2023 Illustrations/Crafts

Wow, don’t even ask me where my mind has been the past 2 months since my last post (or more accurately, the last 2 years, if I’m being honest.) Looking back on it, it’s pretty much all been a blur. But as we get ready to throw ourselves headfirst into the holidays, I’m feeling a refreshing bit of clarity and peace, so it seemed a good time to dust off my blog and pop back in to say hello, catch up with all you lovelies, and get back to doing my thing and feeling more like myself again. 2023 wasn’t as big of a year for creative productivity unfortunately. I did manage to squeeze some time in for a few drawings and crafts, so here they are:

The angel and devil sketch I did was older but I went in and redid the line work and added color to finally finish it, so I’m counting this as a 2023 piece. 😉

I wanted to draw something with kind of a vintage retro feel to the art style but also wanted to add a bit of crassness to it as well. It was a fun piece to work on.

Cupcakes & Machetes and I had a blast decorating these ancient Greek inspired terracotta pots on one of our girls’ nights/crafting sessions. Hers is the Pegasus pot on the left and mine is the Cerberus pot on the right. That was also the night we discovered that you could order craft supplies from Michael’s via Instacart. Talk about a game changer! 😛

I had a blast making spooky Halloween wreaths with C&M and a friend of ours for Craft Club (like Book Club, but for arts and crafts!) Speaking of wreaths, I also made a Christmas wreath at that start of December at a very fun and festive wreath-making party hosted by Mr. Moth’s aunt. 🙂

Just a gargoyle (a Grotesque if you want to be technical) done in ink.

Pencil and ink on paper. Between having our own temporary front door spider we named Coraline and this drawing this year was a good exercise in facing my arachnophobia. 🙂

More crafting with C&M, painting cheeky little gnomes. 😛 The top batch are mine and the bottom batch is hers. We probably had TOO much fun painting these and coming up with the different sayings.

lol This was my very brief attempt at the Inktober art challenge this year along with the spider lady and gargoyle pictured above.

My piece I worked on for Imbolc earlier this year. I really enjoyed working on this one and hope to do more related pieces in the coming year.

I only managed to do like 2 drawings for Shark Week this year, but this lemon shark was my favorite. If life gives you lemon sharks, make lemon pun-based art.

I didn’t get to create as much as I’d have hoped this year, but 2024 is right around the corner and I’m ready to make the most of it. 🙂

Is there anything you wish you’d had more time for this year? What sorts of things are you planning on working on in 2024? Who is ready for the New Year??

Dorohedoro Read-A-Thon Part 1: Vol. 1 & 2

It’s no secret that I love the anime Dorohedoro. I mean, my husband and I named our husky puppy after the character Noi from it, and we started gathering supplies for working on a cosplay of our favorite dynamic duo Shin and Noi for conventions late last year. 😀

I’ve wanted to make the jump over to the manga series that inspired the anime for a while now, but at a sprawling 23 volumes, my wallet was a little less enthusiastic about the venture. Thankfully, I have the bestest friends and husband ever, and they treated me to the entire collection at Christmas. (When I tell you my eyes were popping out of my skull when I opened the gift and saw the ENTIRE collection in front of me, it doesn’t even fully convey the excitement I felt.) I was so surprised and elated, and I immediately wanted to shut myself into an isolated cabin in the woods and read each book aloud for all to hear. I mean, that always works out okay in the movies, right? 😉

Much like summoning demons after reading something in Latin that you probably shouldn’t have, it’s always a little intimidating checking out the source material from a show or movie you absolutely love. Will it live up to your expectations? Is the show you enjoy even anything like what you’re about to read? Will you love the characters as much? Will you love them even MORE and then see where the show is suddenly lacking?? These are all legitimate concerns, I feel. So, I am setting that fear aside and stepping forward, excited and curious about the wonders and pitfalls I may encounter exploring my beloved anime’s origins through the manga, and even getting to read beyond where the anime left off to see where the story goes and what becomes of my favorite characters come the end of the series. That said, let’s get on with this Read-A-Thon, shall we? 😀

Dorohedoro, Volume 1, by Q. Hayashida

A blood-spattered battle between diabolical sorcerers and the monsters they created.
Caiman was not lucky. A sorcerer cursed him with a reptile head and left him with no memory of his life before the transformation. Adding to the mystery, there’s a specter of a man living inside him. But Caiman has one key advantage: he’s now completely immune to magic. Along with his best friend, Nikaido, Caiman is hunting down sorcerers in the Hole, searching for the one who can undo his curse and killing the rest. But when En, the head Sorcerer, gets word of a lizard-man slaughtering sorcerers, he sends a crew of “cleaners” into the Hole, igniting a war between two worlds.

