Stuff that looks suspiciously like stuff you've seen before...

Second picture of a Trigunner with their pokemon.

(I accidentally made Meryl's hair a touch too long and it blurs together with her eyes.  Oh noes!)
Meryl has water and ice types.  At first I was afraid that Krabby would be this awkward red blob in the middle of the picture, but I'm actually really glad he's there, along with other areas of red and yellow, to give some warm spots to the picture.  These are kind of giving me a lesson in color choices, I think.  I liked Milly's a little better, with the pink, yellow, and brown pallet, and seeing this one is kind of making me worried for the next one, since it's going to have a heck of a lot of black in it.  (Vash's picture is last and it's all red and yellow.  It's either going to look good, or it's going to look like the page is on fire.)

Anyway, not much else to say, I guess.  This was done exactly like the last one, with inked lines and colored pencils.

In other news, remember my cosplay prop?  My stun gun?

You know, that thing that I bring up because I have to repair it over and over again?  Well, I think I went to a whole ONE convention without it, and I decided I wanted it back.  But I had deemed it too unstable and unrepairable, so I was mulling over my options and decided we can rebuild it!  We have the technology!  It's going to take drastic measures, though.  The plan is to duct tape the ever living daylights out of the weak joints, and then paper mache over the whole thing, not just to cover the tape, but to give me a more reliable surface to paint on.  (The paint is constantly chipping off the styrofoam.)  Yesterday I did the duct taping, but I might add more for good measure.

So, yeah, that's it from me.  Peace out, guys!

Because I'm an adult, dang it, and I do what I want, even if it means drawing pokemon but not doing my chores.

So, there were some pictures floating around the internet of the Avengers and the pokemon that they would own.  (You can find them all here.)  I thought that was a really fun idea and wanted to do something similar.  Only, of course, there's a certain anime that's my one true love, so guess what characters I used?

I want to do at least Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl and Milly.  If my artistic ADD hasn't kicked in by then, I may do some bad guys and/or secondary good guys.  This week I did Milly and her team.  I told myself it was because I was saving Vash for last, as something to look forward to, but I think, honestly, I just love the crap out of Milly and wanted to do her first.

Milly's an uncomplicated girl, (in fact, she's pretty much the only one in the story who doesn't have issues) so I went with normal type pokemon.  And she's the type who'd love anything adorable, so I gave her a bunch of cuties.  (By the way, the walking Easter egg on the end there is pretending to be Milly by wearing her coat, and the pinkie on the other end is unhappy that the coat is being dragged around and made dirty and such.)  The Avengers pictures gave stories for how the character gained each pokemon, but I didn't bother.  (Although I like to think that maybe the Chancey was given to her by her parents, because it's associated with nurses, and they know that Milly's a bit ditzy and that she's running around having adventures with a guy who's a supposed outlaw, so they're like, "Oh gaw, our baby could be toast any minute.  Take a nurse with you!  Take a nurse with you!")

Anyway, as far as the drawing style/technique goes, I was pretty much making it up as I went along.  I've gotten into the habit of doing little doodles that I outline in pen and then color with markers.  But the markers are kinda lousy because it's just a packet of twelve crayola fine-tip washables (some of them smell like fruit and the black smells like licorice) so they don't exactly do a professional level job.  For this picture, I felt like doing more outlining in pen, but wanted to do a better job than the markers, so I went back to my colored pencils.  The texture that the pencils gave turned out to work really well, since it kind of gives a soft, fuzzy feel, and it's a pretty cutesie picture.  So, yeah, this is the first time I've used that pen/pencil combo and I kinda like it.

Okay, that's all from me!  Peace out!

Legato Drawing

Okay, here's the drawing I did but wasn't able to post last time.

This is Legato from Trigun.  He's not very high of my "Favorite Characters" list.  In fact, he's creepy, sadistic, and... creepy.  Oh, and he's creepy.  The first time I watched the anime, I absolutely hated him, and every time he'd come on screen, I'd point my fingers like a gun and pretend to shoot him.  But the manga gave him a little more character development, and, over time, I've developed a sort of morbid fascination with his character.  What led me to actually draw him was someone on tumblr complaining that there wasn't enough fan art of Legato out there, so myself and a few others volunteered to provide some more.

