( ほら、ばれちゃったよ! )

A couple of selected sketches out of the whole lot that I did while cracking up at the video. Sketched in black ink on paper, coloured in Photoshop – I had to force myself to stay away from the Smooth Round brushes :< Colour scheme was referenced from arnistotle @ DA. Comments are greatly appreciated! <3

Clearly I’ve never known of the hassle that comes attached with the beautiful picture depicted by “WINTER” until I started shopping for appropriate clothes, and then deciding what exactly to wear is altogether a different issue. Due to my non-existent fashion sense, I painstakingly mixed and matched them, noting down so I would be at least a mile away from becoming a walking fashion disaster on the streets of ZOMG Japan.

First of the many firsts of this year (oh, did I mention we are ALL freaking celebrating our twenty firsts?): a holiday trip with the family to Nagoya and Osaka during winter from Jan 15-22. Is this too awesome or what??

I know it’s been long overdue – one year, spell y.e.a.r – the concert report for the finale of AAA 08 in Shanghai, but heck! Without finishing it, I’ll owe myself another one *with a kazillion and satozillion moments worth spazzing about*, that is Arashi’s 5×10 Anniversary concert in Nagoya Dome~~~~~~!!! Finale show :D This is so thrilling – the mental image of meeting them upfront again in Jappoland – that I might just pass out from an Arashi overdose at the concert XD

So far things are looking good; I’ve recovered from my bout of illnesses and more than ready to embrace the chilly winds (and snow? pretty please??); my packing is almost done and I’m only missing several items like a new wallet and a light coloured scarf; I got new brown coloured contacts today when I went to have my eyes checked, etc. Yet the itinerary is still undone. Omg.

Hello!Japan in about 24 hours :)

Started on a whim two days back when I had too much time on hand and my wacom tablet plugged into my laptop. I guess it would do good to dump them all here in the same entry. Working on the many drawings simultaneously, part of this spree attempts the never attempted as a form of practice; illustrating what’s not right (technically speaking), but what feels right. Aim is to be unreferenced / be flexible using as little ref as possible. Also kind of inspired by this Arashi fan who did awesome nude figure drawings, that I decided to give it (male figures, body proportions, muscles etc) a try, because I do suck at it very much.

Well, be warned. I will not be responsible for the loss of blood through nosebleed, and/or whatever consequences you suffered after browsing my art – and nope I don’t mean the quality, but rather the content. (no, really, I might get stoned for posting those. lol) Most of them spontaneously sketched while some ideas were discussed/planted in my head beforehand. Basically, this continues until I run out of steam. (pray pray it won’t be today..) I foresee it to be until.. Christmas? Or when there are more pieces than can be counted with one hand.

14 Dec. Confused? Mulling? Looks like he forgot something. If you think his top looks familiar, it’s what he wore on the shukudai narikiri talk episode.

02 Naked

14, 16 Dec. Not totally, but. That’s the title of Matsumoto Jun’s solo. Yes, I finally got down to drawing some nice pants on him, plus a new perspective I never tried drawing before. He certainly does not own such a well-toned body.. (like Sakurai’s, hmmm) Nonetheless, somebody everyone would be really happy, ’cause I know you all wouldn’t mind XD Unreferenced, hence the purrfect bodey (remember? hehe).

Take off, take off　夜を超えて (and overcome the night)
もっと自由に　君に会いたい (I want to come face to face with you more freely)
Naked, naked　何も言わず　抱き合うだけ… (We only embrace wordlessly)
それだけでいい　君と (With you, this is good enough)

03 Kissing faces キッスの顔

16, 17 Dec. <3 Ohno + Ninomiya = 大宮 Ohmiya, of course. Trying out different perspectives (for Nino), human interaction and a slightly new style. Now that I look at it, they seem to have taken on the forms of carved stone figures; dream-like, in a world of monochrome. For such a pretty picture I can only describe it quoting lyrics from an old Arashi song I've been very addicted to.

君の横顔を見てる (I’m looking at your side profile)
夏の日射しに似たシルエット (Your silhouette is just like the rays of summer)
これまでの僕の心には (Up till this moment in my heart)
一度もなかった感覚なんだ (Is a feeling I’ve never once felt)

迷わず抱きしめてKissからはじめようよ (Without feeling lost we embrace, and let’s begin with a kiss)
水しぶきのように　キラめいて (It’s glistening, like splashes of water)
21世紀はKissからはじめようよ (The 21st century begins with a kiss)
胸こがれて君と　つないだ手 (Yearning in my heart for you, our hands are linked)
まるで夢のよう (It seems quite like a dream)

Rating: R (for obvious reasons), don’t view if you’re not comfortable with the idea.

( Under the cut! )

04 Death of the DS

18, 22, 23 Dec. Ninomiya mourning his broken DS (that’s equivalent to 1/4 of his life.. the second quarter = magic tricks, third quarter = ..Oh-chan), based on Silverfa’s ingenious prompt “broken DS” and statement “that’s the only time he can be sad”. A very detailed piece considering my usually lazy approach to art, but extremely fun to draw. This entire picture stemmed from a mental image of angsty Nino in boxers (hence, the focus); a little bit of weird humour and cuteness amidst the sadness. His pose took the longest to correct, while the remaining details filled themselves in naturally.

There’s suppose to be some kind of back story to this? *fiction, of course* :3 Someone said Ohno did this to his DS in revenge because Nino broke Ohno’s favourite fishing rod. Now that’s an idea, isn’t it ….XD Super Mario characters and elements (c) Nintendo.

