merry christmas!

[listening to "something about december" by christina perri]

just wanted to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Super Cool New Year! this year's card was drawn by my hubby, theFranchize, and i put the words on there.

because of the holidays, i haven't really been able to do much art for myself. (so what else is new??) we've been battling deadlines, holiday errands, and all the crazy things that life throws at us. i may not post again until 2014 so until then, remember to hug your loved ones extra tight, be grateful for the many blessings you have, and be the kind of person you've always wanted to be, even if its only for a day.


small note - all the #sketchesforhaiyan pieces are posted on our ID STUDIOS Facebook page. if you wanna see them, just head on over there now - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.246163232209871.1073741841.113793732113489&type=1&l=c7c3b142a6
while you're there, give us a LIKE! =)

artsy

[listening to "let it snow" by boyz ii men]

today is the last day we're taking #sketchesforhaiyan donations. the response from folks to donate is so amazing and humbling. if i could keep it going for longer, i would. but it's really taken up a lot of my time that i haven't really had the opportunity to do much else. i've squeezed in Thanksgiving and decorating the tree. but other than that i've just been drawing.

i've really had some fun times drawing these and i'm really diggin drawing on this brown paper. gives me an extra dimension to work with that i don't get with white paper. so before i dig into more sketches today, i thought i'd post a couple of em. these 2 drawings are of 2 different girls that love Princess Sofia the First (a Disney Jr. show, in case ur not familiar). they were requested by 2 separate people and since they've been posted, i've gotten even more requests to do these! i know that the #sketchesforhaiyan are supposed to be headsketches only but i didn't really think i could convey that these girls were a specific character. so i had to draw a little more of them. i'll let u in on a secret - i've come to enjoy drawing kids with their crazy teeth! their permanent teeth are fighting for dominance over their baby teeth, and they're winning. and when u draw their smile w/ their crazy teeth just right, the resemblance of the drawing comes across much easier. =P

so if ur still considering getting a sketch, today's the last day to get it in! please consider donating. for all those that have already donated, thank you so so much from the bottom of my humble heart. i'm truly amazed at the generosity of people.

accomplished

[listening to "white christmas" by michael buble]

i just packed up and sent some packages today for the heroes that donated to our #sketchesforhaiyan project. hooray! getting those out gives me a sense of accomplishment mostly because it gets me out of the house. plus it was a lot of cutting up boxes and taping. =P

it's really heartwarming to see people just open their hearts and their wallets to help others that are many different time zones away. i know it's not easy to part with ur hard-earned dollars so i completely understand how much of a sacrifice that is. and if ur one of those that were thinking about it but really can't spare any money, it doesn't make u a bad person at all. u have to take care of u first, because if u don't, noone will.

thought i'd share some sketches out of my sketchbook. i've been doing what i can to teach myself how to draw better and my sketchbook is like my little diary. i put the good and the bad in there so i can learn from my mistakes. and the few times that i do something good, i like to share it!

like i mentioned last week, we've extended our #sketchesforhaiyan fundraising to end on Dec. 9th (instead of dec. 2nd). since last week was pretty much Thanksgiving week, i'm sure people were very busy making holiday plans with family and friends. since extending it, we've got even more people donating so that's pretty great! if u were still thinking about it, there's plenty of time. u can have me draw a sketch for u OR u can get either of my 2 studiomates - theFranchize or Flash - to draw for u. (for info on the project, go to http://www.pengpengart.com/2013/11/sketches-for-haiyan.html)

excited

[listening to "you got it on" by justin timberlake]

just got my copies of Soulfire #1 with my exclusive cover, published by Aspen Comics! it'll be another comic that i'll be bringing with me during con season next year.

if you would like to get a copy of the book, i'm selling it for $10 - signed by me. priority shipping is an additional $5 anywhere in the U.S. (outside the U.S. is $10 for shipping.) you can use the ABOUT PENG tab to contact me if you want a copy (or 2 or 5! ;P) and i will be happy to sign it!

the folks that i did the cover for, WV Pop Culture Con, is also selling it for only $7.50 since it's not signed. you can use this link - http://www.comicboy.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=259 - to buy this and other exclusives that they have available. 

or you could just wait to see me at a con near you in 2014! 

we're still doing #sketchesforhaiyan all week long. as promised, a list of those that have donated already has been posted on IdentityComics.com. we're calling it our List of Heroes. cuz that's what they are. please consider donating to this. last i read, the death toll from Typhoon Haiyan is over 5200 people and it's still rising as they continue to clean up over there. so many people lost, so many more people devastated. they need so much help and every little bit helps. since Thanksgiving is pretty much taking up half this week, we might run this through next week as well. if you haven't done so yet, there's still plenty of time to donate and get some pretty art in return!

