my toma fan art~ PART I: the 2 birthday drawings!

YATTA!!
I DID IT!!! v ^_^ v

i finished my 2 drawings and sent them before the end of july. but it should take a week (the post office lady says 2, but from experience + what ppl said online, i think it should be 1!!) to arrive in japan, so they'll receive it on august 6th, around then. well, wink up says u should send it 1-2 months ahead of his birthday month, and potato says they recommend sending it TWO months ahead, so hopefully i'll be on time. *fingers crossed* i will draw and send the 2 regular toma drawings sometime this month...by the end of this month, at the latest.

i really worked HARD HARD HARD on these drawings, especially the winkup one, which i spent a ridiculously long time on!! i literally drew until my hands hurt. i really think they look pretty, and considering toma fan art is rare (at least f/the magazines i have seen so far this year) and i don't think (??) a lot of ppl send in fan art, i think the chances are GOOD that they will print my art?! maybe...70%?? but then again, there's an insane # of JE Juniors who have a birthday in october!! i counted it from the JE calendar, and it's 21 bdays, including toma's! i just hope most of these jr.'s are not popular and won't get a lot of bday fan art. haha. i don't want too much competition. but of course, i hope some other toma fans will send in toma bday/regular fan art!! if it looks better than my drawings, i won't get too upset if they print someone else's toma fan art and not mine. (laugh)

also, myojo and duet also have a page for fan art, but it's in black and white, and it's a lot less...like less than half a page. just FYI. i checked out all of the 4 major magazines: wink up, potato, duet, myojo, and: NO TOMA FAN ART. just the same ppl mostly...kat-tun, arashi, or certain johnnys jrs guys...i really think there's not much toma fan art usually. this makes me think, HAS ANYONE EVER DRAWN BIRTHDAY FAN ART FOR TOMA?? it would be so awesome if i could be the first, but most likely am not. at least in 2007, when he was super super popular as nakatsu, you'd think fans would send in a lot of fan art and bday fan art too?? i wish i could look thru the old issues of winkup and potato and see if there was toma fan art then...

i'll just upload a couple pics of my drawings now. more to come later!! ^_^
(OMG, I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK WHEN I THOUGHT I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED THE PICS I TOOK OF MY DRAWINGS BE4 I SENT IT!!! but i had just forgot to copy them to the PC cuz there was another folder, the last, and now i have it. jesus, that really scared me to death!!!)



about the WINK UP drawing #1 (which i finished first):

from the start, i knew i wanted to draw this picture, cuz: 1) toma looks soooo kakkoii and perfect, it's 1 of my fav 2009 toma pics 2) i have this magazine and can stare at it and draw; don't wanna have to stare at my computer screen continuously. but though i consider myself a good artist (but i'm more good at "copying" drawing = drawing something that exists than "creative" drawing = thinking up something and drawing it...abstract, too. not good at that), i haven't seriously drawn anyone in like...6-7 yrs!! and when u draw, u have to really stare hard at this person and objectively break down their face into lines and shapes...which is really hard cuz u know when i stare at toma i just go "kyaa!!♥" and feel a little light-headed. lol.

and u have to get the proportions right...i used a trick i learned f/art class, which is measure everything with his eye-length. like, how far is it from his nose to his forehead, in eye-lengths? that helped me out a lot!!

and it was hard to draw in such a small space. usually, i'd take up a whole page to draw like this, but cuz the usa limits the size of postcards, and winkup makes u draw on postcards, so i had to keep it small. i coulda drawn on 4 big postcards i guess, but then i didn't want to draw too big, anyway.

and i discovered that listening to maou's OST really helped me draw better. haha! listening to that fighting/sad/gentle music, it really kept me going!

but i gotta admit, i really wanted to quit when i got to toma's hair!! i thought drawing the nose and mouth would be the toughest (i had to re-draw both!), but when i got to his hair!! it looks cool, but it's insanely hard to draw!!!!! i think i redrew it like...3 times. but the end result is awesome, right?? i'm glad i spent a lot of time on it instead of just drawing it faster but look not as good.