I actually started this drawing by tracing a screen shot from the anime, and then tweaking everything into more realistic shapes and proportions.  (Which actually was an act of laziness, to be honest.  I could have just looked at the picture and drawn it, but whatever.)  You don't really realize how wonky anime actually is until you do something like this.  Apparently anime characters use volumizing shampoo, because there's, like, two inches of hair sitting on top of their heads.  (And those are the ones without the spikey hair.  Like, seriously, what hair products does Yu-Gi-Oh use?  I want to know!)  And when their head is turned a little to the side, their eyes are still so wide, they're practically on the sides of their heads.  Oh, and their eyes are big and their noses are pointy, but we knew that already.

I had a hard time with his expression, because originally, I was going to give him a wicked smile.  But with his hair across his face, I couldn't use his eyebrows to portray emotion.  So if I made him smile, he looked like a genuinely happy guy.  (No, Legato.  You are NOT a genuinely happy guy.  And if you ever were happy, you little creep, I'd be worried.)  So I changed his expression to hopefully make him look kinda ticked off instead.

On a related note, I took art class every year of high school, and a portrait drawing class at a Vo-Tech, and the portrait drawing class was the only useful thing out of the lot.  I'm pretty sure the teacher was gay.  I don't have a problem with that, I just distinctly remember noticing that he tended to call his students "honey," and the fact that that's the thing I remember the most is amusing to me.  He also had a prop one day that was a skull with pantyhose pulled over it to illustrate the curves and indentions of skin on the face, and he made some joke about how the pantyhose weren't his, he had bought them just for the class, and I thought, "Really?  Are you sure?"  I'm not really sure why I included this story.  It's just that I remember that guy every time I draw a portrait and I felt like sharing.

Peace Out! 

I'm still doing things... sort of...

So I haven't posted in almost two months.  XP

I was going to post regularly during Nanowrimo, but I didn't.  I think part of that was because every time I thought that I ought to write in my blog, I told myself it would be more constructive to write on my story/story ideas.  Another reason was that I didn't do too hot during Nanowrimo and I think deep down I didn't want to broadcast my floundering efforts to the world.  Floundering is a good word... Like a Magikarp...  Sarah used Splash!  Sarah wrote 200 words.  Sarah fainted.

I meant to push on through December so that I could at least claim my word count goal as a prize, even if it was late.  But then we had this project of doom at work and I had to work overtime for about three weeks, and that killed me.  Those were dark days in which I was chained to my desk at work, a chain with links too thick to saw through with my nail-clipper file, while someone came by once a day with a shallow bowl full of slop so that I could keep up just enough strength to keep going.  I tried to send help to the outside world, but all I could do was write notes on post-it notes, fold them into paper airplanes, and then aim for the open door whenever someone came in or out.

Okay, just kidding.  There was no chain, the slop was actually Christmas cookies, and I complained a lot to several people, who listened and sympathized, so that was nice of them.

Soon after the project of doom was over, I had to get ready for Christmas, and Christmas break, and for the past week I've been doing some really awesome chillaxing.

I drew a for-real, honest-to-goodness pencil drawing, but I'm at my folks' right now and I don't have a scanner, so that will get plastered on three different websites once I get home, including this one.  I've had artist's block for months, so drawing again felt REALLY good.

And then there's my fanfiction.  I worked on it during nanowrimo and got up to the climax.  At that point, I was able to look back very clearly on what I had written and realized I had accomplished the most boring fanfiction ever to be fanfictioned.  The IDEA of the story I still like.  But the plotline was terrible.  I decided to set it aside for the time being and come back to it with fresh eyes.  In fact, in the last few days, I've been musing on it, and I've already come up with some alterations that improve things greatly.

Things on the horizon: 

• More drawings, hopefully.  
• Since I'm nearly starting from scratch on the fanfiction, it will be awhile before there's anything worth sharing.  
• I plan on doing some cosplay/prop tweaking before Nakakon in March.  
• All-in-all, though, it's a little hard to say.  I feel like the new year is a chance to make some resolutions and take care of some flaws/bad habits, so it's possible that I may not get much creative work done while I focus on some self-improvement.  Also, I got a nook for Christmas, so I may not get much creative work done because I'm reading.

So, yeah, that's what's up with me these days.

Peace out!

Writing... Stuff...

So, four days into Nanowrimo.  Let's see how I've done so far.

To reach the end-of-the-month goal, I have to average 1,667 words a day.

