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plasticflowering · 4 years ago

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ONEUS Fancall Writeup

In summary: aldjalskdjdkfjkdj I should have thought of more to say, but it was enough just to meet them and they were so kind and amazing, 10/10 group, will stan forever as long as they behave themselves, which I trust they will.

(sorry for potato quality on the gifs. That’s the unfortunate reality of Wi-Fi video calls. I tried my best to at least color them a bit)

FIRST OF ALL, MMT get your queue in order. I got the message that said “your call’s coming up very soon, be on standby” and literally ONE SECOND LATER Skype was ringing, ahhhhhhhhh

The thing with fancalls is that it’s always disorienting to see the member order. Like you can’t prepare for that. You never know which person is next until the phone is passed.

Also, I got too caught up in past fansigns with asking questions so I just focused on what I wanted to tell each member here, and... well, that was a mistake. I should have indeed prepared some questions. I just feel like everything’s been asked at this point, you know?? More on that later. Anyway I felt like the time limits per member in this call stretched on for AGES, and I was not prepared to fill the space well aaaskdjhaskjdhsa I’m sorry everyone.

🐥LEEDO

First up was Leedo, and tbqh the boy looked checked out, but he was still so wonderful. They’re probably so tired and working so hard, so I felt a little bad. And, honestly, Leedo was the one I had the least to say to because idk I love him but I have kind of a silent respect for him. I’d let Leedo do his own thing and just nod at him in acknowledgement if we ever met irl

I told him that he’d looked really happy lately, and that I hoped he was taking care of himself and doing well. I also told him I hoped he was eating his vegetables (shoutout to @highponyleedo - admittedly I panicked 😂).

🐥: I’ll think about that.

I told him that he’s inspiring and that I think about him when I work out (which is true! Gotta get buff like Leedo!) It was a nice little convo, and I was still VERY nervous at this point having been thrust DIRECTLY into the call. In every fansign I’ve been in (four at this point), the first member is always unfortunately sort of a throwaway for my mind because I’m still scrambling 😖

He was beautiful and gracious nonetheless.

🐱RAVN

He has never done anything wrong, ever in his life.

OKAY SO

YOUNGJO TRIED TO DO OUR WHOLE CONVO IN ENGLISH???

I WAS SO IMPRESSED

HE’S SO WONDERFUL

🐱: Your hair is green?

✌🏻: Yes!

🐱: Like my hair for Easily song

lksdjsalkjdaksdj ❤️

I also gave him a cheesy personal message of encouragement, and in the process I mentioned that I’m so much older than him (I AM) but I find him to be kind of a role model (I DO), and that I hope he gets to be his true self and make art that makes him happy.

🐱, aka this bitch: Age is not important.

✌🏻, knowing he has a noona problem: For some things, yes, you’re right!

I also showed him a fanart I drew of him, and immediately he was like “Oh, Procreate?” Yeah, boooiiii. Also he said my art was good but I’m sure he wouldn’t have said anything negative to a fan so... I just wanted him to see it lmao.

Youngjo spent almost the entire call like this, so there aren’t many great gif opportunities, but I’m glad he got to practice his English with me! How special!

As the phone was passed to the next member, Youngjo calls out: “You are very young!”

I love he. I’d fight him in a Denny’s parking lot, but I love he. For what purpose, that smile??

🐶XION

My son.

***Hey. Self. Note for the future: next time prepare a little more to say to your Ult.***

Okay, like, Xion looked RADIANT what the hell. See proof below

I gave him a very cheesy personal message about how I’ve watched him grow and improve and it makes me so happy, he makes me so happy with his music and his kindness. Also I mentioned that his makeup skills are always on point and look so, so good.

🐶, like immediately, proudly: Oh, thank you!!

I’ve lived a long and good life. But now I have expired. I have deceased. My ult smiled at me like this, and I have ascended to the next plane of existence.

However I’m coming back from the dead to finish this writeup and also to keep shitposting.

Anyway I would and did die for him.

BONUS: his reaction when I was like “I swear I thought I had more written out, I was like ‘oh I have so much to say to Xion’ and now here I am just staring at you.”

🐯HWANWOONG

Best! 👏🏻Boy! 👏🏻

(they’re all best boy, but Hwanwoong was just so on. He’s really just so welcoming and kind, ahhhhh)

I told him I’ve really been enjoying the 1theK choreography videos, then I mentioned the Cardi B choreo specifically and did a chef’s kiss motion, and this was his reaction (along with “thank you for watching that!”:

Then I asked him if there was a song he really wanted make some choreography for, but he hadn’t had the chance yet.

He thought, and then he swerved me by saying it was a SECRET and I’d have to stay tuned. 👀👀👀👀 You know I will, ya tricky lil’ bean.

Also hey who gave him the right??? To be so cute?? Like, stop. (don’t stop.)

🐰KEONHEE

So there’s this thing I’ve noticed with fansigns, where there’s always one member who just knocks the fansign experience out of the park so thoroughly that they steal a piece of my heart I never expected to give. For this fansign, that was Keonhee.

At this point I was also realizing I didn’t have much prepared to say, and I was just kind of riffing. But I did want to tell him that we had two things in common: we both studied ballet, and we both sang opera. I thanked him for the recent VLive where that was A Whole Thing, and then:

🐰, in English no less: Can you show me?

I don’t know what I expected. But I did show him. I sang a couple of operatic scales for him because I was like “what the hell, why not? Lee Keonhee’s gonna hear me sing opera. This is what my training was for.”

So that happened even though I was definitely nervous and forgot to open my throat up as much as I should have. It’s been a while, okay?

He also pointed out the LED moon lamp I keep on my side desk, which I’d forgotten to turn on before the call. So luckily Lee Keonhee was there to remind, at 5/6 of the way through my call!

🐿SEOHO

Firstly, I was taken in by the cool retro style jacket, so I mentioned that.

What’s with this little dance he did when I was gearing up to tell him what I wanted to say? Anyway he’s cute.

Then, I told him that Dizzy is one of my favorite ONEUS songs, and that he should definitely try to do more songwriting in the future if he wants.

He agreed. 😂

Then, he sang a little bit of Dizzy for me, but the sound was really not doing me any favors at this point in the call so it came through a little choppy ahhh.

So there you have it! All in all an amazing experience, would definitely do it again but would definitely prepare more to say/do/ask! I just don’t want to go in like an interviewer, but I also don’t know what else to do when there’s The Language Barrier, even with an interpreter. I’m definitely not in this for the boyfriend wish fulfillment or aegyo (Xion can’t help it), but since there is SO MUCH I could conceivably ask about, I’ve got fodder for future fansigns.

I hope you enjoyed!!!

#fancall writeup #v.text #v.gifsets #i guess this counts for my gifset tag #even with the potato quality these are LIMITED EDITION #ahhhhh i'm so happy

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jaehyunhour · 4 years ago

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rules: answer the ten questions, write your own, and tag ten people!

tagged by: @lucas-wongs 🥰

1. would you classify yourself as prep, geek, or jock? why? hmm, i think geek! i don’t really identify with prep or jock to begin with, but i care a lot about school and learning new things and channel my energy into those things! so i guess geek.

2. hogwarts house? slytherin through and through babyyyy.

3. do you believe in astrology? yes! to an extent.

4. name one good thing that you did or happened to you today. i’ve been working on making one of my friends and i matching nomin stickers/keychains because we haven’t been able to find any we like, and today i finished jaemin’s part! if anyone wants to see it lmk🥺

5. what model phone do you have? white iphone 11!

6. favorite NCT unit (127 / Dream / WayV)? i think 127! i really love them all though, but i feel like a lot of my energy is directed to 127 since i spend the most amount of money on them, watch their videos the most, etc.

7. first NCT bias and current NCT bias? very first bias in 127: jaehyun, very first bias in dream: chenle, very first bias in wayv: ten. current bias in 127: jaehyun, johnny, mark, current bias in dream: jeno, jaemin, current wayv bias: xiaojun, yangyang.

8. ideal first date location and why? the beach at sunset!! it is so beautiful and romantic, if you take me there i can absolutely guarantee i will fall in love with you.

9. what is something new you’ve been doing because of quarantine? if you haven’t done anything new, then what is one thing you’d like to learn? i’ve been doing a lot of ipad art! i downloaded procreate for $10 and am going wild lol.

10. something you’d like to say to someone but you haven’t told them? hm... i feel like there’s a lot that i have already said to people, but i really want to meet johnny and tell him to his face how proud i am and how much i love him! one day it’ll happen, one day.

i am tagging: @somekid-someplace @dimplyjae @catkastrophe @air-wreckaaa @choipetals and anyone who wants to do it!!

here are my questions for you!

1. what got you into kpop?

2. what is the last picture you saved to your phone?

3. do you have any tattoos? if you don’t, do you want any?

4. do you have any piercings? if you don’t, do you want any?

5. what’s your go-to feel good song (kpop or not)?

6. what’s your favorite OG disney channel (or nickelodeon, or cartoon network) show?

7. if you could meet one person dead or alive who would it be?

8. when you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up? do you still want to be that?

9. what’s your favorite scent?

10. what is your most prized possession?

#tag game #about me

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moldy-mold · 5 years ago

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Diary Post: My Thoughts and Processes on Making “Silent Strength” It’s lengthy, taking place over long period of time. Mainly written for my future-self to remember what I went through, but also for anyone who is curious. Now that the project is over, I can post without reservations. There are certain things I need to keep secret though, so if I’m vague I do so intentionally!

Basically, a lot of number-crunching, physical labor, and psychological labor.

It started off as kind of a joke tweet I made. I had enough content to make a Tales Of art book and people were receptive to it. So… I thought maybe I could go somewhere with this. A few weeks later, I suddenly had a lot of Kratos art. Like. 80% of all my Tales art was Kratos. It didn’t make sense to make a broad Tales Of book when really most of it was Kratos.

I hadn’t made a book since I was in college despite it being one of my favorite things to do. They were never art books, just some editorial design projects that totally didn’t count. This book… would be my first-ever art book.

Several times, I came close to having enough art to print a book - the last time was my large collection of Yusuke Kitagawa, but the quality wasn’t where I wanted. At that time, I was still experimenting with my iPad Pro and figuring out Procreate, so that was what I used him for.

NGL, I was pretty afraid of looking like a clown. After doing all this work, what if no one actually buys it? I was talking to some friends and they said they would buy it. It was enough for me. In the end, I’m creating something that I love. - The first thing I really wanted to work on was the cover. It needed to be epic but also mysterious (lol)… It was a good time to practice lighting and backgrounds. The cover had to be freaking Fantastic. I spent 3 days drawing nonstop. I was on vacation so I could spend full days just drawing. It was really intense. I would stop in the evenings to go for a run or else my legs would never get circulation again.

The hardest part was keeping it secret. I wanted to share it with the world right away bc I was so proud of it. Well, all I could do was show it to my parents and some close friends. They didn’t know who Kratos is, but it was obvious I was crazy about him.

