Had to work at my other job today but after seeing the prompt for today’s theme on Pixiv I felt I couldn’t let the opportunity pass. And the prompt is Mikan (tangerine). Since that was the introduction song that got me interested in Morning Musume I decided to draw one of the members holding a tangerine. Since I have mostly been drawing Ai, Sayumi (specially) and Reina I felt it was only fair to draw Kamei Eri again.
I used a reference picture from her photo book “Thanks” and altered it to fit the theme. Could have played a bit more with the drawing but I am a bit tired and hope to rest for the hour I have before I need to call it a day.
Reference picture:
and that of the tangerine:
Just when I was about to post this post I noticed that WordPress did away with the tags, did they move them or are they now just gone? Will look into it when I have a chance.
Nevermind, it seems I’m more tired than I thought. I created a new page instead of a post so I had to redo it all again… （ー△ー；）
So there have been some changes to Flickr and it seems like they will limit the amount of photos one can have in one’s account for free to 1,000. And I had almost 2,000. So I had the option to either delete some photos my self or have Flickr delete the first 1,000 photos. So some posts will have photos missing as of now. If you guys want any of the missing photos from those old post let me know and I will go back and fix them.
Because of that I had to find another site that I could use and that would not have a size limitation. I thought I got lucky and would be able to use Google photos but it seems like WordPress would have to download the photos and it would count towards my storage space so that wouldn’t solve the problem…
So I looked at the sites that would allow me to embed photos here easily and would not have a size limit. Begrudgingly it seems like I will have to use Facebook. A site I’m not too fond of… But I need it so I guess I will have to revive the old DarkCloud XERO Facebook page.
With that said and out of the way here is the new piece. I actually finished this on November 3rd. but decided to hold it off so I can space my artwork during the week. This piece is based from the previews that Sayumi has been posting on her Instagram for her new single “Loneliness Tokyo”. I took a screenshot and used that as a reference.
This is the painting:
Reference used:
It seems like I can post the whole gallery in one click so that’s cool. But it seems like to view it, it will take you to Facebook so I hope that won’t be a problem for you guys.:
I quite enjoyed making this painting. I started working on it on October 8th but had to wait till I finished Inktober. When I did come back to it I was surprised by how much easier it felt to paint her compared to when I first started a month before.
Congratulations on the new single Sayu! ₊·(ϱ॔⌄ᵕ๑॓)‧*
This time I decided to once again give the maru nib a try again. I looked up information on the net but it seems like a stiff nib is normal when they are new so I used some paper to make some lines and see if I could make the ink flow. It started flowing but it’s so small that the ink is a bit of a pain to make work. I made a small and quick drawing of Sayu doing the Usa-chan Peace. With the maru nib releasing ink I decided to finally do the drawing.
This is a picture from the Sports Festivals that Hello Project used to do back in the day. Those days sure were filled with a lot of fun events. Sad they ended by the time the Platinum Era was around… (︶︹︺)
In any case, although the maru nib gave me problems as I went along it did work remarkably. It allows me to make subtle shading quite easily and more precisely (when it decides to work).
Man… so freakin cute… ⸌̷̻( ᷇ॢ〰ॢ ᷆◍)⸌̷̻♡⃛
Here is the reference picture:
And here is the process:
Personally I loved the way the drawing came out. ◝( ′ㅂ`)و ̑̑
A while ago now (wow 4 years ago ∑(ﾟﾛﾟ〃)) Sayumi was rumored to have cut her hair short which was a big deal since she had always had her beautiful long and natural hair colored hair. As it turns out it was I believe a wig where Sayu and the other Momosu members had different hairstyles that they didn’t use.
And man let me tell you, she looked absolutely amazing. I was surprised by how short they decided to go with the hairstyle but it fit her really well.
For this piece I had decided to give the maru pen nib a try but it was so small and stiff so I couldn’t really get it to work. I had no choice but to give up since it was getting really late. In the end I used my G nib and some of my other pens. It went well for the most part but I feel I messed a bit on her chin and lower head. I could have played a bit more with the values and I’m pretty sure it would look much better. But overall I liked the way the piece turned out.
Here is the reference picture used:
I really want to give it another shot and do another one traditionally.
While looking through Pixiv and some Mexican memes on “Fresh Anime Memes from a Mexican Otaco” I came across two artist that made art that was rather cartoony and “round” and yet also very anime like. I really like it so I wanted to give it a try.
