Where'd Friday Go?

So, I had this really awesome post planned for Friday, and by planned I don't mean written, I mean I had thought about the topic of the post prior to last Friday. Yeah, I know that there are tons of bloggers out there that say to write out your posts at least a couple of days before posting and to have a few back up posts for when writing just doesn't happen. Those are the bloggers that probably have all their posts up on time and never miss a post. That's clearly not me. I've tried. It just isn't something that works for me. So, you'll be getting last week's awesome Sailor Moon post this Friday--the chances of this happening are actually fairly high. I'd give it maybe 90% chance?

I guess that brings me to why Friday's post never happened. Well I had another doula training workshop last weekend. This one was focused on postpartum support (it was excellent by the way--if you plan on having kids I highly recommend a doula to help). Anyways. I knew it was coming, so I thought, hey, I'll just write my blog post on Thursday--I decided this on Wednesday after finishing up the WIP post. I even wrote it down in my planner. And then it was Friday morning and I woke up with less than 20 minutes to get out the door. What? How'd that happen? I'm still not sure what happened to last Thursday... Oh yeah, I remember what happened to Thursday, or at least Thursday evening. I was trying to get a portfolio together for Katsucon's AA application and a description and all that jazz. This time it was a little more complicated because I was submitting a group application for myself and one other artist (Sempaiko--she's an amazing artist you should check out her stuff). This was my first time trying to do something like this. That app was supposed to go in Friday morning before I left, but that clearly didn't happen. I didn't even get my lunch put together that day. By the time I got home Friday evening, all I wanted was food (a diet Dr. Pepper and a tootsie roll pop do not count for much after a 12 hour day) and sleep. I did get the application in, and hopefully we'll still get in--they supposedly don't do first come first serve and base the choices off of variety, although I still imagine that if they're going to take x # of print artists, they're going to take the first x artists they like? Dunno. Whatever. If we get in, awesome. If not, there's always next year. Anyways. The application happend. The blog post did not. XD

Then I thought about writing the post Saturday morning and putting it up late. It wouldn't be the first time I'd done that. But then, I failed to get up early enough to write before leaving for the workshop, and after another very long day which did not actually end with the workshop--it ended after a shift selling popcorn at a Harris Teeter--I was again tired and hungry and not up for much of anything. I did at least have a sandwich and some chips for lunch this time, but when lunch is at noon and dinner was not until almost 9 that evening... You get the idea. So Saturday didn't happen either. =P Yep this is pretty much how my life is. XD

Wednesday WIP - Volume 48

Still don't see it... but there has been progress.

Finally getting back to the FF IV Buttons

Moon

Mercury

Jupiter

Fail at Sales

This might be obvious to anyone who's met me in Artist Alley (or it might not), but I am a horrible sales person. I feel like Fluttershy:

Me: "Hi." =)
Person: "I'm just looking."
Me: "Oh that's okay, I really don't mind. You don't have to buy anything. In fact, you probably don't want to buy anything from here. I mean you could if you wanted to, but there's really no pressure. Nevermind. I'm just going to shut up now and hide behind my table. Bye."

Actually, I really don't mind people looking at my stuff, laughing at the humor, and not buying something. I really am just happy that they enjoyed what I created. There are still lots of awkward embarrassed moments (at least for me) where I feel like just by saying hi, I'm trying to obligate people to buy, when really I'm just trying to be friendly (cause I like talking to people, but I'm incredibly shy and socially awkward, and my table is my comfort zone, so really I just want to say hi and I'd really just love it if you smiled and said hi back.) I only want people to buy my stuff if they really really really like it, and they still have enough money for food and for gas to get home. This is probably why I will never ever "make a living" off my art, but I actually prefer it to be this way. Maybe I'll only ever be an "amateur" artist, but for me that means I don't have as much pressure on me, and I can keep drawing whatever I want to with little consideration of trends.

