More Madness for the Masses

2012 is the year of the dragon!

2012-01-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

I was born in the year of the dog. We are loyal, dedicated and *mostly* obedient. 2011 was the year of the rabbit and was a terrible year for me. I lost my nearly 4 year job at Daly's. I was unemployed for 4 months before getting a summer temp job at Home Depot. I really liked it, but 4 customer service awards weren't enough to make me permanent in this economy. I now work at an independent video store, with very part time hours and minimum wage pay, but I like the job a lot. But it's not enough anymore. My boyfriend, bless his heart, is taking care of me and trying to keep me positive. My parents have been helping us with food and medical bills, especially with my back problems since November. Christmas came and went and I still have holiday presents I intend to MAKE for people. My New Year's Eve ended and began with a headache.

Myself and a few other ladies jumped into the cool, refreshing waters of Lake Washington
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/gallery/Polar-Bear-Plunge-at-Matthews-Beach-34146/photo-1987028.php http://www.seattlepi.com/local/gallery/Polar-Bear-Plunge-at-Matthews-Beach-34146/photo-1987029.php with hundreds of others and I want to feel as if it washed the bitterness of the last year away. I'm starting this year strong, with two new philosophies, one when my *almost* sister in-law asked why I and other people did the Polar Bear Plunge on New Year's Day. To which I responded "I did it because I could. I will never summit a mountain or visit most of the world, but they are there and that is enough of a reason for people to go there and do that." That inspired me. It reminded me of doing the BIG Climb. Another philosophy started because of that letter to Teatro Zinzanni. "You don't know until you ask. The worst they can do is say 'no'.'

In light of that, I have copied that same 'cover letter' and I'm sending it with letters of recommendation, my resume and samples of my costumes to theaters all over the city... seven packets in all. hopefully someone will bite.

Other goals for this year? (I'm not going to say resolution. It's a bad buzz word)
-------------------------------
Finish the Loch Ness oil painting
more sewn stuff for Etsy
belated holiday gifts
Robert's Starkiller painting and any others in the queue
mural for Bobakhan
work on the furry comic for years past
get healthier (toned up, more energy, that sorta thing)
get Aurra approved by ECCC

I need the rehindle the fiery spirit of the dragon that I used to have. I need to be awesome and optimistic. the best I can. The only one who can do it is me!

Oh...my...gawd..! It...WORKED?!

2011-11-11T00:27:00.000-08:00

I am overjoyed and confused and elated and hoping it isn't a joke, but man, I hope this is for real! this was in my inbox tonight

"Hi Sarah,

My name is Mercedi and I am the Design Assistant in the Costume Shop at Teatro ZinZanni. HR forwarded your cover letter and resume to me, and I would like to meet you for an interview. When would be a good time to do that? The shop hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10-6. I am often away from my desk, so responding to this email is the best way to get ahold of me.

I look forward to meeting you!

Thanks"

WHAT!!!!!!!!????!!!!!!
How do I not mess this up? How do I prove that I am super awesome?
Please oh please ok please! Let this happen!

Going About it the Wrong Way

2011-11-08T18:25:00.001-08:00

Too much has happened since my last post to go into any sort of detail, but
*Oct 2 was my last day at Home Depot, though it was my first day at Video Factory.
*Oct 26 was my first day at Jo Ann's and Oct 30 was my last because i hated it and the pay was terrible.
*Oct 28 was my birthday. I went to spa, sang karaoke and had awesome food with a bunch of friends.
*Oct 29 I trooped as Aurra Sing. The make-up worked the best so far. 3rd time's a charm!
*Oct 31 was Halloween. I gave Kevin and Merce the costumes I've been working tirelessly on for them. They offered me money, but I refused because they treat me to food and drinks and rides and staying at their house and Kevin makes breakfast and I could never afford to repay them for all their kindness (though I wouldn't mind a back rub)
*Nov 2 was my 30th day away from Home Depot, where I actually miss working at a great deal. I reapplied and called the manager to let them know.

But money has been hard. Robert has been exceptional patient and supportive of me and was the one who put the idea that Jo Ann's wasn't worth it into my head. Since then, the stress level has been pretty low and now I'm getting ready for a holiday arts and craft fair on Sunday.

Then, last night I went trolling around on Craig's List since I haven't done that in awhile. I saw a listing for a costuming intern at Teatro Zinzanni. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I went about it the wrong way...I was completely candid and honest.

Here's how I normally respond:

"Hello Bill, my name is Sarah Silverman and I feel I am a good match for your Graphic Artist position. I have talent traditional artist, though I'm familiar with the Adobe Creative Suite and Mac OSX platform. I also have an extensive knowledge of human and animal anatomy, and feel that illustrating for works of fantasy would be the perfect fit. I'm very detail oriented, dedicated and a swift learner. I am a highly motivated individual and am a good motivator of others.

Attached are my resume and a few samples of my fantasy work. I can provide others if requested. There is also a good assortment online at my Deviant Art gallery.
http://rummyhunny.deviantart.com/gallery/

Looking forward to hearing back.

Sarah"

Keep in mind, that was from 11/15/2009 and that was how I got the Area 51 gig, which was a big dream crusher. No pay. No job. Lies and heartache and hope of getting out of retail being dashed on the rocks.

I've heard of people only opening my emails and reading them because 'Sarah Silverman' sent them. I bet most people/employers don't even read them, don't even look at my pathetic resume or art samples. they most likely hit 'delete' after reading my opening line, so I figured I needed a hook.

This what I sent them:

"To whom it may concern,

Hello, my name is Sarah Silverman and I have a BFA in Illustration...

...but when you look at my resume, you'll see that it hasn't mattered much at all. I'm going about this completely the wrong way, since most employers look at my resume when I apply for art jobs and probably laugh to themselves, so I'm going to be honest with you. Aside from getting a few freelance jobs here and there, I haven't worked much as an artist since graduating from college. I've worked retail and customer service jobs to put food on the table.

Here's where I prove to you that I'm not wasting your time: I belong to a Star Wars costuming club called "The 501st Legion". It is George Lucas' preferred club and we do charity work in costume all over the world. We have very exacting standards for movie quality costumes. Prior to 2 years ago, I barely knew how to sew. Thanks to this organization, I know how to sew, fiberglass, dye and sew leather by hand and many other skills. I recently used my learned skills to complete a set of non Star Wars costumes for two friends for Halloween.

What I'm asking is that you take a chance on me. I would love to be a costumer for a theater or production company. I'm too long out of college to be considered for an internship, but I would be elated to be and unpaid intern under a master costume maker just so I could gain some experience. I have reliable transportation and I'm an expert at sourcing materials from second hand stores for when a production is under a tight budget. I'm a hard worker, fast learner and very dedicated. I just need the opportunity to prove it.

I have attached a copy of my resume and also a letter of recommendation from the C.O. (commanding officer) of Garrison Titan, the local chapter of the 501st here in Washington State.

I hope that you at least read through this message all the way. I look forward to hearing back from you, regardless of what the answer is.

Thank you for your time.
Sarah"

They might actually look at my stuff, right? Like I said, I've got nothing to lose. If no one contacts me back, no harm- no foul. It's not like they are going to take time out of their busy schedule to respond back and tell me how inappropriate that was, right? Besides, I just want an internship. Unpaid. They get my labor FOR FREE. All I want is for them to give me some much need job experience, but that seems to be too much to ask of someone. To just take a chance on you.

In this economy, why would you? You can pick through the most qualified of people, the cream of the crop, and not have to worry about those down here, at my level who want it more. I heard that job seekers are more likely to be hired away from another job than to get a job in the first place...like if you're unemployed. It's kinda lame, but that seems to be how if works. This is what they don't teach you in college. the cold hard facts of life. I have many unemployed friends and sadly, we're all creative types. Art jobs are harder to come by, harder to get since there are art schools out the wazzoo and everyone is going digital nowadays, so traditionally trained artists like myself have an even harder time getting off the ground.

We'll see what happens.

Back to Formula

2011-09-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

I found out today that HD isn't going to make me permanent. I've got mixed emotions.
I'm sad since I thought I was doing great since I have 3 Homer Awards, which is a lot for a new employee, temp or perm. I had made friends there and had developed a good rapport with customers, some have even asked if I was hired yet. I'm concerned about my income being in jeopardy again, especially considering the birthday I started to plan for myself. Bt at the same time, I can put my time to good use with creative projects that were all put back on hold by the very inconsistant schedule I had. I can also look for a job with better hours or pay or distance from home. I can keep track of my HD friends through the power of Facebook and keep trying to convert them into the 501st! Plus, if I get a good with good pay, I can buy stuff for my yard and home from HD!

So, with all that going on, I was trying to get back to doing what I used to do at Daly's during my lunches: projects/ In July I brought my Aurra Sing belts and holsters to work on and the last two days I brought in a long over due portrait painting for Paul. I finished it today and was really happy with it. I also started on one of Robert as Starkiller, though I'm reminded that I SUCK at portraiture.

I have the next 2 days off, so I intend to use them to clean the house, especially in the hobby room, start on the cider making (need to buy apples....not enough were on the tree :( ) and work on all these crazy creative projects I've got stacking up (plus I'm also coming up with more!). Should be busy and eventful....hopefully.

More work with oil

2011-09-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

I can in no way deny that I've been depressed lately, or at least melancholy. I'm happy to be employed. The people at HD are awesome and there is far less drama or 'politics' than at Daly's. But the inconsistency of shifts is hard to adapt to and EVERY department is under staffed and people get pulled around. It makes my ability to give good customer service harder when I have to deal with untrained people, or rather people who seem unwilling to be helpful. Sigh....

Because of the weird schedule (today I'm 12-9, the last two days I was 2-11, tomorrow I'm 10:30-7 I think) it's hard to find/make time for anything else. I haven't updated this blog in forever, or my thread on my Aurra Sing costume on the boards or done ANY sewing! Two friends broke up in June and one came to stay with us for awhile until he could get his own place. Then our current roommate announced she was going to move out. for 1.5 months there were 4 people and 4 people's worth of stuff living in a 1 bathroom house. I think I went into crazy bitch mode a dozen times. The roomie situation is now settled and we've been working on the recovery of our homestead, cleaning the kitchen and living room and painting in there. My next areas of aggravation are always my art room and the hobby room. The first is back to where I feel I can work on stuff and have so many things in the queue and new ideas being pushed back. The hobby room I blame mostly on robert since his airsoft crap is just dropped everywhere and my sewing stuff is nicely stuffed onto shelves. I need to force myself to get up at a consistent time and use my mornings well. Today I intended on updating my Photobucket, but I'm having issues with it, so I'm here.

