Monday, July 30, 2012

Insanely Busy

I meant to post something else today--I don't even remember what right now. That's just a taste of all the fail in my life right now. Really it's not that bad; there's just a little bit too much going on for me to keep up with everything.

So what's so busy around here? Well, for starters, I have a little baby; she's 2 months old now, but she still requires a lot of attention that can only come from mama. No complaints here though--this is a really sweet age (I especially like that they're not old enough to argue or talk back or complain when I make them cosplay). XD After that I just started a new exercise program, now that I've gotten the go-ahead from my midwife to do so. My oldest son, Ty, now runs with me three days out of the week; we're training to run a 5K sometime around November--that's the goal at least. After that, school is in session and I homeschool--not complaining; I wouldn't trade that for anything. Education is important to me, and I know at home my boys are getting the best education possible (I don't have a very high opinion of the schools in my area). However, this is my first year with all three of the boys in school, and on top of that, we're working with new curriculum materials. Needless to say, we're still trying to adjust things and get into a routine there. After that, my husband and I have set a goal to go through 5 boxes from our garage a day--yeah... we've been in this house since April and we still haven't finished unpacking. It might be worth adding though that we've never finished unpacking in any of the houses or apartments we've lived in prior to this, so if we keep with our unpacking goal, we might just have a life-time-first. Then there is this monstrous house to clean--don't get me wrong, this house is amazing and perfect for my family, but it is a bit of an intimidation when it comes to cleaning (especially with 3 boys whose idea of clean is being able to shut their doors or fit it under the living room coffee table). I'm supposed to be working in some art time in there somewhere along with some time to relax. That doesn't happen most days, which is why my WIP posts have been a little sparse, and also why posts here tend to be either late or missing entirely. I'll admit I'm a little frustrated with how slow work has been going on the projects I have going. My family is important to me though, so that stuff will always take priority over my art (and my video game time--that should go without saying though). Right now, they are a large part of why I keep my Etsy shop running and why I get tables in Artist Alley--I enjoy it a lot, but with everything going on, it becomes a source of stress; if it didn't help my family a little bit, I probably wouldn't keep doing this. It is nice to get a (small) supplement to my husband's income though since I can't really get a job outside the home right now without sacrificing things I value like the kids' education or being able to be there for Sophie when she needs me. It helps us pay a little bit extra on our student loans, which gets us a little closer to being free from those. It makes it so we can buy our kids (and sometimes ourselves) a little bit extra on birthdays and at Christmas. I am incredibly thankful to be able to do what I am doing.

I think things will improve though. I think school will take less time, as will cleaning, once we get into a smoother routine. We won't be unpacking forever--logically there should be an end to the boxes somewhere. Also, Sophie won't be a baby forever either (*sadface*). Anyways, that's a bit of what's going on in my life right now, so maybe you can understand when I miss a post here or there, or if I don't have a lot of updates each week. ^_^

Friday, July 27, 2012

Wednesday WIP, Vol. 34

Two days late... could be worse. XD The last two days were pretty busy. I still managed to get some stuff done since WIP vol. 33. There's some lineart and coloring going on. I also have sketches for the newly redrawn Rainbow Dash and the fifth design for the Hunger Games set, but I was too lazy to scan those for this. That and I don't get a lot of time for art stuff today, so I'm going to keep the blog short and sweet and get back to work. Here we have more work on my most recent commission project, lineart for Fluttershy, color and starting to finish the first in a new original set, and the finished 4th Hunger Games design.


Monday, July 23, 2012

More Live Action Anime

Do you think this could look more ridiculous?
I've been watching a lot of stuff the last week or so, maybe making up for the months and months of not watching anything. XD Remember how I mentioned last week at the end of my post on the Ranma 1/2 live action movie that my friend had Ouran High School Host Club live action...

Well, I spent this week consuming the entirety of that series. That's really not as impressive as it might sound; the series was only 12 episodes long.

