A Little Encouragement

Hi everyone!

Sometimes, I forget who watches anything I post on FB. :)
Earlier today, I shared this image of a Kekkaishi illustration WIP.

Yes I was watching Kekkaishi on the second screen while colouring lol

I was pleasantly surprised when my ex-boss commented on the photo, asking what the illustration was for. She loves Japan & knew that I was involved in anime conventions, so I told her that it was for an illustration fanbook.

She said “do u know that the manga ka for this is a female? Good drawing : ) ”

It’s probably just me, but reading between the lines, I think she was encouraging me, like meaning to say “this great mangaka is a female, so you can do it, too!”

Regardless of whether she meant it as a normal statement or just a little compliment, I thought it was a really kind gesture. ^_^ Small things like this really do make one’s day.

Moreover, I had no idea that she was a fan of Kekkaishi & Yellow Tanabe (the mangaka) too! (lol my ex-boss rocks)

What a small world. I guess it really is true that people don’t attract that which they want, but that which they are. (it’s a quote by James Allen)

Thanks (ex)boss. I’ll work hard!

Take care & goodnight everyone >w<

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Whoa. It's been three years since I used this account.

Recently, I've been bogged down by a number of uncertainties. I'll tell you what unclogged my mind--

A shounen anime episode. Yes, I'm not kidding. 

This morning, I was watching two episodes of Kekkaishi, as per my usual morning schedule.
In the episode entitled "Special Training", the main character, Yoshimori, was feeling lost as to what to do and was confused as whatever he was doing (in this case, training) was helping him make any progress.

Yoshimori Sumimura (I doodled this lol)

He ran up a long plight of stairs towards a temple on a hill, and explained to a monk who was sweeping leaves, that he needed to have a good run to clear the things clogging up his mind. Makes sense, I should sweat it out too when I'm overthinking.

The monk said:
"What you're doing now might not be wrong.
Sometimes, eureka moments happen while you're doing things frantically."

Basically, he's saying that as long as you don't stop doing things towards a goal, you'll find the answer to your uncertainties somewhere along the way. Just don't give up halfway.

The monk also gave him another piece of advice:
"You may be negligent if you become too fixated with what you see in front of you.
Free yourself of distracting thoughts,
and take things as they are.
That's what enlightenment is."

I interpreted it as shifting our focus to a bigger picture, instead of solely looking at our current circumstances. Only when you accept a situation, circumstance or problem as it is, only then you can focus on making it better.

If I were to make a shounen manga someday, I hope it'll be something like Kekkaishi--inspiring, not so flashy, featuring characters that don't outshine each other, good pacing, no unnecessary love triangles, excellent storytelling, and makes you think.

Yosh. Gotta keep going. Let's work hard! (っ`･ω･´)っ

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