So, why am I talking about sales today? Because for the last 2 weeks we have been selling popcorn like mad for Boy Scouts (and Cub Scouts). I hated doing fund raisers when I was younger. I hate doing them now, and I feel very horrible that I'm not independently wealthy enough to just fork over the $ my kids are supposed to make selling popcorn (there are minimum sales requirements for each scout) and not subject them to this torture.

Instead, we've been setting up tables in front of local grocery stores (our pack made an arrangement with them to allow the scouts in our pack to sell popcorn during certain hours). We've been going door to door harassing all the poor people of our community. Really, the boys have handled it better than I probably have (except for Luke, but then he's like me and he hates stuff like this too for many of the same reasons). Also, if I step back and look at it, they are learning life skills--things that will help them as adults. They are learning how to interact with people politely even when the people they talk to are rude. They are learning that their demeanor makes a difference (when Luke's grumpy and growling at people, they don't buy popcorn). They are learning to set reasonable goals and how to work toward them. These are lessons I should probably have learned when I was younger too, but my mom was a lot like I am now--she hated fund raisers (do we see a theme here?). She never encouraged me to go out, and because none of my school or band fund raisers had minimums, I never really had to do it. We'd buy a little bit for our own family, and that'd be it.

I'm still happy to not be good at sales. I feel like this way, I can know that people who buy my art do so because they like it not because they felt any pressure to do so against their better judgment. At least, I hope that's how it is.

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

So, I've been watching Doctor Who (finally). I've finished up through season 3--I started with the newer stuff, so I think I got the 9th Doctor and Rose to start with. Do I really need to go into a series overview with this one? I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one on the planet who has not watched Doctor Who. The jist of the series is pretty simple: the Doctor travels through time and space frequently with a female companion (assistant?) saving humans from a variety of alien dangers. That's pretty much it, in a nutshell.

Now, I like the series. Really. I'm enjoying watching it. I'm not sure I'm going to join the throngs of raving Dr. Who fans though. While I will probably keep watching till the end of whatever's on Netflix and the idea behind the series is fascinating, I have trouble really getting attached to the Doctor himself. I maintained neutral feelings toward him for seasons 1 and 2. Maybe Rose brought out the best in him? Having finished season 3 (by the way, I liked Martha--way better than Rose), I've come to the conclusion that I really don't like the Doctor.

It's not the actor. David Tennant (and the guy before him, Chris Whoever--I can't spell his last name and I'm being too lazy today to go look it up) does just fine as the Doctor. I don't like the Doctor's personality. It just rubs me the wrong way. I especially don't like how he treats his companions. Yeah, it's super cool being able to travel around the universe and through time and all that, but he treats his companions like objects (or maybe pets is a better term) much of the time and like actual people only when it's convenient. I'm sure that's all because he's a Time Lord and that's what they're like. That may justify it, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. My general dislike of the Doctor makes it difficult to really 100% engage with the series.

I don't regret watching Doctor Who. I now get a lot of the Doctor Who related stuff I find floating around the internet and at conventions. I wouldn't mind having a T.A.R.D.I.S. as long as it came sans the Doctor. =P I do also like seeing how the series interprets different times--as a historian this fascinates me. In fact, that is probably the one thing that keeps me coming back--to see where they're going next and what it will look like. Some of the odd cultural references tossed in for flavor are entertaining as well. Some of the dialogue can be quite funny. There are definitely series out there I've enjoyed more; on the other hand, there's a lot more that's much worse than this on television and Netflix. I won't rate it fantastic, but I'd still say it's pretty good.

WIP Volume 47

Lame post is lame part 2. XD Progress has been minimal this week on the blanket project I'm working on and no drawing happened. Failsauce.

So, It doesn't look like that much was added to it. The bulk of what happened was disassembling some of what I had finished because I adjusted the pattern slightly. Hence why there's a random black strip and a couple of loose black squares. They'll get added back in later. Final blanket will be 14x14 blocks.

Lame Post is Lame

I could not think of something interesting to post about today. I try to make Monday's posts about me, so something personal.

Except, I'm not doing anything super exciting at the moment.

But then, why are my Wednesday WIP posts so...bleh--in other words, there hasn't been much new there.

