Secondlina's Panels

It's a-coming!

I can't believe I made it this far. And without any schedule slips or anything. Heck yeah. Namesake is going well it seems!

Right now, I want to draw Harry Potter and friends. I just got some of the movies on blue-ray for my birthday, and the new one just came out, and I want to buy it and i'm all like Wizards Wizards Wizards. Go figure. I have a lot of love for the actors. Especially Rupert Grint. That guy is like super laid back. And he rides an ice cream truck (for real).

So.... next post will probably contain some Harry Potter. *laughs*

They really should not have comic conventions like the TCAF at the beginning of the month. There's like a million books I want to buy at the TCAF to get it signed by the authors... and all my money is going to rent. CURSE THEE TIME! I definitely plan on bringing my copy of "Shadow Eyes" to get it signed by Ross Campbell...

My stellar self-confidence decided to sink again while I was checking out the exhibitor list on the TCAF website. I mean, so many of these people are amazing. I feel like i'm not good enough to even walk the same ground... Link says that it's clearly the best of the best listed there, so I should flip out less and not compare myself to living gods and focus more on talking to them. *sigh*. I wish I have things like self-esteem and charisma.

- Isa

Hey guys!

First off, happy birthday to asatira , the_flowergirl  and earthstar_moon ! Sorry for not having sketches you guys! Things got busy over here and I haven't drawn much. I'm distracted by major amounts or paperwork, teeth pain and people. Next week will be quieter. I shall draw then.

In other news, I really need to make a to-do list. I'm having trouble making heads and tails of what I gotta do. C'mon Isa. You are more organized then this! I think i've been pushing back the making of the list being seeing all my tasks lined up is a little scary.

Among the things on that list, I wish to include the acquiring of new skills. For starters, I want to learn how to use Illustrator. Second, I want to learn to draw with a graphic tablet, in Photoshop. Not just color. Draw. I also want to learning how to use new inking tools, like calligraphic pens. Art is beginning to take up more and more of my time. I think I may wanna look into getting a part-time job next year or something. Need to start saving money :D

Last post, novabat  drew this.



Here is my reply.



Yep. Take that. :D Have a cuddly griffin!

This morning, on deviant art, I saw a fantastic fanart of Namesake by Hyacinth-Zofia. It's Ben, Emma and Elaine. I love how they all look in this. Especially Ben. Way to be badass.




Yesterday, I went to a conference about using the internet to promote yourself as an illustrator with a friend called Fanie. It was good. It was mostly stuff we knew already, but it was nice to see it all organized in bullet format. There was a lot of older illustrators though, that asked... good questions I guess, but about really basic internet stuff (so it kinda felt like I was back at work at that point. A the joys of working tech support). So we left to eat sushi. Oddly enough, I learned that Fanie as not seen Tangled or Beauty and the Beast. Clearly, I need to inflict these movies upon her.

After that, I got home, crashed on the couch with Link. He had started to watch a movie, so I joined him. The movie was called "The Blindness" and it promptly proceeded to violate my brain. No, really.

Tho take the resume from Tv tropes : "In an unnamed large city, an unexplainable and sudden outbreak of instant blindness is affecting people rapidly. In an attempt to prevent the epidemic from growing out of control, those suffering this are taken away and forced into a derelict mental asylum and held there until further notice. But the military guarding the place becomes increasingly hostile to the inmates, keeping them in at gunpoint. The government refuses to allow in basic medicines, so the hygiene and living conditions degrade horrifically within a short time.The protagonist is the wife of an eye doctor, who was among the first people to go blind. Because she is mysteriously immune to whatever is causing the blindness, she acts as a leader of her ward and tries to keep control over a situation which is rapidly deteriorating. It gets worse. Much, much worse."

This movie is TERRIFYING. Everything is realistic. You know people react this way. And that's scary. The wife, the only one who can still see, goes from a cute housewife to an amazing, badass leader. The movie ends on an uplifting note, which kinda makes me forgive it slightly for scaring the nervous system out of my brain. It's honestly a good movie, but it's not relaxing.

