I promise that someday I will upload something that is not a creepy hug pillow.

I got hired by Funimation.












OK HAHA I can't pretend that's no big deal. Working in the anime industry MAY be my lifelong dream, so I am pretty ecstatic.

I know it sounds SUPER LAME to say that anime and hopeless hikikomori otakudom kept me from truly going off the deep end, but I want to give back to the industry, especially given the bit of trouble the anime's going through nowadays. Also doesn't hurt that Funimation's probably the leader in innovation when it comes to adapting business models to the market for the North American industry www.

So, after a long chain of events, I am out of a job and have no money Originally, I was hoping to make it to Otakon as a non-artist tourist, but being unemployed makes that rather difficult.

This is probably unlikely, but does anyone out there have a table they'd be willing to split? I realize that tabling all con could not only pay for my trip, but actually give me some spending money.  (I'm thinking to bus it down cheaply and freeload in a friend's hotel room or something, haha. No shame in sleeping in hotel lobbies either~) Otakon does occasionally have at-con tables, but the location is pretty bad.

Let me know! As usual, I'm totally willing to pay my fair share (and even more, if you like) and tablesit when you're away~

I've set up an Etsy shop!  I'm currently selling 2D originals or prints of some of my best or most popular work, plus the Touhou MacBook decal, but expect additions, including jewelry, pins, and trinkets.  Everything is priced at my standard con rate after shipping, with a slight discount on multiple orders.

My shop home: [link]

Ciel Phantomhive print: [link]
Roy Mustang on Rapidash print: [link]
Touhou/Hakurei Reimu Macbook/iPad decal: [link]

HIII GUYSSS!!

So I've been a little quiet recently because my company's investors couldn't afford to pay for me, resulting in me losing my first job after three short weeks (GAH).

In the meantime, I've been trying to make ends meet by working with ~jtlan on an original iPhone game!  We're hoping to release in September.

The game is called DOWNWARDS, and it's a puzzle platformer with a little twist-- you can rotate your iPhone to change the gravity of the levels, which helps solve the puzzles.  The story is that your iPhone got hacked by a (cute) virus, and you play as an antivirus robot who has to navigate the phone to find (AND DESTROY) the virus.

If you're into iPhone games (or even if you're not), please check it out!  We've sent out a first press release already and have a couple ways to follow the game, which include screenshots, description, and will later have trailers (and possibly contests):

Website: [link]
Facebook: [link]
Twitter: @DOWNWARDSgame

I'm working on the trailer now and will probably release it some time in the coming week or two.  

(ALSO: If you have a commission from me, sorry-- I'm working on it!! ~EnzanEXE, I'm inking it now >.>; Apologies!!)

EDIT:: Please note a slight change in the pay policy; if this changes things for you, let me know.

Lately I've been having trouble drawing; I want to practice, but I don't have any ideas, so I end up just doodling the same kind of cute girls and hot boys as normal...

I need some ideas and practice, so I'm going to do a weird thing and open commission requests, for as little as one cent.  I haven't had much luck with this in the past, but hopefully people have cool things they'd like to see drawn :3

It's going to work a little weird, but if you're interested in commissioning me, note me or reply below~ Rules are following:
1) Requests will not be free; instead, I'm adopting the Pay What You Can model a la RadioHead and Panera's awesome Panera Cares cafes.  I'm going to ask for an up-front donation (via PayPal) of at least a cent to take a request; when it's done, you can feel free to donate/tip more depending on how much you can and based on your perceived quality of the piece.  (I would like to point out that this is pay what you can, not pay what you want, so while a) the amount is essentially up to you and b) I understand that you may be a broke college student, please be reasonable ^^ Also, I'm doing this as a bit of an experiment and will be posting all the results, in this journal.)
2) I will consider requests for higher complexity works (e.g. with color, backgrounds, cool poses, etc), but may simplify or even complex-ify as I like.  I do want to use these as a chance to challenge myself, so I will hopefully err on the complex side.
3) As usual, no super violent or porny stuff   I have the right to turn down any request if I just don't want to do it (so no furries, sorry).

Let me know if this sounds like something you'd be interested in!  Even if you're not sure about it, feel free to ask me questions or pitch a request.

This is kind of an unconventional way to do it, but let's see how this pans out.

So, turns out I actually do have a table at AnimeBoston this year!  I'll sharing with Messrs. and , at table 99 on Friday & Saturday, and table 85 on Sunday. [link] Come say hi!!

