Currently I've been interested in new drawing style, the mixing between manga and American cartoon. I don't know the name of it, but my first crush is *what-i-do-is-secret 's drawing. It's neat, simple and suit my taste. I ignored it for some time, trying to find another stye.

But then, I found Maximum Ride drawn by Nara Lee. My senior (in drawing) praised this comic, saying that 'it's rare to find someone who's not Japanese but able to draw something that has manga-feeling in it'. She's not only talking about the style, I guess, but also the line flow, tone and everything you can see in the book. I have to admit, I like it very much--although I don't really understand the story and didn't read the novel . Again, I put the book back to my box and ignored it for a while.

Sometime ago around 2008, a friend gave me 5 videos about the making of Avatar-The Last Airbender. He said, 'it's cool. You have to see it yourself'. I have to admit, that time, I wasn't interested in Avatar. I thought, it's just some animu for kids, like other Nickelodeon cartoon. I watched some Nick's cartoon, such as Danny Phantom, Fairly Odd Parents and Chalkzone, but I didn't take it seriously. (I take Sponge Bob seriously, tho ) But then, the videos explained to me about the basic of martial arts they used in that cartoon, the basic idea and storyboard and all of them amazed me. I fell in love with how they use the real martial arts. I mean, well, I don't think they will use REAL reference. I underestimated them too much. Throw me bricks. To make the story short, I fell in love with Avatar, searched for the OST I can find but unfortunately I couldn't find the DVD. A friend has 3rd Book DVD, but I want to watch it from the beginning. But then, just like the previous stories, I ignored it again.

Time passed by. I graduated, found a new job, struggling in a new college, etc.

All this time, these lil seeds of love growing without I realize, planted their roots deep in my heart. I found my ol' Maximum Ride book, read it many times only to discover what the illustrator had in mind while drawing this book. The story telling is pretty 'Western-like' since it kinda reminds me of Animorph by K.A Applegate I read when I was child, but the drawing is 'Eastern-like'--I dont need to explain this one. This book leads me to open my ol files about Avatar-The Last Airbender I saved years ago. I asked my friend to bring me the movie, asked another friend if they have the CDs/DVDs, found out that there are some comic book related to it has been published (I'm not interested with the cartoon-book since I can watch the DVD, though), found the illustrator's blog, found *rufftoon from a local web that wrote about Avatar, and reminded that long long time ago I fell in love with the similar drawing type by *what-i-do-is-secret.

After all this time?

Always.

I'm not the type who fall in love in the first sight. I'm the type who fall in love with the old/close friends. Just like this style I ignored but now it appeared again and still make my heart beats faster like years ago. I'm sure I've found my crush. I'm not saying I'll change my style drastically, or have intention to copy the style. I just want to say that these three, *what-i-do-is-secret 's style, Maximum Ride and Avatar the Last Airbender will be in my influence map from now on

Hooray for unimportant journal~