Friday, July 30, 2010
OTAKON!
seeing as how we just found out about this around 10:30pm on thursday and set-up opens friday at 9am, we've spent the entire rest of the evening packing up our con equipment (after the nearly 2 hours drive from baltimore to home). it's now 4:30a and i haven't gotten a wink of sleep. so i decided to write this before i try to sleep for about an hour before we have to leave (not to mention having to pack up the dogs and dropping them off at "grandma's" on the way). ugh.
BUT we got a table so this will be our first anime convention that we're set up. so we'll see how it goes! wish us luck! (or if ur goin, look for us!)
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
un-thinkable
still knockin out some commissions from the super sale! we still haven't gotten Chii back yet so theFranchize and i are still sharing Jarvis and it's tough! we're both so darned needy. certainly not how we planned on doing work, believe me. so this week we've been taking turns using the computer and its getting ugly cuz we need it so much. still, we're gettin stuff done slowly but surely.
the picture is of two commissions i'm doing for someone with 2 characters each. obviously it's not done since colors and some special effects need to be added. plus the one with the guy & girl are not finished in this shot. just thought i'd get a progression shot. =)
otakon is this friday and i am so flippin excited! my only really guilty pleasure comes but once a year and i love every moment of it. hopefully i'll have some pics to post but usually when i get there i just get overwhelmed with all the goodies to buy (and scattered gratuitous butt-displays) that i forget i have a camera. =P i would be practically jumping up and down in my seat except that i'm hurting all over. theFranchize and i started this Jillian Michaels thing to get us on the right track to eating right and losing some lbs. the exercises she has for us to do are no joke!
so i hope for all the pain we're going through this actually works. and Jillian Michaels better hope i don't bump into her on the streets cuz i will punch her in the face for makin us work this hard! =P (just kidding, Jillian. u scare me.)
Friday, July 23, 2010
comin' home baby
just a quick post that i thought i'd like to share. i'm goin thru my deviantArt messages and someone posted a journal about putting ur iPod-type device on shuffle then listing the first 5 songs that pop up. i saw someone do this on facebook as well and i was gonna join in but completely forgot. SO i did it this time and here are the results! [with a quick blurb in case u didn't know the singer]
- irreplaceable by beyonce (b'day) [i think its safe to say u know who beyonce is]
- southside by common ft. kanye west (finding forever) [he's tall, dark, and sexy all over]
- miscommunication by timbaland ft. keri hilson (presents: shock value) [timbaland's that guy that makes all those beats for justin timberlake]
- sensual seduction by snoop dogg [well, u know snoop]
- making love (into the night) by usher (raymond vs raymond) [he taught justin bieber everything he knows]
how it feels to fly
…by alicia keys
i’m trying out this Windows Live Writer thing on our new computer to use for blogging so i apologize if there are inconsistencies with the look of this entry. we’ll see if it works! ;) this week has been rather rough for work. our main computer (Chii is her name) came down with a couple of nasty viruses and the new one (we’ve named him Jarvis) didn’t have photoshop installed on it yet. so we were going to take them to get programs installed and get rid of the viruses but then my car refused to start while we stopped at the Best Buy. no buenos. apparently she needed a new battery which i suppose was far better news than it could’ve been. almost $200 later, we’re back on the road and we now have Jarvis back up and runnin with the programs we need! Chii was not so lucky and i think she’s gonna have to get wiped clean and start fresh. very sad but it’s for the best. good thing we’ve started to use an external hard drive to save stuff or this would’ve been far more devastating. SO! after trying to get familiar with the new CS5 i’ve decided to start flatting this piece inspired by Katy Perry’s California Girls song. it’s for this art jelly we started with the subject matter of “dogs.” please don’t stare at the wheels too much cuz i know its not right. =( i’m doin my best i swear! i do love this new wacom tho! aside from it being huge, there is actually some resistance on the surface and i think i can finally draw directly on photoshop! if i ever get comfortable enough to do it, watch out!
i’m very thankful to those that have taken me up on my commission super sale so far. i still have a whole week open for it so if ur still interested, it’s not too late to get full-color commissions for $30! i’ve started on a couple of them and this is the finished pencils for one. the others aren’t far enough along to show much. hope it turns out as good as it does in my head. =P
aside from my series of unfortunate events, i’m still plugging along this week. and since next weekend is otakon already, looks like i’ll be drawin till then to finish things. i should be chock-full of stuff to post! woohoo!!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
"somewhere i belong" [and also - commission super sale!]