I'm also going to be on three, possibly four panels, as follows:
Doujinshi: Tips & Tricks (Friday, 12PM, Panel 306)
Fanthropologies: Participation in Anime Fandom (Friday, 1PM, Panel 306) <--these are back-to-back!
Experts of Fan Controversy (Friday, 6PM, Panel 107)
Panel of the Three Kingdoms (Sunday, 1:30PM, Panel 309)

If you come, you will likely hear me talk a lot about fanart, transformative works, copyright and IP, and the fansub debate.

Also, I made a vow to myself that I would table-sit for no longer than half of my time at the con, so I'll be running a slightly limited stock (no pins, for example), but you should be able to find me eventually? Hahaha.

Woooooo AnimeBoston!

Hey~

AnimeNewsNetwork's doing an art contest for Eden of the East (AKA BEST ANIME EVER), and I'm selfishly trying to win the (awesome) series on Blu-Ray and a bunch of memorabilia (T SHIRT AND POSTER AAAH)!  If you have a moment, please vote for my entry here: [link] (entry 59)-- or just go ahead and vote for whatever one you think is best-- I'll admit that that is probably not mine, so hey, credit where credit is due =/.

But if you do vote for mine, thanks =w=;;

I think my art is getting worse...

I was sketching and inking today, and I had absolutely no control over the lines-- all shaky and way too thick, and straying way too far from the sketch.  I think that's been going on quite a bit recently-- I can't draw those light, delicate lines anymore, and I can't really pull off continuous curves with a single stroke.

And from that Eden pic, I realized that I've pretty much lost the ability to paint in Photoshop.

TT_TT

I guess it's the effect of going on hiatus so much... OK, I guess I should pump up the energy and try harder... unless my hand is failing due to fatigue?!

This sucks!

I'm sure anyone reading this has heard more than enough about this, but wow, what a shocker.  Two years ago, an anime came out called Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, based on the prediction that there was a 70% chance that an 8.0 earthquake would affect Tokyo within the next 30 years.

It's pretty chilling that it's happened already.  (By the way, that anime is absolutely beautiful.)

I'm quite pleasantly shocked at all of the outpouring of support for the victims of the quake.  It seems like it's been a lot more than the disasters in China or Southeast Asia from a couple years ago.  I sort of wonder if it's because of the Japanophilia on deviantART, but compassion is compassion, even if it comes from bias.  The idea of seeing a lot of young people with the victims on their minds is really encouraging; we're the ones who are going to carry this country and world forward, so it looks like a good start.

I've always vowed that I would avoid places with earthquakes...

Anyway, to make this post somewhat more productive: if you're like me and want to donate but can only use PayPal, there's a relief fund for that at [link]  Apparently services that accept PayPal are somewhat rare... I know other people are in my boat and can't use a credit card (since it'd show up on the statement; my parents see it).  I wanted to donate to Red Cross because I heard they have the best chance of getting 100% of your money to the right place, but this one has an 85% rate, which I think is decent (?).

If someone knows of another service with a higher rate that also accepts PayPal, please share :3
__

One thing that has disappointed me about the response is how many people insist on using an international disaster as an excuse to make disparaging comments about humanity or to stir controversy about religion.  Seriously, I am SO not a religious person, but regardless of whether someone disagrees with you about the efficacy of something like prayer (which, admittedly, I don't really believe in either), provoking an argument and telling people that "prayer is a waste of effort" when people are just trying to express sympathy or spread awareness is extremely unproductive to the situation.  Let's spread positivity, not negativity.  This is not the time for that.

At the very least, having compassion for others builds one's own character and, amassed over a large number of people, makes the world a better place.  Using a tragedy to put others down for having a different worldview than you, just to feel like a smarter person, may have the chance of not hurting, but it certainly doesn't help.

Back from Otakon!  It was a blast~  This was my first Otakon, and I was very surprised by the high level of it-- the artists seemed on a much higher general skill level than I'm used to at cons, and a lot of the programming had a great academic bent.  I hope I can go next year.

As a lot of y'all know, I was there doing research-- got a ton of great interviews with some faaaaaabulously talented artists who had really interesting things to say about their craft.  Also went around asking complete strangers what they thought about fanart; that was kind of daunting and I think I got a terrible sample because I asked people wandering the alley.  It's hard to step up and just ask random people at the con though... mada mada da ne.

