he-man and superman

i did these a few days ago on a whim. my hubby, the World's Greatest, drew these during one of the classes that he teaches as a warm up. either that or he was showing off to them. (eh, sometimes u gotta show the kids how it's done.) at any rate, he drew it with a brush pen with no preliminary sketches or pencils. not even non-repro blue. which, i think, is just amazing all by itself. but they turned out to be so cool that i was really blown away. which is funny cuz when he tries to impress me, he swears it doesn't ever work. i guess after 10 years of being together, it's tough to impress someone that was impressed with ur skills when u met. but then when he doesn't try, i'm like a fan-girl all over again. (gosh i'm nerdly.) i just think it's so fluid and emotive which is something that i really admire about those japanese brush paintings. i could never achieve that because i always need to be precise.
SO since i'm trying to get used to this paint-y look with my stuffs, i was inspired to color these almost like an Andy Warhol type look. used a chunky brush in photoshop, but a different one than usual. this one looks more like pastel chalk or something when u take the opacity and the flow down. then i just went crazy. didn't do any selections at all to create the shadows, just put pen to wacom and colored away. he already determined what was in the shadows cuz of the line weights. each of these must have taken like 30 mins to color. that's the fastest i've ever colored anything! and i feel like figuring out the backgrounds took more time than the actual figure. i really like the way they came out and hopefully we'll be able to use them as prints or at least cards someday. ^__^

it's been a long time...shouldn't have left u...

...without a dope - well, u know. ^__^



so, it has been brought to my attention by one of the three people that read this blog (including myself) that my daily blog hasn't changed in over a week! tsk tsk and i swear, its not like i haven't done anything hence the quietness. quite on the contrary, that's why i haven't really had the time to post new blogs. plus the fact that i've been sick for like a week now. however, since i'm all better and ready to get crackin again, it's time for something new to stay positive!

this is a scan of the pencils. i didn't ink this one cuz i figured the painterly style i was going to use would work better if the lines weren't so defined. i didn't want to put too much detail to leave it open for any digital manipulations i may do to it. specifically, the surfboard and her bathing suit.

this is the flat colors i did. this is how everything pretty much starts out. makes parts of her easy to select too. i also added the little designs on her surboard. the black and pink squares are there for the checkered flag effect. then i just put her name on it cuz i think if she was going to have a surfboard, she'd probably put her name on it. that's just me tho. =P

this is the finished piece. he trees are a brush. the funky cloud thingy is similar (if not the same) brush that i used on the whole piece, just bigger. then the implied horizon line is really just a gradient applied to the entire background. i experimented a lot with the layer styles. i find that choosing "Hard Light" or "Vivid Light" really changes a lot and makes for unexpectedly cool effects. give it a whirl!

i've had this drawing in my head for a little while and decided to draw it as simply as i could to create the background digitally. but i was having the toughest time deciding who it was going to be. i initially wanted it to be Trixie in the spirit of the new Speed Racer movie, but then i wasn't feelin it as i drew. so i nearly gave up on it and threw it away. i just wanted to throw up on it after erasing the hand and arms over and over again. but then we went to see the movie and i was just blown away!
[short digression]
i kept waiting for it to suck because i've heard from more than one source that it was really bad. (tho i never take the newspaper's criticism seriously because they hate EVERYthing except for extremely deep or abstract films like "the Pianist" or "the girl with the pearl earring" or that one that's real trippy where they were singing and dancing at the bowling alley. which is fine and all if i was looking to watch something deep or abstract. but i'm just looking for something entertaining.) i kept thinking "ok, maybe this is the point where this is going to take a turn for the worse." or "alright, maybe it gets boring from here on out." but it never came for me! the movie was a whole lot of fun to watch and look at. it was really a family film. there was no sex or cursing or bloody violence in the cartoon-turned-movie. they did their darndest to be as crazy with the visual effects and by golly its just downright entertaining. i mean, i know i haven't seen an entire episode of Speed Racer but knowing what i do know about it, i couldn't find any fault. i mean here's a kid whose entire life is about racing trying to fight injustice on the tracks with his family supporting him and his girlfriend literally being ride or die. what more can u ask for?! he even did the Speed Racer pose at some point which was quite cool.
[end digression]
so after thoroughly enjoying the Speed Racer movie, i went back to turning her into Trixie again and it worked out really well. and i tried hard not to make her overly married to the character. the only thing is that she's got the Mach5 emblem on her neck which can be easily erased for other purposes of this image. u can't even read her name on her surfboard that much either. anyways, i'll probably never make anything this cool ever again. so sad. =P oh well, ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS!!

5 am and i'm still awake

Turbo-Ski and Red Kite

Virs Impavida

so i just updated my commissions log and i didn't realize i still have a TON of commissions to do. which is far better than no commissions at all. =P but, seeing as how it's 5am, i do wanna make this short and sweet. so above are the two commissions i've finished. tried using my new psuedo-painterly style. the one with the two chicks in it (Turbo-Ski and Red Kite), i went straight for the fat chunky brush and went to town. but i realized that it really takes too long to do that for the commissions. considering i have a ton, i can't spend that much time on one or else folks will never get their commissions in 2008. so for the second one, Virs Impavida, i merged my previous style with the painterly one. i selected areas for the shadows so i wouldn't spend too much time figuring out where the shadows go, then i went over spots with the brush to give more depth. it worked out pretty well, i think. so yay! two down, tons to go! ;P