This was done in 8/10/18:
I believe I did this with my dip pen and a pen named Bimoji Fedepen, the hard tip one (there are various types that also go to a brush type that is pretty cool).
This is the reference picture I used. This was from Sayu’s photo book “Mille-feuille”.
I then colored the line art with my Copic markers (process will be shown a bit below). I noticed that I was much too preoccupied with the way the other artist were drawing their eyes from the references (will post them below) I was looking at so she looks a bit angry.
Noticing that I used, I believe Photoshop to widen her eyes.
I widened them even more, and noticed that there is quite a bit of flexibility with this style so I really want to try out more things to see what I can come up with.
These were some of the references I used to try and understand the style.
Man, no matter how much I tried I was just not able to continue posting (finals and other things have been piling up quite badly, but I will be done this week). But that does not mean that I wasn’t thinking about what I should be doing. It’s obvious that many of my drawing videos have not being doing too great. Mainly of course because I have not maintained consistency which is of utmost importance, but also because I have not been doing what people actually want to see. It seems that for most videos, specially those with minor movements and whatnot need to have commentary to have people drawn in. Also this helps viewers have a connection to the creator. I knew this before of course, but I wanted to test out if I could break free from those restrictions. The end result was mixed, some got quite a few views while others were abysmal (which sucks because the drawing it self was rather good). Another reason was because of the background noise that would appear. So my original plan was to buy a good microphone, but that would take too long, and it wouldn’t be good to invest in something that would not guaranteed results. So I will be using my phone instead which surprisingly has a good microphone built in. And luckily there are plenty of freeware audio editing software to edit the recordings if needed. So when I finally come back, that will be what I will be doing with my videos from now on. Whatever the reasons I would like to apologize for disappearing yet again, I can’t control the outcome of events to come, but I will do my utmost to overcome them whatever they may be. Specially since summer vacation is finally here.
Now for my other plans… my main channel will now be taking requests again. I’d say I had enough time to draw what I liked, so it’s time to give back to others. One difference is that I’m thinking of giving the artwork away, but I have not thought out the specifics yet so more on that later. My other channel darkcloudxero.extended will be used to answer questions (that I do not do in my main channel) and talking about any other things regarding art or anything in general.
One third thing, I would like to create one third channel, this one will be used for myself mainly. If you have been following me lately, than you know that I really like Morning Musume … well sort of. What I really like is the time between 2007-2010, what I and many other fans of that time like to refer to as the Platinum Era. There I will be doing different types of videos regarding that specific formation. It’s kind of funny how 4 years have passed now, and I am still thinking about them nonstop. It’s crazy in a way. But that’s how influential they have been in my life so I will be supporting them for as long as I can. Specially now that that last remaining member of that Era Michishige Sayumi is leaving (and in a grand way might I add). The sad thing is that the Platinum Era is being blamed for their popularity drop even more so now that the current Morning Musume has gained a lot of popularity lately. So I will be giving my own opinions on that and everything else in the channel mentioned before.
On a side note, it has been raining nonstop where I live. Some people don’t seem to like the rain, but I love it. And now it has me in a nostalgic mood.
Originally I was planning on ending this year round project by drawing Ai last but things didn’t turn out that way. But, in a way I am glad that it happened this way. After all Gaki was an important member of the group that sadly many seem to overlook. Her voice is definitely powerful but can also be tuned to sound extremely cute. Her versatility is quite astonishing. I felt that as a whole, the two main vocalists (Ai and Reina) needed someone to fill in the places where their weaknesses might reside. And that is where Gaki came in. She filled in the really deep parts that others couldn’t, and she did it extraordinarily.
When I first saw and heard her in Mikan I was quite amazed at how deep a voice she had. I had never really seen a group with so many different voice ranges before so hearing her singing voice was a surprise to me at the time. It soon became clear to me how vital her voice was to the group. This variations of voices are what really makes the Platinum Era so special. When hearing their songs, you could immediately tell who was who. And not only that but almost everyone had a really good voice (Koharu definitely had the weakest, and although it pains me to say this but so did Sayu but she can sing quite well when she puts all her effort into the song).
