Asami Sato cosplay for Halloween

           

I have to thank my mom for helping me finish it- otherwise I wouldn't have any costume for Halloween! I cut out and sewed the skirt, disassembled the inner red shirt, the cuffs, and blazer thing together. My mom hand sewed the collar to the blazer, fitted the inner red shirt, hemmed the skirt, and made the belt. She also mentored me through the entire process so that I didn't waste any time (because she's a pro at sewing). I bought the black long sleeved shirt and inner red shirt from goodwill :D. The wig was so cheap! only $13 from amazon! Although it's not really high quality, it still looks pretty natural from the photos. Leggings are from target- $12 (a little pricey but the color is a bit difficult to find). The boots are just something I got from Italy when I was 14. 

one thing I would definitely do next time is to wear a slip or put some kind of lining on the skirt. It kept getting caught between my legs so I had to keep holding it down. 

on another note, I finally got my business cards! :D

 in real life, the colors a little less saturated (because I used an instagram filter on this one). It came out just great though! I would have liked for it to be thicker but perhaps I'll do that for when I graduate.

I used this great little place called lecards.com - I ordered it on saturday, got a proof the same day and received it this thursday! :3 I live close to el monte so the wait time might be different for other people but I'm really impressed :)

Creepy Castaway

this is a little poster that I would give out for free advertising an excerpt of this 'travel' app. However, I do think it would be cool to change direction and make an app that e

Business 101

Hello!
yes updates are slowing down-- I've just been busy at school and actually having a social life this term!

I am currently taking this class called Business 101 and this is the promo assignment. Which is a continuation of the last assignment we had about what kind of business we wanted to run. So~ in some alternate universe or some time in the near future, I'm hoping to travel the world and compile my experiences in a bunch of journals that I will eventually publish.

I delved even further into the idea and thought that it would be cool to make traveling more fun for kids. Happy kids= good and memorable trips. So that the next road trip or visiting family on the other side of the country wouldn't be so boring. Since a lot of families are upgrading to the digital age, so are a lot of magazines and books. I thought making an animated kids travel magazine would be fun to do. It would be both informative but also interactive.

So since it's currently the month of October, I've decided to do a Halloween edition of this magazine and since families usually don't travel to other countries for the holidays (unless their entire family lives in another country) I've decided to do one about the Queen Mary which is more local and well known. Here's an image of what it would look like on the phone because the video couldn't really capture it as well.

I did not make the iphone template, I downloaded it from 365psd.com . I did make the images on the screens though. I created the digital magazine using MagPlus which is an add on to your InDesign. This thing is amazing! I've only been using it for two or three days but it is so much fun when you get the hang of it...I'm so hooked. Anyhow, on the left is just a sneak peak at what it would look like and on the right is what happens when you tap one of the words colored in yellow- a box pops up giving a short definition of the word. I tried to stick with an art deco feel for the scrolling and pop up assets because the Queen Mary interior was built with Art Deco sense of design.

I animated quite a few little tidbits of each illustration but found that it overloaded the program so I just stuck with one or two little animations per page. Here it is in action!
I would have just recorded the screen using some kind of app but apparently you have to jailbreak your iphone for that. So excuse this grainy video-I will find a way to make a better recording once I'm done with this :)

Thanks for reading guys! I'll post more progress later on.

It lives!

this is something I made for business 101 but just animated!-- there are definitely a few kinks...actually a lot of them but I was just so inspired by Robin Davey's work, I had to give it a go!

Poison Kitchen

wip of Zuzanna and Karou's corner at Poison kitchen. The Pestillence statue would be placed to the right of the coffin and church pew.

Karou and Hasma stamp

Just finished up Karou :) I was kind of feeling a little stuck on this project so I made a side list of small design projects to help keep me moving forward. So I designed Karou's Hasma tattoos and carved it into a stamp. I've only done this once before but it's actually really therapeutic to carve a stamp and really rewarding when you see the results!

Akiva costume designs and more Poison Kitchen props

So here are a few designs for Akiva's costume...even after going through Laini's book twice, I don't think she ever mentions what he's wearing haha. So I tried to make medieval knight inspired vest thing. It's his beauty that should set him a part from everyone else- not his clothes. I always pictured him wearing black but what color would an angel wear besides the obvious white?

