Project descriptions and teasers!

It feels like I’ve a ton of projects open at the moment, and it’s been long enough since I’ve blogged regularly that I might as well explain them. Not shown: looking for a graduate assistantship, my Project Management final paper, and all the conceptual ideas that haven’t made it to paper yet.

A nerdy recipe

It involves meatloaf. And that’s all I will say for now.

Green Lantern masquerade dress

early progress photo

The only way I’ll ever be able to cosplay Green Lantern Kyle Rayner is if I do it rule 63 style! I decided on a masquerade costume, so this isn’t quite cosplay, but rather me in a dress that will be reminiscent of Kyle’s old costume. I’m really excited for this. The pic above is an old progress shot – I have since acquired white cloth and a black choker, and soon I’ll make the mask and ring too.

Multivers’d

Ian McLoring

Yes, work on Multivers’d continues, mostly in character sheets, height comparisons and chapter descriptions. Expect some pin-ups and one-shots while I get used to the characters interacting with each other on the page. Progress will be slow for a bit, though, because I’ll primarily be working on…

“Day In, Day Out of Character,” an AT4W fancomic

panel from thumbnailed script

During Spring finals, I managed to get addicted to Linkara’s Atop the Fourth Wall comic reviews (found here and here). After finals were over, I was free to binge and plow through the entire archive. I may just be a bigger fangirl for Linkara than Doug Walker now, and – ahem. Right. I decided to make a fancomic.

Yeah, a fancomic. A long time ago I swore I’d never go down the dark, addictive path of writing fanfiction. Ah well. The odds were against me keeping that promise anyway. I can justify creating this fancomic because it’s a longer comic than I’ve worked on thus far (current estimate is 15 pages), but not nearly so long as Multivers’d will be. In other words – this is great practice for the comic-creation process. I already feel a lot more confident about being able to pull a script together for Multivers’d (although I may have to script an entire chapter before starting on art duty, so keeping a buffer will be key).

This is also the likeliest project to see fruition before the others, so keep an eye out! More pictures and comics will be up here soon.

Tossing and turning the page

I’ve been having trouble sleeping recently. I go to bed and I toss and I turn, and I think about Multiversed. As a result, I’ve made a lot of progress in figuring out the chapter storylines. The prologue and chapter 1 still need some work, but chapters 2, 3, n-1, and n are more-or-less planned out in my head (where n is the magical chapter when shit goes down, yo). I even have chapter titles for some of them. It’s an exhilarating feeling, having solid plot to work with.

And, if you check my Multiversed references page, you’ll see that I’ve posted an update with Damien’s character sheet. I’d hoped to have Valerie’s revised character sheet done by today as well, but… see for yourself :

Heh heh. To misquote “Bend It Like Beckham,” when drawing, I tend to make even mosquito bites look like juicy juicy mangoes. ^^;;

Sleeplessness led to another awesome turn of events besides Multiversed progress. One night I stumbled back out of bed, and went back to my computer. I was looking for a couple of documents in which I keep spare ideas (for incorporating into a Multiversed storyline, say). But instead I ended up reading the beginning of Strength of the Fallen. Then, amazed, I read bits of Areopagus. Then Spyder, Spyder.

They were actually good.

It’s been long enough since I wrote these projects that I don’t remember anything but the barest details of them. It was as though someone else had written them, some writer who knew what she was doing.

For the first time in my life, I agree with my mother that I should try to get these things published. …Which means I should probably finish writing them.

Therefore I’m proud to announce that I will be doing National Novel Writing Month again this year. This time, I will be writing the ends to the drafts from my previous three NaNo’s. This month, my prep reading will be the drafts; my homework to brainstorm endings. I’m incredibly excited for this. NaNo is the most hectic but brilliant time. I feel so alive (if tired) during it, and I’m sure this time won’t be an exception.

(And look at those pep talk guests! Holly Black, Dave Eggers and Lemony Snicket. SQUEE. :3 )

Last but not least, I’m including an excerpt of Strength of the Fallen. There are a few things I’ll change in a later draft, of course, but it reminded me of all the intrigue that’s at the heart of this story. Click to read the excerpt.

Tao of Geek Goodness

No drawing today, instead I’d like to send you over to Tao of Geek to check out the guest strip I did for Liz Walsh, and the archives if you haven’t already done so. I believe I’ve already said this elsewhere, but I’ll say it again: Tao of Geek is not the only webcomic I’ve kept up with since I started reading webcomics (Megatokyo, Dominic Deegan and CRFH!!! are also almong those ranks). However, ToG is the only webcomic that has consistently been my favorite. It was a real honor to do a guest strip for a webcomic that’s given me so many years of laughter, and I hope you enjoy it.

