The Bonkurasu Brigade

No, they didn’t literally explode (Though they have had a m4d surge in user signups and is thus now an invite-only service, so go blackmail pester your pixiv-addict friends for an account. Each existing user only has three invite opportunities.)

Ah, but the point of this post is not to talk about their increasing popularity. Pixiv will now tell you the sekrets of life! No rly.

Titled pixivで学ぶイラストテクニック集 (Learn illustration techniques with pixiv) , this ausum guide is going to make you paint like huke (Of Black★Rock Shooter fame), and other notable pixiv artists. Though its pretty obvious from the cover who’s the main draw.

Regardless, the pages shown in the amazon.jp preview look extremely promising (and useful if they are easy enough to follow), and I will be picking up a copy for myself, probably when the yen rate goes down.

Add to the mix the upcoming Pixiv Official Artbook/DVD (Page here).The themes are “お絵かき娘 A girl drawing” and “ウマウマコンテスト Uma uma contest (Caramell Dansen)”.

Submissions so far are eye-candy, to say the least. Closing date for this competition is on the 15th of this month, and there has been no release date announced for the artbook yet.

Ah, and the Pixiv Fiesta details are up. Looking at the event description, this would have made a very good Aprils Fool’s joke. Participants submit works for A1-sized prints (it costs a good 6000 yen to join, so I suppose that covers printing costs), and these prints are displayed at a section of the Design Festa Gallery. Visitors pay 500 yen to go in, give real stars (method of rating pictures submitted on pixiv), write comments in real time on real paper with a real pen, and this takes the cake; You attach REAL tags.

I wish I could go see it, but I’ll be sitting in front of my PC at home doing the same activities online. Which is a pity, because as pointless as it is attaching tags to images in real life it sounds like crazy fun, especially if you consider how much humor goes into tags on nicovideo and other imageboards/video services.