FAILURE!

I just finished my first hat and man is it messed up. The pattern I had was for an insanely large head that probably doesn't exist. It's not bad for my first hat but it still sucks.


I have enough yarn to make another hat with a different patten and I'm not going to stripe it like I did this one (I know you can't really tell but it's there). If it works out then I'll make my brother a brown hat but if not then I'll just but him something.

I'm taking it up again

I've decided to take knitting up again.

I was never any good but I liked making my own stuff. Plus I decided to learn how to do a seed stitch last night. I have been having a really bad memory lately and I had to restart the thing about eight times. But now that I have it down I feel like my memory is better. It's the same refreshed feeling I get after I play brain age (which I need to play more).

Wishes

I really really wanted to get AquaPirates vol 2 done before I left for a mini vacation during the thanksgiving season. At this point it appears I may not be able to do that. If I had just one more day I would easily have volume 2 out and ready. I only need for three pages to be drawn and inked, write an opening note, make one page of extra content, set my drawing for the button attachment page and throw some gouache on watercolor paper to get the cover done (I already have the drawing for the cover done).

Honestly it's kind of frustrating for me, especially considering that on etsy I'm going to have my zines featured on black Friday and I wanted to have a 2006 zine set to sell.

So after work I'm going to quickly pack and then I'm going to push my self to get vol 2 finished. Not photocopied mind you, but just have the flats ready on my computer and the cover to be done. Then when I get back I just make a quick run to the UPS store and not only get vol 2 photocopied and ready but also get more stock ready (I'm down to three copies of both AquaPirates! volume 1 and Dinosaurs vs. Robots issue 1).

And while I'm at it I'd like to wish everyone who celebrates it a good Thanksgiving.

Fused plastic?

I just heard about fusing plastic bags together to make a whole bunch of pretty interesting items. I mean you can use it to make wallets and some have gone as far as to make clothing out of it. This seems really awesome for me to do especially since my roommates and I have oodles of plastic garbage bags because we keep on forgetting to use our reusable bags (we're getting better).

I'm going to admit it, I'm interested in trying it. But I was kind of worried about the fact that I'm messing with plastic and if it releases toxic fumes not only would I be endangering my health but polluting. I looked into it on treehugger.com and one person pulled out the same argument as me (but it a way more jerk like way) and then another person talked about how the bags probably wouldn't release fumes.

In the end I've decided that I'm going to at least try it. And while this is just an assumption: I think that if you pretty much recycle the item so that it doesn't get immediately chucked that it's over all worth it. I mean if you recycle something enough then it eventually becomes weaker and weaker and is eventually garbage.

24 hour comic

I did a 24 hour comic yesterday and I got it all scanned into the computer today. Just click the rows to see the pages.

Making the comic was a really interesting experience for me. I've learned more about my pace of working and I also am setting a new goal for myself: learn to do better black and white comics. I did this comic in all brush pens and now I think that if I just went over my lines with a nib pen they could could really stellar.

Hands

I burned my hand last Friday. It's really quite nasty but I love it for that reason.

And I've been so stressed lately that I think that I get to have some quality painting time. I'm doing a 24x16 painting and it's been years since I did anything that big with paint. I've decided to make a portrait of one of my characters and have really expressive hands in it and man was it really therapeutic for me to do. Plus I figured a few things out with how to paint my stuff better.






















Here are a few shots of my painting in progress.

Hello November

Well it's November now and I hope that you all had a good halloween. I think that I may start making my own costume for next year. I'm kind of ties between making the monkey king, bat girl or some other horrible monster. All three have their problems that I would need to overcome so it's really deciding which one would I have the most fun in and making.

And since it is November now I get to change my etsy goals. I'm happy to say that I did most of them. I didn't really list an item everyday literally but I did have days where I listed more then one item, so it counts. And man, do I have to say that I am super happy with how many sales I got? I mean I sold 19 items for October! That's amazing for me!

Not sure how many items I will be adding this month but I am shooting for a new zine.