onna's scratches and scribbles

This past long weekend I bounced back and forth between the latest one-shot, the myth fic, the bed fic, the razor fic and the fic that will not end. When I actually checked, I found I got over 400 words into the bed fic. I suppose I got another 100 or so words logged into the other fics. The muse was on fire, having me make notes, finding ways to tie scenes together, having me move entire sections around so they flowed better, etc. Mostly I did a lot of word changes, adjustments here and there, shuffling sentences around, etc. I did more hand-writing of bits and pieces on printouts than typing.

I had finally found a way to tie in a section in the myth fic when rat came walking in and wanting to talk. I immediately told him to hush or I would lose my train of thought. You would think he would figure out that when I have a pencil and printer paper in hand I am not drawing but writing.

I keep working over the latest one-shot. It is a little different than my usual but I hope it has the same kind of general flavour of my others. I discovered something else just last evening that needs to be mentioned... *sigh*

I find myself being completely distracted lately by Grunt, the writing muse. I am really needing to write for some reason. Tidbits keep being thrown at me and it is difficult to catch them all. I am being yanked around to write notes down because I cannot sit down and devote myself to actual writing for a long period of time during the week.

Finishing a piece, even a one-shot, is a major victory for me. If I am lucky, I get to write for a little while during my half-hour lunch during the work week. I do not write when I get home at night because that is rat and I's time together. He is the most important part of my life and part of my inspiration. On the weekend, I MUST rest up to recharge my uber-crappy and ridiculously fragile health so I lose a lot of writing time then as well. If I am taking a class, you can almost forget anything getting completed writing-wise because what little energy I have must be used to concentrate on that education. I can still do little bits of art if I am in class because if I did not I would stir-crazy.

The point of this is - I do not have the time, luxury and energy some people do to produce the writing I want to produce. My full-time job keeps me busy enough I do not have time during office hours to do anything besides jot down a note or two about a scene. I have LONG fics in progress and I get tiny bits added to them occasionally. They keep getting longer because I keep finding things to add to them to give them more depth. I WANT to complete them. I have invested too much time and energy into them to drop them. I know how they all begin and end and even have some of the middle completed. Now I just need to make sure each story arc is believable, detailed so it is 'seen' and felt and each has no gaping holes in the middle sections.

If I can get something across in a completed one-shot, I feel I have accomplished something. The one-shots all tie together in my timeline so I see them as extensions of the fics to come and some already out there. If I did not do one-shots to appease the muse I don't know what I would do to energize the longer pieces. That accomplishment of a short fic truly helps get the creative muses flowing.

The monthly challenge at the meet has helped me pull back from the large picture of my writing and has gotten me to think about specific little scenarios that may occur in my particular storyline. I may not be meeting the drabble criteria but that's not the point in my book. The challenges have aided me to focus on little slices of life and to see if I can pull off a particular idea successfully. What I have completed so far have been little personal writing experiments as well as little tiny glimpses of the total universe I am working on with my larger fics. I put a LOT of thought and effort into these short pieces. I think that is one of the reasons I get so irritated by the kiddos who are just dumping unbetaed and not thought-through crap out there. They are giving short fics a bad name.

Now I am back at work and I will not have the luxury to do this for a while. If I take a class this summer I will lose that writing/drawing time, to be replaced with schoolwork. I am tempted to stop taking any classes, until I get these writing pieces completed. Some are over two years old and my writing style has shifted somewhat. I am having to do slight revisions to ways of saying things, turns of phrase and the like. I am also having to do some major revisions to character actions/reactions and speech patterns. I know more now and I need those characterizations to come through clearly. In one case, I found Eiri too girlyfied (Sensitive New-Age Eiri=GAH!!!) and I definitely need to pour some vinegar on his head and shove wasabi up his ass to get him back to 'he who must be cranky', yet giving him believable experiences that will allow him to be more well-adjusted. Manga 11 has him softening up some so it looks like my suspicions on his character may have some basis in 'canon', at least as much as the crappy TokyoPop translations let on. I sure wish the various scanlation translators were still active with their work so we fans could get a more accurate view of the universe.

