Monochrome Aristocrat

ANIME NORTH 2012

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:38:20 GMT

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!

WHY HELLO THAAAAR! And...the final countdown!!

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:20:19 GMT

...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...

Now this here is print number 9 of 10 that I hope to sell. It's essentially done, save for one little detail. I want to add a little text with the characters names and stuff. I had the great idea that I'd look for the exact font of the Persona 4 logo, along with the fonts I have installed on the PC. Problem is, I don't know what the name of the exact font, where to find it or legitimately buy it. I remember years ago reading about the possible identity of said logo font. Most typography enthusiasts think it's either a combination of different fonts for the letters or it's one that was heavily edited to look the way it does...Any ideas livejournal?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the lineart of print number 10 of 10! You know what? Inking this feels a little different than inking anything else I've drawn. I remember last week Sunday at work...Walmart being Walmart, and thinking about having to finish inking and colouring this, I started to feel a little sad. Not sure why, but maybe I'm sad this this whole big project is coming to an end? When I really think about it. I've been mostly drawing stuff for conventions for nearly a year and a half and never posted a completed image online. Until recently, I've been very weary about telling anyone about this for fear of jinxing myself or someone not talking me seriously. There's virtually no mention of this on any of the art communities I'm apart of, so my galleries look like they've been abandoned or I'm on a hiatus. All the money I earn is spent on this after my bills are paid. Last week Friday, I ordered little business cards, and feel incredibly professional. In early January, I bought a portfolio case to carry and store my prints and booked a hotel room because...I really don't want to carry all that stuff to and from a 2 hour commute to the Toronto Congress Centre. I think all of this takes a lot of discipline and dedication, wouldn't you agree? The best part of it all, people are so supportive! My mom, who happens to draw, suggested that instead of laying my prints out on a table for people to pick up ~~with their greasy, filthy, hands...(people wash your hands before you touch stuff D:)~~, I should present my prints in a...well you're just going to have to hope I get a table so you can see :p! Dad has offered to take me to this printing service he uses for his photography. My stepfather lent me the money to order my cards ~~because I give him all the chocolates he's not supposed to eat with his diabetes...cards for candy people!~~. Hell, even a couple people at work are rooting for me. I guess being secretive isn't always the right way...

Based off of this little diddy! Now I had no intention to make any more Walmart related art, for various reasons, but this one was pretty cute. Seeing how many people on deviantArt are making these and selling them online, I finally caved and made one for myself. I want to use this to keep the little knick knacks that I use at work, but if it comes out really pretty...I just might have to keep stuff in broken ziplock bags at work and use this to hold my fineliner pens XD! I showed this to a few people at work and they thing it's the cutest thing ever. So I must ask you livejournal...if I made a couple of these, with little drawings or maybe some vector art, would any of you be interested in buying them? Most artists sell them for around 10, 12 dollars(I think I'd go for $12) and I think it's a nice way to ease into the whole "I'm a commission artist and I sell stuff yo!" phase. I promise I won't run off with your money, I'm a good catholic girl ~~who reads yaoi...erm I mean "works of fiction depicting alternative relationships between consenting males"!~~!!

Here's hoping Friday turns out well!

2012: My plans.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 01:41:03 GMT

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?

Now some of these should look familiar to you guys. After all it's artwork for my, "Leah takes over Anime North" project! As of right now, I've finished the lineart for picture number 9 of 10and hope to get those fully coloured soon. I'm even going to work on these at the laptop if needed, despite not having coloured something from start to finish in years. I'm a desk girl, what can I say?

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!

Begin and End.

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:46:34 GMT

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!

The weather outside is...oh wait!

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:44:10 GMT

So...livejournal? How's it going? Everyone ready for the holidays and started your shopping yet? I have a couple of people left to do, and I have this "tradition" where I set aside one day where I head out to the mall right when it opens, get my gifts and be out of there before lunchtime and the huge crowd starts. On the Wallyworld front...it's still Wally! But one thing I've noticed as compared to Christmas shopping the past, the crowds just aren't as large. I've remembered times where it honestly looked like a thousand or more customers passed in and out of the store, this year, it's been shaved down to half that amount. But then economists predict that people will be much more frugal when it comes to their holiday spending...and yet they say the recession is over. So for me, I'm just trying to enjoy the relative quiet and not deck someone. On a happier note, I have a little something to share with you all!

BEHOLD...THE EPIC BUSINESS CARD OF EPICNESSS!!!!! For those of you who don't attend anime or comic conventions, it is not uncommon to enter into the dealers' room or artist alley, and end up with a small collection of cards from people who want your patronage. Since I want to sell my humble prints, I have to do the same! I went with this one online printing service that was suggested by the lovely finnimon. You know, just by having a business card design in the works, I feel this since of being..."legit" as an artist. It's great :D! I swear over the summer I'll draw something brighter with characters that are not frowning!

Next, is it just me or are a lot of people migrating to tumblr all of a sudden? It was one thing when it was just deviantArt people posting their works in progress and finished artwork, but so many other friends and coworkers are all telling me that there on tumblr now. What's up with that(imagine my best Jerry Seinfeld impression)?

View Poll: Tumblr anyone?

So if you're hiding on tumblr, ya better post a link to your page, because I WILL FIND YOU :P!

-Leah

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GAMIIIIIIIIING...desu...

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:35:05 GMT

I BOUGHT MY PS3!

Yes ladies and gentlemen, last Friday I got up in time to mosey on over to my "lovely" place of employment, had some Mickey D's pancakes(I swear I'm the only person I know of who likes McDonald's breakfast foods!), got my associate appreciation discount tickets~~made a sacrifice to the church of Sony~~ parted with my money and lugged my ps3 home. Not before stopping at the EB Games and picking up a copy of Sonic Generations. First of all, getting a new system couldn't have come at a better time. For one, winter is around the corner and when I'm not working on art or reading on the ipad(I really do need a post dedicated to the reading surge I've experienced), I need my games! I don't know why I stopped playing around 2009-10, but now I'm making up for lost time. Kind of a shame that none of the game developers really make anything for the PS2 anymore...my little Playstation 2 was my first "big"purchase" since being hired to Wally World. So people, anyone have any game suggestions to give me? I have my sites on Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 because, I have to get serious with Chun-Li, Disgaea 4 because, I love me some Disgaea. I've even gone so far as to join up with backloggery, to keep track of all the stuff I'll be playing on my ps2/3 and to finish all the NDS and PSP stuff I have laying around. So, to all you PSN people out there in lj land...

ADD ME NUH MANNNNN!</loltrini>

-Leah

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Proof that I am still alive...

