Automaton Works

Welcome! I know we’re pretty plain right now… Okay, so we’re extremely-entirely-super plain, but we’re working on all of that. Once we get our color choices out of the way I’ll spruce this place up so the white isn’t burning your eyes out with the fury of 1,000 suns. We’ve been spending so much time on what we’ll have at Naka-Kon that I’m usually off somewhere, ill-equipped for site construction. Luckily, the forums are live, so I hope you’ll make yourself at home with others like yourself and enjoy some good company. Once things settle down more I’ll smash together a more compatible design on the forum as well.

 So, I guess I’ll get back to writing and BK will continue to draw and we’ll get something up before too long.

Okay, we’re coming along. I had hoped to have been able to figure out how to get all of our blog posts one color and all of our news posts another, but I am clueless. I found a few thing online that let you do it if you’re using a single class in CSS, but the rounded corners have eleven or so, so nothing seems to work. Internet Explorer, as usual, bends the code over backwards and does unmentionable things to it… So, the title may come out stranger than intended. Firefox is the way to go. Unless it’s on a Mac because then the title isn’t low enough, but it all came out close enough to call it done. I’m not a coding genius here.

We’ll go with what we have for now, but that doesn’t mean all of the changes are done or permanent. Expect lots of posts and updates from us from here on until Naka-Kon.

Greetings, Weary Traveler. Rest your tired fingers and take your cramped hand off that mouse and read on (unless you have to, like, scroll down or something) for I, BK, am here to entertain you with a wonderful, fantabulous blog post (or it’s just mediocre and giving you something to stare at for a few minutes). Well, enough with the poetic stuff. You get the point.

Well the site has been up for not quite 24 hours. As you can see, though we’re live and functioning, we still have some things we’re polishing up. We mostly wanted to go live before Naka-Kon in order to let the con goers know that we do, in fact, exist and to say “Howdy”. Being from Missouri we have no unique accent or interesting words to define where we’re from, so I’m stealing (borrowing) words from nearby regions (thanks, Texas). However we do use a lot of redundancies . . . and stuff.

I have several projects in the works right now, but they were put on hold so I could prepare for the con. We will have a table in the artist alley and I will be helping with the webcomic panel. We will be selling a number of things including the usual prints (and a few new ones), and I had decided to take a break from digital art for a while and created some traditional pieces that I plan on selling (yay for markers). I’m doing some paintings also. I’ll post those as I get them photographed. I plan on working on a piece at the table, sort of a live show, for entertainment purposes. . . or educational. Whichever.

Also at the con will be Lithe Kitty, you may better know her as Deek from Value=Dead. She will not be doing the conventional art, instead she is making Gothic Lolita accessories for all to enjoy (and buy). Reality Helix will be joining our table with her art as well.

As far as projects go, I have done a little working on them here and there. I have a new comic in the works called “Starcrossed” which I have just finished a script for. I have several character sketches that aren’t scanned in, but one that I have posted at the end of this entry. (No, really)

Starcrossed is a modern fantasy/sci-fi comedy shoujo-ai story about an aspiring artist/musician Quinn whose life is changed after a celestial cataclysm hits her right in the face (almost literally). More on Starcrossed within the next couple of days.

Here’s the sketch. Enjoy!

I’m just about done with the script, if you can call it that, for Breath. Untitled just didn’t suit it, you know? As strange as this may sound I love going to Dictionary.com and Wikipedia and looking up random words or articles. I’ll jump from one thing to the next until something catches my eye, like the word pneuma, and then pieces start falling into place. Of course, calling it Pneuma seemed a bit on-high to me and saying it aloud made me feel kind of stupid. I like breath because it looks neat, beause it sounds borderline normal, and because it doesn’t have a silent P.

I’ve got another 17 pages to go before I’m allowed to call it done and BK lets me take a break. After that she’s chaining me to my desk again to write Wake Odyssey. I’m very excited. Writing Breath as been a lot of fun for me, and it’s given me the chance to get one of my oldest stories off my chest. I wish I could tell you when we’re putting it up, but I have no real clue. After Naka-Kon… This year? Yeah, pretty soon I think.

Well I have more done as far as projects and Artist Alley matters go. I have some original drawings I’m selling at Naka-Kon. I’m posting three right now for all the world to see. Behold! My craptastic photography skillz! (these are 15″x20″ and far too big to scan in):

Yes, all fanart. I’m doing these to help support our project makings in the future. In case you didn’t know, that are: Peach and Zelda, I-no (Guilty Gear), and Sasuke (Shippuden-style). Also in the works is Ulala from Space Channel 5, and an Ichigo drawing that I plan on doing at the con.

For paintings I plan to do one of Mugen from Samurai Champloo and Motoko from Ghost in the Shell.

Also in other happenings . . . I have a sketch of the main character from Starcrossed. Her name is Quinn. I was going to call it a finalized sketch but upon coloring the shirt, I feel I might change it to something more interesting. I dunno. I’ll come back to it later and see how I feel about it.

The site is getting closer to being done. After a few adjustments and some additons we’ll have a complete site. Everything that’s up works perfectly fine though, so don’t let that stop you from browsing our nothingness. Two more sites will be going up for each of the comics we’re planning on putting up this year. I’m tired of web building and I haven’t even finished this one quite yet. I’m not very good at this sort of thing, so I hope it meets with your approval. At least on a functionality level.

Our forum is also alive and well. If you’re from Gibberish make yourself at home and thanks for following BK and/or me over to Automaton Works.