Entry 26: Mother's Day

   Since Mother's Day is soon, I wanted to share a card that I made for my mom! I painted it with my watercolor brush (Aquash) and kept it simple and big enough for both me and my sister to write on it. I love my mom a lot and I thought it would be cute to make her a card with my own love and passion in it.

   I already wrote on it before I realized to take a picture, so I scribbled out the words since it's a bit personal. Sorry about that. My mom also likes cats, so I painted a cat to resemble our cat a little (Russian Blue), then I cut it out, and glued it onto the card itself, so it looks like it's just sitting and chilling there. I think this little project can be used for other occasions instead of just Mother's Day, and I find it nice since you can customize it and make it how you like it. It kind of reflects how much you appreciate the event when you put some effort and work into it. In general it's fun to make something for someone and then see how happy they are to receive it.

   Anyways, I am excited to include this with the gift we got her, and spend the Sunday with her and doing what she wants to do. I hope you enjoyed this short and kind of cute blog for today.

Entry 25: Aquabrush Watercolor Brush

   So a few days ago I went shopping and I got a few new art supplies. I decided I wanted to do a review one of them and see how well it works as a brush. I got the Aquash watercolor brush and I'm going to test it out.

   Okay, so the way it works is you open up the cap, and fill it up with water to the fill line. Then, you just screw the cap back on and take off the cap that's covering the brush.

             

   

   Once that's out of the way, you apply a little bit of pressure on the container to let some water wet the brush. Depending on how hard you squeeze and the amount of water that comes out, determines how opac and vivid the color will be. I put a little bit of too much pressure at first so the color is extremely light and not very dark, but it works really well!

   In sure after awhile of practicing with it, it'll be a lot easier to use! I can also imagine myself taking it with me when traveling since it's super easy to carry. It's a pretty remarkable brush that is really easy to use and keep around with you without losing or destroying the brush easily.

Entry 24: Starting off with Anime

   Okay, so a lot of people who are interested in getting into anime, usually have a lot of trouble trying to figure out where to start. There are thousands of options and multiple categories to chose from. I thought it would be a cool idea to suggest different animes of certain genres for your certain tastes based on what I've personally watched.

   First off is the mystery and thriller section. Okay, so this is the category that gets you thinking and involved with what's going on in the show. It's personally my favorite genre of anime, movies, books, etc. I suggest Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance), Psycho-Pass, ERASED, and Death Note. These are just the few, but all of them are super interesting and entertaining. It makes you want to watch all over again once you've watched it once.

   Next is the supernatural/psychological animes, and these make you feel a little dead inside after watching I guess. It's hard to explain but it gives you an empty feeling of thoughts that you can't quite grasp. Tokyo Ghoul, Wolf's Rain, Black Butler, and Aldnoah.Zero are a few of those animes that do that. I also love this genre of shows as well.

    I'm not even sure if you'd count this next one as a genre but it definitely falls under the category of sad and depressing, yet also beautiful in a way. These animes are for the days when you just want to cry: Your Lie in April, Parasyte, Death Parade, Beyond the Boubdary, and Charlotte. I recommend these 10/10.

    Now for some anime movies if you aren't interested in watching a whole episode series. Hotarubi no Mori e, Spirited Away, The Empire of Corpses, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Five Centimeters Per Second. All of these are such fantastic movies that I just want to watch over and over again.

    For now, those are some basic categories and genres that I organized. Some of the animes listed in certain categories may be a bit gorey, mature, or behind in other specific genres as well. It is a good idea to search a background of the anime before watching it so you don't end up starting on the wrong foot.

Entry 22: Tracing Technique

  Before I begin this, I do not take any credit for this idea!!!! I found it on Tumblr and I thought it would be great to share it. I have tried and tested it out with another drawing to see if it works, and it does! It's really good for transferring messy sketches onto a nice piece of sketch, watercolor, Bristol, etc. paper.

   To begin, you want to sketch your drawing onto a cheap, thin piece of paper (graph or lined paper would be best.) I personally used really cheap lined paper for this. So after you sketched it on it should look something like this. (Sorry for how messy it is.) 