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 02:25:58 GMT

...for those of you who don't follow me on twitter, tumblr, google+, facebook or any other variety of social networking and/or artsite, I am still living and breathing. Though there is a good chance that my spirit would find a way to connect to and communicate with technology from the afterlife. So for a small summary.

o1. Job hunting...still job hunting. Though, now that I have 4 years of retail experience under my belt, I'm trying for some of the smaller stores that I'd actually like to work at. Such as EB Games/Gamestop. Also I am motivated by the possibility of ~~free videogames~~ connecting with fellow gamers and sharing opinions of the latest strategy rpgs and fighting games. In case you weren't aware, I am the Streetfighter queen and am not above using Chun-Li when I feel the need to get "serious"!

o2. So while job hunting and all the good stuff, a little idea formed in my head as a nice way to make money and that way is...~~I'm going to become a stripper!~~ You'll find out soon 8D!

o3. I'm in the process giving my bedroom a complete overhaul and will be moving my pc from the spare bedroom. I'm excited about this since the last time I had a desktop in me bedroom I as around...8, 9ish? I'm certain this will lead to a boost in my artistic activity and a drop in my average sleep quota...but who needs sleep!

o4. Recently I found the source of my pc's problem with turning on and stuff that has been affecting it for a year. Turns out my 4 year old pc's power supply was completely fried, and according to dad, it would have ignited any day now...that's a comforting thought. Imagine, you're at your computer doing office/school work, engaged in a level grinding session in WoW/RO/LoL and...KABOOM, computer explodes. So after putting on my pleading, little girl voice, my networking college professor, apple-fanboy, computer builder hobbiest, father took my pc tower, replaced it's power supply and made sure everything is running smoothly. So now, I have to get him little items from Walmart when I have the chance. But to quote my mom, "at the end of the day, he is your father." ~~as goofy as he may be~~!

o5. In the next couple of days, I'm going to treat myself to a PS3, all thanks to the annual "Associate Appreciation" week. When I started working at Walmart I said I'd make getting a PS3 my big purchase before I leave, and I'm finally making good on it. So...got any game suggestions? For sure I want to get Catherine, Disgaea 3&4, Street Fighter 4 Super and Marvel Vs Capcom 3 over time. Any other titles I should look for? Are the downloadable addons from the Playstation Network all that great?

Now this would be number 9 OF 10...I'M ON THE HOME STRETCH AHHHHHHH...of the "Leah takes over artist alleys everywhere" project. Hoping to get number 10 finished or at least inked by early December. Then print everything, seal them in my clearfiles, get my banner stands and business cards, place everything away and breathe a sigh of relief!

How has everyone else been?

Now this...this was supposed to be for Halloween! But as always, my lovely, rewarding and enriching part time job decided to sprawl itself into my Fridays that I usually have off. So instead of colouring up a storm like I had planned, I was busy being volunteered to help get the store ready for it's November 1st, 50% off Halloween candy sale. I intend to finish it, but feel bad that I couldn't get it ready in time. I went and brilliantly decided to blow the canvas for this up to twice the usual size I work with and Photoshop CS5 has decided to be finicky, so I'm trying with my Win7 laptop and CS3 version of photoshop. Wish me luck! Also...human anatomy is finally starting to make sense to me. Yaaaay! Lastly, it is imperative that I let you all know that the filename for this PSD file is..."Thriller" :D!

-Leah

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PAAAAAAID!

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:45:39 GMT

Well, well, well it's been a little while since I've updated this livejournal. Last time I did was with my convention report for Anime North. One of the reasons for this was for one, my lj subscription ran out, I don't like looking at ugly, pooly placed ads all over the journal layout and two, I haven't updated in a while because all kinds of crazy and awesome things have been happening! So let's compile a little list of all that I've been up to shall we?

o1. Of managers, meetings and miffed associates(alliteration, I knows how to use it!).
o2. Job hunts and jubilant, jovial prospects.
o3. A little artist, ambitions and admirable attempts at self promotion!

Last time I wrote about it, I mentioned that, along with the incredibly "positive and fulfilling" environment that Walmart always provides, I was having a wonderfully "pleasant and enjoyable" time with my direct supervisor. So pleasant that I had to have a meeting with the store manager. Yes ladies and gentlemen things had come to a head and if they hadn't improved, either there would be a need for legal action or possible media involvement, if only to expose Walmart's wonderful policies and treatment of staff. Well I can say, I soon as the word "lawyer" was dropped along with a detailed account of experiences, along with dates and times, the store manager quickly assured me, that there would be an "investigation" into the matter and my supervisor dealt with. Was it dealt with? It sure was! Not only was my supervisor, strangely a lot friendlier towards me and her other underlings, I've heard rumors that she'll be working at another location. Funny how it takes the word "lawyer" for people to clean up their act. But I'll save the details for a friends only entry.

On the job hunt front, tried a couple of other stores, none seem to be biting, but I guess you can blame the economy. Though I do have a job lead. It's for clerical work at a hospital, because my dad has a friend from "back home" whose a nurse, and she has a friend...in human resources. It seems this day and age, that when it comes to a job, it's more dependent on who you know as opposed to your qualifications, so if connections will work for me, I'm not going to knock it. So, last time this nurse friend got in contact with the HR people, she was told they would love to hire me based on my resume just that they are waiting for students who worked over the summer to return to school so it looks like I have ~~to find any students working at Sunnybrook and break their legs~~ to just wait a little longer. Man, I got to tell you guys who good it feels to at least have a sliver of hope that I could finally have a chance at leaving Walmart after so much, for so long. Wish me luck everyone! I'd hate to think I was buying all these "professional" looking outfits for nothing! Y'all should see the shoes I've bought!

Last but not least, what has Leah been doing artistically? Well I've been drawing hardcore porn for a doujin magazine...okay, I haven't been drawing porn! Still doing the secret fanart for conventions bit. Also I've been doing what I can to promote myself for the 2012-2013 convention season! I've noticed a trend with online artists, dA people, webcomicers and anyone who regularly sells goods at conventions. They'll create a facebook fanpage with little updates on what they're up to. Now I've had one for some time and it hasn't had much activity on both sides, let alone new "likes". As fate would have it, I received an email from facebook claiming they were giving me a 50 dollars worth of coupon credit, for advertising my page. So I gave it a shot...by the end of the week, I had 60 likes! Literally every hour, I'd get notification emails about new likes, it was so crazy. After it was all said and done, I went from 38 likes to 114! I don't think I'll do the advertising bit for a while, and hopefully attract more people based on my actual art and encounters with people at conventions and the like. With that in mind...

Go ahead, like it! You know you want to 8D! But in all honesty, I'd love more interaction with people who like the page. I don't know how this works though, all the artist fan pages that I follow, people seem more interested when you post stuff they can look at as opposed to polls and discussion topics. I guess I'll have to print out my convention stock and post photos of it. Better boot up photoshop!