One of the reasons I am glad that I got to draw Gaki last is because she really seemed to be the member that loved Morning Musume the most out of all the members. I remember how she would like to talk about that whenever they asked why she joined, and also how she would boast of her collection of Morning Musume member postcards (is that what they are called?). She really seemed to care for the group. So much so that she gave up on her idea to leave alongside Ai (I do wonder if the gokkies all promised to graduate together? That didn’t happen of course, after Asami and later Makoto left, but still. That was the kind of vibe I got since they were all so close), to teach the newcomers for one year until finally deciding to graduate herself.
One thing I always remember was an episode of Yorosen where Gaki was the teacher and asked the members to write a letter to themselves, I believe it was 10 years later. Out of all them she was the only one to speak of Morning Musume. And not only that but she believed that they would still be in the group. What was most touching was that she was talking about the Platinum Era, not any other members. Hearing that just made me so happy. It just makes me very pleased when these members all speak so well of this lineup. Not the Golden Era, and not the colorful era (I believe that’s what the fans are calling them), but the Platinum Era. She isn’t the only one of course. I remember reading a interview with Ai where she felt that this lineup would be the ones to take Morning Musume to new heights for years to come, but then came the graduations that shook that thought. Then there were the comments of Reina in a recent interview? where she said she had wished that the Platinum Era was just as popular as Morning Musume is now.
Some day, some how I will reunite them all. I don’t know how, but I hope to show the world just how amazing they all are together, this legendary group that sadly was way to underrated.
This concludes my year long project. I probably won’t be doing any more Morning Musume drawings (on youtube). But I will go back to my old schedule of anime and manga drawings very soon.
The person who drew me in to Morning Musume, the one that captured my heart with her amazingly cute smile and heart wrenching voice, the leader who despite the massive backlash of fans after the departure of many old favorites still managed to keep the group together and created an ever reaching fan-base around the world. That is Ai Takahashi forever in my heart as the leader of the Platinum Era. She was left with Morning Musume when it was at it’s weakest state, she along with the other eight members managed to fight through it so that the name Morning Musume could eventually be passed off to the next generation.
To me, when Ai Takahashi joined, the group just became something magical. She was destined for greatness. Her voice, movement and emotion all drew people in. Such a combination of talents in one person, could that even be possible? This of course also had some repercussions. Because of her abilities she had to support the whole group, that, to some fans seemed unfair to the other members. Although I can see what they mean, I feel it was for the best and something the group needed. A voice and unreal girl that would draw in the crowd, that for some reason decided to leave or have never heard of the group before. Her voice and performances were that of a pro, and that is what was needed to break the chains that restrict many idol groups. Sadly not many seemed to appreciate the best vocal group in the history of Morning Musume and of all the idol groups. It seems that whatever resentment was still left, only kept accumulating to the point of trying to bring Morning Musume down in forums and such. But that only goes to show how great the Ai chan led era was. Despite so much going against them, the group managed to stay afloat and even gradually started to gain momentum to the top.
The first time I saw Ai was in Mikan ( I know I mentioned it before, but it was such an important moment for me). Right away, despite seeing many cute girls in the screen (I did not know them then) the one person who just had me looking for her throughout the whole MV was Ai. There was something unreal and just… special about her. Soon after I wanted to know more, her name and the names of the group members. I needed to learn as much as I could, specially about her. Luckily for me I entered the fandom almost as soon as the Platinum Era began (I missed Onna ni Sachi are). At the time I was in high school, so some days were rather rough and dull, but I always felt a sense of relieve that I could always head home and watch/hear Ai chan’s voice.
Despite there being a five year difference between us, and she might see me as a child, I would totally do what I could to make her happy (I know to many that seems like a hopeless dream, but I really feel serious about this). But before that I would have to get on her level. I’ll support her whenever she is down, at least, that is what I would do. After all she is my dream girl.
To many people I see talking about her, she can be either the best thing for Morning Musume or a good addition that also happened to “steal” the lines of other members. But I would like to point out to those people that she didn’t steal anything, and secondly, that was only in the singles. The other members had their chances in the other songs made for the album. And now that she is gone we can still hear her voice, so prominent and beautiful. Hopefully we will be getting a solo album of hers soon. Then a duet with Gaki that will eventually span more with LinLin and Reina. And this in turn will hopefull bring back the Platinum Era so that it can bring about heaven to the ears of many once again.
