The museum

And now for something...

2009-02-21T02:35:23Z

...completely different. Okay so if you've been following this sketchblog since it started in 2005, you've seen sketches, doodles, works in progress, and whatever is the end result of putting pencil or pen to paper. But never once, photos...I'm about to change that, right now. So you've seen the end result of working on art right? Well now let's take a look at the things that are used to make said art...

My tablet! Can't get much digital art done without it! Well you can with a mouse but seeing as I don't have the coordination(lol left handed!...I use this. Now this tablet was a gift from Christmas '07!

So instead of wasting all the printer paper in the house, enter one of my two sketchbooks and epic electric eraser. This black one is for all the detailed stuff, and the sketch you see is of this.

And for those moments when some printer paper has been ~~stolen~~ borrowed, we have the clipboard of doom! Actually this is really handy, it has this little compartment for holding pens, paper, candy...all the tools for an artist.

Ladies and gentlemen, you CANNOT CREATE DIGITAL ART WITHOUT A COMPUTER! Do not believe what anyone has told you, for computers=digital and that is all you need to know! Yeah...darn people, telling me I can make digital art without a computer, damn them...DAMN THEM TO HELL!!!!!! And the wallpaper seen here is this made by yours truly!

Oh man I love this thing! I've read about people using electric erasers and one day I managed to pop into an art supply store(as I have a tendency to do, also with game, book and computer stores), saw they had one eraser in stock and bam! I bough it, sketching has never been the same since...And here's the box it came in :P!

The markers I NEVER USE...but I want to use them. Thing is, I'm afraid to use them. Unlike with photoshop/painter/openCanvas/paint tool SAI/ traditional media has NO UNDO BUTTON...but I guess the only way I'll get half descent at using them is to practise, so someone over the summer, poke me on MSN or AIM and say "LEAH GO USE UR MARKERZ NAO PLZKTHX!". The copics I got at last year's Anime North, and hope to get some more and the Prismacolors were a christmas present in 2005, need to rebuy certain shades and get more fleshtones.

And here we see the tablet in use, with the smudgeguard. Yes my nails are naturally long, and I love me my french manicures. Also, LOL LEFT HANDER!

My other sketchbook, the sketchbook for anatomy practise and random ideas :P. And behold...I like drawing bald characters!

I find I'm able to work a lot better with a little music...and cleaning supplies apparently...

My pencils let me show you them. Also have a couple erasers and junk in there.

Alright you've seen what I work with, now it's work in progress time!

My next website layout, I want to have an area for wip screenshots and one for recent gallery updates, hence the little boxes on the left hand side. Then I looked at what I had made and said, "You know...lemme make something at actually features something I've drawn!" So I'll try and doodle up something when I have free time.

And last but not least...

Guess who learned about the wonderful world of textures? Why does shading clothing take so long? Also would someone like to teach me how to shade clothes? No really...*headdesk*.

MOAR TEXTUREZ! Also, I'm tacking a crack at a little pencil lineart, wish me luck!

And here you have it, want to finish at least one of those images and then finally work on some gift art I owe people, all while trying to not be driven insane by school and my oh so non stress inducing job D:! So that's it for now, more to come hopefully soon!

-kakumei_tenjou

Long overdue...

2008-12-28T01:30:33Z

What a fitting name, I really wish I had more time to update this blog, I almost debate whether or not to make my sketch/wip posts over at my new site's blog section...but for me to do that, I would actually need to have FREE TIME to work on new art and things like that >_> and also, still love livejournal and this little blog*squeeze*. But anyways, I'll save my rants about my lovely job for kakumei_tenjou, now is a time for ART! So it's been a little while since my last post and I'm sure you're wondering what I've been up to artistically. Well I launched my site on November 25th and I'm quite proud of that, seeing an idea and a dream come to reality always feels good...

Yup this little bit of chibi was one of the first pieces of art you would see when you enter the site. To date it was one of the fastest pieces of cg art I've made, 7, 8 hours of inking in painter, while SICK(usually takes me upwards of 10 and 12 hours-must be a sign I'm getting the hang of digital inking), and 6 hours to cel-shade it in photoshop...why was I using the pen tool to shade before XD? I really need to try regular sized cel-shaded characters. Man, just looking at this, if I had the time, I'm tempted to resurrect my gaia art shop or see how I'd fare in one of those art auctions cause I really want both the angelic and nitemare mini wings, then I can die a happy gaian XD!

So in deviantart, I wanted a new avatar to replace the one I had for halloween...you know what happened next...

So I've been making making really simple looking pixel avatars right? Well the thing that got me into making the avatars was this gallery. Loved Rhu's artstyle for some time and those avatars are adorable ;___;! So I always tried making on with little success. Problem was, I kept putting in too much detail and after all, it's a 50x50 picture so it can't be as detailed as a full cg. So one day, while reading through tutorials and getting pointers from xarpiex, this is the end result. Now that I know to make a rough sketch, then outline with the line too...I gotta try making more and better ones, featuring my oc's and stuff.

So I had my site going for a little while, and every time I looked at it, I wasn't too happy. For one I tried using Dreamweaver's template option to quickly make my pages. Now I'm not sure if it's because I FAIL or am a n00b at making sites still, but everytime a section would load, the images that would make up the layout would take their sweet time to show up. That and the simpleness of the layout made me decide for a change...

So like the cut title says, you can get inspiration from anywhere and for me, it was a tutorial. I really liked the background, so I whipped up a psd file, made the background and the container sections. After that, I went with my own thing. With this layout, I said GTFO with dreamweaver templates and following tutorials only from Tutvid(good beginner tutorials but I do know something about webdesign) and decided to apply what I know about CSS.

Don't know why I was having a hard time slicing this...oh right, it was my second time slicing a layout to export it to dreamweaver. Oh well, I learn something new each time I play around with this, and big thanks to my buddy Maria for showing me how this should be sliced, cause we both know, if left to my own devices, I would have had over 9000 slices D:!

With slices ready, css files written, it was time to rebuild tranquil solace, and the first thing up was the index page...

Sometimes it's nice to remind yourself where to put your webcounter :P! So after about 2 and a half days of formatting and recoding, I give you the end result...

So nice being able to use 200x40 banners instead of tiny ones for everything. If you want to see the layout in action, GO TO MY SITE :P! Man I really need to start pimping out the place...

So while working on that, Christmas came and went....

Note to self: It's "season's" not "season" and making snowmen is fun :3!

Hopefully this makes up for my little abscence, as always, forgive me :(. In the mean time, enjoy the artistic goodies for that's all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

All of this, for a little site!

2008-10-09T03:27:59Z

Boy oh boy, it seems like there's never enough time to work on anything anymore. And any free time I do have feels like precious stolen moments...good grief, I need another job, just check the friends locked entries over at kakumei_tenjou. But I shall worry about my job woes later, for now, I give you ART!

My little "about" section and what you see here, prominently displayed, is a little thank you to all the people who have helped and inspired me to draw. Hopefully you can make out the text, if not, I'll type it all out. It's worth reading :D.

Then I wanted a little dotted line/dashes separating eatch section of the faq and about sections, so here they are.

And no site is complete without some sort of FAQ section, so here's mine :P!

So help me God I will get this site finished, come hell or high water. I'd say I'm about 60-70% done(maybe) unless I see or read about some kind of feature that I want to put in. Sometimes, I hate being a perfectionist...

So one one of the nights that I wasn't plagued by work, I picked up the sketchbook, with the intension of...

