Wow, Mira-chan's a yaoi fan too! ha ha. Well, you sure have got a lot of stuff up in this thread. But you're right, many of those characters look very androgynous.

Almost has a little Yu Watase flavor, but I doubt that's her work... Sorry I can't help .

Nice, I had no idea. I never got into the games much, even though I do play games a fair amount, but the anime looks pretty good so far. Let's hope it really is good . My last encounter with Dante was during his came in the came Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. He was really hard to beat!

I'm sorry to say that I have never seen this before. Wish I could help ...

As long as the decent or better pieces still have a home, I see no reason to keep mediocre abstracts. I personally enjoy abstract art of all kinds, but there is not a lot of it there that is truly good abstract work. Besides, this is primarily an anime community, and as such it does not attract high quality abstract artwork (with exceptions of course).

There are other places for people who wish to focus on abstract work, and ones where they could learn and benefit from. I do not believe that MT is an ideal place where an abstract artist can learn to improve as well as in other places. That point is of course debatable, but the fact remains that the focus of MT is anime/manga.

Thank you very much for sharing those . They are very nice indeed ^_^. I wasn't directly familiar with the artist, but I do recall some of this art from the games. So now I know who it's by and I can look for his naughty works, ha ha! Just kidding :P.

' Gomen Oriya-chan. I'm sorry to see you go. I was wondering why I hadn't seen any replies from you in some time. So thank you for letting us know, that is very much appreciated.

I am sorry that I can't vote in your pole because my option is not there. But I can tell you that I have been an MT member for a long time. My objective for being here has not changed in all this time. I am here for the sharing of art, and sharing ideas about art.

It is true that MT has changed a lot, and lacks much of the substance it once possessed. Now people do not engage in meaningful discussions very much, and do not treat each other with respect as much as they used to.

Though I still know some people here who are good, much of the population of MT does not seem interested in the good of the community. This is also why I have proposed some changes to the moderators. We will have to wait and see what changes will be made in the future, and whether the community will begin to improve again.

Perhaps some day you will return when things are better...? I am sad to see you go, and be frustrated. But know that you are not alone in this. Take care Oriya-chan. We'll miss you ...

Hi Simo-chan . Looks like I'm the first to reply... Just to let you know, the word is actually spelled "myth." :P... gomen ...

I do remember some of the old stories in Poland, which are certainly just stories...

1. Baba Jaga/Yaga: which is very common around Eastern Europe.

2. The Two Dorothys: one was mean and the other kind. The kind one fall into a magical world though a well, and then comes back to save her house and father from the bad one and her evil step-mother.

3. The Raven Brothers: seven brothers who were cursed and turned into ravens.

4. The Ice Witch: similar to the one in The Chonicles of Narnia.

5. Janosik: a real man who lived in the 17th and 18th centuries, and was the Polish equivalent of "Robin Hood." Though some stories of him are true, and he did exist, many accounts have become legendary and less "realistic." Here's more infomation.

You make some good points MapleRose. I would like to add that restricting yourself to oil paints is also not necessary. I have been painting for a long time, and I actually don't use oils. I prefer acrylic paints, and after years of using them I believe that I can achieve the same results with acrylics as with oils. So old arguments as to the superiority of oils over acrylics are merely expressions of preference, and at worst admissions of a lack of skill. Although that's a whole 'nother conversation :P.

The point is, that traditional mediums are more accessible that people realize. Acrylics do not require harsh chemicals, watercolors are even more benign, and there are many other media to choose from: ink, tempera, sumi, and solid-to-wet media like pastels and watercolor pencils. Basically, if you want to do it the traditional way, there is a medium out there that will fit your needs.

You're welcome .

You forgot the "No, They are NOT dead" option in your poll, so I'm afraid I can't vote ^_^.

So you clearly know my answer already. If you check my gallery, you'll notice that many of my pieces are not digital, other than they were photographed. I paint anime/mange, though I also like walling on occasion.

I also work at an art gallery, and at an art museum. So I can assure you that "conventional" art will under no ciscumstances die out. Just go to your local downtown area and you'll see just how many galleries there are. And, are they all closing down? Nope. In my town, more have opened last year, and more are opening this year.

I mean no offense, but in a way I feel your question is somewhat misinformed. Though that is not to say I don't understand why you may have gotten such an impression. You are after all in a largely digital art focused community here ^_^.

P.S.: If you search these forums you may come across this thread... Creative Painting Guide

I'm sorry for not reading everyone else's posts, but I don't really have time to at this moment.

I do want to say, however, that anyone who is or has taken a college art class will be able to critique a work effectively. That's just how such courses operate. Is everyone in the class a master? Of course not.

