Luffy Figure & Random & Egao Kimi Edited Chp 5

I was working in the lab today and hit my head on a steel angle which was part of a frame to hold up my jack… Initially the angle was not there and I would never hit my head… I guess I am still not used to the extra piece sticking out under my jack. If I wear my hard hat, I am sure I will hit every single thing near my test setup because it is so cramped over there <_<

Went for a big lunch after school because I was hungry. Have been eating too much LOL Richmond food is the best here, although never comparable to Hong Kong food ;P

Also bought one of the new (new here, but I think not new in Japan) One Piece figures… one of those which you need to be lucky to get the one you want. The store person wanted me to buy a set, but I frankly told him I had no money LOL So I got one… and it is Luffy~!!

The Luffy parts~ It was so difficult to connect the head to the body… It would be better if I can get Zoro, but I won’t complain because I am fine with either Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Sanji or Chopper. I don’t like Robin, Franky or Brook because I think their designs were weird (these are figures of their designs two years after the war at Marineford, so the figures are pretty new I guess).

After assembled~ Luffy cost me a fortune… but I want to buy something to support Oda-sensei… and that’s it. I don’t think I will be buying more One Piece merchandise XD

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Random doodle done a few days ago for Yotsuki Kurohira from Devil x Cross. That one-shot is now on hiatus and will be redrawn into a short series when I am done with Kira Ouji. I think I may even make Yotsuki’s hair longer ;D

And lastly, after so many weeks, I have finished chapter 5 of Egao Kimi Edited. Took me a while because I did not touch teh story at all during Christmas, and I could not think of a nice bridge from the current chapter to the ending… But anyways, Egao Kimi will be ending with 6 chapters. I am not sure if Kai will break them down further for the manga version… but let’s see~

The chapter will be updated on Darkness Studios in my next site update. (Too lazy to do it now XD)

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CHAPTER 5 THINGS ALWAYS GET WORSE

“What is your name?” The golden haired girl from Yume’s childhood appeared in her dream.

“Everyone calls me Yume-chan!” Yume answered.

“I will never forget you, Yume-chan.”

Yume woke up. The surrounding furniture and curtains were white, reminding her that she was still in the infirmary. On the chair beside the bed her school bag sat alone. Tsukiyo was gone, because her bag was not there. Since Tsukiyo did not study in the same school, she needed to leave early. Yume could understand.

Tsukiyo did not seem to remember her, although the girl back then had said she would never forget. Humans make promises easily, and they break them as easily, therefore Yume did not blame her. It had been so many years. There would be no way to remember a stranger who gave you a mere bun when you were small.

Yume got out of bed. She heard a faint sound behind the curtains hiding her bed from the infirmary office. Slowly she pulled back the curtain. The medical teacher was already in, working on some documents at the desk. She looked up as Yume walked out.

“Good morning. How are you feeling today, dear?” The teacher asked.

“I am much better,” Yume said, then noticing the clock on the wall, she gasped. “Ha… Half past nine!?”

———————–

-Ki Hiwatari

Random~

The number of images I have named “random” on my photobucket account has reached 185! “Random2″ images has reached 65, “Random3″ image count is 42, and I still have “Random4″, 5, 6… and so on. That shows how I abuse the word “random” XD

Still working on my YP entry, so you see no new stuff uploaded from me. Now only 8 pages to go, and these 8 pages has not been drafted yet… Also, I don’t have an ending for my one-shot yet *fails* Let’s see what I can whip up within 8 pages…

Made the sample buttons for the Canada set… the prints look a but darker than how they are shown on monitor, but now the Canadian horse look more like a black horse XD (and most of them are supposed to be black according to Wiki)

And I have realized… I have to draw Mini and Comi buttons before MiniComi… I think our treasurer is looking forward to them (or not? LOL)

Next thing is… starting on the draft for the Darkness Studio store banner (I also abbreviate it as DS… not the Nintendo DS…). I am trying to get the new layout up by February, but I am not sure how long colouring this banner will take me. It is another hellish background to paint, this time involving trees, water and earth T_T

