Happy New Year, one and all! Hope you all keep yourselves safe on this New Year's Eve and don't get out of control. Myself? I will be hitching a car ride outta here, 'cuz I'm heading north for MAGFest!
This will be my first ever MAGFest, and I am super excited. Well, as much as I can be; I came down with a blasted ailment last week and it's still affecting me as I type this. So I unfortunately may not be in as high of spirits as I want to be, but I'm still looking forward to see any of my readers who may happen to be there. Just don't expect me to have the energy of a jackrabbit or anything.
Once I return from this excursion and my health is back to normal, work on the 2013 retrospective art and reviews will recommence, so look forward to it!
A Season's Greetings, and Merry Christmas from Pachi's Portrait to you! Stay safe and enjoy the holidays in whatever way is appropriate to you!
2013 is coming to a close, and what a year it's been! It's been a lot of fun jumping into the world of anime reviews this past year while simultaneously sharing more art. I'd like to thank all of you still reading this for sticking around for another year indulging my little hobby - it truly means the world to me. I've got more ideas lined up for 2014, so let's see where the new year takes us! On the way in the next month will be my 2013 Anime Wrap-up and Review Retrospective, as well as regular end-of-season reviews and more one-off art to make a return. Look forward to it all, I promise I'll do my best! :D
This drawing was a last minute multi-stage effort - I drew myself and PachiPenguin by hand but wasn't sure what kind of backdrop to put us in. My first idea was to have a little wreath surrounding us, but that's such an overdone kind of Christmas card image. Then I thought the circle I'd encased them in could pass as a snowball, and that idea evolved into a snowman(penguin)! I drew the snowpenguin in Photoshop, with the mouse (not my Wacom) in order for it to be of crude construction. As for why we're waist deep in snow.........I didn't draw anything below the waist. Cutting corners saves the day again!
It's the eve before that most haunted of days. To tantalize your sensibilities and chill you to your very bone, I have prepared something terrifying, something that will make you jump out of your skin in abject horror. That thing is......BOYS SWIMMING. WOOOOooooOOOOooooo~!!!!
Truth is I don't have a Halloween post this year. I just have my review of the anime Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, which finished airing a few weeks back and as per my schedule of procrastination, the timing of posting said review comes up now, the night before Halloween. Oops. XD Anyway, that's all I've got for you tonight, but I hope you enjoy it! I may do another short summer anime review soon, but for now don't expect anything else until the current season concludes.
I've realized that for quite some time I haven't been indulging in this blog for any purpose other than anime reviews as of late. And while I enjoy doing them, I feel that I've drifted from the blog's original purpose, which was solely as a venue to share my art. Lately I've only been drawing for reviews and not so much drawing for myself, which I regret. I can't promise a lot, but I will try to return to more art for the sake of art posts in the future. Having a purpose in mind when I'm drawing is nice, but sometimes it's good to just draw freely. Hey look, I tied everything around! On that note, on to the review! :D
Free! Iwatobi Swim Club
Say goodbye to summer, kids - this drawing has the last of it you'll see for quite awhile. I wasn't able to escape my crippling fear of drawing the human body below the neck on this one, so I dove in and did the best I could. Sorry about your hands, boys! ;_; It was more important to me to bring across the difference between Makoto's abs and Haruka's abs specifically, rather than make them look well-drawn. Pachi Penguin is replacing Rin in this image - hence the shark teeth! One of the biggest changes on this piece in comparison to my others is that I took a backwards approach to the shading. Normally I go a darker shade from the base to add shadows, but this time I treated the original base as the shadow, and instead went lighter to create a sun sparkled effect. After all, these are glistening male bodies, they gotta look shiny! As a motif, I wanted a kind of nostalgic feel since the show relies heavily on nostalgia, so I added a desaturated filter to give the look of a photograph.
Happy October, friends! I've got two anime reviews coming to you this month, and tonight comes the first. Follow the link ahead to check out my review on the unusual slice-of-life-comedy filled to the brim with furry critters: The Eccentric Family! Hope you enjoy it! :)
Take note that I have updated the Reviews page. It now displays the art I have drawn for my reviews, starting from Blast of Tempest; so now the page should be a little more interesting to look at beyond just a series of text links! ^^;
The Eccentric Family
I wanted this drawing to be an ode to fall, and though North Carolina where I live doesn't look anything like this yet, I thought it fitting as The Eccentric Family showed off many beautiful styles of nature through the changing seasons, but their depiction of the late fall enamored me the most. The shrine gate here is rather small, but let's assume it's a gate specifically made for tanuki or something. Finding the right shades of red and making them contrast with each other was a lot of fun. Adding lights that equate the hustle and bustle of a city in the distance was a neat idea; it's a lighting technique I'd like to try out in the future.
I have a special announcement tonight, folks. I'm happy to share with you all a project I have been involved with for awhile now and has finally gotten going. Today marks my debut into internet voice acting with the 8-Bit Theater Radio Play!
Directed by Evan Bremer, a seasoned internet VO individual, the series is adapted from Brian Clevinger's (of Atomic Robo fame) popular sprite comic from 2001 called 8-Bit Theater. The comic is a parody of the Final Fantasy video game series and involves a band of ne'er-do-wells and misfit adventurers stumbling into the role of the Light Warriors, the prophetic saviors of the world - but they'd sooner bicker amongst themselves nonsensically than behave like legendary heroes.
The first episode of the Radio Play has been released online today, for your listening pleasure! My contribution includes the title art for the video thumbnail, which you can see above, and a few bit voices. I will have a partially more regular speaking role a few episodes down the road, so I hope you all enjoy my amateur VO skills! ^^ If you want to keep up with information on the future of the Radio Play, you can follow the official Tumblr or Evan's personal webpage. Enjoy the antics! There's sure to be many more episodes to come! :)
Evening, everyone! As promised, here comes my review of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet! Hope you like it! As for what's coming next...I don't know! Just wait and see. :)
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Without a doubt, Chamber as a penguin is one of the most terrifying creations I've ever put to paper. XD The design and color scheme are part copied directly from Chamber and part made up as I went along. I tried out varying effects on shadows from my norm at the shader stage, and I think it made this drawing come out rather unique. The bright yet brooding colors clash so strong against the goofy exterior look.
Here we go. The big one. My review of the critically acclaimed Flowers of Evil now goes live. This was a massive challenge to write - not so much because of the depth of the work involved, but my attempt to figure out just what I needed to say about it. I'll go into more detail in the actual review, but Flowers is one of those shows the defies proper reviewing - you just need to experience it for yourself. That being said, why not read what I have to say anyway, for a laugh? :D As always, follow the link below to be on your way. Enjoy!
Flowers of Evil
Next up, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. I can't guarantee that one will be up before the end of the month, but I'll do my best! Expect a bit more of a dearth before other reviews following that one - I expect these short bursts of content will be common, we'll see. XD
The text in the image says, "If I try my hardest, I can become a penguin." Well, it kinda says that - the grammar is off. Anyway, the image is parodying the image seen at the end of every episode of Flowers, featuring the author Oshimi in a similar chair and black background with his wavy hair, delivering a cryptic, condescending message to the viewer. He's so sure of himself, he can be a penguin if he wants to!
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
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!
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/
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!
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!
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...
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! ^_^