MSW: Duumvirate of Darkness

Bleh. Wanna know the reason why I chose a Sun.-Tues.-Thurs. update schedule? So that a post would be up by Mon.-Wed.-Fri., as I am counting on today. Hooray for large homework projects, late-night exams, and a number of projects that demand their own time commitments…

Anyway. Apparently my next few updates will all be Mad Scientist Wars related; I have only to choose which gets posted first. (The sad irony is that I have not had time to visit MSW for a few days, and may not be able to until Wednesday or Thursday night. *sighs*)

So. Comic dedicated to Prof. Zobot and Desius, I choose you! Some understanding of MSW may be necessary. As always, click for full-view.

Yeah, I go beddy-bye now…

SBE Week: Live from my brain

Incredibly, I haven’t shown these comics here yet. The first two just have really bad artwork-wise. Old stuff. Old old stuff. It’s the last bunch that are really embarrassing… Well, you’ll see.

Comic 1.0:

This one’s the same comic, only with updated art. Where ‘updated’ means ’2007 art’ instead of ’2006 art.’ It does have a test font based on my handwriting. Unfortunately, I can’t use the font with Ubuntu.

Comic 01.1:

‘Live From My Brain’ was supposed to be a series of comics. I toyed with some ideas, then abandoned the concept. Until Fall 2008. When I get the idea for this really good zinger which only really works in ‘Live From My Brain.’ Unfortunately, it’s also really embarrassing. For males, and for me. But. Good zinger means I’m also oddly proud of what would be comic 2.

Comic concepts 2 – 4:

Aaand there we are. *blushes*

Ashley watches Sanctuary episode “Warriors”

Sooo. My reaction to the Sanctuary episode “Warriors” was intense enough that I decided to document it. I’m sorry for all the Sanctuary spoilers I’ve posted in previous entries. There are no spoilers here, I don’t think, unless you really want to be surprised by Will (Robin Dunne stand-in, or Robin himself with a pretty damn good makeup job) suddenly sporting a Hulk-tacular upper bod. I – well, the comic says it better.

I am really proud of the left-hand image in the penultimate row. It doesn’t do justice to Will’s massive pair of man-boobs, but the face came out perfect. Sadly, the last row doesn’t do justice to the exaggerated nature of Will’s new build. He even looks kinda sexy there. Whereas in the episode his upper half is so big that every muscle looks fake. *sighs* Figures that just this once I get the proportions “right.”

The lesson that I learned from this episode: You can turn my favorite characters evil. In fact I enjoy a good “he’s not himself” storyline. But they will always get better. They will not stay evil.

But you mess with those characters’ good looks? There will (apparently) be hell to pay. I almost drew myself marching around with a pitchfork screaming for blood in the last panel. The pout is significantly more accurate.

By the way, all of this occured in like twenty seconds. Yep. It was a hit-and-run.

***

It’s finals week! And it’s devilishly cold in Des Moines. Snowstorm tomorrow, which sucks because I have no finals tomorrow, so I’ll be staying inside all day anyway, prepping for Wednesday. I can be done by Wednesday if I want. That makes me happy. But then, even if I don’t take the chance, I’ll still be mostly done by Wednesday. Still happy. ^^

I turned in my “final draft” of “Spyder, Spyder” today, and read a page of it aloud. I still need to actually finish it, but I got a significant amount of editing done. Surprise: I don’t hate it! Obviously I haven’t had enough time to let the sentences moulder. Now that the class is over, I’ll probably finish when I’m good and bored. The last two weeks of Winter Break maybe.

Progress is incredibly slow on the Mad Scientist Wars profiles. I’d hoped to be done by yesterday, so that I could start on the fun stuff today. I’ve decided not to post them on the MSW forum until I’ve got majority of them done (read: all MCs). Which means I’ll be working on art, but chances are there’ll be nothing for Wednesday. I’ll start posting “Spyder” excerpts, I think. There’s quite a few that I’m really proud of.

The problem with using friends as Sims

(As always, click the picture for a full-size version.)

Somewhat self-explanatory, this one. You, uh, may notice this isn’t in my usual style. Even when in 2006 I didn’t draw like this. (It’s a good thing 2006-Ash didn’t know how badly I’d make fun of her. She would have stopped cartooning in the first place.) There’s a reason for that, actually.  This is a fancomic for my beloved Tao of Geek, as written and drawn by the talented Liz Walsh. It was one of the first (good) webcomics I started reading, and probably the only comic I still have bookmarked from around from that era. (Come to think of it, I may have gotten into webcomics in 2006, too…)

So check out Tao of Geek! It’s fun, and amazing, and definitely my Favorite Webcomic Ever. I have more fanart in the works. Yes, now that NaNo is over I can indulge myself and do moar fanarts. And regular arts too.

