Welcome to the World

Well..I am purportedly a full-time artist now.
I've been kind of slow getting into it, though. I had to slave over my thesis for a lot longer than I expected (pretty much right up until graduation). After graduation I spent a week doing nothing (except eating. a lot. mostly peanut butter). This week my summer art class began (Art History I) and I've gotten into the full swing of working at Savory. (Oh..I moved closer to DC, right as Juan Valdez closed..but I got another job 3 blocks from my new abode before I even moved here.) Next week I may start working for MITRE Corporation again, too, because I need some $$ to pay rent and start chipping away at my student loans.
I have been reading over a story/thinking about/doing a little storyboarding for something for the short shorts site (though this won't really be that short, in the end..I'm just not cut out for it, I love my worlds and characters too much). I may do some arrangement like I used to have for Crossovers, where I would work on it for at least an hour every day. Perhaps on those long commutes to MITRE :|

Stop the Madness!

Sorry I've been MIA for a while. My real life is sort of out of control right now and I've just been trying to wrest a little time to do some artly things from it. I don't have time to do both comics and other artly things, so while I doodle SSMA characters and make art for deviantArt contests, I've kind of been neglecting comics.... This weekend should hopefully see the completion of that pic (as well as my art homework!!) and the start of the next one (new contest every 2 weeks man! I am going to get my hands on a dA subscription, whatever it takes..), and then I should have a bit of time to devote to short shorts. At work, because at home whenever I'm doing something that's not homework, my mom asks me why I'm not working on my thesis :\

Lost

Well. Katsucon was fun. I danced a lot and spent a lot of time sitting around in the halls (and also worked eight hours on Saturday >.<). I didn't do any cosplaying, drawing or photographing, which was sad. But I did get super inspired!
Just that, not on Crossovers.
Right now I'm in an art fit over the Lock 33 storyline from the world of SSMA. And I'm trying to think of some short comic storylines.
I feel kinda blah about Crossovers. Maybe it's just because I haven't gotten to the really exciting parts of the story yet. I don't know. I do know that I want to work on other things. And I'm going to do that. I'll see if drawing the characters from Lock 33 will lead to me writing more of that story. And I'm going to start another comic website for short comics, because I need to hone my skills more before I start on some of my really super graphic novel ideas. I'm talking like really short shorts, 2, 3, 4 pages long, just to practice drawing, layout and storytelling. I'll try to keep working on Crossovers, because there are things I like about it, and stories in the Davi world yet to tell; besides, I would hate to disappoint my dear readers--but I don't know how often I'll be updating.
Of course, you guys will now have dA and the short shorts to entertain you :)
Oh right! PLUGXXORZED! new pic on dA

Dead on my sketchbook

hey, so..sorry, no page this week.
Art class really kicked my ass this week. Stupid gigantic pastel still lifes. I really don't get the point of spending hours coloring a 18x24 sheet of paper. I can learn about shading fruits and vegetables just as well without having to draw them the size of cats or color the whole rest of the paper solid black, thank you very much! >.< I may very well decide not to finish something, cause I like sleep better.
So..so far art class has not turned out very useful for comic drawing. If I can get more research done at home, maybe I can try after-work before-capeoira lounging (napping :/) time instead. Otherwise, I don't know when I'll do it. Home is not suitable cause the feng shui is bad or something, I'm so unmotivated at home. I think it really is the feng shui..the lack of space. All my stuff is crammed onto the kitchen table. Computers, research materials, art stuff, reading books, things I want to do something with at some point..So I can never spread out my sketchbook, sit back and revel in my mental and spatial freedom..instead I sit there with a million things impinging on my consciousness and just drown in the confusion!
Perhaps I'm a little adhd :/
Ok so anyway I'll try to get some drawing done around work this week..as katsucon is next weekend. One of the shift supervisors expressed interest in seeing my work..maybe that can get me motivated.

Back in Business, Baby!

