zanazac's art journal

Doujinka Festival 2009!

2009-10-11T18:03:40Z

I wasn't planning on participating in the Doujinka Festival this year. The Fine Arts department was planning a trip to New York City on the same weekend as the festival, and if I were to choose between the two, there's no doubt I would choose NYC. The last time I was there was in 2000, so it was exciting that I would be going again. But as it turns out, there wasn't enough interest for it to be warranted, so it got cancelled. :(

But looking on the bright side, it did open up the possibility of going to Doujinka Festival and that's what I'm going to do. ^__^

I'm aiming to get two new books done for the festival. They're both going to be on the short side (roughly 16 - 20 pages for both) so it shouldn't be too much trouble. More than 50% of the work was done before I even decided to make them into books, so they'd better not be any trouble! XD

The first book is going to be a D.Gray-man gag doujin with some illustrations and maybe some 4-koma thrown in. The second is an original comic, tentatively titled "Supercell Mini", that will be an introduction to the two main characters and "Supercell" as a whole once I get around to making that comic.

If I can get these two books done, I'll be so happy! lol

Two Art Fairs

2009-10-04T05:02:44Z

Although it's been a while since both of these events happened, I might as well post about them, right?

In late August, a few friends and I registered for an event called "Artist Alley" that was being put together by the Waterloo Community Arts Centre. There were four days you could register for, but I decided to go on the day in August, which also had the Busker's festival going on. The alley was open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Aptly named, this "Artist Alley" really did take place in an alley!

Here's a photo of a Busker act performing on the street just outside the alley.

During the morning, it was rather damp and grey. The night before I was hoping it wouldn't rain and spoil the day. It was a bit frustrating as my poster prints began curling up from the moisture in the air, but thankfully the weather cleared off and it was pretty much sunny for the rest of the day. ^__^

I'm the second person from the right (as if you couldn't tell XD), with Carmen and her miniature paintings on my right side and Laura and her designer plushies across from me (Laura's taking the picture ;).

It was a bit different being in an artist alley of this sort. Having both abstract paintings and anime prints together made for a rather interesting display!

Carmen's dog Mollie came to say hi!

A couple of hours after the alley opened up, everyone decided to move their tables up closer to where the Busker events were happening in order to gain more exposure and perhaps get more people coming down the alley. It was a bit more fun having my table this way; the wall definitely helped out a lot!

But even then, not all that many people came down the alley. The best I could do was make back half of the $50 registration fee. And all of that was from selling anime artwork. XD I went to the trouble of getting (badly done) prints of my paintings in the hope people may be interested in my work that way, but no luck.

Of course, it wasn't all doom and gloom, haha. Having Carmen and Laura to hang out with made the long hours pass by all the quicker. We were often abandoning our tables to check out the performances going on in the street.

The one downside to selling art outside: the BLASTED WIND. I pretty much had everything on my table taped down so it wouldn't fly away! And even that didn't stop a few paintings from toppling over or the posters from billowing threateningly when the wind caught them from underneath. Other than that, everything was swell!

Half a month later, along with Carmen and Laura, we registered for another art fair taking place in downtown Kitchener in the parking lot of Kava Bean Commons. The registration fee was much more reasonable ($20 for an 8 ft table) and was open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This art fair was much better in numerous ways! First of all, included in the registration fee was a lunch courtesy of Kava Bean Commons! I thought that was really cool. Secondly, there was much more traffic. It kinda helped that we weren't hidden in some obscure alleyway, haha. There was some musical entertainment and poetry readings that took place throughout the day to help bring awareness to us.

This time I was able to break even (I made $25 this time), but the way Kava Bean Commons set up how people paid for our art was rather peculiar. Rather than paying the artists directly, customers were given pieces of paper that had the artist's name, the item(s) to be bought, and the price. They had to take that into the coffee shop and pay for it in there before coming back with a "PAID" stamp on the paper to get their purchase. It was a little annoying having to go through this roundabout way, but it helped if the customers were paying via debit or credit card, and it makes more sense for larger purchases ($100+).

All in all, things went pretty well. The shop was thinking of holding numerous fairs over the summer next year (on a once a month basis) which I think is very good. Will most likely participate in those!

My paintings are all enjoyin' the shade! Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky and had some rather red skin for a while after, but it's all healed now. ^__^

"Gemstone" Composition

2009-08-22T19:25:10Z

Here's a little something I did last night while listening to various psychedelic podcasts.