Initially, I was doing some hand-lettering for the zine title instead of using a typeface. Tbh, I was so sure I was naming this zine “Blame Your Fate!” bc that is such an iconic line. But it just didn’t work with my cover, which looked… a little too serene for that. So… Silent Strength or Divine Strength? I asked around and got my answer.

But what size? All of my art has been on letter canvases. I wanted it to be large so you could see the details in the art. I’ll just start with that. - Luckily, I had all my Kratos-related art in one place. I started my InDesign file and threw everything in there just to see what it looked like. Man, I draw a lot of boxes… But I didn’t want them all next to each other. I also wanted to kinda organize it by the people Kratos hangs out with. There’s a Yuan section LOL… and a Lloyd section… and an Anna section. Idk, I tried to get some kind of order in there with a sprinkling of full spreads here and there to keep it fresh and interesting for the eyes.

I hadn’t worked with InDesign on such an intense level since college. I forgot all of the tips and tricks we learned in class. Spent some time reading on how to do things again… like adding page numbers. - I started drafting my pre-order form. It’s my first time making a google form like this. It’s kind of fun? I spent a long time on it, despite how simple it was. This was going to be my “Store” so it had to look and sound good. - My friend introduced me to charm-making. It seemed easy enough, and I wanted to give my zine more oomph. Besides, I’ve always wanted to make a charm.

I remember someone saying they’d buy a book of just the 4 Seraphim if it existed. I like them too and they lack art imo. In the end, I decided to do a polaroid charm. It’s not really that unique but I wanted Kratos to have actual friends to hang out with for once LOL.

She was going to do a group order to try to reduce the costs. I thought maybe 4 weeks would give me enough time. In the end she said I only have 2. I work well under pressure, so needless to say, I did make that deadline. I actually sketched the whole thing on the plane headed home. - After playing the game the second time, watching the OVA again, and reading “Offerings to a Star,” I have gained a real soft spot for Yuan. My friend once said, “If you weren’t stolen away by Kratos, you would be in love with Yuan.�� Lol. I’ve been in a “Kratos and Yuan hanging out” mood lately, so of course I needed something good for the zine. They’re so cute together! Now… what is the bro-est thing I can draw?

I was currently in Florida for my friend’s wedding. I was friends with the groom and his best man since high school, so that makes it 10 years now. Seeing how they’re still friends after all this time, despite living in opposite sides of the country, was really moving to me. Of course, me being me, I could see Kratos and Yuan’s long friendship being similar to this, if they had gone to school together. I just had to draw it. - When I got back from vacation, I did some research on zine sizes. Mine was HUGE compared to others. I just didn’t quite realize it until I held a magazine in my hands. It really is huge…

I settled for a medium size. 7x9. I really liked how it looked. Petite but not too petite. Unfortunately resizing my book had messed up my artwork placement so I spent hours rearranging all the text and resizing my images. I found out afterwards that there’s a way to retain the format while changing the document size. Gee, that would have been helpful 4 hours ago.

Sadly, choosing a custom size booklet makes printing more expensive. But I wanted it badly enough that I’d be willing to pay for it. Letter size is just too large… - I decided to stop dragging my feet and post a promo. I just really needed a deadline for myself to get this all done before July ended. I’m happy it was well-received. A lot of people like Kratos huh…

Anyway, the pre-order is due in a week and I still don’t know what all the costs are yet. I need a physical proof ASAP to weigh at the post office! - Something possessed me one day to do another drawing. I don’t usually do painterly style (mainly because it’s really difficult and takes 10x longer) but I just REALLY wanted to push myself on this Final Piece to the zine. I wanted it to be… radiant. Almost religious. I worked on it obsessively. From breakfast to sundown. The only time I would stop was at 7pm to go running or else my legs would give out on me.

Call me crazy, but I would save my progress on my phone so I could examine it for errors during my warmup. I also spend an hour examining it for errors before going to bed. It’s a miracle I hadn’t dreamt of the painting. - I sent my files in on Sunday in hopes that they start working on it first thing on Monday…. and it HAPPENED! They finished before I even woke up. I think they start work at like 6am…

Of course, I drove over there as soon as I heard so I can get a look. “Please… please let the colors be okay,” I prayed as I was driving. I barely remember driving there, I was so lost in thought. It would be another long ordeal if I had to fix all the colors.

Thank the stars. The press proof looked BEAUTIFUL!! I was screaming to the client coordinator how much I loved it. I mean, I worried for a looooong time that everything would turn out too dark (it usually does) but it was PERFECT. I was especially worried about the cover, which contained a lot of yellow and I def did not want it to come out mustardy… But it was great in the end!

The press operator is a quiet man. He’s got a scary face and never smiles but I think he’s secretly nice. He has done a lot of favors for me in the past without my asking. He was the one to print, bind, and trim the book for me. Obviously he had to have seen what I was drawing. I wonder what he thought of it…? He walked away before I could express how happy and thankful was. He didn’t need to hear it. It was like he already knew. So cool…

I immediately took it to the post office to weigh it. I needed as much info as I could get and plus, I was dying to know for myself. This is the week I was supposed to open pre-orders and there was still a lot I needed to do. Take pictures, create mockups, pricing, etc.

NGL, all of these costs were building up fast. It was so darn expensive to make a zine while also keeping prices down. But I wanted so much more for my baby. Extra glossy cover, perfect binding!! I knew by the end of this, I probably wouldn’t make much money. It hurt a little, but I tried to think that it was for the greater good. Learning experience and all that. And creating something beautiful. Especially something beautiful of Kratos. - Pricing was really the hardest part. I pretty much threw profit out the window. However, I definitely did not want to be losing money. My dad and I had worked together to create a spreadsheet of expenses to make sure my head was above water. I followed it… loosely.

My friend came to talk to me at the right moment. I was sort of panicking at the prices. She made me realize I was thinking way too hard about it and gave me some tips based on her own experience. It really put my mind at ease talking to someone who understands my woes.

The truth of the matter is, the book is wonderfully made and has a lot of pages - countless hours of drawing. There is only so much I can do about pricing. It is what it is… I just needed to come to terms with my own worth. - Boy, what am I going to do once the zine is done? My friend says that I’ll be so over Kratos that I’ll stop drawing him (but the love remains). It’s like… all of the intense planning, working, struggling nonstop will just suddenly… stop. TBH, I’m running out of ideas. I spent it all on the zine. - Photoshoot today. I had to paint my nails purple for this occasion. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the look I wanted in the apartment. It’s just so naked without props. I think I’ll take it to a cafe for some nicer backgrounds. I talked it over with my friend and decided to do a quick flip-through of the zine as a promotional video. I used the most professional video program I had on hand… Snapchat. It actually turned out pretty legit and of course I slapped stickers on there because it’s Snapchat.

I had to tape/hide some of the pages for the video because I wasn’t actually done with the drawings. I had the printers print it anyway so I could examine it for color accuracy.

I’m really stressed about pricing now. It turns out I had a lot more international fans than I anticipated. I wish I took notes on interest earlier in the game to cater to them. I had a list of “possible buyers” and I only just now decided to check where they live? Foolish.

I did another cost analysis on paper to figure out what my goal was to make up for the charms. Right now they’ve cost me a fortune for something that was supposed to be giveaway. Other things that rack up are packaging costs, PayPal fees, and some other supplies I needed for this project.

Maybe I shouldn’t have made it 40 pages. It is an impressive number, but no one is really paying for quantity. I think 25 is a better number lol. If I had done that, I could have had my super-gloss cover like I wanted. :’(

There is hope though. And I’ve placed it in the hands of my followers to come through for me. I think I’ll open pre-orders on Saturday or Sunday, depending on what I finish. - “Losing your cool will only lead to poor decisions.”  Thanks, Kratos twitter bot. You always know what to say.

I read this post today on what makes people buy zines. Very interesting!  https://twitter.com/andythelemon_/status/1141469048653398019 - Photoshoot part 2 today. My friend and I went to a cafe nearby that had some nice atmosphere in hopes of finding the right shots. I brought all of my Kratos merch just in case. I’m glad I did though, since the tables were pretty sparse and it was difficult to capture the backgrounds without getting a bunch of random people in it too.

I would have been the photographer, but I definitely wanted my hands in the shots. In a way, it was meaningful - to show that this was made by my own two hands. Plus, I wanted to depict natural interaction with the product. It made it feel real.

The photos were cute! I feared it would look a little amateurish with all the merch in there, but I think fun was what I was really going for, not “professional.” And plus the flip-through was a Snap anyway LOL. As long as the photos have good lighting and tasteful composition, you really can’t go wrong with “fun.”

Now that I’ve finished editing my photos, there really isn’t anything holding me back from opening pre-orders. I’ve pretty much come to terms with my pricing. If I fail to break even, I’ll just have to open commissions to try to make up for it. I was telling my friend on the way home, “I gave this zine EVERYTHING I had to give. So at the very least, I won’t be disappointed in myself.” No stone left unturned, no detail left unchecked. It was perfect according to my standards. I really love my zine okay?!

I thought I was crazy for not only choosing a small fandom, I narrowed it down even further by picking ONE GUY to make this zine about. She replied, “Even if it’s small, those people who love him now must be EXTREMELY LOYAL to still be in love with a character from a 15-year-old game. All of them will want your zine.” - I went to bed that night with the intention of making the pre-order post live in the morning. I was so nervous I couldn’t sleep. I was wide awake until at least 5 or 6 am. Luckily, I was able to doze off for a an hour or two before I would shake myself awake again. It was a mixture of anxiety and excitement. It was the moment of truth - to see if all my effort made a difference. Was it going to sell? - The pre-order post looked really freaking good. I’ll give it that. I even made a YT account just to post that darn preview video on tumblr lol. It was definitely fun seeing everyone’s excitement and we all just freaked out together.

I broke even! That’s what really matters. Honestly at this point, I couldn’t care less if I made profit or not. I now know how much people really like the zine and that alone made me so happy I could die.

I was particularly fascinated at Google Form’s ability to transfer all the data collected into a spreadsheet. That is extremely helpful. I spent hours organizing the data. It was really fun…?! Now I can tell who gets invoiced and who paid and separate them into categories. IT’S FANTASTIC!

Stayed up late researching how much adding tracking could be. I had a slight panic attack thinking “what if my books got lost in transit?” It would really hurt me to have to reprint books and ship them again. And then I realized I will need to fill out customs forms for all international orders. Yikes, I’m gonna be living at the post office lol. You can print them out at home if you fill out the form online but there are still some things I’m uncertain about. I may visit the post office later this week to ask all my questions. - This morning I sent out everyone’s invoices. I gave the international people the option to purchase tracking. It’s expensive… but I need to provide that option just in case.

I received a nice message from someone who offered to advertise for me on Instagram. Of course, I gave them the OK! I’m really so shocked they would do that… They said the liked the zine so much it deserved more exposure. My dude… I love you… T_T

I thought about advertising on insta myself earlier in the week. For some reason I felt it was going to be fruitless since I don’t have an art account on there with a following. So, I gave up on the idea. Hey it worked out in the end.

