Alicia Kat Vancil's Blog, page 14
October 19, 2011
October 15, 2011
Explorer X-Beta Cover
This is the final approved artwork for the cover of Explorer X-Beta, the second Explorer X book (I did not illustrate the cover of book one).
You can watch the evolution of the artwork below:
Client: Phenomenal One Press
Work I did on this project:
Illustration
Graphic Design
September 12, 2011
DITM Visual Novel Update 3
Due to various delays the production time of the Daemon in the Mist visual novel is taking a bit longer than expected.
Books bring worlds to life through word but translating that world into a visual medium is a whole different thing entirely. When I wrote Daemons in the Mist I never imagined that I would then have to visually create the world of The Marked Ones. It's no easy task but I hope in the end that you will be able to enjoy a game that is just as carefully crafted as everything else you have come to expect from KatGirl Studio.
Defining a Style
Nualla
Here is an early concept design for Nualla. I captured her other-earthly quality but she looked a bit too soft. Also the production team decided this anime style looked a little outdated. So I went back to the drawing board for a second go.
This was the next concept design for Nualla which got the green light.
But after a few more meetings we decided to go with this more refined design. It's a bit more work but we only want the best for this visual novel.
Patrick
With Patrick it was all about the eyes, let me tell you black brown eyes are really hard to translate into anime form.
Coming up next time
A look at defining a world, the backgrounds for the visual novel
Status at a Glance
Design: main character designs complete
The Graphic Novel Challenge
KatGirl Studio will be running a 26-week online Graphic Novel challenge. People of any age or skill level are welcome to participate. We will have plenty of how-to's, articles and resources on the official site to help you along the way.
If you're like me you've probably had a graphic novel idea kicking around in your head for awhile. This challenge helps breaks down the process of making a graphic novel (GN) into 8 manageable steps.
This challenge isn't meant to take over your life so for the challenge we will only be making the first chapter of your graphic novel.
August 4, 2011
HyperCon 2011
HyperCon
August 5-7, 2011
San Mateo Event Center
1346 Saratoga Dr.
San Mateo, CA 94403
KatGirl Studio will be in the Artist Alley at HyperCon Aug 5th-7th. We'll have our usual assortment of artwork, matted prints and shirts as well as a few surprises. Aside from all the goodies we will have available, Kat will be on hand to sign copies of her book, as well as answer questions about her upcoming releases and how she makes her art.
July 29, 2011
Knowing Your Weaknesses and Inventing Your Own Path
"It is my great strength that gets me where I want to go but it is my flaws, my weaknesses, that made me who I am."
A note to my viewers
Sometimes I am so determined in my need to succeed that I forget just how much I have accomplished and just how far I have come. I don't like to dwell on things I can't change or things that I have no control over. Instead just keeping moving forward towards the goals I set for myself. Even as a child I never liked to compete against others, it made me feel sick inside. Instead I always just competed against myself. And I think it's that kind of drive that gets people farther in the end.
I have dyslexia; in fact I have all three forms. Bet most of you didn't even know there were three. The most common one is the reading one, that's the one most people are familiar with it's also the one most kids have. (Me, not so much with that anymore.) Another one is the writing one. (This is the one I have the worst.) When I write sometimes I move letters or words around out of order. And no matter how many times I read it back half the time it will still look correct to me because my brain is auto correcting it for me.
This is made even worse if I'm trying to write while the tv is on or someone is trying to talk to me. I will literally start transcribing the audio into the sentences inter-spaced with what I was trying to write. Sometimes words just end up there that are out of the blue and completely unrelated to anything I was thinking. Because I know this happens I work around it. I listen to music that won't distract me and try to write mostly when everyone is asleep. Which means about 90% of my writing is done between 11pm-4am, like this for example I'm writing at 3am.