Yeah so adding to the list of things that get in the way of my drawing the comic..I have a job now. I'm working as a barista at Juan Valdez Cafe..which is a pretty cool place. Very sustainable development and fair trade-y..so I can feel good even as I spur on the American consumer lifestyle. Yes! It's also another of those jobs that leaves your feet sore, your skin smelling like grease and your whole self so tired you just wanna sleep forever on the Metro (or go to capoeira practice? O.o) And coffee..whee. I can just feel my bones dissolving. Osteoporosis my love..I'll sleep in your sweet embrace.
Anyway..back at the ranch..I haven't had a chance to work on page 23 yet, because I toiled through all class today and Monday, shading a gigantic pastel still life. Soo delicious. And by delicious I mean horrendous. I need to buy softer pastels; the black and gray I have simply don't stick to the paper, for some reason. (At least my white was behaving itself.) So, I have to finish that by Monday. *And* do a gigantic portrait of a bell pepper. And do four sketches of bottles of liquid (don't ask me..it was the teacher's idea)
But, I will try to have page 23 by Friday. Cause I have to go to Gtown then anyway to buy my cap and gown. Aiya, my savings! :( Somebody should sue Jostens for their outrageous prices on articles made for 25 cents in China and their silly bourgeouis class rings.
So, I guess I should go draw now (or maybe sleep....)
Oh yeah and I wanted to explain my new and exciting characters page. Why, you might ask, are there random facts on there like the color and consistency of Maria's hair? Well..rather than making some silly summaries of things you could surmise about the characters just by reading the comic,I decided instead to give y'alls some insight into their inner lives by including random lines from my character profiles. I wanted to know more about my characters than just what they looked like, so I asked them to fill out one of those email surveys (actually, I think I got it on Elftown..) So far I only have Maria's and Eugene's. As other characters (some of whom have already appeared anonymously..) become more prominent, I'll have to start pressing them for details about their personal lives to fill out the rest of the profiles..
So yeah. I'll update everyone's excerpts every time I add a character, just to entertain you lot.
Now, I'm going to entertain my poor tired self by going to bed >.<

Wainbow Tyres...

I think only one person who would read this would know what that means. and she probably forgot about it. Oh well :p
Anyway, I finally did for the Crossovers site; it's purdy and pastel-colored now. I..didn't intend for it to have such a pastelly color scheme, but I'm just gonna leave it for now. It was a coloring experiment that didn't turn out quite as expected.. (I don't think I've ever cg'ed something before..not since the pixel-painting MS Paint era..) Maybe sometime I'll feel like trying my hand at it again. Until then..I give you pastelicious Muharu and the cotton-candy colored website....
I guess I have to do a 'realistic' pic of Muharu to make up for that..since he's actually dark grayish in color and kind of gothy in personality. tehe. (Originally the color scheme of the website was gray and green..but I liked the sketchy Muharu so much that I kept it and its attendant color scheme.
If I had more readers I would make several versions and put them to a vote..but with my readership, I'd probably get one vote for each version..and then I'd have to decide anyway.
Well, I pick the lazy option. Leave it the way it is :p

Time Travel

Notice anything different?? Like..that my blog grew exponentially? :D
I retroactively added all the updates from the old homepage (enjoy it now before it disappears forever!!) as blog posts..so, if you were going..huh? she just started her blog a month ago, how come there are posts from 2004??? well that's where they came from. They are all labeled ODL!!ll..no, actually they are just labeled "old". Augh. Elf Only Inn (back when M'Lady, Goku etc. were more regular characters) had a terrible influence on my English :(
Well..mostly the old updates consist of excuses for why I wasn't updating on schedule..but there were a few interesting tidbits. I (re)found punkvoter.com and a useful page on copyright (conveniently marked at the section most relevant to my comic..cause it's the part that says yes, EVERYTHING is copyrighted the moment it's made). Also, the FLYING BAGEL OF DOOM!!
Ah, the good ole days.

