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Finished watching this (short) anime series. It was pretty good! The manga version (also short - three books) is equally good. It was a nice play of the magical genre and motifs. Although, unlike a large chunk of the fandom, I really don't feel like it "broke" the magical girl genre. Since the genre tends to often have loads of drama and angst to go hand-in-hand with the fluffy costumes. It's why magical girls are so beloved - they kid ass, fall down, get back up, and learn to be more badass. But yeah, despite me disagreeing over this fact vis-à-vis the fandom (and getting quite a lot of tumblr messages over this), I still loved it. Badass.



I'm in a bit of an art block. It seems I can't draw anything but Namesake pages. when I try, my brain goes "should you not be drawing Namesake pages?" Block caused by feelings of responsibility, perhaps? I wonder how I can break it. I am pretty engaged into drawing the final part of chapter 10.

I started reading Kimi ni Todoke, a daily life shojo. It's mostly about a girl making friends and of course, slowly getting feelings for a pretty chill dude. It reminds me of Fruits Basket, minus the fantasy elements and evil family in deep need of therapy elements. It's pretty dang cute. I recommend it.

In other news, my life is nothing but drawing and reading comics, I really should get a life before summer is over *laughs* At least I read outside and bike a whole lot. Sorry for being so boring!

Anybody knows any good books explaining out to write a narrative story well? I'm think of educating myself more in the subtle arts of prose and plotting.

- Isa
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A little bonus for all the Namesake fans (especially those who participated to the Kickstarter for the printed version of volume one). This is a “work-in-progress” of the downloadable character art reward. It’s FAR from being finished (no lighting, shadowing or swaaaaaaag), but it’s complete enough to get people to see what it’s about. Basically, one of the Kickstarter rewards was character art. Said character art was originally going to be sexier pin-ups of the main 8, but me and Megan decided otherwise at the last minute because of Kickstarter’s rules. So instead, I designed character art based on the ideas of Tarot cards.

I really love this idea. It allows me to put a lot of symbolism in.



Emma is the world, or the "nameless card". Needless to say, it links to her role in the plot.

More cards under the cut! )

In other news, woah holy crap today was weird at work. People were SO rude. I'm thinking it's because it's the end of March break and parents are tired of having their kids around or something, because WOW. I was never treated so mercilessly by clients in my life (at this job anyways). People were just... urgh. Rude. And there was a bunch of parents letting their kids run around unsupervised, I had to tell a few of them to stop running (sternly too, because I told them twice), had to take books away because kids got into the adult section, etc, etc. And while i'm babysitting, and not actually doing my job, the parents were walking around, chatting on their cell phone. Loudly. I tried to get a few to, oh, I don't know, look after their damn kids, but all I got was blank stares. One of our nicer regulars (she comes by for a veeeery large comic pile every 2 months) said it best : "These parents are assholes."

So yeah.

At least yesterday night rocked. Me and a few friends did a great Card Captor Sakura Marathon. The show is still adorable, the food was excellent and our added commentary was hilarious. It's bound to happen again soon - there's 52 episdoes and 2 movies to see!

- Isa

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These past few days I had Sokka's singing in my head "Badgermole, badgermole coming towards me, c'mon guys, help me out!". So I had to draw a bagdermole. The first earthbender with the best earthbender is yet ANOTHER Avatar the Last Airbender fanart. Let me know when you guys get tired of these *laughs*

Deviant art link.

SoI decided to try watching something that is new to me, but rather old to everybody else. I have never seen Comboy Bebop. And I noticed all the dub was available on Youtube. So I started watching it while drawing today.

First off, the dub is amazing. It's rare that I watch dubbed anime and that one of the voices doesn't make me want to switch languages. But Comboy Bebop has a good, fun and humorous dub. And it's an older series too. Bravo.

Second, HOLY CRAP. The animation is allright, but the mood, style and music is mind-blowing. This series kinda feels like Trigun and Escaflowne where a few things that really don't make sense with basic physics happen (comets making people immortal? Explosions in space? Helium voice planet?) but you just don't care. Because the nonsense fits with the universe of the series. "Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but holy crap lookattiiiitttttt!!!!"

