Story: "Someone"

Written By: WrittenDusk                                                                                                                             

On a normal everyday evening, under the clear spring sky, a young salaryman in his mid-twenties makes his way up a slope within the city. Dressed in a simple suit and tie, with a briefcase in his right, he struggles with his climb up the slope.

Salaryman: Argh. This damn slope is getting harder to climb everyday. I swear it must be growing, or something. Huff, huff. I don't remember it being this steep when I first moved here.

The salaryman takes a break holding his knees, halfway up the slope. People looks at him weirdly as they breeze past him walking up the slope. After a few moment he continues his climb.

Salaryman: Huff..huff..huff. Just a few more steps till the top.

He takes a step forward, but it looks as if he miss the ground and steps on air instead. His head falls straight towards the ground.

Salaryman: Huh? Why’s the ground so clo… (Thud).

The salaryman faints on the slope.

2016: Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂!

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Happy Chinese New Year!  新年快樂!

恭喜發財! 祝大家身體健康 , 萬事胜意.

I wish everyone great health, prosperity, and joy; that everything you do this year would exceed expectations.

The meanings of the words to the left roughly translates to: "When flowers bloom, riches come", "Good things comes in twos".
                                                                                                                                                     


This is the first Chinese New Year drawing I've posted here, hopefully I could kept this up like I do with Christmas drawings.

Honestly this drawing started off a bit uninspired, but I slowly got more inspired as I continued working on it. There are actually some Feng shui elements in it, haha.

The colours and patterns on the clothing were the hardest portion of the drawing. Trying to mimic the clothing I see in Chinese period dramas needed more thought than I expected. Firstly, I found that patterns needed to be coloured only slightly different from the main fabric colour. This barely visible colouring variation creates an illusion effect that parts of the clothes is brighter than other parts; kind of mimicking the effects of silk embroidery. Secondly, since I was only using one shape for the patterning, varying the shape's size looks much better than just using the same size throughout. I wanted to cheat with just one size, but it just didn't cut it, haha. Also I felt that, after looking up more examples, a more mechanical patterning looks better and is more accurate. Mechanical meaning a set patterning order for example: 1100110011; as opposed to a more random patterning.

The second hardest part was the tree in the back. Its a plum tree by the way. I took a good amount of effort to mimic the traditional Chinese brush painting, but not nearly as much trial and error was needed compared to the patterning.

Concept: Story Concept Art

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Despite the pen name I picked, I actually don't do much writing at all, haha. But that doesn't mean I don't have stories I want to write. I have something planned. Hopefully I'll post some writing again soon.

This drawing is based on a really recent story idea that I was inspired with when I listened to a music box rendition of the song "Hitori Omou" by Renka; the opening theme of the upcoming Fire Emblem game "Fire Emblem Fates", or in Japan "Fire Emblem If". Uploaded on youtube by R3 Music Box - English. (The link will be down below for those interested.)

After thinking about the story idea for a while, I just couldn't help but want to try and capture the feeling that the story in my mind had. As a result I drew this rough sketch. I'm pretty happy with it. 

Honestly it's about 80% of what it really could be. From how accurate it was to my mental image to the actual technical aspects, this was not giving 100% effort. But because of that it was a much needed relaxing drawing session, haha. There is one thing that I am quite proud of in spite of the lack of effort. It was the environmental atmosphere I created for the girl on the left. It's the first time I succeeded in doing something so different with the background. (Now that I looked at it again, the girl looks like she was unconsciously inspired by the new Fire Emblem heroine, haha.)

Youtube Video: if ~Hitori Omou~ /Renka [Music Box] (Nintendo 3DS "Fire Emblem if" Theme Song)

2015: Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Drawn By: WrittenDusk

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

It seems like I still just can't get my timing right, but at the very least I didn't post this on Christmas Day.

My approach for this year's Christmas drawing is a little different. Playing Dragon Quest 4 and 5 lately gave me a new direction for inspirations, Dragon Quest 5 especially. The game's story gives off a very genuine, simple, and relatable feeling that makes it a joy to play. 

In my attempt to capture that spirit and feeling I created this drawing. I couldn't achieve the same feeling as I did playing the games, like usual, but I was able to capture a certain level of simplicity, I think, haha.

Sketch: Reflection Under the Spotlight

 Drawn By: WrittenDusk

A quick random sketch. Ended up going for a hatched style while drawing and decided to colour it afterwards; in an attempt to mimic the style in those epic sketch-like anime moments. Though obviously it isn't the same thing at all, haha, not being an epic moment.

The drawing itself just ended up becoming a boxing/martial arts piece because it was what the pose looked like. 

Definitively one of the messier drawings (more or less intentionally) that I've posted, but it looks better than expected, so why not! Haha!

Concept: Girl Laughing

Drawn By: WrittenDusk 

A character design. Always wanted to draw an action like this and I finally did it! Still not good enough to get proportions right fast without program assistance though.

Now all that's left is the background. . .(T-T) 

UPDATE: Had my friend look at my drawing and it appears to have more problems than I realized (T-T). I'm planning to redo this later and hopefully post it along with a proper background. Haha.

Artwork: Mid-Autumn Moon

Drawn By: WrittenDusk 

I drew this to commemorate the rare occurrence of both a Super-Moon and Lunar Eclipse this Mid-Autumn Festival. 

My initial direction was to make a quick drawing in a flat colour style, kind of trying to mimic ancient drawings in colouring(?), as shown in the right. I was able to finish the artwork on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, but found that flat colours didn't illustrate the feeling I wanted. It was much harder to use flat colours than I thought. As a result I found that adding light shading helped, but the drawing felt rushed, so l decide to give it more time and thought. 

The result is the left, which I feel is a big improvement from the older version. 

The extra time put into researching and learning how to draw a better stone bridge and Japanese Maple made a big difference. But to me, the change in composition made the biggest difference. I discovered that the feeling I wanted actually came from the girl. So by pulling everything closer, I was able to show more detail and put the girl into focus; making it less empty and more expressive.

One thing l wished I could have in the new one from the old are the clouds around the moon. The new one is still good, but the old one is just better.