If there's one style of colouring I've been dying to master for the past few years, it's the the digital watercolour type utilising bright colours and harmonious dabs of multicoloured inks such as this artwork by Macaroni-san (doujin circle stroma) and this artwork by Kotatsu Tako-san (doujin circles Kanashimi Johnny and amanboy). I actually would love to achieve paint dab effect through oekaki but unfortunately, my tablet possesses only half the level of pressure sensitivity required to produce desired effects on web applications (Pipa Tegaki, Tegaki-e). At this moment, I'm trying to understand the mechanism of dabbing paints and choosing bright colours.

I love how pretty bright colours look when used in artworks. I tried many different methods but I never even came close to the effects that I really want. This badly painted rough sketch below tells all about my failure:

Fail fail fail fail fail!! It looks somewhat shiny but there's no trace of bright colours that I want. I should keep trying until I find how to properly achieve desired results. It's too early to raise the white flag now.

UPDATES
♣ Updated Livejournal (recodes): http://recodes.livejournal.com/103085.html

Illust Studio 1.2 has been recently released. I was so excited to try it out as I've been told it comes with some improvements. Everytime I ready myself for something new (even if it's just an updated version), I make it a habit to read the manuals and sometimes tutorials. At the moment, I'm having fun reading this official tutorial all over again:

http://www.clip-studio.com/clip_site/download/illuststudio/istrial/index

So many great people with great talent in this world. I adore their art right from the rough sketch (that's actually very clean) to the finishing touch. I remember artists who used to hide under the excuse of "Sorry it looks weird. I don't have a nice software". That particular excuse makes me laugh all the time because of how ridiculous it sounds. Nowadays, we probably can find such excuses in young artists who refuse to acknowledge their shortcomings.

It's not the software. It's talent and skills. Talent may not be so easy to find in people, but I believe that skills come naturally as a result of practice. As for me, I know I don't have nice skills because I don't practice. Sometimes when I do feel like practising, I always give up halfway, making it harder for me to acquire skills. People told me I have talents, and I do believe I have talents, but what are talents without skills? I wish my school let me take art when I was younger, but I was never given the chance. Am I too old to hone my skills? I don't think so. I'll be slower than younger people, but it's not impossible for me to achieve greater levels. 

Say, for example, you're talented at playing musical instruments but you don't get proper training to hone your skills to the max (probably because of your finance). You can't probably play a virtuoso without skills unless you belong to the upper 1% genius society.

I hope nobody blames softwares when their art turns out 'crappy', as some people would call it. Unless those softwares badly distort your artwork, then you can put the blame on them.

UPDATES
♣ Updated DeviantArt journal entry: http://toffeepops.deviantart.com/journal/37728518/
♣ Colouring Kyouko from yesterday's artwork: http://plixi.com/photos/original/69922709

I've decided to start all over again and leave the previous project reports and blog posts behind. I'm going to start anew and become ME again. I haven't been drawing or writing for a very long time. That made me sluggish and lazy most of the time, always feeling like I want to go back under the covers or stare at the screen like an idiot. I've been falling behind all of my fandoms too. I guess it's about time I pick up writing and drawing again. Unless I do something, it's not worth buying a new tablet this year (I really want a new tablet. Wait, no, I really NEED a new tablet!).

Two years ago, I only draw boys. Now I seem to be skilled at drawing girls. I really need to practice drawing boys again. Otherwise my webmanga Parapsychic would totally go to shit. In the mean time, I'm practising hard at drawing backgrounds and all those mechanical stuff. It's really hard. Maybe that's why I gave up on engineering drawing when I was at school. I just didn't have the talent, I guess.

Time to work really hard again :) I'll also try to update regularly.