Do you remember last fall when I posted a brief line about watching the first two episodes of OHSHC live action at Anime Weekend Atlanta (here, about 6 paragraphs down) and described it as both epic and horrible all at the same time? I still stand by that description. It is definitely hokey in a lot of places, and the special effects are frequently goofy. Yes, I said special effects. This is a reverse harem drama series with special effects. XD

The live action series roughly follows the anime, keeping most of the more pertinent episodes. They are not 100% identical, but some of the episodes are definitely close to it, especially early on in the series. With the Sailor Moon live action, the different plot line was a major plus for the series. Here having the plot very close to the original anime is a good thing. The live action for OHSHC keeps the feel of the anime. The characters are all very well done, in my opinion.

My verdict on this series: OMG It Is So Freaking Awesome!!!! Since this is not any kind of official review site and is just my place to rant and ramble on random things, I have no qualms with fangirling here. =P I absolutely love this series. I'm still on the fence as to whether I like the live action better than the anime or not. I think the live action version was a little more intense. I almost teared up in the episode where the twins fight (it plays out roughly the same way as it did in the anime) and I don't tear up at movies--I think the last instance where I cried at a movie was after Theodred's funeral in The Two Towers and I blame hormones on that--my 2nd son was only a week old and Theoden's line, "No parent should have to bury their child" really choked me up. Anyways. Back on topic. I thoroughly enjoyed this series. If you liked the anime, I definitely recommend watching this. If you didn't, then chances are, this isn't going to be up your alley either.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Looking Back, Vol. 1

I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the conventions I've been to over the last 12 years. =) My first convention was Animazement in 2000. I had just started the Anime Club at UNC-A. My aunt, who lives in the Raleigh, NC area, called me and asked if I'd heard of Animazement. I hadn't; the only conventions I had heard about were Trekkie cons, and most of what I'd heard there was hearsay. I passed the information on to the rest of Anime Club and we all signed up--all three of us. XD This was back when you really did have to walk over miles of broken glass to find even a pirated VHS tape with anime on it, let alone anything licensed. This was back when Anime Club met in a back room of the Student Center, and we watched whatever we had in our small personal collections and could borrow--this was not before DVDs but before they became mainstream, and was way before internet streaming became decently functional. We watched bits and pieces of Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Ranma 1/2, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Kenshin, Tenchi, Slayers, and many more titles. Most we only got to see a few episodes of--anime was hard to come by then. The internet was not as prolific then as it is now, and it was tough to afford the $25 price tag on a VHS tape with only 2 episodes on it.

Anyways, back on topic... We preregistered in the fall of 1999. I got married in February of 2000, and decided that my new husband--not a die-hard anime fan like the rest of us, but he likes movies of all kinds so he was fairly tolerant of my obsession (I supposed he'd have to be though to have married me, right?)--would be coming with us. Also, not only would he be coming with us, but he would also be cosplaying. Yes, I was planning on cosplaying at my very first convention ever. When I first looked up Animazement's website, I saw the people in costume in the photos from AZ 1999, and I was hooked. I remember brainstorming with one of my best friends all the different characters I'd love to dress up as. I was in heaven... almost. The one problem with all my cosplay plans and dreams: I did not have a sewing machine and had absolutely no clue how to sew clothes (I'd done cross stitch for years, but I don't count that). XD

So mid-February 2000, I decided my husband and I were going to cosplay something... it wasn't until 2 weeks before the convention (then in March to align with most people's spring breaks) that I decided what we'd cosplay. One of my favorite series at the time was Ranma 1/2. My favorite characters were Ukyo and Mousse. I could have pulled off Ukyo easily; I had long, straight brown hair, so it wouldn't have been too hard to put her costume together. However, I thought it would be more fun to do a couple cosplay, since we were newlyweds and all that, and Ukyo never had a counterpart really. So, we went with Mousse for my husband (who also happened to have long dark hair back then and even wore glasses too) and Shampoo for me. I tried dying my hair purple--that didn't work so well; I have since discovered that my hair doesn't dye anything except black even with the help of bleach. I also cheated on my costume. I just wore a chinese dress my Mom got for me from China town on a trip she had gone on to China town the year before (it was blue too; should have been red for Shampoo XD), and I put my hair up to match Shampoo's.

