Wednesday, November 29, 2006

I’m glad you guys thought the little snippet from my coloring tutorial in my last post was cool. It is kinda neat to see how it starts and then see how it finishes. I uploaded the final version from that tutorial here in my portfolio and you can just click the thumbnail to see the final product: These are my original characters that I’ve drawn before and a few of you observant people noticed how I’ve altered their clothes and such. *hands those people cookies* Yeah, the more I’ve drawn them, the more I find things to take away and add to make them spiffier looking. Not to toot my own horn, but I really like their clothing now and I also altered the color of Estel’s (the Elf’s) tunic adding shades of lavender and green to make it more eye-catching. Whee! Anywho, my day went by smoothly so that’s always good…oh wait, until my drive home on the highway in which I was almost side-swiped by a car coming into my lane. Good thing I have cat-like speed and reflexes and managed to avoid such collision.^^ So, I saw this Old Navy commercial that made me laugh. It shows a group of teens and kids playing in the snow and building snow men and romping around and it talks about being in “style” this winter and it shows these people wearing just hoodies, blue jeans, and even one was wearing a skirt? Ummmm…coming from someone up north who gets buckets of snow dumped on her every year, people do NOT wear that type of stuff in the winter. Hell, we wear giant coats, snow boots, snow pants, big, ugly scarves and mittens…we are not frolicking around wearing hoodies and skirts. *shakes head.* And people, STOP SENDING ME CHAIN MAILS!!!!!! I'm on dial-up and my time on the net is severly limited and I would rather not spend the time deleting all that crap so don't bother sending them.

Comments (25) | Permalink

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

I apologize for being gone so long! I didn’t mean to but I had to work overtime this week and I would pretty much come home, shower, eat, work on the tutorial, and then go to bed and then get up the next morning and do it all over again. Funny fun fun. I can’t wait to get my paycheck though because I got paid double time for working on Thanksgiving day and on top of that I get holiday pay which is they add an additional 8 hours of pay for the week, plus, I get paid time and a half for my overtime. Boy howdy, it’s going to be a fine Christmas. I finally had the day off Monday and I managed to complete the coloring tutorial for the Art of Otaku. A few people don’t know what it is but it’s a compilation of artists who teach people how to draw in their own specific style. This is a sequel since an Art of Otaku has been around before but I was asked to be a part of it this time around so…yeah. Everything is due by the end of this week so I’ve been nailing myself to my chair to get it done. I think my colored pencil ways is what I’m known for mostly so I worked hard on it to try and show people how I do it so then it will help them too. I have about 28 images scanned for this tutorial showing step-by-painfully-psychotic-overly obsessive-step on how I color with me pencils. For example, I show how I start with this: And end with this: Giving every step and layer its own image and explanation. It is something that you have to pay for though when it’s available and it costs…ah hell, I don’t even know how much it is! Haha! I’m sure the owner, Adam, will inform people when its ready and I do plan on uploading the finished version of this drawing onto Otaku…someday…maybe later this week. I feel like petting an animal…*pets my doggie* Quote of the Day comes from Reno 911…and keep in mind this show is almost all improvinization so these people just make up stuff as they go which makes it even funnier at the randomness: *Officer Weigel has walked up to Terry…a homosexual guy who wears short shorts and roller skates and has had a few run-ins with the law* Wiegel: “Terry, are you on anything today?” Terry: “I’m not! I’m totally not, I quit everything. I don’t even drink!” Wiegel: “You seem kinda jittery, Terry. Are you trying to tell me you’re not on any substance at all?” Terry: “….I…had skittles.” Wiegel: “You’re jittery from skittles?” Terry: “Yes.” Wiegel: “Interesting. Your eyes are a little dilated and they seem to be jogging around a bit.” Terry: “Well, have you ever had skittles? It’s all sugar!”