Now I've seen quite a few artists, including Mr. Hyung Tae Kim who would use clean PENCIL sketches for their lineart, after a little playing around in photoshop and the like. And I'm certain doing this will speed up the time it takes for me to cg stuff, at least I want to try it, as one cannot rely on one method of doing things. And if it works, I can say I can ink with pens, digitally and with...pencils :P. It was fun to draw and some how I ended up putting in a whole lot of satanic symbols here and there o___o. But I'll try drawing this over again since there are a few anatomical errors, maybe I'll colour both pics, who knows with me!

So I'm part of a certain RO server, hell I GM on that certain server. And yesterday, I felt the need for a change in my forum avatar and signature...so...

So here we have the avatar. At first it had only a white border but that just blended in with the forum's colour scheme, so had to make it over again D:!

And a matching forum signature. It's amazing what you can do with a little old artwork.

Also that same server is going to be hosting a RO2 server and as such we have a special forum for Ragnarok Online 2...

Yeah an avie of the partially finished work in progress! Tried uploading a png version with no luck, but that's okay, the colour quality of jpegs is usually better :P!

So that's all the art for now, I should go work on something, so see you!

-kakumei_tenjou

A little experimentation...

2008-08-22T00:31:54Z

...never hurt anyone as the saying goes. So in that never-ending quest(yes it's never ending =_=!) to improve as an artist, I always find myself making little doodles, on napkins, scraps of paper, my sketchbook(obviously)...printer paper for assignments(óωò) and whatever is within hands reach and today I felt compelled to draw some...*drumroll* EYES! No actually I was looking at some sketches(gotta register to view them :P) by the one and only Hyung Tae Kim yesterday and wonky anatomy aside(can you say melon tits XD?), still in love with the colouring and the way he sketches stuff, how clean it is, I must learn his secret! So noticing, he draws with distinctly thick eyelashes and when they're coloured, they're this off blackish-gray, so I'm following the colouring part(sort of)...now for the eye drawing...

Nothing like drawing on your bank statement XD!

I really should have filled the page *goes back to do so*! And I finally learned how to make clean pencil lineart :D! So now that I know how, I guess I'm just going to have to make more pencil sketches, trace them over, thicken the lines a little and straight to photoshop! Not just pen and digital inking all the time :3.

Now with colour :P!

So since we're on the subject of colouring like Mr. Kim, I give you...

So yeah, I was following the epic, spicy curry tutorial. Since I'm trying to get the hand of this, I cheated a little, using the smudge tool here and there to get it to look nice. I spent, I am not lying, 30 minutes just colouring and shading the nose .______.! The things we do to make descent artwork. So moving along, I have this little method for colouring right? I'll shade the skin, lips, the face in general and then the eyes. Now I don't know what happened, perhaps I was still annoyed with the length of time the nose took, or maybe Photoshop and I just weren't agreeing last night, but whatever it was, I just couldn't colour eyes D:. I have my set way of getting my anime eyes to look the way they do. It just wasn't working, and I wasn't going to spend another 30 minutes to try and get it right, so out came the gradient tool and that was it. But I won't make a habbit of it, for we know what can happen when art becomes too shiny DX!

I still need to see the Dark Knight >_>! And I hope the rest of this comes out well, pray for me...

At least I have my colouring palette D:!

And that's all you get for the time being, I'm heading out to CNAnime tomorrow so hopefully I'll have a few photos and goodies to write about over at kakumei_tenjou. But this is all the art eyecandy for now :P!

-kakumei_tenjou

If I say I'll do it...

2008-08-13T06:02:03Z

I mean I'll do it! I've been saying for a while, ever since I got over my finger injury and attempting to develop a semi-realistic anime-ish style, that I would go back to drawing anime people. And I need to get on to that, even more so with the purchase of tranquil solace. So in between coding and designing the other pages, here's some art that will be featured on my various art hangouts...

Trying to have a few images that you'd only find on the site. I might even finish off some older(and not too hideous) looking cg's and post them too :D. Heck I have a few ragnarok online pictures that I liked. And some that I need to be finished. So we'll see how things go!

A small update, but hopefully it's a worthwhile one, so that's all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

Drop me a line!

2008-08-02T03:37:28Z

Good grief, it's been about a month and a little bit since I've updated this. My only excuse is my overly demanding job that leaves me with little to no quiet time. And with the little quiet time I have, I'm way to tired to do anything artsy. But luckily, according to my schedule I'll have more time at home and I'm hoping and praying I'm not called during the week because having a life is a little(read A LOT) more important than Walmart and their low, low prices. And now for the artwork!

So like all the cool people with personal webpages, mine will have a contact form(to email me) when finished. So while googling on how to make a contact form, I came across a free php script. And part of the script calls for a "thank you" page when the mail message goes through and an error one...so here we have a happy little envelope that's being sent to my inbox 8D!

This is what happens when you get new photoshop brushes :P!

If you're the unlucky soul who manages to mess up on filling out a REALLY simple email form, you're gonna get this D:!

Still have a lot to type out for each page, but I'll get it done! Even if they have to drag my dead body from the pc, I'll do it! Moving along, with all the pages that need to be typed and artwork that needs to be watermarked and uploaded to a gallery in order for the site to be complete, there needs to be a front page...

I've noticed something! A lot of the artists I admire have some sort of mascot. Bara-chan has her gorgeous artwork of her ragnarok online characters. Kaze-hime has Holly Bunny and rabbits in general(dammit why didn't I think of that? I love rabbits!!), Finni has her digimon OC Finnimon and this adorable girl and the list goes on...so what does Leah have? Well she has original characters*cough*Gin,Yasu,Tama,Cain, athropomorphic vector fruit, graphic tablets or whatever I think of vectoring and also...chariactures of myself! For you see, I've been drawing anime versions of myself and characters that are related to me for some time now. So there you have it, the site mascot is the Artist herself. Oh and I learned that those lovely people in Japan pronounce the name "Leah" as "Riia" and not as "Reafu" as I've been wrongly saying for the past 13 years(remember kids, wapanese, bad name generators and wanting to sound so informed don't mix...but it's hard to get rid of old screen names). Oh and two things, it's "Lee-ah" not "Lay-uh", and no those aren't dreadlocks, they are hair twists :P! That reminds me...I need to microbraid my hair XD!

And there you have it, here's hoping I get this site up and running and finish all the wip's I have sitting on my hard drive. So that's all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

Time to get the ball rolling!

2008-06-24T20:56:29Z

Fate has smilled upon me, for I have a short work week YAY! So with this extra time, I intend to finish my site, it really shouldn't take that long especially with Dreamweaver doing the actual coding "work" and this site providing some amazing photoshop and dreamweaver tutorials. Then all that's left is to make the gallery and decide on an important question: To watermark ot not to watermark? Don't think my cg art and vector images are worth stealing, but I sometimes wonder and once I read this really nice comment on a friend's journal saying that when you sign a piece of artwork or put your name on it somehow, you're claiming it as your own, and showing the world you're proud of it. And I am happy of come this far, knowing how I started out, so we'll see...And now, for the art people!

So I followed a tutorial and you know what...I don't like the program .___.! Perhaps because I've become so used to making my vectors in photoshop with the pen/shape tools, gradients and a whole lot of mouse clicking. But I should definitely give Illustrator a try and see if I can come up with some of the really cute and abstract designs I've seen on the internet, bilboards, clothing, bags...WHY IS IT I GET IDEAS FROM EVERYTHING AROUND ME DX!

So continuing with the desire to finish my site quickly, I decided to work on something easy: website link buttons! So looking at Ashen Ray and [escape](two personal favourite artsites by people on deviantart :3) for the standard dimensions for said buttons, I booted up photoshop and went to work!

A few 200x40 buttons featuring older cg's I've made(which you can find here if you just look or at my deviantArt page)!

And some 88x31 buttons using simple gradients! I think I'll use the gray one for deviantArt and signatures. Now to get to the job of coding the site :P!

