Spreading the Cuteness

You might already have seen these cute pup pics on my Instagram, but for those who haven’t, prepare yourselves because I’m about to inject some adorableness into your day and spread cuteness across the blogosphere.

Okay you all ready? Great! Time to meet Oscar the cutest Miniature Jack Russell I’ve ever seen.

2 weeks ago, my brother got his children a puppy and I finally got some free time to go visit and meet the little guy.

When I said little, I really mean little. He’s just absolutely tiny, possibly the smallest pup I’ve ever seen. To give you an idea of how small, he’s smaller than my shoe, which is also kind of scary to think about because if you accidentally step on the poor pup, things wouldn’t be very good (sorry for the horrible visual. My brain has a terrible habit of thinking of the worst-case scenario).

Anyway, back to cuteness. As well as being adorable, Oscar is incredibly chilled. So much so that he took one hell of a dog-nap on me (I really love chilled dogs though, that sit beside you and relax with you so I didn’t mind).

Oscar just got up beside me and snugged in and fall asleep for over an hour like this. Which reminded me a lot of my dog (that died a few months ago). She loved to sleep on or near you. If she wasn’t sleeping with her head on your lap, she was sleeping at your feet or below your chair.

I really enjoyed visiting this wee guy. I was so tempted to bring him home with me, but I think my brother’s children would have something to say about that and probably kick my butt for even suggesting it. Hope you enjoyed the cute pics. Oscar’s only 14-weeks old, so I’ll probably have more cute photos of him as he grows and be able to spread some more puppy cuteness across the blogosphere.

As always, Thanks for reading!

Gacha Life-ing That Character

Me after drawing overload.

After creating a 17-page long chapter for a comic strip (Finding My Own Way), I’m pretty darn beat. Creating a comic takes a lot of work and is pretty time-consuming, so after a lengthy session of comic booking and drawing like a woman possessed, one really needs a way to cool down and relax. How do I relax, you ask? (Well, you probably don’t ask, but it’s a great way to smoothly flowing from one topic to another, so I’ll answer that question anyway)

I relax with some Gacha Life. If you don’t know what that is, Gacha Life is an app/game that allows you to create little characters, then play about with our creations. You can pose them, add in backgrounds and props and even add speech bubbles. Essentially, it’s just a cute little dress-up game, but being a professional eejit, I have found a new use for this game. I pick a random character or person and set myself the challenge of trying to make that character using Gacha Life. This can be a bit tricky at times, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Anyway, let me introduce you to my latest attempts.

Levi from Attack on Titan:
Sadly, the app didn’t have vertical maneuvering equipment, so poor Levi has to do without. He still looks pretty badass though, but Levi just wouldn’t be Levi without fighting a Titan or two, so I posed him with one.

And for all the Levi Fans and even made one of him doing a spot of cleaning.

L from Death Note:
Playing Gacha Life just wouldn’t be fun if I didn’t try to make my favourite anime character, L. In case you’ve forgot who he is, I’ve posed L like we last see him in the anime.

Hmm… he looks a little lonely, so let’s add in a little Ryuk I made earlier to keep him company.

Ed from Fullmetal Alchemist:
I’m pretty proud of how this one turned out. I tried to make an Alphonse and Alex to keep Edward company, but sadly Gacha Life just didn’t have the things needed to make those characters. (Lunime has an anime version of Gacha Life called Gacha Studio, so I might download it and try again with it. I will make a sparkling mini He-Man someday).

Grell from Black Butler:
Another of my favourite characters. I really love Grell, unfortunately though the game didn’t have a chainsaw I got equip Grell with, so I had to make do with a handsaw. Grell still looks pretty menacing with it though. But you know Grell does need a little Bassy to play with, so I made Sebastian too.

Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street:
In case you’re not an anime fan, I also try to make non-anime characters like Freddy with the app. He may be a cute little chibi but I still wouldn’t want him appearing in my dreams.

Predator from Alien Vs Predator:
Okay, this one is a bit of the stretching, but it does sort of look like Predator.

Suga (Yoon-gi) from BTS:

Lastly and cutest of all Yoongi, modelled on my favourite photo of him.

This is my favourite photo

Since I’ll use any opportunity to add a little sweet Suga to a post, here one of Yoongi jamming.

And one of him being the sleepy Yoongi we all love.