I really like the rough, sketchy style of artwork by Q. Hayashida. It perfectly fits the chaotic and hyper-violent world she’s cobbled together for Dorohedoro. Which brings me to another thing I’m enjoying about this series: I’m a total sucker for worldbuilding and complex characters, and Q. Hayashida delivers both in spades. To the point that sometimes you aren’t even really sure which characters you should be rooting for, and which (if any) are actually the bad guys. The series wastes no time kicking off the violence, and from there it only continues along at breakneck speed on its dark and gritty but also silly and fun rampage.

Dorohedoro, Volume 2 by Q. Hayashida

Once a year, hordes of the dead rise and roam the streets of the Hole, hungry for live flesh. And every year, Caiman and Nikaido sign up for the local zombie-killing contest! Whoever sends the most zombies back into the ground will win some fantastic prizes. But the fun ends quickly when En’s cleaners finally track down Caiman and Nikaido. Somebody’s going to lose their head. Literally.

Remember when zombies exploded in popularity and almost became too mundane because of it? Well, the zombies roaming around in the Hole in the second volume of Dorohedoro have a unique twist all their own that makes them anything but boring.

My immediate reaction upon reading the first 2 volumes is being pleasantly surprised by how well the anime stuck to the source material. Even so, both mediums do a good job bringing their own magic to the series, and the manga serves to further flesh out the world and its characters that I’ve come to love in the anime, so needless to say, I very much look forward to reading the rest of this series!

What are you reading right now? Get any good books over the holidays?? If you had to get cursed by a sorcerer and given the head of any animal, which one would you choose??? Inquiring minds want to know!

Shark Week Art Update #2

Well, another Shark Week has come and gone, but it was jawsome while it lasted! 😀 My last 2 pieces I did for Shark Week include an adorable drawing of King Shark from the hilarious cartoon Harley Quinn. ❤ It seemed fitting since the new season just started AND it has my absolute favorite version of King Shark, voiced by none other than the always-awesome Ron Funches.

For the final piece, I wanted to mix things up and make a mer-shark. Mermaids are cool and all, but I would 100% want to be a mer-shark. ❤

I really enjoyed myself this year with Shark Week. We did so much at work to celebrate sharks, and I had fun nerding out with friends about sharks and watching as much shark content as I could squeeze in! 🙂

How was your July?? What are you looking forward to most in August? 🙂

My Year in Books: 2021

Does anyone else look forward to when Goodreads posts your “Year in Books” at the end of the year? 🙂 I always think it’s fun looking back on things you’ve done throughout the year, so maybe that is something I’ll try to keep better track of in 2022 in general. For now, though, I’ll just let GR do most of the work.

This year I surpassed my goal of reading 30 books/graphic novels, and read a total of 45. (Though, let’s be honest, A LOT of those were graphic novels this year.) 😉

The SHORTEST book I read was: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, at 118 pages.

The LONGEST book was: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, at 692 pages.

Favorite Buddy Read of the Year: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Favorite Novel I Read This Year: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Favorite Graphic Novel I Read This Year: I literally read all 34 volumes of the manga of Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama, so I think it’s a safe bet to say this one took the cake for me in 2021. 😛

How was your own year in reading? What was your favorite book/graphic novel you read in 2021? How many books do you hope to read in 2022?

 

Very Late October Art Update

So, I just realized that I never posted the remainder of my drawings I did for October’s Corpsetober art challenge. 0.o Whoopsie. Well, better late than never, right? 😉

Prompt 9: Fairies

With a prompt like “fairies”, I just had to use it as an excuse to draw another moth fairy. ❤
Prompt 10: Valentine’s Day

Watch out, she’ll steal your heart! 😛 I did not intend for this woman to look like 90’s Alanis Morissette, but apparently sometimes these things just happen.
Prompt 11: The 80’s

Cute 80’s girl with Frankenstein’s Monster/Bride of Frankenstein fashion vibes.