August 3rd a day off, so I went Plein Aire painting with my mom (hence the title) on Queen Anne. The view was nothing too fancy, just a lovely afternoon looking west over Elliott Bay. I worked with oil paints, making a raw umber wash/ under painting and just started laying it color. It's very freeing to just mash paint onto a canvas board. I did the piece in maybe 3 hours. I'm not trying to be anal about it. It's for therapy. I got some good comments on my sky from my mom's instructor. Now it's one more thing to sit and collect dust in my art room. I'm happy I did it. Maybe I'll go again. Maybe I'll get back to feeling like an artist again and give a shit.

While cleaning out stuff in my art room I found my boxes of furry prints from cons and such. If ANYONE of here wants ANY of that stuff for FREE, you're welcome to come by and look through it. I've got prints and originals and shirts and stuff like that. I'm also getting rid of a bunch of art supplies but those are spoken for.

I'm sorry I'm being so moody everyone. I just don't like uncertainty. I'm assuming HD isn't hiring me on permanently and that I'll be unemployed again in a month, so I've already started looking and it hurts to feel like you have no skills...and that the skills you have aren't good ENOUGH to get you anywhere.

Maybe I should join the Navy.

Etsy Plug!

2011-05-02T12:59:00.001-07:00

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MoonCatArts

My Etsy store is now up with a couple of paintings. Dresses and such will be forth coming!

Etsy Plug!

2011-05-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MoonCatArts

My Etsy store is now up with a couple of paintings. Dresses and such will be forth coming!

Music that Inspires Art!

2011-04-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

Again, you get to read the text in the image. Sorry.

But seriously, today I decided to use a YouTube playlist be my itunes and this is what I recommend...

Aston Classical- epically amazing classical covers of Lady Gaga and whoever did that 'Bulletproof' song.

Lady Gaga- 'Born This Way' (on repeat), which has become my anthem and that of every other freak and geek out there
Eels- just fun stuff

Then when I started working on Ordo (the clone trooper) I switched to Star Wars videos, starting with "Duel of the Fates" (my favorite piece from all 6 movies), then a techno mix of it, then a bunch of random songs set to SW clips (Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' and Justin Timberlake's 'Sexy back' [which featured Darth Maul clips]). I must say it got me going. Now I'm waiting for the layers to settle a bit, so I can assess what more needs doing on the dragon and background (if anything) and add the red to Ordo. I need that layer to be nice and set so I don't end up getting pink armor.

Also, I did more job stuff, started setting up my store on Etsy.com (nothing there yet, but soon) and went to the fabric store with my mom. She bought me enough fabric to make 5+ dresses, similar to the one I made for Nicolette (but not with sharks...that's exclusive).

Good things are on the horizon finally! I can feel it!

Crash Course in Oil (and life)

2011-04-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

It's been 5 years at least since I worked with oil, but I found some old paintings of mine while helping my mother clean her house and I was pretty decent at it and decided to give it another shot. My mother bought me a starter set of Windsor Newton Artisan water soluble oils, Robert got me a solvent jar and some palette knives and I was to hit the ground running. But where to start?

Did you read the descriptions in the WiP (work in progress)? I hope you did because I didn't feel like retyping it. I have some smaller brushes from my mom that I can use now as well. I figure if my client doesn't like it, I'll print another, less dark and use watercolor to paint it as originally intended.

What else am I doing you ask? Well, I found out my boyfriend thinks I have a disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histrionic_personality_disorder which if you read the description, it's more accurate than ANY horoscope or rather description of the attributes of Scorpio I've ever seen. Basically, I had a sudden onset of depression and self doubt, followed by an identity crisis, since it suddenly seemed like everything that I did, going to cons, trooping and so on were because of this...THING?! He and I really haven't talked about it beyond that day, other than that he loves me and even though whatever it is gets a bit much (he told me to just dress 'normal' and not in costume to go to SakuraCon) he loves me all the same, and admittedly it's those quirks that caused him to fall for me in the first place. That's reassuring at least. But I am finding myself second guessing things a bit more and trying to hold my tongue and think a bit harder before I speak and react to something. But it feels like one more stress that I DON'T need right now.

The last few days, in addition to painting, I've been walking all over the internet, rewriting my resume and job profiles. Updating my accounts on Monster and Linkedin (which I forgot I had) and set up a profile on CareerFan and TCG. Linkedin so far has proved eventful. I went to the Starbucks HQ site and they have an opening in the design department. My former sorta not really boss (but still friend)'s wife works at HQ, though in a different department. I also recalled that a classmate of mine from the Sci-ill cert at the UW works (worked) there IN THE DESIGN DEPT and she is a connection on Linkedin! I sent her a PM and even though she's no longer at Starbucks, the company she works for now is looking for a junior designer and sent said she could put my resume in front of the owner!!!! *crosses fingers*

Other weird stuff? While cleaning in our laundry room, I found a notebook from my college days. It's filled with sketches, lecture notes, a list of songs to download (which I did today) and a fantasy I had of myself and a person I messed around with during college having a thing in one of the studios. Pretty weird to read it all again.

One last bit of art stuff if anyone is still there, I started on another oil painting, just covering the canvas with spray paint to hide the white, but you can picture what it is. Eilean Donan castle along Loch Duich is something I will lament not getting to see for more than 10 minutes. I'm thankful to have the internet to show me a virtual tour, but how good is that really? *sigh* The painting itself is based on a combination of photos to create the composition I want, even though the view in the painting isn't one that I saw in reality, but may in fact exist. If I ever make it back to Scotland, hopefully I can pester my sister from another mister that we make a trip up there...a long long trip. It looks like it's 60KM or so from Glaskow.
http://www.eileandonancastle.com/ *sigh........*

Scotland/Ireland journal and something extra

2011-04-15T17:14:00.001-07:00

I have no desire to post the entirety of the journal here, even if it's many less pages than my Tasmania/Australia journal (which I never scanned sketches from...hrm, I'll have to rectify that). But here are some samplings for your viewing pleasure:

This is from 4/5-4/6/2011 which is our second night in Galway and our drive to the Cliffs of Moher the next day. In this and my Aussie journal, Rummy is my personification of myself.

Our first night with the group in Edinburgh, I was feeling very lonely at the bar with my cider, so I started conceptualizing an 'Apple Angel' and this is actually my second shot. I was really pleased with it and it got folks at the pub (not bar) to talk to me. Yay for art as an ice breaker!

From that some of the guys on the tour, Jeff and Kevin asked if I could draw them a tattoo design from this dragon statue they saw in England. They showed me a photo and I drew the little sketch in the upper left and from that and memory drew and inked the pic. They were both very impressed and I made Kevin a photocopy. No clue if he actually got the tat done or not.

I drew another pin-up gal (these are in non reproduction [non photo] blue btw, which is why it's so light). She's supposed to look 'ethnic' and those are supposed to be hops vines. Eh.

Our night at the Loch Ness Lodge (the night before I got sick) we played trivia and our team, TEAM PENETRATION, came in second. During that evening, I did this painting start to finish. Tamara said it needed a diver or something, do there's a little boat in the picture.

Sean asked me to draw a gal with bat wings. Women with wings and curves are some of my favorite things to draw. How could I not oblige?

On 4/11 after the tour was over and done, Robert, Tam and our friend Mike who had stayed a few extra days got to explore the Dublin area at our own pace...or my pace I should say. We went to the National Botanical Gardens and it was lovely. I would've loved more time there, plus it would've been great if the Lily house was open *sigh*.

On our last day we visited St. Patrick's church, and even though I'm not a religious person, I was inspired. Maybe I'll turn it into a painting one day...

And know for the surprise! Remember the piece I did for Emerald City Comic Con, with text added (hence all the extra space above the characters). I noticed I forgot to put the vent stripes on the TK when I was viewing the scan (my flash drive was misplaced right after con). It is owned by the lovely James Holliday, who donated $100 to receive it. That went towards our team "Garrison Titan and Friends" at the BIG Climb 3/20 for the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society.

If you'd like a print or copy of the file without text, you have to ask his permission first.

If you'd like to commission me to do a piece for you, contact me SarahS2748@gmail.com
As a cheering up present (don't ask) my mom got me a set of water soluble oils, so I can get back into that too! Woot!

Journey to Agamar

2011-03-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

With ECCC over, I can concentrate on other projects...namely all the stuff I put off to finish up everything for the con.

18x24" gouache poster (need to find the flash drive the scan is on)
6+ foot long Aurra sing rifle http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz159/MoonCat-Arts/Costumes%20and%20Stuff/officerWrifle.jpg
Darth Stewie http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz159/MoonCat-Arts/Costumes%20and%20Stuff/Wstewie.jpg
freebie art 'trading' cards (see previous posts)
scout corset http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz159/MoonCat-Arts/Costumes%20and%20Stuff/scoutcorset.jpg

Then somebody waved money in my face and I got a sweet commission! Marc the ARC wanted a scene fighting .... something in a foresty setting. Well, he provided me some back story of the character, Ordo, and I looked up where he was stationed that had forests. One place was called "Agamar", which according to Wookiepedia was/is 'The world developed a reputation as a rough planet where it was difficult to survive'.

I found no visual references to creatures, so I made up one. It's obviously based on dragons, but it has 6 legs. The first pair are only for grasping stuff and have sharp claws. The other pairs have toes that end in hooves for speed. It also has a set offalse eyes in front of the real ones and gnarly horns. Please George Lucas and art staff over the world, I mean you no ill will!

Here is the creature, which I called an Agamarahk cuz it sounded cool.

My intent is to make the final line art sepia then print it directly to a sheet of 150ld cold press watercolor paper for painting. Should be pretty awesome! On one hand, I leave for Scotland and Ireland next friday, so I don't want to push or rush anything, but at the same time, I'd really like to get it done before I leave...we'll see how it goes.

Too busy to be tired

2011-03-02T00:13:00.000-08:00

Man, I WISH!!!!

Darth Stewie's body is nearly done. He needs a head. http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/189382_10150109678032700_639167699_6180291_7675221_n.jpg

My Aurra Sing rifle is nearly done. Need to attach the sight and the cording, plus the should strap and ammunition pouches.

Scout corset pattern and liner are cut ready for sewing.

Garrison Titan trading cards are laid out, ready for 6 more images. Paul's TK and Robert's Starkiller are next. Katie is graciously donated her talent and art for a few slots.

The poster is coming along well. Mando is nearly done, as is the jedi. Just got the trooper and fog to do.

The con opens friday at 2pm. That morning I will go to Capitol Hill, scan the poster, print the cards and buy a white corset if the one I'm sewing looks like shit.

Man, I am so tired. I hope all this is worth it.

