Thursday, December 22, 2016

holiday card

[listening to "caroling caroling" by nat king cole)


just wanted to wish you and yours a HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!! i'll be spending some much-needed quality time with my family and i suggest you do the same.

every year the hubby and i take turns drawing our Christmas card and this was my year. so i went with the Gaylord Family Tsum Tsum collection! HAHA! i knew my pups would make for flippin adorable tsums but now that it's been realized i'm sad that it doesn't actually exist. 


in case u were interested, here's a little insight as to why Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year! i'm Filipino and Christmas celebrations in the Philippines are a totally different beast than anywhere i know of. just how different? simply put, we start celebrating in September. yeah, it's that serious. since my family immigrated here, we've learned to celebrate American "holidays" like Halloween and Thanksgiving instead of Christmas for like 3 months. but best believe, as soon as Thanksgiving is over it is absolutely time for the Christmas tree & decorations to go up. (it was also a big shock and adjustment to learn that not everyone celebrated Christmas here.)
for us it's not about commercialism (altho, of course, presents are certainly involved). but as a nation of mostly Catholics, it's definitely about the religion. i don't get all swept up in buying the hottest toys for my nieces & nephews or getting the most expensive gadget or whatever for my husband. it's the spirit of Christmas, the goodness & generosity & hopefulness, that i love the most. if you don't celebrate or believe in Christmas, that's ok. but i think we can all agree that sometimes we need a reminder to be good to one another, no religious implications needed. it's easy to get lost in the negativity of the world. so if there can be a National day to celebrate the contributions of dead Presidents or a day to remind ourselves of the labor movements, then we could use a National day to remember to be kind to your fellow man regardless of race or religious beliefs. so, in that spirit, HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

holiday commissions

[listening to "the little drummer boy" by harry simeone chorale]


here are some recent holiday commissions i finished, just in time for the clients to have them for Christmas! i didn't do a holiday sketch sale this year like i've done before simply because i didn't really have the time to do a big batch before the holidays. i love being this busy with work but it leaves very little room for fun things. i've only had time to do a couple of commissions.

the first one is of these awesome ladies at New York Comic Con. it's actually a commission from NYCC that i still owed but luckily i have the most patient fans. they were dressed up as human Sailor Moon kitties. this was done completely digital from sketch all the way to finish.

the second is a half-body commission of Daenerys in this blue dress, as requested by the client. this one was done with mostly watercolors and some colored pencils. i've been forcing myself to use paint so i can make some cool original art. digital is still my #1 medium, followed by copic markers, but i've always wanted to learn how to paint, i just never did. the more i do, the more comfortable i get with it. one day....

Thursday, December 15, 2016

holiday sale

[listening to "all i want for christmas is you" by mariah carey]

https://www.etsy.com/shop/pengpengart

i'm running a holiday sale on my Etsy for the first time! the past couple of years i've done a holiday sketch sale but this year my schedule is just a tad too packed to draw a bunch of sketches and mail out before Christmas. so instead i'm trying out a coupon code for my Etsy! cuz i love Christmas and we all need a just a bit of help in our pockets this time of year.

from now until Dec. 20th, use code JINGLE2016 and get 30% OFF everything in my Etsy shop - https://www.etsy.com/shop/pengpengart! the discount is taken before shipping costs, i believe. again, this is my first time doing this so i'm still learning all this stuff. be sure to place your order before Dec. 21st in order to get your order before Christmas.

i've added my new mini artbook DAYDREAMS Book 3 on there for the first time as well as some prints that i made for CTN Expo last month. check out the shop and give the gift of art! and YES - i'm still including this free print with all orders in December. art for everyone!

Thursday, December 8, 2016

new things

[listening to "what christmas means to me" by stevie wonder]

 

i've added a handful of new things to my Etsy today, like my latest Jack and Sally Sugar Skulls print and Ice Queen mini print. and for the first time ever, i've managed to make my latest mini artbook DAYDREAMS BOOK 3 available on Etsy. this is the book that i will bring with me to comic cons in 2017 but it was debuted at CTN Expo in Burbank just before Thanksgiving. i have a small handful left from the expo so i've put it up on Etsy.
you can now order it online and each one sold will include a small quick headsketch on the back of the book. it has character design sketches and exploratory sketches inside - 24 interior pages all in color.

also, since it's the holidays, and i love Christmas, all order in December will include a gift of this mini print of my Frozen Kids! please head on over to my Etsy and give the gift of art this year!

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

moana reward

[listening to "christmas lights" by coldplay]


so if u didn't already know, i LOVE the newest Disney movie Moana. i never thought i'd live to see the day when a girl that looks kinda like me could ever sit at the the Disney Princesses table. i always had to settle for Snow White, then Mulan, but nothing hits as close as Moana. and the movie was fantastic!

i decided to play with watercolors again and try out my new Aqua brush (this brush pen that u put water in). i can see using the brush at comic cons (if i ever ventured into doing watercolors at cons) cuz it's not messy at all. what better topic than Moana to try out colors made out of water. =D this is my original art reward for last month's Patreon reward. come and check out my Patreon and join us - https://www.patreon.com/pengpengart - to get monthly rewards like prints, comics, and maybe even original art!

Monday, December 5, 2016

time lapse

i have a Vimeo now! i have a handful of process videos of my work. whenever i figure out how to record what i do in photoshop, i'll post those too. head over to vimeo.com/pengpengart to see the ones i have up so far!



Silk process 1 from Penelope Rivera Gaylord on Vimeo.

this is the first of 2 time-lapse videos for this Silk commission i finished recently. this is after i finished the rough lines and now i'm drawing cleaner lines with my Derwent Inktense colored pencil that i love using. this particular color blends pretty good with my usual color palette when i color with Copic markers.



Silk process 2 from Penelope Rivera Gaylord on Vimeo.

this is the second one where i finish it up with copics. there's no sound on either of these so don't worry, it's not your volume. i haven't done enough research to see where i can get free music to go over my videos yet.

here's the finished product. i used acrylics and watercolors for the gray sides and teal lighting.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

favorite time

[listening to "merry christmas, happy holidays" by nsync]

hey, i owe u a huge apology for the neglect. i'm not sure if i even experienced November cuz it kinda went in a blur. i do know i went to CTN Expo and Disney California Adventure. that much is certain. but the rest of November i either can't remember or prefer to forget. and now, it's officially Christmas time for me. my absolute favorite time of the year. no more comic conventions for the rest of the year, i can sit and do work and actually finish things.

so CTN Expo was great as always. i came home with quite a few books to keep me inspired for another 12 months until next year, then i'm gonna need a re-up. i had these two new mini prints with me (images above) and will be bringing them to comic cons next year. it'll be interesting to see how many folks will pick these up at comic cons since they're not fan art. whenever it does happen, it makes me feel all warm inside to know that they appreciate the art more than the popular character.

i also made a brand new mini artbook, all new stuff that haven't been in any of the other books. lots of pre-lim sketches and even a little process shot of one of my pinups for the kickstarter we recently ran. i'll be bringing Daydreams Book 3 with me next year to comic cons as well.

thank u for sticking with me so far! i heart u all.