Yes, Ben. I love artworks done by hm.. I'm guessing Ben's a female manga artist? I really love her style. I've been looking up for her works lately and my sister bought the 2nd volume of Le Gardenie, too. Definitely one great artist who draws as well as Japanese manga-ka.

Thanks a lot, eunasahng. ^^ You're right, images from MT was accidentally blocked (though I have no idea who did that). I've removed that link as you said and everything is back to normal.

Thanks a lot once again.

I'm having the same problem as yui20, but mine occurred few months ago. I never took the problem seriously by that time though because I thought maybe MT was going on an update or just a temporary bug but it seems like the problem still remain up till now.

[img=http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/8119/sofiawf8.th.jpg]

I read on the guidelines written by eunasahng about not being able to view images, but it doesnt work since the images that I wanted to click on is not accessible at all. No link, no finger hovering the link, nothing at all. That is weird. I cant even see signatures and avatars.

Whoa, now this seems like fun. ^^ It's been ages since I last touched photoshop so I can't wait to enter this competition. But first I'll have to wait for the computer to be fixed.

I don't think it's possible though. Unless they're trying to recreate a new Universal Century-like timeline (which was quite a long one) -- Cosmic Era through new Gundam stories. But even if they wanna settle all the dissatisfactions contained in GSD, high probabilities it's going to be in a movie.

It's about time for a new Gundam story to be introduced. Either way I'm only looking forward to the Gundams that will be shown/built in the series though.

Actually there's also a method called the artificial digital painting. But I usually do this after I vector the outlines of something that I wanna paint. After that, to start the artificial painting, apply a few hard round pixeled brush inside the vector and use smudge tool and pull the colour to wherever you see fit. After that play with burn and dodge tool wisely to get the shade and highlights you desire. May sounds hard but I really enjoy this method a lot.

And as for the latest version of the wall, I think there's too much unnecessary swirlies, and they're quite jagged as well. I was thinking that maybe your vectored scan is a little too clear. Maybe you can blur them down a little.

Definitely Hisagi Shuuhei from Bleach. He's the only sleeveless shinigami in Gotei 13 and has yet to introduce us his zanpakutoh. I think he's one of the vice-captains that doesn't have enough screentime.

Whoa! It's already the 3rd Annual Discussion!

Admins of the group

*gasp* Inactive admins will be removed or replaced?! Hm, well... I don't see any inactive admins in UA. But IF that does happen, I guess it should be replaced, but not instantly. My idea is that maybe we can have it through active members' nomination. They can nominate a few names, and then the current active admins will then pick out a few possible and of course, qualified candidates. And then announce the candidates and ask our active members to vote for the next replacement.

Member acceptance criteria

I think it's just fine. Not too low, nor too high.

Too appreciated
Too appreciated? Well, I really hope to see a different style in their walling. I don't really feel like pointing it out, but I really can't keep "giving chances" so I'll say it straight to the point.

There are all kinds of too appreciated walls. 1. nice, professionally done walls which are candies to the eyes. 2. flashy, colourful wall with no firm deliberation.

I don't have any problem with too appreciated walls if they're very nicely done, very professionally done or it's just a perfect wall with no mistakes; maybe it's popular because of the character/s that's inside or maybe the waller is already skilled enough -- No comment. But I DO hope those who are too appreciated just because they make flashy walls but with bad deliberation can do something about their walling technique first. Change their walling style or something; 3D background and 2D scan just don't match!

Definition of appreciated
Appreciated, as in, the walls you made are something decent, something nice to the eyes, rational and logic, everything blends in together and matches, a not widely used style, not too fancy, not too much glitters, stars, sparklies... moderate. A moderate wall with no excessive amounts of "above mentioned no-no items" is to be appreciated. Edit: I nearly missed out this point. Being appreciated, can also means that someone who, well, supports and appreciate the works we've done because they genuinely feel that the walls are good, they're very nice and they deserve a praise or anything similar to that, not just because he/she's in my watchlist so I must add her wall into fave or else she won't add mine into fave as well. If that's really the case then maybe we should just scrap the friendlist thingey; it's more of an honest feeling.

Yes! ^^ I agree with member mentoring scheme. This way we'll avoid making bad walls and we get to correct and make improvements on our wall-in-progress. This way we'll have more great and better walls that can be dished out to MT.

