jump! jump!

sung by Kris Kross

i tried to think of a song fitting for this Leap Day but that was the only one i got. still a very entertaining song, in my opinion.

despite how busy we've been lately, i knew i had to post today so i can see if i'm still doing what i do next time Leap Year comes around. i have zero recollection of other leap days and i've really been struggling with my memory as of late. SO - to my 4-yrs-into-the-future-me, just to remind u of what u were going through right now, here's a summary.

• ur drawing for a living, which is magnificent! but ur doing more office work as part of ID Comics Studios than actually drawing. 
• ur still looking for an opportunity to draw modern dog portraits to marry ur two passions of art and dogs. 
• ur hubby and fellow studiomates are finding success drawing for other publishers at the moment while ur script for "Brotherhood of Fighters" is laying about waiting for them to find time to draw it.
• ur still having a tough time drawing dudes, though u've gotten better.
• u still have a long way to go with ur art to make it look like what u want.
• u've only gotten ur hands wet with the new Zelda Skyward Sword game, which u may be only slightly obsessed with lately. (and by slightly, i mean u can't think of doing anything else but spending countless of hours flying around gathering treasures, looking for zelda, and earning Gratitude Crystals. o.O)

enough of me addressing my future self. now to address the present. =)

here's a collage of the commissions i did during Katsucon a couple of weekends ago. btw - nobody told me Picasa makes collages in a jiffy! had i known that, i'd have been doing this instead of uploading all these images separately. this is why i need a lackey! =P
these were all done with inks and Copic markers for the most part, with some Prismacolors and Sharpies thrown in there in spots. i got a couple of neat requests like the Sleeping Beauty and a human-form of Pinky Pie of the new My Little Pony cartoon. any excuse to draw Disney princesses and My Little Pony are always welcomed! i'm finding myself with an easier time coming up with poses on the spot than ever before. i think it might be cuz of all these sketchcards i've been drawing. but it's so liberating! i use to have to take a deep breath, break out some reference materials, and find one that's fitting.
the center image is my favorite one tho! (if that wasn't already obvious with its placement and size.) i didn't draw it, mind u. i DID color it tho. someone asked us to collaborate on a cool Marty McFly piece of our choice and we couldn't be happier to do it. i have been really into some Back to the Future lately. i've always loved all 3 movies but lately cable has been showing lots of it and i can't help but watch it every single time. then we got the 25th anniversary set on Bluray and i heart it even more! anyways, so theFranchize laid out the scene with pencils, Flash cleaned it up with inks, and i threw my colors on it. the scan that the dude sent us is a bit light on the colors (like his jeans were more blue and his Nikes were more gray, and u can't even make out the greenish glow of the Nike logos) but we were just happy that he sent it to us. on a few occasions, we draw stuff that we'd rather keep for ourselves and this was one of them. if we had more time, we woulda thrown the clocktower back there with Griff and his cronies as well. =P and if there are any Back to the Future II enthusiasts out there, we did have a debate about whether his shirt was white and burgundy but we couldn't remember so we kept it white. of course, now we realize it was burgundy and his son was wearing the white shirt. d'oh!
i think it's also worth noting that someone asked me to draw a Totoro. and i thoroughly enjoyed it. =)

this is a collage of some of the cool costumes that were there. gotta love these anime cons! they have THE best cosplayers ever. way better than comic cons. in my opinion, most clever goes to Flo from Progressive. where did she get the box?!?!
i'd like to note that i absolutely enjoyed myself at this con. not only was i among my fellow anime-heads, but anime folks in general are so much more genuine. if they like ur art, they have zero hesitation about expressing it. and if they really like it, they're not embarrassed to pronounce it with excitement. it's a fantastic energy and i want more!! =D i remember when i went to my very first anime con, which was Katsucon, and i saw pro artists drawing behind their tables, i knew one day i wanted to be on that side of the table. i remember vividly this one guy drew a quick anime dude face in blue pencil and gave it to me for free and i was so taken aback by how cool it looked and how quickly he achieved it. its amazing to see that reaction from others now when i do that. lets me know i'm doin somethin right. =)

katsucon!

we'll be setting up at Artist Alley this weekend starting tomorrow at Katsucon! it's at the National Harbor in MD in the Gaylord Hotel (i wish there was a relation between us and whoever that is but alas, no). if ur going, come find me and the other guys of ID Studios! we'll be the super cool folks. kakaka
i haven't been to Katsucon in many many years. it was actually my first ever anime convention i went to when i was still in high school. went with the art club as a field trip and i just felt like i belonged in that setting since. but once Otakon got bigger and bigger, and i got older and had less money to throw around, i had to limit myself to 1 anime con each year. hopefully, if all goes well at this show, i can make it a yearly thing. i've been to so many comic cons so i'm really lookin forward to being back in this setting. =)

wanted to share this with ya'll. made it for the hubby for Valentine's day. he had to be out of the house most of the day for a storyboarding project so i took the opportunity to get these done. it's of his original character Mr. Impossible from our studio's own comic project "Brotherhood of Fighters." the black outfit is his usual outfit, the other is his alternate steampunk look. i think they came out so durned cute together! i used mainly prismacolor & copic markers with a little sharpie thrown in there. the studs on his gloves were done with my melted wax gun (like a hot glue gun but with wax sticks instead). the bandana tassels were taken off some old anime toys i had that were already broken. colored them red and hot-glue-gun-ed it to the back of their heads.
oh, and i also got him a new Invincible book. he's all about Ryan Ottley lately.

