Astl Awesomeness!!!!!!

Was going over some last minute ASTL stuffs the other day when I noticed Yuka-pon was on the even schedule.  I have to say I was very pleased, You all know how sad I was to have missed her Kawa Performance.  Ima make extra sure I don't miss It again this time.  I also noted from her pics and videos she may be selling some official yuka-pon merchendice.  I now know where allot of my kon made dollars are going to be spent^^

On anther note found this awesome pic of Yuka wearing one of my emotes while googling for images. She looks cute as always while showing off some of my stuffs, too cool(^o^)v

thats all for now pyons

Spring A2F 2012

First I'd like to say thanks to all those who stoped by my booth to say Hi! I had alot of fun at this years spring convention.  I usually only go to the Fall A2F but I didnt make it into this years Kawakon so I had the free weekend to come back down to Arkasas for their anime fest.  I had a great time meeting new friends as well as some old friends I'd been seeing at the cons since I started going. As you can see once again I didnt take many pics. Usually I take pics till I start getting alot of commisions then im just too buisy.  But there was another Kiki one of my fav. characters, there was a Ariety as well from the new Gibli move but she never came up to my booth so I couldnt get a picture.

My only reget for this weekend was not going to Kawakon and seeing the Yuka-pon concert.  I had seen her on the scedule after I had sighned up for A2F and was devistated. Last time she sang at Anime Stl or Natsukon i forget wich. I had a table going and was unable to see her concert, and I bet it was even better this time too.  I will just have to settle for youtube videos again :( 

Anywho I had tons of fun making bags and doing skethes for people and cant wait till my next convention Anime Stl ant the ol Gateway Center in collunsville Ill. Dont forget to stop by and see me^^

later pyons

hard days work

Well I spent the entire day at my desk today.  Worked for hours on these 3 posters as well as finished up a few buttons.  I did have alot of fun working on them though.  Specialy the Working!! pic, its something i've really wanted to work and I think it turned out pretty well.  The Gunsmith Cats is also looking pretty good cant wait to color these tomarow.

Went to my Aunts house for dinner too. Her fiance cooked some disiguouse grilled chicken and homeade potato salad YUM!

anyways im supper tyered and I want to get up early in the morning, Still have at least 6 posters to color ><

later pyons

K-ON! speed art

Made my first bit of speed art! This is the Inking of one of my new Posters for the 2012 conventions.  I had also made a pencil sketch video but I had used another camera for that and it saved the video as a .mov.  Windows movie maker doesn't accept .movs so I had to try and convert it.  Lets just say I had no luck.  So anyway I used my moms camera to tape this video and well I don't know exactly how hers works and wasn't able to chance the resolution of the vid or figure how to work the focus.  long story short I got this pixelated video for you all to watch.

I hope to make more that will be better so look forward to that.  Anyway enjoy the vid.  Sorry but my computers way to slow to capture screen video while I color so there wont be any coloring vids. But you can see how it looks at the convention^^

later pyons

Button Tutorial

I thought it would be fun to put my step by step of making buttons.  Here we GO!

I like to start by drawing all the characters on my 12x16 illustration paper.
I usually do 2 rows of 4.  Mainly I try to keep it all in the same series but sometimes I don't want to draw 8 people from one series so I just mix them up. I like to use the COL-ERASE brand colored pencils for this part.  I think colors Cormine Red and Light Blue work best.

After that I take the page and using Faber-Castell PITT artist pen type F. I go ahead and ink everything on the page.

Once I have everyone inked i go ahead and cut the pages into manageable squares.  Mainly 2 characters per page this really helps when scanning and also helps the coloring proses.  When you see 8 people on a page at once you just don't know where to start.  2 is a much more manageable number

*Commission Special* However when I'm at a convention and people request special buttons there is little space available.  So instead of using the bigger paper I opt to using 8.5x11 sheets of computer paper to draw 3 characters per page.  I then ink and scan as normal.  I also try and keep like characters on the same page. I can frame these and sell them later as is.  People like that kinda stuff.

I then go about scanning the images one by one.  This is probably the most boring part in the whole sequence.  I scan everything as 300dpi black&white .bmp files.  This is so I don't have to worry about cleaning or erasing the red or blue lines created in the penciling proses.

Now that I have all my pics in the computer its time to convert them into manageable file types.  You cant do much with a .bmp so first I have to change the color settings from b&w to RGB color.  This smooths out the lines and makes it possible to create layers in photoshop.

