『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.)