Hope you enjoyed my Gacha Life characters; they were a hell of a lot of fun to make. There was a lot of failed attempts during the making of this post, including Goku, Colossal Titan, Alex Armstrong, Alphonse, Yuri from Yuri on ice, Dobby from Harry Potter and Edward Scissorhands. Sadly, Gacha Life just couldn’t capture the awesomeness of these characters, which is why I’ll be checking out Gacha Studio and try to bring you more amazing characters using it.

As always, Thanks for reading!

Flowers in The Garden (Attempting Art Outside)

Have you ever written a post then decided it was just too weird or too crappy to publish, so you deleted it? That’s pretty much been the case with this blog lately. Which probably seems a little strange considering some of the things I post on here. Anyway, it can be a very frustrating cycle to get stuck in. But so that my latest string of deleted posts isn’t a complete loss, I’m going to share the resulting masterpieces from my latest deleted post at the end of this one. I’m sure a lot of K-pop fans will find these masterpieces hilarious, so I’ll add them in at the end and hopefully they’ll brighten your day a little. If you don’t like K-pop, it might be best to ignore this add bonus and stick with the main post. It might be a little too weird.

Back to the main post! A little while ago when it was still warm and sunny and not imitating a monsoon outside, I had the marvellous idea of doing art in the great outdoors. Due to a serious case of the lazys (I really didn’t want to drag paints, brushes and all that outside), I decided to try soft pastels in the vast wilderness that is the garden (yeah, I’m also too socially awkward to try art in the park). So how did this relaxing art session in the garden go?

Well, the sketching part went rather well and was pretty relaxing, despite being joined by a few bugs a couple of times. I managed to draw a few nice little flowers, so at least this part of this little venture was a success.

Just a little cheeky fly hanging out on my page.

The only thing was soft pastels probably weren’t the best idea. The chalky dust of the soft pastels mixed with the breeze made an absolute mess on the page and occasionally sent a rainbow coloured dust cloud floating through the garden. All those movies made doing art outside look so graceful and fulfilling. I on the other hand looked like a lost puppy, trying to use multicoloured smoke signals to communicate with an unseen entity at the bottom of the garden. Not the relaxing inspiring scene I envisioned before giving outdoor art a go. 

So, would I recommend art outside? Probably not with soft pastels! Sketching is pretty easy as long as you can draw with the book on your lap, but using soft pastels outside is another story. I did manage to add a bit of life to my flower; however, it would have been much easier to do indoors and I would have done a much better job. Its probably best to keep the soft pastels for indoor use, unless you’re planning on doing pavement art (which I was so tempted to do). Next time I might try painting in the garden, if it ever stops raining and I recover from the lazy bug.

As always, Thanks for reading!

Bonus: 
Okay time for a little K-pop related giggle to brighten your day, because a good old laugh can really make a stressful or tough day seem a little less miserable and help you reach the end of the day, without slamming your head on your desk or flinging your coffee cup at the dreadfully annoying guy at the office (which will most likely get you fired, probably best to hold off on the old coffee cup throwing). Anyway, the deleted post was about a discussion I had with my eldest niece that lead to the creation of these two wonderful masterpieces. We were very bored and it was raining cats and dogs outside, so we decided to give 2 pictures that were on my niece’s wall a makeover.

The fabulous green love-heart creation is Jungkook from BTS and the blue and gold is Dimash Kudaibergen, who isn’t a K-pop idol but is an extremely talented singer, so he deserved a makeover too. We might have ventured over into cringey fan territory a little with this, but for giggle value alone it was a rainy afternoon well spent. Hope they brought a smile to your face.

The Shop of Nightmares

I’m back posting again. To be honest I had this post ready to be published about 3 weeks ago, but then tragedy struck and I didn’t feel much like blogging (or anything in fact). To keep things short and from getting too depressing, I’ll try to explain how things went from enjoying the summer sunshine to absolute shock and misery, in as little words as I can. Out of nowhere my aunt dropped dead. She wasn’t sick or old or anything, she was only in her 50’s. She just collapsed one evening and died with no warnings. The day before she was babysitting her grandchildren and was very much alive, then the next day she was dead. It was just so sudden and out of the blue, no one seen it coming and left everyone in the family in a state of shock. It hard not to think like this, but its leaves you fearful that someone else might go so suddenly. On top of the shock of my aunt death, the Grim Reaper decided to be a complete a-hole and took my poor wee dog too. Granted my dog was 17 years old and it was bound to happen sooner or later, but for fring sake could death not have left my poor wee dog alone until we all got over the shock and grief of losing an auntie. I might start ranting so I’ll move on before I depress everyone.

