In June of the human realm, all fragrant and beautiful flowers have disappeared.

Blurb

"The road now divides in two, and I turn left, with the white-walled house off to one side. I glance back and discover a girl in a red skirt climbing the hill behind me. The skirt gives way to a pair of brown shins, below which is a pair of straw sandals, advancing steadily toward me. Petals from the mountain cherries tumble about her head. At her back she bears the shining sea."

-- Natsume Sōseki, Kusamakura

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outou

22 May 2009 @ 12:44 pm

Personal Entry No.1

The personal bit is behind the cut, so you don't have to read it.

First, here are some interesting advertisements I found when looking through the classified pages in the local newspaper:

Decontamination Plant
Operator: Rotating shifts, week-
ends/holidays. Journey-person level,
mechanical experience/plumbing
(steam 10-125#). General mainte-
nance of sewage decontamination
plant/related equipment (pumps,
holding tanks, heat exchangers, re-
tention tube units, steam heaters, in-
strument panels). Ability to obtain
government security clearance. Com-
petitive wages/benefits. ...

Driver: To share driving across
country. Leaving ASAP. Non-smok-
er, clean driver's license. ...

Needless to say, I've put in my application for the decontamination plant.

More honestly: I think I've got employment for the summer! In a respectable establishment! That sells all kinds of fascinating things, such as insect-like robots and square parasols!

The lady at the store said that she would have me work from 12 to 3 both tomorrow and Sunday, to see how well I can deal with customers; if everything works out, I'll have myself a part-time job. The owners of two other stores in the area seemed to like my resumé, and both promised to get back to me within a week, so I may very well be able to get two jobs within walking distance of each other. It's something of a stretch, but I'm hoping for it.

Finally, I'm at a loss as to what to do with these two icons. The one with Clow and Yuuko just looks...unfinished, and Sakura's eyes look like something out of a ridiculously sappy shoujo manga. Also, do the flower petals look like flower petals, or something else entirely?

Any help would be appreciated!

Tags: government clearance, icons in progress, miscellaneous, personal, robots

18 | +

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timidity.livejournal.com on May 22nd, 2009 05:38 pm (UTC)

Good luck with your jobs! :Db

Your icons. Nnghfjdksdfg♥ /totally helpful

I think they both look great, imo.

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outou.livejournal.com on May 23rd, 2009 09:23 pm (UTC)

WHAT SCATHING CRITICISM

Thank you, though! The job at the store of miscellaneous goods appears to be working out well.

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mikayukixx.livejournal.com on May 22nd, 2009 08:02 pm (UTC)

good luck with your jobs!
oh god Jesus I can't wait till your next icon batch!

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outou.livejournal.com on May 23rd, 2009 09:22 pm (UTC)

Thank you! I think I've got the job at the store.

Unfortunately, the next icon batch is going to take a while. I-I've only managed to make seven icons so far...

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mairenn-k.livejournal.com on May 23rd, 2009 07:51 am (UTC)

The Clow/Yuuko icon is gorgeous. ♥ I don't really have any suggestions on how to improve it, it looks great as it is to me. The Sakura icon is pretty too, but perhaps the flower petals dominate the pic a little bit too much? They are so bright, and make Sakura look slightly faded. That's probably just a matter of personal preference though, it's still very nice as it is.

Good luck with the job! :)

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outou.livejournal.com on May 23rd, 2009 09:20 pm (UTC)

Thank you! I think I'll be working at the store for the rest of the summer--the lady who owns it had me do quite a few things today, and she seemed pleased with my work.

I'm glad you liked the Clow/Yuuko icon! I think that, so far as the Sakura icon is concerned, I should either do what I suggested to

grass_angel below or draw in different flower petals. Instead of making them silhouettes, I could make them more realistic--and thus less bright.

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mairenn-k.livejournal.com on May 24th, 2009 07:47 pm (UTC)

Oh, that's great! I hope you'll like it there.

Yes, those sound like good ideas, especially the part about changing the flower petals and making Sakura's eyes a little darker. I'm looking forward to see the finished result. :)

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grass-angel.livejournal.com on May 23rd, 2009 08:09 am (UTC)

D-did you apply for the operator job at the plant or the driver job?

And what I would do with the first icon would be to put on a clody texture on multiply and erase Yuuko's side to darken up Clow a bit.
Emphasising Sakura's eyes always works for me when they look too washed out and sappy. (And the flower petals look like petals when you mentioned they were petals, otherwsie they look like weird sections where the colour 'resisted' as if you were working with masking fluid on a water colour.)

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outou.livejournal.com on May 23rd, 2009 09:15 pm (UTC)

(points to profile) I'm clearly not qualified for either one of those. XD I just posted them because I thought they were strange (although, the operator job has been taken--the listing was removed from this week's paper). Fortunately, it seems as though the job at the miscellaneous-goods store (I'm not sure what else to call it) is working out well.

Thank you for your suggestions about the icons. Clow is actually supposed to be lighter than Yuuko--I wanted it to seem as though he was cut off from her, as he was in the original image. There's currently a watercolor texture on "soft light" over him; when I take it off, it appears as though he's standing next to her, which in itself is a nifty effect.

Do you think I should do that instead, and paint in a better background?

Also, here's the Sakura icon without the flower petals:

I'm trying to block out Syaoran's hair, since it's too spiky in this image--it looks very cartoon-like, even when I color it. I'm thinking that I'll either add in the panel where he's looking back at Sakura, or draw in some...wisteria. I'll definitely try to darken her eyes, though.

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grass-angel.livejournal.com on May 25th, 2009 12:57 pm (UTC)

Honestly, Clow appears to be standing beside her in both of them to me.
And I would cheat with Sakura and repaint what her hair would look like if Syaoran wasn't in the way. Or crop that segment out so the edge is grazing her eye. Which would also give more space for that panel of Syaoran.
You could just cover it with wisteria though.

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outou.livejournal.com on May 25th, 2009 05:02 pm (UTC)

I ended up doing exactly that--I painted in the rest of her hair, as well as her shoulder and the bit of her dress that was blocked by Syaoran's hand.

I still have to fiddle around with the colors and shadows to add some more depth (especially around Sakura's face), but what do you think?

As for the Clow/Yuuko icon, I'll just scrap the current texture layers and work from there.

Thank you for all of your help!

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mikayukixx.livejournal.com on May 25th, 2009 05:17 pm (UTC)

adjnbsfjkh that's beautiful T___T i`m using it :3

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outou.livejournal.com on May 25th, 2009 10:37 pm (UTC)

Psssht, you change icons too frequently. XD

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mikayukixx.livejournal.com on May 25th, 2009 10:57 pm (UTC)

its my hobby :D

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mairenn-k.livejournal.com on May 25th, 2009 05:53 pm (UTC)

Ooh, this version is even more beautiful than the first one. Repainting the parts that were previously covered was definitely a good idea. I like the current background more than the first one too. Those flowers are so pretty; you're very good at picking colors that fit well together. ♥

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outou.livejournal.com on May 25th, 2009 10:38 pm (UTC)

I'm glad you think it turned out well. I was thinking about using wisteria since they're in bloom right now. (I was afraid that the purple would look strange, but it's growing on me.)

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grass-angel.livejournal.com on May 26th, 2009 01:35 am (UTC)

I think that looks lovely. Her eyes look much better with whatever settings you've fiddled with to make them look darker too.

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outou.livejournal.com on May 27th, 2009 03:10 am (UTC)

Thank you! Strangely enough, all I had to do was duplicate the base layer, set it to "soft light," and erase everything except for her eyes. It was more simple than I thought.

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