I rarely have heart-to-heart talks with everyone anymore, nor do I have any sense of continuity in my Journal entries. (Not to mention, I don't update as often as people would like with excerpts of my life.) But just an update on what I've been doing. I hate keeping people in the dark.
So I was going through my deviations again and I discovered...I really
HATE some of my older works. Like, incredibly. I want to delete them off the face of the earth, but at the same time, I realize that they're a part of who I am/was therefore it'd be fake of me to pretend like they never happened. So I kept them, but I think I'm going to move them to my Scraps section because they're more or less what appear as unfinished to me anyway.
So you can see immediately side by side improvements that I've done over the years (maybe I should just do an improvement meme...):
HOLY KARP I USED TO SUCK SO BAD. ;A; But once again, it's just a part of life that you grow up and improve on yourself. I'm going to be doing a lot of re-dos in the future for the images I have come to dislike. I also made a poll on my DA page to see which ones you think I should make a priority. Just out of curiosity. ^v^
I think the next series of images I'm going to tackle are these:
From oldest ===> youngest
SO HORRIBLE. WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE ANYWAY?? I spawned some very awful things back in the day...definitely high on the re-do list.
On another note, I also came across my old Influence Map when I was sifting through old deviations.
It's actually a bit outdated now because new things have come out and the artists that influence me are slightly different now. I don't know if I should actually do an entirely updated version of this, so I'm just giving a quick update/change to the original here:
KATSURA HOSHINO - It was only a year or two ago that we recently discovered that Katsura Hoshino was female for sure. (I always knew just from her artwork, but it has finally been confirmed.) But I have always and probably forever will see her as my ultimate influence in my artwork. Even with the changes in her style over the years, it becomes more refined and beautiful. The storyline she presents also, influences the way I tell stories as well. She's perfect.
SHINOBU OHTAKA - Ever since Magi: Magic of the Labyrinth came out in 2009, I have been following the manga up until several months ago when I had to stop reading because I was traveling among other things making me ridiculously busy. This is a new artist I have entered in since my original Influence Map came out. I have loved the manga series and the STORYTELLING IS PHENOMENAL. It's a little odd how a year or two before Magi came out, I actually pitched an idea about my own version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves...it's a completely different storyline, but coincidence all the same. I really love how cutsey yet serious her style is!!
SHIROW MIWA - Well, after all this talk on female artists, the masculinity in DOGS helps me add in new dimensions into my style. His style is minimalistic yet still has room for those details that you look back twice for. So I spent probably several more moments than the usual person looking at a page when reading his works. lol
SHIGENORI SOEJIMA - I absolutely LOVE Persona 3 and adore the way the characters are drawn and that semi-realistic way the style is handled. I didn't have him listed in the original Influence Map, but he's slowly become a part of my style since I got my PSP and began playing Persona 3 Portable. His male characters are all unorthodox in appearance yet still are extremely attractive. I GOTTA know how he accomplishes that!
TAKESHI OHBATA - He's become less of an influence on me since the release of Bakuman. In that series, his style seems to have deteriorated considerably by the end of it which saddened me. His style was so phenomenal towards the end of Hikaru no Go and then only got better in Death Note. But Bakuman ended with this odd, warped style that didn't really look like Takeshi Ohbata's anymore. He'll still be in the history of the evolution of my style, but it doesn't show through anymore.
NAOSHI KOMI - I love how finally after his cancelled series, Double Arts, he finally makes it big with Nisekoi! I don't follow Nisekoi because I'm not interested in Romantic Comedies/Slice of Life, but the fact that his work is finally being noticed, it's just absolutely...YAY!! That's really all I have to say on that. Still influences me. lol
That's really all I have on updates really.
Hopefully that gets ya'll up to date on the artwork aspects of my life!
Lumi
So I redid my old, old Edward Elric and Envy keychains, along with the addition of Izumi Curtis, Sig Curtis (upon request), Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Maes Hughes (upon request), and Winry Rockbell (upon request). 