One thing I experienced there really hit close to home on the whole point of my thesis.  I entered a few pieces into the Art Show; I knew that Otakon had been taking steps to limit mass production and fanart in the Alley, so I kind of assumed that most of the Show would be originals and traditional art.  I was totally wrong!  Tons of the really popular artists had these huuuuuuge poster prints, often in these gorgeous frames, starting at a $5 minimum bid (that would obviously make it up to multiple hundreds of dollars in the end.  A lot of it was really popular fanart.  It felt like a real galley, and the level of the Art Show was leaps and bounds higher than any other I've ever seen.  There was no way I could be competitive and it made me contemplate taking up this strategy of also printing huge posters and framing, but that raises some really interesting questions.

These artists can clearly pull off this strategy because they do this almost for a living and can garner huge economies of scale.  But at that point, when fans are paying top dollar for fanart in the Show instead of the Dealer Room, are the artists becoming too exploitative and are the companies starting to lose out?  And doesn't this environment make it nearly impossible for a newbie amateur fan to get his or her work out (who's going to look at the simplistic Prismacolor sketches that starts at $20 because it took the guy 6 hours to make, next to a huge full-color poster starting at $5)?  If fanart is a way to channel passion for the original property, why does it smell so much like business-- almost like the bootleg business?  It's a gray question that normally I'd have sided with the fanartists on, being a fanartist myself, but as I felt the increasing urge to, you know, level up my Art Show-fu and make expensive products with the most marketable designs, I couldn't help but wonder if this pressure was healthy at all.

In the end, one of my pieces sold for $15-- and the frame cost $10.  I didn't think that was fair to me, but what can you do if a huge, full-color print starts at $5?  But did I even deserve to be disappointed? I WILL probably enter more art shows and completely change my strategy, but I have experience in these kinds of things; I'm not a total newbie.  I wonder if that's just adding to a problem?  Does it matter?

ANYWAY still looking for fanartists-- or fanart fans! or anti-fanart anti-fans! (double negative?!) to interview about this topic.  If you even just have a response to the questions I pose above, I'd love to be able to incorporate them, if you're OK with that.

As you may or may not be aware, I am currently working on my senior thesis at MIT-- [b]on anime fanartists, their community, and the issues they face.[/b]  "What?!" you say, "A college thesis on animu fanartz?!  Ludicrous! Scandalous!"  But true!  There's been a lot of academic study on fanfiction (especially of Star Trek) in media studies, but I feel that anime fanartists have their own very special set of circumstances that are really interesting and unique.

Part of my thesis obviously involves talking to said fanartists, and as such, I am seeking anime fanartists on deviantART (or those who would be at Otakon to do this in person) who wouldn't mind being interviewed about their craft.  Whether your fanart is your most beloved pasttime or it's just something you do in a vast sea of other pursuits, I'm interested in what I can learn from you.

I generally conduct interviews in person or over Skype, although IM and e-mail as possible as well.  I can make interviews long or short depending on your availability-- most of my orals ones have run for an hour to ninety minutes, but a much-abridged 15 minutes is definitely possible too.  I can also credit or leave identities anonymous/pseudonymous as you prefer.

If you think you'd be interested in helping a fellow f'artist out and giving your perspective on fanart, it would be hugely appreciated!  You can contact me by a dA note or by emailing jennifu@mit.edu.

Thanks!!

I'm going to be at FanimeCon 2010 tomorrow (today?)!  It's my first real out-of-state con.  I know it's kind of a stretch, but if anyone's going, we should meet up =w=

I don't actually know if I have a table yet AHAHAHA because things are really disorganized.  Supposedly there's an Art Show?  In which case, I'll be putting quite a few originals and special editions of my work in.  If I CAN get a table, I'll either be sharing with someone else or grabbing one on Saturday afternoon, so look out for it >>;;;  I'll be selling prints, posters, pins, and magnets, and I'll be doing commissions of course~  I have some pretty interesting new things-- uchiwa commissions and postcard commissions-- so hopefully things will pan out nicely.

Anyway! I have a lot of new projects that I've been working on for the con (so I really hope I can actually showcase it...), and I've also been spicing up some of my originals.  Here are some of the things I finished:

Crafts!
Hatsune Miku/Ciel Phantomhive clock (with feather hands!) - Vocaloid/Kuroshitsuji: [link]
Magnet Vocaloid headphones: [link] [link] [link] [link]

Limited Edition Prints!
Goth Sailor Moon (framed): [link]
Coquettish Ciel Phantomhive - Kuroshitsuji (framed): [link]

Originals!
VN02 Miku - Vocaloid (framed): [link]
Hatsune Miku - Vocaloid (matted): [link]
Akiyama Mio - K-On! (matted): [link]
Senjougahara Hiitagi - Bakemonogatari (framed): [link]
From Russia with Love - Axis Powers Hetalia (matted): [link]
Maid Latte - Kaichou wa Maid-sama! (matted): [link]
Haruhiko and Kyonko - Genderbender Haruhi (matted): [link]

See you there?