I’ve never been so organized in my entire life. I want this zine experience to be perfect. The people have placed their trust in me, so I cannot mess up. - Edited some pages in the zine. The typography must be perfect… It made me think back to undergrad days in graphic design school. Man, if only I can present this as a project - photos, videos, matching accessories and all. I’d probably get an A lol. - Orders slow down after the first day. The rest is just about getting new people to see the post and giving other people more time to decide.

I finished my Kratos stationery today. It’s going to be so cute. My friend said people would want to buy it but I don’t have it in me to do more products at this time. Plus, I want it to be a surprise.

Why make stationery? Well my real job (no, I don’t draw Kratos all day for a living) is a stationery designer! It would feel really wrong not to put into practice what etiquette I’ve learned in this business. Plus, I felt that it was necessary to properly thank all those who ordered. And it’s fun?

I started designing the shipping labels for the domestic orders since I don’t need to fill out a customs form for those. I wish I had sticker labels but… it’s okay. It will still look good in the end. - Every so often, I would get nervous at the amount of money I’m responsible for. Perhaps, if I had a store with existing products I wouldn’t feel this way, but the fact that the books haven’t been printed yet made me scared. I know, I need this money to even print the books in the first place, but I’m just baffled at my customers’ trust in almost a total stranger. I felt pressured that I could not let them down and lose that trust. It probably didn’t help that I watched a documentary on Elizabeth Holmes (Theranos) that day.

So, I prayed every single day that nothing would go wrong. I’d check my spreadsheet constantly for any mistakes. It was a little obsessive, but I would rather be that than overlook something.

I began collecting cardboard boxes. My plan was to cut them up to protect the books during transit. I would have preferred hard envelopes but they were a bit pricey. If I have to do more work myself, so be it.

I’ve been getting nice DMs from some buyers. I think my invoice due date scared them… I really did not intend to be strict, but I wanted people to pay now if they can rather than forget about it. This happens at work all the time, so the best thing to do is have it due immediately. It would not look good to have to wait on stragglers when I close pre-orders, so I’ll probably reach out when there is one week left. - My Kratos stationery arrived! Aww it is SO CUTE!!! My babies… I have a lot of notes to write so I got started right away. It’s going to be a lot of work trying to come up with creative ways to say “thank you,” but I don’t mind. I said I was going to put my all into the zine experience so I will.

At long last, the charm order has been put in motion. My friend said it could take a while… I hope it won’t be longer than 3 weeks. I really do not want to keep everyone waiting. I may ship out the ones who did not win a charm first. I mean, there is no reason to make those guys wait. I should ask the charm winners if they still want to wait and see if anyone wants to give it up for someone else who is more patient. Hm. - I finally stopped by the post office today to collect customs forms. I have my work cut out for me since I’m filling all of them in by hand. D:

I’m not used to international addresses so I think I’ll ask for help in checking them for spelling errors and typos. Heaven forbid I mess up on the very last part of the zine experience.

In my nervousness, I decided to reach out about invoices early on. If someone wanted to cancel, I would rather find out sooner rather than later. Everyone was really nice about paying and thank goodness they’re still excited.

Feeling kind of overwhelmed by all the things I need to do, but it’s a good thing. If I don’t know what to do, I can either: cut cardboard, write letters, type shipping labels, draw more Kratos for a… possible volume 2? Someone I talked to today already said they’ll pre-order a second book if I make one. Omg I think I’ll die. But we’ll see. It’s just a joke right now haha… - Preorders end today. I had another nightmare last night that the books could not be printed properly and there was nothing I could do. Why do I keep getting nightmares about the zine! I had one a few days before about people canceling their orders when I asked them about the invoices. I’ll take these dreams with a grain of salt. I’m probably just stressed/worried but everything is going to be okay. When I open my eyes, nothing is on fire.

I received my final proof a few days ago. With all of the artwork completed and changes applied. The book looks good, no doubt about it. There was only one thing I was nit-picky about but it can be fixed. The press operator offered to print another book for me to inspect. I’ll go see it on Monday and then submit the rest of the orders. I also asked to to have a meeting with the press operator so we are on the same page. It would be beneficial to have an understanding of how my book is made so that I may be more helpful to him.

I spent the day preparing shipping labels. I hate to admit, I am not too familiar with the format international addresses so I had an address validator open as I was typing them in. For the most part, everyone was helpful in already formatting their addresses in the preorder form! - My parents called me the day after preorders were closed. They wanted to say congratulations on my success. No one thought it would do this well. I couldn’t be offended by that since I was also guilty of it. I’m happy though. It feels like my love spread across the world and was contagious.

I tried to think of what advice I would give to others. Obviously, genuine love for the subject and hard work were a necessity. But it would be good to consider value. If I were selling it at this price, I had to make sure my pieces and presentation looked the part. I ask myself, if someone else sold it, would I buy it?

I sent out messages to all the charm winners in the morning. I wanted to apologize profusely at the ridiculous amount of time it has taken to get them made. But no, I’ve got to stop apologizing. I stated the facts and left it at that. Everyone was really kind and patient⁠—to which I was thankful for. I don’t usually get that when I’m working customer service. - All the books were done printing in one day. Wow! I went to pick it up immediately of course. I can’t believe all of this is coming to an end. I finished preparing the mailers. All that was left was to stuff and seal the domestic orders. They were the easiest to do so I’m going to ship those first. The rest will need customs forms, which I haven’t filled out just yet. It’s going to be a while for those…

The mailers were quite sturdy with the cardboard cutouts I slipped in them. I have nothing to worry about. I’m sure my babies will be okay! - I took a whole box of domestic orders to the post office today. Wasn’t sure what to expect. But my clerk had to input every single address one at a time while I checked for errors. Omg, why are the post office shipping labels SO HUGE. I thought it was going to be half the size. And they’re ruining my designer labels! Slight panic but oh well…

I had a long long line behind me. I’m so sorry, people. Luckily there were two clerks or I would be really sweating. Despite my intimidating box of zines, the clerk and I had Synergy and we managed to ship all of these in about 15 minutes. I received a very long receipt and quite the bill lol. - Shipped the international orders today. I was kind of a mess since I had no idea what to do. I keep wondering if I can help speed up the process in any way but I don’t think I have the option to ship first-class at home.

When shipping international, keep the post office copy of the customs forms together with the package since they use that to type the address info into the system. Also, we get free tracking, which I did not know about. The other clerk told me that we did not get tracking for international first-class but I guess he was misinformed. It’s good to know for next time. - The charms finally arrived!! And THEY’RE HOLOGRAPHIC?! It was pretty awesome, but it makes picture-taking kind of difficult!! Anyway, I was a tiny bit disgruntled that they got my order incorrect, and I even asked for a reprint. But they said no, so I left it at that. Besides, it seems the holographic effect was well-received.

I like this size that I made. It’s really cute! Larger than your normal charm but not too huge. It’s almost like an Instax photo! - There was one customer who I found lives near me! I asked her if she wanted me to hand-deliver it to her in a public setting and she agreed (to my amazement). We finally met a few days ago and talked for hours and hours lol! I’m glad to have finally made a new friend here in this town but of course she’s moving away in two weeks. <:’3

We’re going to meet again to make the most of her time left. - I shipped the rest of the orders on the following Monday. I HAD to get these out. The poor guys have been waiting over a month! I think I picked a bad time to go because I had a huge line behind me and only one guy working. People in line were getting antsy or mad. The clerk at the other post office was super fast but not this guy…

For some reason shipping to the UK and Japan nearly doubled in price since the last time I checked. RIP. T_T - Omg I finally made a mistake. I wrote a letter to the wrong person. And the contents of that letter are too personalized!!! I am dying of embarrassment!!!!! Screams!! Had to apologize to both customers too!!! Luckily they were good sports about it but I’m seriously kicking myself AAAAAAAA!!!! - The most rewarding part after sending all my babies away is seeing the commentary on my project. It is so so nice to receive positive feedback. People are happy! Happy with something I created out of thin air. Everything was worth it 1000 times over. I can die happy!

I’m especially thankful to those who show understanding for how much effort went into it. It definitely wasn’t easy and I poured way too many hours into it… not that I regret that.

I don’t want to jump the gun but I would really love to make a volume 2. Because I know I can do better than last time. New and improved art and comics! But we’ll see if I make enough pieces for another book. I was against printing 40 pages before but now I kind of like it. It feels more worth it than a 25-page zine. If i’m going though so much effort, might as well bring in the entire package.

I’ll be printing more of this volume for Aselia Con 2020. Now I know people will appreciate it.

#diary

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callsignbaphomet · 5 years ago

Note

For the ABC OC Ask, randomly selected: C # 1-5, D # 1-5, F # 1-5, G # 1-5, I # 1-5, M # 1-5. It's a lot of questions, take your time & feel free to answer as few or as many as you want. :)

Ooh, no worries, I looooove lots of questions. Also sorry, wasn’t ignoring this. I’m a scatter brain with no sense of time management. Since a lot of these are repeated I’ll skip over them since they’ll be in the previous post. Also I’ll give the answer to whichever OC I think best fits the question.

C: Comfort1. how do they sit in a chair?Angelus sits horribly in any chair especially if he finds it uncomfortable since he’ll be twisting and turning every which way until he finds a comfortable enough position.

3. what is their ideal comfort day?For Jelani it’s a quiet day where his phone doesn’t ring and he can get up at whatever hour he wants though even if he tried he can’t really sleep past 8:30 and he can spend the rest of the day in the art room reading while his husband is drawing.

4. what is their major comfort food? why?For Angelus it’s totally steamed dumplings. Just had one shitty day once and was taken out to eat but he wasn’t feeling up to eating much but nibbled on a few and loved them instantly so from that moment on every time he sees steamed dumplings it’s like instant serotonin.

5. who is the best at comforting them when down?Abigail? LokeLoke? JelaniJelani? LokeAngelus? GingerGinger? AngelusTrevor? LokeTre? TrevorLatoya? Abigail

D: Decoration2. how would they decorate their child’s room?So Fae is actually a graphic designer and in her spare time an interior designer so when she head her first baby, Leah, she went overboard with the latest trends but made it cute and neutral since she wanted it to be a surprise. Now with the triplets she wanted to know their gender for sure given the fact that she was dealing with triplets. Again went with the latest trends turned cute but she stuck to neutral designs anyway.

3. how do they decorate their own room?Ginger and Abigail have a bit of a gothic theme to their whole apartment but their room is especially heavily themed. The rest of the place is subtle but not their room. We’re talking Victorian goth, black silk sheets, dim lighting, dark reds and deep purples and lots of black.

4. what type of clothes and accessories do they wear?Okay so for a while now I’ve been sketching and writing Angelus as a cross dresser and idk I think it fits him well plus he’s super into cute things. Any kind of skirts though he heavily prefers short and really short skirts, especially loves heeled boots, thigh high socks, baggy sweaters or any cute tops really. He mostly sticks to soft and pastel colors. Men’s clothes he’ll go with darker colors.

