Forever Alone

I'm not sure if it's because of the weather, the stuff that’s been going on at home, my classmates getting married and having babies all at the same time… But…

It’s probably really because Dai, a dear friend of mine is going to write me a little fan fiction about Soubi and Kuromi. xD;;;

I’ve been meaning to experiment with this style for a long time! You know, how they leave the clothing in silhouette but detail the hair and skin? That, plus the use of other colors for shading. I’ve tried it before but I don’t think I ever came up with anything that came out this nicely. x3

Purple looks so good on Soubi. And it means mystery, right? Or spiritual, I don't know...

Of course, he’s lonely, so I had to add blue… because you feel blue when you’re lonely. xDDD Ahahaha, so corny, I’m so sorry!!!

Then again, maybe I’m just being emo about a lot of things, ahaha~ Either way, enjoy the fan art! These won’t last when I start working again.

By the way… I think there was an official illustration that was something like this..? I seem to recall an image that was somewhat like this, but it had… bandages? I really can’t remember! If anyone knows what I’m talking about, post it in the comments or something. :D

Mist Soft Launch

Mist is Soft Launching Today!

You have no idea how nervous this makes me. *_* No. I. Dear.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I will go hide under my bed until it all blows over. *o*;;;

Oh yeah… the actually pages should be out by next month. Or something. IDK. Gonna hide now.

Komikon 2011

It's pretty much official, so I guess I can make an announcement here. :3

I will be part of November 19th’s Independent Komiks Tiangge in Komikon! For now, I will be releasing 2 books, Mote-Mote and Karma: Ai (Karma Chapter 2)!

I know, I know, both are available to read for free online, but I will be adding some special extras for the indies.

For Mote-Mote, there will be several Onegai My Melody fan arts that I have never posted online. I will try to add a few more pages to the finished doujin, but this is more or less the basic idea of what to expect when you buy it as an indie.

For Karma, it may be renamed “Karma: Ai”. The reason I am doing this is because I want to turn Karma into a series of short stories for indies. Each will have it's own subtitle, but all of them will have “Karma” somewhere on it. :) And because this is my original work, I will be including an epilogue to what is available online. I’m not sure if I’m going to post the epilogue online anymore, but we’ll see!

There will also be material from the original chapter 2 drawings. I used A.illusions characters for this version, but in the original, there were 4 characters specifically created for Karma.

Needless to say, I’m very nervous about participating in Komikon. This will be my first Komikon as an indie seller, so… I’m kinda worried! What if no one buys my books? What if people get irritated that they could read it online anyway? What if I get lost on the way to the Bayanihan Center? What if I don’t finish these on time??? ;u;

Ah well… I will do my best! I hope to see you guys at the Komikon! >.<;;;

A.illusions in Wonderland: I Am Alice

The colors of this illustration makes my eyes bleed. But somehow, I like how it turned out… much much better than my first attempt, although I’m still not fully satisfied.

I don’t know how Rann-sama can color with all the color of the rainbow without making the colors try to outdo/kill each other!

Ah well… I still have a lot to learn. :)

WIP: A.illusions in Wonderland

Do you remember some time ago when Deviant Art held a “Picture Yourself in Wonderland” contest? I was going to join that, but I wasn’t able to finish my entry on time! I went overboard with my design that I didn’t expect I would need more than a few days for coloring (and my coloring skills were extremely inefficient at the time).

As a result, I left it in my external hard drive, unfinished. I have a tendency of doing this whenever I reformat my computer. –_-;;; It’s a terrible habit of laziness, I know, but one I’m trying to change.

Well, I decided that maybe it was time I finished it. But you know what? I couldn’t make heads or tails over my layers and the colors burned my eyes so much that I. Just. Started over.

So far so good with this new color scheme. You can probably tell that’s Aly, but she is cosplaying the White Queen from Alice in Wonderland. I’m not using any particular version for the costume design, but I guess it’s more of Tim Burton’s? Or maybe Rann-sama’s X-Down? I don’t know, but I might use a checkerboard background like X-Down if I get lazy. xD;;;

Wonder if you can guess who is the one in blue in the teeny-tiny preview? >3;;; The main cast is pretty much there in this one illustration, so~ :D

100 Araw ng Komiks: Interview Meme/Q&A by Columbia Kho

Hey, guys! We’re having an “Interview Meme” over at 100 Araw ng Komiks, so I thought I’d just share mine over here. :D Forgive the lengthy post~ but do read on if you’re interested! :3 I’ll translate the Tagalog questions into English for those who can’t understand Tagalog~

About Me: My name is Columbia Kho, an amateur manga artist dreaming of becoming a pro!

