Looking back I don't think I can draw so well anymore. I used to be very good at inking hair ([example (please copy and paste the URL when you get the dead link from geocities... no offsite linking, remember?) but I grew lazier and lazier and started working less on the hair and now I can't remember how to do it properly anymore. Sure I know how, pencil here, ink here, but I've lost the touch for it.

I used to be very careful on inking clothes too, and it almost always turn out perfect and neat, either black and white or colored, the beads, lace or accessories on the clothes just look neat and undistracting, but I no longer have the patience to ink so patiently anymore.

You see, I always ink twice. One time as a sort of lineart and then after that I do the realer inking, or touchups. Like, make this line thicker... the shine on the beads... the accessories' shadows, and its important to be careful on em cos if a mistake is done than the two time inking becomes very obvious and unneat. I compared my recent casual inkings to my old inkings and the old ones are so much nicer. I find that unless its on manga paper or I'm completely inspired, I ink crap now.

That's why I like inking other people's pics. Its because the pencils are not mine, so I take extra care for it, to please my friend. I love it when I get to ink other people's drawings (it happens rarely, I've not much offline anime friends) but nowadays I find it hard also because I realize I need a lightbox.

I kinda miss the days when I know nothing at all about manga art. I was so much better then. When I didn't know anything about screentones I painstakingly drew a million dots on the girls' clothes when I was 12. I didn't know anything about inking but I figured I should use inks over my pencilled mangas to protect them, and so I developed inking by my own. I didn't know about the correct paper size for drawing manga so I used half a sheet of A4 paper and went nuts on details. When I didn't know anything about Gpens I have to ink more than twice to get the right texture to the pic. I didn't know how about art markers so I wondered how the hell did those mangakas are able to color so neatly and flatly with watercolors. I didn't know about lightboxes so every original artwork is only existing one on the planet so I took extra care on coloring and everything.

Now I just laze around..... ah no need for details, screentones can handle that. Inking more than twice? What are Gpens for? Draw on a biggg piece of manga paper! Those mangakas use markers, they're not that good actually. Go ahead and scribble on the original, I can always make another copy with the lightbox.

T_T

Here I compiled a list of my all time fav pics I've ever drawn. ..There's not many. T_T Its these pics that I'll run into my house to save even if its burning. ....I think. ...Maybe. ...Its not like I have time to sort through my files... er..
--->http://oocities.com/windterritory/luciolehoney.jpg (eventhough I wish I did better on the eyes, I don't think I can draw anything so powerful anymore.)
--->http://oocities.com/windterritory/actasit.jpg
--->http://oocities.com/windterritory/cianabrown.jpg (I DON'T know why this is in the list. The colors are bland, the pose boring, but the pic managed to have such charisma that it surpasses in all my other painting's popularity.)
--->http://oocities.com/windterritory/actapostersite.jpg (of course. Getting it back from the contest is the best thing that ever happened to me.)
--->http://oocities.com/windterritory/gempaklightshadow.jpg (despite its mistakes, it is *still* the first Luciole punkgirl pic)

There's one more... but I can't scan it up. lol.

©Luciole Loong