Emptynostalgia

by emptynostalgia (mizu)

Mizu was one of the earliest friends I made on the internet, about three years ago, if I'm not wrong. She was just as amazing back then as she is now, and I'm really glad that we're both growing as artists. Mizu had a really cute style, and her lines and colouring were really clean. Her works mostly have lighter, paler colours and are really calming to look at, which is one of the reasons why I like her so much. Another reason is because she's willing to help artists who aren't as good as her by giving them tips. I've received quite a bit of help from her myself. She's also really fun to be around, and a good friend in general. I'm hoping that we can still stay in touch years from now.

Trashout

by trashout (Hama)

Hama is one of the artists that I admire. She draws quickly, easily whipping out something of this quality in, say, an hour or two? Probably shorter. Hama not only draws quickly, but her art are also looking really good, with clean lines and cool colouring. She appears to draw everyday to practice, though, so she is a motivation to me, as sometimes I think that maybe if I practice enough, I can be just like her! Or, well, maybe not just like her, but at least to her level of quality. I work extremely slowly now, and I can probably finish a sketch in the time she takes to draw and colour a proper picture, so I'm honing my timing too.

Cubicalspace

by cubicalspace (ohm)

Where do I start with this - I just like her style in general. I can't even begin to describe this. Ohm's drawing style looks really smooth and her anatomy for her humans are usually accurate, and her colouring looks really good, like almost a professional level of good. Her choice in colours are wonderful as well. Ohm is also able to draw quality drawings both traditionally and digitally, and from what I've seen, she is able to use many different kinds of materials, such as markers or paint. I admire her a lot, and I hope I can be as good as her one day!

Furiwokaan

by Furiwokaan

One of the reasons I like Furiwo's art is because of her bright colours. She doesn't hesitate to use red, blue and yellow all in one picture, and she knows how to arrange them, what hues to use, so that it won't be too hard on the eye. She also has an interesting colouring style, using bright colours like light blue and pink for shading and lighting, and this gives her art a unique factor that I rarely see anywhere else.

Mourning Jewellery

In the late 18th century, Romanticism was widespread and most of the designs of that period was heavily influenced by it. In this period, there was a certain jewellery which was unique to it - the mourning jewellery. Women would wear these jewellery after the deaths of their loved one(s), allowing them to don jewellery while still in mourning. These jewellery were mostly dark in colour, to symbolise that the woman was still in mourning.

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture, instead of being elaborately decorated like the designs of Baroque and Rococo architecture, takes inspiration from Greek and Roman style of architecture, influenced by the resurfacing of the Classical style, which gained interest with the excavation of ancient ruins. Neoclassical buildings sport traits such as the aforementioned Greek, Roman, or a mix of their designs. Neoclassicism flourished in Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Europe. It had also spread to the United States, and while it was most prevalent during the 18th and 19th century, Neoclassicism can still be seen in the present days.

Attack on Titan

The anime adaptation for the hit comic, Attack on Titan, features extremely beautiful animations. The story itself is about a bunch of humans who kill giant, human-like creatures, known as titans. To kill them, the humans use the 3d maneuver gear, which allows them to attach themselves onto buildings and such and increase their mobility. With that, the animation team put in quite a bit of effort into the scenes involving the gear, and it is animated in such a way that while the human performs spectacular stunts in mid-air, the background gains a bit of 3d-ness, enhancing the experience and making it such that the viewer is practically in the eyes of the person using the gear.

Lighting

Lighting is the identifying of the source of light in a photograph or a drawing. Lighting is extremely important, as it can give a variety of different effects to a piece of work. If the light is coming from the front of an object, it gives a brightness to the work. If it is coming from the back, the work might be more sullen or dark than if the light was from the front. Aside from that, identifying light also allows the artist to know where to put shadows, so as to not result in an awkward placing of shadows that might ultimately ruin the work.