   So next, you want to turn your paper over and using a 6B lead or harder, scribble the back of the drawing so it's all covered. It doesn't have to be perfect, just enough to cover the back of the drawing.

   Okay, now take your good piece of paper, put it behind the drawing and start tracing over it with a pen or pencil, preferably something harder and sharp. Once you are done, it should have completely transferred onto your other sheet of paper.

   

  Using this method makes it so much easier to fix and make corrections in your drawings without worrying about a messy paper afterwards! To show that it works for other, more complex drawings I'll show you the first attempt at me using this method.

  That is all for this blog! I hope some artists out there found it helpful in anyway possible. Thank you!

Entry 23: The Property of Hate

  So I found another webcomic!!! It's called The Property of Hate created by Sarah Jolley. It is relatively new and quick to catch up to, and still updating today! I am in love with the art, the colors, the characters, and everything, so if you are curious as to what it's about, read on!

  To begin, the art is very bright and vivid. It catches your eye, and you find yourself observing every little detail you can find. The characters' designs and color scheme add to this factor, too, so it keeps you wanting to read more and understand the world that you are exploring. On top of that, it has an amazing storyline and plot to it! It updates page by page, so once you are caught up, it's really irritating to wait for an update but it's totally worth it.

   The story is about the main protagonist known as Hero, and a monitor head RGB who shows Hero his world and takes her on journies to complete some kind of mission. It is unclear as to what it is yet, but you follow their adventures and watch the plot unwind.

   I am already caught up with the story and I definitely recommend it if you are curious about different kinds of webcomics. If Homestuck isn't to your liking or you are just too lazy to read it all, The Property of Hate is something better to start off with. That's it for today, and thank you!

Entry 20: Improvement

   So, during Spring Break I am usually super bored and have absolutely nothing to do. I tend to look around my room trying to figure out something to do. On my walls I have a bunch of old drawings taped to it, so I came up with an idea. I decided I wanted to redraw a few of my drawings just to compare how much I've improved over a course of a year or more.

 

  I redrew a few things but I'll share one of the things I drew. The first picture is the old drawing from about a year and a half ago of a character, Denmark, from an anime called Hetalia. The second picture is the new that I drew up on March 23, 2016. Although it isn't colored, you can still see how much of a difference there is. My style has become so much more characteristic and to my liking. I've also noticed that I struggle less with trying to make it look how I want it to look. It's honestly incredible to see an actual change! 

   

Looking at it really helped me feel motivated to continue to draw more and more often and on a daily basis. If you ever have a really bad art block or even writers block, just look back at your old work and try to redo it. When you compare the two afterwards you'll be surprised by how much you've improved, because I know I was.

Entry 19: Obsessing over Danganronpa???

   Okay so I finished watching this anime called Dangan Ronpa and I just have to let out how much I love the art style and the whole storyline??? Okay first of all, Dangan Ronpa is this awesome video game that was later created into an anime and it is seriously beautiful and amazing. The whole vibe of the show and game is very mysterious and almost nauseating because of how messed up the situation is and the way the characters deal with it. I'm not going to explain the whole thing but there are parts in the show where it is drawn and animated completely different from the actual show itself.

   Okay so after it goes through parts in the show called 'Class Trials' it shows scenes of what the punishment will be for executing the murderer. It is so interesting how completely different all the characters are and being put in the situation that they are in. It is really hard to explain, but its similar to those mystery murder mansion games that people play at parties. I love how morbid it is and how the characters react to being executed because it just adds to the whole feeling and vibe that you get when watching it. Okay and what's even better than the first one is the sequel that was made! It's not made into an anime yet but I played the second game and wow! 10/10 recommend to people who are interested in a really good detective game with amazing art. 

 It's been over two weeks and I can't stop obsessing over how amazing the whole concept is. I definitely recommend it to people who like anime and like to be involved and think in a show/ game.

   Not only that, but the coloring scheme and just the colors that are used in general adds to the whole feel of it! Just a small warning though it is gory and a bit more towards mature/adult audiences. Either way this is now one of my favorite animes that I have ever watched and game that I played.