Wednesday, July 10, 2019

avengers battle on the moon

[listening to "sunflower" by post malone & swae lee]


i had the opportunity to draw a second Little Golden Book! this time, Captain Marvel goes on another adventure with some of her Avengers friends in "Avengers:Battle on the Moon"! doing these books have been the highlight of my career thus far. and seeing the reaction of parents and kids give me extra motivation to bring stories and art to all ages. it is especially motivating when someone brings up their daughter to me at a con to show them that a girl can be an professional artist if she wanted to. it's something that i didn't get to see growing up but i'm glad i'm able to give to other kids.
 
 

anyways, without getting more into emotional notes, i'm happy that i got to draw this book. it's written by John Sazaklis who also wrote the "Captain Marvel Little Golden Book" that i drew before. the book is out now and can be bought at most places that you've seen kids books in, as well as online. i wanted to share some of the different sketches that this cover went through before it finally got approved. this one was a little tougher cuz Penguin Random House wanted to tell a specific story with it, Disney/Marvel wanted their own take, so it took a couple of different tries and then more tweaks before landing on the finished concept.

if there's anything to take away from this, it's that for any future or aspiring artists trying to do art professionally who may be reading this post - don't be upset if the first few sketches don't get approved. it's very normal and somewhat expected. and sometimes, the 3rd or 4th or 5th version turns out to be better!

Thursday, May 23, 2019

little monster still here

[listening to "sunflower" by post malone ft. swae lee]

i think an "i'm sorry for the silence" may be a bit of an understatement when it comes to this post. i don't wanna give up on this blog because it's still my "central hub", so to speak. once upon a time, i used to be bummed out about my favorite artists never updating their websites or blogs cuz they always say they're busy. and i was like "but it only takes like 15 minutes to post something, they ain't got that??" it has become more and more apparent to me that the answer to that is no, they don't. because the 15 minutes that could be used to post something is likely being used for other things after work, like relaxing with pets or watching tv or playing video games - just to deflate from the work.

so long story short, i'm still here. i'm still drawing things, i'm still creating characters and original stories, and still drawing some fanart. but mostly work. currently though, i'm in the middle of a move. our 1-bedroom apartment was always a temporary thing when we moved from DC to LA. and now we're finally in a good position to get a bigger place. in other words, work has been good. life in LA has been great. i would recommend it to anyone if given the opportunity. =) but in an effort to keep this thing alive, i'm posting some of my most recent sketches of my little devil/little monster Lucy! (apparently, animation studios don't like using the word "devil" in their kid programs. which makes sense. just thought it would be ok cuz of the content but whatevs. so i may be changing it to Little Monster instead.)

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

ctn 2018

[listening to "sleigh ride" by tlc]



CTN Expo, the animation expo that happens here in Burbank, CA, is happening this weekend already! this show always manages to creep up on me every. single. time.  and i think it's come faster ever since we moved out to California. haha!

we'll be at TABLE T-083! my crew and i had some new, smaller banners made just for this event. we haven't shared tables in years but we do it for CTN. but our current banners are way too huge for the space. so i took my version of an ice queen to put on my banner. we'll only have a select few prints there, mostly non-fan art in nature, because the audience there is VERY different from comic cons. i'll have my art book there as well. and of course, we'll have copies of THE BLUEPRINT 2 with us.

if you're looking to meet some industry professionals and other super talented artists, i always tell folks u gotta make it out to this show. it was truly transformative for me and contributed heavily in my growth as an artist when i went to my first one. being surrounded by the high level of art and skills really opened my eyes to bigger possibilities.

anyways, go there! haha!

