Back to school...

[secondlina]

Well, university is officially back on. I'm kinda looking forward to it actually. I'm a bit worried of course because I have a job, another smaller job, homework to do, learning to drive, classes to attend to and an internship to prepare all at the same time. Not to mention cartooning and doujinshis to draw...Well, like Link says, I whine about my workload a lot, but chances are, i'll enjoy every second of it (except maybe every second of my job...)

I got bad news today though.

I've been having stomach burn and indigestion and stomach related problems these last few days. I was wondering about it, and sick or hearing people suggest that maybe I was pregnant (My fucking stomach hurts you morons. How does that make me pregnant...) so I went to the doctors.

Turns out, either i'm having stress related acid reflux or I have blood rocks down there that are slowly trying to block my stomach and eventually will need to be removed...with a scalpel...in a hospital...

Damn.

Considering that even when i'm calm and drawing, the pain is still there and very strong, i'm fearing that it might be the later.

Damn fuck. Fuck fuck dammit fuck.

The worse part, I most likely did this to myself by wanting to resist illness by my own free will instead of with meds.
Yes, i'm an idiot. Who are you? God? *sigh*

I guess i'll go for hospital tests soon enough.

On a more fun note, I finally got a professional haircut and dye for the first time in 4 years. My hair is now black, red and purple. ^^
I also scanned a page from the doujin to post here, to show a bit of progress ^^ It's from the serious story i'm putting in. I decided to choose a different feel for it. Rather then inking it, I'm going to work with pencil tones. It's fun and it gives a beautiful result (this scan does not do it the best justice).

I also though that the pencil work would take less time then the inking...Nope. It takes more.
It actually takes me about 5 hours per page rather then 4.
Again, i'm kindoff an idiot. Again, unless you're God, you can suck it up! *laughs*



The story is about Lina dying and meeting the piece of shabranickdo that is inside her. I read in some Slayers book (I can't recall which) that since one of shabranickdo's parts was sealed in a human, that human could be Lina. I though It was a cool storyline idea and kinda regret nobody seems to have exploited that. So I decided to. hehe.

As another ps. I changed my icon set again. I'm fickle. But change is good right --_ ^
Now I have corpse bride icons (Aside from my timeless "Wind is fashionnable").

I'll end this note here with a drawing forsavvyliterate because she had a shitty day.


Oh, yukiomoni and the bunneh...if you want me to send you prints, I need addresses! Thank you. ^^

Comments

[the-flowergirl.livejournal.com]

Awww....I wanna hug a jellyfish too...can I can I?

*bats eyes at dqbunny* We can share 'im?

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

You have your husband. :P

[the-flowergirl.livejournal.com]

But he's not a jellyfish....he's just squishy.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Next post: Gourry's harem?

[the-flowergirl.livejournal.com]

I am TOTALLY all over that one!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

You already have a gourry, cheater! *laughs*

[the-flowergirl.livejournal.com]

So it's fair to single me out then? ;p

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Naw. I don't get Gourry either XD *laughs*

[the-flowergirl.livejournal.com]

True, but at least mine talks!

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

I adore you, you know that? You are so very squishy and I love you lots.

I'm going to ask a stupid question: What are blood rocks? *goes to Google it*

I can't wait until I go to a) the gynecologist and b) my primary physcian (whoever he is.) I'm suppose to be on medication for my little hormone problem as well, but there's really no point to it since I'm not trying to get pregnant and I like the fact that I usually don't have periods. I've also been monitoring my blood pressure and it looks like the Lavey history of high blood pressure is finally catching up with me. This is gonna be fun. I can't ever remember to take medicine.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I appreciate you too.

aaaahhh, blood rocks is the french name, It might not be the correct translation. Basicly it's hard little things made of blood and waste that are floating around in my stomach poking holes and blocking vessels.

You have no period? How weird is that! I hate having it, but it's good to clean out you body ^^;;;

I'm glad if Gourry made you feel better ^^

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

Gourry always makes me feel better!

Yeah, I don't have a period unless I'm taking birth control. I've only had them naturally a couple of times in my life - mainly within the past year. The really long medical term for what I have is "non-classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia" - which mainly means my adrenaline glands are overactive and I make too much testosterone. I have a normal female body, but that particular part just doesn't cooperate.

And blood rocks doesn't sound good at all. *joins you in your fearing about the hospital*

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Blood rocks don't sound good at all. Neither does that thing you have!

*hugs*

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

I feel the exact opposite of you. Uni's started, I'm waiting for the work to attack...but it's not?? o_O (Maybe it's lying in wait for me not to suspect it's near?) The comic is great, but Zelgadis is oh so disturbing...

I hope you're just being afflicted with stress, and not the other. Stress would be easier to recover from than...um, let's not go there. Either way, it's best to take care of it now than to wait for things to get worse, whichever it is.

