音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

I've been feeling that something was wrong since my last post, and in this morning, I finally realised what that is:
My first drawn male was not Garry, but the Pyramid Head (a 5-min scribble though => doesn't count ^^;).

Yet today's post isn't about male-drawing or the Pyramid Head...
My another sweet 13-hour fight against neck-ache.
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Klaviertrios

Pixiv | deviantART

The vague idea raised a few weeks ago, when I scribbled randomly. But the first version of draft was not satisfying enough, so I merely adopted the idea but re-drafted the characters (those 1st ver. drafts are in my recycle bin and will probably be emptied soon, although I'd say all my drafts are just look horrible and nothing but messy. I do believe no one else could extract real outlines from it for digital processing).

Trio. Although at first I also thought about quartet or even bigger scale (not to that of an orchestra though), trio would be the best choice since it matches to.. something related to the characters but I'm not gonna say what it exactly is (and sorry, one of them was even excluded from my Koiseyo Otome in February, so this time I brought her back).

Just let me continue, originally it was supposed to be under the theme of Easter, accompanied by bunnies and eggs and placed in a green forest or this sort as the background. Also because of it, I at first was trying dress them up in traditional European style, but somehow, I had no idea why, the final costumes turned to be a rather more freely drawn and coloured.

But you know what, after spending ~13 hours (20:00-26:00 yesterday, 12:30-19:00 today and I had lots of trouble to draw a grand piano or a violin/cello bow properly ><), I didn't feel like to draw any more extra stuff. Indeed, what I really felt was that there was nowhere for even a single egg.. to place them, even well-arranged, would just make the whole piece way too funny. So I gave up for making anything special for Easter (well, it's actually snowing outside, so I'm not in an Easter mode at all xD).

Then, yet I was still responsible for assigning a background. Without bunnies and eggs, a forest-based view might look too complicated--I mean, I've been seeking online for some rose garden shots, but none of them would fit in here and they're hard to deal with in terms of modification and integration. A simple design was not a bad idea, so I transferred from a real photo to more abstract stuff: rose petals.

Abstract(-ish) style made things easier. A few PS filters solved everything. I was trying to recall the image colour when I listen to Mozart's trios (why? see below), but to match my chosen rose petals, I ended up with a strawberry-flavoured red stain (which indeed does matches Mozart's image, and it tastes just good as strawberry icecream~~ but NO, the background blurred red petals are NOT strawberry for sure!!). Right, almost forgot to mention, while adding the title--which should be just "Trio"--I changed my mind a little bit to add more text. It would be fun to mention someone who composed trios for piano+violin+cello as a part of the title, so of course, Mozart was my No. 1 candidate and I never ever thought about others' works (I really want to say when I finished the drafts, the Mozart flag had been confirmed).
I JUST LOVE MOZART, ANY COMPLAINTS? °w°
Thanks to that, I now get addicted to his K502 the first movement...

Thus I got Mozart and a "delicious" colour. Then the thing became to how to arrange these elements: characters, background-makeups and text. In this case, there's no other place but the top-left area for the title text, but how exactly? At first I tried to put the word "Mozartian" as a mirror-reflection to "Klaviertrio" (my honour to Austrian/German composers: using German in the title). But it just didn't work out (the final view looked weird). So then I decided to mention actual trios' titles, which were what showing in the final version and thus the word "Klaviertrio" became "Klaviertrios". Later, I realised the Mozart's name apparently should be appearing together with these works or people (with no knowledge to recognise the K### style) would not know whom I'm referring, I went through a few DVD covers (at that moment I was already feeling like I was making a cover art for a DVD release). And Yes, I was almost to drag the "Deutsche Grammophon" logo (or make a parody) here to get it more DVD-cover like! xDD <<< but I didn't, you see. (Too bad that I didn't dare to make fun of my favourite classical label.. ^^;)

↓And that's it. Now, time to sync my foobar2000 with my desktop~!

so sleepy.. ~_~

Gute Nacht!!