You can possibly guess who this is without colour. They come in a pair LOL (No, not BL). I should probably make an image for Alya too so it is not like I am always drawing these two annoying people =v=b Perhaps a poster set which will never sell? I don’t know~ *shrugs*

-Ki Hiwatari

“Canada, eh?” Buttons

Initially it was my mom’s idea to draw a set of buttons related to Canada, but at first I did not know what to draw. After some time, I thought why not draw some animals? Since my button designs are mainly chibi and animals will look good. Therefore, now I have come up with this set of Canadian animals button. The beaver and Canadian horse are national animals (according to Wikipedia <- I really don't know about the horse). Polar bear is from Hetalia *shot* and the moose… I saw it standing outside a Canadian souvenir shop XD I was also thinking of drawing the black bear, but I think it would be too similar to the polar bear (only different colour) so I scrapped the idea in the end.

And now here's the finished set~~

Hope you like it XD Buttons are 1.25″ in diameter and sold for CAD$2 each. You can use the order form at Darkness Studios Store or email me directly to order. Shipping is excluded. Payment accepted in PayPal (or credit card through PayPal) only.

-Ki Hiwatari

First Snow of 2012

Snowy day~~ But I have to work in the lab in school. Due to the snow I had to drive to school today, and it took me longer than usual because everyone was driving slowly… Left home at 8am and got to school at 9:30am. I was supposed to meet with my prof at 9:00am, but he was even later than me LOL

Took a few pics (again) while walking back to my building. The weather’s freezing… I couldn’t hold the camera for long and had to “escape” into every building I came across…

Took this photo from the second floor of the parkade. It was snowing outside and I didn’t want to go out yet. Look at all the cars covered in snow in the open lot! LOL at people who does not want to pay a dollar more for a sheltered parkade XD

LSC (Life Science Centre) along the way~ The road was actually very nice with trees on both sides if not for the unevenly scattered footprints on the ground, the random rubbish bins and cars parked all over the driveways and roads <_<

The new Engineering Design Centre, which the school forcefully squeezed money out of the past and present students (including me) to build for the next generation students. I use this as one of my hideouts (even though it is for undergraduates) now that someone cleverly closed the grad lounge and grad computer lab.

And the ugly chunk of concrete on the right side of the above photo is my building~ LOL Too ugly to be posted.

Test (I mean experiment) did not go extremely well today, but at least I got a part done~ I am taking tomorrow off for melting-snow/ice reasons.

-Ki Hiwatari

FMA: The Sacred Star of Milos – Rant

… Today I went to watch the new FMA movie in the cinema. I should say I am not a great fan of FMA. I have only watched the anime and read a few volumes of the manga, and I went to watch this movie because my ticket is free (XD) and it says it is in HD.

Nothing wrong with the storyline or the characters. The typical FMA story with the involvement of the philosopher’s stone… I am surprised the theatre is not even 1/3 full given there are only two shows for this in Canada. So the first thing that ticked me off is… the language <_<… When you give Japanese cast in the movie information, DO NOT SHOW DUBS!!! Not a fan of dubs myself because the characters sound funny… unless you dub it in an Asian language without all those 8-pitch-higher voices for children. Even if it is dubbed, it should be acceptable. The real thing that makes my experience so bad is the quality of the audio. Basically NO ONE could understand what they are talking about, because the dialogues are like mumbling. I am not sure if this is a problem of the disc itself or the equipment of the theatre. I doubt it is the problem of the voice actors. I bet I could understand more if it is in raw Japanese <_<… The BG music is totally fine though…

Someone actually suggested to the staff to show subtitles… and the staff said there was no such option, and there was nothing they could do… so in the end the whole movie was mumbling ;D And… the end. I stayed with some true FMA fans until the end… because there wasn't any indication that people could refund their tickets (LOL).

And last thing is… I don't really know what is HD about the movie… I think it is about the same quality as normal anime on the big screen…

Okay, end of rant. Not a big FMA fan, but I would have enjoyed the movie more, if not for the audio problem. I think I need to stream the Japanese version online or buy the DVD when it is out.

