Monday, December 27, 2010

how soon is now

...by david guetta
i forgot to post this before christmas. yeah i'm a space case. the weeks leading up to Christmas has been ridiculously busy for me and the hubby. every day there was some project that needed completion or some commission that needed to get started. and in all the hubub of that, i didn't even get to wrap any presents until 2 days before the big day! so i pulled a couple of all nighters to get it all ready for parties and such.
theFranchize drew the main image - i just designed the card and stuff. i think we make a decent team. ;)
well, at least i'll get this in before the new year. =P working on some of the half-price sale commissions right now so i'll post that later on. hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and here's to a prosperous New Year! =)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

river

...by sarah mclachlan
it's cold and rainy outside so i guess it's a good thing i have to do work today. =P of course i ventured out into the world to get some eggnog latte first. cuz if i don't have coffee and i gotta work, i'm not a happy camper. =] i'm getting so excited about christmas which is no surprise seeing as how i've been listening to christmas music since november 5th (i told the hubby that i won't listen to it until after his birthday). well, i did sneak some christmas music in here and there since right around halloween but that's neither here nor there. :} its tough to focus on all this work when i've got wrapping presents on the brain. but i did get a couple of responses to my holiday sale so i gotta get on my Ps and Qs (whatever that means) cuz these sexy ladies ain't drawin themselves!

the image is a gift that i made for a new friend of mine. she's the wife of one of my hubby's BFFs and we met for the first time when we went to San Diego for another friend's wedding. she's cool peeps and i'm glad we got to hang out. i miss her already! =P anyway, she's knitting me a hat that i can't be more excited about if i tried. and this is my exchange. unfortunately, its nothing she can wear and her two little boys probably won't appreciate. but it is of her fav comic character, Death. now normally i don't post stuff until the recipient sees it but i don't think she knows my blog exists so i'm in no danger. now i know Death (from Vertigo Comics - i think she's the Sandman's sister) is probably very emo and dreary but i couldn't help but give her the sexy treatment. it's all i know to do! hope she don't mind it. =)

Saturday, December 11, 2010

50% OFF Commission Sale!

i posted this on my deviant journal last monday but neglected to put it on here as well. i am doing a holiday sale for HALF-OFF Comic Commisssions at this time! i know our pockets could all use a little break this time of year so if ur looking to get the art-appreciator in ur life a one-of-a-kind piece drawn by urs truly for the holidays, now's a great time!

here are the specs:
  • these are single-character commissions with little or no backgrounds on 11x14" smooth bristol
  • $20 finished pencils
  • $50 fully colored piece (all colors are done digitally)
  • $10 flat-rate shipping anywhere in the US/Canada (if you only want digital files, then disregard shipping cost)
  • if you pay shipping, you will receive the original piece, a glossy print of the finished colors on 8.5x11", and a disc with high-resolution files
  • this sale will only run until Dec 19th
  • BONUS OFFER! the first 5 people to reserve their commission spot will get a FREE fully-colored sketchcard of the same character requested. it's like a TWO-FER!
pencil commission sample

colored commission sample


original pieces make for great gifts for art appreciators, especially when given in a nice frame. i can draw a favorite character or an original character if references are given. i'd love to draw for u or ur friends/family members!
if ur interested, email me at pianjag@yahoo.com and we can go from there! i love me some hot & cheap deals so get it in while the gettin is good! =) go forth and tell all those u know.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

blah blah blah

...by ke$ha
haven't posted anything in a while and yet i find myself extremely busy. sigh it sucks when i do stuff that i'm not allowed to post until the release of said project. makes me seem like i'm just sitting here twiddling my thumbs. still, i guess it's better to be busy than have nothin to do.
currently i've had my hands full of Bettie Page images that i'm working on for sketchcards that won't be coming out till 2011. so i can't show it yet. however, i think i can say with some confidence that at least 1 of them may be one of the best things i've ever drawn. then there's this ongoing website project for our printing company. still dunno how i moved into a web designing field but i guess as long as they like it, that's all that matters. but with that, i can't show it yet either.
in all the hubub i forgot to post last month's PendantAudio.com Supergirl cover #43. i'm not entirely sure what is in store for this crossover series that's happening but my guess is ZOMBIES. =P
speaking of zombies - if u haven't been watching The Walking Dead on AMC, holy crap u definitely should! it's an amazing series. yes there are zombies and i've really taken quite a fascination to them as of late cuz i love shooting them on Call of Duty. however, it's really story driven. it temporarily filled the void that Spartacus has left in my life. =*(