And...love for the pencil shading! I think inking is overrated anyway. You can get so much more depth with pencil shading any day, I say. You put my art skills to shame! ^_- ('Evil Lina' looks really creepy. If I have nightmares tonight, I'm coming after you!)

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I was just talking about nekkid zel to someone. It seems a trend has emerged in my work. Mentor Lina and Naked ZEl seem to have moved into the panels and are now (even if somewhat disturbing) reccuring characters! ^^

Oh god, I hope it's stress too, but I unfortunatly don't think so. There's just too much pain. ^^;;; It's really too strong to be just stress. It might not necessarly be the stones either, you never know.

I was shooting for creepy. I like giving my "mystical villains" the bloody eye look for some reason. I hope you don't get nightmares, because i'd hate to see you come after me with a spatula or something. Although if you found her scary, i'm also taking it has a compliment, since it means the effect I wanted actually worked ^^

You read most of slayers. Is the Shabranickdo lead ever explored?

I was looking at the home doujin while drawing this page. I think I got better at this doujin stuff...and man, Home still makes me all chocked up! (kinda like watching spirited away does too for some odd reason)

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

In the seventh Slayers novel, Milgasia tells Lina and the others that he thought she contained one of the fragments of Shabranigdu. Although a third piece eventually emerges in Luke, Lina is never really ruled out either. You can read about it here and hit the link about who has a piece of Shabranigdu in him/her.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

er...link? It's not working *freneticly clicks*

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

Excuse me.

*goes attack computer with sledgehammer*

OK. All better! http://qpdiana-web.hp.infoseek.co.jp/report/Mazoku2005.html

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

Hey, steal my question, will you? (That's okay, I had to get off to sleep again...)

Aside from the reference in the novels, I have seen people use the concept in their fanfics, but it's always to make Lina the "Knight of Shabranigdo", and it always just seems stupid how people pull it off. I prefer this much darker/creepier way to do it. (So yes, the creepy look is good!)

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Well, shabby is a dark lord. LON was a higher entity representing chaos, and chaos can be positive too, hence why it's understandable that she can do "good".

However shabby is pure stinking evil.

If Lina was to be taken over by shabby, it would not be angst and golem style inner turmoils. We are talking dark deep bloody evil!

Hence why, according to me, the creepy.

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

If Rezo and Luke were any indication, Shabranigdo completely takes them over, he doesn't cooperate with them to have his wishes met. That's something that always bugged me about the whole 'Lina is the Knight of Shabranigdo but is still herself, etc'. We are talking completely evil entity here, not someone who can go either way depending on their mood (like the Lord of Nightmares).

I'm looking forward to seeing more of 'the creepy'. ^_-

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I think the whole "Lina is possessed but still herself" deal is just a cheap way for some fanfic artists to write up a dramatic story while permitting themselves to add romantic scenes of angst.

Shabby is the big bad. Big bad takes you over, you're dust to him. Shabby does not negociate!

I dunno. IT seems fanfic writters hesitate to kill Lina or turn her to evil. I don't really mind doing either, since doujins and fics are just for fun anyways. I kill her here, but she's still alive elsewhere. Fanfics and doujins are perfect to go that extra mile you can't really do with your own characters...

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

I admit, I'm an old sap and I like writing semi-happy endings. I've seen some fanfics where Lina dies, and I've always thought that she would do herself in somehow. Somehow, going gently into that good night doesn't seem very Lina-ish. She'd prefer going down in a blaze of glory doing what she loves (reminds me of how Steve Irwin died, actually.)

One of the fascinating things about Lina is that she's not completely "good" either - like Usagi, Kagome, Miaka, or even Amelia. Lina looks out for No. 1 first and foremost, which is why the end of Next proved to be such character growth for her. But, even though she did it to save Gourry's life, Lina was still being selfish and putting herself first because she decided "screw this world if Gourry's not here." Lina is greedy, selfish, manipulative, and isn't all hearts and sparkles. That's why she is such a fantastic character.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I like bad endings for some reason. I either love endings that are full of hope and that are so heart whelming you cry or bad endings. Cliffhangers drive me nuts (and the worse part about it is that i'm good at making cliffhangers)

I find the way you compared Lina to Irwin very interesting! Obviously, it's sad that the man died, but everybody knew he was gonna die on the job. I'm sure he's probably a bit embarassed about it, up there. Saying "Aw man, I let it get me!" *laughs* He was a very bold and devoted man. I admired him a lot. I think it's true that Lina would be like him. She would like to live till she's 100 (most likely Irwin did too) but if she has to go down in flames, she'll do it with pride and she aint going down alone...

