#can you tell i had fun with screentones

[epitaph-echoes]

Do you hear the bells?

[dunmeshistash]

Interview to celebrate the opening of the Ryoko Kui Exhibition

About Delicious in Dungeon: Story making

Q1. Your first long-running series has lasted for about 9 and a half years. Has it been different from your previous experience drawing short stories?

A1. Compared to short stories, the series has been easier because the same characters appear each time. But I was surprised to find that I got tired of drawing the same characters too many times.

Q2. You have said before that the overall structure of the story was decided before serialization began, but how much of that had you communicated to your editor? Also, what kind of communication did you have during the series production?

A2. The goal was something we discussed and had decided on from the beginning. The goal itself was simple, but the path to get there was more difficult and took longer than imagined.

Q3. Regarding the overall story concept and development, did you write out or put anything down in writing (such as the plot)?

A3. I did, but it was simple.

Q4. Did you come up with the dishes based on the monsters you wanted in the story? Or did you come up with the monsters based on the dishes?

A4. It depended on the story, but usually the story came first followed by the monsters or food. I feel like that was most often the order.

Q5. As you progressed in drawing the series, what elements of the characters, story, or world expanded or grew in the most unexpected way?

A5. Nothing particularly unexpected perhaps. When I used to draw web manga, I tended to think up inconsequential settings. So, from the beginning I tried to restrain myself as much as possible and not expand too much. I was surprised when my editor said "Let's expand it more," in the second half of the series.

Q6. "Delicious in Dungeon" starts with a relatively simple setting, but as the series and the labyrinth exploration continues, the map slowly expands little by little in the readers' minds. It becomes more three-dimensional, revealing the secrets of the world, and taking on a multilayered structure. Are there any sources that you used as a reference, or which influenced you in creating this multilayered structure?

A6. A long time ago, when I was working on my personal web manga (fantasy), I drew it however I wanted, thinking that "Only people who can read this will read it," but I regularly received feedback that it was "unreadable", so I tried to make it as easily. accessible as possible.

Q7. The series combines many elements, including "fantasy", "gourmet", "battles", and "puzzle solving", but I think it's also important that it is a "comedy" which makes people laugh. Could you let us know if you have a creative commitment towards depicting humor?

A7. My hopes are that I can make it fun for people to read.

[page 5]

About Delicious in Dungeon: Drawing manga

Q1. Please tell us about the drawing tools you currently use, both digital and analogue.

A1. In terms of analogue tools, I use a light box, a G pen, a round pen, and a brush pen. And for digital, I use CLIP STUDIO PAINT and a Wacom LCD tablet. Screentone pasting is always done on the computer, so ultimately it all ends up as a digital manuscript.

Q2. Do you have any rules or reasons for using digital and analog separately?

A2. I'm always looking for ways to draw better and save time, so the exact approach is probably different for almost every chapter. Personally, I feel that analogue methods create more appealing lines, but I feel like digital saves time, so maybe I'll do a digital rough sketch and do the inking by hand… I might have been using a G pen, and maybe I'll try out a turnip pen, or this time I'm short on time so I'll draw it entirely digitally, but with digital I can redo it over and over, so maybe analogue is still faster, and so on and so forth. I'm indecisive in this way and so haven't developed a consistent process.

Q3. I understand that you prepare 3D data for your assistants to draw the backgrounds. What kind of data did you make for "Delicious in Dungeon" ?

A3. You could call it 3D, but it's not a proper model, just something to help with the rough sketching. I line up cubes to share the perspective and sense of scale, and they use it as a reference.

Q4. At the beginning of the series, the characters and backgrounds were somewhat simply drawn, and it seems like they became richly detailed over the progression of the story. What was your intention behind using these different styles?

A4. It's simply that my technique isn't stable. I thought I'd put a lot of effort in at the start. I remember being confused when my editor asked me to add more in to the drawing, and I wondered "Where…?"

Q5. Thinking about the food, were there any menu illustrations that you were particularly satisfied with, or which you struggled with?

A5. I've never liked my own food illustrations. But the times when I read other people's manga and thought "That looks delicious," I think it's been more an influence of the movement, the staging, and the situation than the drawings.

Q6. For the world maps and the terrain of each continent, did you refer to any maps of the real world? I feel like the shape of the 'island' is similar to the shape of Fukuoka Prefecture or Kyushu.

A6. I didn't reference any specific geography, but I did try to put thought into things like whether a developed city would be near a river or the sea, and what the coastline would look like. I'm pleased if it feels similar to a real place, because it means my interpretation was pretty accurate.

About Delicious in Dungeon: Other

Q1. Which is your favorite monster?

A1. Nightmare.

Q2. I'm sure you have received a lot of feedback from readers in countries and regions outside of Japan. Please tell us if there was anything from them that made you happy, was unexpected, or which made a lasting impression on you.

A2. When you play foreign games, there are times when you think "Why did they translate it into Japanese like that?" But having been on the side of having something translated, I've realized some things are unavoidable, or endless, and there are many things that don't matter either way from the author's perspective, so it was interesting.

About Ryoko Kui's short story collections and herself

Q1. Dragons are a consistent and important motif in your work. Was there any particular work or experience which inspired this? Also, are there points about drawing dragons which you find interesting or have had to work hard on?

A1. It's less about liking dragons, and more that I'm interested in the worlds in which dragons exist. When I draw dragons, the depiction in itself has a sweet feeling to it. I have never had a pet reptile, so I don't have a very good understanding of them.

Q2. Unomiya University in your story "The dragon's school is on top of the mountain" has a Faculty of Dragons, Department of Environmental Studies, and Department of Technology Studies, and a Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. If you were to enroll in the university, which department or faculty would you like to enter?

A2. I probably wouldn't be accepted….

Q3. The collection includes a short story staged as an essay manga. Are you a fan of essay manga? Please tell us about any genres of essay manga that you like.

A3. I love all kinds of essay manga. I read them often.

Q4. If you were to make your own game, what kind of game would you like to make?

A4. I prefer being a player when it comes to games.

Q5. When did you first start drawing illustrations (doodles)?

A5. I don't exactly remember when I first drew a picture, but I think I started drawing manga around the fourth or fifth grade of elementary school. in my notebooks and had my friends read them.

Q6. What is the most fun part about drawing manga?

A6. Every part is fun and hard in its own way.

Q7. Please tell us if there is anything you "just can't stop no matter what".

A7. My procrastination habit.

Q8. Could you please tell us if there's something you want to draw now?

A8. I've been working continuously since the serialization, so I'd like to take about 2 to 3 months to just draw whatever I want.

[milekael]

Hey there!! An ask for the Big Bang - your sneak peeks have so much texture in them! How do you decide what you're gonna use, when in the layering process etc do you add them?? Tell me everything! 💌

WAGH THANK U SO MUCH!! And this is a very fun question thank U <3

SO, the brushes I use that have this texture are from here! One time a while back they had a sale with a package with a bunch of them and thats how I got them! ever since they are my go-to texture brushes + adding perlin noise in some pieces if I think it helps them.

NOW I have several different ways of working/styles both because practicality but also just working with different materials! Sometimes I do my lineart in traditional, sometimes is about putting a lot of effort in texturing and individual shadows.

With this projects I tried a middle ground, considering I didn't have time or energy to do full on digital painting but also I wanted to have full looking illustrations, so I used the technique I used in this drawing! (Sharing this one to not reveal anything related to the Big Bang yet)

I used the screentone brushes as part of the lineart, basically trying to create general shadows and textures with them!

Then I just colored! adding some shadows with color and some extra lighting effects with the screentones!

Also something I did in the Big Bang pieces that didn't do here is that I added extra layers of ambient lighting! Is just overlay/multiply/screen layers with a gradient on top of the lineart. Also I colored the lineart so everything looked better dfghjk

And then to some that story-wise were printed photos I added A Lot of perlin noice on top to give it that scrunchy texture of paper dsfghj I hope this is useful for you! When I can reveal the Big Bang pieces I can do another breakdown if you would like <3

[bugtransport]

i remembered that there was one character who had some flavor of gender (and by that i remember there being the whole "oh you thought i was a girl because i live like one and dress like one but ACTUALLY i'm a BOY" reveal you know the classic manga one but [i'm leaning in to stage whisper here] i'm really not at all sure what happens with that character beyond that point and this was the 2000s so i do not know how scared i should be which is why again i am not recommending this) but i didn't remember that the main character also has wild gender issues because of her parents and also i didn't remember that one of the characters is gay?? and that this is confirmed because miss tanemura addresses it in a sidebar where she's like "i never thought i would write a gay character lol this is kinda fun... i'm not interested in that kind of manga tho i've only written gay characters for friends haha" which. i know she wrote a whole full moon extra where meroko and izumi fuck but you're telling me she's also drawing yaoi for the pals on the side only because they request it?? can you share those with the class what's going on here

visually as well i remember this one being a little less clear than her other series and i forgot that all of the characters look the same. there are 2 different men with bobs and i didn't realize they were different until they both appeared in the same panel. haine's friend looks almost just like her but sad. please take a look at this and imagine it in b/w. speaking of b/w i know she went hard on the screentones before but GODDAMN... anyway i had to get that out this series is throwing me for a loop so far. i think i'm maybe 6 chapters in so . that's where i am mentally

i started rereading the gentlemen's alliance cross for the first time in fucking. i was reading it as it was being released in bookstores originally lmao and i don't know if i ever even finished it. however long it's been since that is how long it's been since i thought about this series. i picked this one because it's the arina tanemura work i remember the least about and my god what the fuck was she cooking here

[optimistpax]

ooh I'm thinking of reading tf 2019 but idk if it's for me, could you share more of what you enjoyed about it? I'm curious!

Absolutely!! I'm always down to talk about comics!

