Art, mostly

I have not been diligent about LiveJournal. I should probably update on some current events, so here are some things that have happened/will happen soon!

• The Library of Congress thing went well! Thank you again to the people who showed up to show support, you are all wonderful. I hear there is going to be a webcast of the thing going online some time, but I haven't heard any news of it. Maybe that is for the best!

• I am going to be in Japan from June 4th to June 15th! I'm probably going to have sporadic internet access, so apologies in advance if I'm super slow to reply during that time. There will be Johnny Wander updates as usual. I'm sorry, but this is going to be an extremely tightly-scheduled trip (I'm mostly visiting family), and I won't be able to go out of my way to meet up with anyone.

• We're moving right after I come back from Japan. This summer is going to be so hectic... I've realized, I haven't lived any place for longer than a year since high school. And my book collection is now significantly larger than it was while I was in high school. =_=

• I keep on forgetting, so I'll do it now. My pal (and yours) sheepyrai is doing an excellent recap blog of the Twilight series. As a person who has been trying to keep the series at an arm's length, it is both hilarious and mystifying.

I do not have so much art scanned, but I'll share a bit! I'll try to scan in more things before I leave!

( Pictures and variations of a girl and cats. Stupid Star Trek fanart. What have I become. )

Me: Hello?
My Dad: I NEED YOUR FAVOR.
Me: You need a favor from me?
My Dad: I NEED YOU TO DRAW A PICTURE.
Me: Okay, I can do that.
My Dad: OF A MONKEY.
Me: Okay.
My Dad: RIDING A DEER.
Me: Sure.
My Dad: CARRYING A JAPANESE FLAG.
Me: Okay..
My Dad: ... BEING CHASED BY A BAD MONKEY -- YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT REALLY BAD
Me: Uh-- okay
My Dad: AND IT HAS TO BE CARRYING A BASEBALL BAT
Me: A monkey carrying a Japanese flag, riding a deer, being chased by a bad monkey, carrying a baseball bat.
My Dad: YES.

( There's actually an explanation for it, but it's not nearly as funny as the initial phone conversation. )

I should preface this by saying that today in the New York Times Dining section, there's a lengthy article about eating squirrels. *THUMBS UP*

I started writing this entry last night when I heard a huge crack and suddenly all the power went down in the building-- a large branch had dropped on the power line. Haha, if it's not the water going out in this place, it's the electricity.

Goodness, it's been a while. Sorry, I'm still doing that if-it-doesn't-have-pictures-don't-post-it-publicly thing. Hope your respective New Years went well! My family did its usual traditional feast shindig, and it was wonderful. I feel odd, it seems like I'm doing art constantly but don't have anything to publicly show for it. There's J*W, I did some stuff for the Applegeeks DarkHorse book that I can't show, there's other comic work stuff that I can't show, O-OH I didn't mention that I'm subbing for Hawk at AG for the month... I, ah, I'm not really all that familiar with the characters so I'm going off Ananth's original descriptions of his characters which isn't really how Hawk draws them. A few fans are complaining that they can't recognize people. What can I do, I guess. ._. no-but-seriously it's not a big thing.

( OH RIGHT A BIT OF ART-- if it can be called that. )

We have this totally awesome paper monster face taped on our front door from Halloween. We put it there just before Halloween as a hopeful invitation to trick-or-treaters to knock on our door. Unfortunately, there is a Real Neighborhood with Real Houses right next to our shoddy apartment complex, and all of the kids went over there.

Perfect transcription of neighbor's comments directly outside our door from Just Now:

"And like, check out our neighbor's door. It's like, what's the point."

Whatever, ladies. Just wait until we have our construction paper hand-turkeys out there, then you'll see.

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In any case.

I had this silly idea for an easy artistic/writing meme today. Character Post Secret. Write/draw out secrets from your characters in a Post Secret style. It doesn't really matter if it entirely touches the heart at whatever they're feeling, you can't get the whole story with a real Post Secret message, either. Just, y'know, make it as though they'd made it.

( and you don't have to feel bad because they're not real secrets! )

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( also, I drew a thing today. )

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And to further implicate me of SHAMING NERDLYNESS, Ananth recently picked up the first volume of Tezuka's Black Jack and I'm hooked. The guy was House before House was House and probably a good majority of the inspiration for Ginko from Mushishi. I've been spending my evenings trying to find episodes of the many animes that were based on the books. If you like really silly medical dramas about badass dudes who can't dress themselves properly, this may be the series for you.

So hey, one of the many private projects I have going went live today! Essentially, Ananth and I are doing eclectic journal comics. For the time being. Super super thanks to Conrad, who practically pulled an all-nighter making our terrible website a reality.