Chinese clothing

In the past, amongst all of the people in China, it has always been the emperor, the supreme ruler of the land, who has the finest clothes. While the clothes of the common people are usually in drabber colours such as brown or black, and even some of the higher-ranked officials, who wear brighter colours like red or green, the emperor wears gold. Gold was a revered colour in China, and the people believe that only the most worthy can wear it. The emperor's robe is also richly decorated with patterns of dragons, a divine mythical creature suited only to the emperor.

Victorian working class women

Working class women in the Victorian era are treated rather differently from the upper class ladies in terms of clothing. While the ladies have their corsets strapped as tight as possible to give the illusion of a tiny waist, working class women instead have their corsets looser, so as to not inconvenience them in their daily activities. Their outer clothes are also different, with upper classes wearing more and working classes wearing less. The upper class ladies dress more to improve on their appearance, no matter how inconvenient it may be, but the working classes wear as simple as was appropriate, so as to not hinder their work.

Corsets

Corsets were used in the Victorian era, where women wore these since young to accentuate their chest and hips. As pretty as it might seem, however, corsets deformed the organs inside them after a long period of wearing, and weakened the women who had them on since they were children. While this fits the Victorian standard of weak women, it was also highly inconvenient and dangerous, as the women might suffer from respiratory problems throughout their lives and have issues with childbirth. Furthermore, they were also restricting, and as the Victorian lady requires many layers of clothing, makes it inconvenient for them to undress.

Anna Karenina: Hats

While doing the powerpoint for Introduction to Visual Arts, I also noticed that Anna, of Anna Karenina, wears a variety of hats throughout the movie. Hats were a status symbol of sorts back in the 19th century, and the fact that Anna was  able to wear a great many of them indicated that she was rich and affluent. Her hats were also in bright, strong colours, showing her status as a socialite. It also shows her confidence in herself, due to the colours that she picked.

Anna Karenina: Jewellery

For the Introduction to Visual Arts module, our group has chosen to watch and do a powerpoint on the movie Anna Karenina. I have noticed that Anna wears exceedingly glamorous jewellery, dotted (or even made) with expensive gems, such as diamonds and pearls. Her jewellery also has a delicate design of flowers and leaves and, coupled with the soft colours of white and blue, accentuates Anna's femininity and gracefulness while improving on her lavish image, which were qualities that were rather expected of women in the 19th century.

Dreams

What was your last dream? Do you remember your last dream? Dreams are, in a way, an illusion brought to people during REM sleep, and may contain very interesting contents. Had a good dream full of sparkling rainbows? Or a bad dream full of murderers pursuing you? To me, they're all dreams. As long as I can remember them, I write them down. Some of them are really exciting, such as one with someone chasing me, and their sister having doppelgangers, and other strange things. Others are kind of normal, such as me having a sleepover with internet friends that I have never met. Both are interesting in their own ways, and often prompts me to think of matters in a different perspective that I am used to.

Personas

 

Have you ever called anyone two-faced? Have you ever been called two-faced? Either way, some people don't realise that nearly everyone has more than one 'face'. The face they show to their parents, to teachers, to friends, to strangers - they might be completely different, and the person themselves may not realise it. Many people are like that, showing a polite side to their teachers, a playful side to their friends, and maybe a distant side to strangers. No one is able to maintain the exact same personality when interacting with different people, and while the term 'two-faced' applies almost only to people who actually makes use of that to get further in life, it could probably apply to everyone too, as we are all made of various 'faces'.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

More commonly known as Dangan Ronpa (at least, for me), is a game about sixteen gifted high school students, each with their unique 'super high school level' abilities, locked in their school and thrown into a 'school life of mutual killing' by their apparent headmaster, Monobear. Naegi, the protagonist, is super high school level lucky, even though he considers himself rather unlucky for getting involved in this mess. Throughout the game, students are given certain items or messages to prompt them to kill someone, for the sole sake of graduating. Students die one after another, and while the murderers are caught, they are also punished by death, bringing the remaining students one step closer to despair every time. Eventually, Naegi and the remaining students reveal the mastermind, the person behind Monobear and the school life of mutual killing, and escapes the school.

