I’ve gone from the mad rush to finish the last book on time straight into planning the next one!
It feels really weird, I’d forgotten how exhausting planning work can be. In the the final burst of finishing up artwork for The Trapdoor I was working such long hours and getting so much done in a day and now it’s like, I do twelve rough thumbnails and a handful of character design sketches and that’s it! My creative energy is all dried up for the day.
An assignment for Advanced Digital! We were supposed to make a gif portrait of a historical figure. I chose Julie d’Aubigny, 17th century swordsmaster and opera singer, responsible for the deaths of at least ten men in duels, and openly bisexual. After her lover was placed into a convent by the girl’s parents, d’Aubigny took the vows to enter the convent as a novice, then rescued her lover and set the convent on fire to cover their escape. Dang.
Noelle, I’m available for marriage.
There NEEDS to be a big epic historical comic based on this woman. Preferably drawn by this artist. I need it in my life!
This project requires a set amount of finished pages and then the rest of the book in roughs. Thing is, usually I’m the only person that needs to be able to understand my sketches so it’s really weird having to do them at a level that’s readable to everyone else.
Might be good to start doing this for my own stuff as well though. I have a terrible habit of doing some vague squiggle to suggest where, for instance, the hand is going to be and then I come to inking and am like “Shit, hands are hard, why didn’t I work out how this was going to look first!”
It just dawned on me how much work I still have left to do on this book and how little time I have left to do it and OH HEY LOOKS LIKE MY FRIDGE COULD REALLY DO WITH A CLEAN.
And the ice box is all frozen over! Looks like I’m going to have to take everything out and let it defrost and give the whole thing a good scrub. This could take ALL DAY.
This is definitely the most productive thing I could be doing with my day.
Making a bio page for my site I didn’t really want to use a photo so I did this little drawing instead. It still feels awkwardly self indulgent to me but I guess I just need to get over that.
Also, this picture apparently comes from the parallel universe where everything is pretty and people’s hair always looks exactly how they want it to.
Just a crappy warm up doodle but it amuses me that my character appear to be channeling how much I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning.
Well, that was fun! :D
Completely irrelevant to the project I’m meant to be working on but, damn it, it’s sunny for what feels like the first time this year and I just want to draw cartoon characters with big shiny eyes and candy coloured hair.
Is that to much to ask?
*sigh* Back to to the work I’m supposed to be doing…
“The most intriguing duel fought between women, and the sole one that featured exposed breasts, took place in August 1892 in Verduz, the capitol of Liechtenstein, between Princess Pauline Metternich and the Countess Kielmannsegg. It has gone down in history as the first “emancipated duel” because all parties involved, including the principals and their seconds were female… Before the proceedings began, the baroness pointed out that many insignificant injuries in duels often became septic due to strips of clothing being driven into the wound by the point of a sword. To counter this danger she prudently suggested that both parties should fight stripped of any garments above the waist. Certainly, Baroness Lubinska was ahead of her time, taking an even more radical take on the (at the time) widely dismissed theories of British surgeon Joseph Lister, who in 1870 revolutionized surgical procedures with the introduction of antiseptic.
With the precautions Baroness Lubinska recommended, the topless women duelists were less likely to suffer from an infection; indeed, it was a smart idea to fight semiclad. Given the practicality of the baroness’ suggestion and the “emancipated” nature of the duel, it was agreed that the women would disrobe—after all, there would be no men present to ogle them. For the women, the decision to unbutton the tops of their dresses was not sexual; it was simply a way of preventing a duel of first blood from becoming a duel to the death.
…
It is humorous that most recounts of this historic event fail to mention two important things: the winner of the duel (Princess Metternich) and the reason why the women came to arms in the first place—they disagreed over the floral arrangements for an upcoming musical exhibition.”
The first rule of topless victorian ladies swordfighting club is that topless victorian ladies swordfighting club is not to be mentioned in mixed company.
The second rule is naught but an emphatic repeating of the first.
I’M TELLING YOU PINK IS HIDEOUS!
/WHIPS OUT SWORD.
TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT. WE’RE SETTLING THIS WITH A DUEL.
Seriously some of the comments on this thread are epic.
We did a post on this once and I am here to say that it is STILL AN AWESOME STORY.
Step aside female samurai and Victorian men in corsets, 19th century ladies fighting a topless duel over an argument concerning floral arrangements is my new FAVOURITE THING EVER.
Steampunk is great. But sometimes it destroys irreplaceable pocket watches for the gears inside.
This upsets me more than it probably should. Like this crafter I know who makes candles by pouring hot wax into beautifully old vintage tea sets… ;_;
I have a couple of sources but mostly I buy it from this website: http://www.roze.co.uk/
Make sure to look in the washi origami and premium washi sections for the really nice quality stuff! :)
Soooooo, I’m jumping on this bandwagon… it’s just so pleasingly addictive! I had to make one of myself as well as two of my characters.
Brb, spending the rest of the evening making pointless icons!
Oh, and if you have no idea what I’m on about, it’s this website: http://www.icongenerators.net/square.html
