Why you should work every day at your chosen craft

I have a folder on my desktop named "Redraws". In this folder I happen to have a few somewhat now-embarrassing pieces of my old work that, as you may have guessed, I want to redraw. 

Thanks to the support of my patrons, I finally had the time and the means to get around to the one I wanted to do most.

This is a redraw of an old ‘cover’ for a comic I never got around to of my old characters, “Ava” and “Skunk” who have had many name changes, and really don’t have anything final yet. I hope to do more with them in the future, but I think they deserved a redraw after eight years.

Here it is side by side with the original.

Eight years ago I thought that the image on the left was the best thing I had ever drawn.

 
Don’t stop drawing. Don’t get discouraged. Just keep at it. Some days you’ll hate your work, and some days you’ll love it. Hopefully more of the latter. 

But just keep going. You’re constantly improving even if you can’t see it yourself. Keep at it.

<3 A

90's Skirt And Top - Thrify 2015

Hey all! I'm back with a Thrifty 2015 post! While I was away in Northern California for a week I found some fantastic thrift finds that I had to shove into my very small carry on bag to take home with me. Having to sit on my suitcase while I zipped it up was well worth it for these awesome items.

Today I'm gonna share with you what I managed to do with one of them. My computer was having a fit all day long and I figured I'd take it as a huge sign to just work on something that's non-digital for the day.

Cue the 90's Skirt and Top!

Ok, so it's just a skirt here. BUT IT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Or at least that's what I thought when I saw it in the second hand store my dad had taken us to. The print is super 90s, and it's LONG, which means I could cut it up and make it into something wearable. And the best part? It was 50% off so I snagged this for $3.00.

Oh yeah.

So I got to work!

I measured out the length of one of my favorite skater skirts and it came out to around 16 inches. I'm planning on wearing the new skirt at the same spot on my waist, and 16 inches left me with plenty of left over fabric.

 I used pins to mark the 16'' so i could cut along the line. I think I went a wee bit longer cause I was assuming I'd hem the bottom of this. Assuming the better of myself, like a damn fool.

All cut! Huge improvement already!

All folded out this is how much fabric I had to work with, and I had a pre-hemmed bottom! Yaaass!

                                     

I laid down a crop top that had a similar boxy style to what I wanted and pinned it to the fabric to cut along the lines.

 I repeated the same steps for the front of the shirt as well. Had JUST enough fabric!

at this point I decided against sleeves and cut the shirt a bit more. This is a risky move as it can come out uneven, but hey, my left boob is bigger than my right, so really it matches the shirt even better now.

I pinned it all down and got to sewing!

Ended up finishing the top with just a straight serge stitch instead of attempting a hem. 1. you don't actually notice it as much with this print, so it kinda works, and 2. I really suck a hemming so why ruin a good thing.

So the skirt ended up with a normal stitch on it as well. 

And boom! A 90's print top and skirt is BORN.

I'm super excited about this and write today off as a success even in light of my frustrating computer issues. And I've got some pretty fun things planned for the next projects! Here's a little sneak peek at some of the projects I have planned.

Till next time!

<3

New Process Video Up!

New process video up for my latest commission! Hope you guys enjoy. It's sped up about 1500%, so its as quick as I could get it.


Also I've opened up my art Patreon! So if you'd like to support me in artwork, please click here!

February! Lets do this.

It's officially Feb 1st, nearly the 2nd as I write this.
I'm excited for this month. I feel happy and refreshed as most of the stresses of moving and stresses of getting back into the groove of things is settling down. Im starting this month by hopping on a plane in nine or so hours and heading back to California to see my Dad's new place and visit friends. My friend Alex is with me, as its now the last week of her nearly 3 month stay in the states. It's be absolutely fantastic having one of my best friends here, and I'm gonna be really sad to see her go. BUT! It'll be my turn to visit and hopefully I can make my way back down to kiwi-land soon.

Speaking of Kiwi-land, I got my New Zealand tattoo updated!

I wrote a blurb about this to my instagram followers, but I'll share what I said here:

"Before and after. Its almost all healed but the skins a bit wibbly. Kinda a huge upgrade tho. This was my first tattoo i got at 18 and im really happy to revamp it. New Zealand is home to me, even if I’m not a native. As soon as I can see the islands out of the plane window I’m suddenly chill and giddy. Its the one place that’s felt like home to me after my many travels. I first went when I was 11, and traveled back and forth a lot either for visits or for living and study. I taught myself to surf there, ive gone to high school, ive done my entire university studies there, Ive made life long friends, heartbreak, and got to meet the love of my life in the Dunedin airport after only two weeks of us talking. New Zealand is really, really special to me and I hope to move there full time eventually. Till then ill cut the homesickness by visits and having my favorites come visit me. Kiwifornian for life."
I now officially love all the tattoos I have on my body, and look forward to the future ones I have planned.

New things!
I'm really looking forward to diving head first back into vlogs, thrifty 2015 updates, and art! It's been a while since I've been so inspired and excited and I think I have our new surroundings to blame. I've always enjoyed time on my own, and even though I love social events, I tend to get burnt out on social activities very quickly. I like to refer to myself as a social introvert. I really enjoy engaging and talking with others, but I need to have long periods of time to myself to work, draw, sing, write, sleep- to recharge. Having only two friends my age here in Austin (outside of Matt whom I obviously live with) the social solitude is only more motivation to really spend this year digging into the things I want to do, and that to me is very, very exciting. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to make new friends in this city- but I also can't wait to write new music, film videos, create art, finally learn guitar- all of it!

So stay tuned, because I have many things planned for this blog. There are lots of things I want to share with you- and as soon as I get home next weekend I'm diving into it full force.

Till then, remember that you're great.

-A