Where is all that time going? I mean, there isn't anything super exciting, we're on break from school, and I'm caught up on commissions, and I'm almost caught up on blankets. Where is the time going?

The answer: right now, it's just tons and tons of little things. There are lots of random one-time events and activities, stuff I've volunteered to do, and so on. They are all things that by themselves aren't big time-sinks, but when you add them together in large quantities, then, yeah, they can make time disappear pretty quickly.

September was like that. My calendar was basically blacked out with stuff going on. October is quickly disappearing. We were even supposed to have a week-long break in the middle of October, but even that's disappeared--it's down to 3 days from 9.

None of the things I'm doing are bad in and of themselves. I could use a break though. So, you know, my November had better be a lot less full, or else... I don't know... I doubt a personal emotional/mental breakdown would be all that cataclysmic or world-shaking. XD

Anyways. Here's to having something more interesting to post about next week. =P

Getting Older

Yesterday, my oldest, Ty, turned 13. Aside from being one of my favorite numbers, it also means that my "baby" is a teenager now (officially). I know it's probably cliche to still want to say he's my "baby" but it really does not feel like he should be that old. It left me reflecting, where has all that time gone? Realistically, I know we've done a lot of amazing things during that time.

Ty has been a cosplayer for pretty much all of his life. He wore his first cosplay, and not one of my best attempts at sewing, for Halloween in 2000. He was only 1 month old; we dressed him as an Oddish--my favorite Pokemon. His first convention was in March 2001 (~5 months old)--we dressed him as a Chocobo (also not one of my best sewing attempts). Since then, he has cosplayed as Red Mage (FF I), Artemis (Sailor Moon), Jygen (Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro), Vash the Stampede (Trigun), Obi Wan Kenobi (Star Wars), Harry Potter (Harry Potter), Goku (Dragonball), Alphonse Elric (Full Metal Alchemist), Jet (Avatar: the Last Airbender), and Sanji (One Piece)--and I might have forgotten a few. He even appeared in a 2002 issue of Animerica magazine--a photograph snagged the year he cosplayed Red Mage at Otakon--yes, I still have a copy of that issue. His current project: he wants to cosplay Tron.

He's definitely a geek (not a bad thing--in fact, I applaud it). He loves books, movies (not just anime, but he likes that too), and video games. Right now he's teaching himself html so he can put together his own website. He's also teaching himself how to use Flash so he can make his own movies and/or games. He has a prototype boardgame for older elementary age kids featuring dragons and knights and all kinds of fun fantasy-themed stuff, and if we can ever get enough of it pulled together in a professional "kit" we'll probably help him put together a Kickstarter (we'll be there as the adults, but he'll get all the credit--as it should be--for the game's creation). He wants to be a baker, a chemist, and a mad scientist (his own words). Oh yeah, and he's also writing a book called Sand World. He's somewhere around the 3rd chapter, and I'm trying to convince him that an outline would be a good thing. He knows how to make chain mail, and for a short period, he was actually responsible for the chain mail bracelets I used to have at my art table. This is just some of what he does and who he is. Happy 13th to my sweet boy.

WIP Volume 46

Do you see anything yet? Nope I don't either. XD My goal is to finish it by Oct. 5. Wish me luck.

Finished. =)

Family Camp

We spent this weekend camping at the McDowel Nature Preserve near Lake Wiley in Charlotte, NC. We had a lot of fun. This was going to be a test run for our trip to Disney in December since we're planning on staying at their campgrounds. We took Sophie's play pen because I don't trust her to stay in the tent, which was a totally reasonable concern given that she figured out how to squirm her way out of the tent within 15 minutes of setting up. =P

Saturday morning, just waking up.

We got in late Friday, so it was mostly set-up and crash that night. Saturday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we went hiking. The nature preserve had 9 trails that we could explore. Many of them were interconnected. We sampled three of them.

Nifty tree we saw that was growing horizontally.

