Chapter Four, Complete... Finally!

Whew, that was a long chapter... but yes, indeed, Chapter 4 of Strawberry Syrup is finally complete! At... 54 pages... yeesh.

If I'm being completely honest here, the chapter should have ended about twenty pages back, when Hunter was first turned into a chipmunk. However, at the time, I hadn't thumbnailed ahead and thought there would only be a few more pages after that.

... I don't remember WHY, exactly, I thought that, but I do remember that I did.

All this boils down to, basically, is that thumbnailing chapters in their entirety before even starting the final pages is a good thing, while just winging it is not exactly ideal.

Now, normally I'd be taking a break after the chapter end, but due to the hiatus, there's no way I'm taking any time off now. And fortunately, I don't have to! I'll admit, I haven't planned out all of Chapter 5 yet, but I have got a good chunk of it down, and I'll be working on the thumbnails long before I finish what I've currently got done.

Way better than winging it. ^_^;;

(And for those of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about, a "thumbnail" is a small, usually quick sketch of the comic page. They're generally much smaller than the finished page, and may consist entirely of stick figures. They're just meant to give the artist a good idea of layout and story flow. Personally, I prefer slightly more detailed thumbnails so I can make sure everything works well before I'm left stumped by a sudden issue on Tuesday night.)

The Effect of Anime on the Brain

I am starting to come to the conclusion that anime affects the brain. Not in a bad way, mind you (although of course, that depends entirely on the anime in question), but in a way that makes strange things make sense.

Prime Example: Firefly.

Firefly was an amazing series. We're talking the Wild West with space ships. For those of you unfamiliar with this little piece of awesomeness, it was a short-lived Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire fame) creation that aired on Fox in 2002, starring Nathan Fillion (now in Castle), Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, and Summer Glau (among others). While it was cancelled before it even finished airing all 14 episodes, it garnered enough fan support to make the follow-up movie Serenity a reality in 2005. It recently aired on The Science Channel as one of the best science fiction series ever.

Its early demise remained a mystery to me until I read the early critical reviews of it. They lead me to believe that general reactions went something like this:



Yeah. Apparently, the mad mix of sci-fi-Western-comedy-action-drama didn't sit well with some people, who felt they were an unholy concoction forced together via Whedon's insane genre alchemy. And yet, I never once gave it a second thought. The world of Firefly felt complete and whole to me, with nothing out of place and nothing forced or strained. I didn't care about some cliche metaphor about the final frontier and the Wild West. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

You see, by the time Firefly came along, I'd had a good five years of anime like Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Trigun and Gundam Wing to acclimate me to the idea of the space cowboys, rough-and-tumble frontier planets, and complex interplanetary politics. As for mixing genres, well, that's practically par for the course in anime and manga. Just ask Rumiko Takahashi or the CLAMP team. Mixing comedy, drama, romance, and political intrigue is pretty much commonplace, so I don't think anything of it when an American TV show gives it a try.

Anyway. This is what I get for watching old TV series and checking out their Wiki pages afterwards. But it does beg the question: DOES mixing genres like that still bother a lot of people, or has that changed in the past ten years?

Judging by some of the shows slated to air this fall, I may have an answer soon...

One Full Month of Strawberry Syrup

Woot! Today marks one full month of Strawberry Syrup. While that may not seem like a big deal for a webcomic that's been running since 2007, 2011 has not been Strawberry Syrup-friendly. Between computer issues, health issues, and all sorts of other things, my poor webcomic spent months on hiatus. Therefore, I'm counting a full month of updates a victory.

Although we did learn something about the beloved Arcadia Sanguis High School today...



Their janitor's closet is huge. It is, as co-creator Koni put it, the TARDIS of janitorial closets.

They should probably look into that...

U.S. Open Tennis

And the final major of the year has begun! Looks like they did a great job of setting everything up after Irene. They're off to a pretty good start, although I really had to feel for the girl who flew in from Moscow today just to play and lose to Venus. Ouch.

As for Federer, I think the inability to really practice all weekend was affecting him. He looked a little rusty. But, as he said, it doesn't matter that it wasn't pretty; he still won!

In any case, my TV will be dominated by tennis for the next two weeks, much to the delight of my family, I'm sure. And while I'm doing that, I'll figure out something to get up in my gallery for August. Sadly, I haven't done much non-Strawberry Syrup digital art this month... I'll get something up, though.

