Works in Progress No. 1, Vol. 8

This weeks WIP post will include stuff for this week and last week, since I missed posting last week's due to pre-AWA craziness. Actually most of this post will be for last week's stuff; I haven't actually gotten much done since AWA--I've spent most of this week catching up on sleep so far. =P

So, let's start with art--that's the big one, so let's get it over with. I did finish the Zodiacs... all of them. It was exhausting, but I was glad I had them all finished for AWA. That's about it for art though. I'm starting new sets this evening though, as soon as I finish putting together this post, so there should be some cool, exciting, new stuff starting next week. =D

The big time sink last week, outside of finishing the zodiacs and getting all the badges cut out and laminated for AWA, was the Anime Tarot Deck. I wanted to include pictures of the booklet we were putting together for the deck with last week's WIP post, which was why the post got put off so late that it didn't happen. It took us literally all day Wednesday to finish tweaking the formatting so the book would print properly, printing it, cutting out all the pages, arranging the pages in order, folding the book, adding the cover which also had to be cut out, and stapling it. Random bit of trivia: the insides of this book are one of the only things on my art tables that I have printed from home. Usually we take it to another place to print; we did have the cover printed elsewhere.

Uncut pages

Assembled Book

Finished Deck

The next spiffy thing I finished (mostly) last week was my Fluttershy costume. The dress in the photo is a little wrinkled and the wings are a little squished from the trip home, but that's nothing a little trip through the wash then ironing and a pile of heavy books won't fix. Fluttershy's butterfly cutie mark is still missing from the dress; I will have that added by Halloween, since I'll probably be re-wearing it for our annual party.

Finally, I started a new plushie kitty during AWA. It's going to be another Kisa-colored one. =D

Works in Progress No. 3, Vol 7.

This week is going to be a fairly large update. I've been busy working on art stuff over the last week. I'm still trying to get all the zodiac stuff finished for AWA, which means it needs to be finished by this weekend so I can have time to get everything printed and all the badges laminated before the convention.

So, what's been done since last Wednesday's post on the zodiacs? Well all the partially finished print-sized zodiacs from last Wednesday are finished--that's Pisces, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Libra, and Taurus. I've also finished Cancer. Virgo has been drawn, inked, and colored, and I've started to shade him. Now on to the badge-sized chibi-zodiacs. Aquarius is finished. I have drawn, inked, colored, and half shaded Gemini and Aries. Capricorn and Pisces have been drawn and inked. Leo has been drawn. This leaves 6 chibi-badge-sized zodiacs that I haven't started yet. Can I finish this by this weekend? Maybe. I hope so. There have been some late nights, and I'm sure there will be a few more.

There has also been some progress on my crochet projects. I finished the Pikachu from last week. I finished the Halloween mini-kitty from last week. I've also started working on a new Kirby, since I sold out of those at Otakon. My goal is to have at least one of each plushie design by AWA--this means I need to finish Kirby and then make an Umbreon and White Mokona.

Works in Progress No. 5, Vol. 6

I'm numbering this with the August WIPs since it was supposed to go out last night. >_< Obviously, that didn't happen. I'm not one of those bloggers who stockpiles entries; maybe I should, but that would require organization and planning, and neither of those are something I'm really good at. That said, my mornings have been given over to chores and taking care of the kids' school stuff (I homeschool), and blogging got shifted to the late afternoon and evenings. That clearly hasn't been working given the number of late entries and the number of entries posted late in the evening. I'm going to rearrange my mornings a bit so these get posted on the day they're supposed to be posted on.

Moving on, let's see what's been accomplished in the last week. First off, I finished Aries, the girl twin to the Aries I finished for AWA last year. I've had her mostly finished for a while, hence why she hasn't shown up in any of the weekly WIP posts; this week though, I finally sat down and finished her.

