megaTEN

Mrrrphhh, I haven't been checking my flists lately, and I think that's partially because I feel like I want to be a hermit while simultaneously craving interaction right now. Quite an ambivalent state of affairs. I think I'm feeling stressed since I'm showing the same signs as I used to, which is a bit odd since I'm actually surprisingly on top of my university work this semester.

Looking back over some of the peer assessment things I've done for my course, I've sort of come to the realisation that I'm pretty bad at giving compliments and praise. That's something that's going to need to change soon. I also feel creatively drained ever since I started this course. I'm not sure if that's because I've been putting most of my energy into analysis (for both my coursework and for RP) meaning there's not much left for creating, or if that's because I channel all my creativity into RP instead.

There's a couple of late pictures I need to draw for people once I get over the inertia. I need to update a few lists, too. I know there's a certain set of Dissidia ficlets I need to catch up reading up on |3a

I've also been wanting to write DDS fic for some time now, but I find the duology surprisingly hard to write for. Here's a snippet of something I've been working on every once in a while since mid April.

( and the fantasy )

( Also because I feel like not sleeping, muse strength meme. )

So I have pretty much been spending all my time on artsy things instead of doing things I should be doing.

The first artsy thing would be Ask Yoshiya. Basically it's a tumblr for you to ask Joshua questions and have me draw a picture and answer in character as him. It actually doesn't take too much time for the most part, though I get about 1.5 asks a day, meaning my inbox will never be empty.

The second and third artsy things are... well. I just fell headfirst back into Deadman Wonderland thanks to a friend showing me a certain clip of a certain creeper (it's at 9:00-11:00).

For the people on my flist who aren't familiar, Deadman Wonderland is basically stupid sexy carnage. The majority of the plot takes place in a prison/amusement park hybrid, where a little casual death and human experimentation are the norm. And when you start getting into the meatier parts of the story, you'll quickly come to realise everyone is either a little or a lot messed up in the head, and the relatively sane main character struggles to not get pulled down with them.

Oh, and most of the main characters can control their blood and use it as a weapon.

Basically, if you like gorn stupid sexy carnage, Deadman Wonderland might be for you. The art is really well done (in both the anime and the manga), which might be the reason why there's more recolours of the manga than there is fanart, and in the manga, the gore is drawn in ever loving detail. The manga can be read here and the anime (12 episodes from start to end) can be found on youtube.

Which brings me to the 51 icons I made of Mockingbird. I promptly followed that with a fun little practice picture of him. Most of the characters I tend to draw aren't usually the acrobatic sort, so Toto is really just an excuse for me to draw endless pictures of flips and other acrobatic manoeuvres.

Hmm! So it turns out the Dissidia script I was working off was missing the treasure hunting stuff because it only appears after you clear a lot of the manikins. I'm kind of curious as to whether the text has been replaced in 012 with different script, or if it's been removed. Good to know my memory of Onion Knight's storyline wasn't faulty.

The extra script in the original Dissidia is:
Stage 1:
Terra: "Please... Can we just keep going?"
Onion Knight: "But you never know where you might find a treasure chest!"

Stage 2:
Terra: "You like to fight, don't you..."
Onion Knight: "I do not! I'm... just looking for treasure chests!"

Stage 3:
Terra: "You've defeated so many already... Can't we just move on?"
Onion Knight: It's not that I'm TRYING to fight so much! I just keep thinking there could be treasure..."

I swear I'll eventually talk about FF3... when it's not taking all my hope and crushing it beneath its boot.

( Edit: A WIP of some art for a friend )

I think, after reorganising my LJ tags, the next step will be to actually put some effort into redoing my current icons.

But that would just be procrastinating. (Not that I haven't already been doing that all week.)

( Update on the Joshua as Onion Knight picture. )

( Some midnight blah blah about art/writing evolution )

Starting to consider turning this into an art blog, though I know that the moment I do, I'll probably stop doing so much art. I do like updating with WIPs on stuff I'm working on here, though.

( Joshua as Onion Knight + The grumpiest/happiest Sawsbuck/Deerling )

And now, snippets of writing!

( Why Neku was chosen over Rhyme. )
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( Mr. H and Joshua talk about ART )
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( Amaranthine. The Second Day )

Speaking of writing, though, it kind of feels like my writing is extremely unrefined when I first put words down. Maybe it's the same for other people, I dunno. But most of the expression comes out in the third or so edit, which is a little frustrating; it feels like it takes a long time (too long) for me to churn out anything halfway decent OTL. At the very least, I've stopped staring at a blank page for minutes-hours when I sit down to write, thanks to Write or Die, so I guess I've gotten a bit faster at the very least.

PROBABLY ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SCENES IN THE GAME. EVER.

EDIT: So, I managed to get my hands on a (fanmade, I believe) remastered edition of FF7's OST, which has been giving me some mixed feelings. It's very nice to have updated instruments and such, because there are certain limits in sound that comes from old games that make it very obvious they're old. The sound is certainly a lot cleaner and with a bigger... hmm what's the word. Range, I suppose? But the issue I'm having with the remastering is that sometimes the balance that I hear with the original music is thrown out. For example, the random battle theme doesn't have as much OOMPH as the original one has, from what I can tell. So now I'm kind of flip-flopping about this remastered OST, though I'll probably end up keeping it.

I also managed to get my hands on some scans for some of the various FF7 artbooks. I haven't looked through the original one yet, but I like how the FFAC has stuff like:

"In terms of design I was picturing a skull-headed dog, but the head turned out more like a rodent. As for their hidden powers... um... OK, how's this? Even if their head gets knocked off or they lose a leg, they just keep running! They keep running until they get you. Sure, no living thing could do that, but I figured, 'what the heck?' I know, I'm irresponsible."

"Cloud and the gang certainly aren't using mako anymore [...] I guess the airship must be running on some mysterious ancient power source."

RULE OF COOL IN FULL EFFECT RIGHT HERE. Also, "At some point close to the release date, a giant poster featuring Cloud and Sephiroth was unfurled on the cylinder-shaped Shibuya 109 building, giving the movie immense exposure." I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING WITH THIS.

( Update on the Dead Neku picture-- I MEAN the Pieta picture )

First off, I would like to say that this gif makes me laugh way more than it should.

Secondly, I drew a picture based off Michelangelo's Pietà. Thinking of trying out colouring after I clean it up. Unfortunately, one of my tags lies; in this picture, Joshua is not Jesus.

( I'm not sure if there's any way to NOT make this look dodgy when Joshua's involved )

I was re-categorising a lot of my files on hard drive so it would be easier to find stuff (since I'm still feeling tired and not really wanting to work on uni work) and I found some old Persona 3 stories (I'm talking 2009) that I never finished. I doubt I'll be finishing them at this point so here, more incomplete drabbles for you! These are really short, though.

( [P3] When memory fades, what happens to the tangible remnants? )

( [P3] Akihko wasn't happy. At least, not in the beginning )

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EDIT: Actually since I'm here, I might as well share the TWEWY: Off the Wall project between meta and I that was never finished. For those who aren't familiar, about three years ago, when the TWEWY fandom was relatively fresh and new, there was a TWEWY contest held in subarashiki_ds where the prize was one of those custom TWEWY DSes/case iirc. But the most interesting thing about the contest was it's theme. Basically, to create some kind of fanwork that was off the wall different from the usual types of fanworks (art, fic, osts, icons).

The idea meta and I had was to create a website that would essentially simulate a box with items that would contain a collection of memories Neku made since that Game. ( Details! + some finished content )

( And some unfinished content )

Except this screencap doesn't actually contain that.

( what did i just spend my night drawing )