To Build a Rocket Ship

In-laws in town and sick on top of that…but I finally managed to make some art! I was playing around with manipulating photo reference and came out with this sketch, pretty happy with it all things considered. Guess the celebrity and you get a cookie!

I’m back!!! And I have an art for you!

Sorry for the lack of posts; my illustration classes with the wonderful Patrick McEvoy have been going swimmingly— it took a few weeks of tweaking and learning new techniques, but behold!—the fruits of my labor. Janie and a very squidley beast!

Using some awesome new Photoshop brushes by David Nagel, playing around with crow quill pens, experimenting with flatting and using knockout lines. It’s far from perfect, but I’m proud of it nonetheless. :)

New character! Meet Ximena, the last princess of the Nandi. Fierce and driven, she seeks vengeance against those who destroyed her people and killed her father, the Sultan of the great glass city of Timur Qat. She pursues her foes with her dwindling caravan on the backs of Red-Backed Ganglebeasts, braving the thirsty desert, The Sands of Timur.

I think this is probably the best piece I’ve ever done. Loving this new approach, too. :) Enjoy!

Self-portrait! With my favorite imaginary friend, General Tso!

I realized this week that I really miss my old comic book style. I’ve been working with more painterly methods for a while, but comic books are my passion, and considering I’m writing and drawing a webcomic, I should probably focus on this style! So, this is my first stab at a more graphic style in a while. Except, now I’m a better artist! And I actually know how to use Photoshop! Yay! Yay!

More to come! Stay tuned!

Just sketchin’. Planning on rendering this one out for Monday’s post…Might end up putting some clothes on her, but what do fire sprites need clothes for? Let it all hang out, baby!

More Cow-Man!

So I skimped on the posting last Monday due to family being in town, but hopefully this badass minotaur makes up for it! I’ve been grinding on basic form and light studies, using this amazing book by the indominable James Gurney of Dinotopia fame, which I recommend for all artists trying to master form, color, and light, especially from imagination.

I made chili tonight. It was tasty, tasty chili. Mmm, chili.

Gnome Caster

First post of 2012! Realized I was on a kick with just faces and busts, so here’s a full-body character design for a change. My boyfriend and fellow artist Chris Knight (who needs to UPDATE HIS BLOG!!!) is working on a series of WOW-style character designs, so I hopped on the bandwagon and pumped out this gnome. :P I seriously love doing female fantasy characters. Seriously.

I recently moved from part-time employment to full-time self-employment, which sounds much nicer than “unemployment”, don’t you think? That said, I will be really busting it out from now on, and paying more much-needed attention to my tumblr, deviantart, twitter and other online presences. I never thought I’d see the day when I had to will myself to spend more time on the internet. o_o

Happy new year everyone!

He’s back! 

Whilst in Florida, a good friend and awesome person bought a print of this from me…unfortunately I wasn’t planning on printing it, so I just blew it up and re-rendered it. Looks a lot better now, dontcha think? :)

Hope you had a happy new year! I’ve got big plans for 2012, that is, if the world doesn’t end horribly. I mean, I know we had at least 2 “end of days” scares in 2011, but these are MAYANS we’re talking about—they were best friends with space aliens! With crystal skulls! FACT.

Meet Janie and her faithful manticore, General Tso, from my upcoming graphic novel (I know, I know, I swear it’s for reals). Just started playing with soft brushes recently. *_* It’s like the render fairy came and blessed my wacom with magic!

Hope everyone had a great holiday of their choice! Christmas in Florida is always weird, it will be nice to be back in my cold, wet San Francisco once again.

Wanted to give a shout out to this talented lady, who I met at my buddies’ place Cool Hand Luc’s in Fort Myers, Florida—keep up the awesome work, Kay! Also, if you like my work you might want to check out this band, Humanimals—my friends in Lima have an awesome sound and have been kind enough to make my paintings their image! And for Humanimals fans, General Tso should be making plenty of new appearances. ;)

Goblin Seductress

Oh you sexy thing!

//EDIT//: Uploaded a second draft with better colors. :)