In your situation, this still applies. Many people do not know how to critique work, you are absolutely right. Taking a college/university art course would teach people how to do it right. Until then, we can only set a good example, whether people like it or not.

In my experience, most people appreciate it when I am candid in pointing out both strengths and weaknesses in their work. If you are genuine, and remain fair, then you should continue with your critiquing practice.

I must admit that I did not read your paper, nor did I read the rest of this thread. My apologies. Reason being is partially because this question has been asked so many times that I have lost interest in pursuing the answer, as it is quite obviously yes. That may sound conceited and harsh, but the fact is that unless one operates under a double-standard, you have to say "yes."

I also realize that I am not giving any solid evidence as to "why." That's also because I do not intend to join this debate, as that in itself has been done and done again. I did however want to point out to you the fact that this discussion has seen a resurgence this spring, and has been summarized a bit in this series of posts. Hope you'll find something in there that interests you ^_^. Take care...

Making art is what I absolutely want to be doing, and am doing. However, I am not a mangaka, I am a painter. Though I take anime/manga very seriously. My endeavor is to try and diminish some of the stereotypes and conceptions of this style not being art, in the sense that paintings in a gallery are considered art. I try to do this by painting anime/mange style paintings.

You may also find this post interesting, which talks a little about this subject. Also, if you are interested in creating manga, Tokyopop has excellent opportunities for this. They hold an annual contest where you can submit a manga and potentially land a publishing deal. Here is the link.

Hope that gives you some ideas ^_^.

Thank you very much. That helps a lot. I did think that writing it at "kopishiku" was a little odd, so that makes much more sense .

Thanks Kokujin. After some Googling, I found that same information on this Japanese writing site. They said pretty much the same thing...

Quote: chouon: This katakana character does not have its own pronunciation. It is used to extend the vowel sound that comes before it.

So yes, I think I've got it figured out now. Thank you so much for your help folks. I suppose I could have found this info all by myself, but I think it would have taken me longer that way.

If anybody's curious, the project I'm working on, Copic Fighter, I've previewed here.

Ha ha, yeah, I was going to post the actual Japanese text, but realizing that MT doesn't understand it I opted for just the romanji.

So I figured out that Copic Fighter would be "Kopishiku Fuaita." That helps tremendously. The only thing I'm not sure about yet is what the long dash-like character "--" is for. It's not Pronounced apparently, which I presume is some sort of punctuation or accent mark? So I'm wondering if I do indeed need to have it at the end of fuaita, like "fuaita-," but I'm not sure.

I'm sure there's a Japanese member here somewhere that would know .

Dear Friends,

I am in need of some assistance with Japanese. This is for an art project I'm working on. More likely than not, this would be easiest for any Japanese members here at MT to help with.

I've been trying to create a title in Japanese reminiscent of old school games. The English title is "Copic Fighter," which (to those unfamiliar) is referring to Copic markers. What I am trying to do, is to translate this into Japanese, which has turned out more complicated than I thought it would be.

I believe the way "Copic" is spelled in Japanese "kopishiku" (from what I could gather on the Japanese site).

And according to an online dictionary, "fighter" translates as "faita." But I have not been able to figure out how to write the prefix "fa."

Am I right in assuming that both words would be written in Katakana? Also, I thought if I could find a Japanese version of "Street Fighter" I would be able to see how "fighter" is written. But even the Japanese versions have the titles in English.

Any help with this would be appreciated. In advance, thank you so much!

Thank you very much . I'm afraid I don't have any others to add at this point, but there's probably more in the game somewhere :P.

Isn't botchii's message always the same? Just give you the list of what criteria "could" be the reason for the deletion...

I know, but it's okay. Not that big of a deal. Besides, the latest images are too low a quality, and they're not scans anyway. So this will have to do :P.

Thank you, I think they are quite nice as well. They are very characteristic of Abe's work, aren't they ? Also reminiscent of his earlier work, such as lain ^_^.

I have some screenshots taken already, now I just need to upload them to my imageshack account and link them in here. I'll try to get around to that in the next few days hopefully.

Phew, that's a lot of reading :P. Well, all I can say right now, is that I think it's a great idea. I'll support it in whatever way I can.

It may not be necessary to set up a gallery page exactly. I think if people just use imageshack then we could get away with just a thread where everyone posts their submissions, and the thread "mod" can edit the first post to reflect the necessary information/submissions. But of course an MT gallery, or off-site gallery page would be ideal.

It would certainly be great if we could make this a collaboration between all the doujinshi groups too.

Thank you for posting, Odeena-chan! I'm glad you like them . I will have to post the screenshots from the game in here too, which have more of Abe's artwork .