Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines

What I've been up to

2009-09-20T01:07:35Z

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;

THIS IS WHY I NEVER POST AROUND HERE

W&N watercolors on--if I recall correctly--90 pound B4 paper. (It was laying around collecting dust, so I used it.)

Introduction is 15 pages long, all watercolor. Everything else is [tentatively] slated to be colored digitally--nothing fancy, just flats. 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.

Tekkoschocon 2009

2009-04-07T03:53:23Z

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!

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Photos come with comments :)

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.

I had a few chokers for sale. I don't have most of them photographed or on Etsy yet.
I also had cell phone charms for $2.50 each. I have yet to get them on Etsy. I sold a few of these of these, and I had two kinds, paper star charms, and the polymer clay charms you see here. Both of those lollipops are gone~

I had twelve pairs of origami paper star earrings too. Technically, that’s not a lot to have up for sale, but it didn't matter, since only one pair sold XD

This pair is the one that sold. I snagged a photo of it before I left for Tekko the next day.

~~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.

La Bamba Process

2009-01-18T22:20:16Z

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

So anyone remember this? I think I started it last March or April.

EDIT- I forgot her clothes :O! Had that planned in advance when I first started the pic:

Had the entire outfit planned, and you can only see half of it *sobsob*

Finished the lineart by the end of May, or maybe in the first week of June.

Yellows and browns...

Greens

Blues

Did watercoloring for those colors, but that was okay, because it's on watercolor paper anyhow...

Figure and miscellaneous creatures

Also touching up on everything else that I missed/overlooked, and darkened some outlines.

The original plan was to color the bark/jungle in dark red tones, but kry1 from AA forums advised me not to do that. So this is the final result, all touched up:

Scanned it in two parts and had a mind-numbing time trying to piece them together.
Also colored in sand, since that big, blank white space didn't look good. I'm thinking of coloring in the bottom right too, maybe in another shade of blue or purple. Other than that it's done as of late December. Huzzah!

Materials:
- watercolors
- miscellaneous colored pencils, mostly Primsacolors
- miscellaneous markers, mostly Primsacolors
- Sakura micron .07 white pen and .005 black pen
- Staedtler sketch pens
- other pens (blue and purple)

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

All the leaves are brown

2008-11-16T03:43:53Z

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 >:

I LIVE!

2008-08-21T19:14:41Z

Yeah, sorta.

OC Wars!

2008-06-02T02:05:21Z

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.

For the Wars, I'm using Poppy, an old OC of mine and the character you see in the icon above. She's a land pirate (? Uh, term I made up) who hunts for treasures. I challenged another member's character called Yukari, who is obsessed with music. Yukari appears first. I wish I could have colored this page, but I didn't have the time. Kitty-san, her creator, gave me permission to start the pages and surprise her with the story.

REALLY LAZY PERSPECTIVE. No reference used for anything whatsoever because speed and message is key here, not awesomeness D:

Uh, just noticed this but I misspelled "ballerina." That's how you spell it in Spanish D:

Agh, I keep forgetting that Poppy wears a ring *too lazy to fix this*

By the way, Poppy is 19 and looks 12. Yukari is 18 and looks 14. I didn't preview Kitty's character before I challenged her, so this is pretty hilarious. Couldn't have planned it any better. Loli versus loli! Actually, about half of all the listed characters in the OC Wars are young girls, leading to the development of a faction called the Maids of Moe >D I ended up joining the only pirate faction that popped up, though my character is technically not a pirate.

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'!

The Red Eyed Boy - PROGRESS

2008-05-26T01:26:22Z

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.

1. Lineart
Sketch - mechanical pencil, roughly half an hour
Lineart - .3 Staedtler sketch pen, also half an hour

This was unnaturaly fast, for me. Usually things don't even make it past the concept stage, but this one went quickly.
No reference used except for the rose. Mother's day had been the week before, and we got my mouther a bouquet.

2. Skin toning
Markers used (all Prismacolor):
- Brick Beige

Only one marker was used, layered on top of itself. Thank you, Luciole Loong (http://www.mangarevolution.com/tutorial_display.php?tutorial_id=82) for saying that it was possible.