Catching Up on Things

2011-02-22T22:12:00.000-08:00

A LOT has happened since my last writing...worst/best of which is my firing. Why it was a bad thing is obvious: the lack of income and I've received no unemployment yet. Good things are that I have time to do things I enjoy and be productive, since the store was slow anyways. I'm finally getting some closure to the Area 51 fiasco. I've been working on an Aurra Sing costume while working out to get into shape for the red unitard she wears. I was tapped to do a poster for ECCC representing all 3 Star Wars costuming clubs and lots of other projects.

I thought I might share an art dump with you. Firstly is the finished "Endor" piece. Click HERE for the journal about it.

Then there's another watercolor portrait of my garrison mate Mike (we call him RC Mike vs. TK-Tank Mike). It's very belated, as is the next one for Paul. I'm hoping to have his and *hopefully* a few more down in time for ECCC to print up trading card size as table freebies.

The coolest thing in the "Choose Your Allegiance" poster for ECCC. The original sketch is done by Terry (PandaTrooper of Outer Rim Squad) and I did a colored version which you can sorta see on the left in my Work in Progress pics. He created the final art, which he's going to digitally gray scale for the actual flier that'll have all the membership info to hand out at the con. The original artwork will be part of a table auction at the 501st/ Rebel Legion/ Mando Merc table. Hope to see you there! I'll be the dancing scout!

I've got a lot of different projects in the pipeline. Hopefully I'll be able to make them public soon. Wish me luck!

Trying to get the Artist in me BACK!

2011-01-31T21:49:00.000-08:00

It's a new year, but I've been so emotionally burned out by drama with work, money, trip planning, cleaning, drama with a former art client, etc...I've had no desire and even less time to put into doing anything artistic. Thankfully the few creative juices I do keep in reserve have been going into costuming. Nicolette's Mara Jade and my officer are back into production...? With Robert's Starkiller done and looking crazy awesome and his thoughts on selling his very unfinished RC, he's started thinking about making a Mandolorian Merc costume. That's cool, but I'm kinda like "ohhh....I've got too much on my plate already!" Regardless, I love him and sketched out a paint scheme for him. He wanted to do camo, but the mandos have rules against that, so it's kinda green tiger stripes. I've also gone back to using my lunch time at work to paint more troopers. All the GT guys and gals have been so encouraging. I love you all!

Other things I've been doing is going to the gym twice a week, one of those being a training session...so I can get from 26.8% body fat to <20% and look super awesome in spandex so I can make and feel comfortable wearing an Aurra Sing costume! She was in Ep. 1 briefly, watching the pod race, but is best known from the comics, the Clone Wars show and the Star Wars dance off at SW weekends at Disney World. As true to my sense of things, I started to obsess over the character (as I did with scouts, but I haven't with my officer).
I drew Rummy my fursona as Aurra and a sweet pin-up with gel pen(though the lower body looks kinda odd). George Lucas, please don't sue me, but there totally should be a Ladies of SW pin up book, and not by the GTG gals, cuz they're bitches (yes, I'm still bitter about them dumping me).

I also finished another ballpoint pen on colored paper sketch behind the register. It's kinda beat up looking because my manager crumpled it up and threw it in the recycling and it looked like bleach got spilled on it. I finished it and like it a lot! I did 5 others a few years back in the same style. This one was on display during the "Winter" show at Atlas restaurant (RiP) and it sold!!! http://rummyhunny.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=24#/d1pa84n

I also drew a tyrannosaurid, cuz dinos are awesome and I have this pipe dream of contacting the people at IDW comics and telling them how much I love the new Jurassic Park comics but how much the interior page artist sucks and how I'll draw the comic for FREE just so it doesn't suck. I'm not saying I'm the best dino artist ever (that would be James Gurney in my opinion) but STILL!!!

Happy year of the rabbit everyone1 Good luck, skill, love, etc. No more crazy pills for me and Europe in 2 months! Come what may!

The calm

2011-01-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty crazy time. I'm pretty fresh off Wellbutrin and have a new gym membership, so life seems to be stabilizing somewhat. We split the cost of a Kinect as our holiday gift to each other and I love the dance game, plus the Adventures game is great for breaking a sweat. The Garrison Titan t-shirt run should be finishing soon, the days although colder are gradually growing longer and wonderful things are on the horizon. Tickets have been purchased and deposits have been made on a 3 week trip with Robert and Tamara to Scotland and Ireland, with layovers in Amsterdam and Paris. The ciders that the 3 of us, along with other family have helped to create are on their way. The Triple Threat has been carbonated and rests in bottles. The other is clarifying in its second carboy. But the world is not yet at peace for me. I still have moments where I feel failure. A wasted degree and expensive education doomed to languish in retail, untapped, under appreciated. My desire to even create art languishes. At least I'm able to sketch every now and then. I remember in high school I fill a sketchbook in little over two months. My current sketchbook I started in spring 2007 and is far from full. I'm hoping this trip awakens something. I plan to bring my paints and sketchbooks like my Australia trip and keep a thorough journal. Did I ever share that here? No, I never even scanned them it looks like...*sigh*. oh well.

With the GT shirts nearly done, the group is moving on to the next project: COINS! Here are designs I humbly submit in hopes to get this run moving.

Much needed Vacation

2010-12-13T22:05:00.000-08:00

I'm off of work 12/10-12/16 and I've used to time to sew, draw, troop, work on GT stuff, wrap, clean, sort, organize, nap, watch musicals, color and otherwise do things to help maintain sanity. I also had my *hopefully* last therapy session.

Here are the two pieces I finished during my time. One is the colored version of the T-rex vs. octopus sketch seen earlier. It's for Justin and I'm submitting it to Teefury.com and if it gets picked, I expect you all to buy one! I used Vector in Illustrator to trace it and make it look all clean.

The other is a pic I did wayway back in October. I drew it in non repo blue pencil ON THE DRIVE UP to Leavenworth. Then I inked it and ignored it for a month or so. Then I scanned it and made it sepia and printed it on fancy toned paper. Then over the next few weeks I colored it and JUST scanned it tonight.

I have to redevelop the drive and love of doing art I once had. It's not a depression thing anymore. I've resigned myself to the fact it will never be a career for me, but that it's barely even a hobby is pretty sad. Gotta get back into it. Thankfully on the GT orums, a few more troops have asked for paintings. I need to get on that.

A snowy for a snow day

2010-11-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

There's been snow here in Seattle since Sunday night/Monday morning. As it usually does, it crippled the city and made business slower than a usual fall/winter day at the store. Perfect timing to finish another long overdue garrison portrait: Cheeser the Snowtrooper. The colors are very subtle and you can't pop out the shadows too much because it's Hoth: it's snowy and white and like not sun to produce contrast and heavy shadows. Hope he likes it.

COLOR!

2010-11-15T21:26:00.000-08:00

Color. It's seldom thought about with any sort of great extent. Artists try to find the right way to use it. Homeowners fret over it. Designers charge for it and so on. As children we learn about red and blue and all the rest and they are so simple to us. Plants are green. The sky is blue and the sun is yellow. Color makes us feel comforted like a cool blue of water or afraid like the red of blood. We use it daily to describe our moods like green with envy or feeling blue.

(I started this at work 10/26/2010 because it's pretty slow. For those of you who are coworkers of mine and feel like getting me in trouble, my being on the computer all the time isn't so bad. I'm up front and greet customers as they enter the store and as soon as someone needs assistance I can minimize my window and help them. I do not keep my head down and purposely ignore people like a former employee, nor do I chat in the contractor section with my back turned or use my cell on the sales floor [except texts when there's nothing going on and I'm behind the register]. PLEASE DON'T FIRE ME!)

At work I frequently get asked to make a paint or stain color lighter/darker/redder/less red/browner, etc. One thing people don't understand is that adding ANY color not in the original formula, without adding the others, doesn't make it the same color, but making it darker/redder/less red/browner makes it A DIFFERENT COLOR. Adding blue to red doesn't automatically make it purple, but it is a bluer red, or a cooler red. So, I've decided to lay out a few color terms, as >>I<< understand them. I may be very wrong. I don't feel like seeing what Webster has to say right now.

DARKER: Darkness can be adding ANY darker color...black, brown, purple, blue, whatever. This is sometimes confused with OPACITY, which is the ability to see through the color.

Example: If I make black stain, it can't really go darker. It's already black, but I can make it at double and even triple strength, but then it is more pigmented and will hide whatever is underneath it more.

Example 2: If I make a paint color, if there is room in the can and the product tint levels allow (a product can only take so much pigment/colorant before its quality is compromised) I can add more of the SAME colorants to make it darker. If I add black, it will get DULLER. (Dulling a color can be done by adding black, gray, brown or a bit of the colors' chromatic opposite. Too much of any of those will make it muddy.)

LIGHTER: Lightness can be adding white or sometimes yellow. This is sometimes confused with TRANSPARENCY, which is the ability to see through a color and is the opposite of opacity. (It's like that old saying when someone is in your way "Hey so and so! You make a better door than a window!")

Example: If I make a black stain, I can add white, but the color is now gray and has MORE opacity. If I dilute the stain, it will still be black, but have LESS opacity.

Example 2: If I make a paint color, you can't really remove pigment/colorant to make it lighter. You also can't add white pigment/colorant because it will just get CREAMIER (or cloudier). The real way to make it lighter is to add more white base. (Most paint colors start as white base for light colors, a mid base and a accent/deep/neutral base for darker colors. Adding more accent/deep/neutral base may dilute the color, making it more TRANSPARENT, not lighter.) Something that we do is make the color at 25, 50, or 75% right when you order it, because less pigment = a lighter color (though again, this only works in white bases. If you do this is accent/deep/neutral bases, it will be more TRANSPARENT and more like glaze. You can make the accent/deep/neutral based color in white base, if the pigment will fit, and it will be lighter, but then it's also a MISS TINT and those are technically not supposed to happen.)

SHADE and TINT: Frequently I'll have a customer asked if I can make a color a shade lighter (see above) and a tint darker (also see above). This is really the opposite. (A similar thing would happen when I lived in Laguna Beach during art school. People would say "Go down to LA or go up to San Diego. LA was north and San Diego was south, so I caught myself correcting people.) A SHADE is when a color goes towards black (all colors mixed together in theory...though it's more of a really disgusting brown). A TINT is when a color goes towards white, which in regards to paint is the absence of color. (With light, the opposite is true: all colors mixed together make white. Take the colors away and you have darkness aka black. But don't even get me started on the science of light and the spectrum, but that is interesting stuff and I could ramble for hours.) This is different for inks, which rely on the white of the paper coming through (that's why we really don't like trying to match PANTONE or PMS colors. They don't seem bright enough in paint form.) Inks are a TRANSPARENT medium. Paint is an OPAQUE medium. This is a great image of a color wheel showing shades and tints, and a gray scale:
This one shows ANALOGOUS colors, which we'll discuss at length later:
This image shows how the same gray looks different based on what's around it:

A side note: Not only do I work at a store that SELLS house paint and MANUFACTURES wood stains (another set of terms people get mixed up)...
I'm also an artist, who has worked with oil and acrylic paints, but prefers watercolor. Watercolor is similar to staining in a way because the intent is to save the color of the paper and let the white come through. Painting with oil or acrylic (or house paint) is ADDITIVE, meaning if you want white, you put it there. You generally don't want part of your canvas (house) left unpainted, because it makes the piece look incomplete.