And last but not least, a little something for my psp...

Now if only I didn't accidentally wipe my saved game files in order to upload this to my memory stick -_-!

Well that's all for the time being!

-kakumei_tenjou

Design of a different kind!

2008-06-03T02:09:29Z

So I've been writing about it for a little while now at kakumei_tenjou, but I'm making a personal webpage. Right now, there's only that "Under construction" image and a blog page, but of course I can't leave it like that forever, art has to go there and other things. But most importantly...

I had a previous design but because of a few problems with the positioning of the pencil and ~~my stupidity~~ other unforseen issues, had to make a new layout...And to make the sheets of paper look more authentic, I added those 3ring binder holes.

Then after a little layout slicing and optimization in photoshop, said layout had to be taken to dreamweaver. It was a loooong process. Riddled with deleting of files, remaking things, cussing, staring at a blank screen and something, screaming. But in the end, I finally had something, thanks to a certain tutorial. And here's...

Now I need to figure out how to make the backgroud of the div(the spot where it says main content area and the google link) line up with the rest of the lined paper boxes so that it's smoother looking. But hey this is my first website layout and I've done it all on my own, I can be a little proud right?

Now websites aren't just about pretty graphics, as you know, there's also coding...

When the website idea first came into my head, I thought that if I made something really simple, I could type something out in notepad, but with dreamweaver everything is incredibly simple(there's even a little button you can press they checks for any errors in coding and any potention problems there can be with different web browsers). Can you imagine yourself having to type out 102 lines of HTML coding, I love that kind of stuff but no thank you!

So there you have it, hopefully I'll have everything up and running soon, so that I can go back to actual drawing(after all, if this is to be an online gallery, I need some ART). So that's all for the time being!

-kakumei_tenjou

Cute Leah makes cute graphics!

2008-05-14T18:11:03Z

So I made a new layout and with each change of layout, I go for a change in the look of my profile. And you know what that means don't you?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, a bunch of hills and a happy sun. Gah, why is everything I make so cute these days :O?

And then I was staring at my desktop of my PC yesterday and wanted a change in wallpaper...

This was whipped up in about an hour and a half :3. Almost tempted to submit this to devaintArt but I keep telling myself, submit some anime art before another vector image >_>!

And a little something I did for a friend...

Different pen tools in Corel Painter.

Just a small update but hopefully worth while. For that's all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

C u s t o m i z a t i o n.

2008-05-12T22:36:26Z

No I have no forgotten this humble little art/sketch/graphics blog, just final exams and school were sapping a major part of my free time. But now, I'm out of school and it's back to business. So what have I been up to artistically? Well let's take a look shall we?

First I wanted a night sky themed image. I even had a background tile image to go with it. But after looking at it for a while, I stopped liking it and wanted a longer header. So let's take 2!

Enter the happy and sunny header! Inspired by my deviantArt CSS layout. And who doesn't like a bright and warm looking image for the summer? If only the weather outside was equally as bright!

Of course livejournal layouts need background images and here is mine. Also I learned how to play with the layer mask function in order to make this*learns something new each day*!

Also you need default avatars for said layout!

My semi-friends only and locked entry banners. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't just lock my journal all together but, I dunno...I like making my banners :P!

And when you put this all together, what do you get? Well you get this! Want a live preview? Head on over to kakumei_tenjou! And past livejournal layouts can be seen here!!

And now that layout showcase is out of the way, it's time for some vector artwork!

Going along the same lines as this image. I want to try making little images of all my favourite electronic gadgets.

And now for a little shameless self promotion...

Yup! A friend of mine and I are doing a little gaiaonline art auction. Go check it out, ~~I need~~ we need pretend money to buy pretend mini wings XD!

And that's it for now! I have actual anime pictures that are being inked and coloured(no I haven't stopped drawing anime :P). So expect a wave of those large eyed-brightly coloured, big haired characters that come from Japan soon. But this is all for now.

-kakumei_tenjou

Something to do in between studying...

2008-04-14T19:50:24Z

Exams are right around the corner(well days away for me) and we all need a way to unwind after reading books for hours...and here is mine...

A good friend of mine gave me some lineart to colour so that she could put the artwork on her ragnarok online server's website. Always wondered what my crazy pentool cel-shading looks like on non-chibi people. She likes how it's coming so far, so that makes me happy :3. Maybe I should brush off and finish some of my older ro fanart for her to put on the site :P?

Also, you know how I've been posting little pixel avatars, ranting and raving about how to make a perfect outline without the extra pixels? Well I think I finally got that problem solved...

The first one is supposed to be my tablet, the Wacom Bamboo Fun, medium sized tablet. The second is a simple iPod and the last, just a heart...I need to learn to shade round things. Did I forget to mention the little tablet is my current avatar! I should make more for the practise over the summer :3. Anyone want one?

And lastly, but not least, I wanted to change my deviantArt css journal layout so...

Putting my cutesy vector art to good use! I wish there was some kind of "offical" journal template people could use, instead of searching for tutorials and wondering how more experienced people get their designs D: *sigh*...in the mean time, enjoy a live preview!

That's all for now, good luck with your exams everyone!
-kakumei_tenjou

Anthropomorphic attack!

2008-04-03T23:50:41Z

Allow me to show you what happens when I do things on a whim. Even when doing things on a whim it helps to have a little inspiration...so I looked down at my tablet and...

It started off innocently...a red background, trippy looking branches.

THEN IT GREW A FACE! My tablet doesn't normally have a face! It didn't have one when I bought it from the store...y'all have to be careful, tablets be growing faces and saying "hello" to you @___@!

And before I knew it, my tablet fell in love with me! It was bound to happen...I spend so much time with him(yes my tablet is male). He couldn't resist my charms :P!

Then yesterday, while looking at my current livejournal layout, I felt it was time for a change, and to possibly used my developing vectoring skills for a design. The theme of this layout would be citrus fruits. So before jumping right into the coding, I have a grand old time making the graphics. So I needed a little practice in making citrusy fruits, and while making some limes, I learned something very important...

It's true ladies and gentlemen, cirtrusy fruit like limes, do prevent scurvy :D! So go eat some NOW! If you get scurvy don't say I didn't warn you! Also, this little picture is available as a deviantArt print :3!

Seeing as my Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet now possesses facial features and apparently, it loves me...it was time for a new dA avatar and another attempt at pixel artwork!

I love how the avatar servers on dA are taking their sweet time in showing this it's really encouraging >_>;;...am I getting any better at these pixel things anyway?

With exams around the corner it may be a little while before I update here again, but please stay tuned! That's all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

Burning the midnight oil...

2008-03-22T04:57:19Z

Okay, so these weren't made at midnight, but pretty close...

Making more pixel avatars of Orenji-chan, the happy little orange. But I didn't like the horrid white bits around it, and it didn't look any better when shrunk down. So I made another one and shrunk it down. Don't like this one either...the caption bubble is cut off and it still isn't as smooth and pixel-y as I'd like. Any pointers? I guess my best bet is to read through my bookmarked pixel art tutorials and keep at it...

Still randomly doodling things...I'm taking a sketchbook or bits of printer paper, sitting down and actually drawing things with a shape and form. Don't want to fall out of practise all together.

Yeah, I need to draw more people and the things I'm bad at =_=;;!

And remember my tale of woe about some bad looking lineart and my desire to colour like Hyung Tae Kim? Well look at what I've been up to...

Get a little digital inking practise with Corel Painter :D!

And I will learn that colouring style, so help me God D:!

