Tag: #artist

Con artist

#nerd, Anime, Art, Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Geek, Sewing

Ha! What a pun!

No, seriously. I may not be the world’s best artist. I may not even be a good artist. And I’m certainly not a featured artist of the con. But I am an artist. And I’m going to the con. So…yeah.

The cosplays are going so well that I can hardly wait for Phoenix Comicon. I mean, there is still a lot of stuff to get done. Mostly little stuff, thanks to my early morning insomniac sewing, but still a lot to get done.

The parts that are finished are looking quite nice, and I have to admit I’m egotistically proud of myself for doing so well, especially on my husband’s cosplay pieces so far. (I’m not particularly proud of the skirt I made for my Jedi TARDIS, but it’s finished now and it would take too much effort to remake the whole thing. Again.)

I don’t have any pictures of his Naruto cosplay–yet–but I have a selfie of me wearing my Temari kimono and headband. At 3am. In the dark. Still, it’s a cute photo, so I’m going to show it off here, along with hubby’s completed Sith Time Lord cosplay (missing just a couple red leather straps that are due to arrive *fingers crossed* hopefully by the end of the month):

As you can see in the bottom left corner of the picture of the front of hubby’s Sith Time Lord, our cat Rory likes to photobomb our cosplay pics. I have several examples of this. Seriously, cat, we’re just standing around in funny clothes taking pictures of each other. Relax. It’s nothing interesting.

We also *may* get my Temari fighting fan cosplay prop before Phoenix Comicon. Hubby ordered it last night, but we don’t know for sure if it will arrive before the con.

My plans for the evening? More artsy-craftsy cosplay art for our annual con. 🙂

I really should do something productive…

Art, Drawing, Original art, Work

Yet again I’m up early (this most recent time is not Rory’s fault), but instead of working on art or cosplay I’m just dicking around on the computer.

Not that I don’t have four months to finish the cosplays…I have much less time to work on the art, but it’s hard to find good lighting in the apartment while not waking up my husband. I’d go to the craft room, but it’s covered in, well, cosplay stuff.

I think I’ll try to get the base drawings done tonight, then work on the backgrounds when I have time. (That part is easier to do in the dark, because I can use Photoshop on the computer without worrying about disturbing the hubby.) I’m getting much better at making backgrounds with PS, which is good because I thought my drawings were “missing” something, and the backgrounds really help them to pop.

Might ask my husband to scan the drawings I haven’t scanned yet while I’m at work today. The scanner doesn’t want to work with my new laptop lately, and it’s frustrating. He’s much more tech savvy than I, so I’m sure he can figure it out easily. (As I type this, the laptop popped up with a notice saying that “Scan to computer is no longer active.” Sigh.)

Soon I’ll be finished. Soon.

A Question for Another Day

Celebrity, Interview, Learning, Work

I’ve been doing musician, artist, and celebrity interviews over phone (and now Skype) off and on for over probably six months now, and I have to say, I think I’m finally getting the hang of making it a conversational interview rather than straight-up questions.

Part of it is that I try to write the questions so they flow more organically. I try to gauge how the interview will go, how some questions will be answered, and arrange my questions to that sequence. Part of it is just practice, I guess.

But my one big hang-up (no pun intended) is still how to end the interview. So far, I just say “Well, thanks for talking with us today” if I’ve come to the end of my questions and there’s not really any opening left for continued conversation. That, to me, feels cold and impersonal, but after all this time I have not figured out a better way.

I’ve asked the other writers for the website for advice because it’s a very supportive team, but I feel like I’ve failed by not figuring it out myself. I guess it goes back to when I was a kid and school came easily to me for the most part; if I ever had problems understanding something, I was frustrated beyond belief. This problem doesn’t quite have me at that level of frustration, but it’s getting close.

One day soon I’ll know the answer. But for now, it’s a question for another day. (See? I don’t even know how to end a blog post properly lol)

A little of a lot

Art, Crafting, Drawing, Novel, Work, Writing

Got quite a few things done today. Not a lot of any one thing, but a little of a lot of things.

Got more of the beta read I’m doing accomplished. Wrote a couple thousand words on my new manuscript. Drew a little. Set my craft room back up after our company left. Sculpted a little. Burnt most of what I sculpted.

No email yet about the interview, but I’m not too worried about it. If anyone knows what it’s like to have time get away from you when you have an email interview to prep, it’s me. Lol

Back to work life tomorrow, full-on. Cold is gone, so I should be ready ‘n’ rarin’. Or something.