The third form is the least common. Sometimes when I'm speaking I mix the words up in the sentence but to me it sounds correct. This usually gets worse if I'm extremely upset. It also mostly happens with numbers (ya working retail was real fun with this one). But did I ever let this get in my way? No, I was in 25 musicals, choir and singing competitions growing up. Instead of running away from something I shouldn't have been able to do I ran head long into it and practiced until I was extremely good at it. But there are still some things i just can't like foreign language. I tried as hard as hard as I could and did pretty while grade wise but only remember a few odd words and phrases in Spanish and Italian.
I also have poor muscle memory in my hands which means things like typing with all my fingers, playing piano or using chop sticks are nearly impossible for me. But instead of focusing on what I can't do, I just adapt around it. Anyone who chats with me in one of the weekly tweet chats or on instant messenger knows I type lighting fast but what I bet you didn't know was that I only use 2 fingers to type. It's all about focusing on what you need to do instead of focusing on what prevents you from doing it. Instead of beating myself up for what I could not do I just put everything into what I could do.
Dyslexia isn't something that just goes away or something you just grow out of. It's something you have to deal with everyday, something that's just of part of what makes you, you. The point is not to let it run you life. Sure nearly every time I write "me" it comes out "my" instead or vice versa. And I will forever type "chnage" instead of "change" even though I know how it's spelled. And I can read a sentence a dozen times and still not see the mistakes because my brain corrects it for me. I used to feel embarrassed about this but you know what, Dyslexia is a disability and those are nothing to be ashamed of. Nor should anyone be made to feel dumb because of them. Being learning disabled doesn't make you dumb, slow or lazy. But you know what is dumb; hate. Hating someone because they are not like you is dumb.
In the last decade we have come a long way towards ending hate. Every time some new group, gains equality and vanquishes, prejudices and stereotypes it makes me want to cry with joy and hug humankind for taking a step in the right direction. But we still have a long way to go yet. So if you and me ban together and make a stand for what is right then others will follow. And someday whether it's a long time from now or next Tuesday, there will be enough voices to silence the hate.
Learning disabled does not equal dumb ● Spread the Word ● End the Hate
July 22, 2011
Book Signing at Heroes & Villains
Heroes & Villains Comics
Aug. 13th, 2011
11am-3pm
264 Main Street
Pleasanton, CA
Hi Everyone I will be doing my very first book signing at Heroes and Villains Comics in Pleasanton on Aug. 13th !
I will signing my debut novel Daemons in the Mist as well as answering any questions you might have about the book, my art or anything, really.
On-hand copies of the book will be limited. So if you know you are going to go to the signing please order your copy here and bring it to the event.
All book signing attendees will receive free art print & bookmark while supplies last.
Hope to see you all there and feel free to invite your friends!
July 14, 2011
The True Power of a Good Story
"It is my great strength that gets me where I want to go but it is my flaws, my weaknesses, that made me who I am."
A note to my viewers
Sometimes I am so determined in my need to succeed that I forget just how much I have accomplished and just how far I have come. I don't like to dwell on things I can't change or things that I have no control over. Instead just keeping moving forward towards the goals I set for myself. Even as a child I never liked to compete against others, it made me feel sick inside. Instead I always just competed against myself. And I think it's that kind of drive that gets people farther in the end.
So here's a little story about me you may or may not know. When I was in kindergarten they told my mother that I was dumb. She told them to go screw themselves and sent me to a different school. This new one was a wonderful school that I think all schools should be like – a school without violence or prejudice or bullies. A school where you didn't do well because you wanted good grades, (we didn't even have grades), but because you wanted to do well, to learn, to explore.
There was just one little problem, I'm very adaptive and a little too clever for my own good. The problem was I couldn't read, or more so I didn't understand the concept of reading. It took them until the 3rd grade to figure that out, because you see I have extremely high comprehension level that verges on eidetic. I could memorize nearly everything I was exposed to. So I would hear a story once and could recite it back and flip the pages in time. Honestly that's what I thought everyone else was doing, I kid you not.
