Peng-Peng Art

gotta get thru this

2012-01-18T16:16:00.001-05:00

sung by daniel bedingfield

i'm thinkin of this song cuz its been over a week and my computer is still fritzy. just when i thought it might've fixed itself (stupid, i know) it shut down on me again! i'm very sad and its causing some extremely unnecessary stress. lucky for me, the hubby and i got ourselves this galaxy tab and i've been able to at least write emails and check my social networks every so often. i just downloaded blogger onto it so this is my first blog post on a mobile device.

in an effort to make sure it doesn't crash on me (cuz now i'm paranoid that everything will inevitably crash on me), i'll keep this short. the pic i'm postin is what's on my art table right now. totally not finished, i just figured i'd give a quick peek. here's hopin this works. :)

fiesta (remix)

2012-01-10T20:13:00.002-05:00

sung by R. Kelly & Jay-Z (and other dudes i don't really know)

i think i'm gonna give up naming songs that represents how i'm currently feeling. i don't like giving up but its tough to express my mood when, more often than not, it's "overwhelmed" or "anxious." so i think i may go back to what i did the year before and use titles of songs that i'm listening to at the moment i'm posting.

blue lighting?

warmer lighting?

here's some screen caps of the castle interiors i'm working on. the JPGs seem to lose a lot of details i painstakingly put in there so i'm wondering if i should lighten it up a bit. i might change it as i finish the whole thing. right now i'm wrestling with the type of mood i wanna set. the cool blue or warm greens. hmmm....

good life

2012-01-07T15:40:00.001-05:00

...by OneRepublic
normally i'm not a huge sucker for overly feel-good uppity songs unless they're put to disney movies. then lo and behold friggin disney uses this song for their commercials! i'm all the way suckered into liking it now. ah well, if u can't beat em, join em.=P

this is what i'm working on. i'm creating some interior scene of a castle as a BG for a fairly big commission. this shot was just the first stages of it. and yep, i'm watching Pirates of the Caribbeans: On Stranger Tides - AGAIN. i really enjoyed that movie and i'm glad i gave it a chance. after the 3rd movie of that series i lost all love for it, even jack sparrow. but when i saw there were mermaids in this one, i had to watch it. (fun fact: i love mermaids. always have.) so its no surprise that the mermaid scenes and anything with Serena in it are my favorite parts.

made this for one of my friends and had it printed on canvas as a christmas gift. this is of her very pretty little princess and i heard she likes pink and purple. that cinderella castle is really intricate but there was no way i was gonna be able to recreate it without taking a week. i'm not THAT versed in illustrator. so i did a more graphic representation. i was even considering adding a tinkerbell streak across the sky but i liked it better this way. i think i'm starting to get better at this type of vector art. i'm at least taking less time than before.

everytime i close my eyes

2012-01-04T14:50:00.001-05:00

sung by Babyface & Mariah Carey (apparently there's a version without mariah carey in it, but i like this one better)

for some odd reason, this hook to this song is playing - nay, looping - in my head all morning. no idea why. i didn't hear it yesterday. but ah well. it happens a lot with me.

this is a better shot of my Lali doll that the hubby commissioned for me for Christmas. the artist's deviantart name is misscoffee. she does tons of cute plushies so definitely check her out. super talented, it just amazes me.

i forgot to post these. these were little figurines that me & theFranchize made for our friend and studiomate Flash of him and his family (and their new car). we gave it to them for their 10yr wedding renewal cuz we wanted to give em something different. got the blank figures from Target and used markers to color them - mostly sharpies cuz they showed up better.

this was my December cover for the Supergirl radio show for PendantAudio.com. this would be for episode #56. i had to stop for a couple of months because of NYCC and the move so Flash was gracious enough to draw the covers for me during that time. so this is my first one back. she's supposed to be doing her freezy breath but i know she looks more like she's doing a sonic scream. i initially had it where the rings didn't show so much but it looked funny to me so i went with this look. i'll do better next time, i promise.

feeling good

2012-01-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

happy new year folks!!
since it's a new year, i'm not using "word of the day" anymore for my post titles. instead i think i'll try song titles that express how i'm feeling at the time. so today, i've got "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble in my head. (it's been sung by others, but that's the version i'm hearing in my head right now.) today started the new year for us. we spent the 1st day of 2012 being lazy and doing nothing. the most productive thing we did was take down the christmas tree, but that didn't really take very long at all. today however, i started it by taking a walk with chauncy in my proper attempt to finally get healthy. screw trying to get skinny and looking good in skinny jeans, i just wanna get healthy. being over 30 seems to have done a number on my body more than i care to admit. and it's only goin downhill from here. =P then it's off to work i went!
i won't waste ur time with reflections on the past year. in a nutshell, 2011 was a pretty great year professionally and threw a curve ball at the end when we decided to move. turning 31 sucked. and my old BFF from elementary school has finally found her way back into my life after about 16yrs so that's always a plus! but then my other BFF just moved back down to GA so that was a big downer. ended the year on a high note as we moved to our new place and resumed being grown ups. =) i also won't waste time with resolutions. call me lazy, call me weird, i just don't wanna set out unrealistic goals because if i've learned anything these past few years, it's that anything can happen in a year.
so, to start the year off, i wanted to share my new Art Table! well, "new" in the sense that it's now in our new home and arranged somewhat differently. but really it's the same table. =P

in case u peeped it, that is a custom Lali doll that the hubby had commissioned as a Christmas gift for me. i HEART her so much! it's so friggin adorable and fantastically well made! i keep forgetting to ask him who made it cuz i know he found the lady on deviantart. once i remember, i'll be sure to post her info for others to see.
at any rate, i put her up there cuz that's her "sniping position." =P (Lali is my original character for ID Comics Studio's Brotherhood of Fighters title.)
our walls are sadly still bare in our new lab, but hopefully we'll remedy that this weekend. we're certainly not short on cool things to put up, we just have very little time.

hope everyone had a merry christmas and a great start to the new year. if 2012 is going to be the year of armageddon, then bring it on! i've been blessed to be with the love of my life, doing what i love for a living (with FANS to boot!), great family that loves me whether they say it or not, and i have the unconditional love of 2 doggies. got a lotta love in my life, what more could i ask for! =)

SEASON'S GREETINGS!

2011-12-21T11:40:00.000-05:00

this is our holiday card this year. theFranchize did the art and i put the words on there.

i know it's been quite a while since i've posted but it seems so much has happened! holiday season is generally busy for the hubby and i with him doing tons of caricature events and us both working on gift illustrations/commissions. but this year for some reason, the amount of work seems a bit more intense than ever.
and of course, to kick it all off we moved right after Thanksgiving! so our life is in boxes and we had zero internet access except for our phones for the first 2 weeks of moving. we're still maneuvering around boxes in the apartment now and i'm just trying to find a tiny moment between holiday shopping, gift wrapping, and working to clean up enough that we can open presents near the tree.
speaking of the tree - this is my first ever live christmas tree! my entire life our family has had fake trees. (of course in the philippines, pine trees aren't exactly accessible.) YAYS!

i wish everyone a safe and happy holidays. whether u celebrate christmas, hanukkah, kwanzaa, or just life in general, i hope u get to celebrate it merrily with family and loved ones.

panegyrize [verb]

2011-11-28T11:39:00.001-05:00

(PAN-i-juh-rahyz) - to eulogize; to deliver or write a panegyric about

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, FOLKS!!
hope everyone had a happy and filling thanksgiving (or just a great thursday for those that don't celebrate it). i had a nice chilled out one this year. spent it with some family but nothing big. just great food and beer and a Harry Potter marathon. =)
but with the fantastic-ness (yes i know that's not a word) of thanksgiving comes the dread of packing because we're moving this week. i've been doing nothing since the holiday but breathing in settled-in dust as i pack up stuff. i can't believe how much junk we've built up! we've got about 12 bags of trash already and our "lab" (computer/working room) is not even packed yet. SIGH.
it may be a while before i'm able to write another entry so i'm getting it in right before we move. i've been unable to do a lot of work lately cuz of the holiday and then packing BUT since the Grimm Fairy Tales sketchcards are out now, here's all of the ones i've done! i just finished up on a Lady Death and Hack/Slash crossover set so once those have been released, i'll post them as well. next up, Josie & the Pussycats and then a Shi set. really excited to work on that!
so for now, wish me luck so i don't get buried under all these boxes. ={

pansophy [noun]

2011-11-10T14:30:00.001-05:00

(PAN-suh-fee) - universal wisdom or knowledge

just wanted to quickly share what's going on on my art table at the moment. oh yes, yummy delicious goodness! and the best part about these yummy-lookin cupcakes is that they're free! that makes it more delectable, in my opinion. they're from this very fancy place (at least by my humble standards) in DC called Sprinkles. now u may or may not have seen previous cupcake pics from Georgetown Cupcakes on my desk. those cupcakes are really yummy too. but as crazy as it is to pay so much for Georgetown Cupcakes, these Sprinkles cupcakes are even more expensive! but maybe i just need to buy myself some fancy-pants and get with the trend. =P

anyways, i'm definitely still drawing. i just needed a cupcake break. yays!

plebiscite [noun]

2011-11-08T20:13:00.001-05:00

(PLEB-uh-sahyt) - a direct vote of the qualified voters of a state in regard to some important public question
i guess it's no coincidence that that's the word of the day. our house has been bombarded with campaigning calls for the past few days and hopefully it will stop today.
not much to share today as far as pics. i finished up a Lady Death|Hack/Slash crossover card set for 5Finity this weekend but i'm not allowed to show any previews just yet. i'm still working on a fairly large commission and i can't really show that yet either cuz i like the client to be surprised. i DID, however, fix up the hubby, TheFranchize's, website so check that out! it functions like my website but looks more fun!

i also did a quick update to my site as well, the most obvious being the lady in my header image. i now have a page for HOT CAKES AND OTHER ART BOOKS that have info about available books. take a look at it and if u'd like ur copy of Hot Cakes:Stacked & Ready, just email me!
i've also added Identity Comics Studio's tentative 2012 convention schedule. the two listed are the ones that we have received confirmation to set up at Artist Alley. of course as 2012 flies in, i'll keep it updated so keep an eye on that.
i've been doing a lot of admin work these past couple of days but i promise as soon as i'm able to show any images, i'll be sure to post. oh here's something!

this was my first attempt at refilling my black copic marker. i was warned that it would get quite messy, but i figured i'm fairly meticulous about a lot of things so how bad could it be. turns out, it was definitely quite a mess. and where i thought the worst was over with this shot, after a false sense of security, i opened the cap again and all types of ink spewed out. my middle and pointer fingers were covered in black ink! couldn't take a pic of that cuz i'd have ruined my phone with ink. as it is, my middle finger still has black crud around my nail so i look like i'm a mechanic or something. i hope it comes out sooner rather than later.
turns out, thanks to the @CopicMarker tweets, they sent me a link on how to properly refill ur copic markers for next time. i really shoulda looked for this first before diving in blind. if u use copics, i suggest u look at it too cuz, again, it can get quite messy. =P

happy halloween folks!

2011-10-31T15:35:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! as usual, I think I’d do some type of Halloween-inspired artwork and fail to do it in time. sigh. SO, in lieu of a Halloween piece, I’ve decided to post the picture below! it’s of a friend of mine who is essentially cosplaying herself for Halloween based on a bday illustration I gave her and her twin. I dunno if anyone gets all type of flattered by this, but I sure am. as someone that works in this industry, one of the coolest things to see is someone dressed up as something u made up! I can’t wait till the day when girls are dressing up in their fav Lali outfit from our books. so to me, this just brings that dream even closer!

thanx, Julia, for makin my Halloween this year!

berserk [adjective]

2011-10-28T17:11:00.001-04:00

(ber-SURK) – violently or destructively frenzied; wild; crazed; deranged

I wonder if they made the word of the day something kinda scary-ish cuz of Halloween. but I keep forgetting that Halloween isn’t until monday. lots of tv programs are really confusing me, that’s why. anyways, not much to see on my drawing table today. I’m working on a fairly large commission for a repeat client and it has taken a couple days of trial and many many errors to come up with a composition that is finally somewhat working. so I’m hoping the client likes it so far so I can move forward. luckily, I have some of the best commission clients in the land cuz they sure are patient with me. =) the big figure is a 3-headed female creature thingy with 4 arms.

