onna's scratches and scribbles

Spelling Issues and the Reply

I received two ff.net reviews on the 29th and read them this morning. I do wonder how these people find me, buried so deeply in the mire of ff.net, but when I ask them, I do not get a reply.


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Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 00:21:52
The following review has been submitted to: Undesirable Flirtatious Objects Chapter: 1

From: Yaoi Addict ( http://www.fanfiction.net/u/446966/ )

It was good but i spent half the story trying to figure out who Shiyuuichi was.

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Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 00:42:20 -0600
The following review has been submitted to: Kokigami Part 1 Chapter: 1

From: hentai queen ( http://www.fanfiction.net/u/463194/ )

you said in your profile that your pet peeve is when someone can't spell, yet you spelled shuichi's name horribly wrong. i know that technically there's not 'right' romanized spelling for japanese words/names. but you actually added an extra sound to his name. and when people do that, it is one of my pet peeves...^^

other than that, i absolutely loved your story! it was awesome!!

~bobii

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recently I was considering going back and changing all my stories to reflect the 'standard' spelling, but with these reviews I am now going to stick with the annoying 'Shiyuuichi'.


I have posted the following at the archives with my work - ff.net, aff.net, Forever Fandom and gurabite:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have recently received two reviews bitching about the way I spell one character's name. Here is my reply to those reviews, posted here:

Why do you spell Shiyuuichi's name like you do? I do not like it!

I am breaking the name down phonetically using each symbol of the hiragana as a separate syllable. I have taken basic Japanese so I know "Shi" and "Yu" should be blended together to form "Shu". This means the name really should be Shuichi. However, since I have already set my spelling standard for my Gravitation fics, I am going to stubbornly keep it Shiyuuichi.

If this bothers you, do not read my stories.

Even Maki Murakami-sensei changed how she spelled her character's name in Romanized letters as the series progressed. In the first art book she spelled it "Syuichi" and in the second art book she changed and spelled it "Shuichi".

When I say "Shiyuu" I use one slurred syllable, "sheeyou", light on the 'shee'. If you listen to the anime in Japanese (not the RightStuf crap!) you will hear it pronounced that way by most of the seiyuu. It is a very light glossing of the 'shee' into the 'yu'. It is not the heavy-handed "Shoo" spoken in the RightStuf dubs, which are horrible.

FYI: Eiri never called Shiyuu 'damn brat' at any time in the anime. US companies worry too much about mouth flap. The words 'baka' and 'gaki' have the same syllable count as 'damn brat'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Yes, I am being stubborn. However, I put an explanation at the end of both stories reviewed so they should have read the 'why' and shut up about it.

.:. Darkest Lynk .:.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/darkestlynk/oekaki/
#8: Sketch study for icon

Blistering Lightsaber Action:
http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/
#80: Yuki (Uesugi) Eiri from Gravitation


Obsession Oekaki Central
http://w4.oekakies.com/p/0bsesion/p.cgi
#341: E&S-neck nibble

Oekaki Central
http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/index.php?artist=bakayaro+onna&sortartist2=Go
#764: Watercoloured Dude

The muses are to the point of bellowing at me to do pencilwork and writing. Get a grip, boys! I WILL give both of you time this week.

Grunt keeps yanking me toward the craptop, telling me I might be able to finish something this week. I laugh at him. I will do better trying to finish up the Saiyuki pic! Evan gloats. They fight, then they fuck and shut up for a little while.

This year's Xmas card seems to have been a success. I really liked last year's better, probably because I liked the sweetness I pulled out of Eiri for it. However, this year's card had a MUCH better Shiyuuichi. Seems I have been doing more oekaki of the tribble, at least that's what the website shows me. I guess I need to do a few more of cranky alone.

Yet again, my mother has put this year's postcard next to last year's postcard she actually framed last year. Not only that, both in the cubby with the special family pics! As I was telling Dasia, it almost cracks me up, because two DRAWINGS of two non-existent gay boys are sharing space with PHOTOS of family members!

Of course, the family pics are utterly ghastly. They are from the mid-60's, when EVERYONE over 30 looked like geeks - the women with teased hair, everyone wearing tiny horn-rimmed or cats-eye glasses, the men with comb-overs if they were balding - and they dressed their younger children that way, too! God!, the many ugly tent dresses they stuck me in! And school pictures? Ugh! Do they hire photographers to make sure they catch children at their absolute worse?

E&S are the prettiest faces in the sea of god-awful mugshots!

Just in case anyone was wondering, yes, some oekaki has been done the past few days. Since I have posted all the youkai ones to the website I am avoiding drawing any before the end of the year. I am trying to make sure every 2004 oekaki gets posted and they will be in themed groups as they go up. Youkai are up. I will have misc original people, anime charas and Gravitation. I will be posting throughout the week.

I also need to look into getting some more 'regular' artwork out there, like some completed pencil drawings. *sigh* Too much to do, not enough time.

