Today is...yard-sale day. The front yard has been filled with complete strangers since 7:30 AM, and I still have to go to work at 3:00. Even so, we've apparently sold a lot of things, which is all the better for us, right? I folded seventeen cranes, four luna moths, and two tigerwing butterflies to sell, both to get some more money for textbooks and to note the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (The moths and the butterflies are there as a technical accomplishment, since they were designed by the astounding Michael G. LaFosse. Hopefully I'll be able to take pictures, should they not sell by the end of the day.)

( On August 9 64 years ago, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. )

( On a much lighter note, I finished the costume design. )

I took this last week; the sunset was far more beautiful than this. (Should I start expecting less of myself and my camera and start running my photographs through Photoshop? I'm just an amateur, though, so it doesn't matter all too much.)

I'm looking to post fewer CLAMP-related things in my personal posts, since I think you all get enough of that in the comms and your own journals, so...

( Opera, n. A play representing life in another world, whose inhabitants have no speech other than song, no motions but gestures and no postures but attitudes. )

( One can only imagine what the entry for Pop Music would have looked like. )

( Meanwhile, in Fandomia...(CCS Costume Design, a Discovery, and Others.) )

As many of you have likely read, International Blog Against Racism Week is currently underway; the reason why I'm posting at such an ungodly hour is because I've just finished tagging everything in the del.icio.us inbox and all of the entries posted here. It's more my fault that I had to stay up so late to do this, but it was worth it--take a look at some of the entries (or all of them. There are many remarkable pieces in there.) Thank you to everyone who contributed today!

Now, so far as the icon requests are concerned: I'm going to be taking one more requester before I close the requests post, as I've finished several of the icons already. Also, asherfoxx, and kyoy: you haven't chosen your images yet, so please try to do so as soon as you can.

I'd like to post an idea concerning xxxHOLiC here, but I've got enough to say that I'd rather wait until tomorrow. It's not particularly important, nor is it mind-bending, but I think it has some merit. On another note, I don't appreciate a certain someone calling a certain character a "Don Juan." He's been proven to be nothing other than a kind and responsible man, unless Ms. Ohkawa decides to do what I fear she's going to do.

( Of course, this meme is entirely mind-bending. )

First and foremost: I apologize to those who weren't looking for more Syaoran and Sakura icons. In order to set things right, I'll be accepting requests here! As an example of what a filled request may look like, I've included all thirty of the icons I made for jlarinda to celebrate her predicting a certain plot twist in an otherwise unpredictable story.

Setting that aside, please enjoy the icons! If there are any changes or improvements you wish to be made, then don't hesitate to tell me.

[06] Angelic Layer
[09] Card Captor Sakura
[05] CLAMP in Wonderland Ex.
[07] "Happy Ko" from TV Senshi
[94] TSUBASA RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
[09] Miscellaneous (Kobato., xxxHOLiC, and Stock)
[30] Requested icons


Preview:



( 160 icons beyond the cut. )

First, here's an icon meme from ju_jei! (I would've translated it into Russian for you, but it's beyond my ability at this point. I'm sorry, I should be keeping up with my Russian more!)

( I'm sure you've all seen this before. )

And here's another meme, taken from mairenn_k, which I'm sure you've also all seen before:

Give me a fandom and I'll tell you:

1. The first character I fell in love with.
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do.
3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t.
4. The character I love that everyone else hates.
5. The character I would shag anytime.
6. The character I'd want to be like.
7. The character I'd slap.
8. A pairing that I love.
9. A pairing that I despise.
10. Favorite character.
11. What my five favorite things about the fandom are.
12. What my five least favorite things about the fandom are.
13. Who my five favorite characters are.
14. Who my five least favorite characters are.
15. What my five favorite pairings are.
16. What my five least favorite pairings are.
17. Which character I'm most like.
18. What my deep, dark fandom secret is.

Finally, I have 85 92 icons ready to go. Unfortunately, I've fallen short on my promises--this was supposed to contain a much larger number of Fay, Kurogane, Fujimoto, and Eriol icons than it does now. I'm thinking that I'll set up a requests post soon to make up for it...

...regardless, the next post will definitely be the second icon post.

As it was requested by a commenter in the first icon post, I have made a tutorial for you all! This one focuses solely on coloring; the following tutorials will be centered around painting backgrounds, unusual coloring styles, applying textures, how to write a letter to your congressman, working with poor-quality scans, and different layer effects. I hope you'll find them helpful!

For this tutorial, we'll be going from this...



...to this:



Please note that the tutorial is fairly long and image-heavy.

( You, too, can rip CLAMP off. )

These were made over the course of four months, so the icons span a range of quality and styles (i.e., some look as though I've ripped off CLAMP, others look as though I've ripped off scape, and still others look as though they were tossed into the pop blender of peril). If there are any that you think can and should be improved, please tell me! I'll try to fix them for you.

On to the icons!

[04] Angelic Layer
[20] Card Captor Sakura
[06] Clover
[11] Kobato.
[48] TSUBASA RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
[43] xxxHOLiC
[06] Miscellaneous CLAMP works

Preview:



( 138 icons beyond the cut. )