It is weird now that NaNo’s over. It’s not like I don’t have work to do, but my every waking moment is no longer geared towards writing or procrastinating on writing. I can choose what I want to do now. Art? Anime? Webcomics? Mad Scientist Wars (I’m invited into the main Wars now! YAY!)? So many choices…

I’m still mostly high off of finishing. I have a feeling I’ll crash when the first major assignment is due. And – *looks at calendar* – oh look at that! Guess what the first major assignment due is? “Spyder, Spyder.” For my group in the novella class. Not all of it. But a goodly amount. Edited. I’m slightly bitter that I don’t have more time to let the characters and story settle, but hey. I knew the risks when I decided to use it for NaNo in the first place. *sighs*

Burning but not dying

I’m linking the comic today. Two reasons for this: first, because I forgot to ask Angelbetty for permission to present this off DeviantArt; second, because the content is an odd take on the afterlife – sort of like the Dantean hell with clipboards, ‘metal’ detectors, and goddess-angels whose job it is to become mortal and sacrifice themselves for sinners. Yeeeah… I’m not actually religious, so it was a surprise to have this idea come to me, that’s for sure.

It’s found here.

***

So! I want to talk about “Sanctuary.” It’s running on the Sci-Fi channel on Friday nights, and while I’ve missed a couple episodes, I still look forward to it every week. Not so much because of the plot. I love my urban fantasy, especially mixed with a bit of X-Files-esque investigations, but that’s not what draws me to this show.

His name is Dr. William Zimmerman. Actually, no, his name is Robin Dunne, but he plays Will in Sanctuary. And he’s hot. I tend to like the geeky/nerdy types – often lanky, usually bespectacled – and when I find one that’s pretty as well?

…Sorry, what was I talking about? Was distracted by a screenshot of him half-naked from the first episode. He’s chiseled. Woo. ^^

In any case, he is pure eye candy for the nerd-inclined fangirl. Aaand that seems to be his main contribution. The first episode (Part 1) fooled me into believing that Will would be the main character, but he’s not. His role is pretty interesting, but he tends to fade into the background against character giants Dr. Magnus and her daughter.

At the beginning of the first episode, Will was working for the police, where his uncanny, Holmes-esque insights were leading him to conclusions hinting at extraordinary circumstances.  This doesn’t make him very popular at work, but he finds relief when he’s hired by Dr. Magnus to help manage her sanctuary for extraordinary beings. This is where things get confusing for me. Will is supposed to have all these insights, but most of the episodes I’ve seen have proven his insight wrong. He’s not an everyman drawn into a world beyond his belief, he’s a professional with a gift trying to make it in this new world.

I could understand him failing, but I’m just not sure of the point to Will’s abilities if they aren’t going to get used properly. Granted, a part of me is looking forward to the episode in which he finally gets things right.  A part of me facepalms every time he’s so obviously wrong.  (And most of me giggles and says things like, “Come on, pretty boy, you better survive this one,” to the TV screen.)

From a literary perspective, Will’s character intrigues me because he’s meant to do what Minrei was meant to do in last year’s NaNo attempt, “Strength of the Fallen.”  Minrei spent a century as a superpowered soldier fighting in the elven wars.  She wakes up one day without her abilities.  I was trying to take on a different perspective – that of someone who’s been there, who’s built up this store of knowledge, and now has to chuck that knowledge away and relearn things.  I failed, I know this. Minrei couldn’t quite leave the realm of beginner, and it was hard for me to think of her as having so many years of experience behind her. I think for all my whinging, “Sanctuary” does a much better job with Will.  His failures are only a small part of the story.  If he was The Main Character he probably would have a better track record by now.  As it is, he remains the viewer’s entry point to the story.  He’s accessibly human, the voice of reason and doubt, and often the one who needs the same explanations we need to understand the plot.  So what if he isn’t always the brightest crayon in the box? He still works well as a plot device and as an avatar of the viewer.

Also as eye candy. …Okay, I’ll stop fangirling. (If I want more Will I can just minimize Firefox. Yay new desktop wallpaper!)

NaNoNews: Made halfway yesterday, and I’m hoping to get to 33,000-ish today. Writing the last bits has really helped, in fact I’ve written probably about 5,000 words just on that one scene, the one in which all hell breaks loose and all the romance and soap opera melodrama flies out the window.

But now that the problem’s been set, I have no idea how to resolve it. “Spyder, Spyder” came from an unusually plot-oriented dream (like most of my novel ideas), and everything up until this point was included. The dream ended with this scene. I can infer what happens, but I’m not sure how it happens, and what exactly is involved. Diane steps up to the plate, I know that, and since Patrick is indisposed for the moment, it has to be her. So how does she deal with this situation? Agh. After I finish off the scene, it may be time to skip to an earlier section again. -_- Back to the melodrama?  After all this awesome plot? Sigh.

