Updates: New Art, New Conventions

I'm alive!

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!

Talk to you again soon!

Spark, out.

Sailing On: Winds of Change

Hello again!

No, I'm not dead. Things could be better but I'm certainly not dead lol.

A lot has happened since my last blog update! I'm not talking about small changes either. There have been quite a few large ones.

The Job Front

As most of you know I was laid off last year. I didn't manage to make art a career before my job at the gun factory left. Supposedly I had until August of this year, but they decided almost last minute that my last day of work there would be December 13th 2014. This was especially frustrating for me because it meant that I would be stuck looking for employment while five months pregnant. Even in this day and age, when everyone speaks of equality, you can expect to have a very hard time finding work as a pregnant woman.

Step into my office...

Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about being unemployed for very long. I found another job at a fab shop only a week after being laid off. I rather enjoyed my work. Even though the benefits were lacking and the pay wasn't what I had gotten used to at my previous job, the people were nice and the atmosphere was very relaxed. I couldn't have found a more perfect place to work while expecting. Even more helpful was the fact that I picked up skills beyond working as a gunsmith. My boss even bought me books to study up on, which was very nice of him. It wasn't without its struggles though. I have a feeling some of the guys at the shop thought I was a sympathy hire. Hell, even if I did get hired out of sympathy for my situation I am totally not complaining. For someone without a college degree, experience is almost priceless. I was able to get away from solely working in the gun industry.

Don't get me wrong, it's so cool to be able to call yourself a gunsmith. Unfortunately it's such a niche occupation. Sure, this is the dirty South, there's a gun shop on every corner that would hire a gunsmith. But that's the thing, most places only need one or two and aside from the gun shop or a gun manufacturer, no employer around really cares how well you deal with guns. And the politics! Ugh! It gets exhausting to hear it around the work place every time some politician gets too big for his pants and decides to wage war on your way of life. For most people, it's not every day that some political dingbat reveals some plan to destroy their living, but for a gunsmith it's a regular thing.

Anyway, just when you thought life couldn't throw me another curve ball, right after the birth of my adorable baby girl, the company I worked for announced that it was moving away as well. If I hadn't already been contacted by an old coworker about a job, I probably would have been laid off for the second time within the course of a year.

Which brings me to where I am now, working quality control at a factory that deals in plastics. (truthfully I'm not feeling it... but it's work.) I'm still determined to do this art thing for a living, but until then it looks like I'm stuck with the smell of burned plastic every day.

BABY!

Alexandria Michele Altenkirch. Born April 3, 2015

So the last time you heard from me I was expecting a baby. Well she's here! And she's the most adorable baby on the face of the planet! (Oh no I'm not biased, not at all.)

I will admit that I was afraid of the whole birthing thing. I wasn't looking forward to that particular detail but it wasn't exactly avoidable. Thank God for modern medicine though! For the most part I feel like I got off easy. However, once the epidural wore off I wanted it back. Oh, the things no one ever tells you about having a baby. Specifically: the recovery. I thought, nah, I don't need six weeks, I can come back to work after like... three.

Now I can be close while I work

!

Needless to say, that definitely didn't happen. When they tell you six weeks of recovery, they mean it. I needed all of it. During my recovery I did manage to do a little artwork, finally breaking my artless streak, which pretty much lasted the whole duration of my pregnancy.

But hey! Look what I got out of it: A little girl lovingly named Alexandria. I love her to death, she's just so adorable and making her smile is the highlight of my day! She's growing like a weed and at two months old she's already outgrown some of her little outfits. Being a parent is something I never really saw myself doing and being responsible for another life is just terrifying sometimes but I think I'm getting the hang of this Mom thing.

Convention Update

Although I had plans to go, I didn't ever actually make it to MAGfest. I did, however, make it to Animazement again this year.

Unfortunately this was the worst year at my home convention yet. It seemed that I was somehow just invisible. I had next to no sales, I was lucky to break even. Everything that could have gone wrong did. I already hadn't been doing well in sales (the first time ever I made less on a Saturday than on Friday.) and to make matters even worse, a friend of mine knocked a cup of coffee over and it spilled all over the remaining prints. It was a total disaster.

This was quite literally the best part of the weekend.

