APPLETASTIC

Remember my last attempt at photorealistic painting that referenced closely a magazine shot of Ohno? Oh, no you don’t. It has been that long, so I thought I’d like to try it again to assure myself of my technical skills. There isn’t much creativity to talk about here since the point is to achieve an identical copy of the original photo.

What better to use as a subject than the charming Ninomiya Kazunari in a Gantz suit? The announcement about him preparing to star in a live action movie emerged last year was how I found out about the long-running manga series and subsequently got hooked onto volume after volume. The prospect of dying and being revived the moment after through an intelligence system that transports them as data so as to battle against aliens is so surreal it makes you want to follow the protagonists Kurono Kei and Masaru Kato to find out how in the world they are going to have to fight to survive this.

Part 1 of Gantz opened in the cinemas ONLY this month, four months after Japan, which is a real long wait for those who didn’t want to spoil the film by downloading. I watched it on two nights in a row with two different groups and it was funny hearing their opinions and reactions. For a such an elaborate world, it was a lot plot to cram in a two-hour action movie hence characters and missions were cut, simplified to a level which I find was okay. What blew me away was the seamless CG integrated with the pretty amazing action sequences from the cast, and THE GANTZ SUIT DAMMIT.

Kurono Kei version くろのけいバージョン ♡

Here’s the Ninomiya Kazunari version 二宮和也バージョン ♡ where I totally have an obligation to draw him in his famed black-rimmed glasses. 黒縁メガネ. At his hottest, you know, like omg.

Cosplay? Very much like it haha. Anyway, for the same reason I was just spazzing about, I prefer the second version :D

I saw Norwegian Wood last weekend and thought it was nice enough material for me to pick up my pen to begin sketching again after ages of neglect in favour of positioning my mindset as a designer’s, but let’s not digress. My attempts at observational sketching are usually sloppy so I was hoping to do something about this.. Guess I just haven’t figured how to go about shading hair nor filling in the blanks realistically.

Don’t Matsuyama Kenichi and Kikuchi Rinko look just really cute together? <3 Making screen caps had made me realise, as I scroll through the different scenes, how this film is definitely growing on me; I'd just have to delve deeper, and start seeing.

Planning for another batch of sketches and perhaps add some colours. More later.

Because I watched it this week.

Black Swan put me on the edge of my seat for the entire duration of the film and plunged me further into its darkness as I followed the character arc. Here’s my impression of Natalie Portman as Nina from what I could remember, whom I think did a most wonderfully convincing job in not just her acting but the ballet scenes as well. She portrayed a perfect embodiment of innocence and, thereafter, evil that manifested from within.

While still reeling from the intensity, with the theme of Swan Lake resonating in my head, I had set this down on canvas the moment I got home and laid hands on my tablet. If you do notice, I’ve been into this raw, unruly drawing style lately, skipping the lineart to delve straight into filling out forms and shapes probably because I enjoy being undecided, changing things along the way.

I kind of like how it turns out, so I was thinking I might continue illustrating in this style for a while.

It must be painfully obvious for you to tell when I’m tremendously inspired and when I’m not. This was one of those rare instances that I felt would dissipate as rapidly as the imagery had formed had I not translated it into an actual illustration on the spot, the sort that absolutely has to be completed in one sitting to get it out of my system.

Red Wine, Whiskey and You (Natsunonamae @ LJ) tells the bittersweet story of “Jun and Sho, in the span of three years”; realistic, quiet and not overly dramatised. I love fics like these, where strong imagery builds up steadily as soon as the reader starts drinking in the words. Silverfa would probably love it too :)

Illuminated by the hazy lights at the bar, Sho and Jun settle at the familiar bar stools, with not a word passing between them. Simply lost in the moment.

Here is something different from what I’ve only been illustrating – people, basically, all these while for a change; in my slow progressing journey of learning to draw human figures by heart, I’ve somehow forgotten how interesting objects portrayed in a still life can be. These shapes sum up the basics of anatomy.. Even this simple composition cannot, for crying out loud, cover gaping flaw of my perspective drawing, so this is how bad I still am at it.

A mashup illustration of some elements from the psychological thriller Confessions 「告白」(7.8/10 on IMDB) starring Matsu Takako, Okada Masaki and Kimura Yoshino. The murder of a teacher’s young daughter spawns a series of confessions of subjects in matter, each more telling than the other, of questionable motives incited by broken pasts, elaborate plans of sweet revenge, and a resolution bound to question viewers even after the credits have started rolling. Due to the post-production colour treatment, most of the scenes in the 106 minutes of screen time had been tinted a grey-blue, if not desaturated and compensated with high contrast that turned even the most normal environments sombre.. so much so it unsettles, yet done not distastefully, where every single moment was like a piece of art and if laid out consecutively as stills, the story would have the same impact.

大切なものが消える音は「パチン」

Perpetrators are victims, turned because of circumstances they have been forced into, where essentially each one of them, in a way or another, has lost something. Quite a bit of emphasis has been placed on this idea: the sound of something/someone important disappearing. It creeps up on you, ultimately unleashing its hefty effect to full scale when an enraged Moriguchi compares it with「パチン」じゃなくて；「どっーーーーかん！」 to illustrate the magnitude of her suffering.

The film also constantly suggests a theme of anonymity – anonymity that only serves as well as illusions, and shows how acts of evil always have a way of getting found out (especially, especially when you’re an overconfident 13 year old who has never thought of what’s really in your face while being too caught up in watching your back).

In this web of self-deception, perpetual denial and unrepentant deeds spurred by all the wrong motives, confessions may just be allusions of carefully woven lies. The steel voiced narration is there to unsettle, and coupled with the meaningful slow-mo scenes, it makes a beautifully disturbing story. I only had some issues with the odd music and comical effects that didn’t seem to gel, but that’s another thing.

Well I was going to post some general amateurish opinions on the significance of red/warm hues, that is the point of the illustration, in the entire revenge saga, and probably throw in some superficial character studies – then I realised I was losing a lot of details (which Ade’s excited analysis and comments on msn have brought back to mind, and trust me she has a photographic AND videographic memory which scares the hell out of me). So I’m going to have to see it again because seriously, it’s a masterpiece.