Preparing for Animeland Wasabi II -Piñatas Part II

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 31, 2017
Posted in: Artist Project, Chance!, Traditional X Digital, Update. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It took me a month to make 8 piñatas, I could probably push at least 10 in the same amount of time. I say a month but really it’s about 3 weeks and … 3 days? Some did take a bit longer due to me not having the right color of paper or thinking about the shape I would cut the strips of paper. Despite keeping that in mind, I was surprised that they took that long to make. But now that I have finished them I can look back and and think about ways to cut at the very least 5 days off (if not more). In the end, preparation and planning takes time, almost half of it. I wonder just how much I can refine out of my process.

Looking at the pictures, I will have no choice but to divide it into two more posts. The middle process of actually putting together and giving shape to the balloons that had hardened with the engrudo and newspaper. And the final part of decorating them and giving them their final appearance.

I took a lot of pictures about the process, but don’t wan’t to flood you guys with information so I only posted the most important photos here. But if you click on one, it should take you to flickr which is where I uploaded all of them. There you can get a full view of the process in case you need more angles and steps in between the photos that I did post. In case you don’t want to leave this page as you see flickr than you can right click and open in a different tab.

I made it so that the photos spoke for themselves about the process I took, but if you have any questions do let me know and I will respond as best as I can.

Sorting out the shapes once they had dried sure took a while, next time I have to find a way to keep together the balloons that correspond to one another.

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To speed up the process of cutting the paper that will cover the piñatas I recommend to do several at once. Line up strips of paper together than folded up in halves.

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You’ll end up with this at the end, from there just cut out the shape or shapes you wish to make and that will minimize the amount of time you will be using to cut paper. Otherwise it is a time eater, I can tell you that from experience.

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Here’s a sneak peak at what is to come next time.

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That will be all for now. I will be adding the final process and showing you photos of how they turned out. I’d say they came out great but we’ll see what you think.

Hasta la proxima.

-Nube

Preparing for Animeland Wasabi I

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 9, 2017
Posted in: Artist Project, Chance!, Update. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Finally, here’s the update to what my plans are for the products I plan to sell at the upcoming conventions I will be attending.

First up are some art prints of course. These are the ones I chose:

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Don’t have much money to invest in them, so I will only make 60 prints (10 of each). I was thinking of at first to only take 3 of each to have 20 copies instead but I think having some variety is best. Besides this is my will be for the first convention, I’m still trying things out so I don’t know if they will sell well at all so going with a smaller batch to test things out is a good idea. If I do sell out, then I know to invest some more for the next convention (specially since I will have a smaller space for that one).

 

One of the other products I want to offer are the bracelets I made a couple of years ago.

Perlas Coronada SeriesHojo Malo SeriesCalabera Coronada SeriesBrasaletes de Elementos Madera SeriesBrasalete 'Rosales' SeriesBrasalete de Turquesa Series

Will probably have to make at least two different sizes for them or instead buy some of that stretchy string instead… I’ll figure something out.

I’m still not completely sure, but I do plan on offering to still sell my keyblades. Prices will be lower that what’s on this ad I made a while ago, but haven’t decided on the prices yet.

Oathkeeper keybladekingdom keyblade

Now for the final product, Piñatas!

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I have 8 piñata designs planned out. I had more, but again I am testing things out. Who knows if they will sell at all.

I was thinking of also having some Danbo figures available as well, but I think I will hold off on those for now.

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I also made a Gundam Crossbone version, maybe I’ll show it later. I made two as presents to my brothers, but I’ll hold off on giving it to them. I wan’t to harden them first. And this will provide a good test to see if they are durable at all, otherwise the possibility of them being products will diminish. Maybe next year or something.

That will be all for now. Now it’s back to work for me.

Hasta la proxima.

-Nube

Happy new year!

Posted by Nube Obscura on January 1, 2017
Posted in: Update. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

A new year huh? This year is looking to be a weird one… But let’s not focus on the negative. Let’s do our best this year and give it our all!

At the start of the year I saw Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind for the first time. I don’t know why it took me this long to finally see it but in a way I’m glad I did. It’s a good way to start the year. The movie is a masterpiece, it was quite touching. More so that I thought it would be. Had this story and characters been done by someone of lesser abilities than Hayao Miyazaki it would’ve been done in so many wrong ways. Really wan’t to talk about it in depth at some point.

First drawing of the year still a work in progress. Usually I draw someone else. But I figured it was time to do one of myself.

