What's New?
Spring Update --March 21st, 2024--
Spring update! I love writing update posts just at the cusp of season changes. Luckily I also have plenty to talk about this time. It might have been a quieter month among these gallery sections, but there's been a lot of happenings in any case; also, whenever I'm not in a drawing mood it just means I'm in a writing mood instead, so there's still additions to my site. Starting off with the artings this time around!- New digital illustration featuring the gang shopping in Stargate Fantasy, which was an actual emo/scene shop me and my friends used to get all our spiked bracelets from. A little memory piece, so to speak.
- In the other digital gallery, a piece featuring Amphetamine opens the new folder for 2024. Inspired by eurobeat and cool fighing poses!
- There's also a new comic strip with Jimmy, Tunny and a terrible pun. I mean, what are terrible puns for if not for silly comic strips?
- New recieved fanart of Jamaila from Raye as part of a trade! And it's the first fanart of Jami I get, too!
- As for my own fanart pictures, I uploaded my second set of sepia-toned Pokemon art since I sold the originals of the other ones. I hope this one strikes the same success! The new designs featuring Bulbasaur line, Meowth, Lapras, Suicune and Ho-Oh will premiere as exclusives for the Lucca Collezionando convention, but afterwards (if still available!) will be put for sale also on my Ko-Fi, so keep your eyes peeled!
The new VN skin has rolled out since last update! It now features the cyborg siblings Joypad and Program with a bright and pleasant turquoise/orange palette and some Metalheart aesthetics. Been meaning to do this skin for a while and I'm happy it feels as cozy as I imagined.
I wrote a new Journal! It's the first entry of a tutorial/tips'n'tricks mini series on convention booth organization. The second one is in the works so I hope to update again with that entry as well! We also have a new affiliate with Mystic Wish and I got accepted into a new webring, PKMNCollecting!
Updates on sites aren't done yet, since me and my brother have just started works to bring VN version 3.0 live! Wooot! If everything goes well the new iteration will roll out in late April, Early May. Basically yeah, everytime I try to line up all these major updates with VN's birthday, hehe. Version 3.0 will mostly be a backend update with slimmer code, a good database cleaning and assorted fixing of minor issues we ended up finding in 2.0, which is always a good plus; the current frontend layout is love so that won't change much but we'll do a little bit of updating here and there especially on the travel bar, the marquee and the right menu so they're more efficient and interactive! I didn't know it was possible to improve layout peace, but I managed to cook up a concept screencap that I really really like and can't wait to see working. Everything is so exciting yeee!
Works have already started on the backend portion of the site and will probably have a database migration at some time. I'll let you know if the place might go dark for a few minutes xD
Other sites of mine are also experiencing updates: in these last weeks I've completely revived and revamped my Neocities which was lying around as a semi-dead fake splashpage but now it's a repository of fun stuff that doesn't really fit here; animation reviews, music playlist, toy shrines, quiz results... all those things that fit more in a playroom than a portfolio, that's why I decided to rename it as, infact, The Playroom! The layout (which features tables and is not compatible for mobile, sorry!) is 100% complete and pages are in the process of being built, with content scheduled to roll out in a semi-regular pace.
After that will come an overdue update for my poor BlastoiseMonster as I've noticed the layout keeps giving out more and more errors, I can't even see its graphics on some computers! This might be mostly a fault of where the layout graphics are being currently stored, but surely something that I have to take a look at in the near future. I might have to come up for a new skin for it, or I dunno, move everything out of Tumblr if I feel there's a better option for my gaming blog. Sigh!
Real life wise, at the time of writing I just completed packing everything up for Lucca Collezionando which will take place in Florence this weekend; also, me and Lock managed to reserve a booth for Novegro Comics Festival's spring edition, so we'll be there in May. Novegro will probably be our last event before taking a big pause for summer and autumn, since we have to organize for something much bigger...
