Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Book review: How To Draw Manga Chibis & Cute Characters

Got this from my favourite book store, Kinokuniya. I thought I would have some fun drawing chibis so this book looked good.

Chibi characters (the name is derived from an abbreviation of Child Body, or CB for short, but since there is no "C" character in Japanese, it is pronounced as "chi") typically have shorter proportions than normal manga characters. They are quite distinctive in appearance with their huge eyes and squished fingers and toes (which sometimes end up looking more like little nubs).

The book covers many topics such as proportions, clothing, food, props and critters. It also includes some templates at the back which you can copy to practice. 

There are lots of step by step pics to help you along the way and even comparisons of styles so you can get a feel for what you can try out.

I totally need to practice my drawing some more - like anything,  it always looks easier when someone else does it :p

I had a go drawing some eyes using pencil - an ok first go but not that fantastic.  There's so many things I want to try and draw now! I highly recommend this book. I think my brain struggled a bit at first cause it wanted to draw a normally proportioned eye but as long as you follow the book you'll get there.

Has anyone else got this book? I'd love to know what you think in the comments below.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

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SMASH! 2013 Anime and Manga Convention (Part 5)

Time for the last lot of pics from Smash! 2013's Cosplay competition - Let us know if we've missed any credits :) There were so many great costumes this year! Congratulations to all the winners and well done to everyone that cosplayed!
If you missed the previous parts to this series of pics, here are the links:

Smash! 2013 Part 1
Smash! 2013 Part 2
Smash! 2013 Part 3
Smash! 2013 Part 4

Fate Prototype




Avaloid

Tyki Mikk cosplaying D.Gray man

Katherine Stapleton : Zelda TLOZ: Skyward Sword


Colleen Lawrence cosplaying as Kiki : Kiki's Delivery Service

Yui Matsuzawa cosplaying 13th generation Maeda AKB0048


Characters from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Lauren Howard smith cosplaying as Orion Amnesia


csc-love

csc-love

Judging Panel

special guest: Haruko Momoi

special guest: Masakazu Mori

 special guest: Matsubara Hidenori
Fire Emblem : Awakening

akb0048

csc-love

The End :D

What did you think of Smash! 2013? What was your fave cosplay?  Let us know in the comments ^_^

Cheap Kigurumi/Onesies in Sydney

It seems that onesies (or kigurumi) have taken Sydney by storm and they are everywhere online and every shopping centre has someone selling them. But where can you get it cheaper? I'll tell you.

Paddy's Markets.

Forget about paying $50-$90 for something you will probably only wear at home or to parties/conventions (if you're that type of person). There are HEAPS of stalls in Chinatown's Paddy's Markets that look like this one:



Can you see the price in the pic? $25! Time to stock up on some Christmas presents... :P You won't have any trouble finding them in Paddy's - I saw at least 5 stalls selling them, spread throughout the markets.

Paddy's Markets Trading Hours
Wednesday 9:00am - 5:00pm
Thursday 9:00am - 5:00pm
Friday 9:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday 9:00am - 5:00pm
Public Holiday
Mondays
9:00am - 5:00pm



Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Fairy Drops Waterproof Mascara Review


Time to review my latest beauty purchase - Fairy Drops Mascara. Gotta love the packaging on this Japanese mascara - so blingy and girly. 

I got the waterproof type since my lashes often touch my face when I blink, so normal types tend to rub off faster and give me panda-eyes.



As you can see, the brush is quite unusual - it's curved and the bristles are cut in a bulb shape. The product doesn't have any weird smell (which is great) and the bottle is easy to open. The rose foil packaging is so pretty.



For someone like me that has very short eyelashes, it makes a difference using Fairy Drops Mascara. It seems to have little fibres in it that cling to your lashes to add length and a bit of volume. This is great if you have tiny lower lashes that are hard to put mascara on too - Use the tip of the brush to apply to lower lashes.

This mascara also holds curl really well - be sure to curl your lashed before applying your mascara! (A must for monolid eyes)


After a whole day of wearing it the lashes seemed to stay almost entirely un-smudged. Pretty good mascara for small monolid asian eyes - using it seems to open up your eyes more and make you look more awake. Two thumbs up!



Friday, September 20, 2013

SMASH! 2013 Anime and Manga Convention incl. Competition pics (Part 4)

Hey folks, here's the next installment of our coverage of Smash! If you've just found this post, be sure to check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 too!

Let's continue with Part 4 !!! In the last post we were ankle deep in the cosplay competition. Let's see some more action from the comp! 


Sword Online character Asuna Yuuki

 More of the group called love, as they perform a dance routine :P
T&B- Lunatic
Panty & Stockings


One Piece group cosplay (host gets sidetracked lol)

Porco Rosso - sadly didn't do a flip
More crazyness as boa cosplayer gets help off stage hehe :)
Fairy Tail- Erza Scarlet (Lighting Empress armor)

Well what do you think so far? Have you got a favourite yet? There's still more pics to come so stay tuned.


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

SMASH! 2013 Anime and Manga Convention incl. Competition pics (Part 3)

Hey there guys - here are more pics from SMASH! 2013 for you to enjoy as well as some news we uncovered during the day  :) In cased you missed our previous posts, be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our coverage!

More pics after the jump!