3. Skin tones, rose, and stem
Skin:
- Sand
- Buff
- Deco Pink
- Brick Beige
For rose petals:
- Henna
- Cherry
For stem:
- Deco Aqua
- Deco Pink
- Pink Rose
- Spring Green
- Parrot Green
- random yellow and green markers (not Prisma) for polleny parts and darkened stem

Deciding to take a risk, I used a Prismacolor Colorless Blender on the cheek skin. That's when I discovered that it was not only useless, but destroyed the marker below as well. I was pretty upset. I salvaged it by going over it again with the Brick Beige, but it wasn't the same quality as it was before. Never again am I using that marker.
The nose, meanwhile, looks as good as crooked no matter what. My fault.

4. Hair
Markers used
- Cool Grey 30%, used first
- Warm Grey 50%, began layering over CG30%

Between this stage and the next, I went over the rest of the hair with the CG30% before layering WG50% on top of it. When I had it to my liking, I moved on. I had practiced coloring dark hair on a piece of scrap paper until I got a technique and results I liked.

5. Hair
- Cool Grey 30%, done
- Warm Grey 50%, done
- Warm Grey 70%, nearly done
- Cool Grey 80%, begun (see eyebrows)

Between this stage and the next, I finished layering the CG80% before moving on to the next color.

6. Hair
Markers:
- Cool Grey 80%, done
- Black, done
- Cool Grey 30%, on eyes
- Eggshell, on eyes
Other:
- Sakura pentouch white .7
- Staedtler sketch pen

I took the time to touch up the face as well at this point. I kept darkening parts of the skin and rose at other intervals, bit by bit. I re-outlined the image with the sketch pen as I noted that too much marker tended to wash out the lineart. Thank you, Augest (http://augest.deviantart.com/art/ran-s-marker-tutorial-22453321).

7. Touch-ups and BG
Tools:
- Sakura pentouch white for various touch-ups
- Lime Green, for stem
- Walnut, for skin
- watercolors (couldn't stay away)
- Henna, for parts of the eyes and the swirly flower patterin in the BG

Scan made this lose quite a bit of color :/ I'll have to adjust to go easy on the levels when I post the final piece. The shoulders are uneven here, but I fixed that during the next step.

This was just the progress -_-; I didn't do it all at once, so it didn't seem like a lot of work, but I'm sure it was. I didn't keep very good track of how long this was taking me. I'm sure I invested at least six hours into it over all. As far as experiments go, this was a success, despite its shortcomings.

The actual piece is finished now (just about?), but I have it pressed between a bunch of books for the time being to flatten it out. I'm not sure how I'm going to scan it, either, since it's bigger than what the scanner can hold. I could paste two parts onto each other, but it's a lotta work...

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*

Sketch Dump

2008-04-06T21:25:02Z

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...)

Second update for this crazy-pop art thing. Lady now has clothes! Her hair is outta control tho; lotsa curly haired characters popping up lately.

This is her outfit. It was only after I designed and inked this and finished the girl's pose that I realized that not all the clothes are visible. Oh well. I WILL COLOR THEM ANYWAY 8D

I'm fairly sure I haven't posted this one yet. This is a sketch I did about a month ago after watching clips from Tony Danza's (I think it was Tony Danza; might be wrong there) version of Gulliver's Travels. This is a queen and her morning get-up crew. I drew it in the upper corner of a piece of sketch paper (because I lack foresight), so that's why it's scrunched up like that. I like the concept though and I think I wanna attempt it again sometime.

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

Commissions Guidelines

2008-03-27T03:14:27Z

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

Commission Information

All traditional manga artwork by Natalie Gregory

PRICING INFORMATION

Base Prices
(inches)	Size	Sketch/Pencil	Inked	Watercolor/Mixed Media
8 ½ x 11 or 9 x 12	A4	$5	$10	$15
11 x 17	A3	$10	$15	$30
17 x 22	A2	$15	$20	$45
24 x 34	A1	$25	$30	$60
34 x 44	A0	$30	$45	$75

ACEO (2.5” x 3.5”) = $10-15

Labor Charges:

$10 per hour for ALL

Timeline Estimates (in hours) for Size A4
Sketching	Pencil Shading	Lineart	Inking full	Coloring
1-3	1-4	1-3	2-5	3-10 (or more)

Time spent on artwork varies with complexity; that way, the longer I take for more difficult pictures, the more I charge. Conversely, simpler pictures take less time to complete, and therefore cost less.