Gonna throw my thoughts under the cut bc oops this got really long really fast... i have a lot of thoughts

TLDR: I like it bc it's easy to get into organization/access wise, it's soooo pretty to look at, has genres I personally enjoy and find fun, has a lot of characters I vibe with, and its themes are empathetic and hopeful which is nice to read about when life is tough

Organization

So the first thing that I think rocks about the 2019 comics is that they are actually organized in volumes that make sense from the get go. All the main story AND side stories are compiled in chronological order. This may not seem like anything significant, but I have major beef with serialized American comics about this so imo this is great skldjfg. Also!!! 5/6 of these volumes are on overdrive! So if they aren't already on your libraries library app (libby or hoopla), then the library can absolutely get you them if you ask! I'm certain that the 6th volume will be up there soon, it did come out relatively recently tho so it might be a month or two. It's also only 4 years/6 volumes long so it's not an overwhelming amount of content to read, which is nice :)

Art

Another thing I really love about the 2019 comics is the art!! They've got a couple artists that are series regulars, but 9 times out of 10 they knock it out of the park! Usually I'm bothered by a series jumping around different artists, but the regulars have similar enough art styles that with the colourists help, it's not that noticeable when they do switch around, which is really nice! I also Looooove the use of colour dots (i dont think they're screentones in this case? since they're quite big and used as a texture thing? idk im not a professional comic artist.) You can see some in my header! It's a double page spread from the first volume!! gorgeous stuff :)

Genre/Story

As for the story itself, I think it'll really depend what kind of genres you like reading. It starts on Cybertron before the war, which is fun to see since we get to learn a little about their culture, history, and geology. The genre starts off as a murder mystery and evolves into a political drama before finally dissolving into something more action-y. So it's not for everyone, but I personally had a fantastic time!

Characters

The 2019 comics have a MASSIVE cast of characters. There are so many characters that there's bound to be at least a FEW that you really enjoy! Lots of more obscure characters from the depths of tf lore that haven't really been developed in mainstream media (afaik) get some time to shine (Flamewar, Roadrage, Jumpstream, Javelin, Lightbright, and Subsea to name a few) and also introduces some new characters (Termagax, Codexa, Geomotus, Exarchon, Cryak, Rubble, Gauge, Lodestar) which imo were really fun to see! There's also a surprisingly large (relatively fleshed out) female cast which is refreshing to see in a franchise that originated as Reagan-era toy ads lmao.

I say relatively fleshed out bc the massive cast of characters is one of the series biggest strengths, but it's definitely also one of its biggest weaknesses. Since there are so many characters sharing limited panel time it's difficult for the series to explore them in depth bc there are just SO MANY. They're also using the toy designs where they exist (see: lots of same designs with different colours), so characters are sometimes difficult to tell apart. Esp if they don't show up often and you're not already overly familiar with transformers. Altho my comic book club of non-transformers fans managed to get through the first volume alright (or at least they said they did) so it can't be that unintelligible...

Themes

I really liked the themes in this series! Again, that's a personal preference that'll vary from person to person, but I had fun with this one. I'm not sure if it's the right word, but I think the narrative felt very empathetic(?). Characters were very rooted in their ties to other characters, their relationship with other characters. Something something we're better with the connection to and with the support of others. Some of my favourites character arcs in support of the theme of empathy in no particular order off the top of my head:

Cyclonus and his grief

Arcee and the lasting impact that the PREVIOUS war had on her and her relationships (esp with Greenlight and Gauge)

Gauge getting to CHOOSE her family not because she has to but because she wants to

Sad videogame dad Bumblebee

Geomotus and how he's autistic and taken seriously and respected and also his friendship with Landmine

Optimus being chosen for the matrix because he has the quality of HOPE

Javelin's PTSD

Shadowstriker trying and failing to keep Flamewar from being a gremlin and getting in trouble

Megatron being the pettiest man alive

Starscream's love for Cybertron?? ???

Wheeljack being SO supportive of his mentee Gears

I would apologize for the essay but you DID ask ahaha! Anyways, I definitely think the 2019 comics are at least worth looking into if you're a transformers fan and are looking for some comics to read. I had a blast reading them :)

[laserbobcat]

Top 5 of 2020 by Laserbobcat

    Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

    YO so Anna tagged me on this and I’m like HAHAHA choosing only 5 things in my huge art dump that’s a joke. The monthly thing already had me sweating for fuck’s sake. The thing is, I draw A LOT, in bulks, and I don’t really push my renders very far, so i don’t have like, awe inspiring pretty pieces I’m especially fond of... BUT she threatened me and now I have to be self loving and all, what a nightmare. Friends are the worst. So i’m cheating and making this into 5 categories with a few examples and links! Hahaha take that authority and rules.

#5 - OK SO maybe I have a few drawing that I like because they’re milestones in my improvement or something. It happens.

Like, finally being able to draw extra buff baddass women, finishing a more detailled illustration, getting a good dose of life and dynamism into a sketch, or just drawing an acceptable tasty piece of ass like the thirsty bitch I am. ALSO I am proud of EVERY soft smile I managed to get out on the canvas. Soft smiles are the best and when I draw them I feel gooey and people tell me they love them. Good stuff.

#4 - Which leads to: every soft shit I’ve ever drawn, like ever. Life is harsh, we need soft content to warm us up.

I mean I was nicknamed Fluff for a reason. I have whole ass tags especially for this btw: Softness, Hug, Kiss. I’m organized. The links are: arcanine hug, this werewolf AU, this other AU, this screentones thing, that Swap Roles AU (yes AUs, lots of AUs) and the genderbent reguri thing I did.

#3 - The stupid shit I draw.

Comedy is my life and blood. I can’t stay serious for long. They’re also fast to do and satysfying. That torchic comic is actually my all time most shared piece, it fucking exploded! I don’t have tag for fun stuff cause it’s kinda my default mode...

#2 - My sonas and asks reactions

Cringe is dead, cats ears are in. This kinda goes along with the third category cause my ask reactions are some of the dumbest shit I draw. I love asks! I rarely do things to engage with people though... I should, but i’m more of a “make stuff in my corner and dump it on the internet absent-mindedly” type of media user. Bear with me guys. I love you. I tag all those with “Sona”!

#1 - THIS DUDE RIGHT HERE. THIS ONE.

YEAH maybe i'm biased cause it's the OCs I'm into these days, but DAMN I'm having a blast drawing them. They saved my end of the year and my artblock/burnout. I hope you like Luke's dumb smile cause you're probably gonna see it for a while! The tag is DnD!

I hope I can get out at least 10% of the cool shit I have in my head for them. List includes things like : -Tiel yelling at the others cause they fall asleep when she tells awesome stories -Aeva learning to use a mace and leaving huge holes everywhere in the floor and walls but not touching the training dummy -Luke and Ranec trying to drown each other in a public bath while Celadon is watching tiredly -Tiel reluctantly polymorphing into a cat to cheer up a sad Luke -Luke and March betting on who can piss off Ranec the fastest -Ranec's halfling adoptive mom yelling at him cause he said the F word -Aeva abandoning the mace and punching the dummy in frustration, tearing off its head in one move and crying about it afterwards -Various members of the group saying that Luke's hot sister can definitely step on them, and Luke suggesting to avoid her cause she's known to do way more painful things than that -Various members of the group wanting to be stepped on more even more -SOME COOL FIGHT SCENES ??? That would be great? I want to improve this year too ! i’m tired of drawing the same stuff again and again. Flash Info News : I'm not into reguri anymore ! I mean, I love the two idiots,they have a special place in my heart, I just want to draw other things for now. I've been drawing reguri / namelessshipping for AGES, in fact I started that tumblr almost two year ago for this ship. I used to not draw fanart that much, and certainly not share it. It was fun to obsess on a ship for that long, it felt like embracing the cringe stuff I didn't allow myself to do when I was younger. I met cool people too sharing that interest, it was nice ! But now the interest has finally burned down. I’M SUPPOSED TO TAG PEOPLE BUT I DON’T KNOW THAT MANY ARTISTS HERE? Maybe @empearts​ when you get back home? Or @geneseedraws​ if you have time? @moonfang182-magic​ get your fingers out of your ass and make a top 5 too instead of sharing furry stuff :D Damn I’m bad at this networking stuff. U__U HAVE A COOL YEAR we fucking deserve it. Hope you’ll enjoy seeing my shit for the year to come too XD

[killfaeh]

Péguy

Hi everybody! In this news feed I've told you a few times about a project I named Péguy. Well today I dedicate a complete article to it to present it to you in more detail but also to show you the new features I brought to it at the beginning of the winter. It's not the priority project (right now it's TGCM Comics) but I needed a little break during the holidays and coding vector graphics and 3D, it's a little bit addictive like playing Lego. x) Let's go then!

Péguy, what is it?

It is a procedural generator of patterns, graphic effects and other scenery elements to speed up the realization of my drawings for my comics. Basically, I enter a few parameters, click on a button, and my program generates a more or less regular pattern on its own. The first lines of code were written in 2018 and since then, this tool has been constantly being enriched and helping me to work faster on my comics. :D This project is coded with web languages and generates vector patterns in the format SVG. In the beginning it was just small scripts that had to be modified directly to change the parameters and run individually for each effect or pattern generated.

Not very user friendly, is it? :’D

This first version was used on episode 2 of Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2. During 2019 I thought it would be more practical to gather all these scripts and integrate them into a graphical user interface. Since then, I have enriched it with new features and improved its ergonomics to save more and more time. Here is a small sample of what can be produced with Péguy currently.

Graphic effects typical of manga and paving patterns in perspective or plated on a cylinder. All these features were used on Tarkhan and Gonakin. I plan to put this project online, but in order for it to be usable by others than me, I still need to fix a few ergonomy issues. For the moment, to recover the rendering, you still need to open the browser debugger to find and copy the HTML node that contains the SVG. In other words, if you don't know the HTML structure by heart, it's not practical. 8D

A 3D module!

The 2020 new feature is that I started to develop a 3D module. The idea, in the long run, is to be able to build my comics backgrounds, at least the architectural ones, a bit like a Lego game. The interface is really still under development, a lot of things are missing, but basically it's going to look like this.

So there's no shortage of 3D modeling software, so why am I making one? What will make my project stand out from what already exists? First, navigation around the 3D workspace. In short, the movement of the camera. Well please excuse me, but in Blender, Maya, Sketchup and so on, to be able to frame according to your needs to get a rendering, it's just a pain in the ass! So I developed a more practical camera navigation system depending on whether you're modeling an object or placing it in a map. The idea is to take inspiration from the map editors in some video games (like Age of Empire). Secondly, I'm going to propose a small innovation. When you model an object in Blender or something else, it will always be frozen and if you use it several times in an environment, it will be strictly identical, which can be annoying for natural elements like trees for example. So I'm going to develop a kind of little "language" that will allow you to make an object customizable and incorporate random components. Thus, with a single definition for an object, we can obtain an infinite number of different instances, with random components for natural elements and variables such as the number of floors for a building. I had already developed a prototype of this system many years ago in Java. I'm going to retrieve it and adapt it to Javascript. And the last peculiarity will be in the proposed renderings. As this is about making comics (especially in black and white in my case), I'm developing a whole bunch of shaders to generate lines, screentones and other hatchings automatically with the possibility to use patterns generated in the existing vector module as textures! :D

What are shaders?