So along with the whole self promotion and fresh art for a new convention season, my website needs a facelift! A little while ago I made a temporary front page with a potential design idea, and over time I've been tweaking it and changing things here and there. So what's this chibi gothic lotita Gin doing here(her name is Gin if you had no idea. MY CHARACTERS DESERVE NAMES!!)? Well, a front page with a list of site updates is nice and all, but in the tradition of many artist home pages, I will slap a piece of artwork with some kind of mascot on the front page. I have all the other sections coded and written up, just a matter , of finishing this, and making something for the profile page and I'm set. Almost thinking of using this image for a vertical table banner, we'll see. One last thing, I've posted screenshots of the website redesign on my tumblr here and there and also on my sketchblog(both of which could use more love and comments, *hint hint*!), for the curious to enjoy. Now to actually get working!

How has everyone else been? Looking forward to return to school? Going on trips? Drew anything new?

-Leah

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Better late than never...REPORT!

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 01:25:02 GMT

As with every Anime North convention, there's a report and now it's time for that long overdue, patiently anticipated Livejournal Convention Report Special! Some highlights of this year include:

o1. The weather was really cloudy and rainy in the mornings!
o2. I didn't have anyone to tag along with. spleen, steaklunch I missed you guys D:!!

So let's start that report shall we?

About Anime North's Artist Alley(the Comic Market)

Since about 2005, I had a little idea forming, in the back of my head. And in 2007 I actually had the courage to write about it and discuss that idea. In 2008 I said by 2010 I would try to make this happen. What is this idea you ask? I want to try my hand at selling prints at a convention's artist alley, that's what! Funny thing is, I'm not so much motivated by making money from this. Don't get me wrong, it would be awesome if I could make a couple dollars doing this, but for me, it's just knowing that I had set my mind to do something and I succeeded. Also(like many people on the internet), I'm a shy person, really shy. I'd say 99% of the friendships I've made on and offline have been a result of people coming up to me and asking why I'm so quiet. Recently people would sneak up behind me, to find out what on earth I was doodling ~~and if porn was involved~~. That combined with my parents always telling me I need to go outside more, loving the way people on deviantArt and elsewhere would talk about how excited they are to see so-and-so's work, or meet up with members of a certain doujin circle...I figured:

o1. Known to make friends while doodling.
o2. Go to weekend event where products people drew are sold.
o3. ????
o4. PROFIT

But I will admit every now and again, while working on some fanart, I'll start thinking, can I really handle all these people staring at my stuff(and by stuff I don't mean my chesticles) and asking me questions and having to engage people in conversation and hope to not sound all derpy, then I remember after all this time at Wally world I've met all kinds of savory and very unsavory characters and managed to be alright, so
I have to do this. I've been steadily improving my drawing/colouring/photoshoping/inking/...animu-ing skills with this in mind for the last 6 years. While it's all well and good to draw for yourself, I find it relaxing to do this, at some point in time I think it's good to see where your hobbies can take you and what they can do for you in a positive way. If only I knew about anime and comic conventions earlier when I was just starting to learn about anime and wanting to draw more than just the cartoony doodles that I did when I was a kid, I would have worked to improve myself a lot earlier and got into photoshop eariler to. But better late than never they say. So another year of Anime North has come and gone, two attempts at getting into their Artist Alley(that they call the Comic Market, have eluded me. Though I try to take each year that I'm not in the market as another chance to walk around, take in all the panels(I just love the ones where they poke fun at problems with animation quality and scenes that don't make sense) and look at what sort of things people are drawing(and what products are popular to sell). There are certain aspects of the Comic Market that leave me less than thrilled, and it's making me reconsider if AN is necessarily the place for me to make that artist alley "debut". Though I hope to appear there one day behind a table, surrounded by some of the artists who's work I've admired for years:

o1. There seems to be organizational problems.
o2. I don't think there are enough tables to accommodate the number of people genuinely interested in being in the alley.
o3. I question the fairness of their hole table lottery system.
o4. How many people are really serious about this?

So going through my concerns one by one, the first one on the list is the organizational problems. Now I totally get, admire and understand that by nature, conventions like Anime North, Fan Expo Canada, Animaritime and all the ones in the US are fan run events. I get that unlike an event that's put together by an actual organization, I can't expect everything to run like clockwork, not even companies can expect that. With all of that in mind, in the 2 years I've been trying to get into the alley, I've noticed that it takes a long, long time for AN's staff to get back to people get back to alley applicants to let them know that their application email was received. Some people finally getting a response the day after the deadline for sending in their application. Now trying to get your email on time, combined with figuring out what to make and draw is stressful enough, but imagine checking your email every couple of minutes to find out if you were even considered(they'll ignore emails if they are sent earlier than the expected time). This year, I had a mini melt down thinking that my email wasn't received or got bounced back. I sent my application email on the Saturday night that the registration opened and finally got a response...on Sunday the next day. Now I'm thinking for something like that, convention staff should get as many people to respond to emails as possible, because I'm sure I wasn't the only person to send my email on the dot of 11 Saturday night, and wasn't the only one, who was really worried.

Secondly it's the number of tables Anime North offers to their artists. They have 100 tables, each table is made to fit 2 people. The thing is, according to the 2010 convention registration number, about 2000 people were trying to get a table. I'm not sure if this is 2000 people in and around Toronto or if this is 2000 people in/around Toronto and outside of the province of Ontario, but either way, that's a lot of bloody people! Obviously not everyone is going to get a
table, that's the whole idea behind their lottery(as opposed to some conventions where they want 60-200+ dollars to secure a spot), but something tells me, if such a large number of people are seemingly interested in this, and the population of convention attendees keeps growing(it was 16.5 thousand in 2010), someone would say "hey, let's get more tables!" after all, if 2000 people want a table, and each person pays 55 bucks for the whole convention weekend, and another 70 for the table...AN's staff is bringing in a cool $250 000 that they can use to pay the fees for renting out the Toronto Congress Centre and the Hilton Doubletree Hotel and I'm sure they'd have plenty of cash left to use to start up new events, invite new special guests and all that other stuff. Even if they increased the table amount to say, 300, depending how many tables are occupied by single artists and partnered groups, AN would get nearly 40 grand from the sale of all the tables. I've heard it said that for conventions(US ones mostly) 100 tables, is a good number based on the venue, the amount of people attending and making room for the dealer's hall where all the comic shops, art supply stores, weapon dealers and anime goods are sold. Yet when you look at Anime North's forums, year after year there's people begging for an increase in the table amount and AN's response is that they don't have enough staff to run and organize the alley alone. That and if they were to make concessions to the artists, they'd have to make concessions to the dealer's and the arts and crafts people. I don't know, feels like they could do more. To the US livejournalers who have been to anime conventions like AX, Otakon and others, did you noticed a lot of space dedicated to their artist alley? Was the alley a big attraction? Please chime in!