I consider this like a sketch, not so much a finished work. I don't really like the big "blob" at the bottom there, but I really like how those "hoop" formations came out, so I might concentrate more on that sort of thing in later drawings.

Square Foot Paintings!

2009-08-07T22:29:22Z

Tomorrow I'll be off to Toronto to drop off my paintings for the Square Foot Show. Here's a preview of what I've been working on for it.

My favourite of the bunch! The way the "veins" have arranged themselves, it strongly reminds me of a horse or some animal. Although the blue areas aren't as vivid as I would have liked, they still turned out alright. :)

I'm reminded of blueberries with this painting! Maybe I'll give it a name relating to that somehow (right now its name is "Neapolitan Blue VII").

This one I won't be entering into the show, mainly because it took so long just for the first layer of paint to dry even though I used thinner! Even after four or five days, I could lift paint off by just lightly touching it. There's a lot left to do to this one, so I'll just keep working away at it. :)

I still have to gesso the sides so they'll be nice and presentable for the show. I think I'll get to that right now... *runs off*

Musings on "Endless Eight"

2009-08-06T07:40:03Z

Don't know if anyone here has been following the new episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya, but after reading the comments on an ANN article about the "Endless Eight" episodes, it looks like no one gets the point of it at all.

For those who don't know (and don't mind spoilers), the Endless Eight episodes show Haruhi and her SOS buddies doing a whole lot of things in their last two weeks of summer vacation. On the second last day, Haruhi wonders if they did enough things to make their vacation satisfying. What makes things interesting is in the second Endless Eight episode, where it is found out by the characters that they are stuck in an infinite time loop (caused by who else but Haruhi) and they won't be able to escape it until they figure out what's causing the loop to perpetuate. Yuki, the "alien" character, doesn't get affected by the loop (i.e. doesn't lose her memories) and states they've been re-enacting their summer vacation over 15,000 times (approximately 595 years).

The thing aggravating fans is how Kyoto Animation decided to present this. I've been reading people saying KyoAni "wasted" this new season with "worthless nonsense", or how they dragged this franchise through the mud. Most of those forum goers are even hoping the sales for the DVDs will be utterly terrible. Whatever people. If that's what you have to say about it, all you're saying is that you don't get the point.

If you were given the task of presenting the concept of an infinite time loop, how would you go about it? I find the presentation of Endless Eight to be very effective at conveying that concept. To present it in two or three episodes isn't nearly enough for the idea to sink in (or to figure out how to stop the loop). Come on people! Those characters have been going through this over 15,000 times for crying out loud! I think eight loops is more than bearable for viewing audiences. Be glad you're not in their shoes, most especially Yuki's.

One thing I find really awesome about this arc is how even though the script is more or less the same episode to episode, the way things are presented each time is always different. Different camera angles, different clothing, different reactions from characters, and so on. And with knowing what's going to happen, you are free from needing to concentrate on the story and just let your eyes wander around, discovering new things every time. My favourite episode has been the one with the airplane motif; it pretty much shows up everywhere. Kyon even draws one in his notebook at the end of the episode. Those sorts of things help make each episode stand out in its own right.

All that's left is for the last Endless Eight episode to air and to see the conclusion to this. Will Kyon finally get down to doing his homework?! We'll have to see. ;)

Forums are so stupid nowadays... -_-;;

Confirmation Received!

2009-07-28T22:46:28Z

I finally got my confirmation for the AWOL Square Foot Show about half an hour ago. w00! No longer have to worry about it anymore, haha! ^__^

The God Who Wasn't There

2009-07-27T19:55:37Z

I just happened to stumble upon it while cleaning up my DA inbox, a documentary called "The God Who Wasn't There". It questions the existence of Jesus and examines the Christ Myth theory, as well as Christianity as a whole.

I found it to be very interesting and it jives really well with my thoughts on Christianity and organized religion as a whole, i.e. it's nothing more than a mind-control tool. It's either believe in Jesus or you go to hell. What marvelous encouragement and motivation, huh? >_>

One of the interviewees, Ronald Sipus, who runs the Village Christian School, kept on spouting that there is "a lot of historical evidence that Jesus was who he said he was. There's a lot of historical evidence that proves his resurrection...", and so on. If I were there, I would've said: "What historical evidence?"

