音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

Yesterday was my blog's 6th birthday. :supersun:
At least I assume that's the day. :cloudy:
You can never assure the certain information if you don't have certain proof, can you? :foggy:
However, I did ever get excited for the date, which is the same as the birthday of my ex-lover one of my favorite composers. :windy:

So I got this in last night,

Continued from previous work, I used the same character because I always am narcissistic, a lolicon, and that's what I said before.
and Congrants, I finally came up with a name for the new daughter girl.
Nathalia--I'm not willing to make her birthday be Xmas though. She could be either ♎ or ♐ or the same as my own ♒ --nobody knows until I make my final decision (if I don't forget! XD)
Anyway, the inspiration was from eufo's "Natalis", which was also where I got the title.
I don't know any Latin (not saying those genus species names), so I simply believed what my concise dictionary says: "birthday/anniversary".
Alright, sounds a good word for my purpose: do something for this day.
The only regret could be that I WASTED about 1.5 hours last night to figure out a good background. I tried this or that kind of "real photos", and ended with simple combination of colors and preset Photoshop brushes. :sqhuh: The lesson is, while black and white being all-purpose color-mates, the best fitting background for any drawing is from a neat mix plus blurring effect--sounds like that I'm not imaginary enough.. :sqhmm:

Recently, I'm in a super funk mode. All began from a Suga Shikao super collection thread.
I can't say I'm a funk-fan, but I indeed was addicted to his music. After my most famous track, "19-sai", I tried two of his albums and didn't delete them as other average pop music. There is something special in his music.
Haruki Murakami. The thing is, the more I touched his music, the more I thought his music is kinda like Murakami's aura, especially the ambience from the lyrics. I was even proud that I clearly noticed this before knowing the truth! I'm a Murakami-fan too! ;3

So what about recent music? There are actually some new releases, but nothing is special enough. The next good one might be Haruka Shimotsuki's final volume of her "butterfly-series".

No matter what, I love the cover art!!! :sqlove:
Yet I never paid attention to the story itself. For this series, I only love the cover arts... (つд⊂)
I know that's because there is too much of erhu in this series.....

Time to end this now. It's much cooler comparing with yesterday.
I hate summer, go away ASAP! Σ(ﾟДﾟ)

The most initial idea came from my love toward the super cute rainbow-goldfish: Kaokageuo. Since my previous drawing, I've been thinking for getting it real--I mean I saw a photo about the fish in store--why not making myself a real one as well?
It was a strong impulse, so I spent 40 minutes in dollar store in Friday afternoon, searching for useful stuff--even without knowing how it might be looking like.

While looking for proper materials, the basic looking was forming in my mind. The basic model, the body, I would prefer a foam ball shaped in oval, but I didn't see any there. A perfect ball might work as well, since I'm not chasing for perfect. Then, small beads would be for the decoration, and colored confetti would be scales. For tail and wings, the white ribbons would be the best choice. However, I still didn't know how to arrange every piece, especially the tail.

From 2D to 3D, it's such a big difference! In real world the materials are limited by the shape, color, etc., especially when the materials were all from a local dollar store. :P Yet the result wasn't bad, huh? It would be much better if the body is oval-shaped. xD

The actual wings/tail are much simpler than what I imagined though.

Looking from another aspect, which is more fantastic.

Anyway, I'm generally satisfied; the only regret might be I didn't get chance to use the star-shaped transparent colorful confetti! I'll find chance to use them in future, probably:3

Anna-neechan you finally got another PV, and GOD, THAT'S SO MOE PRETTY!!!! This PV makes me happy, really! The melody and tempo are excellent for creating a great mood. The vocal--as sekushi as usual--is bringing every tiny piece of sudden surprising into my heart. I could just loop this PV again and again, enjoying the music, and your smile. =w=
Shall I tell the world that I love your straight hair more than curl?--that's true that I prefer long, straight and black hair much, much more than any other types. Well, I still love yours even though that's not pure black. :3

However, I miss you singing in Spanish, Anna-neechan. °A°
o I switched to "jardin del aire" for a relaxing Thursday night. And I'll learn Spanish only for you.

--I don't think I made a new post only for the PV... but I forgot what else I have. My heart has been completely taken by the video. ￢_￢
Since I can't recall any more, I could just go reading Laylania booklet...

I've got my latest orders for a while: Onkalo + Laylania + Yorlga. (Both Posca and YesAsia works pretty quick this time),

@pixiv

Yorlga was purely for my collection (yet I did have a fight between this and Annabel's Astraia... well, next time for Annabel ^^;).
Onkalo, I know few people would buy and share it so I had to buy this on my own, I need to finally support Eiko-sensei and this will be the very beginning.
Then for Laylania, I mentioned I got this one solely for its booklet, and I still want to restate it here again,
--THE GOLDFISH IS SO AWESOME!!!

