Comicing

So I've talked about Mirror World many a time on the blog but I thought I would perhaps explain what am doing now as opposed to the first three pages that I've done. In the next batch of pages I'll post some pictures of the process.

So the first three pages I worked on individually from start to finish. Get scripts for page 1, thumbnail page 1, get approval of thumbnail for page 1, scan page 1, ink page 1, color page 1, shade page 1, word balloon page 1 up, and send page 1 to Connie.

As you can imagine I was freaking sick of page 1 by the time I was through. It is so boring to look at the same page day in an and day out for several hours at a time (especially since I am still figuring my process out, it takes way longer than you would think)

So then Connie got me the scripts for pages 4-7. I tried doing page 4 completely differently but I ended up having to start over to not do it SO differently. But while avoiding the redo of 4 I began 5, 6, and 7. Once 7 was drawn out I went and did page 4 again.

So then I currently had 4 pages that had gotten approved and were drawn out and ready to be inked. Do I just work on page 4 or do cycle through the whole batch?

I chose to cycle. I inked all the pages first, then I colored the backgrounds, then I colored the characters (I broke these into pieces as well: clothes, skin color, eyes, eyebrows, hair, etc...cycling through the pages on each part), then I colored the misc items that got missed. Then I straighten up my layers (I need to start doing that as I go) now I'm working on straightening up my edges of the panels, then shading, then word ballooning, then I'm done. So I'm like 85% f the way done with 4 pages! My goal is to finish the batch by Wednesday. Cycling seems to be the way to go, I feel like it moves faster that way.

The even better part is that Connie already got me the scripts for pages 8, 9, and 10 and I already worked with her on the thumbnail and got those approved. So as soon as I am done with these 4 pages I can work on the next three...and I'll post progress updates with pictures!

Con Report, Phoenix Comic-Con 2011

So we had a glorious 4 day convention that was super fun and super helpful with learning on what to do an what not to do.

But we have learned and we will grow and I suspect any con that we do now will go oh so much better from now on!

Alright, so the Wednesday before we went and picked up our badges, which was helpful because we were able to figure out parking and where our booth was located.

Thursday I was super late with the prints because I blew out a tire. So I got there and the preview night was in full swing. We were next to this guy : Inch by Finch aka Patrick and this guy: Vince Deporter . Both were super cool and I think Vince and my hubby are new best friends. I had Vince draw me a picture with Sponge Bob in my art room, which I'll post on another day when I discuss the art I've bought or brought into the house.







Friday and Saturday went by like a blur, I figured out to have free sketches t talk to people (and by drawing on the back of our flyer!) and then Saturday I put a "Tips accepted sign" which actually worked quite a bit. I have no complaints. I ended up selling one print, and a few drawings of super heroes that I whipped out and laid on the table.



I talked to Randy of Something Positive a few times. He is a scary hairy man, but he is so sweet and nice and gave us some suggestions and a fee sketch, I bought an issue of Super Stupor from him and he gave me another issue for free! You're awesome, man!



I eventually got to meet Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots and bought a little print off of her, she is way nice as well!

I also mingled my way up to Joel Watson's booth Hiijinks Ensue and bought a print off of him.

I didn't stand in line to meet any celebrities but I did get to speak with Will Wheaton (which I may do a video of me talking to fully express what the heck happened and how awesome it was).



Then a surprise happened for me...J. Scott Campbell was there. HOLY CRAP. J SCOTT CAMPBELL! Creator of Danger Girl, artist of many issues of Gen 13 and basically hot woman drawer extraordinaire! I bought a print off of him and got myself a pic with him...hooray!






I met lots of nice people and got many compliments on my stuff, people were really interesting and it was super busy. I was very tired after 4 days but I was able to get through it and look back fondly on it! I drew lots of different things (including an Angry Bird giving a wedgie to a Gnome) but I just thought of it as practice! I really can't wait to do it again. We have already purchased our booth for next year's con and I know we have a table for Emerald Comic Con but I have no idea if I'll be able to go. So hopefully!

Con Report

Is on it's way for the end of the week. I just wanted to say that I had a ton of fun and w already have our booth for next year!

Phoenix Comic Con

Apparently Connie got us a booth and they have room so we really have one!

OMG.

