Archives for category: Walling

Since upgrading to Windows 7, I’ve taken full advantage of the awesome new background slide show functionality. I usually use a mix of anime wallpapers that I’ve made with some original wallpapers tossed in, but I tend to cycle through and retire the wallpapers on display fairly quickly depending on my mood. But, recently I managed to come across a “golden combination” of my old wallpapers which somehow just hits the spot and has been on my desktop for the last few weeks. If I had to consciously put together a collection of wallpapers I doubt I would’ve picked these ones, but somehow all the different styles and subject matter work together really well.

Ghost in the Shell:

Yūsuke Nakamura:
Welcome to My World by flyindreams

Kimi ni Todoke:
Kazehaya by flyindreams

Yuri Kormin:
Guist by Yuri Kormin

Six for Tea: Wallers for Japan Disaster Relief

Join us in fundraising for Japan through Mercy Corps! You can help out in a variety of ways:

1. DONATE! Why? Because it’ll make you feel good, I swear. Plus, Mercy Corps is a reputable charity that’s doing great things in Japan, from delivering supplies and counseling children to issuing store vouchers to help kick-start the local economy.

2. Promote! Facebook! Twitter! Email! PM! Spread the word out about this project in any and all ways you can think of :D

3. Wall! We’d like to expand the collection of wallpapers that we’re offering to donors. Make a wall for the collection, or make a promotional wallpaper for the project and kill two birds with one stone!

We only just started officially promoting the project yesterday, but the show of generosity from walling community members has been astounding. Help us keep the momentum going – together we can make this fundraiser a success!

Madoka's Prayer

…the Madoka OP is probably the best OP ever for depicting things that “never happened.” :D

I hadn’t planned to watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica – it didn’t even make my winter 2010 wishlist because it looked so generic. But then everyone started making a fuss about it and I read this interview with Madoka’s director Gen Urobuchi (there are minor plot spoilers in the interview, so avoid as needed):

As a game scenario writer, Urobuchi is noted for heavy, often gruesome, storylines and a devoted following. I have been unable to tear myself away from this story of young girls facing hardship. Urobuchi said he was tasked with creating a serious anime that contained an element of surprise. He decided to apply his usual style to the often cliche magic girl genre.

So I checked out the series and was hooked, especially from episode 5 on. Madoka is certainly no generic magical girl show, and even though I spoiled parts of the plot for myself by reading the Gen Urobuchi interview before I started watching the show, each episode still managed to surprise me in some way. Underneath the pink frilly mahou shoujo cover is a really dark and devastating core, and the turn on conventional anime cliches is really refreshing to see.

Quick plug:

Six for Tea: Wallers for Japan Disaster Relief

Please give what you can!

I won the desktop category of the C3 Winter Contest with my Nausicaä wallpaper w00t!

Windrider

…I’m putting the $20 winnings into a personal tablet fund. I’ve been saying that I’d get a tablet for YEARS. Maybe this will finally get me over the line :P

C3 Winter Contest Award Banner

Much thanks to Rain for putting on a nice contest for us! The new C3 404 Page Contest is another fun one with a great theme, so definitely swing by and check it out!

I originally wanted to make January Studio Ghibli Month in honor of Hayao Miyazaki‘s 70th birthday, but as I started browsing through scans I realized that I had too many wall ideas and not enough time to deliver. So I figured, why not make this a year-long personal project? Expect to see a lot more Ghibli-related blog posts, tweets, and of course, Ghibli/Miyazaki walls from me throughout the year! This is not to say that I’ll only be making Studio Ghibli walls in 2011, but I will be prioritizing those WIPs. In the meantime, if there are any Studio Ghibli films that you’d like to see more walls for, please let me know!

P.S. Just realized that I’d forgotten to enable multiple selections – you can now vote for more than one Ghibli films that you’d like to see more walls of!

