My husband and two oldest sons are off on a trip, and it's just been me and Logan here today. It's been a great day for getting things done, but otherwise it's thrown my daily grove off a bit. Here it is, 10:00 p.m., and I was thinking about going to bed, when I realized I hadn't yet written my blog entry for today. Yep, that pretty much summarizes how today has gone.
Looking down my list of possible topics to write about, two stood out as good bets for today's topic. First was World of Warcraft. The second was D&D narratives and anecdotes. WoW drew my attention because I've been playing it this evening. D&D narratives stood out because I was thinking informal stories, kind of like those told in taverns in D&D, and I have been drinking--not much. =P However, I haven't been drinking mead or elvish wine or anything remotely D&Dish, so I think I'm going to rule out writing about D&D. That's another one to save for next week *after* our D&D game for September. One of these weeks I'm going to post a special Saturday entry narrating our game as it happens, just to give you a taste of Team Sidequest craziness.
Thus, tonight's topic is World of Warcraft. Now, to make things clear right from the start, I am not a diehard WoW fan. I've been playing off and on for maybe 2 years now. My husband likes it better than I do; I personally still prefer Ragnarok Online, except not how Ragnarok Online is right now, but how it was, and isn't anymore which is why I'm not playing it anymore. You know that was probably a run-on sentence, but I'm tired so I'm not going back to fix it. =P Back on topic... XD Let's start with a brief overview of how I got started playing WoW. Shortly after WoW was initially released, several of our friends started playing it--these were members of Team Sidequest before we called ourselves Team Sidequest. A year later, my husband and I started playing Ragnarok Online--he wanted to write a paper for some class or another while working on his masters degree on an MMORPG game. We picked RO because my cousins played it (also members of Team Sidequest, even though we didn't call ourselves Team Sidequest at that time, except they weren't part of it then) and I really liked the art and character designs. I'd found wallpaper art for the Priest and Knight classes and resolved to cosplay them about 1.5-2 years before we ever picked up the game. For the record, I have cosplayed as the Priest and High Priest classes. I still haven't gotten to do the Knight, and probably won't. XD
For many years, WoW was the game several of our friends played but we didn't, and we'd take turns trying to argue each other away from one game and lure them to the other. During that time, we moved; Shaun finished his masters degree and moved on to his doctoral studies. RO went through various changes, some good, some bad, and most the good came too late, as is sadly the case with many good games. For a little while it was still a decent game; I played mainly for the social atmosphere. However, once my friends from RO and I connected on Facebook and other places, our time on RO faded. Then during his dissertation work, Shaun decided he wanted to use 5 case studies featuring 5 different games from 5 different systems and 5 different genres. He studied Tetris--the cell phone release version, Halo, Wii Sports, Final Fantasy VII, and for the PC he chose World of Warcraft, which at the time was probably the most played PC game around--although it might have been 2nd to The Sims. Given his personal tastes, he chose WoW. And there was much rejoicing, among our friends. So, they set Shaun up with an account, and I borrowed my best friend's account. We poked around played for a little over a month, then quit. Shaun wrote his paper--although really, it was more of a book than a paper since it was made up of chapters and was more than 300 pages long.
Then, several months later, my mom decided she wanted to play WoW, and she wanted someone to play with her, so she gave me one of the trial account things she had so I could start up an account and help walk her through the interface and show her how to play. I played for a couple of weeks until the trial expired. Several more months passed, and everything (literally, everything) was in storage since Shaun had graduated and we were moving to be close to where he worked. We had computers, but no games to play, and for lack of anything better to do, we renewed our WoW accounts. We've been playing off and on since then. We're about to let our accounts expire again--they'll be up in a couple of weeks.
That's basically our history playing the game. Shaun and I like MMO's like WoW because they are games that we can play cooperatively together. There are other games where that kind of play is possible, but I greatly dislike first-person shooters and most any game that requires hand-eye coordination with a few exceptions; that rules out a lot of games. My favorite type of game has been and will always be the fantasy-themed turn-based rpg. WoW works; Shaun and I can play together, and it's close to a genre I really like, so I can forgive the fact that it requires some hand-eye coordination. We tend to compliment each other well in games like WoW, too. He likes wizards, and I like playing healer/tank hybrids. In Ragnarok Online, I played a priestess and eventually a high priestess who could function as both tank and healer for small 2-3 person parties--my husband played a wizard/high wizard, and between the 2 of us we made an awesome team. In WoW, I play a Paladin, and he plays a mage. We still make a pretty good team--questing is easy with a combo like that, and we can even manage to go through at-level instances--maybe a little slower than with a full 5-person group--with just the two of us.
