Friday, May 6, 2011

Graphic Intense

Hello, my darlings!

First off, I have a Tumblr! It's the companion to this blog, so a lot of things might seem like repeats, but I'll try to throw my sketches up there too. It's over here at Pink Like Me.

As I'm still hunting for work like Artemis would chase down a white stag, this is going to be a bit more of a graphic-heavy post. But you all don't mind, do you?

I had several mini-adventures! One was wandering in Downtown Melbourne, feeling quite rejected from another unsuccessful job interview, and stumbling on a table by the church folding paper cranes for Japan. I stopped for about an hour and a half and helped, since the kind woman who was working the table had long lost feeling in her fingers from folding for hours. It was kind of peaceful to sit there and fold cranes for a while. Several people came by and talked about how they were affected. Melbourne is an extremely international city, and so many people knew someone who was directly affected from the disaster. I was relieved to hear from my kids over in Japan and that area of the world.

Since my lack of cosplay has been driving me slowly insane like a slow-acting poison, I sewed a kigurumi (cosplay pajamas) for myself for the oncoming winter. Silly as they look, they're very comfy. One of my friends, Magdeline, organized a get-together for a bunch of us with these pajamas, and had a meet-up. It was a bit like an adorable, geeky slumber party in the middle of the day. Karaoke was had, games, etc. I drew some! (More on my doodle there later.)

While looking for work and being sick and unemployed for three months is harrowing and stressful, I still absolutely adore the city, but mostly for the people here. Everyone I've met has been incredible, and all of them are dear to me.

Speaking of those people...



I went out dancing for the first time with Miss Sonja and Hattie! (I'm doing up her corset here while she sips pear vodka. She's absolutely the classiest. Also I swear we're not watching horrifying torture, it's the Hunchback of Notre Dame.) We went to Baroq House, which is a gorgeous venue. It had been a long time since I last danced like that, and man, I was sore the next day. I think I had to roll out of bed and slowly drag myself to the sink like a snail.

Do you want some sketches? Why not?

I'm kind of a big lover of the ballet. Unfortunately, I never managed to catch the Louisville Ballet's productions, so I often have to watch things online. I took ballet as a child, and while I was supposedly "graceful" and danced... I just...twirled away and didn't have the talent or discipline. So instead, I admire ballerinas from afar. I was fond of this one. I'm not sure what I'll use her for. I tend to have ballet themes by default because my figures have their movements. (I feel like ballerinas are what all Mahou Shoujo actually move like.)


Now, one of these girls should look familiar. It's Sylvana! I'm still figuring out her story and how she fits in. And I revived one of my older characters and revamped her design to be more acclimated to Sylvana's world. Una, her handmaiden. In a lot of folklore, such as the Hulder and other fey, tails, hooves, and horns were the signs that fairy magic was afoot.

Remember these two? Well... When I was desperately trying to figure out my Australian Visa, it turns out that at the end of the year, I have to leave, regardless of my work status or anything else. I can apply for another, but it's complex, and will take a couple of years to clear. The devastation that I was going to be ripped from the city I fell in love with downed me enough to write a sort of emo, introspective hopeful little mini-comic, which I'm almost done with. It's called "stay. Melbourne, a love story."



Missing the lettering here, but I'm really relieved to get back to comics after an absence for a while. Right after I got out of SCAD, I think I was so overwhelmed working on them that I didn't want to anymore. It's kind of nice to not worry about assignments or nitpicking, either.

Anyway, hopefully good news my next post, yeah?
XOXO
~Lilly