Starving in the Middle

Finished a couple of days ago for a small Japanese indie anthology called Hitotu, though whether or not it made the deadline is another matter.




( bigger version + thought process )

Sukiyaki Western Django

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S61ySyaJQSE

O_O How awesome. But...I think I'm gonna need subtitles for that Engrish.

Did some scribbly fanart of band members from a Christian webcomic I follow called "Kingdom Come", found at http://theproject.us

They look kind of girly, and they have questionable fashion sense, but in my defense, they are based off of Asian boybands!! -__- But I guess that doesn't excuse the big heads though. ARrrrg

( Girly guys here )

Trying something new with watercolors (mostly):



( Due fighting )

Been trying to draw Leon Kennedy for awhile now, and finally managed to succeed with a portrait that has some resemblence and some life to it!!

Alas, he kind of ended up quite a bit younger than intended...



( ...so think of it as his teenage self? )

O_O

The parentage found a pet rabbit wandering around the development while taking a walk during New Year's Eve! It wouldn't run away but wouldn't let us really pick it up either, and perked everytime a door opened or a car went by. When we started walking away, it followed us to the door, and after some chasing, we managed to scoop it up and take it inside out of the cold.

It's so fluffy and cute and obviously well-taken care of up to that point-- we're on the lookout for any missing signs, but we have a feeling it's been abandoned on purpose. =(

We may not be able to keep it either.....;___; not for lack of wanting to! We'll see in a few weeks, but just in case, any one interested in a rabbit?

For now, we dub it "Dingleberry"! because it eats its poo and licks its butt afterwards. >_> (Haha, Jubeee) It lives in our bathtub.

Yay, some art after many months of drawing diddly-squat! Inspired by Zuko's extreme lame-itude of all things, in 'The Western Air Temple'. But if it gets me to draw, I'm not complaining!



( Pictures here! )

Minesweeper The Movie

...with a kungfu drama called "Hero on the Silkroad". >_> Utterly infatuated even though I saw it already more than a year ago. I was infatuated then too. Sometimes it's pretty nifty having such a bad memory; while I remember that certain events occur, I don't remember anything about the context or when it happens or what is said or what follows after, so it's almost like watching a new show.

To share the love, here are a couple music videos of it even though these songs never show up in the actual show. Not sure where they came from, who sings it, etc., but nonetheless, they are gorgeous and I've been listening to them repeatedly and then some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qksImIYLxcg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80ra7yCfCn4

This show is special because of its gorgeous cinematic quality, realistic kungfu (almost zero wirework and no stupid CG), and a plot that actually seems to be important rather than the usual hash between revenge for killing of family/master/lover and learning/looking for a supah secret kungfu. But most special of all? ALL THE FEMALE CHARACTERS ARE GREAT. As in, they're real, believable females, with distinctive personalities, talents, looks, are not irritating nor whiny, AND they can all fight decently to great! Just having one would've made me happy, but nuooo, there's at least 3 main females with several awesome side ones as well! This might not seem that amazing to many of you who haven't seen much in the way of Asian mo hup/wuxia/wushu dramas, but to me this is like finding diamonds in a poophill.

And uhm, the main guy is pretty hot. >_>
And cool. And awesome. Big nose and "wooden-but-totally-expressive-face" and all.

Not to say that the show is perfect; it's not, especially concerning the reasoning behind the overarching plot. But at this point, it's won so many goodwill points it doesn't matter. Yeah, I don't know how many of you will know or care about what I'm talking about, but I wanted to throw it out there. My sister is going to try to fansub it with some friends of hers for all us Mandarin-simplified-Chinese-challenged people, but it's going to take a long time. In the meantime, enjoy!