This is really why we play; we like doing things where we work together to achieve a common goal. Part of why we're letting our accounts expire is we're trying to cut expenses and put any extra money we can toward paying off student loans, since we have a lot of those--that's the downside to being over-educated. XD The other reason is that we're really digging into some of the projects for Team Sidequest, the game company. We've got the makings of a zombie card game that should be ready for basic play-testing in the next week, and *might* even be ready to release by the end of the year. We get the same kind of fun out of these projects as we do playing WoW or RO or any other game like that together. One day, it's my dream that we can make a decent living off of making games and comics and our creativity in general. We really love what we do.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Munchkin: Board Game Style
Munchkin Quest is Steve Jackson Game's board game version of their awesome Munchkin card game series. We picked this up a while ago for my husband. However, right after purchasing the game, we moved, and did not find the box we packed it in until our move the end of last month. I'm glad we found it; I'd honestly thought we'd lost it permanently.
On that note, I thought it'd be worth posting a review of some kind on the game. The game features a lot of the same kind of humor and play style that you can find in the card games. Beyond the basic concepts behind Munchkin, art design, and some of the classic items and monsters, not much remains from the original card game.
The first thing you'll notice upon opening this box is that this game has *a lot* of pieces. This is also the first significant deviation from the card game which contained two decks of cards and a dice. This game has dungeon tiles, door tiles, monster tiles, level counters, 10 dice, colored stands, monster tiles, and three decks of cards--I might be missing something there, but you get the idea.
Of course, with all these new pieces, the game got more complicated. The basic goal of the game is very similar to the original card game. Be the first to get to level 10. This version adds the additional condition of "escaping" the dungeon--this involves getting back to the entrance and fighting a boss monster. Not too bad so far, but once you get into the actual game play, you'll see where things can get a little more convoluted. First each player has movement tiles--you start with three. With those movements you can explore a new room, search the room you are in, or activate the special "deal" associated with the room you are in. Also, you have to keep in mind that there are door tiles for each side of the room which can include open hallways, regular doors, locked doors, and hidden doors, and to move through the latter two, you have to spend three movement. Ok, still not that bad. Let's keep going.
Let's go into a little more detail. When you explore, you open up a new dungeon tile. Each tile has something special about it. Some allow for "deals" where you can trade items, money, or cards in your hand for various things. Many rooms also have symbols on them that correspond with the races and classes of the game--we'll get back to this point later. So, you place the new dungeon tile on the board. What's next? First, you draw a card from the Deus ex Machina deck--this deck contains a mix of old treasure cards and door cards from the old deck. Basically it's any card that doesn't count as an item or a monster, so this would include "Go Up a Level" cards and cards that enhance monsters. Next you draw a monster card from the Monster Deck; yes, in this game, monsters get their own deck and you will never have monsters in your hand--another big deviation from the card game. (They still have wandering monster cards and other such cards, but those involve moving monsters on the board or simply drawing a new monster instead of playing monsters from your hand.)
Here's where things get a little crazy: you've got your monster for your room. Now you find the monster tile, and then you role a 6-sided dice with colors on each side: purple, orange, red, green, blue and yellow. If the color matches a player color, that player draws a Deus ex Machina card. If it doesn't, you get to pick the color, but you can't draw a card if you choose your own color. Get a stand of the appropriate color and stick the monster tile on it. Next you compare levels and play any items or effects you or other players want. Now in the card game, that was the end of combat. Not so here. Next you and whatever player "owns" (matches the color for) the monster role one d6 (or more in some cases). Add the role to your level and the monster's level respectively. Resolve combat. If you win, yah; draw treasure, gain a level, and if the monster had the same color stand as your player color, you draw a Deus ex Machina card. If you lose, take a hit and then try and run away; failing to run away still results in bad stuff. The "take a hit" part is another new addition to the board game. All players start with three health tiles. When you "take a hit" you flip a health tile from red to black. When all your health tiles are black, you die. There are slight differences with death that I won't go in to here. I did learn this evening that you can commit suicide if it is to your benefit to do so. XD
So that should give you a brief idea of how much more complicated the board game is than the card game. That was just a basic combat. I haven't gone into searching, which can lead to more combat, the drawing of treasure cards, or gold tiles (yes, the board game gives you money). So, each player can explore, search, move, or deal on their turn until they run out of movement tiles. After that, the colored d6 is rolled again, and the monsters move based on the color rolled and colored arrows on the dungeon tiles (and don't forget that monster movement can be influenced by symbols that appear on certain monsters).
