Here Kitty, Kitty!

Let's play!

Kamiko and her new friend are traipsing around Tokyo and what's this? Playing with cats in the back alleys? Doesn't a magical girl have to stay on the beat? Well, I guess she's not really a cop. More like a vigilante trying to stop yokai and monsters?

Or befriending them?

What's so magical about Kamiko anyway?

I guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out.

That includes me. Wait shouldn't I know? I mean I'm writing this... on the fly. I have no idea what will happen, except I do know what will happen like 10 pages from now because I drew it and you haven't seen it yet.

Behind the Scenes

H_ow'd I draw this?_

I cheated again. Haha, bet you didn't see that coming.

I walked around Tokyo using Google Street Maps (look at that big ole copyright) and found a random back alley for this image. I screen shot it to use as an under drawing. Here's the original with some sketch overlay:

I used it to lay down the perspective lines. I drew the lines I thought were important and then insert Kamiko and her buddy and a little kitty. There are some lines along the street that I used to approximate perspective lines. I figured out their relative proportions and drew them.

What's new in my world?

Remember I made a coloring book?

No? Well, I'll pretend you didn't say that.

I did back in 2016. It's on Amazon and you can buy it. It's probably great to help you relax during this pandemic.

In the years after my coloring book, I learned a lot about how to make them even better and publish them on Amazon using Createspace (at the time) and then later Amazon's Kindle publishing.

Instead of making my own books I helped my mom for a little bit to help her publish three coloring books which you can get on Amazon. Links right here:

• Seashells: A Still Life Coloring Book (Still Life Coloring Books)

• Seasonal Vegetables: A Still Life Coloring Book (Still Life Coloring Books)

• Fruits: A Still Life Coloring Book (Still Life Coloring Books)

But, it's a lot of work, and I guess I'm not that great of a son, because I didn't feel like doing a lot of free labor after three books. I know, but it's not like it's a piece of cake to make a coloring book.

Her books are doing well, which is great.

And, I always wanted to do a follow up to the Lolita Fashion Coloring Book.

There are countless plans. I wanted to portray more Lolita styles. Make up new designs. I had ideas to invent new characters that would act as models in the book. Maybe some of the coloring pages could even tell a story that threaded throughout the book. I had a lot of ideas, but no strength or willpower to execute on it.

It felt like a very daunting task to make another book from scratch. And I didn't know what would work and what wouldn't.

When I started drawing the illustrations that would become the first book, it wasn't for the expressed purpose of making a coloring book. I was trying to do outfit studies and get better at drawing Lolita fashion and find new ways of portraying Kamiko.

Also, wouldn't it be cool if all the illustrations were on a turntable so I could have a sweet animation at the end of it?

Yeah, I did that!

I started with sketchy pencils, then grayscale shaded drawings. Later, I began to ink and color them too, and finally, I came full circle and got lazy again and did pencils and inks only. A friend of mine saw my work and thought it would make a nice coloring book, so I researched it and compiled my drawings into one.

Ta-dah! Coloring book.

Easy-peasy. I can do it again. Oh, but should it be the same thing? Should it have more backgrounds -- lots of coloring books have that! How about I focus only on the dresses? Should there be more interesting poses?

I couldn't really decide.

So nuts to that.

Then, Let's not do a book.

I'm not in that headspace right now for a coloring book. I want smaller, faster projects, so I can try a lot of things.

Then, let's try this...

How about... an Etsy shop to sell coloring pages!

I started this Etsy shop in 2017, but it fell through when I moved and got a new job. Now, I'm trying to revive it. I can take what I learned over the years and apply it to what I was doing and see if I can't do better.

So, no Lolita Fashion coloring book volume 2, but this will allow me to put out new ideas faster, and maybe I can build some critical mass (and some sales) that can allow me to find what people like about my art and coloring pages.

Whatever that will be could become a second book.

Here's a sample of the digital coloring pages you can purchase and download right now:

There are some pages from the Lolita Fashion Coloring Book -- I remixed and prepared those in 2017. There are some newer pages from the more sexy and cute looking version of Magical Girl Kamiko, and another one where she's a Witch Lolita.

And also, I want to move away from Kamiko. I draw her a lot, but I'd like to have different characters in the mix. I'd like to experiment with different backgrounds and types of coloring pages, and for me, at least, this doesn't feel as daunting as a whole dedicated book.

Is there anything you'd like to see as a coloring page?

Maybe pages from This Mortal Coil?

Hey, if so, Leave a comment below and let me know!