So I'm at Booth 747 during the Phoenix Comic Con. We'll have a mini-comic of highlights of Mirror World and some handouts and postcards. I'm making a poster for behind us and I'll have some prints for sale. I'll also be doing some sketching and ATC's so if anyone actually reads this and is in the area during the 26th-29th come on down!

Back to Normalcy

Brewster Bunch by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

A wedding picture for my friend at work. Her and her newly blended family! This looks amazing printed and framed and she loved it!

Lots of moving around and drama at work. I'm not going to complain, so all I will say is that I get to continue teaching art to children full time, which is what truly matters. It's still my dream job. I love teaching kids how to draw, it's official.

So with rumblings of the job I've had to start really thinking about how to file things for next year, how I'm going to deal with the influx of projects, making actual units for students and having the folders of the units as portfolios. It's massive amounts of craziness.

I've been nicking away little by little with the comic, once summer hits I'll throw myself into it, especially since I won't have the sub day to work on things during class :D

People should head to down town Chandler soon too. There has been a public art initiative and there are five local artists that have made ceramic tiles and decorated bus benches all over on Arizona Ave. They are really neat and you should check it out!

Borders

Hey look a bum! :D Just practicing my life drawing. This woman appears a lot in my book and I love her curves.

Well, I am super sad that Borders Books has declared bankruptcy and is closing 200 stores across the states by April. There are two on the chopping block that are near and dear to my heart so I am a bit crushed at the prospect of losing them.

The first is right near where I currently live. UGH. I liked having a bookstore so close but my area is just dying economy-wise. There's like 4 areas on this stretch of road near here that just have abandoned buildings and this Borders is going to make another one.

The second is back home in MI. My Ann Arbor Borders is closing. That is the one I grew up in essentially and it makes me sad. It's also on the corner of this strip mall thing and I have no idea what they would put in such a huge location.

So nerdy book reader platypus is sad.

In other news...we went and saw Bodyworlds at the Science Center. I had seen it before in Chicago on a vacation and gotten ill. It's PEOPLE, folks. PEOPLE NOT FAKE PLASTIC, PEOPLE.

Anyway I took Evan on Friday and he really enjoyed it and I didn't get sick. We examined the body and all these things and it was really educational and enjoyable. Evan really liked it and that was the important thing, I knew he wanted to see it so I made it happen. Cause I LOVE him. <3

Disasters and Other Good Things

Random sketch from breaking in them markers!

Alright so a few things. If you live anywhere near Scottsdale please go to SMOCA (Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art) and go to the "Wishes" exhibit. It is amazing. The walls have all these holes poked into them and in the holes are ribbons. On the ribbons are someone's wish printed on it. You take a ribbon and you can leave your own wish on a rolled piece of paper there. The ribbon has to be tied around your wrist and knotted three times and you wear it until it falls apart and it should come true for you (if it's your wish or if you're wearing it for someone else). I am currently wearing two ribbons.

"I wish to be recognized as a great artist" and "I wish to be skinny" both are knotted three times and on my left wrist together. Hopefully this will help!

Next I went to Ignite Phoenix last night. It was AMAZING. I loved it. My friend Shauna Stacy did a fantastic job with her speech about Shaun of the Dead. There should be videos posted soon, you should go check them out...especially the 10 year old who did the speech on 3D printers, this kid was epically AWESOME.

This did make me get inspired and I'm thinking of trying out for the next Ignite Phoenix in May. I have a topic in my head and just need to outline it. Maybe...maybe not. We'll see.

Page 3 of Mirror World is almost finished. The inks are done and I am in the middle of coloring. All that is left after that is shading and I'll be adding just a few textures to the mix on this page. It's especially exciting because on this page is our first look into the Villains! OOoooOOoooh. The next 2 pages are in Alice's apartment and I am really super excited about that and can't wait to use some airier colors!

My disaster of an extra bedroom and the closet has been completely tackled. It's done and I'm done and I am so happy. The office furniture has been moved around in the other room and I am actually working in it again and getting things done. It is much more conducive to creativity now.

I lost my phone the other night at the park. It was night and I lost it sometime on a walk I was doing with my Geek Girls. So it was gone gone gone. And I was sad. I started looking at new phones and changed passwords to a bunch of things cause I was logged in to a bunch of stuff and that was all I needed was for someone to start mucking about with things.