sketches for haiyan

[fyi - if all the words below seem daunting to read, there's a slightly shorter version of the info below on IdentityComics.com]

use #sketchesforhaiyan and #IDSTUDIOS on twitter!

my samples - 5.5x8.5" pencil headsketches

By now you probably have heard about the devastating typhoon that hit the Philippines on the weekend of Nov 8^th. Typhoon Haiyan was one of the largest storms ever recorded. Ever. Thousands of lives lost, millions of lives affected. I don’t have to retell the details, I’m sure you already know or can find more accurate sources online or on the news. The Philippines can use as much help as it can get. ID STUDIOS members are just trying to do their small part to give what we can, giving clothes and money. But we are only 3 people. So we’re calling out to our fans and friends to see if we can raise just a little bit more money to send aid to the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos that have lost so much in this storm. 

So here’s what we’re doing. All 3 of us – Peng-Peng, theFranchize, and Flash – are doing Sketches For Haiyan. We will be giving single-character pencil headsketches for a donation of $26 (or more). The $6 will go towards shipping the sketch to you, the rest will go directly to a donation pool that we will be sending to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC). We will be running this from today, Nov. 18^th, to Dec. 2^nd. Your donation to the PRC is hugely appreciated and these sketches are our way of saying THANK YOU. We are only doing single-character pencil headsketches for this because we are trying to get as many people to donate as we can. (If you want more than pencil headsketches, please feel free to contact us after Dec. 2^nd and we will be happy to do it for you.) You can certainly donate more than once to get more than 1 sketch, but we ask that you donate at least $26 for each sketch. We will still only use $6 for each mailing address and the remainder will go directly to the PRC. If you feel compelled to donate more than $26 for a sketch, we would be very grateful. 

If you know us, then we hope that we’ve been able to show you that we can be trusted. In an effort to be as transparent and honest about this as we can, we will be posting names on IdentityComics.com of those that have donated (just the first name and last initial – we’re not trying to invade others’ privacy) and the total dollar amount we’ve received so far at the end of each week. That way, everyone knows exactly how much we have, exactly how much was used for shipping, and exactly how much was sent to the Philippine Red Cross.

We’re not a non-profit organization, we won’t have any forms to give you that you can use to write off your donations for tax purposes. (We’re sorry.) We’re just 3 people trying to draw sketches in exchange for donations towards disaster relief. If you are uncomfortable about this, we completely understand and we highly encourage you to please give your donations directly to the Philippine Red Cross or other organizations that will help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. Your monetary donation does not have to come through us, as long as it gets to those in need.

Here are the details:

• If you would like to make a donation to the Philippine RedCross and get a headsketch, you can contact INFO @ IDENTITYCOMICS.COM. Let us know which artist you’d like to draw your sketch and what character you’d like drawn.
• Please send your donation of at least $26 for each sketch via PayPal AS A GIFT to INFO @ IDENTITYCOMICS.COM. If you would like to donate more, it would be greatly appreciated. We are asking that you send it as a GIFT so that PayPal will not take out any fees and ALL of your donation will go to the PRC. (We are only accepting donations through PayPal because we will use that to send directly to the PRC.)
• When sending your donation AS A GIFT on PayPal, please give us the following information in your MESSAGE:  NAME, MAILING ADDRESS, EMAIL ADDRESS, CHARACTER YOU'D LIKE DRAWN, and ARTIST OF CHOICE 
• We ask for at least $26 per sketch because $6 will go towards shipping. Shipping the sketches anywhere in the U.S. will be anywhere between $5.60-$5.95. Any cents left over after shipping will be included in the donation. ID STUDIOS will keep ZERO DOLLARS AND ZERO CENTS from your donations. All of the money will go to the Philippine Red Cross.
• We can only ship these to addresses in the U.S. We’re sorry we can’t ship these sketches internationally. Mainly because we won’t know how much that would add to the shipping.
• All sketches will be drawn on 5.5x8.5” cardstock and shipped flat in a USPS flat rate envelope.
• We will shoot to start shipping all artwork no later than Dec. 9^th and everyone should receive these well before Christmas (in case you were thinking of gifting the sketch). 
•  We’re asking you, our fans and friends, to please consider donating and telling others you know via social media. Please use #sketchesforhaiyan and #IDSTUDIOS on Twitter to spread the word. Every little bit is something huge for those that have nothing left. 
• Donate AND get some art all at the same time. Everyone wins!!!

Feel free to visit our online portfolios/blogs to see samples of our work.

