Little Monsters

Some little monster designs, mostly based on the same shape. I was trying to make a lead character for a kids' comic:

Fashion Plate

Man, it feels like I've done nothing but comics for the past month. Oh wait, that's because except for a few greeting card designs I HAVE done nothing but comics. SO MANY COMICS.

Today I just needed to do something different.

Textures from random free-texture sites on the web. I'm not sure I'm any good with collage but this was reasonably fun. Next time I'll have to do the old-fashioned kind with glue sticks and little bits of paper everywhere.

Cats

Cats with personalities!

I Don't Even Know

Some days I just get... bored.

Arr!

Guardian of Atlantis

CHOW T-Shirt Rough

Found a rough sketch for the t-shirt design at the bottom of my bag. I like this version better, it's got a certain rakish hair-band rocker look to it.

Comeek

I'll probably be launching a webcomic strip by the end of May and (if I manage to make 30 strips by then) it's going to look like theees:

Comic comic comic comic! Comic? Comic!

All right. Back to work now.

Work Proceeding

Worked on this a bit more. It's looking a bit better.

In Progress

An illo I'm working on right now. I'm hoping to get some input on the lighting and whatnot.

Badass Squirrel

More sketchbook squirrels.

Skwirl

A dumb squirrel from the ol' sketchbook.

Tweaked CHOW T-shirt

Removed the earrings and added shoulders:

CHOW T-shirt Design

Chow is running a t-shirt contest and since I came up with something quick and easy I decided to toss it in the pot.

Currently working on a couple illustrations and the usual suspects.

CAers

Some portrait-type objects of people from CA.

Creepy

Sketchbook Page

I've been sketching. Really I have. I've just been absolutely awful about scanning any of it in.

Bunulon the Second

So this is the Bunulon I made out of Sculpey. The first one was just made out of clay-like plasticine stuff. Sculpey is way more workable! Two things: it picks up little bits of dust and fiber like crazy, and the instructions on the package are total bullshit -- hence the toasted ears.

The toasted ears look oddly charming but I wanted to customize its appearance (and cover up all the little greeblies stuck in the Sculpey) so I painted it with acrylic paint this weekend:

It was surprisingly difficult to paint. I'm going to try sanding Bunulon the Third and see whether that helps any. (There is a Bunulon the Third in the works. These guys are addictive and I want to have them in a variety of poses and finishes. I hope future Bunulons are a little less lumpy and lopsided.)

I don't know why I call them Bunulons. Probably because they look a little blank and robot-like before they're painted up.

Anyway.  If I get a good process going I might put some up on Etsy.

Two Cats

Cleaned-up doodles!

Sketchbook Page

Elf

Random elfy elf:

This has been one of the more productive months I've had.

Old Goblin

Pub Sketches

Sketches from last week's pub visit:

Miscellaneous Cats

A page of cats:

Female Profiles

Practicing profiles.

The Patrol

Ballpoint pen sketch:

Rose Lady

Scanning great heaps of sketches in today. Weird rose lady from a meeting:

Myconids

Well, I've always claimed my coworkers are a pack of mushrooms and now I get a chance to show it:

For CHOW 237, Fantasy Modern.

Snowmancer Final

This is doing really badly over at CHOW right now but looking at it again in the clear light of day it doesn't look so terrible.

I was really depressed about it yesterday but apart from the foreground not matching the background (which was a last-minute hack) and the pose being static and a bit fucked up, it doesn't look so bad. I was planning to do one "standing around" pose to show off the costume and a little illo to show the guy in action but I ran out of time and had to throw the monster in the background, which didn't work so well. I was aiming for a watercolour-ish look to the guy which I think I achieved and the texture on the monster looks okay. It's just too bad that everything didn't come together. Also, nobody appreciates a really good set of wizard clothes. Nobody. :P

I was also looking back at my abandoned graphic novel in progress and you know what? I did a good job on some of those pages. I even made myself laugh a few times. I should get back into it. I wasn't a terrible comic artist, only lazy and prone to depression. I'm going to finish that fucker up this next year. Because Lord knows I can't get anybody excited about my illustration and there's at least a chance I can support myself doing comics. :P

Snowmancer Rough 3

I did a better sketch of my design and decided I wanted to try inking it traditionally. Now that I've moved my drawing board into the new office it was fairly easy to set it up for inking again. Apparently I missed the crow quills! I enjoyed working with them again. But man -- I have to do something to solve my tilt problems when doing traditional work. I may have to start sketching on tracing paper.

I also tried the transfer technique where you cover the back of your sketch in graphite and then trace it on top of a sheet of Bristol for the first time. I was like "It worked! It worked!" and called my husband up to look. He said "Huh. You know, I have actual carbon paper. Quite a lot of it." That was a bit funny. I guess I could have saved myself some trouble but at least I have found a use for my black col-erase pencil.

Anyway. I thought I'd try to do something bluefooted-ish with the colour and texture so I spent some time looking at her dA gallery yesterday. And of course right after I post this rough the next person who posts is bluefooted herself. I'm like "Shit! My textures are going to look like crap beside hers!" but it was so funny. But I think I'll just continue with my plan, my stuff ends up looking more like itself than anyone else's stuff anyway.

Guy

Meeting sketch.

CHOW Snowmancer Rough 2

Workin' on the Snowmancer. Not sure about how he's rendering up. I liked the sketch better.

CHOW Snowmancer Rough 1

A design for a wizard who controls creatures made of snow.

Apple

Painting practice with the new tablet:

From this pic by dazzle-textures.

Brief Art Break

I'm spending this weekend trying to get used to my new Cintiq.  Who knew that there would be a learning curve?  Not me.  There may be no art forthcoming for a few days.

Although I can already see that within a few weeks or months I will be so used to this thing that I won't be able to live without it.

In any case the first part of my New Year's Resolutions is over and done with!  Now for the practice, and then the part where I start selling my skills. :P

Firestarter

Trying out a neat technique I saw on CA.

Not sure where the soldier came from. I guess I've been reading a lot of exciting and scary stuff lately.

Fae Romance

A repaint of an old, old pic.

I think I must have been reading Gloomcookie back then. The hairdo looks like I cribbed it from there.

Face Sketches

Masked Figure Coloured

Twisted Tree

Mask

Cavegirl

Steampunk Aphrodite

Jabberwock Take 2

This is my second try at this thing. Looks much better than the first try but there's still something messed up about it.

Ah, well. If I keep plugging away at it I'm sure I'll eventually figure something out. For example I have now learned how dinosaur legs attach to their bodies.
:P

Love Your Bike Day

I haven't celebrated Valentine's Day in like... 10 years. My and my guy's anniversary is at the end of January and how can some organized commercial holiday compare with that? So every February 14th I celebrate Love Your Bike Day because I love my bicycles and by mid-February I am really, really fucking tired of riding the bus.

<3

Waterfall Coloured

The water flowed from the hole in the rock but no one knew why or how. Those who climbed up found nothing but wet shoes and very faint echoes of mermaids laughing.

Waterfall

Halfling Dancer

Or hobbit. Whichever's less likely to get me sued.

Farine Five Roses

I had a photo of the mill as well as the sketch so I tried tossing some colours on.