Back to the post, before everything happened, I created this short little comic strip just for a bit laugh. It’s based on a few rather messed up trips to the 24hr supermarket I made a night. I’m not sure about anywhere else in the world but after 9pm the 24hr supermarket transforms into a hotspot for the weird and wacky. It’s pretty much a jungle in there, where all the creepiest and strangest people of the night, hide from harsh glow of the city’s neon lights. Laying in wait for someone to thoroughly creep out. Okay I might have got a little carried away there, maybe the people of the night aren’t like animals waiting to pounce, but they can be very strange. Which makes going to the 24hr supermarket when you’ve ran out of milk, bread or tea/coffee for the morning and have no option but to venture inside at night, that little more of a creepy experience. Anyway, for a bit of fun I’ve drawn a few of my strangest encounters with the late-night customers of the 24hr supermarket and made it into the shopping trip from hell. Hope you enjoy!

So here we are at the end of the comic strip and the end of the post, I hope it at least gave you a little bit of giggle. All I can say is thank god these supermarkets are well covered by CCTV and have security guards that take no nonsense. If you’ve ever had strange encounters with people in the 24hr supermarket or convenience store and would like to share, feel free to in the comments below.

As always, Thanks for reading!

Stone Art

After spending the last week or so melting in the heat and splashing in the sea, I’m finally getting back to creating another post. The humidity here lately has been really bad (between 75-95%), creating that sticky lingering dead heat that makes doing anything take 10x the effort (also makes you sweat buckets which is kind of gross). So, to escape the horrid stuffiness of indoors that is not unlike being stuck in a tropical rainforest, I’ve been going to the beach a lot lately. While at the beach I decided to take a few rocks home with me and give them a lick of paint, so for old times’ sake I’m going to turn this little activity into a step by step for rock painting. So, without further delay, I give to you:

 A Step by Step Guide to Rock Painting:

Step 1: Find some rocks/stones- Beach rocks tend to work well for painting because they absorb the paint well and it won’t rub off easily. Make sure you to give your rocks a good wash before painting them, because the salt water/dirt might cause the paint to go grainy (also hygiene and all that).

Step 2: Give your rocks a lick of white paint- This is a bit of an optional step and only really needs to be done on the side you’re going to paint. If you have pale rocks you could probably skip this step. I got my rocks from a beach that is known for its dark coloured rocks. So, I painted my rocks white because the colours would have been very dull and faint, if I haven’t. (Let the paint dry before moving on to step 4 or I’ll most likely create a horrible mess).

Step 3: Stare at your rocks and try to work out what you’re going to paint on them- A little tip here is to try to look at the rock’s shape or outline and think about what it looks like. If that fails think of the weirdest thing you can think of and paint it on the rock. If you’re still having trouble maybe try decorating your rocks.

Step 4: Paint your rocks- Rocks actually make a nice surface to paint on, so enjoy! For this I used acrylic paint because it has very vivid colour and is the easiest type of paint to work with (in my opinion).

Don’t forget to make a mess as you paint!

Step 5: Step back and admire your work- Don’t forget to give yourself a good pat on the back and compliment a job well don’t.

Step 6: Create a little gallery for your rocks- A gallery just wouldn’t be complete without some labels.

Hope you enjoyed this post! I know part of the fun of painting rocks is to hide your painted stones somewhere in a public space for people to find, but I don’t think I’ll do that (might just decorate the windowsill with them). Anyway, I hope this post has inspired you to paint a few rocks yourself and…

As always, Thanks for reading!

A Sort of Belated B-Day Post

I went to the beach for a b-day picnic and the sea was gone, so we spent the day splashing in tide pools.

This month is almost over so it might be a little late for this, but I’ve done a b-day post 2 years running and to don’t want to break habit. June is my birth month and usually I make a special little post to celebrate it, but this year time sort of slipped away. I was drawing a new chapter for the comic strip I Collab on over on Mangatoon (click here for a link to it) and wanted to get it finished and posted as soon as possible, which took up a lot of the free time I use for art and blogging. (If you’re following the comic strip-Finding My Own Way, a new chapter should be up on Mangatoon very soon).