I’ve also just finished a large order of Artist Exclusive sketchcards also for a repeat client. again, best clients in the land cuz he’s been waiting patiently for all of these. he’s big on my Hack/Slash cards and I’m really glad cuz I think those are one of the most fun sets I’ve worked on. dunno what it is about goth chicks and blood spatters but I’m really enjoying drawing it. one day soon, I’ve gotta draw a gothy cheesecake pinup chick with bloody spatters. that’ll be neat!

also, some exciting news – I’ll be doing a page sometime next month hopefully for The-Gutters.com! my husband theFranchize did a page for them a while back and we met them in person at NYCC. since I don’t normally do sequentials, I’ll be enlisting his help. =) yay for very talented spouses!!

and whilst I’m posting, I may as well post some stuff I’ve forgotten to post lastely. these are the Bettie Page cards I finished about a year ago now for Versicolor Productions. it’s for the Bettie Page Private Collection set. I believe they finally released it about a month and a half ago so I’m a little late in posting these. the first pic is of all the ones I did, then the next 2 are my Artist Proofs.

this one above is the 2nd of 2 digital images I did for them. the first one I showed before with her on a tree.

lastly, this is a commission I did about a month ago now from an ebay auction I ran. the client is a photographer and he asked that I use one of his photos to turn into a character, in this case it was Catwoman. it was an inks-only commission but I threw in the red cuz I just thought it looked cool. drew this with pens and copic markers on 11x14” bristol. he’s getting a couple more from me in the near future so keep an eye out for those.

I think I’m pretty much all caught up now on posting stuff. yay for progress!

ferly [noun]

2011-10-23T19:07:00.001-04:00

(FER-lee) - something unusual, strange, or causing wonder or terror

so, it’s been a week since New York Comic Con and I’m only just now feeling like I’ve caught up on sleep and work. though it was probably one of the worst travelling experiences I’ve ever had, it was one of the best comic conventions we’ve ever done! the travelling experience had nothing to do with NYCC itself, with the exception of the convention center. carpet was coming off on everyone’s shoes, carpet stank by friday afternoon, and at the end of the whole con, they turned off ALL escalators and had only 1 working elevator. so all of us exhibitors were pretty F-ed in the B with getting our stuff outta there. we had to make multiple trips up and down the escalators to get our stuff down cuz the line for the 1 elevator was massive.

OTHER THAN THAT, the con was great! met some great new people, hung out with old friends we don’t get to see but once a year, and got some cool stuff to bring home. the artist alley was much larger than I expected but it was chock full of some of the most amazing talent in the industry. sometimes at smaller shows, there’s quite a bit of range of art skills but at this one, we were surrounded by really talented professionals. having industry pros intermingled with independent artists really helped to get everyone circulating the whole area. and our banners, though there was some crazy drama trying to even attain them, turned out looking pretty frackin fly in my humble opinion. I’ve never seen my art so huge before but I can certainly get used to it. =P it was actually the best show that ID Comics Studios has done to date. I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes from it.

for instance, I got a pretty great review of my artbook, Hot Cakes: Stacked & Ready that someone bought from me while he was there. go check it out - Focus on the Artist: Penelope Gaylord, a new gen illustrator that will leave you panting. I was very surprised and extremely flattered. I’m glad I made a good impression on at least one person there. =) I hope everyone else felt this way about me and my book.

here are the con sketches I did while I was there. I didn’t do very many, but I enjoyed every single one. these were enough to keep me busy while I was there because I really do draw slower than the other guys in the studio. I’ve gotten faster, just not that much. and yes, one of those is indeed Rainbow Brite! this one guy asked each of us to draw in his book anything that we have always wanted to draw but never have. so Rainbow Brite it was!

as far as the bad travelling experience went, well it mostly had to do with the hotel we stayed in. but I really don’t wanna bore u with the unpleasantries. so I’ll just say that we’re never staying at the Holiday Inn Midtown ever again and I just couldn’t get out of NY fast enough at the end of the trip. unfortunately that meant we weren’t able to hang out with some folks at the end of the trip at Burgers & Cupcakes (which I’m sure would’ve been just the type of place I’d have enjoyed). hopefully next year, it’ll be better and everything will work out.

new york comic con!

2011-10-12T19:42:00.001-04:00

ID Comics Studios will be at Artist Alley Tables T14 & T15

it’s finally here!! we’re leaving midnite tonite to drive up to New York Comic Con in time for setup. then it is ON! =) look out for these banners set up at the con and say hi to the friendly folks underneath it. ^__^ we’re open for commissions during the show. we have special con commission rates of $25/pencils | $50/inks | $100/colors. we’ll have deals on our books, deals on our prints, deals on everything! so come by and take a gander! I can’t wait to meet new folks. this will be our first time attending and setting up at NYCC so wish us luck!!!

jaundiced [adjective]

2011-10-11T17:49:00.001-04:00

(JAWN-dist) - affected with or exhibiting prejudice, as from envy or resentment

We’ll be at New York Comic Con this weekend!! Oct 13-16, ARTIST ALLEY TABLES T14 & T15!!

I’ve been so crazy busy and I know I say that all the time. but I swear it’s true! I thought working for myself and working at home would mean I’d have time to do whatever I want whenever I want. turns out its actually kind of a paradox. cuz u could do that, but then u’d fall behind on deadlines and end up paying for it harshly in the long run with not a single boss to blame it on but urself. sigh.

at any rate, enough whining. let’s get down to business. we are busy gearing up for the convention this week and it has finally happened! I got an artbook done!!! myself and the rest of the studio have lost many winks putting each of our artbooks together, plus our new Brotherhood of Fighters: Behind the Cage book! oh it’s gonna be somethin else at this con, I tell ya! I really should’ve written about it while all these things were happening. now I feel like I need to cram all these things in one blog post and nobody wants that. sigh.

on to my new artbook!! it’s the first of its kind and I’ll probably do one every 2 years. this is 50 pages chock full of art by me – pinups, commissions, sketchcards, and supergirl covers. it’s called 2011 Hot Cakes: Stacked & Ready. as with the mini book, I’ll be doodling a quick sketch in the book as a thanks for anyone that buys it. the cover image is a new illustration I did which I’ve turned into a print much like the other pink haired lady on my mini book. I’m trying to move my art towards a less-comic-centered direction and more be about pretty ladies. who knows, maybe someday I’ll have tshirts with them on it! the book will run for $30. we’ll have lots of deals with the books and prints at New York Comic Con so if ur there, definitely stop by our tables to find out what else u can score for ur bucks!

also, I forgot to put up last month’s Supergirl #53 cover for PendantAudio.com. because of August’s semi-controversial cover, I was going to draw Supergirl on a unicorn with rainbows and bunnies this month to balance it out. but I decided to save that for another time and instead draw a better shot of my gladiator-supergirl design. and even though the story actually has Superman strictly forbidding her from really hurting these alien baddies, it looked more badass for her to have alien blood on her hands and clothes. I’m taking a break from this month’s cover because we’re so F-in busy with the con and the possibility of moving next month. SOOOO I got my studiomate and fellow zombie-slayer Flash to draw for me this month! I can’t flippin wait to see what he does!! (he’ll be drawing my hubby’s Superman cover next month for the same reason.)

acme [noun]

2011-09-20T19:12:00.001-04:00

(ACK-mee) – the highest point of something; the highest level or degree attainable

wow. had I known that acme was an actual word and that it meant that, my whole bugs bunny experience would’ve been even more hilarious! they’ve completely changed the meaning of that word for me (and possibly for my entire generation) cuz to me, when I see “Acme" it means “uh uh, don’t get that. it WILL blow up in ur face.” ah the new things I learn every day.

just wanted to share these really quickly. these are the cards I drew this year for 5Finity Productions’ Superheroes for Babies charity cards. after I drew the 5 DC Comics ladies, I wanted to draw 5 things I never really get to draw. it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do that would still be somewhat relevant and I decided to tackle Disney villains. as u may or may not know, I love me some Disney! can’t help it! it’s a part of my childhood. heck I learned how to draw thanks to the princesses when I was very young. I wanted to make the villains pretty and I always thought that Maleficent was the hottest bad guy ever! so, naturally, that’s my favorite card I did the entire set. =)

also, just wanted to give a quick shout – WE’LL BE AT TABLES T14 & T15 AT NYCC!! I’m sure I’ll be announcing that every so often between now and October 13th so u’ll remember. ;P

i still have a very small handful of my Mini Hot Cakes artbook. so if you're interested in one, let me know! we have a mini comic show in Annapolis at the end of the month and will be bringing what i have to it.

my new mini artbook “2011 Mini Hot Cakes", available for sale now. u get a free 13x20” print! check out my previous entry, August 4 - Aesopian, or go to my journal on my DA page, Peng-Peng.deviantart.com, for more info!!

panache [noun]

2011-09-13T18:19:00.001-04:00

(puh-NASH) - dash or flamboyance in manner or style

so this was last month’s Pendant Audio’s Supergirl radio show cover #52. this and the Superman show covers, which my hubby theFranchize draws, are featured the day the episodes come out on SupermanHomepage.com. so just when I was beginning to wonder if anyone pays attention to the covers that I draw, I put this one out and suddenly folks are outraged! apparently I’ve crossed some line and this bordered on S&M. now I’m not one to just start arguing with strangers but I do get a weeee bit miffed that people will only care to comment with negativity and don’t bother with positive things. like nobody ever writes that they like a particular cover or anything like that. but they’ll get upset about something like this. which, if I may explain, was actually part of the story! Supergirl is actually in gladiator-type clothes and was shackled. now of course I could’ve gone the safe route of just drawing her sitting and her hands chained in front of her, but I thought this was sexy without being raunchy. someone did kinda jump to my rescue and compared it to slave Leia and I couldn’t help but be like “YEAH! EXACTLY!” (tho I just said it to myself). I mean if there’s an S&M thing, slave Leia was wearing less clothes than my Supergirl, her chain was around her flippin neck, and she was being held captive by some nasty slimy slug dude! goodness knows what he did to her before we saw them at his palace! yuck! but whatever. most of the people from Pendant Audio stood behind my decision and I felt much better. I was really afraid I’d be fired. that would suck. I promised them this month, it’ll be Supergirl sitting on a fat pony with rainbows and bunnies everywhere. that ought to be safe enough.

below is what I originally drew for the cover. this was her in her newly redesigned costume cuz I just wanted to try it out. but when I heard they’re supposed to be dressed somewhat incognito with other warrior folks, I had to redesign it. so instead of erasing and drawing over this, I just redrew it. and of course when I redrew it, it’s not as cool as the original. T_T story of my life. ah well. at least I have this.

dilatory [adjective]

2011-09-12T20:04:00.001-04:00

(DIL-uh-tor-ee) - given to, or marked by, procrastination or delay

so here i am nearly 4 weeks after Baltimore Comic Con and i am only just now getting around to writing about it. for shame!! i'm really sorry. when baltimore con ended, it really gave us time to breath and catch up to lots of stuff that were falling terribly behind due to getting ready to go to San Diego and whatnot. after baltimore, an earthquake happened here in VA. which is crazy for us cuz that never happens on the east coast. being from the philippines, however, i remember having been through it before but i was very little last time i experienced it. i wasn't as freaked out about it as some, but it was still kinda nuts when u think about this area not having had one in a hundred years. o_O

then in the same week, hurricane irene came around to the area and everyone was on high alert. the hubby and i ended up traveling into DC for a caricature gig even though everyone was being evacuated out of it. it turned out to be not as terribly bad as they said it would be. our area managed to get out practically unscathed (with the exception of a few mailbox numbers missing). i heard others didn't have the same luck. =(

then i got flippin sick! like sick as a flippin dog! i think it was the flu or something! dunno if it was cuz i got rained on during hurricane irene or what. but it was not fun. plus i ended up spreading it to all my family members. not a good look. anyways, so that's the drama with me.

now, onto Baltimore Con! the entire Identity Comics Studios crew was there (with the exception of Joe Jaro) and we had a blast! it's a lot of con packed into 2 days and i really didn't get to see much of it at all. we were pretty much stuck behind the tables (and trapped by the other people around us). we finally got to hang out with our fellow nerdy pals Dave Perillo and Scott Derby and Jeff, who collectively we've endearingly called "Derby Dudes". we only see them at comic cons but we have ridiculously fun times when we hang out. our buddy Bill Meiggs and his wife hung out with us as well so all in all it was fun times. the day after we hung out with Comfort Love and Adam Withers and talked shop in the weirdest restaurant i've ever been in. it was called Paper Moon and i think it really had some significant effect on my psychological well-being, probably more than i care to admit. other than the weird/creepy mannequins and dolls around me, it was cool talking to them.

i only drew a few commissions this year. i think the black hole that was Stan Lee being next to us hurt more than helped but it is what it is i suppose. the first commission i was asked to draw was a Jawa from Star Wars holding a martini and a luggage. with the help of my studiomate Flash on colors, it really turned out cute! the Blink commission i ended up having to take that home to work on cuz the guy asked for it towards the end of the day and i was working on another one.

all in all, i had tons of fun and got a lot of compliments on my Poison Ivy print. =) i never get tired of compliments. can't wait till next year!

collogue [verb]

2011-08-24T23:10:00.001-04:00

(kuh-LOHG) – to confer secretly

this was something I drew right before we left for Baltimore Con last friday. it’s for the Marla Bea Benefit which is for breast cancer and they ask artists to donate pieces that feature the color pink. I thought the dude was picking it up at the con but I was totally wrong. fail. anyway, this will be the first time I’m early so yay me!

it was drawn with pencils and pink & warm gray copics on 11x17 blue-line paper. I used an ultra-fine pink sharpie for the outline. it’s the same one I used on that tinkerbell sketch on my Mini Hot Cakes book. (I’ve really taken a liking to this pen!) this is a picture of it cuz again, I’m just not a fan of scanning in pieces. I chose the Little Mermaid because everytime I try to draw her, I fall very short of my own expectations so I keep practicing. this is actually the closest I’ve ever gotten to drawing her the way I like. I’m trying to make her look as “real” as I can get it without going overboard like giving her extra fins or a spiny tail. I think my gut instinct was to draw her with no seashell-bra but seein as how it’s for charity, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. I mean I don’t even know how those things stay on her! I just feel like a mermaid wouldn’t bother with clothes.