The game revolves around 'hope vs despair', with Naegi as 'hope' and the mastermind as 'despair'. Some of the deaths are highly emotional, and affects nearly every other student every time it occurs. Naegi, as 'hope', investigates the murders and, with the help of his friends (and not-so-friends), reveals the culprit for every murder. While it may seem to only drag them further and further into despair, the ending shows that no matter what, hope will always have a chance of striking back and defeating despair.

Cartoonish art

Such art, those with fruits and objects with various features, such as faces put onto them, rather amuse me. It makes me wonder what the artist's intentions were for drawing this. Do they simply like the object? Are they being paid to do this? Are they trying to attract young children to these objects? Do they just paint an object one day and think, "oh, I simply must draw a face on this!"? Why do they feel the need to give the fruit a face, an emotion? Using this banana as an example, if the were trying to get children to eat bananas, I don't think it would be wise to give it feelings. After all, who would be happy that they're being eaten? Not humans, and definitely not bananas.

Bustles

Bustles are a type of framework used to hold the skirts up in the 19th century, similar to the crinoline that was more prominent in the previous era. I feel that while they make the lady seem more sophisticated, they are a great hassle, though probably much lesser than the crinoline. I have wondered a great many things - does the lady feel uncomfortable wearing this for the duration of the day? Would it hinder their daily actions much? I would look deeper into this later.

Improvements?

It's been two years since I drew that, and while simply looking at it is rather painful in itself, due to that extremely awkward anatomy and non-existent shading, I have to applaud my younger self for at least trying to get both of their anatomy right, and that strange lump of meat that I called hands. I was terrible at colouring back then (and still is now), but that's no excuse for wrecking that so badly.

That was drawn about two months ago. I'm still not good as of now, and while most things are still rather bad, I'm pretty sure that I have improved (somehow) over the past two years. Then again, if I didn't improve, I'm not sure where I would be right now.

Rune Factory 4

Rune Factory is a game series originally based off Harvest Moon, a farming stimulation game with several other features, such as fishing, mining, and marriage. One could say that it is mostly a life stimulation game, and while Rune Factory, being based off Harvest Moon, has most of these features as well, it has one in particular that distinguishes itself from Harvest Moon - battles. This was one of the things that pulled me into this series. As a Harvest Moon fan, I was naturally attracted to the similar mechanics, but as I played more and more, Rune Factory started to distinguish itself from Harvest Moon. I have only found the first Rune Factory in stores about a year ago, but with the recent release of Rune Factory 4, I can finally dive into this series and see for myself how much further it has separated itself from its predecessor.

Human hand anatomy

Male Hand Anatomy by 0imaginc0

Aside from the anatomy of the overall human body, one of many artists' issue lie in the hands. Those terribly complex hands which are somehow able bend and stretch in the strangest ways possible. Many have issues drawing the complex structure of the hands, and indeed the positions they make are difficult to draw, and sometimes even involves perspective, which makes the hands' positions completely different from one angle compared to another. The various muscles in the hands themselves are also affect the way the fingers bend, and is sometimes difficult to draw a pose without reference.

Human anatomy

Male anatomy orthographics

by dethron

The human anatomy is something nearly every artist (and non-artists) struggle with, and with good reason. The human body is made of numerous organs, muscles and joints and bend and flex in many different ways in different situations. Furthermore, each and every human has a distinctly different shape and form, unlike animals. It all depends on whether the human is fat, thin, tall, short, well-toned, and such, and these factors determine the appearance of many parts of the body.