Last year I made a “Silly Things That Life Just Wouldn’t Be the Same Without” list and wanted to keep that sort of personal post thing going. So, after searching the far corners of my brain for a post idea, I’ve decided make a “getting to know you” type post (after realising I never actually made a proper one for this blog) and share 10 facts about myself, so you all can know a little more about me. So, before I ramble on any further, I bring to you:

10 Facts About The Things I’ve Seen Blogger:

1: My name is Kelly. Thought I’d start with an easy one (10 in a big number and it might be hard to reach). Some of you might already know this but Kelly is my actual name and Nel is a nickname I use sometimes.

2: I’m a huge night owl. Night seems to be the time where I come alive the most. During the morning and day, I’m usually not very talkative and kind of slow moving like a sloth, but at night I spring to life, have a load of energy and can get very chatty.

3: Anime preference. When it comes to anime, I’m very much a grazer and like to take my time with a series. Genre wise, I like Shounen, adventure, psychological and horror anime more (any sort of anime that gets you to really think or is mind-boggling). With the exception of a few anime (like Hal, Little Witch Academia and The Garden of Words) I’m not very fussed in romance or cutesy pink fluffy anime (shoujo) (strangely though I do like otome games and romance manga).

4: Celeb crushes. Most people have a wee soft spot for someone famous, which is pretty harmless. I have 2, they are Leonardo DiCaprio (I swear that man is increasing in handsomeness with age) and Min Yoongi (a.k.a Suga), he’s so unbelievably cute.
(It was too hard to choose just one pic of Suga!)

5: A huge secret of mine is that I hate the taste of potatoes. Out of context this seems like a weird secret to keep, but I live in Ireland and for some reason most people here have a strange emotional attachment to potatoes (I’ve witnessed grown adults cry over potatoes, which really doesn’t help the whole Irish stereotype thing). Admitting you don’t like potatoes to other Irish people is a huge no no and would lead to me having to go into hiding. Okay that’s a bit of an exaggeration that probably wouldn’t happen. If I didn’t eat the disgusting flavourless claggy mush that is potatoes, my family and friends would just assume I was seriously ill, had developed an eating disorder or food phobia or was on my death bed and would become really concerned and want to take me to see a doctor urgently. I don’t want to make them worry unnecessarily, so I just choke some potatoes down every day and act like I’m enjoying it. Also potatoes are a staple here and I can’t eat beard or pasta (I have a wheat and barley allergy), so without potatoes my diet would just consist of vegetables, eggs and the odd bit of meat or fish (oh and chocolate and coffee, can’t forget those) and that’s probably not enough to stop me dying from malnourishment. Anyway, enough potato talk and on to the next fact.

6: I might have a bit of a coffee addiction. When I don’t have coffee for over 12 hours, I get really bad migraines, start to feel sick and become incredibly moody. To be honest I suffered from migraines before I became a coffee drinker, so at this point I’m not sure if the migraines are because of coffee withdraw or if the coffee keeps the migraines at bay. Either way without coffee, I don’t feel too good.

7: I’m naturally very quiet. I go hours without talking sometimes or making any sort of sound. This can come off like I’m extremely shy or snobbish sometimes, which is only half true (sometimes I feel too uncomfortable or stressed out to talk in certain people’s presences, so don’t unless absolutely necessary), but most of the time it’s just because I’m content and don’t really have anything be say. It’s not that I’m unsocial, I can start up a conversation even with a stranger. It’s just that I prefer to listen and don’t mind silence, so go quiet a lot.

8: I love drawing Pokémon. I love doodling in general but Pokémon, I find myself doodling them a hell of a lot. They’re just so cute and some of them look really cool. When I’m thinking really hard, more often than not, I’ll end up doodling a Pikachu, Oddish or snorlax in the margin of the page.

9: I’m learning Korean because reading subtitles makes me sleepy and learning Japanese was too hard. This is a bit of a compromise and bit to do with my fascination with writing systems. Anyway, reading subtitles makes me feel very sleepy, but I really like watching anime, J and K-dramas and films which creates a dilemma between watching the shows I like and falling asleep. So, to solve this I decided to try to learn Japanese to eliminate the need to read subtitles. Unfortunately, I found it very difficult and got really confused and lost with the reading systems, so tried learning Korean instead (which still isn’t easy but its more manageable). I can only understand about 10-20% of what is said in a K-drama or horror, but on the bright side I really enjoy learning Korean and writing really random things in hangul.