I don't have much today, just continuing the last topic in my previous post, time to make something.
The First Piece of the so-called "Something".
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Ib, Garry & the Snake

Pixiv | deviantART

If you've played/watched the game Ib, you should know which scene I chose to adapt here--although it may not be that true, I believe Garry would help moving the snake first before sitting down and staring at it.. well, don't pick on so much on a fanart! ^^;

As of the background. I spent quite a while to think about a good arrangement, yet ended up with simple and straightforward method. Red/blue roses in crayon-drawing style--you know why, don't you?!
Also, Garry, be happy, you're the first male I drew since I started digital drawing using a tablet back to 2006 (except the REAL PEOPLE parody in my last one about Figaro).

Since yesterday, we got a sweet refresher.
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Sleet!!

Let it snow. I don't need spring! XD
Although I tend to wish it to rain when I have my umbrella, and to snow when I don't. :3
As long as there's no wind I'll be happy.

It's not the first time I mention it, but just let me do it again!
Sir Gardiner's 1993 Le Nozze di Figaro is the best!! °w°
Thus I made this parody.
OH GOD, I'M DRAWING MALES!!!
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Opera Mini: Sestet "Riconosci in questo amplesso"

Pixiv | deviantART

I was thinking about adding more chars, such as Cherubino ("she" is so pretty) and the conductor himself. But considering that was solely for the specific scene of the sestett, I gave up. The background is a quick-made, but as a fun parody, that should be enough.
(Maybe I should name my cat Cherubino.. @w@)

Some quick info:

and here's the link to this performance if you have no clue what that is:

Now I'm trying to make Mozart my top artist (over KOKIA's 8k+ plays..), so that's why I didn't touch the latter for months (and still around 2k to go)! ><

Have finished playing "Ib" last week. This is really a good game, to be honest. I think I ever mentioned that this game was the first one making me keep repeating "it's scary" other Silent Hill.. ^^; The endings are nice too, and it's also fun to collect all art works appeared in game (although I had to start over for one piece that requires a flag at the beginning of game -_-').
But what I'm gonna say here is, I 400% vote for Ib x Garry, so Mary, please go away~ Thus, One of Mary's endings, if the intimacy is low, made me very happy! :3

TIME TO MAKE SOMETHING.
My brain has working so hard recently that I'm kind of overwhelmed. I'm not gonna show in detail here, but guess I'll keep a memo of all of them secretly. Hope there's one day I can reveal them here.

Recent days were mostly dedicated for free horror games (which delayed my progress at the current parody of Le Nozze di Figaro ~_~).

I've finished the entire Aooni series (1.1, 3.0, 5.2 and 6.23), and did had lots of fun with v6.23 and its Fuwatti-chan. Then I tried to touch some other well-mentioned games.

So thus I started 魔女の家/The Witch's House,
which was the beginning of a super nightmare..
The gameplay was fun. I spent about 4.5 hours walk out for all its two endings, and died 69 times in total. It does indeed belong to the group of horror game, and this or that detail is always well described and arranged.
I also know there's 3rd ending, but I can't do it. Impossible.

The game itself, regardless its endings, is good. However, when I just said impossible for getting its 3rd ending, I had two meanings.
To get the 3rd, you can NOT save..
Plus, after knowing the true end, the game then makes me unhappy... or rather uncomfortable I'd say. If you've once known its true ending, you'd know what I mean.

Essentially..
THIS GAME IS TOO BRUTE TO PLAY AGAIN!!! °A° ---- And what? No save? NO WAY!!!
although I don't mind watching others/myself's vids... someone explain it in terms of psychology. @_@

↓Below, Netabare = Spoiler...

Now I'm doing "Ib", scary, yes, another horror free game (and in terms of the content, so far, much much much healthier than The Witch's House). And after that, I finally decide to re-touch Silent Hill series! This time, On HARD~!

