All About Motivation! The motivation to improve, to get noticed, and the struggle to become dependent on artwork to make a living. Because, in America today, normal jobs suck. Updates every Tuesday and Thursday.
So my new job took some time to settle into, but I think I've got it now. As promised, here's some new artwork!
Andromeda
First up is this thing. I thought I was done with it the last time I showed it but it turns out that I was not. There was a lot more that I could do and so, I did. I'm much happier with it now and it has turned out to be a great seller at the comic conventions I've attended so far this year.
I still never added a background because I wanted to give the sense that she IS the universe. I have been thinking of doing more ladies along these lines but I haven't really had the inspiration yet to do more.
Owls for Grandma
Next is, "Owls for Grandma," named so because that's exactly who I did it for. She's not really my grandmother, she's my cousin's grandma, but she just enjoys being everyone's grandma. She had a rough year last year, a lot of deaths in the family.
I had told her a few years back that I would paint her an owl and I just never did. Truthfully, tried a few times to digitally paint her an owl and it never turned out right. Maybe I was hard on myself I dunno.
Eventually I bought a wood board and decided to do this with acrylic paint instead and that turned out to be a good decision. What started out as only being one owl, turned into three when I realized that eastern screech owls were really tiny and the hollow in the tree was a little large to put just one in there.
Oliver Lucas: The Staff of Moses
When all was said and done, it's not the most amazing masterpiece ever but I am happy with it and my grandma is too!
to the left here is a finished commission done by myself and my usual partner in crime, Nga Nguyen. (Her lines, my colors as usual) I went to a small one day show in Richmond VA, where I met local author Andrew Linke. We are currently working on book cover number two!
This was a pretty ambitious piece with all the hieroglyphics in the background. Not to mention that making something look old and a bit distressed is somewhat difficult to do in photoshop. sometimes your textures tend to come out too perfect to look right.
Anyway, I hope to have the second cover done by mid September. Nga is always super punctual with her work, but me? Not so much. Just another something I have got to work on. I need to make myself work more. I run on inspiration far too much.
Clockwork Koi
Next! "Clockwork Koi" I've been working on this thing since last November. I'm not sure what inspired it really. This is one of the rare times that I drew exactly what I set out to draw. That is always difficult for me for some reason. Probably goes back to that "running too much on inspiration" thing I mentioned earlier.
My job deals a lot with machines and I actually enjoy it. I'm used to seeing metal, rivets, nuts and bolts, and hydraulic lines, so I incorporated them into my art here.
The lotus flowers seemed out of place and far too plain when I added them next to the mechanical features of the koi. After a little thinking, I decided to go with an antique lamp look. My grandmother had one of those antique stained glass looking lamps, so I used those as a reference. I eventually want to draw a dragon to match it, but that will have to wait until I've cleared my commission list.
Love you to the moon and back
Last but not least! Here's the latest artwork. This isn't the whole thing and it actually can't even be finished until after the wedding. It's a guestbook idea that actually came from pinterest but my friend here had me do my own spin on it.
I told her I'd do it and decided to have it done in watercolor but didn't stop to think that I haven't actually seriously used watercolor paint. I don't think that el cheapo watercolors when I was ten years old really counts as practice. So I may have panicked a little.
I watched a few tutorials, grabbed a few supplies and just hoped that it would turn out okay. I'm happy to say that she loves it and not too many people could tell that I'm a total watercolor n00b. What can I say? I learn really fast. I have to. If I had to list a skill as my best asset, it wouldn't even be art, it would be the ability to bullshit like I know what I'm doing until I actually do know what I'm doing.
In any case, that's all I have for the moment. It makes me happy that this is the most artwork that I've updated in a while. I'm getting more time to do it these days since I ditched that old job and found this one. I just... feel better. It's amazing how much your job affects your life. Since ditching my old job and getting with this new one I've lost nearly 20 pounds, I've completed four more artworks and sketched many more, and I've signed up for the most conventions I've ever done in one year.
Speaking of conventions, I've also updated my convention schedule page. If you know of any that I may be interested in, feel free to comment! I'm always looking for more!
As of right now I'm snowed in, so I had time yesterday to work on something. I wasn't feeling particularly like anything so I just painted and whatever came out of it I rolled with it. Not a bad idea. It's not getting a lot of love but I enjoyed painting it anyway.
Andromeda. You can see more at my DeviantArt page. :D Prints of this are also available.
I'm feeling a lot better these days. I have started hitting the gym every day even if I just run on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Personally I like weight training so I've tried to do as much of that as possible. Only two weeks at the gym and I already feel much better and my gut is visibly shrinking. Hooray!!
I also managed to snag myself a new job! That's right, I am finally getting away from this soul sucking pit of hell. Two weeks from now, I will officially have my weekends back! Now I can spend some time with my baby, AND do significantly more artwork.
That resignation letter was the shortest one I think I have ever written. You know what they say, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all... obviously I didn't have much of anything nice to say. I am doing all I can NOT to send a mass e-mail with the scene from Half-Baked in it. That would definitely be frowned upon and it's not that I hate everyone there. Just like... one or two people. The job itself is much worse than the people I work with.
I'm looking forward to having more time in the new year to actually be a mom, get to more artwork and complete projects for once.
This couldn't have come from me... Too adorable.
In other news... Alex got to see her first snowfall,it was adorable. She's killing me with cuteness.