Some terms designers like to use (but are usually just fancy words they use to impress their customers):

LUMINOSITY: This term usually refers to to the brightness of something and is *usually* a term used with light. Yellow is a 'bright' color (as in it is the opposite of dull) or the sun is very 'bright' (because a lot of light is entering your eye). The few times I do computer art, I like to use the 'luminosity' feature in the brush palette. It figures out for me the fastest way to white. A color that is 'luminous' possesses a lot of light.

TRANSLUCENCY: Something that is translucent allows light to pass through it, but is diffused, meaning it's foggy (like frosted glass).
Not quite the scientific looking diagram I'd like, but I'll live.

REFLECTIVITY: The obvious answer is a mirror, chrome, windows from a certain angle, etc. The color aspect is that the color something is comes also from how our eye perceives it. Here's a nice image of the spectrum and 'visible' light:
)

Example: A red thing reflects the color red (from the spectrum of light) into our eye and that's how we see it. The red thing absorbs the other colors of light. A funny thing about red is that it's the first color to fade when it comes to paint, stain and inks, plus it's the first color to disappear when you go into a dark area or underwater. That's why many deep sea animals are red and why the only safe light in a photography dark room is red.

Another note: When it comes to color reflectivity and how our mind perceives color, it's interesting when you think about color blindness. We frequently have customers (almost always male customers) who mention "I need this color to match, oh by the way, I'm color blind." It makes you wonder why they need it matched since I have no idea how they are seeing what I'm seeing. A red tomato is still a red tomato, though to a red-green color blind person, does it just appear as shades of gray? (My boss wrote a bit about this in her blog some time ago).

An additional note: Reflectivity also has to do with sheen, IE: the higher the sheen, the more light it bounces around (and the more moisture resistant and washable it is as well). Customers as of late are anti-sheen, as in they seem to want the least amount of reflectivity that can be safely used in that particular room. But it can be helpful to brighten up dark spaces like basements and small rooms (like dorms). Shinier finishes are also generally harder and when it comes to clear coatings (polyurethanes, etc.) they have more clarity because there's less sheen paste or flattening agent.

VIBRANCY: Vibrant colors are bold, dramatic and are usually pure, meaning that they have no black or any of their chromatic opposites to dull the color. (See color wheels above.) Vibrancy also refers to the way colors react to each other, or the VIBRATION of the light wave length as it enters your eye. (Easiest way to see this to to take two very bright, opposing colors [blue and pink or red and green] and put them next to each other without a gap. If you look at them long enough, your eyes may start to 'hurt' and you may get a headache).

IRIDESCENCE: This is maybe my favorite color term, because it makes me think of beautiful things: Morpho butterfly wings, peacock feathers, chameleon paints and nail polishes. Iridescence is when a color is one thing from one angle, but may reflect different colors at other angles. We sell fabric (special order) and paints like that, where it might have a red base tone when looking at it straight on, but step to the side and it has a gold sheen.

PASTEL: Technically, a pastel color is a tint. It's a very very light color. (It also refers to a light tinting paint base and an artistic medium.) I don't really get how there is confusion, but there is.

NEUTRAL: This refers to being in the middle, undecided or maybe you just could care less...nihilist comes to mind. You're not good OR bad, you're not happy or sad, so on and so forth. In color, usual it means colorless, as in neutral tint base, meaning that the base itself does not impart color to the final product (though most neutral bases have SOME white in them so your paint will hide/cover). Neutral colors are SUPPOSED to be neither warm nor cool, not light or dark, not bright or dull. Just...in the middle. Designers like neutrals because they're safe and don't impart much personality (in my opinion). It's easier to spec. gray or sage green or beige or tan compared to black, grass green, brown or yellow.

WHITE: Believe it or not, white is tricky. White is the absence of color (or all colors as in light) but in paint colors, it's a mess! A customer who comes asking for white/base white/just white/plain white, etc. is easy. When a customer is looking for >>A<< white, well that's like opening Pandora's box. Creamy white? Gray white? Warm white? Cool white? Plus, there is NO standard base white. EVERY company has their own proprietary mix. In our paints, we have white base in two different brands, plus each brand has their own 'ceiling white'. Base white in oil paint is naturally a bit yellower. Some cheaper grades of paint have a grayer base. Shinier paints automatically look brighter than flat paints.

FULL SPECTRUM: Another term that is popular in design circles. When I was in art school, I was told to never use black in my paintings, because it dulls the colors. To this day, I seldom use black in my watercolor paintings because it's kinda true. It flattens shadows and can distract your eye. (I much prefer Payne's Gray which has a blueish cast and when barely diluted, looks practically black.) Full spectrum can mean two things: it uses ALL the colors (a VERY complicated feat) or no black. Not using black in a paint color is really easy. Using a bit of EVERY color is much more complicated because you need to worry about the color possibly going muddy in one way or another, plus you have to make sure they are in repeatable increments, like a formula.

Example: A warm yellow in one of our paint brands has 14.312/48ths of an ounce of yellow oxide (brand specific universal colorant [UNIVERSAL referring to 'dilutes in any medium', verses 'all brands of paint using the same colorant']), 0.063/48ths of an ounce of violet and 0.625/48ths of an ounce of orange in a sample pint (16 ounces) of paint. Our tint machine can't dispense less that 0.1/48ths of an ounce, so since the violet can't dispense, the simple pint of the color you bought will look different than the gallon. (In this instance, the warm yellow has violet in it to dull it slightly.) The gallon has 2 ounces and 18.5/48ths of an ounce of yellow oxide 0.5/48ths of an ounce of violet and 5/48ths of an ounce of orange in a gallon. Obviously the formula was created for the gallon, most likely without consideration for the sample formula (instead of creating the sample formulation first). (Another thing is doing the math [a pint is 1/8th of a gallon] there would be 5.04/48ths of the violet and 2 ounces and 18.496/48ths of the yellow, so the gallon would look slightly off anyways.)

Now since most of the color terms that get *confused* are covered, I'll go into color theory a bit more.

PRIMARY: Everyone who went through elementary school knows primary colors are red, blue and yellow. (Primary colors for light are red, blue and green. Magenta, cyan and yellow are printers' colors.) SECONDARY colors are green, purple and orange and are a combination of equal parts of the above. TERTIARY colors are made by mixing the two above sets. (See color wheel diagram above).

HOMOLOGOUS: This is one of my favorite terms. Homo is Greek for 'same' (and also Latin for 'man') and has to do with things that are similar. In scientific terms it refers to structures that evolved from different parts of the body, but do a similar thing, like our hand and an elephant's trunk. In color it has to do with the relation of the color wheel, like purple, blue and green.

ANALOGOUS: This is basically the opposite of above. In scientific terms it refers to structures that evolved form the same part of the body, but do different things, like our hand and a bat's wing.
In color it has to do with being unrelated, like purple and blue verses yellow and orange. (Looking at a lot of my art, these four colors in particular find their way into many of my pieces.) This is also commonly referred to as being CHROMATIC OPPOSITES. (Yellow vs. purple, orange vs. blue, red vs. green) These colors when used in the right way can make for a great color scheme (the University of Washington Huskies are purple and gold for instance. Red and green are holiday colors.)

Example: Not that I know ANYTHING about interior design, but a common color combination I really like is the warm orangey-red of clear, aged Fir trim and sage or other muted yellowy-green wall color. I've also seen an image of a kitchen or bathroom with a light aqua blue with warm yellow accents. Very pleasant and super retro.

SATURATION: Basically brightness. The more saturated a color is, the more intense it is. The less saturated a color is, the closer it is to a shade of gray (also called 'muted').

HUE: Similar to a certain color. When I was a freshman in art school, our teachers gave us a HUGE list of all the supplies we HAD to get for class. (A third I probably never used and a third of what I used then do I still use now.) One of the things we learned is that if we bought Cadmium Red, it was really costly. If we bought Cadmium Red HUE it looked basically the same, but was cheaper since it was a synthetic combination of ingredients, verses the real pigments.

I'd written a lot more, but forgot to save it and went to lunch. My manager closed it and so I was so bummed, I didn't feel like trying to remember and retype it all.

One thing I do recall has to do with color perception. No two people will see the same color the same way. I see customers wanting to stain their floors dark dark dark and I think of dreary gothy homes full of depressed people. Or a customer will have an idea in their head and will be at a loss to describe it, IE: "it's a lot like this but grayer...no, not that gray, maybe a bit more green" and so on. The worst thing you can EVER do when you come to a paint store is not have a sample or chip. I *suppose* a picture on a laptop or iphone or printout or magazine is better than nothing, but the different lighting conditions of how and where the image was taken, notheless how it is displayed will dramatically change how to color is seen.
Best idea is to do your research, call ahead and provide real, tactile visual samples.

(More to come....
NATURAL COLOR
OFF-WHITES
COLORS IN COMPARISON)
Just my two cents.

Here are some links to stuff about color:
The Meaning of Color
Color optical illusions
Color and perception
Super nerdy color site

Getting Excited for my Favoritest BOOZE!!!

2010-09-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

For those of you who know me, I'm not much of a drinker. I was quite the lush in college, but as an adult, not so much. It's expensive and bad for you and hangovers are harder to bounce back from. Hard liquor is expensive and it's hard for me to find a beer in like. Cider has filled that void.

It was back when I was still with my ex that I met him and a few of his friends for the mid day happy hour at Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union. I tried my first Strongbow. I'd had Mike's and Hornseby and those syrupy apple flavored malt drinks, but this was crisp and dry and delicious. Some time later I went to Pies 'n Pints in the Roosevelt neighborhood, which to this day is probably my favorite restaurant-bar type place. They have 6 different ciders in bottles, ranging from sweet to dry, paired nicely with hearty, English style pot-pies and free pool. Sometimes they have Guinness cake, (though mine is better).