I looked up the new Pirates of the Caribbean mermaids for inspiration and I just think the main mermaid chick is so pretty. I thoroughly enjoyed their take on mermaids and I for one can’t wait till the movie comes out on bluray. haven’t been this excited about a POTC movie since the first one!

Baltimore Con was fantastic as always! had lots of fun crammed into 2 days. I’ll have more on it tomorrow along with some pics of commissions I did. I gotta get back to work now.

also, don’t forget about my new mini artbook “2011 Mini Hot Cakes", available for sale now. u get a free 13x20” print! check out my previous entry, August 4 - Aesopian, or go to my journal on my DA page, Peng-Peng.deviantart.com, for more info!!

runic [adjective]

2011-08-19T15:31:00.001-04:00

(ROO-nik) – having some secret or mysterious meaning

BALTIMORE COMIC CON IS TOMORROW!!!

ID Comics Studios and I will be in the Artist Alley this weekend – Tables A113/A114 in the back near Stan Lee. please come by and say HI!! I’ll be there along with these guys -

since the sketchcard set for Painkiller Jane from 5Finity Productions have just been released, here are the full set of cards that I drew. =)

hope to see lots of folks this weekend! I’m excited to see some fellow artists that I only see about once a year during this time. in the meantime, I’ll be spending the entire flippin day packin up gear. can’t wait till we get some banners so we don’t have to pack up SO much. sigh. one day, hopefully…

polysemous [adjective]

2011-08-16T17:04:00.001-04:00

(pol-ee-SEE-muhs) – having a diversity of meanings

BALTIMORE COMIC CON IS ALMOST HERE!!!

ID Comics Studios (which is the studio I belong to, in case you didn’t already know) will be going Baltimore Con this weekend, August 20th and 21st. we’ll be set up in the Artist Alley Tables A113/A114 in the back near Stan “the Man” Lee. so if ur plannin on seeing him this weekend, don’t forgot to stop by our table on ur way and say hi! I’ll be there along with these guys - We’ll be doing commissions for cheap and we’ll have prints – some are NEW! I’ll also have what’s left of my mini artbook “2011 Mini Hot Cakes” to sell there for $10 which will come with the quick headsketch on the back. (the free print with purchase, however, is only for any that buy it online.)

also, I forgot to post this back in May. last year I had the fortunate opportunity to work on some exclusive sketch cards for Versicolor Productions for their Bettie Page Private Collection set. I did a total of 11 official cards plus 8 Artist Proof cards (half are standard size, half are large 4”x5”) plus 2 digital images to be included in the regular set. they gave us permission to post 1 image from any of the Bettie Page cards I did. so here’s mine! at first I wasn’t going to post the one with the boobies, but then I realized that this is frickin Bettie Page! exposed boobies are part of the package! so I chose the one that seems to be easily recognizable as Bettie Page. the full illustration had to be cropped to fit the proper card size better. I believe they’re finally releasing the set next month. I hope they give us a comp set cuz I’d love to see. otherwise, I really don’t know where to get em. =(

holus-bolus [adverb]

2011-08-13T17:17:00.005-04:00

(HOH-lus-BOH-luhs) - all at once; altogether

really?? that's a word?!? is that where hocus pocus came from??? oh u silly english language and ur colorful words.

at any rate, i wanted to share what's currently on my art table today. i'm working on character designs for this one project and this is a sneak peak at a first draft of the design. i'm working on 2 others today. i just really liked how his face came out cuz i hardly draw dudes.

this is a commission for my BFFF Jacy. she asked me to draw her and her hubby as these 2 Farscape characters for his birthday. i was asked to make sure i incorporated their tattoos in the picture. since they were both on their right arms, it was a bit tough to come up with a composition that didn't involve her leaning against him with her back while they both faced sideways (like a prom picture).

and since this was for my homie, naturally i was freaked out! i get so nervous drawing for friends. =P

i drew each of them separately then i put them together in photoshop. i think he looks more like him than she does of her. mostly cuz all the pics i had of her, she's always cheesin cuz she's so happy all the time. =P still, u'd think after knowing her for over 20 years, i'd be able to draw her easily. but nope. KAKAKA

anyways, she liked it, her husband liked it, and that's all that matters. ^__^ POINT - ME!

billet [verb]

2011-08-11T12:03:00.003-04:00

(BIL-it) - to provide or obtain lodging

just one of the quick headsketches i did for folks that got my Mini Hot Cakes online. they got a nifty Powergirl print with this book as well. =)

WANT ONE?!?!

the book is 28 pages, full color for only $10. u can get a free print with it of ur choice. just add $5 for shipping in the US/Canada (international shipping will be more) and it's all urs!

check out my August 4 - Aesopian post or my deviant journal for more info and pictures! send me an email to PIANJAG@YAHOO.COM or a note on deviantart if ur interested.

nervure [noun]

2011-08-07T16:38:00.001-04:00

(NUR-vyoor) – a vein, as of a leaf or the wing of an insect

meant to post these sooner but I finished these commissions right before I left for SDCC. so naturally, I forgot all about it. =P this is for a repeat client that asked me to draw the Poison Ivy commission that I now have a print of. except when he commissioned me, it was just for pencils. but I liked it so much that I colored it up afterwards.

so he asked for a Catwoman and Aspen Matthews from the late (sniffle) Michael Turner’s Fathom comics. and once again, I really have fallen in love with the Aspen I drew so I think I may just color that one too! it sucks that I can never draw cool stuff for myself for fun. it’s usually a commission.

also, don’t forget about my new mini artbook “2011 Mini Hot Cakes", available for sale now. u get a free 13x20” print! check out my previous entry, August 4 – Aesopian, or go to my journal on my DA page, Peng-Peng.Deviantart.com, for more info!!

moxie [noun]

2011-08-06T16:51:00.001-04:00

(MOK-see) – vigor; verve; pep

just figured I’d share some moments from SDCC, starting with the 2 greatest moments of the entire trip (for me, of course). after reading her tweet, I made sure on Saturday that I saw Olivia De Berardinis and pick up her new book, Malibu Cheesecake. but I nearly passed out from nervousness when I saw her there in person. I mean, how do u say hi to a woman so amazing? she draws gorgeous women for Playboy, for pete’s sake!! I think I managed to meagerly say “I love ur artwork” and “could u please sign my drawing board.” the rest of the time I just gasped and smiled. she musta felt really sorry for my nerdliness cuz she volunteered to take a picture with me before I could utter the words. I’m such a corndog! (Batman Returns reference)

then shortly after I gathered my wherewithal, I went to find another great artist, Stanley Lau (or Artgerm). again, somewhat struck with awesomeness just being able to speak to the man but I was far more collected this time around. I picked up a Pepper print and a Supergirl print from him (cuz he ran out of my favorite Wonder Woman illustration). he was the only other person I asked to sign my board the entire trip. I couldn’t be more pleased!

below are just other random shots of the weekend. it was so much fun but SOOOOO many people were there. I mean there were so many people EVERYWHERE. no matter where u went or what time of the day it was, there were so many folks. best panel though, SPARTACUS!!! got to see Manu Bennett in the flesh and breathed the same air he did. I wonder if my “I love u, Crixus!” scream at the end of the panel made it to the online version…

aesopian [adjective]

2011-08-04T23:38:00.006-04:00

(ee-SOH-pee-uhn) - conveying meaning by hint, euphemism, innuendo, or the like

well, it seems the word of the day is something i tend to do with some of my drawings. namely the cover to my mini artbook. =)
above is a sample of the interior pages of my Mini Hot Cakes book, which i still have a few available for $10.
now that i have finally recovered from a week of San Diego Comic Con (so much fun) and the Steel City Con in Pittsburgh only a couple days after we got back home, i'm trying to get back to business. i still have a few of these 2011 Mini Hot Cakes books. i'll be selling them at the upcoming Baltimore Comic Con on Aug. 20th-21st for $10 each. however, as a promo, if u order one from me online, u can also get a FREE signed 13x20 color print of ur choice from any of these 3 below

choose ur print!

so for just $10 (plus $5 for shipping anywhere in the US/Canada), u get 28 color pages of pin-ups, sketchcards, and commission sketches, a free headsketch of any character on the back, and a free 13x20 signed print of ur choice! can't beat that!
i take Paypal payments so shoot me an email to PIANJAG@YAHOO.COM if u'd like to order one! or send me a note on my deviantart page - peng-peng.deviantart.com

and just for show, this was my July Supergirl:Last Daughter of Krypton Radio Show episode #51 cover for PendantAudio.com. SDCC really caught me by surprise when it was finally upon me and i just had no time to draw something cool for the month. so i had to do an all-encompassing Supergirl drawing in record time, for me. the hubby and i had the pleasure of meeting one of the main folks at PendantAudio.com, Jeffrey Bridges, and his lovely family at SDCC. they're quite swell people!

zugzwang [noun]

2011-07-19T17:38:00.004-04:00

(TSOOK-tsvahng) - a situation in which a player is limited to moves that have a damaging effect

umm...is that a real word?!?! i've NEVER heard that word said before. not even in passing on some NPR program. =/

so this is probably the last post before we head on out to SDCC!!! i can't be more excited cuz we've been itching to go back since we went the first time. it's quite the doozy of a con. if u haven't gone before, i suggest u take a trip at least once in ur life. it'll blow ur nerdy mind. =P and as excited as i am, i'm also semi-flippin out cuz i'm actually somewhat on schedule as far as stuff that i need to get done before we leave. which never happens and that makes me nervous. deep breath.

guess what's on my art table today?!? our mini artbooks!!! YAYS!! we did get them on time and i couldn't be more pleased! it's weird having my own artbook this time around. i've always felt like my art can't hold its own and need to be mixed in with my other studiomates' art (so folks don't notice its not so good). but i think i'm getting over my art-insecurities slowly. i suppose the sale of this will let me know for sure if i'm good or if people are just blowin smoke up my fanny. the other book that's got the Iron Men on it is, of course, my better half theFranchize's book.
at any rate, i will be enjoying my time out at SDCC as much as i can with all the people (i'm not a fan of huge crowds). hopefully this time i won't have to throw elbows at nerds trying to get a glimpse of Megan Fox. i'll be sure to post pics when i get back. and i am on a mission to get a Kotobukiya Wonder Woman Statue. it will be mine!! till i get back, STAY CLASSY!

sublimate [verb]

2011-07-09T22:45:00.004-04:00

(SUHB-luh-meyt) - to direct the energy of a primitive impulse into activities that are considered to be more socially acceptable

(i've been meaning to post this for a while but everytime i think to do it, i seem to always be late for something else.)
i drew this image to use for the cover of my brand-spankin new mini artbook that i will hopefully have in time for San Diego. i think it's supposed to be coming this week or early next week so i'm really excited to see it. i've never had my very own artbook before, mostly because i didn't feel that my body of work could sustain its own book. but i put together 28 full-color pages of my art. i'm looking to get it into the hands of some important folks at SDCC. then what i have left over, i will be selling at cons and online.
i originally had in mind that she would have black hair much like the model i used to reference (the lovely Plastikstars). but the pink hair came about after seeing this other model (theBabyDoe) and i really thought it was interesting. so i ran with it. and i really like the way it came out. i'll be including this full image into my actual full-size artbook that i'll be putting together for New York Comic Con. that one's even more daunting cuz it's gonna be thicker. eep!
other than all the artbook creating i've been doing, i'm still working on character designs for this one project, a couple of commissions, and trying to have a life outside of our "lab" (our room with our computers and drawing table). this week is gonna be crazy cuz i'll be working with theFranchize on a totally different project and it's got quite the hard deadline. so much for having a life outside the lab =/ better to be busy than twiddling our thumbs i suppose.