And another thing with this guy, if there were any children that came to the school that didn't believe in Christianity, he said that was okay! But! they had to write a position paper arguing that their position was correct with supporting evidence. The Christian children didn't have to do this. You see anything wrong with that picture? Talk about a double standard... They're almost coercing you into believing, which I find disgusting.

Mr. Sipus eventually walked away from the interview, saying that Brian Flemming (the maker of the documentary) was being dishonest with him. LOL! And that really is the problem with having conversations with people like this about religion and faith. They have this baggage that they can't shed away and if you question it, their only reaction is to accuse you of "being dishonest" or other horrible things. Heh.

I could go on and on talking about this, but it's probably better if you go see for yourself. :)

AWOL Paintings; Hajime no Ippo &hearts

2009-07-25T04:41:57Z

Working on a bunch of paintings, three of them for the AWOL Gallery Square Foot Show. And speaking of AWOL, I'm supposed to have received a confirmation reply from them, right? Well, still waitin'. :P

Haven't draw a whole lot on the computer lately, but here's a little something I did a bit ago.

Makunouchi Ippo from Hajime no Ippo. This series has trumped Bleach as being my favourite shounen series of all time. I'm not sure what it is that's so compelling about it... but at least one thing's for sure: it doesn't drag itself out to shreds (one upside to not having an anime adaptation 2-3 years after serialization begins ;). I want to draw a lot more from this manga, maybe even do a portrait project in the spirit of BBCP. I've already got an awesome idea for a poster print.

One thing I hate about Ippo though is his hair. Why does it have to be so damned hard to draw?! >_<;;

Anime North 2009 Report!

2009-05-26T18:35:14Z

This was the first AN since 2003 where I didn't participate in the artist alley, and I have to say it was really refreshing! :)

Instead of getting a table and sitting behind it for the entire convention, I opted to go with the art show Gallery Momiji and showcase and sell several of my works on canvas. Up until the night before the convention, I was frantically working away on them, wishing I hadn't wasted so much time weeks before... O_o;;

But, in any case!

FRIDAY

I got up around 9:00 to get to work on my last-minute con preparations, namely packing my luggage and gessoing the sides of all my canvases so they would be clean and presentable. ^__^ Around noon, I was taking pictures of my two new canvases I painted specifically for AN, just in case they ever did manage to sell. It's great having a big tree that gives shade to our entire deck; just perfect for diffuse lighting (just gotta watch out for any strong beams of light peeking through the leaves ^^).

Kristina, her mom, and Rachelle picked me up around 1:40 and off to Toronto we went!

We arrived at the Doubletree around 3:00, and got up to our room a little later. Although there were three of us, since I had a hotel keycard from years past that I forgot to hand back to front desk, we only had to get a room for two. Yay for saving money! XD But it would have been nice to have a real keycard so I didn't have to rely on Kristina and Rachelle so much to get into the room. Otherwise, things worked out swimmingly.

Kristina and I headed over to the TCC with our art for the art show around 4:45 or so. I had five pieces to lug with me as well as prints for the gallery store. By the time we got to the pre-reg line, it was pretty much non-existent. w00! \(^o^)/ After that, we "snuck" our way into the line going to the main convention hall. The staff didn't seem to mind, apparently. Oh yeah, speaking of staff, I was mistaken for one when entering the TCC. So I was able to bypass the huge line outside. I guess holding a ton of stuff does that for ya. ^__^

So we get into Gallery Momiji and it looks like the staff there were experiencing technical difficulties and such, so much so that they were behind by a few hours on opening the gallery to the public. Pretty much everything was being done on the fly: bidding sheets were being printed off as they were needed, hooks and clips arriving fashionably late, and so on. I found them to be unnecessarily disorganized. I kept thinking "why didn't they print out all those bidding sheets beforehand"? I mean, the deadline for the control sheets was a week before, so you'd assume all that would have been taken care of. Even upon entering the gallery, I had no idea where to go or who to talk to to get things set up. But even so, after an hour or so of waiting, I finally get my bidding sheets done and got it all settled.