Saturday afternoon, the boys participated in a fort building activity run by the Nature Center attached to the preserve for our scout pack. That was a lot of fun. There were about 25 kids at the event. They broke into 6 groups and each group was supposed to attempt to build a structure that would hold everyone in their group and would be moderately rainproof.

Ty's Group:

Luke's Group:
Logan's Group:
Sophie:

Logan's group actually won the competition. Luke ended up breaking off from his group because of creative disagreements with his leader, and he made his own fort. Sadly the picture I got of him in his finished fort did not save properly to my phone--this is not the first time my phone has done this, and it is a problem. >_< Sophie fell asleep on the hike up to where the fort building activity took place. One of the other guys there let her borrow his umbrella because it was sprinkling rain off and on. She was pretty startled when she woke up. Throughout the whole weekend, she had a ton of fun playing in the dirt and taste-testing all kinds of sticks, rocks, leaves, etc. After the fort building, we went back to the Nature Center, and everyone got to hold/pet a corn snake if they wanted to. Logan and Sophie both held the snake. I really wish I had gotten pictures of this.

Saturday night it poured the rain.This was a bad thing because it turns out our tent had some pretty bad leaks (along with a few other problems we identified Friday when we put the tent up). This was a good thing because I'm glad we found this out now, since we were fairly close to family, rather than December during our trip to Florida. We ended up packing up a lot of our stuff and spent the night at Shaun's parents' house, since they lived nearby. We came back Sunday morning to about 2 inches of standing water in the bottom of our tent. Although I was sad we weren't able to spend that last night there, I was glad we had an alternative to not being so thoroughly soaked. Now we also know we need to do some repairs to our tent (or maybe even replacing it since there are some other hardware issues with it as well) before December.

SAO

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I got together with a friend of mine, and over two Friday evenings we watched Sword Art Online in its entirety.

Initially I expected SAO to be another anime along the lines of .Hack//Sign, and the first episode did start out that way. SAO is a virtual reality, fantasy setting mmo game that uses entirely sword combat techniques--no magic. I also initially thought: "How dull. I always hate it when they take magic out of worlds."

I was wrong on both accounts. By the end of the first episode, SAO distinguishes itself from .Hack//Sign. The central conflict is created when the game's creator teleports everyone to the starting town to inform them that he rigged the game so no one can log out. If they are forcibly disconnected from the game, the virtual reality equipment will emit a microwave frequency that will fry the brain; they die. If they die in game, the microwave thing happens; they die. There is a way out of the game: they have to fight their way through all 100 floors or levels of the game and defeat the final boss. Then everyone will be released. By the end of the first episode, I was thinking: "This is going to be just like Inu-Yasha or some other series where each episode will be the same basic thing--get through the current level, fight and defeat the boss (or on the rare occasion there might be a 2 episode sequence to break things up), and it will last a hundred episodes."

Thankfully, I was wrong there too. The narrative focuses more on character development and the game actually becomes more of a background. The story jumps levels, days, and months at a time. I appreciated this. SAO became more about observing how people changed and interacted with each other especially as time passed and real world memories lessened and game experiences became a way of life. The lack of magic, for me, was just fine. They had a wide range of "techniques" and "powers" that kept combat interesting, as well as tactics, skills and other game elements to keep things exciting. I really enjoyed this part of SAO. The first half was very well done, and I would highly recommend it.

The second half of SAO was incredibly disappointing. It became a totally different anime where the only connection was a virtual reality mmo game and the same characters. It moved from moderately-child friendly to only a few steps shy of outright hentai (including a scene that stops just short of tentacle rape). There are still some good story elements from this second half, but overall, I felt it did not hold up to the standard the first half set up. The narrative was weaker. We'd spend long periods just looking at the main male character's sister sitting in her underwear. Why? I have no idea. It served very little purpose to the story. I honestly felt the additional mature elements did not add anything to the series. I think it also bothered me because I had not expected the series to go this route. I do not like watching hentai. I avoid it whenever possible. We had previewed the first several episodes of the series and it seemed "safe". We preview anime before sitting down to consume an entire series primarily because anime can contain such adult material, and we usually try to get a feel for what a series will be like so we can say whether our kids can watch it or not. Initially SAO was okay. It was a little awkward when a little over half way through we had to stop the show and ask the kids to take themselves upstairs and find something else to do. We'd tell them how the story ended, but they did not need to be watching it. That was very disappointing to them.

