AUGBLOG: tour
When I got my place I really wanted the first impression to be an artsy/creative person lives here (haha) so I thought I'd share some of the art I have on my walls.
To help orient here is a general floorplan of my place. I'll walk about 4 walls/zones (pink):
- Entryway
- Gallery wall
- Switch wall
- Living room
1. Entryway
This is the first thing you'd see when you enter the door.
- A - my own photo from Rockies that I had printed giclee to test a printer
- B - Amy Talluto
- C- Jeremy Miranda
- D- my own DIY blobs stuck on with painter's tape...
If you're wondering why D is not centred to the wall, it's because it's centred to the console table, which can't be centered to the wall width because of the laundry door that opens outwards into this hall...
I remember trying to stick with neutral natural colours. These 2 pieces are stuck here because I don't actually know either of these artists, personally. Also they are very accessible pictures, relative to the next wall...
(yes, I have yellow bags with Sally and Trally on them)
2. Gallery wall
When you turn the corner from the entry hallway, this is the next wall. This wall has art from people I've interacted with personally at some point in my life, though I have completely lost touch with some of them.
Most of these are original one-of-a-kind art / limited run prints.
(sorry the plastic glare is so bad for some HAHA)
- A - by me...
- B - Jess DeNobrega
- C - Wai Au
- D- Pindot Press (Olivia Ongai) risograph ref sheets [closed]
- E - Paper Pusher (JP King) risograph ref sheets [closed]
- F - Nou
- G - Artemis / Caelum
- H - Maiji / Humangray
- I - fiddery
- J - Angela
- K - Tiff
- L - Silus S
- M - Kat
- N - Colleague
- O - Namu
- P - IttyBeatty
- Q - Rurupoi
- R - Saicoink
I went through a few iterations of this wall. One was manually taping pieces to the wall, which looked nice and orderly, but often flew off (I think this area gets more air flow/traffic). So I tried this hanging string thing, which is OK but looks very disorderly, haha. Sometimes the things on string flip over too, which is an excuse to look at the art and flip them back around the right way.
I think maybe my most ideal setup would be to have that full wall be like a pin/corkboard and I can place and move art as I please. (or I guess I could just punch directly into the drywall...). I still have bazillion art pieces from friends I could put up...........I'd love to cover the whole (upper) wall.................
3. Switch wall
Since there were already 2 different switches here, I thought to add art around them and make them into an installation...which is just chaos
- A - my own DIY marbled paper (using Platinum Carbon Black pigmented fountain pen ink on the back of failed HWA covers)
- B - Jocelyne Allen (I think it was promo for "You and the Pirates"?!)
4. Living room
Probably the room you've seen the most of since it's where I do most of my personal reading/drawing.
- A - improv cotton fibre art by me...that is actually hiding an unused cord extender plug that was originally there for a mounted TV from previous owner
- B - Winnie the pooh test print out that I just decided to put up, haha
- C - Alan Cheung/Fatlundraw (WaHaYeah sketch group)
- D - PetaStudios (ecoprint)
- E - DIY coaster kit from Craft Club
The colour scheme of this room is mainly yellow/terracotta/wood/green! IT WAS ORIGINALLY PRIMARY COLOURS (red/blue/black) but then I changed my mind as I accumulated more and more yellow things (haha).
- F - weird fibre/paper art by me...
- G - Nancy Nickolson
- H - latch hook kit of wolves that i turned into poss HAHA
- I - Crosstitch kit/pattern from someone.......
- J - public domain photo I printed of poss taxidermy?!
There are vaulted ceilings and it's really nice to see the sky and clouds outside of the top picture windows. they're like pieces of art themselves!
There amount of light is both good (for plants) and bad (I'm getting burnt / screen glare). Also it's like a greenhouse effect in summer, so it's boiling inside...
I have some handmade ceramics and furniture too:
- Reeree ceramics planter/plate and plant pal
- 2 living edge side tables and stools by woodmakers in ON
- 2x counter height chairs by a local woodmaker in AB (but I had a bad exp with them... :S)
- low table/stand is custom made to spec by a local woodmaker in AB (great exp)
I opted out of getting a sofa/couch, but got an even more $$$ (yells) single-seater Nychair X Rocking (terracotta) designed by Takeshi Nii after waiting years for it to go marginally on sale (it was worth it). If it had brass base it would make my heart sing even MORE but it is just silver steel. I convinced another frugal friend to get it and they also love it (after years of waiting because it's a big cost). The rocker itself is on hand-blockprinted cotton cloth from India!
There are more arts in other nooks and crannies (I have a lot of knick knacks), but those spots are very messy ahhaha.
It's always interesting to visit an artists' website a long time later and find out they're doing a completely different genre/style of art or going by a different name and gender.
