Personal Entry No. 23

[outou]

『the STRONG and weak point icon-meme』

All told, I managed to walk away with 45 initial comments and 58 watchers with this first icon post--that's good enough, considering that I'm probably the least-known iconmaker in the fandom! I'd appreciate it if you could give me some criticism with suggestions on the above thread.

There's an original sketch I'm working on, as well as three music recommendations, behind the cut.



Since I'm getting better at reading 100-plus pages of academic texts a day, and since I like to put off writing my papers until at least five days before their due dates, I've been working on an illustration of my own. This poor girl seems as though she's about to fall off the pier into the uncanny sea.


As you can see, I need to refine the sky, finish working on the sea, and paint the whole of her tsubo-shozoku, the rest of her veiled hat (mushi no tareginu, literally "bug veil"), her hands, and the pier. She's wearing a Kamakura-period traveling outfit, and the landscape is referenced from Salomon van Ruysdael's View of Deventer Seen from the North-West. (No, I had no idea who Salomon van Ruysdael was before I looked up "Dutch Masters" for references.)

Setting that aside, have some more purple!

Unfortunately, Suga Shikao is releasing the full version of Hajimari no Hi in November.

Meanwhile, I've been listening to more of Joe Hisaishi's works while working on the above illustration, including this one:

I apologize for the lack of real content in this post, but my reading really has been getting the better of me--we've moved on at last to the articles and essays concerning the atomic bombings in my "War and Memory: Japan in World War II" course, and it's painful to read. It's my chosen subject for my main research project this semester, though, so I need to dedicate myself to it more than ever. (I've been feeling generally tired and hungry these past few days, as well, but that's my fault. The cold showers, though--I have nothing to do with those! Th-they finally got the hot water back on last night, and I'm hoping it's here to stay. If not, then I'm just going to have to build my character and pretend that I'm in the armed forces, or undergoing purification, or something like that.)

Comments

[lavender88.livejournal.com]

Well, 50+ watchers in one post is very impressive. So if you churn out post after post steadily , that makes around 200+ watchers in four post, and judging by your speed in iconing, you look set to be a huge hit in the iconing community (not that you aren't now) ♥ I think your only flaw is lack of fandoms, but you ARE going to remedy that soon, with your new post.

I can't wait till November for the full version of Hajimari no Hi, or closer to home, until October 28th for the 13th episode of Bakemonogatari. After that powerful scene at the end, I think Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari ranks high in my list of favourite songs, ever. And Tegami Bachi can do no wrong in my eyes, for now.

Wow, that's a lot of reading to do. But I'm pretty sure you won't have any problems writing your papers -- your posts are usually so interesting and I'm guessing that could translate well on paper.

On a side note, I wrote a short essay concerning and the atomic bombings for my English class (free topic) and centered it around this article -- Cranes for peace. Haha, I wouldn't mind taking my bath in cold water, since it's so hot around here right now! Hot water baths make me feel humid and sticky all over :D

[outou.livejournal.com]

I hope I can keep up a steady pace like that! Thank you for the encouraging words. I really do want to expand beyond CLAMP, even if I'm going to have more trouble finding bases.

Thank you for the link--I remember seeing that last year, but I wasn't able to participate due to my not having an LJ account. Since I'm planning on posting again soon, I'll definitely post a crane on this journal.

I wish we could trade climates for a day! I think I've already forgotten what summer feels like.