So uh, it's official: me and Lock are getting married this summer! We have a late March appointment at the town hall to sign the usual papers and decide for the official celebration date, which we plan to be either in late August or early September. We've been together a long time and sharing a house since five years now, so the marriage won't be a shock to our daily lives and routines, but it'll obviously take some work to organize and that's why we'll be taking a pause off conventions. I have been calling Lock both my boyfriend and my husband at the same time, so I can imagine it might have confused people xD Well, after summer's over there won't be any more misleading naming. :V
And that is all for today! It's quite a bit of news, so if you've been reading the whole post, thanks for sticking through it! See you!
New Year Start --February 1st, 2024--
Welcome to the new year! As usual the first month has been pretty busy and I can't believe how each year January seems to pass away quicker and quicker. Have some news!Novegro Comics Festival has broken all our records and it's been one of the best conventions so far! We hope that they just keep getting better and better. Next one is Bologna Nerd Show in just a few weeks, during which I hope to clear up all my due commissions as my new pricelist is just waiting to be uploaded.
I've posted a couple new things on site, among which a journal entry aimed to motivate everyone who's dissatisfied with the current state of the Internet to shake things up and create their own corner. Since I opened this webpage my approach to the net has been much healthier, so I hope this could be the perfect solution for many others who are feeling the virtual fatigue which is oh so rampant lately.
I've also posted a new digital illustration, the first of this year yet related to Christmas! I've started this picture in December but had no time to work on it properly until the last week. Sigh... At least I still like the final result.
I know my previous update post said I had no resolutions for 2024, but I do have some projects regarding my webpages; first off I'll be completely revamping my Neocities account to turn it into a shrine collector. Second, since I'm planning a few quality of life improvements on VN, I might just go and make a 3.0 version: I'm not planning to change layout, but cleaning things up code-wise and maybe have a slightly better gallery or some additional features (I did mention to particularly like the RSS feed idea back then). New version or not, I'll be definitely working on a new skin soon enough since the black and violet palette is almost starting to give me an headache... sorry Gloria!
This might be everything for today, so till next time fuzzies!
Comics And Coffees --October 5th, 2023--
Oh hey fuzzies! The homecoming from vacation last September was more hectic than expected: we took care of a lot of chores and at the end of the day we felt that the only thing we were doing was paying bills and insurances. The joys of freelance work and VAT numbers... Though luckily we could alternate these oh-so-fun trips to the bank with actually fun times.So what happened in these last months of summer? Well, my relatives from the States came to visit for a week and I could hang around with my cousins! I don't see them often and it's so good to finally catch up once in a while. Two of them brought their boyfriend/girlfriend along and it was a pleasure to meet them. Hope I can soon return the favour and go visit them with a trip overseas sometime in the near future!
Moving on to comic-related news, english copies of LWY 4 and 5 are now in stock. Finally we have all volumes available in both languages and our shop is complete! All that's left for us to do is to push these sales by attending a non-italian speaking con... we're thinking UK, but I know that at the moment it's just fancy musings as we already are busy with events in Italy. But! Of course the comics (and the rest of the merch) is still purchasable online!
For that matter, because I still have to reach "layout peace" in the Shop sections of VN, I've opened a Kofi shop to better advertise and sell LWY and subsequent printed projects. I still have to set details up, take more appealing pictures and advertise properly, but so far I've been toying with it and feels like a comfortable platform to sell on. Once it's complete every available product will be directly linked from the shop page so if you're interested in getting something, you will be able to easily pay through Kofi. Sounds cool enough, doesn't it? X3
Also it's official, my new artbook's coming this November. It's going to be called Doubutsu No Gyaru and will feature over 20 coloured pinups plus research on the subgenres of gyaru fashion styles aaaannndddd... a little printable game! No more spoilers, I'm excited to see this on paper!
What else... the spooky autumn season has arrived, as soon as I free myself up from a few more commissions I would love to spruce up VN with a new skin. I'm thinking something vaguely Halloween-y but general enough to last throughout the rest of the season. I'd hate to come up with a new palette just to change it back only a week after!
And of course, a little update log on the gallery's new entries!
- A new digital illustration is in the dedicated gallery with deliciouisly warm autumn-y colours!
- Also a new cellshaded pic, a simple pinup of Fredrick in another experimental Global Village Coffeehouse aesthetic.
- Added late this August, two traditional media pics featuring Helios along with equally tribal OCs of two friends of mine. Done with Copics!
