TL note: The note at the bottom left is merely translating “creator’s comment” and “illustrator’s comment”, since they are written in English.
Introduction: “Introduction the process used to created the illustration for the ‘Reinforcement of the Army’ OCG card that comes with this book”
1) Custom Art: “Using the card’s abilities and effects as the baseline, this is [the step] where the characters that will be appearing in the illustration, their situation and such are established, and the details are conveyed”
Request for the illustration: “-The ‘Sky Striker’ characters, appearing in an alternative artwork version of ‘Reinforcement of the Army’” “-A Raye awakened by two flash blades, showing an even greater power of the X-series. Similarly, an awakened Roze rushes towards there, for a joint battle scene” “-It should look like a sequel to ‘Sky Striker Mobilize – Linkage!’ and ‘Sky Striker Ace – Shizuku’ (alternative artwork version 2)” “-Raye should have sustained damage, and have fragmented energy lines running all over her body, both in her uniform and skin. The same goes for Roze” “-Assume that little time has passed from the fight in ‘Sky Striker Ace – Shizuku’ (alternative artwork version 2). Raye is not equipped with an X-series all over her body, but rather equipped with some parts. Please make [the parts] in the actual card either Shizuku, Hayate or Kaina” “-Please make the scene so that an awakened Roze is equipped with parts of Kagari, and after heading towards Raye, she deflected an attack”
TL note: The X-series are the various full-armor Link monsters, like X-002 Ace – Shizuku. The “flash blades” can mean pretty much any of the equipment from the theme, but translating them as “Sky Striker” would make it even more confusing.
2) Concept art: “Using the request as reference, the appearance and clothes of the characters are turned into illustrations. Parts that cannot be included in the card are also designed”
TL note: The title for the following art is “Reinforcement of the Army, version 3”
Setting: “A few hours earlier…? At a safe location”
Roze’s notes: Top: “Cut and untied [hair]” Middle: “Carried [the blanket] with her and caught up [with Raye]” Bottom: “It helps her relax when she has it around her neck”
Eyes: Top: “Shizuku version 2” Bottom: “Their powers are blending together”
Raye’s design: Left: “Like a monitor” Right: “Bits”
Volume: “I want to define the volume & shape of the mecha in the [draft/rough]”
Energy lines: Middle: “Shizuku’s energy lines” Top: “Gate-like” Bottom: “They turn into the color of the X-series”
Creator’s comment: “Since the illustrations for Linkage, Shizuku, and the previous related cards were focused on Raye, for this one I wanted to make a scene where Roze is the main [focus]. After discussing it with the illustrator, I decided that equipping Raye with Hayate would highlight her in contrast with the red from Roze using Kagari”
3) Composition Full art:
3) Composition: “The composition is decided so that the illustration can be contained in the frame. There are cases where various patterns are created”
Draft notes: From left to right: “Back to back”, “Both of them are in mid-air”, “Looks like she’s deflecting [an attack] after having just arrived”
Raye’s expression: “Raye notices that ‘X-003’ is approaching, using Hayate’s radar. I was thinking of making her expression in such a way as if her mouth almost looks like…a smile! Or maybe she is surprised by Roze [showing up], covered in wounds and with a struggling face?”
Illustrator’s comment: “The direction for the theme and story is checked along with the planner at the time of the conceptualization. I was going to make the details for the weapons more defined after the draft [step], so at this point they were [drawn] very loosely, just to confirm that there are no conflicts with the general feel of the ‘Sky Striker’ series. For the composition, I was told by the planner that since ‘Linkage’ and ‘Shizuku version 2’ had both of them in the ground, this should be a mid-air scene, although I was afraid of the cost of creating a yet unseen scenery for the illustration”
4) [Rough/draft] & 5) Line art Full art:
4) [Rough/draft]: “[The illustration continues to be] drawn up to finer details like expressions and effects, in a quality so that the completed illustration can be envisioned”
Expression proposal: Left: “Roze”, right: “Raye”
TL note: The rest of the notes are exactly what is seen in the expressions, with Roze being either serious or angry, and Raye either smiling, struggling, or being surprised.
Creator’s comment: “For Roze, considering the original appearance of the character, I chose her expression to be ‘A’. For Raye, since I liked the illustrator’s proposal that Raye would know about Roze approaching thanks to Hayate’s radar and their mutual resonance due to their awakened state, I chose her expression to be ‘A’, where she is smiling.”
5) Line art: “The draft is cleaned up, and [the illustration] is completed up to the point right before coloring”
Illustrator’s comment: “I start drawing the line art based on the chosen draft. I also add lines in order to make the vague parts more defined.”
6) Finish Full art:
6) Finish: “The characters, effects, etc. are vividly colored, including even the parts that are not featured in the card, and this 1 illustration is finally complete”
Illustrator’s comment: “Since Roze is the main [focus], Raye is colored in a simpler way, and because there are lots of elements, I colored them by first ordering the priority of their overlapping, so that their individual silhouettes won’t crash with each other. Because the card size is small, I think it’s more important to focus on the lights/shades and silhouettes that can be easily perceived, rather than coloring in a more detailed way. Adding effects and fragments heavily increases how finished the picture feels. Coloring is my favorite stage of the process”
Thanks to our anonymous contributors for the scans
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
