Freezing my non-existant balls off...

Some things from my sketchbook, and a couple works in progress~!

Cold weather comforts

From the sketchbook.

Its cold here, something like 15 degrees. I complain about it a lot, but really, I love this kind of weather. Its the kind of time to cuddle up in front of the fireplace with a book, cup of coffee, and blanket. Or the time to spend far too much time cuddling with someone. ;)

I have a small backlog of sketchbook pages to post over the next couple days. Also, make sure to keep up with my deviantart for finished work.

workspace + 3

I've always loved looking at pictures of artists' workspaces, and they simultaneously inspire me and make me jealous that I lack a dedicated Creative Space of my own. Right now, my work desk works triple-duty as homework station, artmaking area, and sewing space. It gets rather cluttered sometimes but I still love it. My dream one day (along with having a basement library a la Neil Gaiman) is to have a studio room that has sewing space on one side and art space on the other. That is quite some time off, so this suffices for now.



Its a rather blurry picture as it was taken late at night with no flash, but I'll try to get some better pictures at a later date. In the meantime, have two large pieces I've been spending my time on lately:



Day of the Dead-inspired skullface girl, and my first time using markers in quite some time. I'm out of practice, really. The blending on the blue background sucks, and dat skin :/ Evidently I forgot that the majority of my skintone markers are dead or dying. Looks like I'll be dropping some cash on new ones when I get my next paycheck.



Inks to a character illustration of The Narrator from Brit's and my comic project. I realized I've done little to no art of the characters outside design sketches and drawing them in the comic itself so I'm trying to fix that. I'm still trying to decide whether to do ink wash or watercolors on it. Ideas? Opinions? Derp?



And in closing, a picture from my phone of my progress on my portrait for my oil painting class. Its referenced off a photo from an issue of cosmo, ha

I'll make some kind of post-WFC report, I promise. But I'm super busy this week and I'm sure you'll all be satisfied by these:



Black Balloon



Plague

Both are india ink and dip pen on bristol. Yeah.

Well this is an awesome development

Not much to report art-wise today, classes have really been kicking my ass this quarter. When I'm not working, at class, or sleeping, I'm usually working on sewing up things to sell at my table at Sugoicon in a couple weeks. That whole deal is coming along pretty nicely, and yesterday I picked up some things to use for my display (some cute cotton fabric to use as my tablecloth, and those fantastic wire display cubes from Target)

Though I am excited to say that I'll be attending the World Fantasy Convention next weekend in Columbus, Ohio. By some strange stroke of luck I got next Saturday and Sunday off work (strange as hell, since the Day Job is a liquor store/party supply store, seriously if you're ever in Northern Kentucky come check us out, its called Party Source) even though its Halloween weekend, a busy as hell time for us booze peddlers. So I'll be heading up Saturday morning to meet up with my partner in crime, Brit Mandelo. I'll be toting lots of business cards along, as well as my portfolio just in case. Her boss, Irene Gallo of Tor.com will be there as well, and I'm looking forward to meeting her. She's already seen some of my work, that Brit brought along with her to Readercon, so I'm excited for a face-to-face meeting. I'll be handing out cards galore and meeting/hanging/drinking with Brit's lovely author-type friends. It should be quite the awesome experience.



These are the cards, by the way. Sadly I seem to have lost the original digital file, which I honestly don't mind considering I plan to have a new design for the cards when I launch my website. Which will happen. Eventually. I'm just terrible at webdesign and need to wait for my friend Arielle to help with the building process.

School projects post

PEESH



Black & White still-life



Color still life, different part of the same still-life setup in the painting studio.

All 3 are oil on canvas and were done in my painting studio in the past 4 weeks. Next week, we start on our extended still life project. I anticipate it will look a lot cleaner than these previous two, which were each done over the course of 2 3-hour classes.



My final project for my advanced comics studio class back in the spring. It was done with pen&ink and watercolors on a 24x36 piece of illustration board. I was quite pleased with the end result especially considering the time crunch I did it under (didn't sleep much for the 3 days before it was due... oops procrastination)

Detail shots:

Holy crap where did September go?

I have no idea. Time feels like its going too fast sometimes. What I wouldn't give for a time-turner.

Anyway, I bought a new sketchbook. Its spiral-bound at the top instead of the side, which I really like. I'm a leftie so right-side binding gets in the way sometimes.


Trying out a different kind of style, influenced somewhat by the Scott Pilgrim comics style and by San Smith's absolutely adorable style.


Another one of my vaguely irritated-looking random dudes. I used to suck at drawing men. Now I draw them so much that I'm out of practice with drawing women and feminine faces. Guess I'll have to work on that.