Accessories? He’s really into bows, flowers and really subtle bracelets, necklaces and earrings. No, he isn’t trans, he’s very cis. He just likes to cross dress and no, he isn’t doing it as a way to mock trans people he just really likes how he looks and feels while wearing women’s and girl’s clothes.5. do they like makeup/nail/beauty trends?Going with Angelus again, yeah he loves that stuff especially makeup. He’s gathered a pretty big collection of it over time gotten dozens of nail polish of all kinds of colors, and has a ton of makeup. He’d wear acrylic nails but 1) he’s super clumsy and 2) I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for a werewolf to do that.

F: Fun1. what do they do for fun?Most of them just really enjoy getting together, ordering a few large pizzas or just buying a bunch of tacos and bring a bunch of beer and soda and spend a few hours playing video games. Bringing their own consoles to have more people playing and if they feel silly enough probably stream it for friends who couldn’t come over to watch. If they don’t feel like going to one apartment they stay in their own and meet up online on whatever game they wanna play at the moment.3. who would they have the most fun with?Honestly a lot of them have known each other for literal centuries and have grown close and sometimes intimate so really they all just have a lot of fun together.4. can they have fun while conforming to rules?They can but Loke and Jelani are constantly holding the group back from making any idiot mistakes. Unless it’s to defend one of them they’re pretty chill when out.5. do they go out a lot?Not that often really. With the job sometimes they’re out for weeks and even months and when they finally have some down time they’re too tired to do much of anything else. They do go out though but just not when they’re on call.

G: Gorgeous1. what is their most attractive external feature?Jelani? Everything!2. what is the most attractive part of their personality?Abigail’s ability to always be encouraging and her bubbly personality just triples that.3. what benefits come with being their friend?Jelani: spoils friends and family every chance he gets, is always just one text or call away no matter if it’s an emergency or for fun, and is faithful to the end. 5. what parts of others do they envy?So out of all Angelus has the lowest self-esteem and he just thinks the worst of himself. He wishes he was as good a person as Loke is or as talented as Ginger or as confident as Jelani. Not just personality wise, he genuinely believes he’s some ugly monster that needs to be hidden (was raised to believe that and unfortunately stuck). He just wishes he wasn’t him on bad days but he’s been working on all of that and has done really well to the point where he doesn’t feel that way about himself all the time.

I: In-the-closet1. what is their sexuality?Angelus: gayJelani: pansexualAbigail: lesbianLoke: bisexual (demisexual)Latoya: pansexualTrevor: pansexual (aromentic)Ginger: bisexualAlly: ace/aroSanaa: queerIngvarr: bisexualJørgen: queerMason: gayTre: straightLeah: bisexualAnette: lesbian2. have they ever questioned their sexuality?Well, shit a bunch of them have at one point or another. Some took a little to settle their feelings while some took long years to realize certain things about themselves.3. have they ever questioned their gender?Asher did for long years though he wasn’t sure of what was actually happening and why he was so confused over a lot of things. Wasn’t until much later that he finally figured himself out.4. would/was their family be okay with them being LGBT?Angelus’s abusers, if they ever found out, would just use it as another reason to hate him even more though I won’t really touch up on that. They’re just incredibly hateful and abusive people.

M: Maternal1. would they want a daughter or a son?Loke wouldn’t care especially considering that they may end up being trans. He just wants one or two at the most.2. how many children do they want?Angelus wants none. He doesn’t hate kids or anything like that, he’s pretty good with them, really soft spoken and patient with kids. When Jela babysits his cousins he goes with him and helps out especially since it’s a teenager and three 7 year-olds. He’s just scared to death that he’ll end up abandoning them like his parents abandoned him (when I mean I abandoned I mean sold him) or worse that he’ll be like his abusers and he wouldn’t want any child to go through what he went through. Luckily his husband doesn’t want kids either.

As for Jax they’re Angelus and Jelani’s hypothetical child. Just something I wanted to have fun with. A Maker and a werewolf end up making a demigod hellhound btw!. Would this change in the future? Hell if I know, man. Maybe, maybe not.4. what would they name a son? what would they name a daughter?Trevor eventually ends up becoming a single father, accidentally but nonetheless he was super happy about it and will be a pretty great dad. He ends up having a son which he named Damien and had it been a girl he woulda named her Rosemary. If it wasn’t obvious Trevor is a huge horror nerd.5. would they adopt?Ginger and Abigail have talked about it a lot and since neither can have a kid (vampires in my setting can’t procreate, they’re very undead) they’ve decided to adopt but not yet. Not till they feel like they can be fully prepared.

#lordfenric #reply #legion tag #oc things

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recurring-polynya · 3 years ago

Text

Okay because I’m me, an amateur artist who just learned to do shadows and a person who has done some professional work in a not-at-all-applicable branch of image processing, I also had to take a crack at color-correcting this. I spent an entire morning on this and basically came to the conclusion that is unsolvable, and also my analysis was very boring but @ippoddity wanted to hear about it, so let’s go.

Since @bleachbleachbleach had already tried out fixing the image by saturating it back to reality, I wanted to try the reverse. Desaturation represents a loss of information, and is not actually a reversible process (consider that if you fully desaturate an image, it become grayscale, you would have no way of knowing what colors it was originally). What I wanted to do was to take an image in the correct colors and apply a correction that would appear to match the lighting conditions we see in the diner. If that worked, I could trial-and-error my way to potential realistic toque color scheme. Almost as soon as I started, I noticed that in the image above, Hitsugaya’s eyes ended up the correct color, but his skin tone is way washed out from the reference image.

I did this in Procreate, which is the same software I use to do art on my iPad. If you aren’t familiar with it, the most important concept is that you can work on different layers that you can manipulate individually. I put some reference images of Renji and Hitsugaya on one layer (which I planned to modify), and then I added a layer above that where I painted some color swatches from the diner scene on top of them (which I would leave the same). I then tried to edit the bottom layer until the swatches matched. This is not super important, but I thought i might be helpful to assume that Renji’s sweatshirt is actually white and his jacket is actually black. (I suspect that may actually be the koi hoodie and the black blazer he likes to wear with it). Anyway, here’s where we are:

Now, as I noted above, if you desaturate the picture, you can get Hitsugaya’s eyes the right color, but his skin is all wrong (Renji’s is not bad, tho). But! if you up the brightness, you can get the eye color pretty close and nail the skin color. Unfortunately, now Renji’s skin tone is very, very off. As I thought about this though, Hitsugaya is sitting in the window, which means that he’s likely getting hit with halogen street lights, which would wash him out like this. Renji’s sitting further back in the room, in shadow. They’re in completely different lighting conditions.

At this point, I think what I tried to do was to add shadow to Renji. I noticed that his colors in the diner picture have addition color qualities to them-- his black jacket is purple, his white sweatshirt is pinkish. On the other hand, his skin has sort of a green/yellow tone to it that I couldn’t get rid of by just desaturating. Anyway, I tried a bunch of crap with adding extra layers and at various blend modes and transparencies, which is how I add deep shadows when I was doing art. I think the closest I was able to get with the skin was by adding a green shadow at about a quarter transparency, but this did not match his clothes at all. At this point, I was wondering if maybe his outfit isn’t black and white at all, and if that was just a distraction, so I found some more reference pictures of Renji and started trying to match the shadows under his chin. The top picture (”Hitsugaya Advance Team Member and Squad 6 Lieutenant Renji Abarai”) is kinda dim indoor lighting, the one below, where he’s on the phone, is bright outdoor lighting, and that one worked less well.

The first time I did this, I think I started to get concerned that whatever I did, his hair kept getting darker and that hat is very bright, like, it has a higher brightness value than the things around it, but as I’m retracing my steps, it really doesn’t seem so bad.

Hrrrnnngh, the next thing I did was to create a little spectrum of pinks and purples and put it under the green filter and try to match it to the pink and purple of his hat in the diner scene. They’re not actually all that much different. Anyway, I made a copy of the diner picture, and recolored Renji in what I thought his okay-indoor-lighting color scheme would be (I added his ponytail for good measure) and then threw it all back under the green filter and put it side by side with the bad-diner-lighting. It’s... not bad?

Anyway, if you turn the green filter off again, here’s what you get, my proposed True Color Toque:

I want to emphasize that I do not feel at all confident in my results. I think that there just simply isn’t enough information in the image to properly correct it, which is why my result came out so close to the original. If only they had bothered to include his stupid hair in this shot, this probably would have been trivial.

Here are some additional considerations:

- I often do art by coloring it in a normal color scheme and then adding shadows because that’s what’s easiest for me, but many artists just... color things. There is no guarantee at all that this is a realizable color scheme and not just the colorist winging it.

- I consulted Mr. P because of course I consulted Mr. P and his take on it was that if you were to imagine this as a photograph taken with a camera, you would need to consider the white-balance algorithm (that thing that makes light-skinned people’s faces look good). The white-balance is nonlinear and absolutely impossible to reverse engineer and you can’t turn it off.

I think the upshot is that the hat is somewhat brighter than it appears in the shot, perhaps a lot brighter, but it’s true colors are whatever you feel in your heart they should be.

ippoddity: in terms of being in the real world, what color do you think renji’s hat is? like… purple and… red? eggplant and maroon?

whipplefilter: lolol. i guess eggplant and maroon? because purple and red seems too pokemon

ippoddity: i feel like the lighting in this scene is very odd, so it’s hard to tell what color things actually are LOL. like, it’s making almost everything look muted. but if it’s muted, then his hat really is just an atrocious color

whipplefilter: this is going to sound ridiculous, but maybe we could recolor the image until hitsugaya’s eyes match his usual? to approximate true color of the hat XDDDD

ippoddity: LOLOLOL “gotta fire up photoshop for this very important detail”

*1 min later*

OH MY GOD IT REALLY IS ATROCIOUS

whipplefilter: LMAOOO I JUST DID THE SAME THING

ippoddity: GOD IT’S SO BAD

LMAOOOOOOO

you were much more official with yours, actually using a reference for his eyes. i just went off memory XD

--------

(credit to @recurring-polynya for the screenshot)

#toque renji #nerd crap

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star-trekkin-across-theuniverse · 7 years ago

Text

Escape, pt2

Word Count: 3635 Tags: @samaxraph99 @shewhorunswithfandoms @distinguishedqueenofbooks @anyakinamidala @anotherotter @little-study-bug @rampant-salamander @goodnightwife @wanderingkat77 @bluebird214 @superwholockedbeauty @eyeofdionysus @all-time-foes @girl-next-door-writes @feelmyroarrrr @castiels-ass-butt-1967 @haven-in-writing @sistasarah-sallysaidso @dolamrothianlady @from-kitten-to-kitsune

Roxanne sat in her office, a stack of records in front of her. After figuring out what all was on Peter’s cassette, she’d rummaged through the back catalogue in the basement and pulled as many of the vinyl copies of the songs as she could find. She was only missing one or two. She wasn’t entirely sure why she was going to such trouble, maybe it was the panicked look he’d given her when she’d said she couldn’t repair the cassette, but she wanted to rip each song from the record, instead of just downloading a cleaned-up mp3 copy of the song. She’d already picked a used iPod from the stack on her desk and reformatted it, so it was just a matter of getting the music. Whoever had made the mix tape had good taste. It was a pretty awesome collection of seventies music. She connected the turntable to her laptop and started the process of digitizing while working on the books.

