I have been apart of Mangamagazine.net since 2010 of November and first signed a two year contract with them to have my story Bottled Prince published with their site. Two years later it is now October 2012 and my contract will be ending next month on November 10th of this year. My plan for the comic is to remove it from this site and transfer it over to my main site. Thus my account on this site will be removed and for those who already don't know about my website you can find it here www.s-morishitastudio.com which is where you can continue to read Love! Love! Fighting! and once I finish re-editing the new layout in progress you will also be able to read Bottled Prince.

I've been thinking over this decision for a very long time now and I have noticed that with the type of person that I am and the goal that I am trying to achieve it's best for me to gather my focus and put all of my effort towards one channel instead of multiple channels. For me when I branch my effort out to more than one channel, say for instance when I had my DA account open and then putting my comic on smackjeeves and then on here and on top of that a few other places, I felt that I was getting diluted. All of my focus and attention was spread out within all these different places and I wasn't able to put all of my focus on one main thing and just make that main thing the best that I could make it. So I first closed my DA account and I saw a great change in my productivity and focus and effort towards building my comic up. Now with my contract ending with Mangamagazine I've decided to do the same here.

I plan on putting all of my focus into my one main website, S-morishitastudio.com, where I will be updating my main comic now, Love! Love! Fighting! and working on my rated G visual novels and hopefully in the near future I can start developing rpg games. I will also be blogging about different art tutorials or artistic advice and comic/game development. I really enjoy storytelling and I feel that my efforts will go to better use if I put all of my focus into this.

Of course this isn't saying that this is the only way to go. There are a lot of different paths that anyone can take when walking this artistic walk but this is the one that I've started to realize works best for me. Cutting back all that extra bagage of trying to keep up with all these other different sites really drained me but now that I've started to trim my edges I've seen that I have more energy and drive and focus to be able to keep my site up and going and since I don't want to end that I'm going to pull away from other sites like I've been doing and make my own little niche or loft. I've been able to have a better connection with my readers on my site because I'm more approachable there and since the site is mine I'm able to make it the way I want. I can't really explain everything the way I want but I just wanted to let all of you know what the future plans are for Bottled Prince. It will be on my site after November 10th and I plan on finishing the story up after I take a much needed break from it. I've been doing the story for almost a year now and I've been updating and working on it so much that I really need to recharge. Thankfully there are only about 4 or 5 chapters left to the story so don't feel worried about not knowing the end ;)

I appreciate your understanding and support and I know that not everyone will agree with me on this but that's normal and I just want to thank you for taking a moment of your time to read my news update.

Signed,

S-Morishita *Sharean Morishita*

Just wanted to let all of my Bottled Prince readers to know that there will be a delay in the next chapter. The story is starting too come to it's climax then its ending so I'm having a few hiccups with the pacing of the chapters and scenes. So don't worry I do plan on completing this comic it's just a little nerve wrecking finally getting to this point with my comic so it really needs to be perfect and unrushed.

I really appreciate you guys for understanding and expect the next chapter to be up sometime in September. I started this story back in 2010 and now it's 2012 so the stories come a long way and I've learned a lot about the process and toll of making and finishing a comic.
There were countless of times where I wanted to throw in the towel and give up on the story because I didn't measure up to the others around me or to my own standards but whenever I would get in that mood I would usually talk to my husband about it and he would encourage me to keep going and the days when that encouragement wasn't enough I would sit there thinking about the story, kind of like a stare down with the story and contemplated in myself the reasons why I was doing the story and how much it means to me to tell my story about the importance of family and how strong love can be. So each time that fit would come on me I would always in up giving in and continue drawing and updating the comic.

It's really not an easy thing to do comics and I've learned over the years that I'm not the only one who will be effected if I throw my story away after so many people have gotten attached to it. I know if someone took a really good book or game that I was reading/playing and threw it out the window of a car causing it to be lost forever I would be devastated, mind you I something like this did happen to me, I let my little sister barrow a pokemon game of mine that I really liked and when I asked for it back or asked about it she then tells me that she accidentally threw it out the car window. I was so angry at her. I can't remember if I pinched her or screamed at her....actually thinking about this now is making upsetting me and I might just pinch her when I see her next time....of course it's been a very long time since that happened *the game was pokemon ruby red so yea~* but back to the point of the matter I really don't want to put other's through that and my husband defiantly wouldn't let it go. He still get's on me about some of my other comic stories that I've put on hiatus =.=

So with all of that in mind I want to help reassure you all that the story will be finished. I'm getting a little to old to keep repeating this viscous cycle of kicking comics after starting them then starting a new one. Yes I know not all comic idea's are great and some do need to be stopped but I'm just letting you all know where I'm at in this situation ^^ 

Thank you so much for your understanding and for reading all of this and look forward to the next chapter in September!