Comments (29) | Permalink

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Well, today is Thanksgiving but I’ll be at work…eating my regular soup for lunch and I wont get home till late so no turkey for me this holiday. Ah well, I hope you guys have a nice Thanksgiving! One of my brothers came home last night to go with the rest of my family to my grandma’s house for Turkey day. He brought his doggy, Harley with him! She’s a boxer and is so cute! I didn’t even know when my brother came in because I’ve been enclosed in my room all day working on the coloring tutorial but then I heard a thumpidy thump followed by the sound of a squeaker toy and my sleuthy detective skills made me conclude that my bro was home with his dog. My dog, Freddie gets jealous though when Harley is around so I make sure and give her lots of love as well.^_^ Anyway, so yeah, my back is killing me from being hunched over my drafting table all day but I’m happy with how much I got done with the coloring part of the Art of Otaku tutorial. And yes, I scanned the sucker every time I added a layer of color so there was a lot of scanning going on since I layer my drawings like a mad woman. Maybe I’ll show a snippet of the tutorial in my next post…just a before and after picture…like the diet commercials you see on TV!XD Quote of the Day comes from Animaniacs: Yakko: “All right, all right, we get the picture. If you don’t want any cookies then just leave.” Einstein: “I’m not going to leave, this is MY house!” Yakko: “All right then, YOU leave!” Einstein: “Fine!” *storms out*

Comments (48) | Permalink

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

So, my Ai Yori Aoshi DVD’s still aren’t working. Well, the last couple episodes aren’t. Grrrr. I’ll have to find a place to download them from or something since I can’t not finish this series, dang nabit! I started watching the anime His and Her Circumstance also called, Kare Kano…another series I’ve had in my procession for some time and started but never finished. My goal is to finish all the anime series in my collection since I have this habit of starting them but not finishing them. Heh. So, the other day at the casino I work at, there was this customer playing one of the slot machines and apparently, he wasn’t doing too well because he ended up punching the screen on the machine! Well, he cracked the screen but…the machine started paying out. What that means is, every time you play, you win so…I guess the guy fixed it, neh? Lol! Well, that was something that the supervisors working the floor soon realized that anyone who played this cracked machine would win so they shut that down pretty quickly. I wonder if this guy will continue to punch machines because apparently, breaking them will make them give you money...like beating someone up and stealing their money! Anyway, I have the day off today and hope to get as much done on the coloring tutorial for the Art of Otaku as I can. It will take awhile seeing as how I have to scan the image every time I add a layer of color to show people how to do it. Boy howdy. Quote of the Day comes from Animaniacs: *The Warners are in a taping of the Baloney and Kids show which is a parody of Barney and Friends and the Warner’s “imagination” proves to be a bit too realistic:* Baloney: “Maybe we should stop pretending.” Yakko: “I dunno, we have veeeeery strong imaginations.” Baloney: “Eh ha ha ha! You’re silly!” Yakko: “Boy, that’s the pot calling the kettle black.”

Comments (34) | Permalink

Monday, November 20, 2006

Sorry I didn’t update for a few days. I was going to update the other night but I zonked out because I was so tired but I have the day off today so I’m going to sleep in. *snooze* It snowed today. *weeps* Not a lot but enough to stick onto my car and be a pain in the butt for me to scrape off. Baka snow. I’m starting to hate cell phones. Twice this week I’ve seen someone interrupt a conversation because their phones started ringing. One was with me with me, I was talking to one of the cashiers and her cell phone goes off and she totally interrupts me to answer her phone. Grrrr. The other was with this super sweet old lady who takes care of the food in the employee lounge, whose name is Jean, and one of the beverage servers asked her a question and Jean started answering it and the girl’s phone goes off and she tells Jean to wait so she can pick it up. GAH! It’s so obnoxious and rude!!! I used to get that all the time when working in NYC at Barnes & Noble, I’d be in the middle of asking someone what title or author they were looking for and their phones would go off and they’d tell me to wait while they chit chatted and a long line would form behind them of other customers. Geez, at least show enough common courtesy to ignore the phone or turn it off until you’re done talking to the person.>_< Oh! And I’ve been watching this anime series called Ai Yori Aioshi and it’s one that I’ve had for a long time on DVD but never finished and I was hoping to finish it and of course, I get all into it and then…the last few episodes on the disk are faulty and don’t work! Just my luck, I’ll try them again because sometimes my DVD player gets PMS and doesn’t feel like functioning right so I hope to watch it because it’s really cute! It’s aimed more-so at girls but they tried to make it suitable for guys as well by giving a few of the girls really big bouncy boobies. *shakes head* But the picture below is from the anime:

