I try my hand at drawing one of my favorite characters~

They say in order to overcome your fear, you must face it head on. For me, green is a color I just don’t know what to do with. If you look at my color pencil set, the greens are the ones that are most unused. In fact, they are almost completely whole while the other colors are on the half to three-quarters mark. @_@;;;

I thought what better way to use them than for Shilin’s character, Veloce~? I think I may have messed up coloring her hair though… Purple and green don’t really go too well, do they? Not to mention yellow and green. Dx What goes well with green anyway?!

…Veloce is glaring at me for messing up her colors, isn’t she? TAT;;; I'm sorry, Veloce! Please don’t kill me!

Oh well, papel~ I learned a lot nonetheless. Everything is drawn by ink and colored with color pencil. The only things added in photoshop were my signature, texts, and the very simple background because I couldn’t decide again what to do with it before scanning.

My lovely sky blues are eaten away again… I probably need to buy a new scanner, but I’m not about to do so any time soon. I should take a photo of the original for comparison purposes.

A Butterfly’s Dream

Itsudatte hana wa ue wo muiteru
“Flowers always hold their heads up high.”

I finished this about four days ago, but didn’t have the time to scan and tweek it on photoshop. I have no idea what to do with the background again, so I just… played around with it. :3

The real thing has much brighter and darker (does that even make sense?) colors than this, but it looks much better than the scans I did of traditional pieces before.

I’ve decided that this is Rei Kuassary, inspired by those lovely western clothes from Hakuoki. And that Japanese text is from one of the songs in Uta no Prince-sama by Hijirikawa Masato, “Knocking on the Mind”. I hope you guys like it~ ♥

WIP: New Me (or New Rei)?

Inspired by my first color pencil work of the year, I decided it was high time I used that sketchbook I bought in Hong Kong almost 5 years ago. It’s a tiny A5 book that I decided to bring with me on Sundays because trips to the malls are best enjoyed sitting in coffee shops, sketching as the world goes by.

See that stain in the upper left corner of the sketchbook? That would be the evil water that I spilled in my bag last Sunday. I guess it gives this piece an old-look to it, but several pages have the same look thanks to my genius. =A=;;;

I do like how her hair turned out though… still thinking if I’m going to draw a background for this or just add one in photoshop later, but who knows? At this point I just want to finish the character. Is she Rei or is she me? Hrm…

Some people have been asking how I color with color pencils, and my best tip for you is to use layers of color, especially if you’re coloring black. You can see here that the coat is a dark blue-violet sort of deal with black shadows. The pink belt is not just pink: it has a flesh base, added with pink, red-violet, and violet. Even the sword has a rainbow color going on along that blade.

In other words, you gotta have fun with it. If you’re not sure how it will look, then test it out first to see what you get. :D

One last thing… If you’ve placed layers of thick color on to the piece then later decide to change the color, get an electric eraser from Saizen/Daiso. See that blue gadget on the top left? That is a life saver. Pricey, but if you have a heavy hand like me, this will clean up those wrong decisions and tiny missed-colors nicely~ ♥

Yes, the outfit is inspired by Hakuoki. I’m not completely over that fandom yet after all.

March 2012

Hakuoki failed to mention this secret ending, but…

You see, when Okita Souji became sick with tuberculosis, he didn’t actually die from it. What they didn’t tell you in all the other routes where Souji just disappears was that he met a Chinese doctor named Misaki. She was able to cure his disease, and they lived a long, happy life together. :D

Yes, this is the story that I’m going with from now on, because Hakuoki is too sad and depressing. xD;;; Happy Birthday, Misakichan~ ♥ Now I know how you felt when you were rushing during my birthday. @_@;;; I hope you like it!

Gift: Two Sides to a Lowlife

Two Sides To A Lowlife by ~pandaandpotato on deviantART

You guys have no idea how happy fan arts make me. *u*;;; I mean, it’s just ridiculous how I show these off to people~ Like what I’m doing right now!

I just love how Misakichan shows the two designs I’ve made of Lowlife so far. It reminds me of the Joker in a Deck of Cards, which is so accurate when you know the whole story~ =o=;;; A story that I’m hoping I can get to finish in this lifetime, haha! xD;;;

Thanks again, Misakichan! And happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day ahead! ♥

Meme: Draw This Again

I am on a roll~ *rolls~*

Something quick and dirty that I finished soon after that awesome commission. I need to post this now because I will probably hate it in the morning and never show it to you guys. xD;;;

Get the blank meme from Bampire at Deviant Art!

You see, I’m not sure if this is really an improvement, because the one I just drew doesn’t even look like Rei Hino anymore! OTL;;; Looks more like Tomoe from Rurouni Kenshin. =A=;;;

Not sure if want. orz;;; I can’t get myself to copy Sailor Moon’s style anymore. The huge eyes disturb me now, which feels like stabbing the artists in the back because I grew up copying their work and learning a lot about anatomy from them! Sailor Moon made learning anatomy fun when I was only a wee pre-teen! Granted, I made her eyes bigger than my usual style in the after piece, but still not big enough, wry~ =o=;;;

Still not sure if want. OTL;;; Takeuchi-sama, forgiveness please! ;o;

Commission: School Run

Tori: *laughing like mad* Oi~!
Demyan: “Oi” yourself! What did you do this time?!
Rurik: …and why are we running?

Frankly, I’d like to know this myself. There are several scenarios in my head with what’s going on, and I think it’s because:

• Tori’s done something and they’re all getting detention because of it (much to Rurik’s annoyance);
• Demyan’s about to start a fight with Tori and Rurik’s going to try and stop them, but they’ll end up getting detention anyway;
• The three of them are late for classes because Tori forgot to set the alarm clock after they played video games all night long (and thus, detention);
• They’re being chased by fangirls.