aphorism [noun]

2011-06-30T01:32:00.002-04:00

(AF-uh-riz-uhm) - a terse saying embodying a general truth, or astute observation

where is my mind?!!? i'm having a really tough time focusing lately and it only gets worse from here i think. =P i think my mind is already in San Diego, even though it's still 3 weeks away. holy smokes it's only 3 weeks away!!
at any rate, just thought i'd throw this up real quick. this was this month's cover for Supergirl radio show (#50) for PendantAudio.com. don't judge me too badly. this is one of very few attempts at an action scene and i was super low on time that the background was really all i could do. last week was chock full of workin on my mini artbook. BUT it's all sent off, paid for, and all i gotta do is hope and pray it gets here before we leave for comic con. i may die from worry. T_T

pullulate [verb]

2011-06-21T19:20:00.006-04:00

(PUHL-yuh-leyt) - to exist abundantly; swarm; teem

the first half of today i was finishing up my mini artbook. the second half is spent drawing this month's PendantAudio.com Supergirl radio show cover. this is a picture i took on my phone of part of the cover. i'll post the finished piece after they post it online next week.
as for my mini artbook, Mini Hot Cakes, i'm actually a wee bit excited about it. and normally i'm not cuz i tend to be my own worst critic. but i'm hoping it turns out as nifty as i think it will. it's gonna be small and thin (hence the mini part) but it's just the precursor to my actual artbook, Hot Cakes. i'll be bringing the mini book with me to San Diego and my goal is to get it in the hands of at least 10 very important people. whatever i have left over, i'll be selling at other cons or online, probably for $10. it's full colors all the way (cuz i'm not really a huge fan of just b/w lineart on my artbooks), 28 pages chock full of stuff i've drawn over the past couple of years. i have saved some art for my main book so there will be stuff in there that won't be in this one.

i got the email yesterday from New York Comic Con that i've been accepted to get a table in their artist alley! i'm superdy duper excited cuz we've been thinking about going there but money was just such a huge factor. and as i tend to come down really hard on myself, i really didn't think they'd accept my request. i mean there are tons of very talented artists that are probably trying to get in. i was very surprised they said yes. and since the husband, theFranchize, got accepted too, ID Comics Studios will be there to represent! =) with the news of our acceptance to NYCC, we've kicked these artbooks into high gear. it also gave me a little validity to what i'm doing which is important, especially when ur down in the dumps. basically, i'm glad to know i don't suck. =P i can't wait! the table cost is ri-donk-ulous and the hotel is probably even worse but we should reach an even larger audience there. gotta bring our A-game! we'll be playin with the big boys! ^__^

abut [verb]

2011-06-17T21:55:00.006-04:00

(uh-buht) - to be adjacent; touch or join at the edge or border

thanx to theFranchize's consecutive late-night caricature gigs at after-prom parties this weekend, i've had loads of time to myself. and with that, apparently, comes productivity! who knew! as u can tell, i have finally added more than the 1 trial page on this website of mine. my progress started out as just a page for the commission info so i have someplace online i can direct folks to for pricing. then i needed to put samples up, so i did. then once i was done, i went Gump on myself and figured "well, i've gotten this far. i may as well keep going." and many hours later, i got my pages and links and whatnot up! yay me! the gallery definitely needs more tlc but formatting the pictures to fit properly was a pain in the ass. it's a work in progress.
these images are for the latest ebay commission i did. it's of Magik from X-Men (Colossus's sister). i drew her before for a different client, but that time she had goat legs. i was very pleased to hear from this client that he wanted her to have regular legs. goat legs are hard! =( well, they are for me, anyway. below are my progression shots, from pencils, to flat colors, to shadows, to highlights. i think i'm finally getting more comfortable with coloring this way and they're starting to look much like what i see in my head. i went with a white bg for this cuz i've been doing a lot of darker bgs as of late. i liked it so much, i turned it into a wallpaper for my desktop. =)

brindled [adjective]

2011-06-16T23:15:00.005-04:00

(BRIN-dld) - gray or tawny with darker streaks or spots

i actually KNEW that word of the day! that's the first. thanks to me working at a dog kennel for a couple years. =)

just thought i'd share what i'm currently working on. now before u get the wrong impression, that's not actually the paper i'm drawing on. i was trying out some effects on my camera phone with this new app i downloaded and that's what that is. i'm drawing the cover to my mini artbook that i'm hoping to have with me going into San Diego Comic Con. i'll be handing them out to some publishers and whatnot that i meet over there. then if i have any left over, i'll be selling them online and at comic cons that i'll be attending this year. i hope the cover turns out as cool as i hope in my head. which, btw, hardly ever happens. cross ur fingers!

lucubrate [verb]

2011-06-09T18:38:00.004-04:00

(LOO-kyoo-breyt) - to work, write, or study laboriously, especially at night

funny, even though this word of the day made me giggle like an immature 8-year-old boy because it LOOKS like lubricate, i actually lucubrate a lot. i work best that way! =P
anyway, i forgot that i hadn't posted the full version of these 5Finity Sheena Artist Proof cards. i'm sorry, i forget lots of things. i previewed these back on May 10th (Animalcule) now that the proper owner of these sketchcards have received them, i can post them. the top two cards were specific requests of the client. the bottom he left up to me to do and since i had been watching River Monsters lately, i couldn't help but have gigantic fishes in the cards. =P i was a little apprehensive about the butterfly card at first because i'm not so good at drawing bugs but it actually turned out to be one of my faves of the set! =) these were all done with micron pens and copic markers.

leitmotif [noun]

2011-06-01T01:06:00.007-04:00

(LYT-moh-teef) - a dominant and recurring theme

this is my Bomb Queen commission i recently did for the winner of an ebay auction i held. i didn't know about this character before but after looking up her vitals on comicvine.com (my GO-TO website for any comic info i need), it was clear that she's just my cup of tea to draw. =) didn't wear much, bad-ass, sleazy - what more could i ask for! this is one of very few inks-only commissions i've done and i decided to put a little extra juice into this one. thanks to Adam Hughes, who i have a love-hate thing for (i love his art cuz it's flippin amazing and i hate his art cuz it's flippin amazing). studying his art is helping me understand grays and heavy blacks in my artwork, particularly shiny leather stuff. again, i hate and love that guy's stuff. this is probably one of the best things i've drawn lately and i'm really glad that the guy i drew it for really liked it too!
in case u were wondering, i went from pencils, straight to the copic gray markers (both cool and warm grays), then finished it off with microns to ink the whole piece. the bomb she's holding is supposed to be some type of phallic innuendo of sorts. not sure it came across that way but even if it didn't, it's all good. it still fits. =P

i decided to upload this also. this is the original colors i did for the Supergirl cover i posted the other day. i just turned it all sepia-ish for the final cover image to give it an old-time poster feel. but this was how it started out.

in other news, i'm trying really hard not to be too bummed about not going to Heroes Con this weekend. i know the other guys in the studio (with the exception of Domo who is actually going) have other things going on that makes it better for them to stay. and i know they were super-late in getting back to us about whether we had a table or not. but for me, i was kinda looking forward to it. i haven't been to a comic con since baltimore last year and i think i need to be in that environment. i mean, don't get me wrong, i love going to these pet expos. but not being around the comic scene is really doing a number on my confidence to draw comic-related things. i guess i shouldn't be too bummed since we are planning on going to the mother of all comic cons, COMIC CON! but still, it's tough to see fellow artists talk about their table numbers and books they have out. yeah, i'm hatin! so what! sigh.
however! my plans for this weekend is to try not to sulk too much and use it to be productive instead! i'm gonna turn this blog into some type of functional Peng-Peng Art website. so don't be shocked if u check back next week and some things have changed. =) so, here's to productivity!

avoirdupois [noun]

2011-05-30T18:51:00.004-04:00

(av-uhr-duh-POIZ) - weight; heaviness
just wanted to quickly post this month's Supergirl radio show cover #49 for PendantAudio.com. it had this character in it but since it's a radio show, they only described her as a "sleazy magician's assistant." so there ya go. =P
in other news, i am now the proud owner of www.PengPengArt.com!! (which is what this blog's new URL is now!) woohoo!!! i'm going to try to add some new features into this blog to make it more of a website with galleries and such. we'll see if i ever figure it out. then i'll announce the new URL to the world! =) thanx to blogger though, the pengsarttable.blogspot.com still goes here so all is well. yippee!!

it's Memorial Day today. thanx to everyone that has served this country, past & present, to preserve the very freedom that other countries hate us for. i wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the world, thanx to u brave men & women.

animalcule [noun]

2011-05-10T18:18:00.007-04:00

(an-uh-MAL-kyool) - a minute or microscopic animal, nearly or quite invisible to the naked eye

just finished up my four Artist Proof cards for a client and i'm really rather diggin them. but i'm posting a sneak peek of them for now until he gets them in the mail. don't wanna spoil the surprise tooooo much. =P

it just occurred to me that all i've been posting are sketch cards and PendantAudio.com Supergirl covers. then i realized that's all i've really been allowed to show lately. however, ID Studios is moving full-steam ahead with our flagship title "The Brotherhood" (which may be a slightly different title in the near future because there's tons of brotherhood-type names out there). so this new design is a steampunk-inspired design of my character Lali. i'm gonna have to redraw her normal outfit to update it a little. i'll post that as soon as i finish it.

in other news, it feels like the cosmos is tryin to work against me and things are generally not going the right way. for example, engine light came on the other day in the car. blower. t-mobile has, once again, cock-blocked us and rejected our rebate for the 2nd time for no good reason. blower still. and, the icing on the cake is that my computer wouldn't start! it was just stuck at the "Starting Windows" screen. BIGGEST BLOWER YET! so, these are among some of the other craptacular stuff that's goin on to or around me. i'm trying to remind myself that all things happen for a reason. so i'm hoping this is all a grand scheme to have something amazing happen to me in the near future. (cuz i'm a libra and i also believe in balance. and no i'm not a "new" libra according to the "new" astrological findings of another zodiac sign.)
on the positive side though - half-off fraps from 3-5p at Starbucks till friday!! can't be too upset about that. =P

osmose [verb]

2011-04-29T18:04:00.004-04:00

(oz-MOHS) - to gradually or unconsciously assimilate some principle or object

this is the latest cover for this month's Supergirl:Last Daughter of Krypton radio show cover for PendantAudio.com. in the story, her and Superman are flying in space and lands on the moon. i was very short on time (actually, we had to ask for a couple days extension) because we were dealing with a craptacular computer virus AGAIN. i swear, whoever makes viruses for computers should be punched in the junk daily as punishment for their crime. (unless it's a set of anomalies that happen due to internet info like Neo in the Matrix. then there's really nothing we can do about that.) so that set us back about a week of everything. =(
anyways, i didn't have much time so i'm not TOO too thrilled about the Supergirl drawing. i've never drawn anyone in this angle so i'm always self conscious about the way it looks. and yes, i know i broke rules when i cut her arms off. BUT, like i said, i just didn't have time. "space" looks decent though i think. again, this is my first attempt at space so if i had more time, i could really get into it. but i'm just so baffled at how pro digital artists make flippin nebulas and whatnot! everytime i try to think about how they do it, my brain bubbles into goop. it's just too much to process. (theFranchize used my idea for my cover to do his version for the cover of the Superman radio show since the stories are pretty close. u can check it out on his DA page.)

speaking of theFranchize, i'm SOOOOO happy to announce that he also got his Pro Badge for San Diego Comic Con this year!!!!! YAYS!!! i was starting to get a little worried since i got my approval a while ago. i can't tell u how many times i heard "that's great and all, but - why not him?" =/ well, maybe not quite in those words but that was certainly how it felt like to me. anyway, guess we're doin somethin right! =)

marginalia [noun]

2011-04-25T14:40:00.003-04:00

(mahr-juh-NEY-lee-uh) - notes in the margin of a book, manuscript, or letter

funny, i didn't think there was an actual word for the scribbles in the margin of a book. i just always called them scribbles. and there were certainly plenty of marginalia in my school books, though they were mostly doodles and not actual words. =/
at any rate, i felt like this image needed its own post. about a year ago, i drew a sketch card of stitch for my friend since she loves her some stitch (plus, she asked for it). =P well, this year for her berfday, i drew pretty much the same sketch card but it's the Tron Stitch version cuz she's all over the new Tron movie now. the design of Tron Stitch was not at all my creation. i found it online. i'm assuming japan's got some kind of Tron Stitch animated thingy. who knows, they always have cooler cartoon stuff. so anyways, i colored this with copics. i know it's tough to tell with the scan, but i tried to get the glows of the lines in his outfit with blue colored pencils.

