Shivae · Studios · Updates

I am BACK and thank you to those of you who helped out while I was gone. :D I'll be sending emails as soon as I can. I've been in a cabin that did not have any form of the internet and cellphone service was unheard of. It did contain some really humongous wasps, bees and spiders ... and a large fuzzy spiked caterpiller which Kim stepped on. 0.0 She has about twenty tiny bruises on the bottom of her foot - not punctures... it just looks weird. They're an array of tiny bruises. I had a GREAT time (without even the slightest desire to be online. :D )

Bad thing is that I don't think I got a lot of sleep on some of those nights because I started having fears of finding spiders and rattlesnakes in my bed. :D

You can support the comics here And yes, buying books helps too! If you'd like to suggestion some donation wallpapers, please do so!

Summer Movie List:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Desire to See if possible
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - Probably more than any other version and I want the movie posters for it! ALL of them!! - Strongest Desire to See since we can take Kim. :D
Aliens in the Attic, formerly They came from Upstairs - Not High on the List, but it looks cute, dollar theatre.
G-Force- Not High on the List - DVD
Harry Potter- Not High on the List - If we have the money, early morning matinee.
G.I. Joe - I think it's going to be HORRIBLE - Dollar Theatre
Shorts - Robert Rodriguez. :D I love how he goes from Rated R to G so fast.
District 9 - I LOVE this type of movie. :D
Ponyo - boo.. August movie, thanks soooo much Disney. - DVD
The 9 - Another love of this type of movie.

Goal for this month: $239 $89 - The price of the tires I just bought so we don't have a severe accident on a highway that has a 70 mph speed limit. :/ I took the car in for a quick pretrip check on air and fluids and was informed the front tires were bald. I was not budgetting for tires ... :/ And yes, they WERE bald because apparently my husband and I had no idea what 'rotating' the tires actually WAS because nobody ever told us. :D I was under the impression it meant that they literally rotated the tires until they were at some special point on the tire. Now we know it's swapping the back to the front every 6,000 miles.

This week's Updates - Artwork that is being uploaded is actually from 2005. :/ I realized three hours away from home that my dongle was missing. :( (The piece of my ac adapter cord that goes from the cord to my tablet... very upset... don't know how it fell off! so when my tablet runs out of power, I can't use it at all. :( )

Alien Dice - June 25 - Artwork for the week while I'm out.
Akaelae - June 27 - Artwork for the week while I'm out.
Abby's Agency - June 25, 30, July 2, 7 - Uninterrupted
PURE June 23, 30 - One a week that week.

You can support the comics here And yes, buying books helps too! If you'd like to suggestion some donation wallpapers, please do so!

I'm up bright and early right now and the first thing on my mind when I woke up: I really need to put SOMETHING ON THE WEBSITES for next week!! I know... I'll use artwork from the artbooks! So yes, for those of you who have not bought them, that's what's going up next week.

We're leaving around 11 for part 1 of the 800 mile drive to Laurel Fork. We have a good stopping point in Forrest City, Arkansas. There's a Holiday Inn there with the most delicious breakfast ... and it's HUGE for the price. :D And that's the only meal we're paying for up there. Rob (my husband) has already referred to it as the 'unfun' part of the trip, because I've already plotted out we eat nothing but sandwiches, fruits and snacks the entire way up to the forest. ;)

NONONONO! Photoshop just told me it must be uninstalled and reinstalled... right before the trip!! NO!!

We DID get to go and see UP and it was wonderful! I think it's the best Pixar movie so far, although I say that everytime I see one - except Cars. I enjoyed Cars, but it wasn't anything really 'special' in the lineup. It might've helped if I liked cars in general more. :D

Despite my growing dislike of Michael Bay, I'm still looking forward to catching Transformers SOMEHOW. I also want to see Ice Age - probably more than any other version and I want the movie posters for it! ALL of them!!

Other possibly to see movies, but not important ones to be seen:

Aliens in the Attic, formerly They came from Upstairs
G-Force
Harry Potter
G.I. Joe - I think it's going to be HORRIBLE
Shorts
District 9
Ponyo - boo.. August movie, thanks soooo much Disney.
The 9

This week's Updates

Alien Dice - June 22 and 24
Akaelae - June 22, 24 and 26
Abby's Agency - June 23, 25, 30, July 2, 7
PURE June 23

I'm almost done with Alien Dice, just have to letter it. Then I need to work on PURE.

Now I have a ton of pretrip errands to run!

You can support the comics here And yes, buying books helps too! If you'd like to suggestion some donation wallpapers, please do so!

Current progress: More shading.