My conclusion. The first half of SAO is great. The second half, not so much. I still really enjoyed the first part enough that my husband and I are planning on cosplaying Kirito and Asuna (the two main characters for most of SAO). I really liked a lot of the costume and character design. I liked how they handled the action and combat. I think the only thing I didn't like was the adult elements that appeared in the second half--it always stopped just short of really showing anything, but I think they still took things a little too far.

WIP Volume 45

There hasn't been a lot of visible progress this week (there has been a little though). A lot of that is because of the training workshop I spent a chunk of last week and the weekend at. This next week is likely to be slim as well--today's a zoo day, tomorrow my grandmother is coming in town for a visit, and Friday-Sunday we're camping with the scouts (yep, even the 1 year old--that might be an adventure worth posting about Monday =P). So yeah... XD Here's this week's progress:

So close to being finished. Stupid Photoshop, stupid tablet drivers, stupid Windows 7. >_<

New Business in a New Direction

I spent last weekend at a training workshop so I can start a new business. This will be my first business enterprise that does not have something to do with geekdom. *gasp* Okay maybe not the first. My husband and I did run a website design business for our first year or two together that was only indirectly related to geekiness. We have also attempted to open a brick & mortar anime store (we couldn't get a loan for that one because the bank said no one liked anime), and for a couple of years, I ran an online cosplay commission business before becoming jaded with the general public. Now I have my art studio, which, btw, is not closing its doors.

So, what's this new business thing? After much thought and personal reflection and some discussion with my husband, I decided that I would pursue training to be a doula (definitely a different direction from the kinds of things I am normally attracted to doing). For those of you not familiar with doulas (I imagine a bunch of you, since doulas are not widely known of in the US), we are people who assist non-medically in pregnancy, labor, and postpartum support--I'll be doing another training workshop next month to expand the help I can offer during the postpartum period. This is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart. What really bothers me about it is the amount of misinformation and general lack of information there is out there for the general public.

My goal is to help educate people (not just women) on the various options available to women and the pros and cons for each option. It really bugs me that a lot of women go in for various interventions and procedures without being aware of the risks attached to those procedures or an understanding of the actual necessity of the intervention (yeah, informed consent is often a joke here). For example, epidurals come with a ton of potential side effects and risks that most people aren't aware of including, but not limited to, significantly reduced blood pressure (meaning less oxygen for mom and baby), slowing or stopping of labor, frequently leading to a longer labor, increased risk of other interventions (vacuum extractor, forceps, or emergency cesarean section because of complications caused by the epidural), and severe headache that can last for days afterwards. I think epidurals have their place. Sometimes they can actually be a positive, and for some women they are something they will still want. My thing is that I'd like them to be able to make an educated decision. How can you do that if you don't know the pros and cons of something?

There is also a lot of statistical evidence that shows that doulas improve the overall birth experience for women along with helping to prevent unnecessary and unwanted interventions. As a doula, I will be able to help women process fears, address concerns, and prepare for their birth experience--I can't guarantee everything will go perfectly as planned because this, like everything in life, can be quite unpredictable. I can help educate women (and their families) so that when unexpected situations arrive they can make an informed decision. After birth I can help them process what happened to them and make it so they can get off to the best start possible. With the additional training I will get in October, I will be able to continue support during this period, which I think is especially important given the rise in postpartum depression and other mood disorders. I kind of see the postpartum period as the "happily ever after" of pregnancy and childbirth. So much planning and preparation goes into the birth part, and then you get your baby, but what happens then?

So yeah, that's what I'm doing in the smallest nutshell I could put it in (given how much I can talk on this subject this is pretty short). If you're interested in any of this at all, you can visit my new blog: http://holisticbirthnc.wordpress.com/. It's still a work in progress, but I'd like it to become a place where people can come to read and learn and ask questions and what not. =) If you're interested in learning more about doulas, you can visit CAPPA's website; I will be getting  my certifications as a labor and postpartum doula through CAPPA.

