Sapphy · - · Some · italian · idiocy · is · here!

I've been preparing a masamune picture as birthday gift for my dear masa-chan ^^
I know she likes masamune. This is the picture:

( look at picture under cut )

so I thought I could make a wallpaper out of it XD
here's the preview:

Dowload links:
1280x960 --> http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb162/sapphyar/masa1280x960.jpg
1024x768 --> http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb162/sapphyar/masa1024x768.jpg
800x600 --> http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb162/sapphyar/masa800x600.jpg

It's nothing special, but I hope you like it anyway (I doubt many people would want to have my stuff on their desktop, though)

Speaking of anatomy practice

This time I tried to do it without reference. Which is quite obvious, since it turned out like crap. Whatever. As usual, the whole shoulder/neck/head/arms are my weak part.

I guess I'll start from there.

Thanks to onisaka for all the useful resources and info!!

theeen....stolen from rephen:

You Scored as The Homicidal SEME You are the truly highest level of SEME as well as the most dangerous and sadistic. You love to force others to do your bidding and have absolutely no clue what others mean by 'feeling sorry'. You like the dark, evil, and heartless but nothings fun if you don't get to break it. You will not tolerate others pushing you around and an easy word for your personality is bossy. You could skip the romance and get right to the bed if you wanted to but then again you never even need the romantic-hoo-ha and that's why you're matched with he Devilish UKE. All UKE fear you in some way but that's jut how you like it. You could never befriend anyone that your little Devil-UKE didn't show you to which means the only SEME you would get along with would be the Breaker SEME. It has been established that you are the kinkiest kink in all of kink-town but one thing you really love is to make your partner beg and to punish them. Don't be afraid, be insane. The Breaker SEME 70% The Sorrowful UKE 60% The Gentle SEME 45% The Optimistic UKE 45% The Homicidal SEME 40% The Devilish UKE 15%

LOOOL...you can take the same test here:http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/seme+uke/GunnerDudette/the-seme-or-uke-quiz/index.php

I'm planning on attending a summer life drawing course this year. I think it's about time I attend something like that. I'm still looking around the internet to see if i can find some good short course that I could hopefully attend end of july, beginning of august. I've found nice ones in London and in Florence. Well, I'd love to go abroad, but the London one is fairly expensive, and I have to consider accomodation as well...oh gawd I wish my budget wasn't this limited...
Anyways, the florence one isn't too bad, since it's open to foreign students too, I guess it's highly likely that I'm going to have foreign classmates if I really end up signing up and attending that course...which is something I'd love, being always very interested in exchanging experience with people from other countries. That'd be good for my English as well.. I think it's becoming worse and worse. A likely result of lack of practice... sob....

On the art side, I've been practicing on realistic portraits. I think it took me no more than a couple of hours to do these (referenced from photos):

I hope my efforts will pay off some day.

So, I realised I need to practice more. I haven't practiced life drawing in a while, and I think I've lost something in my skills. I don't know, it's been a couple of days since I've started to practice in figure drawing again, but I can't seem to be able to produce acceptable results. I don't know, the proportions look really awkward, and I seem to be unanble to see shapes and negative spaces correctly. I wonder what's wrong with me lately. Seems like it's true, you can never stop practicing, otherwise what you risk is loosing abilities ;_;

Some of the shit I tried to do these past few days. Dang I really have to improve the way I trace lines as well. I'm so messy. And for some reason, I really have a hard time placing the head correctly!! It's..so weird. The head is the last shape I draw, and it should be pretty easy once you've determined all the other major shapes. I, on the contrary, find it extremely difficult! I guess all I have to do is practice more. I've been so lazy lately..

To be honest, I haven't also felt very well. Yesterday, especially...I felt as though my head was going to explode. A terrible headache. I've wasted all day re-watching that damn hana yori dango thingy. I can't believe I've spent all day watching something so retarded...oh well.

I'm still mentally preparing for the commissioned illustration from the sci-fi book. I'm so excited! I really love sci-fi books/comics/movies and the excerpt of writing I was given as sample is very interesting! All I wish is to do well! (self esteem= below zero, self confidence= same as before)

Yeah, just for the lulz, I had fun creating a city and some sci-fi characters. I think I failed. hahaha

Well, anyways, i need to get my silver soul goodies now...Hijikata's birthday releases are bound to be ginhiji related XDDDD I can't miss them!