Yep. That last one’s definitely it. ♥

For some reason, Rurik’s the only one who’s carrying a book. Does this mean he’s the only one serious about his studies? xDDD

EDIT: I'm sorry, guys, but I just had to share this:

Me: Tori, what did you do? xD
Tori: probably did a fanserving stunt infront of the fangirls

Excuse me while I ROFLMAO~ ♥

WIP: Almost There!

You can’t read it on the screenshot, but this piece took 60-something layers to make. xD;;; And I merged a few of them already too! It’s probably because I drew Tori and Rurik first, then added Demyan later, so they’re all “whole” so to speak. What I mean is, I can move Demyan (the one shouting at Tori) anywhere without compromising the final work.

I just need to add some final touches to this and then I should be able to post it later tonight. Seeing that I’ve already worked on this for two weeks, I really need to finish it so that I can work on other things too. @o@;;;

Oh, Rurik and Demyan are identical twins. Rurik is taller in this piece because he jumped off of… something. xD Besides, I thought it would look more interesting this way rather than have the twins at the same height.

I wonder what Demyan is shouting/saying anyway? xD;;; Lol~

WIP: This is Tori’s Fault…

This commission is taking me a lot longer than usual. I’m not sure what it is about these boys, but I’m pretty sure it’s Tori’s fault. After all, it’s always Tori’s fault. I mean, just look at that grin and tell me that’s the smile of an innocent boy. :/

Kidding aside, I’m glad I’ve finalized Demyan’s pose (which you can sort of see in the navigation view on the upper right corner), but I’m torn with where to place him at this point. He’s definitely going to be in the foreground, but whether he’s closer to Tori or to Rurik at this point is still up for debate… Not tonight though, because my brain’s already fried. @o@;;;

I’ve never colored so much green on one piece before… it’s a nice change though, even if I don’t like the color very much. I promised to challenge myself more at the beginning of the year, and I’m not planning on backing down any time soon. ♥

February 2012

When I played “Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom”, I was overwhelmed by depth of the story and appreciated how the writers added as much historical facts into the storyline as they could. However, because of this was based on real people, it made it that much harder for me to “get over” this series.

War is very devastating and cruel… and to know that most of the Shinsengumi died at such a young age… It’s too depressing for me.

I drew this in my Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Journal a few days after I finished Saito Hajime’s route. With the storyline and Japanese history still fresh in mind, it’s not uncommon for me to have dreams about them.

Before I explain the artwork, I know how many people think pairing your original character with an existing one is “bad form”, but you have to understand: Hakuoki is an otome game. It’s made so that the protagonist is actually, in fact, you – the player of the game. So please, if you want to insist that this piece is romantic in all the wrong ways, just pretend the girl is Yukimura Chizuru with a new hairstyle, ok?

And besides, Saito would never fall in love with Rei. She’s far more headstrong than Chizuru, and she wouldn’t stand not fighting along side the Shinsengumi if she was in the war herself. That’s just how my alter-ego is. ;)

The text I wrote on the side is something that I would actually say to Saito after he explained about samurai/bushido having to always walk on the left side of the road. This is to protect their swords, worn on their left side, because the swords were a part of them, a part of their souls, that should never be touched by anyone else.

Such was not the case for Saito, because he was left-handed. All his life, he was told that his stance was wrong, and that he was cheating for being born left-handed. In the Shinsengumi, they accepted him for who he was, and he finally found his place.

But we all know that we cannot always walk on one side of our paths in life. Rei knows this for a fact, and she also knows she should never walk beside him, as she is a girl, and girls must always walk three steps behind the men. She would never take Saito away from Chizuru, so this is her way of being of some use to him.

Did I mention I drew this so that I can get over my feeling of depression from the last week? And I just realized that this took an entire week to finish as well. =A=;;; Oh, and this was colored in color pencil, inspired from Misakichan’s works, but the scanner always eats the blue hues away, so I had to add some blue on Photoshop. ♥

A.illusions and Karma on Oh・No! Manga

Sometime ago, I got a little email that made me run for the hills. And now?

I’m sorry, I’m really far too excited to write anything properly right now. I only woke up this morning (at 4am) because of the intense summer heat, but I don’t think I can sleep any time soon.

Stay tuned for more details how you can get your hands on the first printing of my Oh・No! Manga Alpha book! *u*;;;

WIP: School Run

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m working on a commission for Kittara of her twins hanging out with Tori from A.illusions. Admittedly, when she told me Tori would be “hanging out” with Rurik and Demyan, I was worried, because knowing Tori, he would get the twins into some kind of trouble, one way or the other! =A=;;;

The idea inspired me, however, when Kittara said she liked the idea. And because the three of them had similar outfits, I decided I should give them uniforms. :D

I sketched all three characters first, but being me, I tend draw the "cool" character before anyone else. So Rurik, being the calmer twin, got his first inks last 23rd of February. His hair is a lot of fun to draw, and I really went all out with the wind-blown look! ♥

This is what I have so far. Some base colors, some shading, some highlights, even some Tori in preview, but Demyan is still no where in sight! =A=;;; He’s giving me a hard time with his pose, so I might have to do some more sketching later after I take a short break. My eyes are hurting for some reason…

I like the way their uniforms turned out though. I’m a little skeptical with how I positioned the characters, because they’re just running from one side of the frame to another, but I don’t know… Simplicity has its appeal as well. o(^o^)o

I’m glad I have something “happy” to work on… Hakuoki is dangerous to my emotional health. >.>;;; Though that didn’t stop me from drawing Saito in my planner. =A=;;; I’ll scan it once I add some color pencils shades or… something. xD