WIP Volume 44

Progress the last week or so on the mermaid commission and 2 baby blankets.

Getting there slowly. This week, I'll be working on the tail.

Blanket started a little while back. You can see progress... The pattern's been a little more complicated to work on than I expected. Not a bad thing though; I like challenges.

Usually I won't start a new blanket when I still have one unfinished, but I'm trying to get this one done before the mama's baby shower October 5, so... The pattern's a basic granny square design--I wanted to keep it simple because this blanket is going to have 256 squares in it. @_@ It should be pretty awesome though once finished.

Tinkerbell, Finished

Remember this post: http://gothicpandaart.blogspot.com/2013/08/something-special.html? And the progress post here: http://gothicpandaart.blogspot.com/2013/08/wip-volume-42.html?

Well I finished it, and she looked adorable in it. =D

WIP pic from earlier last week.

Up close of one of the leaf petals--can kind of see the quilting and sparkles.

Fuzzy picture is fuzzy. It was a little bit, but I wanted her to have room to grow. I did not make the shoes or wings.

New Bookmarks, or Maybe Not?

Every year, for the last several years, I have made a set of 10 Sailor Moon bookmarks to match Anime USA's theme. This is the result from some of the previous themes:

2010--Arabian Nights

 2011--Military (I went with plugsuits)

2012--Vaudeville/Carnivale Cabaret

This year their theme is medieval Japan. The thing is... I'm not going to be at Anime USA this year (this will actually be the first year I have not been at AUSA since 2008). My question is: should I draw the set of Sailor Moon geisha bookmarks, or take a year off? I love the ideas of designing kimonos for each of the girls (and maybe putting Tuxedo Mask in medieval samurai armor). Of course, I've already got an incredibly long list of ideas and things I want to draw, so maybe taking some time off might be good.

Zoo Trips

Some of you may have noticed that I post "Zoo Day" a lot on Twitter, or if you follow my personal Facebook. We have been going to the NC Zoo every week since July 3. Why? Ty (my 12 year old) is working on his Reptile & Amphibian badge. He finished most of the requirements (all but one) at summer camp back in June. The one requirement left? He had 2 choices. 1) Get a reptile or amphibian pet. Observe it for 30 days. Or. 2) Visit a zoo once a week for 3 months. Pick a reptile or amphibian exhibit and observe it at each visit and note changes, behaviors, etc.

At first we seriously considered #1. But as we have cats and nothing reptilish or amphibianish it would mean getting a lot of new pet supples. Also we have cats. Four cats. That like to eat all the things. And to add to that there is a six-year old and an increasingly mobile one-year old, either of which would be more than happy to help the eternally hungry cats to a snack--they wouldn't intend harm, I don't think, but... I had serious doubts of any new pet making it through the 30 days alive, and then we'd have to start over. I saw the potential for a long string of dead reptile amphibians a la Kisa.

So, I started to consider the zoo option a little more seriously. Zoo tickets weren't a problem. We purchased a membership back in April since it was only $5 more than full ticket price for the whole family. One more trip would make it more than worth wile. Needless to say whether it would be worth while or not is hardly worth considering given the number of trips we've made. The other consideration was time and gas. With my husband's school starting up, that becomes less of an issue because the zoo is only a half and hour or so beyond his school. One morning a week, I'll drop him at work, head for the zoo, then pick him up on my way home. Most of the drive would have already been made, so it won't be that much of an extra cost. All in all, I think we determined the zoo would probably cost less than the pet (even if it lived the whole 30 days the first time through) since we'd have to get all the stuff for an appropriate habitat, plus the animal.

