Progress!

I'm painstakingly illustrating an awesome cover for a contest, and it's going well. Since I have until March 15, I'm really trying to take my time and incorporate all the new things I learned with Photoshop.

The original drawing is unfinished, and much larger, since it is on a sequential art sized bristol pad. I am really happy I was finally able to play with the brushes to find the right one for realistic hair, even though I am still keeping it whimsical and playful. All in all, the time I'm taking is really starting to show in this work.

Hopefully more progress is to come. I'm so bad about taking progress pictures...But I've been doing alot of little doots along the way! Ru, Breena and I had an amazing sleep over weekend, and did some works together.

Breena and I drew our characters from Kith and Kin together! It was fun. STILL gonna bring furries back, ya'll.

Fun times with the Cousin!

On Saturday after work, I went over to my Aunt's to hang with my cousin and have delicious dinner times. While the adults were cooking and speaking inappropriately in a child's presence, (my 9, soon to be 10 year old cousin's words, not mine) We watercolored.

She opted to paint the Queen of Demons, and her serpent like husband, the King of Trolls. I really enjoyed how her hair ended up being similar to the green she used to color with.

I decided to paint a frowl. A little creature I came up with with Owl and Frog characteristics. They are very cute.


Here is the finished product. I'm really glad it did it on very nice Archival watercolor paper, because I am SO framing it. S...Someday. Along with...ALL...the other prints that need to be framed. Ha...HA HA.

GUNHAVER.

As a person who claims to be working on a zombie comic, I felt that I should be a little more proactive in getting some reference material that's not just me pausing horror movies.
Thankfully, my dad is of the "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" persuasion. With his help, I was able to collect some of the coolest photos ever.


Keep in mind that I love weapons. I do. But the honest truth is that I am a huge girl when it comes to names or knowing the stats. I mean, for years I've played zombie survival games. It wasn't until I was holding it in my hands, that I realized what I had. An honest to god, brain salad making, zombie swiss cheesing, UZI.


If that wasn't enough, there was also the spider killer 3000, or Magnum. I'm going to do a painting of Jill Valentine for the gallery show I'm trying to put together, so I think that this images will be very useful reference.

And finally, there is the beautiful heirloom shotgun. I do have a full shot of this beauty, but this up close image really shows you the kind of intricate detail that went into a well crafted weapon. It's truly a masterpiece. This is really special, since it belonged to the Uncle that my father was named after. I'll mount it on my wall one day.

REDO!

This is actually not current art, but I threw in this little Video Game Comic so there was something to look at.I'm doing that thing I do every once in a great while, where I go through some old drawings, and then redraw them. This is always very fun, but a little depressing too.
This one is from my story "One Child Dies", which has since been renamed "One Child".

My main Character's original drawing was painfully Anime. PAINFULLY. And the redo, while fast, is so much better. It's going to be fun finding the one that will get the makeover now.

PAPERCRAFT AGAIN? I know, shut up!

Well. Here I go again. Sadly, I neglected to do in progress photos, but hell, it turned out well, so I don't care.

I did this paper craft for my dear friend Amy, who's family has had Corgi's as long as I've known them. The dog I'm replicating here is little Rosie, the younger rascal!
I started the head in Vallejo, while I was hanging out with my mother, and used graphite to do some the the shading on the face.

I did my best to use marker and layer on what looks like floor boards under the doggy bed, and then added a Kong, which for those who do not know, is a pretty popular dog toy. It is stored in a Ribba Ikea frame, and I feel like it framed up nicely indeed! I will have to use these frames for more papercrafts in the future!

I would say all in all, the work took me about 7 hours. The head still takes alot of planning, and took about 3 all by itself. I am getting quicker, but when I am trying my best to use a reference, the planning tends to impede my process. Either way, I'm moving on to a bigger and better paper project, so wish me massive amounts of luck!

The strangest moment in fan art.

A dear friend of mine had nightmares about zombies eating her cat. After a LONG debate with one of her facebook friends about the possibility of a cat being a viable target, he suggested lasers and chainsaw legs.

I had to consent to such a marvelous idea. That is the greatest thing I have ever seen.

Movie Doots

I went to see True Grit with my dad, and I love the little girl in the movie. I had no idea there would even BE a little girl in the movie! Let alone, the narrator of said movie!

OH MY GOD FINALLY.

JERKWATER DRONES. PAGE ONE. BEAUTIFULLY RENDERED.

...I...I drew buildings...that...

that DON'T look like shit!? Praise be to the god that I don't believe in.

The first page of Jerkwater Drones is turning out nicely, thanks to greyscale, and painstaking lineart.

