Kittensoft Presents: Mini Reviews, volume 1

I've been taking it a bit easy over the last couple weeks, so I'd like to present my readers with a couple reviews of things I've been watching and reading over the last while. Please note: I'd rather not write detailed descriptions/summaries of everything here, so I'll just present you with some Handy Links with more info :)

I would like to start this entry with....

House Link

2 eps watched so far. I don't normally watch medical shows, though I found House to be surprisingly enjoyable. Each of the eps I watched were done kind of like mystery/crime stories (not sure if this applies to the whole series) and I definitely found them intriguing. It also helps that the main character's an ass, and quite entertaining to watch. I'd recommend anyone give this series a try (unless you're completely turned off /scared by medical procedures and the like) :)


L/R Link

9 out of 13 eps watched. A fun little secret agent series...I haven't found it particularly gripping yet though it's definitely entertaining for a snowy afternoon. One thing I found to be surpringly well done is the English dub (I normally can't stand dubs). Most of the voices have British or other accents, though it matches well with the setting. Another thing I should note is that this series has fantastic music. If anyone here enjoyed the soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop, L/R has much of a similar style...the opening theme (done by Billy Preston) is very catchy :)


Washington & Caesar (written by Christian Cameron) Link

So far about 60 pages through. An enjoyable though often challenging book....I'm having a bit of trouble understanding some of the topics brought up during many of Washington's scenes, though it's interesting reading about his interactions with Caesar. Caesar's story and characterization are, so far, my favorite part of the book. Definitely an informative read too, for anyone who has interest in the topics of slavery or the 18th century.


I shall leave my reviews at that for now, though I'm sure I'll write a few more in a couple months (possibly updating my opinions on the above in a later entry) :)

Holiday Present from Kittensoft

Just a little winter-themed pic I finished a couple days ago :) Hope everyone's enjoying their holidays :D

The Fantastic World of Business Cards

I've been working on a new series of business cards lately, mainly to use at upcoming comic/anime conventions :)



Here's the card I had for last year's con and the year before (both Fan Expo)...while I definitely think it's cute, I don't think it really represents my work well. Sadly, I wasn't too successful with this card last year (when I was selling prints), I'm gonna guess most of the people that took this card home and looked at it later had absolutely NO idea who/what it was for...^^; Figure my next design could probably use some color too :)



These are some of the designs I'd thought up in the last few weeks (click on the pic to enlarge)....pretty much since business cards don't take too long to make I just threw whatever ideas out there that I had. I think, for the purposes of conventions, the bottom left one (with the black haired character) would work best, since I'll be selling prints featuring this character. The design would definitely help in reminding people who's card it is...^^;

Love the flying shih tzu too though it's probably best to use if I'm trying to advertise something like kid's book illustrations....as for the space ones, I'd probably end up printing the lower one if any, as the top one was a little bit of an asspain to design (used Photoshop for most of it, which is not the best program for resizing things....^^:)

At any rate, feel free to comment if you have any opinions or critiques..and I must add a Shameless Plug here that if you want me to make you a business card design, feel free to send me an email, I'll do it for dirt cheap :D

EDIT:



Here are my 2 "most likely to print" designs with some revisions suggested by a friend (thanks!!) :) Hopefully these look a bit more professional :)

Where Kittensoft Reflects upon her Current State of (un) Employment

SCORPIO (Oct.24-Nov.22)
“You fear you are on the edge of disaster but are, in fact, on the threshold of success. You are attempting a difficult task. Others, faced with a challenge of this magnitude, might well give up in despair. Your fortitude will bring victory.”

I found this horoscope in a newspaper a little while ago, and though I don’t normally pay attention to newspaper horoscopes, this little statement particularly resonates with me at the moment. It sounds very similar to the content of a pair of tarot readings that a good friend of mine had done for me over the past few months. So what, you are probably asking, is Kittensoft yapping on about? Here I shall elaborate:

I am, at the moment, lacking what is known as a “Job”. I have been trying to get somewhere with graphic design and illustration for the past couple of years, only to end up back in minimum-wage retail. Seeing as I’ve had about 8 years of post-secondary education at this point, I’m not really a happy camper about this situation  Alas! I could’ve probably become a doctor by this point if I’d have taken the right courses (and was a tad better at math…^^;)

At any rate, after I quit my latest retail job about a couple months ago, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t go back into doing any more retail work unless it was somehow related to design (eg-a print shop). Generally what ends up happening when I work retail is that I put most of my design/artwork on the side and forget about actually continuing to try to get a job in that area. I find retail work, especially customer service and the awkward schedules, to be incredibly frustrating (and worth way more than $8.75 an hour) and when I go home the thought of doing anything which requires more effort (eg-looking for other work) just puts me in a shitty mood. As well, I’m quite tired of getting nowhere with my skills, and even moreso of still only earning minimum wage after 8 years of post-secondary ed.

Now this doesn’t mean I won’t be occasionally applying for other non-art related jobs....though I have pretty much been limiting this to office work (eg-data entry/file sorting/things along those lines). I find that type of work infinitely more relaxing than retail, and it would bring me quite a bit more money at any rate (and on a side note, at least I’d be able to expand my computer and office-related skills).

However, considering most “easy to obtain” jobs are in retail, I may end up going rather broke during this holiday season (I still live with my parents though so at least I don’t have to worry about food or rent). Though frankly, if I go broke I think a lot of it would be my own damn fault due to my hideously out of control hoarding/shopping addiction (heh….not gonna go into that here....^^;)

At any rate, once I made this decision I realized I have absolutely no idea what I’m gonna do next in terms of building my art/design career. Generally I’ve just been searching for these types of jobs and assignments on places like Craigslist and Deviantart, with little to no luck (sadly many of the jobs have ended up being scams). I really had no idea what other resources were available to me, so I started asking around for tips (from friends, former professors, fellow Deviant-artists, etc).

I ended up getting quite a few interesting responses and suggestions, but still wasn’t sure where to start. So in my confusion I decided to make a Magical, Awesome List. I’d like to note here that lists are sexy. If something’s written down, chances are I’ll probably end up doing it at some point just for the Joy of being able to Cross It Off my List. (*cough*neurotic*cough*). And I came to a realization upon looking at my Magical List, which is that:

I have an absolute assload of resources/tips available to find the kind of career I’m looking for, and if I go through that entire list and DON’T have a job by the end of it, I’d be suffering from some extraordinarily bizarre bad luck.

So that’s my next step now. And this time, considering I have made myself a promise not to allow myself to fall back on retail, I believe I’ll be putting much more effort into finding a design/art job. I have the resources, I have the time, and something tells me I’m not gonna fail this time (even if I have pretty much $2 left in my bank account by the time I get a job. Though hopefully it won’t take that long…ack…)

Which brings me to my closing statement:

Why on Earth am I still typing here when I should be going through the resources on my list?

So I shall bid farewell for today…and hopefully in my next entry I shall have some Exciting Job News!

Greetings, Dear Readers!

Welcome to the first volume of Kittensoft's Magical Art Blog! Yes I realize the title is hideous, I'll get around to changing it some day though right now I have no idea what else to call it...^^;

I'll be using this blog mainly as a Tool to Chronicle my Artistic Adventures, though there will be a few other surprises along the way as well.

Right now I'm pretty much just trying to figure out how to use this site (eeep I realized I accidentally marked that I'm "male" on my profile....^^;) For now, feel free to visit my Deviantart site at: http://kittensoft.deviantart.com :)

If you have any questions, art requests, or private comments, please send a message to: tina_olah@hotmail.com :)