JUST LOOK AT THE CUTE!
Anyway, I'm out until I have something else to show lol.
I want to thank all of my current followers for still watching out for my posts. Thanks so much! I know I'm slow and not always coming out with new stuff but any little bit of support helps. I appreciate it.
So as you guys know, I went to Otakon last week. I must say that people had told me about how large it was, but nothing they said could have prepared me for just how many people I saw. This convention was ginormous! I had a great time with my husband, as well as hanging out with my good friend, Jen.
So the ride there, while long, was very scenic. We drove from my home town of Charlotte, North Carolina, all the way to Baltimore, Maryland. It took us about seven and a half hours, give or take a few minutes.
We left at around six in the morning just to make sure we could beat the traffic getting into the city and then went through the mountains on Highway 81 as opposed to fighting to get through Richmond and D.C. on Highway 95 like some people suggested. I'm kinda glad we picked the less direct route, we hit very little to no traffic just as we planned.
Our Table! Prints belong to myself and Nga Nguyen, perler Bead artwork and Origami earrings belong to Jen Austin. Links at the end of the post.
Ah yes, planning, how often does that ever go right? I'd say we were pretty darn lucky all things considered. This was the first time any of us had gone to Baltimore, let alone Otakon. We stayed with a friend who lived close to downtown. She was super amazing to let us do that and I will
forever be grateful for it! Hotel costs in downtown Baltimore are insane.
So we got to the convention, got our badges, set the table up and the rest of the convention was a total blur. I'm so sad that my phone was perpetually dying! I should have brought my camera to get more photos but I don't even know that I would have had much time! I saw so many good cosplays! I've posted a few of them, the few I could get and I stole a few from Jen's Facebook page too.
So far as selling goes. Friday was kinda depressing. It usually is though, since most people are window shopping.
Half way through Saturday it was like the bottom dropped out. I had a few people come by and spend a good $80 Just at our table! I was pleasantly surprised by the attention that our artwork was getting!
I only made it away from the table a few times and that was in order to get food usually. We didn't take very many breaks. I got to explore a little bit. I ventured around the dealer's room some, and I also found the game room and played a bit of Super Smash Brothers Melee.
My only complaint was that things were difficult to find. They seemed obsessed with having a designated entrance and exit to the dealer's room and to Artist alley and it wasn't really clearly marked as such. You just had to go there and ask which one it was. Quite irritating. Once you were in only two feet they wouldn't let you back out either.
Needless to say, I did a lot of circles.
I'm still kind of recovering from the whole thing, I have yet to figure out exactly what I have to split of the profits. I do know that it was a profitable trip though, and if the taxes don't hit me too hard I will definitely be trying for it again next year!
We also made friends with the table next to us. They were very nice people! Also ran into a few online friends. One was a pretty cool blast from the past. She actually knew me from my time playing the MMO, Perfect World International. I've long since quit but former guild members didn't forget the artwork!
I am so thankful to everyone so far that has supported our artwork and to everyone that helped me along at Otakon this year.
You guys rock.
I may have to update my schedule soon since I signed up for a few more next year. For now it's back to more artwork and more frequent updates.
Spark, Out!
LINKS
For Jen's Deviant Art page you can click here: OrigamiCrane12 She's starting to post more than she used to, which is totally a good thing! Check her out!
It's gotten super busy for me! (not necessarily a bad thing.) which is why I've only been able to update the blog sparingly lately. I don't really want to end up with a bunch of itty bitty short blog posts. That can get rather boring I'd imagine.
Anyway, the map for Otakon's Artist Alley has been released at last! With only a few short weeks to go I can tell you guys where we're going to be located! Luckily, it looks like I won't have to try and shout at people from a desolate corner this time! I'm actually decently close to the doors, which is a good thing I hope. Click HERE for the map!
The print line up is pretty well the same as Animazement. I think I'm going to add a few things though. Tinkerbell will no longer be available. For some reason she never really sold well, it took three conventions to get rid of twenty Tinkerbell prints! I'd say that's not really worth doing over. I have a few works in progress that I really hope to have finished by the time I make it to the convention!
That Daenerys print I was working on is still making progress. Since I don't think there's much point in keeping around two prints of the same character, I plan to replace one with the other. So Otakon will more than likely be the last place that you can get my old Daenerys portrait.
As you can see here, the old one is a little boring. Very stylized,
supposed to look sort of water color. I mean let's be honest here, it
was the best I could do with a cell phone picture of a sketch that I did
a while back.
I was at least happy that the character
was recognizable. It made me happy that people loved it so much. I
have a feeling that the new picture is going to blow it out of the
water. I showed a small preview before and this is the only place
online that I'm going to show a bigger one.
I am very
out of my element with the newest painting. I don't paint dragons
well. Or hands. So far I'm pretty satisfied with how it's coming out.
It won't stay in black and white, but, unlike the other Daenerys print,
this one will not come in an 8x10. It is formatted for 11x17 and
that's that.
I'll also be sharing my table space with a good friend of mine. She won't have any prints, but she will have some really adorable origami crane earrings as well as some perler bead artwork! I don't really have any pictures of the perler beads but here's a few of her earrings sets for those who'd like to see!
On top of everything here I've also been signed on to participate in a comic anthology. I'll have more on that later, once we're further along. Seems that there will be a Kickstarter for it soon, so not to worry! You'll definitely hear all about it!