Penelope “Peng-Peng” Gaylord – peng-peng.daportfolio.com | pengpengart.com

Jerry “theFranchize” Gaylord – thefranchize.daportfolio.com | thefranchizelive.com

Bryan “Flash” Turner – bturnerart.deviantart.com | flashsketch.blogspot.com

nervous

[listening to "happy christmas (war is over)" by maroon 5]

 

 

it's the last day of my daily posting this week. i hope i've made up for my lack of posting these past couple of weeks. as u can see, it's not because i was slackin and not drawin. i swear i'm doing stuff! i mean, do i shoot zombies on Call of Duty every now and again? YES. but if i didn't, noone will!

today's art is a commission i finished about a week ago. someone asked me to draw Dean Yeagle's Mandy in a very classic Mandy situation. it was totally my cup o' tea and i really enjoyed drawing it. may be one of my best butt-shots i've done. right up there with my Harley Quinn butt-shot. =P
i drew this on 11x14 bristol. went straight from graphite to coloring on photoshop.

as far as my blog title today, i'm just nervous because i'm trying to organize a fundraising thing with my studiomates to raise money to donate to the Philippine Red Cross because of Typhoon Haiyan. luckily, none of my family members (that i know of) were in the affected areas but there are thousands that are not so fortunate. i'm trying to get the details worked out but once i do, i'll post it here first. it's not going to be some big huge massive event because frankly i just don't know how that will work. we're just counting on our fans to donate and in return we'll be drawing stuff for em! we're doing what we can with our limited means. i know the people devastated by the typhoon can use all the help they can get, no matter how small.

sleepy

[listening to "oh santa!" by mariah carey]

today's image on my art table is a commission i recently finished for an awesome client with a cool sketchbook. his book is filled with two characters facing off and he asked me and theFranchize to draw Flame Princess VS Princess Bubblegum. his only request is that they be drawn like mainstream comic look and not the Adventure Time art style - basically, draw them in our styles. so this is my take on good ol' PB in a more grown-up version of her pink and purple princess dress. once theFranchize finishes his flame princess, i'll post the two facing pages together.
this was drawn with my black copic drawing pen and copic markers of various pinks and purple shades. =D and, of course my white colored pencil and gel pen.

hangry

[listening to "let it snow" by boyz ii men & brian mcknight]

yes, HANGRY is a word! 

 

it's the third day and i have a brand new piece to show!!! Aspen Comics has some brand new Soulfire comics being released and i had the pleasure of drawing an exclusive cover for the first issue! the exclusive is for WV Pop Con! i finished this up last month but had to wait until now to show it online. =D

can i just tell u how neat that is! u may or may not know but i am a pretty big Michael Turner fan. he was one of the firsts that turned my head from anime art and got me to really care about comic art. (well, besides theFranchize, of course.) when he created Aspen, Grace was my favorite Turner character. unfortunately, once he got sick and they changed artists, it really didn't have the same impact for me. when he passed, it was like he took all that i loved about the character with him. i did one fan art of Grace while he was still alive but never again since. so even though i've stopped reading Soulfire, getting the opportunity to draw this still holds a special place in my artistic heart.

i'm not sure how you can go about snagging urself a copy, but once i do i will let the whole world know. as it is, i haven't gotten a copy of this yet myself. once i do though, i'll be sure to bring them with me to cons next year.

wintery

[listening to "silent night" by justin bieber]

woke up this morning to some snow falling and i've had Christmas on the brain more so than usual these past few days. if u don't know already, i love snow! almost as much as Christmas. i remember seeing my first snowfall after arriving from the Philippines and it was everything i had hoped it would be. i know lots of people hate it, but i've loved it since the first time i laid eyes on it. SOOO on top of listening to Christmas music already, i've been watching some holiday films already. =)

anyways, Day 2 of my week of daily posting. these sketches are from a little signing/Halloween event we did shortly after New York Comic Con. the comic shop is called Captain Blue Hen in Newark, DE. this is the first time we've been to this shop and they're just great folks. if u live anywhere near that area, u should check out their shop. they even have a little area to sit and read ur comics. flippin cool! they had us come out for their zombie-themed Halloween event but i mostly drew Adventure Time stuff. i tell ya, i don't mind at all! signed some Fanboys Vs Zombies books and sketched in a couple of kids' books (that's what the Grinch sketch was for). we should be going back there for their holiday event on Dec. 7th and i can't wait!! =)

determined

[listening to "a dream" by jay-z]

ok, so i'm very very sorry for not updating my blog in weeks. shame on me, i know. SO i declare that i will post something - anything - everyday this week from Monday-Friday to make up for it. i swear i'm not trying neglect my site. there are things that i am legitimately not allowed to show what i'm working on until whatever it is has been released or at the very least approved. lately i've also been going thru this funk of not knowing what to draw. after many introspective days, i think it's cuz i'm probably going through some artistic evolution. or some junk.

but enough about that! here's the first of my blog posts this week. i finally managed to gather up all of our collective pics from New York Comic Con. it's already been posted on our ID STUDIOS Facebook (if u don't follow us on there, u should!) and some are on identitycomics.com. i did so many commissions at the con that i didn't get to walk around at all. luckily, i walked the floor very quickly on Thursday, which was how i got that pic of me, the hubby, and wax avengers. that was the extent of me walking around as a fan. it's all good though, i go to NYCC to work and that's what i did. so much fun!