Well, you see the principle of post-production in cinema... (Editing, sound effects, various corrections, special effects... all the finishing work after shooting). Well, shaders are about the same principle. They are programs executed just after the calculation of the 3D object as it should appear on the screen. They allow to apply patches, deformations, effects, filters... As long as you are not angry with mathematics, there is only limit to your imagination! :D When you enter a normal vector in a color variable it gives funny results.

Yes! It's really with math that you can display all these things. :D Now when you hear a smart guy tell you that math is cold, it's the opposite of art or incompatible with art... it's dry toast, you'll know it's ignorance. :p Math is a tool just like the brush, it's all about knowing how to use it. :D In truth, science is a representation of reality in the same way as a painting. It is photorealistic in the extreme, but it is nevertheless a human construction used to describe nature. It remains an approximation of reality that continually escapes us and we try to fill in the margins of error over the centuries... Just like classical painting did. But by the way? Aren't there a bunch of great painters who were also scholars, mathematicians? Yes, there are! Look hard! The Renaissance is a good breeding ground. x) In short! Physics is a painting and mathematics is its brush. But in painting, we don't only do figurative, not only realism, we can give free rein to our inspiration to stylize our representation of the world or make it abstract. Well like any good brush, mathematics allows the same fantasy! All it takes is a little imagination for that. Hold, for example, the good old Spirograph from our childhood. We all had one! Well, these pretty patterns drawn with the bic are nothing else than... parametric equations that make the students of math sup/math spe suffer. 8D Even the famous celtic triskelion can be calculated from parametric equations. Well, I digress, I digress, but let's get back to our shaders. Since you can do whatever you want with it, I worked on typical manga effects. By combining the Dot Pattern Generator and the Hatch Generator but display them in white, I was able to simulate a scratch effect on screentones.

In the traditional way it is an effect that is obtained by scraping the screentones with a cutter or similar tool.

Péguy will therefore be able to calculate this effect alone on a 3D scene. :D I extended this effect with a pattern calculated in SVG. So it will be possible to use the patterns created in the vector module as textures for the 3D module! Here it is a pattern of dots distributed according to a Fibonacci spiral (I used a similar pattern in Tarkhan to make stone textures, very commonly used in manga).

Bump mapping

So this is where things get really interesting. We stay in the shaders but we're going to give an extra dimension to our rendering. Basically, bump mapping consists in creating a bas-relief effect from a high map. And it gives this kind of result.

The defined object is always a simple cylinder (with 2 radii). It is the shaders that apply the pixel shift and recalculate the lighting thanks to the high map that looks like this.

This texture has also been calculated automatically in SVG. Thus we can dynamically set the number of bricks. Well, this bas-relief story is very nice, but here we have a relatively realistic lighting, and we would like it to look like a drawing. So by applying a threshold to have an area lit in white, a second threshold to have shadow areas in black, by applying the screentone pattern to the rest and by adding the hatching that simulates the scraped screentone, here is the result!

It's like a manga from the 80's! :D I tested this rendering with other screentone patterns: Fibonnacci spiral dots, parallel lines or lines that follow the shape of the object.

Now we know what Péguy can do. I think I can enrich this rendering a bit more with the shaders but the next time I work on this project the biggest part of the job will be to create what we call primitives, basic geometric objects. After that I can start assembling them. The concept of drawing while coding is so much fun that I'm starting to think about trying to make complete illustrations like this or making the backgrounds for some comic book projects only with Péguy just for the artistic process. Finding tricks to generate organic objects, especially plants should be fun too. That's all for today. Next time we'll talk about drawing! Have a nice week-end and see you soon! :D Suisei

P.S. If you want miss no news and if you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to the newsletter here : https://www.suiseipark.com/User/SubscribeNewsletter/language/english/

Source : https://www.suiseipark.com/News/Entry/id/302/

[cobaltfluff]

24.07

Suuuper late, but happy birthday to Reo! I’m sure Mabu made some ningyoyaki as well hehe

Did this over a couple of days so... the style changed a few times...? You can totally tell where I put in relatively more effort lmaooo I also had fun playing with all the CSP screentone things

I just wanted to draw a mini sad Reo okay my headcannons make them so ooc sometimes but I can’t help it I like dumbass otp energy

[toonstarterz]

BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #153

Naturally, Watamote hits us with a relatively “light” chapter after the dumpster fire that transpired between Tomoko and Ucchi. But even if we put that inevitable faceoff on hold, this week’s snack-sized chapter gives us something fresh and sweet to cleanse our palettes. And that my friends, is our favorite lil’ observer, Hikari Itou.    

Chapter 153: Because I’m Not Popular, I’ll Participate In My 2nd Sports Tournament 

♪ It’s the ciiiiircle, the ciiiiircle of liiiiiiiiiiiiiife! ♫

The softball team making it far doesn’t surprise me too much, given that it was obviously the overachieving Komiyama who dragged their butts over to the winner’s bracket.

Same goes for the ping pong team, whose Weapon of Mass Destruction, the enigmatic Shiki Futaki, decimated the poor first-years. Of course, both teams had its share of respectably athletic girls, so a team effort can definitely be attributed here.    

That surprises absolutely no one at this point.

Add this to my “Tomoko Noms” folder.

I noticed that Tomoko is that type of introvert who needs to feel productive, even if its something as quiet as reading manga. A lot of her anxiety, I believe, came/comes from self-defeating boredom. Unlike Yuri, who doesn’t seem to have any qualms about doing nothing, Tomoko has to at least feel preoccupied to relax her nerves.

It easy to forget that the Komiyama who can explode into irrationally perverted hissyfits is also the Komiyama with actual polite manners. 

While Komiyama prefers to keep to herself like most introverts, she stands apart from the other “quiet” girls like Tomoko or Yuri in that she’s not afraid to take the lead when she wants to. If she could learn to keep her temper in order, I honestly think she’d make a good leader. 

Hey, hey, hey! It’s that pretty girl who was on the cheerleading team during Tomoko’s 2nd-year sports festival. I bet that Nico Tanigawa has a spreadsheet of background characters for easy introductions.

I can appreciate that Komiyama can set aside her differences with Yoshida especially–given their admittedly entertaining cafeteria fight–to see her value to the team. Despite both being kind of hotheaded, they aren’t really the type to hold grudges, are they?

Itou’s straight face is meme-worthy. 

Given her borderline stalker levels of Komiyama’s background, I think we can take Itou’s word on this one. Who would’ve thought Komi had some chuuni in her?

Breaking news: Itou’s a real bestie.

This just in: Dicky-chan makes a surprising comeback.

Swiggity Swooty, comin’ for that...eye circles. 

Yeah, Nemo’s a tease, Yuri’s cute, and Katou’s hot, but Shoujo!Komiyama is by far the most adorable girl in the entire series. 

I know I’m not the first one to think that Itou had ESP in this scene.

Psychic powers or not, it’s clear the Itou’s friendship with Komiyama is intimate enough that she can practically read the girl’s mind. What makes it even better is that Itou has an impartial view on who Komiyama is. She can see Komi as equal parts wholesome and perverted. Much like Tomoko, Komi is really transparent once you get to know her, and much like Yuri, Itou has really accepted the girl’s faults in stride.  

Five nonexistent bucks say that Komiyama’s personality is practically the same as it was before.

C’mon, Itou. You can’t just leave unfinished thoughts like that. Simple? Consistent?? Insane??? Even so, Itou hasn’t left the girl’s side at this point, so I’m thinking she must have slowly built up a resistance to Komi’s near-borderline personality disorder.

A flashback within a flashback? Insert easy Inception reference here. 

I’m already getting the, “girl without many friends” vibe here. Everybody knows that eyeless girls in screentone are off the table as potential buddies. 

Then, of course, we have Komiyama, who effortlessly pulls of the “literature girl” vibe better than the main character from Nico Tanigawa’s other manga.  

Awkward gaps galore. What catches my attention is that Itou was the initiator for this fated first meeting. Something about Komiyama grabbed her attention, enough where this usually observant girl decided to approach her. Did she sense a kindred spirit in this solitary bookworm? Maybe Itou thought Komi was lonely and could use some company? Or perhaps Itou’s action was entirely out of happenstance and Komi just happened to be there at the time. Whatever the reason, I doubt either of them ever thought they’d be best friends after this. 

I rather like that Komiyama apologized and asked for Itou’s name again when in reality...Itou didn’t even tell her. Komi was polite enough to acknowledge the random girl next to her, even when she could’ve just ignored her without consequence. 

How wonderfully decent.  

Implying, of course, that Itou was actively looking for an opportunity to connect with her. Again, it’s still uncertain why exactly Komiyama caught Itou’s eye, but if this series has taught us anything, it’s that “normal” people tend to be drawn to weirdos.  

I originally questioned why Komiyama doesn’t play baseball herself when she’s such a big fan of the sport. But the answer came to me after some thought.

You can appreciate something and not pursue it yourself.

Not all foodies become chefs, not all gamers develop games, etc. Hobbies don’t necessarily have to be precursors for your careers. The harsher realities that come with making it your job can ruin the enjoyment of it, and Komiyama exemplifies that better than anyone in this series.

Although, being such a tryhard during this tournament suggests she likes to live out the fantasy, if just for a little bit.

“Cool Beauty”-o-Vision activated.

Bookworm problems, I tells ya. 

Did she ever succeed? We may never know.

Normally, people like Komiyama who are so insistent on converting people into becoming fans of their hobby tend to be rather annoying in real life. But for some reason, Komiyama pulls it off in a way that doesn’t feel too in-your-face about it. I think it’s because Komi is so passionate in her own interests, that she likely won’t feel offended or insecure if Itou doesn’t become a fan. That being the case, it just feels like a pure-hearted girl trying to spread the fun. 

For the record, there was an inner monologue by Itou here that got scrapped in the translation. 

What can you do?

Okada just can’t get away from the otaku swarm, can she? 

Resistance is futile.

Thank goodness this video was on Itou’s phone(right?) and not Komiyama’s. Heaven knows the kind of Tomoki lewdness she has on it.  

Oh, she’ll be analyzing his play-style A LOT tonight, I’m sure.

I love Tomoko doesn’t blame Itou at all for taking the video. Absolute proof that she’s totally biased against Komi-something.

