Since I couldn't get anything better than a weekend part-time job over the summer, I dedicated almost all of the rest of my time to working on a comic. Early on I intended to keep it a summer-project early, but by July I had more confidence to make it a longer-term project.

So yeah. I have the tendency to get too verbose when talking about my stuff, so a tldr;
 

( Page 9 of a 15 page intro ) I'm not feeling loquacious enough to divulge anything else about the project (unless you already saw this little link over at devART), but I am super excited with how it's looking so far. A little cartoony, a little experimental, kinda crappy, but it's actually getting done.
Um, among other things, I finished my third week of my third year of college yesterday D: I finally feel like a junior *pretentious* I swear, I've seen sparkles in the eyes of the freshmen when I speak to them lol.

Alllll right. After fussing around with the photos and all the uploaders for far longer than any of them deserve (I went the Flickr route), I present to you Tekkoshocon cosplayers!

( and he said, I can pull a Sasuke anytime I want! )


It's not a whole lot, and honestly I saw several more cosplayers, some better, but I didn’t have my camera on me most of the time, or the photos turned out blurry (like this amazing Princess Tutu girl, sobsob). Not to mention that half of the cosplayers probably never walked by my table in the first place. I saw a Dr. McNinja (a trap) on my way to the hotel room—I was without my camera—and I never saw her again.

( As for what I was selling... )
I have yet to get the Paper Star Charm Earrings up on Etsy, but I’ll probably do that tomorrow. The cell phone charms will probably be added later in the week. 3 pairs of Earrings are up.

Since I'm way overdue for a journal entry >_>;;;; How about a buncha progress pics for artwork that I *GASP* actually finished? 

 

 

( IMAGE HEAVY ) I'm due for an art dump altogether, but that can wait for another week.

The past several months, drawing has been very difficult for me, and not just because I don’t have the time. I have enough time to doodle and the like, and probably sketch a half hour every day if I really make the time. And, actually, I do doodle, fairly often. I’ve been doing quite a bit of life-drawing practice, especially birds and plants—but people are there, too. And I’m glad to say that I’m improving. I’ve practicing with liquid watercolors, practicing with pencils, getting to know the media better. In art class, I’m having currently learning silkscreen printing; I’ve already learned woodcarving. It’s a lotta work, but I think overall I’m improving. So why did I say drawing was difficult? Okay, I’ll be specific.

Drawing manga is getting harder for me, or I’m being pickier about it. Or both. I’m unhappy with almost all of the sketches I’ve done. The faces, the body, all of them. Everything looks wrong. I just spent over two hours on a sketch because I couldn’t get the characters face and body to look the way I want.

So a lot of my inactivity has to do with me just being plain unhappy with my work (that, and a TON of unfinished work). Just a guess as to what the problem is—because otherwise I really don’t have a clue—but I think that I’m no longer comfortable with the manga style I use, and I’m trying to find one that works for me. If that’s not it, then I don’t know what’s wrong. I've been reading the same amount of manga as I always have, so I don't think it's related to that. I may just be in an artistic slump… for one particular kind of art.

Which strikes me as kinda strange?

Oh, and another reason for my inactivity is that I’m just too lazy to actually scan my work in and post it. XD I promise a sketch dump tomorrow >:

Over at MangaRevolution, they're holding Original Character wars in the forums. Basically, you take your favorite OC, make a short profile for him or her, and challenge someone else's OC to a duel in a comic strip. Though I'm woefully short on time before I leave for camp D: I didn't want to miss out on this.

( Watch out, you guys, 'cause these pages are REALLY GOOD 8D )
Now, it's Kitty's turn. After her update, I will pick up where she leaves off. I'll link to the thread the battle's in once I start it.

EDEEET: We be fightin'!

I have all these Prismacolor markers, but I don't particularly use them for much. I really wanted to get the hang of them, but I couldn't think of a good project to use them for; then last week while doodling character designs I got this idea to test them out on. Though I told myself it was for experimental purposes, I decided to make this the official Red-eyed Boy, since I'd never done one before. I gotta say, this is pretty different than the others I've done.