Prompt 12: Anime or Manga

Originally I was trying to think of an actual spooky anime to do fan art of, but then I just decided to take an iconic horror movie like Halloween, and thought to myself, but what if it was an anime? Haha so here we are. I took inspiration for Michael and Laurie’s faces from Charmy and Noelle from the anime Black Clover.

Prompt 13: Retro Video Games – the 90’s

When I had to think of a 90’s video game with Halloween or spooky vibes, my brain instantly went to Banjo’s pumpkin form from N64’s Banjo-Kazooie. Specifically, the Mad Monster Mansion level. Not my best piece, but it was a quick and easy one based off a video game that I have so many wonderful memories playing.

I actually haven’t had much time to draw since I worked on these pieces in October, so hopefully I’ll get to change that soon. Too many hobbies, never enough time. What hobbies are you looking forward to this December? 🙂

November 2021 Wrap-Up

Hello, December! ❤ It’s kind of bizarre to think that 2021 has already nearly come to an end. It feels like we were JUST wishing for 2020 to be over. What even IS time anymore since the pandemic hit? 0.o

I hope you guys all had a great November. 🙂 What was your favorite part of the month? Here’s some of the things I enjoyed most throughout November:

NaNoWriMo: NaNoWriMo was definitely interesting this year. This was the first year I’ve gone into it in 2nd Draft/Revisions mode, so it was a little more difficult for me to get my footing at first. I definitely added to my word count and fleshed out a lot of the bare bones areas of the book, but I also spent a lot of time moving things around and merging my new material in with the old. Near the end of the month I found myself less focused on the word count, and more focused on just doing whatever needed to be done. All in all, I may have veered off course as far as my original NaNoWriMo goal, but I still think it was a very successful month of writing/editing, and I’m proud of what I accomplished in that amount of time. 🙂

Buddy Read: Cupcakes & Machetes and I did a buddy read for Science Fiction month of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. If you want to see what we thought of it feel free to check out our post we did about it.

Thanksgiving: We kept things very small, just immediate family, and everyone involved was vaccinated. I like laid back holidays so I thought it was really nice. ❤ My dad and I love Bruce Campbell, so we watched his new movie Black Friday.

Watching: My favorite shows I watched this month are definitely Arcane (on Netflix) and Dragula, Season 4 (on Shudder).

Reading: I only finished reading ONE thing this entire month, and it was my buddy read with C&M. Buuuut, I did also just start reading Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, which has been very interesting right from the beginning. 🙂

Video Games: I’ve been playing a lot of Mario Kart 8 this week. 🙂 

Baking: Meh. I was pretty excited to try this no bake pumpkin pie recipe, but it was bland as hell, to be honest. I’ve only ever tried making 2 pumpkin pies in my life, both for Thanksgiving with my family, and both were terrible. The first one was when I was a kid, my dad and I made a gorgeous pumpkin pie but forgot one of the ingredients… SUGAR. D: So I guess failing at pumpkin pie is a family tradition at this point. lol

What are you most excited for in December? Any last minute projects or goals you have going on before the new year? 🙂

 

Pup Cups, Pumpkins, and Photos: July 2021 Wrap-Up

Update #1: Pup Cups

My mom and I like to try to get together for coffee once a week, specifically Biggby frozen coffees with extra espresso in them because we are absolute fiends for caffeine. Well, as of late, our girls’ day coffee adventures have only gotten better with the addition of a third member of our “Treat Yo’ Self” squad, that being my parents’ new resident fluff monster that they got a few months back. (Like this dog needed any more reasons to love going for car rides.) 😛

 

Update #2: Pumpkin Babies

Our pumpkin patch is already fast at work producing flowers and pumpkin babies for the fall. I think this pumpkin patch will always hold a special place in my heart, not only because I love pumpkins, but also because the first harvest was for our wedding last October. ❤ Hopefully this year’s harvest will be just as good!

Update #3: Writing Progress

Writer Girl Summer is going really well. 🙂 I’ve mostly been cruising along right on track to have my first draft complete by the first day of fall, so here’s hoping I can keep this pace up. *fingers crossed*

Update #4: Reading, Or Rather, a Lack There Of

I didn’t get much reading done in July, mostly due to a misplaced charger for my Kindle that has thankfully since been found. Also, when I wasn’t writing, let’s be honest, I was mostly watching a ton of anime. While my kindle charger was misplaced, I had to take a break on finishing Pet Sematary for my buddy read with Cupcakes & Machetes, I started reading Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House.