this past weekend, i celebrated a BFF's son's 1st birthday as well as her own (her baby was born on her berfday last year!) i gave him a toy that has parts he could conceivably stick in his mouth cuz he really likes doing that. but for her gift, i decided to give her an illustration of her son much like the one i made for another BFF of her daughter last month. and since we gave him the Superman shirt that he was wearing in the photo i used, i thought it was the perfect shot to illustrate. =) again, extremely intimidated about working on a friend's picture. and as if that is not intimidating enough by itself, i also wrestled with the knowledge that this is something she can do herself and do it better than me! (i've told her time and time again that Illustrator is her bitch.) i guess i just get to beat her to the punch - unless she did make one already and just hasn't shown me yet. but again, as long as she likes it, that's all that matters. =D

Thursday, November 18, 2010

love the way you lie part 2

...by rihanna ft eminem
[just downloaded the new Rihanna album so i'm trying it out. i think this mostly-rihanna version of this song ain't bad at all! we'll see how the rest of the album fares.]

wanted to post this new illustration i did of one of my closest friend's baby girl. this was completely done in Illustrator working off of a photo. (cutest picture ever - she was outside in a yellow tutu!) she just turned the big ONE last week and her mom commissioned me to do this for her. so i put it in a nice frame (for mom) and gave her (baby girl) a ladybug pillow pet as her present! cuz we can all use a pillow pet. =)
i always get so intimidated when i do something for close friends. especially when it's of their kid! o_O however, i'm blessed with beautiful friends who have even more beautiful babies so making this illustration look good was pretty much already done for me. the mom says she loved it and the kid apparently likes her pillow pet. WIN all around!! ^__^

Thursday, November 11, 2010

sleep tonight

...by stars
i meant to post this last night after i finished it but i got really sleepy after watching the Colbert
Report and shooting some covenant scum. so instead i'm posting this first thing on this work day.
this is my new design for our Brotherhood storyline's Lali character that i came up with. the story has evolved somewhat and there's going to be more violence and a fighting arena so i've decided to give her a "battle" outfit instead of her schoolgirl-assassin look. its more streamlined for easy maneuverability. it's most-likely gonna be all black since she's a sniper/assassin type and needs to be minimally visible. the new mask i gave her is to hold solidarity with Mr. Impossible which is theFranchize's character that he made up. not sure how or when, but they will eventually get together. she'll still have a regular outfit but i may tweak it to not look so schoolgirl-ish. now that Mr. Impossible has aged to well in his mid to late 20s, it's not so good to have him with a 16-yr-old. i've decided she'll be 20 and hence her clothes need to be age-appropriate. =P
her tattoos on her left leg and colors to come soon!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

waiting for the end

...by linkin park
this was the piece i posted the face of a couple weeks ago. the client got it the other day so i can post it on here now. he loves the character Juri from the most recent Street Fighter and he asked if i could draw her goth while still retaining some elements of her character design - namely the spider-aspect of her name. now i'm not really goth or anything but i have really taken a liking to the style as of late. every so often i grab an issue of Gothic Beauty from the bookstore and i'm just so fascinated. when he asked me to do this commission, i was more than happy to oblige! it gave me an opportunity to live goth vicariously through it. =)
i was really pleased with how the piece turned out overall. i really liked the couch oddly enough. =P it took me a long time to get the lace and stockings right but i think it paid off. i've still got a ways to go with details like that so i need to practice more. i really played with the layer attributes and i added darker darks in this than anything i usually do. i've always had a hard time making my darks DARK. i think it's a fear that it won't look right so instead all my stuff looks washed out. it's one of the main reasons why i hate to ink my work. =( not cool. but i'm workin on it!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