this is what he got me. giant balloon, georgetown cupcakes, heart cake, and my fav lindt chocolates. how sweet!!

and this was our romantic valentine dinner. he got home pretty late that night so the only thing available was delivery. it was yummy tho! and quite fitting for us. =)

walking in my shoes

sung by depeche mode

HEY! so my BFF jacy pointed me to this contest on Threadless.com and thought i should give it a shot. i guess they have challenges every so often and this one is called "Threadless Loves Pinups." so i says what the heck! and i submitted! since i didn't have time before the challenge ended to draw something new, i decided to submit ones i've drawn already.

first design

 here's a link to this one - http://threadless.com/submission/402327/Hot_and_Pink

second design

 here's a link to the second one - http://threadless.com/submission/402329/Painted_On

if ur diggin em, please go to each of their links and score it. from what i understand, a panel of judges will determine the winning design(s) so the scoring isn't going to determine it. BUT what it WILL do is make me feel tons better if folks score it well. and nice comments also make me feel better though i think u have to be signed up on that website to do that.
these are also on the right side of my blog so u can get to them that way =>

there are some really cool entries in there that would make for some nifty shirts. tell ur friends to score too! =) (well, if u want to. i don't like to be pushy.)

greatest love of all

sung by the incomparable whitney houston

just a moment to remember whitney houston who just passed this weekend. another legend has gone. my earliest memory of singing in front of people was when i was still in the philippines and i believe i was singing for my mom's coworkers at some function. i sang "greatest love of all" and i musta been like 5 or 6 yrs old. i used to sing to her minus one tapes all the time as a kid. (for those who don't know, minus one tapes are basically songs without the people singing in it for karaoke.) it was just sad the way things ended for her but i think i prefer to remember her as the woman with the voice unmatched by anyone. so as i write this, i'm listening to her greatest hits on spotify.

this is a commission i finished and i nearly forgot the picture was in my camera! i finished this before i finished the jessica rabbit & poison ivy ones. this is also for a repeat client but not the same from the last entry. =P i drew my first poison ivy that i used for my banner and a different harley quinn for him. this time he wanted them both in one. back in the day, i drew a poison ivy/harley quinn commission like this but it was a weeee bit more adult. but since then i've matured and hopefully my art has as well. so for this one, i wanted them to be somewhat friendly with each other, cuz let's face it, that's the real allure of the two being paired up. but i didn't want it to cross the line into naughty. plus i like drawin sexy ladies so thats usually what u'll get from me. =) this was drawn with my usual pink preliminary pencil sketch and finished in graphite. the client really likes pencil drawings. this image is just a fuddling of the picture i took. it was slightly fuzzy so i had to try with the little bit of photo-enhancing knowledge i had.

just came home from being at a Super Pet Expo in Edison, NJ and i was greeted by my brand new Copic marker wallets. =D u have NO idea how excited i am about them because i've been toting all 72 markers in my wonder woman lunch box. though it was a very attractive carrying case and caught lots of eyes, it just wasn't helping with me efficiently finding the colors i needed. i know its lame but i absolutely loved organizing my markers into them. plus i got my Breaking Dawn bluray in the mail too. but i won't get into that. ;P

foolish beats

sung by debbie gibson


now, don't deny ur inner love for debbie gibson. i may have a love for 80s music but i did grow up in the 90s and songs like these have a special place in my heart. =) i recently rediscovered her songs on spotify, along with bananarama and the bangles. next on my list - cathy dennis. OH YEAH, I WENT THERE.

anyways, enough about music. let's get into art. can i just tell u i feel like i'm walkin on air cuz my computer is back up and runnin!! as u can tell from my blog entries, i was without it for nearly an entire month! i was foolishly trying to think it would heal itself but as the frequency of it shutting down on my unexpectedly started to increase, so did the dread in my heart. long story short, dell came and fixed it and now i am baaaaaack!! and to celebrate, i'm posting the latest of my inked commissions for a repeat client. i drew the catwoman in the bathtub for him before and he loved it so much he came back for more. so, i figured i'd do the same and add a pop of color.
above, Poison Ivy. below, Jessica Rabbit. both pieces were drawn using photos that the client took and i turned them into these characters.

i did manage to get some work done on my hubby's computer but after working on a machine with settings created specifically for me, moving to his computer was like me moving to a mac. awkward, very foreign, and went very slowly. sigh. oddly enough, that was my old computer till we got this newer one. (yeah, sorry guys, but in this house unfortunately the lady gets the new-hotness and the guy settles for the old-&-busted.) i managed to get last month's Supergirl #57 radio show cover for PendantAudio.com. in the episode, they mentioned that Supergirl saw some type of space monkey so yep, that's what that pink thingy is. she supposedly didn't like it by i thought it'd be cuter if she did for the cover.

 

currently, theFranchize & i are crazy busy working on multiple comic projects and they all seem to be due at the same time. =P how this happens, we have no idea. so if i'm not updating as often here or even on twitter, its cuz of that. i'm not being a jerk, i swear.

last little bit of eye-candy, here's the Revenant Retribution set i recently did for 5Finity Productions (hack/slash and lady death crossover). 

as with most current projects, we're really not allowed to show stuff until they show stuff. so even though i'm probably not going to have a lot of shots of my art table, just know that there is always microns, copics, artwork, and a cup of coffee on there. =) of course, whenever i can, i will certainly show it.