Tungkol saan yung unang komiks na ginawa mo?
* What is your first comics about?

Karma is about angels. The first story was an experimental, short-story I drew for a call for submissions on Culture Crash, a local comic/manga magazine. Alas, it was never published, but it was a good learning experience for me~

What is your favorite medium? Tools of the trade?

Watercolor and color pencils! I love drawing in a sort of “pastel” effect, but because of time constraints, I’ve had to color in Photoshop for most of my paid commissions. ^^;

Describe your drawing style in 3 words

Shoujo/Shounen Manga. x.x;;; I tried to change said-style for my thesis, but… I don’t know, drawing in Manga/Anime style always makes me very happy.

Mote-Mote: Page 16

I'm sorry, but I am giggling incessantly over my own cheesiness. Technically, this is also Mallory’s cheesiness, but what the hey-

This is such a typical, shoujo manga storyline. I’m kind of glad I got to draw this scene, because Hiiragi blushing? That never happened in the anime did it? xD

Not counting that new year’s(?) episode though… the one with Hiiragi in a kimono and ponytailed hair? I’m pretty sure he sorta blushed then, but I can’t remember now. I should have downloaded the entire series! ;u;

Anyway, I just finished Karma: Chapter 2 and now I’m wrapping up Mote-Mote too. I hope this drive continues so I can get on with A.illusions already!

…I really need to practice drawing kisses. This looks so awkward somehow. ;u;

Back to sleep for me! Hope you guys enjoyed this page! ^^

Twilight’s Calling: Cammy Gomez

I just realized the configurations of my screen was terribly... terribly wrong.

Lately, I’ve been practicing drawing directly on the computer to see if that would speed things up. I didn’t think that screen resolutions would be a problem, and ever since I got a 17-inch monitor, I would always use 1280x1024.

What I didn’t realize was that all those circles I’ve been drawing were ovals all along. So basically, my digital drawing were quite… long. But this new illustration of Cammy Gomez from Twilight’s Calling was drawn in a newly adjust screen, so hopefully, the proportions look better!

…what? I wanted to draw something nice, fluffy, and… pink. Someone in Deviant Art was asking for more Twilight’s Calling art, especially of Cammy showing off her new-do~ :> How can I resist?

Also, Windows 7… why are there still several programs that don’t work properly on you? I finally gave up on it and went back to XP Home. It’s notably slower than Win7 because a 32-bit only recognizes a maximum of 3gigs of RAM. I have 4gigs, so 1gig will be sitting around in my CPU doing nothing for now. ;_; I guess I should give Win7 a few more months before I try it again so that other programs can catch up!

R.I.P. my bluw wacom pen, which is barely working now. Guess I need to buy a replacement soon. ;o; Why are my techie things dying? ;_;

Gift: Rei Kuassary by Evangeline Louise

D’aww… I got a new fanart! Rei’s wearing a skirt, haha! xD;;; She’s the only female member in A.illusions who wears pants instead of skirts, so this really made me smile. The outfit is totally cute too! *u*;;;

Thanks again Evangeline! I will need to print this out when I get printer working again. ;u;~ ♥

And I really like the background style. :D I should try it out some time~~

Mote-Mote: Page 15

After abandoning putting this manga on extending hiatus, a new page! And it looks… extremely underwhelming, IDK. ;o;

You could say I had art-block on this for… forever! I had started on this page last February and only managed to add the finish touches today.

I’m not really sure why… but I guess I wanted someone to feel better. I recently found out someone I know was going through a really tough time, and I guess this is my way of hoping they will be alright.

This wasn’t on the original script, but I wanted it to be somewhat more dramatic. That 3rd panel on the middle though… reminds me of Severus Snape. *A*;;; I’m a Harry Potter fan, and I read all 7 books, so I guess maybe that line was subconsciously stuck in my brain?

Anyway, hope you guys like it! :)