steamy pin-up

Yeah, I have no idea. I've been battling artist's block all day so this is the only final piece I've manage to create. The sketch started as a pin-up but I can't really muster "cute and pretty" today so I made a frustrated air-ship mechanic fighting with an old pipe. Sexy, huh?

University

I finally finished another comic page with Eleanor and Kent. I tried some different techniques on this one and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. The words actually ended up pretty small so I might play around with that. Once my CS4 finally gets here, I'll have a legit copy of photoshop to work with.

Speaking of things getting here, the latest shipment of the Ukulele posters arrived yesterday!! They look wonderful! I'll definitely go back to ShortRunPosters.com. They actually answered their phones and were extremely helpful when the uploading process was being finicky.

Eleanor and Kent

I needed something fun after my previous project. I know the lines aren't straight and it kind of tilts but I wanted it to have the same loose sketchiness that the rough draft had. Expect more, I love these characters.

eep

The deadline is coming up fast on me so this is all you get. Sketch storyboard for a steampunk comic that'll be done at the beginning of next week.

 They need names. And so does this story. Ideas?

blush

As a pick-me-up from the Darfur project, I've been jotting down ideas for my Character Design final due next Wednesday.

This sort of came from how silly my boyfriend thought it was that the big giant of a mechanic blushed so much in the storyboard. I gotta agree but that's why I did it X3. Okay, now back to real work.

Burnt Sienna

I'm pretty sure all my dreams will be in Burnt Sienna ink for the next few weeks. As I said, I can't post the comic that I'm working on but I can post my homework for this week.

I also did a background but I didn't want to bother/don't have time to scan it. This has the same character from an older post (although she's a bit stubbier in this version) and some new ones in the same universe. I'm starting to like working in this style. Comic to follow?

Steampunk Versus

For my latest assignment, I had to take a character and draw a cartoon version and a live action version.

 

I think I preferred the Live Action version more before I colored it but it'd be worth trying out this style again. I also LOVED making the comic version and i might so something more with this character. She's certainly practical enough to draw frequently (by design). Comic is ink lineart with a brush and Live Action is ink by nib, colored pencil and blender pen. (the green is so her leg can be replaced with a CGI steampunk leg)

wrench wench

DONE! Told ya so. Watercolor and ink on bristol and the use of masking fluid. Ftw.

The Mechanic sketch

I don't know who she is yet, but I like her XD Here's a character design I've been playing with for awhile and a rough concept that she and a couple other designs fit into. Maybe it'll be a comic someday, who knows. Still in pencil, of course, but I hope to finish it today. She's clearly got a sort of Rosie the Riveter thing going on and yes, she is the same character as in the Dumbass painting, just a bit more refined given the different medium. This is pretty small and the finished thing will be watercolor, etc.

Lazy day

So, today has kinda been more about getting my series going again. For Adv. Painting we have to do something in a large format (no dimensions to speak of, just "large") so I'm looking into working directly on a dress form. We'll see. Here's are some sketches for new paintings. I picked up some new canvases today so I'll have plenty to work with.I visited an old steam-engine ferry this weekend and got to look at the inner workings, which was awesome, so I doodled a crank shaft on there. I also want to do something with a corset ("'A Girdle to set you free!' What does that mean!?" - Mona Lisa Smile) and internal organs. The ear one is to juxtapose the cochlear implant and the arms are an example of prostheses as added convenience. I also have some pieces in the works that combine actual body modifications that are purely aesthetic (read: corset piercings :D) which will eventually lead to steampunk mods that are purely aesthetic.

Two-fer Tuesday

As promised, I'm posting the pieces that were on display but hadn't been posted yet. I think I'm going to go back in on both of these and do some lettering but maybe not. I apologize in advance on how awful the photography is. These look a lot better in real life.The first one is one I posted the WIP of a few weeks back. The actual size is 18"x36", the largest of the series so far (but not the largest planned one. You'll see...)
Yup. Steampunk mermaid. I really wanted to do something way out there. I mean, if you were a legless marine biologist, wouldn't you want fins and gills? I tried to make it as practical as possible, though, since she would need to maintain neutral bouyancy (which means the tail would need to be weighted but also allow space for air to be reintroduced) and would need gauges (on her wrists) so she could keep an eye on her depth. This piece is 18"x~25".