And that's all for now, I have work in the morning -_-...hopefully I'll have something better looking in the works soon...I can't wait for summer so I can draw/ink and colour more ._.! So that's all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

Frustation and creaitivity

2008-03-17T03:28:07Z

So let me tell you about a little idea, no a plan I have. You see, I've taken an interest in the artwork of the great Hyung Tae Kim. I am absolutely in love with his digital painting style and I think if I could learn the basics of this and add my own spin on it, it would go nicely with the semi-realistic way I've been drawing. So...I did a little search through deviantArt and Manga Revolution and found two tutorials on digital painting ala HTK, hoping to learn something different from my usual, soft-shaded anime cgs...

So while following this tutorial, I made a little colour chart, all professional-like :D!

So I took this sketch of a gothic lolita chicky and I made a horrible mistake. For those of you who don't know, waaaay back when, people would make their pencil sketches with a special blue pencil so that when they went over the sketch in ink, and had to animate their images, the blue wouldn't be picked up by cameras. Now in the age of computers people will still sketch in blue and their scanners won't pick up the lines. Heck we can make digital sketches in blue and save the steps of inking with a pen and having to scan anything. So here's my mistake...instead of changing the pencil sketch to blue lines in photoshop and printing it out to be inked, I brilliantly went and changed the lines to orange! Why you ask? Well if you read this entry, you would know how my older computer butchered my attempts at inking in painter...with an orange pencil sketch. So I printed out the sketch, forgetting to change it back to blue lines...the inked image didn't come out nicely at all...

I made two attempts at fixing the lineart and colouring it, it just wasn't happening for me, on that fateful Wednesday...and the fact that I was being visited by ol' Aunt Flow made my patience very limited =_=. So I deleted both PSD files and decided to ink the picture in Painter or possibly print out a blue line sketch and ink with my pigmentliner pens and my lovely lightbox I got over the Christmas holidays :D! At least with the lightbox I can get smooth lineart as seen here and my digital lineart isn't too bad looking either. Remember ladies, never try to make art with the evils of our monthly annoyance...the art will piss you off -_-!

So after this I have some inking todo...but I also have avatars to make!

It's lopsided, I can't work with the pencil tool, the shading doesn't look right at all...it cannot be called pixel art ¬___¬. It doesn't look any better when shrunk down. Why does deviantArt put an ugly white border around it =_=?

So back to ImageReady I must go! Or make something simpler and un-animated or...so being a damn perfectionist XD! But not all of my artwork is filled with fail you know...

I do make cute wallapapers :D! And finally, all the snow in Toronto is melting :O!

And there's me and my forum avatars and banners...I really do like making those. As nerdy as it must make me sound...

Always need an avatar!

And a forum signature! But sometimes the image doesn't come out quite how you like it on the first try, so you must make the necessary changes. And while I have you attention, if you're a ragnarok online fan as I am, might I direct you to this server :D?

During my study week, I got some much needed rest and time to play around in photoshop. While browsing through deviantArt I came across a gallery. And I really liked her fake screenshots. So I tried making one...

Okay, so it's not as brightly coloured and shiny but it was my first try D:! And now that I have a tutorial on it...I shall do better :P!

Also...

Still can't draw them, must read anatomy books and stop drawing on graph paper @__@!

And guess who's been making patterns in photoshop?

Never know when you'll need a checkerboard pattern for a background :P!

Or diamond patterns. Protip: anything harlequin relates to a diamond shape pattern...or a series of tacky romance novels :P!

Quite the art dump huh? Well I did have one more graph paper filled with doodles...but I am too lazy to scan it. Also, I am hell bent on learning to colour like Mr.Kim! Even if I have to go between this and this tutorial, even if I have to buy his artbooks and start at the artwork till my eyes bleed, even if I have to learn Korean to read said artbooks, I will learn his secrets :|! Is it so wrong or too ambitious of me to want to learn to colour like that? Isn't that part of developing as an artist? Seeing someone's work who inspires you to do better than what you're used to and to try and lean from said artist? I just hope I can...So I hope you enjoyed this art dump and that's all for today.

-kakumei_tenjou

Beginning of the break!

2008-02-26T00:50:55Z

Well I'm on my reading week right now so you know what that means: Much needed sleep, study and of course art! And now it's time for me to show off what I've managed to come up with...

Another RGUtena chibi! I'm going to attempt to make a series of chibi versions of the main characters of the show. So to start off we have Utena and now Anthy. I have to be honest, cel-shading these things is too much fun :P!

And since I was playing with Photoshop's pen tool, you know it could only lead to...

What can I say? I did it for the lulz :P! Also...

Now in icon form! You never know when you'll need a lulz icon, but if you do, take a picture that looks right, edit it to your liking and you're set!

More Utena stuff to come soon! And now for something a little different. A good friend of mine, Kenji and I were in a paintchat Saturday night. I haven't oekaki-ed anything in quite some time so here's what I have...

At least I'm FINALLY starting to draw faces in the way I'd want to. I know the body anatomy isn't perfect, but I did notice something, I wasn't really trying to draw a "perfect" body but I came out with something remotely decent. Maybe if I don't focus so much on things I draw better? Who knows O_o?!?

Slapping on some colour is fun :P! Definitely need to keep drawing and make more strides :D!

And last but not least, I took autovatic's advice and...

Now if you're sharp, you'll notice that this floaty head is from this entry! Now if only deviantArt would work properly so that I can upload this as my user avatar >__>;;...dammit work you useless site! I want to show off my new found skills with Image Ready

There you have it, a short and sweet update for you all to enjoy. That's all for now so until next time!

-kakumei_tenjou

W I P's: Showcase the unfinished works!

2008-02-22T02:45:02Z

Wow it's been almost a month since I've updated here, so sorry! But I have been doing things here and there as always. And also as always, school and work get in the way -_-! Anywhoo...let's try something different, I'm always showing off sketches and finished pieces correct? Well this time, I'm going to show off some of my works in progress(wip's) so here we go!

Now of course this should look familiar to everyone who's been following this blog :). This sprouted as a result of me wanting a nice wallpaper for my laptop, if I ever managed to install Windows Vista onto it...I still need to do that *sigh*

And more detail!

Now we don't just take screenshots of wallpaper designs, sometimes we take screenshots of...

NO ARTZ FOR JOO T___T!

So as some of you know, I have a list of artistic resolutions. And some of these art resolutions tie in with my little dream. One of these resolutions is to make an art website. Right now, I'm narrowing down my choices for a decent webhost and I want to say a big thank you to soaker87 and magentia for your hosting suggestions, I have no idea where I'd start without them ♥! Anyways..websites need nice backgrounds and graphics correct? Well...

Sort of want a beach, fruity theme at least for a first layout :D. I give 10 internets to the person who can tell me where that line comes from :)!

And MOAR detail :P!

Alright so you might be a little tired of the simple vector art, sooo...let me tell you...

Yes I do! It happens to be my favourite colour too. Annnd...I happen to like Revolutionary Girl Utena. Might as well combine the two :P!

More detail on the face :D!

And that concludes the screenshot portion of this posting! Onto the more refined things! One of the places that I was looking into getting a webhosting account going was...Surpass Hosting. I even went so far as to join their message board and ask a few questions. You know what happens when I join a message board right?

A little signature image! I don't know what is up with me and the colour red these days :/! I didn't like the way this turned out, image quality wise...

So I remade it :P!

Also related to the whole website thing...

Always need to have your under construction picture, and here's the one I'll use(until I make something better). And being the perfectionist I am, I found a mistake and made it over. And here you can see the image in action...if only freespaces met all my webhosting needs T__T!

Now let's look at some traditional art shall we?

First of all, I know the anatomy is off! I drew this a while ago and yesterday, I went back to it and darkened the lines, but a certain sketch was right beside it and the pencil from that sketch started rubbing onto this one and smudged it .____.! Maybe I should lay off the cardboard/bristol board-thick sketchbooks and use printer paper =_=. Oh and I want to ~~sacrifice~~ this to learn to colour like this gentleman digitally...wish me luck D:! Also the outfit design is from this old cg pic :o!