>> JOHNNY WANDER <<
tuesdays and thursdays

(check out the archives, there's a few comics in there)

This is all coming just in time for Anime USA this upcoming weekend, which for some reason I am a guest at. I'll be selling nearly the same stuff I was selling at Otakon, and I'll be just as timid about it.

I realized I've only been making friends-locked entries lately. S-sorry, the only interesting stuff I've had to talk about lately have been work-related (I make a point of never publicly talking about any job), various-private-project-related (one of which will hopefully be less private after next week-ish?), or have no art (I don't like to make public non-art posts). I didn't realize that anyone even cared until I got a sad comment from redhotpangalin the other day. (sorry I didn't mean to leave... ;_; also, pangolins are pretty great.)

I spent yesterday evening scanning in a bit of art from the past month or so, but I'd like to splash some color on some of it before I go posting the lot. Maybe over the weekend?

In the meantime, I colored something! As in colored-colored something. This hasn't happened in months.


( IT'S THAT ONE BIG FLAMING LION THING THAT I DRAW SOMETIMES, AWESOME )

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I unfortunately do not have Leopard installed on my computer, so I can't run Spore. BUT for a short period of time at the beginning of summer I was living with yenian (hi, Mike!), who has a gaming PC on which I played the hell out of Portal and the free version of the Spore creature creator.

He just got a full version of Spore, AND HAS BEEN KILLED REPEATEDLY BY TRIBES OF MAWS AND DEWINS AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Youtube links: tribe of silly looking dewins || getting killed by maws
(they all have ghetto'd out wings because it was the free version and wings were not available)

( my spores, let me show you them )

Hey, guess who has an internet connection again! :D

The move (oh yeah, we moved-- I think I failed to mention that one) went pretty terrible and rocky, but we (and the tomato plants!) made it! We're more or less settled into the new apartment. I might friends-only post the new address, if you guys want it for non-creepy purposes.

There's not much to mention from the past month or so that I'm really at liberty to mention. Although my paid account apparently ran out, so I'm down to six random icons and my journal doesn't have its cool maw background anymore. =_= If someone wants to pay for a year-plus-icons, I'll draw you an icon...?

Also, this happened:


AHAHAHA you guys are awesome. XDD

My scanner's pretty busted until I figure out how to force it not to run through Rosetta, so it's been hard to scan things in. I do have some art though, if you're into that kinda thing.

( Some original character sketches, a stupid comic, another page of The Alphabet Meme. )

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That's about all I got. Here, let me quickly reiterate everything everyone's been saying on LiveJournal: Wall-E, Dark Knight, Dr. Horrible= very yes.

I'll be forward here; I don't usually paint. Because I don't use it often, I'm not especially strong with real media and anything I say about real media should be taken with a grain of salt.

With that in mind, I did a small summer pinup painting and documented the steps I took. WANNA SEE? :O



( LET'S GO TOGETHER )

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John, Conrad, Ananth, and myself were down in DC for the past week apartment-hunting, immediately followed by my accidentally leaving my phone charger at Ananth's house, returning to my full-time job, and preparing to move. Sorry if I've been hard to get ahold of recently!

ALSO: JESS AND SHEENA, apparently your package arrived just after we left for DC! D: We did finally get back over the weekend and the cookies kept perfectly well. There's maybe four left now, you make the MOST DELICIOUS snickerdoodles. <3 And thank you so much for everything! <3 I need to send you guys something, you're so nice to me!

This weekend was James and Lisa's wedding! (Congratulations, guys!) It was great and terribly nerdy in all the good ways. I love going to geek weddings. Now all the rest of my unmarried geek friends have to try to outdo my other already-married geek friends with their geek weddings. I look forward to it!

For the occasion, I made an appropriate card.



( that was the inside-- this was the outside: )

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I feel that I should mention: I'm going to the MoCCA Festival with Ananth, The GeekNights crew, and possibly Conraaaaad, for Saturday only. I'm just going to be a spectator, so if you want to chat or anything, you're going to have to pick us out of a crowd. You'd be best off finding Ananth, he's far more recognizable than I am. XD

Also, kaisilverwolf! Thank you for the sweet card! You have the cutest stationary <3 <3

PSA: IN CASE YOU'VE FORGOTTEN, THIS JOURNAL USED TO BE CALLED DHIO.

Sorry for the silence in replying to journals and comments recently-- I graduated, then drove all around the east coast for a few days. I'm at my parents' house at the moment, doing boring car-related things, catching up with my folks (and their cats), and working.

