Tuesday, September 5, 2023

10 years of Drawings

 Yep I've been drawing, on and off, for 10 years now, and my drawings still look like shit.

I didn't post last year because I gave up on drawing, but I picked it up again, and dropped it up again, and decided to try to change my style, and picked it up again, and am thinking about giving it up again... Why is drawing so damn hard?

Anyway, since it's the 10th anniversary, I decided to make a special post. 

First here's this years best drawing. Of course they are not good, but I'm trying. Actually some of them aren't bad, but I am so inconsistent it's frustrating.













Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, I should keep trying, but it's somehow really hard to stay motivated, especially now that people can just write a couple keywords in a chatbox and get a result a thousand times better from an AI.

Because It's been 10 years, I wanted to revisit my favorite drawings from each years, and see how much I progressed, or regressed, over the years.

From 2013, Mayoi-chan. I actually want to do a redraw of this at some point. I drew this after watching Onimonogatari (In Monogatari series season 2), which has the one of my favorite anime episode ever in it.

From 2014, This KonaKaga drawing. Arms are weird, but KonaKaga and Yuri have been themes I've draw a lot over the years.


From 2015, This Drawing of Shinobu in Ononoki's outfit. Just always loved Shinobu. Did I Peak at 3 years? I feel like this drawing was already almost as good as what I can do now...

From 2016, Drawing of Beatrice from Re:Zero. I think it's not that good, but the complexity of the outfit makes it more visually appealing than anything else I had drawn that year.
From 2017, How can I choose any other drawing? This is still to this day my most popular drawing. It's cute, but it's also from the year I started using clip studio 3D models for the bodies (not the heads).
From 2018, NepUzu (very rare pairing btw) Yuri drawing. This ended up being my circle cut for this year's comiket.Once again you can kinda see 3D models were used for the bodies, and I think even maybe the heads for this one?

From 2019, This emotionally strong, and sad drawing of Uzume suffering and wanting to end it all. This drawing also used a 3D model for the body, but not the head. It's a drawing that is among my favorite because it also represented my state of mind at the time. Even though it's not my most popular from that year.


From 2020, This Drawing of the 10th Anniversary of the Neptunia Franchise. At This is one of the last drawing I made using 3D models for bodies, and at this point, I found myself unable to draw any other heads except for profile views.

After that is when I stopped drawing, and started to look for a new style, which ended up with what you've seen at the beginning of the post. 

I don't want to use 3D models again, I feel like it's cheating, even if people tell me it's fine.

I want my drawings to be a cuter style... I still want to draw... but it's so hard...

See you all next year.... maybe?





Saturday, September 4, 2021

8 Years of Drawing?

 It's been 8 years since I've started drawing, and this year was the worse. I lost all confidence, I only drew 3 things, tried a couple other times but it was always shit... so yeah this is this year's post... 

Also this blog is pretty much dead, no new post at all since last year. This is sad.

Here are my 3 drawings:





They are so bad, and just getting worse. No vote this year.

Also, I since I know nobody's going to check this anyway. I wanna die.

Friday, September 4, 2020

7 years of drawing!

 TL;DR: Vote on your favorite drawing of the last year here: https://otakushurikn.blogspot.com/2020/09/best-drawing-201909-to-202009.html

 

Hello everyone! Today marks the 7th year since I started drawing. And once again, it was kind of a disappointing year when it comes to my drawing.

While I did more illustrations than last year, the same thing happened. After the rush for the new doujin, and the Christmas illustrations, I pretty much stopped completely. But the reason was different this year, it wasn't being burned because I drew too much for the doujin, it was pure frustration. My art regressed last year, and everything I tried just didn't work, and became worse. I am currently unable to draw bodies without using a model, and unable to draw any other face angles than profile. It's weird, especially for that last point, since I was able to do other angles before that. I feel like I'm just getting worse, but it might not be visible on the illustrations I did finish because while my face drawings got worse, I got a little bit better at light and shadows, as well as clothes folds, so the finished product looks good enough. But I had to use models. And my last drawing, you can see all the characters looking to the left, because all I can do is faces view from profiles.

I guess every year, when it comes time to post this anniversary post, is when I start drawing again, so I'll keep trying and hopefully I can go back to at least my level from like a year and half ago.