Thirdly is the lottery system itself. I remember seeing seasoned artist alley people like finnimon and others getting really concerned that a convention they go to would be switching over from paying for a table to having a lottery for a spot and after 2 years of trying, I understand why. It feels like you either have to poses an inordinate amount of luck or possibly be an artist alley regular in order to be in Anime North's comic market. I really hope this isn't the case, and I don't want to sound like an embittered person on deviantArt who feels everyone should love my work and I should be e-famous, not at all. Somehow, year after year, no matter how many people are applying, I always manage to see the same people in the ally without fail. Yeah it's great that I see my personal favourites but what about giving new people a chance? I've wanted to send an email to their Comic Market director asking how they go about determining who will get their first-come-first-served tables and then the final 50 tables. The only thing that keeps me from sending that email is, like I said I don't want to appear like some angry person who's jealous of all the people out there who draw better than me, always get a table and I want to be e-famous. In 2010 I tried and managed to be on the waiting list, by sending my email, a second(supposedly) the registration opened(and lost my waiting list spot because they claim I took too long to reply to their offer email). This year I sent my email the very moment registration opened and couldn't get into their 50 guaranteed spots, let alone their waiting list. I've heard it said that the problem is which email account that the applicant uses. AN's staff go with gmail, I go with Rogers and the timestamps for when email has been received can be off with client to client. Either way, there's been something a little off about this and I'm not the only one to feel this way. I'd use the argument of AN picking people who are internet famous but then this year, a couple of the regulars didn't make it this year and those who did had to manage to get on the waiting list, or bribe someone with a table to share a spot with them. I guess it's just luck on some people's part, but I'm still curious how people are selected and rejected!

Lastly about the tables, I've heard it said that when it comes to the check-in day, when artists get their badges and confirm that they're still interested in their tables, there's a huge chunk of unaccounted for tables(without any word what happened to the people who were meant to claim them). Makes you wonder how many of the 2000+ people who apply don't just do so to say that they did it? Like how the art newbie owl points out that many of us used to believe that having wacom tablet and photoshop was the be all and end all of being a good artist, or that our work didn't mean much unless there were hundreds on deviantArt/SheezyArt/Mangabullet/Gaiaonline to give us all kinds of praise. Perhaps there are some who maybe don't know what all is involved in being in the alley, but they know some artist(s) they like will be there. Perhaps...just perhaps...they apply for these tables because they want to hang out with people they like? Or maybe they apply, get intimidated by the wide array of talent and drop out, I don't know. Either way, I think the staff needs to implement something to weed out the serious people from those who are applying because they want somewhere to hang out or something. The best idea I can think of, is throwing out the whole lottery business, and raising the table fee. For one, if it was closer to 100-200+, if people(like me), really, really want to do this, they'd start saving from now. Saving for their table fees, saving to get stuff printed(unless you have an awesome printer and glossy painter at home), figuring out what they plan to make, the whole 9 yards. Would you believe that right now, on this very computer that I'm typing out this entry on, I have a 3 page word document with everything I've learned and needed to know about preparing psd files for printing? That I have two copies of my psd's in case the Photoshop gods decide to crap on my head and my files get corrupted(PLEASE DON'T!!!). In that list, I have all the currently popular mangas and animes from 2009, various anime themes(like shounen, shoujo, seinen, slice of life, sports, sentai...not to be confused with hentai...yaoi is welcome though!), locations of printing services, which one is the best and on it goes. I even have a word file with a timeline of what image I finished and when, so that I don't lose track of what I've finished. This might seem like a little much for some but remember this would be my first time I'm doing this and unlike a virgin on her wedding night(or in the backseat of some guy's car), I'd like to know what I'm doing, do it right and have it all go as perfectly as possible. So right now, I have 11 psd files in a folder called AN artist alley. They consist of 2 business card designs(with a link to my site debating about adding my twitter and dA page or facebook fan page), 8 psd's of jrpg themed fanart, 1 psd for a horizontal table banner that I'm thinking of redrawing and then investing in one of those banner stands, because I keep seeing people getting pipes from Home Depot and pasting samples of their prints to that and I have nightmares of someone stealing my prints and me going all ignorant trini girl on them if I catch them in the act...and I want my table display and print presentation to be different than the usual stuff you see. I have 2 sketches left to ink and colour then I'd be done! All that would be left would be to print out everything as 8x10 and 11x17" poster prints like I planned, put them in the little clear files with a business card in each one and wait. With all the abandoned tables that I see year after year, I can't help but wonder if all the people who apply and drop out at the last minute would be willing and dedicated to this as I've done my best to be? But I guess all that matters is that I do this one day. You must be saying "Cool story bro! But what happens if you apply for Anime North 2012 and still don't get in?" and to that I would say, in my fake trini accent, "AH GOH SHOW DEM HOW IGNORANT AH DOES GET WHEN TINGS DOH GO MEH WAY!!"...okay, not really...but I do get ignorant, it's genetically coded into my DNA. Sooo...I've found a couple of options that shall be written out shortly. For one, I found a couple of other conventions I could go to that do not have artist alley table lotteries and still are pretty big! And they are:

o1. Wizard World Convention: Toronto Comicon-March 2012
o2. Northern Anime Festival-July 2012
o3. Dot-con-November 2012(tempted to try for this year though)

Toronto Comicon is pretty big, and gets a lot of media coverage. In terms of space, it's held down at one of the buildings in Exhibition place, and the sad thing is, I wouldn't have learned anything about it unless a guy at the art supply store I bought my clear files mentioned it. And best thing yet, NO TABLE LOTTERY! All they want is 225 for their table fee and of course admission fees. Also I've heard the alley people are really welcoming of newbies ~~there goes my plans of hiding under the table and asking people to leave their money in my hand~~ :D! Northern Anime Festival is special. It's all the way out in Oshawa in the boonies of Durham region! For those of you who don't know, if Toronto is like New York(lite), Durham would be like a small set of towns in their own county. Oshawa is beside this little town called Whitby where I spent the first 9 years of my life before my parents split up. This convention has a 60 dollar table fee, it's on the University of Ontario Institute of Technology campus and is kinda small, a nice place to start the new artist alley vendor life I'd think. But there's a problem, and that problem is nearly 6 feet tall, 200 pounds and looks like me...my father! What's wrong with my dad? Nothing really, except that...he's the irl Mayes Hughs of dads! And since this is taking place really close to where he teaches(at Durham college), I can totally see him sneaking away from work to come and ~~embarrass me to the point of wanting to say I have no father~~ shower me with love. This is how it would go: "Thank you for your purchase and please enjoy the convention! Welcome to my humble table sir! Can I interest you in one of these lovely prints...dad? Go away! Don't you have work now? I don't care if classes are done for the year! No you can't have one! Fool let go of me! I don't know you! No I don't want to meet your friend who teaches third year economics! PUT DOWN THE CAMERA! NOOOOOOOO!" I have reason to believe he does this just to see me upset as many parents do but, I don't know. Though, since I mentioned NAF to him, he did say not to bother looking for a hotel room to stay for the weekend(because no daughter of his will stay in a hotel room!), and he'd drive me over each day, and only give bear hugs when people aren't looking and pack me a lunch and not be goofy in public, so I'll take him up on his offer :P ♥! Lastly there's Dot-con that's held somewhere out in Mississaugua , I have to find their fees. But at least AN isn't the only thing out there, but I still want to try. And as always, wish me luck! I'll let everyone know where I'll be and stop by and visit, so you can see my attempts at not being shy :P!