Dangers of an Impulse Buyer

I admit it: I can be a little impulsive when shopping. Book stores and craft stores are definite weaknesses. Today's venue of choice: Hancock Fabrics. They had a sale on a brand of patterns, so my SIL and I headed over there to check it out.

Now, I am a very novice seamstress, and I'm mostly interested in bag, pouches, and so on, so I stick mainly to fabric remnants and quarters. And then... there's the patterns. Soooo many patterns... which is where being an impulsive buyer can get me into trouble. I think, "Well, I might learn something from this one!" And, of course, since I'm a complete n00b in the realm of sewing, I can learn something from just about every pattern I come across. I justify it with, "Well, when I learn these techniques, eventually I can create my own patterns, and then I can actually sell something!"

Before I know it, I've got ten patterns piled up.

This happens in book stores and other craft stores, too, especially when things are on sale. If I'm not careful, I could end up spending a whole lot more than I intended.

Fortunately, there's a way to help prevent it - or at least minimize the damage: delay check-out. Rather than grabbing things and heading straight to the nearest register, I spend some time walking around with my stuff. Eventually, I'll start thinking, "Okay, do I REALLY think I'll use this? Will I actually READ this sometime soon?" If the answer's no, then I put it back.

So far, it's been working pretty well. Then I just have to be careful not to grab anything on the way to the register... or at it.

Now I just have to put some of my new goodies to use.

And Back Again!

So, 2011? So far, not a great year for my poor little blog. Or my comic, for that matter... but I'm back again!

Here's what I've been up to lately:

• Getting Strawberry Syrup back up and running. My readers had to sit through one heck of a long hiatus this year, but I finally buckled down and took my own advice to build up a buffer of pages before I ended the hiatus, so with any luck, they won't have to put up with another gap for quite some time.
• Working on a few new items for my Etsy shop. A few new boxes, a few new sketch journals... One out of four is currently listed, so those are slowly going up.
• Learning how to sew. My sister-in-law has been kind enough to show me how to use her spare machine, because we all know if I tried it on my own with no direction, it would end up imploding or catching on fire. In true Kit tradition, I'm not terribly interested in, oh, clothes. Nope, my thing is bags, pouches, and other items you can put things in. The fabric equivalent of boxes, if you will. Once I master the sewing machine (or, ya know, am reasonably capable of sewing a straight line), I plan on making little pouches with embroidery worth of hanging off any Renaissance Festival-goer's belt.
• Watching Blue Exorcist on Hulu. GREAT series. Right up my alley... especially considering I don't usually watch subbed. I was also watching Tiger and Bunny, but I need to catch up on that one. As for dubbed, it's all Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Cartoon Network. It's wrapping up, but it makes waiting a week between episodes sheer torture.

And that would be what I've been up to this summer. Hope your summers went well. ^^

Bumpy Starts

And 2011 gets off to... a bumpy start.

The impact of cold and flu season aside, in early-to-mid January, my beloved laptop started making a horrible whining and whirring noise. It would start quiet, then start increasing in intensity and pitch until it sounded like it was seconds from imploding.

Needless to say, there was a mad dash to get everything backed up on an external hard drive and a trip to the local Geek Squad there... who kept it for two weeks.

But all is well now in Kitland. I've got my baby back, and thanks to a new fan, it no longer sounds like it's planning to kill me the first chance it gets. Maybe now things can finally get back on track!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Or Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings, whatever you prefer. Hope you guys have a good one! ^_^

Anyways, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender is in a week-long marathon (Thank you, Nicktoons Network!). Six hours a day for five days straight, and there aren't too many shows I could sit through that with. What's more, it lets you fully appreciate just how good the story telling is in that show.

That, and it's a handy way of purging a certain horrifically done live action movie from one's brain...

IT LIIIIIIVES!

*fwump*

Yep, still alive over here in Kitland. Sorry for going MIA for two months. The cold I mentioned in the last post? Hadn't gone away by the end of October. Turned out it was bronchitis. Which, I suppose, explained the extra dose of fatigue...

Sadly, NaNoWriMo just... didn't happen this year. I got about 10K in, but just didn't have the energy for it (I blame the bronchitis). Most of November and December have been spent trying to catch up - November, catching up from everything I neglected in October, and December with the everything I didn't do in November while I was trying to catch up from October. It really is a whole vicious cycle. Or a downward Spiral of Doom. Whichever you prefer.