There was the occasional interruption from staff, but they were pretty good about leaving her alone when she was actually in the store. She’d spent a lot of time interviewing staff for the store because she didn’t want to constantly be bothered for trivial issues. Most of her staff had been there since she’d bought the place. She’d been diligent about ensuring they were capable of managing if her other interests took her away, and she’d ensured that bonuses and raises accompanied years of service and added responsibilities. Having a low turnover in the store was better for everyone involved. With the exception of the Sunday girl, who was going to find herself the no-day girl if she didn’t show for another shift, Roxanne would have been hard pressed to complain about anyone on the staff. They were so good that it allowed her to continue to manage the important details, like the bookkeeping she was working on while she made Peter’s mix, without bringing in an outside contractor. And it was those little things that made her more inclined to try to make the store work, despite just breaking even most quarters.

“Rox, there’s a chick up front looking for info about Starlady and the Astronauts? She’s wondering if there’s going to be an album?” Jeremy had worked the store since he was in high school, and was nearly finished his accounting degree. He said there were a bunch of different certifications within accounting, and he’d still be a couple of years before he was fully where he wanted to be with his education. Roxanne often worried that working at the shop was preventing him from moving forward with his life. He argued that the shop was the perfect place for a university student. He had plenty of time to study, he was making a decent wage, and he loved what he was doing. But he also didn’t talk about what would happen when he finally finished pursuing all his academic dreams.

“There’s a bootleg of last night’s concert available on their website, but right now there’s no plans to release an album,” Roxanne croaked, her voice hoarse from the previous night. The concert had been amazing. As expected, when the crowd recognized all the big names on the stage, the place had gone nuts. She’d tried to see if Peter had made it, but the venue was dark and crowded, and once the band had started it was just too much to keep track of. She changed records and started on the next song, getting back to bills and payroll. The afternoon rolled by quickly. Jeremy brought pizza back at closing and sat with her to help finish up payroll. He’d been helping with the bookkeeping since he’d started university, and Roxanne paid him a little extra to help when she was too busy to manage. They’d already agreed he’d take over all the account management stuff once he finished school, as a contractor. It meant she would still have someone she trusted working with her.

“Is it oldies night? I’ve been loving everything that’s been playing this afternoon. I kinda wanted to patch it through on the store speakers,” he commented through a bite of pizza.

“I had a customer come in yesterday with a worn out mix tape. He was really broken up about it. I don’t know why, but my heart just went out to him. I figured ripping everything from the vinyl would make the transition from cassette to mp3 easier for him,” Roxanne offered, reaching for her own slice.

“A mix tape? That’s so eighties!” Jeremy laughed.

“Hey, watch it, puppy!” Roxanne protested. “Mix tapes were a serious sign of undying affection. Someone spent time on a mix tape for you, it meant they loved you. There was an art to them. Getting the timing between songs right, picking the right music to go together. We didn’t have shuffle back then, you got the songs in the order they were on that cassette.”

“How romantic,” Jeremy deadpanned. Roxanne rolled her eyes.

“My brother made me a mix tape every birthday from the time I was five on. It wasn’t just romance. Mikey was older than me so he was giving me a music education. You can thank all this,” Roxanne gestured around the store, “to my big brother making me mix tapes.”

“So this guy you’re doing this for. Is he hot?” Jeremy asked. Roxanne blushed and looked away.

“Doesn’t matter. It was the tears in his eyes that motivated me,” she argued.

“If an ugly dude had come in and cried about his mix tape, would you have taken the challenge?” Jeremy pressed. Roxanne folded her arms across her chest and cocked an eyebrow.

“Yes I would have. Because this guy might have been hot, but he had d-bag written all over him,” Roxanne countered. “And I avoid d-bags.”

“Well, you try, but you certainly have a weakness where a hot asshole is concerned,” Jeremy laughed. “Rox, I don’t get it. You’re gorgeous, you’re successful. You could be hanging out at your place, poolside, with a cabana boy fanning you with a palm frond while you drank slushy alcoholic bevvies. Instead you’re here, balancing the books and making a mix tape for a dude you don’t even know.”

“You know I don’t have a pool,” Roxanne dismissed with a laugh.

“My point is, you don’t have to do this anymore. You’ve hit the jackpot and cashed the check, Rox. Why don’t you enjoy it?” Jeremy pressed.

“Because this store is all I had. And I love it,” she shrugged.

“The Terrans will put me in a cage and stab me with needles. I ain’t fucking going!” Rocket threw himself into a chair and glared at Peter.

“But you know about the google!” Peter protested.

“No. Go to a library and ask to be shown how to use it. I’m not going with you!” Rocket declared and turned his head away. Peter threw up his hands in disgust and turned to Gamora.

“My skin is green. I’m not stupid enough to think they won’t notice,” she arched an eyebrow.

“I saw people with tattoos and all colours of hair last night, Gamora, no one will notice your skin,” Peter tried to reason with her.

“Peter, I’m not going to help you in your quest to procreate with one of every being in the galaxy. If you want to go research this woman, go on your own.” Gamora was firm. Peter sighed and rolled his eyes.

“For your information, I’ve already been with a Terran.” Peter grabbed his rucksack and headed out.

The library wasn’t far. It seemed nothing was really far in the cities in Terra, despite the overdependence on vehicles. Peter smiled at the librarian and explained what he needed, pulling out his most charming manners. She was more than happy to help him get set up with a computer, and slipped him a piece of paper with a string of numbers on it. A phone number, if he remembered correctly. “One of every being in the galaxy indeed,” he grumbled as he typed his query into the search engine.

The main page for the band was all explosions, and graphics, and tour dates. It didn’t really help him to find out more about the band, or specifically, about Roxy Rain. He backed out of that page, and picked the next page. It was laid out like an encyclopedia entry, with information about when the band was formed, how many albums they’d released, what kind of tours they’d done. When he got to the band members section, he clicked the link for the lead singer and a similar page for her opened. He read through all the background and history, how she’d grown up singing in a girl’s choir, formed her first band as a teenager, played her first concert instead of going to prom. But there was no information on where to find her. And all the photos of her were promotional shots, where she was artistically backlit or on stage and her wild hair was everywhere. There was one shot that Peter particularly liked where her hair was dyed all the colours of the rainbow. It had been blonde with hot pink undertones at the concert.

He noticed the sidebar on the page held all the important details about her. Roxanne Raintree. “That’s weird,” he muttered to himself. How did he encounter two women with the same name in one day? He went back to reading the rest of the information in the body of the entry, tapping the pencil the librarian had given him against his teeth. There was nothing there was would suggest he would be able to find her on his own, other than the article saying she lived in Portland and ever since the band’s first platinum album, had focused a lot of her free time on supporting the independent music scene in the city. He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. The librarian came around to check on him.

“Oh, you’re reading up on Pixie Stix? I’m not really a fan. I heard Roxy Rain did a concert with some other musicians last night though,” she offered.

“Yeah, it was good. I’d never heard of Pixie Stix before yesterday, but the name of the band last night intrigued me,” Peter admitted.

“Star something, right?”

“Starlady and the astronauts.” He pulled out the flyer. The librarian took a look at it and handed it back.

“She probably hand lettered it the flyer. She cut out a lot of costs when Pixie Stix was starting. Just by word of mouth advertising and drawing band flyers. A lot of people still get her to do their flyers for them. I might not like their music, but they give back a lot. So I buy at least one single every release, just on principle.” The librarian was turning out to be more informative than the google had been.

“Really? If I was in a band, and I wanted my poster lettered, how would I find her?” Peter asked.

“Honey, if you were in a band, you would know who Pixie Stix were!” She laughed. “The Vinyl Frontier usually can track her down. It’s on –“

“I know where it is. I was in there yesterday,” Peter interrupted and stood up.

“You’re not a psycho stalker or something, are you?” The librarian’s brow was knit in concern. He laughed.

“No,” he shook his head. She didn’t appear to buy it. “Can I tell you a secret? The truth is, I’ve got this friend, and he’s a huge fan. And he’s really sick. So I thought, if I could get her autograph, maybe that would make him feel better,” he explained. “It’s, like, really sad.”

“You are so sweet!” The librarian clutched a hand to her chest and tilted her head. She ran a hand down his arm. Peter smiled, flexing the muscles of his forearm as her hand ran across it. Her eyes widened and met his, and he flashed his most charming grin before standing.

“Thank you again for all you help,” he paused to read her nametag, “Sondra. I appreciate it.”

Peter had put his restraint to the test and just waited until Tuesday morning to head back to the record store. It was sorely testing his restraint though. He kept seeing the image of Roxy Rain in his head, the tight bustier she’d worn on stage, the thigh high boots. How she wasn’t every pubescent Terran male’s fantasy, he was unsure, but he hadn’t been able to find a poster of just her anywhere. There were plenty of posters with the whole band, but he was thinking more along the lines of the Farrah Fawcett on a Corvette poster his granddad had up in the garage when he was a kid. Something that was just Roxy Rain, looking as sexy as she had on stage.

The bells on the door jangled as he walked in and a tall skinny kid looked up from a textbook at the counter. “Heya.”

“Hi. Is Roxanne in? I dropped of a cassette with her on Sunday –“

“Oh, seventies power tape guy! Sure, yeah, hold on,” the kid interrupted and picked up the phone sitting beside him. He typed something in and looked back up at Peter. “She’s picking through inventory in the basement. She’ll be right up.”

Peter nodded and looked over the kid’s shoulder to the flyers lining the wall behind the cash desk. They were all hand lettered, the same block printing in the bottom left corner giving the details of each concert they advertised. He thought about what the librarian had said and realized the flyers must all be Roxy Rain’s work.

“Same artist do all those posters?” Peter asked.

“Yeah. She apparently never runs out of energy. A million things on the go all the time,” he laughed. Roxanne crashed through the door to the back in a cloud of dust, carrying a box that was stacked high with posters and what looked like t-shirts.

“Jer, come give me a hand, I’ve got another box downstairs. Listen, it’s October, and I just dug out all this Thriller stuff, do you think we can move it? I have promo materials here from when the album came out. I think we have at least a dozen copies of it on vinyl.” Roxanne hadn’t noticed Peter over the mountain of merchandise in her arms. He grabbed the box from her and brought it up to the counter for Jeremy. Jeremy pointed to the floor beside the desk and scurried to the door to help Roxanne with the rest.

