Mother Russia

Hey! Sorry I've been hanging out on tumblr and facebook, if you'd like to see more posts from me check 'em out. I've also been selling my work at various conventions, the next one will be the Pittsburgh Comic Con.

But here's my piece for the zombie-filled, re-imagined WWII graphic novel Mother Russia, published by FUBAR Press. The illustration is cropped and in black and white in the book, full color version is best. Prints will be available.

Can't go wrong with history, zombies and red heads.

The Offering

Hey look! I finished it. Yaay. *waggles arms Muppet style*

When I originally started designing this I was thinking of a demon/vampire like monster. But when looking for ideas for the background I ran across a public domain photograph of a stone Bull's head/man beast, and I started liking the idea of tying this in with Greek Mythology. Vampires have gotten pretty lame lately anyway. So maybe she's a relation of the Minotaur. Or offering an unknown...something to him. Leaving the sacrifice unknown seemed like a good idea, and the pose and circle design is reminicent of a religious icon on purpose.

I've never taken a piece to a finish that involved blood before and getting it to look right took some time. I wanted it to have a streaky, streaming drippy-ness look and still have the gloppy viscous nature of blood, but I wanted to just leave it as a graphic element, like her dress, letting the outline do the work. Pretty happy with it now, but I was under the impression for awhile that I'd never be able to get it right...like when drawing horses. Blasted horses.

If anyone's interested in this as a print let me know, thinking of selling prints on Etsy again.

Previews

Figured I'd post preview images of what I'm current working on, since I haven't finished anything in a bit.

 I'm really hoping the one I knock out of the park and submit it to some contests. It's not the kinda work that I usually take to a finished portfolio piece level, and I'm pretty psyched for it. The next elemental is taking awhile too because I got too excited over getting it into Illustrator before I had really fleshed out the background. Sigh. Backgrounds.

Besides the two vectors here I've also been sketching out a children's book-type-cover deal, and a Vampirella pinup (wait wat, yes...Weird right?). Oh, and the Sabriel piece. Haven't forgotten about that. When I get burned out on vectoring I start sketching and that leads to more ideas which is great but also bad, because it distracts from me actually finishing the vector I was working on.

I may start trying to sell prints again. I believe my work has improved overall since that last time I attempted it, so here's hoping. Also Barry and I have a super awesome printer now, so I won't have to spend a half hour angering an Office Max or Staples employee when complaining about how bad their printers are and 'Dude, omg it's scratched the paper, I can't sell this, can you try another printer and could you lighten the file up more?' etc etc...I'm pretty sure I'm the bane of the one Staples print girl's existence.

Next update will probably be about prints, or one of these guys finished. Whooo.

Elemental Series & HP Fan Art

Decided I'm going to do a series of Elementals in an art nouveau style. Not highly original, I know, but fun, and I should really try to complete a series without someone paying me for it at some point. First off is "Fire". I have some plans for "Earth" already, probably start sketching that out tomorrow.

Fire started out with a doodle I did freshmen year of college and then did a redraw of. Nice to see the improvement. 

Right after completing fire I (of course) didn't start with the next in the series and did some Harry Potter fan art instead. Luna is my second favorite character, after Dumbledore and I've had this sketch of her for awhile.

Her design changed a bit (a lot?) once I got her in Illustrator, it kinda shows how my style keeps advancing...in a good way I think. 

I should really pick just one font for the copyright, but I can't decide. Bah. Anyway next should be Earth, but I may get sidetracked by more fan art, hopefully by the Sabriel piece I've been meaning to do.

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.

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.