I hate my car.

:sigh:
New battery for Saturn = $86
Estimate on a new starter for Saturn + labor = $486
Getting Honda registered and smog checked w/ DMV = $280

Knowing I’m not driving a crappy American car anymore… priceless.

Yep, my car died last weekend in front of my in-laws’ house. A month ago in AZ I had the same problem. Lights turned on but no sound. Thought it was the battery so I replaced it. Obviously that wasn’t the only problem.

Now, normally I’d try to cash in the warranty on the new battery and replace it again… but this time the stupid thing won’t even start when I jump it. It’s dead dead. Which tells me that it’s most likely the starter that has gone. And that, I simply can’t afford to replace.

So, we got Josh’s Honda all re-registered (don’t ask why it wasn’t before) and it’s all good now.

As for my car, I’m planning on either selling it for parts or donating it to charity. I haven’t decided yet. Probably sell it for parts… depends on how much they offer.

On to happier news!
Got the postcards back from the printer for Titanium Rain! Whoo Hooo!! They look awesome. Josh did a fantastic job. I’ll post a picture of what they look like soon. We’re planning a trip up and down the Southern CA coast, going to every comic book shop we can think of at the end of May. We will also be mailing them out to different stores around the country so if you have a store to recommend, please do so.

Comic Geek Speak just updated their website (yah!) and both Josh and I have contributed an art piece each that will rotate with others on the homepage. Please visit their site at ComicGeekSpeak.com to check it out.

And last, in my quest/obsession to completely master Portal, I have purchased the Orange Box. Why? Because the version of Portal there has different achievements than the Still Alive version downloadable through Xbox Live. So, I was whittling away at that this weekend. Whoo Hoo. I will master it all! Bwaaa haa haaa!

-Kat

Behold!!!

HELLO KITTY CYBERMAN!!! Bow before it's cuteness and dispare for you too will be cyberized into it's adorable army!

Hahaha! Well, as you can see, the sketch card bug has hit both Josh and I and we've decided to start making our own. Most of these will be part of a TR promotional, of which I will talk about later.

I penciled this little guy and Josh inked him and worked his marker magic because he's so much better at simulating that metal sheen than I am. Since this is a "new" cyberman I plan on also doing an "Earthshock" era one as well as a "Tombs of...". I have a Maria from Metropolis drawn and inked and Josh has offered to color/tone her as well.

I've also working on a few serious robot sketches. This one will be inked but I just wanted to post the rough pencil now. I've done another one that is inked and colored but she's hasn't been scanned yet. I'll try to include her in an upcoming post as well as hopefully some examples of what Josh has been working on.
<-----Here is a sample of his previous sketch card work. I love how completely diffrent his are from mine.




Takshaka News: You can now listen to Takshaka on the official website. Just click on the Takshaka banner to the right or click on the words Takshaka in this post. :)

Random Rant: Ok, gotta crow here because I'm just so happy and I don't care how stupid it may sound. I finally got the chance last night to sit down and find all 5 of the rat-men dens in Portal:Still Alive! Whoo Hoo! New achievement for me! Silly I know but I didn't find them all the first time through, then the last time I played I found the one I was missing, but since I started towards the end of the game I didn't nab them all. So, last night I finally did it!!! Now, I must finish all advanced test chambers, go through the whole game w/out taking a bullet, and figure out how to get myself so screwed that GLaDOS has to come save me. I think that one will be the hardest because for the life of me I have no idea how the hell you do that. I'm just going to have to start from test-chamber one and work my way through, trying to get myself stuck. :)

Ok, that's all for now.

-Kat

New Sketch

Ok, I know it's been a while since I posted a new art piece but I've been busy (mostly with TR). I guess the bright side to the Xbox dying was it gave me a chance to eek out a few hours and do this piece.
It's a death's head moth (but I'm sure you could tell that already. :)). I was inspired to do this as a possible tattoo design for a friend of mine. I drew it first on paper using pencil, then I scanned it into photoshop and "inked" it, adding some more spikes and overall improving the piece. Then I added the water colors and dodge/burned it to add depth.
I'm finding that I really enjoy doing these "tribal insect" pieces. I have also done a dragonfly and have the beginings of a butterfly. Currently working on a locust but I can't seem to get it right... I'll post it as soon as I get it to work. :)

-Kat

Another Oldie

This is another piece that I did a few years ago that, since I don't have anything new to share, I'm posting up. Tentatively I've entitled it "Frost" but lately I've been thinking about naming it "Depression" instead. Kinda lets you know where my head was when I did it, huh. :)

At the time I was experimenting with stark black pictures w/ the image behind giving it depth and mood. I only did two pieces this way. This is something that I've thought about going back to, but I'm honestly having too much fun doing the pencil pin-ups right now. Maybe some day... but I think the subject matter will be a bit happier. :wink:

As you can see by this piece and the previous tattoo (and my sketches) I love putting chops as my signature. This one was an early experiment with designing my own chop. I still like using it but lately I've been using one based on my initials.