 I actually had more fun exploring Raleigh than I had at the actual con. I don't know, somewhere I feel like maybe I lost the Anime crowd. I don't watch many of those shows anymore and the ones that I do watch are pretty obscure or just old. I mean Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Knights of Sidonia (ah netflix...), Utawarerumono? Anyone ever hear of them? Psycho Pass is probably the newest and most mainstream thing I've watched and actually liked. Where did Rurouni Kenshin ever go? I still see some Inuyasha hanging around, Sailor Moon never really seems to lose popularity but I was never really a fan. Full Metal Panic! Anyone? I feel like I haven't seen anything for that in years. I never really saw much fan art for it anyway.

So yeah... maybe I'm just not with it anymore.  I've decided to shift focus, and thanks to a fellow artist alley goer, I managed to sign up in time to make it into artist alley at NC Comic Con in November this year. Gonna be on the look out for more conventions to sign up for. Maybe NYCC one year? ;D (I can dream.)

Art Updates!

 I the job that I held up until I had Alex was so laid back that I did a couple of sketches. They're not my usual fare but maybe I'll paint them at some point. I did always tell my grandma I'd paint an owl for her one day. I've been working on my own line work for a while now. I'm actually pretty happy looking at some of my art. I mean, it's not perfect but the last three pieces I completed were completely my own. Making a little progress there!

I've also picked up a project, which I'm currently working on with Nga. I'm not going to go into major detail about it but I'll release a little information as I get permission to. It's gonna be awesome! So far it's hard work trying to balance a full time job, a new baby and art. I'll have to do it if I want to keep it up though.

I know I introduce myself as a colorist most often, but I have a confession to make... I have never actually colored frames. I'm not sure exactly how to keep colors consistent. It's alright everyone involved knows this is really my first try so It's bound to be a learning experience.


Now that you've read this wall of text (or at least some of it.) I will leave the blog open for questions! If you're curious about anything (so long as it's appropriate) please feel free to ask!  Anything from favorite music to what programs and tools I use for my artwork. I'll do my best to answer questions Thursday of next week if there's enough interest.

For now, I'll leave you guys with a few of my newest sketches and artworks. Remember, I am on more social media than just blogger! Check the websites and contact info tab on my blog to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, DeviantART, and a few others.

Until next week!

Spark, out.

Otakon: Con Report!

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!

Making Progress: Otakon 2014 and a Colorist Gig!

Hey guys!  Long time no see.

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.

Spark, Out.  Until next time!

Research! Slasher Movie Binge

What an appropriate day for a picture full of slasher villains!  I am still working on this Punisher piece for a comic convention.  I plan to have it done sometime this weekend because it really needs to be finished!  Ugh, me and deadlines don't mix.  I really need to get a handle on my procrastination.  I could have this piece done in just a matter of hours if I could only get up the inspiration to do it.  I've even gone on a slasher film kick just to get a good idea of what I'm supposed to do with the rest of the picture!

I think I'm looking perhaps a little too colorful for something that's supposed to be ... gritty.  They actually chose me to do this picture because of the whole grit factor.  I don't know what I'm doin' here!  I do know who ALL of the characters are now and hopefully that will help me along so I can his my goal of finishing it tomorrow. 

Livestreaming, as odd as this sounds, seems to keep me focused on artwork better than anything so I may stream the rest of this work tomorrow.  I guess I feel like I have to be doing something interesting for viewers to want to watch.  This way I'm obligated to keep working and I don't get as easily distracted by--

Ohh shiny internet...

Anyway, going on a slasher film binge also may have inspired something.  I just might have a short story on my hands.  I never do short stories, this stuff is pretty freakin' rare.  I know how I want it to start and I know how I want it to end and I can't tell you much about it.  If I gave you a summary I'd have to kill you.  There is almost no way I could give some kind of summary that wouldn't spoil it in some way.  And yes... it's kind of a slasher.  Can't wait to get it on paper it'll be awesome.

I'm certainly not going to have my heroine (if there is one) keep thinking that she's killed the psycho and then keep dropping the knife right next to his pseudo dead body!!  *cough* Halloween *cough* I've also come to the conclusion, after multiple slasher films, that some slasher film antagonists are scared of sex and that's why they feel the need to kill every character that gets some.  Even if that's totally not true, I did find that to be an odd correlation there.  In any case, I plan to write and whatever comes out, is what comes out.  It might go into the direction of a thriller more than a slasher, who knows.

In other news:

So we all know about how I went on a very large rant yesterday.  One point of my rant was my crappy apartment and how much is broken and wrong with it.  I appreciate that the maintenance staff really did try to fix the old unit, the problem was that it was just too small and the complex itself didn't want to shovel out the money to fix the problem.  Our AC never turned off because it never reached the temperature it was set on so our power bills were insane.  All just to keep the temperature below eighty degrees.

