Mural in progress

This is our work in progress so far in our mural.

The idea itself as me and my other group mentioned in the previous blogs, is the people resembling the genre of books, and each of them are different "sub-cultures" as Biri Biri mentioned. And those group of people are considered to be "gangs" like the Durarara show.

The background were planning to change it to a gradient of black and dark blue, and it wont be as bright as it is in the preview here. The circle in the middle is going to change and in the middle will say Lasit latin for read. Why we chose latin was because the majority of english words are derived from the latin language.

Brush effects will be added to make it more vibrant and that's it

Library Mural: ROAR out louder

I had no idea what to do at first when the assignment was given out, but I got an idea yesterday from showing the anime Durarara at the club yesterday.

Since my idea was similar to Biri Biri’s idea (apparently great minds think alike, and we both thought of the same concept from Durarara) we paired up for the library Mural assignment.

Since the majority of the idea is explain at Biri Biri’s blog, I’ll briefly explain our ideas and concept.

In Durarara, there are separate “gangs” one is Dollars, then Yellow Scarf’s, Blue Squares and Slashers. Each of those gangs has their own cults and laws that make them unique from other anonymous gangs. And like Biri Biri mentioned, books have their own different genre and subjects. So in a way, the gangs in Durarara are like books with different genres.

Also in Durarara, all the characters are connected in a peculiar way yet not all of them know and interact with each other which are pretty interesting since books act the same way.

So the equation is:

People+Gangs=book

Book+Genre=People

Ann Rock Shooter + Biri Biri = weird

This ends the explanation of awesomeness according to Biri Biri XD

Pokemon in general

Instead of discussing the game, I would actually like to talk about the Pokemon in general.

Pokemon are actually inspired by the animals we see in real life (that was obvious enough, just wanted to get that part out of the way) Like how Pikachu is a mouse and arbok is a snake.

Some pokemon are just inspired by the general things in life like objects, ghost, poison, plants and many other things.

Pokemon assume things that are related to our reality from animals to objects to anything that has life in our world.

Doujinshi's

I refuse to put an example image just because I don't have any good ones at the moment. I'm surprised no one touched on this topic yet...

Doujinshi's are fan made comics (or in our case manga's) that are made for a specific series. Usually the stories that are created for the doujinshi's are events that fans would probably want to see happen in the real story.

For example (uck I'm actually going to use this example) There are Naruto fans out there who want Sasuke and Naruto to be a couple, but they know it probably won't happen in the show or in the manga itself. (ok going to go kill myself now bye~)

So the purpose of doujinshi's is to satisfy those who want to see these kinds of things happening. And it's amazing (or maybe outrageos) how the fans can actually create and make up these kind of stories and draw them out investing more into the world of fangirls.

Something from our own minds and ideas contributing to an existing series is also like fanfiction, but in this perspective I love how just one story is chained and helps create thousands or other stories.

Serebii

www.serebii.net

Ah, well if it isn't the most famous Pokemon fan website known on internet today. It was created by a person named Joe Merrick, and launched Serebii.net along with a friend of his during 1999, and even today it is still active.

from 1999 to 2010...that's admirable, I would give up on a website within 5 years.

I just like how they show how people can be so committed to their fandom for so many years that they wouldn't give it up at all. According to the year Joe was born which was in 1986, it calculates that Joe started Serebii when he was only 13 years old. And now he's attending university, but whenever he has the free time he updates the website whenever he can, he also has fellow online helpers that also contribute to the website.
It's amazing how so many people can come together and be devoted towards one specific thing for a very long time.

Avatars

No I'm not talking about the last airbender or the one with the blue people from James Cameron's hit movie.I mean these kinds of avatars, the ones we use in forums, websites, heck! Even in blogger we have our own avatars. We also call them icons, but the common term mostly used is avatar.

Starting from the avatar perspective, according to Hindu religion, avatars are the incarnations of god and the purpose for their incarnations is to restore religion when it goes astray. From the icon perspective, icons are usually determined by the people we admire the most thus considering them to be their "icon's."

Coincidentally we call these small squares of pixels avatars/icons. As in a commercial seen in class, these avatars represent us on the internet and it shows what we are on the internet it may not be exactly be identical to us in reality however they are us it just that they are presented differently. And as we admire our iconic people in life, people try to show that admiration for them through the internet also using "icons."

I think that's pretty neat.

Kobato

Yea, this image was from the magazine promoting the anime XD

Kobato is about a sweet girl (well obviously her name is Kobato) who needs to fill up a bottle of candy (the scared hearts she heals) in order for her wish to be granted. She only has a limited amount of time to fill up the whole bottle and is accompanied by a stuff dog known as Ioryogi. Kobato ends up working at a day care center in order to help Sayaka and Fujimoto, and hopes to heal their scared hearts along with other people's hearts.