To me she was a great leader to be remembered. One that truly cared about the group, and that truly wanted to bring them all together as an actual family that could use each other as support in the harshest of times and also celebrate the great accomplishments they all happened to go through. She definitely was a caring leader that showed her love through action rather than empty words. Not seeing Morning Musume with Ai chan was just so foreign that it left a big hole within me when she left. Luckily she stays in contact with her fans and makes many appearances in the media. One other thing that makes me feel, yes, I did not make a wrongful judgement in making her my favorite member was when she took time to visit the Platinum Era members and allowing us fans to be a part of it. That type of dedication is just … lovable.
The story of me and Sayumi Michishige starts off quite simple, in fact this was probably the case for many Morning Musume fans as well. I really didn’t like her… Clearly it wasn’t because of her looks (she’s so cute and beautiful it almost seems too incredible to believe she is real). But her personality that she showed on variety shows made her seem really mean and stuck up. Although I mainly blame some of the “fans” who commented on Morning Musume videos for giving me that impression of hers (I’m to blame as well of course for listening to their thoughts). Of course, at the time I felt like this, I was very new to Morning Musume and was barely beginning to learn more about each individual member of the group. Like many had said Sayu was definitely giving the aura of a narcissist, but after a couple of weeks of cramming in as many videos of the members as I could find at the time, things began to change. I also started to pick up all the subtleties of how each member acted and I noticed that sometimes Sayu wasn’t so sure of herself and what she said. She was definitely quick to recover and change the subject or keep going with the original onslaught of remarks depending on the situation. At first I wasn’t too sure what to think about it, but I began to question whether she really was as bad as she made herself out to be.
Sure enough my suspicions were right, in fact I was entirely right. She was mostly playing the role of a narcissist, but I still didn’t quite understand, why? In the end it was very simple, the entertainment world definitely prefers someone who is fun to watch and listen to, and although many of Sayu’s comments could be deemed mean or hurtful it was obvious that she was really thinking about what she uttered so they weren’t too painful so people didn’t take it seriously. In fact after saying one of those “Shige mean” comments she seemed to leave it open so that others could react. By becoming, arguably, the most famous variety show ace of Morning Musume, she made sure to raise the name of Morning Musume as high up as she could. Even if people came to hate her, as long as they have heard of Morning Musume she didn’t mind it. And truthfully that is what made her so endearing. She didn’t mind getting hated as long as the group was to prosper. Truly a woman worthy of my love.
She truly is the perfect women in my eyes; cute, smart, and nice (believe it or not). Not only that but her code of honor and respect for the group and members is absolutely alluring. She definitely deserved to be the last leader of the Platinum Era and Sixth Generation.
Her beauty is just so … I can’t even comprehend how she could be blessed so much, and what makes her even more amazing is that she seems so humble (this is something I really like about Morning Musume, despite being so famous they don’t act stuck up and feel like they are better than everyone). What I specially like about her appearance is her long black hair, it just seems so natural that she kept it like that. I seriously can’t imagine her any other way. I’ve seen her with wigs of other colors but black was definitely better. And I’m glad she herself took note of that. Speaking of notes, I remember her talking about doing self study sessions of what she could do to improve whenever she made tv appearances to not embarrass the rest of the group, having heard that I just absolutely gained another level of respect and love for her.
This obsession with Morning Musume is almost over it seems…Now that one of the last two members that kept me interested in the group has finally reached the end of the line in terms of Morning Musume.
After about ten years of giving fans happiness and humor, Reina Tanaka makes her exit to her own rock band, LoVendoR. Although I will miss her being in Momusu, she will at least not totally disappear and continue to sing. No matter how one looks at it. This will be a big hit to Morning Musume since she was the main vocalist. Now Morning Musume will truly be entering the new era. The new members are cool, but I think that my own involvement in this group has also ended (at least until Sayu decides to graduate as well).
I know change is need, but I don’t necessarily enjoy when it happens. I’ll probably still hear Momusu’s new songs from time to time but it will definitely not be the same. Now I understand how long time fans felt when my favorite era (Platinum Era) took control of Morning Musume. It really is a different feeling and that connection is definitely minimized. All one can think about is the good old days. Luckily for fans they left a lot of material to remember them by.
I’m really at a loss for words, so I’ll end it soon.
This has to be one of my best drawing so far. I really tried to bring in all my techniques and effort in my arsenal. And I feel it really shows. I was extremely pleased when I was taking a picture of the drawing and the camera recognized the face as a real one. Although I know I can improve more, I’m definitely going in the right direction. I can only hope Reina happens to enjoy it as well. I’m kind of saddened that I did not do something like this for the past members of the Platinum Era. I’ll have to make it up to them someway sooner or later.