Flipping through the Seattle Weekly I saw an ad for the 1st annual Cider fest to be hosted at the Ivar's salmon house. Since I knew this was fate I bought my ticket and in November on a crisp, cool night, alone with myself and yet not alone, I sampled many varieties of scrumpy as to make my head spin. Heavenly elixirs paired with seafood hors d'oeuvres and regional cheeses and fruits. Well worth the ticket price. Throughout the year I discussed cider with friends, finding a hidden love amongst them all. The next year only one was able to join me. This year, the 3rd year, maybe there will be more.

But this is not about the cider fest. Moving into our rental house this last January we didn't know what was growing in the spacious backyard. There was a basic garden plan drawing that mentioned Malus Gravenstein. I'd recognized the name Gravenstein as one of the heritage apple varieties frequently used in English dry ciders (I received a basic talk on cider history and production at the first Cider fest). Once spring came, Tamara(my housemate and good friend) and I started cleaning up the backyard to tame it into a garden (still much work to be done) and found many many rotting apples on the ground. This proved to us it was a well producing tree.

This last month Tamara, Robert, my parents, grandparents and myself harvested 200+lbs of Gravenstein apples. Most were pressed into 5 gallons of 100% Gravenstein juice. The rest we supplemented with 50lbs of Gala apples from the store (much larger and juicier apples) and a flat of raspberries (which looked like blood when pressed) and made another 5 gallons. The press we rented from Aurora Rents and the brewing supplies are from Bob's Homebrew Supply. I was treated well at both places. The full story is here at my grandmother's blog. The two fermentation buckets, one per variety have their yeast and are doing there thing for the next 6 months (or as long as we can stand to wait) until we'll transfer them to carboys for clarifying for a few more weeks. Then we can fill and label all the bottles we've been collection and share them with friends.

That brings us to now. I did some sketches of potential label designs and names. Robert insisted I do a few non Star Warsy ones. I was thinking drunken scout...dancing scout, but no. Too silly, like bad silly. In Aruk Besh (Imperial SW language) the one with the apple Death Star (my favorite) says "Imperial All Apple". The Newton's apple is the cliche. The helmet one is a joke. When we we harvesting apples, the easiest way was for one of us to climb up the ladder and shake the branches. The rest of us would scurry below and gather up the fallen apples, checking for worm holes. we did wear helmets, because falling apples hurt. (Next year we plan to spray the tree since there would've been at least twice as many apples were there not worm holes). The other SW one says "Rebel scum Red" but I like the TRIPLE THREAT better. We're assuming the raspberry cider won't lose it's color.

I missed the NW Cider Summit (it was a saturday) and I'll most likely miss the Vashon Island Cider fest (also a saturday). The Ivar's Cider Celebration was on the second thursday the last two years. That would put it on the 11th.

Cider links:
Old Time Cider blog
Eagle Mount winery Their ginger cider was one of my favs at Cider fest. Reminds me of pie.
Northwest Cider Society. Good people.

Tired.

2010-09-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

I'm just posting these so I can import them somewhere else. Soooo.....tired.....GT shirt....vfhcvbhbhb.jn

Art Dump

2010-09-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Firstly, let me apologize for the art dump. I'm trying to get back into the habit or carrying my sketchbook everywhere, in case I have down time or get an idea. Drawing everyday does by no means mean SCANNING and posting everyday. Sorry.

Remember those thumbnails for the propoganda type Star Wars posters? well, I sketched some out. I really like the "Vader's Fist" one. (btw that's what it says in Aruk Besh).

My latest GT member painting. This is Merce and Kevin, and husband and wife pair of Tie Fighter pilots. First and foremost, BLACK ARMOR IS HARD! Looking back at my Darth Vader painting, I'm remembering how I struggled with the reflections and such. Oy Vey! As usual, I messed up on the guns probably, but hopefully they like it. why are there two? On the second, I bumped up the contrast for effect.

This is me trying to iron out this Garrison Titan t-shirt business so it can get printed.

Randomness. A young Brachiosaur and a Utahraptor vs. a Great White Shark.

Drunken sketching is BETTER than NONE at all

2010-09-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't just doodled in FOR-EVA because of job stress, home stress, etc. even though I've been doing other art...at least. Well this last week has been crazy. I worked 6 days in a row, including 6 hours on my day off because we were short staffed for various reasons, so last night I went out with my favorite guys and got pizza and drinks, which I sooo needed. I brought my sketchbook with me and doodled some sketches for a WW2 influenced Star Wars recruiting poster.
One was influenced by the Art Nouveau style of Alphonse Mucha...but it's a scout trooper! I'm going to redraw it and correct details and proportions and such. Then just for fun, I drew and T-rex fighting an octopus.
What?! I said I was drunk, right?

MORE STAR WARS!

2010-08-31T20:58:00.000-07:00

No paintings, just graphics. A design I'm submitting to get made into a patch for Emerald City Comic Convention March 2011. Plus a graphic from months and months ago from feelyourboobies.com.

After talking with my good friend Wyatt about how Garrison titan needs to do a coin run (omg sooo bad) I was joking about a design with an apple, but it would look like a Death Star. then he said it would be cool to do a parody of the state seal, but Star Wars related. BRILLIANT IDEA!! I loved it! I LOVE it! I did it! Dear whoever did the original seal: please don't sue me! FYI 1998 is when the legion started and as far as I know, GT was one of the first groups, so there!

Oh man, I'm so tired now. Happy and tired.

I humbly submit

2010-08-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

Right now on the GT forums someone mentioned putting together goodie bags for charity at Emerald City Comic Con March 2011. I volunteered to design the patch (I'm that kinda girl). Then some mentioned using the ECCC logo and then the whole project got shot down because we'd need the legion merch officer's approval and so on. One thing our garrison doesn't have is a merchandise officer. drivers the rest of us nuts because it's taken months to get to ordering the t-shirts (also designed by me), plus we desperately need another patch and coin run since we've had so many new members join since the last one. I'd volunteer, but I'm not good at handling money (yet I'm Jewish).

Aneeways... I took the .gif of the official ECCC logo from their site (don't kill me), did a vector version of it using Illustrator (love it) and then did a vector version of the imperial cog (which is a common motif in 501st swag...duh) and reused the vector of the star destroyer I made for the shirt, slapped on some text, futzed with colors, and voila! Hopefully, we can move on this!

My neck hurts and I'm seepy....but I've improved my mood. Creativity usually does that!

One more trooper

2010-08-19T22:34:00.001-07:00

I'm so pleased with the work I'm doing. I'm not expecting it to turn into any sort of sweet gig with Lucas or any of his affiliates or licensees (though that would be TOTALLY AWESOME and I'd work for minimum wage just to get in the door). I'm just doing this for fun.

This is Matt. He's Commander Cody, who's a clone trooper from Ep3. He's yellow and wears an English/Irish wool cap, like cab drivers who are white seem to wear. He isn't a cab driver, but a gal pal and I started calling him Cabby Trooper and it's a cute nick name for a fun guy and it stuck.

I added a bit of humor to it since I've been awaiting pics from my garrison mates for the next series of pics, and kept waiting and waiting, so I just did this for fun. The text says TAXI in Arek-Besh which is Imperial star Wars language.

Sandtacular!

2010-07-24T01:35:00.000-07:00

I just finished my last trooper in the queue, and I'd love to do more and I have people saying 'I'd love a picture!' but no one sends me pics. Should I just pick and choose or what?

Anyways, this is Brian and he is a sandtrooper. I dunno what it was, but the pose in the photo seemed almost stoic to me and (this sounds really hippie of me) but it provided a lot of neat visuals. One thought was with a Dewback next to him, but Dewback riders have gray/white pauldrons, not black. I thought about tatooine and desert scenes and what not after I drew my initial sketch. Tatooine has two suns that set at slightly different rates (very apparent in Ep. 4 and the very end of Ep. 3) so that became my image. All during painting, my coworkers would say a variation of "you should put one of those dinosaur thingys in the background'. I decided to do it and I'm happy with it. As usual, the gun (and backpack) are probably wrong. And I think his hands are too small. Dammit!

Oh well, it's a pretty picture of a sandtrooper.

Another trooper!

2010-07-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

Luke, who has one of our garrison's Boba Fett's, also has a Sandtrooper, who I never seen him in, but nonetheless, I need experience drawing and painting troopers! The photo of the gun was dark so I kinda fudged it based on other photos I found online. I hope he likes it!

Help me, painting on, you're my only hope!

2010-07-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry the title is really stupid, but whatever. I needed to save this. i wasn't about to buy ANOTHER piece of paper and start over, so I dug out a bottle of what I thought was acrylic matte medium (turns out it was gesso...oops) and used a foam roller to roll it over the surface to lock the drawing in place and add tooth to the paper so the paint could grab on. For those of you who don't know, tooth=texture, acrylic mate medium is clear and gesso is white.

thankfully, the paper is uberly taped to a foam core backing, so buckling, warping, curling, etc. should be minimal. Back when I did a 30x40" piece for my nephew http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz159/MoonCat-Arts/Other%20Media/HMSDillion.jpg I bought a whole bunch of miss tints from work, and some little Pratt & Lambert sample jars that our store decided to stop carrying. I used those, plus some actual acrylic artist's paints to paint it. I still had all of those paints, so i broke them out.

One of the things I learned in my painting 1 and 2 classes (taught by the awesome Michael Jacques http://michaeljacquesfineart.com/bio.html omg he's on Facebook!) is do tackle the big stuff first! Fill color into the big shapes, then start working on details. this makes sence since if you focus on one little corner, you finish it and it's looks awesome, but then you pull away and the big picture has so much work left to do!

In this piece, I blocked in the night sky (wait...that's no moon!), then the ground, then work upward, lighter to darker for the forested background. I didn't want to blend my gradation of colors, I wanted texture. the more texture I put in now, the less I'll have to fake later. All the white shapes are characters, vehicles, Ewok huts, etc. Like I said, I blocked stuff in, trying to save my drawing.

Overall, I'm happy with it, but we'll see how that goes. In other news, I updated my design for the Garrison Titan shirts!http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz159/MoonCat-Arts/Digital/GTwashington4up.jpg This was supposed to be purple! >>http://i823.photobucket.com/albums/zz159/MoonCat-Arts/Digital/GTwashington3up.jpg

Star Wars Art part deux

2010-06-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

So, Star Wars, how do I love thee? Shall I compare thee to a warm summer's day? Maybe if warm summer's days didn't give me sunburns or be so in frequent... it rained on yesterday's solstice parade (ha wet hippies) and it's currently raining outside my window. Star Wars isn't as elusive as summer in Seattle and has yet to burn me.