Comments (38) | Permalink

Friday, November 17, 2006

So, the video shoot with my friend, Tyler went well. He predicted it would only take a couple hours…heh, yeah, it took like six but he was very thankful for both me and my other friend, Phil for being the actors in it so we went to a local coffee café and he treated us to cappuccinos and cinnamon rolls. Mmmmm…I got a hazelnut cappuccino and it was sooooo yummy. So, at work today a security guard comes up to me and says, “So, I heard something interesting from the guys in surveillance about you.” I was intrigued and asked him what he had heard and he replies, “They tell me you are one amazing artist.” Eep! He then proceeded to tell me that surveillance can pretty much macro zoom onto anything in the room and apparently, these guys have been watching me draw all the chibi drawings I’ve been posting. I mean, I assumed they could see me doodling something but I didn’t realize they could see exactly what I was doing to that detail. I don’t mind but I have this thing about being watched over my shoulder when trying to draw….it urks me but it is very nice to hear that they love my artwork and have asked me why I’m working at a casino when I can draw like that and I always answer, “Because I need money!” The life of an artist tends to take a long time to get into. *twiddles thumbs* But one has to expect that. Today we had quite the rainfall and a bunch of roads were closed because they were washed out so it took me a long time to get home. At least our house is at the very top of a hill so we never have to worry about our house flooding. I’m sick of rain…hence why I don’t like the Fall season because it rains a lot and it’s cold and it’s muddy and it’s dreary. I’m a sunshine and bring-on-the-heat kind of girl.

Comments (34) | Permalink

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I finished another little Fruits Basket drawing while at work. It’s of Kisa and Hiro: I have the day off today. Whee! I’m going to help my friend, Tyler, with a video project of his though. He wants me to be an actress in it…and basically, I just have to sit and drink coffee and then get up and leave. I think I can handle that.XD It has to do with lighting effects and crap and hopefully it wont take too long because I am working my little tail off on the Art of Otaku tutorials. I recently finished reading this book which was totally A-maz-ing! To start with, I absolutely adore the Peter Pan stories…but not creepy Michael Jackson adore…and a couple authors named Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, whom you may have heard of, compiled a couple Peter Pan books that tell you how Peter Pan learned to fly, where Tinkerbell came from, how mermaids came to be, how Peter met Captain Hook, etc. It’s called Peter and the Starcatchers and I highly recommend it since it’s a fast read but entertaining for the older generation as well. I’m on the sequel to that book by the same authors called, Peter and the Shadow Thieves and it’s super dandy like sour candy….even though I don’t like sour candy…. Oh yeah, the other night, I swung by a gas station and I saw they had peanut butter cup cappuccinos so I just had to buy one. Oh man, it was soooooo good. It was like drinking a melted Reeses. I’m sure it’s really good for you too.XD