Example: 1 hour to sketch, 1 hour to ink, and 3 hours to color amounts to a $50 labor charge.

- I will not round up the hours worked unless the time goes over a half hour. For example, if I complete a picture in three hours and twenty minutes, the labor charge will be $30. If I complete the picture in three hours and 37 minutes, the price will be $40. Hours are counted honestly.

- Because of scheduling conflicts, I ask that you contact me no more than five weeks before you need the final artwork.

The FULL PRICE of the image is Base Price + Labor Charges

Example: If you ask for a pencil sketch, and it takes me 2 hours to complete it, the total price will be the base price plus the labor charges ($5 + $20 = $25 total).

- The only exception to this rule is the ACEO, whose price will vary as given above depending on material and complexity.

- I will show you sketches (in stages for more complicated pieces) so any changes can be made before inking/painting. I will not be able to move on until you approve the final sketch. Any changes afterwards that require restarting the picture will extend labor charges, not reset them. Base price, however, will not be charged again.

PAYMENT: All online payment is done by Paypal only, whether through Etsy or by email.

Offline, you would pay in Cash or Check.

- The base price must be paid before I will begin working on the art.

- The full price of the labor charges must be paid before you can receive the finished artwork. No exceptions.

- All commissions are non-refundable.

Concerning artwork

You, the commissioner, are responsible for giving me all the information I need to work on your commission. Any information left out might result in dissatisfaction for you, extra labor charges, and creative liberty for me. If you want me to take liberty with your commission, please let me know that also.

Lastly, there are things I do and do not do regarding art. Please respect my abilities, my skill level, and my choices with what I work. There are always other artists who can do the things I cannot, so feel free to take your commissions elsewhere and find the best option available for your wants.

Do’s	Do Not’s
Fanart	Yaoi/yuri and shonen/shojo-ai
Original Characters	Hentai
Backgrounds	Anthro (no good at this)
Caricatures	Mechas/Giant Robots (same)

If you want other type of art, please discuss this with me

I also reserve the right to deny working with you if I deem you suspicious or troublesome.

Additional Information

Because I work traditionally, all original artwork will be mailed to you in a protected envelope, free of charge if you live in the continental US. If you live elsewhere and would like the original artwork mailed to you, you must pay shipping charges (includes packaging).

All art pieces commissioned from me are under an Attribution Non-Commercial, No-Derivative Creative-commons license.

- This means you can showcase the artwork anywhere you like, as long as you give me credit, but you cannot alter the artwork or make money off it.

If you wish to purchase full rights to a commissioned work, discuss this with me so we can come to a written agreement.

I keep confidentiality with the commissioner. Paypal, full name, address, etc… will be kept private.

NOTE: I will not work again with a commissioner that gives me unnecessary trouble such as, but not limited to:

- Incessant pestering about the status of the artwork

- Asking for a deadline shorter than the five week period stated above after I’ve begun work

- Dropping the commission suddenly after numerous changes and extended work hours (it’s fine if you can no longer afford it at the time, but saying “I changed my mind” after no notice is rude)

- Misuse of the artwork (claiming it’s yours, selling it when you don’t have rights, etc…)

Commissions are CLOSED.

I'll update the guideline periodically as necessary.

Routine Sketch Dump

2008-03-20T01:26:32Z

(Should I just make this a sketch blog or what?)

(I never post here anymore.)

(I can't even keep journals in real life. Why is there an account here?)

(But if I post art, that'd keep this moar active :<...)

First off, ugly sketches of the hottie hot hottie from Mononoke for <ljuser="grendelity">:

I keep drawing him with these large, shojo-y eyes, which he does not have (apparently I can make girly boys girlier). I will have to draw him again D: His character design demands it (his hair is fun to draw!).

MOAR pictures. A very girly girl character design sheet (not finished).

