O-ǝnbılqO

I watched a live which gave me idea on the method of colouring line art. Unfortunately the video hadn’t been uploaded after. Here is a memo for myself.

01: Line art and mask Keep editing the detail during later process. the posture and the details of Yuuri’s costume were difficult.  

02: basic colour

03: texture Less boring Layer: normal to linear darken(?)

04: shade (The core of this method) The shade was all painted in one layer. It forced you to look at the big picture not the small details. I took a lot of time to draw the shade of Yuuri’s hair, but I hided it in colour and the detail disappeared. The shade of upper body was changed for serval times.

05: final effect, without line art It looked boring so I add lilies (Yuri in Japanese) using similar method

bonus + phichit bts:

How did we forget about you?

Why were you hidden from us? 

Where did you go? 

When will we see you? 

What happened to you? 

A Grand Resolution for China’s Modest Long-time Skater

By Anon E. Mous ——-

“I’m not the kind of top skater that all the newspapers gravitate toward.” 

Yes, I have a large enough fan base, as any high-level skater has, but I’m no Nikiforov, or Giacometti. I’m not the kind of young-blood skater like Leroy or Otabek that has the media raving ‘the next generation looks promising!’ I’m one of those skaters who has been in the field long enough to make some name for myself, but not great enough to make a lasting impression in the minds of the masses. I won’t be a Mao Asada or a Michele Kwan. I won’t be a Rippon with a move named after me, or a Plushenko with an illustrious career. But that’s OK. I skate for my nation, doing the best I can while this body holds up - skating to show my own interpretations and skating because I love it. 

I admire Nikiforov for being older than me and still at the top of such a cut-throat sport. I can’t say outright ‘my body is too tired for this’ when I see someone of his age and experience able to give such difficult programs. But the truth is, my body IS too tired. I’ve been at this for years, and I know I’ve hit my peak a couple of years ago. I haven’t been able to stand on the podium here at the GPF for a few years now, and I haven’t been able to grasp onto the second quad needed to keep up with the field of the future. I suppose it must be getting lonely for Nikiforov up there now - with all of us dropping out over the years. I’ll have to remember to give him a goodbye hug for old-times’ sake at the Worlds banquet.

Overall, I’m satisfied with my fourth place finish. After the rough years I had, getting to the GPF and making 4th place above younger competitors feels good. Although, I do feel a small twinge in my heart when I think that I likely wouldn’t have had this placement if it wasn’t for Katsuki self-destructing. It feels a little like having the door opened - winning through someone else’s misfortune instead of beating them through skill alone. But then, it’s a cruel field, and mental strength and luck are also factors that determine placement. Who gets on the podium, and who gets the potato medal; who gets into the GPF and who has to wait another year to try again. I’ve learned this lesson many times after being assigned to events with particularly strong skaters and having poorly-timed injuries. I’m sure as a fellow skater Katsuki understands this too. 

There is this amazing Junior who will become the young Ace of China next year. I believe he can make our country proud, and I am confident he will grow in the next few years to be a fearsome competitor - if the gods see fit to spare him of major injury. Although I feel a little bad to be passing the mantle of China’s hope to little Guang-Hong, I want to leave him with a fresh slate and not take up spots in future Worlds and Four Continents competitions that could be better used to help him grow. As his senior I’ll be sure to come to his rink and offer advice from time to time.

I did well. Just a few more competitions to go - I’ll enjoy them to the best of my ability. And then, after this season is over, I’ll retire to become a Professional Skater and skate in ice shows where I can do my own programs without worrying about a certain number of jumps or having certain spin positions to rack up points. I’ll be able to make the show choreographer’s stories come to life, and perform for the public who can’t afford to go watch the Competitive Figure Skating that I’ve been a part of for so long.

“Who knows what my future holds further down the line, but for now it looks dazzling.” -Cao Bin

——-

(For the record: -there is actually a magazine called “International Figure Skating” in real life, and they do indeed have feature articles online -this is my completely made-up article and not canon/a translation in any way -Competitive Figure Skaters and Professional Figure Skaters are COMPLETELY different things - thus Cao Bin here is making a career choice and not being redundant.)

Bonus:

Yuri on Ice Barcelona Tour: part 1!

Luckily we’ll get the rest done next week, but we needed to do this as soon as possible =_D

The photos aren’t the best and we didn’t manage to align the stills perfectly, but ah, who cares.

First, we have Casa Batlló, constructed by Antoni Gaudí, same man who did Sagrada Família (and many more buildings of the city). It’s located at Passeig de Gràcia, one of the most snobbish shopping streets of the city, with the most luxurious brands.

And there’s the infamous bench XD. Sadly there’s really too much people in Barcelona, much more than the anime showed, so no still aligning XD.

Then, THE MOMENT. It takes place at the Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulàlia de Barcelona, but really, we just call it la Catedral.

Hi there! I have some more photos to show you ;D!

First of all, let’s return to the Catedral. Do you remember the choir singing? At first I thought: “That’s weird, I don’t recall any choir with white coats and santa hats or deer antlers… Usually they are more elegant…” I discarded this ‘cause I thought it was an artistic license to make THE MOMENT more romantic… But you know what? These people don’t do anything without a reason! Yesterday I was strolling around looking for an Starbucks to lay my butt and work in my laptop with a coffee (and a cake) and LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

YEAH! It’s them! It turns out they’re Medicine students from my old college! It was wild luck for me to be there to find them singing. This is the GPF weekend so, Kubo-sensei and Yamamoto-sensei where just here a year ago attending the Barcelona GPF. You can see in the photo that they are not in the same place as in the anime, they are a few meters to the right of the Catedral. There is a lot of people in the plaza in front of the Catedral because there is a special Christmas Market called Fira de Santa Llúcia (in the photo I was standing with my back to the market).

See? I love how they captured the lights and respected the name of the market. It is something very traditional and it is done weeks before Christmas in every town of Catalonia. There you can buy decorations, Christmas’ trees, and the cherished Caga Tió and Caganer ( Christmas pooping log and the Pooping guy, roughly translated, we catalans love poop… don’t ask, but we find it funny :P ).

Yeah, full of Tiós, those logs with faces and hats (barretina in fact, typical catalan, the real one has the strip black and not white as in the anime, I think the thought they were wearing santa’s hats). When you are a kid one day (first days of December) the Tió appears magically at your home. You have to feed him (he will eat whatever you offer him when you are not looking) and the day before Christmas (or the actual day, it depends on the family) you and the other family kids have to sing and beat him with a stick so he poops you presents… Said out loud it sounds ridiculous, but, I SWEAR that as a kid it feels magical XD.

Yeah I love it too Yuuri! <3

And the last for this post! This street it’s called El Portal de l’Àngel, and connects the Catedral with Plaza Catalunya (the central square of Barcelona). You can see the Christmas lights are slightly different, and that’s because they try to change it every few years so it is not always the same. I actually like more the ones from last year :P.

For my wife and me, and many fans from Barcelona, it was new and nice to see our OTP walking the same streets we use to walk and enjoy the Christmas feeling as we do!