sumeria

Cang Lan Jue - Progress Pics

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 19:44:44 GMT

Today is a cold, dreary day, and I am inside working on experimental art. This was originally conceived as idea for working the background in an ink wash over gold leaf, but that intention foundered in the face of technical challenges. I know the effect I want can be done - though the only western artists I've seen work over gold leaf were working in either oil or acrylic, neither of which I use atm, I have seen enough nihonga artists work over gold leaf in mediums closer to watercolor than anything else to know it can be done. (The paints in question, like other types of "japanese style" watercolors are not watercolor because the binder used is not gum arabic, but they're water based pigments not oil or plastic, so the technical challenges should be surmountable. I just don't know what nihonga artists use as a fixative/ground over the gold, and none of the solutions I have access to worked for the effect I wanted. Le sigh.

There will still be gold leaf in the final, I just had to radically reconceive how I wanted to use it. And I have no idea what the overall effect would be, so that's exciting.

The idea for this piece originated in wanting to do something for Cang Lan Jue that was post-series, showing Xiao Lanhua's aesthetic merging with the Cangyan Sea aesthetic - richer colors, still with the gold flowers, but with long sweeping thorns... And the pose definitely owes something to Klimt, which I blame on the fact that I was thinking about the use of gold while drawing it.


Initial pencils when first transferred to paper (I generally sketch on the computer, where I can draw different elements on different layers and then move them around.)	Inked lineart - I decided to forgoe inking the pattern on Dongfeng Qingcang's robes, since it's going to be done in something opaque, and can thus go down over the watercolor.	Current progress - Xiao Lanhua's hair and dress were the first elements I wanted to focus on rendering, so I could get the masking fluid off of the flowers in her jewelry, since I don't want to leave that on the paper longer than necessary.

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Fic Rec! - Puella Magi/Bleach Crossover

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 23:53:47 GMT

One of the things I wanted to do more this year was return to reccing fic I enjoyed more often - if anyone has a good fic rec meme/prompt list, btw, throw it my way? I find it easier to think of things to rec with prompts. But in any case, I promised myself I would try to remember to throw up a rec post somewhere when I read something new that I really liked, and since I was pondering what to do with my dreamwidth, this seems like a good place to put those!

This fic is an unusual read for me - I liked Puella Magi Madoka Magica okay, but it's not the kind of thing that makes me seek out fic at all, and while I do read the occasional Bleach fic, I'm picky enough that I don't read a ton. And while I do like ridiculous long!fic pretty well, 480,000 words and not yet finished is usually a hard sell. Howsomever.

This was just a really well done story. Expansive, detailed, well-plotted, with excellent characterization, not flinching away from the harshness of it's source material in Puella Magi, but using the Bleach crossover to steer towards a gentler ending. The author also, in my opinion, does an excellent job in merging the settings - this is a crossover, not a fusion - in a way that allows them to coexist without breaking the logic or the rules of either. The premise: Kurosaki Ichigo has two younger sisters. What if Kyuubei had approached them? And what if they then met Homura when she was having one of her less pleasant turns round the wheel, and they got to talking? What then?

As N Approaches Infinity (481857 words) by Corisanna
Chapters: 84/?
Fandom: Bleach, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Akemi Homura, Urahara Kisuke, Kurosaki Karin, Kurosaki Yuzu, Kurosaki Ichigo, Kurosaki Isshin, Hitsugaya Toushirou, Kyubey, Hanakiri Jinta, Tsumugiya Ururu, Tsukabishi Tessai, Kaname Madoka, Tomoe Mami, Miki Sayaka, Sakura Kyouko, Momoe Nagisa, Gotei 13 | 13 Court Guard Squads, Shihouin Yoruichi, Inoue Orihime, Sado "Chad" Yasutora, Ishida Uryuu, Kaname Junko, Kaname Tomohisa, Kaname Tatsuya, Shizuki Hitomi
Additional Tags: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Time Travel, Alternate Timelines, Doomed Timelines, Lies, Faustian Bargain, Magical Girls, Shinigami, Angst, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Being Meguca Is Suffering, Slow Build, Making Use of Characters Kubo Wasted, Magic and Science, Homura Needs Therapy and Hugs, Character Study, Friendship, Found Family, Accessible to Readers From Only One of Each Fandom, Spoilers for Both Canons, Blood and Gore, Cussing, Introspection, Supernatural Elements, Female Friendship, Women Being Awesome, Family Dynamics, Kurosaki Family Weirdness as Playful Slapstick Insult Comedy, Grief/Mourning, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, These kids need many kinds of help, Protectiveness, Ichigo doles out Shonen Speeches™, Ichigo is every magical girl's big brother you can't change his mind, no beta we die like dumbasses
Series: Part 1 of Significant Figures
Summary: Despairing as yet another timeline goes horribly wrong, Homura wanders into Karakura. There she discovers that while the spiritually-aware people of Karakura were distracted by Ichigo Kurosaki and Xcution, Kyubey had managed to contract the Kurosaki sisters as magical girls. Drawing the attention of the shinigami could be just the advantage Homura needs.