peregrinate [verb]

2011-04-23T20:23:00.002-04:00

(PER-i-gruh-neyt) - to travel or journey, especially to walk on foot

these are the most recent cards i completed for 5Finity Productions. it's for their Manga Mandy set and i believe it was released on Apr. 15th. these are all of the ones i've done. i really kinda enjoyed working on this set. i hardly have an opportunity to draw in an anime style so i got to play with that for a bit. i really liked the chibis too. i colored all of these with copic markers which i had to replenish before doing these cuz theFranchize killed most of them with all the hundreds of sketch cards he's done the past couple of months. =/

moratory [adjective]

2011-04-14T20:16:00.007-04:00

(MAWR-uh-tawr-ee) - authorizing delay of payment

that's weird. i woulda thought that word had something to do with death. i learn new things every day! =)

as we gear up for another out of town event, i just realized i never posted last month's Supergirl: Last Daughter of Krypton radio show cover for PendantAudio.com. this would be for episode #47. it really did have a person in a cow suit protesting a burger joint in the story. i didn't make it up! =P now why the chibis? i dunno. i was inspired i guess. right before i drew this, that tragedy of the tsunami in japan happened and i couldn't help but reflect on the huge influence that anime and manga has had on my art. Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 were really what got me started on this career path and without it, i'd probably be deeper into Human Resources and utterly depressed. and even though i am well aware that japanese culture and art have far more to offer than chibis, i just couldn't help but think of doing an homage of some form. anyways, i think it was a pretty big hit with the folks that are doing the radio show so that's always a plus! =P
speaking of the tsunami and japan, my hubby theFranchize and i are thinkin of running a commission sale down the road where 100% of the money we get from it will be donated to either American Red Cross or some Japanese relief fund. we've yet to decide and talk more in detail. but once we get that squared away, i'll be making an announcement here, deviantart, and whatever other social networks i can get my hands on. =P

like i mentioned earlier, we're heading out tomorrow on another out-of-town event for Big Heads Little Bodies Caricatures. this time we're headed to Salisbury, MD for their annual Pork in the Park BBQ competition. couldn't turn down this invitation to participate! it's gonna have lots of happy, well-fed people and hopefully we can get our hands on some of that yummy BBQ! =) all i can say is that it's a good thing i gave up beef for lent instead of pork this year. WOOHOO! we finished up all the pet expos we're attending this year. we have one more pet-related caricature event in october but that's more of a gala. nice and fancy. so before we head out, i'm just posting a few of my fav caricatures that either my hubby or our colleague/jerry's BFF bryan "the flash" turner did at these expos.

OH! and did i forget to mention that i am going to San Diego Comic Con this year with a PRO BADGE?!?! WHAAAAAT?!? hell yeah, that's totally happening. i got my approval from the con for professional status a week or two ago and i couldn't be more boosted if i tried. YAYS!

eschew [transative verb]

2011-03-23T23:07:00.003-04:00

(es-CHOO) - to shun; to avoid

i did this commission recently for a return client. i've drawn a couple of things for her in the past, most recently the Harley Quinn with the diamonds. i guess she likes my stuff cuz she keeps supporting me. =P i can't help but be humbled with folks that repeatedly ask for artwork from me. i must be doin somethin right!
this commission is of her City of Heroes character "Zee." it was in exchange for her giving me another year of premium membership on DeviantArt. each time i need another year, i try to exchange it for artwork since DA is a community of artists and art lovers. and each time i've asked, folks have consistently stepped up and gladly exchanged services even though my fear is that they'd say "yeah, i'd really rather not." =P i'm sorry, i'm an artist. i'm sensitive about my shit.
at any rate, i really liked how the face turned out on this. i usually end up drawing faces with what i call "the magnum" which is basically a sexy pouty face. but recently i've been trying to break out of my comfort zone and draw expressive faces. it may not seem like a big deal to most folks but since i didn't get to really take good art classes in college, i feel i've missed out on some very basic art lessons like facial expressions. so it's a slow-going process for me and i'm always learning. with this face though, i felt like i really nailed what i was trying to get her to emote but without making her ugly. (that's also something i struggle with.) and i wanted to play with extreme lighting so i went with the sunset look.

in other news, the hubby took me to get TWO DOZEN Georgetown Cupcakes!!! i feel so very loved. i'm slightly addicted to them and since we had such a successful weekend at the expo, he felt we should celebrate it at least a little. i'm definitely freezing them and make it last for a while. so excited about putting them in my belly!

fugacious [adjective]

2011-03-22T18:24:00.006-04:00

(fyoo-GAY-shuhs) - lasting but a short time; fleeting

i do believe these Sheena: Queen of the Jungle card set from 5Finity Productions has already been released so these are all 10 cards that i did. it's apparently a very limited run so i feel very fortunate to have been asked to participate. however, i really pooped on this opportunity cuz i ended up turning them in a weeeeee bit late. and by that i mean i kinda missed the boat and by the time it got to them, they had already shipped the boxes of cards out. T__T it's crazy cuz it's probably the least number of cards i've ever done and yet these are the ones i turn in late. *sigh* it will NEVER happen again. during the time these were due, i just got so crazy busy and i had to ask for an extension as it was. at any rate, luckily they said they're still selling them as individual cards so they're still able to use them. i'm dumb. i hope they don't hate me now.

i'm currently working on a Manga Mandy set for them. i WILL get these in on time and i'm working on them daily. so yay!

these cards i forgot to post. i finished them last month and i'm the idiot that forgets to post things on my own blog. =/ for info on each card, see Feb. 3, 2011 "eclat" post. he liked them so much he even bought the remainder of my artist return cards from the same set. i feel so loved!

quick update on me - we just finished all 3 pet expos for the year. SOOOO much fun cuz of all the doggies i got to see. but i am flippin tired! it was very successful for us at Big Heads Little Bodies Caricatures though. with these expos i really do believe that we can really bust some heads with these doggie illustrations. PLUS, as an added boost to my fragile ego, someone bought my display of the Chauncy poster i did. (See Feb. 10, 2011 "daedal" post.) i did think it was a little weird that someone would want to buy an illustration of someone else's dog, and i was a little sad to see it go cuz it IS of my baby girl after all. but i can't help but feel flattered that they liked it that much. they even bought the frame it was sitting in! O.O guess i'll just need to print another one for myself. =P

i am cooking up a nice story for ID Comics Studios' book The Brotherhood with the help of my studiomates. it's gonna be such a fun series. now to just get it out of my head and onto paper so the guys can start drawing it! i'll only be writing the series for the most part however i have been assigned to do a pin-up in every book so i'll still have art in there. i'm just not a sequential pages-type gal.

i've got an ongoing project to design characters for someone's original story they're cookin up themselves. i'm just waiting to finish this 3rd design and i'll post what i got so far. i've got 21 characters to design total! WOO!!

i am also working on putting together my first ever artbook in the next couple of months. first i have to see if i have enough worthy pieces to even create an entire book out of it. so keep an eye out for that. i'll be putting out teasers and things for it so i'm really excited about it. i hope folks are too. i'm trying to get them done by Heroes Con in June. keep ur fingers crossed!

in other news - my hubby theFranchize has released a teaser page for a project he's working on with Sean "Cheeks" Galloway! check out his blog at thefranchizelive.blogspot.com to see! i try not to boast much but it's just so neat to be married to such a talented person being a comic art nerd myself.

that's all for now. how are U doing?? =)

fanfaronade [noun]

2011-03-09T21:59:00.006-05:00

(fan-fair-uh-NAYD) - swaggering; empty boasting; ostentatious display

boy, after playing "words with friends" on my phone with my kid sis-in-law, i know that is a word i will never be able to play. there's no chance that those letters will fall into that perfect of a place. =P

so it's been quite a while since i updated. after my last blog entry, things like deadlines and projects kinda blew up and i didn't have much time all of a sudden. not sure if that's due to bad time management or just the general alignment of things. either way, i haven't had much time to do anything non-work-related until this week. i managed to get a lot of projects completed and now i'm moving on to others. i even snuck in a nice long lunch with my artistically-inclined BFF jacy yesterday. all in all things have settled down and yet ........ it's oddly unsettling. i feel like i'm really forgetting to do something very important. i hate that feeling.

anyways, the image was my last month's cover for the Supergirl:Lost Daughter of Krypton radio show (episode #46) on PendantAudio.com. believe it or not, the pizza, the chocolate shake, and even the whip cream were in the episode! they didn't play any real part of the story - just that they were at a pizza place and Supergirl asked for the shake with extra whip cream. so i couldn't possibly turn down the opportunity to draw drippy whip cream as an overused innuendo. =P and all i could think about as i read that they were in a pizza place was "Peach Pit." so i just went with that for the bg. i think i accomplished it. and, if u could believe it, it WAS as easy to make as it looks! that hardly ever happens.

currently i'm making packets for myself and theFranchize to submit to San Diego Comic Con for Professional Badges. wish us luck! i hear pretty much half the country's gonna be there so there's no more badges of any kind unless ur under 12 - in which case there seems to be plenty! =/ if they don't accept us, i'm hoping that one our connections can help us with a badge so we can still go. gotta stay optimistic!

daedal [adjective]

2011-02-10T18:07:00.006-05:00

(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]

2011-02-03T18:51:00.006-05:00

(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]

2011-02-02T14:43:00.006-05:00

(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. ^__^

felicitate [verb]

2011-01-15T18:00:00.008-05:00

(fi-LIS-i-teyt) - to compliment upon a happy event; congratulate

wow, it really took a bit for me to get the difference between felicitate and facilitate. i know they're totally different but they just sound so flippin similar that the rusty gears in my head were havin a tough time processing it. =}

i've been listening to a lot of Rihanna lately and i suggest u guys do it up the same way. =) her latest album is really quite entertaining - if u like that "chick power" sort of thing. it really gets me in the mood to draw these sexy badass ladies lately.

anyway, first off, i wanna share what's going on with my art table today. this is just a bit of proof that i may actually have a slight addiction to starbucks (or maybe coffee in general cuz i cleared off 3 of my coffee mugs yesterday). i think either yesterday or thursday i was fortunate enough to get 2 cups! wooohooo!! anyway, either i'm addicted or i just need to be more dilligent about throwing out my cups once i'm done.
now off to today's post. this is another one from my holiday sale. this was commissioned by a repeat client. the ones i've done for him in the past were those 4-armed ladies. this is his character Amy Thatchen. the model that inspired this piece (and for a few other pieces as of late) is the lovely PlastikStars on deviantart. i really like her face which lends itself well to stuff that i draw. not to say that i'm good enough that i'm able to capture her likeness. just that she inspires me. my muse, if u will, currently.

this is my first real attempt at digitally painting water. (and i use the term "painting" very loosely here cuz i don't really have any educational clues on how to really paint.) i certainly have a long way to go when i look at others that know what they're doing but i do think it's a decent attempt. u know how sometimes u avoid drawing something in fear that u won't do it right? well, water's one (of many) of those things for me. hopefully now that i've done it, it only gets better from here. the client didn't ask for the water, that's just something i decided to drop because i was feeling inspired. why would a chick with, what appears to be, a lightning gauntlet be doing in water?? no idea. sounds dangerous though.

shot 1 - line art
shot 2 - i put on the flat colors. this time i decided to drop the water and skyline (and sun) early on. usually that's one of the final steps which is probably a mistake on my part. but this helped set the mood. as u can see in the next shot, i turn that sun to more of a sunset color to match the purple/pink water
shot 3 - this is where i add on the shadows to the figure. i used darker shadows than usual for her shirt to try to show it's wet. (not sure if i succeeded in that task but again, i'm trying to get better.) since i've established in my flats that her bra is a dark red, i used a dark red color for the shadows on her shirt to try to show that u can see through the wet shirt a little. in retrospect, i really should've put actual water on her to make it even more obvious that she's wet. but nothing i can do about it now. =P i also put in the clouds as well and colored the sky to keep the proper mood going.
shot 4 - i put the highlights on her and start to build up on the water. i start with dark spots on the water, followed by lighter spots. i add the extreme highlights on her skin and get that lightning effect on her gauntlet (which took a few layers of Linear Dodges and Color Dodging outer glows).
final shot - added some blue color to her skin. put on more light colors on the water, especially where the water breaks and touches her legs. i put the bright reflection of the guantlet on her and the water. throw a light layer of orange and pink gradients on top of everything for proper lighting and it's done!

mansuetude [noun]