I'm excited about it since it is my first sorta serious job in comic books. I can't recall ever having to sign a contract at least! I was asked to color two, but between everything I have going on with my convention schedule, I could really only promise to color one.
Speaking of which, it's now time to stop writing. I need to check on my e-mail.
I want to take a little bit of time first, though, to say thank you so much to those who follow my blog, whether it be on blogger, or on the numerous other sites that I post updates on. I appreciate every +1 and comment that I receive! Thank you also with being patient with me. I know that I was planning to update twice a week but my schedule isn't really allowing for it right now. Trying to keep it to at least one random update every week.
I finally finished the Punisher, Descent into Darkness piece! Just in time too! It seems that it can still be used for the Capitol City Comic Con, taking place in the middle of July. Hooray! I'm going to be honest, I thought that I was just going to fail this one and let down my client. Which would have really sucked. It was already long overdue and that alone made me feel terrible
Pencils by: Ace Continuado
I had some issues with it, one of those issues being how black
everything was. It was so heavily inked and I have never worked with
anything like that before, it was definitely a learning experience. I still kinda feel like I made a huge mess out of it. The colors are bright, which is odd for me anyway. Especially since the subject matter is so dark. I guess at the very least it'll get someone's attention right?
On top of the colors, I've also been trying very hard to brush up on my own pencils and solo projects. There were a couple that came out of boredom since work had slowed to a crawl for a week or two. I'll admit, I may have drawn a few silly pictures and wrote some really nerdy things in box lids while I was doing inventory. At least anyone who finds these boxes might get a laugh if they understand the references.
Someone's going to be so confused.
Hey, look! Sarlacc barf!
Along with video game references, there were movie lines, silly "Confucius" jokes, an inside joke, which I'm sure no one will even understand but it sounded like a good idea at the time. One said "Han shot first!" Another had a picture of a stop sign and then "Hammer time" down below it. I think the "arrow to the knee" joke made it in there somewhere too.
I even drew a De Lorean in one of them. Yes, THE De Lorean from Back to the future. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it. All I had to screw around with was a single black sharpie, I made the most of it.
Only YOU can prevent range fires
As you can see here, I do have a Star Trek reference, a Portal reference, Boba Fett, Smokey the Bear, and if you can't read the one with the itty bitty writing in the corner of the first picture, it says "Let the Wookie Win."
I'll probably get in trouble for it, but it's totally worth it.
As for some even more recent sketches... well.. They haven't been many and they haven't been easy either.
I know I want to put an owl on this next one below. I wanted to do some crazy fancy owl makeup too, but I wasn't too thrilled with her neck. I attempted to add a different angle than usual and some movement to my sketch but I sorta failed.
I'll fix it later I suppose. It should be fun to paint over and I may actually have some nice original work to add to my prints before I head off to Otakon in the next few weeks.
Oh yeah that.
I'm so freaked out about going right now. I have never been to Baltimore in my entire life and I have only ever passed through Maryland to visit my in-laws in Jersey. Hooray for being scared shitless!
This next sketch of Daenerys from Game of Thrones I did with every intention of practicing with my greyscale markers. I ended up caving into the pencil in the end. I wasn't even happy with the way her face turned out, not to mention her wonky boobies. And what's with that hair? It's all floaty and all over the place.
This is because I'm a total amateur and I was going to attempt making it look like a fancy portrait because I can't draw arms, hands, or anything else for that matter.
I really did have a vision for this one and I'm slowly completing it with the help of Photoshop. It's proving to be very difficult but I need to challenge myself. Most of my best paintings start out as sketches I didn't even like.
I do have a work in progress shot for you guys. It's only a very small portion of the overall piece. I'm saving all of that for the big reveal. I also want to finish this with enough time to print it out for Otakon. It would be replacing my old Daenerys piece.
Everything I have been doing lately is an experiment. As of right now I'm not even sure that I like her skin tones. Perhaps it's a little too dull. I jumped ahead of myself and started adding color before I was really done laying out the whole thing.
This means I'll probably be taking a few steps backward on this one. But no worries! I have a feeling I can finish it and that this will be one of my best works to date! There will be dragons, and fire, and so much stuff that I'm pretty sure I can't draw.
I'm gonna do it anyway! Onward with the artwork!
Also, for those of you who are interested, I would really like to do a Q & A blog entry. One with illustrations. I'd like to practice some expressions and this seems like a fun way to do it. If you're curious about anything at all, feel free to ask! There's a little box to contact the author on the side of the page. Use it to ask whatever you'd like and I'll answer all the questions in a blog post within the next few weeks! You can also comment on this blog post to ask your question! It doesn't even have to be art related :3 Fire away!
Alright fellow comic book artists! Let's talk guns!
*Also, a quick disclaimer. Since I don't feel like rummaging through my house to find all the necessary items to take pictures of, most of these pictures are from google and are not mine. (Except for the one below, Bad Company is mine.)
His and Hers. Mine and my Husband's 1911s
I know how popular guns are in comic books and in movies. They're everywhere. You draw your crazy vigilante hanging out with his guns, you draw them being fired, you draw them being pointed at things, yadda, yadda, so on and so forth. I'm not sure some people know just how wrong they're depicting it.
As some of you may,
or may not know, I am not only a comic book colorist, but I work in a factory that manufactures handguns. I
know a thing or two about the real function of guns and how the comic
books and movies get them wrong EVERY TIME. For years Hollywood has been
teaching people the weirdest crap about firearms and I'm going to
debunk a few of them for you so that your comic book characters can handle a gun in a much more realistic sense and I can stop beating my head on the table when I see it.