In case you like sepia, this is for you :P!

Now we're on the home stretch! There's a belief you know, that says an artist will put a little of themselves in the art they create. This is especially true when it comes to drawing people. Some believe that the Mona Lisa is actually a female, self portrait of DaVinci...now I'm not going to draw a male version of myself(at least not yet). But sometimes...

Here I go again with my semi-realistic anime style :o! Yes I am sure there's problems with that bent arm, but at least, I tried something different. Can I tell you all how difficult it is to draw hair twists? I would have to be out of my mind to try and ink that hair in Painter. If I tell anyone on AIM or MSN I am going to ink this digitally...tell me I am a damn fool -_-! I must say, I do rather like the blue look, I must cg something simple and use a blue like this :D! So it's supposed to be me, I forgot my glasses and I really do need to learn to draw better glasses D:. Also, I wish I had one of those sweaters that falls off the shoulders but supposedly ~~my ginormous, womanly, voluptuous breasts~~ my curves get in the way o_o! Now just to ink this with my trusty fineliner pens NOT Corel Painter IX.5.

And apparently, no artblog post would be complete without...

I seriously need to bring a sketchbook with me for in between classes @__@!

No seriously!

Ooooookaaaay! I hope that makes up for the month of inactivity and that's all for today!

-kakumei_tenjou

Slow recovery

2008-01-27T19:45:09Z

So I had my stitches were removed , Wednesday of this week(I'll write about that at kakumei_tenjou) and the doctor says it will take a few weeks for the cut to heal and for my pinky to close up and look normal again D:! So I still have to be very careful about holding things and using my right hand. Luckily for me , I'm lefthanded so major things like writing/drawing aren't really affected. But I will say this whole thing really does show in some ways , how much you need both your hands to do simple tasks...Case in point , I'm left handed correct? Well I still need to use my right to hold any sketchbook/clipboard or paper I use , I still need it to use a computer mouse , hold glasses with drinks , hold gaming controllers and other things. But one of the great things about nature is , that when you're injured you'll find a way to adapt! Now let me show you how I've adapted...

Trying to draw something a little less abstract than you usual circles , stripes , X's and other shapes. This actually started out as a wallpaper but after fixing the text in the caption bubble and adding the necessary finishing touches , I had a nice little wallpaper image that could be posted to deviantArt. And said wallpaper image was then cropped into the image you see before you. I really have to say I've very proud with how this came out and quite surprised the number of people who downloaded it and used it as their desktop wallpaper...hell even people from school found out about it O_o! Perhaps I should make this into a lovely 300dpi picture , get a Cafepress account and make little tshirts :O...anyone want to buy one? Oh and lastly , yes , graphics tablets can be used instead of a mouse :P!

That was not to be the last of that little orange fella , oh no , there was more!!!

I was in need of a new deviantArt ID , so I booted up ol' Photoshop and went to work. After widening out the image so that the speech bubble is seen , you get what you see here :D! And the orange is right , I should be resting D:!

But it's not all work all the time , sometimes I make things for fun too :P!

Gotta love that handwriting function :O. They need to make the writing area wider or I need to learn to draw smaller -_-!

And there's always pencil doodles...

This is proof that I need to walk with a sketchbook during free periods .__.! Also this is proof that , over time , as one improves with their anatomy and technical drawing skills , the look of their characters changes over time. For those of you who do not know , this is Yasu. This blond haired chick that is drawn from time to time. She is associated with this girl who has silver hair and yellow/gold streaks and another girl that has jet black hair :P. I think I shall stick with this curly , ringlet look , yet she still retains hair that sticks up in the air like antennae XD!

Last but certainly not least , I give you...

This is just a preview image for a little something I'm working on. Want a hint? Read through this new year resolution entry and this entry on my artistic ambitions and it should become clear to you. All I ask of you guys is...does anyone know of any well run(and inexpensive , if not free) web hosting services? I've talked to a couple people about it , but the more opinions the better :D!

I will try and draw some real people soon , drawing anthropomorphic things is great but I must not forget how to draw the things I started out drawing before this to. So that's all the artsy stuff for now. Now I head off to work D:!

-kakumei_tenjou

Nulla Dies Sine Linea...

2008-01-17T02:02:56Z

A few days ago , I came across this great Latin phrase. This phrase is great as it doesn't just apply to writers or visual artists , it can apply to anyone. You just need to practice your hobby , try to do it every day , and then , only then , can you get better and more skilled at it. And part of my art related new year resolutions to try and draw more often and really work at making pencil sketches that aren't so messy looking and just to practice on all the technical aspects of drawing. So with that in mind and to show what I'm up to when I'm not posting here and at deviantArt...I give you...

A little something that came to be , while waiting for Calculus class to start last Friday :O. But this sketch shows that I broke a cardinal rule...I sketched on graph paper D:! And sketching on graph or line paper is baaaaaad and doesn't look so good...forgive me gods of art T_T!

And sometimes Leah will practice and experiment with stuff....

See , I do practice my proportions and junk...just need to use better sketchbooks for it D:. And also...note to self: press harder with the pencil so that your scanner can pick up stuff -___-!

And some times , Leah likes to do minor collaborative works with friends...and coworkers...

So my good friend Sofia the cashier at the WalMart I work at , saw me doodling on a napkin with a pen and a mini sharpie. So she decided to add her own artistic flair to the scribblings...by adding unibrows XD! I must say , the whole experience was a lulzy moment XD!

And sometimes Leah draws to break the monotony of studying...

So I was browsing through this guy's deviantart gallery and I really love his pen inked stuff , and his original characters called the "DinoSaurs" are too cute. So while studying for a quiz last semester , I had this little notebook of formulas and well...I got side tracked...the cross hatching and the scribblyness was fun though. Must do it more often (°ω°)> nyoro~n!

So yes , I doodle a lot and I want[read , "really want] to improve and try new things. 2008 is a new year and I'm hell bent on doing things I haven't done before. And one of them is...

It's the purple-blue , Gin-tasticness XD! Drew this with the intention of making a pixelated avatar. I spent an hour inking this and shrunk it down and things did not turn out well D:. So I took the pencil sketch seen here and went over it with thicker pencil lines :3. Definitely need to do that more often. I apologize for the slight smudgeyness , as my beloved Smudge guard finally needed a washing[after 2 months of continuous usage :O!] when I drew this XP! Hooray for more cross hatching :D! Note to self don't go overboard with your stumps and tortillons when things are already messy XP!

So I said I was trying to make a pixelated avatar right? Ever since I joined deviantart back in 2004 and have seen many people with one , I wanted one too. But back then I had no idea where to start and my hand was way to shaky to outline something digitally , but with time and practice that's all changing...

Nothing like drawing a pissed off version of one of your original characters for an avatar XD. I still can't get over how teeny this thing has to be in order to work as an avatar...

That is eye-squintingly small o___o! So after a little bit of colouring and the addition of an off white , nearly transparent outline , we get the finished product as seen on my deviantArt page. I'm certainly making more of these and like autovatic suggested , I'm going to try my hand at animation in ImageReady :3!

And last but not least I finally stopped using meebo got Windows Live Messenger. If you don't know by now , I like making little graphics for forums and blogs and what have you , so I just HAD to make a display picture(at least untill I find/take a decent photo :P)...

A little something whipped up in 15 minutes. Goes quite nicely with the orange theme of my PC and the skin of the MSN contact list...hey , it goes nicely with my ORANJUUU VECTAAA!!! livejournal layout , perhaps I should upload it as a user picture , yes?