Another work by Clamp, however since the manga isn't complete, the anime version of Kobato made up it's own ending however whether it will be similar to the ending of the manga, no one knows since Clamp are known for the unexpected.

A simple slice of life anime since it mostly relates to how people are in reality today. There's not a lot of magic and surreal-ness unless you want to count Ioryogi and his friends that works at Bachemuken (sp?) and their mysterious pasts of what happened back in heaven (however the anime doesn't explain that side of the story).

But in general is just Kobato and her friends just continuing to live ordinary lives and encountering ordinary things and circumstance just like we are in real life. There isn't anything really special unless you watch the last two episodes.

Megaman the awesome blue warrior

The Megaman Nt Warrior/ Battle Network series is mainly about AI programs known as Net Navi's getting along with Humans and how they both cooperate with each other through the real world and the net. But obviously there is evil out there who wants to take over both worlds, and destroy the harmony between Navi's and humans.
Typical -yes, cliché? Somewhat. But despite those elements, the Megaman Battle Network series is the most popular out of the rest of the Megaman franchise. (Well MGM Zero would be at the top as well) =p
From the games, we see visuals of advance technology which could possibly exist in our own reality sooner or later. And AI programs and other kinds of programs are used everyday just like the ones in the games. And we constantly use them in order to help with society and creating harmony among ourselves.
The battle chips that are used in the game is to help netnavi's battle viruses and boss navi characters. There are computer chips in real life and we use them on computers for various things such as the wide range of battle chips in the game. Viruses also exist in our reality within computers and such, and we do use programs and such to get rid of them or in other words "delete" them.
Mostly the battle network games show the relationship between society and technology and how it could show how that relationship is good and bad.

WIP Existentialism

BTW the puzzle man isn't final. So far I haven't got him right yet, but currently this is what you have to bear with. Coloring isn't completed yet, and there is a possibility of changing background color and adding more stuff in it.

Uh yea, it's kinda lame, I can do way better than this, but the actual final design you'll see on the due date.

But what I am trying to portray in this image is how a person can be a puzzle since you yourself have to figure out who you are. And the person is struggling to put the puzzle together is trying figure out who he is through completing the puzzle, since he see himself and his life as a puzzle.

Hunter x Hunter

Ok maybe it's not Christmas...but the picture is awesome either way X3

Hunter x Hunter is about a young boy named Gon who sets out on a journey to find his father who so happens to be one of the greatest hunters out in the world. So in order for Gon to find him he must become a Hunter.

Well similar to what I said in the very first post of Nurarihyon no Mago, Hunter x Hunter isn't the average shounen story. It might have the typical quirky characters and slow beginning, but what I really like about HxH is the plot and how immersed it gets. Even though there are side stories and situations where they could find Gon's father (he always ends up running away as soon as Gon get's closer) it's still the simple story about a boy finding his father, and so far I believe this is a shounen master piece (only if Yoshihiro Togashi didn't take so many hiatuses...)

Gon idolizes his father, and because of that he wants to follow in his footsteps and become a great hunter just like him and hopes to find him in the end and tell him of his great achievements. In real life there are people who idolize a certain person and would do things in order to get to their level.

The relationships in Hunter x Hunter is so complex especially Killua and Gon's relationship, they both help each other through thick and thin and they balance each other out. Since Killua has been in darkness all of life, Gon is his light. While Gon never had a friend his age, Killua befriended him despite his stubborn exterior. There's always a person out there in your life that would balance you out and help you in times of need or to snap you out of foolishness. Not everyone might have an outlet like person but in life something must balance something else.

Coming of age and relationships is practically the main themes of Hunter x Hunter. When the characters mature they either grow dark or they grow stronger than before. And there are so many strong relationships that are comparable to real life. Also to mention, the circumstances and the story itself is realistic and compares a lot towards the late 1990’s. (since the manga started around that time, I don’t think Togashi is going to do a time skip any time soon).

Where Color is born

Ignore copyright please =D

Where color is born was by Methevas on deviantart, is the 5th piece of the artist "explosion" series -Where color was born-

I was captivated by the astounding colors used in this piece. But besides the fascination, it really presents how the environment is suffering. For all the vast water and only one tree can really how that the trees out there will possible suffer the fate of being the last one, standing on a rock, all alone.

Its possible that it could lead to something similar to this in the end, probably after apocalypse kind of deal, where everything is wipe out and there is nothing left but what's in the image above.

OMG it's ZOMG!

