Survival

good evening gents!

ohmygodIsurvived. Ithink. 
Holy crap.
I’ve just survived a three day management workshop, which was highlyeducational and stuff, but realllly exhausting. On top of that I got struck with a very bad cold right from day one and just struggled to keep it together… *flop* Now to catch up on all the uni I missed out on for it. Anyway, happy its over :)

In the meantime, the shots here are of a work I started about a week ago or so…

Ever since I bought some Tim Holtz distress stains (rusty hinge, dried marigold and fired brick pictured),  I was itching to try them out. I was put off by the fact that my current journaling paper is rather….wellcrappyreally. To illustrate a point, when I went to gesso one of the pages (in order to strengthen it and also add some texture) the page sort of just..melted.
BUT it was a happy accident in the end, because I eventually just tore up two brown paper bags (the little thin ones the art store packages individual pencil/marker sales in) and just glued them all over the wrecked pages. Not only did this super reinforce the paper (it feels like cardboard now), but it gave me the perfect, perfect surface to work with. 

I’ll post up some experimentation stuff when I get over this cold. :)

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New art pieces

New pieces are up on my deviantart page today ->(datsudatsu.deviantart.com). These are all part of the #100 theme challenge I started with fellow artists late last year. My total is now approximately (I haven't counted) 23/100 I believe. Very close to a quarter of the way there!

19: Grey

24: No Time

25: Trouble Lurking

More details about each one can be seen on my deviantart page, but I'm thinking of writing an entry on the challenge pretty soon anyway. 

-datsu

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Last Stand of Dead Men

Exciting!

Derek Landy's eighth installment in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, Last Stand of Dead Men releases in just less than a week! The humor in the series is just a fantastic read at any age, and having met Derek at a signing event around this time last year, it's clear as day how much of the author's personality comes through in his characters and writing style. Derek announced waaaay back when either book one or two was first released that there were to be a total of nine books in the series, so that makes the upcoming novel the second-last. (There have been other canon but side character-focused novels already though, so hopefully not)

Today's Art Journal Page

Inspired by a quote from one of the Skulduggery books. I'm having a bit of a hard time without an A3 scanner, but I think I'm coping preeeetty well somehow?


    Supplies 
Dylusions Ink Spray
Sumi Ink
White prismacolor pencil
Gesso
Winsor & Newton watercolour paint

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Today I discovered LUSH

So it seemed like a long time coming, but...

I finally walked into a LUSH store today. And walked out with significantly less money. (woops)

Seriously though, I myself work in the food industry at the moment, with a company that focuses on catering to a wide range of dietary needs, including kosher, halal, vegan, gluten-free and so forth and so on, and as such, it actually took me by surprise that I hadn't heard about this store from any of the other workers til I actually brought it up this evening. 

Almost all of the products are certified vegan friendly (bar a select few which from what I can see, usually contain either honey or honeycomb), and are handmade. The company strives to use natural products including organic fruits, essential oils and fairtrade produce, as well as to cut down on all the excess packaging possible. Although I'm not vegan, I try to be as environmentally friendly as possible in my everyday life, and this new discovery is really cool.

It also gives me an excuse to sample all their really neat products.

Credit: LUSH UK

Tonight I'm trying out one of these little guys; a bath "ballistic" called Phoenix Rising. Here's the description from their catalogue:

     Legend has it that the Phoenix makes its nest from sticks of prized cinnamon, the nest and the bird burst into flames and from the ashes a new phoenix is reborn.... Topped off with a stick of cinnamon to remind us that it's okay to make mistakes, lose everything and start again.

I've been told that the bomb sinks to the bottom of the bath and then rises up again after a while in different colours of green and blue, like a phoenix emerging from the ashes and stuff. I really, really love cinnamon so I'm actually so excited to try this out!

Today's Journal Page

Supplies:
Dylusions Ink spray (London Blue and Crushed Grape)
Acrylic paint
White sharpie paint pen

EDIT: Oh, and glitter paint! You can't really see most of it in the scan, but apart form the earrings, its used on the eye and the border of the star as well

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I Must Be A Mermaid

I have no fear of depths & a great fear of shallow living.

Supplies

• Prismacolour pencils
• White gesso mixed with blue paint
• Black Sumi ink
• White paint marker
• London Blue and Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions ink spray

Info

I do love the ocean; I love the beach and the seaside and the whole landscape that surrounds it. Made this right after getting the last art supply haul, with the intent of just playing with ALL the new supplies on the same page. So much fun. It's not truly finished (the hair), but I like to add as I go :)

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Mini-Holiday and Art Journal Updates

I went on holiday! Kinda...

(Photo credit: phunnyfoto on flickr)

I've just arrived back (well, last night) from a weekend at Mt. Hotham, and a few lousy attempts at skiing. To keep it short, I feel like I've been beaten up with all the bruises and sore spots I'm now sporting, but at least it snowed lots and that was pretty. 

We stayed in the usual lodge:

(Credit: Mt. Hotham website)

So, Art Journal Updates

I've been thinking of keeping a record of my art journal work as it becomes semi-completed? I really enjoy it and find I'm really inspired when I look at other peoples work, so I think I'm going to continue that circle.