Some of these are just super nit picky and you can ignore them for style reasons (stuff like bullets sparking and all that.) I'm not going to go into tremendous detail, you have Google for that.
1. THE CUP AND SAUCER GRIP
Yer doin' it wrong Jack!
Yes
you guys, Jack Bauer here is doing it wrong. And you guys thought he knew how to handle a gun. Pfff.
This is probably the most common mistake I see, well, everywhere. In comics, in movies, at the gun range with newbie shooters. If they don't try to shoot like a thug, with the gun turned sideways, this "cup and saucer" grip is generally their first instinct.
While you should hold your pistol with both hands, this isn't the way to go about it. If any of you have ever shot this way before, you know from experience that this is a very unstable way to hold a handgun. I'm actually not even sure what possessed Hollywood to find this okay in the first place.
This guy does a pretty good job of showing you how to hold the gun correctly and why you should hold it that way.
2. BULLETS DON'T SPARK OR EXPLODE ON IMPACT
No, just no. If you're in the process of drawing a comic frame right now, where there's a big bright poof of light where the bullet strikes, stop drawing. Stop right now and back away. Bullets just don't do that! In reality they don't even spark.
I would say it's okay to use sparks since comics are very visual, but it all depends on how realistic you want to be. There IS a round that flares out, called Dragons Breath. It's just a novelty item and I wouldn't even consider it for anything other than shits and giggles. It does make a really cool picture but it's super impractical. I think it's also only made for shotguns.
*Disclaimer: I don't own this picture.
There is also a such thing as incendiary rounds but, again, they're not going to make a super opaque explosion looking thing if it just hits a person. Just something to think about.
3. RELOAD!
So I was watching The Walking Dead and I realized a number of things that they got wrong when it comes to guns. There was the usual "cup and saucer" grip, there was also exaggerated recoil, and someone being told to take the safety off a Glock, which doesn't come with a manual safety unless you put one on it. I figure. Alright, that's excusable.
Then this happened.
How many shots does that thing hold!? If you want to do something at least half way accurate please do a little research on the gun you're planning for your characters to use and how many shots they hold. Counting the number of bullets can even be used as a very effective way of building suspense.
One thing I don't think I've ever seen used in a comic is the quick and easy way to reload a revolver.
For revolvers there's this thing called a speed loader. You just pop the cylinder open, empty the old shells, put the new bullets in, twist and close the cylinder and you're ready to go for another round. I personally have one of these myself for my little five shot revolver. Just keep in mind that these things didn't exist back in the cowboy days.
There's also a such thing as a moon clip which may, in fact, be even faster than a speed loader. Not all revolvers are made to use these so I'd suggest looking up which revolvers do. Some even require moon clips to function.
Moon clips with ammo
The Oh-So-Convenient speed-loader
Another thing I would like to touch on briefly, is the difference between a magazine, and a clip. (Speaking of moon clips and all) People get them confused very often. Since I was harping on The Walking Dead earlier, I'll get them on this one too. I do believe it's the second episode of the series, maybe the first, Rick calls his magazine a clip.
If you have a character that you really want to know guns, and who really should know guns, impress your gun-loving reader base with this little detail.
Notice something?
A lot of people that refer to a magazine as a clip have probably never actually seen a clip. A clip is used to put bullets into a magazine. Some guns have magazines that aren't removable and you can use a clip to load them. Most modern guns have magazines like the ones shown above that can be attached and detached. Not to mention the visual difference. That's a super simplified explanation, but with a little visual aid, at least some people won't confuse the two now!
4. OTHER NITPICKS
Now we're just going to go through some of the smaller, lesser known gripes.
The right way
*Gun safety! That's actually a big one. When your character is handling a gun without intending on shooting someone, the gun-loving reader base will love to see your character practicing proper safety. This means keeping their finger off the trigger until ready to fire, making sure that the gun does not point at someone that isn't an intended target, whether or not the gun is empty. Maybe even scolding another character for the improper handling of a firearm.
Unless your character truly is crazy, they should never be pointing a gun at their own head and smiling... like the character below. We all know Revy is totally crazy but this is ... well... a little too much.
Revy from Black Lagoon. One of my personal favorite Anime shows.
That picture makes me cringe every time I see it. I'm pretty darn sure it's just fan art since the actual series does a pretty good job of accurately portraying guns. With the exception of some dual wielding and all that. In real life dual wielding isn't really practical as I'm sure some of you may have figured out. It's just one of those things that looks cool, therefore, even most gun lovers will let that slide.
*Revolver Flubs.Another nitpick comes yet again from the series, The Walking Dead. I forget which season, but it's the season finale episode. I'm going to
avoid spoilers here buy just saying that Rick's Colt Python was fired.
You never see the shot fired, but you hear it, and you also hear a clink of an empty casing hitting the floor. Guys, revolvers don't have an extractor. They do not spit out shells. If you watch the show, some of you may know the scene I'm speaking of.
*Firing. Guns being drawn, firing while the hammer is back. If the gun has gone off that means the hammer has hit the firing pin. This means that the hammer is down in the case of a revolver, or it means that the slide is flying back over the hammer and ejecting a shell in a semi-auto pistol. In some cases I've even seen people draw the hammer following the slide backward. If the gun has a slide on it and it is being fired, the slide pushes the hammer back as it flies backward, re-cocking the hammer for the next round.