It's not great, but it's pretty damn good! I love it. Slowly, I'm starting to have more faith in my abilities.

Random Papercraft!

Well, Brittney Lee put another bug up my butt with her BEAUTIFUL Little Mermaid papercraft. I was near Michael's today, and decided I should go in and get paper.
Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the work in progress, but it did take about a season and a half of Scrubs to complete.
I'm calling it "Petunia".
Petunia is a playful Golden Lab that just loves to dig, even if it is in Mommy's garden.
I did not do a preliminary cut out with her the way I did with my first papercraft, that turned out to be a great idea. t really seemed to come together on it's own, since I wasn't pressured by how awesome it had to come out.

Just look at that face! She makes the destruction of months of work so adorable!

Admittedly, I still need to fix the clouds, but I think that's just going to come down to getting some double sided tape to mount the paper, avoiding that whole "I'M TOTALLY GLUED ON", thing.

All in all, I've had dogs on the brain!

Doctor Sketchy's and more!

I was determined, even with 3 hours of sleep, and a 6 am shift, to go to Dr. Sketchy's. I had been wanting to go for a long time, and I finally got the chance tonight with Breena. The event when on from 7-10, and in that time, we had a model posing with 5, 10, and 20 minute poses!

It really was amazing fun to practice, and work on some really awesome, dynamic posing!

At the end of everything, there was a contest with you just drawing the model on the side of good or bad. I never win shit, but I was like, what the hell, what harm could it really do?

I TOTALLY WON SOMETHING. They are vintage stockings that I am giving to Ru, one because she has the gams for them, and two because we had to go without her. It really was such a great experience that I think I will be taking those Tuesdays off, or making time for the Saturday afternoon ones they will be starting eventually!
But before all that, I had been watching some people do digital animals on their blogs, so I took it into my own hands, and did some colorful pups!

They are so cute!

And the final dump for this post is a neat work I did of DREAM WEAVER, from She-Ra,Princess of Power.


Man, you know Skeletor hit that.

Coming along slowly

I'm slowly starting to develop my characters for my Zombie comic. These two girls are from it. Digitally working on this stuff at 4 in the morning is pretty crazy, but I think I'm finally ready to start it. Writing and storyboarding on paper first is still a necessity, but I'm grateful that my cintiq is paying for itself with every color adventure. I got an external video card as well, so it's EVEN better for me to function. the dual monitor thing was really irritating to get used to, but know that I am capable of dooting while netflixing, things are just gonna get better.

I'm going to do my best to post my resolution comic challenges here, but when Paperlinks goes back up, most of them will be towards my other serial comics. And now, to sleep so that I can get up tomorrow and go run errands!

Pizza Pinup!

So yeah, I finally finished one of my food pinups I've been planning to do for like...6 months. I found this penciled, underneath a MOUNTAIN of discarded sketches and other papers. The Prismacolor Markers are truly showing their worth, and for this I am very grateful.

Later I will post more Kith and Kin stuff I did with Breena the other day. We had alot of fun, and crossed over some of our characters!

Until then, Nerds!

Rages, Pages, and Stages.

Rages: The girls and I wanted to make a trip to the Oakland Museum's Pixar Exhibit. Nowhere on the site does it say that this event is a possible Sell Out kind of thing. Most museums design an exhibit to be circulated through so that it can get the maximum amount of traffic possible. Well. HA. We get down there, 10:40...only to find that we can't get into the exhibit. It's sold out. Nothing online warns about this, and we were not the only people in line who ONLY came to see it. SO. RAGES. MANY. MANY RAGES.

Pages: Thanks to people adhering to my wishlist, I've gotten alot of great reading material. Concept books, comics, the like. It actually made me want to pick up a book, or work on my written story. I did do some drawing for my written story to get the garb of the characters together. Since Misael is my main character, the focus is on him right now.
Pyrea gets some attention, because I'm still figuring out her personality and hair.


Stages: I enjoyed my few days off, regardless of my best friend's awful ills, and my own mucus filled body. I've never been that big about buying into the while New Year's Resolution. I realize now that they are really just statements you make to test your self control. I'm going to really make that attempt this year. No red meat is one. This will kill me, but hell, I just DON'T need it. It always makes me ill now. The other is an art resolution. A comic page a week. Doesn't matter for what, and if I do 2 or more in a week, that doesn't count for the next week or weeks. I'm only gonna get better doing it. How can I tell people to just start drawing if I forget that I have to do that too?
And now, for your entertainment, Zombie One Panel comics.

Princesssssss.

