wired writes about manga
When I saw the magazine cover with the busty pink haired anime-ish babe and the title "Manga Conquers America" I thought that it was another one of those late-to-the-game type of stories that Wired seems to always do.
But, it was actually a look at the relationship between the Japanese "dojinshi" market and the authentic publisher houses. The most interesting bits mentioned how publishers are using the doujinshi trends to forecast actual manga trends, and I also liked its comparison to the copyright-restrictive environment in the US. There's a pretty strong fandom in the US and elsewhere which he didn't cover (think Harry Potter, Star Wars/Trek, LOTR, Firefly), but I think the point is that doujinshi products are being sold. With tacit permission from the publishers.
Take a look at the article. (Skip all the "gee look even schoolgirls and businessmen read manga" type of commentary.)
By the way, Wired also has the cutest little illustrations in the November issue. Check out Evah Fan's website, potatoes have toes for more examples of her work.
images belong to Evah Fan +/- Wired
tshirt hearts - done!
All done! I'm pretty happy with it.
Tshirt surgery conducted:
- sleeves chopped off. baby sleeves made by extending shoulder.
- yoke inserted front and back. leftover shirt flipped upside down.
- back yoke gathered into darted back
- front shirt gathered into front yoke
burdastyle alice contest
I had plenty of people saying I should enter so here we go:
The first is the same top from last time, re-illustrated to fit the "Alice in Workingland" theme. The second is a cute labcoat. I'm surprised that labcoats out there are so baggy and ugly. The websites that sell them try to point out the special ones with princess seaming, but that doesn't help when the whole thing is still looks like a box.
Deadline is tomorrow. I still have yet to enter since I'm waiting to hear back from them about a very odd sentence on their entry form about not retaining any copyright ... a scary thing to agree to as a designer.
By the way, the red peach-butt shirt is finished. I am waiting for daylight + being at home + camera to get a good photo for you.
I want ...
a new wool coat. Preferably purple. With a waistband, deep pockets, and sleeves you can hide your hands in.
For all those cold cold California winters.
Edit: new contest out at Burdastyle. First deadline in a week on Oct 18. Theme is "Alice in Workingland", and you can submit designs for girls and boys, winners get to be part of the spring collection of open source patterns. Should I try again?
tshirt hearts - progress, kind of
Here's a before and a what-I-decided-not-to-do photo.
I've had this tshirt for forever and didn't want to donate it away, so I decided to give it a little makeover. (I got it in high school on a school-orchestra job.)
All the tshirt reconstruction I've seen online and in the book stores is focused on the teenage deconstructed indie look. But really, can you picture me wearing stuff like that? I'd feel like a too-old poser.
Instead, I was thinking something more like all the really pretty polished draped knits you see everywhere would be nice. I tried for a bit (2nd photo above) and then found out that it doesn't really work with a silkscreened print and regular tshirt material (too coarse and not enough of it). I ended up going for a more simple silhouette by putting in a yoke in the front and back, which means it's taking a whole lot longer than I expected. I couldn't manage to keep the "Mercy Heart Institute of Pittsburgh" over the heart though, so sad. The yoke ended up going right through it.
After that party dress and now this, I feel like an expert at sewing pointy-shapes into v-shapes. Would a tutorial be useful?
tshirt hearts
I'm trying a little tshirt surgery on a big old shirt from high school.
There are hearts on it. If I flip them upside down, what do you think they look like: peaches or poo?