The only thing that went seriously wrong was me forgetting to bring the display copies for my poster prints for the gallery store. That was the only thing that was a bit disheartening... So I wasn't able to sell my prints. :(

By this time though, it was about 7:40, and the Nominoichi Flea Market, which I had signed up to participate in, would be starting the calls into the exhibit hall, so I had to rush like a madman up to the hotel room, take the one suitcase entirely devoted to merchandise, and rush over to the Renaissance hotel. I get there about five minutes late after the final call, but I was still able to get into the hall (THANK YOU COSMIC SPIRITUAL ENTITY! XDDDD). Looking all around, I was amazed at all the stuff people had brought with them. Some tables were just overflowing with anime and manga goodies. I had a sizable collection: about 50 assorted manga in both English and Japanese, a few artbooks, some DVDs, a figurine, and other miscellaneous things I won from art contests when I was still part of CTRL-A. There wasn't a whole lot, but it was enough to fill out the table.

9:00 hit, and the throngs of con-goers just tidal-waved into the room! It was insane the number the people in there. "Dealers Room" is the only label I can put to it! But that was what was great about it though; people were buying things up from me in no time at all! I think not even thirty minutes after the hall opened, half my English manga were gone! ^__^ I was constantly rearranging items as things were sold. One person even complimented me on the pristine condition my books were in. Well, that's what you get when you read a manga once and then put it away in some drawer for years on end. XDDDD

I packed up at 11:00. Out of the 27 English manga I had, 4 remained. I was only able to sell 5 of my 21 Japanese manga, but that's to be expected; not many people can read Japanese after all. :) Everything else was sold. At the end of the day, I made about $230. ^__^

SATURDAY

One great thing about not being in the artist alley, aside from having so much free time, is not having to wake up so early in the morning and rushing off to the convention! I got up at 9:00 and didn't leave until 11:30. I was waiting for Kristina to wake up so I could work out the schedule and determine meet-up spots. So in that time, I watched a Hindi film called "Bhootnath" on OMNI. It was pretty cute and funny. :)

After Kristina got ready, we headed down to the TCC. Our first stop was the Cosplay Chess. Kristina got lots of pictures and videos for it while I watched from the sidelines. :) We probably stayed for about 15 to 20 minutes. After that, we went to Gallery Momiji to see how our work was doing in the silent auction. So far, there weren't any bids. The dealers room was our next destination. For me, I was just looking around, not really dead set on buying anything in particular at that moment. Just some quick perusing. ^__^

Once we got over to the Scaredycats booth, Kristina was just in awe of all the swords! She particularily loved Squall's gunblade. :) But what really caught her attention, and what she was so enamoured by was Sephiroth's sword. So much so in fact she raced back to the hotel room to get her credit card so she could get a $25 discount (regular price was $250 O_o;;).

And so while she was off on her mission, I opted to stay and look around the artist alley (a.k.a. the Comic Market!). I met with a few people I know from deviantART and LiveJournal. In particular, I met Allie, a.k.a. perishing-twinkie. She's a really awesome person! Her Kuroshitsuji print was simply exquisite! So I ended up buying that along with her Ryuk print, which is just as awesome. ^__^

I also met with Ichigo-Oh (whom I was beside in the AA last year), and skwerly and her fiancée akui:ill-intent. We chatted for a bit and I bought issues 3 and 4 of Lucian Fallen from them. I'm going to have to re-read the beginning again; it's been eight or nine months since I bought the first two issues! ^__^ I headed back to the dealer's room to meet up with Kristina again. She got her sword, with a very satisfied look on her face. XDDD We walked back to the Doubletree and made it just in time for Lar DeSouza's panel. Rachelle was there waiting for us in her Naraku costume. :) I had no idea who this guy was or what he did; Kristina and Rachelle just dragged me to it, heheh. A lot of the jokes went WAY over my head, but all in all, it was an enjoyable experience. :)

A few hours later, we went for dinner at Tucker's Marketplace. Although it was a buffet, I wasn't too keen on eating a whole lot; that's just how I am. With me, it's usually two plates then straight to dessert with one dish of ice cream. That's all I need. :) Kristina made the comment about getting your money's worth, but I don't care about that. You shouldn't eat too much at dinner anyway. :) The vanilla ice cream was pretty good though. ^__^

After that, we walked back to the Doubletree for the Astronomy thing that was supposed to be going on at 9:00. We searched everywhere for the tent that was supposed to be in the parking lot, but to no avail. We did end up finding it, but there was no tent to speak of, heheh. The sky was still rather cloudy, so the people organizing the event were having trouble finding stars in the sky. XD We didn't stay for long. We did a lot of wandering around the Doubletree, mainly getting photos of all the cosplayers. We went to another panel, then went to the late night 404's performance. I think we only stayed for an hour, then headed back to our hotel room.