We DID get to go and see UP and it was wonderful! I think it's the best Pixar movie so far, although I say that everytime I see one - except Cars. I enjoyed Cars, but it wasn't anything really 'special' in the lineup. It might've helped if I liked cars in general more. :D

Despite my growing dislike of Michael Bay, I'm still looking forward to catching Transformers SOMEHOW. I also want to see Ice Age - probably more than any other version and I want the movie posters for it! ALL of them!!

Other possibly to see movies, but not important ones to be seen:

Aliens in the Attic, formerly They came from Upstairs
G-Force
Harry Potter
G.I. Joe - I think it's going to be HORRIBLE
Shorts
District 9
Ponyo - boo.. August movie, thanks soooo much Disney.
The 9

Wednesday's Updates:
Alien Dice, Akaelae

As promised, they are done!

You can support the comics here And yes, buying books helps too! If you'd like to suggestion some donation wallpapers, please do so!

Current progress: More shading.

I'm hoping that UP doesn't leave the theaters anytime soon. :D I want to go see it. Right now, it's not looking good for Transformers either. If Kim were older, we'd just take her with us, but right now loud noises bother her. I also want to see Ice Age - probably more than any other version and I want the movie posters for it! ALL of them!!

Hmm.. I realize that they've renamed: They came from Upstairs to Aliens in the Attic. I preferred the original title. If anyone remembers those 'cute lost alien' movies from the late 80's, this is one of those. G-Force - the one with guinea pigs - frightens me. It's just 'off'. Harry Potter's on the 'eh list this year. I've lost interest. I may do things that are playfully mean to my readers, but she was outright mean to hers and I no longer have a good impression of her. G.I. Joe is likely to be a pass. It's in August - it's a HORRIBLE movie by default. The moment I saw it opening in August (and the horrible looking still photos) I sighed sadly. On the other hand, Robert Rodriguez has another kid movie coming out the same month. ;) Shorts. I don't think it'll be horrible even if it's in August. Then there's District 9 and Ponyo!

I am on track for updates to resume tomorrow!

Bleah! I tried to go and get some excercise just now ... went to the apartment's gym and ... the brats have destroyed a THIRD treadmill. I am so angry. I actually NEED that treadmill. It's too hot to go walk and there's too much pollen in the air in the shadier part of the trail. :D (Plus.. I just do better on the treadmill because I'm forced to walk at a steadier pace.) I'm very tempted to go ahead and find a cheap treadmill as soon as I can... I like what it does for my blood sugars. Hmm... I may hit the CCA. They sometimes have excercise equipment.

Any little bit would help out right now. You can donate via the donation page! And yes, buying books helps too! If you'd like to suggestion some donation wallpapers, please do so! I'm kinda working at a frenzied pace that does not allow for much creative thought. :(

Current progress: I've progressed and finished the basic shading on Abby, working on the others now. Shading.. shading.. Cleaning painter shading to go into the Photoshop portion, then I have backgrounds and lettering and uploading!

Whoa! - Video of the tornado that hit us: http://untamedscience.com/DFWstorm - The really cool thing is that they're filming on MY road. Even better, the picture at the top of the page was taken very close to where I live. If we had stayed in our apartment, we probably would've been in far worse shape nerve wise with all the explosions. The storm itself pretty much came out of nowhere and gave little warning about what it was going to do.

I'm abandoning my normal schedule of work for now since it's been disjointed by almost two work days. :/ I THINK everything should start updating again on Wednesday.

NOW I'm off to grocery shop. I put it off yesterday because I dread it this week. :/ I've gone every shopping trip for the last six months only buying things on sale ... now I have to go and buy necessities to replace those that spoiled. Thankfully I've had some help. Thank you. :) Some of that went toward batteries - for some reason ... I didn't HAVE any ... so I have a radio that works without being plugged in now and a flashlight ... yes, I did not have a flashlight. I did... but Kim has a way of walking off with them and I never see them again. Fortunately the last two storm systems missed us and we didn't get struck again.

Any little bit would help out right now. The storm didn't do us any favors on an already tight budget. You can donate via the donation page! And yes, buying books helps too!

Current progress: I've progressed and finished the basic shading on Abby, working on the others now. Shading.. shading.. Cleaning painter shading to go into the Photoshop portion, then I have backgrounds and lettering and uploading!

20+ hours later, power came on. I then proceded to take stock of the fridge and freezer... then carried five bags of spoiled food to the dumpster. I'm not willing to risk preparing meats that have thawed on the edges or eating frozen food that's in wet boxes. 0.o I really hate my freezer. I think it should've kept things colder for longer.