Update #5: Drawing

Other than completing the Drawing Shark Week art challenge I participated in, I didn’t get a whole lot of drawing time in since this summer my focus is mostly on writing. Buuuut I’m hoping to at least squeeze in a couple Fan Art Friday posts this month since my last one was *GASP* all the way back in mid-May??! I can’t even keep up with time these days it seems. 2021 is just barreling by at breakneck speed and it’s all I can even do to try to remember what day it is half the time. Back to the point though, it will be good to get some more practice in with Procreate and my iPad Pro. I’m still loving it, I just have soooo much to learn!

Update #6: Watching

July mostly had me been binge-watching the first 4 seasons of My Hero Academia with my husband, but I also started Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on my own. We also enjoyed the 3 week Netflix event for the Fear Street trilogy of movies. I think we may have squeezed a couple other movies in as well, but the only one coming to mind at the moment is Gunpowder Milkshake.

Update #7: Baking

For my husband’s dad’s birthday I made a triple chocolate cake. My husband also really enjoys these honey cornbread muffins I make so I made some of those which we enjoyed with honey cinnamon butter. (SO good.) I also have an abundance of frozen blueberries I want to use up, so this weekend I made blueberry muffins. Aaaand if you follow the Sugar and Scream blog that C&M and I host together, you’ll have seen some pics of freshly baked bone-shaped snickerdoodle cookies we posted about in early July.

What shenanigans did you get up to in July? Any big plans for August? Hoping you all have an excellent month! 😀

A Special Blogging Announcement

Cue the confetti cannons and put on your party hats, it’s big, exciting announcement time! Behind the scenes, my BFF and blogging partner in crime, Cupcakes & Machetes and I have secretly been plotting and working on something we’re very excited to finally be able to share with you guys!

. . . wait for it . . .

It’s a brand spanking new blog that the two of us will be co-hosting! We’ll still be keeping our own respective blogs too, but this new blog is a fun new way for us to revel in our love for all things horror, fantasy and science fiction and to toss some fun extra things in as well, like our experiments in baking and other hobbies/interests. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to our new blog Sugar and Scream!!

We welcome you to hop on over to join in on the fun with us! 

April 2021 Art Update

What time is it? Art Update Time! 🙂 I have an amazingly kind friend at work who let me borrow her fancy IPad recently to practice some digital illustrating on something different than my current art tablet set up I have, and damn, did I ever enjoy myself! ❤

I’ve been watching/reading a lot of Attack on Titan lately, so I could hardly resist drawing some AoT Fan Art while I was at it. And where better to start, than with Captain Levi?

While I was drawing badasses from AoT, it only made sense to draw some Mikasa. It was also a nice practice at shadows/lighting. Definitely a far cry from perfect, but it felt good to be practicing. ❤

Playing around with shadows made me want to play around with some different shapes and colors which resulted in the dragon pictured below.

Practicing with digital art again feels so rewarding. I love learning new techniques and pushing myself out of my comfort zone more. What things have you been learning and/or working on lately? Who else watched the first half of the final season of AoT? I absolutely looooved it. I can’t wait to see how it all ends come winter when the final episodes are released. 😀

 

 

Art Update: January (and December)

Well, one of the things I was hoping to work on was practicing with other mediums (copic markers and digital art to be specific) so here are some of my more recent pieces done with that goal in mind. 🙂

I’ve been on a Rupaul’s Drag Race binge for several weeks and it had me wanting to draw some drag queens, and what better place to start than with Divine? It’s just a WIP at this point though because my red marker I was using died. D:

I love costumes and weird outfits so I could hardly resist drawing the spiky outfit from the Rodeo music video by Lil Nas X. Plus he’s got the whole vampire theme going on in the video so that just made it even more fun to draw because vampire teefs. 😛

I haven’t actually seen The Mandalorian yet (I know, I know) but I drew the little cutie pictured above on a Thank You card for someone I know to be a fan of the show. One day I’ll get around to the show and I’m sure I’ll love it, so no spoilers please! 😀

Well, I finally did it! I started playing around with my art tablet and came up with this pretty lady in purple pictured above. I have a lot of practicing to do with digital art but I’m looking forward to working at it and trying to learn new techniques. 🙂 Here’s hoping I’ll have plenty of new digital art to share in the months to come!

What have you guys been working on lately? Any fun projects or new hobbies you’re practicing at?