Akemi

Live action Dragon Ball

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:50:26 GMT

I'm sorry, I just have break my long silence to comment on the Live Action Dragon Ball!

And yes, my pressing question really is, "how are they going to do his hair!?"

Colour!

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 06:02:19 GMT

My first image of 2008. As I said, I'm falling in love with colour. I couldn't stand it in the past, I thought it ruined a good image.

Right now, I'm basically experimenting with different colour styles. From browsing my paintings on Deviant Art in 2007, I see that I basically stuck to cel style painting.

From that experience, my eyes have noticed the various styles that are out there and are itching to try them. So far, I notice that I'm leaning towards bright colours, and an incomplete sketchy style of painting that doesn't cover up the pencil lines like in the images below.

Happy New Year

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 07:06:59 GMT

speed paint image, to mark the new year.

I must say that I've never been a fan of colour. Give me a clean black and white image, manga style, and i'll drool over it.

But, I think i've started to fall in love with colour, just a little bit.

Rebooted!

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:44 GMT

Click to view the image in it's full glory!

Last week, I posted the pencils here for this piece of art based on the old show Reboot!

When I heard that there was a contest to procure artists, writers and other production staff for the re-imagined show here in Vancouver, I was really excited. But didn't get my act together in time to submit art. Plus I heard about it only 4 days before. ;P

A month later, I couldn't get these guys out of my head. So here they are!

Heroes S2!

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:27:14 GMT

wow. I've not posted for awhile. Been meaning to post an article on the Yaoi Hero, some paintings and line art that I've been working on.

But the thing that dragged me back was the Heroes Season premiere! Poor Hiro! His hero, Takezo Sensei, was a gaijin!!!?? and an uncouth one at that. *lol* that was well worth the crappy season ending.

AE 2007 Begins

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 06:34:28 GMT

It's my first year attending a convention as an active participant in selling my works...Made bookmarks, postards and 8x11 prints...Skipped on the buttons as I didn't get my act together in time.

I had fun last year just talking to people, I know this year will be a blast as well. Here are some sample images from my gallery...Will upload more soon.

http://akemiart.deviantart.com/gallery/

I was hoping to print and bind the short-story manga I finished this year and promote it...But I'm just too tired. So enjoy it online before I print it off.

http://www.comicspace.com/commondays/comics.php?action=gallery&comic_id=8919

Good bye Harry!

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:16:37 GMT

So after reading the last Harry Potter book over the weekend, I couldn't resist creating this fan art for it. Hand inked! Lord it's so much easier than doing it digitally.

My thoughts on the final book that though it's fast paced and full of action, it's bascially a book about the final showdown with old Voldemort. The least interesting character in the series.

What drew me to Harry Potter, other that the magnificent world that she created, where her wild and wacky cast of characters: Mad Eye Moody, Snape, Ron, the twins Fred & George, Rita Skeeter...Besides them, no matter his tragic past, Voldemort seems the sterotype of 'evil bad guy' to me. Which means that he suddenly gets dumber and more one dimensional as the story nears its end.

All in all, a great series by JK Rowling. I've really enjoyed the visual feast that movies brought to life.

Naruto - Concept, Ink & Paint

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 17:20:21 GMT

Every image that I've worked on for the past few months, i've forced myself to make it full colour and as detailed that I can make it. This image is done for the AE 2007 Artist Alley. I'm going for a total of 6 full-colour images to sell. Plus a couple of buttons...

I've been trying digitally inking in photoshop and that's painfully slow. I need to get back to hand inking. It's messy but I've got utter control and I'll save my hands from Carpal Tunnel.

Online manga award Anime Evolution 2006

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 04:37:35 GMT

So my prize finally got sent to me for winning at AE last year. It's a book on Illustrating with Copic markers. It's quite a neat book, I didn't realise that it was possible to get all that variation in the colour.

I currently prefer to do my painting with Photoshop, and a glance at the price of the markers make me wince. But eventually I'll be forced to get some as working digitally is hard on the hands, even with the Wacom tablet.

Zazzle

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:58:44 GMT

Cool. Testing out the online Zazzle service to see if it'd be worth it to order postcards, stickers and pins online and then sell it at the Anime Evolution convention coming up. The prices, even with shipping, seem good but I've not compared them to Staples or Kinko's here yet.

It's also awesome that while testing the service out, two of my images won awards on Zazzle. The first award was for the Top 10 Postcards views and the second award was a Today's Best Award. Both awards were won for the two Fairy images.