I DID manage to save milk, bacon, lunch meats, cheese and other important basics with a bag of ice and two coolers. :D

I also now have a flashlight (which Kim will not end up carrying away) and a radio that WORKS. It kept looking stormy today, but right now it's nice and calm. They're still working to restore power to other subdivisions.

I'm now in the 'need donations' area! (It's not good when you intend to save money by eating the freezer food and purchase $30 worth of freezer food on sale the Sunday before and have it go bad. :( Lucky me, freezer was half full prior to that! ) Any little bit would help out right now. You can donate via the donation page! And thank you to those who have! I'll be emailing tomorrow morning, right now I'm trying to play catchup on comic work. :( I'm running on very little sleep right now. I spent most of the night restlessly staring at a constant lightening and thunderstorm ...

So last night around 6 or so, started hearing thunder. Checked the forecast - just plain thunderstorms. Then.. it started getting louder around 6:30 so I checked again and .. .nice .. Tornado WARNING - which means a tornado has been sighted in several areas, Flower Mound being one of them, and we should be seeking shelter. I decided we needed to get out of our second story apartment and go to my husband's parent's house. :D It was NASTY outside, but I was pretty sure it was behind us.

Spent an hour in a closet until the warning time was up. Power went out during that time and when we returned home we found the same thing ... no power. It's been out since at least 7pm last night. Then it stormed allll night and I mean,the worst lightening and thunder I've ever seen... from 11pm to 7:30am - yes, it just cleared up as I'm sitting here in McDonald's taking advantage of their so called free wifi... cost me $3. 9.9

I will ink the rest of the week's comics, but I doubt our power's coming on anytime soon. :( We watched on the news last night before the power went out as transformers were being blown one after another in the area and saw the lights flicker and go out repeatedly, so they have a LOT of work to do. Trees were down, huge limbs, signs were torn off stores,.. and I notice one road is closed to the public less than half a mile away from where we live. 0.0 That's where the tornado touched down. I'm glad that we didn't stay where we were ... because it would've been far scarier than where we were.

Kim ended up sleeping on the floor next to our bed and we were thankful for the cool breeze that the storm brought. ... otherwise it would've been really miserable. From here, I'm off to Wal-mart to buy a bag of ice if I can find one so I can at least save the milk for breakfast tomorrow. :( And a flashlight... we don't have any flashlights :P

Unfortunately, since I can't cook and I didn't have ANY money budgetted for eating out and it's likely everything in the fridge and freezer are now going to spoil, I'm now in the 'need donations' area! Any little bit would help out right now. I likely won't be logging back in until we have electricity - my laptop is half drained right now. :( MAYBE from the library if it extends for more than another day. You can donate via the donation page!

Abby's Agency AND PURE have updated!

If you enjoy the comics, consider purchasing them in print form from Indyplanet or donating! Akaelae #1 and Genoworks Saga #1 will likely be listed there in a few weeks. Even when I get the regular store back up with things, I will not be adding comics except on a preorder basis. On very rare occasions I might offer some to clear out inventory, but those are few and far between.

Working on comics. I've finished all the inking. It's amazing what KNOWING I'm going to get a week away from doing any work can do in the work department. I was trudging through the grind yesterday - today I flew. I probably should try to take more mini vacations ... there's just so much to get done. :D

Prepping them for ink right now. I'm going to work on Alien Dice's text tomorrow after inking.

Not going to see Up afterall - I need shorts and shirts more. :D So does Kim, she's growing too fast!

Akaelae and Alien dice have updated!

How about that ... I AM going on vacation afterall. 0.0 Complete shock. Now.. on to making rush preparations. We have a favorite hotel in Forrest City, Arkansas - the Holiday Inn there is awesome and will run just under $100 for one night. The Days Suites nearby would run us $80. That one offers a breakfast. The Holiday Inn gave us breakfast for the time we stayed as well, but I'm not sure if it includes it this time - I'll find out when I call. There are 10,000+ of you... do you have any suggestions of good hotels in that area if you happen to have stayed there or in cities near it? I like staying where I have stayed before, but I'm leaning toward a cheaper stay!

I'm pretty sure I have a few readers who work in movie theaters. :) If you work in a movie theatre, or go to a comic book convention which has the usual free posters - please pick up a few Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs posters for me! :D I desperately want a full set of them to frame for my work room and I'm unable to go anywhere to get them!!

My tablet gave me a lot of problems last night, which resulted in the loss of a good hour's worth of work on the next update of Alien Dice. 9.9 For some reason, I was saving a second update window and just kept forgetting to save that one - then I got blue screened. :D Bleah.. Blue Screens. All's good now.