Hopefully you enjoyed the sketches and different graphics and what have you. I'll try and update this with more asap. And now to update the regular blog , so that is all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

Tailend of the holiday...

2008-01-08T01:16:50Z

Here's a little something to finish up the holidays and to celebrate getting a new tablet...

Anthy Himemiya of Revolutionary Girl Utena fame. Started this one in Corel Painter with my old , Wacom Graphire3 tablet and ended it , last week Thursday when I got my Wacom Bamboo Fun[Medium sized] tablet :O. Gosh this new tablet has such a smooth and sleek look while having a ton of features. I'll try and finish this tonight or sometime during the week and work on my artistic "todo list".

And I even threw a little colour on this too...

Nothing like looking at how something turns out with basic colours :D!

Sadly this is a short post , but of course there's all the older posts for you to look and comment at :D. Hope everyone had a good holiday. Let's hope everyone survives what's left of the school year and whatever time you have left at work. So that's all for now , later everyone!

-kakumei_tenjou

Last of 2007!

2008-01-03T04:06:44Z

Hopefully everyone's holiday and the first two days of 2008 have gone well so far. Been relatively quiet for me but it's been artistically productive too!

Yes ladies and gentlemen , it's my original character ,Gin Hoshi in chibi demonic , santa elf form XD! And for the first time ever , I've drawn her hair in a way that I actually like. And you know something else? Using a reference from a hairstyle magazine actually helps :D!! When I first drew this , I had hoped to ink and colour it for Christmas..

And as always when we start with a sketch , we just have to outline it somehow. This time , I went with the old fashioned way...

Inked with my trusty , Pilot DR Drawing/Pigmentliner pens :D!

And for those of you who prefer plain black and white...

God I love my fancy font sets :P!

And once we have outlined our sketch there's nothing left but to colour it and...

Coloured partly in ol' Photoshop 7.0 and finished off in Photoshop CS2 with my e3 Works and Wacom Graphire3 tablet. Cel-shading is fun and making the grid pattern was definitely fun to make :3!

And now that you've got your fill of eyecandy , it's off to update my regular blog. So that's all for today , later everyone!

-kakumei_tenjou

Digital C h r i s t m a s!!

2007-12-21T20:58:46Z

Well I done with my exams and free from school for the time being and Christmas is less than a week away. It is at this time that artists on and offline turn to this special season for inspiration...

As stated from the lj-cut title , this came to be from wanting to make a Christmas themed wallpaper. I was following a vector tutorial for making wallpapers and unfortunately , I forgot to make the canvas the right size for a wallpaper(at least 1024x768px). Instead I had this square shaped image , so making the best of it I finished the picture , added my little watermark and a border. And there you have it , a digital image completely made of vectors in good ol' Photoshop with my handy-dandy Wacom Graphire3 tablet!

Keeping up with the Christmas spirit , I had to make sure I was holiday ready on livejournal...

A little avatar from the first image :P!

Then there was my attempt at making a "real" Christmas wallpaper...it wasn't productive :(!

I have to say that this was a lot of fun to make but the thing is , this "wallpaper" still isn't the right size D:...I guess I'll try again today XP!

Here's something a little different! Now I'm going to show you somethings I had to make for this ~~incredibly useless , waste of my &*^)!@# time , waste of a student's *^%)!@ money~~ computer course...

The final project of said course asked students to make a power point presentation on any topic(I chose the roles of computers in art and digital art in general). We had to create a company "logo" and this is mine. I had to shrink it down a little to make sure it fit onto the slides though.

This is a japanese magatama. I made this for my background image for the presentation. Not sure why I picked this , but I like it :O! And this too was shrunk down.

And this is for the title image , it's your usual yinyang symbol. At first I wanted to make tomoe but I couldn't get the shape right D"! So I went with this. Like with the others , this too was shrunk down. Of course for all of these images , the white background was removed and made all trasparent ish :P!

And for this project , I got a 40/50 :D!

Last but not least...I just have to tell you about an early Christmas present that I received last Wednesday...

Yes ladies and germs , I was given Christmas money , went to WalMart where I work and got me an 80GB iPod Classic in black. I'll write more about this at kakumei_tenjou!

And that's all the art for the time being , season's greetings everyone and have a happy new year!

-kakumei_tenjou

CSS a Go Go!

2007-11-30T00:43:59Z

Hey there everyone , it's coming down to the Christmas Holidays and that means more art and more updates to this place. Now if you've been keeping tabs , you know that every now and then I'll take a little detour from the cg artwork with some vector art and css layouts. Well it's that time again for some css fun...

Now this is a little something that I made for my deviantArt journal section. One of the perks to being a "subscriber" on the site is that you can design custom made css layouts for the journals. And for this particular one , my only idea was something that was red and white...I never expected the little circle things to look like the Target logo , I swear D:! And if you want to see a larger version of this image , here you go! Also , if you want a "live" preview , look right here! I have to admit , it was fun to make this.

Now we all know that you don't have to use css coding only in the world of deviantArt blogs! Of course you can use them for blogs too. Blogs like the ones found in livejournal...

Okay everyone , I'm going to do something really different! One thing I've always wanted to do since I've started making livejournal layouts , is to make a layout that other people could[and would want to] use and what I'm about post is the first out of (hopefully) many layouts...so here goes:

Theme: Cyber Rainbow
Style: Smooth Sailing
System: S2
Works w/ Navigation Strip: Yes , but it doesn't look that nice.
Customized Comment Pages: Yes[Paid and Permanent accounts only!]
Best View: 1024x768 , 1280x1024
Browser: Firefox & IE[should work on other browsers too!]
Account Type: All account levels!
Live Preview: cyberrainbow
Credit: kakumei_tenjou or known_as_leah

Things to Remember

o1. The graphics for this layout were created by me using Adobe Photoshop ver 7.0 and a Wacom Grahire3 Tablet.
o2. The custom security , user and community icons are from Famfamfam
o3. All the graphics have been uploaded to imageshack , if the images do not load properly , you just need to reupload them[I'll provide a .rar file with the graphics and css codes].
o4. If there are any mistakes or problems with the coding , just reply to this entry and I'll do my best to help ASAP :D!
o5. If you want to make a layout yourself , everything_lj is a great place for tutorials!

And now for the codes...

/* BODY */

body {
     font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
     font-size: 12px;
     margin: 0px;
     background-color: black;
     color: #000000;
     background-image: url('http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/815/cyberbackgroundlr8.jpg');
 background-repeat: repeat-y;    
}

a {
     color: #FF0000;
     }

a:visited {
     color: #AF0000;
     }

a:hover{
   color:#339999;
    }

.pageblock{
     width:950px;
     margin: 0 auto;
     }
.pagefooterblock {
     border-top: 2px solid white;
     background-color: #ee3311;
     color: white;
     padding: 4px 4px 4px 24px;
     margin-top: 4px;
     }

/*HEADER*/

.pageheaderblock {
     text-align: right;
     }

.header-title {
     background-color: black;
     font-family:Arial Black;
     font-size: 30px;
     color: white;
     padding: 0px 20px 0px 20px;
     }

.header-subtitle {
     background-color: black;
     color: white;
     font-family: Arial ;
     font-size: 24px;
     padding: 0px 24px 0px 24px;
     }

.header-icon {
     top: 0px;
     right: 0px;
     position: absolute;
     z-index: 1;
     border-left: 2px solid #ffffff;
     border-bottom: 2px solid #ffffff;
     }

.header-menu {
background-color: white;
background-image: url(http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/2419/cyberrainbowheaderqw6.jpg);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position: bottom center ;
line-height: 60px;
text-align: center;
height: 400px;
}