About the actual convention!

Wow I've spent more time talking about the alley than the actual convention! This year for one, the weather wasn't all that great, like I said already, it was all cloudy and rainy in the morning. I think there needs to be a rule where conventions are held in the best weather possible. Sunny, bright and not too hot. If memory serves me well, the last time the weather was cloudy was back in 2004 when I cosplayed as Utena. After that, ever weekend without fail felt like it was early summer. I believe it when people say that 16 500 people attend, because it felt that there were that many people and more. Perhaps it is the hormones but I noticed a surge in very attractive males in cosplay this year...but I wasn't ogling them or anything, not me! I'm a good catholic girl, practically have a halo over my head *whistles*! As always, there are a million Naruto and Bleach cosplayers, tons of Vocaloid people, the K-ON girls and cosplays of whatever was popular in the last 3 years. For some reason, I saw a lot of women dressing as the basic female Tame Rocket grunts. I wonder why? Well it is a pretty easy outfit to make, just a cabby hat, long sleeved top, miniskirt, gloves, boots, big red R and BAM...you're hunting down Pikachu. I want to dress like one and get back into cosplaying D:! I guess I should add that to my convention to-do list! Sadly my funds for this convention were...spent on Harvey's hamburgers since I didn't have much to begin with. So I spent most of my time walking around and looking at stuff. One thing that made this year's convention a little different was I was walking around with my iPad. Originally I wanted a iPad to ~~look like a sexy business woman~~ conduct e-business at a job better than walmart. Also, I had the idea that at an alley, I'd continuously play youtube and livestream videos where I show my colouring and inking processes as a way to attract people to my table ~~as opposed to flashing the girls and getting arrested~~. So far I haven't seen anyone else doing something like this, even showing off little videos on a smart phone, but it didn't happen this year. This year, I downloaded any manga titles that piqued my interest and read them on the bus to and from AN and as a bonus all the hot guy cosplayers would come around to see what I was reading...it was a good convention. I tweeted a lot this year with said iPad and got a few questions from people about the iPad. It also great for making quick references to anime titles they showed in the different viewing rooms. One thing I learned this year is that I really need to try and get a hotel room for this. For one the commuting sucks because it takes me 2 hours to get there, two I had to leave early each day so that I didn't get stranded like last year and 3 ~~where will I invite a lost cosplay guy to spend quality time with me during the evening?~~ I need my sleep! Next year, the very day that the Doubletree start's booking for AN I am getting a room come hell or high water. I hear getting rooms for that is as competitive as getting an artist alley table and they sell out of rooms within DAYS o_O! Another thing I learned or more like another thing I'm reminded of, is to never eat hotel food, but do I ever learn? Of course not! Why? Because I feel my stomach is made of steel and I can eat any crap I want...and then I get sick! The major food fails of Anime North include me eating a tuna sandwich and spending a week with diarrhea and this year, eating a beef onigiri and well...getting very gassy. My mom drums into my head all the time to not eat food from strange places because you don't know how fresh everything is. But it's a hotel! You'd think they'd do better, especially a hotel with the Hilton name! And after all, I love burgers and everything, Harvey's and Licks are the best burger joints in Toronto , but you get tired of it after a while. Maybe I should bring some non-japanese food from home that won't cause all hell to break lose on my stomach. But then I'd need a microwave...Also this year, I just didn't feel the drive to take as many photos as in past years, maybe because of the weather or not having people to wander around with and not having actually bought anything. Either way, I only took about 24 photos, which all all uploaded. As always I ran into a couple regulars from deviantArt, like kaze-hime, budgie and lone-momo, zanazac, minjii. Surprisingly I saw dA's ippus! Wanted to say hello and got all nervous and didn't *facepalm*! On the finaly Sunday of AN since I spent most of my time walking around and felt really tired, I had meant to stay home that day and rest. But upon checking my twitter I got a direct message from this girl, augest telling me to look for her in the dealer's room, saying she had something for me. Curiosity overrode tiredness and there I was! First of all, everyone needs to look through her gallery, she has some of the most gorgeous marker art I've seen! Been looking at her stuff for quite some time now, way back when I wanted to know about the mystical, magical world of Copic markers. Secondly everyone needs to take a moment to read her sci-fi comic The End because it's awesome and I'm asking you nicely to do so :D! So I come out and look for miss augest and when I finally find her, she gives me one of those little artist trading cards! As always I asked how much she'd want for it and she said take it as a gift...so sweet T__T! So we got to talking and I asked what she was doing in the dealer room if she was selling prints and stuff. Apparently she had also tried getting into the alley and didn't make it this year, so I guess it really is a luck thing. I'm almost thinking of trying to wiggle my way into the dealer room too. Though I'm thinking that I'd need to actually have anime stuff to sell, books or something to make my being in the dealer room "legit"...I'll have to take a trip to the Pacific Mall then. So we ended with wishing each other good luck with next years AN and I keep only looking at stuff ~~and trying to find the most perfect, most handsome Zack Fair cosplayer~~! All in all, I'd say it was a nice, quiet weekend!

Now this guy was adorable! I think his female friend dragged him to this at the last minute because the way he spoke, it sounded like this was his first convention. He kept asking me why there were a "bunch of girls half naked and not dressed like anything" XD. Makes a good Brock!

THE HAIR ALONE MAKES THIS GARTERBELT PERFECT! Really! All of who have seen Panty and Stocking know Garterbelt has that huuuuuge afro, this guy was awesome, and the scowl, right in character!

Perfect Kuroshitsuji group cosplay...but look at that Grell! She managed to capture the FABULOUSNESS THAT IS GRELL SUTHCLIFF! If I ever were to dress like Grell(which I'd love to), I'd remember the need for fabulousity as was shown in this photo!

