m.e.l.a.n.c.h.o.l.i.a

My return to Hetalia fandom is totally due to some of the history books I've been reading lately and, I swear, nothing helps me remember history like Hetalia faces popping into my head XD

Most of the recs below are US/UK-centered and gems from the UK filter of the hetalia kink meme (hence, the character bias fffff). Pretty short list, but I'm picky like that and it's SO hard to find really good historical stuff (or I'm just not looking at the right places, idk). I skipped through most Revolutionary War fics (there are too many), so I probably missed a lot of good ones. Most of these are serious/angsty/bittersweet which is rare for me as I tend to avoid angst fics in general, but I can't help loving these to bits because it fits the context so well that I won't have it any other way <3

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( I should warn you that I'm no history major so please mind any ignorant/oblivious comments. Also, warning for LOADS OF HISTORY. )

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That done with, I'm looking for fics for particular timelines/ events as listed below. Admittedly, I haven't looked very far and am still looking (whenever I get into tiem for history! mode), so perhaps there will be more historical fic recs coming when I've compiled enough for another post.

- N.Italy Renaissance era, especially with mention of big names like the Medicis, the Borgias, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Savonarola, etc
- Anything US+UK that is historical and NOT Revolutionary War (EDIT: The Great Rapprochement plz? XD)
- UK Victorian era, mentions of classic lit authors (FOUND ONE ON THE KINK MEME THAT I LIKED BUT FORGOT TO BOOKMARK IT /SOBS)
- The Black Death, all of Europe (see this neat gif of the spread of the plague through Europe)
- UK and Prussia Seven Years' War (there isn't enough UK and Prussia, dammit)
- Dissolution of Prussia after WWII (to how he became that guy bumming around Germany's house in modern Hetalia canon ffff)
- England Harrying of the North, mentions of Domesday Book
- Young?Greece during Alexander the Great's conquest

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YES, THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO KICK MY LJ BACK TO LIFE. New layout all.

First off, have a crappy sketch I did months back as a sort of tribute fanart to a fill on the Hetalia kink meme (yay for not practicing for over a year).



It's a medical AU, as you can see fffff. I've been reading so much serious, historical fics (Catholic Prussia and UK/Guy Fawkes psshhhh- how brilliant is that?) recently that this one felt so much like guilty pleasure reading.

Next, full listing of all my books under the cut. Something spawned out of an obsessive compulsion to catalogue the books on my shelf, excluding manga and Enid Blyton/ Sweet Valley/ Goosebump stuff from childhood.

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( Maybe when I'm neurotic enough, I'll sum up the amount of money spent on this whole stash. )
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Currently reading Stephen Hunt's The Rise of the Iron Moon which I totally bought because it's steampunk. It's not the usual fantasy formula despite the typical basic plot and, as far as reviews go, appear to be one of those love/hate books. This is my second title from Stephen Hunt, so clearly I like it. Might ramble about it when I'm done~

...Indeed, I currently have copious amounts of free time to waste right now. Quitting work (almost, anyway) does that to a person =/ So what better way to spend the afternoon than to do a self-manicure?



This is the first polish I've done that remotely has any kind of design so I'm feeling ridiculously accomplished over it. It's called a Ruffian, done with Elianto Silky Brown and Revlon Midnight Affair. I need to get a proper topcoat. I'm just using transparent polish and this thing gets annoyingly bumpy when it dries /pissed.

Now I'm gonna go waste more time re-doing my layout, tags, userpics, etc.

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Super belated gift for bergaya_haru OTL I'M SO SORRY, I HOPE I REDEEMED MYSELF WITH THE BAD ANAT, CRAPPY COLOR SCHEME, AND SPARKLES HERE /SOBS/



I really didn't have enough refs for this; some had Brad's hair as blue-black, some as really dark brown, IDK ANYMORE AND WENT WITH PLAIN BLAAAACK. Doesn't beat Schuldig's hair color variation, though XD And EYE COLOR FFFFFFF. In the end, I went with what Mami-san described in Vaterunser /phails/ Not that it was any point in the end, because after resizing the image to this, you can hardly tell anyway =_=

My first Nico utattemita fanart! <333



This is clear-san, drawn for Catdolljin as a little thank you gift for her wonderful generosity! *glompz* I don't have enough reference photos of his look IRL so I drew him as illustrated in the Host Club Smiley*2 CD (although it looks like my style just butchered the original art-style there /sobs). I hope she likes it >w<
Upping on DA next~ ^o^

I forgot to update with this Becky picture =A= Been on DA for a week already. OTL




If I'm not too lazy time permits, I'd like to do the rest of the gang in this style as well~ ^o^ Good pencil practice, anyway.