mi mancherai

...by josh groban

well, big things have happened since my last journal. firstly, theFranchize and i attended the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear that was held in Washington, DC on Oct. 30th. we were pretty late for it but i think we gravely underestimated the popularity of this rally. i mean we knew that there were gonna be tons of people but i'm pretty sure there were more than "tons." traffic getting on the highway was bad. traffic getting to the metro was bad. then the number of people in the metro was insane. still, we stuck through it and went into the thick of it all despite the fact that we couldn't see anything and barely hear any part of the actual rally. i just felt like it was a worthy cause to add to the already strong numbers there. plus i've never rallied before as an adult so this is my first and probably last. (i think i may have been with my folks when i was a very little girl to protest against Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. but i have very little recollection and clearly i had no choice one way or another.) still, even with the tons of people we inevitably encountered and all the folks that we got squished in between as we tried to get closer to the jumbotrons, there was very very minimal douchiness being thrown about. it's nice to be in a crowd of sane folks. =P unlike grown Tea Party men stomping a small woman on the curb. sick.
anyway, there were some really funny signs and since Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert encouraged costumes, there were some good ones as well. it was like being at an anime con. o.O



then came Halloween the day after. nothing too amazing happened. i dressed up as a hogwarts student like i did last year and i didn't even bother to take a picture of myself. however i DID take a picture of my Chauncy dressed as a Hooters girl! =) we couldn't find Krypto's cape (again) so she didn't get to dress up. which was probably for the best cuz it always ends up turning around as she gets more excited and ends up being more of a bib than a cape.



but most importantly, theFranchize celebrated his 30th birthday this past thursday! so happy to have company in my 30s. =) the most notable, i think, of what i got for him for his bday was a box of Stay Puft marshmallows. i just had to get it when i saw it - my nerdiness wouldn't allow me not to get it. sadly enough, i think the birthday card i made him was the best gift he got. (that's what happens when funds are low!) SO the image is the front of the card i made. and YES there is an image of Supergirl without the pasties but i'll let him be the only one that sees it. ;D

i've finished 2 commissions since then and as per usual, i'll have to hold off on posting them until they receive it so they can be surprised. PHEW!! now the holiday season starts. i'm very excited about it!

Friday, October 29, 2010

separate ways

...by journey
so i'm starting to notice that i haven't been posting what's currently on my art table so much as i am posting backlogged art. =/ i don't think i approve. it's just that usually i'd like to keep it a surprise to folks that get a commission from me what the piece looks like so far. that way, when they get the final piece in the mail, they don't already know what to expect. cuz personally, i like being pleasantly surprised by a package in the mail. still, i think i'd like to fix that. hence, i am posting a cropped picture of this piece i'm currently working on. it's of Juri from the most recent Street Fighter installment, but with a goth look per the client's request. i am in the process of coloring her right now but i didn't wanna give too much away.

this piece i finished earlier this week. it's for a client who won my ebay auction and it's of an X-Men character named Magik. i believe she is Collosus's little sister but something about her mutant powers manifests in a demon-like form. but please don't quote me on that or be angry if i get it wrong. i don't know ALL X-Men characters and it's just what i gathered as i briefly skimmed over her bio on comicvine.com. at any rate, she's got goat legs and demon horns. i'm still working on this upwards perspective shot so that i can get better at it someday.

a white demon love song

...by the killers
this was up on SupermanHomepage.com this past wednesday and i forgot to post it like a boob. T_T so if u try to go on there, it's probably like 5-8 pages deep or something. but here is this month's cover of PendantAudio.com's Supergirl radio show, episode 42.

in other news, i just got my hat for this Saturday's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. i'm excited about going because of several reasons. a big one is that i've never rallied before in my life but this seemed like a reasonable one to go to. another is that i do believe in what the rally stands for PLUS its in my hometown PLUS i don't really have any plans other than this for this weekend anyway. =P i chose the hat for the March to Keep Fear Alive part for the simple fact that i like Stephen Colbert better. =) i hope it'll be a fairly chilled rally considering the basis for it. but in typical rally spirit, there will be protesters from extreme partisans. if for no other reason, i think they're going simply because they can't stand to be left out of any rallying. all i know is, if someone tries to stomp on my head out there, i will not hesitate to throw a hadouken!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