What's special about these guys? Besides dancing outside in the rain...they were dancing to Bad. The black guy nailed Mike's moves to a T!

Best Onion knight ever.

Always liked Taokaka's design, Hazama is supposed to be based of of Mike in the Smooth Criminal music video, either way, this picture needed to be taken!

The rest can be found here!

I dedicate this entry to all the lovely guys who looked lovely in their costumes, I have so much love for you...I really do. And I mean innocent and pure love...no really!

-Leah

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Gone too soon...

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 18:22:51 GMT

I know the creator will go. But his work survives. That is why to escape death I attempt to bind my soul to my work.
- Michelangelo

I believe in these words, I really do. But some how, it still isn't any easier to accept that someone is gone. Y'all know the drill, I welcome comments on this entry, just please, please, please, don't be an ass today about MJ.

-Leah

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R A G W E E D

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:40:02 GMT

I really do need to make a proper update sometime soon, I do have two future entries in mind, one about Christmas 2010 and my recent acquisition of an...IPAD AMLQEJLWSJ LQSA!! But for now, a question to you lovely people in livejournal land. For those of you with allergies, have you noticed allergy season seems to have started earlier this year as compared to years gone by? For the past two and a half weeks I've been stocking up on the usual allergy meds and have been having a wonderful time with stuffy and sometimes a bloody nose that leads to lovely sinus pressure headaches. That combined with how sensitive I am to changes in air pressure, it's been headaches here and there. I'm surprised I haven't been blessed with a migraine yet(PLEASE DON'T HAPPEN). The only thing that seems to give me relief are the tower fans I have, an open window with a cool breeze and ice cream for itchy throats. So what do you guys do? When allergy season starts up? Also...why can't we make pollinating plants and ragweed illegal some how? On a lighter note...

Here we have mister Adell. As part of that quest of slowly(but surely) moving away from the super shiny desu, cutesy style and to a more semi-realistic one, I thought now was a nice time to move away from the blurry gradient colouring for the eyes that I've been using for the past 5-6 years and just shade the iris with black as I've seen a lot of artists doing now a days. And look at that...pupils! Should probably add those when working on the actual lineart in future. You know what else? When you draw something with good anatomy, a decent colouring job instantly becomes AWESOME whooo! Oh and for those of you keeping track this would be picture number 9(if you include my potential table banner for conventions) out of 11 pieces. Would like to try and get this one finished before May, in case I manage to snag a table on the artist check-in day. Failing that, I have a plan B and will try for the THIRD TIME FUUUUUUUU...with Anime North 2012. Either way I will find a convention in the GTA to sell my work at, and then the rest of Canada, then the US and then...THE WORLD MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...erm...yes, I'm passionate about this, can't you tell?

Should stock up on my Bryer's ice cream!

-Leah

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WEABOOS...Spreading the word?

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:54:03 GMT

Time for a non-locked entry! On the Anime North front I went and posted on a thread for artists who want tables and are hoping for someone willing to partner up with them . So far I've only had one offer that unfortunately fell through, but I still have hope for the check-in day. From the looks of it, only 2 or 3 managed to find someone to buddy up with and the thread was mentioned at aatoast. Maybe I should try another Toronto convention in the summer. Any ideas?

So the main reason for today's entry is this: We've all been following the tragic events in Japan right? Everybody wants to help out in some way, there's tons of dA and lj journals offering art commissions with the proceeds going towards the Red Cross or any other charity that's helping in the reconstruction effort and providing general aid to people. One thing I've noticed being repeated over and over: The only reason some people are making such a big deal about this is because, the earthquake is interrupting in the broadcasting of different anime series and the publishing of the latest manga chapters. And the only ones who really care are the weaboos. Hmmm...now common sense should tell you that we should feel compassion for Japan(and any other country affected by an earthquake or any other natural disaster/war), but I have to wonder, could there possibly be any truth to this? We all know someone who's like that, heck, I'm willing to admit from about 10-14 I was that anime/japan obsessed kid. I used to swear up and down I'd move to Tokyo and be the world's first black mangaka and I'd meet Naoko Takeuchi and tell her how Sailor Moon changed my life! After enough teasing, a wakeup call from deviantArt(and gaiaonline to an extent), I learned I wasn't the brilliant artist I thought myself to be and that not everyone wants to hear of the supposed awesomeness of that far away island in the east. So I settled down expanded my interests outside of anything with overly bright colours, disproportionately large eyes and sugary-sweet cuteness. Of course there are people who despite teasing, frowns and outright put downs from teachers, parents and the like, manage to ignore and never outgrow that "OMG I LUV JAPAN IT'S SO KAWAII DESU NEKO-NYAN ^____^!" mode, but can such people really have that much affect when it comes to the global community's attention to Japan right now? I really do wonder! So what do you guys think? What are your opinions on weeaboos/wapanese? Are you a recovering weaboo? Are you still one?

-Leah

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Is this...the end?

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:37:31 GMT

So it would seem that after 3 years of dedicated service, Mr. Black, my 80GB iPod classic is slowly, but surely going on the fritz. It all started so innocently, around October or November, I noticed that music would only play from one side of my headphones or ear buds. I thought my lovely skullcandy lowriders had conked out of me and would need to be replaced. I switched to ear buds, same thing. Then iPod earbuds, I even tried the earbuds that came with my iPhone and it's the same thing. But here's what really got me...about an hour and a half ago, I downloaded the Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt Original soundtrack ~~so that I can FLY AWAY NOW, FLY AWAY NOW, FLY AWAYYYYYY!!~~ and added it to iTunes. When it comes time to sync, the danmn thing will sync everything except one song. No matter how many times I restore the iPod to it's factory settings, readd songs, so dice. I even went as far as to remove everything from the iTunes music library, add the 900+ songs I have on my external HD and make new playlists. And what does my iPod do? Decide to not sync 300 of the songs, make windows give me weird errors, asking if I want to scan and fix it and all kinds of nonsene! So it's obvious that this iPod that I got for christmas in 2007 has finally come to the end of it's life. So what do I do livejournalers? I've been thinking of going to the Apple store that's near to home and seeing if they can salvage it, but I know once electronics, appliances and cars start to break down like this, it's best to just replace them. Of course this would have to happen when I'm virtually broke! Tempted to put my songs on the iPhone, but I don't want that to explode on me or something! Is it just me or are electronics today not made to last as long as 10, 15 years ago?

This video pretty much sums things up perfectly!

-Leah

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R e s o l u t i o n s .

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:13:28 GMT

Ooo two entries within a day of each other, looks like I'm starting the year off right :P! A post about the holidays with photos will come shortly, still have to sort things out and put things away. A ginormous thank you for all the birthday wishes, the day in question was a quiet one(as it's absolutely freezing out there) but a good one.