When all is said and done, the game is still fairly fun. It has a really high learning curve, but if you can get a good group together that has a handle on the game play, it's really not too bad. Learning to play, or playing with people unfamiliar with all the rules and nuances of the game, is tedious at best. Turns can take up to 30 minutes, and that's for just one player. There are enough new rules and new mechanics to the game that even with a seasoned group, it's easy to get bogged down. My opinion on the game: I won't say it's spectacular, but it's still a pretty good game; just make sure you have a lot of time if you sit down to play this one.
On that note, I thought it'd be worth posting a review of some kind on the game. The game features a lot of the same kind of humor and play style that you can find in the card games. Beyond the basic concepts behind Munchkin, art design, and some of the classic items and monsters, not much remains from the original card game.
The first thing you'll notice upon opening this box is that this game has *a lot* of pieces. This is also the first significant deviation from the card game which contained two decks of cards and a dice. This game has dungeon tiles, door tiles, monster tiles, level counters, 10 dice, colored stands, monster tiles, and three decks of cards--I might be missing something there, but you get the idea.
Of course, with all these new pieces, the game got more complicated. The basic goal of the game is very similar to the original card game. Be the first to get to level 10. This version adds the additional condition of "escaping" the dungeon--this involves getting back to the entrance and fighting a boss monster. Not too bad so far, but once you get into the actual game play, you'll see where things can get a little more convoluted. First each player has movement tiles--you start with three. With those movements you can explore a new room, search the room you are in, or activate the special "deal" associated with the room you are in. Also, you have to keep in mind that there are door tiles for each side of the room which can include open hallways, regular doors, locked doors, and hidden doors, and to move through the latter two, you have to spend three movement. Ok, still not that bad. Let's keep going.
Let's go into a little more detail. When you explore, you open up a new dungeon tile. Each tile has something special about it. Some allow for "deals" where you can trade items, money, or cards in your hand for various things. Many rooms also have symbols on them that correspond with the races and classes of the game--we'll get back to this point later. So, you place the new dungeon tile on the board. What's next? First, you draw a card from the Deus ex Machina deck--this deck contains a mix of old treasure cards and door cards from the old deck. Basically it's any card that doesn't count as an item or a monster, so this would include "Go Up a Level" cards and cards that enhance monsters. Next you draw a monster card from the Monster Deck; yes, in this game, monsters get their own deck and you will never have monsters in your hand--another big deviation from the card game. (They still have wandering monster cards and other such cards, but those involve moving monsters on the board or simply drawing a new monster instead of playing monsters from your hand.)
Here's where things get a little crazy: you've got your monster for your room. Now you find the monster tile, and then you role a 6-sided dice with colors on each side: purple, orange, red, green, blue and yellow. If the color matches a player color, that player draws a Deus ex Machina card. If it doesn't, you get to pick the color, but you can't draw a card if you choose your own color. Get a stand of the appropriate color and stick the monster tile on it. Next you compare levels and play any items or effects you or other players want. Now in the card game, that was the end of combat. Not so here. Next you and whatever player "owns" (matches the color for) the monster role one d6 (or more in some cases). Add the role to your level and the monster's level respectively. Resolve combat. If you win, yah; draw treasure, gain a level, and if the monster had the same color stand as your player color, you draw a Deus ex Machina card. If you lose, take a hit and then try and run away; failing to run away still results in bad stuff. The "take a hit" part is another new addition to the board game. All players start with three health tiles. When you "take a hit" you flip a health tile from red to black. When all your health tiles are black, you die. There are slight differences with death that I won't go in to here. I did learn this evening that you can commit suicide if it is to your benefit to do so. XD
So that should give you a brief idea of how much more complicated the board game is than the card game. That was just a basic combat. I haven't gone into searching, which can lead to more combat, the drawing of treasure cards, or gold tiles (yes, the board game gives you money). So, each player can explore, search, move, or deal on their turn until they run out of movement tiles. After that, the colored d6 is rolled again, and the monsters move based on the color rolled and colored arrows on the dungeon tiles (and don't forget that monster movement can be influenced by symbols that appear on certain monsters).
