Rose queen - From start to finish -

so as i mentioned before i went to the con over the weekend, it was a lot of fun but seeing as i was near other people i got pretty sick.
cause... i'm the type of person that just needs to be in the same building as someone with a cold to catch it..

so while i didn't go to the con on the final day i did figure it's not an excuse to just rest... i still should work on something... cause i'm crazy/workaholic/not the type of person who just rests in bed no mater how high her fever is.

the problem is fevers and drawing don't go well together.
i did two or three really bad sketches before i finally managed this one.

in the end i still wasn't loving it but i figured at least i could work on it while i got over the con plague... which would give me time to figure what to do next.

also more experimenting in Paint tool Sai... cause i'm still not 100% used to it and it's quirks.

at first i was goign for queen of the faries vibe but then i figured it not regal or ornate enough (and i wasn't gunna add more details) so i decided she would be the rose queen fairy thingy.
then i proceeded to add as many ruffles as i could justify.

i swear none of the colours are what i originally worked with, the dress and hair colours were reversed, her wings were move blue...
but in the end i was just playing around and it was fun~ i hope you like it!

Completed: Conbravo 2013

but Kat!
i hear you cry out.
how can you be done... there's still one more day.
yep... but i have had such a great time where i feel like even though i don't think i'll make it to the final day i got more then i could ever ask out of this con.
plus i'm really tired...
and i can't feel my right leg... so i should probably call it a good con and just recover.

so... story time sounds like it's in order.
I have only been going to cons for about 10 years...
i tend to average 2-3 cons a year because some rather large ones are not too hard to get to.
however that number went day 5ish years ago.

Cons lost their magic.
I ended up going to cons alone cause if i did go with friends they would just sit on the grass and talk about how dumb some of these nerds were...
yeah... you're the one who paid 50 bucks to 'sit on the grass'
i ended up only going to the dealers room cause the guests were the same almost every year and even if they were new the panels ended up being the same...
again with only going to the dealers room... at first it was fine cause you could get some good deals but then cons started jacking up the price by 20-50 dollars thinking that "those crazy kids will spend anything to get what they want"
it stopped being fun.
now granted at that point in my life i was dealing with the whole saving up for the next year of college still... one of the two huge cons i antended i just decided not to go.
and the horror stories i hear about hat con... 2 hour line ups just to get back in the building, no access to panels unless you pay for the weekend... all the guests were charging for autographs.
i was happy i skipped it...
i was happy i missed out on something i had really enjoyed.
(to be fair... i was in bed with a fever that weekend so the choice wasn't mine but i was still glad i didn't go)
because it was no longer what i remembered... little bright eyed naive kat thought that cons would always be the highlight of this time of year... and now i didn't want to go to them?
was i not as much of a fan as i used to be?
or did i just buy anything i wanted through the year  which made the dealers room obsolete and took away the final thing that cons fulfilled.

while i still had anime north i was getting tired of it too... it was just too crazy, too many people and in the end going to a convention alone just isn't much fun... and while i did go with a good friend of mine last time i still felt overwhelmed and like i didn't have the time iwas expecting to have.

then... 3 or 4 years ago a new con started
and it was close, one of the easiest cons i've had access to.
so i went
and it was terrible.
no panels
no guests
no vendors room
just socializing while you waited for one of the few things they had planned.
so... pretty much my worst nightmare.
i don't mind socializing in ground of 2-4 but more then that and i just don't feel like talking anymore.
i was miserable... at the time
i am so glad i went.

the next year they announced doug walker, spoony and angry joe as guests.
but there was a catch.... it was further away/harder to get to.
still i had no idea if the con would last... it was it's 2nd year of the con so i figured... go, get the autographs and go to a few panels and hopefully it's good.
and it was.... it was a blast.
so i kept going
and they kept adding more and more amazing guests
last year i could barely go cause i had a really bad fever... bu i had dragged my friend from two hours away and i wasn't going to say "yeah sorry... you came all this way and we aren't doing anything."
i think i lasted 2 or 3 hours before we had to head back and i had to go be ill...

so this year... i couldn't get over the sheer amount of guests they had... but a few stood out o me personally.