I BLAME THIS --> Gil in Wonderland omake



Poor Alice XD Seaweed-head took over her role as the lead~


I had more refs for Oz's clothes from another 2 illusts of WhiteRabbit!Oz by Mochizuki~ XD


His clothes? Had been a pain to figure out x_x


Dormouse!Vincent and MarchHare!Liam might be joining the series AS SOON AS I'M ABLE TO FIGURE OUT THEIR CLOTHING @_@

December had been a pretty productive month on a whole XD See, the things uni work interferes with =/ Now that uni has started again, productivity is going to take another dive. Not only does it limit my time to draw crap, it also kills any artsy inspiration and mood, which annoys me. /sighs/

Anyhoo. December arts GO!


A Secret Santa thing I was invited for on dA~


Compilation of the Christmas sketch requests I opened on dA, 4 of which are OC arts. Fanarts in this include Dissidia Squall, Reborn! Tsuna, Pandora Hearts Jack/Alice and Oz/Gil, TotA Jade/Dist (Vocaloid Magnet version orz), Tegami Bachi Gauche, and Hetalia UK/Japan~


Yunie's extremely sexy OC boys~ >w< This was my part of the CF art trade with her. I ended up using it as an early Happy New Year thing for y!gallery because I don't update that place frequent enough OTL


OC, Zephyr! Just wanted to try letting the usual ponytail loose. He doesn't actually wear glasses; or, at least, gerai_neon and I didn't originally intend him to, but for some reason I seem to draw him wearing them pretty often @@ Reading glasses? Lol.


Random rants:
- Wednesday's clinical chem prac class was... interesting. Drawing blood from somebody's arm with a 10ml syringe IS MUCH MORE TERRIFYING THAN IT SOUNDS. I was one of the few in the class who didn't cause the puncture site to bleed out as I pulled the piston. And my friend whose blood I drew said it didn't hurt at all. So... success! XD
- Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox: Arty/Hollyyyyy~~~ I ship this pair SO MUCH.
- Going to watch Sherlock Holmes for the second time tomorrow weeeee~ XDDD
- The way I blog about RL so randomly, I'm beginning to think I should get Twitter instead =_=

...I really need to go back to the reports I'm supposed to be writing instead /sobs

Version 2 of this original sketch on dA, where I upped saturation and took off all that bothersome grunge >_> Come to think of it, this version is better... OTL Me and my tendency to overdo things /sighs/ ...Just me or does Isabel's curls kinda look like croissants xDDD Hansel looks way too young ogod (pedo-Neeeeeil) and Raphael camera-shyyyy =DDD ...I need to redraw this someday /headdesk/

NEON WE MUST FINISH THIS NOVEL AS IF TO DIE *shoots with dying-will bullet*

A bunch of Vocaloid clips from youtube that got me laughing SO hard, I had to rec them XD Parodies (mostly Kaito) and Nico utattemita (Nico singers, not actually sung by Vocaloids but are parodies of their songs; mostly Kogeinu), plus links to original versions/ other mixes.
View for the laughs, if you need cheering up or something. Please mind my fangirling at that (if this isn’t just a parody compilation, the list would have been much, much longer~) XD All of them include English subs (unless stated).


Parody:

Yami no Ou/ Lord of Darkness [Kaito]
EPIC-PHAILZ. Kaito, oh Kaito, Lord of Darkness indeed. More lamest vampire ever XD;;;
Original Rin's Daughter of Evil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-ghPx-A-O0




Nico utattemita:

Magnet [Nico utattemita: Faneru/Gero, ASK] *not subbed
This made me laugh SO hard, I almost fell off my chair (it's also pretty gay). No subs, but someone translated most of it in the comments (you'd have to go to the link on youtube and scroll down). In one sentence: Faneru and Gero are reading fanletters, they get a request to sing Magnet so they do, and ASK butts in to join the gay fun. Anyway, trust me, this will have you laughing even without knowing what they’re saying, but you'll have to watch till they start singing. Ore no kaasan and Faneru’s girly voice and MOEAGARU ZE!!! and the random t-shirts and-and omfg srsly, just watch this.
Original by Luka and Miku: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egxSBhfjcTU
Rin and Len version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saaYuGURPu8 – simply because whoever made this version did a fantastic job with their voices




( A bunch more under here~ )

Chris and Tariel for my y!gallery. Dedicated to gerai_neon, as all arts with Chris and co. always are~ Sorry I still can't seem to draw something more ghey XD

And now for more Pandora Hearts stuff from my WIP folder, although these are more totally abandoned now than actual, current work-in-progress. So they're super old arts (especially the doujin-ish thing omggg that's over a year old).


A PH doujin-ish thing originally brainstormed by Neon.



( View pages individually )




Lineart of Jack which I CG-ed over 50%, then decided halfway that it didn't feel Jack at all, so I stopped and abandoned it. Maybe I'll complete it traditionally just for pencil practice, idk. Adksjdhgdfh. RIght now I cringe to look at it >_>

Hmm... wondering if I should up the Hetalia stuff from my WIPs XD
Ssssigh after so many months of horrible lack of any decent art at all, it's kinda difficult to get rolling again. I just hold a pencil and stare at blank paper for a long while, and end up not drawing anything x_x