deviantART: by:azuzephre

Updates <3

=azuzephre — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:33:14 PDT

Hey guuuuys.

Yesterday, I participated in the AIDS walk LA, and it was amazing. My phone died during the drive to West Hollywood, so I didn't have any way to contact and meet up with anyone, which was a huge bummer because walking alone was awkward. Even still, the entire walk was powerful. Around one of the first bends in the route, a religious group set up a protest with signs that read things like "Homo sex is sin." I live in a relatively conservative city in Los Angeles County, so to walk with a massive sea of people who collectively support the repeal of Prop 8, for a change, was awesome. I couldn't help but laugh to see the religious activists experience being the minority, and I'm glad to have been one of the 40,000 people who flipped them off as we walked past. Hahaha.

Tomorrow I'm seeing my favorite band in the whole world in concert, but I'll have to write about that after I'm back because I have an internet stalker, and I'm refraining from posting information on my exact whereabouts even only slightly in advance. Hahaha. Seriously though, this person took photos that I took with friends from my myspace, edited photos of themselves over my friends, and posted the edited photos in their myspace account. If that weren't creepy enough, they made another myspace account under my name, posted my photos there, and then commented back and forth between the two accounts as though I was talking to them. This person has made considerable effort to find out what concerts I have tickets for, so yeah. Let's just say I'm seeing Hanson in Fort Lauderdale and hope they go to that show instead. : )

I've gotten tons and tons of emails from people asking why not all of the Pon&Zi comics are available as prints at azuzephre.net, when Tshirts and totebags will be available again, when the (Valentines Day) cards will be available, etc. I'm almost about to start running low on the stock of a few of the prints I have, so I'll be sending an order to my printers this week not only to restock the currently available prints, but also to get some of the other comics made, and also to get the (Valentines Day) cards started. "Valentines Day" is in parentheses because while they could be great for Valentines Day when it finally gets here, the first cards printed won't have a Valentines Day theme so that you can use them for monthiversaries, anniversaries, birthdays, lovenotes, etc. Neat, right? They'll come with Pon&Zi envelopes too. Super cute if you ask me. Hahaha. Also, I've put an order in for more totebags, so they should be back in stock within a week or two. : ) Tshirts, however, will take a bit longer to get made.

That's about it, I think. Do me a favor and cross your fingers for me. I'm waiting to hear back from school to see how much scholarship money I can get. Huhuhuu. C'est important!

<333
Jeff

AIDS Walk LA

=azuzephre — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:43:39 PDT

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all enjoying Autumn as much as I am. I've had three pumpkin pie shakes today alone, and it's starting to cool down at night, which is excellent.

So anywaaaay, I'm excited to be participating in the 25th Annual LA AIDS Walk on October 18th. It's the first time I've done something like this, but I'm really looking forward to it. I don't know anyone personally who is battling HIV/AIDS, but I'm aware that it's a terrible thing, and I want to do anything I can to help fund research to find better treatment options.

If you've been watching the news, you may have heard that a series of vaccines has been developed that has shown to decrease the likelihood a person has to contract HIV by 31%. This series of vaccines is the first to have shown any promise in the fight against the disease, and it's development is very good news. We're finally making substantial progress, and now is a great time to support the fight either by walking or by donating to the fund.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are available to walk, it's not too late to register (for free!) and start collecting donations yourself. Send me a note if you're planning on walking so we can meet up and walk together!

CLICK HERE to visit the AIDS Walk LA homepage and register!

If you're unable to participate but would like to make a donation, I'm trying to collect as much as I can and would appreciate your help!

CLICK HERE to make a donation!

Also, 50% of all profit made from Pon and Zi Comic Prints sold through azuzephre.net between now and October 14th will be donated as well. I'd say that's an excellent way to earn some good karma and score some AzuPrints in the process. Hahaha.

CLICK HERE to visit azuzephre.net

<333 Jeff

Crazy Busy <3

=azuzephre — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:49:45 PDT

Hello, all. The past few weeks have been crazy, and I'm a little bit overwhelmed. In fact, I ought to be painting now, but I needed a break, so I thought I'd make a quick update here.

First, I've added a Pon&Zi FAQ to my profile here because I feel bad not being able to answer all of the questions that get sent in. So yeah, it's in the left column of my profile, and I think I've got most of the questions that get asked most answered. I've also added links to the Pon&Zi myspace profile and to my Twitter, also in the left column.

Second, the totebags in the shop at azuzephre.net have sold out. I'll be getting more printed, but it may take a few weeks, so until I've got them back in stock, I've removed them from the shop. Keychains have been added, however, and there are two designs available. A few of you have asked why not all of the comics are available as prints, and it's actually because I had to rush to get them printed in time for this past Summer's convention season and didn't have time to format all of them for printing. Hahaha. I'm doing that now though, so more of the first comics should be available very soon, along with the Cactus comic, a couple unreleased comics, and even some posterrrrs. Exciting stuff.

