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.