Developer's Notes - 4

So, Ekoja was going to post this week, but he's been down and out for the last several days with the flu, so you've got me again. =P I'm writing this now on severe sleep deprivation, so prepare for a lot of rambling and possible incoherence. 

Ekoja is still working on his mystery podcast, although progress has been slowed by illness. I'm drawing... all the things. Follow my instagram for WIP pictures. I'm still working on getting into a good groove for posting on there, but that is where I'm posting most of my progress pictures and finished pictures. And also cats. And occasionally some other more personal things, mostly fun shenanigans, like the 2 headed snowman my kids built when it actually snowed here or Sophie's hair when I put it up in a Rapunzel-inspired braid. But it will mostly be WIP and cats. 

I'm almost finished with the next chibigurumi plushie, and I look forward to sharing that with early in March.  I might link that from here. I will definitely share it from my Facebook page. You can see the Pikachu I finished for this month on my Etsy. 

Since we design games, we also play a lot of games. We meet with friends once a month to play some kind of tabletop role-playing game. Usually it's D&D or Pathfinder. This month we started a Starfinder campaign. I'm not super-hyped on the setting, but then I'm not really into sci-fi in general so it's nothing personal. I do, however, love my character. I'm playing an Android Envoy. I'm playing her like a bard, so think Vocaloid. Her name is Muse. I really appreciate that our current GM is flexible with how we play our characters and what we can do with them. Even if we're following a set adventure, it doesn't feel like we're being led along or shoe-horned into a particular course of action. Needless to say, I had fun. Most of our group seems pretty pleased with the Starfinder system. My participation was limited to primarily skill checks (by choice because that's how I'm playing this character) so I can't speak personally, but by the overall positive response from the others, it seems like it's a pretty solid system. 

I've also been watching things. I'm slowly working my way though a bunch of things, like only watching one episode or so at a time over a longer period of time. So, if I watch 3 episodes in one evening, they're from 3 different shows. Right now I'm watching Shannara, The Irregular at Magic High School, and Your Lie in April. The Shannara series appeals to me because I read and loved the books when I was younger, and although the series follows one of my least favorite books from the series (The Elfstones of Shannara) it's not horrible (actually I'm kind of enjoying it, although I wish the main characters behaved a little less like teenagers). I'm still undecided on The Irregular at Magic High School. I'm going to give it a fair chance, but I do find the way the sister flirts with her brother a little creepy personally. I'm waiting for the plot, as I've only watched the first episode or two where they're introducing characters and setting. However, I am loving Your Lie in April. I think it probably appeals to me because of the music theme. I used to play music when I was in middle school and high school, and even a little in college. I have not played in a very long time. Sometimes I miss it too. I'm going to watch an episode of this when I take my break at work tonight to eat my dinner/breakfast meal thing. On this note, I'm feeling inspired to add Lord of the Rings and Shannara (based on books not so much the series on Netflix). I'm also considering doing some bookmarks for some of the Pern books as well. Because the world always needs more bookmarks for people like me who just cannot transition to digital books.

Developer's Notes - 3

It's been a busy 2 weeks. Ekoja and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary last week. I finally got to see Thor: Ragnarok. I absolutely loved it, but I will avoid gushing about that here. I also got to see the MLP movie, which was also pretty decent. I found the animation to be a little oversaturated color-wise and a little overstimulating, especially at the beginning. I still enjoyed it though. I've been busy drawing. Since I'm coming back from a 2-3 year hiatus, I have a lot of work to do to freshen up my table. I have retired most of my old prints and badges--you can purchase any old designs from my Etsy at significant discount if you are interested. I am keeping some designs, mostly for those sets I plan on adding to, like the Movie Poster prints and What Would prints. Given that I have retired almost everything, though, that means I have to create a lot of new stuff now. This year's focus is going to be on creation. I will be applying to some tables, but it won't be as strong a focus as straight up creating new things for my table. 

Speaking of tables, I will be attending the Asheville Anime Regional Convention at the Asheville Civic Center--which is called something else now, because people like to change names of things just to confuse old people like me. I'm excited about getting into this con. It's small, but it's in one of my favorite cities in the United States. Anyways, if you will be at the AARC, stop by my table and say hi.

So, what am I working on? I have about 9 different print series that I am actively attempting to make progress on. A good number of these will be original designs, but there will be some fanart. Most of it will be in the form of parodies, like the What Would prints and Movie Poster prints. I am starting a new version of the Anime Tarot deck, although I think I will need to call it something else because it's going to feature characters beyond anime and video games. Would it be too awkward just to call it The Tarot Deck of Things Panda Likes? I am putting a lot of effort into the design for the new deck. The original deck was intended to be funny, but some of the cards communicated this intention better than others.  I'd like the design for the new set to more clearly communicate that focus. 

