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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

COVID = Increased Availability

For those interested, there’s a TL;DR at the bottom of this gigantic thing.
So, COVID, amiright?
Anyways, as I’m sure is the case with most of the world, Florida has been put under a “self-isolation quarantine”, and we’re having to practice the now infamous social distancing when we go out. Before that took place, my and my wife’s employer (a very famous Mouse) told us they were closing for the foreseeable future until the sitch with COVID-19 improves (unfortunately, neither of our jobs can be done remotely, but we still have them, thankfully—we’re actually still being paid through the 18th of this month, and will be furloughed after that until the Mouse deems it safe to reopen). As a result, the wife and I have been staying home almost constantly lately. If it weren’t for FaceTime and Zoom, we’d probably be going out of our minds with the lack of social interaction.
BUUUUT......On the bright side, that means I have a lot more free time to work on the creative projects that I’ve had little time for the past few months. There are a lot of them, but I wanted to cover some of the highlights here:
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My Kim Possible fanfiction universe, Plausible Possibilities, over at fanfiction.net/~americangecko
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Don’t worry about this ongoing project—it is FAR from dead. I simply haven’t had the time lately to work on it. Not to mention that almost everything I had as far as notes, drawings, and other notable materials pertaining to it, has been trapped on a jump drive that I can’t access due to my wife’s laptop not wanting to charge anymore. (If you’re confused, I actually have an iPad now, and am currently working on my projects on it for the foreseeable future—that’s actually where I’m typing this journal up at the moment.). However, I’ve been working on remembering as much as I can about where I wanted this stuff to go, and so far I’ve been remembering far more than I expected to. Hopefully that means I can have an update out in the very near future.
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Kim Possible fanart for DA for my fanfiction and other miscellaneous
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Again, still in the pipes, but also mostly stuck on the aforementioned jump drive. However, this might be slightly more difficult to produce in the near future, due to the previously mentioned computer problems. I’ve been trying to find a decent drawing app for the iPad, but seeing as I can’t exactly afford an Apple Pencil—big shock there, I know—I’ve been struggling with them since most have a feature of touch sensitivity that I can’t access. Or, you know, they cost money I can’t afford (damn, I hate being broke). But either way, I’m doing my best to add to my meager KP gallery
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Personal manga 1 – Working Title: Wolf Maiden Tsukiko
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Soooo…for those that don’t know me, I’ve always had this unusual fascination with werewolves/lycanthropes. And unfortunately, to my dismay, most of the time they are depicted as the bad guys or sidekicks to the heroes. And 9/10 times, when it’s werewolves vs. vampires, the vampires are the good guys while the werewolves are the villains. Hell, even things like the Underworld series (with the exception of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) or the Twilight series cast werewolves in secondary or villainous roles
Well, I’m doing something about that. For many years, I’ve been toying with the idea of creating my own comic/manga/graphic novel where the werewolves are the protectors of humanity. And with the recent uptick in my free time due to the quarantine, that old train of thought has been rolling more and more on this idea. I’ve even started mapping out characters and story ideas for it, as well as the beginnings of layouts. So far, I’ve got Point A, Point B, Point C, Point D, etc., partially established, and now I just have to figure out how to get there. But at least the train isn’t stalled on the tracks anymore.
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Personal manga 2 – Working Title: Hybrids
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Blame my fascination with werewolves, but for the past few years I’ve become more interested in anthro-style comics and animations. You could also point the finger at Disney’s Zootopia, Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda series, or any number of “anthro-animal” cartoons I saw as a kid (proud fan of ‘80’s TMNT, Looney Tunes, Tiny Toons, etc.). I’ve also started re-watching one of my favorite classic anime, s-CRY-ed, as well as Netflix’s new Beastars (I absolutely love Legoshi, Haru, and Louis). Anyway, a few years back, when I first heard that Disney was working on the movie about Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, it jogged something from my brain.
When I was younger, I’d developed an idea for a cartoon that was a sort of hybridization (pun not intended, unfortunately) of s-CRY-ed and Marvel’s X-Men series, but featuring human/animal hybrids. I’d developed it to the point that I had determined it would follow twin brothers, both of whom could transform into the same hybrid (I originally thought wolves—blame the werewolf addiction), and who were recruited into a special law-enforcement-style group composed of other hybrid characters and worked to take down hybrid criminals and other threats. I even came up with a few of the villain groups, and determined that the brothers would have different experiences and thus reactions to their environment and those around them.
Now, also thanks to the quarantine, that train has also gained a little bit of coal in the furnace and started moving on the tracks again.
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A few…*ahem*…stories/novels of a Mature nature
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I don’t know if they’ll ever see the light of day here at DA, but I’ve been working on several written stories of a more…Mature nature for several years now. I may even eventually create another DA account to feature them, but that’s a colossally gigantic ”MAYBE” right now. Lately, however, when I’ve needed a break from one of the other projects I’ve been working on during the quarantine, this is what I find myself working on. These are actually the most developed of my various projects (apart from my Kim Possible fanfiction), and I’ve actually been looking at maybe sending one or two to an adult books publisher. Who knows if I’ll ever actually get one of them complete enough to follow through, but we’ll see what happens.
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Other various projects
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Of course, there are other projects I’ve been working on, but there’s so many that it would take forever to list them. So I’ll just include them here and say that none of them should be considered dead by any means. Life support, maybe, but they all can relate to Not-Dead-Fred (“I’m not dead yet! I feel happy! I feel…HAPPY!”) from Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Spamalot fame in that they’re not quite finished yet.
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ANYWHOOOO, that’s the update. So far, both the wife and I have avoided any big or life-altering complications from the COVID crisis, and hopefully this continues to be the case. Meanwhile I’ll continue moving these ideas along during the quarantine, and hopefully finish at least ONE by the time this crazy sitch has passed us all by.
Stay safe, everyone!
~ A.G.
### TL;DR ###
The COVID quarantine, while not yet personally affecting my health, has left me with enough free time that I am resuming work on several of my creative projects.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Found a Path, Story/Art Updates...and a Rant...