The AC at work is broken too and the last thing I wanted to do is come home to a hot, musty apartment.  I finally had enough and I sent them an ultimatum last night.  I must be a more intimidating person than I thought.  Today I came home to a nice, shiny new air conditioning unit.

 Victory is MINE!

Animazement 2014 Con Report!

Well that was fast!

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.

Spark, out.

Lots of Catching Up

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.

Spark, Out.

Ready For Animazement!

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.  

Inspiration Strikes: My Original Comics-To-Be

On top of being an artist, I want to write my own comics as well.  It's been a while since I wrote anything on any of them.  Unfortunately what I wrote today is still on notebook paper, but the important thing is that I'm moving forward with this.  Finally.  It feels good.

This story has been going on for quite some time.  I was really disappointed with it in recent years, mostly because I couldn't really nail down a solid plot.  I had a premise and a few pictures and that was about it.  Some of the ideas I really liked but it felt like it was lacking something.  It needed something to tie it all together.

I'm not sure how, after a good two years of lying dormant, this story managed to find its way back into my head.  And at work of all places.  Why is it that inspiration likes to smack you in the face when you're not close to a pen and paper?  I managed to fill in a few more details that made the puzzle much more complete and I'm picking this thing back up.

Anyway here's a little info on this project.

(Warning!  Old picture!)

circa 2010

Don't worry some things have changed lol,  Acutally a good bit of it has changed, but mostly the skill levels of myself and my good friend, Nga, or AutumnGoose on DeviantArt.  We have both definitely improved.  (And I don't use comic sans anymore because I learned better ...)

So to summarize:

Meet Riley, a nomadic bounty hunter determined to make her own way in the dog-eat-dog world of her profession. She prefers to stay alone, just her and her car, cruising the highways in search of danger, adventure, and the money that comes with a successful capture.  

After being denied a large bounty, she is asked for her side of the story by a journalist named Zeph.  Things don't go as planned when Zeph is attacked after leaving their chat.  Riley isn't given enough time for questions, with bullets flying her way, she only has time to act.  She helps him escape, only to find out that this journalist has stumbled upon a conspiracy and now she's stuck in the middle with him.  Guilty by association.

All she wanted was to take her bounty and take a tropical island vacation.  What she gets instead is headache by the name of Zeph and a bounty on her own head; right where she doesn't want it.  In order to restore her old way of life, she must get to the bottom of this conspiracy, expose the truth, and clear her own name.  Hopefully she won't die first.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a professional at this writing thing.  I doubt I even use the correct punctuation.  All of this is precisely why it will be a web comic and not a novel.  There is quite a bit still in the development stages.  I got a bunch of old sketches, both from me and from Nga.  There's a number of unfinished things floating around.  Like the picture below.

Work In Progress.  Riley and Zeph on the run, taking the back way.

Some of the things that will change, Riley will have more tattoos.  Almost a full sleeve and a few elsewhere.  Why is it in comics a tattoo always has to do something?  Why can't it just be a tattoo because the character felt like getting it?  It's always some tribal marking, some symbol of a secret organization, some magical voodoo crap.

So for the sake of being realistic, Riley's tattoos will be just that.  Tattoos.  An expression of who she is and what she wants, just like a real person with tattoos.

Another change will be her car.  I decided on the fly to give the setting a slightly more futuristic feel and this car is a bit too old.  1971?  Not a ton of them out today much less fifteen to thirty years into the future.  I've decided instead to give her a Mustang.  Oh, "A Ford Mustang?" You say.  "Every movie has one of those!"

They might, but not a fox.  By the point in time that this story is set, a fox-body Mustang would be a classic.  They look so plain, I feel like they are one of the most underrated models of that car ever made.  They're small, simple, easy to work on and pack power into.  Still has that signature sound too.  I haven't seen many of them in movies or TV and I wasn't really fond of them myself until I drove one and absolutely loved it.

Also, with a hatchback, those cars can be SO practical.

Ahem.

Back to the comic though.

I plan to self publish this as a web comic and with any luck it'll be in print as well.  I'll keep you guys updated on it as we come out with more!

But wait!  There's more!

Yeah, there's much more.  This is only the first comic that I have plans for. Yet another, is a post-apocalyptic fantasy.  No really solid plans for this one just yet.  It had started as a joint project with another writer, but he's since abandoned the project.  It sucks to lose a writing buddy due to ... reasons... (that actually have nothing to do with the story.)