In the meantime, as promised, I've gone and renamed the journal and revamped the layout. It's not spectacular, but I actually put some solid time into the background image. (The star things are supposed to be bugs, but they can be snowflakes or whatever you fancy. XD )

( full background image behind the cut )

I also went and saw Speed Racer with ananthymous. Verdict: RAINBOW ROAD: THE MOVIE. Also, I totally and somewhat unexpectedly enjoyed it. And it wasn't entirely based on the two minutes this dude had on screen.

I am uncomfortable with the number of movies I intend to see this summer. I hate seeing movies, what is this.

[ETA: WHAT, REDOING THE LAYOUT AGAIN? Jeez Aido what the hell's wrong with you.]
[ETA again: D-dammit, I hate CSS override. Why isn't Tranquility II compatible with backgrounds? ;_; ]
[Last time I swear: Two versions later, I think I've got it mostly down. D-does anyone know CSS well enough to tell me how to add a person's default user icon in the header?]

I just finished my last in-person final, and I can count the days until graduation on one hand. Well that's scary as hell. Now I have to become a real person.

After a short consultation with my friendslist, it's been decided that it's time to rename this journal. In a bit, DHIO is going to turn into aidosaur. I never wanted to name this journal after one of my characters, it just happened that Aido and Kaido and Yuko were taken at the time and I couldn't think of any other options. I'd like to redo the layout of the journal at the same time as I rename it, so it'll probably be after graduation when I have a free day.

I figured I'd mention, I'm a registered marrow donor now! That's cool! I can't legally give blood because I weigh as much as a toothpick, but they don't seem quite as picky when you're giving bloody boney bits. I gave in a cheek swab a few weeks ago, they're supposed to give me a ring if they ever want me to donate. @_@

OH RIGHT, ART.

( Assorted life drawing etc. in fountain pen. Vaguely NSFW for exposed breasts. )

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( A bit of tegakiE stuff )

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( OH MAN, FINISHED ART? )

S--sorry again for the long hiatus. I remember when I was about to graduate high school, I was inflicted with chronic "senioritis." As my college graduation draws nearer, I am finding myself inflicted with a serious case of "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT WHAT IF I DO SOMETHING WRONG THEY'LL NEVER LET ME GRADUATE, MUST WORK HARDER AT EVERYTHING."

In any case, sorry for not being really active on the internet as of late.

I have an art post, but before I go on, some recommended reading:

• Vinland Saga has some undeserved obscurity. If you like semi-historical comics about Vikings being manly, this might be the thing for you.
• Admittedly, I have not played Portal. But I seem to know just as much about it as a person who has played it, and if you have, I guarantee that you will find this article on the design of GLaDOS fascinating. Warning, there's spoilers.



( Nearly 30 assorted images, sketch/tegaki. Original, Battlestar Galactica, Patapon, Phoenix Wright. )

Finals are a'goin' on and I'm half way through. While doing illustration work, I've been listening to the His Dark Materials trilogy on audiobook, and it's goood... it makes me real glad I never saw the Golden Compass movie. I just finished listening to The Subtle Knife and it'll probably be long after finals until I get ahold of The Amber Spyglass. I'm surprised it's been marketed so heavily as a children's story, there's so much violence and politics and espionage and character mortality and morally grey areas, I don't think I would've been able to handle it as a kid. In conclusion, I want a daemon.

I finished my Book Illustration final last night (see also: this morning). The assignment was to do a children's book cover, I chose Aesop's Fables. (I've actually been wanting to to an Aesop's Fables illustration since high school, so this was a good chance.)


( Bonus points if you know the story. )

While I was breaking from working, I cleaned out my LJ a little. Mostly, I deleted over half of my old icons and uploaded a few new ones. It feels nice to have some new icons.

7 hours of sleep in the past two days: not the greatest.

Also, if anyone spoils The Amber Spyglass for me in the comments, I will be very disappointed.

I gotta get over this irrational fear I've acquired lately of posting things on the internet. C'mon, no one's judging you. Well, not too many people, anyway.

S--sorry for disappearing for so long. I hope everyone's New Year was okay? Most all of my time has been going towards School and Work, I've been especially boring these days. Ananth is in India visiting family for a few weeks— our communication is usually pretty minimal as it is, but we've been having to get by with a 3-5 minute phone call every several days. I miss him terribly.

Before I go posting art, I need to say one thing: eto is my Patron Saint of the Internet. I've been too weird and busy and neurotic these days to even think about poking AIM and usually barely even Livejournal, but thank you Jess, she sent me snickerdoodles and chocolate oatmeal cookies and a scarf that had a MAW EMBROIDERED ON IT and Sheena thank you so much for the picture, no one ever draws Pythias how did you know it was just what I wanted you guys are so great, the greatest, really I am so serious.

