I told you last time that I had to prepare for Valentine’s Day… my friend’s birthday. As it was her 30th, there was actually a really good surprise party that weekend, but that’s beside the point.
I genuinely didn’t have anything planned for this year. About a week before the 14th, I decided to wear this felt badge/brooch from Made By Millie on the day itself (which was spent at work) – It’s like those stereotypical sailor tattoos, a heart with a banner across, only it says CAKE instead of MUM.
That’s where the idea came from: Rather than another round of cards like people got last year, this year the gifts would be a variant of that heart. So:
In the last couple of months i’ve got into the work of Scott C., particularly his Great Showdowns series.
Also, a friend got married last weekend – the same one that received the social butterfly, if you’re keeping track of such things.
The card I handed to the groom at their reception sports a cheery watercolour of the newlyweds in Scott’s style. I haven’t used watercolours in a long time, so it worked out nicely for a “first go”!
Scott’s gonna have a table at the Thought Bubble comics convention next week: I’ll get him to sign my copy of his new Great Showdowns book, and maybe get to show him the above!
So, “expansion”? Regular client and friend Final Boss Fight – The video game news site has grown into a whole network! I didn’t brand A to Play (playthrough videos), and Pixel Gaiden (editorials) was straight-foward, but AutoFire (news feed) had a little journey. Observe:
The top one was pretty unintelligible at small sizes, while the second one (originally with a red backing) looked like it should be hung outside a fire station. To give each site different colours, blue and purple came into play. Then it moved into the same frame-size as the main site and editorial logos, and finally, by request, pixelated to match the existing hub logo.
A bunch of other assets were cooked up too – a couple of CRT TVs, favicons, and a few pics to replace the stock ones on the network hub, including a quick shot of my games shelf and a Store image.
There’s one more logo, but the site’s not live yet so it’s still under wraps. It’s not pixular, I promise.
Random ending: I updated the mobile phone icon on my Contact page, because I haven’t used a phone with those things called “buttons” since 2010. The old one was a Nokia 3110c – It’s now an Orange San Francisco II.
A recent discovery: Since moving house, I now live near several print shops.
Hee.
My first print-off was to make a present for a best bud leaving work… for a mid-term secondment, not too far away. And still around most weekends. Still, reasonably out of sight for long enough to gift a Social Butterfly. It was drawn in Illustrator, then made into a delicious double-sided paper-cardboard-paper sandwich. Most of the shapes on it are based around things that she’s done or known for. It was welcomed.
I got a few items from the printers, not just the butterfly. The next build? My Cubivore papercraft, having lain dormant for a year or two, has been adjusted and released. Niche to say the least, Cubivore is a strange GameCube game from 2002, and (whisper it) dated with bad controls, but it is unique, charming, and quite rare.
Things generally come in threes, so here’s your third. Delving further back into time, I made a die based on the ones in The Nightmare Before Christmas. Various things happened, and I never made the second die… Until now!
This didn’t require a walk to the print shop. A chunk of the weekend was spent cutting out cardboard shapes, boring holes in them, attaching them to the second die and painting them with acrylics. Allons-y!
As evidenced by the above, the time came for my second entry to Hourly Comic Day! Since last year’s edition I’ve gained employment and moved house, so it took a few days to finish the sketches. More time passed before a scanner was obtained, but I uploaded rough camera pics for the interim. This link or the above image lead to this year’s submission.
Insider bonus: Panel 2 is basically People I Know fan art.