Vocaloid Series: Yowane Haku, Sweet Ann, and Kiyoteru

Yup, got back into my nightly drawing routine a bit and created some more Vocaloid fanart of unloved Vocaloids. I’m thinking of uploading all of my other pics so far here, but for now, check them out on my deviantART.
As for now…

From left to right: Yowane Haku, Sweet Ann, Kiyoteru.
For more info on these pics, click on the pictures, and hopefully, by then, I’d have them linked to my pictures in my dA gallery, where you’ll find some more info in the description.

See, I’m still doing something.

The wait is over!

If you haven’t noticed, I am super spamming some art just to get all this old stuff I haven’t uploaded up here. Ugh.

Remember this post where I showed you guys a preview of what was coming up? Well, this is what it was:

From left to right: Anaria, Lily.

This project was started in the hopes of being able to remember all of my characters in these covenant cards. I think it’s just nice to have a collection. Ideally, every time I make a new character, I’d draw a character card for them.
But I fail.


In any case, onto the technical stuff no one cares about:
 
Drawn on index cards.
Inked using Faber Castell PITT black artist pens, Pilot DR drawing pens, coloured Prismacolour Premier fine line markers, and coloured Staedtler Triplus fine liners.
Coloured using Copic Sketch and Tria markers.
Highlights done with  Zig’s Writer: Chalk Collection marker in white.

WIP Hell: Pictures that will forever be left unfinished

I cleaned up my desk recently, and when I say "cleaned", I mean looked under my huge pile of WIPs I need to do. I saw though there were many there, there were also some which could also get the stamp of a finish picture.
But overall, they're still heavily unfinished, but in anycase..

I get bored doing math reviews, okay…?

Practicing more dramatic poses, as well as testing the extent of my anatomy prowess. So far, I’ve learned that I have none.

Something from summer, featuring the gang from… whatever it was called.
From left to right: Hitoshi, Takara, Kenshin, and Chizu.

More pics from the same series thing! Also practicing dramatic poses as well on the left, while the other side focuses on faces and expressions.

...and some more..

And though not unfinished, nor that old, I thought it was pretty cool. I drew them this year – in September, actually – as ideas for my English project. I transferred out of it before I could get my marks back – which pisses me off. Not only did my partner suck balls, leaving me to do everything by myself, again,  I put a lot of damn work into drawing (and writing, but not as much) all that shit. And she gets all the marks? Damn her.



Drawn on scrap photocopy paper or lined paper with mechanical pencil.

Improvement Timeline: Anaria Part 1: The First Time I Picked Up a Pencil

Oh does this bring back the memories.
This was way back in the day, back when I just quit those accursed drawing lessons. This was back in the day when I was those animu fans we’ve all learned to hate, the ones who hope to make their own series out of their Sailor Moon/DBZ rip off characters.

Now I caution you now: what you’re about to see was drawn back  when I was in grade 4. Actually, if I remember correctly, it was Anaria herself which was the first serious animu character I’ve ever done.
My first animu picture ever, sparking my long animu draw journey. So, overall, it sucks.

Looking back, I’m a little surprised at myself. Though the arms look like they’ve been stretched in a similar fashion people use to do the same to their necks, I actually referenced – yes, people, you heard that right: referenced – my arm for the correct length. Sure, I was sitting down, thus making it seem like my arm reached my knee, but I digress. I still did it.
Don’t you love the InuYasha rip off outfit, too?

Came shortly after the first picture. Her friends were included here, but I cut them out.

…Yet again, more Anaria. There are more pictures in this similar fashion (as I traced the general head shape for the rest, LOL) of her friends, but that’s not worth the time.

Though still horrible shitty, this one, at least, improvements are seen. This is probably drawn when I was in the fifth grade. And, if memory serves me right, this is one of those imaginary scenes of her I’d play in my head and over. I believe she’s in a hot spring in the middle of the forest located in the middle of nowhere.
Ignore the “goddess of the stars” part. I think I forget about that later on anyways (proven by the next pic). Besides, that part is pretty unnecessary.


Drawn on this hugeass pad of cooperate advertising paper with mechanical pencil, coloured with supermarket brand pencil crayons and markers. (A tell-tale sign that these pictures were drawn back in grade 4/early 5)

I was going to delve into her horribly Mary-Sue corrupted back-story, but I’ll save that for another day. Right now, I have something else to show you people:

Meet Anaria’s star/moon goddess form (I’ve always thought it was the moon, but after looking back at some old pictures… guess I was wrong?)  This is a pretty good depiction of my improvement over the years. Lets get this started then, shall we?