James Portnow - he writes the show extra credits and is a professor at digipen, while his show focuses mainly on game theory or the games industry i really think most of his stuff can be applied to other disciplines so i had huge respect for him.
So when i went to his panel it was a blast... somehow i ended up first in line but i really just wanted to sit down and i figured no better place to wait then the line. the panel was so interesting and had some great discussion and after it was done we just kind of moved to a free all, sat in a semi-circle with air conditioning and chatted.
i had never been at any panel where the guest was so willing to continue to discussion despite the time ending... it's almost always "ok your time with me is done i'm going back to the green room"
today just as we were leaving I saw him agian and knowing i wouldn't be there for his signing session i asked if i could have his autograph and instead he's like "no.... no autograph... thats too much about me and this con should be able all of us... want a picture istead?"
yes i wanted a picture instead but i figured it would be too forward of me to ask... so this made me smile.
i haven't looked at the shots yet.... i hate pictures of me... but i will... and then i'll decide which to post on facebook for my anual visit to that site i don't like...
so yeah, really awesome guy... very kind and down to earth, i hope he had a great time cause i know for me personally he helped me remember what was so fun about cons in the first place... bumping into people who you look up to and just being able to have a conversation without worry.

Mara Willson - this is short, my brother really loved her films and i figured it would be nice to have her sign something for him cause he couldn't go.

Channel awesome/chez apocalypse - a lot of them came last year but i missed it due to sick so i was glad to see them... got a lot of autographs which was great and i half bought their book which i will not review until it's fully out for everyone.

The game chasrers - never actually saw these guys... thoug hthey must have hated the prices in the con for games.... everything was way too expensive (not that it stopped me from buying a super famicom game 'wanderers from Ys'... but thats more thanks to fangirling then anything else... i just thought it would be a fun thing to own even though i can't play it)

Pro jared - So... this may sound odd but i was most looking forward to seeing Pro jared.
see when i watched his q&a from another con all i could think was "wow... he's freakishly quick on his feet with his answers... maybe he did improv?"
then later on that vid he confirmed that he had.
so i essentially wanted to see him do some improv.
I love his reviews, i love his nuzlocke... but i wanted to see the improv more then anything else.
unfortunately he wasn't in many of the skits (cause there were a lot of people) but the skits he was in were pretty damn funny. (especially the one minute one... though i'm sure the one guy hated being part of that... his poor knees.)
so after the show i noticed that everyone was swarming the voice actor guy who was also there and i just wanted to tell jared that i hadn't laughed that hard in a long time and that he was one of the best things about this con.
"you mean me? not him?" he replied... to which i almost replied. 'i don't know who he is' but i kept that to myself... i knew 'who' he was.... i just didn't play mass effect or dragon age so... it wasn't as big a deal to me..
so i answered yes and asked if i could get a photograph.
he was really nice about it, i got my pictures which again... haven't looked at but i'm sure they are fine... i'm sure i throw off the white balance cause cameras hate me (read as i'm really pale and the camera either makes me paler or it cant focus on me)
after that i went ot his autograph area and got that....

and then i realized "wow i hurt all over" so we went through the dealers room and that was that.
 It was probably one of the most fun cons i've ever been to. i feel a little bad cause i dragged my friend all around and half the people she had never seen but now she will (mwa ha ha ha) but still.. going to cons alone isn't fun... so i'm really happy she was there.

i got all my signatures in the book of friends cause it makes me giggle. i'm surprised how quickly it's filling up.
otherwise all i got from the deals room was a kero plush toy and a Riou plus toy (black nyanko), some perfume that smells like lilac (fav scent), a sailor moon surprise bag that had random stuff in it and... i think a piece of artwork... and thats really it. well as Ys 3 jpn... which i just had to get for novelty.

i'll post some of the pictures later but for now it's well past midnight and i'm running off very little sleep. i hope that those go tomorrow.. erm... later today... have a blast but for me right now... i have to pass out.