Annd.. today is the first day of summer for Kim, so we're about to go for a walk, then I'm going to work, then we're going to go out and hit half price books to return some things. Then I do some more work. :D I'm going to try spending enough time with her to make her want me to go away so I can work without interruptions in the same room. ;)

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get to AD text and keep up with it. I don't have any pressing matters any more to get in the way. AND Tony Piro who does Calamities of Nature has given out comic making information that will likely save me an ENTIRE DAY worth of work a week! I would like y'all to go and see his comic. :) (If I can save that amount of time, it makes things much easier on me and makes me faster!)

Out to go walk with Kim now!

I'm going to find something to post today.. after a bit of other work. Or maybe not. :D

TODAY is the last day for preorders for AD #1 signed and with or without extra art pieces like what's up there!

Today was Kim's LAST day in Kindergarten! Part 1. She goes back again to repeat it next year. :D Our choice, not hers. She could have gone ahead and gone on to First grade, but she would have remained the smallest in the class. Being a July kid, she could've waited a year to start anyway. It was fun getting to eat lunch with her because I found out she has multiple boyfriends and everyone is her best friend. :D

Funny thing in her backpack - She had a drawing of all of us at Red Lobster, with the note: I like eating at Red Lobster. Then she asked if we were going to Red Lobster for dinner. :D I laughed... and quickly changed the subject. (We're having hamburger casserole tonight, she's not going to be happy about that.)

Ok, there's a 1% chance we'll still go on vacation, providing something awesome happens on the 20th. :D I'm clinging to that 1%. I want to go wander around in a forest for a week. :D It's not an opportunity that comes around often for us. This is where I've been looking forward to going for six months. :D Our only cost is getting there and back.

I'll now take a moment to say Royal Pains is an awesome series! USA rarely dissappoints!

There are not any actual comic updates this week, but there is guest art! (And I'm sure I have AD artwork around here somewhere!) At the moment, I have Akaelae updated.

I've been busy running errands: Dropped off Kim, walked Vash, drank breakfast, Attended Kim's awards ceremony, dropped off perscriptions, went to bank to replace the money taken out for A-kon, hit Albertson's, hoping for cheap fresh baked bread that was supposed to be on sale .. key word... supposed ... it wasn't. :/ Checked bank, yay, payments for book orders and a Kroger gift card! Back to home... called about TV repairs, that's going to happen tomorrow... called Verizon... why is there a double charge here for dvr rental when I only have one dvr and one tv? :D Grumbling that tv warranty runs out in October - TV will likely DIE in October. :D It hasn't even been a year since it was fixed last... I hate this tv. I'm picking out the next one... and it's going to be CHEAP.

Back to work now... all that was done in three hours. Now to pencil and get the Twinky and Chatin picture completed (Titanic Chatin was completed two weeks ago... I just haven't emailed it. :D ) Then on to comics and a few more of the special images for the book preorders. Orders for AD #1 end on June 5th!

I was depending on A-kon for the first vacation my family has taken in six years (before Kim was born). I was not actually on board with depending on A-kon because I had a sixth sense about it in January when ad revenue pretty much tanked ... but I was over ruled. 9.9 We're getting a good deal because it's a family vacation and involves a cabin rental in the woods that we don't have to pay for... for almost a week. We just have to get there, which involves gas, food and one hotel stay both ways. I have two and a half weeks to raise it. I will be open for badge and button/keychain/mirror commissions next week, which will be completed before I begin working on comics. The amount of commissions I do will depend on how quickly I hit the goal of $500. (I keep forgetting we have to align and rotate the tires before we go.) Once I hit the goal, not doing any more. :D

Yay, A-kon's over and I can put it behind me. I'll just forget about this year. :D I DID break even! Now I have to concentrate on working toward vacation. I have three weeks and the first thing I'm going to do ... is get back to work tomorrow as I planned. Since that's my only plan.

Because I didn't gert ANY badge commissions at A-kon, I'm likely to open them up online for a short time. They will be copic colored laminated cut out badges for $30 - including shipping for a 4.5 x 5.5 and I'll also be working on button/keychain/pin custom badges for $10 each in color - these turned out VERY nice. I'll scan and show off examples after I get other stuff done. I DID get four custom mirrors done for people.

Please don't order one because I put that info up right NOW - I will be putting it in the store and I need to finish some other things before I open up for those.

#1 item to go up... mini notebooks and buttons featuring 4 kittens in 3 color variations - white, black and light calico. I sold more of those than anything else at A-kon. 0.o And I finished the images the day BEFORE the convention started. They were just simple little kittens, but without them, I would not have come anywhere near breaking even. 0.o

The TV has died. Kim's sad .. even though she hardly WATCHES tv. :D

- Tiff