Pocketful, Pokemon, and Unimaginable Horror.

Finished the submission for Pocketful, yay. Have like three different versions but I think I'm happy with this one, and it's due today so I should send it in.



Yes, that is a girl whose name might be Penny, with some sort of hot drink and a goat. Also, playing a ukulele. Because. Goats are cool. A bit freaky in the eyes, yes, but I have fond memories of my aunt's goats...mostly me just feeding them anything I happened to rip off a plant or had in my hand. They loved me. There's also a memory of finding the birth sack, that was a bit gross but the baby goat was one of the most adorable things I had ever seen up to that point so it was worth it. Ukuleles are also cool. I think I might be able to learn how to play one if I tired. They don't look as intimidating as a guitar. This logic follows right?

It's Pokemon Facebook Profile pic month or something again. I'm featuring the same picture I did last year for it, because 1.) I don't want to do another Pokemon fanart, and 2.) Jigglypuff is bitchin'.




Text was inspired by this Mr. Crazy Pants here. Unfortunately I know people like this guy. I may be so lucky to have them comment on my Illustration facebook because of this too. Sweet.

I haven't been getting much sleep the last couple nights, and I blame our neighbors. Not for being loud or shouting their domestic disputes to all creation at 4 AM (which they are prone to do) but for doing some renovations or moving or whatever it is the house that's one house down from us has been doing. I'm pretty sure there's some health violations going on over there because this street's pest problem has seemed to increase. So I hear what I think are mice in the walls. And while this shouldn't be enough to keep me awake combining that with having once read Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls it's lead to some insomnia.

So if I never post again it's not entirely impossible that I've been dragged down to some monstrous ruins and have been eaten by gibbering de-evolved people. Just saying.

Bring it on Christmas! I'm Ready.

Oh yeah. I can take you.

This mood is mostly fueled by hormones and an unhealthy dose of coffeenog (coffee with sugar and Silk soy nog) but I feel I can take on the holidays. I almost finished two of the paintings I'm giving as gifts, and still managed to work on the vector for Pocketful.

Vector so far:



One finished present of my adorable sister when she was a babything:



Retail and the pressure to paint things my relatives will actually want are not getting me down, thus the triumphant mood. I can do this guys. Totally. I even don't feel worried about the illustration series my mind decided it would think up at the busiest time of the year. Even if I don't proceed with the series at least I have one cool idea sketched and ready to start vectoring after Christmas. More on that idea later.

I have pretty full shifts of work for the next couple days so hopefully my next day off will be this productive and if this mood wanes it will return. The holidays almost always get me down, but this year will be different, I'll spend little to no time at home, but still be able to see relatives and hang with my sister and the whole time I'll have my significant other with me which is the best way to keep my mood up (when I'm hyper I tend towards run-on sentences, sorry).

So, in conclusion, bring it holiday mood disorder, retail craziness, family gift pressure, I'm ready.

Crocodiles, Retail, and Justin Bieber.

Halloween is awesome. Thus the whole month of October is mostly (more on the mostly later) awesome. I totally meant to do some spooky drawings. But somehow, my Spooktacular (how great would it be if spellcheck thought "Spooktacular" was a real word?) ideas did not happen on paper. All I have for the month of October, besides Wonder Woman, is this pitiful sketch of a dead croc, done in/out of poor taste and boredom. I am not happy about this, but here we are. I may vector it, without the plane, because I kinda like the P.O.'d/confused crocodile. In my disappointment in myself I have a tiny bit of pride in my ability to draw a crocodile on command.



Let's blame some of the responsibility of my lack of arting on my real world job. It sucks the life and thus the creativity out of me. Not all the time, but seasonal has started and that means the crazies are crazier and the assholes are more...assholy. Yes. I don't know if you've ever experienced working in a toy store when people are shopping for the holidays. I do not suggest it. At the very least it will lower your love of humanity seriously, and possibly turn you into a horrible bitter shell of a person, like moi. I've never enjoyed Christmas and now just have further reasons to fear it's approachment (this is totally a word and spellcheck is just going to have to let this go). People are scum and there is no joy in the world for retail workers come October-December. You think on that the next time you're out shopping.

