Raygun

The past few weeks have had me working on a character model in Maya, mostly in vain. It's still not presentable (and I still don't know how to present it) but I've done some character sketches in the meantime to get a better feel for the character. She's sort of a June Cleaver meets Flash Gordon character.

 Prints of the following piece are available here: [x]

Do you recognize her at all? I've used her for a few other pieces: [X] and [X].

Prothese Redone

I've officially finished my digital redo of "Prothese"! This will be the first of a series of digital paintings exploring Body Modifications (real and potential) in an Art Nouveau aesthetic. Many of these paintings will be recreations of previous acrylic paintings (which you can see by clicking the body modification tag below).

This painting took about two weeks to paint digitally on Paint Tool Sai and all of the textures used are my own. The sweet briar used in the frame has traditionally meant "a wound to heal". The mill city skyline is inspired in part by Lowell, MA. If you're interested in buying a print, please go to my RedBubble store.

 The idea behind this series is to use the widely loved aesthetics of the Art Nouveau movement, specifically the work of Alphonse Mucha, to express the intriguing yet controversial theme of Body Modification. As some of the later pictures will explore, some modifications are to give a person the same physical capabilities as those around them whereas others are intended to heighten inherent physical abilities. And of course, some modifications are purely aesthetic.

Body Mod Redo 2

So this is the latest WIP for a little while. I'll be tweaking the contrast and saturation levels once it's done but it's about half done at this point.

Pinup

I wanted to do a plus-size pinup in a confident pose but an outfit no more revealing than a bathing suit and somewhere in the coloring process, it became a self-portrait.
It's challenging for me to post this, especially since I know that members of my family may find this post uncomfortable, but I'm very proud of how this piece came out and I want to explain a bit about it.

 At the risk of getting a little personal here, I want to explain this transition: I've always struggled with my size and my perception of myself, as many girls and women do. It wasn't until summer last year that I realized how much of my personal identity comes from my size and how I am proud of who I am, even if I would like to get to a healthier weight. It has been a struggle for me, coming to terms with that part of myself, but being able to let go of hating part of who I am has made me so much happier overall and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Interior

I need to work on interiors so I was playing around and came up with this. Not lovin' it but it took longer than I would have liked and I reached my "done with it" point.

Pistol

I started this picture yesterday and I'm really pleased with how it came out. I really pushed myself on this one.
Paint Tool Sai. ~10 hours. She's based off of Annie Oakley but isn't meant to be her.

Apples

These are the result of my first speedpainting class. Both PS CS5. This is what happens when Paige goes crazy with the palette and then gets reined in by the professor and calms herself. -.-;; lesson learned.

Haircut

Another digital painting. I miss my pink hair ^.^;;

Alex Portrait

Since I want to get better at drawing guys, wanted a picture of him, and since I'm kinda keen on him, I drew a picture of the boyfriend.

We went to Six Flags a few weekends back and he almost got a lightsaber until it suddenly turned pink. I made a quickie animation because of that but I'm not thrilled with it, since this was the first animation I made in gimp and it's nothing more than key frames. 

It's something though. (click above for animation)

Rebecca Rolfe

I had a random desire to paint someone historical. I don't even like the Commonwealth period but Rebecca Rolfe was pretty awesome so it was worth it ^.^ Paint Tool Sai. I went texture hunting around the house yesterday for a commission I've been working on so I used some of those.

Hurricane Irene

I'm alive! But seriously, I haven't posted in WAY too long. All my current jobs/commissions have to wait until the storm passes but it gave me a chance to work on some digital painting. I finally installed the Bamboo driver so I actually have pressure sensitivity now which is such a game-changer!

I'm not super thrilled with the background but I'm still pretty freakin' happy with this. I used this tutorial for some pointers. Original sketch was in pencil, then I used Paint Tool Sai to do everything else. (Click the picture on the right for the process gif)

Astrid is (c) Dreamworks