Slime Mansion

Done with finals, passed all my classes, and I just got back from a wonderful weekend at Fanime in San Jose! Now it's back to work for me :> Inbetween the Directions of Destiny stuff, I thought I'd put on the blog some of the fan art I've done over the last year that I hadn't put on the blog yet (even though they're technically on the website ha ha D:)

This is fan art of Mother 3! If you've played Earthbound on SNES, this is the sequel! Y'all should play it if you haven't D: It was an amazing game and it made me shed tears. :') I tried to put in as many elements of the game into this illustration without being too revealing.

Incidentally, the linework was originally done in pencil on paper, but then I decided to make some significant changes so I ended up redoing the linework completely in Illustrator.

I feel like I have all these Internet outlets at my disposal, yet I've failed to make effective use of any of them. D: I guess I rarely feel like I have things worth saying, but with Facebook and Twitter and this whole brave new world beyond LiveJournal these days, I feel like it's such a waste to not use them!! SO, now I'm trying to update my presence on the Internet more?

Anyway, a long long time ago I did this picture, and so finally this past summer I gave it a partner illustration :D This was already posted in some other outlets, including as part of the main art gallery on this site, but I thought I'd make a blog entry about it anyway Dx

Truth be told, I had actually put a piece of tracing paper over the original Queen Azalea illustration to do a lot of the detail work in this one, but I tried to give this one a more earthy feel, and where places in the Queen Azalea one were more clean, I tried to mess it up just a bit in this Zephan version.Their color schemes, red and green, are complements too.

I plan on using this image as the cover of chapter 2.7 when I finally get around to doing the actual comic again, but who knows, maybe I'll change my mind about what to put there when that time comes, ha ha Dx

I'm saying it here, I'm going to try to update at least once a week from now on!!

It's been a little longer since the last entry than I had hoped for, but I'm back for some more site updates! A lot of things have been going on in the backend lately, including a server change that should speed things up a bit, and a slightly updated layout! I had quickly grown tired of the duller colors of the original new layout, so I adjusted the color scheme to have more contrast, and I decreased the size of the header a little too so that it's less overpowering.

Also, the three weeks before the new semester started I'd been working on figuring out a new shopping cart script for this site, because previously I had used this other program (Zen Cart) that was kind of ghetto!! It did its job but it was a major pain in the butt to use, and it was lacking a certain level of customization.

Namely how I wanted two stores to share the same product IDs and database and cart, but have different layouts with only certain products appearing in each store. If you ever tried to use the Shop link here, you may have been a little jarred by the fact that it takes you to a separate website with a separate layout and everything--I didn't want that! :O I want Directions of Destiny to be its own site and I wanted visitors have a more streamlined experience when they browse this site.

Long story short, I managed to find Magento, the perfect open-source shopping cart script that does everything I want, and after weeks of burrowing myself deep in code and support forums, I've finally finished the New Alatus Gift Shop!

Annnd the feature item right now is the new Section 2.1 book for only $4! :O! This was something I printed back in the summer to try to promote my comic at the summer conventions, and I've finally gotten around to making it available online. For those of you who were around back then, it is similar to the first mini-book I released back in 2005 for Sections 1.1 and 1.2, but this time it's just one chapter, but with lots of extra content! Notably, I've included a full breakdown of my comic-making process in the book, and there are a few new minicomic strips as well as some sketches and other stuff!

For the time being my store on my personal website is closed, but the cool thing is that when I get around to putting it back up I'll be able to have both that and the Alatus Gift Shop share the same shopping cart and everything ahhh I'm so excited Dx! Anyway, I think that pretty much fully wraps up all the site-maintenance stuff for Directions of Destiny, so from here on out I should be putting up much more comic-related content :D Check back soon!

This was an illustration, or I guess a series of mini-illustrations, done for a class I had last spring taught by Dorte Christjansen, one of my very favorite professors I've had at Fullerton thus far. :D It was our first project and we were to choose two subjects and arrange them together in various ways based on certain criteria and illustration techniques she taught us, and being a fag for cats and plants of course I chose to do the flower and cat. :')

It was during this semester that I got Rupert. I think shortly after this project was due. Aheheh. >__> Even the little cat in the middle-left illustration looks like Rupert--I can't remember if it was just because I had already seen a photo of him, or if it was because I've just subconsciously always wanted a cat exactly like him. o_o

Anyway, mediums used in this project include pencils, color pencils, inks, watercolor, and gouache.

The second Illustrator project in my digital illustration class this semester was to make a internet game background based on a theme he provides each of us. The theme I was given was "heaven." I had a tossed a few ideas around for it, but ultimately I ended up drawing cows again, + other livestock? aheheh. o_o

The week before the project was due my professor taught us how to use the gradient mesh tool, which I ended up abusing for the entire project. It was a bit of a masochistic endeavor in that it took forever to do, but I sorta liked it. >__> I had vowed to myself that I wouldn't stay up all night again for this project like I did the last, but alas! Better luck next time D:

Incidentally, I just got a job (!!) as a graphic artist in my school's Graphic Services department (hurray steady income!!) so I guess I'll be getting a lot more practice with vector stuff from now on. :X But normal pencils and digital paint illustrations will always be my true love!!!