EVILOT IS OUT!
EVILOT IS OUT!
EVILOT IS OUT!

For iPad only for now, but… OUT!!! OUT, RELEASED, LAUNCHED! *jumps around*
My first non-VN project, with a local company on top, IS. OUT!

And we showed up on Gamespot and Kotaku! :’D

I drew *everything* for it. EVERYTHING. Except the GUI. But the rest is ALL ME. MEEEEEE. xDDD
The animations were done in cut-out method with After Effects by our talented in-house animator <3
I acknowledge the game art has its flaws and I’m pretty sure about the reasons for it; I worked at a very small resolution from the get-go… a very bad move, in hindsight, but I think it still looks nice! And I still don’t cringe with it, which is good x’D

Besides that, I’ve still been rather missing and being behind everything, just like last month^^;
I started teaching again, which is awesome!
And today marks a year since I moved out from my mom’s house. Wow, a year! It’s been a rollercoaster :’D

Anyway… report time. Mostly for my own purposes and the peace of mind of the people I work with/for/owe stuff to :’D

Stuff I’m actively working on while not at the office working on the game that’ll come after Evilot (that so far looks so pretty ;v; I’m making the art all in HD fro the start! ) :

- Hope~ – I’m only like… 3 CGS away from finishing my task list! Woot!
- Kako no Koi – I’m *this* close to finish the last sprite I was asked to do, I’m just missing a few faces.
- Dies Irae, Phantatom Elements – I need to sketch the next character in line

Stuff I haven’t touched for a while and I should resume working on as soon as I finish the aforementioned:

- Autumn’s Journey – a few CGs still missing and that’s the only thing preventing it’s release ;v;
- Spirited Hearts 2 – still not even done with the first sprite “Orz. I’M THE AWFUL-EST! I want to finish Hope~ first, so I can devote all my freelance time to that again! >_<
- Flight of Twilight – SO BEHIND IT’S NO FUNNY ;_; I haven’t been able to find a good time slot for it in my schedule yet Dx
- Other stuff I owe to people – like the Facebook giveaway pictures, a couple overdue birthday watercolor paintings, a few chibis… etc, etc.

And… that’s been life this month.
Oh, I’m getting my passport today! Then the visa *shivers*
And I’m also dysphonic (hoarse voice) after a nasty cold that had me in bed for a few days that I passed on to my work-mates at the office too >>; I have to teach tonight and I need my voice for that >___<;;;;

So… yeah.
I’m happy, though. Very <3

March was a rollercoaster. On one side, I was really excited and anxious about the japanese card illustrations, that took me forever and a day to do but I’m really proud of how they ended up.

I also decided to join the NaNoRenO competition with Kitty, Arowana and Nellie!… but even while March is already over, the game is not finished because I overestimated my ability to make CGs and got badly burned out >>; So there are missing CGs >: I’ll try to get them done soon.

Other than that, I worked on and off on my usual freelance stuff. I’m way behind everything now x’D
Especially because I started par-time work as Lead Artist at Syrenaica’s office. I’m making a couple extra “tutorial” screens right now for Evilot, and it will be submitted tonight to the Appstore (: The release should be around the corner! I’m also working my ass off making concept sketches for the new game we’re working on. I’m having *tons* of fun at the office, but I end up really tired when I get back home, and the least i want to do is to be on the computer doing stuff ): It kind of reminds me of how it felt when I was doing my internship, but this is more creative work in a shorter time span ^^; So the two days “off” I have to work on freelance stuff, I’m tired and I end up taking them as weekends :’D
The universe is cinspiring against me working on my freelance jobs! But I’ll try my best to revert that situation and go back to normal.

In other news, I’m flying to USA THIS TIME FOR REAL in August/September! I got my new ID today, I have to get my new passport as soon as I get some spare money, and then the visa :’D And then saving to actually be able to eat and survive there, hahaha x’D

So… yeah. Hopefully that explains the lack of updates on twitter, facebook and other sites. I’m tired :’D Happy but tired and behind schedule x’D

I hope you’re all doing great! And look forward to Evilot soon and uh… Autumn’s Journey, which is our (late)NaNo entry and it’s pretty and lovely and full of cuddles and cavity inducing x’D

*goes back to work before work-mates scold me :’D*

Wow! February is over already!
That was fast o_o.