some oekaki

Wrapped In Plastic
http://members.lycos.co.uk/chickenheadsasuke/oekaki/
45: Shuichi at an onsen (hot springs)


hochuuami oekaki
http://www.hochuuami.com/oekaki/index.php
12: Neko Boi

Look at the other artwork on this particular board - the artists are absolutely INCREDIBLE!

kakimono to ichi oekaki mo
(writing and one oekaki also)

Waterless Death
http://members.lycos.co.uk/waterlessdeath/oekaki//index.php
67: Guy with icy purple hair

I have a lot to say about my recent writings but I am too exhausted right now. I will try to throw together something in notepad throughout the weekend and post it in the near future.

I have had a lot on my mind lately concerning my writing and Grunt is not helping matters, reminding me repeatedly to touch every single working piece and add something to it. *sigh*

Oh yeah, I did this recently:

Blistering Lightsaber Action:
http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/
101: Vampyre

I was experimenting with a different eye shape, eye highlight, hair colour/shading, etc.

Everything posted over at Forever Fandom now has a banner to go with it. Here they are.







I figure I will get more use out of these when I get these ready for posting over at the Vault, and when I finally get my ass in gear to get the fanfic section done on my own site. I keep vacilating because I do not know how I want to set it up. I think I am just going to have to break down and post the fic like I post the art for now, as clumsy as the navigation I am currently using is, just to get things out there and done with.

Some oekaki:

Artist's Cafe:
24: A Youkai Guy
http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/24.png


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


Gemi no Oekaki-ban
http://www.gemiange.com/oekaki/index.php
377: Purple-Haired Guy

I am sick and twisted - this is what I played with during the Flash workshop and what I finished at school after work tonight.

Gravitation BADfic Scenarios

I had planned on working on some writing last night while rat did some FFIV fighting. The headache started creeping up on me as I sat in front of the TV with the craptop in my lap. I think I got 10 words in the razor fic before a full-blown headache crawled into my skull and started dancing on the ceiling of my brain case.

I shut everything down, took some aspirin, aid down on my cushions, pulled up the quilt and dozed for a while, with the sounds of FFIV battles in the background. I felt a little better after about 30 minutes so I moved to my regular PC. That's when the headache decided to add pain on top of pain, all through the back of my neck and shooting up the back of my skull.

I took more aspirin and waited for it to kick in. After some of the pain went away, I went to bed.

This morning I am still feeling a little pain across my head and in the back of my neck but I can live with it.

At breakfast I looked at "the fic that will not end" and found myself adding commas in various places. The sentences read fine without them, but having the comma breaks helped separate the flow so the thought bits and pieces were more segmented. I know it is not required but I think it will help ease the read.

I have so much I want to do with that fic and I do not know if it will ever be completed.

Today at lunch and hopefully Friday and this weekend I will work on the razor fic some more. I am still working off two printouts with changes and I am also making scribbles on them as I find more bits I want to add to the descriptions. This is a VERY descriptive piece, which is part of this particular writing exercise. The other element of this writing exercise I am going to keep secret until it is posted. I want to see if anyone notices anything.

I know my recent work reflects detail and humour, but another element I enjoy working with in my writing is the first-person, initially unrevealed speaker, like I did in Serenade. No, this is not a hint for the razor fic. Some of my working fics do have this element, though. A few are written in third-person. There is no logic to why those kinds of decisions are made - the muse deems it so. One fic still in the notebook was originally first person but I made some notes to make it third-person. I looked at it last night before going to bed, after making some notes in the notebook for another fic, and I think I will not know which direction I will take it until I actually start typing it into the e-manuscript. I don't know - it may be the perfect piece to attempt a second-person piece, something I have not done since my creative writing class in college, back in the Stone Age.

All my writings are personal exercises of various kinds.

oekakicentral.com
Thoughtful Elf
http://www.oekakicentral.com/traininggrounds/pictures/817.jpg

EDIT:

Interesting how you cannot get to the picture the usual way all other oekaki boards allow.