Looks like I got a cold now. I was freezing during the whole movie. I didn't notice the window was open. I guess I got a cold as a consequence. Nooooo! I don't have time to be sick!!

- Isa

First off, Happy St-Patrick's day to all! It's a good day to dance to jaunty music. Or drink booze. Whichever Irish stereotype you prefer, really.

Good god. I need so much sleep. But Jabberwocky is almost over. I plan on finishing the pages and illustrations on Sunday. Then all that will be left to do during the upcoming week will be touch-ups, wording and the cover. Oh my god. I actually did this. I will actually have managed to compete a full comic in a month. Jeez louise. I honestly never ever want such a crazy deadline ever again.

Link is going to be shading my namesake pages for the next two weeks. He's so sweet. Check out today's page if you want to see his handywork.

I'm currently pondering some ideas. At home, I have several fabric bracelets kinda like these :



Mine have monsters and robots and dinosaurs on them (you know why). Well, just yesterday, I found this website where you can print your own fabric and then buy it by the yard. So I though "These fabric bracelets of mine are really cool. And they sold really well at the con where I bought them. IDEA!". I'm thinking of printing some fabric with pretty drawings and making some of these bracelets. I already found instructions on how to make them. I wish I knew where I could buy the buttons to close them... But this plan could be awesome.

Anyways... Have some more Jabberwocky...

( Page 1 )
( Page 2 )

( Page 3 (Potential Not safe for Work - Childbirth) )



Aw, crap. I just realised "Adjacent" is spelled badly. If you guys see any more of these, please let me know.

- Isa

So, this weekend was very quiet for me. Instead of drawing for 12 hours ike I usually do, I got company. dqbunny  and earthstar_moon traveled several hours to visit me, which allowed me to take a good break. I still finished getting ready for the Geekfest (which happens next weekend, ont he 5th of March) and I finished my Namesake pages, so it wasn't a fully free weekend. But I didn't do any Jabberwocky. Which means that starting tonight, I have no social existence to speak of until I darkened 25 pages in ink. I've got five done, currently. 20 to go. Could be worse! I honestly needed the break. It was a good weekend. We plotted for Namesake, watched Megamind, went to chinatown, got good food and maple pastries... It was a relaxing and tasty weekend.

But not I need to go back to being an overworked hermit. It's a little sad, but that's what artist needs to do, amiright?

I checked out the Oscar winners yesterday. I'm disapointed. Oscars are so political. They have always been, but at least before, some of the judges would have a little integrity and at least include a few less-known or independant films. Nowadays, it feels like they don't even try to hide the political aspect anymore. Oh well. Don't get me wrong, I love some of the winners myself, but it really feels like the whole thing lacks diversity and variety. Who wants to watch an almost 4 hour long show and see the same actors and movies come back all the time? The song performance we're pretty. I enjoyed that. I'm sad that neither Tangled nor Summer Wars got included in the animation section. Boo.

At least the Oscar fottage totally fueled my current obsession for Anne Hathaway. No, I don't know why i'm all about that actress right now. It's a little weird, but i'm just going to live up to my weirdness.

Oh well. Time for work!

Before I go, fest your eyes on this gorgeous Namesake fanart by Ripaille, who's coloring skills clearly exceed mine. I wish I could steal her coloring talent.



My apartment is going to feel so quiet tonight... O_O

- Isa

Okay!

I'm participating to a convention called "Geekfest" here in Montréal on March 5-6. It's not Namesake related. Actually, it's for an activity that got planned way before namesake was born. It's for a character draw-a-thon. Basically, poeple come to see me, describe characters and can leave with the sketches or leave them to be posted. BUT I still want to use the event to indirectly advertize Namesake because... well, because! 