In any case, I am almost back on track with Strawberry Syrup. Heck, I might even finish this chapter sometime soon!

Next goal: getting back on track with my blog. XD

My History with NaNoWriMo

Yeah, I so jinxed myself. I managed to catch my first cold of the year, and this one came with epic levels of fatigue. Yaaay, fatigue! But it seems to be going away finally, even if I am still keeping a bag of Ricola lozenges nearby.

October promises to be a busy month, though... For one thing, I will be preparing for - drum roll please - NaNoWriMo 2010! I haven't decided what I'm going to write yet, which isn't exactly unusual for me. Well, as usual or unusual for something that's only been done three times.

In 2006, I went the whole "PLOT AND PREPARE!" route, complete with snowflaking an entire story throughout the month of October so I could just plunge right in and write on autopilot. It worked, more or less, and I made my 50K with days to spare. That particular story is still waiting for me to swing back into high fantasy mode so I can finally finish it.

All October of 2007, I focused on one story, hammering out the characters and the world setting and all that fun stuff. On October 31st, there I was, ready and waiting for midnight to strike so I could plunge into my story. Midnight came... and I discovered that was not the story I'd be writing that year. Completely refused to be written. Wasn't happening, no way, no how. So, on November 1st, I pulled out my notes on an older story idea I never got around to writing and dove in head-first... and loved what came out. Another winner, too. It has since had its first draft finished and is waiting for me to get off my tail and put it through some hard editing.

2008... didn't happen. It was a rough year, and I opted out of NaNo.

In 2009, I was itching to get going on NaNo, and October was spent planning the sequel to 2007's story. No snowflaking this time, but I knew the basics of what I wanted to happen. Think major stops on a road trip, but leaving the in-between as a surprise. Smoothest NaNo yet. The story itself hasn't been finished yet, but it's getting there! It's somewhere around 85K. With any luck, I'll be able to finish it before November.

This year? I have no idea what I'm going to do. XD I haven't decided on what I'm going to write yet, but I've got some time. Should be interesting!

Brewfest! Whoo!

World of Warcraft has several festivals during the year, and today marks the start of one of my favorites: Brewfest!

Backstory: it's a celebration of the harvest (not to be confused with the Harvest Festival, which is more a memorial of fallen heros and a Day of the Dead-type thing), and what better way than with a festival featuring bread, pretzels, cheese, sausage, and most importantly, beer! Basically, it's WoW's version of Oktoberfest. And yeah, this all thought up by the dwarves - we know how they love their ale.

More importantly, it's a set of quests involving getting drunk (and hunting critters that can only be seen while drunk), riding rams, and hurling empty beer mugs at raiding Dark Iron Dwarves.... all of which can be repeated once a day.

So if I disappear for a few days, you now know why: the World has sucked me in once again.

Brewfest: Kusa tested... Kusa approved!

Sometimes Research is Gyaaaaaah

I put off this week's page of Strawberry Syrup as long as possible. It's one I've been dreading ever since it was conceived. Why, you ask? What could be so bad about this particular page?

I'm arachnophobic, and this page has a close up of a spider.

Just drawing a spider wouldn't be bad. I know from years of them dropping on me, crawling on me, and generally doing their best to freak me out what spiders look like from a distance. However, this was a close up, and like any responsible artist, rather than just wing it, I grit my teeth, braced myself, and headed over to deviantArt to check out spiders in the photography section.

Now, I'm not as bad as I used to be. A few years back, I went on an ill-thought-out canoe trip with two other people. I'd never been canoeing before... and it turned out that neither of the other people had any idea what they were doing. Fortunately, it was a calm river, but I had to learn fairly quick how to steer a canoe from the middle when the person in front kept strong-arming us into the shore with epically bad paddling skills.

During one of those collisions with driftwood and whatnot, a branch fell into the canoe. Turned out there must have been a spider convention on that branch, because five minutes later, once we're into the middle of the river and I've finally commandeered the other paddle from Captain Disaster and Person #3 has been worked up into a thorough panic, there were at least twenty small to medium size spiders crawling all over the boat.

