BEHOLD.

GET IN ON THIS, IM MAKING A POSTERRRRR

✦❤✦ THE KICKSTARTER FOR AGENTS OF THE REALM HIT ITS FUNDING GOAL ✦❤✦

Gosh gosh gosh!! Thank you all SO MUCH for your support so far!! Last night the Kickstarter managed to hit it’s initial funding goal of 17K! The kickstarter campaign, however, is still running and will remain running until March 2nd so I’ve got LOTS of stuff planned for the extra funds to go towards!

Are you looking for an easy way to show your Magical Girl pride? If the Kickstarter hits 20K, I’ll be getting 1.5″ Enamel metal pins made so you can let the world know exactly how magical you are!

If the Kickstarter passes that…

Everyone who pledges in the tiers $50 and above will get a chance to upgrade in order to get their hands on limited edition prints made by these wonderful artists! I was lucky enough to get @wscottforbes, @quantumqstar and @mattahan to agree to create absolutely gorgeous artwork in honor of Agents of the Realm. I’ve been getting peaks at the works done so far and let me tell you, you’ll definitely want to get your hands on them!

From there, the funds will be going towards making the book even more shiny and magical than it already is!

Hitting 40K means everyone who pledged in $30 or above gets their softcovers upgraded to be foil embossed!! Talk about a perfectly fitting upgrade.

And the last stretch goal is a Foil Hardcover Upgrade available for everyone who pledged in tiers $50 and above! 

The campaign still has 22 days left! Let’s keep this ball rolling!

I love Steam Powered Giraffe SO MUCH omg. I heard of em a little over a year ago, and it totally freaked me out since I have a story about musical steampunk robots and here is a band doing that as a THING. WHAT. I avoided them forever cos I was worried I wouldn't like their music... I've had my heart broken too many times by theme bands that look interesting but have crappy music and if that were the case with these guys I would have taken that PERSONALLY. Because STEAMPUNK ROBOTS. Thank goodness it ain't the case here. Mind you most of their older stuff is too damn folksy for my tastes but it grew on me and I love it too now. I just prefer music I can groove or rock out to. MKIII tho? AAAGH. They promised something for everyone and totally delivered, I don't mind listening to it all the way through at all. They're pretty shamelessly nostalgic and I love it, Rollerskate King totally triggered that with me. When I was little my favorite radio station would play disco on saturday nights and my mom and I would dance around the house (she'd teach me all the moves she knew from her disco partying days) driving dad crazy cos he hates disco. :D If I HAD to nitpick it would be with the use of synth horns because I used to play saxophone and trumpet, and synth horns hurt my feelings. Not a fan of synth strings either tho those can sometimes sound good... enough. Next time I hope they find a friend who can play or bribe a music student with pizza to record the real thing or SOMETHING cos weh! Otherwise perfect album is seriously perfect. All of my favorite songs turned out to be Hatchworth's, ohmygod I can't even listen to Go Spine Go without losing my shit it's so ridiculous XD I'll love Sam forever for getting David to sing in a torchy jazz style even if it was just a little bit cos rooowwwwrrrrr. Hatchworth's pretty much the reason I'm such a stan now when I wasn't a year ago. I live a Sam Luke appreciation life :p Bleak Horizon just makes me ache for a Steam Powered Giraffe: The Musical *flail* UGH I want to see them live uuuugh ugh feels etc

this makes deciding on color schemes a no-brainer! I'll definitely buy when the beta is over.

Coworker introduced me to a really awesome little Photoshop plugin. Took a screenshot of me playing around with it at work that I blurred to hell for NDAs. Gone are the days where I have to open up the color picker window to sample colors!! I definitely recommend at least trying it out.

When designing characters (especially costumes--I'm thinking specifically of the organic-nanotech Iron Man) do you find yourself doing a lot of research specifically for that project, or does it tend to grow more often out of subjects you've already taken an interest in/have knowledge of? Are there any particular resources you find yourself using frequently for that kind of research?

-tyuran

Gosh. WELL. I read. A lot. Like when I go on a research tear I read so much it freaks out people around me 8| Super easy to read lots because I own a kindle. I just get obsessed with things and I have to learn everything I can so I tend to start with wikipedia and then move on to books, and lurk on discussion forums about the topic. (example, I am obsessed with jeeps, I am a member of the cult of Wrangler we have a secret wave and everything and I want to turn mine into a zombie apocalypse response vehicle someday :p and now it is super easy for me to talk about cars with all the dudebros I work with ffff)

Specifically with biotech Ironman tho? I was majoring in biology before I had to quit school for the final time due to uh, poverty. I love SCIENCE so when I nerd out over sci/fi I get tons of ideas for story and character design. It makes me a huge snob tho, like seriously people need to stop giving JJ Abrams all these sci/fi franchises he can't science fiction at ALL. UGH. Like sci/fi is exciting cos science is exciting dammit, and looking toward what's really possible. I saw that the Daily Show has a new segment called Neil Degrasse Tyson: BUZZKILL OF SCIENCE lol that man is my hero.