I used this image because it was a army of chickens. You don't see that everyday.

ZOMG! Is an online MMO game on Gaia Online that allows your avatar to go into the world of ZOMG and experiences fighting random monsters and helping some NPC's recieving gold rewards, orb rewards and rings. The rings in the game are weapons you use to attack things BTW.

As previously mentioned in class before, the avatars that suposively represents "us" online is being who we are not. Since in real life, I cannot use a gun gun guns ring or dervish ring to attack a garbage can. (for regular people who play this game hint, hint: Basken lake~)

However the actual areas for the game itself is very abstract. Most of the areas in the game is relatively based on real life places that we would easily recognize or encounter.
Village Greens=Meadow
Barton Town=Town
Zen Gardens= An Actual Zen Garden
Bill Ranch= Farm
Basken Lake= Some fishing place by a lake

And there is more places, but instead of dwelling into that, the entire game itself encourages you as a player to get stronger and to get to a higher level, and the goals is to beat all the bosses in the area and reach to level 10.0. LIke in real life, we all want to be strong enought to reach our own goals in life.

The World is like Pizza

Inspired by eating one of those kids lunch box pizza's, I had the strange thought how pizza resembles earth. (yes, you can think I'm crazy and high while eating food. Think what you will.)
But it is very odd how the tomato sauce can represent the boundless amount of water, the vegetables/meat/other toppings represent the lands on the earth and the clouds being the cheese that covers the pizza (however I couldn't get a good picture of a pizza with a lot of cheese, just in vision yourself).

Its neat how the Earth itself is what carries our planet's population yet it carries the very substance of pizza in our world as well. I think the resemblance was striking when I first thought of it and so I had the idea of making a blog about it (Plus the fact I really wanted Pizza for the past week).

Huo Yuan Jia- Fearless

Jet Li's Fearless is a movie based on a real person named Huo Yuan Jia and his life story of how he became one of the greatest Martial Art's master. However for entertainment purposes, Huo Yuan Jia's story has been slightly altered in the movie. But overall we learn some things about this man in the movie despite some historical changes.

The theme for this movie was "Redemption", and how Huo Yuan Jia (the main protagonist) redeems himself for the sins he has committed. And through his redemption, he learns how to become a better person.

Huo Yuan Jia's experiences of becoming a better person and redeeming himself would be similar to a person who are in similar circumstances as him, and has to redeem him/herself for the wrongs they've had done in the past.

Danbo March

This incredibly cute photo was taken by gloeckchen on Deviantart. (I'm sorry for all the deviantart works. So uninspired)

The theme of this picture is similar to the theme of: Dawn of Balance, where we can picture things living in their own world that is completely different from our plane. The small sculpture portrays a box and particularly what form it would take if it were similar to a human (except it's displayed miniature).

Dawn of balance

Another deviantart piece created by Intercepto, who also received a Daily Deviation for this piece on February 27, 2010.

I thought it was cute how it actually portrays another kind of world within the room, since everything is surreal. And the Ying Yang symbol on the door is suppose to display the balance between both of these different worlds: minature world and our actualy world.

It just goes to show that there is plenty of hidden places within our own world that have yet to be discovered. And how magnificent these world can be

Village in Memory 2

Village in memory2 is a painting created by phoenix-feng on Deviantart.

I really like this piece, you just get the feel of the outdoors and being in a open space. Unfortunately in reality, there not many places that are similar to this (unless your talking about country and other exotic places.)

But it goes to show how rare a scenery like this is not often seen in our lives, since construction and industrial things tries to ruin the simplicity of our beautiful environment.

Baby Fox

This is a photo of a baby arctic fox taken by woxys on deviantart.

Despite the fact that this little fox is adorable and is portrayed in a cute little pose, this animal is in fact an endangered species in Scandinavia, according to the photograph's description (however it's species is of least concern in other places.)

Out of love of these kinds of animals, I believe woxys wants to demonstrate to the public how these animals are endangered and let us know that there are still animals out there that still need to be saved, and let their species continue to grow for generations to come.

How can we let a cute little creature like this suffer the circumstances? Tell me, would you let this cutie die? I don't think so :D

I guess....

Didn't want to do this one, especially since I'm the one who did this image. But right now, I can't think of anything else to do for this week.
This was an experimental image I work on during March Break. I wanted to practice with textures, background, and a darker kind of shading. (psstt....I failed at doing the ground DX ). It was a random doodle I did Friday before the March break, it was done completely on Photoshop 7.
And this is also my original character, not that anyone wanted to know.