Speaking of which, I’m surprised she gave such a straight response, hence the opaque glasses. She used to get all flustered whenever someone suggested she was perving on Tomoki, though that was before she supposedly decided to start being honest with herself. Maybe she really is just using it for reference. Either way, Komi’s keeping to her word, and I respect that.

I sense an overabundance of empathy in Okada’s words.

Quit being so cute, Itou. We’ve already reached max cuteness capacity for this series.

And there you have it, folks. The first-ever “Itou Hikari” spotlight chapter. I’ve mentioned before that the Komi-Itou relationship is parallel to the Tomo-Yuri relationship, but I now see considerable differences. Unlike the other girls, who started off as black slates before being developed, Itou’s character grown runs in reverse. She’s already been “developed’, but we can expand her character by seeing how her previous experience shaped her into who she is today: 

A self-imposed background character who’s content in providing moral support for her more imposing friend. 

I look forward to seeing more behind the mind of this adorable, observant lil’ chipmunk. 

[rockmiyabideusexmachina]

2018 Megaman Valentine’s Day Contest Results Thread!

Thank you all for your patience this year! I know this is a little later after the holiday than I would like, but one day is simply not enough to contain all this love! Once again, it’s always wonderful to have an assortment of both familiar faces participating, as well as many newcomers. 

As always, this will be a rather massive thread, so bear with me. Most of it will be hidden after the break, so please do take a peek at all these wonderful entries!

Due to the size and sheer quantity of comic entries, there are plenty of images to view. For that reason, I’m sticking to thumbnails for now. Please click to view the entry in it’s full glory!

Also, my thanks to @jaybird-c for the help with judging this year. I’ll have some of his commentary with my own below.

The three raffle prize winners will be noted by their alias, as well. 

For your reminder, there were two categories, broken down into Humor and Talent. There were 6 total Humor entries, and 14 Talent entries. So, to start off, we’ll begin with the category with the least entrants, and to fit with my tie-in promo art.

*EDIT* OK, now I think everything is good. So long thumbnails, to keep this shorter.

Once again, for an easy link to all the images in a single gallery, please go here: https://imgbox.com/g/uAbXkTDaot

Otherwise, I’ve tested it again on both mobile and desktop, and everything should link to a full image. It still does on my end.

*/EDIT*

For Humor, this year’s theme was “Beauty and the Beastman.EXE.��� The goal was to illustrate a mismatched Megaman couple, one in a monsterous, beastly form, with another more beautiful character that falls for them. Any allusions to the popular tale of Beauty and the Beast were welcome, but not a requirement.

Here are your top 3, followed by the remaining entries in alphabetical order by alias:

1.) @prar-draws: (*Prar wins $100 USD or an item(s) up to that value.)

Jaybird wrote: Prar's comic has the absolute best execution of a joke, increasing the tension until the last panel when it masterfully throws the audience for a loop. Prar's style complements the story very well by making each individual moment easy to digest, and the last panel also just happens to be really funny to look at on its own. Just thinking about it makes me crack up.

Miyabi wrote: While this piece really contains more tension and drama until the final panel, I agree that the build is what helps bring the big laugh at the end. You can also see the temperature rising for Ciel, as her cheeks get redder and redder as the panels move along. I felt it tied in to the Beauty and the Beast storyline nicely, and your chosen characters fit well to pull off the connection. Very cute, and well constructed comic!

2.) @amiable-apparition: (*a-a wins $50 USD or an item(s) up to that value.)

Jaybird wrote: I don't remember this scene from the Star Force anime. Must've been cut from the final release. Clever use of trickery regarding who the real "monster" is; poor Damian appears to have misjudged the situation something fierce. Good idea and use of twist.

Miyabi wrote: I guess Sam was the one who was ‘Hungry Like the Wolf,’ after all! I too enjoyed the spin at the end, it was a funny deviation on how her character was portrayed in the anime. Subject choice was strong here too, connecting the theme with a couple characters who fit well with the concept. Nice work with the variety of panels you created to set things up.

3.) @frankenchio​: (*frankenchio wins $25 USD or an item(s) up to that value.)

Jaybird wrote:  Ah, the Princess and the Toad Man. Frankenchio's piece is a clever little reference to the classic fable, but most of the humor is in how Roll apparently didn't know what kind of prince was on the other end of that frog. Clever, pretty to look at.

Miyabi wrote: I like that you thought outside of the box with the theme, and used a totally different classic tale, but still connected it very well. Ice Man sure lucked out this time, after whoever cursed him into Toad form. While a simple few panels, your style is just adorable. Those jewels on the crown look really detailed!

Close, but not quite ~

Dark Dullahan:

Jaybird wrote: Dark Dullahan has the idea of recreating an actual Disney scene with Iris and (Zoanoroid?) Zero, which is very sweet. It took me a few repeat looks to digest what was going on here but it's amusing to see Zero protecting his wounds from the fierce and terrible Iris. Because she's obviously the worst thing that can happen to him. Cute, amusing scene.

Miyabi wrote: Sorry, I don’t know why this upload defaults to a side view, when I don’t even have it at that orientation. It automatically glitches that way, no matter how I upload it. :/ Anyhow, a clever spin using the EXE versions of Zero and Iris, living in a world where only reploids...no wait, they don’t exist here. This Beastly ZoanoZero will open up to her over time, I’m sure. But first, he needs to heal up. Again, good use of parodying the scene.

@drewblossom​:

Jaybird wrote:  The sheer concept of Rock-Belle made me wonder if they were going to throw in an FMA reference somewhere, but Drew's picture doesn't need it. They make good use of the Disney-classic-gone-wrong idea -- Oil Man and Time Man as Lumiere and Cogsworth are nearly inspired --though I think they didn't quite go far enough and should have rounded out the piece with a more feminine version of the suit; Rock-Belle changing into Mega *Man* raises questions about whether the main character's an actual girl or just a cross-dresser, which distracts from the joke.

Miyabi wrote: I guess Rock is both the beauty and the beast, for totally destroying those poor innocent talking inanimate object bots! While I had a good laugh at the quick-change blast, the character reactions, and the overall parody of the classic scene, sadly I did feel it just didn’t quite have the couple contrast/Valentine’s theme as well as others. 

@erekisaiko​: (*RAFFLE PRIZE WINNER* Captain N Height Chart)

Jaybird wrote:  I feel like I'm missing a reference to something else. As amusing as the concept of JunkMan's and Meddy's unsanitary hospital sounds, the picture doesn't present us with enough information to make sense of what actually happened (i.e. why was JunkMan wearing a cardboard Falzer costume in the first place?), and [=ClockMan's=] joke lacks the punch it ought to have because the punchline has no set up. (Unless of course this is all just an incredibly obvious reference to something I've never been exposed to that would fill in all the missing context). Amusing concept in punchline, it's fun to think about how this situation could've arisen.

Miyabi wrote: Meddy’s not oblivious, she just has a big heart ready to heal any messy, junky slob! Cute and different idea having more of a ‘fake’ beast, although I think Junk still would count as a beastly character on his own, in some respects. Very well-drawn, and appreciate all the detail you put into your internet background.

For the talent category, the theme was “If You Like It, You Should Put a Ring Boomerang On It.” This category was all about proposal scenes. And I am shocked there was not a single Jewel Man! XD

Here are your top 3, followed by the remaining entries in alphabetical order by alias:  

1.) @wintesm​: (*wint wins $100 USD or an item(s) up to that value.)

Jaybird wrote:  Jeez. Unrelenting Style. Your children's book painting is incredible as ever; your figures, your colors, your atmosphere, just about everything.  I ran into a problem with your composition, though; the stark black page divider clashes with the predominantly horizontal-mirror structure and makes it hard to wrap your head around the story as its meant to be told. It was less of a problem once I trained myself to ignore it, and you use the divider very effectively in the second-to-last section, but it still made it harder to enjoy the work. Masterful technique, colors, perspective, expression.

Miyabi wrote: With your subjects, I felt this composition was a very clever way to tell the story, and kinda mirror their separate, but similar tales side-by side. As mentioned, you have such a fitting children’s storybook style, from colors to shapes, that shines once again! It’s a cute tale for such evil characters!

2.) @peach35​: (*peach wins $50 USD or an item(s) up to that value.)

Jaybird wrote:  Peach deserves a lot of credit for her mastery of figure-drawing and perspective. That's something a lot of people struggle with, and accomplishment in these matters should be recognized. Another good choice of simple background to highlight the main moment, and awesome use of colors and lighting to suggest 3D -- I'm far more fascinated by Gate's nose than I should be. Incredible faces, hands, colors, and general shading.

Miyabi wrote: The sense of confused shock on Alia’s face is a different reaction that most, as it’s apparent Gate is slipping that ring on in total surprise. Clean lines and soft lighting helped this piece stand out.

3.) @tianura​: (*tianura wins $25 USD or an item(s) up to that value.)

Jaybird wrote: Tianura's style is difficult to read; the line quality can be inconsistent from panel to panel, some attempts to convey 3D positioning could use polish, and the panels never stray very far from simple torso and head shots. That said, the expressions are exceptionally clear (again, look to the eyes) and convey lots of emotion, and the page-by-page composition is very good. Very expressive faces, judicious use of colors for effect.

Miyabi wrote: I thought this was a creative parallel for life-long partners in using Netto and Enzan. You did a nice job keeping Netto’s goofy charm intact, with quite a few humorous lines. The ending was totally fitting for him, older or not. XD While I’m sure you would have liked to color the whole thing, I liked the differing use of screentone shading. And the watercolor look of the color pieces did give it some storybook charm as well.

Close, but not quite ~

@borockman​:

Jaybird wrote:  It's such a shame this isn't a humor category, because this deserves major points for funny (the Nana-Sigma romance anime that the fandom doesn't want, but nonetheless deserves). The linework itself is pretty good. Expressive, good use of background for mood. Also, Sigma, the ring goes on the ring finger.

Miyabi wrote: It’s a dream. It’s always a dream! Siggy puts the ring on her pinky because Nana’s his ‘lil pinky-poo... ;p With the tears running down her face, I really did like the emotional feel of the moment. 

@digitallyfanged​:

Jaybird wrote: In terms of sheer atmosphere, this is one of the best pieces. It looks like a still from some fairy tale picture-book. The forest scenery, the background, the flower-swing, the misting breath, the quality of the outfits and the details on the dress and sword all make this exquisite. Unfortunately the characters aren't quite as expressive as they ought to be -- this is very clearly a fairy-tale love scene of some kind, but what kind? Laika is clearly being emotional towards the princess, but what is he saying? "Who are you"? "You're beautiful"? "I love you"? "Be mine forever"? It's gorgeous, but it's a little too vague to tell whether it's on topic or not.