I like the little bit of evil in Lina too. It makes her more human. I don't really like super good happyhappy characters because to me, they feel like dolls. Or at least, in Amelia and Kagome's case anyways, It feels like the character is still a kid. Still somewhat pure. Lina is young, but she lived a little, so she is flawed. But her flaws make her much more human.

Personnaly, I make my characters pretty flawed. If I look at the current story i,m writting, we find greed, fear, cowardice, egoist, jalousy, pride and all that fun stuff in everyone. But the characters balance out because for every smidgen of evil they have, something good sparks up.

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

I am very skilled at the nasty cliffhanger myself (ain't that right, Steffikins?)

I think that's partly why I'm liking the novels to Slayers so much. The anime is good in its own right, but the novels really expose the flaws in all of the characters - even the ones that come off as being super-squeaky good in the anime such as Amelia and Gourry. The fourth novel exposes the darkness in Amelia's past more and the Gourry short story reveals the darkness in his and overall both characters aren't as well...clean, I guess you can say. Zel has an even darker past than in the anime. So, everyone is really flawed and it's so nice.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

thank you, very informative ^^

Because it rocks...

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

Because Zel/Toaster is now my new OTP...

Re: Because it rocks...

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

*LAUGHING*

I love that icon...

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

That doujin page looks awesome and the story should be interesting to read.

I'm sorry that you're not feeling well. Hopefully it's just stress realted so you won't have to go to the hospital.

(Laughs at Hug a Jellyfish) That is just cute! ^_~

[nyami.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to University as well though I don't work or anything at the same time so I wish you the best of luck with everything! If you don't mind me asking, what's your major? :3

Naked Zel + Toaster = winner. That cracked me up so much this morning. The expression on Lina's face on that last panel is priceless.

Gah, sorry to hear about your stomach. :/ I hope you won't have to get an operation. Could it possibly be IBS (inflamated bowel syndrome)? I had HORRIBLE stomach cramps this summer. I had to lay off everything spicy for a little while. Zantac fixed the problem within a couple of days (it reduces acidity). So if it's acid reflux I suggest you try Zantac. And don't eat anything that might upset your stomach (spicy food, chocolate, etc) for a couple of days.

And wow, that doujin page looks FANTASTIC. I simply adore how you use your own personal style to draw Slayers character. They have more facial expressions. I don't know, it's just neat. Loving the ammount of details in the hair for some reason. Call me odd. Gah, you make me feel like rewatching all of Slayers now! It's been years! ;3

But yes, good luck with University! I'm going back tomorrow. I'm anxious and excited at the same time. @0@

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I'm a visual arts and administration student (I'm currenly taking two bachelors in a combined program)and I want to go work in advertisement or in the publishing industrie...and secretly I also just want to be a cartoonist ^^

Once again, like the Zel stripping series, a short spoof has turned into a running gag. I wonder if zel just inspires does out of me.

Laying off chocolat and spices and going to go buy that med in the next hours!

For the doujin style, I figure that if I use the original style, it's cool and all because it's acurate but at the same time, where's the originality? Where's the fun? I like drawing hair too, hence why I draw complicated hair ^^

It is said that facial expressions are my forte. I like to draw them out well ^^

[nyami.livejournal.com]

Ack, just realized I replied to someone's comment rather than your entry. Silly me. I should watch what I'm doing in the morning. >_>

But oooh, double major! That's fantastic! I'm a Linguistics student but if I could I'd double major in Marine Biology (but it's not offered at Carleton U and I don't believe Ottawa U has it either). My minor is the Japanese language (was aiming for Korean but again, not offered). From what I'm seeing you'd make a great cartoonist! I'm surprised you didn't try the 2D Animation program at Algonquin. I was in it for 2 years but it just wasn't for me.

I like the running gag. Maybe because it's something funny coming from Zel. Not something you'd expect him to do, I guess!

Let me know if Zantac and all makes a difference! You need to give it a few days but it should make a difference if your problem is only acid reflux. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope you won't need an operation.

I think it's always much more interesting to see an artist use their own style to draw characters. It gives them a "personal" touch and makes them much more unique. And I agree, you're pretty good at facial expressions. And I wanted to add that the perspective in the panel where the shabranickdo is reaching for Lina is looking great (the "but I can save you" pannel).

Anyhow, feel better soon. :D Hopefully your stomach isn't suffering from anything serious!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Linguistics and marine biology? *laughs* No I don't think they would offer a double program of that, since not a lot of people would put these two together (In my case, any art program can attach administration because it's kinda required for an artist these days)

I don't like to do animation. I mean, I love animation, but i'm not all that confortable with it. I prefer playing around in panels. Some people think panels will limit what you can do, but they really don't. Nowadays I see several comics that take panels to the next level...I prefer by far the comic medium to the reel (although I used to be in cinema in college! But filming and animating is again very different.)

I did do a short animation a while back about death.

But it sucked.