As for the header image, I drew/painted it with the theme in mind, but no clear plans as usual (bc of aphantasia-leaning).
I associated tour with something that moves and circular motifs. The colours are the ones that occupy most of my living room decord. The straight edge polygons are like the walls (?).
- Outlines: Prismacolor col erase terracotta (20053)
- Paint: ShinHan PWC Premium Watercolour (probably, they're halfpans a friend filled for me from tubes)
- Paper: Stilman and Birn alpha
- Brush: Escoda versatil 6
Fanarts
Another LAD/Yakuza July baby...I have drawn Zhao maybe...3x in my life, which is mostly in Yakuzine so this is the first time...in COLOUR!
Since he's an accomplished chef/gangster himself, I thought that he might like to go to dimsum style meal. Selfishly I just wanted to draw foods I like!! Custard buns!!! Though I prefer the non-yolk ones. That mango pudding/jello fish (with either tapioca / beans?!) is not really dimsum; I think it's something I've really only experienced at banquet/weddings.
I wonder what sort of Chinese heritage he has. I don't know enough about Chinese region cuisine to decipher it myself, but his name is romanized using Mandarin pronunciation. For the BG I used a birthday greeting that included a character in his name, 天天开心 (which translates to something like "happy every day"). I always wonder how he handles his grip with all those chunky rings. Candles + confetti = fire hazard, but decided to ignore my logic.
August has 3 other Like a Dragon Gaiden characters (Akame, Watase, Shishido!!) and Yamaguchi Yoshiyuki's (actor for Tsuruno)...
As for the print version of MKISA, it's stalled because the professional printer sent prints with these sorts of weird artefacts around only specific spots, and I haven't heard back about why this is happening yet.
It's sad because that's a lot of wasted useless prints/paper!!!! (plus $) If anyone has clues, LMK. It's a flattened CMYK PDF at 300dpi+ and mostly happening on some patches of skin tone and not others?! Other areas on the same page printed smooth and fine. Extremely bizarre (haven't seen this sort of error in my 20+ years of sending stuff to print).
Next up is Haou / Overlord Genealogy (also mentioned in the media log below), which features the same actors that have model-likeness in LAD/Yakuza.
I've never been good at drawing cute SD/chibi things, but the boy's interactions with these ragged/rugged men was really cute.
The director and antagonist is played by Ozawa Kazuyoshi (小沢和義). He's the younger brother of Ozawa Hitoshi (小沢仁志), aka Kuze from Yakuza 0.
I drew these one after the other but wanted to keep this one looser / rougher because I think it suits the character/vibe more.
I feel like V-cinema/Nihon Touitsu might be the thing that would motivate me start learning Japanese HAHA...
I've heard good things about Wagotabi w/r/t gamified learning (though competition/gamifying is never a motivation factor for me to get stuff done, but the format seems interesting since it might feel more implicit/passive). I recently found out about different types of ikemen and fujoshi. I don't consider myself hardcore weeb or fujin, but I guess I'd be a Turtle type rotten person. I feel like as I've gotten older, the point is to try to expand horizons and be more accepting of more variety of things.
Fishlips
A wizard...! Going to cast a kiss spell on you...?
Listening
Acknowledgement by Nicholas Payton, Butcher Brown.
Tons of videos from ARIatHOME (twitch link) (he DIYs improv bgm/beats while walking outside and makes improv music with randos on the streets).
Reading / looking
Rurupoi dropped a mega watercolour/mixed media sketchbook comparison post a while back! I thought of it again when I was doing my painting, haha. We both have the same glue gripes with Stilman and Birn sketchbooks.
Coyote/Osteophage writes a lot about indieweb and online communication and culture. Recently wrote a post about bubbles.town. IMO the tool is not made for me and it was made using Slop. But Osteophage's post reminded me that I should probably share/link to more stuff that I think is interesting from my RSS, and foster a wee bit more of communal reccs! Coyote also has a post about pillowfort's comment culture.
My RSS reader, feedbro (extension on my browser) stopped loading new feeds for the past few weeks so I went looking for another reader. A list by Schoeneh is here. I am aghast at how some of these RSS readers take up gigs of space to install. The one I just tried (Liferea) is less than 10mb HAHA.
I found this list of ethical-foss/open-slopware in case anyone wants to scrutinize/avoid projects' AI-involvement to my degree (ha). Sadly Bludit (the blogging CMS I'm using here) and Joplin (which now has built in AI chat...even tho it's turned off by default) are on there now :S.
Other recent tech-ish horrors: micro.blog, mullvad, framework laptops... I laughed at the recent bearblog discovery feed shenanigans...