When all is said and done, the game is still fairly fun. It has a really high learning curve, but if you can get a good group together that has a handle on the game play, it's really not too bad. Learning to play, or playing with people unfamiliar with all the rules and nuances of the game, is tedious at best. Turns can take up to 30 minutes, and that's for just one player. There are enough new rules and new mechanics to the game that even with a seasoned group, it's easy to get bogged down. My opinion on the game: I won't say it's spectacular, but it's still a pretty good game; just make sure you have a lot of time if you sit down to play this one.Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Works in Progress No. 4, Vol 6.
If you read Monday's post, you'll know that most of the last week has been spent formatting the tarot cards and communicating back and forth with printers. The art is on its way to the printers right now, but because of how the procedure works the order won't be complete until their art department is content that the files meet their specifications and I approve the digital proof. Only after all that is done will the order actually go through officially (i.e., I tell them how many decks, what kind of paper, etc. and they tell me how much; then I pay them, and the order will be in my hands within 2 weeks + shipping). Because I'm always paranoid of kinks in any kind of process like this, I will not be making pre-orders available until we hit that last step and I'm just waiting for the cards to ship.
Most of my time has been spent working on the tarot card deck. Let's look at what else I've gotten done since my last super late WIP post this past Saturday. Lineart for Aquarius has been finished. The garden bunny mini-plushie has been completely finished. Sadly, that's about it. Well honestly, considering how much time was eaten by the tarot deck, I'm happy to have gotten anything done. Over the next several weeks though, expect to see lots of new Zodiac artwork, plushies, prop knives, and cosplay updates. This week's pictures are of the finished plushie, inked Aquarius, and a sampling of the newly formatted cards in the tarot deck.
Most of my time has been spent working on the tarot card deck. Let's look at what else I've gotten done since my last super late WIP post this past Saturday. Lineart for Aquarius has been finished. The garden bunny mini-plushie has been completely finished. Sadly, that's about it. Well honestly, considering how much time was eaten by the tarot deck, I'm happy to have gotten anything done. Over the next several weeks though, expect to see lots of new Zodiac artwork, plushies, prop knives, and cosplay updates. This week's pictures are of the finished plushie, inked Aquarius, and a sampling of the newly formatted cards in the tarot deck.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Anime Tarot: Last Stop Before Moving On
In June, I wrote about the end of the journey to complete the Anime Tarot set. When I wrote that, the last two cards were nearing completion. At that time, I thought I was finally through with the set. Over the three and a half years it took me to finish the set, I got a lot of requests for the set as an actual deck of cards. I thought it was a good idea, so I resolved to look into it when I finished drawing the set.
When I posted the the Anime Tarot journey was over, I felt that the hard part was done--the hard part being getting all 78 cards drawn. Seriously, how difficult could it be to get a printer to print the cards? I might need to do a little editing, but nothing major, right? Little did I know what I was getting myself into. The first hurdle I encountered was that most printers are not equipped to print card decks. They could print business cards, postcards, or any other sized "card" I wanted, but the best I could get there would be square-cornered "prints" on card stock with no coating or finish. This was not what I was looking for. After a lot of poking around and calling, I came up with a list of about a half a dozen places that specialized in printing card decks. Working through that list of places, I narrowed it down to two. This process was easy as only two companies had the correct contact information on their website and bothered to answer their phone. One was based in the UK and India. The other was based out of Florida and somewhere else, I think China--I'm being lazy and not going to look it up now. =P No offense to people in the UK, but I was really hoping to find some place to print them in the United States--there are a variety of practical reasons for this that I'm not going to go into here since that'd be boring.
Moving on to the next hurdle--seeing what it would cost to print, what kind of quality product I'd be looking at, and all those "fun" details. After a week of phone conversations and emailing back and forth, I walked away with a quote and some card samples that I could live with. The cards will be the size of a standard deck of cards not like a larger tarot deck. This keeps the initial investment for the cards in the range of what I can afford to pay, and keeps the price for what I would charge for the deck in the realm of reasonable.