BUT

a very nice gentleman named Brandon and his dog found my phone and called my mom. He called Evan and he went and picked up my phone. Brandon didn't even take any money as a thank you. I called him and told him I appreciated his honesty in giving it back. He has restored my faith in humanity a little bit. I'm glad my phone is safe and back with me!

Self-Portrait and Avatar and User Pic

Synthetic Platypus by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Not on the art list but I needed to create a user ID for several functions so I knocked one out finally.

So here is me, Synthetic Platypus in all my glory.

I wanted something simple but fun and poppy. This is the current style that I am using for the comic I am working on [link] (my stuff is not showing yet, but read it anyway!)

I am a big fan of wearing scarves so I thought I would incorporate the platypus into it for my pop of color. The platypi are nicked from my business cards sans the polka dots, I wanted it a bit more simple.

Now here is the issue. I desperately want this scarf to exist in real life!

Work Work Work

I'm trying to bust my butt to get my goals done for the month!

I finished my class, so I just need to get my paperwork done and turned in and I will be truly a Arizona certified teacher! Huzzah.

Lot's of good that it will do me if things go awry for next year. oy vey.

Anyhoo running has been going better. My goal for this month was 3 times a week but I did it twice a week so that's good.

Blogging has been pretty regular. Which is something I've wanted to work on!

I just finished my page 2 for Miss Connie's comic so I need to make a preview for that and post it.

I have the idea for my animation and Evan downloaded the software that I need so I just need to bust that out.

Money I wanted to save is saved.

Garage is cleaned.

I had an epic month apparently.

If I can just catch up grading artwork at work next week I'll have set myself up for a brand new February.

I'll post about my animation in the near future documenting the how to of everything :D



This is a mini-watercolor painting I did last year of Evan's parents for their card for their wedding anniversary. I want to start posting misc. art inside this blog that I don't put anywhere else but here.

Mirror World Preview

So I finished working on the first page and now am in the throws of inking the second page. I'm taking my computer to work today so we'll see how it goes (gotta love subbing wednesdays)


Mirror World Saga Preview Pg.1 by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

So here it is! I asked Connie if the preview was okay and she said that it was cool with her...I didn't want to give anything away if she didn't want.That's why there is no text showing. I didn't want to give away the actual story.

Page 2 is done in the same place with the same people. Page 3 takes us into the MirrorWorld and the bad guy's lair. My thumbnail for page 3 has been approved so as soon as I'm done with page 2 page 3 will be on it's way.

Still thinking about the movie thing. I do an "animation" project with my students, I may adapt that into something.

Trying to be active lately as well (can't be a lazy artist and sit on my bum all day) I've been running a lot again lately. Got up to five miles yesterday...I will be running on Thursday with my geek girls too.

oh I'm also going on a girls trip (not of the geek variety) to Disneyland. I've never been so this should be fun. Don't feel too bad about the lack of Disneyland for me...I've been to Disneyworld in Florida too many times!

I'm on my last assignment for my college class for my certification here. Which is good the last day is the 31st. I'm going to work on that during my prep tomorrow and Friday. If I can just get the outline of it finished on paper I can just type it up and submit it when I get home on Sunday...and hopefully run 6 miles that day too.

I'm a busy lady, but I'm feeling better now. So that's good.

Setbacks

Man...this week SUCKED BALLS.

I really can't think of another way more eloquent way of describing this week other than "sucking" and "balls".

But on the positive notes:

My computer was fixed for free. Apparently last generation MAC Book Pros have a faulty graphics card. I found that out the hard way this past week. But the new card cost nothing.

Except for missing one day of running and one day of gym I stuck to my good eating and am seeing results.

I don't want to keep revisiting it, but I am going to post happy things on my next post!

There is arting going on as well, I am working on my friend's comic which a preview of that will come in the next post and I did a fun trip around the area and that needs to be talked about as well.

I'm having trouble with my creative grab bag series right now. I picked another difficult card (make an animated movie!) and I don't know what to do. I wanted it done by the end of the month, but I'm not sure if I can do it. We'll see

Tarot

So a few weeks ago I went to a White Elephant party with my Geek Girls. Near the end of the night my friend Shauna got her tarot cards out and was giving little readings. We were to think of a question, shuffle the cards, then cut the cards into three piles, the past, present, and future.

