daedal [adjective]

(DEE-duhl) - skillful; artistic; ingenious

(left) original photo (right) finished illustrator piece

actual finished piece

funny that today's dictionary.com word of the day means skillful and artistic because i'm posting the first of my pop art style of doggy portraits. and i'm actually pretty happy with it! turned out just like i wanted which doesn't happen all too often for me.

i'm calling this business Puppy Pop! i'd really like to start doing dog portraits professionally because it's the perfect blend of the two things i love most (which could be even more perfected if i drew sexy ladies with doggies KAKAKA). i tried doing digital paintings of dogs with mediocre results. i mean they were ok and they did look like the dogs, but it just wasn't me. it didn't have the impact i wanted, even when i did the one of my Krypto puppy in her cape. but this one is of my Chauncy with her new scarf i just bought her this past Christmas and i just love it. this was done completely in Illustrator. then i took the finished vector art into photoshop to drop the different colored backgrounds and create the Warhol-like effect.
i got the finished piece printed on 16x20 and framed for the Super Pet Expo we're attending this weekend in Edison, NJ. the hubby's business, Big Heads Little Bodies Caricatures, is setting up at the show to draw with business partner Flash. (yes, that's what we call him.) if u like doggies and ur in that area this weekend, GO! it's going to be tons of fun. we're attending another one of their shows at the end of this month in King of Prussia, PA and their third one in Chantilly, VA in March. i always get filled with child-like glee when i go to these things and see all the different types of dogs. for the most part, they're all sweet pups.
if ur interested in getting a portrait of your pet (doesn't have to be a dog) in this style, go to the Big Heads Puppy Pop section and contact us! wish us luck this weekend!

i liked it so much that i tiled it as my desktop wallpaper and now i am greeted with a wall of my Chauncy as i sit to do work! SQUEEE!!

my desktop wallpaper

eclat [noun]

(ey-KLAH) - brilliance of success, reputation, etc.; showy or elaborate display

this was my desk last night. i was working on some artist return cards from the Hack/Slash series for a client that loves my card set! =) can't ask for more than that! he got the top half of a puzzle piece i made so he asked me to draw a bottom half. the one with the undies is my interpretation of a cover for a Detroit Fanfare exclusive cover that was done by the guy that created this series. the bunny chick is Lovebunny and she's another character by the same creator dude. i guess her story exists in the same universe as hack/slash since some folks drew her on these cards as well. hopefully he likes the finished results which i won't post until he sees them. =)

so here are the two commissions i finished before. the client should've gotten his pieces today unless the post office lied to me (which wouldn't be the first time). let's start with Kabuki (i think Image publishes this comic).

she was really quite fun and almost relaxing to do. everything about this character's design was right up my alley so i had a fairly good idea of what i wanted the finished piece to look like. as usual, after i scan in the lines, i go and put flat colors on all the little pieces. i do this because 1) it makes it easy for me to get shadows and highlights when i have a base color to start with and 2) it makes it easier for me to select pieces if i need to make a color change. i follow the flats with shadows using mainly oranges and purples though that changes when on different parts like the green bits or the white mask. then highlights come after that. i have 2 layers of highlights, one layer set to Screen where most of it is and another layer set to Linear Dodge which are for the really bright spots. after that i go in and add some secondary light sources with a blue color. the background was done with some blurred lines and i actually drew the bamboo shadows. normally i would just resort to a shape brush but this time i just went in there since it didn't really need to be all that defined. the last thing is an overall gradient of colors to balance out the colors as well as cropping it to a good fit. i found the model for this piece on someone's deviantart photography gallery. unfortunately i can't remember who it was. =(

now for Aspen Comics' Lady Mechanika. i've been lookin for an excuse to draw steampunk-type characters and so when presented with the opportunity, i hungrily took it! after having done it though, i think i'm good for a while. cuz oh my goodness! all the pieces!!!

the pencils for this took THE longest followed by doing the flats because of all the teeny tiny pieces that went with the whole outfit. sure i could've just simplified it and left out some stuff but that just wouldn't be cool. i still really like the idea of steampunk characters and whatnot but i just need to take some serious time with them.
so all the reference images for this character that i could find online usually have her with a very stoic or solemn face. sometimes she slyly grins but no real emotion. so i decided to give her some type of expression. i've really been enjoying drawing mouths open lately so with the help of my current muse PlastikStars, i have her doing a little gasp and i imagine her going "what? a respectable lady like me?" that sort of thing. once i finished coloring the whole piece, i decided to give the whole thing a more brown-ish/sepia-ish color to it so some of the colors, especially on her colored spectacles, are muted a bit. the background print as well as the print on her shirt is a combination of a few shape brushes.

elide [verb]

(ih-LAHYD) - to suppress; omit; ignore; pass over

so a lot of things have been happening since my last post. nothing life-changing by any means, just lots of projects coming to a head and i think this is the busiest i've ever been in the month of January, art-wise. a couple of the things were commissions that i haven't finished yet and i've still got a couple that needs to get done.
at any rate, i just wanted to share these two shots of my art table a couple days ago while i was working on 2 commissions for the same client. one is of kabuki, the other is of lady mechanika. i'll post the finished pieces tomorrow just to make sure the client gets to see it before the world wide web. =)


also, the Voltron Tribute book finally came out! we got our copies in the mail a couple days ago. it's produced by 5finity Productions which is the company i've done a few sketchcards for like the Hack/Slash series and the Pinups & Pups set. i did this Allura drawing for it nearly a year ago. i didn't get to do the background like i'd like because of the deadline so this was all i was able to throw together. however, i do plan on possibly turning this into a print and so i'm going to put an actual scene in the background of the far-off mountains and ocean type. i'll post that as soon as it's done. but i have been holding on to this image and unable to share it for so long! the hubby theFranchize did one in there as well. if u see us at a con this year, we will have a couple to sell. ^__^