2011-01-12T23:07:00.006-05:00

(MAN-swi-tood) - mildness; gentleness

i figured it out! this year, the title of the blog will be whatever the word of the day is on dictionary.com. i've been feelin rather unedumacated as of late considering i haven't been in school for years nor do i read novels and things. so perhaps this will help me speak more intelligently than my usual rants of "ya know what i mean?" and "nope, i call bullshit on that!" maybe i can even back these silly rants with actual, thought-out sentences. (which, btw, i had a really hard time even coining the phrase "actual, thought-out sentences." that's how dumb i'm feeling right now!)

anyways, so ON with the new year! yays! something else i plan on starting this year is to post more progression images. now i'm no good with taking screen caps of the pieces i'm working on but that's what the layers in photoshop are great for! i just go back and turn off a layer to show how i work. hooray for technological advances.

so the progression shots are somewhat self-explanatory but maybe i'm wrong. obviously i start with the lineart. then i go in and put flat color on the piece for 2 reasons - first, it makes things a little easier to select if something needs to be changed in certain spots; second, it's easier for me to start with a base color and work up. then i start to put shadows in with colors like oranges, purples, and blues (as of late cuz i've always been a little fearful of blue on skintones). next are highlights and extreme highlights that are the really bright spots that make clothes just a little extra shiny. the final touch is usually the background and with this piece in particular, i added an extra layer of even more diamond shine to really help make it stand out. many hours later BOOM, 1 commission finished. =)
this was for a repeat client and i tried to get it to her before christmas since she was giving it to her brother. but i guess the blizzard that hit NY really slowed this down. what should've taken a 2-day Priority package to get to its destination turned into 5 days. nice. at least she liked it! (or at least that's what she tells me. who knows for sure!)

a new year - a new look

2011-01-11T22:58:00.011-05:00

guess i'll have to come up with something new for my titles this year. can't run the same gag twice, ya know? i'll have to think of it soon. =) however, i do have a new look for the new year. not sure if i wanna change this each year. mostly cuz i'm so indecisive that i can't just choose a color or theme and be happy with it. i guess we'll see in 2012. (if we'll even make it that far. thanks, apocalypse.)

SO! i wrote 52 blog entries in 2010. hmm.....that's not even CLOSE to a daily account. i need to do better and yet i start my new year's post on 1/11/11. i think i'll blame it on the holidays. =P

i did do some artwork over the holidays, especially with my holiday sale that i ran. boy am i glad that not everyone needed their pieces done by Christmas cuz i would've disappointed them greatly. o.O guess this will be the blog that i dump a few images at once.

this is my cover for the december episode (#44) of the Supergirl:Lost Daughter of Krypton radio show on PendantAudio.com. i really don't know where i got this face from. i don't normally draw like this, especially the eyes. i must've been lookin through other folks' deviant pages and it just stuck with me at the time. =P however, i was really looking forward to drawing zombies since my fascination with them has increased as of late (thanks to Call of Duty and the Walking Dead). the trio in the back aren't exactly zombies, they're like Bizarro zombies. hence the lack of blood or missing body parts. one of these days, i'm going to zombie-fy myself. i can't wait!

if ur wondering why this doesn't quite look like my art, it's because it's a collaborative effort between me and theFranchize. i drew it, he colored it at the request of the client. i gotta say, i thoroughly enjoyed drawing all the little leaves and not have to worry about coloring them. =D she's based off of a model that the client provided.

this is another one of those illustrations like the ones i recently did of the babies. this is for a friend of her and her husband. in retrospect, i probably should've left the BG white or something instead of the orange. sometimes u hit it right on the nail, sometimes u miss and hit ur finger. =(

this is was one of my holiday sale commissions. it's of a moth-type character named Mina. the moth wings were really tough to do and i feel like i've just got more to go. one of these days i'm going to have to learn how to use textures in photoshop. i was pleased with the fuzzies tho. =)

i think i'll save the rest for tomorrow. this seems plenty. see! i keep myself busy i promise! ^_^

how soon is now

2010-12-27T19:28:00.004-05:00

...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! =)

river

2010-12-12T13:56:00.003-05:00

...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. =)

50% OFF Commission Sale!

2010-12-11T14:40:00.006-05:00

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.

blah blah blah

2010-12-07T14:31:00.007-05:00

...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

love the way you lie part 2

2010-11-18T14:25:00.003-05:00

...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!! ^__^

sleep tonight

2010-11-11T11:26:00.005-05:00

...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!

waiting for the end

2010-11-09T22:19:00.005-05:00

...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!

mi mancherai

2010-11-07T16:22:00.010-05:00

...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!

separate ways

2010-10-29T12:26:00.004-04:00

...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

2010-10-29T04:16:00.003-04:00

...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!

heads will roll

2010-10-28T00:38:00.003-04:00

...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!

pretty girls

2010-10-26T20:09:00.004-04:00

...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. ^__^

what you got

2010-10-25T22:42:00.006-04:00

...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! =)

senorita

2010-10-11T00:04:00.004-04:00

...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

glory of love

2010-10-05T14:59:00.005-04:00

...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!

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

2010-09-30T22:53:00.005-04:00

[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.)

these dreams

2010-09-25T15:48:00.007-04:00

...by heart

www.BigHeadsLittleBodies.com

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. =(

my perrogative

2010-09-22T23:54:00.004-04:00

...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!)

poison

2010-09-13T22:30:00.005-04:00

...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.

mrs sexy

2010-09-09T13:26:00.006-04:00

...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!

bitter sweet symphony

2010-09-04T01:26:00.008-04:00

...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]

baltimore comic con 2010

2010-08-27T01:26:00.004-04:00

[colors by utada hikaru]

so i've just finished a very large illustration that probably wasn't supposed to be as large as it turned out. but sometimes i get a weeeeee bit carried away with something when i'm really likin the idea. took many days to finish but i got it done by the buzzer. =P unfortunately however, i can't post anything more about it as it was a commission someone got for a person's birthday present. and the person they're gettin it for watches my deviantart account so who knows if they venture into my blog or not. but i'll be giving it to them this weekend at the convention so once i get back, i'll have stuff to post! today however, not so much. =( i've also been working on a couple of commissions for this other person but once again, i will be giving it to them this weekend at the con so i can't post those! so though it seems like i'm not doing anything cuz there's no pics of my art table lately, i really am. please believe me! ^__^
Baltimore Comic Con is this weekend - August 28th and 29th. i hope to see some folks there as well as fellow artists that i haven't seen in a year! it's always a fun con so i'm excited to be back. my only gripe (and it's a huge one) is that we are, once again, stuck in a very crappy spot all the way in the back [tables A111 & A112]. now i'm a fairly understanding person and though i do understand that logistically speaking, someone's gotta be in the back. BUT whether we get our moneys in early or very close to the date, we keep getting put back there! not to mention we're there every frackin year for i dunno, something like 5-6 years. where's the justice!?!? who do i have to kill to get a decent spot!? makes me a little peeved but i'm trying to stay positive. i just wish conventions weren't like high school and that it's all about who u know. is that what life is in general?? is it just all about who u know cuz if it is, i'm fairly screwed cuz i'm not naturally a very social person. *sigh* i guess the best thing i can do is just shut up and make lemonade. so is life...

nite and day

2010-08-16T23:08:00.002-04:00

...by al b. sure!
so before i went to bed last night after my very disappointing art day with my debbie-downer attitude, i was watching some Soulphrodisiac on the VH1 Soul channel and nite and day by al b. sure! came on. i dunno what happened but all of a sudden i decided i didn't wanna give up on the supergirl cover and i took another crack at it - this time with my usual tools of pencils and paper. and i was able to draw the cover that i wanted to do! WOOHOO!!! i usually get my inspiration from music (which is why i need to have music playing as i work on art-stuffs) but i have no idea why this particular song made me try again. maybe the nostalgia gave me the 1-Up that i needed to do-over the day. who knows!
since i have it drawn, i'm not sure if i can post it on here before the PendantAudio.com does. i'll have to check on that. SO i'm posting up these two cards that i did for a March of Dimes art auction. it was of any characters we wanted so i chose Powergirl (naturally) and Supergirl. cuz why not! they just come to me so easily, especially powergirl now that i draw her at practically every convention we go to (except otakon, though that's not really surprising. a few people didn't know who she was even though they liked the print i had.) anyways, these were colored with copic markers. i'm still getting the hang of those things but i'm glad i looked up a couple tutorials on YouTube cuz now i know what to use the Colorless Blender marker for! (which, btw, is what should be properly labeled as "magic eraser marker".) hope these ladies raise a good amount for a good cause. =)

the end has only begun

2010-08-15T20:52:00.006-04:00

...by lifehouse

so today's been quite the disappointing day for my art. in an attempt to draw my very first Pendant Audio's Supergirl cover #41, i decided i wanna try doing the piece completely digital. i've always drawn on paper first, then scanned and colored digitally that way. but as i quickly found out as i started sketching is that i'm not ready yet. my skills have very very far to go. or it could be that the pose i was trying to do just wasn't right. whatever it was, it didn't work in my favor. and even though i've gotten as far as laying the flat colors and even a few shadows (not shown), i've decided it's probably for the best to scrap this idea. so an entire sunday has passed and all i've got to show for it are these work in progress images that aren't even going to get use. *sigh* maybe i just need to play video games for the rest of the night and start fresh tomorrow. or draw something else and hopefully that looks ok. we'll see what happens.

alla luce del sole

2010-08-14T19:18:00.003-04:00

...by josh groban

i'm workin dilligantly to finish these commissions from the super sale and here's some that are finished already. the first one is an original character named Jess for someone on deviant. i originally had her without blood but i thought it was too plain. luckily the client liked the bloody version too. =)
the second two are both for one person on deviant. i think some of them are her characters and some are her friends'. (not sure which ones tho.) she ended up liking them which i'm really glad about. the two girls are Daisy & Lily (lily's the tall one with the big boobs, daisy's the one with the skull mask on). the words on her shirt and the texas image are digital cuz i didn't trust myself enuff with handwritten/drawn typography. the Budweiser American Ale label i got off the internet. i figured it would be cooler to see an actual beer label in their hands than something i made up (which probably would've ended up as some perk drink from Call of Duty).
the guy and girl are Adam & Julia. that's probably the best gun i've ever drawn. maybe even the best dude i've ever drawn too. =) we're makin progress!! her feet turned out pretty well too. i always have a hard time drawing toes but i think having had to draw so many barefooted commissions at Otakon helped me out for this one. her shoes were a specific request from the client. i never would've thought to draw leopard-print manolo shoes. frankly i'm just not that trendy which, if u know me, u can judge from my usual ensemble of tshirt and jeans. =P [everything about the two commissions are pretty specific requests from the client - i just drew from instructions. ^__^]
in other news, i'm starting to get more comfortable with our new wacom intuos. squeee!

how deep is your love

2010-08-11T16:10:00.005-04:00

...by dru hill

before i get elbow deep in commissions, i wanted to post what was on my art table for the past couple of days. that's right, a delicious delectable delicious (did i say that already) red velvet with cream cheese frosting and fondant heart Georgetown Cupcake! theFranchize got some after weeks of me crying for it since TLC came out with the show about them called DC Cupcakes. the show itself is kinda wack cuz it all feels scripted but it was yummy-licious way before the show cuz my BFFFs got me some last year for my berfday. and wowsers it was good. they have tons of orgasmic flavors but i think the red velvet is my fav so far. i was very sad when the dozen cupcakes were gone but it was probably for the best cuz it's not exactly in the category of healthy foods. he said the line at the actual store (the one featured in the show) was far worse than what the show depicts. but they recently opened another one in Bethesda, MD so that line was far more tolerable. the picture doesn't do it justice cuz i'm no photographer. just know it was delicious (if i haven't mentioned it before.) =D

this is a picture of my pencil pouch that i tote around now. i got it from Cheeks Galloway at Heroes. the character on it is one of his original characters. i love my pouch cuz it's so handy without being cumbersome. but the buttons on the back are my new fav addition to it. my hubby got it for me at Otakon from this girl. she really took a liking to his art so after she got a print from us, he went to her table and got a print from her and she threw these really cool buttons in. gotta love Sailor Moon fan art!! (unfortunately i don't remember her name. =( i suck i know.)