*Silencers. Contrary to popular belief, silencers aren't completely quiet. They don't make that noise you hear on TV. As someone who has fired a suppressed handgun before, I can tell you the movies really exaggerate this one. While it does make it quiet enough that you may not have to wear hearing protection, it can still be pretty loud. You would have to be a considerable distance away before having a suppressor would really keep your position hidden.
Sometimes silencers can be filled with something to dampen the noise even further. The one that I fired I'm pretty sure was filled with a little water. It keeps the suppressor from getting hot as quickly, and it also makes a mess. It was still loud enough to hurt my ears just a little, granted the range I was in wasn't exactly spacious, just to give you an idea of what it's really like. I also came out of the range with specks of grime all over from it. Not something they show you in the movies, that's for sure.
Pillows also don't really help. I've never shot through a pillow before, but if an actual suppressor can't make a gunshot completely silent, a pillow is certainly never going to do the trick.
THAT'S ALL FOLKS!
Like I said, some of these are small nit picks that can be ignored in favor of style and this was only meant to be informational. I
hope you guys learned something and I really hope this helps in your
action comic endeavors!
And now I leave you with multiple types of guns firing in slow motion.
The convention came and went a lot quicker than I imagined it would. A lot of work went into this and I'm happy to say that we did manage to pull it off. It was a lot of hard work and plenty of frustration at first but by the time we finished setting up on Thursday night I was feeling a little better about the whole thing.
Open For Business!
The stand looked awesome and went together very well. By far it was the best set up I had ever had for an artist alley. Things weren't really easy though and I didn't do as well as I did last year. I feel like this mostly had to do with my location. Artist alley was very, very large this year. That alone didn't bode well for some artists. A lot of competition, albeit friendly.
For those that got stuck in the little alcove off to the side, that location was simply awful for business. With that location people had to actually seek you out in order to really find you. It wasn't just me it was everyone unfortunate enough to be stuck in this barren corner.
I don't really have a picture to accurately display my frustration at being stuck here. This was taken before things really got busy. From the balcony, after things picked up, you could really tell that most of the traffic was through the middle and the little alcove I was stuck in got very heavily ignored.
In a lot of cases, there were people that came by my table that wanted to buy prints, but they had no more money to do so. They often told me that we were the last table that they saw in the alley, and they had spent their budget elsewhere before even noticing that this little cubby hole even existed.
My very lonely table in BFE
As you can see in this next picture here, this is my table from the entrance to the alley. I had to zoom in on it. You can kinda see my husband sitting there, conversing with an off duty police officer that had been paid to provide more security for the convention.
I resorted to a few semi-desperate tactics to up foot traffic in the area. At some point on Saturday I got so frustrated with the lack of attention that I left my husband to watch the table, and I went half way up the stairs in between the escalators to yell at people coming down into the alley.
When I say yell I don't mean angrily. It was something to the effect of "Hello everyone! Artist alley is really big this year please don't leave until you've visited everyone, including that dark corner over there! I know it's scary looking, but be brave!" I even asked a couple of Jedi if I could borrow their mind tricks to sell prints. I'm usually not that outgoing so I surprised myself a little with how much nerve I managed to get up to draw attention to myself.
Table Graffiti
People didn't really react terribly to me, most of them were intent on giving me a high five while they rode down the escalator. As luck would have it, this bold move did increase foot traffic to the area and I sold to quite a number of people that I specifically remember seeing on the staircase. Things picked up Saturday and even more on Sunday so not all hope was lost.
Another trick that I employed again this year that worked well last year, was the table graffiti. I got a number of metallic pens and a black table cloth and let people go at it. This time it didn't get quite as full but there were more colors to play with. It was pretty colorful by the time we left but that was the plan. No one drew anything offensive on it, so all's well that ends well.
As for the art auction, the two pieces I submitted did pretty well! They were both collaborative works, the lines were by my good friend, Nga Nguyen, and the colors were by yours truly. You know, the usual stuff. Upon entering your works into the auction they are subjected to a competition. We've had pieces that placed every single year, whether it be second or third place. This year, though, we finally got first! It was a pretty big shocker too!
Of the two posters I put in auction, I expected the Sailor Moon piece to go for more than the original character. After all, fan art does usually do better than anything else. Apparently I'm just a backwards sort of person. The auction piece that made the most money and won the prizes was actually the original that was submitted. The winner of the auction for the print of "Angelic" purchased the print for his mother and had me sign it "to a loving mom."
He seemed very pleased with it and that made me happy. It's always nice to know when someone really appreciates the work you do! That's why, despite the bad location, despite the long days involved, I found it nearly impossible to have a bad time. Even when I thought that I might not break even and after I realized that I left all of my 8x10 prints at home, I couldn't help but to enjoy myself. I even did a few sketches for people. I had two people at least buy four prints or more in a shot. I also did an art trade with an artist I watch on DeviantArt.
Hopefully next year will be a little better. From what I've heard it seems like they're going to do all they can to avoid the cubby hole next year, and maybe even open up a door in between the alley and the dealer room so that the artist alley can get more traffic and not be quite so isolated.
