| "Machiko Sakuragi rough sketch" by Romy (2010-10-02) |
Hi Tsu-Chan fans,
This is a rough sketch of a character I named Machiko Sakuragi?i???????q?j. I'll try to finish this up and hopefully upload tomorrow so that you'll see the completed version.
Actually, this character is inspired by a local station in Yokohama called Sakuragicho?i???????j. You could call this the "personification" of a railway station! The shows with characters who personify countries or subway lines are made into anime nowadays, with the most notorious one being Hetalia.
So I was thinking it might be a good training for me to design a character who symbolizes some place or perhaps some other things.
In fact, Sakuragicho is one of the first railway stations in Japan, when a railroad for locomotives was first constructed back in the Meiji Era, connecting Yokohama and Tokyo. I think Shinagawa was the other end of the line.
So that's why the girl is dressed in a skirt-like hakama, a typical female student outfit back in the days. (There's a well known manga with the heroine dressed in hakama, called "Haikara-san ga Toru [There goes High-Collar-san]" which I really like.)
Hope you enjoy this illustration.
-Romy