 

 I've been spending most of my time working on the Zodiac set. The sketch of Pisces I posted 2 weeks ago has been inked. Capricorn has also been inked. The Aquarius I had inked last week is colored and almost finished. I need to finish adding shading and a background, but she'll be done in maybe another hour worth of work (I'm probably wrong about this--I almost always severely underestimate time). I have also sketched and inked Gemini and Leo, and Gemini has a flat layer of color on her. So, I've been busy. 

 

 

Lastly, I've gotten a little bit of crocheting done. That ball of yarn and circle I posted a couple of weeks ago is now looking a lot more like a Pikachu. I've also redesigned how I make his ears, and I really like the result. I also have a purple kitty mini-plushie in the works, but Kisa has once again carried it off. =P Maybe I'll have pics of that one next week. XD

Zodiacs - Aries, Aquarius, Capricorn, Pisces

A lot of anime artists have tackled the zodiacs, so you might wonder why I wanted to draw a set of them too. My primary reason for drawing the zodiacs was that I like drawing things that I can put into sets--a quick look through my gallery will prove that. I also like pulling from the real world for what I draw--as in this isn't 100% something I pulled off the top of my head (although you can find a little bit of that too). I may not be the first to draw the zodiacs, but I wanted to approach the way I designed them differently to separate myself from other artists. A lot of artists have focused primarily on the symbol associated with the zodiac (i.e., The Twins, The Ram, The Crab, etc.). I tried to dig a little deeper. While keeping elements from the symbol, I tried to focus on the personality associated with the zodiac. Here I'll go into a little more on four of the zodiacs. I'll post another entry later to cover the others.

Aries: Aries is the Ram. Aries is a fire sign. It was slightly tempting to draw a sheep on fire, I didn't feel that was particularly appropriate. Digging a little more into what the sign of Aries means, I came up with someone who was a trend-setter, a leader. One direction I briefly considered taking with that was to draw a run-way model type or the cliched Beverly Hills 91210 style person who wears designer labels and always looks like they're at the top of their game. That honestly seemed a little dull to me. When putting together the Aries design, I tried to come up with someone who would be the first to try something new and would thrive on standing out from the rest of the crowd, someone who might take a few risks, someone who could become a leader or who might stay on the fringes of society, but in either case someone who would define their own identity rather than be lead by existing accepted trends.

Aquarius: Aquarius is the Water-bearer and is associated with the element of air. Of all the zodiacs, this is one where I took the most inspiration from the basic sign and element. Aquarius is also someone who likes exploring the mysteries of life. So the train of thought went something like: exlorer... + water... boat captain... + air... airship captain! The design for Aquarius then was influenced by the kinds of airships seen in the Final Fantasy games (yes I know I'm obsessed with them) and the dirigibles in the Girl Genius card game and comic book. This decision was purely personal taste. I like fantasy over sci-fi, so Aquarius has an older, slightly steampunk feel to him.

Capricorn: Capricorn is the Goat. It is also an earth sign. The personality behind Capricorn is stubborn. He is strong and proud, especially in response to adversity. When life gets tougher, Capricorn scoffs at it and keeps going. The choice to give Capricorn an Arabian Nights theme was heavily influenced by The Rose of the Prophet. The main characters of this trilogy, for the most part, fit the label for Capricorn perfectly. It certainly isn't the only theme that would fit the description, but I think it works well enough; life in the desert is rough, and you have to be more than a little stubborn to make that kind of life work for you. I also happen to really like Arabian Nights themed stories, but of course that had nothing to do with it, right? ;)

Pisces: Pisces is the fish with the element of water. Pisces is someone who is mysterious, alluring, and intense. When working with the design for Pisces I kept the element particularly in mind. I have heard oceans described as mysterious, alluring, and intense, almost to the point of being cliche. I had a vague idea of something associated with Poseidon when drawing Pisces, hence the trident. I also had some thoughts of an island lagoon, thus the sarong and sea-weed theme to the clothing. I felt pearls, with their clear association with the sea, kept with the theme and added (I hope) to the mystery and allure of the character in the design.

Well, so much for keeping things short. I apologize for being so rambling; I tend to write stream-of-consciousness style. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to write some other way, that's a little more concise.