Yes, I'm serious. You know, it's not the first time I got inspired by Akiko's fantastic songs!
Although when the first time I created my daughters, I didn't even know Akiko (I could probably chase back to how I got the original ideas for each of them sometime), I bet Akiko-inspired works would take a big part.
And those songs are all so loopable! >v<

So the one I just finished a hour ago.
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Klass::SINFIN_MELODIA;

@pixiv | @deviantART

Lemme see, 2 weeks ago (Mar-15), I was addicted to the song Class::CIEL_NOSURGE (without knowing what that means other than it's like perl package), and the traditional Japanese style just kept reminding me her "hiraitesanze" from Turaida. So thought I, "I have made a pic for the latter, now it's time to make another one for this!"
See, traditional style lures me to retrieve my pencil and peel and peel and ...

The draft took me 3 hours. Honestly! Because I solely wanted to draw something, but had no clue what kind of image that would be. After the draft, I spent around 8 hours (or maybe less??) in total to do the PSD.
Which included 2 major steps:

↓Basic and plain first arrangement, and

↓Patch in shadow/gloss effect, as well as kimono patterns (which I had lots of fun).

Then what? Just merge with a background and that's the end of story??
Sounded neat, but things were not going well as what I wished.
First, I had again no clue what kind of background I should use. Even with a vague plan of using traditional Japanese patterns, all I could find online for free didn't match well with what I "see" in the music. Well, after another a few hours of memory/speed-fight, I sorta got an acceptable image and left everything there--I couldn't finalise.
I was out of naming ideas for that. My brain couldn't work it out simply due to the mind-stealing melody!

Therefore, as you see, I didn't do anything until today--Must finish it before the end of March--Also because I just decided to colourise my another random doodle last night. ~_~
However, when I again started to loop that song to dig any hidden idea in my mind, I was so willing to make this pic a perfect seasonal loop. Right, the kimono patterns have sakura (spring), butterfly (summer), and maple (autumn). I need winter! Snowflake, pine, bamboo, or whatever fits in!
I was aware of integrating winter into the background 2 weeks ago already, but even the temporarily settled background pattern didn't indicate any sign of winter. So tonight, I started over. From changing pattern to using motif of a silding screen, I ended up with plum blossoms plus (random) vertical strips. I also tried to use more vivid colours than choosing from the traditional greyish colour set. Or everything was just not fitting the song's image (hard to explain but that was it).

Smoothly I finally went to the very end. One step before I could export to a JPG. Yet what about the name?? I then wandered online again. Somewhat I believed using phrases from Norito (祝詞) would be nice. So I did that. But for the final title. Although I didn't want to put "Class::CIEL_NOSURGE" as the title since my chars have nothing to do with it, I had no other choices. Right at that moment. Hey, dude, why not just modify that text a little bit so we could end the story?
Alright. Replace "C" to a "K", and the following as well...

One more thing, I tried to put those lyrics "codes" into the background, but gave up since I've changed the title anyway!

I've got tons of new music in my hard disk recently, and thanks to that I was facing a serious space cirsis. But just now, I've removed about 15 GB so I could buffer it a bit.

Of the 15 GB, briefly, the reason was that I have no love toward them.
Too bad even Furtwän the greatest conductor couldn't get me loving Wagner and Mahler (now challenging Bruckner but not having a good sign as well)...
At least I tried.

A small warning to people who don't know too much about classical music. If one day you want to explore, don't dream that anyone who likes classical can provide all info you'd need from Monteverdi to Mahler. Classical music occupies hundreds of years and all classical lovers have their own preferences.
My compatibility with Wagner is poor, so I'll stick with Mozart. My Get-Mozart-To-My-Top-1 last.fm mission is on its way~!

Nothing is 100% perfect. Owning a nutcracker doesn't necessarily mean you can break any nut by your hand. Which I'm saying my recent status. Either Mozart or Akiko, I can just loop.
...and loop and loop...

Well, before I spend more space to talk about my looping madness, lemme bring here something else very briefly.

