Art News

Just a few things that are kinda pretty exciting for me personally, nothing like. Global or anything.

For some background, I'm still in contact with a couple of people from AnimeIowa; one of them runs Info Desk for AI and took over Accessibility when I left, and one of whom runs the Art Show for both AI and its SFF sibling convention, ICON. They've both commissioned some work from me before, and I offered to help out the former with any Accessibility stuff that I was able to (without going back to the con before I'm ready), and that included an offer of making the Accessibility Pass art every year. (This year's art features the con's mascot, Buu-chan (an anthropomorphic pig), wearing a zebra hoodie and a knee brace.)

Anyway! Art Show friend told me a little while ago that she makes little coloring pouches, with colored pencils and small coloring books and such, and that she wanted to commission me to make about twelve illustrations for a new book. Having been reminded how much I love drawing by my rat mood theme, I agreed readily! I'm aiming to get them done by the end of the month, and hopefully sooner, since Art Show friend wants to have the new pouches ready to go for a con on July 4th weekend.

Info Desk friend has also been wanting to commission me to crochet a particular Minion for a while now. The plans have fallen through the cracks a few times, so we arranged to meet up before June's AI planning meeting to finally discuss the details and really get down to business.

While I was there, I showed Info Desk friend some of the drawings I'd been doing for Art Show friend's commission, hoping to get some feedback on whether Info Desk thought they were a good fit for what Art Show wanted. Art Show requested some simpler things and some more complicated things, for a nice variety, and just... stuff that's fun to color! So you might understand why I wanted some extra feedback 😂

Info Desk assured me that all of the sketches so far looked like exactly what Art Show wants, and then dropped a bombshell on me. "Now, don't get offended by this," she started with, and followed up with, "but you're my second favorite artist."

And I just. Not only is that still an incredibly huge compliment, IMO, I kinda actually think it's cooler than being her number one favorite artist? It's pretty easy to tell someone that they're your favorite artist, but to have evidence that someone has actually sat down and thought about who their top favorite artists are, in order, is pretty neat. Being in second place also not only means that I'm practically at the top, but that I'm not on a pedestal; I've got room to improve, but also room to fail. Also, being realistic about my skills and how much work I've put into visual/2D art as opposed to my crochet work, I think I would've felt like a fraud if she'd told me I was her number one favorite. Drop-kick imposter syndrome off a cliff, I know I'm good, but I've seen some of the stuff that other artists make, and there are a lot of them who are a lot more skilled then I am, especially in areas I've neglected training. But second favorite? I think I can accept that.

Anyway, she said she loves my art style because it's "versatile", which is definitely one of the coolest compliments I've ever gotten, IMO.

So that's my art news! I've got pencils done for nine of the twelve coloring book drawings, half-done for one of them, and I'm thinking about what to draw for the last two. We'll see what I come up with!

Reading In Progress

Started following booknook, where they do RIP (Reading In Progress) Wednesdays. It's not exactly Wednesday anymore, but I figure I'm still good to share. Anyway, cross-posted from the comments of their most recent RIP Weds post:

Audio: Just finished "Bookshops and Bonedust", the prequel to "Legends and Lattes", and I regret taking so long to get to it! It was a lot of fun, with some pretty cool female friendships. Up next, I'm starting the first volume of "Reincarnated as a Familiar"; I've read the first three books of the series already and enjoyed them, so this is technically a re-read until I get to the fourth volume. That said, I'm a little hesitant to get started, because the POV character death in the opening chapter is one of the more traumatic ones I've come across, and I've read a fair few reincarnation isekai books! Honestly makes me miss Truck-kun.

Ebook: I'm currently most of the way through the second volume of "RV-in My Way Into Exile With My Beloved Cat: This Villainess is Trippin'!" The books are fun, if a little on the short side, and I kinda wish the writing were a little... IDK, deeper? Still, I'm enjoying myself, and that's the important part! Up next, I plan to start the fourth volume of "My Magical Career at Court", whose full title is even longer than "This Villainess is Trippin'!".

Manga: I'm on the tenth-ish volume of Wind Breaker! It's not quite following the trope beats I'm used to, but I'm still having a pretty good time with it. It's not giving me strong enough fandom feelings for me to want to do anything with it at the moment, but it's fun enough. Meanwhile, Tsubaki-chan is making me scratch my head a bit; the official translation uses he/him, and I'm prepared to accept it, but I've also seen my fair share of not-quite-accurate adaptations with regards to gender. Anyone know what pronouns the cast uses to refer to Tsubaki-chan in Japanese, or what form of "I" Tsubaki-chan uses?