We have a new layout and a few new features! =)

I introduce you a new Gallery that I will be updating on a regular basis with the drawings and illustrations posted in the members-locked section CLAMP Graffiti of CLAMP-NET.COM. All drawings were taken from Tsubaki Nekoi’s board, but in case any of the other 3 post illustrations, I will add them as well.

I have created a Picasa album where I will be adding the new pictures in batches.

I won’t be making new posts every time the gallery is updated. So how will you know when there are new pictures? Fear not, I have thought on many different ways of letting you know. I will add thumbnails of the new pictures in the right side of my LiveJournal with a direct link to the album:

For Facebook users, I have created a Facebook Page where you can check new updates from my LiveJournal in your Facebook news feed by becoming a fan. I have created the same CLAMP Graffiti gallery on the Facebook Page, this way you will also know whenever the gallery is updated with new pictures if you become a fan.

And although this isn’t new, it’s worth mentioning that you can also follow this LiveJournal on Twitter.

These new features were added to provide you the latest CLAMP news in a fast and comfortable way for all of you. That is my compromise XD Thank you for visiting my LiveJournal!

chibiyuuto has a new layout!

With this, I’m debuting a new structure (sort of) for my LiveJournal.

The top banner will from now on feature the next CLAMP’s biggest event/release and it’ll be updated regularly (as the news get old). That way the latest big CLAMP news will stay at the top of the page until another one tops it. I’ve seen several times people leaving comments saying “What? Kobato. will have an anime?”, when that news was posted two weeks ago or more. This way you’ll know what CLAMP’s biggest news are regardless of how old they were announced.

You’ll notice everything is pretty much the same as my previous layout, except maybe the colors. Preserving the rest of the layout is a way of creating an identity for the website, while changing only the banner regularly makes it more dynamic. One thing I observed during 6 years of blogging CLAMP news is that they always have something coming up next, and I’ll do my best to change the banner accordingly =)

I’m not gonna make a new post every time there’s a new banner, because that will be spamming, so you don’t have to worry about that (unless, of course, there’s something worth mentioning).

With this structure, it’s also possible to have a hierarchy of topics:

Most relevant on the top -> Upcoming releases in the middle -> Daily news below

Feedbacks are welcomed =)

Once again thank you for visiting this journal!

Update: The CLAMP Widget had its colors updated to match the current layout =)

And this one will stay! xD

The previous one stayed for only 3 days, but as I was building it I knew it wouldn’t stay for long, I just wanted to change it quickly, and also learn how to work with S2.

I finally figured out the wonders of what S2 and CSS can do together, it’s amazing and much more flexible to work with them, I wish I had changed it earlier (but even if I wanted I wouldn’t have the time).

Another good thing of working with this new design architecture is that I don’t have to worry about making wallpapers anymore (it was too much space to fill, honestly xD). Working with banners opens whole new design possibilities and I’m already having different and challenging ideas for my future layouts.

I chose this Tsubasa picture basically because of two reasons. The first reason is that I really like this illustration, I intended to use the Syaoran from this picture on my confessions on a dance floor Tsubasa layout xD But as I know I ended up not using it. The other reason is that this was the first Tsubasa illustration released to the public right after the series was announced, and since we are reaching the end of it after these 5 long years, there’s this nostalgic feeling around it.

Despite of being the very first Tsubasa illustration released to the public, it’s amazing how the art style hasn’t changed at all. If you look at the early illustrations of CCS or Rayearth, for example, and compare them to latter ones, you’ll notice significants improvements in CLAMP’s art. That doesn’t seem to be the case here.

I know there isn’t anything extraordinary in this layout, but again, due to time issues I wasn’t able to do anything extraordinary xD I promise, though, that I will push the edge further on my next layout.

The layout is not the only news today, from this day on I’m launching a new feature that I have developed, the CLAMP Widget, or whatever you would like to call it xD

This little flash application is placed on a fixed post on my livejournal and it shows the upcoming CLAMP releases (merchandises, events, media appearances etc) and the manga schedule for their current series, as a quick way of checking what’s coming next from CLAMP. The design was strongly based on CLAMP-NET.COM’s current design, as you could possibly have noticed.

You can also incorporate it into your own blog, website or anywhere else you might want to add it, and the information on it will be automatically updated from whenever you have placed it.

So browse around, welcome to this new chapter of my livejournal, always aiming to keep you up-to-date about CLAMP and their activities.

