a_j_g

An unhappy announcement

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:23:56 GMT

Things are kind of tough right now. Simon and I split up yesterday, and he's probably on his way to Tennessee by now. For those of you who don't know, Simon is my laptop. He's gone back to the factory for repairs, taking my Photoshop and scanning possibilities with him. In other words, I will probably be scarce for the next 7-10 days.

The guy at the Apple store was very understanding.
Mac Guy: I'm gonna shut it down and pack it up now. Any last things you want to do?
Me: ...no...
MG: Don't want to hold it for a little while?
Me: ...yes...but you better just take it.
MG: Don't worry. You know, all the guys here are the same, we just don't want to admit it. You should have seen the drool over the new iPhone.

Hopefully I will draw a lot in all the time I don't spend online.

Anyways, I scanned and uploaded these before sending off Simon:
volatilesublime had requested her character Gwen as the tarot card Temperance. I did some quick glancing at the wikipedia article and found that Temperance is usually a woman (sometimes winged and standing between worlds) mixing two liquids or water and fire (here, water and electricity.) Mostly I just took liberties with it. Floating markings are fun.

Iry and William belong to cupsmou. I threatened to draw them if I didn't get an intro post, and I didn't, so there. I got carried away with Iry's ladylegs, but hopefully Hardcore Hillary and William won't mind too much.

I have loved sougo's zombie, Key, for a very long time. I, however, blame her and tosshi for the idea of him as pope. It is crack, and I couldn't pass up drawing it. Hopefuly no one on my f-list is Catholic and offended. Sorry if you are.

Boring post

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:13:05 GMT

Does anyone have the mp3's for "Caramelldansen" and/or "Danjo"? 'cause I kind of want them. Alternately, someone could teach me how to pull sound files from YouTube. (Or have they fixed that?) *winning smile*

Bianchi from Reborn because she is cool and I don't draw her.

I kind of always loved Anna, even if she was kind of scary. I liked that shot of her room in the flashback with all the dolls.

I will post more interesting things next time. I am in the process of compiling them now.

Completely fictional history

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:36:40 GMT

This, I think, stemmed from a discussion with sougo on the hilarity of little boy shorts and how they probably applied to Hibari a long time ago. It worked better in my head. Read L to R as usual.

I got tagged by zuo =D Snag if you want.
1. How has LJ changed your life?
It EATS my time. D= Also, I have new friends. =D

2. What do you do before bedtime?
Check internet stuff, draw, read, bother people who are trying to sleep…

3. What will your dream wedding be like?
I really don’t want to think about things like weddings yet…

4. What is the city of your dreams and why?
My dream city is too ideal to ever exist. I have lots of cities I’ve been quite happy living in, though.

5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Quite extroverted, I’d say, but with enough shyness to temper it somewhat.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Being loved, I suppose. But mutual love is the best.

7. Do you trust easily?
In some ways, yes, though I can also be fairly suspicious and cynical.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Nothing. If he’s the type to leave his girl for me, he’ll leave me for another girl later.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Nothing big. Little things here and there, but I get over it.

10. What is your best quality?
I am a humble genius. Actually I have no idea.

11. Is being tagged fun?
I get tagged very rarely, so it’s always a little surprise.

12. How do you see yourself?
Bizarre yet human, kind of loud and opinionated, and yet I like just listening to people as well

13. Who are currently the most important people to you?
It’s hard to choose, you know? I’m really close to my family, though.

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
She is spiffy and always doing interesting things. <3

15. Would you rather be single & rich or married but poor?
I’d rather be single than marry/go out with the wrong guy, but I wouldn’t trade the guy for money, either. Currently I am not enamored of men, so I single & rich sounds like two plusses.

16. How many children do you want to have, if any?
Loads. Except that children require a man, and I am not keen on that part.

17. What's better to give or to receive?
I like giving, but if it’s useful and thoughtful, receiving can be pretty cool.

18. What is one of your pet peeves?
Out of control children. D=

19: Would you have 100% safe sex with a stranger for $10,000,000?
No.

20: What were your parents going to name you if you'd been born the opposite gender?
I have no idea. Andrew? Alexander? Something manly, probably.

"Comic" seems to imply something funny...

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 07:21:27 GMT

I think all the pineapple heads should get together and start a club. Though if they do, there might be bitter arguments over whether Sasuke's duck-butt hair qualifies. Hm.