My question was about my job. Major budget cuts to the education system are happening and I don't think I have ever really been so unsure of my employment for the next year.

Ah, the life of an art teacher.

Anyway as I was shuffling a card popped out, as I was about to put it back in Shauna grabbed it and told me, "It wants to be seen."

I continued to shuffle and cut the cards into the piles.

The first card (past) was the Two of Pentacles. The card for change. It makes sense, moving across the country, starting my career, meeting Evan, marriage, a house. My recent past has been all about change.

The second card is my present and it was the Ten of Wands, Oppression. Which with my job, this makes sense. I'm unsure of my employment so I don't want to get too attached, I am subbing a day a week which disrupts my life and teaching, but I do it for the love of the rest of my job. I am tired but I know I need to still work hard.

The third card is my future. While the card did not give me a definitive answer about my employment it did tell me that I would be okay. The card was the Six of Wands. Victory.

The fourth card, the card that popped out when I was shuffling, was the Three of Pentacles, titled "Works." The card featured an artist. :D

So, as long as I work hard and keep doing what I'm doing, I think I am going to be okay.

Massive Art Update

So there has been art going on.

Truly. So I posted a bunch of stuff over at the deviant art site and wanted to share it here!


Synthetic Business Cards by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Emerson by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Kiriban Kabuki by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART


Mirror World by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

ENJOY!

Epic Fail

on the art front.

*bashes head against desk*

I have this creative grab bag thing right now and it is PISSING ME OFF. I just can't seem to get it. I finally have another idea which I will be doing this week and hopefully life will be good again.

I did finish the prize pic for Miss Kabukikatze for dA all I need to do is scan and post. Which I did hers by restarting the 90% picture I had finished before.

I also sketched a bunch for the webcomic I'll be working on and bought some new paper things for it. So, as soon as Miss Connie gets back from INDIA(!) I'll be able to start a bit more.

Had an epic garage sale over the weekend. I made posts everywhere and multiple times on craigslist. As the sale was going on I kept rearranging things and pushing everything forward toward the door. I think we sold about 75% of the stuff we had. Sold all the furniture but the bigger metal cabinet, sold one rug out of the two, sold all the electronics I had, and alot of the queen bed linens I put out there. Over half the shoes, a little bit of clothes, and honestly a bunch of misc. I didn't think was going to go.

We had the sale on Friday and Saturday and decided that what we had left was not worth trying to do another day. So I made a big bin of clothing for the geek girl clothing swap, and a giant pile of date and two bins for bookmans and said that whatever they didn't take at bookmans we would add to the donate.

Well, they took a bunch more books at bookmans! I have lots of credit again and am very excited. Carted everything to goodwill and my garage is EMPTY. We just need to organize this alcove we have and it's all good. My brother is very jealous.

I'll post pics from my phone of the garage sale. I have a new app and want to utilize it when I find fun Phoenix Art things. I'll do before and after pics.

I've also been running and I found part of the AZ canal system a mile and a half away, which is super exciting to me. I ran there the other day and Evan met me there (he can barely run) and we ran-walked an additional two together. But I was frustrated...how am I supposed to run with him all these miles I want to do? He's wheezing through one.

So we came up with a solution...he rollerblades. He'll rollerblade next to me on the long distances. Which we did (he can rollerblade forever) and we went and did 6.2 miles....which for those of you who don't know is a 10K.

So, a few (hopeful) goals this week.

1) Post the prize pic
2) finish this creative grab bag finally! (and post it to prove it!)
3) Get the clay stuff at school out and organized along with the powerpoints to go along with them.
4)Run the 6.2 miles Mon, Weds, Fri, and 8 miles on Saturday. (My eventual goal for this is a half marathon, 13.1 miles, which I would like to do twice a month and maybe eventually go for a marathon. But I still thing 26.2 miles is crazy)
5) Join the gym by the house to crosstrain on Tues and Sun.
6) Get most of the schoolwork done during conferences this week!

The Art is Coming.

It is.

I promise it is.

I stretched myself a bit thin for awhile and it left me with no time for personal endeavors such as art. The only thing I could really get in was a bit of reading which I do in bed before I am actually going to bed.