My husband's Mousse costume was a different story. We bought blue jogging pants from a store, but the rest of the costume was something else. =P Thankfully, my mother-in-law was willing to help a little. We spent the Spring Break week (the week before the con) at her house. I took a reference picture, and we went shopping for fabric and patterns. Thankfully, Mousse's costume is fairly simple; we just got a pattern for a Christmas pageant wiseman robe. We found fabric. She helped show me how to read the pattern and a basic intro to how to use the sewing machine. I was still handsewing the details on the front of the robe Friday night after the first day at the convention. XD That last-minute costume work pattern hasn't really changed in all the years since then. Still, I was happy with the result. =) Here's a pic of that first cosplay--not very good quality and I've never been very good at posing for pictures (you'll notice how very few there are around here... in fact I think this is the first).

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Wednesday WIP, Vol. 33

Here's a look at what I've been working on this past week. I am slowly getting back into a routine that includes consistent art time. I am happy to see things getting done, even if it's not as much as I'd like. It's still a step up from weeks where I didn't get a chance to do anything artsy or craftsy.

This week is again mostly art projects. The commission sketch I've cleaned up some since I scanned this version; I'm being lazy tonight and not scanning an updated version. The lovely lady in formal attire is part of a new series of original designs I'm working on for Anime Weekend Atlanta. There will be a set of 24 prints--12 ladies and 12 gentlemen--and 12 matching badges featuring chibi couples. Can anyone guess the theme for this set? I'll give a hint. It's not Zodiacs. The third Hunger Games design is almost finished. I'm really happy with how it's coming out. The last sketch is for a random set I'm working on mostly for fun--it was something I came up with at Anime USA last year, and it makes me giggle, so I'm drawing it. I'll see if anyone can figure out where this set is going too. =P

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Ranma 1/2 Live Action

Late again... this is becoming a theme. This time it was a mix of day camp for the older boys, exhaustion and an open house for a new Boy Scout troop we might be joining--nothing like an evening of boys playing with fire and sharp objects.

Last Friday, after working on the Anime RPG book, we sat down and watched the live action Ranma 1/2 movie. We fully intended to heckle it and enjoy an hour or so of mindless entertainment. Within the first few minutes we determined we didn't really need to heckle it so much; it made fun of itself. Considering it is a live action rendition of an animated series, it wasn't half bad. Of course, you have to keep in mind that you really can't expect a whole lot from anime turned live action; I think the live action Sailor Moon is one of the only exceptions to this. With Sailor Moon, the series was excellent--I would even say better than the anime--as long as you look past the hokey special effects.

After giving up on heckling Ranma 1/2 we turned to comparing it to the anime, and we took bets as to what characters would make appearances in the movie, beyond Ranma, Genma, and the Saotome family. I think we were all a little disappointed. My husband wanted to see Ryoga. I wanted to see Kodachi--there was at least one scene at the Kuno mansion, so how hard could it have been to have worked her in? I suppose it is understandable in hindsight why these characters were left out; they weren't necessary in any way to the movie plot, which involved Ranma and Akane taking on a gang of drag queens for access to a spring that would supposedly turn a person into a man. The movie does do some things right. It worked in some of Ranma and Akane's favorite insults for each other, like "uncute". Ryoga didn't make an appearance but Akane's room was decorated with pig-themed things.

Was it good? Eh. It was okay--not bad, not epic. Was it worth watching? Yes. We definitely got an enjoyable evening of mindless entertainment out of it that we wanted. Next up: I'll probably be watching either Ouran High School Host Club live action or Wallflower live action. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. XD

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Did I Forget Yesterday's Post?

Did I forget yesterday's post? No, of course not... Well, okay, maybe... To be honest, yes, I did. Yesterday, we held our first "official" Team Sidequest work meeting. This consisted of myself, my husband, and our mechanics editor (good friend who knows rules for most games inside and out and has a good eye for whether certain game mechanics will work or not, but that title seemed a bit long so we call him mechanics editor). Way back in the very beginning of this blog, I mentioned that along with Gothic Panda Studios work, I might be posting on the things we're doing with Team Sidequest. Team Sidequest, for those who don't know, is a fledgling table top game company run primarily by my husband and I with occasional assistance from a couple of friends. Not much to it yet, but for now it's run by volunteer staff. Maybe one day it'll become something epically awesome and we'll actually get paid and be able to hire some other people. =D I can hope right?