Next step is to duplicate the layer give it the multiple setting and start coloring.  For this proses I found it easier to write the colors of their clothes on the paper while I'm drawing them so I don't have to keep looking at my reference materials when I get to this step.

After all the coloring is done I can now copy and paste the image into my button template.  The template has 9 circles that are preset for perfect buttons every time.

Next i must re size and trace the image.  By the time I get to this step allot of the work is done and I'm really just clicking and using ctrl+t allot.

Once its been fitted into the space I just add a random color to the background.  I usually try to find a color that will contrast with the Character to make them pop. But its mostly just random.

Once I get all 9 circles filled I can now print the page.  I usually print 3 of each button to start.  My computer and printer is always on hand at conventions just in cast I need to make more.

Next is another one of those boring bits, cutting out the circles.  It doesn't seem so bad at first but if you remember each page has nine buttons and I print 3 pages of each sheet. That alone is 27 cuts not to mention I usually make at least 20 or more button designs at once a combined total of over 60 cuts!

However once I'm done with the cutting I get to one of my favorite steps. Constructing the buttons!  I use a 2.25 professional button maker that makes buttons in 30 seconds.  Not to mention its supper fun to see them come out looking all awesome and stuffs.  It takes some time to get them all made but I really enjoy this step.

The very last thing I do is put my signature on the back of the buttons before putting them away.

And that's how I make buttons. I hope you enjoyed the Tutorial,
later pyons

Korean x Japan

Hey gang,
Got two more Dramas for ja.  I kinda wanted to have my button maker post ready for you all today, but the way things are going I may not finish that till tomorrow (forgot how long it took to color these things).

First up is Watashi ga Dekinai Riyuu ( The Reason I cant Find my Love).  Its actually been quite a while since I'd seen a Japanese Drama.  Its so easy to just watch Korean Dramas on Hulu Plus or Drama fever these days, having to download each episode of the Japanese shows has been a bit of a bother.  Don't get me wrong I love me some JPN stuffs, its just so easy to watch streaming shows these days specially since the quality's gotten allot better.

Anyhow this show stars Ogura Saki whom I'd seen before in other awesome shows like Love shuffle and Tokyo Dogs.  She stars with two other girls Oshima Yuko and Karina who was also in Love Shuffle.  The three live together in a house and talk about there constant love problems.  Which is basically what the show is about, there love struggles and how they deal with it.

I had decided to watch a Japanese show and picked something from the Fall season so I wouldn't have to wait for the subs.  I saw it had two actresses I'd seen before so thought I'd give it a shot.  Well I really liked it, i had almost forgotten how much I love Japanese shows, while Korean shows are good there is just something about Japanese shows I like that much more.  Not to mention the fact I've been watching regularly since 2005 or that I can understand more of whats going on with out the subs....  anyway there good.  If you have time check this one out.  You wont be able to just watch it on Hulu like you can with the Korean Dramas I blog about but its definitely worth the download.

The next show I wanted to Talk about was Shut up! Flower Boy Band. This show is pretty awesome.  It's another music drama like Dream High but its about a all boy rock band and how they become famous.  Actually the Flower Boy name is part of this thing where they have a contest to find attractive young men and then give them a show or something.  Last years winners where in the show Flower Boy Ramyun Shop, and while I didn't really like that show, Shut Up! Flower Boy Band is a great Drama.

Basically its about a group called Eye Candy whose school is about to close and they have to be transferred.  But before the transfer there leader and songwriter Joo Byung Hee played by Lee Min Ki falls for Im Soo Ah played by Jo Boa and starts calling her his muse.  It just so happens Soo Ah is a student of the school the boys will be transferred too.  But before anything can really happen Byug Hee gets hit by a car and Dies!  So now there second Kwon Ji Hyuk played by Sung Joon has to step up as the leader.  Well of course this and that happens and Soo Ah and Ji Hyuk fall in love but cant tell the others in the group because they refer to Soo Ah as Byung Hees Muse.

The show is currently Airing and I am really enjoying it.  While it is about a boy band they don't have allot of singing and dancing like Dream High did.  Its more of a love story and the band is just part of the characters background.  All in all I recommend it to anyone who wants to watch something good.

that's all for now pyons.

button stuffs

started on sme new buttons for the conventions I got coming up soon.  I always try to make a few new buttons before each con but this time I have alot of characters I wanted to make.  I have a large number of characters alrady but with this new batch I might almorst double the amount of buttons I have.  May even need two folders to display them all^^.