So wth that being said I have my fall break coming up next weekend. Now I have a big giant personal thing to take care of from Thursday evening to Sunday evening, but after that I have an entirely delicious week to do stuff.

So what exactly am I going to do?

Well here is a list of goals art and otherwise:
1. Run every other day and do my EA workouts for the rest.
2. Get FOUR Creative Grab bag projects FINISHED. I have the plans ready for one, so that shouldn't be terrible to do.
3. Finish Miss Kabukikatze's Prize Picture for dA. I started it...I'm not sure if I love it though. I may redraw it and color it differently. But the plan is there.
4. Character designs for a webcomic I am working on with one of my Geek Girl friends. She is going to be on a flight to India for 14 hours and will be e-mailing me massive amounts of stuff.
5. Get at least 4 pages (if she sends me that) drawn and finished for said comic.
6. Work on the Character Portraits for Evan's Game. He's making a video game. We have an idea so I'm gonna help with a portion of that.
7. SLEEP
8. Finish my library books. I'm in the middle of two of them now and am going to spend another day reading a different one.
9. Go to work on one day and get everything prepped for the week we get back. This will probably be done later on in the week.
10. Enjoy my house, husband, and puppy...cause I've been missing out since going back to work.

So ten goals. One Week. Will I do it, ladies and gentlemen? Or will I fail epically. You will find out with me!

Also: Last practice for cheer today...for this season. I'm still on the fence about doing it again but if it's just Mondays and Tuesdays then I probably will. The amount of money for this work is stupid. :D

This is a Test

This is only a test...

I'm alive, I promise. Everything kind of just hit at once and I've been slowly swimming my way back to shore.

Everything is great and awesome though. Some quick highlights.

My job has started back up again. It's going great. The only thing about this is that I'm spending tons of time on new power points and project examples since I'm starting at the beginning with the little ones and have nothing.

I'm also becoming a middle school cheerleading coach. *shrugs* I have no idea, don't ask.

The house is being cleaned out. Like a major overhaul. I feel like I'm drowning in stuff and that Evan and I are falling into that owning a house trap of filling it up. Just in the living room we are down a bookshelf and entry way table. Just started going through clothes last night again. I'm so sick of stuff.

Clothes are easy to go through right now. I'm back on the horse of losing weight. I have 20 more days of my restrictive diet plan and then can slowly add back some normal things. But I'm feeling so healthy and great some things may be having a permanent grave for me. I will also tell you about the horror show that happened to me because of that on another day.

Also had to clean out the fridge because apparently "natural flavors" n thing sis code for milk and soy. Which my husband is allergic to. He kept getting ill and we had to figure it out. I gave half my fridge away. That sucked.

The art portion of my life besides making examples for school has been nill. Monday I have a Geek Girl Goal Setting meeting and it's the perfect time to restart my goal of an artwork a month. The first being a prize for a dear friend who got my 1,000th page view on the deviantart site. Then I'll be back to my creative grab bagging.

Umm Some drama with mine and Evan's wedding rings too. We are both getting new ones, which is depressing but better than having to deal with the drama of them both. He's allergic to his and mine just keeps breaking. The jewelery place is working with us though. Which is nice.

I will be blogging more and more, I promise! It's part of the goals!

Bigger Than You

So in Tempe Towne Marketplace there is a store front called "The Night Gallery" It is a facility that is used to showcase student works from ASU. A lot of the time they will have "established" Phoenix artists share the gallery space with the student work in order to get more people to come in and see the shows and to hopefully get more revenue. The shows are free but there is a donation jar in the front.

The following is from a show that is still up (it's been up for awhile now in the back) and it is by Nathanial Lewis and called "Bigger Than You" According to his blog this was his Thesis show for ASU.

here a couple links to him and his work: Blogspot Blog and Art Site

A side note: My photos don't really do his work justice. I only usually have my phone on me, so all of these pics are taken on my Droid.

Now on to the show!


"Blossom"


"Icarus"


"Scribble"




"Feast"


"Maya"


"Melt"


"Real Gone 1"


"Ghost"


"Anticipation"


"Hunger"


"Loom"


"Me & You"


"Extrude"


"Romper"


"Satisfaction"


"Make Believe"

Phoenix Art by a Phoenix Artist