L..latest Gintama chapter is...the awesomeness.
I just finished reading it. GYAAAAA /fangirl sqeal

So, ok...back to normal mode. Let's try to make this entry a bit more interesting and hide the fact that this livejournal is practically dead and used only to stalk gintama and silver soul communities.

Lots of art blah blah blah. I've opened commissions again. I'm glad I received a lot of interesting requests. But I'm trying to do stuff for myself also. I need to practice more, as I realise the more and more that I don't know how to do a lot of things, and often my problem lies in scarce knowledge of the basics -___- like...perspective...orz

I especially want to improve realistic rendering.

I love sci-fi. I hope to be able to draw and paint believable sci-fi worlds one day.
This is a concept for a city I've been working on lately. It was done just for the lulz, really. Just to see how far I could get with it. I doubt I'll ever finish this picture

Theeeeen......Gintama corner...

I found this lovely paintchat screen ^_^

I always have such a great time XDDD

and well...Gintoki and Hijikata are always a pleasure to draw *_*

Okaaaay. End of the nonsense.

Ah, no, wait...I should mention my progress with japanese...
......
.....
....
...
..
fail. I haven't done shit in a long time. If I go on like this I'll never learn. At least I'm having a good time on Livemocha.

Oh guys I really love the moments I spend talking to you. You're so funny and super sweet really. I can't help but giggling when i go through the message logs of my msn chats and I re-read what we wrote. Like this one, for example:

(  read text under cut )

Haha I always do that too, Stephanie, I can't help but laughing out loud sometimes. And your idea of shiroyasha coming forward to seme current Zura...lololololol brilliant! XDDD
I love you all, seriously. Sometimes I wish we weren't so scattered all over the world and that we could actually get in contact personally : D you are a bunch of lovely people XD

but I have to practice my English more *soimserious*

Anyways, after that chat we had I started to sketch a "sexy ginzura" picture. I didn't really know what to do so I just sketched at random, collecting something like five pages of ginzura pictures, that I thought I could compile in a sort of doujin. It's not really a doujin, since there's no paneling nor speech, but it follows a sort of plot and a logic XD. Needless to say, such plot comes for the chat quoted above. So here there are current time gintoki and katsura remembering their past in the joui war period

this is actually the final page, the real thing is mature content XDDD. You need to ask me first if you wanna see the other pages, since I'm not sure whether I can post mature content here, and, more than anything, I don't know if dA policy allows to link to external pages containing mature stuff (and I have to link this page there).

So please comment here or send me a pm.

So...well...

I promised Stephanie that I would post some of my sketches, so here ya go:

Basically, I've been kinda obsessed with elves lately...
I've actually always been obsessed with those kinds of creature because of The Lords of the Rings, a movie I'm a GREAT fan of, but this interest sorta kinda faded away after the release of The Return of the King. It sparkled again in recent times because of my boyfriend's request to draw him an enviro pic of Minas Tirith!! OMG....I don't even know where to start...I guess I'll have to do ALOT of studies of the city, maybe taking screenshots from the actual movie. I don't know.

Browsing through my folders I also stumbled across this shit:

this is so wrong!!! It doesn't even look like Legolas at all!
I should try to do it again and see if I've improved a bit.

finally, some Gintama love...there's never enough of that!

So...this is all I have to say for now...
I have plenty of other practice thingies, but I guess I'll compile a big deviation and post it on deviantart.

So, this is how I've been wasting my time lately. It's fun.




Well, yorozuya love.
And moar Gintoki love



Something new



I should really do some work instead of wasting my time on this shit

mphf. I want a steady job. I'm tired of this precarious state of things. I want to work, dammit. Give me a job. Whatever job is fine...and please no temporary one...I had enough of those. *sigh

Anyways. After this short rant about life..
let's talk about art. yeeeah I love to be carefree. Like Gin-san....
....
so yeah, art. I finally decided what gintama doujinshi I'm gonna write: Sakamoto centered one. Yes. I so love Sakamoto. And I'm really sad that Sorachi seems to have forgotten about him. Therefore, I'm gonna write an all out Sakamoto-centered anthology book. LOL

Problem is....I don't have money to spend to print out the thing HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Maybe I should open commissions again? I fear nobody would want to commission me, though ;_; DAAAAM why do I always have to be so worried and afraid of everything? I really should try to have more self-esteem...but I SUCK. I just recently realised that my art sucks. For real. I mean, look at my anatomy! It's all screwed! The proportions are awful, the poses are unrealistic and the movement is absent. Without taking into account the fact that my figures often look flat, like I had forgotten they have volume. Shit I'm so hopeless.