Sharing Techs and Skills
Hm... the tutorials depend on what problems we have, don't they? It'll be tough if we keep asking for hard tutorials in the guestbook (short ones are okay, but then if we don't the guestbook will be lonely ) Maybe we can keep long and hard, or just complicated tutorials in tutorial format. Simpler tutorials can be answered through guestbook? Well that's my idea.

Hotness!
Cross group competitions! Raise our group spirit! *lols* About the UA themes... no, its been going for so long, might as well just keep it, as a UA tradition. Perhaps we could just fix and extend the deadline.

^^ Happy reading.

I agree with Naomi-chan. They just don't fit. Real-life stock and 2d scan just doesn't compliment each other. The differences are too obvious and they just ruin the whole wallpaper.

Maybe you can construct a background from scratch, or maybe vector parts of the background one by one so it fits the scan. It's not necessary to have only one stock in your wall; choose all kinds of stock, pick parts you want for the background and vector them slowly as you see fit.

Well painting might work, but I know nothing of painting. Looking forward to your wall. ^^

By the way, most of the gundam's names were taken from the uh.. you know.. alphabets like... Nu, Zeta, Turn-A... those numbers you can see in advance mathematics? So maybe it'll be something like Beta, Alpha or Sigma. Just a wild guess, but it's possible anyway. But I hope it's Sigma, coz I'm also thinking of making a Gundam series called Gundam Sigma, YEAH!

And hopefully they can think of something more original... or maybe just show us something similar like Nu Gundam, GAH! I love the fin funnels! Or maybe Gundam X's stuffs, they're very COOL and original. Especially the Satellite Cannon and Divider.

It's airing in Malaysia on Animax, and it's pretty near the ending now. ^^ A nicely presented anime. ^^ Some people might think it's not as good as the famous anime out there, but I still stick to my own opinion and I really love it.

I like Rinko's power, it's really interesting to see something go kaboom just by shooting beads. Bwahha, yeah, I have to agree Ueki being clueless sometimes can be a little cute.

Yeah. Fushigi Yuugi is about constellation as well. But I don't think Furuba fits the theme though, coz the zodiac in Furuba is about the Chinese constellations (rat, dog, rooster, etc), not the 12 zodiacs. (Aries, Scorpio, Leo, etc).

Hm... layout? When you say layout are you talking about the background or the dashed lines? Coz the dashed line is the only change I can see.

I'm definitely on Hinamori x Hitsugaya. They might just be sibling affection but then Hitsugaya might be the type who doesn't like to admit, plus when they're together they look so cute. (well yeah maybe they're kinda short in the height department) And I really like how Hinamori tends to be the type who likes to convince people and Hitsugaya the hard headed one. I think it goes just quite well.

So yeah! Hinamori x Hitsugaya all the way.

Ah whoa misa! Those are great sources! Great scans by Dream, once again. ^^

Merry Christmas to everyone who's reading this announcement! ^^ *appears with Lampy dressing as a christmas cane*

It's already the 26th of December, so the submission for the 11th fortnightly competition is now due. ^^ We only have one entry for the 12th fortnightly competition "Copycat" so I guess we have to extend this theme.

Vote for your cute entry!

Wishing You Were Here by EvoIIICE9A |
Your Very Own Laptop Model by Ephemeral-Garden | Fly To The Sky by inREVERIEforever |
A drop of colour by kuroimisa |
Moogle Christmas by Spidey-Matt | Gallivant Lilies by Kasai

Remember to vote for your 1st, 2nd and 3rd wall. And don't forget to vote for your Most Improved wall too.

----------------

UA's 13th Fortnightly Theme: Zodiac

Right. Zodiac. The 12 zodiacs.

Rules and Tips:

- You can use sources from anywhere: doujinshi, originals, animes, mangas.
- Minimum wallpaper resolution: 1024 x 768.
- Your wallpaper must display the definition of zodiac. You can either show the symbol, a character with that certain star sign, or maybe some other way that you can think of. Here are some examples:

GEMINI by kuroimisa
Gemini . The Twin by Ephemeral-Garden

- Lastly, you HAVE to say this at the end of your description: "Hm, UA tastes like Lampy~".

Yeap. You can't use submitted walls for the 13th theme. (and that includes misa and I )

So that's about it. Due date on around mid January. If possible maybe we'll end it along with the Copycat challenge.