inky fingers

here are some images i've just finished inking. in case u haven't noticed yet, the Superman was not drawn by me. it was drawn by my husband - my World's Greatest. =) (he likes it when people call him that. ~__^) he asked me to ink it for him. it was really tough to ink his art because there's way more things happening on there than my usual chick pinups. i try to minimize the amount of muscle definition but he's all about it. which really works for his style. so i've only really started to use nibs to ink my stuff. i'm comfortable with them but certainly no pro. like i've said many times, i've continuously managed to forget that sometimes the ink isn't dry yet and the Blueline comic paper he uses is so smooth that it takes longer for the ink to dry than my bristol. so unfortunately, i've managed to goob up some ink here and there. fortunately however, it's nothing a little digital manipulation can't fix. (~__~) i feel really bad about it. but again, i'm only just getting used to nibs and ink gets on everything. i tried to cover up most of the goobs by turning them into stuff. but there's one big glob in the middle of one of the building's windows that will just have to be digitally erased. i know, i suck. but i'll hopefully get better with practice. tho i'm not sure if he'll trust me with any other art to ink thanx to this. (TT___TT)
not to mention everytime i use a french curve to ink curvy stuff, sometimes the ink gets under the tool and just spreads all by itself. man, that gets REALLY frustrating. it doesn't even do it each time so i'm not entirely sure what i'm doing wrong. inking buildings are a pain all by themselves but when u add that u have to use a triangle to ink in one direction throughout the picture, then wait for the ink to dry, then go back and ink in another direction is just such a treat. though, when it's all done, it does look pretty neat. guess no pain no gain.
the other two are the ones from before. they're now ready to be colored so hopefully that turns out pretty good. i've still got plenty to work on. i wish i did these things faster. *sigh* alas, my indecisiveness won't allow it.

iron man day!

first of all, let me say that i did not draw this. my husband did. and i thought he did such a flippin super job with it that i opted to use his depiction of Iron Man instead of an official movie image.
that movie was so surprisingly good that everyone should really take the time to see it. i think it was better than any of the X-Men movies. it was really good from beginning to end. i don't care much for Robert Downey Jr. under normal circumstances, but he was so good as Tony Stark that he's been bumped back up to my (long) list of actors i don't mind watching in movies. i think he's going to be in a comedy with Ben Stiller soon and i am really looking forward to it. i am actually still somewhat in disbelief at how much i enjoyed the movie. and if u haven't seen it yet but plan to, stay and watch after the credits! =)
next film - SPEED RACER!!!


here's another couple of finished pencils of commissions i'm working on. these are both of Tammy, that lady i drew before who was sitting on a fence naked. he requested i draw two more but was so thoughtful that he let me forgo drawing the buckteeth if they were givin me problems. really made things a bit easier though i did try to subtly put it in there with the one she's laying down on.
if i haven't said it before, hands and feet are so darned hard to draw. but i do think i'm doing a bit better on them. they're coming a weee bit more naturally now than before. even cloth isn't so daunting of a task to draw these days. gasp! could it be that i am getting better!??!

NAH! =P

stronger

i've decided that when i'm stumped for an appropriate title for the day's blog, i'm just going to put the title of whatever song i happen to be listening to at the time i write it. unfortunately, i have a tendency to listen to the same set of songs over and over again. oh well, i'll make it work. =) today's song - Stronger by Kanye West. me likey!

so i thought i'd share my epiphany from yesterday. i realized that it's not so much that i'm dorky or arrogant for thinking it's cool that people look for me at cons or have my prints up on their walls. it's that i'm excited to know that people take me seriously as an artist and takes Identity Comics seriously as a studio with talented people. now i don't feel so bad about being so boosted. =P


this is another commission i just finished pencilling. this will also need to be inked and colored. she's another City of Heroes character named Virs Impavida. (no clue what it means. sorry.) i used a picture of Kristin Kreuk for reference on the pose. that Dutch/Chinese mix really makes a gorgeous person. too bad they turned her into a harlot on Smallville. (well, that may be a bit strong. she just sleeps around.) at any rate, i'm really having a hard time with these fishnets. i'm not sure if i'm just thinking about them too hard or if i do have reason to worry. i guess i don't wear fishnets so i'm not all too familiar with it. but i am getting better at the chain links tho! yay! i'll post inks and colors hopefully sooner rather than later. =/

the results show

well, here's a couple of pictures from Free Comic Book Day which Identity Comics spent at ComicsMD in Accokeek, MD. this would be the first year anyone has ever commissioned us at the event. all the drawing would be from jerry doing caricatures. last year we gave free head sketches to anyone that bought something from the table and i was swamped. (plus someone asked me to draw them a Darth Vader and i found out that he's my kryptonite. is it not evident in my prints what my strongsuit is??) so to avoid that, we decided to charge $10 for a pencil commission but i wouldn't really push it on people. oddly enough, a couple folks just asked for it! purdy neat.
BUT this is also the first year that it was really very dead up there. we're usually stationed on the 2nd floor along with the kids playing cards and whatnot. in previous years, it's been a consistent influx of people but this year it's as if nobody really came to FCBD. its like everyone's feeling the tightening grip of Uncle Sam and it has filtered down to affect even a day where "Free" is baked right in. those that did manage to get up there did, for the majority, buy something from us. even the kids that were playing (and by kids, i only really mean those younger than me). usually, they just ignore us and do their thing. which they did for the most part. but they managed to pry themselves away from their frivolities to check out the table and a couple of them actually bought a print or two. can't ask for much more than that! =)


these were the two commissions i drew. the second one with the wings is the chick's character that she asked me to illustrate for her.
i hope this trend of disappointing turn-outs don't continue to the Wizard World conventions we're planning on attending in a couple of months. its really scary - it's like we're on the cuspis of another great depression only worse because we own much more things now than we did back then. o_O