Pachi Review Night - Tamako Market (The Dera Mochiyucky Show)

Evening, everybody! I'm back! More reviews! Three coming this month! And here comes the first! Tamako Market! It's a show about a bird and that's all you really get out of it! :D But don't take my word for it - take my more in-depth word for it in the link below!

Tamako Market

Coming up later this month: Flowers of Evil and Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. Look forward to them both soon! ^_^

I originally intended to show even more of the Tama-ya mochi shop and the surrounding street, but I got lazy with this one, instead allowing the focus to stay on Mochiyucky and Penguin Me. If you're familiar with the show like I am, you might notice that Penguin Me is brandishing Kanna's little mallet! I liked that a character had a prop - set them apart......slightly. I wasn't entirely sure if mochi is supposed to be plain white or what, so I made it a kind of really really light gray to give it a sense of color. Beyond that, I'm just surprised Mochiyucky is flying so easily here! XD

Pachi Review Night - Blast of Tempest (Logic Ends the World)

Evening, folks! As promised, more anime reviews are coming, and to kick things off, I've got a long'un of a two cour series that finished just this past Winter season: Blast of Tempest. So I don't fall behind on art, I'm going to try and do some images for the reviews as well, as you can see above. And yes, I do intend for them all to feature my penguin person in some way. :) Well, no sense beating around the bush. Click the link below to check out the review! I hope you enjoy it! ^_^

Blast of Tempest* (this review has mild spoilers, but barely at that)

Let's just say if you've never WATCHED Blast of Tempest, you're not going to have ANY clue what the context of this image is. XD I went for drawing Samon as Yoshino and Mahiro have more intricate hair/clothing designs and I wanted something simpler. But wait, why is the Lorax there?! Well, he speaks for the trees. Again, you'll get my joke if you've seen the show. Drawing all those chains and later selecting and coloring in all those chains were equally a pain in the butt. Curse my attention to detail!

Going For a Hollywood Drive

Once again I come to you with a bit of fanart for the lovely and talented Hope Chapman (JesuOtaku), in honor of her new video series', "Anime Derby" (reviewing new anime series as they air) and "Hollywood Drive" (reviewing movies newly released in theaters). Since my last drawing, I wanted to try drawing a car again, and I've been sitting on the idea of drawing Hope 'going for a Hollywood Drive', so to speak, cuz I am such a punny little guy. Ah hah. Anyway, this is the result! Nothing else to report today.....just this! I hope you like it. :D

Also, JesuOtaku has gotten a website since the last time I talked about her~! You should go check it out and support her work - episodes of Derby and Drive can be found there as well as all of her previous material: http://www.jesuotaku.com/

The more I work with coloring and shading in Photoshop, the more prolific I feel I am becoming with it. Not like I'm trying to create a skill that I can have in place of my current career; I've long since realized that drawing is nothing more than a hobby I want to be good at on my own time; but I feel I'm getting quite good at utilizing digital tools to enhance my work. This one, like all the ones before, was a lot of fun to experiment different techniques. As for the drawing itself - not much to say; it's a Hollywood Drive! XD The green/yellow/red lights on the front bumper are an allusion to JesuOtaku's rating system in her new shows - rather than a numbered rating, she judges on a Green/Yellow/Red scale from good to bad. The popcorn is there because I wanted her to have a sidekick in the car. And in the first episode of Hollywood Drive, she had a bowl of popcorn, so........I went with the material given to me! If you look closely, you might be able to tell they're both wearing shades. BD

The Artist's Avatar

Hey guys - got a quickie update tonight. I've wanted to do a particular drawing for a long time now. Akira Toriyama, author of the Dragonball manga series, would always make a little avatar when drawing himself - most commonly a cute robot. A lot of manga-ka do this kind of thing. And though I don't have a manga, I've wanted to portray myself with a cute little avatar. And so, here I am......as a penguin. :)

The style, as some of you may notice, is inspired by the penguins from the anime Mawaru Penguindrum (one of my all-time favorite series), given some of my belongings and appearance - such as my Gurren Lagann drill necklace and my geta sandals. Of course, he is an artist, just like myself. Remember this guy, as you may see him more in the future.....

Don't ask how a penguin gets stubble. He's a very MANLY penguin! That's why he has such rosy cheeks!

Anime Recollection 2012 Reviews - Part 2

Good evening folks - look how quickly I have returned! As promised, I am releasing the remaining three reviews for my 2012 Anime Recollection today. From here on out, as I stated before, reviews will be an occasional thing. I'm not planning to do announcements on when certain reviews will be put on the site, they'll just go up and I'll make a post about it. I can't say for certain what anime I'm planning to review next, but I'm always watching current shows and picking up older releases on DVD/BD, so I've got plenty of material to choose from! The yearly recollection is probably the only time I will post multiple reviews at once - for the rest of the year I will probably only post one review at a time, possibly alongside some art or a sketch related to the show in question.

