Sena's DW :: Watermelon Life

Okay, well... so lately my muses seem to be back, at least when it comes to art and storylines. Actually writing anything seems to still be locked up, but at least I'm making headway with a couple of other projects, like Pencil Princess.

Which by the way! dragonchan was kind enough to color a couple of images for me, which'll be used as cover images... the first one is the cover to Pencil Princess, and is a simple image of ( Princess Amethyst ). =3

The second, is going to be the cover to a new project, one that I've been wanted to do for a long time but never got around to doing it... but last night I got to thinking about it, and ended up working out a lot of the characters and plotline, so here we go!

Candied Apple is... *drumroll please* ...a Heralds of Valdemar manga! ^__^

It's about a girl from Tolmassar, Apple, who is Chosen by a Companion (Caro) who journeyed all the way there to find her. The CA storyline is about the two of them travelling back to Valdemar, along with two other people-- Jophi (a boy about her age) and Ambriel ("Amber"), who is Jophi's younger sister.

Why are Jophi and Amber going to Valdemar with Apple and Caro?

...I'm not telling! XD

In any case, apple_manga, and dragonchan also colored the cover image for Issue #1 of CA ("Incomplete"), which is a ( picture of Apple with... well... apples. )

Yay for manga projects. ^^

Back Story: Way back in 2001-ish, my friend C.A. was complaining to me about how she used to have this AWESOME pencil sharpener, but a guy in our class had (a couple of ears prior to my hearing the story the first time) thrown it in the garbage-- completely by accident, of course, Chris was a great guy, but she complained to bug him nonetheless. X3

So I got bored that night and ended up sketching out a one-page comic about a Princess who lost her Magic Pencil Sharpener, and how her friends got revenge on the guy who had taken it. It was pretty silly, and the only character in it that was named was C.A. (who was the Princess, of course), but she thought it was funny, and it was fun to draw.

Anyway! Lately I've been thinking on an expanded version of that comic (that would be Pencil Princess!), that is basically the same story, but fleshed out quite a bit. ^^ It takes place in a world where people have animal attributes (ears/tails/wings/whatever), but aren't actually considered anthromorphic. The Princess, for example, has dove wings. <3

The world itself is called Sekool (pronounced "school"), and is devided into two countries; Klahs (pronounced "class") and Ricess (pronounced "recess"). In the country of Klahs, people work hard for what they have and live an honest life. The country of Ricess is a lot more tempting, with people not working at all, but in the end, life is harder and a lot less rewarding there than in Klahs.

The country of Klahs is ruled by the lovely Princess Amethyst, who watches over her people and protects them with the aid of the only magical item in the entire world of Sekool, a golden sharpener. It gives her the power to grant wishes to those that she deems worthy, and as long as her heart is true and virtuous, it ensures that Klahs flourishes as well.

The ruler of Ricess, though, finds a way to steal the sharpener, and retreats with it to his country. His name is Obsidian, and he has the wings of a bat. At his side are his two trusted guards/advisors/friends/everything else, Schorl (who has feline ears and a tail) and Wolfeite (who has canine ears and a tail.)

Princess Amethyst knows that without the sharpener, Klahs will quickly fall into disarray, but she herself can do nothing about it. She must stay and rule her kingdom-- but her closest friends, Ruby (who has mouse ears and a tail) and Opal (who has rabbit ears and a tail) volunteer to cross the border into Ricess and attempt to retrieve their beloved artifact.

Can they get the sharpener back in time, without succumbing to the sway of the country if Ricess?!

*gigglesnort* It's just a short manga project that I'm doing for fun... one, maybe two volumes. 60-or-so pages at the very most. ^^ All of the names are gemstones/minerals/etc. I might make it a Christmas present for C.A., actually, if I can get it finished in time. =^-^=

Also, all of my projects are now being lumped together under the title "Esprit Studios". Eventually, I'll put together a website for ES, but for now, that's just kind of random info that nobody really cares about. ^^

So. In an attempt to distract myself, I've been going through a bunch of my old binders/sketchbooks/etc... and found some rather amusing things. God, how my art was terrible...

Anyway, way back in 2002, I did a whole bunch of mini gag-type comics about my friends and I. We all had little anime-cartoon forms and whatnot, and I just scribbled out comics in my spare time. Today I found a bunch of them and figured I'd share them, and some of my old and craptacular art.

They're a bit small, but hopefully you can read the words anyway...

Art #1: I set about designing "cartoon" forms for all my friends, and since LoTR (FoTR) had just come out, we were pretty much all Elves. But C.A. wanted to be different, so she became a fairy instead.

( The first Cartoon C.A. sketch. )

Art #2: Later on, C.A.'s design became more refined and detailed, and I added a lot of color as well. She's my favorite of all the designs I did for my friends. This is the latest one of her I did. I just want to include it because I love it so much.

( Final version C.A. Cartoon Form. )

Art #3: This is the first pic I did when I was designing Cartoon forms for me and my friends. There's a LOT wrong with it, but there's still quite a bit I like about it, too. Suisei-chan (Melissa) is the one in dark-colored fur, Holly (Jen) is the one wearing a skirt and legging-things, and I'm the one that's waving.

( Suisei, Jenevra & Sena. )

Art #4: My brother wanted a Cartoon Form too, of course, but he didn't want to just be an elf like {almost} everyone else. So I made him into a demon-elf--the only difference being that he had wings. Whatever.

( Get offa me! )

Art #5: On a whim, I decided I wanted to draw mermaids. So I did this, and I still love it. You probably can't tell from the scan, but I actually drew in every little scale on both the tails...

( Painstakingly scaley... )

Comic #1, "Sibling Rivalry": I think this is my favorite of any of the ones I did back then. It made Mom laugh for about three days.

( Sibling Rivalry. )

Comic #2, "Elvish Attributes": This one I did right after I saw LoTR: FoTR for the first time with C.A., and fell onto the Legolas-Love Bandwagon. I started a second one, but never finished it.

( Elvish Attributes. )

Comic #3, "Melissa and Tiffany's Adventures at Tim Hortons (#1)": Yes, I did a comic about working at Tim Horton's. =_=;; That was back when I worked for a Tim's the first time, and it wasn't nearly such a HELL HOLE as the one I just quit from.

Melissa = Suisei-chan

( Melissa and Tiffany's Adventures at Tim Horton's. )

Comic #5, "The Quest for the Perfect Present": That year, I was broke and couldn't afford to get a gift for Trunks on his birthday. So I set out to draw him a comic instead, basically as an I.O.U. for an actual present... and never even finished it. Oh well. It was fun while I was doing it.

( The Quest for the Perfect Present. )

Yeah. That's about it.