Anyway, here's my own favourite drawing per month of the last year.

 


 Please take a minute of your time to vote on which was your favourite drawing from me in the last year, I'm always happy to see the results, and if you leave a message, it can help me get better.

You can vote here: https://otakushurikn.blogspot.com/2020/09/best-drawing-201909-to-202009.html

Thank you!

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Best Drawing 2019/09 to 2020/09

 Once again, I'm gonna ask you all to vote on your favorite among my drawings this year.

This year it's weird because I though I didn't do many illustrations, but I actually did a lot more... but it didn't feel like it. I still also working on making a new doujinshi.

Let me know why you choose the one you did, if you feel like it, and I'll use the comments to get better!

 

 

Sad Uzume

Witch Orange Heart

NepNowel

Lucky Christmas

Choujigen game Konata

Pixiv 100 followers Thank you

Odelia

Nico B&W

Nepgear rkgk

Neptune 10th anniversary

New year Ema Miyuki

Smug Konata

And just in case the same problem happens with the poll as 2 years ago, here's the direct link to the poll http://www.strawpoll.me/20874297

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Top 10 games of the decade!

Hey everyone! I decided to make a top 10 of my favorite games of the decade. While making it I realized I hadn't played many games in the last decade, so if the game you think should there aren't it might be because I haven't played them... or it might just be because they aren't worth being in the top 10 of the decade! I'm not a game critics so I'll just give small notes about why these games deserve to be in there, and not comprehensive reviews. (My list don't include remakes of games previously published in another decade)

#10: Portal 2

I ended up putting Portal 2 in the 10th spot here because it's been a very long time. I remember I loved the game and enjoyed making the multiplayer stages with my friends.
The game wasn't as ground braking as the first one, but is still a very good game. It's the last good game Valve ever made (crossing my fingers here for HL:A).

#9: Overwatch

I've put Overwatch here as number 9, but there's a note. Overwatch is a constantly evolving game, and as such, the quality varies a lot over time. This being a Blizzard game, of course that means the game got worse and worse.  So I place here, Overwatch as it was up to around 7 month after it's release. The constant meddling with the game rendered just a pain to play over the years, and Blizzard also destroyed any sense of wanting to be associated with that game by being asshole outside of the game to their players.

#8: maimai

Unless you've visited a Japanese arcade, you probably don't know what maimai is. maimai is a arcade rhythm game developped by Sega. It was the most natural to play Rhythm game, and had a really good selection of songs. The level balancing was really great and was challenging and fun to play for people of all skill levels.
I use the word "was" here because while maimai still exist, the current version of it added a couple of things to it, including the center tapping and the big holds, which break the fully natural feel of maimai. The song selection also got worse (probably due to licensing) and the last version also removed all player progress and collectible from the game, which is pretty heartbreaking after playing for 5 years. I think the game is still fun overall, but the current incarnation wouldn't be in the top 10. This game is number 8 as around up to Murasaki.

#7: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Exactly the opposite of the last 2 games on this list, Final Fantasy XIV started as a bad game... Or so I heard, since I didn't play it when everyone said it was bad.
The developers realized it was bad, and remade the whole thing into a very good MMORPG. But while the game itself is fun to play, what pushes it into top 10 territory, and up to number 7, is the story, especially the story from the Heavenwards and Shadowbringer expansions. Heavenward while not being intense and great all the time has the strongest and most emotional moment of the game, and Shadowbringer story was just stellar all around. The music also deserve a mention as it is incredibly good... especially in Shadowbringer.

#6: Nier: Automata

Another Square game, developped by PlatinumGames this time. Nier is the higest profile game on this chart and requires the less explaining. It's a great game, with incredible character design, great gameplay and combat mechanics. The music is also very very good. Yoko Taro is fucked up in is head, and we can only thank god for it.

HM Break: 

Here's a couple of games I liked that didn't make it into the top 10.
  • Catherine
  • Disgaea 4
  • Blaster Master Zero (different enough from the original, but still similar enough to be considered a remake)

#5: Katawa Shoujo

I don't like Visual Novels. Yet this game captured me. The way the delicate subject is addressed is full of respect and really show you how each character is a great person well beyond the visible. The art is cute, and the music enjoyable. It's a short yet incredibly enjoyable adventure, and it's free!