“It’s also the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters, Rox, it might be a good Halloween tie in.” He took the next box from Roxanne and leaned over the top of it. “Seventies mix tape guy is here. And he’s smokin’ hot. No wonder you wanted to help him. You could bounce a quarter off that ass. Please let me know if you wind up bouncing a quarter off that ass.”

“Jeremy!” Roxanne hissed, barely containing a laugh. “I already told you –“

“Well for my sake then, I hope he’s gay,” Jeremy interrupted. Roxanne didn’t manage to contain the laugh. Peter looked up from the desk and smiled.

“Hey, Pete. I’m just gonna grab everything from my desk, and we’ll go over it,” Roxanne called and leaned back to where she’d left the iPod. She tossed everything she’d put together for him in a small box and came to the counter. “Okay, first things first. Do you still want me to speak to you like you are a complete idiot?”

“That would probably be a good plan,” Peter nodded.

“This is an iPod. It’s a type of mp3 player made by Apple –“

“The Mac people? Man, I used to love playing Oregon Trail in school. Is it weird to admit that? Is it weirder to admit it because I’m actually in Oregon?” Peter interrupted. Roxanne paused, unsure how to answer that.

“Yeah. The same people,” she paused. “Anyhow, iPod. It’s like a tiny computer that stores digitized music files on it. I ripped all the songs from the tape –“

“You ripped my tape?” Panic caused Peter to interrupt again.

“No, it’s a, forget it. I didn’t rip your tape. I converted all the songs from your tape from the original vinyl to an mp3 file. I didn’t clean them up or anything, so they’ll have the same quality of sound to them that the cassette had. I put the whole mix tape on the iPod in a playlist called ‘Awesome Mix, Volume 1’. So that’s the cassette part of things.” Roxanne handed the cassette back to Peter, and watched as the tension melted out of his shoulders. She kind of wanted to know why the damn thing was so important. “So here’s where things get complicated. Without knowing what kind of stereo is in your car, it’s hard to figure out what you need to connect the iPod to the system. I’ve included a bunch of cables and stuff, but your best bet might be to just use the cassette converter. You plug it in just like a regular cassette, and then plug this part into the headphone jack. You’ll need to keep a power supply going to the iPod too, but you could connect the charging cable to the power socket or lighter.”

“Cool. What about if I’m not in the vehicle and want to listen to music?” Peter asked.

“Just make sure it’s charged and plug your headphones into it.” Roxanne pulled out a plastic wrapper from the pocket of her baggy cargo pants. “I slip mine into this when I go running so I don’t have to carry it. I included a protective case for the iPod. Don’t get it wet. Mp3 players are way fussier than older portable music players. I mean, they’re way better than a Discman, but I beat my Walkman into submission as a kid and it always kept working.”

“Yeah, I still have mine,” Peter admitted. The iPod slipped out of Roxanne’s hand and clattered onto the counter.

“You still have a Walkman?” She asked. Her tone made Peter feel awkward.

“So I went to that concert last night,” he changed the subject. Roxanne beamed up at him, making him feel even more awkward.

“I was wondering if you’d made it. I didn’t see you, but it was a madhouse.” She slipped the iPod into the protective sleeve for him as she talked. “Did you enjoy it?”

“They were really great. That lead singer was something else,” he admitted. He thought he caught Roxanne blushing, but she was pushing her hair out of her face and couldn’t quite tell.

“There’s a bootleg of the concert on their website. It’s five bucks. The money all goes to a youth arts program here.” She dropped the iPod back into the box of stuff.

“Would I need another iPod for that, or –“

“Nah, I can upload it onto your iPod right now, if you don’t mind waiting a few minutes. You can store about 30 hours of music on this. Follow me.” She grabbed the iPod and led him back to the staff room. While he watched, she connected the iPod to her laptop and with a few keystrokes, sat back at appraised him. “So what’s your story, Peter Quill? You don’t strike me as a complete idiot, if I’m completely honest with you. So why don’t know you about mp3 players?”

Peter smirked. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He looked around, at the walls papered in concert flyers. “Are they collectible?”

“The flyers?” Roxanne asked.

“Yeah,” Peter confirmed. “Are they collectible because of who does the art? Is that why you’ve got them all over back here and at the counter?”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of it that way. Not that I know of? I just like having them around so I know what I’ve done for other concerts when I’m drawing up new ones.” Roxanne surveyed the wall and pointed at a clear spot at the desk.

“You did these?” Peter asked. He looked at her again, and caught a hint of pink peeking out from under her blond hair. His heart hammered in his chest. Roxanne laughed.

“Yeah. A girl has to do what a girl has to do to make ends meet. It used to be thin times. The flyers paid my bills when I was living in the basement here,” she admitted.

“I thought Roxy Rain did them?” He asked. Roxanne laughed.

“You’ve been doing your homework, Pete! How cute are you?” She unplugged the iPod and handed it to him. “We’ll square you away up at the till.” She moved toward the door to the store. Peter put his hand on her shoulder and furrowed his brow as he looked at her.

“You’re Roxy Rain?” He was dumbstruck.

“Yeah,” she nodded.

“From the Pixie Stix?” He prompted.

“Yeah,” she nodded again.

“Okay, like you said on Sunday, I basically just crawled out from under a rock in outer Mongolia, but you’re the lead singer for the most successful band in all of Terra right now.” There was a pinching between Peter’s eyebrows that warned him he was going to get a headache.

“Where the fuck is Terra?” Roxanne asked.

“I mean, the entire world. Most successful band in the world right now,” he corrected and mentally kicked himself.

“Well, we’re not U2. But we do have the number one album on the Billboard chart right now,” Roxanne confirmed.

“Why the hell are you working in a record store?” Peter asked.

“I own it.”

#Guardians of the Galaxy fic #Guardians of the Galaxy fic with OFC #Peter Quill x OFC

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mysticdelphox97 · 8 years ago

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Tagged by Kalosstarters c:

Welp, I got tagged by Tiia ( @kalosstarters ) so I guess I gotta do this lmao.

Rules: once you have been tagged you are supposed to write 92 truths about yourself. At the end, choose however many people you want to tag!

(this was 13 fucking pages long on Word jesus. I’ll add a “Keep Reading” break so it doesn’t take up people’s dashboards)

LAST…

[1] drink: a mocha coffee cooler from Baker’s Dozen ^^

[2] phone call: uhh, mom probably.

[3] text message: From Mom: “Here.” (she was picking me up from classes)

[4] song you listened to: I’ve got Pandora Radio playing while doing this, so I’ve heard Panic at the Disco and Against the Current so far.

[5] time you cried: Sunday night because I completely forgot that I had an art critique due the next day and I completely forgot and it was midnight and I was trying to churn out this pathetic paper for something I left until the last minute and [SCREEAAMMMMINGGG]

Phew. Okay, I think I’m good now.

HAVE YOU EVER…

[6] dated someone twice: I haven’t even dated someone once.

[7] been cheated on: Considering I’ve never been in a relationship, thankfully I can say no lol.

[8] kissed someone and regretted it: Can’t regret something I’ve never done sooooo xD

[9] lost someone special: Yeah… ;^;

[10] been depressed: Ugh… yes. It’s… pretty awful, honestly. Couple that with anxiety and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

[11] gotten drunk and thrown up: I haven’t gotten drunk before, but I have thrown up after drinking an excessive amount of one of those Starbucks mocha drinks when I was a kid. I can’t even look at one of those things anymore because of that.

LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS:

[12] Purple, like an orchid. C:

[13] Sky blue is rather pretty~

[14] I know black isn’t technically a color but I sure have a lot of black shirts pfft.

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU…

[15] made new friends: Tiia and Beth ( @wingsonghalo)~! :D they might be internet friends but I love talking to them every day <3

[16] fallen out of love: Never really been in love tbh. I’ve had crushes that I’ve grown out, that’s close enough right?

[17] laughed until you cried: That’s pretty much me all the time tbh.

[18] found out someone was talking about you: In high school I think… but they weren’t really bad things.

[19] met someone who changed you: Like, for better/worse? I guess most of the people I’ve met have influenced me in some way or another.

[20] found out who your true friends are: Yep. Kinda happened after I graduated from high school.

[21] kissed someone on your Facebook list: Other than my mom and dad? Nope.

GENERAL…

[22] how many of your tumblr friends do you know in real life: Other than my friend Kelsie, and a few people from high school. Sadly I do not know Tiia or Beth in real life and that makes me very sad, I wanna meet you guys so bad dang it T^T

[23] do you have any pets: Hah, oh god yeah. Three horses, three sheep (we used to have hundreds when I was a kid), three cats (two are mine and they’re my babies c: ), and two little dogs—a purebred pug and a pug/Pekingese mix. Oh, and my family lives on a farm, in case that needed some clarification.

[24] do you want to change your name: pfft hell no, I love my name. Besides, you’re not gonna meet many people who’s name is Rosaleen (and spelled exactly like that too)

[25] what did you do for your last birthday: I went out to a restaurant with some of my family. It was a school day for my brothers though, and my younger bro had football practice, so it was really just me, my mom, my grandma, and my sister with her baby.

[26] what time did you wake up: a little before 9 AM since I had to go to class.

[27] what were you doing at midnight last night: Pumping out mini profiles for my Pokémon fankids because my priorities are trash. Oh, and playing Candy Crush Jelly.

[28] name something you cannot wait for: MarissonShipping Week! :D I can’t wait to participate in it!!

[29] when was the last time you saw your mother: This morning when I got dropped off at college.

[30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: I wish I didn’t have social anxiety so I could actually go out and be productive, and not be so terrified of social interaction with strangers. It’s awful.

[31] what are you listening to right now: Whatever’s playing on Pandora Radio. When I got to this question, “Blood Like Gasoline” by Against the Current was playing.

[32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: Uhh, I knew a Tom in high school… he was kind of a bum though.

[33] something that is getting on your nerves: Whenever my brother doesn’t put away the dishes properly, or doesn’t put them all away. IT’S NOT THAT HARD BRO. HONESTLY.

[35] elementary: Like, elementary school? I guess it was okay… well, except for the boys constantly picking on me. That sucked. And that’s about the time my parents separated. That also sucked. Yeah, elementary school just really sucked.

[36] high school: Oh man I really miss the high school I went to. I flourished so well there and had a great time.

[37] college: Honestly… pretty boring. I’m just taking my general studies and getting them out of the way before I transfer to another college, so I can focus on what I love. The problem is, I really don’t know what I want to do with that. It’s very frustrating.

[38] hair colour: Oh god it always changes because it’s got a bunch of different highlights. It’s like, a reddish-brown with gold highlights, and it gets lighter in the sun. It’s really weird.

[39] long or short hair: Uhh, right now it’s like, a little over shoulder-length. I usually keep it a bit shorter because I never do much with my hair.

[40] do you have a crush on someone: Nope, and when I did get crushes it was always on the wrong kind of person. So I kinda hate crushes on real people since it always disappoints pfft.