Despite our awful location and little traffic, we still managed to turn a profit and for that I'm pretty darn grateful. I was also grateful that my husband went with me. He was very supportive through the whole thing, even when I was beginning to doubt myself, and I really enjoyed hanging out with him the whole weekend. We made a great team of course! We are married after all.
Now to get ready for Otakon and hope for better luck there.
Posting a little early this week. I already had something planned for Tuesday and then I got to work on this. I also may not be posting on Thursday since I will be making the trip to Raleigh for Animazement.
Well I've been actually doing some work on my comic script, finally. I guess having the hubby work third shift isn't so bad since I can use the time he's sleeping on the weekends to do some uninterrupted work. I will warn you that I'm not really good at this. I don't really expect to ever be able to work professionally as a writer. This is probably just a giant sloppy mess to anyone that IS professional or even close to it.
But hey, at least I'm getting some of it down on paper.
We had some stuff story-boarded for this before. I've since changed a few things and the story board itself is quite old just like a lot of the finished images for this comic. I'll include a few cuts from the story board that are still mostly relevant. They are sloppy since it IS just planning and it's not representative of the final product. Nga really does an amazing job working with me on this and I could not have asked for a better artist and friend to help me out!
Well without further stalling, here it is. I just hope I don't embarrass myself (I probably will.)
an old frame.
RILED Chapter 1 preview
The sun shines down brightly on a beach setting. The beach looks somewhat lonely except for a single beach umbrella and a person lounging in a chair. Beside her is a martini glass and a plate with a sandwich which sit atop a small cooler. On the other side of her is a beach bag. The sounds of the ocean and seagulls can be heard while the birds circle up above.
Riley: (She wears sunglasses and a small smile as she relaxes, her hand resting around the base of the martini glass.) (Thinking to herself, not aloud.) Bertana
Palm Beach! Just like I thought it would be… Perfect! (She lifts the
martini glass and takes a sip.) There doesn't seem to be a lot of
people out here, Wonder where they are. (sets the glass back down with a
thoughtful expression before she seems to totally dismiss the thought.)
Eh, they're probably working and have kids in school. Who cares
anyway?
View from above with shadows from seagulls.
Riley: (thinking) This feels great... I needed a vacation.
A seagull lands close by the cooler and lets out a squawk.
Riley: (She lifts her sunglasses, giving the bird a questioning look.) Well you're brave aren't you?
The seagull inches closer and lets out another squawk.
Riley: (She tries to ignore it but soon grows irritated at the noise as it continues to squawk. She picks
up a hand full of sand and throws it at the bird.) Shoo! Ugh how can something make so much friggin' noise!
The seagull jumps backward, but it doesn't leave, instead it makes a lunge for her sandwich and grabs it.
Riley: (Surprised) What the--! Hey!(She quickly grabs for the sandwich in an attempt to save it, knocking over her martini in the process.)
The seagull darts out of her reach in a flourish of feathers. It seems to stare right at her, letting out a muffled squawk before it quickly devours her sandwich in an odd, cartoonish, and very non seagull-like fashion. Then it squawks more.
Riley: (after recovering from a brief moment of shock) Alright so that's how you wanna play huh?! (She reaches into the bag next to her and pulls out her gun as if she fully intends to shoot a gull over a sandwich.
Seagull: (In a thick Spanish accent and broken English.) Miss McGummery!
Riley: (Gives the bird a disturbed look.) What the hell...
Seagull: McGummery! Time is up! You have to leave!
The sound of pounding on a door becomes more clear and distinct.
The scene is now not a beach, but a small somewhat low budget motel room. Riley lays sprawled out across a bed in the middle of the room, the covers thrown every which way and her head not even lying on a pillow. Next to the bed is a bag with her clothing items haphazardly stuffed in and laying around it. Mrs. Rosa: (Thick Spanish accent, no longer squawky) Miss McGummery! Boss man say you have ten minutes!
Riley: (Groggy) fine-- (She is cut off by more pounding at the door) (Shouting) FINE! I'm awake I'll be out in a minute! (She lets out a groan, grabbing a pillow and putting it over her face.)
Riley: (Narrating) This… would be me. The name's Riley and apparently I'm not on vacation.
Cue getting dressed and packing up montage! :) Riley: (Narrating) No, no this motel isn't on a beach. Not even close to one really. I'm here on business.
Riley: (Now fully dressed. She walks down the hallway and up to the counter where there is a man sitting behind it at a computer.) Hey, Mr. Escobar. (She rubs an eye in a sleepy manner.)
Mr. Escobar: (Smiling) Good morning, Riley, I see that you got your wake-up call from Mrs. Rosa.
Riley: (She shoots him an annoyed look) Yeah, yeah I did. Couldn't miss it. (She fishes her key card out of her backpack and puts it on the counter.)
Riley: (Narrating.) I know what you're thinking. "Business? You don't look like a business woman." Yeah well that's because I'm not some executive. I'm a bounty hunter.
Mr. Escobar: (He lets out a chuckle as he takes the card.) Ah yes, she is a wonderful lady but that voice could wake the dead. (He looks up the room on the computer.) Just double checking, I seem to remember you prepaid... and it looks like I was right. (He turns his attention back to Riley giving her a big and friendly smile) Have a nice day, if you're ever back in town, just remember, our rates don't really change!
Riley: (She shifts her pack around on her back to be more comfortable) I'll keep that in mind.