The current hurdle is adjusting each card to be printed as part of the deck. I'd originally designed the cards to be 8-1/2" x 11" prints and 3" x 4" badges; I wasn't really thinking about cards. Needless to say, just shrinking the current designs down to fit in the 2.5" x 3.5" space I have for the cards doesn't look very good. So I'm completely reformatting every card right now. I'm giving them a new border. I'm going to try and work some kind of symbol into the corners of the minor arcana so that you can tell what suit you're looking at with a glance. The new border has been designed--it's simple, but then at that size anything super detailed would be lost. The symbol hasn't happened yet, but whether that works out or not, each suit will have a different color for the border. On top of the adjusting, there's the fact that I needed to design a back for the cards. All this is taking a lot more time than I'd ever thought it would have. XD I'm notorious for underestimating time like that.
I'm hoping that all the files will be ready and in the printer's hands tomorrow. Considering how things stand now, I'm not feeling too optimistic about that happening, but I guess we'll see. As soon as the files are in the printer's hands and I have an idea for when I will have the decks in my hands, I will be posting a Pre-Order listing on Etsy.
When I posted the the Anime Tarot journey was over, I felt that the hard part was done--the hard part being getting all 78 cards drawn. Seriously, how difficult could it be to get a printer to print the cards? I might need to do a little editing, but nothing major, right? Little did I know what I was getting myself into. The first hurdle I encountered was that most printers are not equipped to print card decks. They could print business cards, postcards, or any other sized "card" I wanted, but the best I could get there would be square-cornered "prints" on card stock with no coating or finish. This was not what I was looking for. After a lot of poking around and calling, I came up with a list of about a half a dozen places that specialized in printing card decks. Working through that list of places, I narrowed it down to two. This process was easy as only two companies had the correct contact information on their website and bothered to answer their phone. One was based in the UK and India. The other was based out of Florida and somewhere else, I think China--I'm being lazy and not going to look it up now. =P No offense to people in the UK, but I was really hoping to find some place to print them in the United States--there are a variety of practical reasons for this that I'm not going to go into here since that'd be boring.
Moving on to the next hurdle--seeing what it would cost to print, what kind of quality product I'd be looking at, and all those "fun" details. After a week of phone conversations and emailing back and forth, I walked away with a quote and some card samples that I could live with. The cards will be the size of a standard deck of cards not like a larger tarot deck. This keeps the initial investment for the cards in the range of what I can afford to pay, and keeps the price for what I would charge for the deck in the realm of reasonable.
The current hurdle is adjusting each card to be printed as part of the deck. I'd originally designed the cards to be 8-1/2" x 11" prints and 3" x 4" badges; I wasn't really thinking about cards. Needless to say, just shrinking the current designs down to fit in the 2.5" x 3.5" space I have for the cards doesn't look very good. So I'm completely reformatting every card right now. I'm giving them a new border. I'm going to try and work some kind of symbol into the corners of the minor arcana so that you can tell what suit you're looking at with a glance. The new border has been designed--it's simple, but then at that size anything super detailed would be lost. The symbol hasn't happened yet, but whether that works out or not, each suit will have a different color for the border. On top of the adjusting, there's the fact that I needed to design a back for the cards. All this is taking a lot more time than I'd ever thought it would have. XD I'm notorious for underestimating time like that.
I'm hoping that all the files will be ready and in the printer's hands tomorrow. Considering how things stand now, I'm not feeling too optimistic about that happening, but I guess we'll see. As soon as the files are in the printer's hands and I have an idea for when I will have the decks in my hands, I will be posting a Pre-Order listing on Etsy.
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| Back Design |
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| Front Design |
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Works in Progress No. 3, Vol 6.
Wow. I can't believe I've actually been keeping this blog up for 6 months now. It really feels like I just started it. I've only missed a couple of posts in that time. I'm encouraged. If I can keep this up, maybe I do have a chance at keeping a webcomic going--my husband and I have been wanting to run a webcomic centered around the characters for the Archetype set. I've been holding off because I want to make sure that once I start I keep up with it consistently, and with all the moving and crazy stuff going on, I've felt like it's not exactly been the best time to start a webcomic.