Life-wise, this month was a rollercoaster!
I got my paid vacations house-sitting my mom’s place and I got to spend lots of time with my pets and playing PS Vita and sleeping in, haha xD I also got some serious issues with my boyfriend discussed and we’re now better than ever And I cut my hair quite short! x’3
And, of course, I overbooked myself as usual xD Because of all this, I couldn’t get much done, but I think I got enough done, which is okay.

Project-wise,I’m behind my planned schedule with Spirited Heart 2 and with Hope~ I’m finishing up the Human Girl sprite for SH2 and then I ned to move to the Elf Girl; and I finished the extra sprites for Hope~, so I need to start work on the CGs now. I’ll be working primarily on that during March, as they’re my main projects at the moment, with the rest being side on-and-off things.

I’ve also been working hard on the Dies Irae: Phantatom Elements character art Getting a couple done… each month, it seems >>; But I’m almost 1/3 done with the cast! :’D It’s a big cast, haha ^^;

Besides that, I started work on Kako no Koi, a VN I’m working on-and-off, like with Dies Irae. I’m done with character design, title screen and logo, and with the first sprite! (her expression here is not representative of her personality, btw, I just thought it was a fun combination x’D)
I’ll get done one each week very likely, and then move to CGs. It’ll take some time to get done, but there’s no hurry with that one

And if that wasn’t enough, I’m sketching redesigns for Scions of Seraph (go check the webcomic here!). I got the first 4 designs the last couple of days (they’re really fast to do), and I’ll be doing some more next week and so on. The characters are quite fun, so I couldn’t reject the commission, haha ^^; I’ll ink and color them properly later on.

Also, I worked fixing some Flight of Twilight stuff and now I’m working on new CGs. I hope I can finish them soon! I’ve scheduled one morning each week for this, in my “side-projects day” (which is basically FoT + Dies Irae day).

And on top ALL of that, I have to get this couple of illustrations I can’t even show around by the middle of the month :’) I just got the corrections for those in today, and I have to submit the revisited versions in by Monday.

Yup, I’ve been and I’m busy x’D
I can’t help it, I love drawing characters so much! ;v; And I’m happy and not stressed (yay for not having deadlines <3), which is great

Also, I started attending life drawing sessions! I’m meeting with nice fellow illustrators, socializing a bit, and drawing till exhaustion on three-hour sessions one or two evenings a week. It’s been a long time since I drew so much by hand! I’m hoping I’ll improve with this ^__^

During March, my objective is to… well, besides getting done all the stuff I need to get done, to spend Saturdays working on Every Sunrise art, so I can get most of it done in a couple of months I’m very excited about this ^_^ I really want to work on older Kuu and Koda!

I haven’t been able to even go near my own Caramel Mokaccino because of all this x’D But maybe I’ll find some time in the near future, when my schedule is less cluttered… Probably by the time I’m done with Hope~ ^^;

So… yup, that’s been my month! I’ve also closed my commissions EVERYWHERE AND OF ANY KIND, so I don’t get tempted with any other thing to do (I have a really hard time saying no!), at least not until I’m done with a few of my current projects!

…I’m honestly impressed I’m not dying of stress and panic right now, hahaha x’D I’m having lots of fun! ^^

Take care, and thanks for reading!

January was the month of experimenting and setting my priorities straight. Basically because I wanted to take a little break from work, I decided to take commissions and I experimented a lot on said commissions, which I think helped me improve a lot I usually  have limited space to experiment within a project, since I need to keep consistency (though sometimes I do experiment… leading to different results x’D), so being able to work on commissions helped me let loose and I enjoyed it greatly (:
If you haven’t seen my commissions, they’re all in my deviantART gallery while some progress screenshots are on my facebook fanpage as usual (:

There’s a bit of a ramble about all this further down the page, but now let’s take a look at the projects!

Yousei is out. YAY!!
I’m so happy you have no idea I hope everybody can enjoy the product of our hard work, so please take a look at the demo if you can (and if you can buy the game, even better <3 ).
I’ll do an art ‘post-mortem’ of sorts later on, as usual

I’m slowly working on the Dies Irae characters. I wish they’d take less time to get done, but they do take me a while! The new Kickstarter campaign is waiting for me to finish more characters before launching, so I’ll do my best to get them done in a more timely fashion the next month.

Hope~ stuff has progressed slowly, but I’m now one sketch away from starting actual production of assets, which I’ll start next week if everything goes according to plan (: I have two sprites and a few CGs ready to be turned into working assets in the following weeks, which puts the game closer to being released! (though I honestly have no idea when the estimated release date is set or aimed to be).