rested

[listening to "gimme what i don't know ((i want)" by justin timberlake]

image from buzzfeed.com - http://www.buzzfeed.com/kmallikarjuna/pieces-of-advice-for-women-artists-from-women-artists?sub=2667892_1794518

tho i am rested, the hubby and i are definitely back on our grind makin comics happen and whatnot.
i haven't been able to gather all the pics from NYCC yet. there's just so so many. however, look at what i got to be a part of! i was on BuzzFeed.com's article 20 Pieces of Advice for Female Artists from Female Artists. i'm #20. i feel really honored to be included with some really awesome ladies like Sara Richard and Chrissie Zullo.

 

since i don't have the pics ready yet, i'm posting some of the pre-con commissions that i did right before i left instead. the Adventure Time sketchcover was especially fun to work on. funnily enough, i had it on display at the show just to have some example of my AT sketches and folks liked it so much that they wanted the exact one! since i couldn't give them that one seein as how it was spoken for, my studiomate Flash ended up having to draw like 3 of that exact piece. he definitely put his own flare on each of em.
once i get my con pics together, i will share.

new york, baby!

NEW YORK COMIC CON is this weekend guys!!! it's the last of our big comic cons for the year for ID Studios and we couldn't be more thrilled! if you're planning on going to the biggest comic con on the east coast, please stop by my studio's table and give me a hi-five. we have loads and loads of fun at this show and then we come home and pass out for 2 days. =P the price we pay for bein comic artists i guess. we're at tables P3 and P4. i'll have my 6x8 mini prints, my 11x17 prints, and a handful of copies of my 2013 Art Mignon books for sale.

these ladies are itchin to be part of ur art collection! all 3 of them will be available for purchase at the show. come and get em!

stressin

[listening to "your body's callin" by r. kelly]

stressin out because of New York Comic Con this weekend. always happens, totally unavoidable. so i'm just going to take a break and post some pics. there's apparently something going on on the interwebs with the hashtag #inktober and i wanted to get in on it. from what i can tell, it just looks like u post drawings that are inked. so in between some commissions the other night, i decided to whip up a mermaid in my sketchbook and get in on art fun. used my copic drawing pen, some cool gray copics, and my B21 (baby blue) copic marker.
there was apparently something else going on about "24 hour comic" but we've been so busy lately that i was like uh yeah, ya'll can do that. i've been doin that too much as it is. i'm just sayin.

 quickdraw sketches

 

 

black peppermint butler seems to be popular =)

and here's some pics of stuff from Pittsburgh Con the other weekend. i actually participated in the Quickdraw panel where there were a bunch of artists that drew quick drawings for like an hour. it was cool. i dunno if it was for me though. mostly cuz i'm not good at being in a large panel and i don't draw fast. i did a total of 3 drawings in the hour but i feel like most of that time was spent trying to find a marker that worked. =/ had no idea i shoulda brought my own markers cuz i was told there would be some up there for us. thanks to everyone that came out and got stuff from our table! always a pleasure to draw for ya'll!

congested

[listening to "murder to excellence" by jay-z & kanye]

page layout by Jerry "theFranchize" Gaylord

finished pencils by me

colors by me too!

happy friday everyone! even though i'm sick and my head feels like it may just explode from all the pressure behind my face, i'm trying to stay positive! here's something to take a look at this weekend!
this is the page that i did for a one-page short story written by Jeffrey and Susan Bridges called "Frankenmorning". this is part of the Unfashioned Creatures: A Frankenstein Anthology published by Red Stylo Media. you will have to download or buy the anthology to get the words to my page. i just thought i'd share since it's out there now. =) it was a very last-minute project and i only had a week to work on it. since i never really do sequentials, this took all week to complete. i pencilled and colored the page with help from my hubby on the layouts. (he's so good at that!) i wish i had more time to work on it so i could color it better. but i don't know if that would've helped cuz i never colored an interior page before. still, it's not so bad. right? right??
anyways, i think this book should be available for purchase on Amazon.com and Red Stylo's website before Halloween.

this is actually the first weekend that we'll be home from comic cons since August. i plan on getting lots of work done. much needed break before we head out for the 2nd largest comic con we're going to, New York Comic Con! my birthday was also this past tuesday! i turned double-triples (33) and i wanted to mix things up a bit so i got my hair chopped off! i haven't had it this short since high school. so now that my hair is pretty short, i decided to do a new selfie for my twitter/deviantart avatar. and since i've noticed folks have turned their twitter avatars to a halloween theme, i decided to jump on the bandwagon and do one for myself!