Riley: (She makes her way out of the motel. She opens the lobby doors only to find that it is pouring down rain outside. She lets out a sigh.) (sarcastic and unenthusiastic) Today's gonna be great, I can tell. (She ducks her head and makes her way out onto the sidewalk, crossing a street to get to the parking deck where her car is parked.)
Riley: (Narrating) With this profession, you go where the work is. Which means I travel. A lot. Hell, I don't even have a real place to call home.
Riley: (She opens the trunk of her older model car which seems to be very neatly organized and places her bag in the corner of it. She shuts it and gets into the driver's seat of her car. She pets the steering wheel fondly.) Well baby, time to put this place in the dust. I don't think this city has anything else for us. (She turns the key in the ignition and the car starts up with a loud roar.)
Riley: (Narrating) I don't have some stationary plot somewhere with my name on it. Not a house, not an apartment, not even a cardboard box.
She drives the car to the exit of the parking deck, the brakes letting out a light squeal as she comes to a stop. She waits patiently for an opening to pull out onto the road.
Riley: (Narrating) Some people would call that, "homelessness." I call it, "freedom."
The loud sound of the car echoes through the city streets as she leaves the parking deck and shifts through the gears to get up to speed.
(cue a short traveling montage. Need to show that she's traveled all day and is now in a different location.)
Riley: (Narration) This life has a culture all it's own. It also takes a special kind of person to do this job. Someone with nerves of steel and an immunity to disappointment.
Scene change to a dimly lit bar. Riley sits at the bar with a drink, looking through something that looks like a newspaper. She rests her head in one hand in a bored manner while holding a lit cigarette with the other. The paper that she is looking at is shown, on it are the mug shots of quite a few felons, under each is the reward for them stated in dollars and the crimes they are wanted for. She turns the page and the next seems to be dedicated to one picture and details on the convict. The paper states in bold letters that this man's name is Jacob Ferguson. Riley: (Narrating) You're probably not going to become famous or even well known. Mostly you'll catch small fry. The big names are big names for a reason: they are dangerous and hard to catch.
As she skims the page attention it drawn to particular parts of the page where the felon pictured is described as very dangerous. There are also a few lines visible that describe his crimes. Riley smirks after zeroing in on the figure for the reward which is clearly shown as $750,000. She snuffs her cigarette out on the felon's picture.
Riley: (Narrating) But big risks, come with big rewards.
More traveling montage! (Yes, non professional script writer here) Riley questions people on the street. She seems to be following leads and getting more frustrated every frame.
Riley: (Narrating) I won't lie… it can be frustrating. You might not answer to a boss like a nine-to-five-er but that don't mean it's easy.
Scene change to outside, Riley is parallel parked on a lightly congested city street. She studies a paper map with markings all over it, seemingly beyond frustrated and ready to give up. She crumples up the map and tosses it behind her shoulder.
Riley: (grumbling) So much for that idea. (She turns the key and starts her car.)
A man runs down the sidewalk outside, trying to escape from something, his face isn't shown.
Riley: (Narrating) This hunting thing can be very hit or miss. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't, and sometimes…
Riley has shifted the car into gear and is waiting for an opportunity to pull back onto the street. She seems focused on this until the sound of her car door opening is heard off screen and her attention is drawn that way. Camera pans over a bit to show her unwanted passenger.
Ferguson: (Clutching a back pack. He points a pistol at Riley.) You! Drive!
Riley: (Narrating) … Sometimes it just falls right into your lap.
Riley: (She raises her eyebrows upon realizing who had just run right to her and her expression is one of total disbelief.)
Ferguson: (frantically shouting, brandishing his weapon menacingly.) What the hell are you waiting for!? GO!
Riley: (She seems to snap out of her daze.) Okay! Okay jeeze, I'm movin' (she takes off, squealing the tires a bit as she does so. Car horns blare as she cuts a few cars off in the process.)
Well this week has definitely been an interesting one. On Friday, I left work a little early so that I could pack myself and my husband into the car. We headed up to Boone to see my little brother graduate college. (Congrats Sean!) We were about to leave when my husband glanced at his Facebook feed and noticed that one of our coworkers had posted a ridiculously giddy-looking selfie, which he called his "fire at work selfie." Complete with firetrucks in the background.
Yep, that's right. My workplace caught on fire on Friday. It didn't burn to the ground but there was definitely some damage. So much so that we were told to stay home yesterday. I was supposed to stay home today but our job isn't very good at communicating those things.
Anyway, I took advantage of the situation to start on a very long overdue commission as well as to work on a few more unfinished works. Time to get these things rolling out!
First up is the commission I was talking about, and also a top priority at the moment. It's going to be some promotional art for a a comic convention, also an exclusive print. It's very far from being finished. And I mean VERY far. So much left to do on this one. I think this is definitely a step in the right direction for me, since it'll be at the exclusives table at the convention, I'm sure I'll get plenty of exposure.
Pencils by Ace Continuado
I promise it'll look better than this. I kinda wanted to give it a
nightmarish sort of feeling, so I tried to make the lightning and all
look like it was ripping a hole into another dimension or something like
that.
I'm not sure how well the rest of the lighting is working out so far. I'll make it work somehow. Anything I color usually looks this disorganized before I get a better idea of what I'm going to do with it.
I'm also going to have to look up some references. As weird as it may be for someone like me to admit, I've never watched any of these movies! Well, except for Chucky, I've seen at least one of those. And to think that used to terrify me as a child.