One thing that disappointed me quite a bit this year was the lack of anime airing on the hotel's exclusive channel. That was pretty much the only channel I would ever watch whenever I was in the hotel room. It was great to find new shows to watch. I discovered Lovely Complex in 2007 and Bamboo Blade in 2008 that way. I hope they don't forget about it next year... :P

SUNDAY

The first order of business was heading straight to the art show and seeing if anything was bid on. I got there to discover that two paintings were gone! So that was awesome. :D I had thought they were part of the live auction, but they weren't, hahah. They also happened to be the two paintings I had done specifically for AN, so them being bought up is a really good sign. ^__^

Next order of business was going to the dealer's room and buying the manga volumes I needed to get. The most important being Genshiken, because the Chapters bookstore I go to never had the first volume. So I ended up buying six volumes. XD I also got Candidate for Goddess 2, Ouran High School Host Club 11, Fruits Basket 22, Tsubasa 19, and ×××Holic 12. That was the extent of my dealer's room shopping. :) I walked around the comic market for about an hour, waiting to meet Kristina at 1:00 at Gallery Momiji to pick up the remaining artwork and money for the sold paintings. I got a few buttons here and there, some doujinshi, and other stuff.

Some pictures of all the goodness I bought up!

One thing I noticed this year was the sheer amount of poster prints. I was kinda hoping to buy lots of 8.5 × 11 prints so I could put them in a binder, but posters seemed to rule. And on top of that, the paper quality for a lot of them was much to be desired. One Bleach poster I bought, for instance, was priced at $12, but the paper it was printed on was so flimsy it wrinkled like nobody's business. In comparison, the posters I bought from Allie were printed on really nice thick cardstock, giving them actual substance.

Also with taking my time walking around the Comic Market, it really showed me how reasonably priced my own prints and posters have been in comparison. I saw a few 8.5 × 11 prints going for $10, and even some 11 * 17 prints going for $15. Just cut those in half and you'll have what I'd charge for mine more or less respectively. Although I do reasonably well (as in break even and make some profit on top of that) year after year, what I lack above all is a healthy variety of designs to choose from, so that's something I'm going to have to remedy for next year. :)

At Gallery Momiji, Kristina and I went through the artist pick-up. The two paintings I sold got me $210. w00~!! \(^o^)/ So along with the flea market earnings, AN paid for itself in flying colours. For next year, I'm definitely gonna have a lot more work to sell. I had better get started on that real soon. ;)

For the rest of the afternoon, we all went here and there, but the main attraction was the AMVs. Kristina was all hyped up for them, lol. Some of them were pretty awesome. ^__^ Once they ended, we went over to one of the video rooms still in use and watched an episode of Ouran High School Host Club. It was fun watching anime with a group of people. I kind of miss that atmosphere; the last time I did that was many years ago at CTRL-A. I should probably start going back to that some time.

Although AN was coming to a close and I was ready to just find a spot to sit and wait for Kristina's mom to pick us up, Kristina was intent on going to see other things lol. So we snuck in to a Sailor Moon panel for about 15 minutes. It was fun listening to people talk about the show, like who their favourite villains were and the Japanese voice actors and what other roles they played (I think it was mentioned that the voice actor of Sailor Moon's first voice role was a hippo if I'm not mistaken XDDDD).

There's nothing more really to say, so that was Anime North 2009 for me. :) This time around, I actually felt really satisfied by the end of it, which wasn't always the case when I was part of the artist alley.

So AN was definitely a great time! ^__^

Paintings and Studio Pictures

2009-04-14T20:29:24Z

I said I'd have photos, are here they are! ^__^

There were a few more paintings here, but they have been whisked away to various places on campus, notably the William's Coffee Pub in University Plaza (in Waterloo). :)

A shot of the main table. This is actually a lot cleaner than it was before... O_o;

The painting in the lower right was for an eighteenth century art history course, so that's why it's so different from everything else. :)

This was the product of frustration and not caring what the hell I did with it. It later came to be everyone's favourite. XD

The colours for a lot of the paintings look much more true to life here than the pictures I had shot in a more professional manner. XD

Carmen's working away on her Mac before going to work. :)

Various other shots of the studio. There were some second years working on their final projects.

