No, you're not imagining things. I'm actually popping back in here for a moment because I really want to share something new!

Finally, a gadzillion years later, my webcomic is available to download as a PDF. You can download the entire story from Itch.io and Payhip. Since it's so long, I've divided it into two collections. And yes, that is completely new art from 2024 on the cover of Collection Two.

 

 I'm also working on creating a revamped print version of the entire story that will be available through Amazon. So that's all for now.

 And as I shared in my last post, if you want to find me, here's where I currently am.

 Arcadiapage.com

 Thoughts from Arcadia Page

 Thanks for reading! 

At least here, anyways...

The day has finally arrived. I will no longer be updating this blog.

Now you can find me at:

Arcadiacomics.blogspot.com

There are no blog posts there yet. I will be making my first blog post next week.

This new blog is super exciting to me because it's very focused on what I like to make. I don't feel like I'm doing double duty, making a comic and writing blog posts. I can update my blog with comic pages, art, and blog posts.

Speaking of comics, Mandy & Molly is now live.

Start reading it now on my new blog, arcadiacomics.blogspot.com, Tapastic, or Smackjeeves.

So this really isn't an end, but a new beginning. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you over at my new site.

How I almost got totally side-tracked by looking at other people's work...

This is an illustration of the main characters of Mandy & Molly six years before the story starts. The neat thing about this illustration, other than that the girls are super cute, is that I drew this using the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, 2014 Edition.

I just felt like drawing something relaxing. Right now my go-to activity for break time is a hot cup of tea. My flavor of choice is vanilla camomile. It does make me a little drowsy, but in a good way.

Unfortunately, this is often viewed as more important than good writing.

This sketch in progress is not of a character that will be appearing in my latest project, Mandy and Molly. He's actually showing up in Shower Singer, a short story that I'm working on. This is a fun, let's see how much I can do in a short amount of time, side project.

The art of drawing attractive guys has changed for me since I've worked on Mascara. One thing is since I'm no longer single, I'm coming from a different point of view.

Now every time I draw a handsome guy, I'm not thinking about the man I wish I could be with, but of my husband. I think about how he looks when he's sleeping, when he's happy, and when he needs a haircut and his bangs are threatening to fall over his eyes...Drawing is way more exciting when I reflect on those things. 

Overall, I'm more aware of what I actually like in a handsome male character. I prefer longer hair and a slender frame. Short hair is okay sometimes, but longer hair so much fun.

I don't know if this is typical, but I find drawing a guy who looks good is more work than drawing a pretty girl. Drawing a beautiful woman is simple. Drawing a guy that's beautiful can easily take me twice the time.

This is a short story about a guy who hears the girl next door singing in the shower every night through the walls of his apartment. And yes, I'm gender swapping again, which means I'm a girl writing a story from the guy's first person point of view.

Now I'm working illustrating and editing.




As always, for more updates on my projects, follow me via email! Right now I'm busy revamping my email newsletter, but when I'm done figuring out what's going on, I hope to have weekly, relevant, and exclusive updates to share with you.            

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In case you're wondering, I haven't written any new posts for the last week and a half because I've been enjoying working on my current projects.

Small Projects

It took some work to get the Smashwords meatgrinder to accept my novella, but after fixing all of the errors, it's finally published.  The Blue Room Café can now be found at the iBooks store, Barnes & Noble, and many other ebook publishers. Here's the Smashwords page for The Blue Room Café. 

Between Kindle and Smashwords, I like Smashwords more. I feel like they give me more control over promoting my book, the wider distribution is nice, and I don't I have to lock myself into using them only to set my book at a certain price.


It's not that I won't stop publishing to Kindle, but I think in the future, I'm going to publish to Smashwords first and not give Kindle exclusivity to my work for 6 months.


Medium Projects

Lately I've been obsessed with planners. I think it comes from a strong inner desire to feel organized. I'm not really an organized person, but I like to imagine that I am.

I've created some printable planner pages that give my doodles new life. Some of these designs actually come from the Post-it note sketches I was drawing. It makes me smile to see how art can be turned into something useful.






The Strawberry Doughnut planner pages are now available on Etsy, and I will be gradually adding the other three sets that I created.

Big Projects

Right now, I only have one big project, and that's working on my manga. I'm still getting over jumping from one story to another, but seeing the difference in how motivated I feel, I'm glad that I did. I'm excited about it. And when I'm excited about a story, it always shows in the energy of the story itself.

The artwork is different from my other stuff, but I like it.

And note to adventurous artists who are Linux users: Medibang Paint works well with Wine. The only thing I miss is the pressure sensitivity from my tablet, but it's not a deal breaker for me. 

With sketch layer.

And without it...

Those clouds look like lumpy flying saucers...

It's not easy! I'm over halfway done with this sticky note art challenge. Sometimes it's hard to sit back and aimlessly draw something.I look at what I draw and think,"That's kind of ugly" or "That makes no sense." But then all of these judgments go against why I'm drawing aimlessly in the first place.

I'm not drawing like this for precision. I'm doing this for fun and to give my mind a chance to play with images. Playing is simply messy sometimes.

The sticky note art challenge continues! With 17 more days to go, I'm almost half way to drawing a little sketch everyday for a month.