AnimeBoston has come and gone!  We had a great time and, as usual, I bought waaaay too much stuff.

MEDLEY :: A Vocaloid Doujinshi
We have a lot of leftover copies of Medley, our Vocaloid doujinshi!  If you haven't read it, you can check out my full short story starting at [link] ; *lushan has a preview of her badass short "Legend of Miku" on her devART at [link] , and there's a lot of other goodies in the book, including ~Rei-Yuriko's short, more illustrations, and tons of authors' notes!

Title: Medley
Cover Image: [link]
Authors: , , ,
Fandom: Vocaloid
Characters: Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, Megurine Luka, Kaito, Meiko, Kamui Gakupo, Gumi, SFA2-Miki, Akita Neru, Kasane Teto, Yowane Haku, and more...
Pages: 45 with color cover
Rating: PG (some violence)

If you weren't able to pick up a copy at AniBos, I'm selling additional copies here online  for $15, which includes free shipping to North America (international shipping determined on a case-by-case basis).  I accept concealed cash, check, and PayPal (fu.sakugyoku@gmail.com).  There's a discount if I can just give it to you in person, of course! It's a little higher than my price for the Hetalia doujinshi ($12), but the Vocaloid book is also about twice as long and is better bound, so I think it's justified (speaking of which, I still have copies of the Hetalia doujinshi for sale!).

Through a wonderful stroke of luck, my friends and I were able to secure an Artists' Alley table at  AnimeBoston 2010 next week, April 2-4!  If you're going, come say hi!  We're at table 133BC, map at [link]

, , and I started up a doujinshi circle called IHTFP ("I Have Three Friends Productions," using the same acronym familiar to any MIT student as "I Have Truly Found Paradise," or, more commonly, "I Hate This Fucking Place").  We'll be selling prints, buttons, bookmarks, and...

OUR SEKRIT PROJECT, NOW REVEALED!

For the past month, we've been hard at work drawing a Vocaloid doujinshi called "Medley."   is our esteemed Editor-san, and the rest of us are doing unrelated short stories.  Mine is a 16-page comic called "Vocabloid," about idol warfare amongst fame-hungry Vocaloid girls.

Check it out at [link] !!  First six pages are up as of now, and more will be added soon.

And if you're at the con, come say hi!  I'm also running a panel on Doraemon on Friday at 11AM (quite early), so if you have an interest in culturally significant little kids' anime that no one cares about in the US, swing by

In short, I'm back after a four month hiatus, if anyone noticed.  (And on the 5th anniversary of my devART!  I started it on Christmas Eve when I was 15, I MEAN UM 11 because I is still a youthful 16 year old.)  I've kind of pulled out of my artist's block and I'm certainly drawing more again.  Sorry for not really looking at your deviations and journals and stuff, f-list.

I think I've finally come to terms with giving up my pipe dreams.  I stopped planning a webcomic plunnie like I've been doing the past year and a half; I don't think I can pull it off.  Maybe I'll write another doujinshi though (I have a project, but right now it's a sekrit).  I've gotten back into the con mentality, which is a bit worrisome to me, but I have a lot of projects I'm thinking of doing that are actually fun; I'm excited to work on them.  Hopefully it lasts.

To get back into things, I'm also going to take free requests; I'd like to get some more practice in and to have a nice healthy backlog of projects.  I won't guarantee anything-- which is why it's free-- but if you'd like to throw me a project, I'll be happy to consider it; just comment or note.

-mina

I just realized that I haven't really drawn anything this entire summer, nothing new since the end of school in May.  I'm starting to feel really disinterested in drawing lately; it just seems like a chore to me rather than something I do to chill out and have fun.

I don't know, I think these last couple of years, I've just been drawing for practice to get better or for the next con.  I had fun with it, but I feel like I've been into it less and less.  To some extent, I'm pretty sure it has to do with finally realizing that this is never something I'll be able to do for real, and that all of my wild pipe dreams of going pro and becoming a mangaka are just that.  It's like, I've been trying to improve for so long, but if I don't have a goal, what is it for?  And I just haven't had results, and it's really frustrating.  I always hear pros suggest that you should make yourself to draw to get better, but it's burned me out.  I guess I can't cut it anyway.