Amy and I saw Tangled AGAIN today. This totals me at 3 times. MOMSAIDSHEWANTEDTOSEEITTOOSOTHATMIGHTHAVETOHAPPENTOO. EEEE!!!!! But anyway, it has inspired me to take this time while PL is down and pick one of my comics to redo. The Keanes *Both Claire and Glenn*, have provided amazing character design and storyboarding. Enough that it makes me want to refine my storytelling in panels. The Ass' Skin is easily one of the worst comics I've done. As a test to see if I could handle retelling my favorite Grimm fairy tale, it was a failure. I have an opportunity to do it again, better, and with the aid of the Cintiq. So fair I've begun reworking the princess, giving it more time and attention. This first panel is from the one that I have already done.

While I do love the facial expression of the princess, I see that I was lazy, and in a mad rush to complete it. I used paintbucket, and of the 4 panels on each page, only ONE was colored. I know...COME ON RACHIE.

Even just the sketching I did in photoshoppe today has more heart and depth, with only an hour of time. Properly planned, and completed entirely digital, I may be able to prepare myself for The Man in the Bear's Skin. When Nick Jr. was amazing, they had an animated MitBS. If you wanna watch.....!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2HOV1GnX2M

More Cintiq doots!

For some reason, I was on the theme of Disney and/or Witches. Lina Inverse is technically a sorceress, but I honestly never knew the difference. And Shego, well, shoots green toxic burning shit from her hands, so that's witchery.

From that image I did, I fell in love with my doodle of me and Rapunzel. It is currently my facebook profile picture.

I really enjoy how adorably it came out! Hopefully my sketchtimes later!

Paperlinks Cover!

Normally, I don't post the covers anywhere else, but! I really really really like this one! Alix was in charge of coming up for a theme this month, which was Imaginauts. I have to admit, it was certainly challenging to come up with an idea for that. Thankfully I went to the planetarium recently, so that helped me figure out a background! AstroNAUT, imagiNAUT, close enough. The rest was just interesting thoughts. Ru suggested a fish, and we had been watching the Mimic Octopus videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygh1-ul6E94

If you want to be AMAZED, check that shit out! My friend Chris was also telling me that they can solve mathematic equations, and are very smart. Due to their short lifespan, it doesn't really work in their favor.

The princess drinking tea just seemed fun, but the Giraffe is still my favorite. We noticed at APE last year, Amy and I, that Giraffes were very in. Giraffe pattern bags, fine art paintings, prints, comics...it was so crazy! So, since it is the year of the Giraffe, I give you a December Giraffe.

Kith and Kin Character concepts and Page ONE!!

I've been drawing pretty hard lately, for a change! Usually the winter season doesn't allow for much of that, mostly because it's so damn cold in the apartment that my hands frost over.
Thankfully, that hasn't stopped me from producing work, and I owe alot of that to Disney's Tangled, which has provided me with mad inspiration and thoughts of strong success. This first set is a bunch of doots with Carlotta. Mostly expressions, and all drawn directly in brush pen. (Alix introduced me to this pen over a year ago, and I'm just now getting back into it hardcore.) The Wolf is Breena's character, who is nameless for the time being. He's a bit of a chickenshit but Lotta is setting him straight. "Get ready, because things will change." Oh sage cat woman.

This next set is a character concept sheet I did in like, H pencil, then markered and inked directly over it, which is my new process for coloring concept work, as long as my markers decide to hold out. Clay and Carlotta are making similar faces here. I enjoy his mustachio.

I may also have to make some more watercolor work for this story and ink it after it's dry like the marker work. It's turning out beautifully, like this tiny willow concept wash I did.

I didn't think they would scan well at all, but it seems I have been proven wrong. The scans are really fun and full of great texture. This pleases me greatly!
AND FINALLY, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, THE WORK FOR THE FIRST PAGE. This took alot longer to complete than originally thought, but honestly, it turned out really well, and I am very proud. Papercraft has taught me that hours put into something really pay off. I usually bust out work very quickly, so I'm super proud of the time I took here.

Good lord, I'm tired just looking at this steaming pile.

It's a Rottie kind of Christmas!

Every year my mom has me make a Christmas card that she has printed out and mailed to the family. I decided I'd jump the gun this year and have it prepared, ha! It's kinda nice to actually have it out of the way!

Credit where credit is due! Amy actually sent me the gouache brush tutorial, originally from this link!

http://freakshow6.deviantart.com/gallery/72673#/d2xwthy

Rottie in the Snow is DONE!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I finally finished that goddamn papercraft!!

I also got my TATTOO TODAY!! SO AMAZING. It is my first, and I love it completely!


THAT WAS MY BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY OFF! SOOOO Productive!