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Getting ready for the Anime conventions

Posted by Nube Obscura on December 30, 2016
Posted in: Artist Project, Update. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It took me quite a couple of years before I decided it was time to go ahead and attend an artist alley. And now that I feel it is time to delve into them I have two right out of the gate at the beginning of the year. I won’t lie, not knowing how things will go is a bit unsettling. I’ve seen people cry when they aren’t selling their work. It’s a lot of pressure one has to feel at such events. After all if one doesn’t sell, what does that tell the artist about their artwork? Having said that, I have tempered myself to criticism and failure since I decided to pursue art as a career. I would’ve given up a long time ago if I wasn’t prepared to fail. Really I’m just glad I was given this opportunity to give it a try. Hopefully things go well and I get my name out there.

On another note I have started preparations to register my business with the state of Colorado. Once I’m approved I will apply for a tax licence which is used, of course, to report earnings and pay taxes. This is all new to me (and to some of you, but worry not I will explain the process when I get approved) luckily I had an old friend from high school who has worked with taxes for a couple of years now and lead me to the right forms to get started. I really can’t thank her enough. She has been helping me out before and since I graduated. I hope I can make it up to her soon.

Aside from that I’ve been working on the products and finally cleaned my room. I have this problem where I get so into something I tend to neglect other things. In the case of working I tend to work non stop but put off cleaning the byproduct of my work that it just leaves my whole room a mess. I tend to clean it once a week, but I may just have to do it twice (by that I mean a deep clean). Having paper scraps and whatnot is quite a hindrance.

That should be all for now. Next time I actually want to show you guys what I plan to sell.

Hasta la proxima,

Nube Obscura

I’m back!

Posted by Nube Obscura on December 27, 2016
Posted in: Artist Project, Chance!, Welcome. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Sorry I disappeared for about what, a month? The last few weeks were quite hectic. I had finals during the beginning of December and truthfully, it was the final project for Japanese class (a language class) that really took quite a bit of my time. We had to create a children’s story and have at the very least 10 pictures to go along with it. I made sure to take care of the actual story first so as to not have problems later, but I failed to take into account the pictures. This became a problem, after all I was planning on drawing them all out.

It was a rather interesting experience since it was a new experience and fun but also quite hard and really stressful. Working on it was making me feel sick throughout the whole experience. I had to work on it as soon as I woke up and took only breaks to take care of things like eating and other living necessities. In a way I got a glimpse at the life of what a mangaka has to go through every single week. And, I seriously have a whole lot of more respect for them. To be fair, the work I did was still mediocre in the end (this is what happens for trying to draw it all in 5 days) but still presentable. What’s funny is that I was planning to color them too. Boy was I wrong!

Anyway, it’s been just a little over a week since I entered winter vacations. Although I did decide to take about five days off to just stop and take a moment to just have fun, I had to quickly get back to work. I do feel bad for not updating this space for this whole time though. I truly apologize. But worry not, since I was documenting my work so that I can speak about it in days to come. I have quite a lot of work that is to come. It’s quite daunting actually, but I’ll make it work.

Next semester I will not be going back to school. I decided to invest my time and money for the sake of artwork. I don’t remember if I already mentioned this before but I have been accepted by two anime conventions at the beginning of the year. They are Anime Land Wasabi and Colorado Anime Fest. I still have to take care of some things so that I can say I will 100% be there (it has to do with taxes, I will explain later since new artist have to know this), but I shouldn’t have any problems taking care of that.

Having said that I am currently working on the products I will have available at my table. I will write about that later. Truthfully I just wanted to give a bit of an update about where I’m at and a little glimpse of what’s to come.

Hasta la proxima,

Nube Obscura

Another year of life (2016)

Posted by Nube Obscura on November 2, 2016
Posted in: Artist Project, Chance!, Update. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I’ve made it through another year of life huh? This is the year I was preparing my self for. All the work I have put towards getting better were for this year that has finally come. It’s sink or swim now. Will my efforts bring forth fruit or will I have to deal with a crushing de

feat? That is what I have in store. It’s all a matter of my work from here on out and sadly luck… I don’t like leaving things to chance, but that seems to be a factor as well. All I can do is go at it with everything I have and work towards the best. Whether that will be rewarded is still yet to be seen.

Speaking of which I have some news… I got a table at one of the anime conventions next year. This one is for Wasabi. I’m a little nervous, but we’ll see how it all goes. Still haven’t heard from Colorado Anime Fest. They were supposed to let the applicants know by the 31st, but still no response. I wonder if they only contact the applicants that got a table? Oh well. This is one step closer to see what happens with my art in this type of setting.

