音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

きちんととセーブを行って、ようやく現実に戻った私を驚かせたのは、時計の針はもう夜10時を過ぎたことじゃなく、私は5時間ほどもアレをやっていたことだった。
「マジでしょ？！」と目を丸くしても、セーブデータ=コンピューターによる時間計りは嘘をつけません。

まあええや、週末だから見逃してやるやで～
と、犬童警部のような関西弁を真似をしてて自分に言い訳をする。

↑ という訳で、「Steins;Gate」を買ったばかりとはいえ、最近の私は完全に「流行り神」にハマっている。

"People fear because they don't understand." The words from Shimizu Takashi's "Marebito" engraved in my mind. In fact, that film itself to me is more of a "egui type" rather than a Juon-ish horror so I didn't like it at all -- Thanks to that, I didn't want to buy tomato for a short while after watching it (I though I was resistant to that kind of things though).
But I liked that quote, as it did convince me.

I'm a fan of horror games, but I'm clear that I'm not fearless. Some people around me don't get the point, insisting a game should be for relax. I give up describing that indeed I seek for the kind of thrill and thus like this genre. Of course, I never want to put myself into the same situation in the real life. I might be a zombie already if the Raccoon incident really occurs. Be honest to myself, I sometimes still get afraid to be in the dark, unless I'm absolutely sure there's no any suspicious things. Nonetheless, I'm not the type who can't differentiate between the reality and the made-up.
"If gods or spirits or fairies or ghosts really exist, I'd be happy to have a look." Like people who believe such, I'm of the other group. Everything can be explained, from the formation of the universe to the mechanism of human's mind, as well as supernatural. We call that supernatural is because at the current point, there's no other valid deduction -- these mysterious terms are merely temporary placeholders.

Researchers are amazing, regardless the field of interest. The the conception of time, the development of a fertilised egg, or the sensation of carnivorous plants... a few days ago I was also surprised by how beautifully the 9 segments of a lemon was distributed. Such are definitely so much more challenging than giving a lecture in computer programming. It's better to be an outsider while trying to understand something. Since there is no way to jump out of the universe, no wonder mysterious or occult routes are one of the favoured choices.

Any way, I'm bad at describing how my mind works and turn it into words, I'm also not patient to read classic volumes from our great ancients -- Essentially I mean I don't know what I've been writing!! I simply like to let my thoughts expand, and suddenly return to the real world I belong to.

-- Thinking is fun, chasing and printing out my brain wave aren't!

↑ Almost a tea corner. Hope they are better than those I tried last time.

↑ Before the storm, a serene blend of blue, green and white.

Over the past 3 weeks there had been quite a lot of cloudy or rainy days, superb! -- While sometimes it did interrupt my walking-home plan. Like yesterday, when I was of ~1/3 to finish the route, the downpour arrived and thus marked a full stop. Apparently the umbrella won't make much help, so I changed my mind as I was fortunately near a sheltered bus stop. The fun point was, I took a bus heading to the train station, which was in the opposite to home, and there, I took another bus going back home. -- Considering yesterday's situation, even though it might be more time saving to go across the street and get in the bus directly heading home, that bus stop doesn't have a shelter.

By the time when I got off from the bus, which was ~15(?) minutes after, the downpour had transformed into a sunshower, with lots of clouds in the sky.

↑ I meant there was no chance to see a rainbow, but I caught it today!
However, it only lasted for a few minutes, so short that I couldn't find time to take a closer shot.

↓ and the parking area looked like a lake.

Glad I kept that moment!

For some reason, I was led to the amazon page for "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni -Sui-", and eventually knew its maker company broke last year, so the digital copy was nowhere to buy.
Still, after knowing it's fully voiced by the same casts in as the anime, I really, really wanted it. Thankfully they are available in other regions, by changing the suffix "co.jp" to either ".com" or ".ca", and the last copy, which was what I've ordered, was actually cheaper than the JPY price (even including the EMS shipping fee).

But, why not PS3 version?