Day 1 - 2,301 words.  Excellent.
Day 2 - 1,457 words.  Decent.
Day 3 - 0 words.  This is why I can't have nice things.  Like the internet.  It's too distracting.
Day 4 - 999 words, but I intend to write more after this, so it should be higher by the end of the day.  I'll see if I can hit my 1,667 goal.  Then I'll only be a day behind.

I've found I have two major flaws working against me.  The first is procrastination, and the second is an attention span the length of a gold fish's.  I have a couple of plans that I think may prove helpful.  One, is to track down and download my trusty "Q10" program, which is a simplistic word processor that takes up the entire screen.  (You have to actually minimize it to even hit the Windows "Start" button.)  (If you're interested, just google it.  It's a free download.)  That might lower the temptation to pop into the internet while I write.  The other is to set a time limit for myself and set an alarm.  One of the temptations, when you're writing for a word count goal, is to check your word count every five minutes.  I think maybe if I measured my progress by time, and set alarm so I don't have to check the clock either, I might be able to work better.

I had an interesting experience while writing in which I introduced a new character, and then they ended up being different from how I pictured them.  I needed a bad guy for the hero to fight, and I ended up with this idea of a teenager.  He's a knife fighter, and moves really fast.  I was actually kind of picturing something parkour-ish, in the way he'd chase people down and kill them.  I imagined he'd be this really cocky guy, who tries to play it cool, and chasing down his prey would be kind of a fun game for him.  Then I started actually writing about him.  Was he a cool, cocky guy?  No.  This guy's creepy.  This kid is not right in the head.  He does enjoy chasing his prey, but in a really creepy, overly-predatorial kind of way, and he's not someone I would ever want to meet in a dark alley... which is pretty much what happened to the hero.

And then he went and got himself shot!  And I wasn't really expecting that!  And then I was like, "Oh no, creepy predator guy, what will happen to you?  Will you live?  I don't even know!  But, strangely, I kind of want you to live, so you probably will, even though I have no idea what I'll do with you for the rest of the story, because you were only supposed to be in this one scene."

(Oh my gosh, "creepy predator guy" sounds terrible!  You need a different nickname, Creepy Predator Guy Who Has Nothing To Do With Stalking Women.)

And, I guess I promised an excerpt or something.  So here's a little scene that was kind of amusing (to me anyway).  This is from Trigun fanfiction, but it's spoiler free, and you don't need to know anything about Trigun to read it.  The characters in question are Razlo, a character from the manga, and Chapel the Seer, who's my own.  If you know Trigun's Chapel the Evergreen, well, he and Seer are of the same stock.  In this story, Chapel is a title and has been passed down from Evergreen to Seer.  If you don't know Chapel the Evergreen, all you need to know is that Chapel the Seer is a priest and he's evil.  The name Seer comes from his ability (although somewhat limited) to read the minds of others.  In this scene, Razlo had stolen something from Seer and was captured soon afterward.  He's found himself tied to a chair and expects to be tortured.

Chapel the Seer walked in and closed the door behind him.

“Oh... It's just you.” Razlo said. Then he eyed Seer and asked, “Wait, are you the torture dude? I've heard you guys are running on a short staff. Maybe you're pulling double duty.”

Seer looked unamused. “I'm here to interrogate you, if that's what you mean.”

Razlo looked him over and then said, “I've never been interrogate by a priest before. Is this what making a confession is like?”

The unamused look grew stronger.

Razlo gave a cocky grin and said, “Forgive me father, for I have sinned!”

“You're not forgiven.” Seer answered flatly.

“Aw, come on, Chapel! I mean, Father! I'll pray my rosary beads and everything!”

“Honestly, I would be surprised if you even knew how to use rosary beads.”

“What? Give me a break! Everyone knows about rosary beads!”

With slight amusement, Seer said, “Alright then, tell me.”

“Uh... well... They're beads.”

“Yes,” Seer said slowly.

“And... uh... they're pink, like roses, and that's why their called rosary beads!”

Seer gave him a blank look. “Uh...huh...”

“And, you say a prayer for each bead on the string.”

“And that prayer is?” Seer prompted.

There was a silence following that question. Finally, Razlo offered, “Our Father, who art in heaven?”

Seer gave a look that showed he was waiting for more.

Razlo continued, “Hollow be thy name.”

“It's 'hallowed,' not 'hollow.'”

“That's what I said!” Razlo said quickly. “Uh... then it's... thy kingdom come, thy will be done... on earth and in heaven... Give us this day our daily bread... Forgive our trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of others...” Razlo paused. It stretched into a very long pause. Finally he decided to cut his losses. “Forever and ever, Amen!”

