February 23, 2012

Hair-Raising Awesomeness

There are a lot of projects that float around in my head that I never get around to doing. I have a bag with a lazy susan, two different sizes of buckets and a tube of glue sitting in my kitchen... Yeah. With a lull in work, I decided to tackle one.

I've had a stack of felt in various colors sitting on the top of my fabric pile for a while now. It's been there so long, I have forgotten what possessed me to buy some of those colors. Anyway, A-kon is coming up soon and I want to cosplay. However, since I don't really have the figure for standard anime girls or time to put something elaborate together, I thought I might rehash my failed Halloween costume from last year; Fiona and Cake. I've got the skirt, socks, shoes, a blue shirt, and a Finn hat that could easily change into a Fiona hat. No Cake, due to this disaster, and no backpack. So, I thought a pin/hair clip might just solve the Cake problem, since she can stretch and shrink just like Jake can. I might have to think about a sword too... but that's a project for another day.

So, I assembled the felt pieces I had, some soft and some of the more rigid type, my glue gun, some hair clips, white glue, a few fabric markers, a permanent marker and some scissors. After an hour of cutting tiny felt shapes, I had created replicas of some of my favorite things. I had already decided to make Cake, so I did Jake as well, also my favorite chibi totoro, and Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. In this image, I had layered the colored felt pieces, adhered them with a bit of standard white glue, and laid them outside so I could spray them with ModgePodge sealant. I hope that will help them stay together, stiff and keep the marker from fading or rubbing off. You cant really tell, but all of them were made from the soft felt and backed by a piece of the stiff felt. The Cake clip, in some places, is four layers of felt deep. For the Rainbow Dash clip, I used the fabric markers to simply draw her mark onto the stiff white felt, and backed it with stiff black felt.

After three coats of sealant and a few hours of drying, I got out my trusty glue gun and proceeded to glue clips to the backsides. This took a little more thought so that I could have the clips facing the right way. I made Jake and Cake a set so if I was feeling extremely nerdy I could wear one on each side of my head. The Rainbow Dash cutie mark is so large that I had to angle the clip so I wouldn't poke myself in the ear with the rainbow point if I wore it. And totoro, being so simple, was my test subject for everything before I did it to the rest.

Here are the finished products!


I can't help but think I could sell a ton of these... And for the record, Cake is my total favorite right now. Now I have to decide which one to wear to the con! Maybe I'll wear the Rainbow Dash clip and attract all the Bronies!

February 18, 2012

A Summer Wedding

In Texas, the summer is hot.

Duh, ok. So this post is about those wedding invites that I keep mentioning I was working on for friends. I thought I would share the two concepts I came up with. One fit their theme just a bit better, so obviously that is the one they chose. The other... well I will get to that.

Here is the one they chose. With their theme of "Gaming" a little nod to a classic DnD campaign was all that was needed to add a little humor to their invites.

I am not ashamed to say that I was just a little bit loopy when I wrote the text, but I still find it funny, but at the same time, it is my earnest wish for them. Being married myself, I have faced down those opponents in the past and continue to do so regularly.

Here is the RSVP to match.

And finally the second version. This one was a lot more summer and anime themed.



I spent a lot of time on those little caricatures of them and their dogs. I intend to have a nice one printed up and framed as a wedding gift.



Monster Pulse Fanart

Well you got a little sneak peek in my doodles post, but here it is... the final fanart for my girl for Monster Pulse. Since I basically did myself, I figure it's a self portrait too. And I added in all the bits of stuff like I would have in my room.


Thought of all my organs, ears might be cool to see as monsters. Of course you would get a pair too! Since the inner ear is snail shell shaped, I thought it would be cool if they were kind of snail like. Not much in a fight, but excellent for spying since I feel like they would work like extendable ears, as long as it isn't too far away she could still hear. She wears headphones though, since a hole-y head is super gross.

Without the monster ears, I guess it is a better self portrait... if a bit lonely.



