I’ve been thrilled to post this one yet I wasn’t sure of the timing..! Working on a lot of projects currently and sadly this has to wait for another day, but I couldn’t hold myself back from jumping on the hype-train of 💗Heart’s Day💗 (Valentines) and be inconveniently cheesy.

So here’s the mock cover reveal! I hope you like it on it’s own and look forward to the doujin~ I’ll make an announcement when the time’s right🍓

🍓Strawberry🍰Cake✨Day💘?!?!

My friend Noah made an illustration in 2021 of his OC’s, Red and Buntaro eating a slice of strawberry cake. {At the time he was also very often baking strawberry cakes, take pictures and sent it over for the rest of us to see. They were wonderful and I’ve always wanted to taste one (and one day, one slice is gonna be mine!) *rubshands*}. I’ve been obsessed with this artwork of his in particular, it never left my mind, it’s been my desktop screen for forever, and it’s never leaving it’s place. I’ve been saying for the past 2 years “I want to make characters eat strawberry cake!!!” but I didn’t manage at the time, sadly. Here I am today, about to explode with sugar, strawberries, chocolate and hearts, posting this and I couldn’t be happier!!

I watched Advent Children 5 times between end 2021- beginning 2022 and practiced on his outfit before finally deciding to draw CC Cloud instead. I usually tackle full-bodies for zines, it was a pleasant change to paint a portrait for once~ 

These are wip-screenshots from both painting and standee I designed (I think they look really cool, I’m happy to share hehe)! This standee is the first piece of merchandise I ever made and it holds a very special place in my heart! Thank you very much for the opportunity ♥ !!

I am currently uploading the timelapse of the painting and I should get to uploading the standee BTS once my package arrives *crosses fingers!* I’ve been keeping for so long, but I’d love to have the entire experience of traditonal-to-digital-to-final_product in one video so I’ll hold for as long as it needs..! ☆ UPDATE FURTHER DOWN, the video is mADE!!

As a surprise for being here, here’s the little eerie edit I ended up inserting in the timelapse as an add-on

I had 2 files corrupted while working on this. I don’t remember what happened anymore (let me check discord).

..

right

I don’t remember mentioning if I lost any work, but I will assume I lost a couple of hours (+2hrs of trying to restart my pc and make it work again 💀).. Gladly this time there was a very pleasant recovery file which I duplicated and feared every time I saved in PS //cries

Unfortunately file corruptions occur more often now, that's my signal that my poor pc needs an upgrade (who can afford one in this economy??? Prolong the lives of your machines, friends!). I'll live in fear and 5 backup files until I decide my hardware hates anything above 5000px+ files and I go smaller (which is not happening, sorry friend, we'll have to keep being fried a little longer.. hang in there..)

[9月2日Update] I have uploaded the second (and final) timelapse with a little assembly video at the end and some extras~

I have the habbit of working at least x2 bigger in file than what goes into print. First lesson learned was this is unnecessary in merch-making of small sizes (I actually worked x3~4 times bigger and it shows in the video why it was a bad idea //wheeze) especially since my lineart is very thin and it gets lost if shrinked. I’ve watched so many merch-making vlogs in the past years, print-test got drilled in my brain and forced myself to test it at least once (gotta be professional about it, right? ;3) It wasn’t too early on, but it was early enough to change the composition of the piece as it set realistic expectations to what would work out or not (the size was so important, I hadn’t realised it would shrink so much because I obviously read very well and was fully aware of the OG size provided by the lovely mods). From the original design to the final I made a lot of changes and I was too obsessed with the meteor to let go. I cut at least 5mins (already sped-up) of me trying to lineart it and failing miserably so I switched back to PS and did it there. I cannot watch my own timelapse anymore without feeling dread and bored lmao, my convolution makes my skin crawl, so meticulous.. If it’s interesting to anyone I’ll be happy, if not then I am not surprised, I am not either! It made a beautiful base regardless, so it was worth it~ On a final note, no I did not 100% forget what kind of idea I had for the flaming buster sword (the meteor was supposed to reflect-in-tiny over it) and completely ignored my initial sketch to polish something I wasn’t sure what it was. It works out in the end so we’re good ok.

If there’s one thing I am taking from working on this is; don’t experiment when merch-making, it will make your life so much easier to stick to a process but knowing myself this is not happening. It’s just not me lol //runs

I am in denial that the zine is finally wrapping up.. It’s been such a wonderful experience sharing the Cloud love between us (for ~7 months?? time flies ;;;;;;!!) //is emotional.. I am very grateful and honoured to be part of this wonderful project ♥ thank you everyone for your lovely company during this time ;; I will always hold our little chit-chats and cloud-love-sharing dearly in my heart. Mod team, you are STELLAR and I hope one day our roads cross again💫!! ---

Thank you for making it this far 🌦️