10:  I always laugh at dad jokes. There’s just nothing like a good old dad joke to lift the spirit and I am the type of person who will laugh at them, even if they’re not funny. The cheesier the joke the better. It’s more the irony and cringeyness of the joke that I laugh at, than the joke itself.

Hope you enjoyed this post, if you’d like to share a fact about yourself, feel free to do so in the comments below. I’d love to hear it.

As always Thanks for reading!

One last photo of Yoongi before you go. Love his gummy smile.

Top 10 Studio Ghibli Movies (Updated)

Lately I’ve been in a very Ghibli mood, a mood that consists of wanting to be awed by wonder, enchantment and cuteness and a hunger that can only be satisfied by watching Studio Ghibli films.  Back in the early days of this blog I made a post listing my top 10 favourite Ghibli films (click here to see that post). After re-watching most of my old favourites and a few Ghibli films I’d never seen before, my opinion on these movies have changed quite a lot. Don’t worry I still love Ghibli films very much and they still hold a big place in my heart (I wouldn’t be in a Ghibli mood otherwise). It’s just that over time and after a huge Ghibli binge-watch (best binge-watch ever), my preference has shifted and my top ten favourites is now very different from the first post I made.

So, for that reason its about time I updated this list and brought to you an updated version of

My Top 10 Favourite Studio Ghibli Films:

Honourable Mention- Pom Poko (↓4)
A lot of people seem not to like this film, personally I found the raccoons antics in this movie really funny. It can be a little crude at times, but looking pass that it’s quite a good film with a positive eco-friendly message to look after the environment and not destroy natural habitats. (Which is a bit of a running theme in Ghibli films)

10: My Neighbour Totoro (NE= New Entry)
This is kind of a funny sort of a film. It’s very nice to watch but it doesn’t really have much of a storyline, it’s more like a series of happenings. I’ll try explaining the plot to show you what I mean, two little girls move to the countryside with their father. The house they move into turns out to be haunted by very cute harmless spirits. You learn the girls’ mother is in hospital with TB and can’t come home which upsets the girls. Their father has to work a lot, so the girls are pretty much left to run wild in the garden and surrounding area. Which leads to them meeting a giant cute bunny-bear like spirit called Totoro. The children hang out and play with Totoro, then the youngest one goes missing. Everyone panics and thinks she’s either gone by herself to visit her mother or drowned in a pond. Then the oldest girl gets on a cat bus and finds her younger sister and the movie then ends with them both eating corn in a tree.
As you can see it’s a bit of a strange film with a very loose plot, which has led to a lot of theories being made about what actually is happening in this film. From suggesting its references toward a real-life disappearance of a school girl, to people theorising that the girls actually die at the end of the film and that’s why they’re sitting in a tree (because apparently spirit rest in trees at night). However, it’s incredibly cute and sweet, which is what makes the film so enjoyable (you could quite possibly get tooth ache from watching it).

9: The Tale of Princess Kaguya (NE)
The animation style of this film so very different from other Ghibli films, it looks more like a hand painted moving talking watercolour, than the typical Ghibli art style. It’s subtle colour scheme and intriguing storyline makes it very relaxing and beautiful to watch. It does have a lot of religious and mythological references, which some mightn’t like. But if you’re interested in mythology and don’t mind the odd religious reference, its quite a nice watch. Like most Ghibli films it also has a positive message, which is to not chase after others idea of happiness or force your idea of happiness upon others (including your children and other family members). Basically, the film’s message is about achieving true happiness.

8: The Secret World of Arrietty (↑1)
This film has moved up one place in this list mainly because of its breathtakingly beautiful scenes and animation. In the last list, I think I underappreciated how amazing and stunning the animation was (probably because now I know the level of work that goes into creating scenes like those in the film). Story wise I prefer this version of the borrowers over the 1997 borrowers films. It’s very heart-warming and lovely to watch and puts a nice wee spin on the concept of borrowers.

7: Castle in The Sky (↑3)
Castle in The Sky has moved up quite a bit in this list. In the last list I forgot about the sense of wonder this film creates and about the sky pirates. Ghibli sky pirates are a rather likable odd bunch. At first, they seem like bad news but as the film goes on, they become goofier and seem more like a big bunch of softies. Especially, Dola who is a great character and is like a kooky, really cool grandmother that takes no guff and is tough as nails but is still kind at heart. The sky pirates all add a little bit of comedy and relatability to what is already a sweet and mysterious film with beautiful animation.