Miyabi wrote: Gorgeous scene that felt a bit like another Disney-ish tale, moreso of the Frozen variety. They may just be easy-to-use Clip Studio effects, but I really thought it was quite creative how you pulled off the swing design. The watercolor forest background is beautiful, as is Pride’s snow princess outfit. Pretty, pretty picture!

@drewblossom​:

Jaybird wrote: I'm glad I saw Drew's title, because it took me a minute to figure out exactly what was going on -- for a moment I thought Geminiman was trying to propose to himself with that (fittingly) gaudy diamond. The linework is pretty good, and I like the lighting effects on Gemini's crystals and the translucence of his chest plate. I'll give them points for an ambitious concept, but the best mirror art looks at a scene from two different directions, and Gemini's reflection is simply a reverse of the main view. Good colors and lighting, elegantly simple background that does a good job of highlighting the main action.

Miyabi wrote: No better way to practice a proposal than to recite it in front of your self. Of course, if he is proposing to his clone, then I think with his nonchalant actions, he’s got this down already. XD Clever, and unique!

@hyperbole1729​:

Jaybird wrote: This piece is another mix. It has some very nice things -- the colors are spot on, the composition is very nice (you take cues from the 18th century Romantic movement by having the whole world revolve around the subject), you clearly pay attention to character details, and your field of flowers is great.

Miyabi wrote: Another set of net-battling partners who seem like a great choice for being together forever. The background is a fitting place for Sal to do it, because I don’t quite see Miyu being the one to speak up and propose. That might be more of a frightening proposition. LOL Cute, traditional scene. 

@iris-sempi​: 

Jaybird wrote: Iris-sempi's got style. The colors are interesting, the subject is clear, the linework pops out because it's -also- part of the colors, the cartoony elements fit in very nicely, and the presentation as a literature/manga cover is well-done. The technique is some of the best I've seen. That said, I have to ask, if you were going to go through all the trouble of creating such a cool cover, I think it's only fair to point out the title is blocked by the artwork, which defeats the purpose, especially on something's Volume 1.

Miyabi wrote: Just to clarify for everyone, the Japanese characters for this piece say "Let's Get Married" and "Sea Salt Honey." I thought it was a really clever mag cover format, where the characters really pop out against the pink background. With the waves, it really does feel like Splashy leapt out of the ocean to smack some salty sugar on Honey/Vesper Woman. Her vibrating antennae give some nice movement and comedic effect, too. Love it, but felt it just didn’t quite have the proposal feel as strongly as others.

@jb-artist​: (*RAFFLE PRIZE WINNER* - Megaman 8 cel)

Jaybird wrote: JB's picture is very cute, and we don't have much actual oekaki here, so props. While you deserve even more props for how direct you are to get to the point, it's difficult to judge how we're supposed to interpret this -- is Alouette precociously misunderstanding the nature of a marriage proposal or is it an actual proposal to her older sister figure? The perspective rocks, the colors and lighting are good, and there are lots of little details that portray lots of love for the Zero series.

Miyabi wrote: Zero’s such the silent, brooding type, that he sends Alouette to do the proposal for him. I’m just not sure if that will help or hurt his rank in this stage! XD It is honestly really cute, especially when you see her doodles on the resistance base’s wall. I think that makes the piece more than anything, and was a clever callback to the game. I like how you set up the scene with the background, and those are some really nice mountains back there, too. 

@lightlabs​:

Jaybird wrote: Now this is pretty. Great composition to direct us through the piece (-nice touch- on giving the ring some bling) and rocking use of paint swatches for style. The art does a great job of directing us into the center, and the warm colors in the center do a lot to convey mood. Zero, you smug jerk, stop showing the rest of us poor schlubs up.

Miyabi wrote: Yes, this is happening. There is a reason for me to go on. What...what am I using this line foooorr? The warm colors and sparkles give it a unique glow, for what seems to be a night scene. The brush strokes give it a neat paint brush look, for your coloring, too. Nice work conveying their emotions with their expressions as well. 

@pandapanic0:

Jaybird wrote: In terms of actual skill, the coloring is good and clear, the piece is composed well, the lighting effects are fairly elegant. If it were the actual humor category, the Ring Man's appropriately outlandish bid and Mega Man's exceptionally feminine reaction would gain the piece lots of laugh-out-loud points.

Miyabi wrote: Thank you for taking the title of this category literally and going for the humorous visual of a giant ring Ring Boomerang! Even if he says no, once he tries to get rid of that ring, it’ll just come right back. XD Rock’s blushing expression is cute. Nice crisp coloring and bold lines. 

@shikai-the-storyteller​: (*RAFFLE PRIZE WINNER* - Archie Worlds Unite Page)

Jaybird wrote: On a panel-by-panel basis, the art is very good: crisp lines; good color and lighting; good technique with hands and faces; great use of background and expression to convey mood -- you got more mileage out of your backgrounds than probably anyone else here.

Miyabi wrote: Another nice job of mixing humor into your piece, while still keeping it a tender, sweet moment. Nice way of showing that things don’t always go as planned for a proposal, but sometimes it’s the thought and effort that counts. As always, your lines, colors and penmanship are smooth and flawless.

Superbasket5:

Jaybird wrote:  Aww. If I've got this right, it looks like X is so nervous about giving Alia a valentine that he doesn't realize Berkana is giving Alia encouragement as well. I think. I have to wonder what Marty is doing here -- research tells me she has a crush on X, which seems like it would get in the way, and if that's the case, this impending trainwreck will be something worth watching. That said, the piece is still in its rough stages, especially your setting and perspective; I can't really tell where the characters are (outside at a park?), and Alia's hip is in front of X's arm.

Miyabi wrote: Alia has her support group, but I don’t know if she’s going to be able to pop the question to X with a crowd around her, either. XD Cute expressions, showing her nerves, while X is probably not quite expecting what’s hiding behind her back. I kinda wish we would get that visual of what she’s hiding as a cutaway, much like how you gave X a thought bubble for what’s going on in his head. 

@yugiohlesbian​:

Jaybird wrote:  Good job! I'd like to compliment you on how versatile your figures are and how you use that to make them very expressive; your use of perspective and individual panel compositions are both very versatile. While there isn't any color, the nighttime scenes do a good job with the lighting. Your style is pleasantly simple, but sometimes the panels seem to be oversimplified; more developed backgrounds would be welcome in several places.

Miyabi wrote: Totally different subject, but Zero, none of us understand taxes, either. I like how you illustrated the struggle of a reploid trying to understand human logic and traditions, and yet in the end, it still being something Zero didn’t truly need to grasp in that logical sense. While I know you wish you would have had more time to continue perfecting these panels, I agree that the night scenes stand out and give a good contrast between Zero’s computer research scenes. 

Thanks once again to all who participated! I will be contacting the winners soon enough. Work will probably keep me from replying to everyone immediately, but if you don’t hear from me today, I will send a message about prizes hopefully within the next day. 

For those awaiting the secret contest results...sorry, for another slight delay. Between finishing my promo art for this thread, and typing this, it took up too much time and I’ve gotta head to work. I will have those posted overnight, into Sunday morning, as it won’t be quite as intensive to write up. My apologies, but I hope you can all hang on for another 20 hours or less. ^^;

[yourhealthmattersblog]

The love in between

Vol. 14 Manga Evaluation:

Recap: taiyou no ie Senior institution girl Kii drops in deep love with difficult-child Hazuki after he virtually impacts an additional trainee after seeing his regret. Another people stress Hazuki simply because they believe he likes to strike individuals, and also her close friends prevent and also fret her just like they are doing Hazuki, when Kii displays interest about Hazuki. The really first quantity moves around displaying manages Kii pushing Hazuki to determine what sort of "love" he appears on her Hazuki's misunderstood generosity, and Kii fretting over whether Hazuki remains in deep love with an attractive older solitary mommy.

First Impressions: This taiyou no ie is saved by the pacing. I had been more thinking of Hazuki's possible break an single-mother, on Yukino, than in the primary connection.

Art work: The main characters' look is pleasant. The greatly driven top lashes places lots of focus on the eyes. An exceptional quantity of treatment is directed at the hair. The key personalities' have hair that is dynamic with lots of flounce and also cost-free waves.

As usual, I'm just a little distressed from the key female personality's child-looking face. Exactly the same can likewise be correct for that male primary character whose experience is extremely sophisticated as well as toddlerish. It had been only a little uneasy in the starting till I accepted this might be the drawing design and also got utilized it.

The areas appear like routine shoujo. You will discover lots of screentones utilized that make the cell appear unpleasant in some cases. The flow round the areas is fluid. I would certainly not a problem complying with a circulation of activity and also discussion.

Presentation: I truly like the cover designs of taiyou no ie. I'm a fool for that light-watercolor look. The web pages seem really great and also, as regular, I want like these were within the journal, these were in-color. The book is just a conventional shoujo overview: you will certainly find no shade structure and also web pages is little. Made use of to do have no problem researching text and also the typed. The mangaka's handwriting is fairly understandable.

Story: This joshi shougakusei hajimemashita manga can be a piece-of-living elderly college manga, consequently there isn't an item. A character study is it' sed by instead. The pacing is not fairly slow-moving, consequently there is virtually no time at all for me to have bored. The manga is implied to heart round the connection between Hazuki as well as the major figures Kii, but I uncovered myself extra thinking of Hazuki's link and feelings in the direction of Yukino, the single-mother he befriended. Kii is just a routine shoujo plain woman with if the primary male individuality remains in deep love with her having a totally blushing face that's consumed. Specifically when Kii comes to be a missing child in the mall Hazuki checks out Kii to Yukino's child, Kouta, which appears likely. I can not tell whether this really is unintended or if the mangaka is proactively putting fun at her very own dull-girl shoujo heroine. Since I have do not worry about feelings and Kii's vapid concepts, I believe I would certainly have loved this account extra if it were educated from Hazuki's perspective. Their disappointment with he appears about Yukino and also Kii are potentially a lot much more fascinating than Kii weeping about whether she is liked by Hazuki. The factor I'm continuing the manga would certainly be to observe exactly how the issue in between Yukino and also Hazuki is fixed because Yukino will marry her infant's father. The love in between Hazuki and also Kii is incredible and also fairly fragile at this time.