#4: The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince

This game is just way too adorable. It's a really short game, that is super cute. The art style is very unique, reminding you of old picture books. The story is also a picture book style story. Every little detail of the game is adorable, the idle animations, the way they change depending on how far away the characters are. The gameplay is relatively simple and the puzzles aren't too hard (except one of them which is optional) but it's a game you should really play.

#3: Splatoon

Splatoon was that really unexpected awesome game. I bought a WiiU exclusively for this, and I don't regret it. It was super cute and super fun. Had a lot of fun randomly dropping into friend games and owning them, or joining them and having fun in ranked. The Ultimate Collaboration with Ika-Musume made all this even better, and my Inkling girl was rocking that white dress.
Splatoon 2 was a bit less fun for me, no Ika-Musume, and I can't really tell why but I think it was just generally less amusing... and eventually became impossible to play at all once they decided you needed a subscription to do so. So Splatoon 1 is the superior of the 2, and my #3 top game of the decade.

#2: Megadimension Neptunia VII

I love the Neptunia series, but this game was just way better than all the other ones before. Every aspect was better. The story was better, the music was better, the gameplay was better, the characters were better. The Neptunia series is full of meta and really niche humor, only for otaku, but this one is so good it's the only one I would recommend to everyone, even if they aren't already deep into Otakuism. Uzume is the best girl, and I want to protect her forever.

#1: Doki Doki Literature Club!

The best game you can't describe in any way without spoiling it. Seriously, if you haven't played this game, what the fuck are you doing here. It's free. Go download and play this immediately.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

6 years of drawing!

TL;DR: Vote on your favorite drawing of the last year here: https://otakushurikn.blogspot.com/2019/09/best-drawing-201809-to-201909.html

This time I'm on time for this post!
today Marks the 6th year since I started drawing. Unfortunately, it wasn't really a good year for me again in drawing.
This year again I did very few full illustrations, a bit of that was due to making a new doujinshi though. So for the first few months of the year I didn't draw any full illustrations, except the cover... so you'd think after the doujin I would have more time, but it was the opposite, as every times before, Once the doujin was done (and after I did my Christmas and new year illustration), I got kinda burned out and stopped drawing for a while.

Then DAM made a contest on Pixiv, the theme was Touhou and music. I actually entered the contest, and obviously didn't win, but I'm still pretty satisfied with the drawing I did for it.After that I tried to work on my art, and of course I got discouraged. lost my will to draw. I started a ko-fi account, hoping that people tipping me to draw them a doodle would force me to stay motivated, it worked for a few weeks, basically all my friends trying to help, but then it died... I never did push it though. I'm really bad at this kind of marketing, because I don't feel like my art is really worth paying for... so I feel into another art block....
and that one lasted for a long time. and I think I am probably still in it. I registered to comiket again hoping that having a doujin to work on will get me out of it, but I still don't know if this is a success or not...


as for progress. I think I showed progress in the beginning of the year, the art in my doujin is definitely better than thee ones before, and I also got faster. I got better at just drawing by eye without using any 3D models for the body shapes too. The problem is, after the 2 art blocks, I don't think I ever got back to the level I was at the end of the doujin.

Anyway, here's my own favorite drawing per month of the last year.


Please take a minute of your time to vote on which was your favorite drawing from me in the last year, I'm always happy to see the results, and if you leave a message, it can help me get better.

You can vote here: https://otakushurikn.blogspot.com/2019/09/best-drawing-201809-to-201909.html

Thank you!

Best Drawing 2018/09 to 2019/09

Once again, I'm gonna ask you all to vote on your favorite among my drawings this year.

This year again I did very few full illustrations, a bit of that was due to making a new doujinshi though.

Let me know why you choose the one you did, if you feel like it, and I'll use the comments to get better!

Shy Naked Nep

Konata Shrug

Tamako

Asuka

C97 Circle Cut

Christmas Nep

Chibi Megumin Explosion

Chibi Konata

Gally

Euphoria Cover

Shurie Tsukie

Touhou Karaoke

Yumi

Miku Day Miku

Azunyan's sparkles

Ilya

Megumin Tsukasa Cosplay

New Year Ema

Double Peace Ema

And just in case the same problem happens with the poll as last year, here's the direct link to the poll http://www.strawpoll.me/18595567