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.

Mandrills

I've dug up my deviant Art account. I don't like the interface at all, but I like the "discovery" aspects of it very much. That and limitless image hosting is appealing too. I tried to link this image from there, but dA doesn't care for that too much. If anybody out in the 'nets is interested, the address is http://studiocutie.deviantart.com/, For now everything here will be the same as there.

Iguana

Warming up. Pigma Micron .08

 Hourly Comic Day 4-6pm

More Hourly Comic Day...

So for the helluvit I'm attempting Hourly Comic Day . I think this may suck eggs, because I really should be lettering three books right now. We'll see how it goes...

Trying to do the sketch-a-day thing. Not doing that so well. But something is better than nothing. Also trying to get over the need to just post perfect gems and just post everything.

Dr Sketchy's Portland-Jan 2011 edition

I actually went out and drew!

The venue was unexpectedly busy that evening and was packed so Dr. Sketchy's didn't start until a bit later. So me Andy and Mike D. bellied up to the bar and had dinner and drinks first. By the time we were done, they had already started the session. Mike confidently grabbed a seat up front while Andy and I grabbed seats in back. My peach cosmopolitan didn't fortify me THAT much.

This worked out well until I started trying to draw the five minute poses. I was too far back to see the model's feet.

Out of frustration, I grabbed my smaller sketchbook, squeezed between two tables and planted myself on the stage. It was hard on my ass, but it was a much better vantage point and lent itself to better drawings.

The theme was supposed to be noir and Ms.Floofie's striking bob was the hit of the evening.








I wasn't happy with this twenty minute pose. It wasn't coming together for me. So I flipped over a page and started drawing other things to shake off my frustration.


I tried doing more of a portrait and that wasn't quite coming together for me either. The shoes from the other page are from other poses where I had extra time.
(Blogger may have cut off the right part of this image, click on it to see the other page)

So I flipped the page again and tried once more. Of course it flowed easily for me, but then time was called. >_<


I really enjoyed myself last night. I hope I can make time for next month's Dr. Sketchy's.

This is a test...

...to see if this bit of code works.
The store isn't fully ready, but the listing IS available for purchase. And a revamp for this blog will be coming in the next few weeks.

StudioCutie

Unique Gifts

My Comic-Con 2009 in summary

I was tired for the first few days and it wasn't until Saturday night when I got my "sea legs". By then, the convention was over.
The above is a sketch of Joel as the two Andys were having a subdued, late-night chat.

Baby steps

Sketched while waiting for my car overly long at the Whittier Saturn dealership. The next day we jetted off for Vegas.

I haven't been by here since Google took over. There's all sorts of new functions and stuff. Meanwhile I'm trying again to get more art done while doing the day job. Looking at my friend put up his sketches was pretty inspiring. I hope it takes.

Now I gotta look for some templates or something. I hate this design.

IF:Buzz

I've got a lot of work to do this week (32 pages of one book to letter/retouch, 34 of another, about 60 pages to proof and a font to build---yikes!) so I'm rather pleased that I found the time to do this at all.

This wasn't my first idea, but this one was the fastest to execute. I'm rather sad that it came out looking a bit like a microwaved potato.

Anybody out there know how to generate ttf's in Fontlab? The "six family names" thing is really confusing me.

IF: Phoenix

I'm not so thrilled about how it came out. But I'm pretty amazed that I got it done at all!
Picking colors on the computer give me trouble. Ask me to mix any color for you in Liquitex, but damned if I can pick the colors I want on Illustrator. I'm also working on an uncalibrated LCD monitor. If anybody out there have advice on calibration, I'd be much obliged.