Simply because I don't want to scare anyone else except myself during playing. -- I remember clearly how much I was scared after watching the first loop in anime season 1. ^^;
I've changed my mind. Reading too much text from a small screen isn't of my favourite -- and it's even cheaper than the PSV version. Others should be at their own risk to approach me when I play the game. xD

- I wish the game has Kenji Kawai's soundtracks, yet it's of course impossible.
- Related items showed its movie products. To me, voice cast >> real actors. (・ω・)

- Rainy days are great, and wish the summer can go away quick (here we don't have higurashi -- or any kind of cicada -- though).
- Haruka's "un secret" is great too!
- そして我が娘の十才の誕生日は極平和に過ぎてしまいました →　肩がやられてどうしょうもないよね ← ｲｲﾜｹ(；´∀｀)

I did make a great progress, that I finished the newest artwork in only 2 months (as the previous one took 5 months)! xD
So as usual, today it's mainly about my work memories on this piece~

Title: 三日月の彩語り
Read as "Mikaduki no Ayagatari", literally means "Harmonic Whisper In A Crescent Night".
and I clarify it's never an on-purpose borrow from "katana-gatari"!

Shikata Akiko's orgel album "ato no matsuri" was released in the end of last year, including rearrangements plus two new tracks: "tsukikage ni shizumu" and "kakurenbo". Both are pretty. But when the very first track flowed out, my soul was immediately sucked into her grotesquely fantastic world of wokashi. So orient! I loved the melody -- although soon I sadly knew half was written with 7 evil sharps... ~_~
Near the end of the drafting stage, I was already trying to make this a counterpoint work to "Izayoi no Yumekakushi" that I did in last year.

Outline & Base colouring & Shadowing

The initial scribble draft was shaped in early February, and I attempted to depict more details before pushing it into the digital step. Right now I still have the old drafts; they don't look good and I bet I'd never change my mind. This was exactly why I redid the entire draft in the end of May, and got it into a basic shape in early June.
The process of drawing the kimono patterns was always the most fun part!
One difference from my early plan was, I ended up with floral patterns instead of the "white bunny and black kitten" duet; thus I also didn't use either black or white for Eriko's hair ornament. A real link: while playing kancolle, Noshiro's hair style kept triggering me applying the same style to my girls!
The following shadowing was done a month later on July 2nd. Now I'm obviously getting better at this task. Especially with the hair sheen effect (thanks to CLIP STUDIO PAINT).

Once I began to pick up a new style, I found it's hard (or almost impossible) for me to go back (and of course no one wants to go back to a lower state). Finding a free-use image and do some visual tweaks won't suit my preferrence any more. Since last year I've been doing the background all on my own, except those with repeated patterns like chiyogami..
But the first question was the overall ambience. Although I drew something together with the renewed draft, I didn't feel like to follow that design (perhaps it's due to what my brain wanted was too hard for my hands).
I began a new round of background fitting, starting with a list of key words. I wished if there were a title ready to use, it might be easier for the background design. However, I'm so used to give the title at the very last, so this loop was never connected.
Solely from the inspiration music, there should be moon and water. I played around with many candidate objects, and temporarily decided to have a flower boat as the main prop. Yet I changed my mind before I even got started. The track itself is in a typical orient scale, my girls are wearing in a orient style, so the background has to gather some orient aura!
It flowed like this: moon, water, torii's 'distant silhouette, a route marked by lanterns, and sakura petals scattering around.

↓ That's it!

DELICACY ZERO?! But a draft doesn't need much love. The water looks good here because it was taken from a real photo.. xD

Also, forget the mandala I doodled last time, it was mainly for fun. I never imaged to use it as a background for THIS work.... ^^;

Then 2 weeks after, the final finished version is at the very beginning -- the art part was done on July-18, but I took a whole night to think for a good "paired" title.

I want to still add that the starry sky was based on a real spring star map~

I can't compose a fugue with gorgeous counterpoint segments, but at least I can do some resembled counterpoints visually.

First, the title readings match! Again, I spent a whole night to find a proper title!! Second, they were both inspired from Shikata Akiko's "wokashi" series, so of course the characters wear orient styled outfits.
Main hues were set to be blue and red, which are contrast enough and also easy to balance. More on colours. This one is a spring (indicated by sakura) blue sky with a small crescent. The other one is a autumn (indicated by higanbana) red sky with a huge full moon.

Is this enough to call the two counterpoints? (o・ω・o)

When I just bought CLIP STUDIO, I said I wanted to "remaster" some of my previous works, and "Izayoi" was one that I want to retouch soon. Besides, I've got a few drafts that I want to make real. Hopefully it can get even quicker -- at least back to my old pace, 1 piece per 1~2month!! I've been so late this year!

Nonetheless, tonight I got a new draft. -__- (with this face I'm actually happy..)
For the coming anniversary, inspired by Shikata Akiko's "library song"!!
I'm excited, and I really wish I can... no, I shall believe,
I WILL MAKE IT.