Disclaimer: I am not forcing my views and opinion on this subject on anyone. I am just putting this out there to help encourage others who might have struggled with this or are struggling with this and beating themselves up about using reference. For those of you who get offended then well that's very normal too and feel free to vent out your frustration but don't be surprised with what is said back ^^

I recently stumbled upon this interesting post over on D Helmer tumblr. I’ll go ahead and copy and past what it said down below for you to read over, I’m editing out any naughty language because I can ^^:
Yeah, if someone is proud they don’t use “reference” to do artwork, they must not have much else to be proud about…

glassshard:

    “Yeah, if someone is proud they don’t use “reference” to do artwork, they must not have much else to be proud about…”

    This. The greatest artists and illustrators used photo reference. Not a little, but A LOT. Norman Rockwell was notoriously slow because he insisted on shooting photo reference of  everything. Alphonse Mucha, whom everyone idolizes, photo referenced or used a model for near all his work. Vermeer used a rudimentary pinhole camera before cameras even printed to film to trace compositions onto canvas. James Gurney works from life, builds models, or uses photos. All those manga artists you love reference, trace, or just plain paste altered photographs into their work (actually they have their uncredited assistants do it).

    To boast about not using reference is one of the most amateur things an artist can do and it means precisely squat, particularly if you are working digitally with ctrl+z, colour adjustment, and trick brushes.

    So quit it! Just do the work. No one cares about how you got there or cares about reading your clever tutorials that are just a thin excuse for you to  blast your opinions or air your balls so everyone can smell how rosy they are. Just do the work D:

    alexds:

    The tone with which this is written is angry and offensive! And I totally love it. Until I started working in a “real” art job (like, one that involves me working collaboratively with other Homo sapiens) I never realized that ref is the grease that keeps things moving. Nobody is expected to reinvent the wheel every time they have to draw something new. If your boss tells you to draw in a retro style, you don’t have to jump in your time machine and live in the 50’s until you get it. You learn to Google and look at screenshots and piggyback off of your betters. Same with learning how to create background art, anatomy, textures, compositions… Most people here have reference books and art-of books and they look at them! What!! (I didn’t go to art school so I don’t know if this is common, but it blew my mind at first). The important part is that you’re still making original things: referenced information is not being simply regurgitated, it is being processed by your brain and synthesized into an original, awesome product.

    Just don’t steal things, okay? Reffing properly is learning how to use the entire world as an art tool. Artists that copy paste, like the manga artists that were mentioned, have to do it because they put out like 30 pages a week; I think most of us can afford to have higher standards than that.

This right here….is so true. Even during art school the teachers would have us copy the images from magazine’s or old art books and turn in that as assignments. We even had to photocopy a cut out magazine photo and then take that and trace it, with this niffty little paper that you put on top of the canvas then when you trace over the photocopy it prints it on the canvas, then go in and paint it. Even in art school or at least the one I went to, they taught the students how to draw by tracing photo’s or the old art master's works. Not everyone agrees with tracing but it really does help you to learn when you study how others might do it. Even back in my younger years of pre-school and such I learned how to draw the alphabet by tracing the words but I never thought anything of it or felt bad that I couldn’t just figure out the letters on my own with out looking but if I didn’t look and trace and study then how would I have learned it. Now I’m not saying go and trace something and then claim that as your own because that’s called plagiarism and it’s wrong and you should feel bad for claiming someone else work as your own but if you are tracing or copying to learn how they do that and or learn that certain style that interest you then why should you feel bad? You’re not alone. A lot of people learn by copying. That's how I learned how to tie by shoes, braid my hair and cook something edible. I watched and I copied and then I learned and ventured out on my own thinking up different ways that I could do it. I believe that the same applies for art. You watch, you copy/trace, you learn then your brain starts thinking up different ways to do stuff and you can start building your own style from the foundation that you created from the ones you watched and copied. I already know that not everyone will agree with this and it’s no skin off my back. It’s just sad to see so many artist get so down on themselves because they don’t have a mega mind. You’re not alone and I see a lot of artist burn out because they think that they aren’t worthy enough to be artist because they can’t amount up to those that they see around them and think that they are doing everything without reference when that might not be true.

All I can really say is kind of the same thing as that post above. Just get up and draw. I’ve gotten comments about how my characters are too dark or too fat or whatever but it’s my art. Why should I care if they don’t like it? Don’t pay attention to those that don’t like it, as long as you like it then that’s what really matters. “If I can’t be right for me I can’t be right for you. I got to be me.” That’s one of my favorite quotes and it’s so true. Do you art any way you want. It’s yours go crazy! ^^