Monday, February 29, 2016

Every Little Thing "Koe"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

! Happy Late Pokemon Day !

Dedicated to my grandfather


"声 ~ Koe" (Echoes)
Original by: Every Little Thing (Pokemon The Movie: White)

~ COVER ~
Vocals: Kyttyee (http://www.youtube.com/KyttyeeChii)
Artwork/Animation: Papillon de Nuit (http://www.papillondenuit.net/)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Turkey Parade

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



Back at the end of autumn or beginning of  winter, I was headed on my way to run some errands when I saw a small flock of turkeys walking across the road. I know they lived around my area, and I had frequently heard them making gobbling noises during the day, but this was the first time I actually saw them in person.




I was surprised how close the birds let me get to them. I guess they are pretty accustomed to people and cars passing by them. They were actually rather quiet while I was taking photos of them, just making slight half-gobbles and peeps. I do know they can make quite a racket when they want to though!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Nutcracker Reflections

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



The performance DVDs and photobooks from the Nutcracker performance I was part of in December recently arrived, and reminded to me to take a moment to pause and reflect on the show. The recording and photography are really nicely done and will be an excellent souvenir of the performances, which were a lot of fun!

I performed as the Marzipan/Mirliton soloist in the second act of the show, as well as part of the Snow corps. It was a lot of work to learn and perfect the choreography, but it was definitely worth it in the end. We originally only had one performance planned, but demand for tickets was so high that we actually added a second performance!




My only regret is not having had time to get the right assortment of pointe shoes and thus had to worry about whether they would last through both performances. Fortunately, with some shellac and jet glue, it worked out ^_^

As always, ballerinas are perfectionists, and looking my dancing in the video, I'm happy that my footwork and extensions through the legs has improved greatly, but going forward, I do want to focus more on extending that energy through my upper body and arms as well, because I think that was my weak point in both pieces.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Goals for 2016

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~



I know it's already a month into 2016, but I have been thinking a lot about all of the things, big and small, that I want to work on or accomplish this year. I think a lot of New Year's resolutions end up fizzling out because they are often too vague or too unrealistic. Thus, in setting my goals, I chose mostly small things that I think are feasible, and limit myself to just one broad conceptual goal for this year:


Allow myself to be imperfect.



That is my theme for 2016 (and beyond, really). I am too often a perfectionist, and I feel like that holds me back from progress in improving my skills and just getting things done even if they are not 100% to my satisfaction. This year, I want to remember to allow myself to be imperfect, and to be able to finish and appreciate things that I do while still being critical of what I need to improve and learning from them. A lot of my smaller, more concrete goals are things I've wanted or hoped to do, but never actually achieved because I wouldn't allow myself to call a project finished until I thought it was perfect. Unfortunately, many of those projects have just never been finished. I would like to work on changing that this year.


And now for smaller, more specific things I would like to do in 2016:

- Explore more - Madison is such a lovely city with lots of venues both natural and urban to explore. I tend to be a bit of a shut-in if left to my own devices, and I want to push myself to venture out to places by myself more. Perhaps an expedition each month would be a good place to start!

- Send more snail mail - There's a certain charm to old-fashioned snail mail that I was reminded of over Christmas when I participated in a card exchange. I've also made a few new penpals, and I want to set a goal of writing each of them at least once a month.

- Dress up more - And take more outfit photos! Over the past year, I've stopped dressing up so much, only really putting on workout clothes to head to dance classes and rehearsals. I'd like to this year just dress up for no reason, and take pretty photos, even if I'm not planning to go anywhere special. I love wearing Lolita and the way the fashion makes me feel, and I think it would really help pick up my mood just to wear something pretty and froofy even if I'm just faffing about the house.

- Make more Youtube videos - I want to post a new video every month in 2016. Every year, I start out hoping to make more videos, but only ever sporadically finish anything I consider "good enough" to post, whether because of recording or artwork not meeting my own standards. I'd like to force myself to create and upload something every month this year, even if it's not perfect.

- Be more active in Youtube singing - In keeping with wanting to make and post more videos, I also would like to meet more people and make new friends who also enjoy singing covers of Japanese pop songs on Youtube. I used to be active in the groupdubbing community, but due to personal reasons as well as an overall decline of the community, I have become a mostly lone singer the last few years. I would like to reconnect with other online singers. To do so, I will push myself to search out and participate in chorus battles (starting with the Museical Trio Chorus Battle with some old friends from my groupdubbing days).

- Play more music - I have a lot of instruments, and am pretty good at playing at least half of them. I want to set a goal to play at least one of them for some amount of time every day this year, whether that's five minutes or a couple of hours. I love playing the piano especially, and I do miss it and want to make myself start playing more again.

- Record five acoustic covers - I'm actually trained primarily as an instrumental musician, I have no real voice training other than from choir, so it's actually a bit funny that pretty much all of my covers are just vocals (with a pre-made backing track). So, to change that, I want to make five acoustic covers this year (that's a nice round number...).

- Write a song - I have composed several pieces of instrumental music in the past, and I really enjoy it. It's something I want to push myself to do more, so I'm setting a goal of writing at least one song in 2016.


And some art-related goals for 2016:

- Share and be brave - I tend to be shy about showing people my artwork, because I consider most, if not all of it, to be mediocre at best. But in keeping with my goal of allowing myself to learn and grow while acknowledging my progress to reach where I am at the moment, I will reblog each of my own artwork posts at least once, preferably twice (this is my assignment from my good friend Jazzmoth).

- Start commissions - And in keeping with being brave, I want to set up a good commission information page, and allow myself to promote / advertise it once every 3 months this year.

- Do an Artist Alley - I have been thinking about doing an Artist Alley for quite awhile now, and I in fact have done several, but as an artisan / craftsperson rather than as an illustrator. I want to do an Artist Alley this year in which I feature some of my illustration work, even if I do still offer my small accessories for sale as well. To start modestly, I am currently thinking of trying for a table at Geek Kon because that is local to me and would be less stressful in terms of travel logistics.

- Make more art - Because I am still at a stage with my art that requires some amount of inspiration to really get good results, I am hesitant to put any hard numbers on this goal, and will let it rest as a broader overarching resolution. I would like not only to draw more overall, but to also explore different repertoire, even if I am not good at them. I want especially to learn how to retain the dynamism and spontaneity of my sketches in the polishing process for my more refined pieces.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~