Anyways, yesterday, we started work on editing the Anime RPG book we published last year (because surely we weren't the only ones who thought it might be fun to play a dwarf magic girl). We're about out of the first print run of books, so it seemed like a good time to do some editing--plus, over the last year of playing around with it and from some feedback from people who purchased copies of the book we have a list of things we feel could be made better. Our first step: review the mechanics. At our meeting, we made a rough list of general things to address. Over the next week we will each sit down with a copy of the book and go through every power, every feat, and every item in the book. We'll each make a list of specific adjustments we think should be made. Technically, I'll probably be leaving this task up to my husband and our mechanics editor, since I've also been tasked with editing some of the art. Once this step is done, we'll meet again and compare our lists of specific changes and determine as a group what we will actually change--these changes will be recorded to be posted on the Team Sidequest website for people who have already purchased a copy of the book. After that we'll make changes, check for grammar and spelling errors, correct formatting and other things like that. Our goal is to have the book ready for a second print run by mid-August.

In theory, by mid-August, we will also have Anime RPG ready for e-book release. One on-going request I have received regarding this book, second only to a version for Pathfinder, is an electronic version. This is the big reason why I am editing art. For the e-book version, all the art can be in color, as opposed to the black and white for the print version (color printing would make the book way too expensive). Once we get the 4th edition book completely edited and ready for release, we'll tackle adjusting the system for Pathfinder. Sometime in the next month we'll also be getting the Team Sidequest website up and functioning as well, so, you know, we have a place to post that list of changes. XD

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Wednesday WIP, vol. 32

So, the blog is a day late, but it has been a better week overall for art--this means I actually have something to post here this week. XD

The third Katniss design is drawn and inked and in the process of being colored.

Just for the fun of it, I pulled out my markers and colored pencils and made this:

This was fun; I may have to do more of those.


I have lots of sketches for new art:
my favorite
don't like... will probably redraw

Monday, July 9, 2012

Hunger Games Before Dinner

 Last fall I noticed a lot of people I follow on Twitter discussing a book called The Hunger Games. I looked it up, and based off of the plot synopsis on the back of the book, it really didn't sound like something I'd enjoy. The first thing that came to mind after reading the description was Battle Royale, a Japanese movie about a bunch of school kids forced to fight each other to the death in an arena. The Japanese movie is violent and not really my kind of thing. However, my mom had a copy of the trilogy, and while staying with her, I picked the book up one weekend. I wasn't all that interested in reading it, but 1) I wanted something to read and The Hunger Games was available and 2) a lot of people whose opinions I generally respect had recommended it. Just before the movie was released I heard news groups calling The Hunger Games the next Twilight. To be honest, if I'd heard that before reading the book, I would never have touched The Hunger Games.

But that didn't happen, and I read the book. I finished it over the course of one day. It goes without saying that I enjoyed the book. I liked the story and many of the elements of the setting in the Hunger Games. The characters were okay. Katniss I could honestly leave; she came across as kind of dull to me. I liked Peeta; I did not like Gale, and I was very happy that Peeta did not die as my husband and I both expected him to by the end of the first book, although under the circumstances, I felt it was almost more cruel to leave Peeta alive at the end, but I'm digressing. I'm not intending this post to be a review of the story. My absolute favorite character in the books was Cinna--I have a thing for stories with costume designers as prominent characters; I liked Edna and the Incredibles for much the same reason.