She's a majorette, okay? Why'd I have to draw her with such curly hair? D: It was driving me nuts first when I was sketching her and later when I was inking her. I'm sure it'll drive me crazier if I add color. That center pose isn't that great. I need to practice drawing standing people and drawing feet.
:B

A girly girl dress design, very rough sketch, nowhere near the final design:

Last girly girl image, and then I'm done! I've been drawing a lot of fanart sketches lately, for stress relief, because fanart is quick and easy and there's no strings attached (yes, I leave the morning after :B). So, yay, most adorable character ever! (HOLY CRAP THE POSE IS SO BAD)

Not the best tribute to Skuld I could've done. Her antennae were stuck on as an afterthought when I was looking at this and wondering, "what's missing?" XD

Burninated!

2007-08-21T02:14:23Z

So, like, my computer crashed on Saturday...

AGAIN.

This is the fifth time its crashed in less than two years. It's a major pain and a headache getting it restored and downloading/uploading all the information and programs all over again. Fortunately, most of the security stuff is back up and running, and all the old information was properly backed up, so nothing lost. Still, it's pretty ridiculous. Computers should not crash that often unless there's something wrong with them, methinks in my woefully limited knowledge of technology.

I really can't wait to get my laptop. I get it this week~!

Jewelry Post 1

2007-08-05T01:46:05Z

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.

All My Base Are Belong to You

2007-07-22T02:29:37Z

I just got back from a week of church camp out in Elkhorn Valley, Ohio. The week I took was something called ECO Challenge. It was very... intense. I've never done so much physical activity in my life.

Let me break it down for you:

Day One: Mostly mental challenges, but they required a lot of physical strength as well. Basically we had to work puzzles out before we could attempt them. However, there was this one game that required absolute stealth and speed. Called "Renegades," we played it in the dead of night around the entire campside. Our objective was to collect more glowsticks than the other team and to avoid the "guerillas" (faculty members) who ambushed the teams with pantyhose filled with flour. No, really.
Unfortunately, we didn't collect a single glowstick. No extra points.
Fortunately, we never got caught, and each team member not smacked with flour was worth more than finding glowsticks. We won. Such teamwork! And we all barely knew each other.

Day Two: Water play, water play... ugh! I lost it towards the end of the day, because we had to swim back and forth, across a pool, for one activity. Another one was a diving contest. The third challege was crickin'. Or creeking, take your pick. Lastly, we had some sort of canoe race. I don't really remember the details.
Oh, but I hate water. I hate it! I guess I just really loathe getting wet, because I'm not comfortable if I'm not dry. Gross.

Day Three: Called "Endurance Day." In approximately three hours, my teammates and I speed walked 8.4 miles across the sweltering, barren roads of Ohio country. I was dead-tired by the time we got back, but it was incredible. I honestly prefer walking until my legs are sore over swimming in the pool.

Day Four: High ropes. Lots of wires and harnesses suspended in trees thirty feet off the ground. To be honest, this makes my whole body tremble, but it's breathtaking. Also preferred over swimming.

Day Five: Everything. Mind challenges, creeking, canoeing, sit ups, hiking, and climing a rock wall. All in one hour and 51 minutes. You would've thought this was boot camp, but it was a thrill. I actually swallowed my disgust of creeking for the sake of the team, but I'm never wearing those shoes again.

It is so good to be out of your element. When you're stuck in the same routine, in the same habits and ruts, day after day, it's not good for you. Getting dirty was a good thing for me. I feel very renewed. I also feel a bit like running around.

I got to meet a lot of great people during this. In the other weeks that I've been at a wilderness camp at Elkhorn, the campers knew each other better and--I hate to say this--rather cliqued. I couldn't fit it. This time, however, I've never gotten along better. I actually have the desire to keep in touch with several of them! Not to mention that a few of them are surprisingly close by. It's gotta be a God thing.

Ah, and one boy at camp opened the door to an astounding site. http://www.thinkgeek.com It--is--a~maz~ing~! Feeling nerdy never felt so good.

Summer Reading List 2007

2007-06-15T21:14:43Z

(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!

School Work No End Load

2007-05-25T01:46:45Z

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.

Third

2007-05-20T18:07:09Z

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.

Peanut Goes Rogue

2007-05-11T04:12:20Z

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.

New Kid In Town

2007-05-08T02:22:38Z

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 :)