Commissions

   During my free time, I had opened up for a few simple art commissions on my Tumblr in hopes of earning a little bit more money for myself. Seeing as this would be the final year and that it would be inevitable for us to spend more money than we usually did in the previous two years (Heck, we will even be given a budget for our end of year show), it just seemed right attempting to earn a little money for myself aside from saving what I had. Getting commissioned to draw something for others have always been difficult to obtain for me, unless you were incredibly well known and have a style that would highly appeal to others, it would take ages before your promotions would even catch the interest of anyone.

   Through my other hobby blogs however, a few new friends I had made in the past year had kindly commissioned from me a few simple pieces. The process was somewhat informal (With no invoice or contract put together), but I had still made sure that a sketch would have been done first before they were paid, and allowed them to pay in installments, especially for one friend who had wanted to order more than one piece from me. Due to how crazy my schedule got as the deadline for Context in Practice 3 drew nearer, it is only now that I will be able to continue the second batch of commissions I will be doing.

   Seeing how much effort I needed to put myself out there for just a handful of commissions however, I will be also be working on some more new designs for my Redbubble and Society 6. I have noticed how incredibly well my Batgirl and Spidergwen (Which I had done for Responsive) tee design is selling on Redbubble, and so I just might try to focus more of my free time simply working on designs that hopefully the public would be interested in purchasing. It really is just figuring out what it is exactly that they like (Designing for a particularly unknown series like Lollipop Chainsaw (AS MUCH as I had loved that game) had been a complete waste of my time a few years back, as sad as it is to say), else well as what sort of design... I already have a number of ideas for Samurai Warriors, Sengoku Basara, Grand Theft Auto V and Mortal Kombat to work on! Hopefully I can actually get a few of them out over the next few months!

London MCM - Day 2

    I found myself rushing about a lot during Day 2. While waiting for a particular panel to start later that afternoon, I spent most of the morning shopping for gifts and taking photos of other cosplayers with my friend, something that we did not have the chance to do the day before due to our costumes getting in the way. Again, it was near impossible trying to see everything, and I was sure that I might have completely missed a few areas (I honestly tried finding a map myself that I could carry around but to no avail) despite how I was practically running around. 

   I was once again an absolutely nervous wreck, but for considerably different reasons this time around... or not.The first time was when I had something signed and a photo taken with the unbelievably kind Nolan North (I absolutely envied others that could so casually converse with him), who allowed me to come back to the front once I got my ticket.

   I was fortunate to chance upon The Line studio's booth while I was on my way to LeSean's signing session later that afternoon. Getting a chance to meet with one of the studio's directors Wesley Louis there, I purchased the art book to his project Super Turbo Atomic Ninja (Which I will write more about in future blog post) with a moment's hesitation. It was also here where I started to get terribly shy and nervous. While I know it was absolutely silly of me to behave this way, I was tongue tied when I attempted to carry out a conversation with him. In all honesty, I have never had the chance to speak with folks whose work I admired this much, especially face to face (HOW DO YOU NETWORK).

   He turned out to be a really friendly and humble fellow (Even asking me have a photo taken with him in front of their booth when I myself was too nervous to ask in the first place), and seeing all the amazing work that he and the rest of the studio produced made me feel all the more compelled to visit them someday (Which I am really hoping to do so this Easter break... as soon as I stop staring at this email draft that I have yet to send to them...). I was especially appealed by the fact that he held a particularly deep love for more traditional 2D animations, very much like my hero, LeSean Thomas.

   Speaking of which, one thing lead to another, and I soon enough found myself following another LeSean Thomas admirer she shrieked her way over to another section of the hall. I absolutely struggled to introduce myself to him, and I cannot describe how I felt over how it took him only a second to recognize who it was that had been bothering him most of the time through Tumblr. I had worked on a little gift the night before setting off for London, and thinking back now, seeing his response to receiving it just made my entire day, no, month. Alright, this is getting surprisingly difficult to write about seeing as I am returning to my gushing mode, so to conclude, I feel like crying tears of joy that I finally had the chance to meet the man that inspired me to animate in the first place. 

   And before I start sounding like a serious creeper, I think it's time to move onto the Cannonbusters panel itself. Some new previews were shown of the series as well as some interesting discussions about him getting to work with others and how the new character designs have been developed over that period. I have to put four clips together (The second and third one don't show anything seeing as we were not allowed to record the character designs that were being shown on the screens), so hopefully you will be able to hear most of what he said during this panel.

   The trip back to Leeds was made much easier thanks to my buddy. Seeing as I had to make about 5-6 stops before I was able to take a train directly back to Leeds in my original route, they were kind enough to drop me off at the 4th stop which helped so, so much, especially with my stupidly heavy luggage (Again, this was my fault for not knowing how to pack) and lack of escalators at some of these underground tubes. I was exhausted by the time I reached my place, but I also still could not get over the fact about how amazing that short trip had been... it saddens me that Singapore does not have a Comic Con of its own. And so, I am really hoping to attend a few more in other parts of the UK if possible.

I still got this for keepsake, seeing that it's plastic
it's not going to get moldy like those paper bracelets.

London MCM - Day 1

   It was strange how this plan to travel this far out during the weekend in between school weeks came about (Seeing that this wasn't something I have never truly done before), but it was certainly a worthwhile experience. Aside from wanting to meet with one of my longtime online friends (We had taken many steps to show that we could trust the person behind the screen before doing so, of course), I felt that this would be a rare opportunity to attend one of the biggest comic conventions in the world, and in London! And honestly, not really knowing what to expect, I just dived right in, carrying an unnecessarily heavy luggage consisting of my costume, makeup and some snacks as I did (Which I certainly will not do next time)... but mostly, makeup.

   Day 1 was a little more focused on familiarising myself with my surroundings; and needless to say, I was overwhelmed by all that I saw. There were so many costumes to see, things to buy, panels to attend... it was incredible. While we had set up off incredibly early, I realised soon enough that I couldn't possibly see everything, even if I had been there for all three days and was running about constantly. Despite how my costume was so much more comfortable (Well, not really) as compared to my friend's, I didn't really get anything else done other to try and calm my butt down when people asked to have a photo taken with me. It was amazing and nerve wracking, even though I hadn't had many photos taken of me, to see people get excited over my costume and to ask for my photo was just... a part of me still feels like crying just thinking about it.

   Needless to say, I learnt from this experience in learning how to pose better for photos. Also, I believe that it was this particular event where I actually learnt how to put on eyeliner. That's right, a 23-year-old finally learns how to put on eyeliner, but yeah I am never putting that stuff on again unless I am actually in cosplay. I eventually picked up the courage to draw on more distinct eyebrows for when I wore this costume again for Thoughtbubble, which I believe was even more well received! Especially since I was more confident in myself by then and did a better job on my makeup (I will be writing about Thought Bubble too, but on the events that I attended, so I decided to just mention this bit here instead).

   With my friend's armor burdening her, we eventually left in the late afternoon. We were exhausted and were pretty lifeless by the time we went out for dinner. We needed to rest as the next day was when we would get some things done...

My friend's amazing kunoichi costume.