Spoiler Alert

I mentioned in my Blue Exorcist review that characters I specifically identify with or grow particularly attached to die. There are very few exceptions to this. True to the trend, Cinna dies--not in The Hunger Games, but the second book in the trilogy. They did leave it kind of open-ended, and I held out hope that he might make a miraculous reappearance by the end of the third book. Sadly, I was disappointed there. After Cinna died, I became attached to Finnick... he also died. >_< Anyways, I liked Cinna's character so much that I wanted to do a tribute of a kind to him and his work--at least that's the best way I can think of putting it... Can you even offer a tribute to a fictional character since it's not really the character's work, but the author's? XD

Spoiler Over

Whatever the case, I digress. I have decided to create a series of drawings based around the costumes Cinna designed for Katniss. Each design will, of course, be based off of my interpretation of the author's description of the costume, hair style, and make-up (as much as I ever include make-up in any of my pictures XD). For the three designs from The Hunger Games, what I imagined was very different from the designs used in the film. I am glad it worked out this way; I love seeing other artists' interpretations of things I've read. To me, this is one of the best aspects of drawing from literature. There is a lot more room for artistic freedom, and I'm always fascinated by how multiple artists can take the same page of text and come up with such vastly different results.

The first costume I drew was the one Cinna created for Katniss to wear for her debut at the Capitol. The book described her as wearing a plain black bodysuit with heavy black boots. Her hair was pulled back in a single braid and she wore little to no make-up--Cinna did this so that the Capitol audience would recognize her in the arena and connect her with her eye-catching entrance. She also wore a "fluttering cape made of streams of orange, yellow, and red and [a] matching headpiece" (The Hunger Games, chapter 5). I thought it would be cool to draw not just a cape with streams of color on it, but to make it streamers of red, orange, and yellow. These were of course set on fire once she was on the chariot. Personally, I think the streamers would have been extra dazzling once the chariot started moving; they'd certainly flutter a lot more than a cape, which would be considerably heavier. I had a lot of fun with this design--Photoshop hated me for it, but I definitely enjoyed working on it. =) I am really happy with how the flames on the streamers came out.

The second costume I tackled was the dress Katniss wore to her interview with Caesar Flickerman. The dress was long, but not so long that she would trip over the hem. She wore heeled shoes that weren't too high. She wore a fair amount of make up and her team drew swirling flame patterns in gold on her skin (I did add this to the picture although it doesn't show up very well). Her hair was braided from her left side across her head then down to hang over her shoulder with red ribbon braided in with the hair. Also, the book adds, "my dress is entirely covered in reflective precious gems, red and yellow and white with bits of blue that accent the tips of the flame design." (The Hunger Games) It also gave the impression of being on fire when she would twirl around. I gave the dress an uneven hem because that would keep it long and flowy while not being too long, and I thought it would highlight the flame theme. There is a very subtle flame pattern worked into the dress. I also tried to give the effect that the entire dress was literally covered in gems. I am especially pleased with that aspect of the picture.

If you can't tell, I'm drawing these basically in the order they appear in the books. The third is going to be the dress she wears for her second interview with Caesar Flickerman after winning the games. I have started coloring this design. The fourth will be her chariot costume for the Quarter Quell. Fifth will be her wedding dress turned mocking jay from her third interview with Caesar Flickerman. Sixth will be the Mockingjay uniform she wears in book three. I may draw her wedding dress before it becomes mockingjay-ized as a seventh design. I am also playing with the idea of drawing Finnick. Those last two may or may not happen. I hope you guys enjoy these designs as much as I am enjoying making them. (Btw, the "before dinner" was because I was supposed to finish writing this blog before dinner... I didn't quite make it though, but I kind of like the title, so I'm not going to change it. XD)

Friday, July 6, 2012

My Work Space IV

This week I'm going to tackle the (now clean) third wall of my new Craft Room. This will be the last segment in  my work space series. FYI the fourth wall that I'm not documenting is just an ancient couch I have up against the windows. The windows and couch pretty much take up all useful space there.

This is what I'm going to tell you guys about this week:
This space is opposite the storage units I described in Part II of My Work Space series. Try and ignore the coloring clutter from my Kindergartener which you can see on the corner of my workbench there (I will also not be photographing and showing my workbench; as the largest flat surface in the house I don't think it's been clean since we brought it in the house. =P) Following the left to right pattern I've been using to go through this room, I'm going to start with the drawer towers on the left hand side of the wall.

