Monday, January 29, 2007

not out of expectation... 期待はずれ。。。

I am currently struggling with the introduction of manga. Since I wanted it to be different from others, it became more confusing even to me. It occured to me that I need more than just a few days to come up with a nice introduction to me two-three years worth of work.

Friday, January 26, 2007

haha....

Guess who I'm asking to proofread my work! Yes, my older brother who is more shonen manga maniac than I! Yep. If I was to draw one that's aimed toward opposite sex, then just ask one of them- well, that was my line of thought. Then, comes the word "however." I must say that he's a good teacher. He is very good at complementing too. However, he'd better tell me his honest opinion (if it sucks, admit that it sucks) 100%.

Ok... I'm drawing second page to my intended series, and it seems as though it is very similar to Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy. Wonder why...

Sunday, January 21, 2007

another drawing...


© 2007 waterdroplet
Click the graphic above to enlarge it
上の画像をクリックして大きくしてね。


It took me two days (actually 1.5 days), inspired completely out of blue... I still need to practice other characters. Well, this is the main character of my manga from now. I used mostly felt tip pen (.Too), and I used a little patch of screen tone only around the left eye. I managed to draw this nicer than last time since I used tracer box : p. Therefore, I was able to draw this character facing right. Yes... I cheated since I can't draw well when the character's facing in an opposite direction.

これは二日(本当は1.5日)かかって描いた。 また、オリジナルの物。まだまだ他の人物像をかかないとねー。まぁ、これが今から描く漫画の主人公です。ぺん(.Tooの)で殆ど描きました。トーンを使ったのは、左目のほんの少しの所だけ。ライトボックスで下地を原稿用紙に移したので右に向いてる顔を描けました! 右向きに描くのは、まだまだ下手なので。。。少し猫の手(ライトボックス)を借りました。

My first 4 column manga 初めての4コマ漫画


© 2007 waterdroplet
Click the graphic above to enlarge it
上の画像をクリックして大きくしてね。
It's not one of my ok ones, but well, it was my first attempt. I only used felt tip pens.

うーん。初めての四コマ漫画だから良くないけど、まぁーいいか!.Tooのペンだけで描きました。

三月、数日間の屋久島旅行決定! The trip to Yakushima Island in March's decided!!


© 2007 waterdroplet


三月に屋久島に家族旅行に行く事に決まって、嬉しい半分、世界自然遺産の屋久杉か、もののけ姫の舞台の森野どちらかを見なければいけない事になった。うーん。どうしようかな?
(この絵は、初めてデジタルだけで描きました。三十分で。)

My family decided to have a last family trip to Yakushima Island, the island in middle of nowhere in Japan for a couple of days in March. The only problem remains now, is that there's only one trip I can take, the hiking trip to Yakusugi or the forest where the film, Princess Mononoke, was based on. Hmmm.... which one should I take?
(This was the first time I drew entirely on computer. It took me 30 minutes.)

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

現在、エンスト気味

今日は、いつもの様に始まり、大抵、三時まで休まず、飲まず食わずの仕事熱中ぶりを披露。だが、それは仕事のめどがつくと、タイヤの空気が抜けたようにふやける。そして、仕事が日が暗くなる頃に終わると、電車の中での居眠り女王。それを毎日繰り返す。そんな人生つまらないので、我がの趣味は多色な方だ。

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

2nd scene, first draft まだまだ編集がいる描きおろし漫画2

© 2007 waterdroplet
Click the graphic above to enlarge it
上の画像をクリックして大きくしてね。

The motive for drawing this: I simply wanted to draw grassland, a full figure, and barefoot scene. Just random, but those were something I haven't tried before. As a result, the grass looks strange. Must deviate from drawing a stick like figure for it might look anorexic rather than sports type. Also, I wanted a warmer atmosphere than last time's. A little break in a warm spot of sunlight.... That's what I imagined in my mind....

I did this over this last Sat, but I haven't got around to editing it yet. I made mistakes around this front figure's head so the white out turned pretty lumpy... The formal paper for drawing mangas have rulers that are bluish in color (so it won't show up on the photocopy), but those lines show up clearly on scanner.
I wonder if it's better to draw them first in normal paper or those without grids in digital mangas. It took me about half a day to draw up this one. It probably took me just a few hours, but oi.... It was easy to draw but made quite a mess that resulted
in me taking more time to edit those mistakes. First, I used a darker tone for sky. It resulted in a smudged hair, and a huge clump of white out. Similar mistake in the shadow area of the jacket and one boot. Ugh. I used four types of screen tones in this one, mostly recycled from previous stuffs. The shirt uses same tone as the ripple scene of my previous manga post. The boot has the tone I used for shirt last time. The new ones I used are sky and this front figure's pants. I'm broke so it's better this way.
Like the last time, I used similar materials except I just scanned this and edited major mistakes with Photoshop for just a few minutes before posting. Well, I have an excuse of having a hangover while doing this one!