Friday, October 19, 2018

leia day

[listening to "successful" by ariana grande]




as promised, i wanted to share some quick WIP shots of my newest print - Leia Libations at Lamplight Lounge. i drew this for a Leia Day event at my favorite local comic shop The Perky Nerd here in Burbank, CA on Saturday Oct 20, 2018 from 4p-6p. along with having 5 Leia voice actresses for a signing, they're also doing a Leia art show to celebrate Carrie Fisher's birthday. this is going to be one of a handful of other pieces from other artists centered around Princess Leia. go to their facebook page for more info on the event - https://www.facebook.com/theperkynerd

i haven't shared much progress shots recently. i definitely need to get back to doing it but because of the usual secretive nature of most things i'm working on, i can't post most of that stuff. anyways, so i started with the sketch of course. the first wip shot is more of the cleaned up lines. this is about as clean as i'll take these lines before going straight into coloring.
recently, i've started to do just a quick grayscale mockup of the finished piece. this has really helped me to make sure that my color values don't end up super flat, which it has a tendency of doing cuz i really suck at that stuff. i think i'm supposed to color over these grays, but i don't (cuz again i suck at that). instead i use it as a guide for when i'm coloring, reminds me about where i want the midtones, the bright lights and the darkest darks. since i wanted to work with a darker-than-usual background, i decided to get most of the background colors down before going into flatting the figures cuz that's gonna affect my color choices pretty drastically. after i lay down the flat colors for the figures, i get into shadows and highlights. i also applied a blur on the hanging lights and the banister in the foreground, keeping the focus on the ladies.

the theme was supposed to be Leias Having Lunch, but i put a little grown-up twist to it. so instead, they're havin dranks! the hubby and i went to the new Lamplight Lounge in Disney's California Adventure side. we got seated outside with a great view of the new Incredicoaster. loved the ambiance of that place immediately. but i REALLY fell in love with their drink menu cuz all the drinks were illustrated and it just looked like fun. SO, each of these Leias have a drink from that menu. from left to right: 

  • Leia on Hoth - Nectar in the Rye
  • Leia from "Star Wars Rebels" - Open Ocean with a Splash
  • Leia on Endor - Over Budget
  • Leia from "A New Hope" - Infinity Fizz
  • Leia from the royal award ceremony - Sizzle Reel
if u ever get the chance to go to Disney's California Adventure, check out the Lamplight Lounge! it's so neat in there! the wait to be seated is pretty long, but so is everything else at Disney so whatevs. i will say, the Infinity Fizz drink is super cool to see, BUT it doesn't taste that great. tastes like a melted down ice popsicle. get dem mini donuts tho, they're yummy!

Friday, October 5, 2018

captain marvel

[listening to "dance to this" by troye sivan ft. ariana grande]

Captain Marvel Little Golden Book published by Penguin Random House
B&N preorder listing
i am finally able to share with the world what i have been up to all summer long. looks like CAPTAIN MARVEL is not only getting her big-screen debut, she's also getting a Little Golden Book and i had the amazing honor of drawing the whole durned thing! the book is up for pre-order now on Barnes & Noble website, directly from Penguin Random House online, and Amazon as well (image for hardcover copy should hopefully be updated next week). it will be available early January and will be sold wherever you typically find these Little Golden Books. =)

this book was a whole lot of work but i am super proud of the end result. it's kind of a milestone for me. i think if i tried to draw this book 2 years ago, maybe even 1 year ago, i would not have been ready. and the editors really gave me a lot of freedom to draw this in my style. well, as much as Disney would allow them. haha!

if you're near the Burbank, CA area, The Perky Nerd comic shop in Burbank will be having a signing event with ME when the book is released. the shop owner is a huge Captain Marvel fan and she's just an all-around awesome lady. more on that as it comes closer.


on a separate note, i just wanted to give a quick apology for letting this blog be poorly updated. i've really gotten more work than i've ever had since we've moved out to Los Angeles and it's been great. however, that work has prevented me from updating this page as much as before. i've even had to close down my Patreon page because it was getting more and more difficult to update that as well, especially with all the Non-Disclosure Agreements i am constantly having to fill out. but now that my Patreon page is closed, maybe i can go back to posting on here more regularly. fingers crossed!