Inuyasha

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:49:22 GMT

just trying out different styles of painting and trying to always include backgrounds.

deer light

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:01:50 GMT

Scott McCloud

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 16:31:16 GMT

Scott McCloud stopped by in Vancouver on the way to Alaska. I managed to get my book Understanding Comics signed and chat with him for a few moments.

My overall impression of him was of a very passionate and jovial guy that looked nothing like the cartoon version of himself. *lol*

Concept - Tea

Wed, 30 May 2007 01:10:02 GMT

A review of the work i've produced recently reveals something interesting. How much I don't draw in the initial concept.

With this picture, I have a full visual in my head without bothering to draw in all the details. Detail is the easy part I've come to realize.

Next is the cleaned up line art then on to colour.

Heroes Ending --- Wtf?

Tue, 22 May 2007 17:23:00 GMT

There're just 2 questions I have and corect me if I'm wrong.

**SPOLIER WARNING**

1) Why was Claire crying?
She could have shot Peter. Bomb gets diffused. Nathan wouldn't have had to die. Peter comes back to life because HELLO he can use Claire's healing powers.

2) After all that, no one noticed that Cylar disappeared?

NOTE: Someone pointed out to me the most interesting thing that I missed. Peter has Nathan's powers...therefore he could have flown off into the sky by himself, blown up, fell back to earth, healed & no one gets hurts. 0_o

*shakes head* sloppy for such a good show.

Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:59:19 GMT

When I was in highschool. I remember rendering heads in pencil. Xena, Tom Cruise, Oprah...that's all i ever drew. Thinking back, it's probably why I never learned to draw the whole body until I started drawing manga.

I'll be trying my hand at digital paintings in the coming months. Trying out different styles. This came out a bit to realistic for me, but I like it. It's from a photograph of the new Pirates movie that I found floating around on the net. This took me about 8-10 hours to do.

All my paintings can be found on my deviant art account....which is currently down. :(

Newsarama!

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 16:08:39 GMT

hahah.. very cool. Found my article on Anime Archetypes posted on the Newsarama Blog. Newsarama is a popular online publication that covers the comic book industry.

I wish they'd have let me know though and linked directly to the Myth and Manga blog. Posted there are articles that come out of my need to understand story structure of Manga. It'd have been cool to have the rest of the articles on display.

17 pages of a New Manga has been finished. The preview is below. Right now I'm preparing it for posting and critique on an online forum. If I'd been American, I'd have submitted it into the Rising Stars of Manga contest. Too bad they don't have a canadian arm.

10 manga pages

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:43:47 GMT

So you know that feeling you have when you've stretched yourself to the limit (gritty eyes, brain flatlining, the sunlight hurts) and you still have 5-6 more pages to get out before the end of the month? I'm way past that.

Here's a preview of 10 manga pages of Skinships. It'll be a total of 17 pages when finished (and it will be by the end of the month dammit!). 17 pages in one month and i'm dead...I wonder what the page rate is per month for comic artists....

Anime Archetypes

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 02:34:30 GMT

I wrote this awhile back..I don't believe that I've ever posted it...

Ever wonder why you see the same anime characters popping up over and over again? No…it’s not stealing. They are just archetypal characters: generic personalities that pop up in every culture.

Dowload the pdf for write-ups of 19 male and female archetypes like the Sullen Bishonen, Perverted Old Man, the Female Prince and others.

It'll be up on my blog Myth and Manga as soon as I figure out my password. *doh*

New Comic

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 00:46:17 GMT

I'm aliiive! Barely.

I've started a new 17 page comic...since the last blow I received from my other concept with Cupid, I've decided against full-length mangas for now.

This new comic should be done by the end of March. I'm really exicted about it. It shows a great leap in my art work. Here's a sneak peek.

In other exciting news, I finally graduated to my next belt in Capoeira. In a weekend of classes, shows & battle reminiscent of the Chuunin exam in Naruto, I exchanged my old cord for an Azure belt that proclaims me an intermediate student of the art.

After being stuck for so long as a beginner in all levels of my life...I'm happy to see that my only shining quality, perservance, has won the battle against the self that wanted to give up.

Character Themes in Naruto

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:07:34 GMT

I've just finished a long ass article on why the anime/manga Naruto has compelling characters that are larger than life. Warning: there are spoilers. I cover Volume 1 – 19 of the manga and Episodes 1 – 96 of the anime. The characters touched on are Naruto, Haku, Roc Lee, Hinata, Neji, Gaara & Sasuke.

