Upgrade to the Future
For the last month or two I’ve been dying to upgrade my computer program for digital art. Right now I’m using Photoshop CS for my digital coloring and it’s all I have. While I can do some nice work I still feel limited and restricted by the program. For one it’s primarily supposed to be used for photo editing and I’m trying to use it for more artistic purposes.
I’ve been looking strongly towards Painter 11 but also at Photoshop CS4, since it’s been retooled to work a little more on the art side. Still I think Painter 11 is the way to go so I can do more natural media type work. The only thing holding me back right now is price... phew 400 bucks! Not as bad as CS4’s 600....
I also wonder if my equipment will hold up. I plan on installing on my MacBook Pro, but am unsure if it’ll be powerful enough. Second my wacom table is pretty old, it’s a Intuos 2, I think. Still better then nothing and I really think it’d work just fine for want I want.
Hopefully I’ll be able to upgrade in a few months time because I’m really dying to work on the computer to create art.
Welcome to the Host Club!
The most recent anime I finished and I thought was so-so. The anime revolves around a young girl named Haruhi that manages to get in to an elite school for the rich. One day she enters a club room and breaks a vase and ends up in the clutches of the Host Club in order to pay off the vase she broke. This means she has to pretend to be a boy. Each of the other members are wacky and eccentric characters and their antics make the show enjoyable.
I’ve come to find out I usually don’t enjoy shoujo comedy as much as other fans. I hear people rave about Ouran, but I found the anime to get a little too repetitive. What redeemed the series for me were certain episodes that dealt with characters problems and the last story arc where they wrapped things up nicely even though the manga it’s based on is still going.
I thought the show looked very, very nice. There were spots where limited animation was used, but it didn’t detract from the show. Really the visuals help out a lot with the enjoyment of the series. Since this is shoujo there’s lots of pretty boys and lots and lots of flowers. Okay that’s a little misleading, since it’s not like shoujo anime over do flower motifs, but they are featured a lot. Here I think it’s meant to poke fun at that convention. Usually Shoujo plots revolve heavily around romance and love, but this show only has a little of that and a lot of it is comedically played. Which makes this a series I think both genders could watch and find enjoyment.
It’s a nice series to relax to and have a fun time with, you won’t have to invest too much of yourself, though you may get bored if watching a lot of episodes at once. You could spend your time watching worst things though.
While I enjoyed the show I have no interest in picking up the manga to continue following the crazy adventures of this troupe of characters as fun as it may be... I just feel it be too much of the same and the art style doesn’t appeal to me all that much.
Toradorable!
I LOVE this figure! It’s an exclusive figure you can order through Dengeki Daioh. Which means it’s really hard to get or I should say expensive to get. Luckily I’ve already got her on order from Tokyo Hunter, who acts as a go-between for people outside of Japan helping them get these kinds of items.
As for the figure it’s Taiga Aisaka from Toradora which broadcasted this winter in Japan. She’s a feisty but sweet girl and this is her wearing cute swim wear which wasn’t featured in the anime. This figure is based of a manga image. It’s being released by Kotobukiya and will be 1/8 scale. Going price is around 5,800 yen(60USD) but I had to pay up to 100USD for her!! But to me it’s worth it. A review of her will be up when she arrives.... in October!
Another figure caught my eye today, but I don’t have much information about it.
It’s another nendoroid Nao! I think I’m correct but she’s from the game Mabinogi. They released a nendoroid of her in 2007 when they first started releasing nendos. I liked her, mostly because of the owl, but didn’t buy. I think nendos are cute, but they don’t really seem worth it. I only have one; Ryuk from Death Note, and he’s super cute.
I kind of want to buy this one. I think the glasses are really cute! But I don’t know if I will. Heck I don’t even know if she’s a limited figure or not!
Brand New Day
I’ll be sharing post on art I’m creating(possibly even featuring friends and other artist), convention attendance, progress on the career in artistic fields, and blogging about some things that interest me like anime, manga, and figures.
To catch everyone up, I’ll be attending Heroes Con this June on the weekend of the 19th and will be there till Sunday. I’ll be selling a print of Beach Girl June, I had 15 printed by Paper Forest and will be selling them for 15 US Dollars. I’m mostly using this as a gauge to see how things will go because I’ve never actually sold at a convention before. I would have made more prints, but money is too tight for it right now.
I’m also going to be taking some of my personal collection and selling those to clear out items I no longer want. This is ranging from Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailormoon toy wands and merchandise to DVDs and manga.
Look foward to seeing you there!