Some shots of other third year work. (Well, what was left of it at the time. ^^)

It's always a challenge navigating through this room at times... XDDD

My cubby's in the back there. :D

So that's a little glimpse into the 2nd/3rd year painting studio at the University of Waterloo. ^__^

The semester's over!

2009-04-10T04:51:54Z

I should've said this a week ago, but I'm done this semester! \(^o^)/ No exams to worry about either, which is always a big plus (fine arts courses are awesome that way ^^). The picture above is one of the paintings I did this term. I diverged away from landscapes and concentrated my efforts on this sort of "abstract, but not abstract" mode of painting using certain surrealistic techniques.

It was really interesting reading up on the various techniques the surrealists employed to generate new imagery. One was taking a brush loaded with ink and blowing onto a piece of paper and discern what the "image" is. The one that I used was related to ink blotting, but instead of ink I used acrylic paint. With one blot, I extracted five or so paintings from it, heheh. :) There was probably more, but time constraints but a stopper on that. There's always the rest of spring and summer to paint them though. ;)

I'll make a post with all the paintings I did and photos of the studio sometime soon.

Anime North Comic Market

2009-03-17T17:08:36Z

Didn't get around to posting this 'til now, but...

I.. I.. GOT MY TABLE! \(^o^)/

I was one of the VERY lucky ones who was put on the waiting list for the lottery, then two hours later miraculously ended up with one of the lottery tables! So all in all, I'm quite pleased. :D

Looks like I'll need to finish off a comic or two in time for AN though... DX

It's the end of February already... DX

2009-02-28T03:34:07Z

Got through one tough week. Had a midterm critique of my paintings, and two presentations to tackle. I'm terrible with presenting stuff, so I'm so happy they're finally over with! Things look a lot brighter now, heheh. ^__^

I think I'm gonna start doing quick sketches everyday and putting them up here. This first one's of Takasu Ryuji from the anime Toradora! It's such a fun show! I still have to catch up with it, even though I've got up to the latest on my laptop. I'll get to it sooner or later. :)

Oh yeah! I was at Con-G as an artist last weekend. For a first-time anime convention, it was pretty nice. The best thing about it was the artist alley being in the same room as the events, so there wasn't any dull moments! I would definitely go back next year, but I don't think I'd go as an artist.

My beautiful paintings~

2008-12-15T21:04:28Z

w00, exams all done! \(^o^)/
Now to update this poorly neglected journal with something!

Painting like mad! ...Not quite, but that would've been awesome if that's all I had to do. But the wonderful thing now is I don't need to take drawing anymore! ^__^ Drawing was absolutely brutal this semester... I like drawing on my own terms, not merely to please someone else's palette. DXXX But enough with stupid drawing class.

With painting this term, we had to come up with a certain theme and write an artist statement detailing it. I wanted to paint weird, bizarre landscapes, so here's what I came up with. The pictures are a bit dark; they're much more vibrant IRL. Enjoy!

We had fun drawing on the walls of our cubicle the very first day. XDDD

A little shot of my cubicle (which I shared with two others). Some familiar images decorate the walls. ^__^

My unfinished baby~ XDDD It's slightly less than 3.5 by 8 feet, which was huge at first, but as I kept working on it, it just got smaller and smaller. :)

My baby in the gallery during our third year exhibition. You can see the scale of it much better here.

Some random goings on

2008-08-27T06:28:13Z

[big brother 10] Anyone else watch this? I don't think I've been more involved with the show than this summer. The After Dark show, when I first watched it, made it a lot more real than what you usually see in the regular episodes (not to mention a million times more interesting). It's best when Dan, Keesha, Renny, and Memphis are seen chattin' away and playing games and whatnot; but it's crap when you see Ollie, Michelle, and Jerry complaining about how "unfair" they have it, swearing left and right, and so on.

I was a little pissed tonight when all they did was concentrate on the sore loser trio, and give the people I care about barely any time to breathe. I find it much more enjoyable listening to, say, Keesha talking about her Japanese aunt, than Michelle blubbering over how there's no wine to drink. >_>;; So that's why I'm back at my computer typing this up.

Dan, Keesha, Memphis, and Renny for the win! \(^o^)/~

[fan expo] Didn't make it out to Fan Expo this year (no surprise there). Not like it makes much of a difference. The only thing I would've gone for would've been Kikiwai's Japanese manga deal of $3 per book, and maybe perusing the artist alley. But other than that, the rest of the con'd be one big BLAH.