On the bright side I have free reign with this one now and I plan to make it amazing.

I will try to avoid zombies.

Not a lot of art out for this one just yet.  It does, however, have a name and a premise.  The series name is, "E20XX" and the first installment will be known as, "The Ashes of Yesterday."  In this, the apocalypse is caused by magic.  The desperate actions of a realm at war cause a rift to open between dimensions and worlds collide.  Chaos and destruction ensue.  The story follows three groups of survivors as they struggle to adapt to a strange new world full of things both familiar and foreign.

Art by Sensevessel.deviantart.com  This was a concept piece that I bought mostly as a treat for myself a few years ago.

I know, doesn't seem super exciting so far but it'll get there.  It's like Lord of the Rings and Fallout had a baby.  One very strange yet very interesting baby.

This I plan to do after Riled.  It would be kinda ridiculous to dive into something of this scale without at least a little more experience with a successful comic.

This one is on the back burner for now but I'll keep the blog updated if I make any moves with it or come out with any more art for it.  Well, at least art that accurately portrays it... I guess.

And that does it for my update this Tuesday!  See ya again Thursday!  I do answer questions!  If you have any feel free to ask!

Intro: A Ship in Harbor

So, about me.

Hi, my name is Michele.  I'm a recently married, gunsmith, artist from Charlotte, North Carolina.  What a weirdo already, huh?  I'm one of the few people in Charlotte, that's actually from Charlotte, I have lived and worked with my husband for the past three years, and despite what you may think of my occupation I actually really enjoy yoga.

Things had been going smoothly for a while, but this year has been rocky at best and it doesn't seem to be getting any easier.  I do like my job, I've never truly hated it (just certain people that happen to be there) but there is one rather large and glaring problem with my employer: they're relocating.  Far away.  It's not been formally announced, but if they are trying to keep it a secret they are doing a terrible job at it.  Many people are quitting and there is absolutely no effort to replace any of them, and the temp workers have been told this place is no longer temp-to-hire.  Those aren't the only signs but that's all I feel like explaining.

I'm not exactly sure what caused this situational nosedive.  Last year we made plenty of money, we paid rent, lived easily and even saved the funds for a nice wedding.

Dawww we be so happy!

This year has been so cruel in contrast.  On top of the fact that we will both lose jobs when this place closes up shop and takes off, my husband has been moved to third shift.  Adjusting to sleeping alone has been rough.  It doesn't feel right having a king size bed all to myself.

All things considered we'd like to avoid the unemployment line.  I've done some looking around already, he has too.  The job market is slim pickings around here for someone like me.  I didn't exactly go to college, although, to be fair, going to college hasn't exactly helped some of my friends out much either.  It just seems to be the unfortunate state of the country at the moment.  I might go back to school if things really don't work out, but for right now it's just finding something to hold me over so I don't become unemployed.  Mostly I've been looking at the conventional types of jobs, but then I got a fortune from a fortune cookie.

Cheesy, right?

What is said really caught my attention though. It's probably a saying I've heard ten thousand times in other ways, but I liked how it was put.  It said, "a ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships were built for."  Maybe this is just how I've been treating my art, like a ship in harbor.  Perhaps this is the reason why I don't make enough money off of it to survive and why I feel like I need a regular full time job to continue living comfortably.  I suck at getting attention anyway, but I'm not confident enough in my artwork to really go for it.

Well the time has come, this ship's gonna sail.  I figure I have until August or so to get my ass in gear.  I'm going to build my portfolio.

Lines by Ace Continuado.  Commissioned for the first annual Alamo City Comic Con

I've done some colorist work before, like the picture above.  Ultimately that is what I really want to do.  I would love to do work as a colorist for a proper comic studio.  I like collaborating to begin with.

I've also been trying very hard to improve, not only my color skills, but my painting.  Textures, values, anatomy, movement.  I'm still far from perfect.  There's always room to improve.
This is my progress so far!

 The mission of this blog is to keep me motivated!  I must continue to improve and I must put together a portfolio.  If I'm not drawing, I need to write my little heart out.  Write about the things that inspire me, work on my own original comics while I'm at it.  Whatever it is I'm doing, I need to keep the creativity going.  I need to be discovered to live off of my artwork.  I will be keeping you guys updated with my progress as well as a few random anecdotes and adventures as they pop up.

I'm feeling ambitious!  Let's do this!