Anyway, here are some oekaki:

~~~
hochuuami oekaki
http://www.hochuuami.com/oekaki/index.php
#55: Catching Snowflakes
#61: Unchained Melody - E&S from Gravitation
~~~
~~~
Obsession Oekaki Central
http://w4.oekakies.com/p/0bsesion/p.cgi
#340: E&S-prekiss
~~~
~~~
At Artist's Cafe:
http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/81.png
#81: Happy Birthday to Ko!
(Let's see if you can see the pic with this url - let me know!)
~~~

Blistering Lightsaber Action:

http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/

#79: Shuichi from Gravitation

~~~

.:. Darkest Lynk .:.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/darkestlynk/oekaki/

#6: E & S from Gravitation

~~~

At Artist's Cafe:

Let's see if you can see the pic with this url - let me know!

http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/73.png

#73: Seasons Greetings to Everyone

The Card Image



How it was Done

The idea was purely mine, with no references used. Originally I thought to have S dancing around the living room yelling, "Boku wa tonakai da!" (I'm a reindeer!) with E in the background, smoking and looking disgusted. As I began the sketch, I realized I would do better doing portraits over full bodies for this, so I turned the page of the sketchpad, started sketching on a new piece of paper and the result is this drawing.

S came together immediately. S is such a happy person so whatever I did to him he just let me, and gladly. The costume came out looking cuter than I originally had planned, probably because of the person inside it!

E kept fighting me. He did not want to be in a complete Santa suit and the pencil kept not getting it right, so I changed it to a turtleneck and the fight was over. His eyes originally did not have the right amount of resignation for the situation he had been talked into, yet again, by his lover. Curving the outer edges of the eyes down gave me the expression I was looking for. He looks like he is a little disgusted, yet has given up the fight and is now just going along because he cannot fight it anymore. Poor Eiri! *laugh*

I used the usual #F pencil for the sketch then inked with 07, 05, 01 and 005 Staedtler pigment liners. This time I scanned the drawing in at 300 dpi and did a LOT of cleanup work using Photoshop 7.0. I made a layer copy of the final cleanup and placed it in the uppermost layer, then changed the layer mode to Screen so all the white was knocked out and I could work under it without disturbing the lines.

Each little piece of shading and fill was done on separate layers to have better control over each fill and opacity choice. This image has a total of 33 used layers. Some layers ended up not being used.

The skin shadings, mouth shadows, bell shadows, E's hair and misc. other shadows were done by painting various web-safe greys on new layers then taking the opacity down to around 30%.

Next, I added the various texture screentones to the reindeer costume, Santa hat, hoof, bell harness and antlers. Many of the screentones' opacities were adjusted to between 20% and 60%. I scratch-built the pattern for the turtleneck using a shape provided in PS as a base and using the offset option to make a tile. It is at about 40% opacity.

Gradients were made for E's eyes and S's hair. A black to clear gradient was used to make the folds in the turtleneck and the insides of the reindeer ears.

Japanese, translation, signature, date, copyright and website were all added at the end and the 2004 card was done.

I did these last Monday:

Wrapped In Plastic

http://members.lycos.co.uk/chickenheadsasuke/oekaki/

#40: Just a random guy

~~~
Oekaki Central

http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/index.php?artist=bakayaro+onna&sortartist2=Go

#729: Artwork for Aggravated Icon




Will be posting the card later this week...

I just received a ff.net bot alert about a review for "Over Breakfast".

Huh? That fic is almost a year and a half old. How in heaven's name did the girl find it? I guess I should have asked her when I thanked her.

Also, as I looked at my stats there, I find I now have eight people who want to be notified when I update listed and another person has added me as a favorite author (total of three). I do not count one of those people, since the girl flamed me for being 'mean' to her friend, who cannot write and cannot take constructive criticism.

I just find it strange because gurabite is the place I consider 'home' for my fics. I do not expect to be noticed at ff.net, so when something like this occurs, it just boggles my brain. I just never expect it, that's all.

Yesterday's Oekaki

Oekaki Central

http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/index.php?artist=bakayaro+onna&sortartist2=Go

#561: Happy Youkai

~~~
Gemi no Oekaki-ban

http://www.gemiange.com/oekaki/index.php

#178: Shindou Shuichi from Gravitation




Well, I got everything set up to print the card so it could be sent out today. Then I heard on the radio this morning this is the busiest day of the year at the post office when it comes to Xmas mail and it getting to people by Xmas day. I think I am not going to worry about that, especially since our cards have a tendency of arriving late as a rule than an exception.