Hmmm, not really a goldfish I guess, but don't you think "KaokageUo" is hard to pronounce? Plus I'm really not sure how to translate this species name, in which Kao means Face, and Kage means Shadow literally... orz
So just let me call you Rainbow-Goldfish, okay? xDD
(It was so true that I got to stare at the goldfish on its official webpage. Such an attractive mascot. @@)

Thank for the fish, I spent a whole night to make an inspired art from it--my dear rainbow-goldfish~

Actually, I never knew I ended up with a drawing. I at first just wanted to make a hand-drawn rainbow-goldfish for my avatar. After I did the outline quickly, I wanted to get a girl beside it--why not a boy like what's in the booklet? You should know that, how come such a cute fish being so close to a boy? I mean, A GUY?? Akiko, Are You Shotacon??? °A°
Therefore, the girl, a random character, was created. I purely just want the brilliant fish be with my girl all the way~ =w=
Since I was not using my own characters, nothing specific, just let my pencil go. So I got her quickly with a casual smooth long hair; I did try short hair, but I couldn't deny my strong affection for long hair, seriously... =_= For hair coloring, lemon yellow would be the best, since the entire album is more close to an European-styled fairland. Thus, I chose carnation pink for the dress. It never became so nightdress-like until I decided to insert a stuffed star--to make it more dream like! Then it left out the only other harmonic color for the star, which was peach-orange. The rainbow-goldfish, I made it semi-transparent, which was more harmonic and fantastic. The only regret was that I didn't go through more details for the fish like the CD jacket, that would destroy the balance or I could just say I'm lazy.
I did take long time with the background. I wanted the it to be dark purple mixed with indigo at first, to give a mysterious ambience, but I changed my mind after a trying with brighter colors. Much brighter, and much more pretty. Since I got a star for the girl already, why not adding more stars in the background, like what most cute drawings have. Then my habit, to fill the background with a real photo--starry night would be a good candidate--I believe I can do the magic to turn reality to fantasy so Ima magic girl mwahaha. To make it looking more adorable, I add the rainbow gradient at the end. Finally, handwritten title wrapped the work up.
Not bad! huh? ;P
Yet I did feel like this girl looks like Ana from Ichigo Mashimaro... and if possible, what should I use for her name? Since I'm having a crush on her now, I might get her showing up again in future works--she needs a name!

Before I come up with a good name, I might just read the booklet in detail--haven't got time to do it yet! XD

Since about 3 years ago I found how to make modules into transparent, I never stop using semi/transparent elements in my blog template design. I love transparent stones more than solid ones, same thing.
I just said I want a similar style as what's in laylania HP for my blog. I really was attracted by its design: a dark purple magic book, with mysterious keyholes, bookmarks, and this or that kind of keys with ribbons dispersing around. Such a fantastic theme!
Laylania inspired me making a new template today, though I don't have the power to make myself a similar design as it. What I could do was to... actually I had completely no idea what kind of template I wanted--yet I just wanted to change. It's summer, don't you feel hot while staring at the orange color? I don't deny that background is cute, but I couldn't stand anymore in summer with a warm color scheme!

At first, I only searched online randomly. Nothing good. Regular patterns couldn't satisfy me anymore! Then I tried different keywords: Aurora, Universe, etc. The song "sweet jerryfish" was by chance just ended. Alright... binaria, aquario, and jerryfish. All are good for summer days.
To find a good background is hard, to choose one from several good images is even harder. I need random background displaying!! XDD
And I took like 30min to figure out how to use it. The last time I used this feature was 3 years ago, via a script in PHP, which I know nothing. Yet it was good I backed up the code (though I forgot to write down how to use it). ^^;
The last and the most interesting step was color matching. This time, I made a stronger contrast among different elements, hope it does look cooler~
So from today's work, backup is really important! No worries, I got today's template backed up well, together with the images I used. See how long I can keep this theme being used. :3

P.S. Recently is really hot, and seems it's over 30°C tomorrow. I did sleep a lot during this weekend. Am I in estivation? xD

There are three I've been looking forward long ago.