Studio Ghibli Logo (from theanimeblog.com)

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One of these days I swear I’ll stop texture whoring ; D;

Haku

Hayao Miyazaki / Spirited Away / Haku <3

The 2010 AP Clash of the Wallers came to an epic end a few weeks ago, and we’ve had a fantastic run. Some random final competition stats include:

  • 13 pages and 67 posts were written up and divvied into 10 categories by Jay & I.
  • 673 comments (!!) in total were posted and approved for the Clash site, although a solid number of those comments probably came from Jay & I during the early planning stages.
  • Akismet protected us from a staggering amount of spam – 2,645 spam comments, to be exact. Damn you spammers and spam-bots!! :x
  • Our busiest day was Sunday, July 18, 2010 with 1,974 page views, since that was the day when the Round 1 elimination challenge results came out 8)
  • As of now, the Clash site has received 34,085 page views in total.
  • 8 promotional walls were made that we know of – there may have been a few others that slipped past our radars.
  • 28 walls were made for the 2 immunity challenges, and 61 walls were made for the 3 elimination challenges. Which means that our amazing participants submitted a grand total of 89 walls for Clash!!!
  • Of the 89 walls that were made for the competition, 45 walls were submitted to AP (that we know of).

Looking over the rounds 1, 2, and 3 galleries, it’s simply mind-boggling the sheer number of quality walls that have come out of this competition. So here’s one final bout of extra love from me for some of the sweet walls from Clash’s final round :D You can also check out the Clash Round 3 Gallery to see all the walls from the final round that were submitted to AP!

Finally, Wasteland Limits by X-Angel-0
A strong piece of original art that successfully portrays an eerie and surreal dreamscape. It comes with a great story as well!

Finally, Wasteland Limits by X-Angel-0

Sweet Mary Jane by ze
Well-designed simplicity which looks good on the desktop :D Plus it’s a Baccano! wall, for all you Baccano fans out there!

Sweet Mary Jane by ze

Aurora by shigemitsubaki
Another stunning piece of original art from Tsu which basically stole the competition, for fairly obvious reasons ;) The AP version that Tsu uploaded has a different character to the Clash original, but since the Clash version was the one that stole my heart, that’s the one I’m linking to here.

Aurora by shigemitsubaki

Since the Clash immunity challenge winners for round 1 have been announced, I figured I’d give a little extra love to some of my favorite walls from this challenge:

Wait by jubjub
Loved the exquisite simplicity and the subtle melancholy that this wall was able to convey through so few elements.

Wait by jubjub

Da Ba Dee, Da Ba Die by Horseradish
Funk + soul + Spike of Bebop fame, what’s not to like? :D

Da Ba Dee, Da Ba Die by Horseradish

Give Me Symphonies by ze
I’m obviously a junkie for simplicity, but the typography in this wall is also love!

Give Me Symphonies by ze

I marathoned through the whole of Nodame Cantabile: Finale yesterday, and now there is a dark gaping void in my life which used to be filled with Nodame goodness. I almost blew the internet cap in the viewing process, but gosh it was worth it. I had delayed starting Finale because I thought this would happen, given how much I love the series. Despite the fact that I was utterly traumatized by the abrupt manga ending, seeing it again in anime form the second time wasn’t quite as bad. In fact, the anime actually helped me come to terms a bit more with the manga ending.

I think Nodame Cantabile is the ONLY series where I’ve read the entire manga, watched all three anime seasons, and the live action series (to the Europe special). I may have to track down the two live action movies soon. I also started a Nodame WIP to attempt to fill the abyss in my soul… it’s sort of helping :D

Nodame WIP

Seeing this image in the ED sequence always tore at my heartstrings, so… love to Nodame and Chiaki, and why, WHY did such an awesome series have to end? Whyyy?

I was actually pretty excited when I saw that the Minitokyo Knockout Round 3 theme was Art Nouveau, since I’ve never tried the style before. And with the non-human subject requirement I immediately thought “YEAH MOKONA!!!” Gotta give loves to my internet alter-ego 8) The scan that I ended up using immediately struck a chord, not only because it puts Mokona up front and center, but also because of the heavy Japanese style which feeds directly into the Art Nouveau theme.

Mokona Nouveau (1920x1200)

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