Readability Medium: This collection makes use of standard shoujo language. There's lots of message on some web pages, as a result reading may become a little boring, especially if the viewers's attention is held by the story does not.

General: This can be a typical that is sweet shoujo. The main set is eclipsed from the male key personality's break on the older character and delicate. I'm likely because I'm considering the added connection without this connection to surf the following quantity, this manga is not likewise atypical for me. Right here is the link if you intend to review manga online to look into one more collection. Know more here : https://allaboutmanga2016.wordpress.com/2021/11/07/3lptsyx5lwh7xu08f0flmg1636300339/ the  history of

[talesfromsomeday]

GSNK - Please Select a Present

Read on AO3 | Series on AO3 Series: Alternate Route (Part 2) | Title: Please Select a Present Fandom: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun | Pairing: MayuMiko (Platonic/Greyromantic [QPR]) Rating: G | Warnings: None | Genres: Fluff Summary: Mayu is rather suddenly made aware that Mikoshiba's birthday is on Valentine's Day, and sets out to find a gift for him. Author’s Notes: I'm sorry this is a day late! I wanted to finally follow up on my first fic and post something for Mikoshiba's birthday, and this is what I came up with. ------------ “Oh, Mikoshiba...” Nozaki started, swiveling his chair to face the table Mayu was huddled at between Mikoshiba and Sakura. “Your birthday is coming up, is there something you want to do?” Mayu’s head popped up in a rare moment of reflex, startling Mikoshiba, who just barely managed to stutter out an answer. “I-I didn’t really think of anything... I thought you would be busy planning for your notes and research...”

“Ah, that’s true. There’s a lot of new chocolate displays this year,” Nozaki nodded, touching his chin. “That doesn’t mean we can’t make time to celebrate, Mikorin!” Sakura chimed in, an almost scolding tone directed at Nozaki. “Most of the research and note-taking is only during school anyway. We’ll have plenty of time after!” “Y-you really don’t have to worry about it! It’s fine!” Mikoshiba insisted. “It’s awkward to be out on my birthday anyway...” “Well, if you really don’t want to...” Sakura replied quietly. “Maybe we can do something the day after?” “Mikoto-san’s birthday...” Mayu finally said. “Is it Valentine’s?” Everyone stared at him, except for Mikoshiba, who was fidgeting with his pen and staring at the flowers on the page in front of him. “You didn’t know?” Nozaki finally asked. Mayu shook his head. “Ah. Well, yes, it’s Valentine’s Day.” “Poor Mikorin...” Sakura wiped a tear from her eye. “Hey! Don’t make fun of me!” Mikoshiba accused, finally moving into motion again to point an annoyed finger at her. “Well, we can plan something for the day after,” Nozaki said. “Try and think of something you want to do.” Everyone went back to working on their portions of the manga, and Mayu laid his head back down on the table and watched Mikoshiba’s hands carefully tracing ink in the shapes of flowers. It was only after Mikoshiba and Sakura went home for the night that Mayu got up from the table to pull insistently on his elder brother’s sleeve. “Hm? What is it, Mayu?” “Mikoto-san’s birthday...” “Oh, did you want to come along for the celebration?” “Yes, but... a gift...” “I see! Yes, you two are pretty close, you should definitely get him a gift!” Mayu could tell by the glint in his eye that his brother had some ulterior motives, but he couldn’t really be bothered to care too much. “You could get him chocolates! Or flowers! Wait, are flowers too romantic? What about a confession letter?” Mayu frowned at him. “No, you’re right, that’s too much.” “His birthday,” Mayu emphasized. “Hmm... you’re right that Mikoshiba doesn’t like Valentine’s Day much… so it would probably be best just to focus on the birthday part.” His brother held his chin and shut his eyes in thought. “Something heartfelt and not too romantic...” Mayu wondered why “not romantic” was even being mentioned as a qualifier, but chalked it up to the unfortunate date of Mikoshiba’s birthday and didn’t question it further. As the minutes stretched on in silence with no new ideas, Mayu debated going home. He ultimately decided he was too tired, though, so after Nozaki suggested he ask Sakura for advice and returned to working on his manga, he curled up on his futon in the corner to get some rest. --------- “And everything has to be pink, you know? Always pink and covered in ribbons and stuff! It’s so embarrassing!” Mikoshiba buried his face in his hands as Sakura awkwardly patted his shoulder in an attempt to console him. “Don’t worry, Mikorin, we’ll do something fun for your birthday so you’ll forget all about all the pink, okay?” The only response she got was something that sounded distinctly like a muffled sob. “Oh, Mayu-kun!” Sakura quickly waved as she saw the boy walking down the hall towards them. “Sakura-san, can we talk?” A confused look crossed Sakura’s face, but she nodded. “Sure, is something wrong...?” Mayu shook his head, then turned and started walking away, towards the stairwell. Sakura gave Mikoshiba another quick pat on the shoulder, assured him she’d be right back, and rushed to follow after Mayu. “What’s up, Mayu-kun?” Sakura asked once they had gotten into the stairwell and out of earshot of Mikoshiba. “Mikoto-san’s birthday...” Sakura’s face lit up. “Oh! Are you going to do something for him? You should get him chocolates! Or flowers!?” Mayu sighed quietly to himself and wondered when exactly his brother and Sakura would finally get together. They sure had a lot in common, at least as far as he could see. “His birthday,” Mayu emphasized again, feeling tired from repeating himself. “Oh, right, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to do a Valentine’s thing, would it...? But I’m sure there’s something else you can do!” Mayu frowned. “D-don’t worry, Mayu-kun! If you need help, I’ll help you! We can go after school and look for something!” Mayu wasn’t sure how well it would work out, but he wanted his gift to be a surprise, so he couldn’t ask Mikoshiba directly. Though it would certainly be tiring, Mayu didn’t think it could hurt, so he agreed to a meeting place with Sakura and left for class. After the long day of school, they met up in front of the building and decided to head in the direction of the nearby mall. “So, Mayu-kun, how were your classes today?” Mayu considered the question. “I slept the best in math today.” He nodded slightly. “Uh, I think you’re supposed to be paying attention…” Sakura said. “Ah, but what about gym?” “We played basketball...” Sakura’s face brightened. “Did you score any points?” Mayu considered it. “Brother is better at basketball than me,” he finally said. He could tell Sakura was now questioning whether he had actually tried or not, but he didn’t feel the need to argue in his defense. “I see,” she said. “Are there any sports you like besides judo?” Mayu tried to think about what other sports existed, finally landing on one he had tried as a kid. “Archery?” “Ah, I think that suits you! It requires a lot of strength, but you don’t have to move much.” Mayu nodded slightly. It was something he wouldn’t mind doing again, though practicing two sports at once seemed like it would be too tiring. His train of thought was interrupted when he suddenly became aware of a familiar presence nearby, and he turned to find his brother hiding behind a nearby tree. “Hiding” was really being generous, as the thin twig of a tree was barely wide enough to hide one arm, much less his whole body. Still, the older Nozaki looked startled when Mayu lazily pointed him out, drawing Sakura’s attention. “Oh, Nozaki-kun! What are you doing here?” Though Mayu could tell by the slight twitch in her eye that she already knew, she still seemed perfectly happy to see him. “I—I needed some supplies from the art store!” He quickly lied. “Nozaki-kun, if you wanted to come along you could have just asked.” Nozaki rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and finally moved out from behind the tree to join them, and the three of them started walking again. It wasn’t too long before they arrived at the mall. Mayu felt a wave of tiredness as he stepped into the busy building, but he valiantly fought the urge to yawn. “Okay, commence Operation ‘Get Mikorin the Perfect Gift’!” Sakura declared, clenching her fist. “Operation ‘Gift’,” Mayu agreed with a surprising amount of energy, which was to say, with a voice he recognized as slightly more emotional than monotone. “Ah, yeah, that’s a bit shorter, huh?” Sakura laughed. “Mayu is very good at shortening things and coming up with acronyms,” Nozaki nodded. “Doesn’t it get confusing though, since he does that all the time?” Sakura questioned, then shook her head. “No, never mind, that’s not important right now. Mayu-kun!” She turned back towards him. “Where do you want to start?” Mayu shrugged with one shoulder. “That’s what I figured,” she said dejectedly. “We could go to the art store,” Nozaki suggested. “Nozaki-kun, we both know you were lying, so how is that supposed to help us get a gift for Mikorin?” “I was only partially lying, I really do need some supplies,” Nozaki said seriously. “Okay, fine. We’ll go to the art store while we try to think of a better choice.” With their destination agreed on, they set off in that direction. Nozaki busied himself loading a basket with screentone sheets while Mayu hung around with Sakura, who was browsing the oil paints and brushes. “Do you ever draw, Mayu?” Sakura idly asked, thumbing through a cup of brushes. “Yes, for judo.” Sakura gave him a weird look. “Why would you need to draw for judo?” “To teach my team moves. I practice because they focus better when I draw things they like.” “What sort of requests do they make…?” Sakura asked suspiciously.            “Well, they always want me to draw girls…” He paused. “They have specific tastes, I guess.” Sakura looked even more suspicious. “…would you show me sometime?” She finally asked, her curiosity about the content plain on her face. Mayu figured she was probably also wondering if he could draw as well as his brother could. “One of my classmates made a blog to collect them,” he said, pulling out his phone. “Here.” He opened up the webpage and handed the phone to her. “It’s surprisingly girly,” Sakura commented to herself. “Do you do all the drawings on a white board? That’s gotta be tough!” Mayu nodded. “Wait, ‘MayuMayu’...? Where have I heard that name before?” She considered it, scrolling through the pictures and squinting at the screen. Mayu wondered if she had spontaneously forgotten his name when she suddenly jumped, a bright blush appearing across her face. She hurriedly shoved the phone back into Mayu’s hands. “Wait here I’ll be right back!” She almost yelled, scrambling out of the aisle and leaving Mayu standing there confused. He briefly considered following her but decided it would be too much trouble and went back to looking at the myriad of paint colors. He’d find out why she was acting so weird eventually, no point in expending the energy on it now. She returned after several minutes of hushed voices floating over from the next aisle, smiling innocently but still blushing a little too much to really sell it. They went back to their shopping, but Mayu did not miss all the furtive glances she kept sending him. Once Nozaki had retrieved all of his needed supplies, and Sakura had splurged on a few new brushes, they finally left the store and promptly realized they had forgotten to think about where to go next. “Well, Mikorin collects figures right? We could go look at the figure store,” Sakura suggested. “Yeah, that makes sense,” Nozaki agreed, nodding. Mayu also nodded his agreement, and so the three of them set off to look at figures. “I forgot that it’s a little bit intimidating,” Sakura said as she stepped sheepishly inside. She turned towards Mayu. “Do you know what series or characters he likes? There’s a lot of choices…” They started to wander around the store, Mayu pointing out the figures that he recognized from Mikoshiba’s collection. By the time they had circled the whole place, it was clear to all of them that identifying the series or favorite characters was not the issue; it was finding a figure from any of those series the store stocked that Mikoshiba didn’t have. “W-well, it doesn’t have to be a figure! I’m sure there’s something else so let’s keep looking!” Sakura turned to lead them out of the store, accidentally bumping into someone who was standing behind her. “Oh, sorry—” She stopped suddenly as she realized who it was. “Oh, Mikoshiba,” Nozaki half-greeted from behind her. “M-Mikorin!? How long have you been standing there?” Sakura squeaked. He ignored both of them in favor of groaning pathetically. “Not again…” He covered his face with the hand that wasn’t cradling a large figure box next to his hip. After a long minute of silence, he finally looked at them again. “What are you guys even doing in here this time!? Is Nozaki planning to buy a figure to mutilate again? And why is Mayu with you!?” “Sorry, Mikorin! We were just looking around,” Sakura said, holding her hands up defensively. “Although, now that you mention it,” Nozaki started, “it still wouldn’t be a bad idea to get a figure for reference.” Mayu could practically see the steam coming out of Mikoshiba’s ears at the comment. “Out! Out! If you’re not going to respect the figures then just leave!” He summarily kicked both of them out of the store, leaving Mayu standing in the aisle, looking at the back of Mikoshiba’s head and the box that was still in his hands. “Are you going to buy that?” Mayu finally asked, pointing at the box. Mikoshiba finally turned back to him, his cheeks slightly flushed. “I was thinking about it, but I don’t have enough money right now…” “Can I see?” Mayu asked. “Huh? Oh, uh, sure…”Mikoshiba sheepishly handed him the box. Mayu took it and examined the figure more closely. It didn’t seem as incriminating as the one that he had been holding the last time Nozaki and Sakura had seen him in the store, or at least it didn’t seem so based on the description his brother had given him of the incident. The figure was of a girl with short, pale pink hair, wearing a somewhat short skirt, a button-up shirt, and a green hoodie. She also had a small pixel spaceship hair clip in her bangs and a cat-shaped plush backpack on her back. Mayu really had no idea who she was or what series she came from. “Cute,” Mayu finally commented. Mikoshiba seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.“Right? She’s one of my favorites from this series! But the price… it’s normal for a prepaint statue but it’s a little more than I can afford right now...” Mayu’s eyes finally settled on the price tag on the front of the box. It was a little over ten thousand yen; he didn’t really have enough money for it either. He briefly wondered if pooling their money would be enough, but he didn’t think that was any way to get someone a birthday present out of the blue and quickly gave up the idea. He handed the box back. “Maybe for your birthday?” “It’s too embarrassing to ask my parents for something like this! But maybe I’ll get some money or something…” Mikoshiba said, looking at the figure sadly before putting it back on the shelf. Mayu suddenly had an idea. “Mikoto-san, do you want to come with us?”“Huh? Why? No, I mean… what are you guys even doing here?” “We just wanted to hang around,” Mayu lied. Mikoshiba eyed him suspiciously. “You wanted to hang around?” He asked skeptically. Mayu shrugged. “Brother was going so I couldn’t go to his house. I decided to come along.” Mikoshiba didn’t look entirely convinced but he dropped the subject. “Alright, well, I guess I can go with you? Since we’re all here? Where were you guys planning to go next?” Mayu shrugged again. “Haven’t decided.” “Okay. Well, I guess we should go get Nozaki and Sakura, huh? They look a little antsy out there.” “Gossiping?” Mayu suggested, looking at the pair outside, leaning close together with their hands hiding their mouths. “Probably,” Mikoshiba said dryly. They finally turned and headed out of the store to meet Nozaki and Sakura. “Why didn’t you kick Mayu out too?” Nozaki grumbled. “Now, now, Nozaki-kun, I’m sure he has his reasons,” Sakura chided with a knowing tone. Mikoshiba seemed to pointedly ignore her implications. “So, where do you guys want to go?” He asked. “Oh, are you coming along, Mikorin?” Sakura asked, her eyebrows drawing together. “Mayu asked me to come…” “Oh,” Sakura said, giving Mayu a questioning look. “Alright then! Why don’t you pick, Mikorin?” “Why do I have to pick?” Mikoshiba groaned. “Hmm… how about the game store?” Sakura discreetly looked to Mayu for guidance, and catching his tiny nod, agreed. “Okay! Let’s go!” “I didn’t know you liked games, Sakura?” Nozaki questioned. “I don’t play them often but it’s fun to look around!” She shot him a “please play along” look, which he surprisingly noticed and heeded. “Ah, okay. Then let’s go!” They finally headed off. “Maybe I should play a game sometime too? Dating sims are kind of fun. At least that one we played was.” “Well, you are always complaining you don’t have any hobbies when you finish your manga early…” Mikoshiba said. “But then we’ll probably just end up drawing more doujinshi...” “Doujinshi?” Mayu questioned. “Ah, when Mikoshiba made me play the game, we got really attached to this side character named Tomoda, so we ended up drawing a doujinshi where he gets his own love story with the—” “Nozaki!” Mikoshiba quickly cut him off. “I’m sure he’s not interested in what it’s about!” “With who?” Mayu prompted, inadvertently ignoring Mikoshiba’s attempt to end the conversation. “With the protagonist,” Nozaki finished before Mikoshiba could stop him. Mikoshiba covered his eyes with one hand. “They pulled an all-nighter to finish it; it was little shocking the next day when I saw it,” Sakura added. Mikoshiba covered his face with his other hand. Mayu wondered to himself why Mikoshiba was so embarrassed about it, but decided not to question further. “We’re here,” he finally said, which made Mikoshiba reluctantly uncover his face. “They have a display for Girls Princess 4! I forgot it was coming out this month!” He suddenly exclaimed, eyeing the display in the front window. “The tenth, huh? That’s this Friday,” Nozaki said. “Crap, that means I can’t buy it yet!” Mikoshiba finally rushed inside the store to look at the promotional stands, and Mayu followed slowly after. “And I can’t preorder it either because I’m short a little bit...” He added with a depressed tone. “Ask for your birthday?” “It’s a gal game, though! It’s embarrassing!” “Hm,” Mayu hummed noncommittally. “I really hope I get some money so I can buy all this stuff...” Mikoshiba whined, turning the display game case over in his hands. Mayu watched his fingers twirling idly, then noted the price on the box. It was three thousand yen; that was certainly a price he could manage. With a plan decided, he touched Mikoshiba’s hand gently. “I’ll be back.” He looked around for Nozaki and Sakura, found them in one of the corners of the store, and walked over. “Sakura-san.” “Hm? What is it Mayu?” “Can you do something for me?” --------- Mayu knew it couldn’t have been easy, but Sakura managed a lot better than he himself could have, he was sure of that. It was finally Mikoshiba’s birthday; Mikoshiba had declined going out until tomorrow, but had (happily, Mayu hoped) allowed him to visit. Staying at home kept him more or less safely insulated from all the pink and hearts and romance outside, which Mayu knew he would appreciate, and which he himself was a little happy for, too. Now, the two of them were huddled together on Mikoshiba’s bed as Mikoshiba showed him what his parents had given him for his birthday. “And they told me last week that they were going to give me some money too, so I wanted to go and preorder Girls Princess 4, but somehow I couldn’t get down there to do it? Every time I planned to go, Sakura appeared to ask me for help with something, it was weird!” Yes, it could not have been easy for Sakura. Mayu definitely owed her one. He pulled his bag into his lap and opened it. “So I never got to preorder it... I think I’ll go down tomorrow and see if they still have some cop—” Mikoshiba fell quiet suddenly when he caught sight of the game case that Mayu had slipped carefully out of his bag and held out to him. “I asked her to keep you,” Mayu admitted. “Sorry.” Mikoshiba stared at the case for several moments, then looked at Mayu, then back at the case again. He did it several times before Mayu moved the case a little closer to him, trying to encourage him to take it. Mikoshiba’s hands finally lifted, gently taking hold of the case. “You bought it for me....?” “Happy birthday.” Mayu smiled softly, and a slight blush appeared on Mikoshiba’s face. “T-thank you,” he said, his head falling onto Mayu’s shoulder to avoid the younger’s gaze. Mayu gently patted the back of his head. “Shall we play?” He suggested. Mikoshiba sat up again. “Yeah! But you have to pick your own love interest this time!” Mayu smiled again “Sure.” Mikoshiba smiled wide and got up to put the game in.