And on a totally random note, I dare anyone to find a girly-er pic of Justin Bieber. The v-neck and what is obviously a glittery necklace is not helping your "I am not a small girl but really a pubescent boy" image, Justin (this random blurb about Bieber is part of the "blabbings" part of this blog, like my review of Twilight, and I wouldn't feel the need to poke fun at a child if I wasn't forced to listen to his music on a daily basis).



So yeah. I might get my Halloweeny ideas on paper or jump right to having to paint people's presents. Because omg it's November already. I need to get back on some kind of art schedule. Hopefully I'll have more art to show for November. At the very least I'll have a finished vector for Pocketful again, since that is due December 1st...

Wonder Woman Day

October 24th is Wonder Woman Day, which is a charity that promotes awareness of domestic violence and raises money for shelters. There's two locations that host this event and take donated art of Wonder Woman and auction it off. It's a great charity and we met the people that created the event at Wizard World in Philly. My submission was a multimedia piece made with cut paper, some pens and metal stars and a cut out of my vector. I also finished a complete vector piece as well.



This piece is now up on the event's web site, here. You have to scroll down a bit. I'm pretty excited that my work and name are on the same site as Alex Ross and Adam Hughes. Here's the poster for the event, I think it looks pretty sweet:



If you visited here before you may have noticed some changes in layout and color...and a new banner. I'm playing around, still not quite satisfied. We'll see what I end up with.

Commissions.

Thought I'd show some vector commissions, there's more I have lined up but I am available for them still. Pricing is reasonable. ;) If I think it's something I'll enjoy making and will end up in my portfolio then it's even cheaper.

Here's just a simple quick band commissions from a friend, she just wanted an image for her band's facebook:














And here's a much more detailed commission, not yet finished. I still have to make a background, and take it all into photoshop for textures. She's coming along well, should end up in my portfolio.

Vector Update (needed badly).

Cripes. Been a bit again. Anywho.

Thanks to Barry and recently Connie, I have been working on things...I swear...sadly I get bored midway and move on to something else, and repeat. Those watercolors in the previous couple posts, they are mostly vectors now, look more polished. I've been reevaluating how I work, and have gone almost completely digital. Here's some completed vectors, for you to get an idea of where I'm heading (I think).









Lately I've been burnt out on working on ye olde mac, and trying to get my hands dirty again, at least for a bit. May have some watercolor sketches up, or at least over at Sketchraiders, a blog Ms. Medusa Lemieux started that has a few graduates of PCA&D posting their work. It's helped motivate me, I sometimes miss being in a class of people working on similar projects.

If you're interested in seeing all the completed vectors so far, you can check them here (my main site is getting a total revamp, so view this carbonmade one for now). Will try and stay on the ball, and update more frequently. Ha.

Threadless T-shirt

It says it's pending approval, but Threadless just told me it was approved, and to start spamming it everywhere. So yeah. Spamming away! If you want to make this poor college graduate still working retail to pay for everything happy, you should go there and vote on it, and say you'd buy it (even if you wouldn't lol) Could really use the money to help get a chunk of my loans paid, and to help out my younger sister.



I've been working in vectors lately, been submitting to art magazines, got into Pocketful. See my piece here. Also submitted two pieces to Semi-Permanent. No word from them yet. Figuring out what I want to submit to the Society of Illustrators (since I'm only a year out of school, it's still just 5 bucks per submission). The teachers I've kept in contact with really like my vectors...maybe mostly working in watercolor for 3 years was a mistake.



But at least the watercolor training paid off this year for holiday gifts. Now I'm doing commissions of peoples pets, only charging $30 for a portrait. You can see some of the Christmas gifts here. A relative of my best friend wants her deceased Boxer done, and my old friend from middle school wanted one of her cat, finished that gotta send it out today. So maybe this could at least give me some extra spending money.



Anywho. Vote on my t-shirt! You know you'd wear it! (or buy it for your girlfriend...or sister...)