Oh yeah, I did these last Wednesday:

Blistering Lightsaber Action:

http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/

#75: Just another pretty boy
~~~
Oekaki Central

http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/index.php?artist=bakayaro+onna&sortartist2=Go

#173: Reindeer Youkai

Got the card all inked last night then scanned it.

Scanned it at 300 dpi in greyscale and it is gigantic. Took it down 50% so it is more managable but still clear. I prefer greyscale over black & white bitmap because I like the softer edges of the lines I get with greyscale.

However, I pay the price by having to clean up the grey 'smudges' that cover everything white. I spent last night and this morning before work just cleaning up the white and I still am not done. Some parts I am leaving alone because screentones will cover those places.

I tried to use brightness/contrast but to kill the grey 'chatter' I lost some of the line thickness, and in some places that made some lines disappear. I do not paintbucket areas for the same reason.

It is more tedious this time because of all the fur. More little crevasses to clean out. And I have to be careful because a too wide brush or too soft a brush wipes out lines.

I found the box with Painter 8 but haven't installed it yet. I have to get this card completed first. It has priority over everything else. I hope to have it cleaned, toned and resized sometime tomorrow. Then I need to work up the text for it. Next, the templates for the postcards have to be set up. We have three separate groups of people to send to and each of those groups will get different signatures from us.

Back to building syllabus webpages...

Taking more thyroid kept me from falling asleep at weird times last night. I may be back to normal soon.

Last night I got all of S inked with no problem. Why has S gotten easier to draw? I blame oekaki practice and looking at fel's work a lot. This is a good thing!

I did not ink E at the same time because I did not like E's eyes. They had the typical 'grumpy' look to them but I needed something that was more like resigned disgust or something simple like 'I give up'. I sketched out some eyes on scrap paper and found if I put that under curve to the lower lid and tip the eyes so the wider ends were lower than the narrow ends, I was able to get the look I wanted. I have found that more extreme eye curve in the manga and anime occasionally so I think with the hairstyle and the small pupils it will still be E.

Hope to finish inking tonight.

I had to sit in the waiting room for a half-hour before K could get to me for the bloodwork. Guess what I did while I sat there? Nope, I did not read People or AARP Magazine. I sketched up the Xmas card!

Originally I was going to have full bodies and started sketching that, but then I decided to just do what I do best and make portraits. After I decided that, the pic just flew into place on the paper.

I am being a bit bad to Eiri... I thought about being worse to him and making him wear a full costume as well, but I finally decided to feel sorry for him and just torture him with a hat.

I was amazed at how quickly this came together. Guess Evan was just lurking on the surface, ready to pounce on me. It's not like Evan hasn't been around - the oekaki is proof of that - but obviously he has been wanting to smell pencil lead and wood.

I will work on it at lunch. I may get parts of it inked tonight, if I am lucky.

Well, I made a mistake. I did not realize being logged in to Oekaki Poteto allows people to see the comment link and if you are not logged in to some of the boards, the comments link does not appear.

Sorry about that, folks! I thought it was something anyone could do at any board!

The Obsession Oekaki Central board does not have a sign in and it has a comment button right under the pic.

And you can comment at these Oekaki Poteto boards without signing up:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/chickenheadsasuke/oekaki/

http://www.gemiange.com/oekaki/

Anyway, I am gearing up to start the Xmas card. Hence all the gravi-related oekaki today, to get myself ready to begin the card.

~~~
Blistering Lightsaber Action:

http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/


#72: Gravi Boys Kissing

~~~

Obsession Oekaki Central

http://w4.oekakies.com/p/0bsesion/p.cgi

#335: The Gravi boys snuggle

Here you can actually comment without having to sign up for anything!

~~~

hochuuami oekaki

http://www.hochuuami.com/oekaki/index.php

#169: Shu wants to frolic in the snow, or does he want to frolic with Eiri?

~~~
Gemi no Oekaki-ban

http://www.gemiange.com/oekaki/index.php

#173: Yuki Eiri from Gravitation

After class, came home, drew one oekaki, then went to bed.

Blistering Lightsaber Action:

http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/

#70: Blue-Haired Guy

I did do an oekaki last Monday during the research madness...

Oekaki Central

420: Blue-eyed Youkai

This link has the comments of the three images still left on the board. Let me know if it works or not.

http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/index.php?artist=bakayaro+onna&sortartist2=Go

If that one does not work, you can see just the images on this page:

http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/profile.php?user=bakayaro+onna

I did do an oekaki last Monday during the research madness...

Oekaki Central

420: Blue-eyed Youkai

This link has the comments of the three images still left on the board. Let me know if it works or not.

http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/index.php?artist=bakayaro+onna&sortartist2=Go

If that one does not work, you can see just the images on this page:

http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/profile.php?user=bakayaro+onna

I have two more sections to write about on the research paper and both about Fan Book I. I want to talk about the unique parts of the book (the little game at the front, etc.) and talk about how Shuichi's facial features slowly change from Manga 1 to the more anime series look at around Track 26 of the manga. Graphics are ready to go. I should probably making notes on it so I can type it up at the office in notepad quickly and transfer it to the doc, so I can then print it and give it to someone to beta before I leave this afternoon.

*sigh*

Like I said the other day - now I am a bit burned out...

~~~
Blistering Lightsaber Action:

http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/

#58: Screentones Experiment
#60: Cute Kid in the Snow