Midori’s personality shone like the sun in contrast with the melancholic Naoko. She has the cutest analogies, don’t you think? Even though I don’t necessarily agree with it.
Watanabe: What’s true love for you?
Midori: For example, I tell you “I want tartlet with strawberries”. You drop everything, run, buy it, then run back, breathing heavily and give it to me. And then I’ll say “I don’t want it anymore”. And you’ll throw that damn tartalet through the window. That, that’s what I call true love.
Watanabe: To me, it doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with real love.
Midori: It does! I want for this person to answer me “I get it, Midori, sorry, my fault I’m a total ass, a blockhead a dog without feelings. I’m going to bring you something else. What do you want? Chocolate mousse? Or maybe cheesecake?”
Watanabe: And then?
Midori: Then I will love him.
Two speed paintings in an hour and a half, from the screencaps of Norwegian Wood I saved in a folder just for drawing reference. So much angst, Naoko.
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.