But to make up for it, I went out today and bought more than I planned to! *haha* The one thing that I really wanted to get, the first issue of Yen Plus, I finally got at Chapters. They had a whole bunch of copies at one end of the magazine stands. So I snagged a nice lookin' copy and scurried off to the graphic novels, heh. XD My mom saw the second issue somewhere else and bought that for herself (I got her hooked ^^).

The manga I picked up: Tsubasa 17 & 18, Negima 17 & 18, Fruits Basket 20, and Vampire Knight 2. Now I can finally catch up with Tsubasa and see what ×××Holic referred to in volume 11. All that manga should keep me somewhat busy 'til school hits two weeks from now. ^__^ At HMV, although I wasn't really looking for it, I got Utada Hikaru's latest album "Heart Station", and the first box set of Busou Renkin (love that show!).

You may think I'm crazy, but I'm really looking forward to school! Hah! XD

Doujinka Festival

2008-08-17T20:55:02Z

Yesterday was the Doujinka Festival. Although it was a pretty small gathering, it still was fun talking with everyone about art and whatnot. softlily came along to help me out, and also to keep me company, heheh! Thanks Kristina! ^__^ The really nice thing about the festival being small, is was a lot less noisy! I could actually talk with people and hear what they said. And I actually had time to draw without any distractions, the sketch above being one of the better ones.

Although it wasn't the main intention, I did manage to break even and make a bit more than expected, so that's always great. The seven doujins I sold were more than enough to cover the registration cost alone!

Really hope that there's a Doujinka Fest next year. By the time it would roll around, I'd have a lot more books to sell. :D

Oh! And thanks to everyone who bought something from me! ^__^

The comic's coming along!

2008-07-26T07:23:26Z

The storyboarding's been going really nicely these past few days! I've got 40 pages laid out now, so there's not too much left. I'm definitely going over my previous estimate from before though. Let's see if 48 will do it.

A sample page of the rough draft. This is the only one I drew on the computer before drawing it again on paper (I was really stuck on this one), so it's convenient to post here.

Ridiculously simple looking, eh? XD

One-Shot Comic in the Works

2008-07-24T04:22:24Z

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm in the middle of writing my first full-blown original one-shot comic. I'm slowly working away at the storyboarding at the moment. It can be really fun to work on, but still pretty frustrating at the same time. It'll be a big relief when it's over with though, heheh.

The estimated page count I've come up with thus far puts it around 45. I hope it doesn't go up any more than that. I don't think I'd make my deadline if it did... -_-;;

Just letting people know what I've been up to lately. (It's really just an excuse to update this thing.) ^^

Now back to work... >_>;

D.Gray-man Doujinshi Preview

2008-06-20T16:39:12Z

The first day of summer... it's also happens to fall on my birthday this year. So, happy birthday to me, I guess. :P

Also, I wish softlily a very happy birthday as well. Happy birthday, Kristina! ^^

Making steady progress with my new D.Gray-man doujinshi. If I don't waste any more time doing other things, I should have it finished by the end of the month or some time in early July. I still think it's a little early to be giving previews, but giving a preview I still will do. ;)

Here's the first page of first story. Going with many short stories with this book, since that's much better suited to gag, but also because I can't really think of any stories that would span, say, twelve to sixteen pages.

Hope you enjoy it! ^__^

Oh! I should add that I made a huge art post of my BBCP portraits over at kurosaki_clinic, so go on and check 'em out!

Bookmark Clearance Sale!

2008-06-07T03:02:52Z

For those who watch my LJ, you can disregard this post, unless you have a hankering to purchase something! ;)

I'm holding a bookmark sale to help clear out what remaining stock I've got left. There are 17 designs available to choose from, prices ranging from $1.00 to $2.00 USD each.

Shipping Rates:

To Canada / USA: $1.00 USD
International: $2.00 USD

Payment Methods:

The only two methods I accept are Paypal and Money Order.

How to Order:

All you need to do to order is to send an e-mail to zanazac@hotmail.com with the following information:

• Your full name
• Your mailing address
• Which designs you'd like and in what quantities
• Your method of payment (Paypal (preferred); money order)

Once I receive your e-mail, I will send you an invoice, along with payment instructions.