Edit:
Picture time, unfortunately a lot of the pictures are blurry cause of low light... i did my best~
also the lights they had in the guest session rooms had a very purple look to them, i tried to fix it but no luck : (

So this was at the pub quiz event. it looked like a lot of fun but i could only stay for one round, the room was really dark so these were the only two in focus pictures.
The first one is Jew Wario from RetrowareTV and his focus is on imported games, i really enjoy his stuff cause it gives a breakdown of how easy it is to play the game even if you don't speak the language.
the Second is Nash with booze... cause it was a pub quiz. He does a hilarious show entitled What the Fuck is wrong with you, it details horrible things found in the news and while sometimes it's painful to listen to cause of the shear amount of stupidity that some of these people do... it's always good for a laugh.

The Chez Apocalypse Q&A was a blast and it was nice to see so many different opinions.
though there were a lot of questions about canadian content and i'm sorry but assuming that they know what is and what isn't is a bit silly in my opinion... hell there are sometimes i'm surprised something is classified canadian and i live here... while other times things are classified as hollywood despite that they were shot and produces here.
after this i went with my friend to the signing and the two of us bought the book, i will not review it till it's out but even then i'll probably only mention how enjoyable it was.

so here's where we get to "context is for losers"
aka Improv all-stars.

as i mentioned before i was realyl looking forward to pro jared's improv and yeah it was really funny, the four special guests were Doug walker, Brentalfloss, Mark Meer and pro jared... all four had me in stitches by the end... i didn't get any pictures with brentalfloss cause he and doug had to leave a bit early and i was too busy laughing during the show to hold a camera/i was pretty far back/the lighting was kinda terrible.
then people left and i got to sit in the front so i got some more shots.

look how much fun they are all having, it was so funny and by the end my side hurt from laughing so much.
but yeah no context for anything... cause thats the way improv should be.

i will say this was my fav shot of the day.

otherwise there are only two pictures left.... the ones with me in them...
hmm
...
so the pic with me and jared is terrible cause pale + purple light = no colour in my face... like... less then normal... and it was humid... and my hair was all frizzy...
...
..
.

*hides* ugh... i kinda wanna go back to hamilton just to get a better picture... but no.... ><
my one with james portnow is a little better... but my hair is stil la frizzy mess... and i'm still as white as a ghost.

ugh just... i'm not photogenic... lets leave it at that lol

i had a great time... i really could not ask for a better con experience... i just wish i weren't so breakable/easy to get sick (i seem to have already come down with con plague)
hopefully the next year is even better!

Cosmos - From start to finish -

no matter what i do i seem to always come back to these sailor moon chibis.
they are just too much fun to make.

now i'll be honest, i was super excited to see a never aired in north america season of sailor moon... i mean in my eyes the seasons had been getting better and better so this unaired one had to be the best!
then i watched/read it.
. . .
*sighs*
while i like some of the character designs... i gotta say stars is one of my least favorite arcs of the show (more so the manga then the anime... cause i hate that particular ending)
but still like i mentioned there were some character designs i really liked.
Chibi chibi was one.
sailor cosmos was the other.

many many years ago i drew both of them...
they were terrible and i will not be showing them here (i don't even think i have a digital version of those pics anymore) so when i did my senshi set i didn't think about adding eitherof them cause
a) they don't have symbols and thats was the key element of that series.
b) i would have to do the stars who i actually am not a fan of...
i think the reason i dislike stars in cause everyone gets the same uniform... i nthe first seasons (especially in the manga) they all have things that make their outfit special.... i nstars they all have the same type of uniform and books and chokers and ugly puffy sleeves.... i just felt it took some of the personality away. well same thing goes for the stars... i can't tell which is which cause they all wear the same silly outfit and it feels so radically different from the rest of the senshi.
i don't mind the girls pretending to be boys that transform into girls aspect cause in the end it doesn't matter but i honestly cannot remember any of them.... granted i just caught upto the re-release manga nad havn't got to stars yet so it has litterally been over a decade since i read the arc and maybe i'll have a different opinion now... we will see when i get there. super s will still be my fav
i got off topic didn't i...
long story short i avoided doing stars characters cause i didn't want to do the main ones.