.header-menu a, .header-menu a:visited { 
     white-space: nowrap;
     text-align: left;
     padding: 2px 6px 2px 6px;
     color: #ee3311;
     text-decoration: none;
     }
  .header-menu a:hover {
     background-color: black;
     color: #339999;
     }
  .header-menu ul, #footer-menu ul {
     margin: 0px;
     padding: 0px;
     }
  .header-menu li, #footer-menu li {
     display: inline;
     }

/*BODY*/

.bodyblock {
     padding: 10px 20px 0px 20px;
    background-color:white;
    }
  .bodyheaderblock {
     border-top: 2px solid black;
     background-color: white;
     padding: 4px 0px 4px 0px;
     }
  .bodynavblock {
     border-top: 2px solid white;
     background-color:  #FF0000;
     color: white;
     margin: 10px 0px 4px 0px;
     padding: 8px;
     }

.bodynavblock a, .bodynavblock a:visited {
     color: #CF0000;
     }

.body-title {
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 18px;
     color: #000000;
     background-color:white;
     text-align: left;
     padding-left: 24px;
     }

.body-midtitle {
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 18px;
     color: #000000;
     text-align: left;
     padding-left: 8px;
     }

/*ENTRIES*/

.entryHolder {
     color: #000000;
     background-color: white;
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 12px;
     border-top: 2px solid #ffffff;
     margin: 4px 0px 4px 0px;
     }

.entryUserinfo {
     text-align: center;
       margin: 0px 8px 8px 0px;
     
     background-color: #EFAE00;
     }

.entryUserinfo-usericon img { 
     border: 0; 
     }

.entryText {
     padding: 6px;
     }

.entryHeader {
     background-color: #E3D706;
     color: white;
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 12px;
     padding: 4px 0px 4px 8px;
     }

.entryHeader a{
     color: white;
     }

.entryHeaderSubject {
     font-weight: bold;
     }

.entryHeaderDate a {
     color : white;
     text-decoration : none;
     }

.entryHeaderDate a:hover {
     color : #000000;
     text-decoration : underline;
     }

.entryMetadata {
     margin-top: 5px; 
     padding-top: 5px; 
     padding-bottom: 5px; 
     }
  .entryMetadata-content img {
     }
  .entryMetadata ul {
     list-style-type: none;
     }

.entryMetadata li{
   display:block;
   }

.entryMetadata-label {}
     }

.entryLinkbar {
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 11px;
     color: black;
     text-align: right;
     padding: 4px 0px 4px 0px;
     }
  .entryLinkbar ul {
     margin: 0px;
     padding: 0px;
     }
  .entryLinkbar li {
     padding: 0px 5px 0px 5px;
     margin: 0px;     
     display: inline;
     }

/*FOOTER*/

#footer-menu {
     font-size: 11px;
     }
  #footer-menu a, .footer-menu a:visited {
     color: #000000;
     white-space: nowrap;
     padding: 6px;
     text-align: left;
     }

/*SIDEBAR*/
  
  .sidebar {
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 11px;
     margin-right: 20px;
     width: 200px;
     }

.sidebox {
     color: #000000;
     background-color: white;
     margin: 4px 0px 4px 0px;
     }

.sideboxTitle {
     background-color: #EF0000;
     color: white;
     border-top: 2px solid white;
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 12px;
     padding: 4px 0px 4px 8px;     
     text-align: ;
     }

.sideboxContent {
     text-align: left;
     padding: 2px 4px 2px 4px;
     }

.sidebox #profile, .sidebox #latestmonth, .sidebox #search {
     text-align: center;
     }

.sidebox #tags_sidebox {
     text-align: center;
     }

.sidebox #systemlinks {
     text-align: left;
     }

.sidebox #latestmonth table{
     width: 90%;
     margin-left: auto;
     margin-right: auto;
     margin-top: 4px;
     }

.listtitle {
     font-weight: bold;
     }

.profile-label {
     font-weight: bold;
     }

/*OTHER PAGES*/

/* COMMENT PAGE */

.commentHolder {
     color: white;
     background-color: #dddd00;
     border-top: 2px solid #ffffff;
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 12px;
     margin: 4px 0px 4px 0px;
     }

.commentUserinfo {
     text-align: center; 
       margin: 0px 8px 8px 0px;
     
     background-color: #FFA200;
     }

.commentUserinfo-usericon img { 
     border: 0; 
     }
 
  .commentText {
     padding: 6px;
     }

.commentHeader {
     background-color: #DF2500;
     color: white;
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 12px;
     padding: 4px 0px 4px 8px;
     }

.commentHeader a{
     color: #7F220F;
     }

.commentHeaderScreened {
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 12px;
     background-color: #339999;
     padding: 4px 0px 4px 8px;
     }

.commentHeaderSubject {
     font-weight: bold;
     }

.commentLinkbar {
     font-family: ;
     font-size: 11px;
     color: #000000;
     text-align: right;
     padding-top: 4px;
     padding-bottom: 4px;
     }

.commentLinkbar ul {
     margin: 0px;
     padding: 0px;
     }

.commentLinkbar li {
     padding: 0px 5px 0px 5px;
     margin: 0px;
     display: inline;
     }

.replyform {
     background-color: #3322aa;
     color: #000000;
     padding-left: 10px;
     }

#commenttext{
     width:100%;
     }

/*ARCHIVE PAGE*/
  .yearlinks{
     text-align: right;
     }

.yearlink{
     padding-left:4px;
     padding-right: 4px;
     }

.month {
     width: 500px;
     border: 1px solid #ccbbbb;
     margin: 8px 8px 8px 40px;
     }

.daysubjects {
     color: white;
     padding: 8px 8px 8px 40px;
     }

.daytitles {
     text-align: center;
     border: 1px solid #ccbbbb;
     background:#ccbbbb;
     color: white;
     }

.day-blank {
     border: 1px solid #ccbbbb;
    }

.day {
     border: 1px solid #ccbbbb;
     }

.day-date {
     border-right: 1px solid #ccbbbb;
     border-bottom: 1px solid #ccbbbb;
     color: white;
     width: 50%;
     text-align: center;
     }

.day-count {
     width: 50%;
     text-align: center;
     float: right;
     font-size: 20px;
     }

.day-count a {
     text-decoration: none;
     color: white;
     }

/*TAGS PAGE*/

.tagstable, .tagstable td {
     border: 1px solid #ccbbbb;
     }
  .tagstable { width: 750px; }
  
/*CUSTOM LJ ICONS*/

/* so that IE users will see a new image */
* html span.ljuser{
background-image: url(http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2941/ljuserzq9.png) !important;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: left middle;
padding: 0px 16px 16px 0px !important;
}
* html span.ljuser img{
visibility: hidden;
}

/* icon for users */
.ljuser img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif"] {
width: 0;
height: 0;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-image: url(http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2941/ljuserzq9.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0 0 !important;
}

/* icon for communities */
.ljuser img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif"] {
width:0;
height: 0;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-image: url(http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/6721/communitybb7.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0 0 !important;
}

/* icon for sponsored communities */
.ljuser img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/sponcomm.gif"] {
width:0;
height: 0;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-image: url(http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/8223/sponsoredcommunityke3.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0 0 !important;
}

/* icon for syndicated */
.ljuser img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif"] {
width: 0;
height: 0;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-image: url(http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/6848/rsssyndicatedok2.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0 0 !important;
}

/* icon for news */
.ljuser img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/newsinfo.gif"] {
width:0;
height: 0;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-image: url(http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/384/newscc0.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0 0 !important;
}

/* icon for open-id */
.ljuser img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/openid-profile.gif"] {
width:0;
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background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-image: url(http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4170/openiduservs1.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0 0 !important;
}

/*icon for locked entries*/
.entryHeaderSubject img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/icon_protected.gif"]{
width: 0;
height: 0;
background: url(http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7529/lockedbn8.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0px 0px !important;
}

/*icon for private entries*/
.entryHeaderSubject img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/icon_private.gif"]{
width: 0;
height: 0;
background: url(http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/5745/privaterg0.png) !important;
padding: 16px 16px 0px 0px !important;
}

/*icon for locked entries in sidebar*/
#summary img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/icon_protected.gif"]{
width: 0;
height: 0;
padding: 16px 16px 0px 0px;
background: url(http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7529/lockedbn8.png) !important;
}

/*icon for private entries in sidebar*/
#summary img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/icon_private.gif"]{
width: 0;
height: 0;
padding: 16px 16px 0px 0px;
background: url(http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/5745/privaterg0.png) !important;
}

/*icon for user info in sidebar*/
#profile img[src="http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif"]{
width: 0;
height: 0;
padding: 16px 16px 0px 0px;
background: url(http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/2941/ljuserzq9.png) !important;
}

o1. Just head over here and copy and past the codes into the CSS box!
o2. Download everything here!