The white tower of drawers was an excellent find at Ikea and also happen to perfectly match the drawers on my art desk, which you can see more closely in my last work space blog post. What really drew me to this unit is that the drawers are fairly shallow. I use these to store a myriad of craft supplies ranging from paper crafts to polymer clay to quilting supplies to jewelry and accessory cosplay supplies. I like that the drawers are shallow because 1) I can't store too much in them which means 2) the drawers can't become as over-cluttered as I'm prone to letting things become thereby making it so that 3) I can find the supplies or tools I need when I actually need them (as opposed to two months later when I no longer need them but need something else instead). The stacking paper organizer on top of the left tower currently holds important papers (like reservation print-outs for conventions later this year) and some patterns, mostly print-outs and small (thin) books. Eventually these will be filed in the black filing cabinet to the right. The large stack of plastic containers on top of the right tower is my collection of DMC thread. Most of this was handed down to me from my Mom; it is in need of sorting since I still haven't mixed my thread in with what my Mom gave me, and on top of that, several of the containers got dumped out by my youngest boy (2.5 years old at the time--he's 5 now, so yeah, that was a while ago). XD The black filing cabinet next to the towers is the newest addition to the room. I was a little sad I couldn't find anything practical in white, since pretty much all the other furniture in the room is white. All things considered, you can't have everything, and that's really a small detail. Each long drawer contains two sets of bars for hanging files. I plan on using one drawer for tracking business related papers like receipts, travel info, and all that boring but important stuff. The other drawer I plan on using for all my sewing patterns--I am hoping I can fit this in just half of it. The other half I want to use for other patterns--crochet, knit and cross stitch mostly that I print offline or have put together myself or are books that are just too thin to put on a bookshelf.

Next up we have the cabinets, counter, and shelves I recycled from my last two attempts at putting together a Craft Room. When I first got these, the shelves and counter were longer, and the cabinet units were spaced to fit a stool between each one. This was where I used to keep my sewing machine and laptop (or at least where they were supposed to live; practically it didn't work very well having them there). When I moved this furniture into the rental house we lived in last year, the counter and shelves were shortened to fit in the space I had for them and the cabinet unit on the far left was turned perpendicular to the 2nd cabinet unit leaving only one gap between the cabinets. When we moved everything into my new craft room, I originally set things up the way I had then (you can see what the set up looked like in this post--the picture is at the very bottom). With the addition of the filing cabinet, having the one cabinet turned became impractical since the filing cabinet made it hard to open the cabinet doors. Since I wasn't trying to fit a stool between any of the cabinets we decided to simply turn all the cabinets facing forward, put them next to each other, and leave just a small space on the right end. Ostensibly the space was there so I could access the electrical outlet there, but it's also turned into a nice little nook for storing my little ironing board and my larger cross stitch frames. Right now the cabinets themselves just hold shipping supplies for my Etsy shop and a few other odds and ends. All that I currently have on the counter is my paper-cutter and lamination machine which I use to make my badges and bookmarks. So far the counter is mostly clean--here's hoping it can stay that way. I have my doubts.

 The shelves above the cabinet primarily hold display and inventory for my Artist Alley table (and Etsy shop =P). Starting on the top shelf, I have my panda collection and the three bins holding my badge inventory. On the middle shelf, I have what's left of my ready-to-ship tarot card decks, bins of mistakes (items that have either not laminated properly, have typos or otherwise have something wrong with them and I need to eventually list as clearance items but haven't done anything with yet), bin with my adhesive collection, box of bookmarks, and box of tarot card decks that are not ready to ship (I need to sit down and make more of the little books to go with them). The bottom shelf holds my table display stuff, what's left of the Anime RPG books, my print inventory, and my husband's chain mail jewelry supplies.