Photoshop is for n00bs

Finished page 22 and have it all set up to update automatically at the stroke of midnight.
I thought it'd be more convenient just to upload the page directly from school..instead of emailing it to myself so I could basically just add text at home before uploading it.
Boy was that ever a terrible idea.
Cause it meant I had to use Photoshop.
Which doesn't rotate layers, or selections..but the whole image. No matter what. >.< >.< >.<
And also only lets you undo about ten times.
>.< >.< >.<
I'm just gonna have to figure out how to install the GIMP on this machine..else I'll just have to keep sending the pages home to finish them off.
Oh yes and the scanner..teh suxxorz. Top of the page is dark, bottom is light. And everything is all smooth and grayed out looking.
I'm going to go crazy if this has to keep up much longer!!!!!

Arrrggghravation

It has not been a good day for art.
Mostly.
We had a homework assignment due for Intro to Drawing today..and since I only got my materials yesterday, I started it this morning. Pastels, pos/neg space; I was gonna take a photo and post it, but by the time my camera batteries were charged, the light was no good, and using an artificial light caused blinding glare off the fixative (more 'bout that in a bit..), and now the teacher has claimed it.. But anyway, so when I left for my driving lesson, I picked up the pastel drawing, but I left some newsprint lying on the floor. Terrible idea! You see, our dogs are a bit..well, spontaneous about doing their business, so we often leave newspapers on the basement floor to minimize the damage. And with the newsprint lying there, I guess Mozie thought his litterbox had moved upstairs..because when I came back, there was a puddle there. Right by my backpack. Which contained my comic sketchbook. Yes..my comic sketchbook now has dog pee along the bottom edge >.<
It's been such a crazy day, even up till now I haven't had a chance to fully assess the damage. At first glance, it seemed relatively minor. But still..I think I have to trash that sketchbook, save the comic pages if I can and cut off any..er..colored parts..
That wasn't the end of it, though. That pastel drawing? I spent about three or four hours on it total. It wasn't great, but it looked pretty good, and pretty much like what the teacher had indicated. Then I went to spray it with fixative. Well..I don't know if I sprayed too heavily or what..but by the time I was done, the whole thing looked chunky and nasty, like it had been done with crayola crayons or something! I was upset for quite a while. I even tried coloring over the fixative, but that didn't work so well.
I was sure everyone would scoff at my gunky drawing and the teacher would have some harsh words. Turned out my terrors were unfounded, though. This is gonna sound terrible but most of the other kids' homework assignments looked like they were made by elementary schoolers. They didn't even follow the teacher's directions. I guess there are only a few people in that class who actually know or care about drawing..this may be a long semester :\
But anyway. At least a new page goes up today! And page 22 is almost done.

It's over! It's over! Strongbad says it's over!

Everybody died 'cept me.
Well, thats not true really..Actually I think most people passed driver's ed. Congrats to them, congrats to me. I have one more in-car lesson next week and then I'm done (so it's not really over..but having to go to that dumb class where we do nothing for half the time is now SO LAST WEEK!!11
Which is a shame because in the past few days I got more work done on my comic, there, than I have in the past few weeks. Almost two pages in as many days. Which takes a lot of empty time and boredom, believe me! (I paid $295 to lounge in a chair reading and drawing?? WTF?)
So yeah. Maddening pace of page drawings. But I've heard that a mangaka has to be able to do a page a day, so maybe I should try to keep it up. Yeah, and not have a life and not finish my thesis! As if! But still..it's inspiring. If I could do just a quarter of that speed, not only could I update on time every week, I'd be working way ahead!
So. Things look good for the comic right now. Page 21 is pretty much done..it needs to be markered, but that hardly counts, cause it's just a swish and a swoosh and it's done. Page 22 is almost all drawn (just the gorilla guy is missing..you'll see what I mean when it's up) and that means it's practically done..cause inking and coloring, while requirous of time, don't really require a lot of thinking. And it's the thinking that always dissuades me from starting a new page :p So. I will take those two with me to Gtown on Sunday and scan, then you will get one new page immediately, and one sneak peek of the other, which will update automatically on Friday!
Yayxx.
God, I hope I can keep this productive streak up.

