Thanks for the interest, guys!
Mad Harlequin wrote:You could pick a historical figure about whom few details are known, if you wanted more leeway with writing.
Mad Harlequin wrote:It's definitely not lame! You have samurai that don't look like airbrushed underwear models!
I don't particularly mind if you make the MC a woman (there are plenty of fascinating stories about samurai women!), but if you go with a man instead, you have the opportunity to explore some complex social values and relationship dynamics of the to the time period.
It's not just samurai women, actually. It's "historical figure XYZ is actually a woman in disguise and somehow nobody knew that!" So if I go that route, it would be kind of different than just making an OC samurai woman in historical context. I originally wanted to add "WTF pairing" in the title, but there wasn't enough space. It's all kinds of awkward because this is like one of those fanfics involving a pairing that doesn't make much sense in canon... except I'm doing it with actual history.
I'm not entirely worried about leeway, considering even with people who ARE well-known, apparently it's allowed to do all sorts of crazy things with them. That's what the Japanese people themselves do. Maaaybe the rules are different with me because I'm not Japanese, but... a number of manga authors who include so-and-so samurai in their manga sometimes admit in the comment section that they are bad with history and know jack squat about the people they write about. And the interpretation they used in the manga is just a rehash of all the done-to-death tropes.
I researched enough to know that I'm not pulling complete bullshit out of thin air, so... yeah... I kind of thought, "To hell with logic, then" the day I found the novel where Uesuhi Kenshin was a woman in disguise and the plot involves romance with Takeda Shingen
(if you don't know who I'm babbling about, please wiki them)
underbliss wrote:In regards to your cloud textbox: perhaps you could consider looking up traditional Japanese art cause the way clouds are drawn in that style is quite distinctive and it seems like it might be easy to translate into a textbox, but that's totally easier said than done. Maybe just adding a bit of that swirly smokey flare around your tendrils would do the trick..
But aside from that suggestion, I like the asymmetric shape it has now, but I think there is something off in the 'balance'... like the textbox background needs to be larger or/and the text needs a greater margin... That's what I'd tinker with, anyway!
I think your scroll design looks really cool and the unscrewing thing is awesome!
That's what I was trying to do, actually. As I said in the sample narration, I want the GUI to be styled like an "emaki", so I referenced the clouds from the Heike monogatari emaki. I even tried to apply the gold-leaf bits to the clouds
I don't know how to fix the off-balance-ness of it, though TT___TT I already changed the cloud shape a few times and this is the best that came out so far, but it still looks off *weeps*
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Contemplating to draw the sprites traditionally to make it look even more like an emaki. That, or somehow figure out a way to emulate ink brush strokes digitally. I've seen plenty of "faking watercolour" tutorials, but not ink brush strokes...
I tried markers earlier, but it's totally not working well. I have very limited amount of markers and I'm not liking the way the character ended up looking when inked this way:
I think I will be using this method that I once tried. I just need to refine the technique more...
Painted in watercolours, inked with a brush-pen.