Digital art

 

The Workstation 2 by Jujika

Digital art is the making of art through digital platforms, such as Photoshop or GIMP. Many people who draw digitally use graphic tablets, and while that makes drawing digitally so much easier, it also takes some time to get used to, and even after years of practice, people may still find traditional pencil and paint easier to do. However, digital art also has some extremely convenient functions, like the undo button for one. I myself is more used to painting digtally, so I find that easier than painting traditionally, but others may have a different view of this. No matter which one people prefer, though, I see both as a form of art, not any better or worse than the other.

Kagerou Project

チルドレンレコード by Shidu

Kagerou Project, abbreviated as Kagepro, is a series of songs that tell the story of children with red eyes and 'eye abilities', composed by Shizen-no-teki-P (or more commonly known as Jin) and artwork and videos by Shidu and Wanyannpu. The series has been wildly popular on Nico Nico, and has released two albums so far. It also has several novels and a manga, and soon anime, adaptation. 

The story begins with a seemingly normal scenario, disregarding some not-so-normal details such as a AI girl living in our protagonist's electronic devices. Said protagonist, Shintaro, is a hikikomori, who has dropped out of school despite his extremely high IQ, and have never left his house for two years. That is, until he finds his computer broken. He then proceeds to go to the department store and, instead of buying what he needs and peacefully return to his shut-in lifestyle, the department store gets attacked by terrorists, and he becomes one of their hostages. Meanwhile, his younger sister, Momo, a popular idol, encounters Kido, who is apparently the leader of the 'Blindfold Gang', which has just 4 members at that time, all children with eye abilities. Momo discovers that she has the 'attracting eyes' ability, which was partly what enabled her to be so popular. She tags along and eventually encounters her brother, and together with the gang, they use their abilities to save the customers of the department store. Shintaro and his AI, Ene, who also has an ability, are forced to join the gang soon after. Strangely enough, Shintaro does not have an ability like the others. Later on, the story slowly unfolds and shows the reason why Shintaro became a shut-in, the significence of that reason, and eventually, the creator of those abilities. Their abilities are helpful, but they were obtained at a great cost - the life of someone they hold dear. This is shown best in the song Kagerou Days, or Heat-Haze Days. Two children, Hibiya and Hiyori, were forced to loop each other's deaths repeatedly, apparently for more than 10 years, inside the heat-haze. It only ends when one of them breaks out of the daze, while the fate of the other is unknown. Hibiya broke out and obtained an ability, but Hiyori's fate remains unclear. 

It is highly speculated that the one left in the haze dies, or simply joins the creator of the haze in it forever. The series gets darker towards the end, and eventually the story seems to get a 'bad end' where everyone dies. But then the timeline is reset, and they apparently obtained a 'good end' eventually.

Kagerou Project: August 15th Tumblr Collage

Image is arranged by Hama (yuukeiyesterday.tumblr.com)

The collage's main page is here!

Back in August, I participated in a art collage for Kagerou Project. It was certainly very interesting to see so many artists' art put together, and many of them are so well done! It's clear that they put in lots of effort into their works. Mine was really rushed, though. I literally submited right on the deadline. It's kind of embarssing to look at now, the colouring was clearly rushed and overall rather...terrible. If you're curious, it's the fourth picture on the top row. Hama, the organiser of this collage, requested that participants include some form of red in their pictures, to have a colour scheme for the collage, though it wasn't necessary. Many of us still threw a bit of red where we could, though, so the results look quite harmonised.

Kagerou Project: Summertime Collage

Image arranged by Hiyo (hiyori-asahina.tumblr.com)

Collage's main page can be found here!

Recently (about a week ago), I participated in another collage! I decided to actually put in some effort this time round (since the previous one was rather...horrible) and did the drawing earlier so I'd have time to check for mistakes and play with colours, because my colour sense isn't exactly the best. My submission is on the third row, tenth from the left! This time, no colour schemes were suggested, but many people seemed to use blue as their background, so the overall image appears really calm and bright.