Let me start off by saying, that just like JunJun’s mother I seemed to have messed up JunJun’s birthday by a whole month… (yeah, really smooth…) But better late than never, and in a way this is kind of like her Morning Musume birthday (yeah, I’m just making excuses now). Now back to the description.
JunJun is one of the only two foreign members on Morning Musume (would that also include all of Hello! Project ???). I really feel she along with LinLin had it tough. For one, they both had to master a new language, adapt to a new culture away from their families, go through the difficulties of adjusting to the hardships that come from being a Momusu (learning how to; sing, dance etc), and to top it all off, also trying their best to over come and tolerate some of the hate that came from some of the racist fans. Truly a lot of hardships. It really is easy for one to not pay attention to such details, specially when some girls from outside of Japan would do anything to join Morning Musume.
Although her time in the group was short, I’d say she did make quite an impression on a lot of people. I really cannot say what the full plan was when Tsunku decided to incorporate two members from China. He kept saying things along the lines of expanding to Asia. But I wonder if he also had some other plans to go along with it? I wonder if in some way he was trying to change the image that people had of Japan out in the Mainland? Whenever I start reading about Japan, people always seem to make them out to be as racists who think of themselves as more than (or above) the rest of the people on their continent. All I have to say is that like in many countries (if not all), there will always be racists. It just seems to be a very sad truth about humans. But what people just don’t seem to understand is that just because there appears to be a large group of people who speak of hate to other countries and/or ethnicities, you should not group a whole country as if it is filled with these types of people. In many cases (if not all) the groups are actually very small, but they appear to be big because they just happen to be the loudest (in other words they are big loudmouths). It is these types of groups of people that ruin the reputation of people that can range from a small group to a whole country. I should know, there are a lot of these types of people in my home country of Mexico. A beautiful place filled with really nice people, but there always happens to be some idiot who ruins the image for everyone.
Kind of off topic again… In any case I found her to be a hard worker, who tried her best to get incorporated into the group. She also seemed to be a really funny person from what I saw on Haro!Moni (too bad it ended so soon).
Now that she has moved back to China I noticed that she has gotten far too thin. When in Morning Musume she was already thin to begin with, but looked really healthy. Now she seems so fragile. She’s also not the only one, it seems that Ogawa Makoto has also slimmed even further, and just like JunJun, she seems extremely frail. Maybe this was the reason Hello!Morning and Haro!Moni always seemed to incorporate food into the show. Like most man I do prefer a women who is in shape, but there really is a thing as too thin.
I also hear that she now has a boyfriend (one of the perks of graduating from Morning Musume). I’m happy to hear that. I think she is the first of the Platinum Era.
And so we finally have another drawing of a Morning Musume member. This time we are drawing Aika the first of the eight generation. Strangely, she is not as popular as many of the other members. I really do wonder why that is, every time I go online people just seem to spit out the same words, from my experience it just seemed that someone out there started this and it spread till it got out of hand. I do wonder what is with humans and our inability to go against the norm. In any case, what ever others have said I really do like her. Although I will admit that she isn’t my favorite.
If there is one thing that people should appreciate is her amazing perseverance while in Morning Musume, and even now while in H!P. Despite her many difficulties and weaknesses she pushes on and tries to overcome them. This quality of hers is something I hope many look up to, I know I do. This I believe is her strongest charm that many (for whatever reason) over look.
Another thing that really surprised me was that she seemed to have an interest in Mexico! My native country. Upon hearing of the news I truly was overjoyed that a member had set it’s eyes on the beautiful country that is Mexico (which sadly is trying to overcome some harsh problems at the moment, I really do hope that things get much better). And not only did she just talk about it, (information on whether she had anything to do with it, is based on my judgement, only some wishful thinking and deduction) but it seems that plans had been planned to take a concert to the soil of Mexico. They even sent a video where she and Ai Takahashi (which made it even more amazing and filled me with such joy) talked in Spanish hinting of one day going to visit the Mexican fans. The video is at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbCPH94c-xw
Sadly the fans screamed every once in a while so some of their speech was muffled (I can’t blame them though). But alas the members that I actually cared about are now gone, and even then four other members had already graduated as well. It’s not that I would have been able to go if they did happen to visit Mexico, but just the thought that they took to the time to visit my country would be a great honor.
Well it seems I got a bit off topic, in any case I really do hope you guys enjoy it.
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