For this reason, I'm working really hard trying to fix those problems. I'm doing a lot of life studies right now, which is something really time-consuming. That's why I haven't done any finished illustrations recently. I feel that practicing is more important right now. However, I'm a little sad to see that my deviantart account gets so dead when I don't update hahaha.

Anyway, back to the doujinshi thing...

I probably have to change something here and there, especially part of gintoki's behaviour in this story. I made him look too much of a crybaby here. Which is so OOC in my opinion. But crying ginsan is so cuuuuute LOL.

And yeah, in the end, I think I'll let people have this comic for free. I practically can't print it out, so I'll post it here in my LJ for everybody to download once I'm done. However, I'll let you know that I'm not rushing...

Finally, I want to show you a picture I took from my bedroom window, at dawn. The sun created a very peculiar effect, filtrating from that building under construction:

Lovely! : )

So I guess this is not my luckiest period.
So many things have happened in the past few weeks that it feels kinda daunting to summarize...however, none of them were pleasant, starting from my mother's illness and scheduled surgery in april to the massive breaking-down of stuff in the apartment. Not to forget the fact that I'm broke, I've got to deal with two great expenses and have no idea what money I'm gonna use for that.

anyways, to proceed with order.

1.My mother hasn't felt very well lately. She apparently has some problem with her uterus so that she's got to undergo a surgery operation to have it removed in April. I learnt about all this just two days ago. Luckily, it's not something malignant, but still...imagine all the tension and concern while we were waiting for the results of the biopsy test.

2.Our neighbours knocked at our door one day complaining about water pouring down into their apartment. After we called a plumber to come over and see if he could fix the problem, it turns out our whole shower system is broken and needs to be changed, completely. So yeah....a huge expense...but it's not fun when a neighbour rings at your door and goes "hey, you're flooding my apartment!" Believe it!

3. Short after the shower incident, the living room window shutter breaks down. More money to go.

4. Today is the birthday of my boyfriend's father. My boyfriend and I decided to pay him a visit and hence left early this morning to go to the place where my boyfriend's parents live, which is something like 200 kms away from where we live. No big deal if you enter motorways. the journey usually takes a total of two hours, more or less. So, right, off we go.
All of a sudden, and after just 30 minutes of journey, we hear a creepy noise coming from the front of our car, just under the engine. And this happens while we are in a motorway...where people normally drive very fast....so yeah...
We took the first exit we found and looked for a garage...but meh, it's saturday, and garages are closed! Besides, we are in the middle of nowhere! The only one we could find open was about to close in a short time and the guy we met there couldn't be arsed to check out our car, because, you know, just a little time before the garage closes....
but he assured us we could get to our destination without "major problems" if we kept going at low speed...like 50 kms/hrs.....this is how a two hours journey turned into a five hours journey...A wasted day. And yeah, yet another huge expense.

5. I've lost two VERY important books.

In brief this is a very shitty period. But I won't complain. I'll laugh instead. Everytime life gets tough you should just laugh at it. I learned it from Sakamoto.

Now to something happier. I was thinking of ending this post with a little drawing:

Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma

I enjoy drawing architecture very much. I wonder if I'll ever be able to become an illustrator one day.

Woah I still haven't officially opened commissions and I still have four requests? Damn, people are crazy...I woudn't commission myself at all LOL

anyway, I already sketched something today... Lylia's request...

( this picture is not safe )

GOD THAT'S HOT. I'm so glad she requested one such thing

Two posts in the same day hahahahaha.... <---- Sakamoto style

but I've just been informed that SILVER BLADE Ginhiji anthology is available for pre-orders! YAY

( Doujinshi details, previews and smexy pictures )
-----------------------------------------------------
ORZ....I kinda feel my art is what's lowering down the quality of the book...sigh.

I really need to improve!

Happy Birthday commander!!

LOL Kondo's being uke-fied by his fukuchou! haha Kondo is definitely an Uke...

OkitaxKagura for Ailie:

I fail so bad at Cging...ORZ

New sketches/next works preview:

I really need to finish all my pending requests in this month...I want to start taking commissions in january... I really need money ORZ...My tablet isn't working anymore, my Pc isn't working anymore and...I keep receiving request notes, so I wonder, why should I work so much and getting nothing in return? WTH...

