Pumpkins 4 ever
I re-added a blog link section because I WANTED TO ADD YOUR CUTE BUTTONS! Though it is still forever/very unfinished...if you've ever commented here before it means you're more top of mind, haha.
Pillowfort is shutting down :(!!
So I'm answering blanket boxes (Pifo's term for "themed question prompts") til Laundry Dry (Pifo shut down...).
Octobery Blanket Box
Favourite fall seasonal drink? When days get cooler I like drinking warm tea (any) or water! I do indulge in 1 pumpkin spice drink if I happen to see it while out, haha. More recently I've been really enjoying Masala chai with nut milk and honey.
Best fall activity? Just being outside is so pleasant because there aren't bazillion bugs, the sun is a bit less harsh, the temperature is cooler, etc.
Description of favorite blanket? I made my own quilt earlier this year and like how it brightens up my otherwise very dull bedroom.
Best movie to watch under said blanket? My blanket is ONLY for my bed (I do not mix blankets in different zones...)!I also don't watch movies in bed. I guess I would watch any movie under a different blanket if I was cold! I don't watch movies often, I guess I would associate blanket with a comfy and warm movie. Whisper of the Heart?!
Any Halloween plans? No...I live in a building so no handing out candies or pumpkin carving. I am an indoor hermit! I look forward to seeing all the costume photos after-the-fact. I've been thinking a lot about autumnal wear-sewing but haven't started anything yet.
Favorite horror movie/book/podcast? Is Nightmare Before Christmas considered horror...?!
The best smell you associate with this time of year? Baked goods, like pumpkin pie! Though this is probably a year-round feeling.
Creative WIP Project Blanket Box
I decided to do it for my upcoming original comic, Stuck in the Middle (SitM)! Some of these might be repeats of what I've already written before...?!
Think quick! It’s the dreaded elevator pitch icebreaker: explain your WIP project in less than three sentences! Bonus points if it’s the most horrendous way you could’ve possibly described your project.
Corpo gorlies and bizzy boyz get sacked with managerial responsibilities and they try to mindfight RPG-style.
If you had to pick one song or instrumental piece to best represent your project what would it be? If that’s too strict, what genre of music do you think would best fit your project?
IDK what the lyrics are but the vibe of My Name is DOS by Cyndi Seui feels appropriate?!
Introduce us to your main characters. What are their stand-out characteristics?
Mesha is a ball of anxiety who easily turns into a husk.
The supporting characters are:
- Mason looks out of place in corpo world with his tattoos and piercings.
- Ladi is very dominant.
-
Cardigan is really intense/passionate.
Introduce us to your setting. Does it have an aesthetic or prominent genre-feel to it? What makes it unique?
It's not unique on purpose, an oppressive and generic office with not enough windows.
What genre(s) or theme(s) does your project fall under? Get as specific as you want.
Comedy/drama...weird...?
What sparked the idea for your project? What made you decide to begin working on it? Has your project changed since it was first inspired?
I felt like there weren't many comics about office workers (weirdly) set in North American (well, fake Canada specifically) geared towards the 20-40+ crowd with a similarly aged cast. I started working on it in more earnest because I was going to pitch it to a publisher.
What changed: Mesha becomes angrier than the initial plot...?
How long have you been working on this project? Do you have a guesstimation for how much more work you still have to do for it?
- ~2021/22 was probably when I thought of it
- ~2023 was when I started working on the shape of it
- ~2025 was when I nailed the characters and 80% of the rough story/thumbs/script.
- As of 2026 I still have 100+ pages to draft/ink/etc. (cries)
Do you have an end goal in mind for this project? Is there anything you want to achieve during/with your project? Or are you just enjoying the journey of creating it, unsure where that will take you?
My end goal is mostly enjoying the making, but the more tangible one is trying to get a book out for upcoming comic festivals in 2027! If I don't get into the festivals I'll still print 2 books for myself to put on my shelf!
What’s a new skill you’ve learned, or an existing skill you’ve improved while working on this project? Is there anything else you want to learn or improve while working on this project?
Drawing curly hair is a struggle but I'm learning!
What’s one of your favourite things about your project?
Drawing fuzzy pen toppers with googly eyes and making choices about the characters' unique office stationery preferences.
MKISA behind the zine: creator commentary
Finally put this project to rest!
It's a password protected download (60p PDF ~37mb) to reduce scrapping. If you have been following my fanrot, you can probably figure the password out. (Pword hint: Shishido's animal followed by Tsuruno's animal ; capitalize the first letter of each animal and no spaces)
The zine has the WIP for every page of MKISA and some brief commentary per page. It was a lot harder to put together than I thought (I'm not particularly articulate after 60pages...). I like that "behind the scene" and "behind the zine" have a similar sound.
I ended up doing full manual imposition for my failed print copy. I recently tried to use a browser-based imposition tool but I those tools are optimized for text-based PDFs of a certain size, while I'm making monster PDFs with imagery, so it didn't work out. Anyway my test print failed but was at least useful to do marginal proofreading (though I'm sure there are still more typos).
