Fall Projects

Back at the end of June, I posted a Summer Projects post highlighting what I planned on working on over the summer. I thought, since we're moving into Fall now, it would be a good idea to revisit that post. Today, I'm going to look over what I'd planned to get done, what I actually got done, and discuss a little of my plans for the Fall.

First, let's look at what I'd planned. I wanted to have the new Zodiac set finished for art. This Zodiac set was going to be the compliment to the one I finished for Anime Weekend Atlanta last year. The first set featured six guys and six girls, and the second set was going to do girl versions for the six guys and guy versions for the six girls. My goal was to have the new Zodiac prints and their chibi badge counterparts finished by Otakon. I also wanted to stock up on my inventory of fanart plushie designs for Otakon: Pikachu, Umbreon, Kirby, Black Mokona, White Mokona, and Moogle. Along with those I wanted to make some bunny and kitty mini-plushies.

Now, let's see how things actually went. Getting the Zodiacs finished by Otakon did not happen. In fact, the only progress made before Otakon was taking the Aries sketch featured on the Summer Projects post and inking it. In my defense, we lost most of July to moving. Most of August was taken up with commission projects and family events, and it's only been in the last week or so that I've really been able to get back on track with things. So, Zodiacs... fell far short of my goal. I did manage to get a decent number of plushies made before Otakon. I boosted my fanart inventory and had three each of the bunny and kitty mini-plushies. So, plushies... goal achieved!

So, what's on for the Fall? The short answer: lots of cool stuff! For art, I will finally have Anime Tarot card decks (these are now available for preorder from my Etsy shop) for Anime Weekend Atlanta and Anime USA. I am going to keep working on the Zodiacs. My new goal is to get them finished by AWA; it'll be tough, but I think it's doable. Last year, I made my set of Sailor Moon Harem bookmarks because they were asking artists to put together something to match the convention theme: Arabian Nights. This year's theme is military, so I'm going to be doing a new set of Sailor Moon bookmarks, this time with a mecha pilot design. I'm thinking about making it a yearly thing to design a new set of Sailor Moon bookmarks for AUSA to go with their theme. Sailor Moon is just so much fun to play with; the characters really lend themselves to this kind of re-designing. That's my minimum goal. I'd also like to see some of my other in-progress bookmark sets (World of Warcraft, The Guild, and Dragonlance) get finished by AUSA--AWA is later this month, so I think I'll be doing well to get the Zodiacs done for that. Outside of that, Soul Eater and Full Metal Alchemist are high on my list of series I want to do massive bookmark sets for, but those might have to be a project for next season.

That covers art. For plushies, I'd had it in my head that I might be able to do some more new plushie designs, but I think I'll be doing good to just restock my inventory again since I sold out of pretty much everything at Otakon--not that I'm complaining. ;-) I think I'll play this one by ear. I'd like to work on some new designs, but I'm not going to get too excited about that idea. For other crafts, we're still hoping to debut the decorative props for AWA and I'm going to finish up the last of the charm designs plus replace those that sold at Otakon. Maybe by AWA I'll have a good way of displaying my charms. Finally, I'm still trying to get Suzaku and Euphemia cosplays finished for AWA for my husband and I. It's a low priority item, but I'm still holding out some hope that I can get those finished.

That about sums up my plans for the Fall. Chances are, it's entirely unreasonable, but it'll be interesting to see how things go. Look for a Winter follow-up to this post in early December.