[woodohwanedandproud]

@z-kira #going outside to feel the rain and remember the last time he touched me not counting when he was in his death throes mhmm @homoeroticide #Trying to get closer to heaven in a vain attempt to reach him but you know he isn't there don't you Light? #He is nowhere; nothing but empty sky #And someday that will be you

Do you hear the bells?

[killfaeh]

Back to childhood with AppleWorks

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to tell you about a very old software that kept me busy for many, many hours during my teenage years and that I've had the pleasure of rediscovering these days. Apple fans will have glitter of nostalgia in their eyes, others will have the opportunity to discover a beautiful tool that has not forgotten to be compatible with Windows. It is AppleWorks! AppleWorks was an office suite, installed on all Apple computers of the time, which, in addition to the classic word processor, spreadsheet and Power Point presentation, also offered a vector drawing tool and a bitmap drawing tool. It was my first experience in digital drawing and photo manipulation and with a bit of inventiveness, I was able to get some amazing things out of it. Behind its apparent simplicity, this little soft hides an unsuspected power. Let's go for a little trip back in time!

Small overview

The painting module

Gallery of illustrations

Install AppleWorks (Yes! It still works! )

Small overview

AppleWorks is 6 softwares grouped into one. When you launch it, it offers you the possibility to create 6 types of documents: word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation, bitmap drawing, vector drawing.

I quickly talk about Spreadsheet, Database and Presentation because I never used these modules. Anyway, know that with Spreadsheet you could make like with Excel, with Database, create databases and with Presentation, make like with Power Point. (You can click on the images to enlarge them to full size.)

And here are, then, the 3 modules that I really used!