[41] what do you like about yourself?: Oh jeez, what DO I like about myself? Well… I guess the fact that I can exceed my own expectations? Like, with driving, I didn’t think I’d do well with it at all—and now that I’ve been driving for over a year now, I’m actually a lot better at it. And on a couple of exams that I took a few weeks ago, I thought I’d get at least a B on them; turns out that I got A’s on both of them. And I like that a lot lol

[42] piercings: I’ve got one in my earlobes, and in high school I used to wear earrings all the time. Now it’s like, kinda sporatic.

[43] blood type: I think it’s a B-. RedCross really wants me to donate again because they keep calling me lmao.

[44] nickname: I go by Mystic on Tumblr and Rose in real life.

[45] relationship status: Single, and tbh that doesn’t bother me too much.

[46] zodiac sign: Virgo c:

[47] pronouns: she/her

[48] fav tv show: Lately I’ve been really into Forensic Files—it’s about older cases and the techniques that were used to solve them. I also love Bones and Criminal Minds. And, of course, there’s the Pokémon Anime.

[49] tattoos: Nope. Though I should get the backs of my hands tattooed so I know which one’s left and which one’s right. It’s a dumb thing to forget but agh I forget way too often.

[50] right or left handed: Right-handed!

FIRST…

[51] surgery: When I was in first grade I broke my left arm and needed surgery. I also had my tonsils and adenoids removed.

[52] piercing: Ears. I believe I got them in eighth grade.

[53] best friend: My friend Miranda, we’ve been best friends since elementary school c: she’s mostly working now but I usually try to get together with her if her schedule allows.

[55] vacation: I remember going to Washington DC for the first time in fifth grade for a weekend. I don’t remember a whole lot about it though. I guess my first ‘real’ vacation was the class trip I went on in eighth grade, which was also to Washington DC but it was for a whole week. Though I twisted my foot literally the day before I had to leave, so I hobbled about on crutches for the most part, and I had a wheel chair for one of the night tours. A lot of my classmates had fun pushing me around in it lol.

[56] pair of trainers: Is that like, a kind of shoe or sneaker? I’m afraid I have no clue.

RIGHT NOW…

[57] eating: Nothing. I have a protein bar but I’m kinda stuffed from the breakfast sandwich I had earlier.

[58] drinking: Still working on my mocha coffee cooler.

[59] I’m about to: Eventually post this, preferably before I go to class at 2:00 PM.

[60] listening to: I think I answered this question already earlier… well, now Pandora Radio is playing “Miss Jackson” by Panic at the Disco.

[61] waiting for: uh, nothing in particular. I guess for this day to be over?

[62] want: I can’t really think of anything at the moment.

[63] get married: Ehh, I guess of the person is rich I wouldn’t mind. Though if they want kids I’ll have to drag them to the nearest adoption center, there’s plenty of children there. I don’t necessarily want to procreate when there’s kids that can be adopted into a loving home.

[64] career: Currently a suffering student pfft. I guess I’d like to be an accomplished author or someone who works with animals. Maybe I could even help write movies? Who knows.

WHICH IS BETTER…

[65] hugs or kisses: I’m a sucker for hugs

[66] lips or eyes: Eyes are nice.

[67] shorter or taller: Meh, I’m not picky.

[68] older or younger: Ehh, not picky here either.

[69] romantic or spontaneous: I like both tbh c:

[70] nice arms or nice stomach: bruh do I gotta choose. Bruh.

[71] sensitive or loud: sensitive

[72] hook up or relationship: Relationship

[73] troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant

HAVE YOU EVER…

[74] kissed a stranger? Definitely not.

[75] drank hard liquor? I think I tried it (with parent supervision of course). It was nasty lmao.

[76] lost glasses/contact lenses? I don’t believe so. I can’t exactly see without my glasses so they’re usually on my face or on my nightstand.

[77] turned someone down: I think someone asked me out in sixth grade and I turned him down. I kinda felt a little bad because the people I was friends with at the time teased him about it.

[78] sex on first date? Bruh I haven’t even been on a date lmao xD

[79] broken someone’s heart? If I ever did I’m so sorry ;;

[80] had your own heart broken? Yeah…

[81] been arrested? No

[82] cried when someone died? Yes

[83] fallen for a friend? Yeah, it was a crush I had on a guy friend in middle school. We both loved Pokémon and would pretend to have battles during recess. We drifted apart eventually, and he hung out a lot with this other girl. I guess he had a crush on her, but I’m not sure. I kinda miss that.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN…

[84] yourself? Uhhh, probably not as much as I should...

[85] miracles? It depends

[86] love at first sight? Meh, not really.

[87] Santa Claus? Kinda grew out of that a while ago lol

[88] kiss on the first date? Sure why not?

[89] angels?: I’m kind of indifferent.

OTHER…

[90] current best friend’s name: Miranda, Kelsie, Beth, and Tiia c:

[91] eye colour: brown

[92] favourite movie: I recently watched Moana and I absolutely loved it, so I’m gonna roll with Moana! :)

I can’t really think of anyone to tag at the moment, so if anyone wants to do this you’re more than welcome to ^.^

#tag meme

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wherearethegirlbands · 5 years ago

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INTERVIEW: Beth Kweeday

Interviewed by Ella Fradgely

Beth Kweeday is an artist based in Liverpool studying fine art at Leeds. Her striking digital pieces feature sexual imagery to The Simpsons, and are available to buy as prints or on other items here.

How would you describe your art practice / yourself as an artist? My art practice is definitely digital art, I used to hate digital pieces because I used to not be able to see much of an artistic element to it and found that it wasn’t a good way of working. I had a graphics tablet sat in my drawer for months before I decided to try it out, and even when I did I hated it because I didn’t understand it! I’m so happy I stuck with it though because it’s been the best outcome possible. To describe myself as an artist I would definitely have to say I’m a stubborn artist, I do things how I want to and very much sculpt my work to how I see best (which is probably why I don’t do uni work very well). I know what I like and how I like it done! How did you find your focus on sex based illustrations? It’s amazing to see artwork celebrating sex work and sexuality! Thank you! I’ve always been a big fan of sexual art, I was always drawn to works by Elizabeth Isley and various tattoo artists like Curt Montgomery and Sewp who use a lot of sexual imagery and knew that was the path I wanted to go down. It took a long time for me to find the confidence to, and it wasn’t something I started doing until my second year of uni despite doing art for years before. I had no idea it would do as well as it did, and I’m so happy that it has become such a huge part of my brand as an artist. It’s so important to me to be able to show my respect for these women who inspire my art so much through my illustrations, as a lot of my pieces are based on women in the sex industry. How have you found the response to your work by tutors and peers? Me and my tutors have butt heads a lot over my work, with me doing a fine art course I understand that they want me to step outside my comfort zone a bit but I think they need to respect that sometimes that doesn’t always work well with certain things. For example, I ended up withdrawing from my interim show because a tutor suggested I blow my illustrations up to a large scale and then lay them out on the floor. And given the basis of my work, it just didn’t sit right with me. I found it really rude, in a way? I don’t know, maybe it was just my stubborn side coming out again. My peers have always been so, so supportive. My course-mates were equally as shocked as I was when I told them about someone suggesting my work be on the floor! I receive a lot of love from everyone around me when it comes to my work, which is really wholesome and uplifting. My boyfriend is my number one fan and has supported me so much with my work, my shop and even does the occasional post office run for me. I have no complaints! Your colour palette is so gorgeous, so sensual and minimal! It’s amazing how you have build such a recognisable look to your work through it. How did you come to it and would you ever explore other colour palettes? Thank you so much! I used to be absolutely terrified of colour, and on some level I still am! I have always wanted to be a black and white tattoo artist, I’ve always only wanted black ink tattoos myself and until recently that’s all I had. Pink was never my colour either, but I accidentally put a pink background on a piece I was working on when I first started drawing digitally and I fell in love with it. That one happy accident has now turned into a staple piece of my whole brand! Through this lockdown I’ve tried using other colours, I am so inspired by @exotic.cancer on instagram and her use of colour in her works but it just didn’t feel as me as my classic black & pink!

Your shop is amazing, I especially love your notebooks. Do you have a favourite item on there and how do you find the experience of running it? Thank you so much! I definitely love my phone cases, I never would have thought that I would be doing anything like it a couple years ago. Opening the shop was so scary, the constant “what if it doesn’t do well” and “what if nobody buys anything” kinds thoughts were trying to hold me back but I was really struggling for money and I thought I may as well give it a go. I had no idea it would do so well so soon, it definitely has bad weeks and good weeks in terms of sales but it’s the best thing I ever did. Nothing could have beat the feeling when I got my first international order, I couldn’t believe it! Now every time I get a new order I’m so excited to see where it’s going to. It certainly needs tidying up and updating a little bit, I’m hoping to have my own website within the next couple months instead of doing it via Etsy so that’s pretty cool. One of my favourites of your works are your drawings of shiny leather boots. What software do you use to create your drawings? I use Procreate on my iPad! This came from my goal to be a tattooer, I have a few friends who are tattoo artists and it was all of their recommendation and it’s been the best thing ever. I used to use a graphics tablet with I set up to my laptop with Sketchbook Pro but this has helped me with my drawings techniques a lot better. What’s your favourite drawing of yours? I love my first butterfly pieces that I did, they did really well and what started my trademark butterflies. I love my Simpsons/song lyrics ones too! I definitely want to carry on that series. And I really like my BDSM Is Not An Excuse For Murder piece, I remember reading about what was happening in the Grace Millane murder trial last year and becoming so enraged by what I was reading so I reacted it to it in the only way I knew how and the reaction was overwhelming, in a good way though!

Does music ever influence your art practice? Yes definitely! Sometimes I’ll be sat doing nothing and a song will come on and there’s my drawing. My Simpsons song/lyrics ones actually came from my petty arse reacting to hearing a girl slag me off in the background of her boyfriends Instagram story saying “Beth makes crazy girls look bad” whatever that’s meant to mean. And it reminded me of Paramore’s I’m Not One of Those Crazy Girls and there it was, and they just kept coming from there! My Girls Girls Girls piece which is actually on my own phone case was inspired by Motley Crüe too. Do you find artwork is a good platform to discuss politics? Oh yes absolutely, I’ve learnt so much through artists discussing their political views via their platforms, such as Florence Given. Plus I love a good anti-Tory artwork, I link it with my own as and where I can! It’s important to remind people of things like this as much as possible, even if it means writing Boris Johnson Shags Crisps in the sky every once in a while. I love your trademark butterflies, have they always been a part of your practice and do they symbolise anything for you? The butterflies where a very spare of the moment thing, I remember I finished a piece and was thinking that it just needed something else and I couldn’t for the life of me think what it was and then I just thought I would give it a go. I think using them within BDSM based work is cool because it’s almost like two opposites, you have something so delicate and fragile resting on something most people (unfortunately) deem as aggressive, and obscene. Kind of saying it’s important not to judge a person on their sexual preferences too, just because someone, particularly a woman, is into this certain thing, doesn’t mean that she is any less of a woman than someone who isn’t. If that makes sense.