Thanks! ^__^

Designs:

Here are the designs to choose from. Bookmarks are printed on cardstock, then laminated. They are all one-sided (meaning there's nothing on the back). Unless otherwise specified, the corners for all bookmarks are rounded.

Bookmarks from this set are $1.00 each. Size: 6 * 1.5 inches

(1) Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist) Unrounded
(2) Ban & Ginji (Getbackers) Unrounded
(3) Sohma Yuki (Fruits Basket) Unrounded
(4) Shoma Kyou (Fruits Basket) Unrounded

Bookmarks from this and subsequent sets are $2.00 each. Size: 5 * 2 inches

(5) Allen Walker (D.Gray-man) Unrounded
(6) Lavi (D.Gray-man) Unrounded
(7) Yoshi (D.Gray-man) Unrounded
(8) Mokona Modoki (Tsubasa)

(9) Light & L (Death Note) Unrounded
(10) Lum (Urusei Yatsura)
(11) Kuzumi Taiga (M x 0)
(12) Fujisaki "Bossun" Yuusuke (Sket Dance)

(13) Super Mushroom (Super Mario)
(14) Fire Flower (Super Mario)
(15) Super Star (Super Mario)
(16) 1-UP Mushroom (Super Mario)

(17) Wii Remote (Size: 6.5 * 2 inches)

Anime North '08 Report

2008-05-27T23:41:50Z

I'll make this short since I wrote something more elaborate at DeviantART.

Bottom line with Artist's Alley: I broke even and made about $200+ on top of that. So that's always good. I sold 12 copies of my doujinshi, which made me very happy! ^__^ I'm also really happy that I got rid of more than half of my really old prints; selling them at a buck a pop helped with that immensely. ^.^

Overall, the alley wasn't too bad this year, though I was pretty lonely almost the entire time. I saw a few familiar faces and made some new friends though, so that eased the loneliness a bit. Never got to go and see everyone else's work properly though, which really sucked, but there's also Fan Expo for that.

Now with AN over, I've got a new mission! Complete a D.Gray-man doujinshi from start to finish in one month. There's a new convention that the co-ordinator of AN's artist's alley is starting up called Doujinka Festival. It will be centered more on doujinshi and original comics, much like Comic Market in Japan. It takes place on August 16 in Toronto. More info for it should be up in the next two weeks or so on the AN website. I'm gonna make sure I get a table there! ^__^

There is the ever so slightest chance that I might be going to Anime Expo in LA, but that all depends on a certain someone getting in touch with me to see if it's possible. ;) It would be absolutely awesome if it does happen, but right now I'm not counting on it. We'll just have to see... ^__^ That slightest chance went poof~ Mwhahahahaa~~ XDDD

M×0 fanart!

2008-05-07T21:39:40Z

Steadily working away at bookmark designs... I finally managed to draw a half decent one for M×0. w00!

This'll be cropped when it does become a bookmark, but I thought I'd work a little bigger since it definitely deserves it. This was inspired by the latest chapters when Kuzumi takes the first test in getting the black M×0 plate. I thought it'd be cute to see him struggling a bit, haha.

Guess I could also turn this into a mini 4 * 6 print. Hmmm...

And incidentally, it seems that M×0's ending pretty soon.

I think I'll go cry in a corner... TToTT;;

A new obsession for me.

2008-04-27T05:43:23Z

This video is truly made of WIN and AWESOME.

A li'l Avatar Sketchin'

2008-04-21T03:29:39Z

Been slowly preparing for AN. Mostly concentrating on bookmarks this time around. Can't ever go wrong with them, eh? My original aim was to create forty new designs, but so far, I've only managed to complete six. I really need to get my butt in gear! >o<

I originally planned on Aang here being a bookmark design, but it seems he wasn't content on being so constrained. ;) This definitely has print potential, don't you think? Just gotta make sure the composition's all worked out, I guess. I'm really likin' it! ^__^

BBCP: Hisagi Shuuhei

2008-04-07T15:09:50Z

Getting back into the BBCP spirit, somewhat. :) Working away at the August birthdays now. A little hard to believe I've made it to August! After this, only four months left to go! ^__^

Here's a li'l sneak preview of Hisagi's before it goes up on DeviantART...

I know there's at least one person on DA who's really looking forward to seeing this portrait. Hope they'll be pleasantly surprised once they happen upon it. :D