ORZ...I feel so emo...Niku putting my picture just before Toonikun's made me emo....THE SHITTY-NESS OF MY ART IS HIGHLIGHTED BY THE COMPARISON....Damn...how evil of you, Niku...you should have put my ginhiji sample further away from Toonikun's amazing art....

EMOEMOEMOEMOEMOEMOEMOEMO.....ad infinitum....

Anyway, I recently got hooked by this game, Sengoku Basara.

ASDFGJHFKHJ MASAMUNE DATE IS THE SMEX....

I love this character, seriously.

Awesome picture made by iamFUN

GWAH I even have a tongue fetish, no wonder I went ASDGJKHKJLDHJ on this picture

I've finally done an improvement chart...just to see how much I've improved since I joined deviantart, around two years ago, in june 2006.

I couldn't draw back then...I still wonder why there were people who maintained I was good at drawing. WTH was wrong with them? Were they blind? My very first drawings were shit. I know that maybe people don't want to hurt your feelings and therefore they say they think your art is good when in actuality you art sucks...but that's not something that helps you...quite the opposite...

I LOVE CRITIQUE. I want to know the truth. "You're a great artist", "your art is perfect" and all that stuff is not what I want to hear. Simply because it's not true. I need to develop, improve and strive for the better. I know it's never possible to make perfect artwork, because no artwork is perfect, and there's always room for improvement (at least this is what I believe), but I still think an artist should always try to to better, and exceed their limits. But the only way to do this is not rest on laurels and make good use of honest and useful crit.

( improvement chart under cut (too long) )

Well...to sum up....signing up for a deviantArt gallery did me a lot of good. I'm sure I wouldn't have learned this much if I hadn't had a constant contact with artwork done by real and amazing artists like the ones that can be found on deviantArt. You can tell whatever you want about that site, that it's ruled by fanart and anime-styled illustrations, that it has too much restrictions on adult content, and blah blah blah, but you can't say it lacks talented artists. THERE ARE MANY, AND REALLY AWESOME, TOO. They provide me withthe motivation to go on and improve.

As usual, I'm going to conclude all this rambling with a sketch:

Yorozuya trio-centric XD+

PS: baah I know, I promised to write a detailed account of my two-day trip to north italian lake resorts....but the truth is I don't feel like writing at all....ah sorry....
I will do it....in the future... *is watching Terra e

Yay, it's finished...I had fun! It was tiring but I had fun!

This cover is embarassing, though...I wonder what my architecture major friend Angela would say if she was to see it....she'd probably laugh in my face...

sample page:

yes yes...working on this doujinshi highlighted my weaknesses...I'l have to work on those and try to improve. At least, in these two years I've practiced steadily, I can say I improved. Not as much as I had liked to, but I improved... I say so after finding some of my two-year old drawings! haha

hahaha this truly is ugly!!! Good thing I improved!

Well, I can finally dedicate myself to the making of Christmas gifts

I guess I'll go with bookmarks this year

I fail at dealing with stress...ORZ...deadline looming...I'm freaking out...I'll never be a professional comic arstist...I can't stand the pressure haha

I'm always so damn tired...maybe Tanu's right...I'm ill. Since she attends medical school I kind of trust her judgement....

Sigh, these japanese backgroungs are driving me crazy! Next time I'll set the story in Italy, so I won't have any problem.

anywho...

I fail at keeping my LJ updated...long time no post..

lows of the past two months:

1. death of granny. This is the event which affected my life the most. It's a good thing I had a lot to work on, since this distracted me a bit and prevented me from feeling too depressed.

2. my boyfriend's paranoia that I'm not feeding myself properly. Being forced to eat is something that kills your appetite completely.

3. not writing a single page of my final thesis for more than two weeks

4. not seeing my friends for a long time

5. discovering that I'm a crybaby. I had hoped I was stronger than that.

6. being unable to find a stable job and consequent costant brokeness

7. missing Lucca comics and games for the second year.

8. rumours about the end of gintama anime

highs of the past two months:

1. amazing display of love on the day of my birthday

2. getting to know and making a lot of friends thanks to the gintamards club

3. getting to finish my ginhiji doujinshi. thanks to Niku for providing me with the motivation to go on with that.

4. getting to watch Terra e. And crying like a baby (this should be listed under the lows)

5. gintama

As usual, the lows are more than the highs...shoot.