It’s been almost a year since I changed my layout for the last time, what a shame xD

This year was a very busy year to me… probably the busiest year I’ve ever lived. I don’t know if many of you are aware of, but I work full time during the day and at night I go to university. Last year I started working part-time, so I had much more free time, but since March of this year I’ve been working full time.

The consequences are: almost no time to play around in Photoshop xD

But this post it’s not about my excuses for not making a new layout, it’s about the layout itself xD

I’ve been trying to work with S2 style, but I dropped it (because I all my free time was gone xD), so once again I made a layout in S1 (maybe the last one? We’ll see…)

This one is a big departure from the previous one. This one is very simple, it didn’t take much to make it, because I didn’t want to spend much time doing it. I needed to change it quickly xD

As you can see, it features Okiura, also known as the coolest guy out there Debt Collector.

This is my homage to this character, which I’m growing a strong affection for. (It is also an homage to the first tankoubon of Kobato., out 10 days from now xDDDDDDD)

I don’t know the color of his eyes… so I painted them blue… I think it fits, what do you think? If not blue, then maybe brownish. I might change it later if CLAMP decides to reveal it xD

The concept… hum, there’s not a huge concept behind it xD I just love the fact that he laughs all the time and I wanted to play with that xD

So the story is, I have placed a “no smoking” sign because it’s forbidden to smoke in my LJ (LOL!), but he ignores it and he’s obviously laughing at my face xDDDD

Hope you like it !

I made a wallpaper version of it as well (1024 x 768 pixels), in case anyone is interested:

About time ! I know XD

As much as I loved the previous one, I was getting sick of it already XD The last one stayed for what, a year? XD Sorry I didn’t change it earlier, I probably didn’t have the time, patience or inspiration ^^”

But here it is ! I confess Syaoran is not the kind of character I would make a layout with, so believe me, it was a challenge XD But I think the latest events of Tsubasa (with all those Syaorans) inspired me to do it.

I liked the color scheme of it, opaque colors are my latest addiction when making a design XDD

If only that horrid LJ bar wouldn’t interfere on it ¬¬

The main pic, as you know, is from the cover of volume 9 and the sketches were taken from the first Character Guide.

I made a wallpaper version of it, for those who would like to see it in it’s integrity or for those who simply liked it and want to use it as a wallpaper ^^

Here (1024×768)

March is X’s month. It was on March 24th that the first chapter came out and it was on that same day that X’s last chapter was published.

So, celebrating it’s 14 years of serialization and moaning over 3 years of it’s hiatus, I did this X layout (again). Apart from that, I’m also celebrating X’s appearance on Tsubasa ! Although I have to say that this layout was in stock way before I could possible imagine that the next world would be X’s world.

It started with a joke, I was only playing around with Photoshop and some new effects I had just learned, I could no way imagine it would turn out in a real layout. I was just going and going and I started to really like what I was doing.

The idea here was to create a VERY X-ish image (it’s totally based on the X drawings) with all the elements being “real” except for Kamui, the dragons and the feathers (I tried to search for real feathers but they looked awful). The Tokyo Tower is real, the Tokyo’s Governmental Building is real, the gears are real as well as everything else (I did the Big Dipper constellation and the paper with the pentagram by myself so you can consider them by being “real” too XD).

There are 3 tarot cards in it, The Sun, Judgement and The World, which are the 3 remaining X tarot cards.

This has got to be one of my favorites layouts (if not the one), I really really liked it. I loved everything in it, and it gave me a lot of work to make it.

I made a wallpaper version of it (1024×768) to those interested, I hope you like it.

This one called “Psychedelic Crazyness” XD The title says for itself, it’s crazy !

The guy is Kudou Kazahaya, strongly influenced by pop-art and the XXXHOLiC butterflied patterns ^^

Because I really, really LOVE this image.

Also celebrating the soon-to-come X Infinity, which I highly hope to have this pic. This pic was originally scanned by my dear flowright-san (Thanks ! ^__^)

Please feel free to give your comments ^_~

EDIT: Thanks for all the kind words, I’m really glad ! ^__^ And since some of you asked, here’s the original pic, with a much smaller resolution because the original one is higher than 6000 px XD. As you can see, I did a lot of edition work… because this image is composed by 9 cards. Anne-chan put them together and scanned for me.

Featuring Kobato-chan ! I believe this is the 1st time I use pink XDDDD But there you go !

This image is so cute >_< But I still don't know if either I liked the final result or not… somehow the white gradient gives such a Low Quality feeling o.O
Well, I just really needed to change the layout ! XD