Tried To Draw SoRiku In My Style. I've Been Thinking About Them A Lot Lately~

Tried to draw SoRiku in my style. I've been thinking about them a lot lately~

(left is the sketch from my Sketchbook, Right was my digital attempt)

Wanting to share some WIPs for a current "mini" project. I was heavily inspired by this months theme "Harajuku", provided by "Character Design References"

This theme feels like a Homecoming, given that I basically grew up on Visual Kei Fashion and it's various subcultures. (which is also a very prominant Fashion style in Harajuku).

I took a lot of inspiration from the Bands I grew up with. Like Exist Trace, The GazettE, An Cafe. I also recently discovered Kiryu and after seeing Takemasa I had to design a outfit based on him, haha!

Are you listening to Visual Kei? If so, what is your favorite band? :)

"Show me what you've got, Kinomiya!"

Recently I finished rewatching Beyblade and was remembered on how influential the show was on me. Not only personally but also artistically. I vividly remember how I ran home from school in order to watch Beyblade at 3'o Clock, not to miss a single episode. There was something about this show that just hooked me. The battles, the music. The characters. After G-Revolution I drew my own comics with the characters. Of their own battles, their own interpersonal struggles and it was my very first AU. (lets say I wasn't too happy with Dranzers Faith in G-Revolution and I wanted to draw a happier ending). It also brought me and the neighbourkids together , as they were obsessed with Beyblade as well and we replayed the episodes on the playground while we argued who will be Kai in the end. (we did the same with Digimon, especially with Digimon Frontier, but that's a story for another day.) In Winter I tried to wear my scarf like Kai and I looked ridiculous but personally I related to him the most as a kid. I still do as an adult. I burn for art in a similar way as Kai and Tyson burn for Beyblade. But like Kai, I'm also a person who does not speak much and is rather on the introverted and calmer side. I rather like my work to speak for myself rather than the words that come out of my mouth. (but if you speak about art around me, make sure I won't shut up about it )

Anyway. In order to show my love, I decided to draw this Fanart. I chose that very iconic place from episode one, where Kai and Tyson meet for the very first time. However, except of drawing all the other Kids, I decided to draw the Bladebreakerz. I tried to capture the anticipation before the battle, the tension, the excitment. Almost a similar feeling I have whenever I start a new artwork.

What was your favorite show while growing up? And if it's also Beyblade, who is your favorite character :)?

I'm a big music fan. And a videogame fan too. So I decided to combine this two things and make a fanart for "Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk" , which was developed by Nikita Kryukov. And the composition for this image was inspired by "Milk", a Song by Jack Stauber. "Milk inside a bag of milk" is a psychological Horror Visual Novel about a girl on her way to buy some Milk. Now you probably think "But Nabs, what's so scary about buying a pack of Milk?" and as someone who isn't able to handle social situation well due to various reasons, I can say with pure confidence: "Everything!"

In this game you are a voice inside a girls head. She has a inner monologe with you about the stuff she is thinking about as she gets closer to the grocery store. And you, as her voice, have to keep her calm and distract her from her anxiety while also helping her to successfully buy a pack of mulk and bring it home to bring it back to her mum.

It is a very short game and I was beating it in 30 minutes. It sure was a quick read and yet I find myself playing it once in a while whenever I struggle with my own anxiety. The developer did a very good job in depicting anxiety at it's core. There is also a second game called "Milk outside a bag of Milk outside a bag of milk" which I haven't played yet. All I heard is that the concept is a bit different from the first game but i haven't found the time to play it. (or in other words. I'm having so many games to play and yet the only game I return to daily at the moment is Stardew Valley in my after hours…I got Krobus as a roommate and he is AMAZING!…anyways…moving on with making art !)

I wanted to depict a scene at the supermarket, where the girl is standing in front of a Milk Aisle, not sure what Milk to pict, when her Paranoia kicks in. Just like how I sometimes feel like when I go to the supermarket!

(I'm finally done with this image after a month...god bless my patience...)

Words cannot really describe what I feel for this band. Nor can a drawing express those feelings. Everything I might going to say sound super cheesy but if their music and all the interviews thought me one thing, than it is that it's okay to be myself. I mean…they do it too, right…and sometimes we are cheesy. Sometimes we are touched by media and sometimes we might not find the right words. I want to try it anyway.

Let me start with a quote from Adventure Time actually, because this quote pretty much describes my love for music in General. "Music is powerful, man. It speaks to a primal pit in our brains. It makes anyone go up and get their knees going" When I first listened to Blur consciously , something truely magically happened. I saw Damon, as he slowly sink into their music, paired with Grahams ability to paint with sound. Alex who infused his Groovy cool bass sounds into the song and Dave who brings in memoriable rhythms. All of this rounded up makes Blur of who they were and who they currently are. Their timeless. It's inspirational…it's just purely Magic.

It's that exact feeling that I tried to translate into my illustraton. The whole drawing process made me a little emotional too. I never felt this way for an illustration really but I went through all sorts of emotions…Maybe that's what I get from their music. I was a bit conflicted. Because while listening to their music, I was able to feel their love to one another and it felt like something…intimate. Something I maybe shouldn't put in an image. Or should I? Am I capable to translate that love without projecting mine onto them? It is a quite vulnerable process after all. In the end however, I decided to just go for it. My pen will lead the way. If I learned one thing from Graham's interviews it's "If you're scared, do it scared!" (especially since I'm a fellow person who deals with a lot of anxiety) and if there is something I learned from listening to countless of Damons Interviews it's "Follow your heart. Be vulnerable. It's fine. Use this emotion and begin to dream. Your heart will know what is right!" And as cheesy as my love for Blur is (no pun intended), I always think back of how they talk about their musical heroes too. Recently I was listening to an Interview between Elton John and Damon and how he wrote that song about Elton John when he was younger. Or Graham how he described sitting in the room, learning all those Songs he is into (and both of them got a fantastic taste in music. I currently gonna do a deepdive into both of their influences , to get a better understanding of them as musicians…while having no musical knowledge myself lmao)

And so I decided "If they gush about their favorite musicians, I can do it too. Maybe not in a musical way (because I would suck at it) but in my artsy kind of way. In my own way. It might be embarassing for me and I'm quite shy about my feelings, but that's what art is sometimes."

It was also by far one of the longest things I worked on. I really kneed a month into this image and tried to capture every essence to the best of my ability. I think the most difficult part was to styilize the guys in a way that it still has this typical "Nabs" touch to it, but that it still look like them. …Okay, enough talking from my side, I hope you enjoy the image lol!

Lemon Boy and me, we just gotta get along together I helped him plant his seeds And we'll mow the lawn in bad weather It's actually pretty easy being nice to a bitter boy like him So, I got myself a citrus friend

This image is inspired by "Lemon Boy", a song by @lemon.socks ! I saw so many interpretations of the songs out there and I always wondered, what this song actually mean to me.

While thinking about it for a while now, I always thought of two kids who grow up together. And as they grow older they might realize that their feelings for one another might not be just "friendship". It's a tale as old as time and yet something a lot of queer kids (including myself) have been through. And so , this image was born about Citrus Guy and Lemon Boy. Citrus Guy being a bit oblivious about his feelings towards Lemon Boy. And Lemon Boy who couldn't hold his feelings back no longer. Citrus Guy also had friends who didn't seem so supportive of queer people to begin with, which is why he tried his hardest to fit in and thus damage the relationship with Lemon boy first...again, tale as old as time.

The whole story also kind of reminded me of Troy Sivans "Blue Neighbourhood" videos. Just with a MUCH happier note.