1. No surprise that the deformed, excuse-to-not-learn-anatomy-because-it’s-my-“style” picture in the top left is the first in my improvement time line. I mean, look at that. I didn’t even try. I used my before-anime-this-is-how-I-drew-people style on it. So probably around grade 4 was she drawn.
2. Middle left, left of all the eyes comes next. I don’t know why, but when the middle chunk of grade 4 rolled around, it brought forth eyes which got cut off the skull and skinny appendages, but what was next to come was anything but.
3. The picture at the middle right (right of the eyes) still contained the same awkwardness when it came to bodies (I even prefer my older, more petite style over this shit), but now, everything ballooned into even more awkward sizes. At this time, I was obsessed with detail, a detail that never really existed once I look back. I would say this picture was drawn around grade 6.
4. I don’t think I need to explain much when it comes to what comes next: bottom left-hand corner. In grade 8, an epiphany dawned upon me: heads are suppose to be round. Gasp, right? You can see the outline of where I sketched out the roundness before-hand.
5. …All this leaves the picture on the top right to be the most recent! And yes, that is true, being only drawn, perhaps, a week ago – maybe not even. Not much to say besides it kicks all the other ones’ asses.
   

Drawn on lined paper (if it already isn’t obvious) with mechanical pencil.

Character Concepts: Kanaria 2

I thought I had posted my previous Kanaria sketch dump, but from furthur inspection, it had mysteriously disappeared, and when I mean disappeared, I mean I was too stupid to realise that I didn't post it up.
It should be there, now. So visit it. 

Practicing warping my style, again. I've also drawn some scenes I've had of her floating through my head. See the bottom left-hand corner of the picture? The one where she's eating something?
While most youkais eat humans, she has to eat other youkais to stay alive. It's considered blasphemy, but youkais (since they ingest humans) possess more energy, fueling the two spirits in her body.

Drawn 3:30 AM or so. Really quick sketch with some gradient overlays and some blue shading to look like I gave more of a crap.

But two spirits in her body? What spirits? I don't know if I've explained this, but in my other post, I explained the type of youkai she is, right? Anyways, these half-birds were real birds' slaves, and would do anything for them. When a stray shadow cat decided to visit the real birds, the real birds tricked the cat to go for the half ones. Kanaria, being a loser as she couldn't fly for her age, was used as an offering. Some kind of tricks I haven't thought about were thrown in, and now she's permanently stripped from flight, but instead, got these shadow powerz.

And the cat youkai's supposed to eat her, but it figured that since she was its living vessel, it'd make her a deal that instead of having it eat her inside out, she'd eat other youkais to save herself.

That's pretty much her background. Yes, it's not realistic and a bit mary-sue, but if it helps, she's as weak as hell and really relies on the cat youkai to save her sorry ass.

But, I have fun with this bit of freedom I have by not making everything super realistic (like I do other things).

First picture's drawn with mechanical pencil on scrap photocopy paper.

Second picture's draw on openCanvas 4.5.

Recipe: Mini Chocolate Cupcake Christmas Trees

Whoa, look at all those C words up there…

In an unusual gesture, for Christmas, I decided to give gifts for the teachers as well as my fellow peers. This Christmas tree recipe had caught my eye back when I had first purchased the book, and since the holidays have come along, it was my excuse to indulge in such an endeavor.

 It’s kind of required for you to buy the book, however, unless you have a 1inch in diameter round cookie cutter and a thimble to bake in.


Mini Chocolate Cupcake Christmas Trees 

Recipe from Itty-Bitty Baking by Delia Greve
Yields 12 trees.

Chocolate Cupcake
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 once melted unsweetened chocolate (put a piece of chocolate in a bowl and microwave it in 30 second intervals, stirring in-between, until it’s melted)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/175 degrees Celsius.
• Cream the sugar and butter. Mix in the egg until it’s smooth, then add the vanilla and melted chocolate.
• Add dry ingredients (flour, baking powder).
• Pour in the milk slowly until the batter is smooth (I personally never found the batter to be unsmooth, and it got a bit ruined after the milk, but whatever’s your own)
• Pour an inch of batter into a 8 inch x 8 inch pan. The rest goes into the Itty-Bitty cupcake pan included with the book (this is why getting the book is so vital in making it… unless you actually have a silicon thimble). The remaining batter will be used for a final round of cupcakes.
• Bake the cake for 20 minutes and the cupcakes for 10.