but then the other day i suddenly wanted to draw sailor cosmos... so i did.

 now... a quick lesson on how i (and most people) colour.
When you are rending a colour you tend to highlight and shade with other colours.... you have to find this happy middleground where the main colour doesn't change cause all colour is relative.
Example: using green to shade Red while not letting the green overpower or change the red.
the main things you want to stay away from are White, Gray or Black because they are the absence of colour so using them to highlight, tone or shade you image gives this ugly and unnatural muddled effect.

why bring this up?
Sailor cosmos is 90% white.
her dress, her cape, her staff, her hair and hair clips and broach... all white.
. . .
so this poses two challenges.
1. what colour am i going to use instead of white.
2. how far am i willing to push the contrast so it doesn't end up grey.

so i went with purple mainly cause in art her eyes look fairly purple and because the other dominant colour is Yellow and yellow on purple will give me some contrast.
then i did the dance of figuring out how far i could push it.

when i was happy with it i added a very dark bg, again trying to get as much contrast as possible.

i really hope you like it and my little rant on how characters should have more variety this then cause it makes my job harder... but in the end it was a blast and probabyl one of my fav sailor moon chibi's of the entire set.
will i do more? probably... they really are fun.

she is available as a sticker as well

for now that i think i may end up vanishing from the internet for the weekend...
though i'm sure on sunday or monday i will have a report on how awesome the con i'm attending was.
and it will be awesome... or at least more awesome then last year... cause i could only attend for 2 hours thanks to my stupid fever.
anyways see you in a few days!

i'm just gunna... rant... for a little

cause if i keep my rage in... i may explode... and that would be bad...

So...

Lets talk about free!

so far 4 episodes have aired....

i have no idea why this anime is so popular.
okay i know 'why' the show is popular... but i don't understand.

in 4 episodes we've only had a character who is was too obsessed with swimming, a girl who fights over how to pronounce her name and a guy who sinks no matter how perfect his form is and a rival who is a rival cause of reasons and pointy teeth.
and you know what? those traits do not make a fully developed character.

if i haven't made it abundantly clear i tend to value character above all else... above art and music... characters need to be interesting for me to even remotely give a shit.

BUT NO.

you know what it feels like? it feels like they didn't know how to write interesting characters so they just stuck to their moe girl trops but stuck them in grossly disproportionate male bodies. AND YES i am NEVER going to get over how terribly the anatomy in this show is.

Look... it's really not hard to target a show to girls... we do not need huge amounts of blatant pandering fanservice.
don't believe me?
Look at Kuroko's basketball.
how much intentional fanservice towards women is in it...
whats that?
what?
none?
maybe 5% if you count the yaoi fangirls freaking out over everything cause the cast is mostly male?
thats it?

why is that...
oh cause it's not targeted at us... at all...
yet it's got a huge female fanbase....
now why is that..
hmmm
well my hypothesis is that it's got a good story
with interesting and flawed characters...

what does free have?
boys who have girl names... 
a guy who would swim 24/7 if he could and no flaws other then being monotone all the time.
a shota type boy who bounces around all the time but otherwise has no defining characteristic good or bad.
a gentle giant with green eyes... and otherwise no dicernable characteristics.
a megane (glasses) who's obsessed with formula and statistics but can't figure out that things take more then that... he's also obsessed with beautiful things.
a rival who had pointy teeth and dreams of becoming a olympic swimmer, he really wants to beat mister perfect 24/7 swimmer but when he does he's still upset.....  otherwise no definable characteristics.
a girl who has a boys name and is obsessed with the badly detailed muscles. otherwise no definable characteristic but i have a sinking feeling she's supposed to be the audience avatar.