Eventually I did learn to read but it was a hard, grueling struggle. And it may be blasphemous to say so but at the time I hated reading. I hated every bit of it; every bit of black ink on paper. I wanted to go back to when I was younger when I could just lie on my stomach and make up my own stories to go along with the picture. But I couldn't, because big kids had to read real books, without pictures. Then I was introduced to this one book that changed my life, and as corny as it might sound it's the truth.
When I was in the 7th grade we were assigned The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman and as a weird turn of events I got horribly sick and had to say home. And so while I laid there on the couch my mother picked up the book and began reading it to me so I wouldn't fall behind. If you haven't read the book you should, it's fantastic, actually all Karen Cushman's book are. I also won't give the story away either other than to say at one part someone gives the poor beaten down heroine a gift. And it was at that moment my mother burst into tears, at this fictional act of kindness and put down the book. She was inconsolable and I just sat there awkwardly unsure of what to do. (Sorry Mom if I totally embarrassed you by telling people this.)
Anyways, she never finished reading the book, well not at least while I was there anyways. And so it sat there unread for a few hours, and then days until I just couldn't bear it anymore. I just had to know what happened next. And so I picked up the book and began to read. And though it was hard at first, I didn't care. I was going to finish reading that book even if it killed me. And you know what; I was so involved in what was going on in the story that I stopped noticing how hard it was to read. And then the book was over and there was no words left to read and then I realized that it was I who had read it. Someone hadn't read it to me; I hadn't heard it read on tv. I, me, I had read it. And then I realized I wanted to read more and so as nonchalantly as I could I asked my mother if she could take me to the library. And thank the stars when I came out hours later with a handful of books, without pictures, my mother didn't say one word. I don't know if it was because she was shocked, or proud, or just plain relieved.
After that book I read nearly every day, not because I had to read but because I wanted too. And somewhere along the way it stopped being so hard and became easy like telling yourself a story inside your head. To this day I still read every day, and most of those books still don't have pictures, though I do own a lot of comics. And if you think that's the end you're wrong because it gets better.
In 2009 Karen Cushman was a guest at the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) summer conference in LA. If you have never been to a SCBWI conference, on the last day they have all the guests sit at tables in the main room so you can meet them and have your books signed. When I found out I drove all over 4 cities where I lived trying to get hard cover copies of two of my most favorite books of hers. At some point they had switched to only carrying these paperbacks with new covers, which are pretty and all but I wanted her to sign the ones that looked exactly like the ones I had read in the 7th grade. I did eventually find them and so I waited in the line to have her sign my books and tried very hard not to burst into tears when I told her that because of her books I read every day.
July 1, 2011
Midsummer Night
This week's Illustration Friday word was Midsummer Night and this is the first thing that came to mind. Inuyasha has got to be one of my all time favorite animanga's and so it's only fitting that my first anime fan art piece should be from the series. Also because it's awesome… and you should watch it =^.^=
Choosing to do fan art was two-fold. One I need to get back into drawing anime style art because of the game production art I will be doing for the visual novel translation of Daemons in the Mist. Also to help decide what style I want for my graphic novel The Color of Snow. Second because I really love fan art and have never really created any. Well except for the pieces we were required to do in art school.
Artwork by me
characters © Rumiko Takahashi
Midsummer Night
This week's Illustration Friday word was Midsummer Night and this is the first thing that came to mind. Inuyasha has got to be one of my all time favorite animanga's and so it's only fitting that my first anime fan art piece should be from the series. Also because it's awesome… and you should watch it =^.^=
Choosing to do fan art was two-fold. One I need to get back into drawing anime style art because of the game production art I will be doing for the visual novel translation of Daemons in the Mist. Also to help decide what style I want for my graphic novel The Color of Snow. Second because I really love fan art and have never really created any. Well except for the pieces we were required to do in art school.
Artwork by me
characters © Rumiko Takahashi