- Also done with Copics, three more japanese-tattoo styled Poke'mon fanarts in the appropriate section, so now my set of five is complete! Originals will be put for sale at conventions but there will also be miniprints versions of them!
- Finally, a new black and white strip comic, about spam mail xP
The End Of The Year As We Know It --December 31st, 2022--
I couldn't miss the opportunity of writing a post on the last day of 2022! Despite the worldwide situation, this year has been mostly positive for me: I've worked and improved a lot on my health (both mental and physical) and gotten back full swing into conventions, publishing projects and my own art; I'm closing this year with a satisfied smile and renewed hope the next one will be even better. But let's talk about VN first!The site's first skin swap has been uploaded on December 2nd and Xmas lights have coloured this homepage throughout the month! Sadly, they're gonna go away in about a week, as holidays pass. This is partly why I'm not very fond of seasonal skins... but I'm happy the transition to the new colours has been rather smooth.
As said previously, update posts of the main page have been cleaned up: there's less of them now as I've only kept important milestones of past year. The Shop section has also been updated with brand new stock and you can now admire (and order!) the new gadget designs I've made for upcoming conventions.
Speaking of conventions, the last event of 2022 has been Milan Games Week+Cartoomics, whose organization has been, gladly, much smoother than last year's. Our Griffinest member Coeleth has been sharing the booth with us just like we usually did pre-pandemic, and it has been such a happy reunion! It's glad to have her back, she's very eager to attend more cons: we are already set for the first part of our 2023 tour!
Concerning new art! The Guest Artist gallery now shows all drawings I've recieved during the con; also, there's a watercolour of Jamaila I did while at the Cartoomics in the Tradtional Art gallery and a cellshaded "meme" (not much anymore since I turned the prompt into a miniset of illustrations) in the Other Digital gallery, uploaded at the beginning of this month.
Me and Lock have spent the holidays at my parents' place, where I took the occasion to ultimate works on LWY 5: as I'm typing, the finalized PDF has been set to print! I feel much lighter now xD Soon enough I'm going to update the dedicated section with the volume's blurb and preview in both languages. Now I'll really be able to focus on my own drawings and get back to commissioned work (quite infact, I'll reopen my slots soon enough!).
Hey, what's a New Years post without some resolutions? I have quite a few for 2023, but in order not to lenghten this post too much, I'm only gonna list the ones regarding arts and projects!
Valy's resolutions for 2023!
- Completing more than six digital illustrations! Digital illustrations are my most complex drawings, and each one of them is an occasion for me to finetune my skills and try something new in a well-rendered enviroinment (pretty much the reason why they take so long to complete!). Over the years I've realized the more digital illustrations I worked on, the more I felt confident and "healhy" about my style. In 2021 when I was busy changing domains I had my most unproductive year with only four pieces; this year I have started to improve slightly with six illustrations, but I want this number to increase each time. Let's see how many I can draw this time!
- Excercising on volumes and gesture! I never post them online, but I do a lot of sketching studies each year focusing on specific art subjects that I feel underskilled at; it's something pretty much mandatory for selftaught artists, and as I go on with my studies, I delve further into more complex excercises. This past year I've been working on my human anatomy and dynamism; it's time for me to go one step further and improve my volumes and gesture.
- Redraw and reorganize my front/back chibi ref templates! Several of my customers have said that the chibi (also called plush) front/back views I use as marking chart on my ref sheet commissions are an original and cute idea! I drew the blank templates years ago and over time my collection of "available species" has been expanding as I got the occasion to work on different character designs. Now that my style has improved and changed, I could take some time to redraw my blanks and better reorganize my collection of species templates. I hope to still give them a cute plushy look xD
- Reorganize my Lost Without You printables and resources! Yeah, I'll still be tinkering around with this comic, at least for one more year. Development of this story has taken a lot of time and that means the single page files have been undergoing several backups, computer changes, even two fried hard disks! As a result, some pages have been lost, some have been only restored to previous versions, some are not available either in a language or another. As time goes on I'm gonna need readymade PDFs for easy reprints both in italian and english, so I'll take some time to restore files and make sure backup will be updated on all my devices; while I'm there, we'll also do some minor touchups on text or panels that can be improved on. Me and Lock really want LWY to be perfect 💗
Presenting... 2.0! --May 28th, 2022--
VN celebrated its first birthday this past April 26th! Seems like yesterday that I scribbled the very first concept of the mainpage on loose paper; instead, we've already completed a full loop around the sun. Kudos!In reality, April 26th marks the day the domain name was bought: site went online a few months later in late July after eh... quite a bit of tinkering with the CSS, HTML and everything alongside. But what do you expect? Rome wasn't built in a day!