In fact, Star Wars has really opened me up to people, and trying new things (sewing, epoxying, using a Dremmel, fiber glassing, etc.) and artistically. The first images is a sample fandeck of Imperial paint colors...cuz I work at a paint store. The colors that are cut off are DARK LORD, SPACE, OPENING CRAWL, ROYAL GUARD, TWIN SUNS, REBEL SCUM, GOVERNOR, TREE DODGER, and CARBONITE.

Then there's the fleshed out version of something I sketched in between answering phones while members of Garrison titan were on pledge patrol at KCTS 9 for the Star Wars in Concert. Little did I know, someone had already created 'Spotted Ewok' which is a printed label on a can of tuna. Boo urns me.

Lastly, here's the 3rd pieces in the 'free picture of you series' that I'm doing for friend/members of GT. This is Mike, or commanding officer. Obviously he's a stormtrooper. Not obviously, that's not his gun. The first one, I didn't realize how bad the drawing was until I started painting it. The proportions were wayyy wrong. It's a short, stout guy compared to most of the troopers you see in the movies (not that there's anything wrong with that) but I needed to get it right. I started over, worked extra hard on the drawing, and I'm really happy with it. I changed the arm position a bit because the gun would've been really cut off otherwise. Looking at it, I think I made his helmet too smiley. It's hard to be imposing on the Death Star in fog...if you're smiling. Maybe he's doing the "YES! I actually successfully shot and killed rebel scum. Go me!" pose. I dunno.

The Fett's Vett!

2010-05-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

On the Garrison Titan boards I posted a 'free painting of YOU' (that's where the Darth Vader pic is from too) and this was one of our two Fett's. I'm super pleased with it. I used a little silver pen to look like where some of the paint is scratched off, the metal is showing through. The image is in watercolor. After this pic, I got 3 more requests! So now I have lots to practice on! Yay!

I blame the paper!

2010-05-12T20:18:00.000-07:00

I started this over half a year ago (when I still still at my old place) and it's sorta a commission from my boyfriend to do an Endor montage scene, larger than 16x20" (which is really my limit of comfort ability) in watercolor (my preferred medium). I'm really having issues with it. Loved the drawing that I worked so hard on. bought a big sheet of watercolor paper from Daniel Smith and I KNEW it was hot press. I wanted something with tooth and texture, like my 140lb cold press paper that I love. But all of the cold press papers they had were too textured and wouldn't take the tons of layers and scumbeling I put in my pieces. Put this paper (I noticed on the FIRST stroke) absorbs too quickly and shows off brush strokes like nobody's business! I don't know how many layers it'll take! The paper is too think I feel to support other mediums.

Gouche would work in washes, but not my normal gouche technique of textured layers...that I have done since college because it's alot of work...alot more than I have time and tolerance for.
Then there's oil washing and colored pencil, but the paper is really too thin for that. Usually I use 4 ply illustration board (about as thick as 10+ sheets of this stuff). Then there's acrylic, which I'm really not very good at. I asked my boyfriend and he did the "I dunno hun..." thing. so please, thoughts? I don't want to scrap this!

OMFG! I just realized I have all my college art on unscanned slides! Oh shit! Posted 8:18pm 5/12

I couldn't NOT do SOMETHING, so I tried to take advantage of the over absorbency. Obviously the paper sucks are washes (big smooth areas of color) because it sucks all the moisture up and leaves streaks. I decided to go against all my art education which stressed 'tackling the big job first.' Basically, paint the big areas first, do details last, that way you finish faster and each step looks like you accomplished more. I realized I'd have to do this texturally, adding strokes and lines where they didn't belong. In the forested areas that's fine, but not in the sky. I', still stumped there. the technique is working well on the Ewoks (this IS Endor after all).

Then I realized another terrible truth: my paint tubes are at work because I've been doing a SWEET watercolor of Boba Fett. Oh well, more on this piece tomorrow I guess.

Star Wars Art

2010-04-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hi there. Long time, no see! I've been crazy busy with the 501st, being a scout trooper and all.

I've been trying to branch out artistically, try to ease my mind away from my job for a time, so I've been trying my hand at Star Wars art. I kinda suck at it, but no worries. It's for fun, right?

This is my sorta scout-furry character Feliscout.

This is a girl scout pin up I did for fun. I gots more of those/these to finish.

This is vector graphic t-shirt I did for Garrison Titan (my local chapter of the 501st Legion of the Empire). I thought it would be fun to show the Imperial presence in Washington state, so I did.

Another design I did was much more a rough sketch I did on my old college laptop (it hasn't died yet)! I wanted to show the diversity of characters in the group!

A version of the t-shirt design in watercolor, just for fun. I bumped up the contrast a bit since the scanner muted it.

I posted on the www.garrisontitan.com forum about doing free, quickie watercolors of member's characters during my lunch time. I get an hour lunch, 20 is spent eating and the rest of the time I read or fly my kite at the park or do art. All those Africa pieces I painted during my lunches at work! I'm currently working on a Boba Fett. Why did the first two have to be the hardest characters!? JK!

WiP it! Now WiP it good!

2009-11-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

Today I'm getting WiPped! This is a screen shot of my Work in Progress, which is a digitally colored version of my arctic circle piece. My cat is very distraught because she wants to sit on my lap and her head is wet. I need some sort of mount for my table so I can have it off my lap and elevated above my keyboard for comforts sake.

On the upper left I have a montage of the two versions of the piece, with a white base layer and a teal base layer. I went with the latter because it seems more accurate to me...whatever that means.

New to do more digital art

2009-11-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

If I want to get out of retail, I just have to accept it: I have to learn digital stuff. Here are two attempts. Well, technically one, but two versions.
I have a thing for dinosaurs and drew this to make me feel better after I found out that my very most favorite artist James Gurney, creator of DINOTOPIA was at LCAD. *sob*

I really really need to get into a habit of posting more

If I want to get out of retail, I just have to accept it: I have to learn digital stuff. Here are two attempts. Well, technically one, but two versions.

AFRIIICAAAAA!!!!

2009-07-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

I don't even recall when I started painting this..at work...during my lunches...20-40mins at a time and now it's finally done. Over 80 species are represented in the three MAJOR ecological niches of the continent: desert, grassland and forest. I should do kids book illustration I think. I paint animals really well, though I suppose not in a true scientific illustration style.

This piece I did a couple months ago but I haven't gotten around to showing it off. This is a piece to show the variety of birds and my love for them and for Australia.

Shameless plug.

Enjoy!

So much for the fanfare!

2009-05-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

For Califur, which has a safari theme, I decided to be non stereotypical and do a safari of Aussies! What's this well built dingo looking for? a baby?

This is the left most panel of my africa piece. IF I finish ALL of them before Califur, I'll make one big assembled print to have matted and framed for sale at the con.

This is the flyer of my show that's up until 5/30/09 at the Sweet Spot cafe 7811 Aurora ave N Seattle.

These are pieces from my show. There were 28 total pieces. Eventually I'll post some photos of the reception. I was all dressed up with no one to impress.

After all the work I put into it and money I spent of food, the reception was a bust. Very few friends showed up and no random walk-ins. But it's really the fault of the location: it's on Aurora/highway 99, there's no parking and as much as I told everyone I knew and The Stranger and The Time and The Seattle Weekly, my publicity skills fail me. I do however have Califur coming up in June and that's always a blast and a half, especially since I'm not with my ex.

Yesterday (5/17/09) Nicky and I got to go to the spa and talk about exes and my current and how she and I hadn't talked in over a year because of that whole messy situation. we discussed all the friends and contacts I've lost since that whole business. she came to my show btw.

In other news, I've finally gotten my new g5 tower up and running. Steel is a big powerhouse and transferring all the data from Sphere and Horizon via Alexandria has been a pain, but having finished chronologically ordering ALL my artwork, I feel really good! That done, I'm able to show off some of the recent artwork of done. Enjoy!

I ALWAYS say this, but more coming soon!

Upcoming Show!

2009-04-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know who reads this, but here is the flyer for my show that goes up tomorrow at Sweet Spot Cafe (7811 Aurora ave N, Seattle). The show is called "Angels and DINOSAURS and Boobies! OH MY!" and feature 28 of my pieces, mostly watercolors of pin up and fantasy art. It'll be up the whole month of May, so go check it out!

More later!

Celebrating Ecosystems

2009-02-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

I finally received my painting process pictures from my boyfriend's camera and can show them off.

Step one shows me applying the blue masking fluid. I heavily masked this piece to be able to do many layers of washing for the underwater parts of the composition. The nib of my Quikmasque bottle jammed, so poured some out and applied it using a paper clip. Took FOREVER!

Step 2 shows the basic wash over everything that's underwater. the dark blue stuff is the dried masking fluid as I prepare to paint the sky.

Step 3 shows a lot of work darkening the sky and doing a little outline of the underwater animals.

Step 4 shows masking off the underwater animals. the masking fluid is light blue and opaque when it's wet. As it dries it become transparent and a darker blue.

Step 5 I used standard blue painters tape the mask of the large areas and did final darkening in the sky.

Step 6 I have finished the washes underwater and removed all the masking fluid, except on the narwhal's head.

Step 7 I have re-masked certain things (the squid in front of the sperm whale, the stuff in the sand, etc) and finished the land animals. 7a is a close up.

Step 8 the sand is being painted, the ice berg is nearly done and the two big whales (sperm and humpback...haha) are basically complete. the salmon are finished and the belugas are nearly done.

Step 9 is more refining. the masking fluid is off of the squid and I'm starting on the spotted seal and the narwhal.

Step 10 the narwhal is done and I've added shadows, especially on the ice berg.

step 11 I'm working on the northern lights. Without a good reference photo it' really difficult. The rest of the animals are being colored in. the piece is almost done.

Then the final. In the last stages I added highlights with white acrylic (gouach takes too long to build opacity). I also worked heavily on the Aurora Borealis at home with a photo on my computer. I used the same colors in the aurora as reflections on the white objects (ice berg, snow, polar bears and arctic fox).

This piece was much less complicated than the Puget Sound piece, but it wasn't as familiar.

Taking the challenge concept much farther, I doodled up a thumbnail of the African savanna. The problem is that Africa has so many different ecosystems (though we usually only think of the major three) and Africa is home to mostly mega fauna...aka BIG animals. While doing my research, I decided that there are too many species to fit in just one piece. Because African plains are basically earth and sky, I did a horizontal composition. I also decided to make it a triptych (a three paneled composition made from 3 compositions). The left most panel represents the desert which transitions into the grassland dotted with Acacia trees and with a river ruing through it. the in the right panel the plains transition into a rain forest. If you look at the sketch, in the rain forest area there are more animals than in the entire Amazon piece! right now the final line art for the desert piece is done and I'm starting the center panel. I'd like to have the line arts for the whole thing done before i leave for Australia.