05 Itterasshai いってらっしゃい

18, 24, 29 Dec. A pity this piece did not make it on time for Aiba’s birthday, though #miracleboy did make it to the trending topics on Twitter *happy*. Featuring Masamune and his little girl Koharu from the drama My Girl. I referenced, tried and.. oh my, I must admit, that I don’t know how to draw Aiba.. *gomen* D: Anyway, alongside the cute squeaky-voiced Koharu, Aiba does make a wonderful daddy <3 Glad the producers noticed that lol.

06 The Dreamfisher

29 Dec. I’m really sorry that this is so ugly. It didn’t even turn out, it was from the beginning; about 15 minutes ago. Sorry for the nonsense hahahaha XD

( Do you fish when you dream? )

07 Right Back To You

23, 28 Dec, 3-6 Jan. Sakumoto AU; the end product of Silverfa’s and my constant discussion about how utterly HOT Sho would be if he was a vampire (DoM, but the concept never made its way into this drawing). I owe her, because she drew me this! By far the most difficult piece; I relied heavily on picture references for Sho’s side profile and figure, whereas I gave up on Jun’s weirdly angled face T___T”. A first attempt on this theme; it did turn out as dark as I had intended. So, sue me. *though sceptical about the general responses*

Rating: R (for violence?). Please, I don’t want you to be scarred for life ^^

( Well, if you really insist.. )

08 Ohoku 大奥

24 Dec. A quick sketch and colouring — the first thing I did when I heard about the live action movie adapted from the manga Ohoku Nino’s going to star in, alongside Shibasaki Kou. Movie’s to be released in October 2010. Reverse harem sounds like an interesting concept doesn’t it.. I’m equally curious how he’d actually look in the film. Well there isn’t much about this drawing except that it’s shamelessly referenced from the manga character Mizuno and a picture of Nino from the winter season AU KDDI CM. Haha.

09 Mr Slopey Shoulders ミスターなで肩

1, 8, 11 Jan. OMG, Sho has the hottest slopey shoulders in the world (especially when sulking). NADE KATA. Period. I wonder why Maoh-chan didn’t quite appreciate it XD And recently I started calling him “Sunny Sho” <3 because of Arashi's song exchange "Sukiyanen Osaka~" by K8 during JE countdown. *flails*

10 skmt untitled

14, 15 Dec. One of my first experimental figure drawings of this spree.

Rating: R (the same reason as Ohmiya).

( Stop gawking at the drawing already. Even though you haven’t seen it. )

11 Jan – We have reached the end of the fanart spree lasting for a month from December 2009 to January 2010! Final artwork count: 10 (excluding drafts and sketches). *Big hugs* to Silverfa and Atikah; your aksjdfjkl;stalker comments make me really happy ^^ You guys = FREAKING AWESOME DA YO!~ <333333333333

I feel rather accomplished knowing that this is the most number of non-sch related artwork I've created within a single month, and they're not simply lineart/sketches. Varying themes and styles for practice was definitely worthwhile and had piquedpeaked my interest in drawing Arashi. XD じゃ、またこんど！

今、目の前で君が口ずさんだメロデイ ~♪
気づいてないかもしれないけど僕は感じる
前とは違う　近づけば自然に伝わる
僕らにしか見えない秘密の架け橋が出来た

Now, right in front of my eyes, you hummed a melody.
You probably won’t notice but I felt it.
Things were different before,
If I approach you, we’ll be able to go along naturally.
We can only see it, the secret we made.
(translated lyrics @ arashilyrics)

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I got down to drawing again with my wacom pen. Since the internal mechanism broke when it dropped, I replaced it (with $60 of course) some time ago when we visited a store at one of the IT malls.

It so happened that I dove into my *extremely rare, probably once a year* FULL TIME Arashi fangirling mode when I began to download stuff (oh the joy!) instead of watching them on streaming sites and recently suffering the effects (yes Silverfa knows too well) from an overdose of fanfics posted on the LJ communities. Particularly, the inspiration to draw Ohmiya 大宮 came from this story Fallen Angels which sucked me in, kept up the good drama and blew me away with the twists and ending. <3 As I carried out my search, a picture caught my eye and I just HAD to draw dear ♥Satoshi♥ and ♥Kazu♥ right then. It's such a lovely and spontaneous moment that made it irresistible to translate their expressions and natural stances into my own art. Arashi’s NATURAL ^.^

Well don’t be mistaken, although it has an uncanny resemblance to a normal pencil drawing, it’s done entirely using my wacom and in Photoshop. I worked on it for a few days, in the process whining to some people about Ohchan’s striped shirt with evil creases all over the place which gave me hell no doubt. I probably have never had enough patience to fill in accurate details of fabric and textures before this grueling practice. Good grueling practice that reaped pretty results :) Please, this is like one of my most accomplished drawings ever, personally, considering the resemblance to the pair and attention I paid to the details. I hope. Though I’m nowhere even near the midpoint of a competent artist. Now I understand that (self)perfected art takes way too much time. Haha. Glad I persisted till completion.

They showed Letters from Iwo Jima 「硫黄島からの手紙」 on Okto one Sunday night last month. Ade and Silverfa were glued to their TVs, I was glued to mine even when I had already seen it once in the cinema and twice on dvd before. Major hints of Ohmiya ラブ ♥ in a Hollywood war film zomg….. Right, I probably did notice that Saigo’s (Nino’s role) hometown was in Ohmiya when I first watched it but there are actually MORE; I only recently learnt that Ohno wanted to own a bread shop if he hasn’t become an artiste. So, Saigo and his wife were bakers :3 and when war broke out, their products were supplied to the military, and afterwards their baking equipment as well. A downcast Saigo then mumbles, later on, that “I should have been a fisherman..” (Because he could join Ohno in his 25-hour fishing trips and get a nice dark tan for his pale skin. But too bad Nino won’t even be able to cope at sea. Hence being a baker is fine, anyways.)　(・ω・)ノ 大ちゃんはどんな食べ物も好きだから。