Since early last week, I was trying to train Mr. Camel. I wanted him to deliver emails in cmd.exe or termal. And on this Friday, I made it with my penguin. Good, then I turned to focus on tweaking with Ms. Harvestasya, and then all the trouble raised like flood. I've tried at least 5 different modules, yet I all got the same (I assume) result: Failed to connect to SMTP--How the hell this could happen? °A°
But now I'm tired to continue this fight. At least PenOS works.

Ar Nosurge's two song albums have been released a while ago. Kenji Kawaii's composing made the biggest surprise (and Kenji's stuff is his, no matter that's Akiko or anyone else singing). When listened to them at first, I was a bit depressed--Haruka and Noriko had too few songs!! ~_~

Frankly, most songs are good. Just I have to complain regarding quite a lot of the song titles.

I've noticed the naming pattern of both Ar Tonelico and CielNosurge long time ago. But I never realised that the C.N. song names are so Perl! Since I ever did a simple search, and in the range of my knowing languages, only Perl matches the style the most.
So I made these dummy files last week:
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(By the way, you might already notice that my playlists are matching the Black Syndicate in Detective Conan :3)

Right, back to the complaint itself. I've never seen SO MANY stupid song names in batch! I'll make a list here. Not mentioning those cryptic combination of text of course.

I was trying to find a chance to play (or loop) both albums for more times, but currently, I got addicted to "Class::CIEL_NOSURGE;"--without knowing what she's actually singing! I'm so glad to hear Akiko's other traditional Japanese styled arrangement since her last piece "Hiraitesanze". Similarly, I spent in total of 11 hours during the weekend to visualise my "melodic reflection" toward this song. Now it's 98% finished, I just need a title for it. Hope I can find one in next a few days (before my heart cools down to talk more here). After looping this song for 100+ times, now I'm in a super Ojou-sama mode. So call me Ojou from now on!! xD

Finally, a piece of real life memory.
In last week's teaching, I've encountered the dumbest question.

Me (reading the question): "For a restriction enzyme, does it cut your DNA strand into bigger or smaller pieces?"
(and I paused for 2 seconds.)
Me (continued quietly, unsatisfied): "It's a dumb question."
Me (looked at my students): "Smaller. Any questions?"
Me (paused for another 2 seconds): "Alright, next question."

Dumb enougb. Even a person who doesn't know what a restriction enzyme is can answer this question. u_u

↓ This is so cool!!

I'm so glad that I took that class, so all of us got a chance to enter the "CAVE" and dismembered the human model as much as we wanted!

Yet while turning the lights on, you might never image how real things were (although it's labelled as "Fakespace").

Anyway, I'm not good at describing the entire thing, but it did stay in my memory (and will never be removed).

To rip 26 CDs in a row isn't fun!!

Started from my Don Giovanni crusade (followed by a short Die Zauberflöte trip), I've fallen into Sir Gardiner's world so deeply that I couldn't hold myself from buying that box! Meanwhile, the Karajan Conducts Tchaikovsky was in the suggested section, and only one in stock. So thus I took the last piece.

And what I want to say here is,
Only the Germans can do "B9" properly!
Obviously, B9 is Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

So far, of all versions I've listened to, Furtwängler's interpretation recording is my favourite, followed by Kurt Masur--Right, Karajan isn't here, surprisingly, at least not as marvellous as the first two. Interestingly, both of Furtwän and Masur are Germans. For other versions, Gardiner's was too light and Bernstein's was too plain. However, I myself believe Solti's will be excellent, but too bad, I haven't got a chance to try his version. I do admire Gardiner's Mozart and other Baroque performances, they're all fantastic, but when things come to Beethoven, it may not work well to integrate too much cheerful mood as for Mozart. Or maybe my feeling solely came from the crappy rip (by whatever reason, the ripper's disc was scratched too much so the resulting file was crappy)...

(don't ask me what I'm writing, I have no idea either!)

Today's last line:
I swear I'll have a black cat in future, and since then I'll only wear in black~