I have a concept for my Australia piece in my head already and I also intend on doing the Everglades soon thereafter.

Late breaking...aka current events

2009-01-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to get this whole art thing off the ground...again. It was up for awhile and then I realized 'hey...this whole furry art thing is expensive and difficult to compete with the likes of Dark Natasha and Michele Light...so I won't. I'll do my own schtick for awhile and see how that pans out. So far, not bad. Not making any decent money at it but it keeps me sane.

I'm trying to branch into the kids art market, though lightly. I don't do cartoony stuff well. I try to make my stuff as accurate as I can (under it all, I am just a nerd) but not uber intense so that it doesn't have a broad audience appeal. These ecosystem pieces I've been doing are a great test for that. I'm forced to step outside my comfort zone of cats and draw other animals (oh god, ungulates, no!) for a change. Each piece is very research heavy. Don't let an art teacher or anyone EVER tell you photo reference is a BAD thing. There's no way to see all of the species in these pieces in real life or in a stuffed collection, even at the American Museum of Natural History, which is by far my favorite museum. I'd rather someone research the hell outta something than it look like a mishmash of ignorance (like this stupid mural in downtown Laguna Beach with a whale shaped like an Orca, but colored like a Grey Whale. I mean WTF?!) Now, I'm not saying go copy a pose of a bird right out of a book. Chane a foot or wing, or flip it. research doesn't solve for talent either. *eh hem*

So, in light of that, so fun stuff I've been working on:

I finished the "Arctic Circle Ecosystem". I'd have to say the Aurora Borealis gave me the most trouble. Everyone knows what the Northern Lights look like (I haven't actually seen them for real) but you go to paint them and they fall flat. So, once I was home on a day off (I painted on my lunch again) I sat at my art desk with a great photo of the Aurora to paint from. I used some gouach (gouche?) on this piece in the lights and the iceberg and the Belugas. Nothing is to scale, but it's a great 'whimsical' painting. One of my illustration teachers in college used to say 'whimsical' like it was a bad thing.

Next is the secondary line art for my next 'ecosystem' piece: Africa! It started as the savanna only, then as I was doing my research (there's that buzz word again) I discovered, there are so many different animal species in Africa, more than we really think about. Africa really is a big continent, but it is dominated (lucky for me) by 3 MAIN ecosystems (please don't kill me real scientists): grassland, desert and tropical forest. These are what I chose to highlight. Not every creature exists alongside every other, but I threw as many animals in as I could for the sheer joy of challenging myself. Africa is land of the mega fauna...ie: big freaking animals. It's difficult for me to find fish species and insects, but images of elephants, lions, gazelles, cheetahs, apes, giraffes, hippos, crocs, fish eagles, etc. abound. With so many species, it was hard to do a vertical composition since there are primarily two leaves of sub-ecosystems: land and air (water makes 3 as in rivers). I decided to make it a horizontal composition. After finishing my thumbnail sketch of the savanna piece, I realized I wanted to show more, so it's a triptych. 3 compositions in one. It's going to take and very long time to do, but I'm up to the challenge! Each piece will be a separate 10x16" piece, that will be digitally joined into one. This way I can still work on ONE AT A TIME during my lunches at Daly's. I have my next one planned too: the Everglades. Knowing me I'll do one inspired by Australia. I'd like to have Africa done before I leave for Aussie on Feb 25th, but if not, it'll be there when I return.

I hope you all enjoy what I've been working on. One day it'll payoff I'm sure.

More to come.

Guess where I live?

2008-12-12T21:35:00.000-08:00

I don't recall when I did the initial sketch for this. Probably last year sometime. But I did my normal take the thumbnail, scan it, blow it up, refine it with tracing paper, blow that up, refine it again using reference material, scan it, test print it in sepia-esqu tone until the lightness or darkness of the lines is just right, then print it onto watercolor paper. Then I wash over nearly everything underwater with a blue tone and let it dry. Then I mask off what needs to be masked and start painting. I do the background first. If I painted the animals first, I'd be like 'screw the water' and never finish it. All the animals are local to Puget sound, though you might have to go to the aquarium or the north sound (which is healthier than around Seattle) to see them.

The final is in watercolor (no ink) and some white acrylic highlights because gouche wasn't doing it for me. I did all the painting during my lunches at Daly's with my awesome travel set of Winsor Newton paints and my nice sable and squirrel brushes. One thing to note is my travel set is unique to me. I HATE predecided watercolor sets. I like my own assortment of colors thanks. I also hate blocks or pan paints. You get no mixing area in the dish and they get goopy and dry too quick. At Daniel Smith (hold onto your wallet) I found an enamled metal pan set. True, you have to buy the plastic pans to fit in it, either half or full pan size, but it's so worth the $40+ to be able to 1) choose your own colors, 2) use your TUBE paints to refill the pans as needed and 3) you can change the pans around. I own more watercolors than fit in my pans, but I put in only the colors I use frequently. My mom got me my Windsor Newton watercolors and got me hooked on the squirrel brushes I use when I got the set for my 22nd birthday. http://www.danielsmith.com/products.asp?sku=285%20240%20002&partnerURL=http://catalogs.shoplocal.com/danielsmith/index.aspx%3fpagename=listpage%26pagenumber=2%26circularid=13678%26deptid=26299%26title=watercolor%20supplies%26keyword=%26fsid=670aa6b3-5c73-422b-80db-aee91f8220cb Price went up, but it includes the half pans now. WORTH IT!

There was a show at a gallery in Vancover Wasington that I learned about and the theme was "Flora and Fauna", which is perfect for me. I submitted the Amazonian aecosystem piece from last year and the Puget Sound piece, and a painting of a dandelion. Only the latter didn't get accepted. Now I need to mat and from them and ship (ugh) them to the gallery,

Enjoy.

OMFG! I'm NOT dead!

2008-10-18T00:51:00.000-07:00

In fact, I did a crazy awesome piece of art. I just now finished it. Don't know how I did it or where it came from or if I'll ever be able to paint like that again. It's a EXTREMELY belated (as in from last year) painting of Rummy (me) for my boyfriend's dad Rich. You'll notice I actually signed it with a ball point pen and painted the whiskers. I never put whiskers on my characters, but I think it gives it a more authentic, 1940s-1950s style pin up photo look.

It was painted using only Payne's Grey (the original has a blueish cast, the scan is grey scale) and was painted with only two brushes: #2 round Black Gold (for the super details, mostly the eyes) and a #8 round Daniel Smith squirrel hair brush. These two brushes series make up the majority of my brushes. I've even had some stolen (I got these my senior year of college as a gift from my mom in 2004). In the Black Gold brushes I have also a #4 & #6 round, a #3 & #6 travel round (they come apart in the middle and fold into eachother) and a 1/2" cat's tongue, which is a Daniel smith squirrel brush. The cat's tongue brushes are great. they hold alot of paint and make wide, soft washes. I also have a 1" one. i could go on about my watercolor supplies and how much I love them, but it's late. I'm tired and I work tomorrow.

More art will be forth coming. I need to schedule a day where I do nothing but scan art and upload it to my various online art sites and update my website.

A feast for your eyes!

2008-03-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

Wow! It's been nearly a year since I posted something here and well, for those who actually look at this thing, I've got an eye feast for you!

First up, referencing this post: http://rummyhunny.blogspot.com/2007/08/arts.html are the finished line art and colored pencils for the Daly's painter girl. Robin Daly, miss (Mrs.?) co-president/co-owner of the company loved it and mentioned it in her own blog. (If you read through it, I made the Daly's logo snowflake on a challenge from her during the extremely slow winter months and Steve the lumberjack (our stock guy) suggested the sign idea, fyi). http://tintedperspective.blogspot.com/2007/10/isnt-this-pretty.html I intend to *eventually* do an oil *GASP* painting of it, with a model so everything looks super awesome. I'll actually use a ruler and circle guides too! If I butter Robin up to buy it, it'll have the Daly's text seen in the sketch. If not, it'll just say 'color' or 'Iris' which is the Greek goddess of the rainbow.

Secondly, referencing this post: http://rummyhunny.blogspot.com/2006/02/poop-smith.html is the final...as in FINISHED painting! The initial inspiration for it was the Venezuela themed show at Coastal kitchen. After that it sat until I brought it out for the Peru show this last january. Since then, I've dilegently worked on it during my lunches at Daly's. It took about 30mins a day, 4 days a week, for about 6 weeks. That's about 12 hours of just painting. No idea on how much time the sketching, drawing, and research took. But I love it! I'll be going to Washing D.c/New York later this month and I'm going to take a copy to the National Geographic Society headquarters and try to get them to publish it. They wouldn't have to pay me. I would just die a happy death knowing I had been published in a National Geographic magazine (even the one for kids).

Following it are the sketches for my next two 'ecosystem pieces' as I'm calling them. The first I renamed "Amazonia" (which is within Peru, Venezuela, Brazil and some other South american countries).

Lastly (actually, I have no clue at what order the picture upload html thingy generates the thumbnails, so hopefully you can tell what's what) is one of the pieces currently IN the Peru show at coastal Kitchen. It's of different kinds of pepers. Crap. I can't remember which of the spicy ones is what! there's a bell peper, a jalapeno, a serrano, a valencia? and something else with a 'b' in it. It's watercolor, which I love.

For other news that isn't quite so art related, look me up on LJ and Myspace. Sofar, 2008 is off to a great start creatively. Hopefully the momentum will stay up!

Arts!

2007-08-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

So, per chance you heard of my booting from GDG? Or my attempt to get divorced? Or my lovely and encouraging sweety? all of these things are true! My artistry had been all but crushed by stress until I found a sketchbook of partially inked pictures of my various characters in lingerie and outfits I actually own...and I started inking them! they look great and so if the paper takes watercolor, I'm going to paint them and sell prints and maybe the originals at Rainfurrest later this month. Then my beloved kitten asked for a Mucha inspired mermaid for a tattoo and after much research in the style, I abliged. Much awesomeness was had. It's a tattooists worse nightmare I'm sure. I'll do another. Then based on a joke at work involved Paule the tint mistress (head tinter), Bob Dylan and angels getting stoned, I drew an angel smoking a hookah. now, I'm asthmatic. I don't like smoking hookah (I have before) or weed (I miss it kinda though) and cigars and cigarettes should be banned from every public establishment, but the imagery of smoke and the concept is neato. Both have been scanned so I can color them

Many many many artists (including a (former?) friend from college have emulated the style of Mucha. I'm not trying to steal anyone's thunder or style, I'm also not stealing his exact poses (like a certain furry artist I know). I'm more of channeling his spirit, yet you still see my style in the faces and anatomy. I'm mostly using his use of line and design and composition. I'm working on another one as well. I drew a sketch of it at the register at work today (did I mention I work at Daly's paint now?) and turned it into a bigger sketch during lunch. It's a painter girl. go fig!

sooo belated

2006-12-26T23:05:00.000-08:00

So, teh arts.