rock your body

2010-08-09T00:27:00.006-04:00

...by justin timberlake
before i call it a night after a full day of working on one two-character commission, i wanted to post up this Stitch sketchcard i did for my ninja friend that i mentioned in an earlier blog. i saw her at Otakon and finally gave it to her so she was thoroughly surprised. =) at any rate, as promised here is the card. theFranchize did one for her as well but i'll leave that up to him to post on his blog - theFranchize Live.
this card actually didn't take much time to do except when i had to look for Stitch references. cuz i dunno about u but i certainly can't pull him out of my head. i can pick him out of a crowd no problem but to recreate him is not the easiest thing, especially since Lilo & Stitch had such a unique art style. if ur askin what's with the cds and what's that thing in his mouth?? it's a Zen (mp3 player) which she and i both have (except mine is black). the busted up cds are because his BADNESS level is way up! =P

there goes my baby

2010-08-07T15:32:00.009-04:00

...by usher

well here's the well-past-due blog update. i'm really sorry. both theFranchize and i are still recovering from the fantastic Otakon weekend and all the computer problems which, by the way, we're still somewhat dealing with at this time. if there's one thing i absolutely hate and think is a complete waste of time is a friggin virus in my computer! what the frack!? seriously what is the purpose of making viruses except to be a general nuisance?! i'll stop myself before i start ranting about it. i just want all the virus-making people in the world to know that i hope u all come back as a dung beetle or Seth Rogen's anal bead in ur next life. (sorry to be so graphic but it really burns my bum.)

at any rate, like i mentioned, Otakon was friggin fantastical! i was afraid that we would be so ignored because of our non-anime subjects and not-quite-manga style of art. (which we learned is what anime-lovers call "western art." how frickin cool is that!) but, on the contrary, it drew quite a few people in saying that it was cool to finally see some "western art" in the artist alley. i do wonder if all the other artists in there were givin us the stink-eye for all the superheroes we were flashin around on our prints. (tho, i tend to think everyone's givin me the stink-eye, but that's a whole other topic - on the next episode of Oprah.) the only downside (other than the fact that we were in there for 13 hours in Artist Alley friday and saturday) was that i didn't get to experience the con like usual! i only got to walk around the dealer room once! blasphemous, i know! i tend to spend the entire 3 days in there as much as i can buying stuff with money i don't have. but when i think about it, would i rather go and spend money i don't have only to go home ridiculously broke OR make money selling my art and get loved for the way i draw?? --- yeah, i knew u'd think it too. =) i still managed to get the Ame-Comi Wonder Woman statue i never ever see anywhere cuz it gets bought the moment it appears. so BOOM! i win. =P

seein as how i didn't get to walk around, i certainly didn't get to take any pics either. when i was at the table, there were definitely some cool cosplayers walkin around. a couple of the zombie folks really freaked me out too. they were the nicest folks but they had these crazy contacts that made me feel like they were staring into my soul! and the fact that they were so nice made me really afraid that i wouldn't be ready when they reach over the table and start eating my brains. according to Zombieland, i'm already SOL on Rule #1 - Cardio. =( i did get a shot of these 3 chicks dressed as different Lady Gagas. wasn't expecting those but i guess i should've. i mean, who's more costume-y than Lady Gaga at this time?? (and of course, lots of gratuitous butt-shots but that'll come later whenever i take the time to create my collage. crazyness.)

biggest NON-highlight of the weekend was the stupid fire alarm that went off in the middle of the busiest point of sales on Saturday. curse u to whomever pulled it or set off some piddly fire. everybody had to evacuate and we were outside for more than an hour. the con didn't really resume until about 2 hours after that because everybody in the artist alley (and probably the dealer room) had to check back in. we couldn't even get behind the tables until every person checked in. *sigh* completely understood why but it was still quite the blower. so those were sales that we'll never get back.

still, we managed to have a fantastic show. theFranchize and i did a ton of commissions and they were all friggin fun! i'm posting all the ones i did that i managed to take a pic of before i gave 'em to folks. this one really cool couple asked me to draw an anime version of themselves so that was kinda nifty. never did that before. and one guy even had me draw on his iPod case. how flippin sweet is that! hardest thing i've ever had to do tho. copics and microns are NOT easy to apply onto that surface.

i managed to get a quick video of these folks dancin. it was pretty hilarious even tho i was too far to hear the music. dude in the leather outfit freakin pyramid-head guy was great! but apparently a staff person turned their party off and Cell had to put away his boombox. party pooper!

from this point on, i will make it a point to be watchin those Otakon bulletin board thingies so i know when to register. i never want to miss another year of setting up ever again! and hopefully at least one other member of ID Comics will be able to come too and i can actually get up to go to the dealer room twice! =

OTAKON!

2010-07-30T04:27:00.003-04:00

so as it turns out with the help of a VERY good friend (and ninja), theFranchize and i managed to get a table in Artist Alley at Otakon this year! flippin sweet! it's kinda tough to get one since they sell out of these tables within minutes of announcing that it's open. @_@ but alls well and now we'll be set up.
seeing as how we just found out about this around 10:30pm on thursday and set-up opens friday at 9am, we've spent the entire rest of the evening packing up our con equipment (after the nearly 2 hours drive from baltimore to home). it's now 4:30a and i haven't gotten a wink of sleep. so i decided to write this before i try to sleep for about an hour before we have to leave (not to mention having to pack up the dogs and dropping them off at "grandma's" on the way). ugh.
BUT we got a table so this will be our first anime convention that we're set up. so we'll see how it goes! wish us luck! (or if ur goin, look for us!)

un-thinkable

2010-07-28T18:30:00.003-04:00

...by alicia keys
still knockin out some commissions from the super sale! we still haven't gotten Chii back yet so theFranchize and i are still sharing Jarvis and it's tough! we're both so darned needy. certainly not how we planned on doing work, believe me. so this week we've been taking turns using the computer and its getting ugly cuz we need it so much. still, we're gettin stuff done slowly but surely.

the picture is of two commissions i'm doing for someone with 2 characters each. obviously it's not done since colors and some special effects need to be added. plus the one with the guy & girl are not finished in this shot. just thought i'd get a progression shot. =)

otakon is this friday and i am so flippin excited! my only really guilty pleasure comes but once a year and i love every moment of it. hopefully i'll have some pics to post but usually when i get there i just get overwhelmed with all the goodies to buy (and scattered gratuitous butt-displays) that i forget i have a camera. =P i would be practically jumping up and down in my seat except that i'm hurting all over. theFranchize and i started this Jillian Michaels thing to get us on the right track to eating right and losing some lbs. the exercises she has for us to do are no joke!
so i hope for all the pain we're going through this actually works. and Jillian Michaels better hope i don't bump into her on the streets cuz i will punch her in the face for makin us work this hard! =P (just kidding, Jillian. u scare me.)

comin' home baby

2010-07-24T00:03:00.003-04:00

...by michael buble

just a quick post that i thought i'd like to share. i'm goin thru my deviantArt messages and someone posted a journal about putting ur iPod-type device on shuffle then listing the first 5 songs that pop up. i saw someone do this on facebook as well and i was gonna join in but completely forgot. SO i did it this time and here are the results! [with a quick blurb in case u didn't know the singer]

irreplaceable by beyonce (b'day) [i think its safe to say u know who beyonce is]
southside by common ft. kanye west (finding forever) [he's tall, dark, and sexy all over]
miscommunication by timbaland ft. keri hilson (presents: shock value) [timbaland's that guy that makes all those beats for justin timberlake]
sensual seduction by snoop dogg [well, u know snoop]
making love (into the night) by usher (raymond vs raymond) [he taught justin bieber everything he knows]

i think it's interesting that the first 5 are all hip-hop songs. i swear i have other stuffs in my iPod! =P case in point, the 6th song is by lifehouse. and by the time i started posting this on my blog, a michael buble song came on. i remember at my old job this guy tried to judge me cuz i was listening to Jay-Z and Nas. completely caught me off-guard cuz i didn't even know people my age still did that but i guess i was mistaken. then a different day he heard me listening to Josh Groban and he was confused like i just sprouted 2 heads! ain't nothin wrong with liking different genres of music, folks!

how it feels to fly

2010-07-23T19:21:00.000-04:00

Technorati Tags: peng-peng,peng,commissions

…by alicia keys

i’m trying out this Windows Live Writer thing on our new computer to use for blogging so i apologize if there are inconsistencies with the look of this entry. we’ll see if it works! ;) this week has been rather rough for work. our main computer (Chii is her name) came down with a couple of nasty viruses and the new one (we’ve named him Jarvis) didn’t have photoshop installed on it yet. so we were going to take them to get programs installed and get rid of the viruses but then my car refused to start while we stopped at the Best Buy. no buenos. apparently she needed a new battery which i suppose was far better news than it could’ve been. almost $200 later, we’re back on the road and we now have Jarvis back up and runnin with the programs we need! Chii was not so lucky and i think she’s gonna have to get wiped clean and start fresh. very sad but it’s for the best. good thing we’ve started to use an external hard drive to save stuff or this would’ve been far more devastating. SO! after trying to get familiar with the new CS5 i’ve decided to start flatting this piece inspired by Katy Perry’s California Girls song. it’s for this art jelly we started with the subject matter of “dogs.” please don’t stare at the wheels too much cuz i know its not right. =( i’m doin my best i swear! i do love this new wacom tho! aside from it being huge, there is actually some resistance on the surface and i think i can finally draw directly on photoshop! if i ever get comfortable enough to do it, watch out!

i’m very thankful to those that have taken me up on my commission super sale so far. i still have a whole week open for it so if ur still interested, it’s not too late to get full-color commissions for $30! i’ve started on a couple of them and this is the finished pencils for one. the others aren’t far enough along to show much. hope it turns out as good as it does in my head. =P

aside from my series of unfortunate events, i’m still plugging along this week. and since next weekend is otakon already, looks like i’ll be drawin till then to finish things. i should be chock-full of stuff to post! woohoo!!

"somewhere i belong" [and also - commission super sale!]

2010-07-18T15:54:00.007-04:00

...by linkin park
since the Pulp Girls sketchcard set has been released, i assume it's ok for me to post all the cards at this time. so here they all are in all their glory. =P i feel kinda bad about the one chick in the pool of blood because i usually color over whatever logos are on the cards but u can usually see through them. however, on the scan, u can't see it at all so it just looks like a random card. it's there tho, i swear. kekeke

also, i'm having a $30 COMMISSION SUPER SALE! only till August 1st!

since i've dedicated myself to being a full-time artist, i wanted to jump start this career shift with a super sale to keep me very busy. so i'm doing a limited time super sale for a color commission for only $30! (my usual rate is $110 so this is what some may call "crack prices.") fully colored - single character - no backgrounds - digitally delivered high-res files. so if u or someone u know are interested, email me at pianjag@yahoo.com. i've also posted a journal about this on my dev page if u want to read more info or see samples and stuff.
so why the crack prices, u ask? like i said i really want to keep busy with drawing. i'm trying to find out what my limits are. i've never been "overwhelmed" with commissions per se so i want to know how much i can do and how fast i can finish them if needed. (not to say that i will be rushing these by any means.) i also have a hard time deciding what to draw so this helps to eliminate that problem. after this month i'll probably open it up to ask folks what they'd like to see me draw so that i can do stuff folks like and at the same time i won't have to figure out subject matter again. =D help me to help you, i say.
OH! and before i forget, i am signed up to draw Bettie Page sketch cards!!! how flippin sweet is that! and the hubby has finally gotten in to do Star Wars cards for Topps! he's so excited he can barely stand it. he only loves 3 things in this world (besides me, he claims) - his mama, superman, and star wars. good news all around!