Decorations
Ingredients

• Green food colouring
• Frosting (store-bought or home-made – whatever works for you, but the frosting will be the most important part)
• A froster (either a piping bag or some other contraption which works in a simular manner) with a star-shaped tip
• Candies (cola balls and candy cane sprinkles were used in the book’s picture, while I used coloured – and regular – sugar, rainbow sprinkles, holiday coloured rounds, and a white chocolate chip for the star, but really, have fun with it!)

Directions

1. Mix the green food colouring and frosting together. This will be the leaves of the tree. Put frosting in your frosting device.
2. Squeeze a mound of frosting onto the cupcake part (the smaller part) of your cupcake. It should be pointed at the end. Keep doing this until you’ve covered the whole top in frosting.
3. Decorate and enjoy!

Fanart: "Gingerbread" Dark Tournament

If you haven't figured out from this post, I am currently obsessed over a small series. But to make it more obvious that I'm obsessed, when I was given opportunity to make "gingerbread" graham cracker houses, instead of a house, I made... you guessed it, the dark tournament.
What is the dark tournament? Well, if you don't know already, it's from Yu Yu Hakusho, and really, that's all you need to know. :P

Can you see the similarity?

It's uncanny how both of 'em look so much together, right?

In the reference picture, it shows that half of the roof is intact when Hiei used his Dragon of the Darkness Flame, but in my world, Hiei's just so damn cool that he blew off the whole roof, and even a bit of the side (shown by the uneven crackers at the front). See how ingenious I can be when making up excuses for not having enough graham crackers?

Now, for a more in depth view of the tournament, starting with turnarounds.


But, wait! What is this I see? Something's happening inside the tournament...?

Hiei's (red) in the ring, duking it out with Rinku (instead of whomever he's suppose to fight because Rinku sucks more)...

...with his team, Kurama (orange), Kuwabara (yellow), and Yusuke (green), avidly watching on the side..

...unfazed, unlike other demons which has faced the Dragon's wrath.

Anyways, I'll tell you how to make your very own stupid looking dark tournament now!

I used six crackers for the floor, and eight for the sides. I just glued on three by three for the floor, then on each side (the skinnier one), in between the top and bottom crackers, I glued both of the side crackers perpendicular to the the bottom. Two more crackers should stand in the middle crackers of the floor, across from each other, making a rectangle with the side crackers. Then, slanted crackers were used to connect all the missing parts to form a kind of diamond shape with all its sharp sides cut off.

A "circular" cracker was then covered in icing and stuck in the middle of the stadium. I bit off Hiei's and Rinku's legs to make them shorter, but kept everyone else the same height and found a retarded looking yellow one for Kuwabara. Koto's even there! (The fallen orange one) I threw in some decapitated gummy bears and graham cracker pieces for the effect of Hiei's awesome.

The outside consists of red gummy bears with its face bit off, and flat side stuck on the walls. I think they're windows, but I'm not sure.

And you can't go wrong with cola balls. :P

So, there you go. If you want to make a stupid replication of my equally stupid looking dark tournament, go ahead. I think all I need to tell you now is that the icing was way too thick due to too much icing sugar and too less water. Really, it didn't run at all and when you scooped it, it stuck to the spoon.

BONUS! Guess what my sister made for her graham cracker creation?

The answer is Link from LOZ.

Just imagine, it was 3D once.

(Damn, I just detest Blogger's photo shit.)

Fanart: Yu Yu Hakusho

Well, yeah, I don’t know how it happened, but looks like I’m fangirling over Yu Yu Hakusho… again.
It all started out with me finishing some homework in my sister’s room. She then played a song fitting of the moment - Homework Never Ends (we’re not sure if the actual lyrics fit it, though, haha) – which just happened to be a YYH ED.
After that, I decided to listen to Wild Wind (a YYH character song) for the first time in, like, what? Four years?  I don’t even know why I skipped the song, because it’s not bad.
Not to mention YYH Abridged (mind you, it’s genuinely funny and the voice acting’s pretty sweet, something I can’t say for most abridged series *cough*Resident Evil*cough*) which I all recommend if you want to watch an Abridged series (I guess Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged people may enjoy too, but it's not really my cup of tea).
Anyways, I never understood why I had an attachment to the series. It never played on TV and was pretty much an unknown title, sneered at for it being "old". I found other ways to bring the series a bit closer to me, but never close enough (I'll explain that in another YYH post, I suppose). Still, I've enjoyed it since grade 4, and I still do.
And yeah, that’s pretty much the story.

