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one of my favorite miku module's is her "vintage dress" look, because it simultaneously evokes a lot of the ideas as seen in her original design, while also bringing a lot new to the table!
i'll go from top to bottom of things i love about it!
i love how the X shaped straps from her shirt evoke the tapered triangular shape of the top of her typical vest. it's not an exact match, but the eye draws an invisible line where the straps would be if they weren't in their criss cross shape (that happens to be the same shape as her original vest). and the bow at the center of her choker evokes her usual tie. even the laces at the center of her shirt, and the parallel contrast trim on either side continue this idea. it's like - this top and her usual are so dramatically different in terms of area they cover, but because of how it's been styled it evokes the other so effortlessly.
then her arm covers, they're asymmetrical here, with the one on her left arm more obviously being similar to her typical - but the one on her right arm obviously starts at the same point at the top of her arm even if it doesn't go as long. again it's bringing something new to the table while evoking her original design. i like the use of chains on her left arm as well, to me it it pairs well with the lyrics of romeo and cinderella (which is where this module is typically used)
then the skirt! the multiple layers are genius. they evoke the way that her vest overlaps her skirt in her original design, with the burgundy layer evoking the bottom of the vest, and the lighter pink evoking her original skirt.
again, same with the top; this is so different from her original look.... but the shapes calling back bridge that gap.
and then the shoes. in place of her usual OTK boots, she's got these overlapping ribbon heels. in terms of evoking her original design, same with the ribbon on her right arm - up top it starts in a similar place to her usual boots (a little lower but it reads nevertheless). and on it's own merit: i love how this ties together the ribbon straps of her top, and the ribbon on her right arm.
and again its like... think of all the things that are different here. such a defining element of miku's original design is how color wise she's just got gray, black, her trademark miku teal, and tiiiiiiiiiiiny hints of hotpink/red. but here the whole look is burgundy, red, pink.
if this wall of text describing this doesn't make sense, here's a silly draw over i did lol.
the bottom line is i love this look! it's so quintessentially miku while also doing it's own thing. it's so beautiful.
i also love the texturing they give it in some games (future tone for example) the ribbons being given this satin-y look (more striking red undertones), while the other dark parts are matte (almost velvet looking?) beautiful!
anyways! this is all pretty general character design stuff right? i like thinking about it though. i've been thinking of it a lot recently because i've been really into the artistry behind street fighter 6 (lol). all the characters getting new looks was done very well. straight up highly recommend looking up a "all street fighter 6 costumes" video on youtube even if you don't gaf about the franchise/game (but do care about character design/art) because of how well done it is.
for this silly journal though, i'll call out cammy cause i like how they were able to give her such a different look while still making her so identifiable. (and also i'm biased, when i was big into street fighter in highschool i mained her)
her hair is short now, but it's slicked back in the same way it was in her braids, she still has the little wispy bits up front, and the long jacket straps evoke the shape of her braids. the light lines of her pants create a similar V shape to her leotard before... her gloves being the same, her boots being the same shape but inverted. like there's obvious tools they utilized here to make this work. and it paid off! i'm a huge fan. character design is so awesome.
i've made up a lot of stories and characters in my life, and i have remnants from when i created and cared about them saved, even if that stopped at some later point - and this is true whether they originate from when i was 8, or 18.
except for one! when i was 12 and fell in love with shoujo (through works that have remained beloved to me like kodocha, but also things that fell to the wayside like special a), i started making up this story that i wish i remembered more about.
i don't think i ever wrote down the ideas, i just tried to draw how i imagined the characters to look, but became quickly (and extremely) frustrated in my own artistic limitations. which made me go: "oh, this is unrealistic for me to expect myself to be able to make this story if i can't draw them even once" and give up.
but now i wish i had written the details down! i haven't even been able to find those old attempts to draw the characters (maybe i threw them out? i didn't typically do that, but maybe i did in the intensity of my disappointment). all i remember is that the main couple was a timid goody-goody guy with round glasses, and a delinquent girl with a buzzcut.
i only remember those details because i was worried the guy was too obviously inspired by tsuyoshi sasaki, and the fact i couldn't DRAW a buzzcut (which was somehow story important to the girl, so i was unwilling to compromise and give her some other style) was one of the things that frustrated me.
i wish i could sit with my younger self, hear her explain the whole thing. try to capture them on the page, and teach her how approach it herself. but i feel like that's what everyone wishes they could do!
They're not lost in the sense there's no records, lost in the sense I don't know the names and haven't been able to find them in all my searches!
1. "Everybody is somebodies lunch!"
This daycare place I was often at as a kid had a TV with a VCR (this was around 2008/9, so DVD players were well adopted by this point, but they hadn't upgraded) and a collection of VHS's to go along with it (think veggie tales, peanuts, and miscellaneous educational things). I was doing something else, but someone had put in a tape. My mom arrives to pick me up, and from the TV blares "😃 💗 🎵 EVERYBODY IS SOMEBODIES LUNCH 🎵 💗 😃" as lyrics in an overly cheerful song about the food chain.