Okay, go to this link, which is my profile page, scroll down, click on the thumbnail and see if you can view the image that way:

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

White Day oekaki at Artist's Cafe, featuring Eiri and Shuichi.

http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/19.png

The think the wordplay from yesterday is still hanging around me...

I got a review for "Kokigami" this past weekend.

Well, surprise me!

A couple more oekaki this weekend:

hochuuami oekaki
http://www.hochuuami.com/oekaki/index.php
127: Cat Boy
http://www.hochuuami.com/oekaki/pictures/127.png



Obsession Oekaki Central:
http://w4.oekakies.com/p/0bsesion/p.cgi
346: E&S

Here is my Answer to the March Fic Challenge at the gravi_muse_meet Live Journal:

The Wearing o' the Green
By: bakayaro onna
Pairing: E and S
Rating: PG-13 - for language and suggestive situations
Completed: Thursday, March 03, 2005 Revised: Friday, March 11, 2005
Spelling note: I spell Shuichi like this in my stories - Shiyuuichi. If you do not like this, do not read my stories. You have been warned in advance about this, so don't you dare post a comment about it in any review or email!
Summary: E/S. All Eiri had wanted when he returned home that evening was a cold beer and a hot fuck. What he got was green. Written for the March Drabble Challenge - 984 words - 484 over the limit.
Thanks to imayb1/Aja for her beta!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation. Maki Murakami, Sony, TokyoPop and The RightStuf do. Too bad about the latter two - their translations are inaccurate, sanitized and full of Americanisms.

The gurabiteshiyon.net link: http://fiction.gurabiteshiyon.net/story.php?no=885

I did an oekaki for this as well:

Tearing us Apart
http://members.lycos.co.uk/eva94589/oekaki/index.php
149: The Wearing O' the Green

I have done two other oekaki this week - looks like Evan has decided to make a reappearance, at least for a while. I guess Grunt decided I was giving him enough attention and decided to allow Evan out of the closet.

Blistering Lightsaber Action:
http://www.swordbreaker.com/oekaki/
98: Finally! The muse came back!

At Artist's Cafe:
http://cafe.firefly.nu/oekaki/pictures/15.png
15: This might be my Web Muse

Okay, here is the slowed-down version of my first BADfic icon, plus two more Shuichi icons.

       

This morning I decided I needed to add a few things to "The Wearing O' the Green" prior to posting. I need to make a reference to White Day to add to the festivities sentence and I may add something to the hat description. I have been looking at St. Pats graphics and something is missing from the traditional hat.

These items will probably take me over 1000 words...

Oh well.

These monthly challenges have been good for me. It is making me produce and finish something every month. They may not be the best pieces of writing I have put together, but at least I am getting something out.

It hasn't stopped me from working on the longer pieces. I almost looked at "the fic that will not end" yesterday but realized I would probably get sucked into it and would stop working on "the razor fic". I cannot let that happen. "The razor fic" is coming along, detail after minute detail. The razor section is STILL not in. Part of the reason is because I will be talking about the razor AND the facial/body hair of both men. I have lots to develop on that, writing about unknown elements about these men and hopefully making it believable.

Okay, I succumbed...

I had some sentences, paragraphs and some phrases on the back of one of the sheets I am transcribing. I decided to get that typed into the craptop during lunch. That and a few little words here and there from the two working copies equaled 276 words today, yay!

I am on a mailing list for Dover Press at work, where I get copyright-free graphics every week. One particular selection of week's offering really got a wild hair up my nose and I went bonkers with some icons.

If you like them and wish to use one or more, feel free to do so. A credit would be nice, of course.

I suppose I need to set up a non-Gravi icon community for these types of goodies, or maybe just post them here for friends.

       

Well, Evan came stumbling back into the room last night, looking a bit worse for wear. I will probably have to comb all the burrs, twigs and sticky shit out of his hair and tail before he is up to snuff again.

Anyway, he let me do this last night:

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

#98: Finally! The muse came back!