志方あきこ - Laylania
Stories from a fantastic magic world. I can't stop staing at the goldfish from its HP....
The first song really shocked me. Such a new style for Akiko, which reminded me the last song from ArTone Vocal Collection. Bouncing light jazz tempo, blinking light, dream and reality. Although I can't fully accept Akiko's style changing yet, it's not that bad as an opening song. Since "Ta Fatie", everying is returning to "normal" Akiko, which I like really. xD Track3 "不条理≧楽しい?" is another MOE song--not as MOE as "EP=NOVA/.", but it does make me laughing happily. BTW, in booklet, she wrote in full-kana in song info region, which is exactly like what's in "EP=NOVA/." lol
Then, Track5, which is the insert instrumental track, it has a mysterious and retro melody, and I'm wondering what kind of story is behind this track~ (I just decided to actually buy this album 'cause the booklet is so pretty! <3 Then I will read the entire text and see what it says xD).
Track4, 6 and 7 are the rest typical Akiko song, yet, I will still emphasize the last song. When I just saw its lyrics... WTF?? text I can't read!! Then when I saw the compose+lyricist, ahh, I'm released (you know why!).
And I want a similar design for my blog... *_*

伊藤真澄 - Heart of Magic Garden
Lantis famous songs featured by Masumi's rearrangement?! I didn't know too many from it, but from the three I knew, Masumi is really a magician who can turn everything into pure light! She even purified SeishoujoRyoiki. LOL Superb strings as usual.
I also liked track3, just tried the original version, and, lol.. what a crazy song! Her rearrangement is much better to me! XD
Songs I didn't like before became good as well. Listen to Masumi's work, I always feel happy and in ease. Thank you! <3

島みやえい子 - Onkalo
From her own liner notes, "Onkalo" here means "伏魔殿", which is "pandemonium". So, how will she depict this place in the song? I only tried the preview on official website so far. Still waiting for my copy to arrive. Σ(ﾟДﾟ) I do believe Eiko-sense's works are always excellent!
She just mentioned that she's done therapy.
Congratulations, Eiko-sensei!!!

Yesterday, I was MOED by Noriko too.
♫ ティル・ナ・ノグ
♫ 鬼さんこちら
♫ Mirage of Sands
I never watched Noriko Lives before, so I was excited, and I was amazed by that how brilliant she sang (and dance)!
I also got a super-video (super because of its length), which is a collection of many Noiko eroge songs. Oh, god, I never knew Noriko having so many works are not included in any of her albums...

So, basically, recently is my Aki-Nori addict period again.
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD!

Alright, now I'm in a pretty good mood for looping Nagi's "Ambivalentidea", and I just realised that how delicate the instrumental version is--I actually love it more than Nagi's vocal version! Like what I said previously, since bermei.inaza was involved, the songs HAD TO be awesome. Nothing is better than the unique arrangement. The piano, the strings, so excellent that I myself is engulfed in the sounds. Then, recent rainy days triggered my desire to "create" something. Consistent with my past post, the most initial idea came from that rainy day.
On Saturday, draft was done, and on Sunday evening, I got the willing to outline it.

Motif: rain, umbrella, dark, depressing+delight=contrast/ambivalence
Characters: Mihane x Chisato the most yuri-sisters forever

I finished outlining and basic coloring on Sunday and shading on Monday. As usual, I went online for good background candidates. However, I couldn't decide what kind of image I would use very quickly. I tried lots of images on Monday and Tuesday, from realistic photos to abstract color patches, finally I got to this focused view of two lilies. Although being a bit tedious, it was fun. I also learned how to turn an image into sepia hue, how to make shiny glassy balls (didn't apply in this work), and how to "rain" your image--Photoshop is awesome!
I took so much time in the final make up, yet I couldn't avoid the tragedy from my bad habit of not keeping saving my file--Photoshop is so stable that it never ever crashed in years no matter how busy my computer is! Yesterday, when I was about to finish, I wanted to active a tool by keyboard shortcut, so I hit on Ctrl plus another key, and unconsciously hit on N for aborting current modification. That only happened in 2 seconds, and after that, no time for me to regret.
What I hit on first was "Ctrl+W", which means "close current file", and the following "N" closed my about-to-finish work without saving it!
OMG, WTF...
Not the music or the image, I myself was depressed. orz
I even had an impulse to turn my desk over. (the desk is innocent!)
Fortunately, to restore my latest work manually wasn't that hard. I did take long time, but that was all about this or that adjustment. I knew what I should to do this time, therefore my desk was saved I regained everything very quickly (and even better :3 ).

Eventually, time to give it a title. I'm not that kind of person who always names his/her work in the very beginning. It was Wednesday morning when I chose "Tranquil Impulse" as the title, and it was Wednesday afternoon when I tried to place a piece of lyrics of "Ambivalent" in the image (with three words in different colors). Also, this time, the main title got a semi-transparent gradient fill, which made the title standing out from the endless depressing blue. Hmm, depressing blue? I love this kind of color though. XD

At last, a casual thought: yuri = lily, coincidence?! :P