Looks okay to me. There's definitely nothing wrong with plain wallpapers as long as they're not overloaded. Did you intend to grayscale the wall? It could use a bit of colour.

Hm, I think it's better if you make the text clearer instead of engraving it. I can barely see it so it's very much the same as not even inserting the text in. Try using solid characters and then lower the opacity. At least you can still read the words even if it's not clear.

Ooh, can I have the password please?

Sorry, I'm not from Singapore either. But I know what you mean when you say that what comes naturally doesn't come as naturally as they used to be. Actually, I'm having that kind of problem right now.

Actually the reason for why you can't draw as you used to be was just mentioned by yourself. ^^ You haven't drawn for quite a while, right? It's best if you start off by drawing something you've drawn over and over again. Copying, well, it's a good idea. It's a good starting point if you feel like you can't draw like you usually do. ^^

Anyway, best of luck. I guess that's what they meant by art block, but it'll be over soon.

Yeah. Kamisama Kazoku is a great anime. It'll be great if there are scans of this anime.

I've been wondering if anyone recognises Syaoran's parallel feet which could be seen in the OP of TRC first season? I would love to have that image, is there anyone with that image?

Bwahha. Yeah. I'm back, again, to procrastinate. I think I'm really going to faint if I keep looking at chemistry and advanced maths books @.@

Hm... so that's how we do colour watering.

Oh, I'm here to share some stuffs on lineart. But before that, nostyle118 seems to have said everything that I wanted to say. About crosshatching, and looking for imbalances in your work by turning the paper over.

Things I wanna add:

Understand the human/animal anatomy before drawing. It'll make your character's pose look more realistic. I used to draw without understanding this at first, and my bro insults me all the time. Some manga's character's pose looks a little weird because of this particular reason. (most notably SOME manga which are non-actions, adventure and fighting ones) I can only say manga with good grasp on anatomy has to be those mangas containing guys with 6 packs ^^. It's not necessary to make it tough-looking, but as long they look slim. Most mangas have slim looking guys <3

Here's some good manga with extremely cool poses and excellent anatomy mastery (in my pov, of coz, but what the heck, check it out!)
- Groove Adventure Rave + hip-hop fashions
- One Piece + extreme action
- Dragon Ball series + beefy looking guys
- Honey and Clover + slim guys in college (quite realistic if you ask me)
- Great Teacher Onizuka + what to say? check it out.
- Gensoumaden Saiyuki/Reload/Reload Gunlock + emits an aura of sexiness
- Slam Dunk (and all other works by Inoue Takehiko is a PLUS!)

Those are just examples I can think of. But most mangas are pretty much realistic. Please don't beat me in the head after you've done reading this.

But even if I said so much about having to learn anatomy, it's always good to have your own style. Because, afterall, I always end up loving those mangas without following the real anatomy of a human. CLAMP! Look at those long slender legs and bodies they have... totally hawt!

In my case, I can't say it's my style... ehehe.. But I pick parts from various artists. If I like this particular artist's ear, then I'll take the ears and match everything. I don't know if this is illegal but that's how I draw... ehehe...

So basically, no matter what you do, just make sure you don't have your character's head bigger than the body. Unless you're trying to draw a chibified version of your characters.

I only draw anime humans so I can only share how to draw human Japanese anime-style in a single outline. (no shading, no shadows, just outlines)

- If you're quite new to drawing, you can basically start by refering to a certain character. It's always good to start with the character that you love the most, looking at your cute bishies always help since you'll want them to look cute and not distorted. ^^

- Always start with simple drawing. You can always choose a scan with a very easy pose and learn to copy and draw. You can either make a sketch or just a plain outlined drawing. For my case, I always draw using single outline because I can't shade well. But it's still considered a drawing anyway.

- If you wanna make a good simple outlined drawing, avoid making frequent stops along the way. It'll make your drawing look jagged. Practice to draw certain parts with a single stroke. Especially the hair. That way it'll make the drawing look more smooth.

- If you wanna try simple shading on your drawing, you can always check out some pictures or scans which show clear shading lines. Manga-ka like Inoue Takehiko (Slam Dunk) has a very good example. ^^ Simple yet not-so-simple, but still look natural.

Welcome to MT. ^^ We'll be looking forward to see some artworks from you. Make sure to browse through the user guidelines (as stated by Firemace above) and not to forget, enjoy your stay!

You can also ask other users if you wanna ask something.