When I was of a kindergarten-ish age, I was obsessed with sharks. I read up on them, watched National Geographic documentaries, and went on cage dives in my living room. Later, I moved on to things more useful in daily life (like drawing), but the trivia knowledge still remains somewhat.

More birthday stuff

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:03:55 GMT

The actual birthday picture for tosshi, who likes Yamamoto and Hibari. Also, Hibird.
This picture went through several drafts and always came out looking bizarrely horrible. I ended up picking the least of several evils--sorry, Aly. It also spawned a few stupid and unrelated comics, which will be scanned and posted at another time.

***
And now for some memes:
The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. Well let's see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise ~~those you intend to read.~~ the ones I read in abridged versions as a child.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen*
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (Was read aloud to me)
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte* (hated it the first time, loved it the second)
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (Only Golden Compass—couldn’t get through the rest)
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell*
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown*
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

*I hated this book
So...27 plus 8 abridged versions (though if you count all 66 books of the Bible…)

Also:
Comment and I will
a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
f) Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
~~g) In return, please post this in your journal.~~

Birthday wishes~

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 07:25:16 GMT

aubergine_pilot requested Shaman King this year: "Ryuu hamming it up imitating Ren while Lyserg cracks up at his antics"

tosshi said something along the lines of "look at my OTP list and draw something from there." So I did.

JUST KIDDING! I'll draw you a real picture soon, Aly.

We all have to start somewhere...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:27:04 GMT

Between full-time work, a new book series (Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn, if you're curious--start with Heaven's Net Is Wide), and a stubborn case of artists' block, I've had a horrendously hard time drawing lately. I totally owe people stuff, too, but I need to get back into really drawing before I can do that.

I really don't like how my art is turning out lately, but if I stop now, it'll never go anywhere. D=

In other news, Lenalee's new innocence form made me happy and is totally prepping her for India. Anklets are sexy. To me, at least.

Also, Cloud Nine or however you want to romanize it. Pencil is nostalgic.

And then I was thinking about Mukuro and Chrome and how really sketchy all that was. I mean, she's dying, and suddenly some guy waltzes up out of the ether and is like, "Let's samba. Kufufufu." And she's like, "Sure." Someone's parents never taught her not to talk to strangers in her head. Though I would totally talk to Mukuro.
Thus cue pretentious pseudo-symbolism. It is kind of fail because Mukuro is supposed to be misty like his guardianship, but I used too much brown and he has become the Mud Guardian. I'm not explaining this to Tsuna.

Oh wow, a post with more girls than guys in it! The apocalypse is upon us. Need more pretty boys next time.

Varia + Shinsengumi = ?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:40:57 GMT

For her birthday, sougo requested something along this storyline.

Belphegor and Squalo from Reborn!
THE EYES from Gintama

Attack of the miscellania

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:33:36 GMT

Neuro and X (read: "Sai") because they have one of the most awesome battles ever. Too bad it got messed up when they animated it. Also, Sai is just a fantastic antagonist.

Ah, Kusuri-uri. I shall forever have a crush on you, I think.

Also, I think Ciel will be really hot when he grows up. I wanted to try drawing him. He's twelve now, though, so I feel a little bad.

You asked for it

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:11:12 GMT

For zuo who wanted Lavi

surelyyoujest wanted Ryouhei, with the prompt "punch and pie." The "punch" got a little lost, but there's still Ryohei, so I hope that counts.

Maybe someday tosshi will forgive me for this travesty on Kaito. ~~Also, the school scanner is messed up, so I'll post a better version next week.~~ Better version up!

Stealing ideas

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:43:19 GMT

...is sometimes okay?

As in, borrowing this from my friends list: drop me a comment with something you want me to doodle up for you. If it's a character I don't know, give me a picture for reference.

As usual, keep it decent and all that.

I'll do sketches that don't merit the word "art" because I want to procrastinate. &hearts

Right-hand man

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:16:54 GMT

I wanted a nice, simple Gokudera wallpaper and didn't have. So I made one. Oooh. I never make wallpaper.

Because a lady never backs away from a challenge

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:36:14 GMT

There’s a challenge up on the Kanda community and it caught my attention. The prompt is “What was Kanda doing while he was ‘deleted’?” Serious, completely not, anything goes. And there’s no limit to the entries since it’s a challenge not a contest. Seriously, check it out.