So far i've watched 8 episodes while coloring. Thanks to my new dual screens, this is awesome. I have to admit I really enjoyed the episode with the space truckers. And how the inside of their space trucks are decorated and cozy in a multitude of styles. Love it.

No wonder it's an anime classic.

- Isa
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Today Marco left. He was Link's old roomate in Toronto and had just spent 2 years teaching in Tokyo. He really loves Japan, and he loved being back. He brought us one of those wind chimes you always see in anime. I love the sound it makes. This was a really fun visit for everyone. I loved it.

In other Japan related news, Satoshi Kon died. He's the director that gave us awesome movies like Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika. I'm sad he died. I was hoping to see so many more movies made in his distinctive style. If you've never seen his movie, definitely check them out. Most of them drabble in the strange. But I recommend Tokyo Godfathers to people who don't like mind screws and love stories full of love and good cheer. That movie just really tugs the heartstrings over and over.

I'm just working on Namesake pages right now. And sketching on the side, silly things like the ones on top. 

A cute Medusa, some Aang and Katara fluff (trying to meditate!) and Jasmine Talking to the Genie. I always wondered if those two ever really interacted. You know, in the tv series or the sequels or something. I always imagined them as bestest buddies, but I can't even recall if they ever had a significant conversation...

- Isa
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 Lots and lots of stuff happened. I was mostly doing okay. Once in a while, I had pretty bad cramps, but as a general rule, I was doing okay. tonight i'm back to bad, but it's fine, since I had a great weekend.

First off, I finally bought a second screen so i'd have two screens on my computer. That way I can color and watch movies at the same time. It's not that useful for my drawing per se, but it prevents me from being bored while I draw, and that always boosts productivity. Link when to get the screen and installed it before I got home on Friday, because he's the bestest boyfriend ever. Give him a hand, folks!

Then, this weekend, my good friend Fauve and her fiance visited. On Saturday, she and I went to the Montréal anime con "Othakuthon". It was pretty fun! Last time we went to this con was in the opening year, where the quality of it really disappointed us. This year, there was a lot of improvement. The costumes were beautiful. I was really impressed by a sexy Scarlet witch and a really beautiful Katara, who looked truly like the character herself.  I got a plushy, and the "Pretear full collection" for 14$ (I know, wow).

In the artist alley, two friends of mine were doing very well. Hinoraito was selling her gorgeous hand-made earings and her shoujo manga (check out the link for her awesome art you guys! It's awesome!). My friend Patrick was selling his pixel-art. He's quite talented (he made me a pixel cheshire cat!) and people really noticed him. I'm so happy for them!

Funny anecdote. I followed a very sexy pink bunny girl with a hammer inside a Tim Hortons (coffee franchise, for all you Americans out there) that was near the con. There was a lot of men in suits. Their reactions were priceless and deserving of a comic. 

After the con, me and Fauve went to visit old Montreal, where a traditional Matsuri festival was taking place. Fauve also wanted to visit the jewelry shops in the old Montreal to get silver snowflakes earings, just like the ones I had found there a while before.

After that, we went to see SCOTT PILGRIM. Now again in bold for good mesure : SCOTT PILGRIM



Taaaaadaaaa (Yes, that art is mine, don't be fooled).

The movie was pretty good. I still prefer the books. Except for the ending. I prefer the movie ending. It was nicer to the character of Knives. Though it made Ramona into more of a woobie. But I guess she was a woobie all along. My favorite part was Scott's epic window escape. And Wallace. wallace was perfect. He can text in his sleep! The thing I didn't like about the movie was Michael Cera. No matter how good the movie was, he still doesn't feel like Scott Pilgrim to me. Though his voice works. It's really his face and mannerisms. Check out this Scott Pilgrim animation (it's gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and you can see that his voice really works with the character. It's really his body language that clashes.

Yay. Monday tomorrow. Or rather, not yay. There's some kind of conflict amongst the members of the team. I'm not clear on the details, but lemme tell you, the work ambiance sucks. I feel sick whenever I need to walk out of my desk. I don't even want to go to work tomorrow. I'm afraid this is going to end badly because it's a conflict between two people who pretty much hold the thing together. I really fear for my workplace. :( 

- Isa

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