Anyways, onto some fanart!

Yukina.
You can see a bit of unfinished-Hiei’s leg, too.
She's pretty much my favourite female in the whole series. She can do something (unlike everyone else minus Botan but even then, all she can do is ride her oar) and even is included in a YYH game as a playable character (because, yeah, she can do something).

Left to Right: Kurama, Youko Kurama, Hiei.
Tried to be a bit more simplistic with this one. Originally, I had coloured everyone in in two shades (minus Hiei, who got orange for the second shade), but two turned to three, and three turned to four.
Before I scanned this, I realised that Hiei looked too cool with his red and orange (and soon purple) scheme going on, but Youko and Kurama (especially Kurama) were paling in comparison.
That’s where the nasty orange comes in. :(

First Row: Hiei with cloak, Dark Tournament Kurama with Rose Whip; Second Row: Cloak-less Hiei with sword, Youko Kurama with rose.

If it isn't obvious enough, like myriads of other people, Kurama and Hiei are my favourite characters. Like, though I'm clearly aware of otherwise, Hiei's still freakin' stronger than Yusuke. I don't care what you say; I'm in denial.

UPDATE:
More pics~

Left to Right: Mouse (not related to YYH in any way), Kurama, Youko Kurama, Yukina, Botan, Hiei and Hiei again.
While Kurama is holding a rose (for his signature rose whip), Youko Kurama has his Youko Death Plant (its name in the game, Yu Yu Hakusho Tactics, so I don’t know how true it is to the canon). They’re the only guys equipped for battle, minus second Hiei who has his bandages off, Jagan out, and his Dragon of the Darkness Flame out, ready to kick some ass.
The girls are pretty weak, so, eh. They can’t fight anyways, unless you consider Yukina’s healing a fighting ability.
Just got bored in Chemistry, pretty much, and that was the birth of these chibis. Oh, that and I’ve wanted to draw a super charged Hiei for a while now.
Remember, kids: he is the dragon now. He is the dragon! Eat that, Dragon Ball Z.


Drawn on scrap photocopy paper (and homework) with mechanical pencil.
Second picture’s drawn on sketchbook paper (I’m assuming?) with mechanical pencil and coloured with Prismacolour, Laurention, probably Crayola, and whatever-the-hell-else-was-available-in-my-art-class brand coloured pencils.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to listen to my 390+ MB of YYH songs I downloaded in the span of two days (if I really wanted to be crazy, I’d also download the 3 part, 40+ songs per part game music album. Unfortunately, I don’t think my Shuffle can hold that many, haha.
EDIT: Hot damn, are their songs are awesome. I can’t stop downloading…

Character Concepts: Kanaria

Today, I'm going to introduce you to an old, beloved character of mine's

Made soon after the creation of Anaria (you see what I did thar with their names? I thought it was so original back then) back in... say, grade 4, and originally dubbed “Kanria”. She was pretty much an emo version of Anaria.
I won’t go into a whole back story right now, but I will say that she was lame. Recently, I’ve begun a whole overhaul of her design, keeping only the part where she is somehow involved with a demon cat. Other than that, if you looked at old pictures, you wouldn’t see the similarities.
I think Anaria is in way too deep to change, though. Pity; Kanaria revised is pretty cool.

Reference spam of Kanaria's background - but more specifically, the type of youkai (demon) she was and all about that stuff. Hope you can read my writing, but if not, these youkais are pretty much "half-bird-half-iunno" and they're full bird youkais' slaves.
And, hey,  look! Even this has some YYH on it.

Now more concentrating on Kanaria, her gestures, clothing, attacks, styles... yeah. Practice thing, pretty much.

Revamped her original dress design (because, back in the day, everyone had to wear one for some stupid occasion I can't even remember now)

Playing with styles. Trying to give her a style which isn't my default one.

I don't know if this belongs here, but this is the revamp of the cat demon she would turn into, but I scrapped that, so...
Oh well, enjoy Foopa. :D


Drawn on scrap photocopy paper with mechanical pencil.
The third and fourth picture is drawn on a Canson Basics Sketch book with mechanical pencil.
Stay tuned for more…!