Running away screaming was not exactly an option, and we already had one person near-hysterical, so I managed to keep my cool, ditch the branch, ignore or slay most of the spiders, and calm #3 down enough to follow directions. Since that day, I haven't felt that utter terror that used to accompany the mere thought of spiders.

That doesn't mean I like them or love looking at them.

Gyah. GYAAAAAH. I am so gonna have nightmares tonight! ><;;

New Box: Red Butterfly Believe

Okay, yeah, I know, I suck at naming things. I have a long storied history of pathetic attempts at titles. If anyone can think of a title that doesn't sound like some sort of J-Pop group, I'm open to suggestion! ^_^;;

Anyway, this is my latest box. It's made of sturdy cardboard - the kind used as a base for paper mache projects - and painted "tomato red." Add in some decorative paper, sparkly acrylic gems and a butterfly trinket, and voila! We have the Red Butterfly Believe Box.

It's about 5x5", which makes it a nice size to set on an end table with a vase of flowers or something. It's definitely more of an autumnal color scheme, which, hey, just in time for that season!

In the meantime, I need to figure out the shop's policies. Apparently, having that blank is a major red flag to other Etsy folk. Our policies are elsewhere on the page... however, they were written by my SIL awhile ago, so I need to find them and figure out if we need to cover anything else. Good times.

Popsicle: Complete!

Yep, I finally got around to finishing it! To be honest, going to Marietta actually helped. I had a vague idea of what I wanted in the background (as you might have been able to tell from the line art), but after going to a small river town, that really stuck with me. The result:


Popsicle by ~Kitsune64 on deviantART

I tried out a few different things with the background, among them custom brushes and textures. Some worked well, some... not so well. Still, I like the overall picture, even if I still haven't quite gotten the hang of rendering a "painterly" background.

Plus, I managed to get a pic up for August. How an entire month went by without me posting a single pic in my deviantArt gallery is beyond me. Oo;; I'm just glad I noticed before September 1st!

The Art of Dan Dos Santos

In last month's issue of Realms of Fantasy Magazine, they did a feature on the artist Dan Dos Santos. Now, I'd never heard of him before, but I had seen his work. This is the guy behind the Mercy Thompson book covers.

However, Dos Santos does more than girls with tattoos. He does some amazing guys, too, not to mention what he does with magic and dragons. I'll be eagerly awaiting the day when he puts out an art book. Until then, I'll just have to content myself with lurking around his digital gallery, The Art of Dan Dos Santos. Not only does he have a full portfolio of work for you to feast your eyes upon, but a few tutorials, as well, including a free one on how he created the cover for Moon Called. For the really in-depth stuff, there's a 5-hour video tutorial available for download (at a price, of course).

Definitely worth checking out.

Updates, Updates, Updates!

Man, I'm feeling productive this week. I finally - finally! - got a new page of Strawberry Syrup up, plus went ahead and updated all of my Squidoo lenses for the first time since early June. I've also photographed my latest box for Willheit Shoppes, and so listing that will probably take place early next week. I just re-listed all my other boxes, so waiting a bit will get it further up in the search.

So, what's next on my list? For starters, I want to get a couple of journals done and up for sale. I picked up some illustration board from Hobby Lobby, so I'll give that a try for the cover. I also might finally start a lens for my Zazzle shop, and if I'm still feeling uber-productive after that, maybe start a new box.

Gotta strike while the iron's hot!

Kit and Coptic Binding

New skill is go!

After a trial run with a card stock cover and ordinary type paper, I've created my first hard cover journal/sketchbook!


It measures in at approximately 4 1/2 x 6", with 120 pages. I used one of my favorite pics, Terry in Flight, for the main image on the cover. Yeah, it's a little old (it was done in '06), but it's still one of my favorites. Behind that, the top image is an old map found in the Wikimedia Commons. Seeing as it was an OLD map, it was in the public domain, and thus free to be used as a backdrop. Below that, I simply gathered together a bunch of quotes that relate to creativity, imagination, and whatnot. They create a sort of visual white noise, set the mood for the journal, and are ones the resonate personally with me. Rather than assemble it collage-style, I went ahead and put it together in Photoshop and printed out the final product.