Updatxxorz

It's so long since I've used these silly spellings that I've forgotten how to do them. Is that right?
I finally got everything scanned and fixed up (as best I could after MK's lone scanner did a number on the page), and Crossovers is supposed to update at some point tonight..the update queue on ComicGen is always ginormous in the middle of the night, since that's when most automatic updates are scheduled. I'm going to sleep and I'll just have to see tomorrow whether the page is all right.
I did apply to Borders, finally. What a massive application! And it included a 37-question personality quiz. I'm terrified that now they won't hire me because they'll find out I'm introverted, temperamental, perfectionist and self-centered. Augh!!

Yayxx

Some good news..I've pretty much finished up page 20 (though it's in a couple pieces..I'll just have to patch those together..) but, hay problemo: the scanner is broken. My sister's cat jumped off it, it fell down, and the port for the USB connector broke. But tomorrow I'm off on a quest to MK, where there may be scanners. If not, I'll just have to grit my teeth and go to Kinko's (yes, I hold a grudge).
I also have a nice picture (well..I think nice..since I haven't really drawn anything in about a year) but again..the scannerlessness. It also is in pieces as I made a mistake and have to patch it. Augh. the skill-less-ness.
Life is..inching along. It's the last (well..second..but also last!) week of driver's ed, and I get my in-car instruction out of the way this week too, despite weather and time management mishaps. I went to capoeira (and a capoeira party..) and am looking forward to going again next week, or even Saturday if I can change my art class. The art class is confusing me as I already adjusted to it being Saturday, and now can't figure out which time to change it to. And then..there are some assignments I need to get motivated to work on. And then there's the job, too, that I still have to apply for. I feel kind of like life is ganging up on me! Filling up my time..when I would really like to be free to pursue people aspects of my life. Well, whatever. It'll all work out somehow!

Uh..what now?

Well, I am running out of excuses. Other than that driving school takes up an inordinate amount of time in the middle of the day, which makes getting things done a big bowl of blargh.
Well, next week "school" starts (even though I don't have class until Saturday) so maybe I'll buckle down. And go back to those freakin schedules! I obviously need them. But seriously..the past few days I've been all over the place, with appointments and errands and all sorts of goodness. And without a car it all takes forever.
Besides that I'm feeling bummed about my art again. None of it is actually significant in any kind of way I feel: So I drew a pretty picture. So what? So I wrote a story about some elves running around and fighting each other. So what? They're all just idle fantasies, something people look at for a moment and then forget about. I don't want to be another Mercedes Lackey or Anne McCaffrey! (No matter how famous that will make me..) I want to change the world. So why do I just keep drawing pretty elves?? Why do I write silly stories about demons and faerie, and not really important stuff?? Am I doomed to be a hack???????

Oops, I didn't do it..again

Well, some update.
I'm working on it though. Yesterday I drew something...not at all comic related, but hopefully it'll help me get me going again. Actually, I started drawing something; I did the figure doodle, today I have to trace it and add features and clothes. So I guess that's what I'll be doing...
I was supposed to go to Montgomery College (community college around here) to register for an art class..then I realized they're closed today for MLK Jr. Day. I was a bit flustered because I thought it was the last day to register. Then I realized that it was just the payment deadline for people who already registered; but since I hadn't, I was safe. phew.
Oh yes and I'm learning to drive. I went round and round a parking lot yesterday. whee. I think I can hold the car inside the lane now, aren't you proud of me? XD

Can you believe i am using my thesis to procrastinate..