Third, I'll be a Guest at ComiCon Long Beach in the very beginning of October! I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it for all three days, but I'll try my best. I'm not going to have a booth or an artists table for this one, but I'll be bringing prints and maybe some pins to throw at people to promote the comic and website. If you're planning on attending, send me a note, and let's meet up for coffee or a DDR duel or something. Hahaha.

Next, the top secret project I mentioned in my last journal is officially underway, and I'm really excited about it. It's still top secret, but it won't be long before I can post pictures of things and stuff.

Finally, I've been SO overwhelmed with school stuff and a million commissions that I'm a bit late on a project I'm definitely going to start anyway. Ideally, on the first day of each season, I'll be releasing a large-format, season themed Pon&Zi print, limited to 100 prints each, signed and numbered. Today was the first day of Autumn, so I'm late, but the first one will be coming as soon as I get my scholarship portfolio in, catch up with commissions, finish two menu boards for two coffee shops, and get a bit of work done for my secret project. So anyway, keep an eye out for that. It's going to be wonderful, I promise.

Bonjour!

=azuzephre — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:05:45 PDT

Hey everyone. It's been FOREVER since I've updated here and I apologize. I've been a very busy boy.. err, man..boy. A busy manboy. I just turned 21! But yeah, I've been busy throwing a ton of stuff together for school, updating azuzephre.net, and working on a kind of secret project that's kind of a big deal. I'm not sure when I'll be allowed to talk about it, but within the next year, I'll making an exciting announcement.

First, juicy gossip. I'm single once again, and for the first time since the dawn of puberty, I have no desire whatsoever to seek out someone new to date. It's not even because the breakup still hurts, either, because I'm not even sure if it hurts anymore. While having somebody to cuddle with is sort of nice, the entire situation is always terribly draining. I'm not saying that I'll never date again, but I'm not going to stress myself out looking for someone that might end up working out if I try really hard. For now anyway, I'm doing great by myself. Onto other news, I quit my job at the coffee shop after working there for two years. The shop at azuzephre.net is what feeds me now, and it's kind of a scary thing because the flow of orders is rather inconsistent. I'm learning how to budget and plan ahead though. Unfortunately, however, part of this journal will be devoted to promotion of the shop. I don't want to annoy anyone, but I need to eat and pay my bills. Hahaha. So let's get that part out of the way. Brace yourself for the biggest most obnoxious link in the world.

The last time I updated my journal, the shop at azuzephre.net wasn't even open, but it is now, stocked full of ComicPrints, ButtonPinPacks and Totebags! The comic prints are a lot bigger than they were when they were sold in the old version of the shop, which is nice because the last ones were a bit tiny. They're still only $3.00 each, too. The button pins come in packs of seven for seven dollars. That's a dollar each, less than half what places like Hot Topic charge for their pins, and psshhh. These are hella cuter too. Totebags are back with a better design. Each one comes with three FREE random button pins, too. STEAL. Hahaha. Anyway, take a look if you can. Payment is processed through PayPal, orders are shipped daily Monday through Saturday, and tracking numbers are provided along with the confirmation email.

<333

As far as new projects go, I'm crazy busy with my secret project, and I can't post any of the stuff involved with that yet. But since I work at home now, I have a lot more time to work and I'm learning how to get more done in a day. I'll try to post some assignments from school, and I have a ton of unposted PonComics that I might intermittently upload as well.

Does anybody know of any huge comic conventions coming up? I had a lot of fun meeting people at FanimeCon in San Jose and at AX her in Los Angeles, but I want to do more, especially if it means I'll have to travel. Hahaha. Someone at AX suggested a convention in London, but I forgot what it was called. Let me know, and let's get coffee together because I love you all. <333

It's 3:04am and I can't think of anything else important to type about. So on that note, I think I'll play some FFXII like the hardcore nerd that I am and then get some sleep.

Oh yeah! If you're a cool kid, you should follow me on Twitter! My sn there is also azuzephre.

<3azu

Updates

=azuzephre — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:13:50 PDT

ACCD Term I Vanquished

My first term at Art Center is complete. When I took classes at the local community college, I never finished any of my assignments and played hooky more often than not, so I was worried that I'd have a hard time taking school seriously here. However, I completed every assignment and only missed one class session. I'm not sure what my grades are, but at least I know I did it and I didn't give up.

The entire experience so far has been frustrating. I'm not the type that likes to be told what to draw, and I never take deadlines seriously enough. I dunno though. Out of nowhere, I've got this drive to just take off. I don't know if it's my obligation to make Ian proud anymore, either. That's definitely what got me to apply for scholarships and get into the classes, but now I think I'm running on my own legs. So anyway, I got all of my assignments done on time, I made a handful of friends, and it was really depressing to leave class on Wednesday night, even if immediately after, I went to an amaaaazing Bloc Party concert at the Hollywood Palladium. <333 I would listen to Bloc Party to help me focus on my homework, so seeing them in concert was a nice way to finish of the term.