(PS: Sorry for using weeaboo words here and there; back when she was created, I've always used those words to describe her, and I only found it fitting if I continued that)

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies

I promised I would bring some cookies to my Scouts camp a few days ago. I planned on just using my trusted chocolate chip cookie recipe, but then remembered that there was a member in my troop which was allergic to peanuts. I’m kinda glad for that, because without her, I wouldn’t have been so bold as to put candy canes in my cookies. xD
And yes, though I put white chocolate chips in mines, I checked and they were peanut free (unless shea oil is actually a nut in disguise! :O) and, besides, the cookie needed the extra kick.

Cookie on the left was rushed and made without the dark chocolate chips, the right was made with care and with the dark chocolate chips.
Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
Adapted from my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe in the Eyewitness cookbook.

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter (I like to buy the 1/2 cup sticks and just cut it in half, paper and all)
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (I don’t really shift my flour or anything, I just fill, like, 1/4 less of my cup with flour; any other flour works fine, too, though I’m not very fond of pastry flour, but it works)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (I mistaken it for baking powder for my first batch of cookies, but really, they turn out the same :P)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (or if you have the weird ones that only has one which says “just a pinch”, use that one)

The good stuff:
I estimate when it comes to this. I just use whatever I feel like looks good.

• peppermint candy canes (I use 4… even when I doubled it; use the pretty colourful ones!)
• white chocolate chips
• (optional: dark chocolate chips, but I think milk chocolate might taste better… don’t add too much, though, because I find it takes away from the delicate white chocolate taste, but, whatever; my mom likes the dark chocolate)
  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t know what it is in Celsius, but that’s what the internet is for. I’d strongly recommend using a convection oven (which, in that case, you would need to preheat it at 345 degrees) for any baking because the outside colour is nice and even, even on the bottom.
2. Crush candy canes until there are no pieces bigger than 1 cm or so. I put them in a Ziplock bag and go wild, using some kind of blunt object to break especially stubborn pieces. If you prefer a more minty and crunchy cookie, leave the pieces bigger. Put aside.
3. Cream butter with brown and white sugar. I like to leave my butter for a few hours before I use it to make it easier to use.
4. Mix in the egg, then add the vanilla extract.
5. Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt). They say to add it “a little at a time” but I just dump the whole thing in and mix.
6. Add crushed candy canes and chocolate chips.
7. Line cookie sheet with wax paper (because, believe me, even non-stick pans lose when it comes face to face with melted mints – so line your cookie sheet!) and scoop about 1 inch in diameter balls, roll them into balls, and squish them into the cookie sheet. The dough is a bit sticky, so make sure your hands are covered in flour, or to make them a bit more neat, you could wrap rolls of dough in plastic wrap, leave them in the fridge till they’re hard, and cut chunks off that.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, or when you can stick a toothpick in it, and it comes out clean. For a convection oven, I’d say around 10-7 minutes. For a softer cookie (and those are the best) leave it in for a few minutes less, or just gobble them up when they’re warm.

Yes, this recipe is easy - so easy that a 3rd grader (or so) could make them. I know because I’ve been doing it till then. I’ve got the whole recipe memorized, man! Chocolate chip cookies are like my speciality.
So yes, I think it’s a semi-festive treat for a cookie loving holiday.

Improvement Timeline: "That" Face

The reference picture:

First picture: I was still practicing my realism skills so it's a bit rough. I had this thing for elongated features back then, too, if it wasn't obvious. Needless to say, it looks nothing like the original picture.

What the hell happened here?! I got worse in my second sketch. This just looks so screwed up that I don't have words to describe how screwed up it is.

Redrawing of the above pic. I just wanted to see what I could do with a retarded picture and if I just used it as a reference, could I make it look what the reference photo looked like? Well, obviously not, but this looks the most normal of the bunch.
Well, that is until I drew this:

Whoa! Super improvement, I'd say. o-o It started with shit, ended up shittier, and suddenly looked a bit normal out of some freak accident. Though, of course, it's not perfect (like, come on, she's not even facing the right way) it's way way way better than the other ones.

See, practice man.


Made on Strathmore Sketch notebook and (for the first pic) a graph paper pad using mechanical pencil.

I suck at knitting

They say practice makes perfect. My fabric arts teacher things so too. That's why she got us to make 22 stiches by 22 stiches swatches to practice our knitting.
However, I guess the rule doesn't apply to me.
It's been three months into my fabric arts class, and see what I've accomplished so far!

From left to right: knitting swatch, purling swatch, stockinette swatch.
I even revisited my knitting swatch recently (because A: my other one sucked, and B: I gave it away) and you know what? I still see the suckiness still lingering thar.


Made with borrowed-from-school plastic knitting needles and purple cotton yarn and 100% half-assness!