6: Kiki’s Delivery Service (↑2)
I re-watched Kiki’s Delivery Service with my nephew and he was outrage at behaviour in this film, which made me realise how bananas this film actually is. My nephew was completely horrified that parents would let a 13-year-old go off by themselves and in complete shock at Kiki breaking the stranger danger rule over and over again and getting in a car with a stranger. You would have sworn he was watching a horror movie instead of a Ghibli film. His overreaction and ranting towards this film made watching it so much funnier. But in saying that he does have a point, this film is sort of messed up and the more you think about Kiki does put herself in quite a few situations that would be incredibly dangerous in the real world (even for an adult). Anyway, seeing Kiki’s Very Dangerous Delivery Service from a new point of view, made me appreciate how surreal the Ghibli universe actually is (there is so many Ghibli films where children wander of by themselves and do really dangerous things and everyone acts spookily happy about it), which is why it was given a higher place on this list. (Funniest thing is my nephew says he liked this film, but like Ponyo better. He really loves Ponyo)

5: Ponyo (↓1)
Ponyo is a very cute and magical Ghibli film that really has the awe factor. With its beautiful use of colour and breath-taking animation, it’s really enjoyable and hypnotic just to look at. Story wise, its incredibly sweet and just plain adorable. It’s the kind of film that would warm even the coldest of hearts. No matter how many times I see this movie I never get sick of it. The only reason it fell a spot on this list, was to make room for a film I’ve only seen for the first time recently.

4: When Marnie was There (NE)
The best way to describe this film is a mysterious ghost story that shows the beauty of friendship. There is just so much twist and turns in this film and it’s just so mysterious. It will constantly keep you guessing and glued to the screen. At one point I didn’t have a baldy (a clue) what was happening and found myself completely enthralled in the film, very eagerly wanting to know what the fudge was happening. The ending of this film is very bitter sweet, it’s lovely and warms the cockles of the heart but is also really sad and might even make you shed a tear. It has a little more of a mature feel to it than other Ghibli films, but all around it’s an amazing film and one definitely worth watching. I regret not watching it sooner.

3: Spirited Away (↓1)
Spirited Away is a film that most anime and Ghibli fans will have seen at least once in their life. It holds a special place in a lot of people’s hearts and it’s not hard to see why. It’s so magical and cute and very different from anything you’ve probably ever seen. For me its where my love of anime and Ghibli began. As a child I was so innocent and naïve that I didn’t even know anime was a thing. Weird thing is I had watched quite a lot of anime before this film (Pokémon, Digimon, Beyblade, Yu-Gi-Oh! and even Princess Mononoke), but never caught on that they were anime. To me they were just cartoons the same as all the others I loved to watch. It wasn’t until my Dad put a film on the TV (which was Spirited Away) and the announcer called it an Anime film from Japan, that I know there was such thing as anime. I was so taken by Spirited Away, that I wanted to know more about what anime was and from there my love of anime blossomed. Which is why it’s in the top 3.

I love Turnip-head so much, that I redrew him.

2: Howl’s Moving Castle (↑1)
Glob I love the sassy old lady power in this movie. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of those Ghibli films that really deliver on that magical mysterious feel. Its story contains so much mystery that on the first watch, it’ll constantly have you guessing about so many things like Howl, the castle, the fire demon Calcifer, turnip head and what on earth is going on in this film. This mixed with its magical creatures and enchanted objects and devices, gives a real feel of awe and wonder. On top of this, it tells a heart-warming love story that teaches there is more to being loved than a pretty face. Its animation is absolutely beautiful and has so many cool little details which is why it’s my favourite film animation wise. All round Howl’s Moving Castle is a wonderful Ghibli film.

1: Princess Mononoke
Although everything else in this list has changed, my no. 1 favourite Ghibli film has stayed the same. It was the first Ghibli film I had ever seen (even though I didn’t know it was at the time), so it’s kind of special to me. But I think that’s the same with everyone’s first Ghibli film. Your first Ghibli film is usually the one that makes you fall in love with Ghibli and opens the door to the wonderful world of Ghibli. So, it’s not hard to see why most people’s first Ghibli film is their favourite.
First time I watched Princess Mononoke, I was completely dumbfounded, in a state of pure astonishment and amazement. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I instantly fell in love with its beautiful animation style and was really taking by it. I remember the first time watching this film, trying to slowly edge closer and closer to the TV, to really take in its beautiful scenery. Then having sofa cushions flung at me by my siblings and having the snot beat out of me with one for blocking their view. Though I didn’t fully understand the films plot or symbolism as a child, I still loved it and enjoyed every minute of it. As an adult, I continue to love this film and have re-watched it so many times. It’s just so amazing and unique, it really is a great Ghibli film.