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Art supply haul

Since semester 2 is on the near horizon, it only makes sense that I'm suddenly filled with the need to sketch, paint and colour just about everything. To be fair, since I've started my most recent art class, I've discovered that I like mixed media like crazy. Even my housemates have been pretty impressed. Most of all though, I find it's just wicked fun and really freeing(?).

This all basically prompted some new art supply acquisition....

Dylusions Ink Spray  by Ranger

The description by Ranger says:
Dylusions Ink Spray dyes are a high quality, acid-free, non-toxic concentrated colorant for porous surfaces.

Also they're water-reactive, which is why I chose these inks to play with; you can create some really cool effects in terms of backgrounds and washes.

Water based paint marker by Sharpie

I haven't played with this one much yet, but the paint is water based, and is supposed to mark effectively on virtually any surface (bit sick of gel pens clogging and causing fuss).

and Sumi Ink

(Which I have paired with some aqua brushes, which gives this really cool Japanese calligraphy type effect)

Also yet to play with more extensively, but the shop where I ordered it from sent me extra, (in the glass bottle) and the 60ml pot cost me about $22 by itself, so it was pretty cool~

So it wasn't exactly a massive haul or anything, but art stuff gets pricey pretty quick so baby steps and such~

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Inevitable OZ Comic-con Goodies Post (and stuff)

Yup. So Comic-con this year was really sweet! The change of venue and some serious strategies put into place vis a vis organization really made all the difference. (I.e there was actually room to move inside the building this year).

I picked up some sweet comission pieces from Deerish (deericious.deviantart.com) and Jin Chan;

(They're all commissions of a character of mine named Ace)
as well as a gorgeous old stock print and test run comics from each of them respectively;

(Captain Human the Robot has a kids version and an adult version; personally the bf and i preferred the kid's comic, sah funny).

Manga-wise, I picked up Blue Exorcist 2-6, Tegami Bachi 13 and also Fruits Basket 3 & 6 (gifted by a friend, and thus completing my long running set) from the Madman booth.

Then returned later to grab the Soul Eater and Gurren Lagann collections on DVD. (I have wanted SE on DVD for so long, weee~)

I also have a tradition at Cons of always buying some small amount (sometimes large) of art related supplies (since I always finish the weekend with a massive craving to draw/sketch/paint), so picked up a couple new markers from the folks at ComicArtGear:

Last but certainly not least, this llama:

Who is fondly known as Jazz Llama, but really needs a proper grown-up name.

In and around my wallet flying off into the sky and showering the convention with little I.O.U notes, we did many other things; met many other artists, cool vendors of steampunk wares (got invited to Steampunk camp!), ate pancakes with cosplayers, ooh'd and aah'd at all the cleverly talented artists, and nearly fainted at how freaking adorable all the kiddie cosplays were this year xD har har har...

Anyway, I apologise for the horrible phone camera quality of all the photos, I need a new card reader for my other camera and I always forget that OTL.

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I have internet again ;D

So, right after announcing that I'd be updating regularly, we lost internet access in our apartment completely, and after approximately 7 hours or so worth of phone calls...we still kinda don't. BUT we have a mobile internet modem until the company amends the screw up. Could be a while though.

HOWEVER. I've done some stuff? OZ-Comic Con happened, and seeing other artists create gets me all inspired, so I started drawing again and haven't really been able to stop since (not complaining) :D.

Comic-con haul and subsequent art supply haul post coming up soon too :3

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Octopi, oh my

I like to dabble in a little bit of everything when it comes to art, so much so that my DeviantArt tag for ages and ever was "Jack of all trades, master of none". Amen to that. No, seriously.

Anyway, I've been thinking I might like to share some of my endeavors as they sort of happen, and I could document some in-progress shots as a sort of tutorial in case anyone else wants to try.

The reason is these guys.

Recently I've been getting into the process of making clay charms and figures, mostly through sitting in front of the Youtube all day and watching the magic happen. I followed a tutorial on making the two little octopi(?) above, and my gosh they are so adorable, and were just so fun to make @-@. I ordered some little eye hooks on line so that I could actually make some proper charms to attach to things/jewellery/what not, and I even have a page of sketched out ideas. So basically, I thought it'd be fun to share? We'll see how that goes.

Datsu out :)

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New Schedule

While I work on the comic this week it occurs to me that I'd be far more productive if Youtube didn't exist. Then again, I might also be a whole lot more bored?

Oh internet.

Anyways, efficient uploading should begin from Friday this week; the plan being a post weekly on each consecutive Friday- at least until we can come up with a launch date for an official Department 7 comics website.

Yup.

So here's a scrap from Yonder that's been living on my desk for a while.

Sort of Abbey Road, sort of not.

Datsu out!

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Progress

Because I promised to update in order to keep myself motivated, progress since 2 weeks ago has largely consisted of:
+reading through some pre-prepared scripts for the comic
+planning out some pages
+inking a few
+experimenting with a simple but pleasing colouring style that I can still apply quickly without sacrificing quality
+nearly have the introductory pages ready to colour
+world building

I'll post some random art this week too, I hope.

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Update

So the comic is finally getting off the ground! :) I'll be teaming up with a small comic group to release this comic both here, and on their own web domain when it officially launches. I'll post small updates here about both, of course.

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