Dead to the World

Art, Cosplay, Drawing, Health, Novel, Sewing, Work, Writing

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted, I know, but I was kinda half dead. Okay, a little dead. Dead enough that I didn’t want to write or do much of anything.

Though it was only a cold, I’m sure y’all know how much that can take out of you. The constant coughing. The wheezing. The shortness of breath. The sinus congestion. The fever. The body aches. It sucks, and it isn’t very conducive to productivity.

Thankfully, though, I’m starting to feel better. I still have a little ghost of a cough, but hopefully tomorrow I’ll be right as rain. That’s a funny saying. What’s so right about rain? Shouldn’t it be right as sunshine? But I digress.

A lot of projects have been backing up. The art commission project. The cosplay work. The beta read. The writing. I’m barely keeping up with the Talk Nerdy With Us work that’s been assigned to me. I’ve been able to work at my day job, but only while heavily medicated. (Not too heavily medicated. The max that I can take legally to function in the workplace.)

I’m trying to psych myself up for getting back into the swing of things. I need to get back into that art project. Like kick-my-own-ass get back into it.

Back from the dead. Time to get to work.

Obi-wan Sith Lord

Convention, Cosplay, Crafting, Fandom, Geek, Sewing

Okay, sounds weird, I know, but hear me out: A Sith Time Lord.

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband has decided to be a Sith Time Lord to compliment my mashup cosplay of a Jedi TARDIS. This morning, I finished an obi for his costume, made out of a red fabric with a TARDIS/Dalek pattern on it. I’m really proud of how well I’m doing with the sewing stuff (considering I’ve only owned a sewing machine for 4 months and have next to no experience working with patterns before this).

There’s my hubby modeling the pants and obi for me, along with some images of the finished obi with the almost-finished pants laid out underneath it.

My sewing skills keep growing, and I’m excited to see if I’ll be able to recreate the cloak as my husband wants it. The hood will have the red fabric as the lining and the cloak itself will have the red Doctor Who pattern along the bottom as shown here:

Custom Sith Style Outfit Front and Back

It’s going to be exciting to walk around Phoenix Comicon and Dragon Con as a husband-and-wife cosplay couple. I hope in years to come we can devise even more unique cosplays to do together!

Resolutions revisited

Art, Cosplay, Crafting, Drawing, Exercise, Fitness, Novel, Self Publishing, Writing

image

It’s coming to the end of the year, and as I look at my resolution list I’m both proud and disappointed.

I not only completed the first draft of my novel; I published it as well. I exercised more (not much more, but more than last year). I published a few short stories and flash fiction stories. I sold a few art pieces. And I did more cosplay.

Some of the other resolutions, however, were less than successful.

I gained more weight than I wanted to lose. I didn’t get the tattoo that I wanted, but that’s a trivial thing. And thus far, my marketing sucks.

I’ll try for more realistic goals next year. Perhaps another rough draft? Developing an exercise routine? Who knows. I have a couple of weeks to figure it out.

Fresh New Start

Art, Writing

Today I got a new laptop (courtesy of my wonderful husband, who diligently set aside money each week until we had enough to get it–Merry Christmas to me!), and so far I love it. I can’t wait to get writing on it. Which I guess I am. Kinda. So yay!

I also can’t wait to get PhotoShop installed. I have a lot of art to catch up on.

I’m hoping that with this new, lighter, fancier laptop I’ll be able to do more. It’s one of those that converts from laptop to tablet, so I can do simpler tablet-type stuff if I don’t have to type, and I can carry it around much easier.

The screen size will take some getting used to. I’ve gone from 17″ to 13″, which is a bit of a drop. I can still read the screen okay–I haven’t gotten to the point of needing bifocals (yet), so I don’t have to adjust the font sizing or anything yet.

My husband also made sure I had Office installed so I can do my writing. Yay again.

Tomorrow–or more likely, this weekend–I’ll get to transferring files and making sure everything from the old laptop is backed up to either a cloud storage or to a flash drive before finally giving it over to the hubby to be wiped clean.

As for right now….bedtime.

No place like home…

Art, Drawing, NaNoWriMo, Sewing, Writing

Home. Where you rest and relax and unwind from the daily grind…right?

Not necessarily. With Christmas coming up, I have 2 dresses to make for my niece, I’m waaay behind on NaNoWriMo, I have artwork that’s due, and then there’s laundry and all the normal household things to do. And I feel like I’m forgetting something else…

I even had to bow out of live tweeting a couple of TV shows for the website, which is one of my favorite things about the job.

Oh, crap. That’s one of the things I forgot. An interview to write questions for.

Well, back to the grind–the weekend grind.