Pencils by Paulo Barrios
This one right here, with the redhead in it, is a personal piece. Not sure when I'll ever be done with it. I had commissioned it for myself from another artist on DeviantArt a long time ago. The characters are mine although I'm not sure if I like how he portrayed my main female. I'll more than likely end up giving her a boob reduction and maybe a more covering shirt.
While I'm not offended by female video game and comic book characters wearing less clothing, I just don't personally want that for my own characters. Especially this one in particular. Despite the fact that I'm not entirely happy with how my main girl here was dressed, I did really like the composition of this piece. Which is why it's getting colored anyway. Aside from that he captured her attitude pretty well.
Last but not least I have this one, some strange tree girl... thing. I liked the idea of nymphs in Greek mythology. So I was thinking about it one day and came up with idea of taking a nymph and making it something other than Greek. So here's a Japanese cherry blossom nymph.
At least that's what I think it is. It looked better in my head I swear. This is actually modified from my previous painting. I didn't like it much, I plan to do better this time. This is kind of my way of proving to myself that I am more than just a colorist. While I'm still not very good with anatomy and the like I hope to get better through practice on pieces like these.
I kinda miffed up the tree and the flowers already I can tell. Again this is a work in progress and it isn't completely finished. It's more complete than the other two but rather low on the list of priorities at the moment. I"ll finish it one of these days, perhaps it'll be another print for conventions to come.
Well that's it for today. Hopefully by my next update I'll have the Punisher piece more or less finished.
Hey guys, sorry I missed that last update. I was busy with a number of things (job hunting being one of them. I may actually have a new job that can pay my rent and give me enough spare time for more artwork. Hopefully.)
So I'm totally over the pre-convention jitters. Well, mostly. I am actually prepared much earlier than usual! This weekend I got down to business. All of my printing is done as well as my banner and my display. I wanted something better this year than the flimsy pvc pipe stand that I had last year. Quite honestly it sucked and looked absolutely terrible. I don't plan on using so much masking tape to hold the display prints up this year either. That looked so sloppy and unprofessional.
Anyway, I wanted to make it out of pvc pipe again but the drawing I made was a little complicated. That stuff is usually pretty cheap, which makes it an ideal material. I did the math though, and after I found that it would cost me $75 in pvc pipe I decided that maybe that wasn't the most efficient and cost effective idea. I over-engineered the crap out of that stand. It needed to be sturdy enough to hold up prints, a dry erase board, and a banner. It probably would have worked but I the money was a bit outrageous and there are better options for cheaper.
Our 4 foot by 2.5 foot banner.... and my wedding cake topper haha.
Totally Over-Engineered. Would have been a good stand though...
I eventually went with those wire mesh storage cubes that a lot of people seem to use for stands now days. After finding some of my own and getting them home, I can see why people use them. They are sturdy and there's so many ways you can arrange them. My display is gonna rock this year! I may still end up buying some pvc pipe and some zip ties, I need to hoist my banner up over the stand somehow. The higher up the better. After all, I am stuck in a corner and getting attention is important.
I also got this super awesome board. It's a black dry erase board that you use with neon colored dry erase markers. Yes! This is dry erase! I had no Idea that they even made these until I found them in Walmart. I'm not sure that these will be my final prices, I just had to try it out when I got it home. It was too cool. I plan to attach it to one side of my stand at eye level. I may even get another one for the other side to keep the commission list updated and let people know when their commissions are finished. Haven't decided yet.
As you can tell I used to work in the restaurant... they bugged me do the feature board every day for this reason.
So maybe I lied I'm not COMPLETELY ready for the convention yet. The to-do list is definitely a lot smaller than it used to be though. I have to trim my prints. They turned out great by the way! I'm so excited about it! I finally did enough research to save my print files in a printer friendly fashion. The colors turned out amazing and I am very happy with the quality of the paper I got them on. I even printed everything for less than the budget I had set aside for printing, which is also a plus.
I want to print out one more poster though. I will be putting two prints into the art auction this year instead of just one like in previous years. One is an original concept and the other is fan art. I thought that was fitting. I only ever print out ONE 16x20 print to sell of each piece. There will never be another print that size for sale of any of these again.
Sailor Moon was kind of a no-brainer. I did a quick poll on DeviantArt anyway and it won out over three other pieces to be in the art auction this year.
As for the original, I just had it printed on a whim because I liked it. The brown haired angel in this picture is a character from a really old story I had dreamed up back in high school. She does have a name, and her name is Catriona. Nga did an absolutely wonderful job capturing her character in her pencil work! It was a joy to color.
I've adapted Catriona's character for E20XX like most of the characters from that old story plot. The characters were just too cool to abandon even if the story I came up with sucked. What could you expect though, I was sixteen. As I grew up, so did the characters. It was almost like they outgrew that story.
Hopefully other people will like her as much as I do. I sold an original character last year in auction which was a success, far more successful than I thought it would be. It gave me the warm fuzzies when the lady who won the auction brought it by the table to have me physically sign it. Her daughter found me on DeviantArt and sent me a picture of it hanging up on the wall in their house. I cried happy tears.
This will probably be the last I write about the convention before I actually go. I only have two weeks until the con. Since I'm mostly done with the preparations, expect some sketch entries into the blog pretty soon along with my current works in progress. Got some overdue commissions to finish.
If all goes well I will be updating again on my normal schedule of Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Until then thanks for the continued support it means a lot to me.