Apparently Hiyo is going to add the pictures of those who couldn't make it in time into the collage later. I'm really looking forward to it, since everyone's art is so good! Other than that, their art put together in the collage also showcases the lives of the cast, both happy and sad.

Bookmark of Demise Project

終焉ノ栞 by Saine

Shuuen no Shiori Project, commonly refered to as Shuuenpro, is a song series by 150P and Suzumu, with character designs and art by Saine, Komine and Kara, revolving around urban legends, supernatural happenings and mostly, the ugly sides of humans. Personally, I adore this series, for it shows that even the most perfect and sociable people have faces that are hidden to the rest of the world. This series has two song albums released so far, and one novel (with an upcoming one, that's two) and a manga adaptation. A strange feature of this series are the character names. Instead of normal names, they are simply referred to as A-ya, B-ko, C-ta, and D-ne. This is a reference to japanese broadcasts, where culprits and victims in murders and such are unnamed. This is highly relevant to the story, as I will summarise in a bit. 

The first chapters are shown in A-ya's perspective, seemingly implying that he is the protagonist of the story. They show the four finding a old diary from ten years ago, which contains the instructions to summon the book and bookmark of demise, throwing all involved into the demise game. When started, the game will not end before they find and kill the 'traitor', who is apparently someone among them. After performing the ritual, A-ya himself recieves an instruction from Kokkuri-san, which the rules of the game forbid from showing to anyone who isn't a participant. However, a classmate sees it, and he dies soon after, having his body split in half at the waist. A-ya blames himself for that, as he was the one who showed it to the classmate, curious about the results. During his stay at home due to the school being closed for investigation of said classmate's death, he recieves something else - the book and bookmark. They contain the steps for performing one-man hide-and-seek, and he has to do it before a week passes, or he will die. He plays it, but summoned something else that was completely out of his expectations. He dies during the game, and is reported 'with various stab wounds all over his body' in the news the next day. 

 Similar things happen in the other three's chapters, such as B-ko dropping her friendly façade as soon as terror takes over, and eventually becomes distrusting and fearful upon receiving her own instructions, to 'avoid her doppelgänger'. C-ta, on the other hand, is revealed to be spying on A-ya, obsessed with 'being A-ya's hero', and is the one who eventually kills him due to paranoia, suspecting that he isn't the 'real' A-ya, but simply an 'imposter'. He uses his talent to freely manipulate his popularity in class to control all of A-ya's connections, save B-ko. D-ne appears to be a innocent, polite girl, but is actually, as Suzumu describes, mentally ill. She is obsessed with the 'perfect girl', which she has recognised B-ko as, and claims to be in love with her. She later obtains the monkey's paw, which enables the owner to make five wishes, but they all come at a price. Her obsession goes so far that she makes wishes that bring her closer and closer to being B-ko, and eventually replaces her, becoming her doppelgänger. 

The first novel ended on a dark note, showing that all that had happened was the 'worst end' before looping the beginnings over and over again. It has been implied that there is no traitor at all, and the demise game is just an endless loop where they suspect and doubt one another. There is speculation that the traitor is actually their own distrust of one another, and the game will end when the four starts to trust each other and face the demise game together. This series explores the darker sides of the human mind, and depicts how selfishness and unwillingness to trust and confide in others eventually leads to destruction. While this is labelled as 'horror' due to the deaths and urban legends involved, I would say that those are only the trigger, and the rest of those 'horrors' are caused solely by the four.

Yan Dang Shan series one

The Yang Dong Shan series one, a work of Tan Choh Tee, depicts a vast mountain landscape. The mountains and skies are delicately painted with powerful strokes, and thus i presume that the artist simply wanted to capture the beauty of the mountain, the moment of awe as the greatness of the scene overwhelms him. I believe that he wanted to replicate that exact moment into the canvas.

