WIP poem/song

I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing with this, but I wanted to try to try writing a poem that actually rhymes and isn't a sonnet for once. The chances of turning it into a song are pretty slim, unless I decide to throw it at one of my song writer friends who are more talented with music than I am. (I sing, but while I learned six different instruments in the past, I mastered none.)

Also, little telling of my personality that my first attempt a lyrics put to paper are a song of love lost.

Can’t help but think of this
The warm texture of your lips
Your rich and rough timbre
And how it made me quiver
That gentle glide of your hand
The way the bitter end began

And it’s a new moon tonight
No heaven’s beacon down this way
Just hopeless whispers to pray
In this fading city light

Book Dummy and finished illustrations

So, here's the full, sad tale of O'Yoné, including the finished colored pages I did for the class. I know I have type errors from copy and pasting the wrong manuscript, and there is actually a better book dummy image for one of the spreads, but I have to rescan it. I plan on creating a website with the full colored book and more picture book illustrations of adult fairytales. If all goes well, I'm going to publish it full color (sans O'Yoné, though, because it's under the HitRECord contract).
















In other news, I have a wedding invite commission that I'm working on, so I'm going to see about permission to post stuff with that after they're sent out to the guests.

I'm also finally really getting to really work on my vampire novel, Children Out of Eden. I wrote two bits of it as stageplays for my creative writing class this past semester and they were really well received. I might add in sequentially illustrated interludes (read: comic pages) into the book after I finish with the prose. It already has interludes in it of the narrator, Joel, talking to his therapist about everything that happens with his best friend Annabel Lee (the vampire) and how he feels about it. If I get it published and we make an audio book, those interludes are getting voice acted, and it will be fun as hell. So yeah, look forward to some character sketches for that. It's going to be a challenge, 'cause I'm a dork with high ambitions for this to get published and end up with a movie deal, so I was already dream casting in my head. I don't want to end up drawing the characters exactly like my dream casting. But we'll see.

Goodness, I could have sworn I actually posted here since midterms. Must have been on Tumblr. Damn social networks are all blurring together.

I was going to post some more art today, but I'm going to actually work on more art instead, I think. That and watch Aladdin. Unless SOPA would give me shit for mentioning Aladdin on my blog.

In which case I will draw all the Aladdin fanarts and SOPA can suck it.

But yeah, I'll be putting up more of O'Yoné up at midnight and give more updates on what I'm doing, including some personal news.

EDIT: Or I could end up with an upset stomach. They will be up this week, though.

Book Illustration Storyboards

So, I'm taking book illustration, where I have to draw a full 32 page picture book, plus cover art. Luckily, three of those pages are for the title, copyright and dedication, but I still did spots for those. Anyhow, I'm doing a re-write of a Japanese folktale called the Flute. It's an awful and sad story and the writing is horribly dated in the original version I read, which is the one in the link, but I re-did it in my own style, formatted to fit 29 pages with illustrations.

Warning before you scroll or read the links: while the class is to create picture books in the style of children's picture books, this is very much so not something I'd tell a small child. I would especially not tell a small child this story if they have a step-parent. It's like Cinderella, except there is no prince or happy ending.

Anyhow, first steps are character designs and storyboards. I'll load up the character designs and thumbnails later, but I took some pictures of my favorite layouts of the storyboards to share:

"In her twelfth autumn, O'Yoné lost her mother."

Father forgets Mother-Who-Died. O'Yoné doesn't.

Stepmother is jealous of O'Yoné's relationship with Father.
Father receives news from the Capital.

"But if you leave, you shall never see me again."

Father plays the flute.

Father leaves the Capital.

"[She is] In the bamboo grove."

Father plays the flute a final time and finds O'Yoné's body.

Father kills Stepmother and becomes a monk to repent.