Let me know how it turns out :D!

And to show that I'm not just making eyecandy for livejournal...

Remember those Utena chibi sketches I made? Well this is a little screenshot of Anthy w00t!

Some more detail...I better get this inked soon , don't want a repeat of the 2 month art hiatus.

Hope you enjoyed everything posted here today and I hope that the layout works well!

-kakumei_tenjou

Experimentation Leads to Creativity!

2007-11-14T04:22:10Z

It's been quite some time since I updated this place with something that was "complete" looking. It's my hope that what I'm about to post will make up for that...

Started this one a loooong time ago! And I've been working on it every chance I could get. Unfortunately school and an even more demanding job saps away from my free time. And the times that I do want to draw I'm just exhausted...hopefully with the Christmas holidays around the corner I'll get a chance to draw and colour things a little faster instead of taking weeks on end to finish something like this did. Anywhoo this was made for a friend of mine on a gaiaonline art "shop" thread , all she wanted was a picture of her gaian avatar and a bridge in the background scene. With a reference picture of her avatar and the bridge I ended up making 5 sketches with 2 that I really liked. This was one of them and the other , because I feel horrible for taking so long to colour this , I'm going to finish the other picture free of charge :D. Hope she likes both!

Feeling exhilarated by how that picture came out , and having some recently finished lineart sitting on my brand new pc , last week Monday I started to colour it. This was a nice little experiment in cel-shading since I really have NO clue how to do it.

I can't very well use Revolutionary Girl Utena themed screen names [kakumei_tenjou , utena-tenjou10 and others] and not draw some fanart related to the series , especially the main character! So here's a little chibi for all the RGU fans to enjoy!
EDIT: Here are some screenshots for you to enjoy!

And noticing the almost blank expression on Miss Tenjou's face , spending too much time reading some of those crazy encyclopedia dramatica articles(especially this one)and having a pen tool and internet tutorials at my disposal...well...I had to be a little silly...

You know something? Making speech bubbles is fun :P. And so is...

Making matching avatars :D! So now I have a "LOL WUT" for just that special occasion :3!

Now just to finish the pictures I promised people then I'm set...school , work , give me some time to my self...PLEASE!! And that's all for today but hopefully more will come soon.

-kakumei_tenjou

Sketchtastic!

2007-10-16T16:13:55Z

Here's a little something quick. A little while ago a special event happened in my life as an artist and as a member of the popular art community deviantArt. As a result of my extreme elation and out and out excitement I went and offered to make free , simple cg images for 5 people. Surprisingly , from all the replies , there are people who actually want free stuff from me :O. That in it's self leaves me touched ♥...

One of the people who is to get free art is ol' revulo. She wanted me to draw a bouegen which is a really neat , fictional race of characters she created. So spending a day reading through most of her role play and art related postings about them , I took pencil to sketchbook paper. For this , I really tried overcoming that "wonderful" lefthander trait to smudge everything because of the way the heel of the hand rests on the page. I thought wearing tight latex gloves could do it , but I was wrong , so very wrong D:...Surprisingly though , when the sketch was scanned , it came out incredibly bright(hmmm Windows vista+lexmark multifunction printers=Clean sketches o_O?). Then a little adjustments of the brightness , contrast and a little erasing here and there in photoshop and voila! Then to make it look a little professional-ish I added a border and my signature(on this deviantArt version). Would you guys laugh at me a lot if I told you that I spent half an hour trying to sign my name? I don't know if my hand got tired or my brain stopped working but I couldn't spell my last name if my life depended on it...

"FRANXIo...no"
"FRANCS...nada!"
"FRANCI..*the letters veer off the page*!!!"
"FRANCIII*drops the pen* yay!"
"FRANCIS...I DON'T LIKE HOW THOSE LETTERS LOOK!!!!!!"
"FRANCIS...OH MAI FUGGIN' GAWD FINALLY! I SPELL MAH NAME YO'!"

...I fail at writing apparently D:!

So that's all we have for the moment , but if you'd like to know more about the event that I have described , let me direct you to some links:

A thank you from the artBLOG.
A shout out from the livejournal.

And that's all for now!

-kakumei_tenjou

Back to the grindstone...again!

2007-10-08T19:38:30Z

Hi there everyone , long time , no update! Well you see , my computer decided to up and die on me , so my mother and I went out and bought a new one. After spending a hour so getting the basic setup going and another day reinstalling my favourite fonts sets , it was time to get back to the business of making art(and doing stuff for school...I hate you school!)...

Now if you're paying attention , you'll notice that this is the inked version of this sketch. I started inking this on my older pc and when it conked out of me , I thought I would have to start all over again. Lucky for me , the lovely tech support guys at Future Shop burnt all the files on my hard drive onto a backup cd...remember kids , BACK UP YOUR SHIT!!!!! This image with inked in Corel Painter IX.5 with my Wacom Graphire3 pen tablet.

Once we have our lines it's time to add some colour!

Hooray for official artwork! It's alot better to sample the colours you need from an official picture like this one instead of picking and guessing which photoshop swatch looks "about" right. Note to self , draw in Utena's breast pocket .__.!

And since I'm not one for starting off something new with out finishing any older projects , let's take a look at what I'd LIKE to finish SOON. If only school and work would LET ME DRAW FOR AT LEAST A DAMN HOUR OR TWO. I am seriously considering putting my photoshop PSD files onto a flash drive , taking my older tablet with me to school , commandeering an Apple computer with photshop(despite all things Apple being the work of satan) or installing photoshop onto my laptop and doing something with my ridiculously long spare periods between classes. I really should *sigh*!

Made this back when I thought I would never be able to use silkscreen font again. Turns out , I just needed the Truetype font downloaded and just click on the font icon to install it to the windows fonts. My watermarks are nothing without my silkscreen D:! And I swear , one day I will include a link to an artsite instead of just my deviantArt page. AS GOD IS MY WITNESS I WILL HAVE MY ART PAGE |D! But in the mean time , let me make more descent art to show off on a page :O!

Also while playing around with this new computer and photoshop , I came across a new rangnarok online server. Most servers have a forum/message board component to their and where there's message boards , there's forum avatars and forum signatures...

Then I decided that I wanted a border on this...take two!

Somehow , to me , it looks a lot cleaner with the thin white border.

And a matching signature image. Man I go nuts with the circle-y vector thingies and I love the hanging ornaments junk XD. Maybe I should try combining my digital anime art with vectors some how :O?

I'm determined to upload or at least progress in one of my wip's(work[s] in progress) so as soon as I'm done watching Dr.Phil I'm sitting in front of that computer and doing what I have to do. So that's all the artsy stuff for the time being.

-kakumei_tenjou