Fussing, not much Doing

Been quiet lately since day job work rolled in.

Here's what it looks like:

 
(Wandering Island ©Kenji Tsuruta 2011)

Meanwhile I'm going nuts trying to figure out what kinds of crafty things I can sell at the local comic book swap meet. I'm going to try something new and it may not work out, but oh well. The swap meet being two weeks is adding to some pressure, but then again, it's a deadline to motivate me.

In other crafting, I tried some Prisme paints and that didn't go too well. For whatever reason the paint didn't bubble. It threw a wrench in my plans and I promptly avoided the craft room for a week.

When things don't go as planned, I tend to run away, but I also spend that time evaluating and making a plan B. Well, I figured that maybe the paint wasn't warm enough and I put them in my pocket all day before using them again. It's not looking like cold paint is the problem either. :sigh:

In more positive news, I finally found an online art course that inspired me! Looking to jumpstart my creative juices, I've been poking around for some free courses. I was really excited about one on creative lettering for journals and was disappointed that it was basically links to a series of videos that talked about a paid course the person is offering. The instructor didn't offer anything free as promised. I was disillusioned (and wanted my 45 minutes back).

So when I saw the Strathmore Paper course on journaling, I was a little skeptical, but figured, why not? Holymoly, it was inspiring! The instructor reminded me of some of my classmates from art school and captured the energy I'm trying to get back. The first thing he did was trick out his sketchbook with a blotter/bookmark that doubled as a pen holder. He also super-thinned acrylic paint to make it easier to prime pages with. I've been struggling to lay down the acrylic with the right consistency and this might solve some of my problems.

Anyway, if this sounds like your cup of tea, definitely check it out. You have to register, but it's free. https://www.strathmoreartist.com/artist-studio/groups/workshop-1-2016/

Now I gotta find jars to make acrylic wash with...

So. Many. Product Photos.

...and they're all so-so. 

I've been trying to get my etsy started* and I've been struggling with taking decent product shots. Historically I've never been the best photographer.

I have one of those fold-up light box setups, but I can't seem to work with it too well. Also, the plastic that holds the lamps has cracked in a few places so they kinda point to just one angle. I've had to wait for a sunny day to shoot these. I've also found that mica shift is kinda hard to capture too.

So when the sun came yesterday morning, I took a BUNCH of random photos. Now that it's raining I've been sitting here processing photos. This is not my idea of fun.

I should be working on my next Face or that Thing I keep thinking I'm gonna do for March.

---------------------------------
*As of this posting, it's not open yet, but if you're interested its: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StudioCutie

Faces #8 and #9

 

Compared to Face #1, I can feel myself loosening up.
I feel like I cheated a bit for this challenge because 1) Not a face a day and 2)Not so experimental. On the other hand, I'm regaining my confidence and I'm seeing now that if I just draw more often (and preferably on a consistent basis), I'll see improvement.

So wasn't really up for the Challenge, but I'm really happy that I participated!

Face #7 (29 faces challenge)

I think this now puts me ahead of the whopping three entries from last year. But I still have some catching up to do!

Face #6 (29Faces Challenge)

I don't know why, but I really like this one.

.05 Micron pen on gesso/acrylic paint on sketchbook paper.

Face #5

They can't all be winners. I had a really tough time seeing what I was doing from the gold paint. Then I got frustrated and walked away. Came back a coupla days later and decided to just finish it and move on.

Faces 3 and 4

 

Happy President's Day! I had big plans for catching up and getting maybe six more faces done, but the best-laid plans...

Meanwhile, the comic fest went well for me. I managed to sell a buncha necklaces with my handmade Totoro charms on them. I now have money burning a hole in my pocket for more craft supplies (and there are sales going on today only)!

29 Faces 2016 (the first)

 

This was my first face for February. So yeah, super-behind.

Tomorrow I'll be tabling at Fanaticon. I'll have a bunch of Dark Horse manga I've lettered and a few Totoro necklaces I've made. It'll be my first time tabling selling my own stuff. I've been told that I'll have lots of downtime, so hopefully I can get another face or done during the event.

Starting 29 Faces again

Trying again. This time I'm not as late as last year, but I still have to catch up.

Face #1 has yet to be photographed or scanned, so this is Face #2.

 

I'm not happy with it at all and halfway I lost interest in it, but I'm going to own it. I have a feeling that there'll be a bunch more drawings I won't be happy with, but it's important to not let them bother me and keep going.

So..umm..Day 3 of 29 Faces. LOL

I just finished a really tight deadline a couple of days ago and needed to decompress. I haven't heard from the client about it, but I *think* I made the deadline.

Anyway this young lady is a member of the "Radical Brownies" in Oakland. I was excited for this group and then found out that they weren't associated with the Girl Scouts of America and needed to change their group name. It kinda took a little polish off of my excitement, but on the other hand, I'm still a fan of what the group's mission statement. Hopefully they'll be around a long time to empower young girls. Here's their Facebook page, if they have an official site with a new name later on, I'll try to post that too.