Yeah, like I said: not a kid's tale. It is a great, if tragic, story, and I thought that it was simple enough while also lending a lot to potential scenery, which is why I picked it. I never do anthro characters, too, aside from where it's needed (i.e. werewolves, Beauty and the Beast, Journey to the West and similar stories), but I thought it would be interesting to turn the characters into anthropomorphic creatures from Japanese mythology, so I made Father into a general kitsune, Mother-Who-is-Dead into a tengu woman (her hair and O'Yone's are both wings), Stepmother into a ninetails kitsune and O'Yoné into a mix of tengu and kitsune. I got a lot of inspiration in the character design from Okami, too, particularly in how to do the tengu hair.

Shit I write in class

This is a ritual poem for creative writing. I wrote it with a craving in mind. And Christmas, a little. Oh, and maybe a little bit of Tool.


Paying the Toll

Annual wind down.
Debts to pay.
Grab that stupid green bag and get in the car, bitch.
We’re going shopping.

Large eggs.
Chopped nuts.
Do we still have vanilla left?
Shit, forgot if we have the flour.
Better get the brown sugar, too.
Chocolate chips.
Don’t be a wuss.
Get the big one.
Yeahhhh, that’s it.

Get back.
Oh hey, we did have enough sugar.
Whoops.
...Shit, I should have picked up baking soda.
Ah well, powder works too,
I think.

Get out the tools.
Preheat 375º F.

Mix in 2 1/2 cups flour
With a tsp salt and soda–
no, powder–
And sneak in some cinnamon.
Mix it well in a large bowl.
You should invest in a sifter.
Really, how the hell
Can you tell
Is it mixed right?
Fuck it, that looks good.

In a bigger bowl,
Mix two sticks butter
Softened–
Wait, softed?
God damn it.
I hate butter.

Throw it in a small bowl.
Nuke it.
Son of a bitch, it’s all drippy,
Oily, and gross.

Back in the big bowl.
Add 3/4 cup granulated sugar
And 3/4 the other sugar.
Oh, teaspoon of vanilla.
Mix it all together until smooth.

Shit, why can’t I find the KitchenAid?
Who looses a KitchenAid mixer?
It’s like loosing a baby.

Fuck it, we’ll improvise.
Rice paddle?
...Yeah, that’ll work.

SHIT, WHY IS THE BUTTER STILL THIS HARD?!

Note to self:
If you ever see that guy from GQ
Who said that cooking can be “manly”
But baking is always “dainty”
Hit him with your still frozen butter.
How’s that for fuckin’ dainty?

Add in two large eggs gradually.

Now that you wasted 30 minutes
And your arm feels oddly beefy,
Mix in the dry ingredients.
Gradually.

You just dumped
The whole thing in
Again.
You stupid bitch.

MIX, STUPID, MIX!

Oh yeah, you gotta mix in the chips and nuts, now.
Shit ain’t ever gonna end.
But hey, check out that right biceps you’re building.

Grease up your poor little cookie sheet,
And drop rounded tablespoons of dough on it.

Recipe yields 60.
Or more, ‘cause recipes lie.
Yeah, have fun with your one sheet.
Quit bitching.
Just wrap the rest and keep baking as you go.

It’s this or Amazon. Keep going.

Bake for five minutes first.
No, just listen.
Take it out for a little to cool.
Then shove it in for another five.
Yeah, that’s right.
Soft bake.
I ain’t baking no hard ass cookies.

Oh, and while you’re waiting, soak your fucking utensils.
Shit’s annoying to clean up.

Take out your cookies and let them cool.
Or dump them in open Tupperwear, yeah.
That works too.

Keep doing this until you’re out of the dough.
Oh hey, check that out.
Seventy-two cookies.
And with a sheet that fits a dozen.
Nestle, you lying bastards.

Wrap it all up in your nice pastry boxes.
Tag them for your friends.
Yeah, just enough for all of them.
Swear to never fucking do this shit again.

...Fuck.
I want a cookie.

The Raffle (Again)

So, I posted details on the raffle at my lolita blog. I'm also going to start taking orders for the two badge sets I made soon, as well as for anymore commissions and the other prints I did at the con, so keep an eye out.

Anime Boston Lucky Pack Raffle

Raffle info is here. I left my cellphone charger in Boston, unfortunately, so I have to get a new one tomorrow and get pics up sometime after class. But everything should be set 100% good to go tomorrow night.