November 2nd is “El Dia de los Muertos” (day of the dead) in Mexico. It’s a holiday very much like the OBon festival in Japan. It’s a time of celebration where we go to the cemetery to clean and remember our past loved ones. It is said that this is the one time a year when they (the spirits) are allowed to descend to Earth and visit their loved ones. I only ever experienced this festivity in my life, but it was a truly wonderful time to spend with one’s family and speak about one’s ancestors. I’m glad it’s getting some recognition outside of Mexico.

It’s strange though, this is the first year I have ever had a cake with a “Calabera” (skull)(a gift from my brother). Though I guess it makes sense. All my family is living and buried in Mexico so one can’t really celebrate it here in the States.

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Of course the cake is “Tres Leches” a really tasty cake that has a really soft and moist layer filled with sweet milk. If you ever have a chance do try it.

We usually don’t give gifts on birthdays, we’ve always been quite frugal since just hanging out together is a good enough gift. But I have made it to 25 so I guess my brother felt he should give me something good this year. And man will it make it much easier to work. My Vaio laptop is no slouch, but once it gets to the intensive jobs it does slow down. Which is why the gaming pc he gave me such a great gift.

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I was thinking of getting a stronger pc so this really relieves me of having to worry about that. Just a couple of more things and I will have everything I need to fully create everything I can think up to it’s full potential and be fully self sustainable.

So far this year has had a strong start. Here’s hoping I can continue to make it better.

Gracias por estar conmigo este año, espero que sigan con migo en este que viene.

Hasta la proxima,

Nube

Quick Update 10/21/16

Posted by Nube Obscura on October 21, 2016
Posted in: Artist Project, Chance!, Update. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The deadline for voting on the winners of the art contest on DrawCrowd was yesterday on 10/20/16 and yet only the cosplay category winner has been announced… None of the actual Corel winners have been mentioned at all. That’s truly strange, I wonder if the winners have been notified yet? Having said that, there are two pieces that I feel should be first and second place (of course this is just my top picks).

For second place I would choose this one:

Artist – 녹충

She appears to be an artist from South Korea.

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I really like the way it looks, it’s simple and gives a scene that would happen in real life.

My pick for first place:

Artist – Miimork

She appears to be from Thailand.

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This one has so much going on. And without words you get a story out of this one image. I really like it and feel it deserves to win above all other entries. The description says it all though, “This is the illustration of my friend who’s studying architecture. Back to school, new project, and old friend.”

In any case, good luck to the winners.

As for my work? I have been uploading artwork to DrawCrowd in intervals and at different time periods to see when it is most effective. I started with a Reina Tanaka drawing, uploaded at night which got over a hundred views in a day. That amazed me.

It was this one:

Tanaka Reina photobook study

Are you interested in it as a print?

Uploading to Pixiv you barely get a hundred if that in about a week and let’s not even talk about the abysmal views on DevianArt. After I believe five days it is getting close to 500, amazing huh?

After that I uploaded an Ai Takahashi drawing about two or three days later in the morning. And that one exploded in views. In one day it got around 6,000 views! I’ve never had that many people look at my work in such a short amount of time. After two days it is getting close to 9,000 with two likes and one promotion.

This one:

Ai Takahashi pencil drawing

Are you interested in it as a print?

What does liking and promoting mean? DrawCrowd is pretty interesting in that you have two options to let the artist know how much you like their art. You have the standard like option. By liking an artwork you are making a personal and private list of work you liked while letting the artist know that someone liked their artwork. Promoting an artwork on the other hand compiles a public list that is shown in your profile showcasing artwork that you deem good enough to recommend. It’s a really good system that creates a chain reaction of exposing artwork that others that follow said artist might like as well.

Now back to the third piece I have uploaded thus far. The third piece is the Halloween painting of Yuzuki Yukari I made last year. I uploaded it today in the morning and it has already reached close to 20,000  views! In just one day! This site is incredible at giving exposure to one’s work. I’m really glad I decided to give it a try. It did so well in fact that it has made it to DrawCrowds daily ranking! These daily rankings are a list of artwork that are popular during a day and are showcased on the homepage of DrawCrowd giving the artist and art piece more exposure. I debuted at #195, so I still have a ways to go compared to other artists. I wonder if I can reach the top 100?

This one:

Yuzuki Yukari - "Halloween Pumpkin Smash"

Print now available.

Well that was a quick update. I also have another announcement but I will leave that for tomorrow. Till next time.

Hasta la próxima,

-Nube