Observational sketch of my friend Jen sitting across from me at the coffee shop tonight. Highlands is this great bar/coffee house closeby and its a fantastic place to sit, have some great coffee and/or drinks (or coffee-based drinks) and people watch. I like taking my sketchbook along to draw the people sitting around me.


Another pokemon hoodie I recently completed, for Nik all the way across the pond in the UK.


Aaand my current costume project, Hungary from Axis Powers Hetalia. I hate the fandom but her costume is adorable. Plus I need something cute and comfortable in my costume closet and this is really perfect for what it will be worn for (sitting behind an art table selling plush tentacles) I'm hoping to debut it at SugoiCon in November in Covington Kentucky. I have the green dress nearly finished, I just need to sew some horsehair braid into the hem of the skirt to make it extra-swingy. then comes the apron, wig, and petticoat + bloomers. Surprisingly little, I'm used to making costumes with a huge to-do list. Its a pleasant change

peachy

I've started fall classes, and this quarter I'm taking an oil painting class. A nice change from other classes I have this quarter with exciting names such as "ethnographic methods".

This is the peach I painted over the course of 2 classes this week. Next week we move on to larger sized paintings, which I'm quite glad to do. I hate working small when it comes to painting.



picture taken with my cell phone.

I traveled to Dragon*Con in Atlanta,GA this past weekend, and I had a fantastic time. I'll definitely be returning next year. My only regret is not having business/contact cards printed up in time to take along. Oh well. :)

I've been sketching a lot in blue pencil while at work (though haha, I found a new job! I start tomorrow.) and I really enjoy the look I get with it, though its not exactly practical seeing as its meant to be invisible under final pencils and inks.





oh ha, same face. Ooops. But a sketchbook is a "sketch"book for a reason :P



Some weeaboo retardedness. This may end up as a miniprint for fall.



I love this man and everything that comes from his mouth.

august sketchbook dump

Have a sketchbook dump. Assorted things taken from 3 different sketchbooks from the past month-ish. Mostly done at work, since I really have nothing better to do while I'm there.

























this last one I actually plan to throw into photoshop and color one of these days.

SHARK WEEK SHARK WEEK SHARK WEEK

aka my favorite week in television ever always and forever. And now that I've found a drinking game for it I doubt I'll be sober for the next 7 days.

I think I'm getting the fear

The title of this entry has nothing to do with anything, really. Though I did rewatch Fear and Loathing the other day.



The first thing I've digitally colored in something like 2 years. Not that amazing, but I'm trying to get back into digitally coloring since it really seems impossible to be successful as a traditional-only artist nowadays. Unfortunate. I really love the organic aspect of creating something physical, rather than a collection of pixels on a computer. Maybe this is why I like the idea of getting cintiq so much, though there's no way I could afford one at present.



Drew this bad boy a year or so ago. Dunno what my original goal was with this, I don't know if I even had one. I do know I was really into Infected Mushroom at the time I drew this, it was probably influenced by a song of theirs. Graphite and ink on bristol.

Also



I'm teaching myself to do this shit. I tried poi for a bit but never really felt that into it, staff however is a different story. After 4 years of color guard its second nature with some of this.

[minicomic] DEBUG

2 inked pieces

I need to get to campus to scan this as its too large for my own scanner



more inking practice

both were done with india ink, nib pens, and brush

Man, two posts in less than a week's time, I must be on a roll. Finished up a couple things in my "finish me" folder last night, I was in one of those moods.



Morrigan chibi that I started ages ago and finally got around to finishing the colors on

and [NSFW]



inked and threw some color on this last night, I was in an off mood when I decided to finish this. But I'm relatively pleased with it.

In other news, I've started a new deviantART account for artwork only, seeing as my old account has been converted into a cosplay-only account and I'd really prefer to keep the two separate.

The account name is quite silly but I don't want to keep it too terribly srs bsnz, yaknow? Click here to go to it!

sketchbook post

Some decent-enough pages from my sketchbooks, drawn over the past couple months.



blue pencil and micron pen. not too happy with the head design. might try to work it out better at a later date.



fantasy-styled koi fish i guess? drawn while at work last fall.



face sketches of the narrator character in "The Ghost Machine", my current project



observational; starbucks cup. more things drawn during work. coffee, art, and pokemon are the only things that keeps me sane there sometimes



part observational, part non; drawn during my night class this quarter. the man whose back of the head you see was quite grumpy.

also, i'm trying to get more proficient in coloring digitally. its not my favorite method of coloring, but its kind of a necessity nowadays. does anyone have any good sites for photoshop or painter tutorials? any and all help is greatly appreciated.

:)