2008/08/15 - Happy Royal International Ogata Day!

For this year's International Ogata Day I was lucky enough to spend it with Kei. This is already the third year of Ogata Day that started on the day that I met Juu and Koyar to make some silly buttons. We made some Ogata themed stamps and HUR HUR HUR'ed about a variety of silly topics relating to Ogata and dragged two other clueless people into our celebrations. Here are the fruits of our labor!

By Kei. This was so wonderful! I wish I made a wonderful stamp like this. D:


Eyes and hearts and creepy Ogata in black by Kei. The wonderful cupcake stamp is by Melanie. And scary oh-so-wrong Ogata in red is made by yours truly.


I made Ogata and bird crazy stamp with a heart stamp as well. The sparkle stamp I created as well. And it is so awesome! Now I have so much fun making many wonderful sparkles all over the place.. :D


I created a rose stamp in the spirit of Ogata. :D

There was also pre-Ogata festivities with the whole group who were involved in working on the Oh! Gotta Go doujinshi from last year. I also worked on getting together the Ogata calendar. I'll post photos of that later in the day when I get home from biking and errands today. :D

In other news I stayed up late today and finished a page or two for an upcoming Reborn doujinshi called Ventiquattr'ore su Ventiquattro my dear friends are making. I am participating as a guest (that is if they use my pages!). Edit: AW MAN, I was looking at the website and the drawing previews and am starting to feel like my drawings and comics suck so much. D: I don't think I should be guest at alll--- ah--- This book will be so awesome, like seriously. D: *FREAKS OUT*

Today I went to the artstore and bought a bunch of supplies including a kind of paper used specifically for markers and inks! I used it to create the guest page(s) and made some other sketches for fun as well that I will post some other time. Nothing like new art supplies to make me feel like drawing again.

2007 Fantasia (rough draft)

This was a quick linocut I did one evening for the Jane Marple thanks good contest.  I don't care to get the cards or not, I just did something for the sake of doing something.  I shipped it out the next day and wrote an embarassing fangirly letter to Murano Megumi, head designer of Jane Marple.  It's one of those orz moments that you don't want to think about.  Anyway, the linocut I sent had gold colored ink highlights on it as well to make it seem more mysterious.  This is just the rough draft I'm showing you here.  I need to ink each of the other prints in the series.  This is a short print run.  Only 6.  I need to destroy the plate sometime later this week.

I don't think I depicted the theme of fantasia very well since I was so tired with school. Fantasia is supposed to be like the romantic feeling of travelling to a different country and fantastical place.  I think I will look at the idea of fantasia in some other work.  

Sorry for the hiatus!

I was out of town for a couple of days so I didn't have any access to Internet in order to update the blog.  Sorry about that. *_*

Anyway, to make up for it, two sketches today:

I'm not quite sure why he is crying.  Is the bird carrying bad news?  Is it stuck in something and can't get out?

And then.. Mr. Kats continued.  I found my old box of watercolor paints the other day as I was trying to organize the basement and spent yesterday evening painting in the prints I had created.  The color palette is a bit conversative, but oh well.  You can't deny that it looks so much spiffier with color!

(Somehow the colors look so much different from the real thing I have in front of my hands. *_*;  It scans better than the prints by themselves though. D:)

I'm not quite sure what I will do with this print.  I tend to tear the paper so it's close to the size of the plate so it's not really ideal for framing or whatnot.  Maybe they would make nice book plates, but the paper is kind of thick?  Actually, I think book plates might be a nice thing.  Well, I don't know.  Do you have any ideas?

2007 Mr. Kats

Two posts in one day!  This is a work in progress.  It's a linocut that I spent way too much time on.  It's a guy in a cat suit, and I haven't decided what it is that he is doing.  (Reading an eviction notice?  Deciding to finally go and get that cat suit dry cleaned?!) He was a lot angrier before and blushing as well, but I removed those things.  It's a work in progress because I might break out the water colors and go crazy on the prints that I already made.

I also updated the site today!  Finally!  It's a record.  So far it's been two new updates in a year after several years of one or no updates.  Woow-wee.

2007/04/08 Linocut Plates

About time we had a post featuring work I'm doing at the moment!  I love the look of linocuts that have been freshly cut and still untouched by any ink.  I can't wait to get these printed.  It is going to be a two color print that will be the cover of the Hanamonogatari translation I did about two or three years ago with Bronny.  If we're all lucky I'll have that done and printed by the end of April!  So excited.  I love making books.  Need to work on the illustrations inside and the layout as well.  Excitement!