heads will roll

...by yeah yeah yeahs
so tonight i decided to join my former co-workers at the dog kennel i used to work at to carve pumpkins. last year i carved a pumpkin for the first time with them after work and i was realizing i probably wouldn't do it again by myself at home. plus its really messy so i didn't wanna get in trouble with the folks that own this house. =P
now, i realize i have the pumpkin carving skill of a 5-yr-old but does that stop me? NO SIR/MA'AM! last year i carved a frankenstein head and someone thought it was spongebob. =( but since i had a year's experience under my belt, i decided to take the difficulty to the next level. or, in this case, LEGENDARY! and, as i did last year, i accidentally cut a chunk out of my masterpiece. FAIL. i tried to affix it back onto the shape with a toothpick but it seems in all the chunky mess, i happen to pick up and affix what appears to be the incorrect shape. so oh well, it works anyway. and if U didn't notice anything out of place, then we'll just leave it at "yes i did that on purpose."
in case u don't know, i used an image from my current fav game - Halo:Reach. this is the symbol for the "Legendary" difficulty which, in retro video game talk, would be the "Hard" setting. except Legendary difficulty will kick Hard difficulty's arse. =P if u didn't see it until now after reading this, it's ok. like i said, i suck at pumpkin carving. it's still fun though. i hope that when i finally have a kid, i'd do this with them each year. plus the dogs love to eat it AND it helps prevent them from having diarrhea. that's practically a double rainbow, all the way!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

pretty girls

...by wale

i realized i never posted my Hack/Slash cards. but since i think they only recently released it, i guess i'm not tooooo late on it. so here they all are in all their glory.
i really enjoyed working on this set for some reason. i don't know much about the series but what i do know is that she's sexy and there's lots of blood all the time. so i guess that was why i enjoyed it so much. =) these were all done with ink and copic markers with a pink ultra-fine sharpie that i used on the pink fishnets.
as for what's on my art table right now, it's a commission that i finished up for an ebay auction that i put up 2 weeks ago. i'll post it as soon as the client has seen it. i've got another commission down the pipeline as well as a personal commission for a friend. i'm always scared of doing stuff for close friends cuz there's always the pressure that u have to make it the illest thing u've ever done or suffer eternal ridicule by people u love. =P i hope it turns out good though since it's of her daughter and she's cute as a flippin button, makin it look good is practically taken care of for me. ^__^

Monday, October 25, 2010

what you got

...by justin timberlake
so i tend to be a wee bit late for practically everything. (i wasn't late for my own wedding though!) and in my usual Peng fashion, i'm late on making my blog pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. i've been meaning to turn it pink for the past 2 weeks but i just got incredibly busy before and after our one-week trip to California. still, i'm a huge believer in being better late than never so i've turned it pink anyway even with only 1 week left in the month. =/

however i am not late in posting a wallpaper image that my hubby theFranchize & i collaborated on for PendantAudio.com. in case u didn't know, PendantAudio.com is the online radio show that he and i draw monthly covers for their Superman and Supergirl radio shows respectively. we couldn't pass up the chance to draw a wallpaper for Halloween for them since they asked. any reason to draw Supers is A-OK with us. =) it's on our desktop now so go ahead and slap it onto urs as well! (not much i can do about the web address at the bottom of it. that's something they added.) if u'd like to download other sizes of this or wallpapers done by other people, you can head on over to their site - http://www.pendantaudio.com/superman.php - and click on LET ME SEE SOME SUPERMAN ART! in the pink box in the middle.

after a couple of different ideas, this is the one we went with. he drew the image and i did all the colors. hope ya'll like! =)

Sunday, October 10, 2010

senorita

...by justin timberlake
as i sit here at midnight with a bottle of corona getting warmer by the second, i try to find the strength to work but instead i decided to update this. =) it's work, but fun-ner! this weekend's been pretty nutty for me with parties and things. but alas, it had to end sometime and work is like a wedgie - u can only ignore it for so long before u gotta get up in there and do something about it. =P

so this is my second attempt at drawing a pin-up for a couple of fellow indie publishers for their book, the Uniques. the characters are Motherboard & her boyfriend Ray. not sure where they'll put it or when so when i know, u'll know. =) the first one i did (see September 25th entry) was just a little far from the characters' original designs. basically, they weren't chunky enough. as a bigger girl, i was just trying to make a statement that big can be hot. but oh well. the original one will probably make it in my artbook next year. woohoo!
huge influence for this pin-up style was Loish. she's an incredible artist and blends a manga-ish/disney-ish style with her own style to make what can only be described as "buttery goodness." i decided to stop with the hottie concept and just go with cute. at any rate, if ur wondering how i made that background, well i'll tell ya ---- it was completely by accident. very random and i can't even remember which spatter brushes i used but i'm glad it came out the way it did. it gave me the desired "worn" look when i messed with layer opacities so i guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it. =P