:star:IMPORTANT NEWS:star:

Don't know how many people know this, but for a while now I've been entertaining thoughts of moving to Chicago.  Originally, this tentative plan coincided with my desire to pursue the Theater as a career (evidenced by the hard-won B.F.A. in Theater Performance that took me four and a half years to earn), but lately there's been more to it.  Well, I took an exploratory trip up there this past week (actually just got home around five and a half hours ago, to be honest, and I'm actually still kind of tired...:yawn:...and now a decision has been reached--within a year, and probably sooner assuming everything works out like it should, I'll be moving to the Windy City to try my luck.  There's actually a couple reasons for this:

:bulletgreen::bulletblack::bulletgreen: Arkansas, my current location, has like most of the United States been going through a rather warm summer, and the unusually warm temperatures have been affecting my health.  Thankfully my current employment has been indoors, because there are days I step outside and immediately feel like I've got an elephant on my chest due to the heat and humidity.  I used to think it was something I'd just have to deal with, but that was before living where I did in Colorado, where the temperature rarely peaked over ninety degrees.  There, I never once had an episode, and while it could have been the elevation, I'm more inclined to think that temperature was the controlling factor.  Yes, Chicago has it's hot days, but there are far less than down here in Arkansas.  So the cooler climate is a plus.

:bulletgreen::bulletblack::bulletgreen:  Secondly, it's become painfully obvious to me that I am not going to be able to use my Theater degree here in the Natural State.  Yes, theater and acting opportunities exist here, but nothing that will allow me to make a living at it.  And unfortunately, the clock is ticking for me.  Right now, I'm in the prime age to enter the acting field, as my range is currently at it's greatest.  I still look young enough (once I shave the mustache and beard off, of course) to play a high school student, and yet with very little make-up I can easily play a character in his forties or maybe even a young fifty if that's what they're looking for.  So if I'm gonna do anything with this degree that took me four and a half years to get, I've got to head to an area where the opportunities exist...and that's not Arkansas.  HOWEVER, those opportunities DO exist in Chicago.

:bulletgreen::bulletblack::bulletgreen:  Last but not least, for some time now I've been entertaining the idea of going back to school.  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to handle most of it myself this time, or take out more loans.  And since I don't want to be tied down to Arkansas, this meant that I would have to move somewhere before I went back.  Also, if I do go back I want it to be something I will enjoy, and since I've developed this fondness of drawing, I've been looking into "Media Arts/Animation" pretty heavily--and of course there's the fact that I've had ideas for more than a couple cartoons spinning around in my head for some time now. :D
Well, on the recent trip to Chicago, I managed to swing by for an open house for one of the schools there which has an art program I've been looking at.  And to be honest, I REALLY liked what I heard.  Granted, it will be a few months before I have the money to go, even with loans, but if things play out I may be able to apply as soon as this spring!  Here's hoping! :w00t:

SOOO...I guess the big news is that before this time next year I will most likely have a new residence in the Windy City.  Assuming all goes well, that is. :fingerscrossed:

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:star:STORY/ART UPDATES:star:

I know some of you are wondering about updates to my Kim Possible stuff over at Fanfiction.net, and I know I've been pretty sporadic with updates lately.  However, the recent trip to Chicago seemed to give my muse a major wake-up call.  Suddenly, a lot of the ideas I had back when I first started this came rushing back, accompanied by all new ones. (Finally!! :phew:)   Now, I'm once more over-flowing with ideas, and several of the new ones expand exponentially on my old ones...making them in my opinion about a hundred times better than they were.  Either way, I should be back to my old ways of regular posting soon!:iconthumbsupplz:

As far as the new art here, same story!  :w00t:  Hard to believe I know, but I've now got several in the works once more, as well as ideas on how to finish the ones that have been WIPs forever.   And for a few of them, I'm even finally able to see the flaws that kept them from being posted AND how to fix said flaws!!  Given that this has been a huge bug to me, it's a great feeling to finally shake the pieces a bit more into place.

Don't know what about this Chicago trip was so special, but it's like a full artistic recharge has taken place.  The muse is up and dancing again, and the keyboard, pencil, and tablet are all ready and waiting.  I know it's a lot to come at once (and may mean several hours staring at this screen :pc:, but it feels incredible to have this sense of knowing what I want to do once more.

Time to get to work!  :sprint:

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Oh, one last thing, and it's something I never thought I'd have to say...

My faves over at DevArt are just that...MY FREAKIN' FAVES!!.  Yes, I like some...alternative things, but it's what I like.  If you have a problem with it, you don't have to look through my faves gallery.  I have no problem with you looking through my art and giving critiques there--after all, that's part of why I posted those pictures there.  But when I log in to find a long, lengthy note about how I'm going to hell for what I give a :+fav: to, I'm naturally going to be a just a tad bit :censored:-ing angry about it.  I mean, c'mon, people--:wtf: And don't tell me that I should stop creating Kim Possible stuff because I'm defacing the memory of the show by drawing and writing about the characters and then faving what I do there.  I do try to keep it off my main artist page over there at least by having my last four faves be something that wouldn't offend, but the last time I checked the site didn't require a person to censor what they like.  And until I do, I won't stop.

Seriously, dude, get a life. I've yet to need to block a single person on DevArt, but I will if I have to.  :threaten:

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To the rest of you out there, hope you're doing better than alright! :)

:iconamericangecko: A.G.