God, I love the "But I can save you" panel too. It's creepy and agressive, and eerie...it fits how shabby would come to someone I think.

[nyami.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not certain Universities will let you major in two different areas. ;3 I'd have to ask her but I have a friend in the US doing a major in two unrelated things. Somekind of a backup I guess? It just means she has a crazy course load since she has to keep up with much more classes (she has to do a course overload). I wouldn't mind doing that. My goal is to be an interpreter/translator so if for some crazy reason a marine park would need someone to help translate things for their websites/business-related things, I wouldn't mind. Though I'd settle for living and working near Niagara Falls.

I didn't like animation because frame by frame was just... repetitive. You'd be drawing the same thing over and over and over again and nothing was really different from one frame to another. And there was a lot of pressure on you in general. Illustration is fun + you get to ink and color (they usually give that to a different department in Animation). I don't think you're limited with a panel if you learn how to use your space. :3

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I'm very proud of that page ^^ I worked very hard on it.

*shudders* God I hope it's acid reflux or something minor myself.

Everybody loves a jellyfish

[paynesgrey.livejournal.com]

I LOVE those drawings and can't wait to see more of your doujinshi!

I hope you feel better! ^_^

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see more of the doujin too XD *must draw*

Today the pain seems to have calmed down. I'm crossing my fingers.

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Neat! So the doujin is a whole bunch of different stories?

I am intrigued already.

I will send my address if you give me your email. =3

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Also, I am sorry about your tummy and its rebellion. Speaking from someone who truly understands, I feel for you. Alot.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I figured if anybody would understand the tommy aches here, it would be you ^^ I don't think it's quite has bad as you though (I'm not crying in pain or anything) but it's a minor (to sometimes major) disconfort I can do without.

And yes, yhe doujin is a collection of short stories that go from one to 8 pages that are all stories I wrote and drew these last few years. Of course, the really old drawings will be re-done (I have a joke that's 5 years old!)

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

secondlina@hotmail.com

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

I understand. Even a small pain is still a pain. Are you going to see a doctor? (I think you SHOULD!)

Woooo....I can't wait to see them all ;.;. I'm such a fan and stuff and like whoa and all of that horrible gushy crap.

[0-amber-0.livejournal.com]

I was about to ask you what are you studing, but nyami asked it for me :P

XDDDD You're comics always make me laught, I mean it. And naked!Zel is probably the running-gag that will persist on the LJ collective memory for the generations to come XP

I'm not medicine (almost, but not... I'm studing for veterynarian :P) but I'm more inclined to think on the major-acid-production-due-to-stress hypothesis... from your synthomes, it fits better than the other posibility (I'm not sure how would it be actually named in english... I think it is the equivalent to "coágulos sanguíneos" in spanish...) but I may be wrong... in any case I hope is not that serious ^^U And if in the end a surgery is needed, I asure you that sugeries are nowadays very safe, so "don't worry be happy" :P

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love to scar generations!

I'm not worried about the surgery if ever I need it, but I,m worried about the time and money that will need to be involved which will be in both cases things I don't really have. Also I kinda don't want a huge scar on my stomach. (My mother had this operation)

[kitesareevil.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I'm on savvyliterate's flist and she keeps saying all these good things about your artwork, so I thought I'd come take a peek at it myself. At first I was shocked by her praise, because come on, there was nothing in it for her! Then I realized Zel was nekkid and it all became clear.

For serious now, your artwork is quite good, and I'm getting a kick going through your LJ looking through it. The bunneh cartoon killed me dead a few times over. And that little cartoon above with Lina maybe having a piece of The Dark Lord in her? I haven't seen that idea explored and that REALLY has my interest piqued.

I do hope you just have some acid reflux because UGH, I've been under the knife a few times in my days and I wish it on no one. Good luck with it, and your school year. *eyes my own school work with a glare*

[kitesareevil.livejournal.com]

(^^; I hope you realize I was abusing the bunneh, not you! I just isn't a good day unless there's bunneh abuse! *shifty eyes*)

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you took the tour ^^
I get a lot of people telling me my art is good, i'm so very flattered! When I think most of these comics are drawn in less then an hour, I blush in shame! (They don't compare to the doujin page or the colored drawings on which I spent almost full days!)

And yes, Nekkid zel seems to have become a popular and reccurent character ^^

Good luck with ze school ^^

[gigabahamut666.livejournal.com]

*waves waves* I would really love to see your doujinshi aswell! If it's ok, I would send you my address to your e-mail but I just wanted to check through here first. The thing is, I'm from Liverpool in England so I'm not sure how much postage would cost but it would be a little more expensive than usual. So I want to pay for it through something like paypal if you have it!

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

Oh...er...wow I really don't know about the postage either. But i'm still willing to try sending it to you, once I will be done with it.

Thanks for the appreciation ^^