I have several series of original prints that I am working on. Some will be funny, and others will be more designed to be pretty. There will be several print series based around the Character Archetype badge series. I also want to do an original character series (loosely) inspired by traditional Japanese landscape painting and the fruits of the spirit from the book of Galatians in the Bible. I've found the challenge of creating characters to match different virtues both fun and frustrating. This is an idea I've had for years, but I've only recently come up with a design that I am pleased with. We won't talk about how many designs for this project I've thrown out over the years. I also have lots of designs that I like but don't think fit this project. I'm not sure what I'll do with those... I'm also doing a set of mermaids in a similar style as the fruits prints ... because, no reason other than I want to. =P I will also be revisiting the Western Zodiac designs. 

Beyond prints, we are redoing all of our badges. I am changing the format in which I make these. Ideally they will be easier for me to create, but the real motivation to make the change is that (assuming everything goes as planned) will open up all kinds of creative options for them that were not practical before.

We are also continuing to add to our button and bookmark series. For buttons, I will be expanding my Final Fantasy series, because who doesn't need more Final Fantasy? I will also be adding a few other series, including Guardians of the Galaxy (unusual, but I was inspired...) and maybe Bravely Second. I'll be adding a 4th set of Sailor Moon bookmarks, as well as a few other bookmark sets, including Dragonlance, Firefly, and Love Live sets. 

And last, but not least, I am also working on art for the newest game from Team Sidequest, Texas Zombie Massacre. This has been a huge challenge, not just for the sheer number of cards to draw, but drawing cartoonish zombies is not something I'm super comfortable with drawing. So far, though, I'm pretty pleased with the progress. 

I am doing a few other things that aren't related to drawing, but I think I'll leave those for another post. I'll go into more detail on some of these projects later as well. This post is meant to be a quick overview of what drawing stuff I am planning this year. There's a lot here, and that's pretty typical of how I work. I do not focus well. I never have. If I don't have a million projects going at the same time, I start having panic attacks. Of course, so many projects does run the risk of becoming overwhelming, so it'll be an interesting balancing act. 

If you're interested in seeing WIP pictures, I post those at random on my Instagram account now rather than sharing them here. I find it easier to update there on a less static schedule than here weekly. For instance, I find it simpler to just snap a picture and share a finished sketch there rather than waiting to try and collect all the things I've worked on each week. My work schedule is very variable, so posting here consistently has proven challenging. So, anyways, follow Instagram for WIP updates, and also cats and other random things from my life. There's not much of that though. It's mostly WIP pics and cats.

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.

No News Is Good News, Right?

Yesterday, I posted a belated WIP (sort of) post. The inspectors came. Things ended up weird, but I'm not sure if that's really bad yet. They came yesterday morning, and I came back to the house 2.5-3 hours later and no one was here, so I thought they were done. I dropped off the cats (we always try and take the cats out of the house along with their litter, food dishes, and stuff when someone comes to the house to look at it) then left for an impromptu trip to Misenheimer because my husband's car was having issues. When we got home last night, there were lights on that I know weren't on when I left. There were other little indications that someone had been here. Nothing was missing; it just looked like someone had been poking around. I've talked with my agent and we think that they came back to check some more stuff. I felt a little bad that the cats were here when whoever came back; not that I really think our cats are that bad, but there are four of them, some people are allergic, and their litter is messy, so it's not the kind of thing I like leaving out for people to see--at least people who are looking to maybe buy our house. I'm a little irked that we weren't told that someone was coming back to the house, but I don't want to make a huge deal about it--I really really want these people to buy this house. I am ready to move on past this stage in my family's life. I just hope the cats didn't deter them--I love my kitties, but I can't expect everyone else to feel the same way about them really. I haven't heard anything back yet, and our agent said we probably won't until they're done with this inspection, the termite inspection, and any others they order, unless there's something the buyers have a major problem with. So, no news at this point sounds like good news.