Anyway, here's my progress with these markers.


This character has no name :C Poor pretty boy. He looks straight outta a shoujo manga, doesn't he? Oddly enough, I haven't been reading any lately... but I have been reading some gritty shounen like Claymore and Air Gear. Go figure

Any crits are very accepted. Anything I can apply to the next project. *blows kisses*

SUPER FAST UPDATE before I get back to my homework. This crazy, busy weekend needed some winding down time so I can post stuff. There's update on one piece of art, sketch I never added, and WIP of clothes. (Clothes, I  have a clothes fetish lately...)


Also, uh, Natalie is feeling creatively bored and frustrated. Not drawing-wise, but literary-wise. Uh, quick-short-and-sweet writing prompt, anybody?

Commission information for http://geminiartworks.etsy.com and http://sailingbreezes.deviantart.com


Commissions are CLOSED.

I'll update the guideline periodically as necessary.

In case that anybody is wondering, this is what I do in my spare time:


There's actually a whole lot more jewelry pieces that I design, but these pretty chokers are my favorite. I'm actually hoping to sell these ones in particular at $5 apiece, but I'll have to wait until I can get more of an inventory up.

(In no particular order...)

Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen
Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
Arena- Karen Hancock
Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon- James Sullivan (really)
Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
Dracula- Bram Stoker
Abhorsen- Garth Nix
Search for Senna (Everworld, 1)- K. A. Applegate
Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden
The Mauritius Command- Patrick O'Brian

Ten freakin' books. Way more classical than last year. I don't expect to get through all of them this summer, but I do want to take a big chunk out of the list. A lot of these books are just sitting around, waiting to be read, and now's the time. Everytime I hit a break the next two-and-a-half months, my nose goes in one of these books. You know, so Pokemon won't steal my soul.

To the library!

I'm very close to finishing my school year. So close! However, it seems that the closer I am, the more I feel like goofing off. The stronger the pressure, the stronger the urge to procrastinate. I'll bet it's the weather. It's getting awfully nice outside, and I really want to go out and ride my bike and start my garden. A garden! Too bad that it has to wait until I send off the last of my school work.

Which is in need of being done. Like, now.

So, I saw Shrek III on Friday. I was kinda "meh" about the movie at first, but that didn't last long. Very funny. Hilarious. Very much worth the $8.50 ticket. It was short though, only about 80 minutes long. And it didn't end with Donkey singing like in the other two.

Has anyone else noticed that this May is all about the third movie in a trilogy?

Yes.

PotC out this Friday! Time to let your inner-pirate out.

I'm having a ridiculous amount of fun filling out my interests list. Several times a day I'll think of new things to add. Now at nearly 150 interests, the list is quickly becoming grotesque in size. Is that too much?

I always view it after I finish editing it to make sure none of them are worded oddly enough that no one shares it. If my understanding of how the interests work, shared phrases automatically bring up a link. Such as, instead of having one say "Christian Speculative Fiction,"--which no one else has--it was better to say "Christian Fantasy" (I think I prefer that particular one that way).

However, as I was checking the list tonight, I came upon an embarrassing typo. When I put down "Peanuts" (as in the comic strip, though I like the nuts, too), I had accidentally added an "e." The entry said "peanutes." Even more embarrassing, I wasn't the only one to have done that. Yes, I got a giggle out of this.

I feel fine right now.

Hello.

I am a very, very new member on LJ named Natalie. I've been very curious about the site for a long while, seriously considered joining recently, and finally close friend grendelity giddily said, "Do it." And... here I am now!

I'm a home-schooled high school senior, and I'm not a very complicated person to figure out. I like anime and reading books and nature and my church, etc... Yeah, those are all under my interests. It was great fun filling that out, by the way. Towards the bottom of that list, you'll see "writing." And that is why I'm here.

Thanks for reading :)