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

glory of love

...by peter cetera

yep, just another work day with me and my 80s music. but i have my new spiced pumpkin candle from Yankee Candle lit and enjoying the cooler temperature in the house cuz autumn is finally here!! so please excuse the cheesy karate kid song. =P
i meant to post this last week when it was unveiled. =D this is my first cover for PendantAudio.com's Supergirl:Lost Daughter of Krypton radio show. this is for their episode #41. my hubby, theFranchize, does the Superman covers so it's kinda neat that we're working on these together - sorta. we'll be making a superman/supergirl halloween desktop to post on that website too so keep an eye out for that! but these covers show up the last wednesday of each month on SupermanHomepage.com which is when that month's radio show airs. the first image is the full piece and i had to crop it for the actual cover (logos and stuff were placed by Pendant Audio).
so even though she's just standing there, i actually went through 2 other versions just to get to this one. i think it was one of those things where u psych urself out cuz u wanna make a good first impression then after many failed attempts, u realize it's gotta get done. so instead of trying to make it reflect the story that it was for, i figured i'd make it like an introduction to my version of supergirl. so there u have it. next month's will be a little more about what's going on in the story itself. i'll be doing these covers on a monthly basis so if anything else, i'll at least have new Supergirl artwork each month. =)

btw, i'm gooood and 30 now so there's no point in crying anymore. i feel better though. the hubby took me to see Cirque du Soleil for my berfday and it was such a neat experience that i feel i may not have appreciated as much in my 20s. so there u have it. 30s, here we go!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

while i'm still in my 20s...

[listening to "Stronger" by Kanye West]

(a pic of Chauncy taken 3 yrs ago)
this is EXACTLY how i've felt all week in preparation of my birthday

yep, folks, i'm an hour away from my 30s and i'm really not feelin too chipper about it. in preparation for my PRE mid-life crisis, i've done absolutely nothing of any import at all. cuz it's my berfday and i'll cry if i want to!
however, through all this sulking and dreading, i've managed to be a little introspective. with the help of my hubby, theFranchize, i've come to realize that the 30s come with some perks.
  • with my increasingly DEcreasing tolerance for humanity's stupidity and ignorance, i've at the very least gotten much much better at being able to tell "good bullsh!t" from "bad bullsh!t." meaning if ur gonna try and sell me bullsh!t, first off, know i'm usually a pretty good judge of character when it comes to first impressions so i probably smelled ur bullsh!t before u dealt it. but at least give me a small ounce of respect and tell me a good lie than a crappy one. =)
  • i have learned the important lesson that though making mistakes is part of being young, u don't have to waste ur youth making mistakes. i don't like to toot my own horn so i won't go into stuff i didn't waste my younger years doing (plus i'd really hate to inadvertently insult someone who may or may not be reading this cuz i'm really quite a nice person). it's just good words to live by. and i really wish i could take credit for coming up with that but truth be told, i heard it from someone else (probably on tv or something). but since i don't remember who that was, let's just say for the sake of argument, that i made it up. =P
  • i'm finally in a position to say i've had years of experience in things (mainly in art and the comic industry). 6 years ago i may have said that but really i was just blowing hot air. it's not my fault, we'll just chock it off to "being young." kekeke i've always said i'd really rather just see the montage of my certain success (good bullsh!t) as opposed to waiting years for it. but now i'm actually at the end of the montage and seeing the success on the horizon. (bad bullsh!t - i'm really a terrible judge of my own success. as with most artists, i'm my own worst critic.)
  • i've collected a LOT of stuff in my 30 years of existence! but my 30 years have taught me that it's really all just stuff and are not as important as family and real relationships with others.
of course, turning 30 brings lots of crappy stuff too. but i won't get into that cuz frankly, it's a much longer list. kekeke i mean, at this point in life, i think it's safe to say if i do something stupid, i'm actually TOO OLD to be doin it.
u may be asking urself, "30 doesn't seem so old to me. what's the big deal?!" or maybe ur sayin "damn, ur friggin old." either way, the reason i'm calling my birthday "Doomsday" is simply because i remember being young and looking at my teachers thinking "ur old!" and yet i know people that are teachers now or used to be teachers at one point. last night in the weeeee hours of the morning when i couldn't fall asleep, i decided to IMDB the cast of Glee and the Glee teacher-dude, Mr. Schuester (who, btw, is a hottie!) is actually only 2 years older than me!! and yet he seems so much older to me!!! WTF!
so, even though i'm kinda over the whole "it's ur berfday, let's get frackin drunk!" stage (which is completely on a personal level and in NO way judges anyone that likes to drink some DRANK to celebrate), i would like to raise a hypothetical drink to my 20s. thank u, 20s, for teaching me some very important lessons like just because i'm out of high school does NOT actually mean i'm grown. thank u for the ups and the downs. thank u for the loves and the losses; the wedding; the girls Krypto & Chauncy; the epiphany that i actually wanted to be an artist. and with the passing of the 20s, i welcome the 30s with (an imaginary) shot of something really strong! i look forward to the new opportunities it brings - new places, new family members & new friends, new bills (cuz that's inevitable), and (dare i say it) possibly a child spawn from me someday. watch out world - when that day comes, it means peng's finally stopped being selfish. which REALLY means i'm no longer the peng u knew & loved. =P