The model is a woman from England who goes by Lady D Chaos. Very beautiful and very fun to draw. Check her out if you've got a free moment.

-Kat

Squid Tattoo

It's been a little while since I posted a drawing. Unfortunately I don't have anything recent that I think is worth showing so I'll share with you a tattoo that I designed a few years ago. I plan on getting this on the inside of my right ankle.

Why a squid? It's a joke left over from my mom's D&D group when I was a kid. That and cephalopods are cool. :)


-Kat

Xmas Crafts

Sadly this is not all of the things we made. Some of the pictures didn't come out (probably because I wasn't shooting in good lighting) so I don't have all of them here. :( I'll post them as soon as I take the pictures (luckily the missing pieces are at the in-laws.)
Here is the infamous "Nutcracker Pimp." Josh and I were very happy with how this came out. Especially the hat and the pimp cane. :) Since we had been playing Saints Row I found it very funny to put the flure de le bling on his chain. I don't know if you can see it too well but I painted pink zebra stripes on his pants over the red. Also, after this picture was taken I added another large ruby ring to his right hand. That pimp'n arm has got to be strong, yo. :)

I love how this Tiki came out. It started out as a Gundam Goon kit we got for nearly nothing at our LCS and I couldn't have asked for a better model to work off of. It had so much canvas space on it that we could just go nuts and do whatever we wanted. It was Josh's idea to make this one a Tiki and he spray painted it brown. Then I painted in the details and made the grass skirt out of twine.

50's Bug Robot. Same model kit as the Tiki but with a few odds and ends added to it. Josh did a great job on this one. I personally love the props on his hands. :) There are model parts from a Tatchikoma model kit as well as a Black Widow (sorry, don't remember the official designation at the moment.)

And What Xmas is complete without a Santeria Alter. Voodoo Doll complete w/ pins in all the right places, doves placed just so, waiting to be sacrificed, and symbols of power written in blood. gotta love it. :) Again, Josh did a great job!
Gotta love the Gundam Hot Rod. Same model kit, this time Josh spray painted it silver, then I painted the flames on it. The back has flames too as well as more racing stripes down the legs. This one took For Ever to do. Seriously. I thought it would never get done. The problem was I had to do one layer of paint, wait for it to dry, then either do another color or touch up that one layer (the yellow has 2-3 coats on it.) Took me 3 evenings to do it. Oh well, at least while it dried I could work on the other ones. You can't see it very well in this picture but I was really proud of how the flames on the arms came out. I think next time I might just do the whole thing in silver w/ red flames.

And last, for now, is the Gundam Clown. Again, same kit (you can see why I love this model?!) I saw the "nose" part of the model and just had to do a clown. Started out as kind of a "joker" bot but he needed more color so now he's just a clown. :) Had fun gluing the red hair to the head. That was... um.. interesting. I'd never worked with doll hair before and it kept falling out. But, in the end I got it all to stick. Josh put the monocle on it last once it was all done. I think it adds a unique look to it.

I will post more once I get better pictures. What is missing is the "Polar Bear Xmas" that Josh did as well as the Vlad Tepesh Nutcracker (complete with Dracula Trophy.)

I will write about how New Years was next time too. :)

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year!

-Kat

General Update

Well, it’s been over a week so I suppose I should post something. Don’t want to get into the political side of things too much… but let’s just say that I told myself I would only drink last Tuesday to numb the pain of a particular VP nominee getting elected… and I remained sober through the evening. Nothing against McCain. I like him actually. But I LOVE Obama and what he has to say… and Palen is evil. Biden Kicks Ass.

Ok, enough of that.