My mom and I found the tonal dissonance hilarious, and we still joke about it to this day, we use a specific melody to go along with it and everything (has to be remembered from the original), there's apparently a book called everybody is somebody's lunch, but that's not what I'm remembering.
Needless to say, since both my mom and I saw it, I'm 100% confident this actually exists out there in the world somewhere. I'm assuming it's been hard for me to find since y'know... it's probably some niche educational VHS.
2. Grossout nicktoons (?) short (?)
Gross warning for this one lmao, you I guess can take comfort in knowing I'm being honest, because I'd never make this up
Some sort of pilot, or animated short? heck it could even be a commercial. that I believe aired on the Nicktoons channel (would've been around 2006-2010), but technically could've been somewhere else (nickelodeon [i.e. the main channel], or cartoon network).
It was about two nose goo monsters that were sad because they were in different nostrils. Animated, very de-saturated colors. I wanna say it had like... way more moving music than you'd expect given the premise.
3. Random episode of Ed Edd n Eddy I can't find
This one's funny because I obviously know what show it's from, I just have not been able to figure out what episode it is based on reading episode synopses, I've looked many times over many years, still can't find it. i've always figured if i get desperate enough, i could just watch the whole show in search of it, but i have yet to get around to that.
details i'm most confident about: It was about two characters competing in progressively more dangerous challenges. other characters try to dissuade them from competing, but they're too lost in the sauce. the final challenge results in both the competitor characters in full body casts, even then still being competitive.
details i'm less confident in: in my memories the characters competing were eddy, and sarah. but again... i'm less confident in this. could've been any of the kids in the show.
the other possibility of course is that it's an episode from another show, that i misremembered as an ed edd n eddy episode. but uh. it'd be weird if that were the case. i didn't like the episode (the idea of being consumed by something that was self destructive unnerved me), and it made me stop watching the show for awhile because of it LMAO so it'd be weird if i "convicted the wrong guy" as it were. but it's a possibility.
4. Movie with robot woman
This one is... both very vague/broad/lacking detail, and also could've been something my brain has embellished since it happened so long ago.
This one would be older, I saw it somewhere around 2001-2004, but it could've been from the 80s or 90s. Basically I have a memory of being a very small kid, watching TV with an older cousin, he was flipping through channels and stopped on something with a robot woman. when i encountered Hajime Sorayama's work in my late teens was taken aback because she looked exactly like that, chrome and pointy, sharp edges.... but yeah i told my cousin to change the channel because she scared me. she was a character that recurred in my nightmares for a while after that lol.
Anyways though, it was live action (not animated or CG), and presumably wasn't aimed at a family/kid audience. I vaguely think she was like, fighting someone? But for all I know she could've just been standing menacingly and that was enough for me.
what do akito hayama from kodocha, shaoran from cardcaptor sakura, and fakir from princess tutu have in common?
a lot if you ask me!
all three are from shoujo series with a female lead, they all start off as rivals/enemies of said female lead, and undergo a sort of ""redemption arc""... but its less of a "go from being bad to being good" and more a "is humbled by the female main character, realizing she's in the right and he should team up with her" sort of situation.
the latter then makes way for the boy having a great admiration/respect for the girl for the rest of the series, and this often evolves into the two falling in love.
since i'm trying to speak to three characters at once, there's some wiggle room in the specifics. for example: akito goes through more of a "go from being bad to being good" redemption arc, and fakir has more of a left to interpretation romance than the other two, but you get the point! these characters feel like they were cut from the same conceptual cloth to me.
i like this kind of character a lot, and i wish there were a more specific trope name for it. i've spent some time looking for one, but it's just been terms like "[goes through a] redemption arc" or "enemies to lovers", and while applicable... those are very broad.
i have a few drawings from 2023/2024 that i never finished, but would like to. so every so often when nothing in particular is urgently in need of being worked on, i'll crack open the file and try and put some work in.
...and every time i'm shocked by the way i did things. that's only 2/3 years ago?! it doesn't FEEL like much has changed. but i'm proven wrong everytime lol
the biggest difference is how i managed my layers. my workflow was something like this:
sketch -> put down colors underneath -> combine layers into one and iron out until finished. separate if beneficial. combine if beneficial.
it worked for me well enough that i kept doing it. i liked how the end results looked so why change it!
well uh. i'd compare the feeling of it to playing jenga, everything is interlocked, so moving one piece effects the whole, and it gets harder over time. it took me really long to get things done, because in order to change something, so many other changes need to get made, it's a ripple effect.
when i work on drawings from this time, i end up cutting the layers into chunks and it makes it infinitely easier to work on. it's like sonic the hedgehog says, you live and learn! (incorrect buzzer sounds)