I’ve also been slowly but steadily working on Spirited Heart 2, by Winter Wolves I was hired to do a bunch of chibis first, but then I was invited to be the lead artist, as the original artist left the project for personal reasons. I’m really thrilled about this, and let me tell you, it’s a lot of work! But I’ve had lots of fun making costumes for the main characters and I can’t wait to finish them and show you guys!

Blue Rose, in case you haven’t heard, is on preorder/beta. I worked really hard on that one too and, as I’ve mentioned before, I improved a lot just by working on it. I’m very proud of it and I’m slowly playing it myself too! I recently got a promotion piece done for it, but I haven’t got approval to post it around yet, so you’ll have to wait for that one. The progress screenshots are on my Fb page as usual if you want to take a peek.
And yes, I’ve been having fun making logos, haha x’D I’ve also made a few more for other games that you’ll be seeing when the time comes

As for February, I’ll be working hard on Hope~ and on Spirited Heart 2, and also fixing and finishing some Flight of Twilight things that need to get done (I scheduled a few hours for that again). Speaking of side projects, I also scheduled time for Every Sunrise, so I’ll be working on that on my ‘free’ time too, if things go well.
Next week, instead of going on vacations with my mom, I’ll be living at her place by myself looking after the pets x’D  Which in one side is very nice (yay, pets <3) and on the other side not so much (boo, no boyfriend and being far away from everybody ;_;), and I sadly couldn’t afford taking the Artistic Calligraphy course, so I’ll see if I can take it later on instead, when I don’t have financial messes, which should be soon, since I got my Payoneer prepaid MasterCard and I should be able to withdraw my Paypal money now and use it to pay my living expenses instead of just having it for online purchases budget ;v;

And that’s pretty much it! Nothing too exciting, as usual, haha. Oh! By the way, the BL VN I did the characters for should be announced in the near future (I did the logo for it the other day! ), though the art production will be put on hold for a while, so keep an eye if you’re interested in it

And now for the life ramble…

Now there was one problem with commissions and realizing I was improving and having so much fun with art… things took me a lot longer than I thought they would! Mainly because I kept getting carried away and experimenting (not the commissioners’ fault, btw) and trying new things, and while the end result was something I was very proud of, I ended up losing money… or not making enough money for the time I spent, which you may know that is not something I can afford living by myself and being such a mess when it comes to organizing freelance work time, so I decided to start charging more for commissions in the future, to reflect the actual work I put on these pieces. I want to keep enjoying doing art and still be able to be independent and buy food and pay the bills ^^;

So there’s that.

I also realized what art and work in general means to me and the place it has in my life.
I’m not a workaholic, haha, far from it! I’m also not the kind of person that would love to spend every waking minute drawing to her heart’s content (though sometimes I wish I had that passion!). Work for me is, well, work. Art is something I deeply enjoy looking at and producing, so being able to work creating art is just a dream come true to me, and I hope I keep being able to do so until I’m no longer able to. But again, I’m not “I want to draw all day!” passionate and I’m not a workaholic, so I don’t want to work (draw for other people) for more time than I need to. that means I still want to have enough time to sleep, to be lazy, to spend time with my boyfriend doing nothing, to go visit my mom on weekends, to read, to play games, etc. I don’t have many financial needs right now (except the fact I still have a hard time meeting the minimal needs I do have) and I don’t have the passion or ambition to justify working more time than I need to and thus eating up time of all the other things I mentioned before. I’m happy about how things are (or should be if I was better at managing things!), and I don’t need anything else for the time being, really (:
So my current goal now is, as usual, kick my lazy behind in shape and get done as much as I need to get done (with minimal money loss due me miscalculating times like with the commissions) and keep having enough time for myself. I’ve realized I can afford to leave one day a week for volunteer side projects I’ve been neglecting too, so I’ll focus on that.
Speaking of neglecting, I was so focused on earning enough money and freaking out bout the money I lost from commissions taking too long that i’ve neglected taking care of my apartment >>; it’s not as clean as I was so proud of some time ago, so I need to catch up with that too!

Well, that’s all from me now!
Remember that if you want to see progress shots of whatever I’m working on (and I’m allowed to show in public, that is) and be a bit of a stalker and learn about my boring freelancer daily life, you may follow me on twitter, or if you just want the progress screenshots, just stick to my facebook page, haha. Links to both are on the sidebar of this blog.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all had a good month!