since the Pulp Girls sketchcard set has been released, i assume it's ok for me to post all the cards at this time. so here they all are in all their glory. =P i feel kinda bad about the one chick in the pool of blood because i usually color over whatever logos are on the cards but u can usually see through them. however, on the scan, u can't see it at all so it just looks like a random card. it's there tho, i swear. kekeke
so why the crack prices, u ask? like i said i really want to keep busy with drawing. i'm trying to find out what my limits are. i've never been "overwhelmed" with commissions per se so i want to know how much i can do and how fast i can finish them if needed. (not to say that i will be rushing these by any means.) i also have a hard time deciding what to draw so this helps to eliminate that problem. after this month i'll probably open it up to ask folks what they'd like to see me draw so that i can do stuff folks like and at the same time i won't have to figure out subject matter again. =D help me to help you, i say.
OH! and before i forget, i am signed up to draw Bettie Page sketch cards!!! how flippin sweet is that! and the hubby has finally gotten in to do Star Wars cards for Topps! he's so excited he can barely stand it. he only loves 3 things in this world (besides me, he claims) - his mama, superman, and star wars. good news all around!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
faithfully
as much as i hate to post anything on here with no images, i really just have nothing to post! i've only gotten back in town late monday night so yesterday was a day of chillin and today i've just put the computer back together and answered emails. haven't had a chance to do much of anything else but catching up. SO instead of artwork to post, i've posted a video i took at the fair we were at of the pig race! it wasn't as funny to watch as i thought it would be but i guess thinking back, what else was i really expecting from a pig race. =P
hopefully i'll have something worthwhile tomorrow. administrative work just isn't as fun to look at on a blog. sorry i'm so lame today. =(
Saturday, July 10, 2010
it's in the mornin
my DA portfolio - http://peng-peng.daportfolio.com/
as i wait for a pizza to get delivered, i figured i'll post up the link to my finally-finished DA portfolio. i would've posted it yesterday but i took a day off cuz i've been pretty much doin stuff 7 days straight. even when u work from home (or in the case of this week - work from a hotel room) u should still give urself a day or two off each week. wouldn't wanna burn out, ya know. at any rate, i'll be giving out this portfolio to prospective clients and such.
as for today, i spent a good couple of hours at this barnes & nobles nearby to get some coffee and reference magazines while i draw. i like being in that setting, which is odd for me since i'm not really good with crowds and such. but for some reason i feel productive when i go there. plus i get to look thru references without the pitfall of buying it first and then realizing its useless. (and so what if i happen to buy the latest issue of GQ simply cuz taylor lautner was in it?! or the latest issue of Vanity Fair cuz my girlfriend, Angelina Jolie, is on the cover of that?? i'm allowed a couple of frivolous things. =P) i did mostly sketches - nothing completed all the way. i wasn't very inspired by my surroundings or the books. but i did manage to come up with something for a possible Harley Quinn to continue on my Mucha-themed comic ladies. if i like it enough, u know i'll post it. ;)
neat thing happened as i left the building. i get to my car and an older woman stops me to tell me she thought my drawings were great. (*gasp* which did she see cuz i had some real duds in there?!?) since my ears were plugged to my ipod and my eyes averted all contact to try to keep to myself, i honestly had no idea anyone was looking at my stuff. i felt slightly embarrassed but i gotta tell ya, i never get tired of hearing that folks like my stuff. she said she hoped it's what i actually do cuz i was good at it. i told her it was and it felt real good to say it. so i did leave the security of a dayjob for something. =)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
reflections are protection
i've been workin on putting my DevArt portfolio together but i just get so involved with it that i doubt i'll be done with it by the end of the night. i started it yesterday but i think i started gettin carpal tunnel syndrome or something from the wonky way i'm sittin in this hotel room to use the computer. so i had to stop.
so in lieu of a completed portfolio, i'm posting up the cards i did for the P'Ups series (puppies and pin-up girls). it's been released so here they go. please excuse the not-so-good ones. there's bound to be duds in every set i do cuz i just have such a hard time drawing so small. and i did these before i got my copics so i had to use colored pencils to color. i had a lot of fun drawing the dogs more than the ladies! i was surprised i was able to draw doggies so little. the one by itself is my favorite cuz it's actually of my cocker spaniel, Chauncy, with a sexy-fied ME! that one i'm keepin for myself. teehee
i believe the Pulp Girls series is comin out the middle of this month so i'll be posting all of those at that time as well.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
as if by magic
i've finished a couple of things today but one of them i can't post. it's a sketchcard for a friend and she's quite the ninja when it comes to being online. i never know what she can and cannot see of mine and since i would like to somewhat surprise her with this, i don't know where it's safe to show it. =P i'll see her at the end of the month so once i give it to her, i can post it on here. i was a bit proud of it too if i don't say so myself. especially since i personally feel like i suck at drawing on such small surface area.