The word processor

I wrote all my comics scripts, presentations and internship reports there when I was at school, until my dad bought Microsoft Office. Hard to compete with the Word arts. 8D Except that Microsoft Office did not offer vector drawing software, nor bitmap drawing software. So it was not about to dethrone AppleWorks.

The vector drawing module

This module helped me a lot to make diagrams to integrate in the word processor, draw dungeon plans for our Donjons and Dragons sessions, make some logos or paste editable text on images like my comics pages. I particularly liked its ability to generate gradients that roughly matched the shape in which they were applied, and there are recent vector drawing technologies that still can't do that and that's a little bit annoying to me. And finally, here is the module where I really spent the most time!

The bitmap drawing module

Well... Some geometrical shapes, a pencil, a brush, a filling tool, an eraser... So far it doesn't look much different from Paint. Wait until you see what it is capable of. :p

The painting module (bitmap drawing)

To begin, AppleWorks 6 is not the first version of AppleWorks that I worked with and already at that time, I had my little habits and what a disappointment for me when I didn't find my favorite features !! Looking for a little bit it turned out that they were just a little hidden and just needed to be tidied up a bit. Because yes! This small software already had a customizable interface by drag and drop as on a modern Photoshop!

Now all is clear, we can get to the heart of the matter: drawing! :p I've already mentioned the toolbar on the side earlyer, which is already familiar to you if you've ever used Paint. Now, let's move on to the area just below: the palettes. AppleWorks offers a limited palette of colors.

You can combine the selected color with a pattern to apply. Some of them look like manga screentones.

Some fun colorful patterns are also available.

And finally a small palette of gradients is also available.

Well... A few funny patterns, some gradients. It's enough to have fun for 5 minutes, but nothing special. We will going not very far. That's where the real work begins. :p Do you remember? A few moments ago I added buttons in the horizontal bar at the top, including this one.

And this is what it opens!

A customization window! :D Not enough colors in the default palette? Never mind! You can create as many color palettes as you want.

Not enough patterns either in black and white or in color? You can create as many pattern palettes as you want!

The default gradients palettes is too poor? No problem! You can create as many gradient palettes as you want! And for the moment, I spent a lot, a lot, a lot of time on this section! You can make circular gradients.

Linear gradients.

And gradients that fit the shape in which you apply them. Well, it's far from perfect with concave shapes, but it already allows for interesting things.

And to give the coup de grace to Paint, with AppleWorks you could even create your own brushes! :p

There are even some effects available such as blurring.

This AppleWorks is a piece of cake in the belly! :D Now that we know about its possibilities, I propose to show you a small gallery of what I was able to do with this software from end of nineties to middle of 2000s. :D

Gallery of illustrations

Let's start with the very first drawing I made with AppleWorks in 1998. We didn't have a scanner at the time, so I had to do it entirely with the mouse. It was also a time when I didn't have much notion of saving the original files and I considered that as soon as I had printed the drawing, it was no longer worth keeping it on the computer to save space (the hard drive was 4 GB). So this is a scan of the printed version you see here. x)

A good old Darth Vader! (1998)

Well, making a drawing from A to Z entirely with the mouse was laborious, so I also used AppleWorks to create backgrounds and print them. Then I would do my drawing by hand and cut it out and paste it onto the printed background. I was able to make interesting effects by understanding the limitations of the software and exploiting them. By understanding that gradients were composed of a series of solid color bands, I could make focus line effects by filling them with the filling tool with a different patterns or gradients.

This posing remind some Dragon Ball character (Between 1998 and 2000)

It is also with AppleWorks that I made my first attempts at photo manipulation. I used photos from an encyclopedia we had on CD-ROM and manipulate them by tinkering them and copying and pasting small pieces here and there. Then I printed my montages and paste them onto the comics pages.

My montages were mainly used for space scenery. (1999 - 2000 in collaboration with my sister)

This software really pushed me to be creative to get what I wanted out of it. I had even managed the tour de force of pasting a white lineart over a photo.

(2000 - 2001)

In the absence of layers, I had to work on 2 files in parallel and with the lasso select tool. And then one day, our first scanner finally arrived home! There the serious things could begin! I was able to stop trying to make drawings with the mouse and use AppleWorks to put in color drawings made with the traditional way. So I was able to go further from the end of nineties. It obviously started with Saint Seiya. x) (You can always click on the images to enlarge them to full size.)

I loved the Aquarius saint. He was my favorite character from Saint Seiya. ^^ (2000 - 2001, this way)

At the beginning I was just doing solid colors, but as I experimented with the features and learned how to combine them, I ended up getting more and more advanced renderings.

Aoshi Shinomori from Kenshin and Ashram from Record of Lodoss War. These two were also my favorites characters at one time. (Between 2004 and 2006)

If you have enlarged the images you must have noticed that the line is particularly crenellated. There was no antialiasing, no layer system with opacity levels, no tolerance threshold for the filling tool. So it had to be black, or white, but not in between. As a result, AppleWorks was not really adapted to work on drawings with small details, hatching or heavily detailled backgrounds...

I tried anyway. :p These last 4 examples I think I made them between 2004 and 2006. The comics pages come from the first version of the Nécrotech project which is currently in a dormant state (but which I intend to resume one day). You'll notice on the first image of the last page some effects whose style stands out a bit from the rest. It's normal, I made them in another old painting software, Art Dabbler, but this is another story. :p In 2007, I got tired of suffering, I started to use The Gimp, in 2008 I bought my first graphics tablet, in 2009 I embarked on the Photoshop adventure and you know the rest: I sold my soul to Promarkers and Clip Studio Paint. And then there are days like that, we fall back into childhood. (Click on the image to see it at full size and distinguish the pixel patterns. I know, I repeat myself, but the devil is in the details. :p )

Last week, I decided to make a theme of the Drink'N'Draw from A to Z with AppleWorks to see what I could get out of it with 15 more years of experience in drawing and illustration. 8D With some tips you can get a pretty amazing result! I am happy with the result, especially the colors. It wasn't done without pain. The feature I wanted to take full advantage of (customizing color patterns) is buggy on the Windows version of the software, so I had to set up a Mac OS X Snow Leopard virtual machine to be able to do the finishing touches. What an adventure! In any case, AppleWorks is always well adapted to make pixel art and this experience has allowed me to learn new things applicable in recent and professional softwares. I had never really tried pixel art, which I love, by apprehension of the execution time. I think I found the trigger to get serious about it. I will explore it further. :D Well, well, well! But in fact, calculating gradient patterns for pixel art with shaders shouldn't be complicated. I think I will add such an effect in Péguy ! :D

Install AppleWorks

You've read it right! You can still install and use AppleWorks in 2021! :D

Windows

I did the test with Windows 8.1 on my Cintiq Companion tablet from Wacom, and in the comments it seems that it also works very well on Windows 10. To do this you will first install the latest version of QuickTime 7 which you can find on this page. You double click on the installer and you do next, next, next... Even when you are asked if you have a product key. It is not mandatory and useless for our needs. Then you go to this page and download the first file. You unzip the file and double click on the installer, then same procedure as before: next, next, next... You can do retro digital painting now! :D

Mac OS X

Apple computers have changed so much in 20 years that it is now impossible or at least very complicated to run the original programs on today's machines. The manipulation therefore consists in using the Windows version with the Wine emulator. If I had no problem with the procedure, it may seem a bit complicated for non-technical profiles so I simply propose you to download the final application I created myself via this link on Google Drive. You just have to download it, unzip it (with a double click) and launch it. If you're a computer geek and want to get a version of AppleWorks without the color pattern bug, you can get the .dmg here and install it in a Snow Leopard virtual machine.

Be reasonable about the size of your files. This is an old software that will have trouble supporting surfaces exceeding 2000px by 2000px. There is a way to cheat a bit, it is by creating a vector drawing file and creating a bitmap drawing surface inside.

That's all for that nostalgic moment. I think I will come back with some illustrations made with AppleWorks in the future. :D Have a nice day and see you soon! Suisei

P.S. If you want miss no news and if you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to the newsletter here : https://www.suiseipark.com/User/SubscribeNewsletter/language/english/

Source : https://www.suiseipark.com/News/Entry/id/308/

[killfaeh]

Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2 - Gonakin

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I gave you news about Dragon Cat's Galaxia 1/2, well let's fix that! :D Last year was the third edition of the Ki-oon mangaka contest. I participated and, since the rules don't explicitly forbid parody, I decided to play the provocation card by sending them a little Dragon Cat's one-shot. In spite of the absence of any feedback, I had the satisfaction of succeeding in making a 20-page comic in the space of 10 days, from the first line of script to the coloring of the cover and posting it 15 minutes before the end of the contest. There was a little aspect not quite finished compared to what I usually do (the screentones were missing, the FX and the colors of the cover were flat), but still, it's a not bad performance. I will soon be as fast as I was in my teens. x)

Pages without screentones or FX.

A cover with flat colors, 1h30 watch in hand.

At the beginning of the summer of 2020 the buddy JD came to warn me that the emblematic Japanese magazine of manga prepublication, the Shonen Jump, was opening the hundredth edition of its famous Tezuka contest for the search of young talents internationally! And that Akira Toriyama, the Dragon Ball creator, himself, was part of the jury! :D The perfect opportunity to send my joke. So last week I finished the screentones and colors of the cover to participate. The comic is available in English and Japanese reading way on the website hosting the contest. I will post it in better resolution and in French as well as in English on my website in the coming days, so feel free to have a look from time to time or simply subscribe to Dragon Cat's here to be notified of the pages publication by email. I'll take this opportunity to put it back in a western reading way to harmonize with the other episodes of the comic so that you won't get lost when reading it. =)

Looks better when it's over, doesn't it? x)

I'm planning to print this comic, but 20 pages is pretty thin, so I'm going to combine it with another short (very short) story that I plan to do in the next few months. I can already announce you that it will be entitled The crottin's war! You're not dreaming, we'll talk about cheese in Dragon Cat's. And good cheese! :p I will tell you more about this little project later. Otherwise, for the record, this one-shot, Gonakin, is actually the remake of the Dragon Cat's prototype of which I drew the very first pages in 1998, when I was 12 years old.

Without retouching, it looked like this. The pages were drawn on both sides. It certainly does not make us feel any younger!

This old version is available online here if you enjoy reading it. I'll have to think about finishing cleaning and posting the rest, it's still fun all this old stuff. That's all for today! Have a nice day and see you soon! :D Suisei

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Source : https://www.suiseipark.com/Dragon-Cats/News/Entry/id/290/