It's not that good, but it is a 100% better than the crapola I was getting for a month.

No writing at lunch today - off to meet my ex-lit teacher for lunch at QQ Cafe.

I read the stinky sequence to rat this morning and he liked it, even though he says he does not think E would have smelly feet.

Another 100 words at lunch today, yay!

Worked on the 'men stink' section. Developed the section without any prior notes. Ended making myself chuckle when I finished.

Grunt is still very much in evidence.

I got out a little over a hundred words into the razor fic today at lunch, go me! I am working off of two print-outs right now. In some places I wrote two similar but different bits. In some cases I am working at blending the bits together and in others I am picking the best bit to use. Sometimes I am being forced into some rewrite of what is already there, which has worked out because I am tightening up some places.

In other places I keep adding more descriptive detail. I am finding it interesting how some items in the story beg for more description while others are happy to remain plain and basic.

I do need to work on those betas this week and get them out, so Grunt will have to deal with it being on hold until tomorrow's lunch time.

The photo used as a reference point for the boys is from an October 2003 Maxim. The two fashion models were actually on opposite sides of the two-page photo spread. The model used for S had dreadlocks.

The drawing was inked with Staedtler pigment liner pens, sizes 05, 01 and 005.

E's eyes are extra-large yet again while S's head is too small. Oh well.

S's hair was done with a gradient with a few darker shadows added.

E's hair shadows are made with web-safe greys and taken down to 64% opacity.

Both guys' face shadows were drawn in, blurred for smoothness, then opacity adjusted.

S has an earring stud and E has both an earring stud and a loop. Are they real or are they just for the the photo shoot?

Here is the breakdown on how I toned and textured the clothes:

E's clothes.
Overcoat: four layers - one solid grey, two patterns with adjusted opacities, one for hand-drawn shadows.
Pants: two layers - one solid dark grey with drawn white highlights and one pattern with adjusted opacity.
Cravat: three layers - one solid grey, one pattern with the opacity very low and one for the gradient shadows
Sweater: two layers - one low-opacity pattern over white and one for the gradient fold.

S's clothes.
Suit: three layers - one solid grey with adjusted opacity, one hand-built stripe pattern for pinstripes, one for the hand-drawn shadows.
Sleeveless jacket: three layers - one solid black, one for shadows and highlights, one for overlay pattern with adjusted opacity.

Initially I tried a technique I think Ponderosa and PL Nunn use for their folds and it was taking a lot of time to do it since I had never done it before. I selected each fold with the lasso tool, then used a black-to-clear radial gradient to make the fold shadow. Then I took down the opacity so the texture underneath was seen but the shadow was still in place. It took a lot of time to do this so it looked right. I had done E's sweater fold, E's cravat folds, S's sleeveless jacket before I gave up on this pic and let it sit for so long.

Finally, I became inspired to complete this and decided to use a different technique for the rest of the folds. Using the paintbrush and various greys, I coloured in the folds, then used the blur tool to work up the original transparencies. Then the opacities of the fold layers were adjusted so the textures and patterns underneath came through. Any colour straying from the fold lines were erased to make a clean edge for each fold. I don't think this was completely successful so I will have to try it again later on another piece.

The gradient background was copied and a filter was added to it to get the lines texture. I was trying to make it look a little like a studio background.

Since this piece looked like a magazine cover, I decided to make it look like an actual cover. So, it was off to research Japanese male fashion magazines on the web to see what I could find.

Online research sources:

J!-ENT: Fashion NOW!: http://www.nt2099.com/FASHION/
Japanese Streets: http://japanesestreets.com/
Men's Non-no: http://mensnonno.shueisha.co.jp/home.html

I looked at actual Japanese mens fashion magazine scans for ideas to make my faux magazine cover. I decided Men's Non-No was a good choice to use as a basis for the magazine text layout.

It took a while to find fonts that had the same flavour as the magazine title. I had to make adjustments to the font character to get some of the width the way I wanted it on the large M. I ended up adding a narrow drop shadow to the magazine title to help lift it away from the graphic below.