i've also managed to change my DevArt avatar and id. i took the basic idea of what i had previously and just upgraded it. so whereas it used to be a drawing of me sleeping with sheets of paper of my lineart of different commissions, it's now a vectorized image of me and behind me are sheets of paper of colored pieces i've done lately. i would've made my avatar blink like i did before but i can't remember how to do it and i don't have it in me to look up how. so i'm a little lazy tonite but i'm allowed cuz it's 1 am!
Monday, July 5, 2010
this is love
so after what seemed like forever, i've finally settled on a background for this image. and i still don't think i'm satisfied with it but i'm trying to take comfort in thinking that every artist goes through this kind of stuff. not sure if that's actually true, that's just what i'm telling myself. i'll be turning this into a large print to sell at comic cons. but i'm just glad to be done! cuz i think if i work on it any more i may just shoot myself in the face.
i've also posted below the finished colors without cropping all the branches. i was very sad that i had to crop a lot of it off only because i spent so much time drawing and coloring them. but it had to be done to fit the print size that we usually do. i'll probably end up putting this uncropped version in my artbook that i will be putting out next year. and i've included a face detail just because. =P i would have also included progression images but seeing as how i screwed up the master file cuz i'm an idiot, i guess i can't. sigh. i hope i won't need it some time in the future.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
happy independence day!
anyway, enough rambling. just wanted to say "Thanx, America! Ur alright by me!" =P hope everyone is having their cookouts and time with family. i'm currently away from my family and friends right now cuz i'm on this trip. i'm feelin a little like Bella forsaking everyone i know to be with my Edward (my hubby). i'm just hoping that all of my mom's grandkids will make her not so upset with me that i'm not with her on her berfday. =/
Saturday, July 3, 2010
don't panic
so after many hours of workin on this poison ivy i am STILL not done. and i think i've gotta stop at some point so i don't go blind or my leg doesn't break again cuz of this awkward position i'm sittin in in the hotel.
instead of having nothing to show for it (cuz i really wanted to show it finished), i've just decided to put a little sliver of it to show that YES i am working on it. *sigh* i don't have any backgrounds and the figure's still not quite done yet. i hope to get a little faster at some point in the future. maybe. =/
Friday, July 2, 2010
rockin that thang
so i've officially moved from having my full-time dayjob to being a full-time artist (again). this time i've got goals and not just dreams of selling my art with minimal efforts. =P so here's art-biz philosophy 101 - as much as we'd like to think our art will just automatically draw people to us instead of going out and getting the audience, that is a big misconception. cuz there are tons of artists with amazing talent but whether you agree or not, u need the fans more than they need u. don't buy into the philosophy that if they want ur talent, they will come to u. because they won't. that's just lazy. they'll find someone with talent similar to urs who is far more proactive in gaining fans because of the simple fact that they know they're there and they will throw their money that way! Cheeks said something to me and theFranchize a month ago that still blows my mind right now. he said that someone told him "it's lazy motherf-ers like u that gets me jobs." so simple yet so profound. at that point i've decided that i didn't wanna be the lazy one but the one that gets the work thanks to those who don't feel like getting it.
so starts my new full time job with a more enlightened me. =D
i was working on some Pulp Girls sketchcards not too long ago and i just finished that a couple weeks before. i'm not sure if i can post much of it right now so i'll just post one of the 12 i did in the set. one of the downsides of working on these projects - u spend so much time working on them and u can't really show it online for a while so it seems like ur not doin anything. but i swear i am! =P i forgot her name already (cuz i suck that way) but she's a gunslingin cowgirl that wears very little. that's pretty much the idea behind most of the Pulp Girls stories. kekeke i'm going to start being a part of the Scoundrel.com sketchcard community so i can draw more for anyone that wants it. =D
also, i've been asked to participate in a Voltron artbook produced by the same folks that i've been drawing these sketchcards for, 5finity. even though i remember so very little of the cartoon, i really wanted to be a part of the project. i just finished it the other night but since i'm probably not allowed to show it yet till the book actually comes out, i'm just posting the lineart. the colors u'll just have to wait and see in the artbook. =)
i forgot to mention that i got this pose from a great set of reference images from this person - http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/. i highly recommend taking a look at his pics especially if ur like me and believe that references are important. =)