This is just my character, just plainly walking by as if nothing has happened, and I tried to make his expression emotionless or just neutral at the moment. But now that I'm looking at my own image from another glance I can see something different from my own image.

Judging from the peasant like clothing I drew on him, it seems that his life is a struggle right now, since people of lower class tends to have more difficultly surviving in the world than people of higher classes. And that emotion on his face can say how he's actually feeling about his life right now. He's undecided about what the main road of life actually is and that is why there is no definitive expression on his face. And he is in fact walking down a road, and that could possibly consider that he actually decided on a path to go on but is unsure whether he made the right choice or not.
Many people in real life could relate to my character here, they choose something that affects their future (like your parents forcing you to do law instead of science. You go with it, but your still unsure whether it would actually benefit you).

ZERO!!! XD

Everyone knows I'm a Megaman fanatic, so I was bound to blog about a game sooner or later XD
But for those of you that don't know, the Megaman franchise is based on a Blue robot warrior who usually saves mankind and robots alike against the all evil Dr.Wily.
The Megaman Zero games however is different than the usual Megaman games. In this series, the main character is actually Zero and not Megaman (or X). And how he awakens from a 100 year sleep after the previous events of the last X games. He then joins Ciel and the resistance in order to protect them and beat other reploid robots in order to maintain society.

What I see in these games is how Zero goes through certain stages, and through those stages he discovers more about himself, how he could be more useful to others and how he overcomes obstacles (reploids, bosses etc.). In real life, it is similar since all of us goes through certain circumstances, and through experience we learn more about ourself and what we are capable of doing. And just like in the Zero games, in order to get to the main boss (which is the goal) you have to go through things that are in our way. A real life example of that would portray a grade 12 student struggling to get high marks in order to reach their goal of going to university in the next year.

Zero's weapons are purely unique, and they are the tools that help him get by in the game, for without them...there would be no action whatsoever. Weapons would represent knowledge in my perspective, since we have to have the wisdom in order to get through things in life. While it may not be physically attacking anything, it helps us comprehend things that are right and wrong. (in certain Zero missions there are certain mavericks you can't attack, or if there's people there you can't attack them). So there's certain things you can attack in life and certain things you shouldn't attack in life.

But overall together, I love the Zero series~ And Zero collection will be coming out soon! =D

I never expected wonderland...

In all truth, I wasn't planning to watch the movie. I don't want to watch the movie, I'll probably be forced to do it in the future but right now, no...

But due to some strange coincidence, I so happened to encounter the artist on deviantart who actually did the designs for 2010's Alice in Wonderland, which came out not too long ago.

Here are some sample's I put together:

michaelkutsche on deviantart was in charge of the character designs for the movie: Alice in Wonderland.

I thought it was interesting how his images are actually paintings and not created from a 3d program or any other complex programs. Although what all of his designs have in common is the dark scheme and the majority of colors used are cool colors (usually blue in this case).

But since he wanted his designs to be unique than all the other designs from different Alice's in Wonderland movies. Since from the book, most of these characters are based off of real life animals like Cheshire cat is a cat, and the White Rabbit is indeed based off of a real white rabbit.
The Caterpillar is also based off a caterpillar from real life.

Mostly the characters base themselves off of animals we would usually encounter in real life. The same goes for the actual novel as well. They are just designed to be more contrasting than their real life counter parts, if that isn't obvious enough in there actual portrayal.

But in particular, I liked how the artist portrays these characters and make them give off a devious dark looks on them, and it makes them a complete mystery of who they really are.

Existentialism idea

The idea that came to me first, was a simple puzzle.
I never expected to think about something like that at first. I just thought of a puzzle since it was existentialism and it involved struggling. (Since usually most of us struggle to finish a puzzle...like me). The image itself took a while to come to my head.
The actual image for the puzzle would be about a person putting a puzzle together. And within that puzzle shows the same image of the person making the puzzle. Thus presenting an endless struggle with a puzzle.
I shared my idea, and I receive a suggestion that for the image, it should show de-familiarization and make things unfamiliar in the actual image.
So I thought that the person itself in the image would compose of pieces of a puzzle. E.g. A Puzzle piece head etc.
The idea itself right now is still a work in progress but the final idea will be set soon.