Comments (43) | Permalink

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

For those who asked, I don’t know why our casino is open on Thanksgiving. It’s open on Thanksgiving and Christmas which is total crap. I’m very upset I have to work on Thanksgiving but hopefully, this means I wont have to work on Christmas. The only plus to working on a major holiday is that I get paid double my hourly wage so that’s good but I’ll miss seeing my family and all. So today, I got a lot of work done on my tutorials for the Art of Otaku sequel. The characters I’m using for the tutorials are all characters who are going to be in the manga I’m coming up with so it’s good practice for me too to start and get my character’s down. Hee! Yesterday, I was bad and went to Subway. I try not to eat out too much since, you know, gotta keep my girlish figure but I was craving their bacon, ranch, chicken sub. Yumm. But then I walk in and a super cute guy made my sub for me. Double yumm. Oh and the girl at work I had loaned the Fruits Basket DVD’s to gave them back to me the other day and proceeded to thank me a bajillion times for introducing me to it and that she had watched them all in one day because she couldn’t stop watching it because it was so good and then she asked about the manga and I told her not to worry, I have all the volumes of it downloaded on CD and will burn her a copy and she proceeded to thank me some more. Yes, Fruits Basket is always one I show to people because it’s just that amazing. Quote of the Day comes from Animaniacs: Dr.Scratchnsniff: “So what seems to be the problem?” Yakko: “Well doc, I think I can see into the future.” Dr.Scratchnsniff: “Really?! When did all this begin?” Yakko: “Next Monday.”

Comments (33) | Permalink

Monday, November 13, 2006

I’m sorry for being gone so long! I’m about to throw my dial-up into our flippin’ cold swimming pool. It keeps having the same issues where it tells me that the remote computer is not responding in a “sufficient time” so it wont connect me. So basically, it’s our dial-up server’s fault. What a butt munch. Anyway, a few days ago, I finished another little drawing in my Fruits Basket chibi series that I do at work and it’s of Haru and Rin if you wish to check it out: Gavin was very excited to get his birthday gift from me of the DVD box set of Fraggle Rock. Many of you never heard of it. Boy, kids these days don’t know the good stuff. Fraggle Rock was a Jim Henson show that involved puppets and weird looking critters like you’d see in the Muppet movies or Sesame Street. After we gave Gavin his gifts, we went out to go see a movie and we ended up seeing Marie Antoinette, a movie all my guy friends wanted to see because it starred Kristen Dunts. I was SO bored during that movie and the majority of the rest of the guys were as well. It just….dragged but there’s a shot that shows Kristen’s butt so that snagged the guy’s interest. *shakes head* Boys. I think I was just mad because there weren’t any cute guys in the flick.XP Oh, and I found out today that I’m going to have to work on Thanksgiving. How much does that suck? Quote of the Day: "I've heard about crazy people who hear voices in their heads....like there's another place to hear them? What if a person were to hear voices from their legs? Now *that* would be crazy."

Comments (44) | Permalink

Thursday, November 9, 2006

Today, my friend, Tyler and I went to the grand opening of our local anime store. Well, I should say that it’s the same anime store we’ve always gone to but they moved to a nicer, bigger store. I saw that Loveless volume 3 of the manga came out!! I squeaked when I saw it since I lovey that Loveless. I got a couple other mangas too and the anime store had some of the Kingdom Hearts II figures but they were missing Axel but they ordered it for me and it should come in about a week. They had the Sora figure too but I want the Sora figure when he’s in Valor form…you know, when he’s in that kick ass red costume? They ordered that for me too.^^ Tomorrow, or today, is Gavin’s birthday so the main reason for me and Tyler going out was to get gifts for him. I ended up getting him volume 1 of Fraggle Rock. That’s right, Fraggle Rock. I used to love that show as a kid and I know Gavin was a huge fan of it too so I’m sure he’ll be happy with this gift. You should have seen how excited he was when I got him the deluxe Golden Edition of Looney Tunes last year. Gavin is a walking Looney Tunes character…can even do the voices of all of them too. Lol! And I ended up buying myself a dvd box set of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. Best show EVER! To summarize the concept of this show, it’s 3 guys who sit in a theater, watch crappy movies and make fun of them. It’s brilliant. One of the episodes in this set is called, Hercules and the Moon Men. Just think about that title for a moment…it gets funnier as you ponder the concept of Greek Mythology mixing with outer space. Yes, now that’s a winner if I’ve ever heard one. I’m going to share with you all a joke that a security guard told me at work: Question: “What did the egg say to the boiling water?” Answer: “Sorry if it takes me awhile to get hard, I just got laid the night before.” Hahahaha! Oh, so dirty.XD

Comments (41) | Permalink