Hope you enjoyed this Ghibli top 10 update. The first time I posted a Ghibli top 10, I made a top 10 Non-Ghibli anime film list, to link in with that post. I haven’t decided yet whether to update that list too, but if people are interested in seeing that update, I’ll update it too.

As always Thanks for reading and if you have a favourite Ghibli film, don’t be afraid to tell me about it in the comments below. I’d love to hear about it.

Ko-fi
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The Dark Lotus Company (Part 3)

It’s been quite a while since I posted part 1 and 2 of this little chibi style animated comic. Its probably about time I finished the episode and let you all know how it ends and if the detectives find Mr Flops. Part 2 left things on a bit of a cliff-hanger, so it’d be a bit mean not to finish it. You’ll be happy to know I’ve gotten the hang of the stop-motion a bit more, so was able to get the characters and objects to move a lot better than in the last videos.

In case you’ve missed part 1 and 2 and would like to watch them, I’ll post them both under part 3. Hope you enjoy!

Part 3:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Hope you enjoyed the episode. If people like these little chibi videos posts, I’ll try to make more episodes. Just keep in mind that they take a really long time to make, so there might be quite a gap between videos. There’ll a lot of fun to make though and sort of relaxing, so I’ll probably end up making another episode even if I don’t turn it into a video and post it.

As always Thanks for reading!

I started up a Ko-fi, unfortunately this old butt can’t work out how to put the Ko-fi button in a post. So, if you’d like to show your support for my artwork and blog by buying me a coffee. Which will provide the caffeine fuelled madness creativeness needed to produce such work, feel free to check out my Ko-fi page using this link: Ko-fi.com/thethingsiveseen

Bird Box

I’m a little late of the mark with this post, but Bird Box is a film I’ve wanted to talk about for a while. But before we get further into this post, there’ll probably (most likely) be SPOILERS in this post, so if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want it spoiled, you might want to stop reading.

Back to the movie, all in all the film itself was okay. It isn’t the greatest film I’ve ever seen but it’s watchable and has an interesting concept. However, when rating apocalypse type films I like to consider how difficult it would be to survive them. Sadly, for Bird Box it would be very easy for a particular large group of people to survive and I don’t mean the mentally ill people in the movie or the fully blind. But before I explain, let’s have a quick summary of Bird Box’s concept for those who are unfamiliar with the movie.

Essentially in the film there is a monster on the loose that causes people to kill themselves if they look at it. This leads to people wearing blindfolds to avoid catching sight of the monster. However, the monster has a different effect on the mentally unwell and they see it as the most beautiful thing they’ve ever set eyes on. Which in turn, causes them to have an overwhelming desire to run around pulling off blindfolds and trying to force people to look at the monster (causing the victim to die from doing so). It’s a pretty interesting concept, but when you give it a bit more thought it sort of falls in on itself. Considering you have to see the monster for it to have an effect, there is another rather large group of people (other than the completely blind), that could easily survive Bird Box, which quite a few of you and myself belong too.

So, what is this incredible superpower that protects from the monster? Well, its probably wouldn’t be considered a superpower in a normal situation, but in the Bird Box world it pretty much is. Anyway, this superpower is poor eyesight. By this I don’t mean complete blindness, I mean eyesight just poor enough that you can’t navigate this world without wearing your glasses. Let me explain more.

Something I’ve never really mentioned on this blog is that without glasses I have dirt poor eyesight (everything’s a blurry mess of fuzzy shapes and colours and without glasses I can’t even identify family members. I also tend not to draw myself wearing glasses. Not because of vanity, it’s because I’ve had to wear glasses all the time since 8years old and forget I’m wearing them). From doing quite the remarkable Mr. Magoo impression while not wearing glasses, I’ve discovered a monster sized loophole in Bird Box’s plot that would mean a rather large percent of mankind could survive the Bird Box apocalypse.