but the text...well, that's all i could think of/had room to write. it says 'gambatte kudasai' at the bottom.

i actually taped a piece of thin plastic that covered the happy bday card f/last yr onto the front of the drawing, cuz i am SO DESPERATELY AFRAID OF IT GETTING DIRTY IN ANY WAY while it's being sent f/here to japan! i really hope that's enough to keep it clean, and the editors can easily remove it if they do pick it and wanna scan it. i almost got it dirty myself, and i freaked out, but i was able to remove whatever it was, a black lint-like thing, that got stuck on the paper suddenly!! whew!


about the POTATO drawing #2:


spent way way less time on this, but the result is pretty good, i think!! toma is wearing my fav toma outfit f/2009, that cool gray/red plaid vest/hooded jacket that he wore on nakai's winter drama competition show from january. i love this jacket so much, i wish i could buy one just like it, or toma would wear it in an actual photoshoot sometime! though when i draw it, it looks more like it's checkered. sorry!! that's the best i could do.

was gonna draw him holding flowers, with a cake in front of him, like aki or daiki while filming VOICE, but i changed my mind. remember the pic of him in 2008, the valentine's day photoshoot (oops, that was when he was holding a box of chocolates towards us, this was the pizza one f/ 2008) where he held out a slice of pizza to the camera? that's what gave me the idea for this drawing. =)

i tried, i really tried to draw his crossed legs correctly, but i couldn't see it so well in the pics (sorry toma, had to stare at your lower half for quite a long time!! xD) and no matter how many times i re-drew it, it didn't look right. so i just went with my original idea, only draw him f/the waist up.

it's cool to be able to be able to color in my drawing, but it's so tough to do it without having streaks/smudges!! like the right side of the vest, uggh, i tried to color fast so it wouldn't leave those marks, but...it can't be helped. luckily, i discovered the red sharpie pen barely leaves streaks, it's all solid!! sugoi. though the smell!! i might have gotten a little high f/it. lol.

it's also hard to trace over what i drew in pencil with the pen. though it's a super fine pen i bought specifically to draw this, sometimes the lines would run over a little.

LUCKILY i bought that chu chu 7.2009 issue just for the 2 pages of toma pics inside, cuz i ended up copying parts of the drawing methods i used from some of the cute guys in there!! haha. i like this simple manga style though...i couldn't draw the kind where their eyes and hair is a lot more complicated, but of course a lot prettier too!! (i think the first time i ever tried copying drawings f/manga is when i tried drawing some characters from Doraemon when i was like...11 or 12, i think. yep, i liked to draw from an early age. but since college, i've only doodled sometimes.)

baka!! i acidentally got an ink smudge on the left bottom side of the drawing, cuz 1 of my stupid markers was leaking. i used white out, which didn't help much. but then i did it again, and this time i tried wiping it off with a damp tissue. BIG MISTAKE. it got the paper kinda soggy/the smudge got bigger. so i was forced to glue a piece of paper on it, i didn't know what else i could do!! =0 aiya, i hope they don't mind, that part...

i love you.♥
i did it!! i wrote it!! well...i hope they don't have any implied restrictions about what u can write on your drawing. i've seen other fans write short messages. but i figured i just HAD TO try!! if there's a chance they'll print my drawing, if there's a chance toma will see it, i've gotta tell him!! that i love him. well, it can be understood as 'like' or 'love'. either way is fine. i wrote "toma-kun, suki da." i chose that phrase specifically cuz nakatsu said it to mizuki! ~_~ and it's short and relatively easy to write. though i wanted to write "daisuki!" (like u very much/love you), but i don't wanna scare him, so...(laugh)

[8/12 edit: forgot to post the links to pics i took while drawing. u can see the whole process, how it changes as i drew more and more, here. douzo!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/happybirthdaytoma2009/sets/72157621844359047/]



mood: accomplished [credit: subliminalicon]
music: everything u want (vertical horizon)