And if you're wondering, yeah, I didn't even manage to sync up VN's birthday with my own. Guess 2021 me couldn't wait three more days. 😒
Me and my brother have been rather busy throughout the whole month of May for an appropriate first year celebration and finally today we finished implementing VN's definitive layout version, taking the occasion to improve things on the backend too. I can't express how proud and happy I am to see everything look exactly like originally envisioned in my concept art! It even features faster load times and cleaner code. What more could a webmaster dream of? Now this site really feels like the virtual home I've always wanted.
Since there's quite a lot of novelties, I'm gonna spend a few lines to show you around. Here's what's changed in VN's new iteration!
- Responsiveness! 1.0 had, sadly, many compatibility issues with different browsers and not mobile friendly at all. 2.0 fixes this by being fully compatible with all browsers and 100% responsive. Mobile users, surf freely! (Even with Netscape Navigator. :V)
- Menus! In addition to the classic left menu, 2.0 doubles the interactivity with the brand new Travel bar at the top linking to my socials and a right menu hosting gadgets and fun links. We now have a clock, a hit counter (not sure if it really works, but looks neat enough) and adopted web plushies for an extra dose of Y2K nostalgia.
- Pagination! The News and Journal sections will display arrows to cycle through older and newer posts, ten at a time. ...They're there, I swear. 😅 I just haven't reached ten posts in any of those sections.
- Improved galleries! Slight graphical overhaul for the galleries featuring a slicker general look, new and improved viewing icons at the top, and a better description display. The video viewer has also been fixed, and now properly displays videos in midview.
- Site history! Now you can visit the About The Page section to also view previous layouts and won awards! Let's party like it's 1997.
- Here to stay! As you can understand, this wasn't a simple cosmetic change but a true re-build of VN from the ground up, and now that I've reached "layout peace" and everything works exactly as it should, I do plan to use version 2.0 for a long long while. However, 2.0 is also written to easily swap colours and graphics around to show new skins for holidays or special celebrations (once again, exactly like sites used to do back in the day)! So, get ready to see VN in a properly Halloween-themed "vest" starring EmptyHead or a winter theme maybe even with falling snow effects.
I'm glad to have completed the overhaul just in time, since in less than a week me and Lock will be travelling again for yet another convention. This time, we'll catch a plane to Sicily to attend the Etnacomics, which will last 5 days! It's gonna be almost like a vacation, especially because we're gonna share the booth with our friend (and top affy!) JulieKarbon and finally do live shenanigans together. Can't wait!
Welcome Home! --July 28th, 2021--
Hi! Welcome to Valyce Negative.it, my main directory for personal art, projects, blogging and commission info. This is the site's first online day, so a few sections might still appear under construction. However, please feel free to take a look around, and remember to check frequently for future updates!To help you navigate, here's a condensed site map!
The menu on the left features a link to this Main Page where all new updates will be announced; if you're new to my art, you can know me better by taking a look at About Author and About Site, or F.A.Q.! If you're a returning visitor, all my personal artworks are now in the Cuna De Rios section, organized in the classic folders Illustrations, Traditionals, Animations, Comics and all the usual. There's also a new folder just for Doodles! I also do Fanarts stored in the appropriate section, and offer some free fanmade Telegram Sticker Sets of certain anime/movie/videogame characters to download and install!
If you're here for business, the Shop section has all you need to know, from TOS to Pricelist and the current Queue List which will be updated daily. More art for sale such as Originals or Merchandise can be found at the appropriate pages. Wanna reach out to me? Check the Contacts and Valyce Negative Webs pages!
And the rest? Well, it's up to you do discover! Have fun!