Here's Naruto's write up...my blog MYTH and MANGA has the rest.

Naruto.

Theme: To be acknowledged
Goal: To become Hokage of the Leaf.
Character Intro: Vol 1, Ch1, Pg 3

On the surface is a one dimensional character with the stated purpose, “to become the Hokage of the Leaf.” His personality is brash, bold, daring, loud, and dumb which I don’t care for at all BUT his whole character is driven by the personal theme, to be acknowledged.

Anyone who feels lonely and left out and who is striving to get the attention of their peers or recognition in anything can identify with that character theme. That is why I eventually warmed up to this character because at his core, Naruto is a lonely orphan who has been shunned by his village because a fox-demon was sealed within him at his birth.

Naruto wants to be seen by his village as someone who is valuable to the community and the person who is the most valued is the leader, the Hokage. As Naruto has no family, last in his class, and an outcast, to been seen he’s had to be the loudest one there is. The only thing that sets Naruto apart from the geniuses that surround him (apart from the Fox Demon within him) is that he never gives up.

Ch 166 18 & 19 – Jiraiya acknowledges Naruto as a “spirit that never gives up.”

Ch 98 11 – I may appear strong to you but that’s because I act though because I’m so frustrated of always failing. – Naruto to Hinata

Aphrodite Connections

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 03:14:05 GMT

Well, January's been a hectic month. Lots of things happening. Some good, some bad.

BAD NEWS

The bad news that really pissed me off however concerns a story I've been developing, Aphrodite Connections. Stop me if you've heard this premise: Cupid, god of love gets kicked out of Olympus because of his delinquent way of randomly shooting people with his bow and not caring about the consequences. When he gets to earth, to become a god again he must work at Aphrodite Connections, a psyhic love network, matching couples the hard way before he can be let back in and become a god again.

Now, if this premise seems familiar to you, it's because of this TV show: Cupid TV. It's a TV show I'd never watched and known nothing about until I was doing research on Google with a certain search string trying to find out more stories about the cupid myth. What this means is 6 months of work down the drain. *sigh* I really did love my villians.

I of course got my hands on the show and watched it. While the premise is the same, there are of course differences: my cast of villians, the anime/manga style powers, and plot. But there's no way I can finish it because every one would think I was plagiarizing this show.

Does this happen a lot to authors out there? You've got a story that you've been working on, then something similar is shown to have been done. Do you throw out everything? Or try to save it? The worse part, I've been seeing references to this show everywhere lately. Rubbing salt in the wounds. I would have sulked for the better part of January except for the good news....

GOOD NEWS

I got a job as a Flash Animator for a local animation studio here in Vancouver. This is a big deal when you realise that I've been working on my 2D art portfolio, improving my drawing skills for about 1 1/2 years. I also accepted a lower paying part-time job for this time-period, so I could have the free time dedicated to this mission. I was going for a Storyboard artist position except that when I did an informational interview on the owner of the company, he pointed out to me that a storyboard artist was more like being the director. I'd have to have knowledge of every bit of the production process to swing that gig. O_o When I aim high, I really reach for the sky.

So for the time being, I've decided to just continue with Common Days...work on background and layouts...where I suck the most to improve those areas. I'll also come up with little short stories to write and draw, instead of things like my epic nightmare. Hopefully, I can get another idea that excites me as much as Aprodite Connections did.

Rejection

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:43:19 GMT

Whoot! I got my first rejection letter! *lol* I know it may seem strange that I'm happy and you’re wondering why I’m not crushed, dejected, or even sullen.

It’s because of all the back story ofcourse! It’s been a long and sometimes demoralizing road to get to a point were I felt that my work was good enough for it to be seen by a publisher. It’s taken me years for me to push my writing to a standard that could get past my inner critic and into the public arena.

That’s why I felt so happy when I got that letter. It showed me how far I’ve come from the days when I was starting at a blank page and wondering nervously if I could write. I've got a long ways to go yet but this letter is a marker that tells me I've finally levelled up.

[Edit] - Article on the Shinigami up at Myth and Manga. There were surprisingly few resources I could find for this article.

Common Days Chapter 6 Begins

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 09:54:42 GMT

I took the time to completely re-write Common Days. I felt my story writing skills had improved along with my art. I'll be trying for more depth in the images and a smoother story flow.

Happy New Year. See you in 2007

Merry Christmas

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 17:38:53 GMT