The Chaotic Life of Adrien Melody

Since I felt inspired to draw Konata in pencil , I’ve been drawing a lot more lately. My results at freehand drawing have been pretty satisfying, and two days ago I decided to tackle another character. For no reason in particular, I chose Shantae, a popular video game character . I did a Google search to find some reference images to use, and came across one with Shantae wearing a bikini and lying on a beach. Although naturally eye-catching, I felt it would be too challenging to attempt. I usually only draw the top halves of people—full-body anatomy is waaaayy  beyond my level, or so I thought. Even my full-body drawing of Konata was far from perfect—although it isn’t obvious, the proportions were a bit  off . I really didn’t think it would pay off to try drawing a character in such an elaborate pose as this one. But I decided to give it my best shot, and over the course of the morning I laid out a rough sketch. The legs were the most challenging part, and I left them mostly ...

  I’m not a very good artist, but once in a while I decide to draw something. This time, it was Konata Izumi from  Lucky☆Star . I had just finished watching  Nichijou: My Ordinary Life , and I had  really  enjoyed it. (In fact, I was so impressed with it that I splurged on a copy of the UK-only limited-edition Blu-ray —which I happened to find brand-new on eBay!) My only disappointment with Nichijou was that it had only one season. Thinking another one of Kyoto Animation’s earlier titles might give me that same feel-good slice-of-life energy, I decided to watch  Lucky☆Star . Although it’s really nothing like  Nichijou ,  Lucky☆Star  has been very enjoyable. It’s filled with references to Japanese culture and media (particularly  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya , another of KyoAni’s earlier works). The characters—including the core cast of four high school girls—are fairly simple, but they’re enjoyable and endearing. There isn’t much ...