Meanwhile about 29 Faces... the month is near-over, but I'm going to try to continue. I envy the other people in the challenge who can just DO this. I need to channel more discipline and drive to do a drawing every day. Go to the 29 Faces badge on the column and check out the work of people more dedicated to their art than I am!

29 Faces, Day 2

Three times a week I sit with my mother-in-law while she has breakfast. I tried to sneak in a sketch while she was reading the comics. I missed her smiling and after a while, I think she felt me gazing at her and moved around a bit. I may end up doing several of these during the course of this challenge.

Mechanical pencil and watercolor in my sketchbook. You can see the previous page's sketch bleeding through the paper. It was in ballpoint, but for some reason everything I did that day bled through. Watercolor isn't my medium and this totally didn't come out the way I thought it would, but that's okay. Note to self: unlike acrylics, watercolors dry lighter.

29 Faces, Day 1

Starting late on the "29 Faces" thing, but I'll give it a small shot. Deadlines are breathing down my neck and I've been nursing a cold, so I may as well get SOMEthing done.

This is Avery Brooks from "American History X" (yes, I have a perverse sense of what's good to watch when you're in bed with a cold). The page was pre-primed with gesso and then washed with acrylic. The drawing was done with Pigma Micron .03 and then I threw watercolors on it. I forgot how watercolors react on gesso!

Not super-happy with the way this came out, but pleased with myself that I actually sat down to draw something at all. Little victories!

BG is acrylic wash with metallic paint. Drawn in pencil, colored with Caran d'ache and hot-spotted with a white pen.

I just finished a Thing.

It was a small thing, a panel of a jam comic, but it became the Thing That Needed Doing for about 10 months. It was rather embarrassing since other people were waiting on it. When I sat down to actually work on it, it probably took me roughly two weeks all told. I decided to do the Thing in Manga Studio and in the process learned enough to get more comfortable with the interface.

When I finished the Thing late last night, I thought I'd be really happy and feel like a great weight has been lifted. But no, I felt dread instead. I tried to shrug it off and use the momentum of finishing one thing to tackle the next art Thing on my to-do list. But it was 1am, I was getting tired and ended up staring at the monitor for another hour.

Waking up the next day didn't really help. I then realized that I was fairly pleased with the how my panel came out and was concerned that I wouldn't be able to follow it up. Oh, so THAT's what "fear of success" is! But yeah, I gotta get over it and do the next thing. Having a dozen "meh" pieces of work for the world to see is much better than having an infinite number of "maybe some days..." in my head.

So as I look it over, it's not by any stretch amazing, but it is DONE. Since there are about 5 other panels to be done, I don't want to reveal the whole thing, but here's a sample. And if I remember, I'll put up a link to the whole thing later on...

I just discovered that Photoshop CS5 easily creates animated gifs. I also realized that it makes it easier to share some of the retouch work I do.
Gantz volume 27 doesn't come out for three weeks or so, but I don't see any spoilers here either.

Grumpy

I've been sick since Emerald City Comic Con. I was fighting it off really well and then I found out Toren Smith passed away and my health just went to Hell.

Now that I don't feel like my entire immune system is inflamed, I've been spending half days in front of the computer and the rest upstairs in my bedroom where it's warmer. I still sound like I'm coughing up a lung and can't go out to play anywhere. Like the really cool Drink-n-Draw tonight. :-(

Here's the latest scan from the sketchbook. I started it in late Feb with the right eye and then finished the rest in bed last night. I didn't even notice that I had used a different pencil until I scanned the image. Owell.

I'm gonna try taking some sketchcards to bed with me today and see what comes of it.

Waiting at the Dentist's

Waiting for my husband at the dentist's office. He forgot to bring me the iPad, so I couldn't tweet while I was waiting.

Skiers-April 2012

I was watching "the Pink Panther" and was expecting to sketch some groovy jet-setting 60's clothes and instead did a generic sketch of two skiers. Figures.

I think it also says a lot about the cinematographer that this shot called out to me.

Sketched in Pigma micron, with Photoshop colors.

Dr. Sketchy-Stumptown 2012 edition: The Endless

I finally made it to Dr. Sketchy's again, although it was at Stumptown. I guess that counts. I told Mike D that the theme was the Endless and that he MUST be there. I have to say it was pretty stunning to walk in and see folks dressed up!

I struggled with the session. Sitting next to Mike D drawing Death and Destruction will do that to you. The young lady they had posing as Delirium was perfect and I wish my sketches of her came out better. Then for the 20 min family pose, this came out of me. There's a lot of things I would have changed if I hadn't been drawing in pen, but there ya go. I was also a bit too tired to think up what Dream and Destruction are leaning/sitting on, which is a bit of a shame.

In retrospect I really should have thanked the models afterward because they were totes awesome, but I had my shy on.

Sketchbook Month Day 5

Yes, I skipped a few days. Hopefully I'll be a bit more consistent. I can't say I'm really happy with it, but I can tell that if I keep at it, I can get really good again.