i wish i had drawn something new or amazing in preparation of the eve of "Doomsday." but like i mentioned before, i've spent these last few days doing nothing but whining to my hubby about how old i'm gonna be. so, sorry i have nothing cool to show. =( but on the PLUS category, i think i'll spend my remaining moments of my 20s layin on the bed with my pups in my pjs and ring in my 30s with lots and lots of Halo games. =D cuz at this point in my life, all i truly know is that i'm a big nerd and there's really no point in denying it anymore. (hey, isn't it better that i spend my negative energy about turnin 30 into something virtually cool like video games instead of doing something actually stupid like drinking till i make a boob of myself in public or perhaps calling people in my drunken stupor saying things i really don't mean?! EXACTLY.)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

these dreams

...by heart


i've spent the better part of my yesterday working on the Big Heads Little Bodies website. it's our caricature company created by my hubby theFranchize and our fellow studiomate Flash. they do caricatures at parties and events up and down the DC/MD/VA area. (i'm just the humble admin that gets to do all the office stuff. i guess no matter what i do, office stuff is just something i'm good at and can't get away from. so is life.) now, believe me when i say i'm NO web designer. i've touched Dreamweaver before but only for one of my multimedia classes when i used to go to American University. i have no head for designing a website let alone any jargon that goes along with it. so with the help of Yahoo website templates, i just chose one and went with it! do i think it could be laid out better? certainly! but it's functional and has the right info on there so i'm happy! so if u or someone u know are having a party of corporate event in the area and are in need of an entertainer, visit the website!
(also, apparently it asks u to download some ActiveX thing to view the samples properly. i already have it on my computer so i didn't know it would ask others. it came with the template and isn't anything i can change. it's simply so u can view the pictures in a slideshow. so if it asks u to download it, it's not harmful at all and chances are it's used on other websites as well. otherwise it will just open up each picture larger on the same window and you'd have to click BACK to get back to the page.)


other than that, i've managed to make a little progress with the pin-up i'm working on. but when i showed my rough pencils (the pink sketch i posted last time) to the folks that asked for it, they said they had some notes for me next week. so i guess i'll be puttin it on hold for the meantime till they get back to me. you may notice that the crate under her right foot is different. after i finished the pencils and scanned it in, only then did i notice that the crate i initially drew was all out of perspective. perspective is the bane of my existence! i need to work on that after i get the hang of drawing dudes. so i had to draw another crate and slap that in there digitally. i think it looks good now though. but heck, how would i know?! i suck at perspectives! don't judge me too harshly, please. =(