But anyways, this is the Wednesday WIP post--yes, I know it's Saturday. XD This past week has been an adventure. Tuesday we spent with my in-laws because my husband had a faculty conference he had to be at for work Tuesday and Wednesday that was near where they live. Then, Wednesday afternoon, we drove to Black Mountain. Black Mountain is probably the most awesome place in the whole world to me. I grew up there, and going back there really reminded me how much I really love the mountains. After the long day of driving, we opted to pass out early and I watched Tangled instead of posting my blog. (Tangled is awesome; go watch it if you haven't.) Thursday was the day of my brother's wedding and we spent that with family and catching up with old friends I haven't seen in years. Friday morning I went shopping with my mom for fabric for Suzaku and Euphemia at Carolina Fabric Outlet--this place is absolutely amazing for fabric. They don't have everything, but what they do have is good quality and well priced. So, I thought I might post when I got home last night. Clearly that didn't happen. XD But, I'm posting it now, so, yah!
Since we've been out of town most of the last week or so, I haven't gotten a whole lot done, but there has been progress. Let's start with art. Squall and She Ra are completely finished. I finished the Capricorn and Aquarius sketches posted last week. They're nice and clean and ready to be inked. I've also started on sketches for the new Pisces and Gemini. I've included pictures for Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. I've got a design I like in my head for Gemini, but so far there's nothing more than scribbles on paper, so no Gemini this week since as far as I know there isn't a way to photograph something that's inside my head. =P This week, I'll be working on more Zodiacs and the card back for the Anime Tarot Deck.
There's not a whole lot new in the world of crochet. The mini-Garden-Bunny I was working on is almost finished--he's missing his button eyes and little cotton tail. I've also started a Pikachu since I need to restock my plushies from Otakon.
We've also got a new product in the works. My husband and I wanted to try something that was more of a collaboration between the two of us. We, of course, collaborate on a lot of the art sets you see on my site since I do the art and he does all the writing, but we wanted something where we had to work together a little more. What we've come up with is decorative props. We liked the throwing knives my husband made for my Mai cosplay, so we're going to make similar throwing knives that I will then paint with pretty designs on them. I've included a photo of the rough sketch for the first design we're going to try and make. This week I hope to get this first design finished, plus I want to see some more concrete work finished on the Suzaku and Euphemia costumes (considering AWA is now 6 weeks away and counting).
But anyways, this is the Wednesday WIP post--yes, I know it's Saturday. XD This past week has been an adventure. Tuesday we spent with my in-laws because my husband had a faculty conference he had to be at for work Tuesday and Wednesday that was near where they live. Then, Wednesday afternoon, we drove to Black Mountain. Black Mountain is probably the most awesome place in the whole world to me. I grew up there, and going back there really reminded me how much I really love the mountains. After the long day of driving, we opted to pass out early and I watched Tangled instead of posting my blog. (Tangled is awesome; go watch it if you haven't.) Thursday was the day of my brother's wedding and we spent that with family and catching up with old friends I haven't seen in years. Friday morning I went shopping with my mom for fabric for Suzaku and Euphemia at Carolina Fabric Outlet--this place is absolutely amazing for fabric. They don't have everything, but what they do have is good quality and well priced. So, I thought I might post when I got home last night. Clearly that didn't happen. XD But, I'm posting it now, so, yah!
Since we've been out of town most of the last week or so, I haven't gotten a whole lot done, but there has been progress. Let's start with art. Squall and She Ra are completely finished. I finished the Capricorn and Aquarius sketches posted last week. They're nice and clean and ready to be inked. I've also started on sketches for the new Pisces and Gemini. I've included pictures for Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. I've got a design I like in my head for Gemini, but so far there's nothing more than scribbles on paper, so no Gemini this week since as far as I know there isn't a way to photograph something that's inside my head. =P This week, I'll be working on more Zodiacs and the card back for the Anime Tarot Deck.
There's not a whole lot new in the world of crochet. The mini-Garden-Bunny I was working on is almost finished--he's missing his button eyes and little cotton tail. I've also started a Pikachu since I need to restock my plushies from Otakon.
We've also got a new product in the works. My husband and I wanted to try something that was more of a collaboration between the two of us. We, of course, collaborate on a lot of the art sets you see on my site since I do the art and he does all the writing, but we wanted something where we had to work together a little more. What we've come up with is decorative props. We liked the throwing knives my husband made for my Mai cosplay, so we're going to make similar throwing knives that I will then paint with pretty designs on them. I've included a photo of the rough sketch for the first design we're going to try and make. This week I hope to get this first design finished, plus I want to see some more concrete work finished on the Suzaku and Euphemia costumes (considering AWA is now 6 weeks away and counting).