Who are a few artists that inspire you and your work? (Can be artists of any kind not just visual) My main inspirations are digital artists and tattooists, such as ripbambi, skyeknotart, exotic.cancer, chimaera, my good friend Molly (titzandbitzz), the sad amish tattooer, I love Alex May Hughes and her gold plated Simpsons pieces, she was one of the main reasons I started doing my own. Your Simpson’s drawings are so iconic, do you have a favourite that you’ve done and why do you think they get such an incredible response from people? Thank you! I love my Fuck Boris and Fuck the Tories ones, as well as my lyrical pieces too. I just love the Simpsons so much and I started doing those pieces just as a bit of fun and to keep my work a bit different to the more sexualised pieces. I had no idea they would do as well as they have been doing! Bouncing between sex and the Simpsons is my ideal career in art and it’s something I plan on doing for a very long time. Finally, what are some ways we can support you as an independent creative during these difficult times? To be honest, every like/comment/share I get on a piece is to me a huge support. I understand that buying art is not always an option for some people, I try and keep my prices as low as possible as I want to be able to cater for everyone. I am so lucky to have really understanding customers, as this pandemic has been a strain on my shop but everyone’s been so patient and helpful. Instagram is a great way to show support for an artist, I myself try to share as much art as I can. I’ve been introduced to so many amazing artists just by seeing a piece shared on someone else’s story! It helps a lot and it’s so easy to do

#visualartists #interviews

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conartistnyc · 7 years ago

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Illustration Residency Interviews

The Illustration Residency is a 3-month residency starring artists Alice Skinner, Luz Dager, Anna Marcelo and Rosa Chang. These artists were picked by a jury of:

Ian Bertram, an American comic book artist and SVA graduate who has been published by D.C. Comics, Marvel and Dark Horse. Ian is a long-time Con Artist Collective collaborator and has had solo shows at our sister gallery Lazy Susan Gallery, and the Barefoot Gallery in Colombo, Sri Lanka as part of a Hot Butter Collective artist residency.

Victor Ocoa, an artist from Brooklyn, and studied Fine Art at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. After graduating he established a career as a graphic designer for companies such as Scholastic, HarperCollins, and Marvel Entertainment. He is the founder of the independent comic publisher DRAWMORE INC., where he worked with artists from around the world creating original sequential art. He is currently an Art Director for Crunchyroll in San Francisco, California.

Richard Miller has over 20 years experience as an illustrator and fine artist. He graduated from the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon Graphics in 1994 and was recruited by DC Comics, where he worked on producing comic books including Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. His expertise includes illustration, toy design, and animation.

Interviews

Alice Skinner

Alice Skinner is a 25 year old artist originating from London. She comes from London and is currently based London and New York City. She earned her BA with honors in Illustration and Visual Media at the London College of Communication. Her work often touches on topics like gender, sexism, and sexuality.

A bunch of your works are inspired by Pablo Picasso, when did you start doing this and why?

So I wrote my thesis for the last year of my degree on the gender gap in art and out of like the top ten most expensive works of art in the world, like 6 of them are Picasso. And for me, it was all about depictions of women are worth so much money but then work created by them is not. So I just wanted to start taking recognizable images and giving these women narratives, and modernize them for our generation. And also, the meme captions are there because the young people need relatability so they can see themselves in popular culture and in art. Where as I feel like for many many years art is very elitist. I’m just trying to change that.

As a high school student, I’ve noticed that the arts are in my opinion, unappreciated. Do you fear that such revered artists will eventually be forgotten by the youth?

Yeah, and I think it’s important that even if we disagree with the person - as a person I hate Picasso, he was a sexist, racist, horrible man - but he still paved the way in art. I don’t really like classical art and that’s why it was interesting doing this project because it gave me a new appreciation of how we’re here. But sort of changing it and veering it in it’s own direction.

You said the depiction of women is very popular and sells well but the art that women create isn’t. How do you think that can change and do you think it’s already changing?

I do think it’s changing. Instagram is like one of the biggest tool for female artists right now. I’m also in an exhibition in London this week that is all about women who have furthered their careers with just Instagram. I think because we’re taking it outside of the gallery, and not just women but all minorities are having more of a chance at being able to be artists because the way we are consuming our art is changing. I think it’s the best time so far for women and minorities to come through.

In one of the pieces you’re showcasing, the caption is “How I sleep at night knowing that strange men on the internet hate me for existing.” What kind of hate have you been receiving? And how frequent is this hate?

It comes in bursts. It was very overwhelming after the women’s march. A piece of mine, which I completely stand by, said white silence equals white consent and a lot of white people, especially men, did not like this. I had like 4 days of being trolled by the alt-right and nazis. [They were saying] I shouldn’t be able to live, I shouldn’t be able to procreate, n-word lover, all of these crazy things. That was the big incident but it does happen quite regularly, I’ll just get some man in my inbox telling me how awful I am and sexist doesn’t exist and all of that crap.

Does it ever scare you?

Yeah, when the women’s march happened it was real bloody intense. I got like 700 new followers in a day and then like 700 haters and my phone [was going crazy]. They found my twitter as well and it was everything to “you shouldn’t be able to procreate” to just “eat shit.” I can find the humor in these things because these people are just close-minded ignorant fools.

You said it scares you, but does it also excite you?

I was with my mom when it happened - we don’t live together so it was quite rare that we were together - she was getting excited because she said “isn’t this what artists try to do their whole lives? To start a conversation, and you’ve started a conversation, cause like - some of it’s good and some of its bad, but people are talking.”

Luz Rodriguez Dager

Luz Dager is a 27 year old artist originating from Ecuador. She is based in Ecuador but comes to New York often. She earned her Bachelors in Graphic Design and Visual Communication at the Universidad Casa Grande in Ecuador. Her work often touches on female empowerment, and body positivity.

I’ve noticed that many of your works have been on the topic of body positivity, has body positivity been an issue for you growing up?

Yeah, I wasn’t the skinny girl in my college. So it was hard because I always wanted to be more skinny, more pretty, I always wanted to have straight hair because I have curly hair and all those kind of things [made it a] really hard time. So yes that is part of what I’m doing right now. It’s not the whole thing but it’s a really big part of it. Also I realize little girls like my cousins and the daughters of some of my friends who are 5 and 6 years old are already worrying about what they look [like] and what people think about them, and I don’t think it’s a stupid thing but it’s like “why are they doing that? They are just kids.” So this is part of how I can speak aloud what I feel, and demonstrate the physical is not everything.

In all of your pieces that you’re showing it's black and white, but then there’s a bundle of color somewhere. Do the colors represent anything?

Yeah, they actually represent who you are inside. The series of illustrations are about self love and how you can improve or achieve self love. And I think these 16 years I’ve been in New York I have tried to do that, even though I didn’t realize it until now. They are black and white illustrations and the colors that pop out aren’t the “physical” illustration. Every single piece is of a girl doing something, in the first piece it’s a girl discovering what’s wrong with her, but she realizes nothing wrong. In the second one is helping herself to improve, to realize things can be better if you love yourself first and not to let everything get her down. Not for anyone, because they are many things you can’t control, but you can control yourself, if you can do that you have resolve.

In your piece, “Forgive,” who are you telling to forgive and who should she be forgiving?

She has to forgive herself. She’s like punishing herself because something happened or something different happened. She tries really hard and she does things wrong and things come out wrong, and she does things right and things still come out wrong, so it’s all these situations she can never forgive because she always feels [she is wrong]. But the flowers start coming up and she starts forgiving herself for the things that happen and don’t happen that aren’t her fault.

Anna Marcelo

Anna Marcelo is an artist who originates from the Philippines and is currently based there and in New York city. She is studying Graphic Design at Pratt Institute. Her work often touches on technology and mental health.

Some of your work involved modern technology and how it affects modern technology and how it affects relationships. Do you think the effect is positive or negative.

What I wanted to talk about was how we always think about how digital things are fake, but technology has evolved in a sense that it’s become an extension of ourselves and we have to question, “is it reality at this point?” because our social media, like snapchat, and instagram, in a world of everything to our nudes to our breakdowns they become documentations of our most vulnerable selves. So that’s what I wanted to talk about when it comes to digital intimacy. This can be both bad and good. I’ve done art experiments where people have sexually harassed me, but also there are such good things like intimate stories. Intimacy is just a positive thing, but there is vulnerability.

Do you think younger people are more likely to be affected?

Yeah, of course because we grew up with it [technology]. Like I grew up having internet friends and that whole thing. It becomes an extension of ourselves and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but there are effects to it.

It seems like you are trying to showcase the power of women in your pieces tonight, is that right?

Not exactly, it was actually about body politics and erotica. I wouldn’t call it positive but it is a commentary on it. You can freely interpret it - that’s like the whole art thing but when I created it, it was supposed to be a play on two types of binding that society creates on us. Most of them are filipino porn stars and most of them actually change their names into soda names, so there’s a girl called Pepsi Paloma to create this fantasy. And she was in the business since she was like 14.

Is that legal in the Philippines?

It’s not now, but it was the 80’s and it was legal back then. It was purely fucked up, they were forced to be stereotyped. It went to an extreme that this girl 3 years later kills herself at 17, and in her diary she talks about the violence in the porn industry. There’s nothing wrong with porn, but like the creation of it. That’s why I wanted to use binding because it symbolizes what society forces us to be physically.

Rosa Chang

Rosa Chang is an artist who originates in Seoul, South Korea. She regularly works in New York City and earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is currently enrolled in the Visual Narrative graduate program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).

In your Weeping Tree Story, you say the use of abandoned objects, old garments, and denim serves as a metaphor for the feelings of those who feel socially abandoned and rejected, have you ever felt that way?

Yeah, of course, especially in my first couple of years surviving in a different country as an immigrant. Also I’m [a] minority [and] also [a] woman and English isn’t my first language. But I think these kind of things unconsciously inspired my art. But I kind of wanted to create something positive. I really like the idea of reusability, we recycle used stuff that can’t be used anymore but can turn it into something very cool.

When did you start caring about recycling? In America I’ve noticed it’s not really a big deal to a lot of people.

So I was working in a natural indigo dyeing studio two years ago where I was an apprentice. I learned how to dye fabric and realized that there is nothing to be wasted and the whole process taught me that everything comes back to the earth. And it helps regrow the earth, so it’s a cycle. I thought it would be nice to apply that whole process to my own artwork. It’s too long to explain the whole process of dyeing but the plants, water, and other resources are super precious.

Why did you choose cactus for this past exhibition?

Aside from this exhibition I’ve also been painting this series called, “I am not your comfort zone,” where I choose things like a cat or pillow, it can be something useful or something small and cute, and I thought maybe they want their own voice. For example, a cat that’s very cute but it doesn’t really want you to pet it all the time, so the pet wants the power to express this emotion. The items are usually fragile and have no voice to give them a power to express themselves. So as an alternative I decided to add needles on their surface so it turns into a cactus.

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