Welcome, everyone! I'm glad you stopped by. Please, feel free to flip through the pages.
- Created By red:leaf
Onomonopia
I've been working on a comic. Not the one I've talked about before--a different one (a.k.a. a distraction) and I don't know if it's me, but writing onomonopias are so awkward. I've, of course, never had a problem reading them in comics but writing them feels tacky for some reason.
Maybe because it makes me think of old-school Batman TV shows.
Another thing I noticed is that us manga-reading anime fans tend to make up our own onomonopias, that are probably not real onomonopias. Like "sweat drop" and "face palm." Today I wrote "sweep sweep" as an onomonopia. Not a real onomonopia but I wrote it like one.
Anyway, this comic will be done soon. I will let you know when it is finished.
Scratch That
I feel like every time I blog here, I have a new job. Which, I guess, is true. That's rather pathetic....
So. I never actually ended up moving to the city. Two weeks before my job at the theatre ended, I had an interview and got a job closer to where I had been living before. Steady work and good pay? Yes, please. The theatre really wanted to hire me on in a semi-professional status as well after our show was over (which was heartwarming) but I said I already had something lined up. (If they had asked a few weeks earlier, I probably would have said yes.) That was the end of that.
During that time, I also had a second interview for a publishing house. I didn't make the final cut, however, which was kind of sad for me but I also expected it. Then I get an e-mail from the publishing house announcing their new projects and editors. It was sort of like, "Here's what you could have been working on." Ouch, PFP, just ouch.
But the new job goes well, and I'm happy where I am. Free time has been spent dabbling in comics, reading (of course), and a bit of writing. I hope to get either the comic or the writing on here sometime soon. (I know I said that last time too. I am slow.)
Until then.
A Very Slow Move
It is unofficially official--I am moving to the city. I got a small temp job working at a "professional" theatre. This means I work on weekends. But because of that, I can't very well move all my stuff up to my new place because no one is there to move me out or in. Oh, and technically there's no place to put me.
It's a long story.
All in all, I'm slowly moving to the city, over the course of like, two months. It's a little bit agonizing.
This also ends my dream of seeing Nathan Fillion at the international film festival. Because I like to hold onto impossible dreams for as long as I can. Working evenings during the festival opening kind of makes it final.
I never realized how much of a country bumpkin I was until I lived in the city. I'm actually really mortified to find this out about myself. I tell this to people and their response is: "Well, yeah..." Gosh, you could have told me sooner....
Between work and, well, work, I haven't had much time to do anything else. But since things have slowed down, I've had some time to put into writing those trope stories I mentioned before. I got distracted and started writing a second one before finishing the first. I'm optimistic about actually getting one done. So look for that in the future.
That's all for me, for now. Until next time.
Nathan Fillion
Nathan Fillion is coming to the international film festival. Too bad I don't have $180 to blow....
Things I Learned from Commission Cosplay
So my commissioned cosplay is all done and finished. (If you are wondering, I haven't sorted out how I feel about the whole commissioning cosplay thing.) Honestly, I don't know how people make commissions for people who they never see. There were so many times I needed to remeasure something or make sure the placement was right on the person. I can see how it can go wrong a lot of the time. Anyway, I thought I'd write up a few things I learned on this experience, for posterity, or anyone who's interested.
1) Don't use a wax marking pencil. They suck. Chalk is much better.
2) When sewing stretchy fabric to stretchy fabric, you're probably okay with normal thread tension but half tension is still good.
3) Yes, a zigzag stitch works really well with stretchy fabric but it doesn't look as good (my opinion).
4) Don't worry about having your customer wear the base clothing when trying to place the overlaying stretchy fabric--just measure the distance. (To elaborate, the cosplay I was making was a stretchy based garment that I needed to add some different colored trimming to. Instead of trying to make markers on both pieces of fabric, I could have just cut the length I needed. Stretchy on stretchy, by the way is WAY easier than non-stretchy on stretchy. I wish I had thought of that a year ago....)
5) Cosplay is so expensive....
6) Armor takes a long time to make, especially when there are a lot of steps. I thought it'd only take me four hours. Nope, definitely thirteen hours.
7) Hot glue is your best friend and your worst enemy.
8) When attaching armor to wraps, it's best not to glue the wraps at the middle, but rather at the edges of the armor.
9) DO NOT use bias tape for small rounded edges. It looks terrible.
10) Free-handing fabric paint is going to turn out messy. If it's on a black fabric, outlining the paint in black sharpie works pretty well at cleaning up your lines.
So there you go, ten things I learned while working on a commission.
