Add Another To The Herd

Well, add yet another Puella Magi to the growing cast stampede, this time Oriko Mikuni, the eponymous title character of the sidestory Puella Magi Oriko Magica. Let me tell you, drawing that full dress of hers was difficult for me, not for the design itself, but the messiness that preceded the finished sketch. All those pleats… Let’s just say that my trusty eraser got worn out more than usual as I tried to figure out the proper way her skirts pleats would react if I made her run. I’m not entirely sure I succeeded at it, even after the fact.

While I was sketching this, I idly thought on her design. Obviously the outfit was supposed to give a high-class or I daresay even ‘noble’ impression (which is ironic, given Oriko’s own role in her miniseries), but I couldn’t help but wonder of the practicality of it in Witch battles, especially from what we’ve seen in the anime as well as Oriko’s sister spin-off Kazumi Magica. Not only does the dress feature a full and fluffy skirt (probably braced by a crinoline too), it also has a long trailing veil on top of that.

Oh well, I suppose that, given how Oriko seems more like a Support-Type Puella Magi (unlike say Sayaka or Kyouko from Madoka Magica) and obviously wouldn’t spend time in melee, getting grabbed on all those trailing edges won’t be too much of an issue… Unless the nasty witch manages to close the distance, that is. I guess that’s where Kirika comes in.

Speaking of Kirika, she’s up next. I’ll probably draw her in an almost headlong lunge. Ah.

On to non-hobby matters… I’m a little relieved that the pain in my left foot seems to be going away. The combination of rest and the medication I’m taking probably helped in that regard. At this rate I should be able to go back to my usual afternoon jog by tomorrow, which is something I welcome to be able to do again. Unless I get rained in in the process of course, but these days unless it’s a real hard downpour I just ignore the rain and continue running anyway.

So that’s pretty much it. Oh, and not really much to share about work, aside from it being surprisingly relaxing for my usual midweek. I really hope this goes on for some time to come…

Baselining

In the end, I settled for Yuma Chitose, Kyouko’s sister-replacement from Puella Magi Oriko Magica. I was a little worried, as I don’t have experience drawing kids. Her design was surprisingly easy to emulate though, and I think this one will need little clean-up when the time for giving it the line-art treatment comes. As for scaling though… Yeah, I can see that needing some work, as Yuma due to her age is probably the shortest Puella Magi (so far).

Okay, who’s next? Well, I suppose I better get the eponymous Oriko out of the way while I can (yeah, one supplement after the other will do). I think her design will give me headaches though. Long formal-type dress, high heels… It’s a nightmare waiting to happen, really. Though drawing her holding up that long skirt of hers while sprinting will be funny, I suppose.

What? A Puella Magi a Day? Don’t count on it. I think I was only able to do this because I wasn’t as stressed out as I usually am for a Tueday. Maybe the fact that it was a holiday helped.

As for non-hobby matters… I finally went to the family doctor to have my foot checked, as it’s been three straight days since the pain in my left foot started. While nothing conclusive, it looks like it might have been caused by an increase in my uric acid level, but why it struck the joint of my big toe instead of the obvious places (like my knee for example) is another question entirely. In the end I was written a prescription, and will have to take some medication for about seven days, and avoid any running for at least three days. Boo.

Oh well, I suppose going back to low-impact exercise will have to do for the time being.

Rained In Again

Since I already mailed my final project last night, I didn’t have to go to school today… Which was just as well, as it was raining almost nonstop since early this morning. This is normal for the season though, but this pretty much meant that wasn’t able to go running during the afternoon. Yes, I vegged out for the second time this week. Ugh, I’d hate to see what my weight would be tomorrow.

Over-eating aside, I was able to get some drawing done, but I have to admit that I spent more time on gaming than any actual sketching. This time around it was Sayaka and Kyouko, but as one can see no cleanup was done yet, and they’re not even scaled properly. I’ll just have to fix that once the line art process is finished, aside from obviously giving them their missing weapons.

Hmm, I suppose Mami is next, then we start filling in the spaces with the Supplemental Material Puella Magi. Kazumi’s cohorts seem to be the obvious choice, but I think Yuma Chitose (from Oriko Magica) would be much better, asunlike most of the Pleiades, she actually has a color scheme. After that I guess it’s Kaoru and Misaki (again, from Kazumi Magica), then the mob Puella Magi from episode 12 of Madoka Magica. Then… Some guesswork with regards to color schemes for the Pleiades, Oriko, Kirika, as well as the pre-witch Puella Magi they fight.

Oh and maybe Yuri and… Yuuri.

If and when I finish this, well, one could say I’m going to have quite a stampede on my hands, ahaha. 

Foggy or Smoggy?

Although it wasn’t very cloudy today, for most of the morning the city (or at least the part visible from our office) seemed to be coated in a layer of fog.  I’m sure that some it was the normal smog you’d expect from a city this size, but I think some of it was brought by the relatively lower temperatures we’ve been experiencing for most of the morning.  From experience, I expected it to rain, even a little, which is exactly what happened as my shift ended, as I was walking towards the nearby MRT station.

The rain made for a relatively cooler afternoon of course, and helped me ease into my afternoon siesta when I got home.  Gosh did I feel drained.  The stress of my job aside, the fact that my QC scores seemed to be faltering this month really adds to the pressure to not screw up even further.  Ugh, I suppose there’s no way to get those points for this month, which is a shame since I haven’t missed a single day of work yet.

As for the issue I mentioned yesterday, I withdrew some money, with the express purpose of giving it to my cousin to buy groceries.  Given my sleep schedule, it’s very likely I won’t be able to wake up early enough do marketing myself… Though if my sister is right, and my father’s flight arrives later, then it’ll be a non-issue, since he’ll probably go to the market instead.  Of course he’ll badger me to come along (likely for the express purpose of having an additional pair of hands to carry stuff!), but we’ll just have to see. 

See if I can even get up that is, ahaha.

Since it’s my off day tomorrow, obviously I’m going to have to do some reviewing for Saturday’s class. With classes suspended last week, it’ll likely be a brutal session of catch-up, knowing the professor involved.  Hmm.  You know, I still don’t know what I’m supposed to lecture about.  Have to look into that.

And my plans for the weekend? Ah, well, the usual gaming aside, I’d like to finish that drawing project I started this Summer, but had to put on hold due to the onset of classes, and my recent bingeing on Guild Wars.  Running Puellae Magi, ahaha.  Yeah, it’s silly, but I wanted to try this long pic of the characters of the Madoka Magica megaverse (which means including the characters from Oriko Magica and Kazumi Magica) running after Kyubey.  

The only problem though is that nor all of them at this point have color-schemes; the Magic Girl extras at the end of Episode 12 aside, I think only Yuma, Kazumi, Umika, and Kaoru have color schemes assigned to them. I suppose that I could just make do with line-art for now, but still, it wouldn’t feel right without colors, even if just flats…

Eh, I suppose this weekend isn’t going to be as boring as I’d thought.