First off I desided to make some more K-on! characters. Jun, Ui, Nadoka, and Sawako.  I really like Jun and Nadoka and just desided to do the others if I was gunna do them.  Also finished up the Naruto kids Ino, Choji, Kiba. Actually I think my iba turned out really good.  Also desided to do Haku and then I finished of the legendary Sanin, I have Jaraiya done so I needed to add Tsunade and Orochimaru.  Added Sandime and Pain for funskies.

I also did the whole main cast of Working!! one of my favorite series.  Then made my two favorite sailor scouts Jupiter and Saturn.  finishd of with Ayase from Oreno imouto, and QB from Madoka Majica.

I also have alot more I'm working on that I didnt take pics of.  Check out the Buttons link for my entire list of new buttons.  Its getting close to convention time and I cant wait to start selling my new line of new posters, buttons, and maybe a few new cutouts.

enjoy pyons

Crime Squad

Well here is the show I've been watching lately Crime Squad.  Its a nice procedural based Korean Drama that Stars Song Ji Hyo (from Goong) as Reporter Jo Min Joo and Song Il Gook as Detective Park Se Hyuk.

The show starts as Detective Park watches his daughter Hae In get killed it a traffic accident that Park blames on Detective Jong Ii Do played by Lee Jong Hyuk.  This is because Detective Jong was in pursuit of a dangerous cereal killer and shot him while he was driving his car which crashed into a nearby ice-cream parlor.  Hae In just happened to be in the parlor and Detective park was just outside and watched the whole thing go down.

Fast forward 5 yrs. and now Detective Jong is a captain and Detective Park has been assigned to his group.  Enter Reporter Jo who has no memory of her own father and had found Detective Parks locket that had him and Hae In inside.  She then pretends that the girl is her and the man (whom she doesn't know is Detective Park) is her father.  But now their lives have crossed paths as Jo is a designated Police Reporter and decides to follow Detective Park on his cases.

I really like this show, it does remind me of Castle at times when Reporter Jo is following Detective Park around.  However Park doesn't seem to like having her around at first and blows her off most of the time.  I recommend this to people who like procedural dramas, its not like American shows that try and close cases in one or two episodes. Sometimes the cases go on for 4 or five episodes.  They've even killed off some characters you would think where important in the long haul.  I've got about 4 episodes left and cant wait to see how it ends.

Check it out pyons^^

Comics?

Hey been a while since I posted new art eh?  Well here are some pics of the girl I'm doing for my comic.  I know I posted some last year but I'd just finally finished writing the first chapter. I know it took forever for me to figure how I wanted to start or what i wanted my characters to feel like.  Anyway I will try and get the first chapter finished so I can sell it at next months conventions but I really want my book to come out in volumes.  So I'll be working on the book which will be 7 chapters total and I want at least 2 books for this series.  I realize 14 chapters may not be much but I really have trouble coming up with stuff for these things.  It seems I have great ideas for comics, I just don't have enough writing skills to see it through.  I should probably take a creative writing class but meh...

So enjoy these for now, I will post uncompleted samples of my new line of Konart soon. pyon

bridal expo + car trouble

Well went to another bridal show last weekend.  As for the show I had a great time.  Talked to alot of Brides to be and drew alot of good caricatures.  It was in Springfield Illinois this time which was only a 2hr. drive.  Heres hoping I get some call backs^^.

However after the show was a whole nother thing. I had just gotten all my stuffs into my car when I noticed it wouldnt start.  Yes another car I had just bought is giving me trouble.  If it sounds familiar to my friends its just because this happens to me all the time.  Well anyway as so I just happend to be in springfield which is 2 hrs away I couldnt just get it towed to my house and deal with it there I had to get it towed to a shop. Which totaly ripped me off btw putting a $400 fuel pump in my car when I know for a fact I can get one at autozone for no more then $120.  A job costing $600 when I know I could of done it myself for the $150 it would cost to get all the parts.  But thats not the best part now it seems I need a ignition coil which is a $56 part but also an easy fix.  The car is at home thankfuly but I may have trouble scrounging the money nedded to get this new part:(

On a happier note I got some artwork done for the conventions I have planned next month.  They are coming along well and I hope to post some preview samples soon.

later pyons.