I still need to work on his face because this story is about beautiful people haha. He may be beautiful but i feel like he's got a broody expression on his face through most of the book.

Update--
August 8, 2013

a little update on Akiva in color

Update--
August 12, 2013

something still bothers me about this...gonna pick it up again later

Yes, I am alive!

No! I haven't dropped off the face of the earth! I worked on my travel diary in Japan a bit--but didn't have any way to scan everything--even then I want to scan it in when the pages are finished. I know said I was thinking of publishing it by the end of summer but that might not happen until the end of the year. But I will work on it during weekends!! :)

At the moment, I've decided to put myself to work this summer and do the visual development for Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I finished the book before I went to Japan and although the romance in the story is kind of...well something geared more towards teenagers, I thought it had a lot of really interesting visuals and characters that I could create. Plus--it is full of periodical architecture and animal anatomy- things that I am weak or inexperienced at. I thought it would be a good way to challenge myself, not to be lazy and hopefully get some scholarship money.

Here are just a few props and designs for Karou and Poison Kitchen. 

huge travel diary update!!

Hello and goodbye!

Hi guys! I am so sorry I abandoned this blog for a while--I've been a little busy for the past two months arranging my trip to Japan and creating miniature felt desserts.

Unfortunately I either misplaced my travel diary or some master thief was able to take it out from under my nose in .01 seconds. *sigh* but I have started a new one and hopefully will get a chance to scan in a few pages from that before I leave.

I'm lifting off American soil next wednesday! D: Japan will be the farthest I have ever been from home. ;_; i feel like Sam from LOTR taking his first step outside of The Shire. I'm excited, anxious, and am gorging myself on as many american/mexican/ thai foods as I can. Oh taco bell, how can i live without you? (well actually i can...)

Although my family can't see me off to my flight, they wanted to do a going away party. Since they were kind enough to have the party, I thought I would make little fake postcards. I feel like I'm working on an assignment from school haha but without the pressure of 'who's best?' and 'will it sell?'
here's just some progress pics!

for some reason, I really thought it was more difficult to create the clean, crisp, exact shapes I wanted in photoshop--as opposed to illustrator. But I'm kind of really liking and getting more used to photoshop when I do these graphic kind of illustrations. Although the shapes are a little imprecise on PS, it gives the image more character. I still wanna add a little more texture and need to finish painting the statues.

btw! the statues that I'm seated next to are called jizo (jizo bosatsu) statues. They appear to be child-monk forms of Jizo Bodhisattva which I think is some kind of deity that exists in India, China, Korea, and Japan. He is the protector of women, children, and travelers. Statues of Jizo are placed near intersections so that the traveler could choose the correct path. 
--03/07/13 11:49 pm
done woot!

travel diary

hey guys! It's been a while!
I've actually been quite busy since the beginning of break :) really proud that I'm keeping up my work ethic
During that business, I've been able to arrange a 3 month trip to Japan! I'll be studying Japanese language and culture there. Soo I hope to God that I keep up with this diary--thought I'd warm up by getting started on it~just having a couple pages down. I don't know if it's just me but I never knew how much an empty sketchbook could bother/scare me. There are just way too many possibilities...so many things I want to do with it but I'm so afraid of messing up and having to rip out a page and then making something out of the lines of ACCD's design aesthetic =_= then I realize that this is just for fun~ugh brain..stop being such a worry wort.

I wish I thought about the colors more carefully and I didn't properly design anything~just trying to get used to having fun and taking my time on this @_@  please stay tuned for more! I want to try and get at least two or three pages done in this diary for the next 8 weeks with little factoids about Japan, where I'd like to visit, certain mannerisms I need to respect and adhere to, etc. etc.

I was really inspired to start this from Enrico Casarosa's "The Venice Chronicles". I really love his quick and simple little pencil and watercolor drawings of him and his family's adventure around Italy. A trip to Japan isn't something that everyone gets a chance to experience. So I thought keeping a diary would be the best way to help me cherish and appreciate and actually remember every bit of this experience.