“That was horrendous.” Seer said. “Now what's the other prayer?”

“Uh... You just say that one over and over.”

“No, there are two prayers involved.”

Razlo concidered a moment. “Is it... a Hail Mary?”

“Yes. How does that one go?”

“Uh... Hail Mary... full of grace... blessed art thou of women... and blessed art the fruit of the loom.”

“It's 'fruit of thy womb,'” Seer interrupted. “You're praying about underwear.”

“I said 'womb!' I totally said 'womb!'” Razlo cried. “Hey, wait a second! I see what you're trying to pull here! I got you all figured out! You're trying to torture me by making me pray!”

Seer raised an eyebrow. “Is prayer torturous for you?”

“Yeah, obviously! Praying is boring sissy stuff!”

Seer sighed. “Alright, we'll get down to business, then. Tell me where the plant is, and I'll read your thoughts to find out myself.”

Razlo frowned at that sentence a moment before saying, “Don't you mean, 'tell me or I'll read your thoughts?'”

“No, I meant 'and.' I'll read your thoughts to see if you're lying or not.”

“What!? What the crap! Why even bother asking me to say it!?”

“I thought it made things a little more polite,” Seer answered.

“Man, this is bull! I'm never letting myself get tortured again! It totally sucks!”

There was a silence while the two eyed each other. Razlo guessed correctly that Seer was reading his mind, and he wanted to make sure his expression showed that he didn't appreciate it.  Then, slowly, Seer grew angry.

“You don't know where she is!” he cried.

“Nope! I passed her off to someone else!”

“Why didn't you say so!?”

“Because you were going to read my mind anyway, you idiot!”

Seer gave him a hateful look. Then he turned on his heal and left, slamming the door behind him.

Razlo relaxed in his chair and grinned. See? I told you I could handle being tortured.

Nanowrimo 2012

So, next month is Nanowrimo.  (That would be National Novel Writing Month, a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November.)

In case you haven't noticed, my creative attention span has been jumping from one thing to another lately, and, as such, my writing projects and ideas are a bit too messy to participate in Nanowrimo properly.  But, I'd like to go for it nonetheless, but just a little differently.  I plan on aiming for 50,000 words of anything.  This could be random out-of-order scenes, original work, fan fiction, novel length stories, short stories, whatever I end up writing.  Just as long as I'm writing, no matter how random and ever-changing the subject matter is, I'll be happy.

I made very half-hearted attempts at this the last two years, and if there's anything I've learned, it's that in order to reach that word count goal, you can't do it half-heartedly.  To keep me from wussing out, I've struck a deal with a friend to be my support buddy, and, somehow, I also ended up joining a facebook group to boot.

I plan on using the blog during the month to post word counts, musings and excerpts while I write, which will either be cool or boring for you guys.  I'm not really sure which. XD

We start on Thursday... here goes nothing...

Short Story

Hey gang!

I'm gonna post a short story.  It's actually... *checks* 17 pages in a word processor, and almost 10,000 words, which I think is on the long end of a short story.  *checks that, too*  Wikipedia says a short story can be up to 20,000 words, so I'm good.  Not that it really matters.  I just wanted to warn you that you might set this aside for when you can read it in one sitting.

And, I should warn that it's a Trigun fanfiction, and that it's set AFTER the end of the anime, so there are SPOILERS.  Like totally.  We're spoilering it up in here.  So if you don't want spoilers, or you don't watch Trigun, I'm sorry.  :(  I'll have something not-Trigun next time.  (And this isn't, by the way, the fanfiction I mentioned before.  That one's long, and still not finished.)

I started this quite a while back and didn't finish it.  But with Halloween coming up, I was reminded of it, since it's a ghost story, and completed it.  Although, it's not scary.  In fact, it's meant to be kind of humorous, because silly Trigun is the best Trigun.  But, basically, the whole thing was more or less made up as I went along, for my own enjoyment, so I can't guarantee the quality.  But if it gets a chuckle out of you at any time, I'll consider it a success. 

This doesn't have a title, because I'm bad at titles.  I would probably name it something like, "Attack of the Ghost Who Was Actually Quite a Nice Ghost and Didn't Mean to Scare Meryl, So He's Very Sorry, But Not Sorry for Being a Pain in the Butt to Knives, Because Knives Deserves It."  Yep.  Award-winning title right there.

Okay, anyway, here's my gibberish.