New works

Alright, to start, I've returned to Les Histoires Duchemin and I penned down some ideas which I had long thought of.


The result :

From top, left to right : Kanang Langkoi, Ani Suring, Térence Françaix, Ariff Naufal, Sybil Françaix, Sylvain Dieudonné, Étoile Duchemin, Aimée Duchemin.

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A few facts about the story and the image :

• Les Histoires Duchemin comprises Le Carnet du Service National, Le Carnet Noir and seven main episodes - Les Histoires Duchemin 1 through 7, Le Carnet d'Ani Suring and Le Carnet du Service National : Jour 50.
• The ones which matter to this image are Le Carnet du Service National (the very first episode), Le Carnet d'Ani Suring, Jour 50 and LHD7. Service National talks about Aimée Duchemin's 82 days of hell in compulsory conscription in the land of Sauveterre and the face-off against Ankoù, the personification of death by violence. Le Carnet d'Ani Suring talks about the exploits of Ani Suring to defeat Ankoù ten years prior to Service National, Jour 68 sheds more light on Ani Suring's story and thus, is taken as a bad dream by Duchemin ; and in LHD7, Sauveterre is at war because the people are at war with each other. This stems from the many failed practices in National Service and cultural stereotypes that have not been abolished and/or removed.
• Sauveterre (lit. sauve terre = safe earth), Duchemin's homeland, has ten provinces - I've only named a few. See the points below.
• The flag in Duchemin's hand is the flag of Sauveterre.
• Duchemin's hometown and the capital of Sauveterre, Lumine (from the word "luminous", referring to it being a garden city of lights just like Kay Ell) was one of the first places to be named. If you take a look at the pic above, the flag of Lumine is the furthest to the right (yes, the blue and green one with white stars).
• The second place to be named was Point-Neuf (lit. point, neuf = new ; transliterated in English as "Newbridge"), and it's heavily based on two cultures - Breton culture and Sarawakian culture. Quite a bit of the Breton language is used gratuitiously in Point-Neuf, and as for the bits I got from Miri, well, take a look at Kanang's, Ani's and Sylvain's outfits and you'd understand. Also, I fused the colours of the two cultures in the flag of Point-Neuf (furthest to the left) : Brittany uses black and white, and most ethnicities in Sarawak use black and gold. So Point-Neuf's colours are black, white and gold.
• The pink flag with the white marks, somewhere at the back, is the flag of Éventails (lit. "fans"). It's a sort of three-bladed fan sign, if you look carefully. Now Éventails is a place where wind energy is generated, where there are those three-bladed wind turbines, and flowers, and grass and... lots of wind. I haven't done a concept yet, but try closing your eyes and imaginining the SCENERY PORN you'd get.
• Black is the colour that unites the trainees in Service National, and it plays an especially important role in Ani Suring's story (in that she lives in a society which prides itself in its culture) and LHD7 (where black is worn in mourning).
• Duchemin is relatively scantily-clad in LHD7 (compared to the rest of the series, where she usually covers herself) because she vowed to face her antagonists with almost nothing.
• The marks on Sylvain's and Kanang's faces are the marks borne by every warrior in Point-Neuf, and they even have the outfit to go with it. Facial tattoos are a common occurrence in Point-Neuf, but not in any other province.
• The marks on Duchemin's and Ani's faces are the Mark of the Cursed Blood. Now, the clans of the Cursed Blood bear the surnames Beaulieu and Suring. Ani's parents bear the same surnames, and Duchemin is linked to them by the Beaulieu family (her biological mother bore that surname). The whole reason as to why their blood is cursed goes back to Ani Suring's story. Ankoù wreaked havoc on all of Point-Neuf, and sent his minions, the Mortmains (lit. mort main = death hand), all over Sauveterre to torment the people and to reap as many souls as possible. Ani and Kanang voyaged all over Sauveterre to find the way to defeat it, and when they finally did, Ani was ritually sacrificed by both her parents' clans - and they were witnesses to the killing. They did this so that Ankoù would never awaken, but their very act of murder made their blood cursed. Duchemin bears the same curse right up to LHD7.
• This is one of the more violent and bloody installations of the series. I reckon that most of the installations in Les Histoires Duchemin would be for Everyone ages 10 and up or the low end of Teen as per ESRB ratings, but LHD7, Jour 50 and Ani Suring's story would fall on the higher end of the ESRB Teen rating.

Okay, so that explains the drawing.


Now, the other piece of work is a cover from Disgaea : Hour of Darkness :





It's called Lune Rouge, a literal translation of Red Moon or its Japanese version Akai Tsuki.
Unbirth wrote the lyrics, and all voices are mine. Oh, and that picture in the vid is his too.

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I was listening to the full version and it somehow reminded me of my days in the school choir. I didn't sing ; I wrote scores, and I often imagined the full result in my head. This is the first second time I've ever rendered something to make it sound like a choir featuring only... well, me. The first was with Drôle de Creepie.


Well, apart from that, I just realised that I had defeated one of the hardest bosses in Suikoden IV at level 53, but I bet it wouldn't matter.


Alright. I'm done for the day. Do post your thoughts.