so free... let me get this straight.
you expect me to care about the trials and tribulations of this club when every single damn character is a mary sue?
all because these poorly drawn men are supposed to be Hot?
no
...
no i wont be pandered to like this

there is one chunk of the episode that i just watched dedicated to being an extremely close up shot of the megane's ass as he clenches it.
and this goes on for at least 2 minutes
for no reason
no plot development
all cause he doesn't like wearing a speedo.
so then we get a "lets go to the mall and try on clothes swimsuits" montage which lasts most of the rest of the episode followed by a meetup with the rival who is all annoyed that his friend who hasn't been training as hard as him isn't as strong as him...
then mister perfect calls him out for being a crybaby and a quitter so that if he does lose he can't do either.
again
how many times do i need to say this
why am i supposed to care.
"because they are hot" is not a good reason.
"because the animation is nice" is a worse and incredibly wrong reason. i've been vocal about how k-on ruined kyo-ani so iwont mention this again other then the animation his behind glitter and glamour to look nice but it's actually pretty lazy... the only thing that is well done is the water.... but the guys and the way they are drawn just seems fluffy and floaty and unrealistic.

if i hate the show... why am i watching?
cause i believe that you can't bitch about things till you have seen them...
that is why i watched all the episodes of the first season of k-on.
that is why i read twilight.
so i could make MY OWN opinion based on what I experienced.
i'm not going to parrot someone elses opinion as my own... i can't bitch about how vapid and pointless this terrible show is unless i watch it and analyze it. i can't say how it could be better if i don't see where it went wrong and most importantly i can't learn from it if i ignore it's existence... you can probably learn more from a terrible book/anime/game/film then you could ever learn from something great...
from somethign terrible you can pinpoint where it goes wrong and avoid doing that at all cost.
so i guess note to self.
DO NOT CREATE SHAMELESS PANDERING FANSERVICE.
it doesn't please anyone
and it doesn't excuse you for having no plot.
if you have fanservice in you plot heavy thing thats fine.... but when you are passing off fanservice as plot you are doing it wrong.

and remember
i'm a girl
this shit is supposed to be aimed at me
i am the target market
and it's just pissing me off.
screw this show.

NOW you may be thinking this is just one opinion
most people for some reason seem to like the show
well i'm not the only one who's pissed off about this episode
read yet another rant.... on a completely different topic then mine.

Figure photoshoot - Tales of nendo petites

I got these so long ago... and then when i was putting them together i broke Yuri's sword handle... so then i got some crazy glue and fixed it but then i forgot to take pictures for a few months

then i lost the spot where i take these pictures.... so until i had a new setup i wouldn't be able to take pictures.
then i gained a temporary setup and all was good and this batch was the last i did before i lost it again.

then.... i forgot i took the pictures for another month or so...

but seeing as i need my memory card to be empty for a convention this weekend i figured no better time then to see if i stil lhad stuff on it...

i'm a bit scatter brained at times apparently.

so..... Tales of series... i really like these games though i've only played a handful (phantasia, destiny, symphonia 1&2, world, abyss and vesperia) and i'm kinda bummed that we are getting so many of them in english for the ps3... cause i don't own a ps3... and i can't justify getting one considering i know i'm getting a ps4 near launch... and it's not backwards compatible.... *sighs* so hopefully one day i'll get to play but for now i get to be envious....
or wait for a huge ps3 pricedrop.... whichever comes first.

also this will be very picture heavy cause with 7 figures each getting two pics plus group shots... so yeah.

look how cute they all are! I got duplicate Asbel with my order but otherwise i got the entire set~

my fav of the batch is Yuri, he just has such a sassy pose... anyways.

if i screw up any names sorry... just remember i haven't played al lthe games (i was realyl hoping the secret figure would be cress but alas... not ToP merch for me (ignoring the scale mint and arche figures i have)

Asbel - Tales of Graces

Sophie - Tales of graces

Jude - Tales of Xillia

Milla - Tales of Xillia

Estelle - Tales of Vesperia

Yuri - Tales of vesperia

and finally the secret figure
Leon - Tales of destiny

fun fact, even though i love his cape... man is it tricky to get on... Sophies pigtails are also a bit of a pain.

so yeah sorry i couldn't do more interesting compositions... when i had the photoshoot area available i didn't have access to the Macro lense... and these figrues are pretty small.