It probably seems obvious at this point, how a poor sighted person could survive Bird Box, but just for fun I’ll go into detail. Basically, all they’d have to do to survive is remove their glasses (yeah, it’s really as simple as that). If you can’t even make out objects 2 feet in front of your face, it’d be impossible to see a monster standing on the other side of the street or sitting up in a tree. Let’s just face it, with dirt poor eyesight the monster could probably walk up and headbutt you and you still wouldn’t be able to see it. So, you’d be very much immune to the monster’s powers (you still wouldn’t be immune to walking into a lamp post or tripping over a cat, though).

But wait what about those crazed monster worshiper people, you ask? What if they attack you, forcibly put back on your glasses and force you to look at the monster?  Well, here’s the hard part. After you remove your glasses, you’re going to have to break them into tiny pieces, including the lenses, then have a cry over how expensive those glasses were.

After that you’d be pretty safe from the monster worshipers too, because even if the monster worshipers forcibly took you to the pharmacy to get a pair of those over the counter glasses, those glasses won’t make a button of difference. They’re more like a reading glasses than seeing glasses, so you’ll still be able to see bug all. It’s also highly unlikely that there’d be an optician amongst the monster worshipers to provide you with proper glasses, so you’d still be immune to the monster.

I know the monster worshipers are still quite dangerous, they’re heavily armed in the film and could attack you for not loving the monster. So, for an added safety precaution you might want to put your acting skills to the test and pretend to be one of them, if you bump into monster worshipers in the Bird Box apocalypse (to be honest, they all seem pretty high on monster so it probably wouldn’t be that difficult to fool them. Just compliment the monster or comment on how beautiful it is and they wouldn’t notice your not one of them).

Overall, I wasn’t very taken by Bird Box and think it was slightly over hyped. Right enough, a monster that causes death by just looking at it, is scary and could be seen as fantastic symbolism. But with a sieve-like plot, it loses its impact. The more you think about this film the more plot holes you find. For example, it didn’t matter if the babies seen the monster because they don’t have the ability or understanding to hurt themselves. Also, being in a situation where a deadly monster seems to be always present just waiting for its chance to strike you dead, would in itself be enough to drive a person to madness, therefore the monster would lose its deadly effect. Considering all this I would only recommend watching Bird Box if you’re curious/interested about its concept. Just don’t expect too much from it.

Rating: 2.5/5

Hope you enjoyed this post, it might seem a bit of a strange way to review this film, but I thought it’d be nice to shake things up and add a bit of fun to the post.

As always thanks for reading!

I’m Back

A while ago, I had to go on an unexpected unannounced hiatus. Nothing big or shocking happened, it was just that a lot of things creeped up on me at once and things got extremely busy, so I didn’t have much time to blog. Thankfully things have calmed down a little now and I’m back. It feels so good to be blogging again, it felt like I lost a limb while on hiatus. Not creating blog posts or not having time to read others’ blogs, was so incredibly dull. It really is great to be blogging again.

So, what did I get up to while in hiding?

Well, I’ve got a little bit of news to share with you all. The Collab comic strip project I was doing with Anjani, is being posted over on MangaToon. So, I’ve been spending a lot of my art/drawing time working on it (which is so much fun). I really love making comics, even though my drawing skills still need a lot of improvement. Drawing really exaggerated faces is a hell of a lot of fun and can be very amusing at times. (If you have the MangaToon app and/or would like to check the comic out, it’s called Finding my own way.)

As well as the comic, I’ve been practicing more traditional art (and doodling a lot). I’ll include a few of the better things I’ve created to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to. Lately the doodling habit has reached a new level, I pretty much doodle on any piece of paper I get my hands on, which lead this creation.

It started off as just a little doodle on the page, but I went doodle mad and got a little carried away. Before realising it, the page was completely covered in doodles. But in saying that, I like this big doodle.

I’ve also been messing experimenting with paint and trying out different techniques, so have created quite a few experimental and abstract pieces. I’ll show you a few examples of these pieces because there’s too many to put in one post.

I gave him K-pop hair (those drops are red paint, in case you were getting scared)

Abstract is actually kind of hard

Lastly soft pastels, I’ve finally worked out how to use them without nearly dying from breathing in the dust. So, I’ve been working hard to try to master soft pastels and after quite a few fails, eventually created something worth sharing.

So that us all caught up art wise, hope you enjoyed this little art update. I have a movie related post planned so hopefully that will be up soon too.

Glad to be back and as always thanks for reading!