In almost all the Coptic-bound books I've seen, the spine is open. Either this is to show off the artistry of the stitch, or it's really difficult to do a cover over the spine. In my trial run, I used three rows of stitches, which worked fine, but I wanted something a little more... secure-feeling, so this one's got five. For the cover, I hunted down the backing from an old calendar - you know, the cardboard inserts the manufacturer sticks in to keep it from horribly deforming during the shrink wrap process? Well, not all of them are normal cardboard. Some of them are a really rather nice variety. I snagged some of that (See? Never know what you'll need later!), and with the reinforcement of the Mod Podge, it's turned into a really nice hard cover.

For the paper, I pillaged an old, mostly unused sketchbook for some 50lb sketch paper. Now, the really nice thing about Coptic binding is that it has the ability to lay flat on just about any page without needing a wire spiraling through it. I wouldn't suggest pinching the covers together and waving it like a fan or anything, but the binding does seem to be pretty secure, even if there is a little more movement than I'm used to in a journal.

For the thread, I used embroidery floss, whittled down to three strands and then braided. I haven't done any strength tests on embroidery floss lately, so braiding it together gives it a little more strength and security. Color-wise, the top contenders were blue and brown. Blue won out - it picks up the color in his hat and the text better.

About the only problem I'm having so far is that the first and last rows - the rows where one signature of paper is attached to the next - don't quite look right. I'm using a "one needle" technique, so maybe that's it. That, or I'm not doing something right. If any of you have any idea what I'm doing wrong there, please do let me know!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my little journal/sketchbook! I'll be keeping this one.

Kit Learns a New Skill

Every now and then, I like to go cruising through Etsy to check out what other people are doing, maybe get inspired to haul out the old arts and crafts materials and work on a new box. This time, I came across some of the handmade journals. Now, there are two things that consistently test my willpower whenever I go shopping: decorative boxes and blank books. I have an enormous collection of of sketchbooks and journals that have caught my eye over the years, but I'd never seriously considered making my own. After all, you need special glues and tools and things like that, right?

And then I saw these.

Pay special attention to the bindings. I've seen that kind of binding a few times in stores, but I'd never known what it was called. Say hello to the chain stitch, aka the Coptic Stitch in reference to the fact that this binding has been used at least since the days of the Dead Sea Scrolls (so sayeth Wiki).

A quick Google search led me to this tutorial. Turns out all you really need to bind your own journals is a needle, thread, and maybe something to punch holes with. It's kinda complicated to explain, but once you actually DO it, it's not all that difficult. It took me about an hour to bind a 60 page test book. I'm not saying I'm an expert or that I created the Bestest Little Journal out there on my first try, but the basics aren't too difficult.

I'll have to see if I can refine my technique and hunt down some better materials than what I used for my test book. If I can, I might be able to make some pretty cool stuff.

Eye Practice, Part II

And the practice continues... I wasn't happy with the first eye, so... I completely redid it.


I'm much happier with this one, as you might have guessed by the fact that I did two eyes, one with warm shading and one with cool. Yep, just for the practice, which I think is definitely helping. I decided to change the eye shape a bit, refine the eyebrow so it doesn't look so pixelated, and work on the textures. The shadows might be a little too dark, but I haven't decided if I want to do anything about that or just leave it alone for now.

I have actually finished the entire face by now, so here's just a small peek at that. The proportions may be a little off still, but it's still a big step for me, and I think those proportions a a little closer to realism than my last attempt. Don't get me wrong; I still love how she turned out, but it's still not exactly realistic. This one's yet another step closer.

Of course, the next challenge is the hair... Attempts #1 and 2 have not gone well. Hopefully third time's the charm!

Eye Practice

Yesterday, I got my hands on Impact Publishing's "Fantasy Art," which they term a "bookazine" because it is over 200 pages and probably only got stuck on the magazine rack because it's Volume 1 and bound like a nice magazine and because the creators couldn't even decide on what it was (alas, that means it's exempt from most coupons). Plus, it comes with a CD with video tutorials, brushes, and reference images. Haven't gotten into them yet, but yay, references!

In any case, it's chock-full of tutorials and helpful hints on everything from painting portraits to designing architecture. Every now and then, I like to try something a little more realistic than my normal anime style, so when I saw the tutorial on digitally painting eyes, I decided to put the Popsicle pic on hold and give it a try.

This is what I've got so far:



Still not quite as realistic as I'd like, but not too bad. The eyebrow needs some serious help, as well as those lower eyelashes, but overall, I think it's a step in the right direction. And yeah, went for a red eye (can't completely purge my fantasy tendencies!). Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...