これを描いた動機:ただ 草原、全体の人間像、そして、裸足(何故かって言うと、理由は分からない。)を描きたかった。どれも、初めて描くからなので。 でも、ちょっとスリムな人物書きすぎかな?そうしたら、運動抜群な人よりも、拒食症に見えるかも。。。 これは、前よりも暖かい感じにした。ちょっこっとなひなたごっこ+おさぼり。
これを土曜日に描いたんだけど、編集する時間がもったいなくて全然していない。この前面にある人物の頭の毛のあたりに修正液を使ったため、変に印刷された。漫画の原稿用紙って薄い青色のガイド線があるのだけど(コピー機には写らない色)、スキャナーには丸写し。こんな時には、線の無い原稿用紙を使うべきかな?ちなみに、これにかかった時間は半日。空の色を始めは濃いトーンを使ったため、もっと変になった。そして、左の上着の影の辺りと靴のインクがはみ出すためにそこも汚くなった。描くのは簡単、編集が面倒な結果になった。トーンは四種類使った。半分はもちろん前に使った物のリサイクル。シャツは、前の水のシーンに使った物。靴は、前のシャツと同じのトーン。 新しいのは空とズボンに使った物だけ。お金が足りないから、節約、節約。前と同じ要素で描いたが、ただスキャンして、Photoshopで数分編集しただけ。まぁ、許してよ。二日酔いの時だったからねー。

Monday, January 15, 2007

Oy vey....

Another year began nice and smooth, and it seemed all like it on Fri. It was the day of my work place's New Year's party. The day began with me corrupting my colleague's morals by convincing her not to drive but have a drink with me (the restaurant had all-you-can-drink option for two hours). At a party, I drank three cocktails for the first time(one was called *blush* sex on the beach... where everyone in my lab had a sip) and had a sweet consequence of sleeping like a pig and having a very upset stomach (i.e. hangover) on the next day. Swearing never to do it again, but well... I got drinks worth the price I paid. : p


p.s. I had a miso soup made with boar meat last weekend for the first time in my life. It's a year of the boar, and we are into the season where you can get those meat in a country side of Japan (i.e. within 30 minutes of where I live). It was oink oink yummy.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

haha... I wonder if it's misleading...( ̄ー ̄) real story ハハハちょっと勘違いされる?実話

His face was merely just a few inches away from me, and I could feel his warm and moist breath close to my neck. His big brown eyes stared into my face, twinkling with great expectation. The time stopped, and the ticking of clock faded away into the background. Tension was in the air.
Then, I made the next move.
"Sorry buddy," said I and gulped down the last piece of toast I had in my left hand. A few seconds after witnessing with a horrifying look as the golden piece disappeared into my mouth, I heard his big snort of disgust, his version of cursing under his breath.

However, he stopped sulking when he got his dog food soon after.

彼の顔が数センチと言うほどの所にあった。そして、彼の生暖かく、湿った息が私の首をくすぶる。彼の大きな茶色の瞳が、私の顔を見つめ、期待に満ちていた。
時は止まり、時計の針の音が消え去り、張り詰めた空気が二人を包み込んだ。

だが、始めに手を打ったのは、この私であった。
「早いもん勝ち!」と言い、左手にあった最後のトーストを飲み込んだ。
黄金色の物体が私の口の中に消え去っていったのを恐ろしそうに見ていた数秒後、彼は、大きい鼻息を鳴らした。きっと、彼バージョンの悪口であろう。

しかし、そのすぐ後ほどに100% むっつり顔の彼がドッグフードを嬉しそうに食べていた。



(゚∇^*)

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Ok...

I will give you a minute to reveal something about myself.

Alas, a minute has already passed.... I must quit wasting my time and get back to work....

一分で私の正体を明かしてあげよう。。。

あっ、もう一分がたってしまった。ろくでもない事をするよりも、仕事に戻ろう。


: p

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

最近の書き下ろし漫画 (^.^)my latest newly drawn manga page

Japanese version/日本語版

© 2007 waterdroplet

English version /英語版

© 2007 waterdroplet


If you click on one of these images above, it will become bigger. 上の画像をクリックすると大きくなるよ。

I don't think so, but if anyone is crazy enough to use these for their own good, better warn me beforehand...