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

my perrogative

...by bobby brown

so it seems like a lot has happened since last i blogged but i think the truth is simply that i've just had some loooong days lately. just the other day some big optimus-prime truck decided to fall and burst into pieces in the median of 495 (a very big highway around here). we were stuck for an hour and a half and we only went no more than 5 miles. SUCKED. then it went better cuz we went to get cupcakes. but then on our way home, normal traffic was there then suddenly we got a crappy flat tire. SUCKED MORE. our jack was kinda crappy so we had to wait for roadside assistance to help us out. 8 hours later, we finally made it back home. we got NO work done that day.
anyways, since this is a blog about what is on my art table, i've decided to post these pictures. i was working on some Hack/Slash sketchcards and my baby girl Chauncy decided she wasn't havin it anymore so she jumped on me unexpectedly and right onto the table. so instead of working, that's what i was dealin with. =P i finished those cards eventually but i'm probably not allowed to post them yet until they're released.
i'm not sick anymore though! that's always a PLUS. i'm able to get things finished and get back on the ball again. i'm ready to open up commissions again on ebay and deviant so that's always good times. i've been doing a lot of admin work pertaining to our other business - caricatures (i don't draw them, theFranchize does).


this is the roughs for a pin-up i'm working on for these folks' comic book. i'll write more about it when it's all finished. (look i drew another dude! watch out, world!)

Monday, September 13, 2010

poison

...by bell biv devoe

not really a fitting title for this blog considering the extremely cute little girl that i illustrated. =P but rules are rules and i said i'd make the titles of these blogs whatever i happen to be listening to at the time (unless it's some important title).
at any rate, this is a commissioned illustration of a friend's baby girl. she just turned one this saturday and this is a gift for her mom. she's quite a cute little girl so i have nothing to do with how cute this looks - it's au naturale! =D the first image was what i originally intended to give as a final product but due to my insomnia the other night, i decided to just try out a Warhol-inspired version at like 4 in the morning. the mom ended up liking it so that was kinda nifty! the final piece is 12x12.
i did the illustration completely in Adobe Illustrator with shapes and colors. =) (i didn't use Live Trace or anything cuz frankly i just don't know how. kekeke) the Warhol coloring was done in Photoshop.
i'll have a couple more of these to show shortly as well. being sick has really screwed up my internal clock. i'm behind on lots of things again even though i tried to get right at the beginning of the month. i swear if it's not one thing, it's another. i'm goin on my 2nd week of being sick and it's really wearin me down. and to top it all off, our xbox has once again received the Red Ring of Death!! F-in bastards and their F-in faulty piece of machinery! if it weren't for Halo i wouldn't even bother with it. so now Halo:Reach is finally coming out tomorrow and we're without a machine to play it on! perhaps it's fate tellin me i don't need distractions since i'm behind my work enough already. Microsoft could at least give us 360 owners some type of coupon for like $50-$100 off the new Elite system so they can stop getting sent these busted 360s to fix. poopies.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

mrs sexy

...by robin thicke
now that Baltimore Con is done, i can finally post those commissions i couldn't before. =P the first is a commission that someone got for their friend as a birthday present. she apparently really likes Disney princesses so he asked if i could draw a disney princess on a cake and have it say "happy birthday ___" somewhere. (i'm omitting her name for privacy's sake.) i know Alice isn't a princess but he gave me the thumbs up. i really wanted to do a nifty topsy turvy cake (guess i've been watchin too much Fabulous Cakes on TLC) and it would really fit Alice in Wonderland better than others. he also chose it to be more cute than sexy so this was what i came up with. i went a weeeeee bit overboard with it though. i think i was havin just a little too much fun while drawing and it got more and more massive. if i could've squeezed the caterpillar dude somewhere, i would've. but i got his smoking AEIOU in there. =P (the happy birthday message went in the blank spot on the Cheshire Cat card.)