At first, it was suggested to me that I should print postcards as Namesake ads and draw on the other side, so that the requester doesn't loose the Namesake URL, since he won't want to loose his drawing. However, I learned that printing postcards was expensive, and the cardboard wasn't quite good for inking. So, instead, I think i'll print some business cards, and I got a stamp made. I'll give out cards and stamp the back of the drawing. So, they won't loose Namesake :D

So to resume, there's a few things I need to get ready for the con...

- Business cards
- Stamp
- Poster for booth
- Buy lots and lots of pencils and pens
- Get reimbursed by con staff for pens
- Get lots and lots of sketch cards (4X6 minimum and at least 200 of them)
- Get a tip jar
- Get something to attract people on desk (A giant pikachu? I have one! Or something?)
- Fix online portfolio prior to con

I know there's a lot of people on my con list that have attended cons either as goers or artists, so to you have any tips on how to make a booth look really snazzy? What attracts you to a booth? I'm usually attracted to the drawings themselves, so i'm doing some posters. :D

Here are my card and stamp designs... Yup, the cards are double-sided.







SKULLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

With all this con preparation buzzing, I can't seem to get much more then sketches done. I really like these. Most of these characters aren't actual characters. Born to exist for a sketch. Why is that girl making the "dat ass" face? I don't know...



At least it's proof that I can draw that face. Oh no, the world is in for it now. I have the power of the bitey lip in my grasp.

- Isa

ps. EEEEEE I GET TO DRAW FOR A WHOLE WEEKEND OMG

 Long story short, I got real sick for the past 4 days. Fever and all. That was accompanied by various levels of an identity crisis about my job, my comics, what I wanted to do with my life, my friends, etc. Because, apparently, i,m a suffering artist or something. Now i'm pretty over the sickness and the woobiness and I came up with a few ideas. The main idea is, I really need to make a list of goals and tasks. Keep myself organized. I think have a big board with that will make me feel good. Or maybe a journal?

I need some change on the artsy, life and job front. Time to get things moving. And making a list and checking it twice is a good start.

I don't have an ideal pocket journal. I used to always have a journal on me. I sorta have one now, but it's not perfect and I guess that discourages me to use it? My favorite type of journal was those half-notebook, half-agenda things. But I can't find one ANYWHERE. And I looked!  Isa wants her perfect journal.

I don't want much from life, but honestly, I love having the perfect bag, journal and pencil case. I change bags often since what is the perfect bookbag often changes according to my needs. I still have the perfect pencil case. It's good to have these things for me. It makes me feel more complete.

I had a friend that used to tell me that a person needs 5 things in life to be happy. A good job, a good project, a good love/social life, a good house and good gear. What qualifies as "good" is relative to people, but more and more, I think she's right about this. My "project" (comics) have always been on the fly a lot and disorganization and lack of a long-term plan is slowly killing me. The job, I often selected to just generate rent. I'm starting to notice that dissatisfaction there really affects the rest more and more.

Bottom life is, I need a plan and I need these five circles to be more balanced. I've always though that motivation and trying things once in a while would eventually get me where I want to go, but the more I speak to artsy gals, the more I think motivation is not enough. I really need to plan more starting now. I need personal goals and deadlines more then the general "comic artist eventually" idea.

Deadlines like "next year, two books published" and "go to these cons" and stuff.

I think this sickness allowed me to clean my body a bit and clean my soul. I felt incredibly stressed for the past few weeks and I finally feel like someone yanked my heart out of my chest and put a new one in to clean my blood.

Or something.

Heck, i'm babbling.

Lately i've been working on con posters. I'm doing an activity at a local con a friend of mine is organizing, so i'm gonna throw in some Namesake advertizement, because why the hell not? :D I really love the mood in this one. I wanted to do one with just Emma and Elaine and one with all the characters. Basically one showing off the cast and the other showing off a mood. 

And of course, TEXTURES.



S'all for now.

- Isa

 Hey there everyone!