I wish I had more days to spend in New York City, but I don't. It was fun, and I really enjoyed it. While I was there, I made sure to do some things that satisfied my nerdy interests and hobbies.

Kinokuniya

If I had time to visit only one store in NYC, this would be it. Not only is it a book store, but the top floor is manga only and the sub-level floor is full of journals, inkpens, some artist supplies, Japanese office products, and all kinds of kawaii stuff. I could have easily spent a whole day there. And the whole bank account.

They also have a huge section of Japanese only books and manga, so for Japanese speakers and learners, this store will hit the spot.

Tokyo Rebel/Baby, The Stars Shine Bright



I don't dress or cosplay in lolita style, but I love looking at it, and I like certain items in that style. The girl who ran the store was dressed in lolita gear from head to toe. She looked like a super cute doll.  I'm feeling the warm and fuzzies just writing this. I became attached to a pair of shoes while I was there, but I was disappointed to learn that the cost of them was outside of the budget my husband and I had set for this trip. Sigh...

Toy Tokyo

This is a store full of cartoon/anime related collectable items. Kinokunya had some of the same items, but this store has more variety.

Sakagura


This is a restaurant with a very traditional Japanese feel to it. The food was awesome and satisfying. The waitresses were all like, "Arigatoo!" when my husband and I were leaving. Sakagura is a little hard to find, but it's worth the extra effort.

Also their bathrooms are equipped with those mind-boggling multifunction toilets. I almost didn't know which button to push to flush...I felt like a tourist in Japan for a moment.

Other

The Uncommons

I'm not a board gaming geek--my husband is. But I enjoyed this board game café. For a fee, we could play as many games as we wanted for as long as we wanted for that day. We could even leave the café and come back later to play more games without having to pay again. I really appreciated the environment there. There's a game store in our area where we can go to test out games, but it's usually full of teenage boys and men.

This café attracted not only guys, but women and children too. And the kids were too busy playing board games to be distracting. I liked the variety of people there, and it made the experience enjoyable instead of awkward.


I'm happy that I was able to discover some great places during my stay in New York City, and I'm going to be looking back on this trip with a huge smile on my face for a long time.

I'm taking a break from my comic and spending some time with family in New York City this week. I've traveled through NYC before,  but this is my first time getting to explore it. I loved the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And sadly, I had to ride on the subway at rush hour. I understand the "Don't lean on the door" signs, but at rush hour, there's no where else to stand! It's impossible not to.

Interacting with people here isn't intimidating to me, because the majority of  people in the part of Florida where I live are from New York. The people are the same. What's intimidating is the pace of everything. People walk fast down the street and run to the subway.

New Yorkers in Florida are in suspended motion. Everything here is full speed. The best way I've found to adapt is to watch how everyone else is walking, and copy it. Then I feel more in sync with everything.

Overall, I like it here. I just wish that sometimes that people would show more respect for the city they live in, and not hide how great it is with litter.

For fun I'm doing this challenge where I draw on sticky notes for thirty days. It's a quick way to do art not related to my comic. So far I've found it fun and refreshing. Here's what I've drawn on days one, two and three. I've done a few more, but I think I'll only share my favorites.

All sketches were done totally off the top of my head--no erasing--with a blue sharpie pen.


Day One


The first sketch I did was a bunch of flying doughnuts! I think it's because I was looking at some kawaii key chains on Etsy, and adorable doughnuts is a common theme. Seeing a real doughnut with heart sprinkles would be so cool.

Day Two


Into the forest! I was feeling very artsy when I did this one. Drawing the trees were a little tedious, but I was really happy with how things turned out.

Day Three

As far as making art goes, this is one of the best weeks I've had in awhile.  This illustration was made with Medibang.

While I was working, I accidentally started inking on my draft layer. That was frustrating.



Adding some more ink...



And then color.



I worked on this for four days, spending around an hour or less on it each day. I couldn't help feeling happy as I created it--everything about this piece is so cute! And as I was drawing, my brain kept making up stories about these girls. The stories kept growing and growing until I realized that I haven't been so obsessed with coming up with stories for two characters since I started working on Mascara. 

This is making me rethink what I really want to write about...

For me, making pixel art is also strangely relaxing. It's like dot, dot, dot...

It hasn't been easy, but I'm starting to get some work done on Lovely Riot. It's been hard finding the time to work on it, and not having the time has been killing my motivation. But lately I've had some moments to work on it everyday, so hopefully that's a good sign.

The Beginning 

This story starts with a rainy day flashback. I still have some cleaning up to do on this page. The first chapter of this story is a flashback, so I'm testing out using mostly black and white and some selective color. The plant is suppose to be outside on a porch, but the way it's being hit by the rain is kind of weird. Have some work to do on that.





I really like this drawing of  Allena, the main character. I'm trying to use a little tone as possible because I want to be less software dependent. My goal is to have the ability to create something I like using whatever art software I  have on hand. Tone will appear at times, but it will be rare. I haven't colored in her umbrella yet. I'm thinking blue maybe good...





And this is Hector, the main male character. I muted the colors on him because he's in a rainy environment. Hopefully, it'll make more sense when I add in the background. Sadly, backgrounds are my weakness. I probably should practice drawing them more so I can get better at it.





So that's all for this week. I hope that next week will be just as productive so I can share more of what I'm working on.