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!

Sweet Tomatoes

I don't know if many people have Sweet Tomatoes near them.

If you do not I am sorry and you should move near one.

It's one of my favorite restaurants and it's basically an all you can eat salad bar. I adore this place. Plus it is great for people watching because it has other things than salad and it is amazing what people eat at this place and call it "healthy."

As in an entire plate of croutons is "healthy" cause it's from a salad bar.

o_o

Anyway, I went there with my brother the other day and I was asked a amazing question (an amazing question to me at least) and that was if I wanted to purchase a bigger cup for 50 cents more.

Now mind you, this is a place that you can just GET UP AND GET MORE when your cup is empty. It's not one cup full and you have to pay for refills or wait for someone to come and refill you. You just get off your bum and get some more to drink.

I asked the girl why I would want to pay 50 cents extra and her reply was for the convenience factor. I wouldn't have to get up as much.

...

To me this does not perpetuate a healthy lifestyle. I dunno, what do you think?

Would you pay more to not get up as much?

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!

We Inturrupt the Proceedings

Wow.

Hecticness. I can't believe how much has been going on.

Let me talk about last week a little. The reason there was no blog post last week was because we were at the hospital. How did we get to the said hospital? In an ambulance.

So...excitement abounds.

Let me break it down. Evan and I were eating dinner. We were in the living room eating dinner and Evan was watching Carpal Tunnel Surgery (he was researching it for himself) and he finished watching the video and told me he wasn't feeling well from the video. I turned to look at him and all of a sudden he slumps over and begins to moan, gurgle, and twitch like he is having a seizure.

I leap up shouting his name and yell that I'm calling 911. As I am dialing I run back to him, he was leaning back in the chair reclining it more as he is twitching. I am reaching to take his pulse and calling his name. I'm talking to the 911 operator as he comes to. This only lasted about 35 seconds but I'll be damned if it wasn't the longest 35 seconds of my life.

He came to and told me no ambulance that we'll just go to the ER ourselves. So I packed a bunch of stuff in a bag and got him into my car. We were driving there (it's like 3 miles away) and he did it again. This time with the words "I'm going away again" and so without crashing my car I pulled over 3 lanes to the gas station and called 911 again and had them send the ambulance.

Evan came to again and was sweating profusely. The very nice firemen paramedics came and got Evan out of my car and got info from me and then the ambulance came. and they loaded him up. I called my brother to get my car from the gas station and called Evan's mom to tell her too.

We got to the ER and then proceeded to be in the ER for 7 hours. We didn't get home to 12:30 AM.

Evan is fine though. What happened was the his body shut down after the surgery video to protect itself. The twitching was caused by his blood leaving his head and extremities.

It is a type of seizure but it didn't affect his brain or heart.

It was really the worst day of my life and I am so glad that he is okay. Our One year anniversary is on the 20th of this month and I'm happy we are going to be able to celebrate together.

I love him very much.

Neighbors

Folks I gotta say this quite frankly...

People can be DICKS. Holy Goodness. So I got two stories about my neighbors one ends happily, the other not so much.

The hub and I take our Pup, Gala, for walks most evenings. We like to traipse around the neighborhood and take many different routes and see different things around us.

Well Evan and I both have separately taken the same route and had the same thing happen. There is this guard dog (I'm thinking it was Cerebus...you know the guard dog of HELL) and it likes to throw it's entire 80 lb body weight against the bottom of this gate/door thing. And it was only clasped in the middle...so this quite frankly, RABID looking dog was almost getting out and would try to kill us through the door every time we went past.

Well Evan decided he was going to talk to the guy about it. He apparently had a very frustrating 20 minute talk with the guy about how dangerous it was and if the dog got out how deadly it would be. The guy brushed him off and told him nothing would happen. Evan's parting words? "Yeah we'll find out won't we?"

Well we went on a walk a week after that and went past the house and what did we find besides the hell beast? I length of chain holding the bottom of the door together held by a padlock. A 5 dollar fix that probably prevented some mauling in the future.

Yay, win for us!

Now the losing story.

We have this 20 ft Mexican palm tree in the back corner of out house. I never liked the thing because it's ruining the back wall, the roots are pushing it up. Well a while back our neighbors behind us saw Evan on the roof and talked to him about the leaves from the palm falling into their pool. They said they would go in for halfsies for trimming or whatever and Evan said to come over and we would talk more about it. They never did so we forgot about it.