Yes, I really am. Rather than draw or answer emails, I am..looking up Chinese scholarly articles on zhezixi (opera highlights) and "The Palace of Eternal Life" (an opera). Super blargh. Those who know me know I can only do one thing at a time. Two weeks ago the something was my comic and its website. Last week it was indeterminate and thus I was depressed and unmotivated. Now it's my thesis. Yargh.
This is why I tried to use a schedule. Forces me to break up my time into chunks. Spend some time on checking work email, some on research, some on my comic..only whenever I started on something obsessorizing like my website, I didn't stop after the alloted time was up....And now I haven't used a schedule in, like..a week..and thusly, not much has got done..
I guess I'd better schedule some time for my comic. I'm sure I can update tomorrow if I really try....

mnarf?

Well, I didn't get page 20 done before I went to Pittsburgh.
But, I am back from Pittsburgh now. And motivated.
What a wild..72..I think..hours it has been. More, if you count what led up to this..fiasco. It didn't go so badly, actually. At the start at least. For last minute planning and not letting certain involved parties have a say in said planning, it came off pretty well. But I think I was expecting too much, tried too hard and wasn't very patient. I got frustrated and in a fit of upset decided to come home. The day after I got there. I still can't figure out if I did right or not. I feel like perhaps not. But what's done is done..
And how life changes. A couple of hours ago I couldn't have imagined working on my comic. But since seeing my site mentioned on my favorite webcomic, I think I'd better.
Perhaps some more concept art to put me back in the creative mood. I have some Davi characters I've been wanting to draw forever..
Also, my dad suggested another (not so) secret mission. Not going to say much more other than that it appeals to me immensely! Am I little bit obsessed? Possibly. But this is it..I can't give up..and I won't. So there.
Feeling good enough to even work on my thesis now!

Off to see the wizard..

Yeah, I wish.
But actually, I am going somewhere. I'm leaving for Pittsburgh tomorrow on a top secret mission to save my love life. So..the comic and site upgrade will be on hiatus for about a week. I'll try to finish page 20 tonight before I leave. It'll be just like before I was leaving for Hong Kong, except much more tragic :\
I don't really have much else to report. I think I spent most of yesterday reading about driving laws, cause I hoped to get my learner's permit this Monday. Well, that will have to wait. Sorry Greg. and thanks too.

Blargh..

As in, blargh, an expression of exasperation, not blarg, the new code word for blog..
So, looks like page 20 won't be on time. It's nearly done but I'm severely lacking motivation. Right now, I don't want to do anything; I just want to run off and join the Coast Guard. Or at least go get some books from the library and read about my wonderful future.
Since all the fun things, like my bday and new year's, ended last weekend, I've been feeling singularly depressed. Now there's nothing to look forward to except long dreary months of writing my paper. God, how I wish now I had never applied to write it. What was I thinking??!!
And something else is dampening my spirits too..but I still have a last-ditch plan to try and fix that..just have to figure out how to get to Frederick without a car >.<

And out with the old!

Well, almost. The new site is almost ready to go. I worked on it most of the day (though I did do some other things first! Yes, I have discovered the secret of getting things done..do them before you start working on something compulsive-making like the website or devArt.
Ah yes devArt. I started uploading some of my work there in preparation for Katsucon, because I wanted to buy prints to sell in Artist Alley through dA because I have a grudge against Kinko's. Then I found out that Artist Alley was full and we didn't get in. Boo.
Oh well. Not like I have much to show off anyway. 20 pages of a comic, like 5 print-worthy pics all from several years ago.. Yeah. I had better put the 7 months until Otakon to good use. Especially if I'm going to join the Coast Guard or go to Taiwan after that!!
Ok, in other news I finished the sketch of page 20 yesterday. Aside from the two panels featured in the preview, I'm not too pleased with it. Trouble implementing my vision. Blargh.
Well, I'm going to try and take an art class this spring. I haven't "studied" art since elementary school. Scary, right??!! I feel like I could use some help with my human figures and other things, and am too lazy to take my destiny in my own hands, so I'll just hand it over to a teacher lol.
Ok, I think that's all. A belated happy new year to y'all!