-Ki Hiwatari

Gintama & Prof Layton Buttons & MS Game Talk

The test run for the Gintama and Professor Layton buttons are done!! Don’t they look great? LOL

Buttons are sold for CAD$2 each at Darkness Studios Store, or you can email me to order.

By the way, I will be incorporating the store into the main site soon, but the alternate link for the store will still work ;D

And second thing, I have been playing Maple Story for a long time, but only new I try to take screenshots *fails* I tried out the new Demon Slayer class, but it is not as awesome as I thought. For example… I prefer long-ranged attacks (because I know I die fast), and the new yellow bar thingie for Demon SLayers (forgot what those points are called) are used up so fast that the replenish rate cannot keep up. That’s why I think I will stick with my Cannoneer (After all it is similar to engineer *so not*).

Here’s is a first screenshot~ Feel free to find me on the Nova server. In-game character name is FiniteElemen (t is missing due to character limitations).

Still getting pwned by monsters so much… because I am not cut fit for gaming… <____<

-Ki

Darkness Studios New Layout~

A new year means “rennovating” my website, therefore I have coded a new layout for Darkness Studios~ Still featuring Naru from To Where I Belong…

A blue and white ice theme, keeping the tables and columns layout, but changing the menu bar into a drop-down navigation. This clears a column which makes the page look simpler ;D The layout took me a day to code. The extra coding is to edit the headings on each of the pages because I add in a // XD

The thing that took me the longest is drawing the banner. From sketch to finish it took me 10+ hours. I changed the way he sits many times during sketch because I did not like how he looked <_____<

But finally I am done! Here are a few WIP shots~

Starting colouring… The cape is a bit bright I think… I think I should not have added in the highlights…

The other side of the cape. I usually use a darker colour for the inside of capes, don’t know why…

More blue and brown… Because Naru is an ice mage I made blue and white as the main theme. Leather belt and boots are usually brown ;D

Applying shadows to the white parts…

Starting to paint the background… it is supposed to be “pointy” ice wall/rock kind of thing…

When you start to not know what you are getting at…

Some dirt on the ground… and done~ LOL

There is also a widescreen wallpaper available for download at Darkness Studios if you are interested. Enjoy~

-Ki Hiwatari

Not a good idea to ink late at night…

Initially today’s goal was to finish toning one page and to draw the banner of the new Darkness Studios site… However, I have spent so long editing the pages of LD2 (paginating backwards is not as easy as it sounds…) I need to stay up late to finish my banner sketch…

As mentioned before (did I?) featuring Naru from To Where I Belong again… but this time I am drawing it traditionally instead of a digital fast sketch.

It may be a bad idea to ink it right away because it is late now and I can’t think clearly on where I should apply the shadows and heavier line weight. But I want to try out my new pen nibs so I inked it XD

I don’t think I will be inking the background. I will try to CG the background in… the theme will be ice, but I have never drawn an icy background before… so this will be a challenge XD Hopefully it will turn out good~ I also want to add in some sort of texture I have seen somewhere… but I don’t know what it called and I have no idea how to apply textures… I guess it’s experiment time~

-Ki Hiwatari

Le Diable Volume 2 ready for print soon~

Thank you so much to Catz for being the proofreader for this volume! She is done now, so I will finish editing the pages by tonight and hopefully send them off to print next week.

Here comes the screenshot of the ultimate working window!! Watching anime, reading the proofread script and editing the pages all done at the same time XD

Preorders for the manga volumes will be open as soon as I get my sample copy and take some photos. Stay tuned for the blog update coming (hopefully) soon!!

-Ki Hiwatari

One Piece Buttons (Real Thing)

Test run #1 for buttons today since I need to get something printed for mom… The first set is One Piece~

I think they turned out great!! (The Robin button was much better than I thought because at first I thought the dark purple in her hat and clothes will be very similar to the black in her hair… Now selling for CAD$2 each at Darkness Studios Store.

I will be test printing the Professor Layton and Gintama buttons next~ May post them up so stay tuned~

-Ki Hiwatari