Went to the Gene Autry Museum weekend before last to see my sister-in-law in a play entitled Salvage. If you are in the LA area I highly recommend that you check it out. It’s the tragic story of a family living on an Indian reservation and what happens when they get caught in a “Rez War”. As well, you have a lot of internal conflict. Religion vs. Reality, The Old Ways vs. The New. Honestly, I was expecting some cheesy message about how we need to “go back to nature” and “be one w/ Mother Earth” but that wasn’t in it at all. Josh pointed out that it seemed to be about the author’s own struggle with her personal faith and her own doubts about religion. Again, excellent play.


Art News:
Finished the next piece in my “Joy of Sex 2150” Book and almost immediately launched into the next. I am having so much fun drawing these. I can’t wait to move on to the next and the next… Wishing I could work on it right this very moment.. but I can’t. Hopefully this evening… if I’m not working on “another” project. (wink)

And finally, the geek moment:
I bought my GLaDOS shirt last night from Valve. I am so excited. I can’t wait to get it!!! EEEEE!!! Yes, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit obsessed with robots at the moment. During my lunch break at work I’ve been looking up pictures, reading books about them (got Philip K. Dick on my list of books to read next.) Looking at my Sorayama book at home, making a compilation of songs that I know of / have that predominately feature a synthesized voice and are about robots. I can’t get enough and it’s wonderful!!

-Kat

Yeesh!

FINALLY! I finaly got this piece finished. Whoo Hoo!! This piece is to be used later in Titanium Rain... but I don't want to give it away for what (though it's probably not hard to guess.)
Though it is greatly scewed to make it work artistically, she is sitting on a sparrow missile. Really the front fins are more towards the middle, but that wouldn't have worked for the picture. Either she'd be sitting in front of them (so you wouldn't be able to see them) or on them... and amusing as that might be, that's not what I was going for. Initially I had had her sitting on a bomblet dispenser but as I mentioned before I had problems getting the hand right so I changed it to the sparrow. Like it alot better.

Techno-Love

Finally finished the sketch I'd been working on for a few days now.... shouldn't have taken this long but life gets in the way sometimes...



Anyway, I must say that this piece was extremely influenced and inspired by (in fact the scene and pose is exactly the same as) a piece my husband did in his own style. The piece was so...... well, hot and erotic that I had to do it too using my own style..



So here it is...



If the "Warning, Adult Content" pop up at the beginning of this blog didn't warn you before, it's your own fault.



As I've said in the past... I like'm big! :evil grin:

Also worked on a new way to sign my name for this one. I've always really liked the Japanese "chops" for signing pieces but couldn't figure out how to do one that included my name.... the ones I've made in the past were just these weird technical abstracts that looked cool but gave no indication it was me... this one has my initials in it. :)

-Kat

I like 'em BIG...

And if you don't like it, deal with it. Big breasts are wonderful. I like my women with muscles, I like my women with big boobs. And if you think these are "unnaturally huge" you should see the model that inspired this picture. :evil grin:

From Kat's Blog

In other news, it's Friday (which rocks), it's a 1/2 day for me at the day job (double rock) there's a kick ass convention I really wish I was at going on right now (this sucks), and it's been hot an humid enough to warrant that I go nocturnal in order to get work done. When I was a kid I loved going nocturnal... now I hate it. I miss the sun and I always feel like I didn't get enough done "durring the day". Maybe I can return to a semi-normal scedual over the weekend :crosses fingers:.

Not much else to report. If I can think of something, I'll post it. :)

-Kat

Three Day Weekend

Did a new sketch over the weekend. This is the first time that I've tried doing a "frame" around my picture. I'm going to have to try doing this more. I think I'm going to try to experiment more with backgrounds too. Not sure yet... just rambling here...


Didn't do much else this weekend. Saw my grandmother which was needed. Saw the in-laws and had dinner. Relaxed a bit with Josh. Watched classic Muppet Show. Overall, had a pretty good weekend.

-Kat

Finally posting my sketch.

Finally posting the sketch I did last weekend. I am so happy with how this came out. It's been several months since I've been able to sit down with paper and pencil and do some real drawing other than little doodles. I think my skills have improved since the last time I did this. I am so happy. Going to try to make time to do this at least once a month... aiming for once a week but no garentees.


In other news, check out the Kryptographics podcast in the near future. Josh and I recorded a Kick Ass interview with them last night. Damian and Brian are awesome!!!

-kat

Little something

Little something I did last week. Felt a little down that day. Really happy with how it came out. Copic markers and a little touch up in photoshop.