So that's pretty much it for my new Craft Room. I love my space. I hope to get to use it more in the near future; it's kind of sad that I have this space now and haven't been able to use it really since I got it. =P I'm sure that will change though as we start settling down into more of a routine here in the new house with the new baby and the new school schedule and curriculum.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Wednesday WIP: Vol 31

Let's see what's new this week... Well not much artsy. XD It's been pretty busy this past week: we had our June D&D game this past Saturday, we started school this past Monday (we being the kids, and since they're homeschooled, that means I started school too), and we had 4 doctor appointments for 4 different people yesterday (just check-ups; no one's sick thankfully). The game was fun; we are starting a new campaign. It turns out I am playing Yoda--even if that wasn't what I intended when I created the character. I started with the concept of playing an 80-year old halfing woman (or whatever the halfling equivalent to an 80 year old human would be, but basically she's supposed to be an ancient shriveled and short old person) who was going to be my husband's character's grandmother. I picked a sorcerer class because I knew I would be up and down with Sophie so I didn't want a class requiring combat strategy (i.e., melee-based class). Well, after playing the character, between her high movement (from feats, a few magic items, and cloth armor) and the fact that a lot of her powers result in her teleporting around the board, we decided that she was Yoda. That was fun. So far, the kids are liking the new curriculum we've started (we'll see how that goes after the first week or so). Also, at my appointment yesterday, I got the go-ahead to get back to exercising--I was told that everything has pretty much healed up they way it's supposed to, so I don't have to worry about injuring myself or overdoing it. =D

Anyways, back onto the appropriate blog topic. So, I've established that not a whole lot has happened art-wise in the last week. What has happened? Well, first off, remember those eyes I had on my desk for Rarity that I posted about in my last WIP blog? Well I got those glued together and ready to add to my Rarity plushie (once I get the plushie assembled--that's still a body with a pile of appendages laying around waiting to be attached).

I almost got the Katniss sketch from last week scanned into my computer to ink... almost. It turns out that I need to find the registration code for my copy of Manga Studio before I can do that--I'd forgotten about that. Usually I take care of that with installation, but it never prompted me for it. Apparently Manga Studio wants the code when you first try and load the program. Go figure. In any case, the card with the code on it is still packed somewhere in our garage. =P It also turns out that this isn't too much of a problem because my old computer saved a copy of the code in an accessible place--would have been nice to have known that before I spent most of my art time last night trying to figure out where I put it, giving up, and starting to try and transfer files back to the old computer (it was about when I got the old scanner downstairs to plug up to the old computer that my husband told me he could probably find the code for me). XD No real progress, but now the program should work, so next week's WIP post should be better.

Oh, and I also cleaned my craft room, so it's ready for pictures and the last post for my Craft Room series. =D Since this entailed cleaning up the mess I made cleaning out Artist Alley table stuff from Magfest back in January, I think this was a sizable feat.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Blue Exorcist

Over the last month, my husband and I watched Blue Exorcist. This series is about a pair of twin brothers, Rin and Yukio Okumura. They are half demons, specifically they are the sons of Satan with a human mother. They are raised by a Catholic priest at a church in Japan. The story follows both brothers, although it tends to focus more on Rin, technically the older brother. Rin is the more out-going brother who is troublesome, impulsive, and only one to have inherited any of his father's power. The story follows the pair as Rin trains to be an exorcist to avenge the death of his adopted father (yes that's technically a spoiler, but it happens before the end of the 2nd episode, so it's really not much of one).

This series follows the trend of killing off my favorite characters--I decided in episode one that I liked the priest who raised the two boys. As stated above, he was dead in the next episode. >_< I don't know how I manage to always pick out the characters who die. The plot was okay. It was fairly slow up until the end, and it had a clean enough wrap up. My biggest complaint is that the end came rather abruptly. Prior to the last few episodes the plot was moving at a pace that was more like a 52+ episode series.

The series has an interesting cast of characters, and I was surprised out who I ended up liking out of the series. For instance, I usually like the quiet, intelligent guy with glasses (like Kyoya Ootori from Ouran High School Host Club), and I usually find the loud, not-so-bright guy irritating. In this case, I really didn't care much for Yukio. He came across as really wishy-washy to me. Alternatively, I found Rin entertaining and refreshing--in one of my favorite episodes, Blue Exorcist demonstrated that it was possible for a main character in anime to be able to cook and not be what I can an Angel Archetype. I believe this was Episode 6. Overall, I won't say it was the best series I've ever watched, but it was far from the worst. It's a fun anime, and was definitely worth watching.