BONUS TIME
i took these pictures over a year ago but... i mentioned them.. .and they are Tales of related.

Super close ups of Arche and mint from tales of Phantasia... which apparently is getting a SNES repo cart.. .which will cost a few extremities but i am willing to pay for this... really love this game... first game i ever got everything
every secret
ever spell
every level
I also miss my green backgound... helped a lot of thing pop... though it was just a couch we had for ages... my current bg is leftover tile i swiped after the reno was done

BONUS x2
i just wanna post a picture of my cat chloe after she turned my recycling bin into her bed.

what a silly kitty cat~
she's very upset that it was garbage day today and therefor no paper in the bin... she misses her nest

anyways i should probably take some pictures of kirito... he's just chilling in his box.
but it means setting up the thing and having to rush to get the pictures done so maybe tomorrow... if i'm not writhing in pain from going to the dentist today. 

for now i hop you have a great day and if you get a chance you should play some tales of games.

Platnum - From start to finish

i am learning something the hard way... and remembering why i stopped drawing fanart.

I mostly draw original characters... which stories i have either roleplayed or written up in my head that'll never make it to paper.
but in a world where art is easily accessible and fanart is prevalent more attention gets given to fanart cause it's a world and set of characters some people already know about.
The original stuff tends to get pushed to the side.

when i was younger i hated how a five minute piece would get more attention and praise then something i had worked really hard on for a long time and liked.

Now i just understand it's the way things are... fanart takes less time so it's not that rushing makes for better art but familiarity is a good way to get someone used to your style while you also show them original stuff. It still stings a little but you get over it... either you will like what i produce or you wont. in the ned i'm just happy to make it...

that being said yesterday i was all pouty cause i submitted something new and no one cared and it hurt my feelings (cause i'm a big baby)... i know now that i was so upset cause i've been running a fever but still... it a fit of poutyness i just decided to draw whatever and i ended up with

yep... i was pouty so i drew something cute... i don't understand my brain either.
still this just made me wanna rewatch Cardcaptor Sakura again but my dvd player is dead so... thats not happening for a bit (read as till i drag myself to a store and get a cheap dvd player while i wait for the ps4 release)
anyways i was pretty happy with it but at that point it was getting late and i was so tired so i figured i'd ink the next day and follow up from there.

after about 2 hours of work....

i love how quick Sai is...
but yes i feel much better after making this even though i doubt i'll be able to finish anything else this week (wisdom tooth pulling tuesday and con fri-sun) but who knows... all depends on recovery time in the end (i'm just hoping no swollen face in con pics... i need a new one as my ID now that my hair is shorter)

anyways i hope you like it
and if you don't oh well~ i tried~

La Lune - From start to finish

i'm like 90% sure moon in french is feminine? if not then sorry >< i took french immersion and i still get tripped up by hich gender objects are.
(also it's been ages since i was in french and it's amazing how much i have lost... i can understand it easily enough but speaking it is so much harder then i remember)

so uh yeah... due to a heat wave this took a lot longer then i anticipated... because where i do my digital work is easily the hottest room in the house... and i HATE extreme temperatures.
also i got SMT IV the other day so... that cut into my time to be productive....

still i manages to sketch out a quick picture of Niut (not Nuit) and my original plan was to make it super ornate with lots of little details....

but then.... we had weather that felt like 45 degrees Celsius thank to all that lovely humidity i didn't have to deal with when i lived far from here.... 
so... instead of being hunched over my cintiq which throws off a little heat itself i figured... just make this a quick one.

then i proceeded to do nothing for days... today was the first day we had less then 50% humidity AND no chance of thunderstorms so i figure may as well get as much done as possible before the weather turns hot again.

and in that time i managed to finish it... yay~

it is less ornate then i was planning but in the end i like it
well other then the hands but i hate hands on principle more then anything else...
and yeah in the end just having fun playing in Paintool sai (though most of the BG was done in PS5.5) and yeah i hope you like it... and i hope i'm able to post more frequestly... maybe some traditional pics are in order...

for now though i think i earned myself a Popsicle~