But yeah, here I am. Being thrown into a mix of hundreds of people far more talented than I thought I could ever be made me realize how much more I have to learn, how much more climbing I have to do, but most importantly, it gave me an idea of exactly where I want to be headed. Now that I know what I want, the hard part is over. I just need to make it happen.

Organization

The most important thing I've learned at school so far is that in order to become a successful illustrator, you can't just draw pretty things. You have to market yourself effectively or nobody is even going to know about your pretty drawings, and I've been doing a horrrrible job at it. I don't update my site enough, and Pon and Zi are mixed in with my other illustration here. My deviantART, azuzephre.net, my Artician account, and my neglected LiveJournal are far from organized and anything but synchronized. I'm not the smartest person when it comes to all of that stuff, but I just learned how to use RSS feeds to synchronize my blog across all of my websites. So now, at least when I blog, visitors won't have to run through each of my profiles to get all of the information about something I'm doing.

Since I began my stay at deviantART so unorganized, there are people here who added me to keep track of Pon and Zi, and there are people who haaate Pon and Zi but added me to keep track of my other stuff. I can't cleanly remove either from my gallery here, so this page is going to be a messy combination of both. My Artician account is new, and it's not going to have anything to do with Pon and Zi. I'm in the process of making azuzephre.net only for Pon and Zi. I'll be using RSS to thread my Livejournal through both sites, so the blog section of each site will have updates that cover everything.

So once I upload more to my Artician account, I'll post a link here in case any of you are interested in taking a look. Keep an eye on the homepage at azuzephre.net to see if I've updated the site there. I'll be taking all of the blogs I've posted there down, and they'll be replaced with Livejournal blogs that are yet to be written. : B So yeah. Updates are coming.

New PonComics

By the way, I have TWENTY-TWO new PonComics waiting to release at the conventions I'll have booths at in the upcoming months. <333

Vlog

Oh yeah. In addition to having a synchronized blog between all of my sites, I'm adding a video blog page to azuzephre.net.

Azuzephre.net v.3

=azuzephre — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:18:40 PST

New Website Up and Running!

Okay so it's not very impressive, BUT I did it all by myself and I'm proud of it. Lol. I've got a few more comics to upload to the Pon and Zi Gallery, and I'm still messing around with the graphics and headers on some of the pages. I'll be updating a lot at first until I'm fully content. So yeah, go go go! Click the huge button!

Current Projects

Fortune Cookie 5%

In high school, I took AP Art Workshop 3 times, and every year after our portfolios were turned in, we were each given a fortune cookie and assigned to use our fortune as a theme for a piece.

AzuPrints

Journal

=azuzephre — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:30:21 PST

An Open Letter to a Sleeping Boy

When you still had breath to speak, when your fingertips, not ashes yet, composed your last emails, we talked about what we were going to do with ourselves now that we'd graduated, now that we'd just had our eighteenth birthdays and now that we were probably grown up.

You would tell me about taking new pictures for your book; about the the clothes they had you model in, and about not feeling confident. You would tell me about how everyone at the office you were working at loved you. I knew why they loved you.

I would tell you about how I was making progress with my portfolio, and how I was nervous about presenting it to an admissions counselor at Art Center. I would tell you about how I was working on a new drawing of you, and about not feeling confident. I met with the counselor because you made me feel like I could do it.

A few weeks later, I met with the psychiatrist because after you died, I didn't think I could do anything, and I didn't. I didn't want to draw new things if I wasn't going to be able to show you what I did, especially if you weren't going to be able to model in new photoshoots or write new poems for me to read. I didn't want to go to college and have new stories to tell you if telling you stories wasn't something I could do. So I disregarded my plans to apply to Art Center, and ended up not showing up for the remainder of the semester of classes I was taking at the community college.

So for two years, I've been a brooding mess. I've known the whole time that this isn't the type of person you remember, but fighting to become some amazing illustrator with a lost best friend in mind is hard to do right away.

Two weeks ago, I finished my submission portfolio to Art Center and hand delivered it to the south campus 30 minutes before the deadline. My written statement is about you.

Today I received an acceptance letter and scholarship. I start classes on January 14th, and I'm gonna kick ass.

I want you to know that you're still the fire in my chest and the glow behind my eyes. I'm not going to walk into my first class as one of the amazing kids who stands out as gifted but none of the other kids hold a muse's hand, and I'm going to grow to make you proud. Seeing pictures of you doesn't make me sad anymore, it doesn't hurt to read notes you've written, and now when someone asks who my signature here on deviantART is about, I smile to think that it's about you.

Current Projects

Fortune Cookie 5%

In high school, I took AP Art Workshop 3 times, and every year after our portfolios were turned in, we were each given a fortune cookie and assigned to use our fortune as a theme for a piece.

AzuPrints

Pon and Zi Posters

=azuzephre — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:52:38 PST

These both sold out in the first day of Anime Expo, but now more have been printed and they're available once again! Tshirts are still all available as well.

Poster

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Poster

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