In this journal you will find:
o1. Ramblings, musings and observations about people and life.
o2. The odd meme and a few youtube videos tossed in.
o3. EYECANDY WHOOO...in the form of doodles and some finished artwork.

If you would like to add me please do the following:
o1. Introduce yourself...don't be shy, I'm not prone to biting...unless you're made of chocolate or something.
o2. It's not an absolute must, but at least try to comment regularly on my entries. I'm sure you'd want the same.
o3. DO NOT REPOST THE ARTWORK! I'm not claiming to be a perfect artist, but the things I make...they're like children. One does not like having their children abducted.
o4. Same goes for locked entries. I'm a private person.
o5. Bonus points if we have something in common. Friendships usually start with common interests!

With all of that in mind, leave a little comment saying that you've added me! And if you're bored, here's my older introductory post and an outdated contact information post. Enjoy!

Hello livejournalers! Or perhaps I should say, people of tumblr who are taking a break from reblogging! Either way, I hope everyone is doing well. For me, it's a a little under 48 hours until Anime North commences once again, for the 2012 convention season. I present to you the 10 pieces of fanart that I've plugged away at for a year and a half. I'm all packed up, and today I got my eyebrows, hair and nails done...so my body is ready(my mind is getting there too, I'll feel more like this is it when I see the convention centre).



No convention announcement would be complete without a table map. For me, I'll be seated at table E06, so for any of you going this weekend, please stop by, I've got lots of prints and might try take home commissions! I'll be posting photos of my facebook and my fanpage for my art and also my new instagram. So stay tuned and hope to meet some new faces in the alley!

...Perhaps I should have made a new year's resolution to update this thing more yes? Anywhoo, when last I updated, it was early January and I listed out my plans for the year, especially the art related ones. Now here we are, days away from the beginning of March. March is somewhat important for me, amateur artists in and around Toronto and ones outside of Toronto, who can travel here, with little to no problems. What am I referring to? Early March is traditionally the time that Anime North opens it's Artist Alley(known as the Comic Market) registration. And the day for that registration opening is this Friday. I'm sure you all know what I'm going to say next right? Wish me luck, pray for me, invoke any supernatural forces that will work in my favor. Just use the power of positive thinking and let's hope it all works out. I won't pretend that I'm not nervous about this, after all I'm essentially competing with 2000 or more applicants for one of 100 tables, but somehow I don't feel as nervous. Maybe it's how I went about preparing for this event, or the fact that I've been steadily churning out and sitting on completed artwork, I just feel a little more prepared. One thing I did differently, just like I said I would in my con report, I ended up writing a little email to one of the Comic Market directors. Rather nice lady actually, and she wished me good luck with my application this year. So maybe...just maybe she might remember my email address and the fact that I've asked. From mid December to the tail end of January, I'd pop onto AN's site on my iPhone, iPad, laptop, pc or anything that could load the site properly to list the Artist Alley registration day. The closer it was to February, the more frequently I'd check. Obsessive I know, but I wanted to be prepared! And when the day was finally announced, with the wonderful world of Google Calendar and syncing to my iDevices, I have an alarm set to go off at the moment my email is supposed to be sent. Don't get me started on how much I use Google Calendar now a days...

Going along with the whole inquiring about how the registration process goes through, I've even gone so far as to ask other, more experienced artists about their experiences, especially if any of them have had tried applying and failed more than once. I guess it should be no surprise but I'm not the only one who has had hopes of appearing in the alley, only to not even land a waiting list spot(I heard a story for one lady who makes prints and handicrafts who hasn't been able to get in for a while). Like me, most of the artists had concerns about how artists are selected and weren't thrilled with the whole lottery, most importantly everyone was really encouraging and hoped we'd all meet each other during that upcoming May weekend, and I hope we do.

Then there's my registration email...I've had this ready for a good, long while. I have all the documents pertaining to my ticket purchase, artwork samples, the whole 9 yards. About two weeks ago a Comic Market FAQ was posted on AN's forums and I made sure to find myself on that thread, armed with questions. As end end result, I ended up re-writing my email a couple of times and it wouldn't surprise me if I end up rewriting it a few more times before Friday...

Lastly, there's something to be said about confidence and being positive. With that in mind I've told a couple of people outside of Livejournal land about this project. Before only my mother knew and I sort of mentioned it to my dad and stepfather. Then I told my older sister and her reaction was to literally tell me that it was about time I did something for money with my drawings, and wanted a print. Then next thing I know, mom tells my aunt who was visiting from England(and of course auntie wanted a little something), then my grandmother...next thing I know, my supervisor at work is talking to me about conventions and she wanted to see what I do, and she ended up showing her son because he likes anime and I was all shy and telling her to stop complimenting me! Are any of you guys really secretive about drawing with people who don't draw? Finally, I posted about it on my sketchblog. I figure, why not? I've put in a lot of time preparing for this, even if I don't get a table at AN this year, there is another con I could go to and there's other conventions in 2013. Might as well be proud!

In the end, I'd really like all this work to pay off...


( Here's what I've been up to... )

Here's hoping Friday turns out well!