My Full Reclist

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Dusting off the shelves

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 03:46:24 GMT

So with the ongoing implosion going on at twitter, I've been thinking for a while that I should look into revitalizing my old dreamwidth account, and today seems as good a day as any to finally do so. It has apparently been ten years. O.o

I'm not yet 100% sure what I'll be posting here - history suggests my main social media content is fanart, fic recs, and the occasional piece of meta, and this seems unlikely to change. Lord knows "what fandoms I'm principally into" has shifted a lot over the last decade; currently, it's predominantly a mix of Silmarillion, a whole passel of cdramas/cnovels, and a handful of western fantasy novels.

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Master Chronology of Marvel 616 Titles: Complete

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:15:10 GMT

So, I know I’m not the only one (particularly among newer fans) who prefers to buy the trade/collected editions of comics rather than the individual issues. However, as anyone who has given even a cursory glance at such can tell you, it is not particularly easy or intuitive to figure out what order books go in, as they’re rarely numbered, and what with retitling books and changing numbering schemes every few years, it wouldn’t be incredibly helpful even if they were.

I searched the internet for some kind of organized master list that would show both the reading order for individual titles, and for titles relative to each other (desirable because of crossovers, events, and the fact that Wolverine is in Every Damn Thing) but I didn’t find anything really comprehensive. Hence this Endeavor.

( Read more... )

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A Chronology project.

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 00:56:22 GMT

Recently, I began a great and mighty Endeavor. You see, I wanted to start reading comic books again. Specifically, Marvel comics in the main 616 universe. (For the unaware, Marvel embraces the concept of "alternate realities" so endemic to comics to the extent of having one character [Reed Richards, of the Fantastic Four] actually create a numbering system for them. 616 is the principle reality in which the majority of Marvel titles are set.)

But actually figuring out what books I wanted to buy turned out to take quite a lot of research, and eventually, a really elaborate chart. Since I don't think my situation is all that unique, I wanted to post such chart upon the interwebs, that others who might find it Of Use would have the option.

( Being a chart showing in what order marvel comics should be read, from 2009-present, and an overly-verbose explanation as to my reasoning in constructing it. )

Edit: Now contains Fantastic Four, Hulk, and Wolverine-related titles.

Edit 2: Now contains Spiderman, Daredevil, and other solo titles, and I am begining to incorporate the new post-AvX Marvel Now! titles.

Edit 3: Now largely complete for 2009-present, working on 2000-2009.

Edit 4: Now replaced by complete version over here.

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It should not be this hard to buy comic books.

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:57:03 GMT

Books I ordered arrived today; baby!Loki, yay! (Baby!Loki is awesome; I highly recommend the new Journey into Mystery series. Highly.) And, luckily, it turns out I guessed right about what books I wanted, so double yay!

It kind of annoys me that there was guesswork involved, though, I have to say.

I mean, I'm a nerd. I read a lot, and I like to re-read things. I enjoy comics, but since I like to have nice copies of things, and I don't like to buy things twice, I usually prefer to wait until the trade/graphic novel version of something comes out, rather than pick up the monthly comic books. I hang out almost exclusively with other nerds, many of whom do follow quite a few of the monthly releases.

If I think to myself, "I want to own a nice hardcover copy of baby!Loki's adventures, as begun in Thor #617 and continuing in Journey into Mystery #622 onwards", it should not take me an hour of research across multiple websites to decide which books contain those issues, and at the end of said research, I should not feel only mostly sure that I've ordered the right books.
-_-

Would it be so hard, Marvel and DC, to maintain some kind of list of what issues are in what trade edition, that one could reference? For that matter, given that a lot of your characters move freely through books, why is it that I cannot go to your site and say, "I want to read about Iron Man!" and obtain from you a list of the graphic novels he appears in in chronological order?

Because I have to say, given how much work it is for me, who follows comics, to figure out what I need to buy to get the stories I'm interested in, I have to expect that any casual or returning reader has a non-zero chance of giving up and wandering off.

(I suspect this would also be a good way to increase their sales to women by lots, since ladies are way more likely, I think, to be invested in character arcs. Put together a list of, say, all graphic novels in which Magneto figures heavily, arrange them in a sensible order so people can follow the story contained therein, and Magneto fangirls will buy them.

In conclusion: baby!Loki is awesome. Anyone who ever wanted to see a redemption story wherein Loki decided evil had gotten too predictable, so why not kill himself and be reborn as an adorable 8-year-old version of himself that wasn't burdened by all his issues: Marvel has what you want.

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New Year's Resolution

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:38:04 GMT

So, the holiday season kicked my ass. I have more bookmarks on pinboard than I care to think about that I need to format and tag. To say nothing of my habit of adding new levels of tagging complexity periodically and then not going back to make compliant earlier bookmarks. -_-

New Year's Resolution the first: get my bloody tags in order.

New Year's Resolution the second: get my drawing speed up to something useful. My beautiful tablet laptop et itself a few weeks back, and though I immediately replaced it with a much faster model, I am now having to relearn how to draw. Steve the graphics tablet is a lot more temperamental than Itachi the laptop was, alas.

But since I am nothing if not a procrastinator, yuletide recs list probably coming before either of those.

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