Anyways, our house stuff isn't all that "on topic" for this blog; it is something that is a very big part of my life right now, though, and it will indirectly affect what I can get done art-wise. Now to share some thoughts on something more on topic. Yesterday during my drive, I was thinking about the Sailor Moon Mecha Pilot bookmark set I'm supposed to be working on for Anime USA. Spending days in the car and being sick for most of this week--still sick and really not liking it for that matter--are not the best conditions for productivity. Still, driving can be a good time to reflect and think about projects. This is a good thing because if I can get a clear idea of what I want to draw in my head before I sit down with paper, I will finish a project a lot faster. The result of my thinking yesterday is that I got some really awesome images in my head for the set, except they won't fit on bookmarks. I don't really want to turn them into badges, but I also don't really want to do the larger 8.5 x 11 prints either. I am thinking of doing smaller postcard sized prints of them and also adjusting the images for the bookmark set that I'd originally planned to do. I'm still thinking about this, but I like the idea. Actually I really just like what I want to draw, and the post card size suits the images I have in my head. =P I'm really excited about this set right now, and I hope to have at least the Inner Senshi done by next week's WIP post. =D

Coming Soon to an Anime Con Near You

After posting such brilliant prose Monday, I was really hard-pressed to come up with a topic for today that could really live up to the standards I set. XD I've been posting about a lot of random topics lately, especially just stuff going on in my life. Since this blog is really supposed to be what's going on with my art studio, I thought it'd be nice to write a blog post on that subject. =D (About time I got back on topic, right?) So, what I'm going to do in this post is give a little bit of a preview of what I'm planning on working on in the next couple of months. Some of it's stuff that will definitely happen; some of it's stuff that might happen with in the next year or two; some of it may just end up forgotten or set on the back-burner for an indefinite period of time. If there's something that strikes your fancy that you'd really love to see me finish, then by all means point it out to me--that increases the likelihood of it actually getting done.

Now, I do a lot of different things for my table, so to give this post a little bit of organization, I'm going to break the projects down by type--mainly art and plushies right now, and I might break the art down into bookmarks and other stuff. Let's start with the plushies. Since a lot of my upcoming conventions have strict rules on fanart vs. original art design ratios allowed on the table, I will be spending much of the next couple of months focusing on my original art designs. First up in the plushie world is going to be a variety of mini-amigurumis. These will be smaller than my Pikachus, Mokonas and such; they will be cheaper in price (because they're smaller and a little bit easier to make) and will come in a variety of color combinations. I'd also like to work out a design for a kitsune/fox mini-amigurumi, but I'm going to try and stay focused and finish the kitties and bunnies first. I'd also like to see a panda plushie completed--I think this one will have to be bigger, maybe about the size as my normal plushies. So that's what I've got bouncing around my head right now for original design plushies. For fanart plushies, the list is extensive. XD I want to do a Miyazaki themed set (Yakul, JiJi, a Soot Ball, Totoro, etc.), plus a couple more Pokemon (Plusel, Minun, Espeon, Mudkip?, for sure), and some other random ones like P-chan from Ranma 1/2. I've also gotten a request for a Chocobo (which I think would be fun to do). On top of all that, I'd love to do an Eastern Zodiac themed set of animal plushies (based loosely on Fruits Basket). Think I've got enough on my plate?

Let's move on to art. Let's start with the "other stuff" first and leave the bookmarks for last. Near the top of my list--I will probably be spending July working on these--is the other half of the Western Zodiac set. When I put together the set I have now, I'd intended to do two of each zodiac design--one guy and one girl. I did not have time to do that many drawings when I started working on it for AWA last year, so I had to settle with doing half of them--I did 6 guys and 6 girls. So, now I plan to finish that set. =) I also want to draw some more archetypes (I love these guys)--I want to do 14 more so I have a total of 42 (that's such a great number). I have a couple in mind, but I'm still debating on what character types to do for most of them. I also want to do some themed archetype badges--like classic D&D character classes or the Real Roleplayer-Twink-Loony-Real Men set. I've got lots of fun ideas here. On top of all this, I'd love to do some mythological sets or fantasy creature sets.

Last, but not least (definitely not least--this is where a lot of my fangirl obsessiveness is going to be focused), bookmarks... Currently in progress, I have sets of World of Warcraft, Dragonlance, and The Guild bookmarks in progress. I also "want" to do sets for Final Fantasy I, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X (X-2), XII, and XIII, Kingdom Hearts, Soul Eater, Full Metal Alchemist (*squee*), Hetalia, Black Butler, Firefly, Marvel/DC characters, Slayers, and the list could go on for a while. This is definitely one of those places where, if you'd really like to see it finished, tell me, or it could end up at the bottom of a very long list.

So yeah... that's what I've got planned, roughly. My "To-Do" list is always growing and changing--kind of like a mutant bacterial parasite that threatens to eat my life.