LAD Gaiden fanrot
After watching Neko Samurai movie 1.
100% parody for My Love Story!! / Ore Monogatari Japanese cover.
An unintended series drawn with memileo 06 knife - flow. Started with just Tsuruno and then I ended up drawing more...
The premise was to use his shirt pattern as decorative elements.
I also did this for Shishido. Tsuruno had white smoke as an accent, so I gave Shishido a white accent in the form of the mask tie.
Hanawa's shirt is totally plain so I had to pivot to using the emblem as decorative element. The white lines are agent "wire" weaponry (that he doesn't seem to use himself, but Kiryu does).
Akame's is a mix of her shirt pattern and her in-game quest logo!
I felt compelled to add Watase even though he isn't a new character for Gaiden (his first appearance is Y5)...
The white thing in his hand is his speech/letter. His suit is striped and the emblem of Omi has some stripes too, so I thought to have him inbetween, like a split. I find him really hard to draw from a facial ratios POV and still haven't figure it out. I resized his face horizontally and vertically multiple times hahaha. I maybe only drew 1 passable Watase face in MKISA.
I was thinking about how the nicher character Yakuza/LAD fan artists have to observe a lot of different facial features because most of the guys are some variation of "short black hair with frowny face/brow with or without facial hair."
When I was a kid I had a puffy pumpkin costume (this was before I fell in love with pumpkins, a more recent trait), and I thought that Shishido's jacket was also puffy and could be pumpkin-fied, so one thing led to another...
It snowed here so it seems like the halloween of my childhood will be returning: where your halloween costume is just hiding under your winter jacket and nobody can tell what you're trying to be, haha.
Fishlips
WOW! Fishlips got this new impact text after reaching level 50. A lot of pet cuties are visiting my (digital) door front for Treat/Treatin.
Listening
ETHNOSPHERE by Belle Sisoski. Found this musician from a chain of posts with reccs for indigenous music mixed with other styles. Belle Sisoski uses a wide range of Southeast Asian ethnic instruments. She's a one-person orchestra x choir x EDM x motion picture soundtrack. Also her look/vibe/fashion is so strong.
Watching
Neko Zamurai / Samurai Cat (2014 movie): about an angy samurai who is hired to kill a cat but falls in love with it instead (angrily)...aka perfect HAHA. It is not a serious movie/series which made it even better. The cat and dog are sooo cute. The credits were a montage of gorgeous cat pics.
Reading
Renegade bookbinding guild focused on fanwork binding! They have a community imposer called Bookbinder JS and a collection of bookbinding 101 resources.
Gaboon Viper: what an interesting snake shape (so stout)! I looked them up because they mostly use rectilinear locomotion (like a caterpillar crawl). Watching a video makes me think of planaria worm because of their triangle heads. The scale/pattern in motion is so hyponotizing. I love that their Genus name is Bitis...is it because they're BITEY?! Pleased to have new snakefax.
You: a 12p comic that kakimoisi did as part of 25h de la BD (french comic-making challenge), drawn while the protests in France are ongoing. Our day-to-day living is so tumultuous but this still provided nice heartfelt tone.
Kent Lew established a font foundry and discusses Slow Fonts. I like the stance and ethos behind his approach (and of course, a slop-disliker!). The user license is very readable~
Also didn't realize that there's a masto instance for typo/type enthusiasts, coolios! You can really tell that these people are on a totally different plane of thinking w/r/t type and design, haha.
Open Water Saga: a scuba diving enthusiast illustrates her underwater adventures! (they're mostly in comics format and very charming!)
Marriage Toxin #13-15: Akakura undercut <3. Nasu big creeper... Impressive that Mei topped the ranking (but I love) and Gero only got no.4. How did the soundmaster get so high?!?!
Medalist #10-11: Inori <3 I also love stickers...
Iruka is a binch and I love that for her HAHA i like that she has sparkle shaped hair highlights. I also love this reflected ice panel that shows the crowd going wild a moment later 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻galaxy brain decision.
Yakuza Fiancé #1: NGL I started reading this to compare which main protag guy was the more delulu between Shinpei from Firefly Wedding. The premise is very strange so far haha but luckily I am better at understanding yakuza hierarchy now. There's a back note that the author thinks that Yakuza in western media is campy, and I'm like...HAVE U PLAYED YAKUZA? WATCHED NIHON TOUITSU?? SUPER CAMP...
that's a strong opening statement
Dandadan #19: owhat often puts me out of this series is how teenage boy shounen it is. All these teenage girls wearing less and less clothes and boys and their D&B jokes. I like this umbrella boy tho HAHA (deliquent with tragic past yahoo)
Mushishi #4: nods while not really understanding because it's not meant to be understood
Sheltering Eaves #1: by the author of Perfect World, but this time about kids in foster care homes. Abusive parents...make me so mad!!
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. #13: BACKSTORY REVEAL!!! I can feel myself getting into magical girls because these characters are so passionate about them...billowing sleeves...hehe