Ong Bak 2

Summary:

In 1431, the Kingdom of Ayutthayan conquers the territory of Sukhothai expanding their lands to the East. The noble Lord Siha Decho is betrayed by his Captain, Rajasena, and is murdered together with his wife. However their son Tien is saved by one loyal soldier and left alone in the woods

There’s going to be some spoilers so, only if you’re willing to look highlight the invisible words in brackets

I finished watching this a couple of hours ago, and I truly believe this is one of Tony Jaa’s greatest epics. Ong Bak 2 is the prequel to Ong Bak, which also features Tony Jaa in it. (Hint, hint, at the ending it suggests an opening for a third movie. Apparently, there’s already a teaser trailer out for Ong Bak 3, yay! =D )

And due to certain circumstances and internet connection, I’m unable to put a trailer here. Booooo =(

Anyways, I found everything to be amazing; all the stunts were real, and effects super effective. (The mouth ripping didn’t even look fake). It shows how cultures can go after other cultures and destroy their ancient arts and traditions. I personally thought that they based it off of ancient scriptures and history unknown to the western world. And the main protagonist Prince Tien, struggles through many tribulations in order to defeat his enemies and save his people from tyranny.

It was released in 2008, you better watch it. Even better watch the first Ong Bak movie, and I’ll be happy =)

Rated 10 out of 10 stars, because it’s awesome action packed from beginning to end~

No line on the Horizon

This surreal piece is called: No line on the Horizon, created by americanpsycho on Deviantart.

It is truly a wonderful piece, and as I looked through this artist’s gallery, he has many other beautiful works compared to this one. However I chose this one since it appealed to me more that his other ones and it was the first one I encountered.

As a commenter already mentioned, I love how he put so many colors into this one piece. It made me feel like I was in that field watching the sun go down, like it was an end of a movie and the characters are finally relieved of their duties. The composition is brilliant and it shows how deep the mood of the scene is shown in the piece. It demonstrates a powerful sense of imagery and it’s full of life. It’s purely magnificent; if only there were more scenery photography like this around, people could learn a thing or two from this piece.

Link to deviation is here

Kingfisher on the streets

Original art description:

Spraypaint on ramp side at jubilee skate park, action shot here; link And a happy new year to all =)

When I first looked at this piece, I was amazed at all the details that I believed it was a digital art combined with photography. But after taking a closer look at the image and reading the description, I was shocked that this was created using spray paint. Usually people wouldn’t consider spray paint and graffiti as artwork, but the way this artist presented it made all two hundred and nine commenter’s infatuated with it and how the details art simply beyond regular pieces of artwork.

As the artwork suggests, it is the artist’s interpretation of a kingfisher bird. Done using an abstract style and including vibrant colors bring the image itself into life. Even though it is graffiti, it demonstrates how an artist can use their skills throughout many mediums, and this artist is well known for their fantastical works of street art. This surreal image is the appeal of abstraction and brilliant choreography, for there isn’t any hints of mistakes or faults in it.

Although, I hope the person didn't get into any trouble in the end for doing it ^^;
The title of this art is Kingfisher and it was created by by n4t4 on Deviantart. It also received a Daily Deviation on March 11, 2010 by the deviant: Ricardo-Rick. His words on the deviation:

Just one word: Beautiful

-Ricardo-Rick

Link to the deviation is here.

Nurarihyon No Mago

I couldn’t resist it; I had to do this entry first before I explode.

Nurarihyon No Mago is about Rikuo Nura, a kid that is 3/4 human and 1/4 youkai. He lives in a house full of spirits alongside his grandfather who is the leader of the youkai. Rikuo is destined to take over his grandfather leadership but his human side has no interest. Rikuo is just a normal kid who has no interest to become the leader of youkai.

-Source Wikipedia

Gaining popularity in Japan and is now green-lit for an Anime, Nurarihyon no Mago is an on-going manga by Shiibashi Hiroshi, and it currently has 97 chapters. The plot, and character development is a strong asset in the manga, but what surpasses both of these elements is the art style. It's not often that we see manga drawings in a different perspective, but Nurarihyon no Mago established this new style using calligraphy. As the example used above, incorporating the style of traditional calligraphy along with manga is what the majority of the readers love (basically that was the reason why I was entranced by this manga). In my view, I think the author wanted to combine calligraphy in the manga style since the traditional drawings of demons and such are also done in the same manner.
Even though it is now the 21st Century, I believe that Shiibashi Hiroshi wanted to demonstrate how traditional art and calligraphy still have it's uses in our society and how it make a great impact in artworks of today. Not a lot of people these days are into the old tradition, and calligraphy, for its usually neglected. And using these styles in his works is what makes the designs in Nurarihyon No Mago so powerful. The art of today + the art of the old days= art of epic style and influence. Even I'm considering using calligraphy in my art.

But going off topic, I would recommend this manga to those that are interested in high quality art, great character development, and those who are into shounen and the supernatural. It isn't like the average typical shounen manga's out there, it shows a lot of promise in plot and character, and there isn't a moment where it just drags on. And if you get the chance, support the upcoming anime this summer!