February 17, 2012

Doodle Time

Blank paper and a pencil is better than almost anything on the planet. Yes, I have a tablet. Yes, I mostly color and ink in Photoshop, but really... where does it come from? where does those lines to trace start? With a simple pencil in my hand. Here's a collection of doodles from the last few weeks.

The first two here are a rough sketch for the last post I did of fan art for Adventure Time/ Avatar:TLA. 

This one, and you can see a really rough sketch for this in the first image (upside down), are sketches for an idea I had for wedding invites that I was working on for a friend of mine. I will most likely post images of the two versions I came up with in a future post.

In a recent episode of Adventure Time called "Paper Pete", Jake the dog is reading a large book about the history of Lady Rainicorn's people since he says sometime in the future he might have half ranicorn half dog pups. Imagining what those pups might look like is an awesome fun time. 

The next two here are for more fan art for a fantastic web comic called Monster Pulse. If you haven't/don't already read this comic you should. Right now. Go. Come back when you are done.
So I have been thinking about what kind of monster I might get. Nothing too crippling but still...


This is one of the scenes I sketched out for my submission for the Doctor Cat contest.

And finally. Another quick sketch of Agent Sonar. Since she is basically a space alien for all intensive purposes, she doesn't like the government. Basically they would love to get their hands on and study her. In our last session she was freaking out a bit since she is trapped in a building, inside a car, surrounded by SWAT teams.

February 10, 2012

Avatar Time!

So if you don't know... I love Adventure Time. I also love the Avatar: The Last Airbender tv show. As I was heading out to get the new Adventure Time comic, volume 1, I was also struck with the desire to find the new short comic for Avatar, called The Promise. Like these things do, a thought came to me in the car while I was driving... MASHUP!

I feel like Aang could get along with Finn tremendously and since Jake has stretchy powers, they could all easily travel Ooo together. This was super fun to do. Not sure why I didn't think of it sooner.


Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Adventure Time nor Avatar, this is strictly fan fun!

February 9, 2012

My Wedding Invites

Been working on the side, designing wedding invitation for a good friend of mine. They have kind of a DnD, board games, card games, video games theme for their wedding so it has certainly been fun thinking up designs.

All that thinking about wedding invitations got me wondering about mine again. I designed my own and since I worked at a printing shop at the time, I had access to on demand printing, cutting, scoring and folding machines and a sweet mail merge meets direct mail system so I could print all my addresses straight to every invite individually. With that in mind, I designed a self contained folder invitation with 5 insert cards that would fit in an envelope. Yes, I was spoiled.


Looking back, I wonder if I over thought it. A lot of my guests were from out of town, and not to be rude, but older. So I made sure everything was crystal clear. It should be mentioned that I am a bit of plan nazi. I need to have a plan for everything, even dinner and a movie with friends. I am not someone who can just drive someplace without directions, pee stops and hotels planned out along the way.

Anyway, here's a look at the insides. I found a few good vector art pieces and used them to create the look I wanted. Brown and Orange were my colors, as I love orange, and it was a fall wedding. Lovebirds.


The main panel on the left inside had the traditional information, the announcement of the parents, bride and groom, time, day and location. That's usually enough for wedding invites now a days. I also had a link to the website that I created for this event which had all the information anyone could ever want.

Here is a close up of all the cards on the right. The five removable cards were held inside like a small folder. I had one for Directions, Accommodations, the RSVP, Activities in town and a Thank You/Registry card.


The RSVP was two sided and had a stamp so all they had to do was fill it out and put it in the mail. It was a really fun card since I left space for notes... I got a few doodles and a lot of "congratulations!"
The Directions card also had a simplified map on the back that I drew in Illustrator, highlighting the places of interest for the wedding and fun things in the area.


Maybe a bit too much information... but after going to something like 10 weddings in the two years after ours, I feel like I could have done with a little more info on some of those others. Anyway, even with all that planning, people still got lost between the church and the reception. Guess that's life.