Kevin Smith Books: for those who are into DIY zine/sketchbook/bookbinding, Kevin Smith has a whole series of books with instructional diagrams on doing it WITHOUT ADHESIVES! I found vol II at the library, but wish I could get more...and get my own copy (you can purchase from the website but it's USD and shipping from US...IDK how tariffs would affect it).
Making art with the insides of security envelopes - I've also been intrigued by the pattern designs inside security envelopes...do they ACTUALLY work?!
1-percent warrior (2023 / 2024 EN): A legendary action star finds himself up against two feuding yakuza gangs when he starts filming his next movie on highly disputed turf. Stars Sakaguchi Tak (who I saw in Bad City and Tokyo Dragon Chef as cameo). They threw in an unexpected twist at the end, which ultimately didn't change much in the grand scheme of the plot, but leaves the audience with a pretty different impression about the protagonist. Interesting choice.
Blue Box #20: is she gonna winnnnnnn? Dad was more reasonable and less severe than I expected.
A Bride's Story #3-9: GRANDMA GOAT!! I was not really into the TWINS but I think that's because they're probably too extroverted (and naive/more selfish) and there's TWO Of them. Pariya is so awk/cringe (positive) hahaha but I'm glad that Umar can appreciate. Amir and her fam are full of...babes. Vowed-sisters bathouse arc must've been Kaoru Mori's dream arc to draw, maybe the animal ones too... haha.
Same Kaoru Mori, same.
Brainrot report
Where I yell about my current hyperfixation for actor duo, Yamaguchi Yoshiyuki and Motomiya Yasukaze. I did not have a heartthrob teen/tiger beat or idol phase. I am in my "admire 50+yo person making low budget indy films with action and heart" phase.
Gokudo Sweets #3: variety show where these yakuza-vibe guys try out sweets and desserts. great ep hahahaha. I'm certain their target audience are the Ninkyo joushi. They went to Shin-Okubo this time. I love that they got the official narrator from Nihon Touitsu to join up for the intro, and how they were worried about entering such a cute place (purikura oshikatsu DIY goods store, Pippi) (IG😭) while looking like yakuza that might get arrested hahaha. They make oshikatsu goods for each other hahahahahahaha. THEY PUT ON GLASSES FOR THE PURIKURA 👓🤓😍!!!!!! Then they had some really refreshing looking food at Cookie 594 (IG😭). Given the heat waves going around the world, shaved ice looks really good.
Nihon Touitsu #17: in awe at all these old men swearing up to Himuro for no clear reasons other than HONOUR and VIBES... like you didn't wanna join Kyowa clan but you'll join Himuro???? You've been mad/salty about suspecting your sworn bro was killed by Kyowa but you're still joining???? Logic????? (it's fine I love it).
NT also released new merch for 2026 but nothing really caught my eye (a lot of plastic/poly stuff). I've been keeping an eye out because I do want to support this low budget indie but turned a bit more mainstream production because they seem to have a lot of Heart.
Overlord: Blood Genealogy #1-5 (~2016-2017 forever incomplete): Naito Shinjuku is a Yakuza family that follows a tradition of hereditary succession. A gentle young master, Washio Taiga, is set to inherit, but is just a primary student. He is taught how to survive by one of the clan members, Toki Reiji, so that when the time comes... I finally watched the rest it even if it's not a completed series and has the worst "official" machine translation, and also rewatched the first episode as a refresher.
The beginning of the hilarious gun choreo; a small gif is linked here because I want to entice more people to watch it (CW: bloody gun headshots, though it's not really graphic IMO). I love the unrealistic dramatic action, haha.
Reiji re-adding his tie clip after waking up 💘, Yamamoto trying to peel potatoes with his fingers because he is a himbo yakuza who has never washed/cooked potatoes...🤣! Ogawa (played by Norimasa Fuke) character had a really strong presence. Too bad we'll never get a real ending. It was nice to watch this after digging more into NT, because I recognize even more of the same actors.
I also like the theme song, 夏の少年1984 by ROGUE (YT link).
(I also forgot that the library gives access to Kanopy, a different streaming platform, which has a bunch of other V-cinema-like treasures)
Leave a comment if you want!
Oohhh I love your space, the yellows are sooo nice!! I really love how everything is so meaningfully decorated.
hehe TY! I always hear other people say that yellow is a bright/happy colour, but a lot of people also seem to shy away from it and go for the neutrals (Japandi vibes) instead, for interior deco!
man that high window room layout is so artsy already! it feels like something out of a tv show. i assume it's an apartment?
the small hanging prints set up is really cute, i may have to steal... i'm excited this gives me the excuse to do a room tour too lol
yeah it's a condo/flat/apartment! Feel free to steal and adapt any ideas~ looking forward to seeing your room tour if you do make one :D