faithfully

2010-07-14T21:58:00.003-04:00

...by journey

as much as i hate to post anything on here with no images, i really just have nothing to post! i've only gotten back in town late monday night so yesterday was a day of chillin and today i've just put the computer back together and answered emails. haven't had a chance to do much of anything else but catching up. SO instead of artwork to post, i've posted a video i took at the fair we were at of the pig race! it wasn't as funny to watch as i thought it would be but i guess thinking back, what else was i really expecting from a pig race. =P
hopefully i'll have something worthwhile tomorrow. administrative work just isn't as fun to look at on a blog. sorry i'm so lame today. =(

it's in the mornin

2010-07-10T22:51:00.003-04:00

...by robin thicke feat. snoop dogg

my DA portfolio - http://peng-peng.daportfolio.com/

as i wait for a pizza to get delivered, i figured i'll post up the link to my finally-finished DA portfolio. i would've posted it yesterday but i took a day off cuz i've been pretty much doin stuff 7 days straight. even when u work from home (or in the case of this week - work from a hotel room) u should still give urself a day or two off each week. wouldn't wanna burn out, ya know. at any rate, i'll be giving out this portfolio to prospective clients and such.
as for today, i spent a good couple of hours at this barnes & nobles nearby to get some coffee and reference magazines while i draw. i like being in that setting, which is odd for me since i'm not really good with crowds and such. but for some reason i feel productive when i go there. plus i get to look thru references without the pitfall of buying it first and then realizing its useless. (and so what if i happen to buy the latest issue of GQ simply cuz taylor lautner was in it?! or the latest issue of Vanity Fair cuz my girlfriend, Angelina Jolie, is on the cover of that?? i'm allowed a couple of frivolous things. =P) i did mostly sketches - nothing completed all the way. i wasn't very inspired by my surroundings or the books. but i did manage to come up with something for a possible Harley Quinn to continue on my Mucha-themed comic ladies. if i like it enough, u know i'll post it. ;)
neat thing happened as i left the building. i get to my car and an older woman stops me to tell me she thought my drawings were great. (*gasp* which did she see cuz i had some real duds in there?!?) since my ears were plugged to my ipod and my eyes averted all contact to try to keep to myself, i honestly had no idea anyone was looking at my stuff. i felt slightly embarrassed but i gotta tell ya, i never get tired of hearing that folks like my stuff. she said she hoped it's what i actually do cuz i was good at it. i told her it was and it felt real good to say it. so i did leave the security of a dayjob for something. =)

reflections are protection

2010-07-08T21:28:00.005-04:00

...by la roux

i've been workin on putting my DevArt portfolio together but i just get so involved with it that i doubt i'll be done with it by the end of the night. i started it yesterday but i think i started gettin carpal tunnel syndrome or something from the wonky way i'm sittin in this hotel room to use the computer. so i had to stop.
so in lieu of a completed portfolio, i'm posting up the cards i did for the P'Ups series (puppies and pin-up girls). it's been released so here they go. please excuse the not-so-good ones. there's bound to be duds in every set i do cuz i just have such a hard time drawing so small. and i did these before i got my copics so i had to use colored pencils to color. i had a lot of fun drawing the dogs more than the ladies! i was surprised i was able to draw doggies so little. the one by itself is my favorite cuz it's actually of my cocker spaniel, Chauncy, with a sexy-fied ME! that one i'm keepin for myself. teehee
i believe the Pulp Girls series is comin out the middle of this month so i'll be posting all of those at that time as well.

as if by magic

2010-07-07T00:45:00.003-04:00

...by la roux
i've finished a couple of things today but one of them i can't post. it's a sketchcard for a friend and she's quite the ninja when it comes to being online. i never know what she can and cannot see of mine and since i would like to somewhat surprise her with this, i don't know where it's safe to show it. =P i'll see her at the end of the month so once i give it to her, i can post it on here. i was a bit proud of it too if i don't say so myself. especially since i personally feel like i suck at drawing on such small surface area.
i've also managed to change my DevArt avatar and id. i took the basic idea of what i had previously and just upgraded it. so whereas it used to be a drawing of me sleeping with sheets of paper of my lineart of different commissions, it's now a vectorized image of me and behind me are sheets of paper of colored pieces i've done lately. i would've made my avatar blink like i did before but i can't remember how to do it and i don't have it in me to look up how. so i'm a little lazy tonite but i'm allowed cuz it's 1 am!

this is love

2010-07-05T23:09:00.005-04:00

...by utada hikaru
so after what seemed like forever, i've finally settled on a background for this image. and i still don't think i'm satisfied with it but i'm trying to take comfort in thinking that every artist goes through this kind of stuff. not sure if that's actually true, that's just what i'm telling myself. i'll be turning this into a large print to sell at comic cons. but i'm just glad to be done! cuz i think if i work on it any more i may just shoot myself in the face.
i've also posted below the finished colors without cropping all the branches. i was very sad that i had to crop a lot of it off only because i spent so much time drawing and coloring them. but it had to be done to fit the print size that we usually do. i'll probably end up putting this uncropped version in my artbook that i will be putting out next year. and i've included a face detail just because. =P i would have also included progression images but seeing as how i screwed up the master file cuz i'm an idiot, i guess i can't. sigh. i hope i won't need it some time in the future.

happy independence day!

2010-07-04T12:56:00.004-04:00

just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe 4th of July! (and a happy berfday to my mom!) i gotta say, i hear folks complaining so much about this and that with the government or taxes or just generally feeling like they have such a crappy life here in the U.S. but i genuinely feel like i would much rather live here than any other country. not to say that whatever folks are complaining about aren't valid concerns for them - i'm not trying to trivialize their situations. but for me, i've immigrated from a different country (and legally too, mind u, cuz i ain't no law-breaker) and life has so many more possibilities here for me. i've gone back to the Philippines once and i couldn't wait to get back here. now i love my peoples, don't get me wrong, but it is just too dang hot over there! there's other stuff too but i won't get into it. all i'm sayin is that people immigrate to the U.S. all the time from every direction. so it can't be all that bad, can it?! sure there's things that need improving, but what doesn't, ya know?
anyway, enough rambling. just wanted to say "Thanx, America! Ur alright by me!" =P hope everyone is having their cookouts and time with family. i'm currently away from my family and friends right now cuz i'm on this trip. i'm feelin a little like Bella forsaking everyone i know to be with my Edward (my hubby). i'm just hoping that all of my mom's grandkids will make her not so upset with me that i'm not with her on her berfday. =/

don't panic

2010-07-03T23:36:00.003-04:00

...by coldplay
so after many hours of workin on this poison ivy i am STILL not done. and i think i've gotta stop at some point so i don't go blind or my leg doesn't break again cuz of this awkward position i'm sittin in in the hotel.
instead of having nothing to show for it (cuz i really wanted to show it finished), i've just decided to put a little sliver of it to show that YES i am working on it. *sigh* i don't have any backgrounds and the figure's still not quite done yet. i hope to get a little faster at some point in the future. maybe. =/

rockin that thang

2010-07-02T20:43:00.007-04:00

...by the dream

so i've officially moved from having my full-time dayjob to being a full-time artist (again). this time i've got goals and not just dreams of selling my art with minimal efforts. =P so here's art-biz philosophy 101 - as much as we'd like to think our art will just automatically draw people to us instead of going out and getting the audience, that is a big misconception. cuz there are tons of artists with amazing talent but whether you agree or not, u need the fans more than they need u. don't buy into the philosophy that if they want ur talent, they will come to u. because they won't. that's just lazy. they'll find someone with talent similar to urs who is far more proactive in gaining fans because of the simple fact that they know they're there and they will throw their money that way! Cheeks said something to me and theFranchize a month ago that still blows my mind right now. he said that someone told him "it's lazy motherf-ers like u that gets me jobs." so simple yet so profound. at that point i've decided that i didn't wanna be the lazy one but the one that gets the work thanks to those who don't feel like getting it.

so starts my new full time job with a more enlightened me. =D

i was working on some Pulp Girls sketchcards not too long ago and i just finished that a couple weeks before. i'm not sure if i can post much of it right now so i'll just post one of the 12 i did in the set. one of the downsides of working on these projects - u spend so much time working on them and u can't really show it online for a while so it seems like ur not doin anything. but i swear i am! =P i forgot her name already (cuz i suck that way) but she's a gunslingin cowgirl that wears very little. that's pretty much the idea behind most of the Pulp Girls stories. kekeke i'm going to start being a part of the Scoundrel.com sketchcard community so i can draw more for anyone that wants it. =D

also, i've been asked to participate in a Voltron artbook produced by the same folks that i've been drawing these sketchcards for, 5finity. even though i remember so very little of the cartoon, i really wanted to be a part of the project. i just finished it the other night but since i'm probably not allowed to show it yet till the book actually comes out, i'm just posting the lineart. the colors u'll just have to wait and see in the artbook. =)

i forgot to mention that i got this pose from a great set of reference images from this person - http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/. i highly recommend taking a look at his pics especially if ur like me and believe that references are important. =)

possibility

2010-06-09T00:41:00.006-04:00

...by lykke li

so Heroes Con was fun as always! money-wise though, not so good. it was not the same bustling convention that we normally have when we go out there and i'm 99.9% certain that it's because of our spot coupled with the fact that we only had 1 table. we should never, under any circumstance, ever have only 1 table for ID. it used to be somewhat ok when we first started but now that we've each individually built up our portfolios, our stuff is somewhat competing with each other now to the point where we're unable to shine individually. i still think that when all the members of the studio are together, we're a far more "formidable" force than apart. but we need at least 2 tables to spread out so people will notice us.
still, despite the lack of monetary gain, theFranchize and i made more headway to networking with folks. Jonboy Meyers and Cheeks even took the time to drop by the table. i got to meet Cheeks's ichiban and she was quite the lovely lady. they thanked me for buying the pencil case she made and i felt really humbled. but honestly, i'm just happy they made it for me to get cuz i've been thinkin of getting a cloth pencil case for a while now. [sometimes, my big plastic art box is just a wee bit cumbersome when all i wanna do is sketch out stuff at the starbucks.] so instead of buying some generic case from somewhere, now it's got a Cheeks flair. =)
as mentioned previously, the con was pretty much a snoozefest as far as traffic to the table. so i only did one commission the entire weekend which is the colored Mystique. i got to break in my copics and i was very thankful for the opportunity to have used them so i can get better with them. Adam Hughes i am NOT. the Powergirl one was something i drew for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. one of the folks came up to me and asked if i would like to donate an original piece for them to auction off at San Diego Comic Con and in return i get a year's membership. since i was drawing free powergirl sketches all weekend, i figured why not. i don't really know at what point i suddenly became the one to go to for a powergirl drawing but i certainly don't mind it. =) just draw a pretty girl with short blonde hair and big boobs. how hard can that be?! kekeke

heroes con this weekend

2010-06-02T00:30:00.004-04:00

[listening to Only You by 112]
Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC is finally upon us and i'm so durned excited to be going i can barely contain the glee! me and theFranchize will be holding down the Identity Comics table since the other 2 members aren't able to make it. so if you're plannin on goin, stop by our table! we'll be at table AA-241. we will have a couple of new prints to sell, some of our ID sketchbooks, and the usual suspects of trading cards. we'll have tons of Iron Man 2 artist proof cards to sell as well so if ur lookin for some official Marvel original artwork, we've got 'em for ya! along with our usual free headsketch, we'll have a contest for 2 free inked commissions this time (one by me, one by theFranchize). i look forward to seeing some new faces as well as familiar ones. i always enjoy being at this con but i think i'm just utterly grateful that my leg and back are working again and i can actually take part of the con.
so, much to my dismay, i didn't get to finish the Poison Ivy for this con like i had hoped. but i guess it'll just have to wait for the Baltimore Con to make its debut. at this point, i haven't made too much progress on it so i'll just post what i have so far. (durned day job!!! it keeps me from doing anything but sleeping.) hope i don't disappoint anyone with my lack of a new Poison Ivy print other than myself cuz that's hard enuff as it is on me. if there's anything that i'm certain of from these past couple of days, it's that it's definitely time for a change in my personal life. it's gonna come sooner rather than later - mark my words! =)

in another life

2010-05-24T04:14:00.005-04:00

...by the veronicasso i was having a hard time sleeping this evening because all i could think about is how i didn't get to work on the poison ivy piece like i wanted to today. but i think the biggest factor of me not wanting to sleep is because i had a frightening dream last night. now i'm not disturbed too much when it comes to nightmares, especially when it's been a whole day and i know it was only a dream. however, i dreamt that i fell into a mudhole and i sank and sank. and not even slowly. now i don't have to be a dream-reader to know that that can't be a good sign of what's going on in my head (and my life). i'm nearly certain that it has something to do with my day job and that makes me feel very unsettled.
anyways, since i didn't get to work on the piece at all today, i decided to use this moment of insomnia to do something productive. so in the hour or so that has led me to 4am, i've gotten most of the flats done on her. all that's left are the intricate little vines on her and the twigs all around and i can finally start doing the fun stuff. if i can finish this up tomorrow night, i may still be able to squeeze this into the printing for Heroes Con! wish me luck!

in the morning

2010-05-18T00:20:00.005-04:00

...by junior boys
so i've received my set of Iron Man 2 Artist Proofs sketchcards in the mail the other week. if u or someone u know would like to get one done by me, just let me know either here or on my deviantart page - peng-peng.deviantart.com. it's any character from Iron Man that u want except that it can't be the movie version's which i think is a little odd considering its a set that came out for the release of the 2nd movie. =/ don't ask me - i didn't make the rules, i just follow em. so if u think i could draw a cool mickey rourke whiplash instead of the purple-clad fairy from the comics, u would be mistaken. =P
u can also head on over to my deviant page about my lower-priced commissions currently going on right now if u or someone u know may be interested.

i forgot to post this! i was honored to be part of Daniel Campos's set of Mini-Muses illustrations. he basically drew some artistic ladies as pin-ups but on a tiny scale. he asked if he could do one of me since my art apparently inspires him on some level. (at least i think it does based on the title of the art book. otherwise i am just sadly misled.) i've got my copy of the book and here's a shot of my pic that he drew of me. he even got my most favorite pencil in all the world in there! =) he's such a talented individual and i'm humbled.