I know there's the whole doing-it-for-fun thing, but I guess I'm just going through a quarter-life crisis and getting depressed that I'll probably end up working some excruciatingly stressful and painfully unfulfilling job (which is pretty much what I spent my summer doing), and then sitting on the couch watching TV every night (like my parents) because I'm too tired to do anything else.  Adolescence sucks.

Anyway, so that's just to explain why I haven't updated in a while and why I kind of don't plan to for a while.  I'm feeling a little emo about this whole thing.

I wasn't aware that there was such a fuss about devART's share function, but seeing that there's really a huge controversy, I'd just like to throw my two cents at it.



I think most people who are opposed to it do NOT understand the implications of the function.  Currently, it is extremely easy to steal art off of deviantART-- you have a flipping jpg or other such image out there in the open already!  A simple right click, Download, or even printscreen can allow anyone to take the pic, claim it as their own, or even sell it.

Share LINKS to your original deviation, with your name and its origin on deviantART attached.  If someone plans to use this function to steal, the best he or she can do is pretend that they own your deviantART, which is easy enough to combat.  Right-click stealing is made no more or less accessible.  Yes, Share makes propogation of your image on the information superhighway an easy single-click (and might increase your views or pagecount, oh heavens no), but that single-click prevents some lazier or less-inclined people from innocently saving your art, forgetting the origin, and posting it without crediting you.  I cannot for an instant understand why an easy route to avoid accidental art theft is being villainized.

As for my opinion on art theft, it still stands-- as long as someone doesn't claim it or profit from it, I see no harm in personal use.  It's free exposure.  Furthermore, I cannot for the life of me fathom how animu fanartists can complain about people posting their pics on an imageboard without claiming to have drawn it; fan art is inherently art theft, pure-and-simple copyright violation that not only uses another person's characters without consent, but often profits from it.  That's a far cry from just going on a forum and saying "Look, isn't this picture pretty?"  Why do people whine about making icons from fanart while considering making icons of official art A-OK?  The latter is much worse copyright violation because it often infringes on multiple parties' rights; let's just all agree to break IP laws together in peace and happiness.

Here's a story, in fact: apparently, someone posted my Nyoro~n Americha-san page [link] on 4chan without my consent.  Yes, getting a name and linkback would obviously have been nice, but I'm glad that more people get to see my art; in fact, someone at a con spotted it, recognized it from 4chan, and bought it and one of my doujinshi, so I'm certainly not going to complain.  So thank you, 4chan poster person whoever you are, I made $20 because of you.  If I ever meet you, I'll treat you to lunch.

ALLIED POWERS HEROICA doujinshi
My Axis Powers Hetalia doujin is now available in its second-run print!

[link]

Missed checking it out at AnimeBoston or A-Kon?  I'm selling it online now for $12, including free shipping to North America.  Order either via commenting on this entry, Note, or e-mail (fu.sakugyoku@gmail.com). I accept concealed cash, check, or PayPal (also to fu.sakugyoku@gmail.com).

Characters: America, UK, France, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, Canada, Greece (cameo), Texas (OC)
Page count: 24 pages with color cover

Of course, all pages will be available free online on my devART (more coming soon!), although I would ask that if you enjoyed it, please consider buying it!  I spent a lot of blood, sweat, and tears on this project and now I have 20 copies of the book and would rather not hang on to them indefinitely.
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

I'll be attending both AnimeBoston (May 22-24) and A-Kon (May 29-31), right after exam week...!  Getting a table at both, so if you're going, come say hi~

The big thing for me this year is my first doujinshi, Allied Powers Heroica.  I hope people enjoy it!  I put a lot of time into it while I should have been studying for exams orz
$12, discounted with purchase of prints.  Will be sold at the con or online (free shipping in the US), note me if you're interested.
Current pages (more to be added soon!)
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]

I'm running the Detective Conan panel at AnimeBoston.  It's going to cover a pretty wide range of topics, ranging from demographics to cultural importance to fan speculation to crossovers and... yeah.  Still need to finish my presentation!

My design [link] will be on the official A-Kon t-shirts~ ( =w= )  I'm kind of nervously elated about seeing people wear it...  it'll be a great 20th birthday present.  _{Might sell prints of it as well, with and without text.}

Also, of course, Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged pins~ [link] and various others.

I'm really excited!  Two cons back-to-back will be a new experience, hahaha.

Now I just have to get through exams ><