So here we are, another year has started and you know what that means? Time to list my new year resolutions...

Art.

o1. Improve on my anatomy and all that good stuff, surprised myself with how much my bodies are starting to look more "normal now".

o2. Work on digital painting. You know what, I still want to get as close to colouring like Hyung Tae Kim as I can, and learn how to blend skin and make things all smooth and pretty!

o3. DRAW MOAR MENZ!!

o4. Take back up my semi-realistic style or even better, refine it!

o5. I have another dream...I want an online shop. Guess I'm spending the year figuring out how to do this.

o6. Become a faster digital inker instead of spacing my inking sessions over days.

o7. Livestream more often.

o8. Promote myself!!

o9. Try my hand at anthro art.

Life.

o1. One thing I noticed about my time away was how I looked at Walmart. After a while, I stopped looking at it as this horrible place that enslaves and stifles people, but as just a store. So with that in mind, I'm making a real effort to not to make the store and all it's characters get to me. It's just a store at the end of the day.

o2. Socialize! Stop being so damn shy -____-!

o3. Eat healthier. I live 5 minutes from Pizza Pizza and I love my pepperoni, bacon and ground beef pizzas. Perhaps I ought to listen to mom and stop eating all that meat. But it tastes so good ;____;!

o4. Be positive!

That's about it for me. Do you guys have any special resolutions? How are they going?

-Leah

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Snow and social networks!

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:16:54 GMT

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So Toronto has got it's first dusting of snow on Sunday and it's been continuing since then. Yesterday, looking at how pretty it was, got out my oooollllld digital camera, took a couple snapshots and updated the sketchblog with them. I hear word that we'll get our first snowstorm by the end of the week. Now I love snow, but snowstorms...not so much D:!

Alright you guys, I'm going to ask you all to do me a little favour. You know my convention project? Well besides drawing stuff for that, I'm really working on promoting myself and getting what I do out there. And what's one way to do that is through all those lovely social networking sites. So I have a twitter and a recently made facebook(separate the personal stuff from the art!)page that could really use a little more love, so if you aren't following me on either already, would you follow me ♥? I'll bat my eyelashes and be all cute XD! And if you do already, tell your friends! The more the merrier as they say. I just really want all of this to go well. I actually have some inking and sketching related to that to do this evening.

Other than that, I'm really looking forward to Christmas, have presents for everyone except three people bought, why is buying gifts for men this difficult?!? Saying you want to enjoy "good health" is not a gift lol! How is everyone else? Click those buttons at the bottom, CLICK THEM!!!!

-Leah

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Ummm...what?

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 02:47:07 GMT

I really...really don't know what is going on. To be fair, creating artwork from sketch to colour digitally isn't easy. I've tried, but...I'm speechless, this has to be a joke. I don't claim to be the best artist around, but what I do know is that certain things shouldn't always be uploaded to the internet. And this is one such thing...

-Leah

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Fan page time?

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:00:49 GMT

So I finally caved in...caved in and made a facebook fan page. Been thinking of making one on and off for a little while now as I've seen a few artists from deviantArt with them. Seems to make sense, keep the personal fb accounts for everyday status updates, farmville...guildwars...you know, serious stuff XD! But yeah, figured might as well do this as to save my family from the day I finally start drawing ~~hardcore yaoi~~ less cutesy stuff. And, God willing, I will announce that the fruits of my labour have paid off with a table! Either way, I'm sorta proud for doing this.

Now dear people of livejournal, will you humour me? And like this page ;D?

-Leah

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Old man winter!

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:28:20 GMT

(Iz it can be sketchblog tiem nao?)

View Poll: Facebook fanpage anyone?

Depending on where you live, have you all noticed that it's become very cold really quickly? It's like in mid September I was still able to get away with summery outfits and now...it's freezing! Yesterday I went through the ritual on remaking my bed with my comforter and duvet along with thick, fleecy bed linen. So sleeping with 3 thick layers, I find a sleep like a baby. I guess I'm prepared for the next ice age! I've heard that Toronto may be hit with snow soon and I'm not too happy about that. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, I think the forested areas around my home look so pretty when there's fresh snow(should really take pictures!) but now, it seems way too soon for me D:! What's the weather like where you live?

Watch live streaming video from reafu at livestream.com

I better go put on my fuzzy slippers!

-Leah

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Interesting...

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:44:55 GMT

Listening to a local radio program about bullying in schools and about the recent stories of gay students ending their lives because of bullying(straight or gay those stories are heartbreaking). They're right now talking about how certain parents and school administrators would give kids a hard time when they defend themselves from bullies...that news makes my head hurt. So I ask you all what happened to common sense D:? In the mean time...

I LOVE THIS TABLET I REALLY, REALLY DO. I swear I'm colouring faster since acquiring it. No like shading and everything is so much easier. Maybe there's a reason so many digital artists have intuos wacom tablets!

-Leah

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Of upgrades and office space!

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:43:03 GMT

On Tuesday of this week...I parted with 500 dollars of cold, hard, cash...And this is what came in the mail in return yesterday.

INTUOS4 LARGE BABY!!!CAUSE YOU GOTTA GO BIG OR GO HOME!

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I got a new tablet. One reason: I felt like treating myself. No point going through all the lovely "adventures" at Wally for nothing. Two, always wanted to try out an Intuos tablet and as someone who's been using some form of tablet since 2003(I would love to learn how to draw and colour with the mouse, but I have a certain recessive condition that makes using the mouse with my right hand to draw....kinda not nice), figure it's time to move on from itty bitty, starter tablets. It was a long journey Graphire3, it was a fun little stint Bamboo Fun[Medium]. One thing I didn't factor in...

It's gorgeous though...it's just that I need a WIDER DESK WITH A KEYBOARD TRAY/DRAWER LIKE I'VE BEEN SAYING FOR A YEAR NOW >|!! Perhaps I should have looked a little more carefully at the whole tablet's dimensions and not just the active area info XD? But I'm keeping it!

See if the desk was just a pinch wider...

Problem is I have my printer and my handy paper caddy on the desk. Even when I was using my smaller Bamboo, because everything is sort of "choked up". I'd have to either hold my keyboard in my lap, place it on top of the printer and keep the tablet out and work that way. Quite awkward really. So right now, I can either, unplug the Intuos4 when not using it and have my keyboard out or keep rearranging things. Ugh...I guess I'll keep looking online at what Staples and Ikea have by way of computer desk that have keyboard trays.

So to my artist friends and non-artists alike, what kind of desk setup do you have :D?

-Leah

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Will you marr-BAWWWWWW!

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:27:18 GMT

Alright you guys I have something I need to get off of my chest, something that's concerned me for years...I'm directing this to the ladies...