Double post, ftw!

So, I had an assignment in painting not too long ago that had to fit into at least one criteria ("beautiful", "insults the viewer", "barely visible", "monster machine", "fearful/fearsome", and a couple of other things that I forget now) and during the critique we had to guess what the painter had in mind when they were working on it. At this point I was already getting pretty frustrated with this course since my style is much more illustrative and literal (*snarl*) than what "real painters" would like (*doublesnarl* elitists). Being the ever-patient person I am, I bitterly decided to do what I wanted to paint for the assignment so if the prof. and class didn't like it, forget them. would at least have a painting I wanted. As it turns out, the prof. LOVED it and raved for 20 minutes about both pieces!! He then continued to reference the larger picture for the rest of the crit session!! :D FTW!! Needless to say, I'm pretty pleased with myself.
For this one, which is about 10" x 17.5", I wanted to do a Mucha-esque advertisement poster for mechanical limbs and organs. I'm really pleased with how it came out and I thought I handled the nudity tastefully. Our next assignment has to be a series and I decided to base my series off of this. I'll explain more about that in tomorrow's post.
For the next one I need to explain something: I only recently started swearing (Sorry, Mom, but I do) because it was really difficult to be taken seriously as an adult when I called people "dumbface" and "butthead" when I was mad. That being said, I chose to use a swear in this piece because of the assignment and because of the verbal punch it could pack. I needed this piece to be as "in your face" as possible.
This piece is HUGE! It is 30" x 42" and her head is about life-size. When you're standing in front of it, I'm proud to say, it does in fact look like the fist is coming at you. I painted this quickly and furiously, which was a nice change from the Prothese painting. The biggest thing about this that the prof said I should change was having the speech bubble recede into the space, like her body is. I almost had my series as this but I didn't think a series of these would pack the same punch as a single one (maybe different paintings like this in different locations, but not all together in the same room).
I think my personality comes across strongly in different ways in these two paintings (which I guess is why "Dumbass" unintentionally looks like a self-portrait). I hope these go over well out there.

Cochlear WIP

Alright, I know, I haven't posted the picture that'll lead up to this one yet but don't worry about it. I'm working on a series for Advanced Painting that'll combine advertisment styles (mainly art nouveau) with mechanically enhanced body parts, real or imaginary. This one falls under real.
It's still a work-in-progress obviously but I'm pretty proud of it so far. For the canvas, I stretched and gessoed over an 18" embroidery hoop. I did the underdrawing in non-photo blue (love it!) cochlear implant with cosmetic body modifications (piercings, gauges, tattoos). I always admired how a lot of the kids I grew up with took pride in their hearing aids and got really cool ones with glitter and neon colors.

In other news, I have another princess drawing in the works, a collab zine project with some other Burlingtonians, I might be working on a Halloween comic for an art swap, and I haven't forgot about the drawing for the contest winner or the tattoo I'm doing for Sheila. ^.^;;

Atomic

So, kinda lovin' that there are actually subsets of Steampunk called Atompunk (1945-1965) and Decopunk (1920-1950). Love it.
This picture was for the Design-A-Character challenge "Outerspace"The original is bluer but I didn't want to go back over to the art building to scan. I really like white ink. Ok, too sleepy, need breakfast and shower. <:P

Scaaaaanner

What a difference an amazing scanner makes. I was having some color balance issues with my scanner so I used one of the Art Department's. The colors are so crisp by comparison!! Definitely worth the hike over (and it helps that it's a gorgeous day out.) That said, I rescanned the Goldfish mermaid painting, a new steampunk painting which I'll post below, a cute witch painting which I'll try to remember to post tomorrow, and some ACEOs. All of which are for sale, either as originals or as prints, in my etsy store. I realized I forgot to post the link before so I'll add it to the site of the blog. Feel free to check that and/or my deviantart page.I call her "Goldie! Goddess of the Skies"; A WWI-era Steampunk character. I had a lot of fun painting a canvas with a similar concept recently so I wanted to keep the idea going. I think this'll become a trend.