So, that's what we've been doing. We're almost finished with the 2nd month. We'll be finished come the end of September. It's not been that bad, aside from outdoor temperatures exceeding what I find personally comfortable. It's actually been pretty fun, and we've gotten to see some neat things. You'd think it would get boring, but each week has been a little different. We'd see different animals, like last week the rhinos were actually close enough to get a good view of them. The NC Zoo tries to replicate the natural habitat for the animals they have, so the pens for the rhinos, gazelles, elephants, and a lot of the other African animals in particular are really expansive. This is better for the animals, plus it also gives you a better idea of what they're like in their environment. On the down side, it does mean it's hard to see some of the animals. Over all, though, this has been an excellent experience. Although, if you're wondering where some of my blog posts are disappearing to, chances are, on the day I meant to write and post them, I was probably at the zoo. =P

WIP Volume 43

All in all, it's been an okay week for work progress. No noticeable progress on the mermaid commission, but otherwise, I finished a custom Tarot card commission, and I have finished 2 out of 3 pieces for a set of commissioned house sketches--for some reason the 2nd one scanned lighter and less clear than the 1st. I also finished another baby blanket (and for a little boy named Matthew)--#3 in the current round of blankets out of 5 (although that might be 6 soon). Does anyone else think that babies tend to come in clumps? Anyways, I've also started blanket #4. This one is for a little girl named Helena. So no more rambling from me; here's the progress pics. =P

OMG! It's Finally Here!!

If you've been around here a while, you might remember when my husband wrote about writing the Anime RPG book. It was written in March of 2011, was the 5th post ever in this blog, and was the first guest post--although does it technically count as a guest post? I mean technically, my husband is part of Gothic Panda Studios, and a lot of what shows up on my art table is a collaborative effort between the two of us. On the other hand, I am the primary contributor to this blog and tend to think of it as my blog (not our blog). XD Anyways... getting off topic there. About a year ago, we sold our last print copy of that book. We talked briefly about doing a second print run, but unless we get huge numbers of people demanding it (as in willing to put down money on a preorder), we're not going to go the print route with this book again. But that's not the point of this post... although the point is related to the Anime RPG book. I'm just taking my sweet time getting to it, cause that's how I do things. =P

Earlier this week we finished assembling a revised version of the Anime RPG book and it can not be purchased via Etsy as a PDF download! =D We're working on re-editing (well mostly reformatting) it for Kindle. Once that's done it'll also be available through the Kindle store. This will probably take a couple more weeks (maybe a couple more months--cause this is also how we do things; it comes from having work and responsibilities beyond Gothic Panda Studios and Team Sidequest game production). So, yeah. That's the point of this post. Anime RPG is now available as a digital download. We're going to spend the fall hopefully wrapping up a Pathfinder version. Then we might just take a break to prepare for a 5th edition D&D version. Maybe. Expect it right around when the announce 6th edition... cause that's how we do things here.

WIP Volume 42

 This week's progress report: More progress on the Mermaid commission. This one is a little more detailed than what I normally allow for commissions. Usually I only take commissions for my chibi or 3/4 chibi styles, but this one is modeled after the Western Zodiac print set I did.

Remember that WIP post with all that fabric? That black and gray fabric at the bottom turned into this over the last week (yeah fuzzy photo sucks...):

 

I've been working on some new archetypes (Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Princess, and Necromancer). They're inked and ready to color.

 And finally what I succeeded in finishing yesterday on the Tinkerbell costume I said I was going to make. I got Charleigh's measurements, put together the pattern, cut out all the fabric, and made some progress getting everything sewn together. She was really excited seeing all the pieces starting to come together, and I'm a little sad I couldn't actually finish it yesterday. She'll have it though in time for her birthday. =)

Something Special

A week or so ago, I asked my mom if she could help get measurements for my niece because I wanted to make her a costume for her birthday. She got really excited (because that's what she does), and after consulting with my brother, she decided that instead of trying to get measurements herself, she would just bring Charleigh down here for a visit. Then I got the crazy idea that, well if she was going to be down here, then I'd just make the whole costume while she was here 'cause, you know, it might be fun and then she could take it home with her. BTW, my niece is turning 3. So, I got fabric this weekend and this is what I will be doing tomorrow (the fabric colors match better than the picture suggests):