きっと、そうならないだろうが、もし何方かがこの画像をどうしても使いたいと言うならば、使う前に私に教えてほしい(でも、まだまだ下手ッピだから、これを使いたいと言う人の気の方がおかしいと私は思う)。

Yep! It took about three nights using:

felt tip pens (Too. company multi-something ones, mostly 0.05 and 0.1)
black IC tape(since I wasn't bothered to draw borderlines
manga paper sold in Kawachi, Shinsaibashi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan (A4 sized, B5 printing page)
white-out(perfect for hiding a little glitch in drawing)
IC screen and other screen tones (8 in total, bought also in Kawachi)
paper knife (used to shave tones and cut them to the size I want)
scissors (for tones)
tracing paper to protect the original work
scatter brain (the ability to create and concentrate on making absolutely meaningless piece of work)
a free time
Adobe Photoshop CS2 (where I adjusted the "Level" scale so the scanned file looks like the original- got this skill off the translation work)
ComicStudio Pro (where I added two more screen tones and inserted the text)
a few free fonts I got off the web
scanner( scanned the graphic at 600dpi, greyscale)

*The final file was transported from ComicStudio Pro to Adobe Photoshop in 600dpi file, and it was rescaled to 1400pixels in height in the "Save for Web" option in Adobe Photoshop CS2(shrunk the file size from ~10MB (~6000pixels in height) jpeg to good old 400 bytes jpeg file). This way, the graphic was in a pretty good quality despite downsizing a lot.

これを作成するのに三晩かかった。。。これを作るのに使った材料は:



Too.社のペン(0.05と0.1が主に使った。MULTI何とかと言う方。)
ICテープ(枠の線を描くのが面倒だから)
漫画原稿用紙(大阪府心斎橋にあるKAWACHI店で購入したA4サイズ、B5印刷面の物)
修正液(ちょっとしたミスの証拠隠滅に最適)
IC スクリーントーン(これもKAWACHI店で。合計8種類ぐらい使った。)
カッター(トーンを削ったり、ほしい大きさにするときに使う)
はさみ
トレース紙(完成した原稿用紙を守るため)
腐った脳みそ(意味不明な事を想像し、集中できる能力)
暇な時間
Adobe Photoshop CS2 (これでスキャンした物を実物と同じに見えるようにする。画像の「レベル」を変えるのと、ゴミをここで取る。この方法は、ボランティア翻訳の用事から教わった。)
ComicStudio Pro (ここで台詞ともう二つのトーンを付け足した。)
ウェッブでダウンロードしたカッコイイフォント
スキャナー(600dpi, gray scaleで原稿用紙をスキャン)

*最後のファイルは600dpiのままで、ComicStudio Pro からAdobe Photoshop に転送、"Save for Web"選択で1400pixelsの高さに変換(これで大体、10MBの画像ファイル (高さ、~6000pixels) jpeg からウェッブに向いてる、 400 bytes jpeg 画像ファイルに圧縮できた)。 ちょっとややっこしく聞こえるが、これが高質な画像のままでだいぶファイルを圧縮できた一つの方法だった。

It's just a page, but well, I decided to make this scene after looking at the ripple like screen tone I bought about a week ago. It's so beautiful.... It's perfect for a heart warming scene, or well, this depressing scene of a story I'm making since 2 years ago (I started drawing manga since about 11 months ago so it needs more improvement). It gives a little bit more flare to illustration less piece of writing, wot?
Just a note, but I used three types of hair in this page. 1st part's just plain black, 2nd is made from fine lines, and the third is made from mostly scratching a tone. Just experimenting with it since I haven't done it for a while. The last scene is a bit sloppy, but well, I didn't want to draw too much dead people.... It's quite depressing anyway. I erased some lines with white out, and it came out better than when they were left alone.
The only problem I encountered when making this is that one software crashed last night, only to find out that I didn't save it at all.... damn it!

Friday, January 05, 2007

yes.... another manga otaku writing

Yes.... I finally managed to find a screen tone that 07 Ghost and others used.... The only problem is that it wasn't among cheap ones (~250 yens) but 500 yen each IC screen!! Arrrrgh! 5 bucks for a screen toner? You've gotta be kidding!

...

Well, that's what I want to say but bought a bit yesterday. I really should be working on it more since I am loaded with screen tones in my room. I don't waste money on alcohol, smoking, or drugs, but this is .... a lot... must stop must stop. Must do something about this....

Haaaaaaaaapppppppy New Years!!

明けましておめでとうございます!
Oi... perhaps late by 4-5 days? Oh, well. I started my work yesterday after a week of being a couch potato but jump straight into a 3 day weekend holiday! Yay!

Anyway, I have a little confession. I bought a newly published manga, Tegami Bachi or Letter Bee. I happened to see its ad on subway, and since the drawing was so cute, I was so tempted. Then, I found out that I had some money left in 図書カード(book card) with me still which I got for free. Therefore, I bought it with only 11 yen(~10 cents). It had a great art (used mostly ink instead of tone like 07Ghost). Good book to practice drawing.

I am in a good mood anyway. I showed my older brother over the holiday about my first attempt in manga and tones, and what he said was: "Is that really done by you?"
Ok... I wonder if it was a compliment or vice versa.... Once I make a one-shot, I will post it on the other blog. The only problem I have with it is that I still can't draw clothing and male characters tend to look so similar, and I want it to make more male like instead of feminine like most stupid mangas. Ok... perhaps it wasn't just one problem, but it will do for now.