Last month, I told you guys I was participating in the Comics creator alliance, a donation drive that starts on January 11th and finishes on January 24th. You can now purchase this cool wallpaper featuring a whole slew of character Brady Bunch style. All the profit goes to help end National Human Trafficking. 



You can check out their website for all donation possibilities (you can buy posters, last year's art, this year's art, etc). This year's poster is really fun and it showcases a wide range of talent. Be sure to also check out the who's who page on the website to lock on and locate all these wonderful webcomics. some of these artist draw some of my favorite things!

Minimum bid ia a dollar (mostly to avoid cheaters who only donate a cent just to get the wallpaper and be done with it). But even a dollar is an important contribution, so don't feel bad if that's all you can give! 

Emma, star of Namesake, and I are proud to be a part of this.

Here's an encouragement drawing for you peeps, it's Snow White and Rapunzel, the first and last ladies of Disney. Who technically suffered from abusive homes, were kidnapped and trapped for most of their lives. Because trapped girls don't get out of it as easily as in Disney movies, please donate!



And most of all THANK YOU!

-Isa

Hiya guys!

I finally got my new glasses!



It took a good day to get used to them (since the prescription is lower my eyes suddenly went "What, we have to work more? Heck no. Have blurriness!") but I think i'm good. The headaches seem gone (aside from the default "change of prescription" one I always get). It's a really different style from before, but it must suit me nicely because NOBODY noticed. I take that as a sign of "it looks natural and good".

I doodled a bit, mostly catching up on my pages. But I drew this really cool image of Emma in "Emerald City" fashion (including the goggles of course). It's one of the rare times I've drawn her smiling. Emma never smiles. She smiles a bit on the promotional material, but that's it. I think this is the widest smile I ever drew on her. I like little details like that though. Deciding what expressions a character uses it a lot. The face is where the personality of a character is shown.



At work today. It's so quiet. Quiet quiet quiet. People are still on vacation methinks. I'm jealous.

- Isa

 First off, I finished a lovely piece of art for the Namesake website. There's a webcomic update that fall on Christmas (since it's a Saturday0. I don't want to skip an update, but I don't want to put a page on Christmas either. So I made funny holiday art. 




It's the Namesake Gang (without Emma and Warrick, who are busy in Oz) in front of the portal/door to Christmas Town from "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Seemed like a fitting joke, considering the skeleton man is named Jack too and Burton has his own version of Alice going. Also, I adore those holiday doors from the movies. Those are some cool portals. Not as cool as the little door in Coraline, but close!

Also, Jack's hat cracks me up so bad.

I also drew this :



But this is for the Comic Creator Alliance. What is the Comic Creator Alliance you ask? Well, It's a group of Comic Book Creators (mostly webcomic authors), who have come together, volunteering artistic talents to raise money for the purpose of ending human trafficking. A bunch of artists get together, create a group wallpaper. The wallpapers (and posters) are given for donations and the donations go to help eliminate traffic of children kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. I'm all for stopping that. So I volunteered. Emma and the Cheshire Cat will be part of the wallpaper. 

I'll let you guys know when the wallpaper is available. Donate if you can. Human traffic is a pretty horrible thing. You get to contribute to stopping it and you get art. Good things indeed.

Artists on my list who have female characters? You can also sign up as artists! Please do. The more people, the better!

This is the 5th charity thing i'm getting involved with this year. For a cynic, I sure like signing up for these things.

- Isa

 Ad designs for Namesake's current ad campaign. These babies are going on the Girls with Slingshots webcomic page. It's basically two frames of an animated ad. Isa likes. The ad mixes a whole ton of various fairy tales. Much like the story. 





Tangled is out in theatres! I'm very happy. I wish I could go see it. But my life just got sidetracked pretty epically. So i'll probably check it out next week. I got the art book anyways. I want to see this movie something like 200 times.

Tomorrow will be long. More on that later.

- Isa