Soooo, first my serious (aka “boring”) one. I was just playing with the idea of death as sleep, and I wanted to mess around with grayscale in photoshop.

Also, my not-serious one. I think it speaks for itself. Kanda abuse is a favorite pastime of mine.

Meme alert!

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:36:33 GMT

List ten things that recently made you happy, then tag ten people to do the same.

0. Due to the recent release of the L movie (L Change the World complete with no punctuation), H magazine had L on the cover and a sizeable photoshoot. It was very happy.
1. I had a snowball fight with four elementary schoolers. They ganged up on me, but it was loads of fun.
2. An Café videos. Not, like, music videos, like comments and such. AMAZING.
Kanon’s Comment

Miku’s Comment

Bou’s Comment

Teruki’s Comment (He’s my favorite member of the band)

3. Reading up on Dracula
4. LM.C’s music video for “little Fat Man boy”
5. Knowing that spring break is almost here
6. Watching the first episode of Psych
7. The Hana Kimi drama (especially Ikuta Toma and his “homo janai” dance)
8. Himura Yuuki (a ridiculous Japanese comedian)
9. Sleeping
10. Watching my friend bicker with her boyfriend in a mix of hand signals, English, and Japanese. I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard.

I don’t have too many people on my friends’ list, so if you haven’t done this and are reading it, consider yourself tagged! &hearts

Also, I'm going on vacation, so I'm gonna disappear for the next week or so.

Pretty-boy swordsman rivalry!

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:15:47 GMT

Wheee~! No composition!
But, hey, what’s a batch of Gintama fanart without a jab at natural perms?

I don’t know where this came from. Honestly. Maybe someday I’ll actually sit down and make some real art instead of this stuff.

Awesome cosplay plan

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:34:13 GMT

Seriously, I want to go to a con in a coffin. I think it would be awesome. It would also be terrible for anyone who hasn't hit the future arc yet. >=D

Misc. future arc

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:22:18 GMT

My friend wanted future Mukuro because he's hot. I forgot what his outfit looks like, so he didn't get clothes.

Sometimes I get nostalgic for Pokemon and take it out on other series. This is not a nice habit, but no one will give me counseling for it.

EDIT: Oops, totally did not mean to lock this. Sorry.

Introductions

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:13:30 GMT

So, I got my scanner back now, but then I hit a nasty bout of artists’ block. As in the kind where you want to draw so badly it hurts, but everything comes out completely unacceptable.

While I was gone, though, I ran into a fair number of new series, so I’ll probably be drawing a bit from them. Therefore, it only makes sense that I ought to introduce you to a few of the new faces you might be seeing a bit in the future.

Mononoke
This actually originated from a three-episode arc of the anime Ayakashi. The protagonist of those episodes proved so popular that he got his own series. And, let me tell you, it is a gorgeous, gorgeous, messed-up series. I have a mad crush on the Kusuriuri (medicine peddler).

Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn
My friend has been pestering me to read this forever, and I finally got around to starting it. Of course, I pretty much know the story and characters from her already. It’s also one of those series that just begs you to make fun of it, and I will probably gladly take it up on that.

Samurai Champloo
Yeah, yeah, I’m way behind on the times, but I had never actually watched this series, despite all the good things I had heard. It’s pretty sweet.

Darker than Black
Another one I had heard about for a while and finally got around to watching. Understanding the Chinese behind the appropriate names made it even better. But, wow, does it get you all attached to the characters and then throw that in your face.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro aka Demon Detective Brain-eating Neuro
You know just from the title that it’s gotta be good. Seriously. Well, actually, it’s kind of repetitive, and the art’s not that good, but it’s quirky and I laugh out loud watching it sometimes. I think it gets better as it goes, too. The anime is more concise, giving the humor a better punch, but the manga has already gotten to the plot and the character development, which I like.