WHY THE HELL ARE YOU CRYING WHEN A GUY PROPOSES TO YOU?!?!

No really, why? Whether you believe in the religious aspect of marriage, you must agree that when that question is asked, people are pretty happy hearing it and asking it. It's supposed to be a happy moment...why are you crying for? This man spent all kinds of money on the ring alone, you better be damn happy for that! The reason I don't understand the crying is that when we cry, 9 times out of 10 it's because someone has said or done something that hurt their feelings. You love this man right? You like being around the guy...right? WHAT ARE YOU CRYING FOR?!?!? If I were a guy and I proposed to my girlfriend and she starts that crying...I'm taking my bloody ring back till she calms down. Now before I get cries of "Well Leahhhh there's tears of joy you know!", yes I know...but it takes a whole lot to get me tearing up. Now before you guys say when a special someone asks me that special question I'll start bawling, I have it all planned out...

I'm going to have the most serious expression ever, I'm going to practically not listening to the guy. And when he asks me "Leah will you marry me ♥?" my response will be a simple "...fine..." and go about my merry way. I refuse to cry in front of him. I'll giggle and smile like an idiot, I might scream and run around in circles at home, do a couple cartwheels and jump on my bed. But no crying, you're supposed to be smiling argh! So livejournal, I'll make a bet with you all, if I'm still using livejournal and should I find myself in THE RELATIONSHIP that leads me to walking down the altar...I'll write an entry about the proposal and write my reaction. If I write about anything that sounds like "I broke down and cried", "He got down on one knee and I teared up!" I will give you the address to whatever church the little shindig is happening at, and you can come and smack me and say "I told you so!" :P! So to all the engaged and married ladies out there, did the floodgates open when the question was popped?

Since I finally am getting over this accursed cold, I whipped out the ol' tablet and started working on another of my SUPER TOP SECRET WIP's. I'm sure I'll be even more eager to speed up my digital inking with an intuos 8D!

-Leah

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Influenza...

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 01:11:43 GMT

Tomorrow would mark one week that I've been sick and this bloody cold seems to be lingering on. Apparently there's a flu bug that's been going on and I've either caught it from a coworker or from a customer. All I know is that I've been really sick since last Monday and started developing the symptoms the Sunday evening after work. I tried working yesterday since I was starting to feel better, but I think that just aggravated things. By the end of the shift, I was so worn down, not like the usual, "I've been on my feet for 8 hours doing crap that I hate" tired but really achy, and coughing, practically had to use my asthma meds. So today, I spent at home since I woke up with chills and weather wise it was really cold today. Last thing I want was to go out there not feeling right and come home even worse. Luckily for me I usually get one really bad cold a year and then I'm good. Hopefully this is the bad cold!

Now I'm the kind of lady, I always have to be doing something when I'm relaxing. Whether it's sketching, reading, blogging, doing my nails, polishing my jewelry(MAH BLING YO'!)...have to be doing something. Same goes when I'm sick, unless I'm in excruciating pain. So I went and started working on revamping the ol' artsite. Inspired by the layouts of barachan and celesse I found myself spending a long time reading through pages on the W3Schools site and random CSS coding tutorials. Gotta love when you end up learning stuff along the way while completing a project. I'm the most proud of now knowing how to make rollover buttons! Now just to draw certain images and finish making banners and button images.

Been a while since I've made a wallpaper and the very first time that I've made a wallpaper from something that I've drawn. As soon as I grow tired of my beach desktop, this is going up!

I really should go and rest, since tomorrow after paying a couple bills(CAN WE PLEASE GO TO A BARTERING SYSTEM?!?), I'm going to order one of these babies 8D! So how's everyone else?

-Leah

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I just want to be skinny...

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:03:31 GMT

Don't worry, I'm not going anorexic or anything. So I was on the twitter website looking at the horrible abomination that is the "new" twitter. You know how twitter recommends people to you? Well one of them I clicked on and she posted an image of what appeared to be strawberry ice cream(turns out to be chicken o_o)! So I started looking through the tumblr blog where the chicken ice cream came from and found the entries had a disturbing theme to them. The entries are written by a 15 year old who appears desperate to be thin. Now we can all sit here and list 21312319312312 different reasons what's wrong with being that young and wanting to be thin, we can also come up with as many things that we wish we could change about ourselves. But what I want to ask, especially you ladies of lj-land...

CAN WE STOP WITH THE DAMN SKINNY OBSESSION AND WORRY ABOUT SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT LIKE WORLD PEACE?

No really...women are supposed to have body fat, it's the rules. Crazy thin people can't have babies, y'all want kids right(or if you're me, you entertain the thought of a little one to get into mischief with)? If you go below a certain weight you stop having periods(...ideas...wait no!) and all kinds of crap starts happening. Seriously, can we stop with this now? If you were meant to be skinny you would have had the genes for it :/. Thoughts? Opinions?

-Leah

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Job hunt: Thwarted!

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:57:02 GMT

(Sketchblog a go go baby!)

So I've resumed my job hunt once again by first applying to 7 hospitals and job agencies online, so far I've got one email rejection and the rest having replied...quite encouraging *facepalm*. So today I was going to try applying for a job the old fashioned way...in person*gasp*! Only to wake up with a runny nose, a fever and lots of coughing. You guessed it ladies and gentlemen, I am sick. It literally happened over night. I'm thinking that I caught a bug from a coworker(GODDAMN COWORKERS COLDS ajiwrdwefd!!) combined with me working multiple late night and early morning shifts put the ol' body defenses on the fritz. So instead of going downtown to ~~beg and plead~~ look for a new job, I've been in bed all day coughing like crazy. If there's one good thing I've noticed about being sick, it's then that you really get to see friends and family go all out to take care of you...

Me: Mooooooom...I don't feel so good...I *cough*...sick.

Perhaps because I am her youngest and her last daughter, perhaps because she is a nurse by profession...whatever the reason my mother goes all out when I'm sick. She'll start off super sweet but if she sees me wandering around when I should be resting then the ~~la diablesse~~ appears with the chant of "CHILE AH DOES TELL YUH TREE TIMES...GO BACK TO BED NUH MAN!" XD! And if having a runny nose and itchy throat wasn't enough, I kept coughing up these things and being the mature lady I pride myself to be...I felt the need to show these to people! It was a slow, quiet and sickly day.

In the mean time I'll use this period of rest and re-cooperation to finally go and revamp my artsite, draw non super-secret you know what I'm doing with my art stuff and not scare people with my tonsil stones. How's everyone else? Anyone sick?

-Leah

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Just curious!

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:48:36 GMT

View Poll: Friends Only Journal?

Kind of tempted to make my journal friends only and clean out some of the rarely updated journals.

-Leah

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