In comic strip format, because my oral surgeon suckered me into drawing it! As in, after finding out I draw, he explains happily to Mom in a Russian accent, "She is going to draw a comic about her experience!" ;;__;;

( carictatureness! )

So...I finally found a Nazi romance: The Kommandant's Girl

For a long time now, I've been hoping I'd come across a WWII romance between a Nazi officer and a Jewish girl for a number of reasons -- the squeeful reason is that UWAHH, hawt SS Officer in the black uniform falling in luuuuv with a forbidden girl and OMG the ANGST!~!! And the other reason is that not only would be it be fascinating to watch two people so culturally and philosophically/ethically-opposed struggle to reconcile the impossible, there is always the fleeting hope that maybe, just maybe, the Jewish girl's love would be able to redeem the Nazi officer in some way.

*sigh* Now I'm all bummed because of course, who am I kidding? There will be no happy ending if there's a Nazi involved.

But at least I got the angst with surprisingly little sap and melodrama, with a realistic backdrop of urgency, fear, and things people do to survive. And due to the circumstances, I wasn't offended by the affair! AND no smut and very little "steaminess" despite the profusion of bedroom scenes. When does that ever happen? The only slight ick is the age difference between the two: 19-20 for the girl, 45-ish for the guy. =___= But at least she's legal; in _Summer of My German Solider_, it was like...some 12 yr old girl crushing on a grown man. Nasty.


It's a long shot, but if anyone knows of other books in a similar vein, let me know! I don't really like reading nonfiction, but I might just try _The Nazi Officer's Wife_. I'm craving again. =/

http://redplasticglass.livejournal.com/168054.html

A big ol' comprehensive list that redplasticglass put together with some of my input about what comics/manga/novels she recommends people to read if #1: they are used to reading only American comics, or #2: are used to reading only manga. Lots of good stuff there; check it out! :D

Another future fanart! Yay for productivity; done with a black India ink brush pen, pencil for shading, and Staedtler technical pen for horizontal lines.



( Siblings Unite! )

Some post-bday productivity --- much thanks to Jubbee for making an otherwise cruddy bday a much happier affair!

This is a whatif fanart of a potential future, because I'm tired of waiting for Season 3. ;__;



( Over-looking the sky )

Maybe 2-3 years ago, I drew this ugly thing and thought it was pretty darn good. (Though I didn't do the coloring...) :



Later I recognized its general grossness, and stuffed it away.

There was still some pretty good ideas in it though, so when I found it again recently, I redrew and it turned out like so:




Improvement, yes!! Despite the lack of perspective, no background, and lame carriage, everything still has improved overall despite not drawing regularly for more than a year. *is pleased*

Now maybe redplasticglass will CG it once I can get her to restart on the overdue mermaid thing for Kerry (it's ~85% done)...>:O

Been awhile, tried to do some actiony fanart w/ markers and royally blew that up, so more stillness with pastels. It looks strangely washed out and slightly squished in on my screen here, hopefully it doesn't do that for any of you...



( More pastelly-ness )

( All hail Firelord Zuko! )

Brush pen marker mixed with pastel this time. I think I do better when I have a nice strong outline. Too hard to make strong differences in color with pastel. @__@

( here! )

Avatar LOVE.

And yes, it's a Nickolodeon show. T__T

Fanartage! Using pastel for the first time in forever:



http://www.studiokrum.com/junk/zuko_pastel.jpg
http://www.studiokrum.com/junk/zuko_pastel_bw.jpg (b/w version b/c it kinda looks better)
http://www.studiokrum.com/junk/sokka_pastel.jpg

So my sister and I bought a venus flytrap at the Farmer's Market.

...

Why we did we still don't know. The first day, I must have spent half an hour torturing ants as I tried to catch them and drop them into the trap, except they kept rolling out!! I decided not to ever do that again, so of course, the next morning a gigamormous centipede starts walking across the kitchen floor. I step on it a few times, but I can't let a good ol' 2-in long centipede go to waste, right? So I feed it to the flytrap!

An individual plant "mouth" is only about 1 in, so the head and spikey tail of that centipede is sticking out both ends of its mouth. Plus I had to wiggle its dead body around before the plant realized it was there. >___< GUHHhhh!!! It can catch its own food now.