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| Aquarius |
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| Capricorn |
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| Pisces |
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| First Decorative Prop Design |
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| It's a Pikachu, for realz. |
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| Garden Bunny - almost done |
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
A Little Bit of a Lot of Things: A Look at my Week
It's nice to be *almost* settled in. So, I still have a handful of boxes I still need to deal with. So, parts of my workroom are still more than a little unorganized. I am glad to have my workroom back, at least to some extent. Admittedly, it's not as awesome as it was a year ago--I had a huge counter, lots of shelves and a big work table in the middle of the room, great for all kind of projects. All that stuff is in storage now. I have just one little desk and a couple of shelves. Still, it is a room that I can call my own.
I do have a ways to go with organization. I fully admit that I'd be happy with the way it is now (mostly) if we weren't trying to keep the house up for sale. Right now there's still too much clutter for the house to be "showable" especially in my work area. I need to finish organizing the boys' school work (on my side) plus crafting supplies and tools. I also need to get current projects sorted into appropriate places.
Still, if you consider the kind of mess I'm usually capable of, this place is almost sparkly. Having less stuff does help. I may have stuff left to put away and organize, but it's not an overwhelming task. We have one last wedding for the summer to go to this week (my baby brother is getting married Thursday =D), but after we get home from that, I expect I'll be able to really get going on some projects I've been really wanting to work on. I'm especially excited about starting work on the Suzaku/Euphemia cosplays for Anime Weekend Atlanta. My mom and I are planning to go fabric shopping this Friday before we head home from the wedding festivities.
With only 7 weeks left till AWA, I expect this week will be like the calm before the panic centered around convention preparation sets in. In those 7 weeks I plan on finishing Euphemia and Suzaku costumes along with touch-ups on my friend's Azula costume. I will be rewearing my Mai costume, my husband his Zuko costume, and my cousin her Ty Lee costume. My cousin and I will also be wearing our Pineapple Kitty and Gothic Panda lolita costumes. In the world of art, I'm going to make a serious effort to get the next set of Zodiacs finished both, non-chibi prints and chibi badges. That might be a bit optimistic, but I guess we'll see. For this Wednesday's WIP, expect to see some of Aries. I'm not sure what else will be there; a lot depends on if I can get any work done in the car or during down time (assuming there's any of that at all). So, this was a bit of a rambling post--I blame my short attention span. XD
I do have a ways to go with organization. I fully admit that I'd be happy with the way it is now (mostly) if we weren't trying to keep the house up for sale. Right now there's still too much clutter for the house to be "showable" especially in my work area. I need to finish organizing the boys' school work (on my side) plus crafting supplies and tools. I also need to get current projects sorted into appropriate places.
Still, if you consider the kind of mess I'm usually capable of, this place is almost sparkly. Having less stuff does help. I may have stuff left to put away and organize, but it's not an overwhelming task. We have one last wedding for the summer to go to this week (my baby brother is getting married Thursday =D), but after we get home from that, I expect I'll be able to really get going on some projects I've been really wanting to work on. I'm especially excited about starting work on the Suzaku/Euphemia cosplays for Anime Weekend Atlanta. My mom and I are planning to go fabric shopping this Friday before we head home from the wedding festivities.
With only 7 weeks left till AWA, I expect this week will be like the calm before the panic centered around convention preparation sets in. In those 7 weeks I plan on finishing Euphemia and Suzaku costumes along with touch-ups on my friend's Azula costume. I will be rewearing my Mai costume, my husband his Zuko costume, and my cousin her Ty Lee costume. My cousin and I will also be wearing our Pineapple Kitty and Gothic Panda lolita costumes. In the world of art, I'm going to make a serious effort to get the next set of Zodiacs finished both, non-chibi prints and chibi badges. That might be a bit optimistic, but I guess we'll see. For this Wednesday's WIP, expect to see some of Aries. I'm not sure what else will be there; a lot depends on if I can get any work done in the car or during down time (assuming there's any of that at all). So, this was a bit of a rambling post--I blame my short attention span. XD
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