Whelp! It's been three days into 2012 and I have been thinking and reflecting on the year that just came to an end. It's been a pretty good year for the most part and I'm looking toward this new year as a chance to try out new things and continue doing the stuff that's working. One thing I really hoped to accomplish towards Christmas time, was that I would have finally been able to leave Walmart. Though I didn't accomplish that as I wanted to(especially with stores only hiring for the Holiday's while hospitals/labs having hiring freezes), I'm...actually not depressed about it despite what was going on for nearly 6 months! I'll keep tying to look for something else though, I'm hell bent especially if that Mayan calendar stuff is right! to move on and do better things professionally and personally! You know how I've mentioned a couple of times that I do volunteer work at this hospital? Well I can't go into a lot of detail without locking this entry, but what I can say is, for 2 years now I've been a research assistant and I love it. Apparently the doctor I work with loves things to because, she's been dropping hints for a while about applying for a job there, saying if she had her way, she'd hire me to work with the other undergrads that assist her in writing research papers and conducting research for the papers, or that she'd pull a few strings to see me hired by someone. Sadly, as with other places this hospital has a hiring freeze going on and because of unions it would be difficult to hire someone who's off the street but it's something. So with that, I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

On the art front, I can see improvements were made in 2012. I'm not getting stuck with anatomy as much when it comes to sketching things. Actually, I find myself visiting anatomy reference sites more, putting in the extra time to make sure things look right and make more anatomical "sense". As a result, when it comes to the digital inking stage with Paint Tool Sai, I've found myself going back and fixing my sketches, and with traditional inking, I'll sit there with my electric eraser and look over stuff before I bring out my pens. Bottom line: Leah is more careful with her anatomy. As for colouring, I've learned a few new things thanks to artists streaming their work or me just experimenting with stuff and it's had good results...I think! So let's take a look at the end results of my efforts shall we?


( The Art of 2011! )

And now for the important part, my plans for 2012! I'm hesitant to say "resulutions" because some of these you can't exactly complete in a year!


My 2012 Plans!

Art.

o1.A little while ago, I had an epiphany...I want to make this art thing some kind of side career! Now this is something I've thought about for a very, very long time, but I've always thought you had to be one of those crazy talented, super young, insanely popular people on deviantArt/online to be taken seriously when you say, "I want an art career."..But with age, experience and being exposed to different art styles, I've learned otherwise. So with that in mind, outside of the usual anatomy improvement/style development/I need to get my name out there. I have one idea that I plan to put into action once picture number 9 is coloured or all of them are finished. An idea that could make me a little money while I'm at it, I'm sure you all can guess what it is. If not...it's taking commissions! But any other ideas or suggestions on this one are welcome!

o2. I'm going to make an effort to be a little more prolific this year, or at least produce enough new art to fill one of those "year in art" memes!

o3. Buy better art supplies! Livejournal, I have a confession to make...maybe because I'm a mostly digital artist, and can make things "prettier" in photoshop, but I own some really crappy pencils, erasers and other stuff that I've been sketching with for a while. A good chunk of my time is spent darkening my sketches so that I can actually ink them and I know things would be a little easier if I worked with darker pencils but I'm a bad procrastinator who can't find the "time" to look for 2B mechanical pencils :D!. Luckily my birthday and payday are within days of each other, so as a gift to myself, I'm doing a little shopping on dickblick, jetpens and stationeryart.

o4. Break out of my habit of drawing on printer paper! Okay from the time I started making little doodles with my crayola markers as a little kid until now, I've mostly drawn on printer paper. I've tried doing the traditional sketchbook thing, the first two sketchbooks I've used are sitting in my box o' art supplies, not even halfway used, because they're big, cumbersome and their pages are crappy and stiff. A word of advice...do not buy sketchbooks from Staples! Fast forward to 2010, I went on this shopping spree for sketchbooks! I've been wanting to use those sketchbooks and they're smaller than the sketchbooks that I tossed away. So I decide to lay one out on top of my scanner, thinking it's about the same size as a sheet of printer paper(which is around 8x11"). WRONG! My sketch books are 9x12" which is bigger than the scanning bed! I've tried looking for 9x12 scanners with no luck so far, and I really don't want to chuck out these sketchbooks...any ideas? Either I use these or bust out my sheets of cardstock and sketch on those, but I wanted to save the cardstock for something.

o5. I want to make a comic! Hence me saving my cardstock!

o6. Finish my website update!

o7. Maybe actually draw anthro art and post it on furaffinity...?



Entertainment.

Finish my backlog of ps2/ps3 games! And also I've going to dive into the world of steam games.


Life.

o1. GO OUT MOAR AND BE SOCIAL DAMMIT! With that in mind zylice, YOU, ME, UMMM...How about some cake 8D?

o2. My mother thinks I need to smile more....perhaps she is right. Even charicatures of myself, do not smile, especially in relation to where I work!

o3. I want to join a gym or rejoin the gym I left...but I can't afford it! But I do have a couple barbells at home, I will get my epically flat tummy for summer!

o4. Get my driver's license! You know what? I want my own ride! I want a corvette! And I think, if I get a license, it might make a good bargaining chip in getting said corvette for a birthday and/or Christmas..."Mom, dad, I have my G2, I am an upwardly mobile, ambitious, young, caribbean Canadian, of mixed afro-asian decent...AH DOES NEED DEH CORVETTE LIKE YUH DOES NEED DEH WATER AN PLENTY, PLENTY FOOD! OH GOD NUH WHY YUH LAGHING?"(protip: my impression of native Trinidadian speakers does cause plenty laughs)

o5. Lastly, one thing I'd like to do, but hope it isn't seen as arrogant. I would be tickled pink if I could print, frame and hang some of my artwork. Over the years I've seen and heard of a few artists doing this and thought it was cool. Heck, my older sister ran off with asked for one of my prints...because it matched the colour scheme of a nephew's bedroom XP.

That's about it for me, what do you hope to accomplish this year or in the near future!

Do you have any special plans for 2012? If so post them here, I want to know! And..I'll write a summary of 2011 tomorrow. In the mean time I have a little inking and colouring to do and plan to livestream on and off, so pop in if you have a moment :D!