SO YEAH. Character design I do lots of research on... everything. And if I have a new character who does something I don't know anything about (like, my character Shae is a pilot so I spent some time studying seaplanes and helicopters while I developed her), then it's pretty exciting to learn a new thing! I've actually redesigned my character Edie (she's a giant robot mechanic lol) a bit recently because I've been working with industrial mechanics at my dayjob and have learned a lot about work clothing/industrial safety gear that I didn't find out thru reading. It's like that writer's thing where you just call all your life experiences "research" lol so that's pretty cool.

omg you punk i didn't know you had a tumblr

it's new! New ish! I promise! Augh I am making an effort get off my ass, woman

Got a cutie to watch over my new sewing area 83c

indigogrim replied to your post: Stuff like this is pretty livejournal ...

The more you practice performing and sharing your art with people the easier it gets.

Thiiiiissss is what I'm talkinbout tho? One would assume 10+ years of trying would be enough to tell if such a thing is gonna work out or not D: I'm reeeaally reaching right now trying to decide if it ever got any easier during that decade of effort and fffffnnnnghmaybe? BUT worth it? That I am even less sure about. Cos when I draw something and I finish I'm good. It's like welp, got a thing out of my head, done, satisfied. Might show a friend or two if they're online at the time. Its a little easier with fanart because fangirling and FEEEELS. But meeeehhh? WHY should I continue to push for it, is what I want to ask. I never got much reason other than because people wanna see? And that's not motivational enough?... sorry...? The inspiration to others thing is but again only sometimes because that's not whyyyyy I do this, so when I struggle to share and can't, then I just feel ashamed and as I said, I'm done with that. 

adrhaze replied to your post: 

You can always become a secret artist with a pseudonym and just keep yourself in the shadows while letting your work speak for you. The masked artist! Or maybe an agent? It works for banksy and a lot of writers.

I have totally considered a pseudonym! At least for writing, if I ever actually finished anything fff. For visual art I don't think Banksy is a good example, being mysterious brings EXTRA attention... (besides doesn't he have an entire crew helping him out...?) Musically I sure love Daft Punk's thing but man how much harder would it be to start doing something like that nowadays? Anonymity is kind of impossible. I'm already probably as secret as I could even be :C

Thing is though, I love musical theater best. Like I LIVE for Cirque du Soleil shows (only time something has ever made me cry just because it was so beautiful), and I did a lot of that stuff when I was a kid. But you really have to put yourself out there for it. Collaborating with a bunch of people to create something thats so many kinds of art all at the same time that no single person could pull off is just the greatest feeling. SO its easier when its a group thing too, a cast and crew can be a really supportive kind of artist family. I made costumes and props and magic tricks, I danced at festivals, I played in band etc. Stopped doing all that stuff publicly when I was 15ish for mostly angsty teenager reasons, though one year I did audition for a musical and that was the last damn time I sang outside of the shower or alone in the car and let me tell you I was ASTRONOMICALLY outside of my comfort zone there, woosh. (but I admit I wasn't satisfied doing ONLY crew cos I gotta daaaaance) After that I would say... a lot of things happened that made life a little bit tougher and I had to lean on my art for emotional support. I don't feel like sharing stupid life story stuff but I mean, maybe some people can at least relate to the idea that you might need oh I dunno, a stable life (one where you don't use up all your energy just trying to survive, for whatever reason. I mean this very broadly cos everyone has struggles) before you can do extra stuff like art. And art is usually in the category of extra stuff. When I had enough spoons left in the day to draw I still wouldn't have enough to deal with the kind of ridiculousness artists online tend to have to deal with. I hope I make sense.

Things are better for me now though which is a big reason this nonsense is on my mind actually.

Hooooly shit, okay, I love your art a LOT./creepin

Thanks! I don't mind the creepin, I thought that was what the internets were for? 8| Trust me, if I didn't want to share my art I'd be ALL the way under my rock instead of just partially!

barbwire butt (Taken with Instagram)

Spent months on this wig... made from a 24" blonde ebay lacefront, three packs of 35" weft extensions from epic cosplay (two platinum blonde and one peach blonde), and some wefts handmade from kanekalon braiding hair. Between work and school and burning out over and over all of my projects take a long time and most don't get completed :( BUT I'm almost done with this baby and I'm wearing him to dragoncon yay I made a highlight on my profile of my (mis)adventures in dyeing it for anyone curious about the custom colors. I airbrushed the ends with a little bit of pink and purple, which I am happy with for small areas. I wouldn't airbrush a full wig because it changes the texture of the hair and I plan on wearing a white shirt with this because I'm a crazy person. Dye isn't 100% transfer proof but it's close and keeps the hair washable. Nitpicking the hairline right now (needs more sideburns) and then I plan to make a ponytail as fluffy and massive as I can muster! The fun part is almost heeeere!!!!