these next ones were for one of my very loyal repeat customers. he's got a lot of stories he'd like to see come to life so me and theFranchize have been doing different pieces for him over the span of maybe 8 years now. wowsers! and i guess we're just lucky he hasn't gotten tired of us yet. OR that he's not upset at all that my style has changed quite a bit in those years. anyways, these are of 2 characters in his latest set of stories. both characters are based on 2 real women that he knows.
the first one is Mysti - yes she's got a giant ray gun. =) and yes she's got a genie-type outfit but with cammo print. everything about her were specific requests of the client and i just try to visualize it for him as best as i can.
the second character is Ms. Stake and has 3 personas. the ninja-lookin version with the hood is a secret identity so ur not supposed to know its her. after i drew this, he told me that my design and the fact that i chose to color her black & white made her look similar to a Birds of Prey comic villain named White Canary. believe me, i had NO idea this character even existed so any similarities were utterly coincidental. i just made her colors black & white cuz 1) she's got a rook as a symbol on her tummy and 2) i didn't think colors would lend itself well to her bein a ninja and all. i think i was mostly tryin not to make her look too much like Kitana/Mileena from Mortal Kombat. =P

and in case ur wondering, i use a LOT of references for poses and things cuz i feel my stuff is far more accurate when i've got models and things. but since i don't have sexy ladies at my disposal, i use stock photography. specifically from this guy's gallery - http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/. u'll need a deviantart account to view most of his stuff but it's a wonderful source. i highly recommend. =)

[feel free to not bother reading the stuff below. i'm just gripin about me bein sick lately.]
so i've been pretty durned sick for the past week and have lost like 5 lbs in 5 days thanks to my inability to eat much of anything except soup this whole time. and though i'm excited about losing any lbs at all, it's probably not a good thing to lose so much in such a short time. since i've got no insurance, i'm really not tryin to go to the doctor's cuz i've been down that road before. still payin off stuff right now as it is. hundreds of dollars so a doc can stick a light down my throat and tell me it's swollen. yeah, i sorta figured that out for myself doc, thanx. anyways, i'm hopin it'll go away after some time. with my trusty WebMD app on my iPod, i'm thinkin it's either strep or tonsillitis. either way, it should go away after a week and a half (supposedly). meanwhile, i take lots of motrin to keep my fever in check and the pain from swallowing at a manageable level. soup and popsicles are my daily diets so i'm pretty weak throughout the day. i really REALLY miss my coffee. but time is my only friend at this point. and nyquil - i love u!

Friday, September 3, 2010

bitter sweet symphony

...by the verve

so baltimore comic con this year was flippin fantastic! despite my reservations about the table spot, it turned out to be a big success for all 5 of us there! we all got way more commissions than we could handle but i did manage to finish all of mine at the buzzer. still counts!! luckily i got to get up early on saturday cuz after i came back, i was pretty much chained to the table. it felt very otakon-like. we're trying to attend one more smaller convention down in Richmond, VA called the VAComicon but not sure if that's going to work out yet. mostly because we can't seem to get a hold of anyone when we inquire about setting up as artists. no buenos. if we don't end up going to that one, at least we've closed the convention year with a nice bang. =)
i'm posting the pics of my commissions that i managed to take before folks came and picked them up. i'm missing maybe 2 or 3 cuz some came to collect sooner than i had the ability to take the pic. we didn't even get to do any of our usual free quick sketches cuz we were too busy! wowsers. we were in full force this weekend with the 4 original gunclappers plus the 5th freshest member, Domo. (the pic of Powergirl and Deadpool is a very particular request. the guy wanted me to draw Powergirl like how i had her in my print but have Deadpool drooling behind her. so Domo did the Deadpool!) he's so flippin talented i can't even describe. all i know is i'm glad he's with us and not against us. i'm not one to toot my own horn or gloat but i do think i have surrounded myself with some of the best artists in the industry. all these guys are tremendously talented and i am very humbled to be considered part of their league and even more so be allowed to sit at the same table with them! *gush*
i can't wait for next year's conventions to start! the first stop should be Megacon in Orlando. and u best believe i will be taking quite the detour either pre- or post-con to the magical land of Harry Potter!!! it's gonna be so flippin sweet i won't even be able to put it in coherent words. almost as excited as i was when i went to my honeymoon. kekeke

[just fyi - from top to bottom and left to right - ID Comics table w/ flash, joe, and me; powergirl & deadpool; storm; mystique; zatanna; emma frost; little mermaid; mystique again; black widow; phoenix - all of my colors were done with copic markers]