A note here: my Natsuyuki Rendezvous review is the most "spoiler-ish" of all the reviews I've written so far. I pretty much spoil the entire show, as a matter of fact. ^^; My SAO review contained spoilers too - there's a definite trend there, so I think I'm going to put out a blanket statement on my use of spoilers. If I review a show I like, I will most likely avoid spoilers as much as possible - because I want you to watch said show for yourself. If I review a show I dislike, there's a greater chance I will use spoilers in the review because more often than not, some of those spoilers are the reason I dislike the show, and I'm trying to get you NOT to watch it. XD It's easier just to assume that spoilers could pop up anytime, but I wanted to warn you this time just in case there's someone who's REALLY pining to see Natsuyuki. I advise against it, but still. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the reviews! Look forward to more in the future! ^_^ And more new artwork, of course!

The Future Diary
Kids on the Slope
Natsuyuki Rendezvous

Pachi's Anime 2012 Recollection + Reviews

I watched a lot of anime last year, in 2012! When I take a look back, they kind of run together in my head. I think they went something like this...

It's that time again! The time of the year when I gather my anime experiences from the previous year and lay them out on a broad sheet. But this year, instead of just the usual drawing, I'm going to add something new. I am pleased to announce that from this day forward, Pachi's Portrait will feature written anime reviews! Much like my art, there won't be any kind of schedule to these. For the time being, I am limiting myself to reviews of completed series which I have seen in full. Though I do keep up with the current anime season on a weekly basis, doing a weekly blog on a regular basis is not something I'm ready to commit to yet. To get things rolling, I have endeavored to write full reviews for each anime represented in the recollection art above. You'll find links to them below, or you can navigate directly to the Review page from the top bar. There are two exceptions: I have not written reviews for Space Brothers nor Chihayafuru, which are both featured in the drawing. Two reasons for this: 1, these series are not yet finished. And 2, I can pretty much sum both of them up in one sentence: "This show is wonderful and you should watch it." :)

I have six reviews prepared in total for this Recollection. Only the first three (as a side note, please keep in mind that the Sword Art Online review has potential spoilers within) are ready to roll tonight - the remaining three (The Future Diary, Kids on the Slope, and Natsuyuki Rendezvous) will be coming tomorrow. Look forward to it!

Eureka 7 AO
tsuritama
Sword Art Online

The drawing for last year's retrospective was always intended to be an abstract piece featuring the characters from various shows on karuta cards. I'm not sure why I couldn't have been bothered to try and draw the cards any straighter, but oh well. It was fun and a challenge once again to attempt drawing in different styles, as I tried to capture the style of each show in question. On that note, I apologize for Asuna's appearance here. I made her look SO derpy. XD Look how nervous Yuki is getting up top! Do you think perhaps he dislikes sloths?

Waltz in Visions of Winter

Is this happening?! Yes, it is! I finally have a new drawing to share with you! Took me long enough! This was originally meant to be my yearly tribute to Christmas, but obviously, that ship has sailed. So instead, I present to you my tribute and my dreams of winter. The ideal of a perfect winter is something we North Carolinians often pine for - what we receive is on-and-off warm weather and snowfall once or twice a year. This year has been no exception. But I decided to imagine what it would be like if the snow was plentiful and my friends and I set aside time to forget our troubles and play the old-fashioned way! Wherever you are, I hope your winter isn't too cold (or too warm) and that you are able to find comfort with family and friends. More drawings are on the way, so stay tuned! Here's to a prosperous 2013! ^_^

Like the Pokemon drawing, this image was VERY fun to color. My work began with the splotched sunset and spanned from there. I've never colored such a detailed sky before, and it came out surprisingly well. I'll consider that a trade-off for my disappointment with earlier stages of the drawing. The other two people in there other than me in the foreground are two of my closest friends, and I had originally planned to include three more of them as a tribute to my local group of post-college companions. But my weakness in drawing things very small (curse my big hands!) came back to haunt me - I just couldn't define the minute features for the ones who would be at a more distant perspective. So I limited myself to just three people and filled in the space with other things. Namely, the car. The car is the worst part; I'm not afraid to admit it. >_< Drawing machines/vehicles is not one of my fortes. I'm happy with everything else, though! ^^ For this drawing, I decided not to alter the levels of the base sketch lines. Doing so made the coloring more like a cartoon. Keeping the outlines dimmed, I was able to achieve a more paint-like blending with the colors. It's a technique I'll definitely utilize in the future.