Caution struggled

ART DUMP!, as promised. WheeeEEEeee!

Way back when, I did door signs for my roomies, in the Fighting Game Sprite ID style stolen from DeviantArt. Unfortunately Briana graduated after the Fall 2007 semester, and Christine joined us for Spring 2008 resplendent in all her elemental glory. A new door sign was created. And was never posted on this blog. I have remedied this.

Speaking of, the sketches for the Sprite IDs were pretty awesome. Just scanned ‘em in and sprited right over the outlines. ^^

I was very proud of the sprite I did for myself. (Have I mentioned that it’s use as my banner is temporary? I will make a new one in December, I hope.)

Same with Anne’s. Compare with the flat-color sprite here.

Mad Scientist Wars doodles. I suck at drawing guys, much less guys with different body types, so I got some references of half-naked men and practiced. With art. Of course. Mmm, they needs some chest/back hairs, methinks… Ah, but I don’t think I’ve got another excuse to draw the MSW characters half-naked, so it probably doesn’t matter. Thaddeus Guy, maybe (hee – werewolf form), but other than that? …I suppose DavidxAndrew yaoi is an option, but… uh… no. No, no, no.

Discarded idea for a Writing Workshop poster. I draw dragons better now. Also, note how terrible that guy looks. Do I prove my point that I can’t draw guys? Yes. Yes I do. (They has no curves… ;_; )

Front illustration of a card I made for Bri’s graduation. From left to right, that’s me, Liz, and Anne. Zombified roomies all. The inside of the card read “We love you for your brains,” which I cheerfully stole from what is possibly my favorite Schlock Mercenary strip ever (it can be found here).

Is that enough art for you? No? No?! Sigh. Okies, one more. It’s a comic strip. Click on the image for a full-view.

I was reduced to using the same panel. Ah freshman year. When my art sucked and my humor sucked more. There’s a reason I don’t do many comics anymore… I like this one, though. A few touchups, fresh art, and it wouldn’t be completely terrible. Stars myself, childhood friend Jess, and her boyfriend John. Based on a real life conversation.

NaNoNews: Erm. I’m at 22,000 words. Nowhere close to where I need to be. I’m starting to panic again, but I have only a paper for homework, and a lot of free time before I go back to sweet home Chicago on Wednesday night. I need to keep up the enthusiasm. So to do that, I have a goodly stock of snickerdoodles and York mints. I also have started writing The End of “Spyder, Spyder.” Not the final scene, but the part in which Everything Goes Wrong. Patrick, Diane, and Nick are about to find themselves in a whole mess of trouble. The evil, evil sadist in me is reveling in this. But at least I’m writing again, right?

>.>

<.<

-_-

…Sometimes I scare myself…

***

EDIT:

Revised my NaNo reward system. Mostly because I want heavily discounted anime DVDs, not the foodstuffs I promised myself for 20,000 words. There’ll be plenty of time to fulfill my cravings for homemade food – that’s what Thanksgiving’s for, isn’t it? ^^ The other change is at 30,000 words. I don’t think I have the time to devote to reading or rereading a webcomic archive. Catching up on five webcomics is doable, though.

• 10,000 words – catch up on 5 webcomics of choice
• 25,000 words – buy $25 item for self
• 30,000 words – catch up on 5 webcomics of choice
• 40,000 words – catch up on 5 webcomics of choice
• 50,000 words – buy $25 item for self

NaNo Confession

I’m still behind on my word count, but I’m writing everyday and getting those words out. I think I know how to reach 50,000 words now – go into my characters’ future, and create a subplot in which their future selves save the world.  Or try to anyway, I’m not sure yet if they succeed. But thanks are largely due to Write or Die!, which has really been forcing me to get those words out. I had no idea that I average 700 words per half-hour! By that estimation, I can easily reach about 2,000 words by simply devoting an hour and a half to writing.

Things are happy and rosy again. Probably not for much longer, though. The Graphics assignment’s due tomorrow, and I’ll probably pull an all-nighter to complete it. Then the ACM contest on Saturday… *shudders* I don’t want to think about that yet.

Since I’m just about out of quick sketches, I was going through my folders looking for other things I could possibly post here. There was a surprising amount, including this gem from my first NaNoWriMo (2006, year of “Areopagus“). Click on the link for a full view, please:

You can tell I still wasn’t comfortable with one style or another, and I had problems with everything. Head shape, consistency, proportions, hands… Ick. 2006 was a bad year for drawing. But 2006 was also the year I started really trying to develop consistency and style, so I can’t help but be a little relieved knowing that this was just an intro to the cartoons I’m now capable of.

Mmm… grande caramel macchiatos. Apparently 2006 was also the year before I switched from ordering cappuccinos to ordering caramel macchiatos.