The Japanese text is taken from the April 2004 cover of Men's Non-No. The magazine page I found had a bmp graphic of the cover contents. I cannot find the website where I got the graphic but I seem to recall it was a site with various magazine subscriptions and these pages were for back-orders.

The Japanese text was difficult to read and ran all the way across the bodies, so I decided to make a white box to emphasize the text like it is done sometimes on magazine covers. I stroked a dark grey line around the box edge then changed the opacity of the box so the figures could still be seen underneath.

I had to shift the Japanese text around to get it to fit in the box. I am hoping I did not split up Japanese words too badly. I looked for katakana words and usually made the cut after one of those. Each part was cut up and adjusted separately in a new file, then that file was copy-merged and pasted into the main document. Space between each of the four Parts were eyeballed to about the same gap and the box was adjusted to fit around the final text section.

Various single sentences of Japanese text were scattered around the faux cover for balance.

Originally I had also called my magazine cover Men's Non-no, but I decided to avoid blatant copyright issues and change the second part to Nippon.

The idea for the I HEART Bad Luck came from the June 2004 Men's Non-No cover, which states I HEART T-SHIRT. Originally I tried to distress the heart like the font I used but decided it did not look good and kept a pristine heart.

I scanned in the boys' names from the Gravitation Fanbook 1 so I did not have to try and deal with finding the right kanji with the typing program. On the main graphic I selected the size I wanted the name graphic to be with the rectangle marque tool, made a new file with those dimensions and used that to build the name graphic. I copied each name from the original scan, pasted into the new file and re-scaled the name image until it fit into the new file size. I cobbled some of the background grey texture from the original scans with a combination of the copying bits of the grey and pasting it in areas needing it and blending with the clone tool so the two name graphics would look like they were on the same layer in the new file. I added the dot between the new names, then copied the entire file and pasted it into the magazine file. Since I had left the marque tool selection on the magazine file active, when the name file pasted, it landed right where I wanted it to land on the magazine file.

Some of you know I like to write about how I did a piece when I post the thumbnail.

It is taking me for-fucking-ever to get the write-up done for the GQ piece. It has quite a few layers to it.

Also, it seems some of the source links are lost and I cannot find where I got the magazine covers and copy I used as reference and text for the graphic.

I was finally able to hunt down some of the original Japanese fashion sites I looked at for info but the link I needed to the third-party magazine site was not to be found anywhere. I found the website for the magazine I based my cover on, however. I realized, after looking at the site, I really needed to change the name of my faux magazine slightly to avoid copyright infringement. So I went in this evening to fix it.

I actually have a half-assed idea for the March drabble. I do not know if it will get written up, however. It is notepad txt form right now, and very rough.

It makes me a little depressed I was not able to work on the razor fic this holiday.

I made a few icons during this mostly useless creative vacation.

This one was made for Aja.


This one was made for fel.


This one was made for patosan.


All were made by using a black and white manga scan, adding a filter (secret!) then hand-colouring bits to bring out various sections.

Finished a one-shot fic but haven't posted yet. Will wait until a more appropriate time to do it.

I completed GQ this evening. Looks like I will have three versions of it - the line drawing, the toned image and the magazine image. I will making thumbnails of the three this weekend and writing up what I did for the next post here.

I was finally able to get my banner on my main lj page, by looking at xenophyle's source code of the same lj template. I may try it with this template to see if can work. If not, I may change this template to the one I use for my regular one.

I also put the Gravitation Muse Meet banner on its main page. It looks good there.

Well, a one-shot got finished, beta-ed and back (thanks, Aja!) and now I am going to sit on it a little while and see if Fel may be inspired to draw something for it.

I have also been futzing with cg of the GQ pic a little.

Haven't gotten much done so far this week. I cannot sit up for very long because of this damned illness.

I got a first draft one-shot on craptop ni. I had hoped to work on and complete the razor fic this week. Grr...

I have tried to do oekaki for a month now and every one has sucked so I just hit the back button and gave up.