Manbo-dead-behind-the-house-P

Fools Among the Stars ~Kappa~ 

by Manbo-P feat. Gumi

That is his official title, but it's quite a mouthful, so I'll refer to him as Manbo in this post. Manbo is a producer of songs on Nico Nico Douga, similar to Neru, whom I have posted about before. His songs are generally wacky and often makes no sense, or at least, far exceeds the normality that people are used to. A fire extinguisher for a butler? Check. Chopping a stag beetle and getting transported into the future? Yup. A bad-tempered loquat growing on a person's brow? He has it. Despite so many humourous titles, however, some of his other works are rather heart-warming, and perhaps heart-wrenching, too. 

One of them has a boy waiting for his beloved to return for 15 years as he continues to write letters to her, not knowing that she was already dead. Or rather, he had amnesia, due to not wanting to accept that fact. 

Another has a tengu (a creature in japanese mythology, often shown with long noses) coming to earth, and is tasked to 'make himself useful' by the third year. He was also not allowed to give his identity away, and has to live as a normal human. He does spill this to a human friend, though, and they, along with 3 others (2 of which were also supernatural creatures) made a band. When they finally got the chance to have a proper performance, though, the tengu hurt his hands and is unable to play the guitar. Unfazed, he used his nose instead, and they enjoyed themselves one last time before he was forced to return due to revealing his true nature. 

The final one I'm going to talk about is a mini-series, Fools Among the Stars, which stars Orihime and Hikoboshi, two deities who were deeply in love with each other, but were seperated and can only meet with one another once a year, on Tanabata. However, Tanabata is always rainy, and thus they have very little chance of meeting. This legend is very similar to a Chinese one. The story is told in 3 songs, from Orihime, Hikoboshi, and a Kappa's (another creature in japanese myths, a water spirit of sorts) perspective. The first 2 songs were generally light-hearted, as they tell the story of how Orihime decided to hire demons to do work for a horrendously low pay and becoming a successful businesswoman, and Hikoboshi, who traveled up a mountain, chased a group of IT students away from a lodge, and becoming a disciple of the Muscle God. The third song, however, takes a turn for the worse (or better?). It is revealed that a Kappa is needed to cross the river that separates the two, and as Hikoboshi finally manages to get one of those, he travels across the river to find a aged Orihime. It turns out that the river between them was a river of time, and while they finally meet each other, their happiness was short-lived.

Of course, all of these songs wouldn't be quite complete without the gorgeous art by Manbo's sister, referred to as Tsukasa Ryuuguu. Her style is very simple, yet her colour choices and overall composition results in a beautiful piece of work.

The Lost One's Weeping

Neru feat. Kagamine Rin

Translation by AmeSubs 

This song is sung from the perspective of a boy who has lost 'himself'.

"What the heck is 'growing up' in the first place?"

In this day and age, grades and scores determine the future of students. It's no longer about what they want to do, but what they have to do. To many people, the only way to succeed in life is to score straight As in every subject, get into good schools and courses, and obtain a well-paying job, such as a doctor or a lawyer.

"Today's homework is about me, who has no personality."

Since young, many children were stressed by their parents to follow that path. There are usually different reasons for these, such as wanting them to earn lots of money so as to support their parents after they retire, making sure they are equipped with the right (and preferably best) knowledge to take over a family business, so on and so forth. Development of the child's personality is often neglected as they spend more time pursuing the perfect score rather than doing what they love.

Can you recite the area ratio formula? Can you recite your dreams as a child? Who threw those dreams down the drain, hey, who was it?

As a result of this, many children are discouraged from following their dreams, especially if said dream isn't something that will enable the children to find a good job in the future. Many of them instead face piles upon piles of schoolwork containing information that they may never use again in the future, follow the generic path that society urges them to follow, and end up living their lives in a completely mundane manner. Some realise this and will attempt to change it, but people who don't are often too comfortable in their current position, despite it not being what they wanted. Or perhaps, they don't even know what they want.

Hey, what should I do? It doesn’t matter anymore…

 Other times, it's simply too late for change.