Also: woodooferret, I got your card! :D Thank you so much!

I have so much art to share, I've filled up over half a sketchbook since the last time I've posted, actually. But it's late, and I need to get up early tomorrow. So I'll post some now, some later.



( I draw myself too much. )

I have this terrible fear that if I ever start making posts that don't include pictures, people will stop liking me/being my internet pal/watching this journal. Which, ah, makes it less and less of a 'journal' these days, I suppose. I've probably mentioned this before, but that's why I post once every two weeks or more these days. (I HAVE GREAT SELF-ESTEEM YOU SEE.)

I'm headed home tomorrow, for a bit. I've been promising various people all over the east coast a visit but that's not going to be possible this time around. ._. S-sorry, guys. On the upside, I'll get to see my parents, my parents' new kids (the cats), and MEGAN AAHH I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH ;_; There will also probably be a Special Celebrity Guest some time in there as well.

Ah, I'll get on with the pictures.



( Art (x15), mostly original characters, one piece of fanart. Lots of babbling, you can ignore that. )

( Extended non-spoiler babbling about Phoenix Wright 3 character design(s) )

Well, today was Scott Pilgrim day. Hope you guys got your Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4's!

Ananth and I spent the better part of the day (the rest was spent between work and feverishly studying for my Japanese final-- once again, I am the worst Japanese-speaking Japanese person) running all over the city (and nearby towns) of Rochester trying, trying, to find any book/comic book store that knew what Scott Pilgrim was. The search came up fruitless, so I'll probably be ordering my copy (and Conrad and Rachelle's?) through Borders. Ananth is leaving in the morning for DC, which I hear is a pretty indie-comic-friendly town. Alas.

It's finals time, so I haven't had much spare time for non-work-non-project related stuff. But I'll post some drawings from around Halloween. Because they're already scanned in, and also all Scott Pilgrim-y.

( Two pictures--! )

Wow, people are still doing the CoffeeMeme! Crazy! I need to update the entry-- sorry I've been lagging, I only have one final and a research paper left--! (haha, but that's still a lot...)

OH HAY IT'S MEGAN'S BIRTHDAY TODAY YEY


This is the picture on your card, sorry you didn't get your package today! You'll probably get it tomorrow!

( A big artdump of class!doodles-- lots of dumb pictures of me. Sorry. )

( I MADE A NEW THREADLESS THING? IT'S SO GROSS, DON'T LOOK AT IT XD )



Feel free to vote, if you want to. XD BUT YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION

OH COME ON WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA

Immediate response:


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Say, does anyone out there know how to speak/properly pronounce Finnish? I'd really love to know how to correctly pronounce revontulet. Thanks! :D

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( something dumb and Harry Potter. real mild spoilers for that last book. )

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Rachelle recently got us Chibi Robo and it's infected half the house with its MUSICAL CLEANING CUTENESS. Speaking of which, I, ah. I gotta go... ...

[edit] YES DS SEQUEL YAWESOME

Dammit, RIT. You're the only school that would ever start classes on Labor Day. I can't believe I have a quiz tomorrow. ._. I'm the worst Japanese-speaking Japanese person in the world.

Conrad and I tag-teamed on dinner tonight, which consisted of a slightly modified Country Quiche, fresh (grands) biscuits, and fresh cookies (made from frozen cookie dough). I'm going to try to keep a vow of cooking one or two times a week, Family Dinner Night is probably the best time I have all week.

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( a visual report of my weekend )

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Oh, and I forgot-- thank you everyone who voted on my Threadless design a while back. It didn't do so well in the voting, but I didn't expect it to. Also, there's a $10 sale going on over there for another half hour or something?

I finished finally reading the last Harry Potter book today. Admittedly, mostly so I could go back and finally read buttfacemakani's backlogs.

I Very Badly need to update my Flickr account. I have photos from four conventions from this year that people have been bugging me about as well as lots of Homemade Food photos and Doing Dumb/Mildly Illegal Shit With Roommates photos. But spending the better part of an afternoon resizing pictures is not my bag. I guess I will just have to bite the bullet and do it eventually. But not now.

In the meantime, here are a few assorted photos and scattered art. (warning: image-heavy)

( THIS SUMMER WAS CRAFT SUMMER )

( AT SOME POINT WE WENT TO TORONTO? )

( BLUEBERRY PICKING AND THE SUBSEQUENT PIE THAT FOLLOWED )

( CATS!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! )

( AND SOME OTHER THINGS? )