Well, Friday I got home from work and went to look outside and I was greeted by a 5 ft tall x 5 ft wide pile of palm tree leaves that were thrown over our wall. Umm...I don't think they are allowed to do that in the first place and what dicks they are for being so passive aggressive about it. They never talked to us and it looks like they saved a bunch of them just to make a point. We got the HINT. I called a guy to give us an estimate and he came out and we said we would talk to the neighbors about getting half. The tree guy called me on Saturday and said he's knock a hundred bucks off if we did it Monday morning. So we are just doing it.

Thanks dickwads.

ERG.

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

Mirror World Preview Page 2!

Mirror World Saga Preview Pg.2 by ~SyntheticPlatypus on deviantART

Mirror World Saga Page 2 Preview!

Since I am almost done with page 3 I thought I would get page Preview up.

I'm trying to drum up interest once Miss Connie starts posting again!
MirrorWorld!

Read and catch up with the story so far!

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!

Belongings

I wanted to title this blog post "Stuff" but opted for a better vocab word.

Why do we all own so many things?

Seriously, what is our need for all the many different things we have?

Hobbies? Interests? Results of boredom? Things we need to live such as cooking supplies and somewhere to sit in our living room?

Why do we need all of this?

I've been on a journey to get rid of many of my belongings. I read minimalism blogs and drool over bedrooms that have a simple mattress on the floor and one armoir for clothing. I long for clean lines and simplicity.

and yet...

there are things that I really just can't bring myself to get rid of. Things that have absolutely no purpose in my life but are there for the "just-in-case" and the "guilty" and these things are currently driving me up the WALL. I can't stand that I can't get rid of them and I just keep hanging on.

I have a bin. It is full of toys, dress-up clothes (that my grandmother made me), yearbooks, and misc. that I cannot bear to part with. My excuse is it is for my future children. But what if I have a boy? There is nothing in there but my Mr. Potato Head that would be of any interest to a boy.

What about my smaller bin of baby clothing that was mine? This was recently bestowed upon me by my mother. A box full of frou frou dresses with lace and long sleeves and velour onesies. I will never ever dress my child in these but I'm keeping them. Why? I don't know. The fabric is pretty...maybe I'll get a quilt made from them all. When? 20 years from now? Next week? I don't know and yet I'm keeping them all.

I have a bin of my sewing stuff (corralled from 2 bins and the floor) but I like to sew so I'll keep that, it's useful.

What of the giant mirror box in the back of the closet filled with old giant art? That I never look at? There's pictures that are framed that I'm not hanging up in the house and there is big watercolor paper that I will eventually paint on. So just a bit of paper could be saved and the whole box could be gone, but I can't.

This is currently frustrating me beyond belief. I've been cleaning and organizing the extra bedroom and walk-in closet and keep getting stuck. I'd like this space to be completely empty...we don't use it so why store things in it? We should live comfortably in the spaces we do use and not just put random things in this room. It's been a catchall since we moved in and a blight in my wanna-be-clutter-free soul.

This is also not being helped by my parents. My dad gave me part of a coin collection and my set of the license plates he has collected. I love the plates but what do I do with them? They are in the garage right now...I had an idea to hang them in there but I was looking at my garage and enjoy the bare walls we do have. The coins are already packed up to be sold somehow and eventually (they are worth the change that is encased in the plastic. I've checked.)

Then my mom just sent me a box of random stuff. Colored dividers, articles, a file bin and a noise machine. 20 dollars this cost her to send. I perused the articles and am going to truly read two of them (out of 20) I have no need for a file bin (we have file cabinets) and have no use for the dividers. The noise machine is a particular annoyance because she knew that I couldn't sleep with these...in fact I just got off the phone with her (literally) and asked if the noise machine was for Derek and his family and she said no it was for me and Evan and I reminded her that I can't sleep with those. She told me to save it! But then dad said to send it back in a box I need to send them. BINGO. Precisely what I'm going to do.

I feel thwarted right now though. Maybe I'm burned out on cleaning but I just feel like there is no winning against our consumerism and need for stuff. Le sigh.

Now off topic:



Random sketch from sketchbook. A party girl this is from a bit ago but I had gotten new markers and wanted to have some fun.

SaraEvanWedding

Click here to view this photo book larger

HoneyMoon

Click here to view this photo book larger

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