Gintama
There’s no describing this whacked-out sense of humor, but it’s amazing. Reading it simultaneously with Peacemaker Kurogane might induce brain explosion, however. (Please ignore the horrendous perspective on the sundae. I forgot I was fixing it halfway through and then was too lazy to redo it after I scanned it. D=)

Kuroshitsuji aka Black Butler
When my friend recommended this series to me, no one had even started scanslating it, and even now, only the first couple chapters seems to be out it somewhat rough form. I, however, took advantage of being in Japan to read through volume three. One of my other friends described it as “Loveless, but in 19th century England.” (For those of us who aren’t big on slash, there’s nothing canon, but I’m kind of afraid of what will happen when the fangirls pounce on all the subtext.) Basically, Sebastian, the butler of the title, is really hot and awesome and has many, many talents (like killing people with silverware.) His master, twelve-year-old Ciel, is, well, sure not like any twelve-year-old boy I know.

The official art is so pretty I’m going to post something I didn’t draw on my blog. (gasp)

Here, now have something I did draw. This is the red butler. He cracks me up, quotes Shakespeare, and is totally gay for Sebastian (though I probably would be too if I were a guy.)

Birrrrrrrrrrrrrthday~!

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:39:17 GMT

for transephera who wanted Kanda and/or Lavi &hearts

Return of the prodigal daughter

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:15:16 GMT

Maaaan, I’ve been gone for a long time. Sorry, guys, I really have no good excuses. Except life. Maybe that counts.

So I got hit with a babyness muse for some reason, particularly AU babyness. It spawned a lot of things.

This from talk of overprotective Dads and Rhode wreaking havoc:

Because babyness means labor has to happen. I feel like Kanda wouldn’t have a clue as to what to do in this sort of situation.

I jokingly wanted to title this Madonna and Children. Lenalee will be a good mom someday.

And some less interesting stuff:
Trying to play with what Allen would look like if her turned Noah. I promise he looked a lot cooler in my head.

Also, this done at a restaurant while waiting for food. The prompt was “Rabi without his headband 'cause he's hotter that way.”

I should get my scanner back around Christmas, so updates should get better after that.

Nothing that belongs to me

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:26:19 GMT

So I was looking through some of the amazing work that's out there and wishing I could paint. Practice makes perfect, but it'll be a while before I get anywhere.

And obligatory Rabi for his birthday:

And I felt like drawing someone else's characters, so I nicked some of sougo's without permission, but hopefully she'll forgive me.
This is Key. I love him, and he's usually hotter than he turned out here. He's also dead.

This is Radriel. He doesn't actually look like this.

Sweet Shaman King goodness

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:41:04 GMT

Not actually a drawing, sorry, but....

Why, yes, yes indeed, those are Kyouyama Anna's beads. And I got them today for less than $1.50 at an open air market. I think the beads are stone (or something similar--it's kind of heavy), and the whole string is about four feet long and hangs past my waist when I wear it. Talk about nostalgia.

I think I might have to resurrect one of my old cosplays: Anna's clothes, but no blond wig. I stuck with my long, straight brown hair. Yep, I was Hao in drag.

I'm totally going to do that again.

I would also like to say that Harry Potter 7 has been available in stores since today over here. We may not get midnight sales, but we do have clerks who don't realize that you're not supposed to put the shipment out as soon as it comes in. Woohoo. &hearts

Noah boys

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:25:12 GMT

Quick doodles for the fandom appreciation madness on the dgm community.

Tyki and Tyki for uenna (hopefully she doesn't mind that it's not Tyki/Tyki)

And the twins for sougo. Jas has no headband 'cause I didn't feel like drawing it.

Asia and rejects

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:42:02 GMT

There's no scanner here. D= Sorry for the lack of updates. But I've been playing with Photoshop a bit and realizing how really bad at it I am. XD

Sooo.....

And Bak and Fou are win. I should draw them more. Also, grayscale is fun but kind of hard.

I got the brilliant idea of seeing what I could do on a 100X100 (icon size) canvas. After a while, I realized they looked terrible and stopped, but I'm posting them anyways. XD Characters done roughly in order of appearance. (Rinali got two because the first one really annoyed me and I wanted to make a better one. Tyki got two because there are two of him.)

PS If anyone wants to use these, mess with them, use them as bases, whatever, go for it. I'd like to see what you do, though, so be sure to let me know!

Leavin' on a jet plane....

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 19:43:14 GMT

So, I'm going to China today. I'll be back in August, but until then, my scanner/internet/sanity status is uncertain.

Rabi in ballpoint pen.

The twins as shinigami and Hanatarou (Bleach) as a Noah? I'm going to be a mature adult and defer all blame to sougo. Ask her for an explanation if you dare.

Have a great summer, guys! Talk to you later!