The first is my Bond girl character Goddin Gold. BTW I have that dress now, or at least pretty close.
Next is the 007 James Bond Inspired movie poster for "The Golden Rule". It's a gift pic for Double O fox for being awesome at Califur.

More later when I'm not about to pass out. I swam a half mile more than usual and all I want are cuddles. Yah. cuddles are nice.

artastic me

2006-11-10T01:26:00.000-08:00

So, the fruits of my labor. The flats being by far the most time consuming bit of this piece. This is for Ben Coon who's sketchbook has missed him and endured becoming second best to job hunting and my personal depression...but NO MORE! It is finished! The non yiffy, yet dragon porn Wise asian dragon for your viewing pleasure!

#1 is the inked image, no futzing yet. Not even contrasted.
#2 is the flatted image. Lots of outlining and selecting things. Oy!
#3 is the image with a basic dark blue background.
#4 is after adding 'difference clouds' to give a weird, spacial feel. Like they're floating in space.
#5 is starting to futz with the magical auras of magic. That also took some time.
#6 is glowy stuff!
#7 is weird text futzing and all the dodging and burning to add light and shade. If you can, look at the dragon's eye. It rocks!
#8 is the same background, but adjusting to opacity of the blue background and adding a white layer.
#9 is no lines! OMGd!
#10 is my favorite version. I removed the dark blue layer. It looks all mystical and stuff.

If anyone is asking about my commission book, it's decently full. Are YOU on the list of artistic to-dos?
USO oh nos! -kitten
Girls Drawing Girls x3 (not a commission, but muy importante)-tha group
Booby foxy loves- Setti
double O fox- 00fox
Nine Lives (eventually)-me
dorian's wish (more eventually)-me
Folf loves fries!-folf
biker panda redo-panda

GDG is due in jan. the two comic titles I'd like to get out soon, but at least before califur is fine. 00fox is due before FC. USO is due as soon as I can finish it. Folf is promised before turkey day.

If you want to commission me, put in your request fefore turkey day. I work at the ups store, so I'll be pretty busy until after xmas. Lemme know.
rummyhunny@gmail.com

Double back

2006-10-25T23:27:00.000-07:00

I'm here to post some arts.

First for Lady Leopardess, who never asked for anything and is awesome. Then for Panda, who commissioned me and I've not had the internet.

Projects coming up: Nine Lives 2 is slowly slowly slowly being worked on. My website is going to be fixed and updated and my apartment and art studio will be cleaned my clutter free for the artistic endevors.

Enjoy. More to come.

Back from tha DEED!

2006-09-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

HEED! PANTS! NOW! MOVE THAT GARGANTUAN CRANIUM AND GET ME THE PAPER IF YA CAN! (technically, I botched TWO quotes there. Looooove that movie).

Anyways, long time, no art. I haven't been feeling it. I finished my cert., got married, honeymooned, and *finally* manages to get a job. But I feel love sick and dead, like nothing matters. Art doesn't matter. A clean home doesn't matter. So, ya know, whatever. A BIG part of my lack of art here is computer issues. My comp runs slower. The scanner is too small alot of the time and the software has started annoying me. It's just a big process now. BUT I will share with you what I have.

This is from the mammoth dig I went to in Ellensburg, WA. I had a great time. I tried chilling with my friend Kender, but he was bad news bears the whole time. Then he chewed me out for not thanking Nicci (his girlfriend who brought me on the dig) and getting her in trouble. He also says I'm ungrateful for his kindness. You tell me: if a friend KNOWS you don't have any money, but wants you to go out to the place anyways and says they'll pay, does that mean you 'owe them' later? Is that really friendship? If I do this for you, what do I get? http://rummyhunny.livejournal.com/30098.html

So, since he NEVER wrote down EXACTLY what he wanted and when I asked he showed me some images from a manga and said 'like that', her is a sketch from what I can remember that he said at Conifur last year. A sorrowful angel and he likes foxes.

Also, hopefully more to come. Since working NFL games at Real again, I've had a chance to work on my Domino comic. Needs backgrounds now! I've developed more characters and concepts for much much farther into the story than I am now.

The Wet Pussy Pub (where Domino works, which is a Seattle based bar based largely on Hennessey's in Laguna Beach,CA, but is in the location of the 5 point bar and grill in Seattle, which is on my bus route to Real).

B.B. (a mortal incarnation of the Egyptian goddess Bast(et))-waitress(Russian blue/Absynian cross)
Cathy (based on the real Cathy of Hennessey's)-owner(tigress)
Michele (based on the real Michele of Hennessey's)-manager(snow leopard)
Veronika-waitress(cacaral/persian mix)
Domino (the main chara,blue haired, purple winged black and white kitty girl)-bar tender
Paul 'Pup'-house DJ, music/band coordinator(dalmation mix)
Joe-head chef (himilayan)

If anyone wants to cameo in the comic, called 'the Moon Cats' as featured in my zine/collected comic 'Nine Lives' send me a chara description and I'll draw you in. But keep in mind, I have to know you...well...or I'm not gonna do it.

Upcoming cameos/charas(that I know about, thus far, for sure): myself, my mom, Andy Panda (aka Andrew Gold who is the co-owner of the Golden lion dojo), Peaches, Kitten/Izzy and Alun (who I haven't written in yet).

Also, I'm looking for anyone who's willing to take me ideas and concepts and do the writing and dialog for me to comic from, since I'm terrible with transitions and getting from A to B to C.

More to come when I stop hating myself.

Down the sickness=up with the artness!

2006-04-21T03:19:00.000-07:00

So, since Norwescon (last weekend) I've been sick, as has Jake. He is potty sick. I'm snotty sick, but was potty sick earlier in the week. He went to the doctor and he has the norwalk virus, whatever that means. But it's highly contagious, so I'm assuming I have it too. He called work and they were like 'don't come in, come hang out with the employees".

So, artness you say? Well, wednesday while sick I did my homework, a fabulous pine cone!

true, the teacher will prolly get really annoyed and say it's too artistic, yadda yadda ya, but hey, I drew a plant as the subject, not a background. So there.

In other awesome news, Gold Panda said he'd give me $25 to do a comicy style panda ninja. Best idea ever! Freaking awesome drawing!

Then I colored it in Photoshop. In the middle of coloring the full color one, I had a great idea I had to follow, and did, with awesome results.

Hrm...the colors are inverted here....though not on the files....curious

Please hire me someone!

Art battle ala FC

2006-02-23T19:32:00.000-08:00

This is the fun sketch series/battle between White Lynx and I at Further Confusion 2006 this last January. I met him in the lobby. He was one of the fan boys who was hanging out with kitten. I Was looking at his sketchbook and recognized a pic he had drawn for Katmandu. He had to leave, so I kidnapped his book and since he said it was his first furry con, I drew a pic of kitten and I hasseling him about being a con virgin. Then saturday of the con, I was REALLY sick, like chills and fever, can't hardly walk sick, so he made me a get well card, which was soo sweet. Then sunday night in the creators lounge, he drew this:

Hrmm...how to follow without Rummy getting in trouble yet being humerous...

Notice her crossed fingers and evil smile

How does one fly in a shower? And how did I get there?

Safe!

Oh shit. Not good.

See, here is where I figured it would be done and yet still funny, haha, no harm, no foul...with a cameo of Peaches. But no....

I saw this and felt sooo bad. He was such a nice guy, but Rummy can't be with any male that isn't Peaches or anyone completely made up by me, who isn't someone's character (Mr. Mistoffelees is the except...and Hugh Jackman). But I wanted the story to not end on a bad not, so I brought out someone who isn't me and looooves fan boys.

So, we'll see where Lynx takes it now.

Lynceus/White Lynx copyright himself
Izzy copyright herself
Rummy and Celest copyright ME BITCHES!

Artistic Sapuku

2006-02-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

Go Wacom and black on white art.

Poop smith

2006-02-07T19:13:00.000-08:00

Not really.

I had a dewadline tonight for a show on Venezuela and I've know about it for awhile and missed it. The power was out then the internet sucked and it took longer for me to draw in all the details than I'd expected. The deadline is/was 9:30pm tonight and I blew it. Once I had the line art ready to go on the paper, I only had 2 and a half hours to paint an 8x16" watercolor. Not gonna happen. So I'm depressed and angry. I wish I had spent so much time goofing off this weekend, or had been able to get back home sooner. I'm sure it'll look awesome when it's done, but for know, I don't know what to do. I feel like a big artistic fuck-up.
Awesome.

Holy BUKA NEKKID!

2006-02-03T22:49:00.000-08:00

go crappy digital drawring skillz!
In case yall ever wanna draw Rummy, do it DOUG!

Not really insomnia, but what the hey!

2006-01-14T00:45:00.000-08:00

So, today has been pretty okay. I made my various project to-do list. Finished Gold Panda's logo design ideas and tried to email them to him but can't find his email anywhere. Poop! So I cleaned my art room AGAIN, matted my mom's artwork, applied to jobs from Craig's list and went to see my cousin for her birthday. we had mexican food. It wasn't too bad. I think I left my leftovers in my folk's car. Got cute new panties from Target and my required text for class, which is pretty neat and came home. Jakey is here and lil' and her military friend and Peter are here. I just just finished a pic on photoshop of the panda's for andy (gold) panda's 30th b-day, which I missed. Hence the picture. Kender/ Gabe (blue) panda, says he isn't a panda, but a siamese. At Conifur they had matching blue and gold ears and Chinese shirts. It was really cute! Tomorrow is zoo and Rustycon! woot! Here's the picture! I hope you see it Panda!

Holy Fok...insomnia!

2006-01-12T02:59:00.000-08:00

It's funny. I think Blogger is my favorite, but NO ONE reads it or knows it's here. Lameass. So, I was bored and not yet tired and thought "Hey, my friend Josh has a neato South Park ison of himself. I want one." I went to the actual South Park creat a character deal and made one. My original I saved as a screen shot but it saves automatically as a pdf which won't post here. It wasn't as me as I'd like, so I took it into photoshop. I came out with me, Essence, Rummy and Izzy, whose is the funnest. Enjoy!

sooo tired!

Dooming you to funny pictures!

2005-10-30T21:01:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry, I loove this!

What's the first thing YOU see in the morning?

Little!

Artists at the beach= bad ideas bears.

I miss ppl.

So, yet another blog thingy?

2005-10-30T19:52:00.000-08:00

Testing...testing...

Damn you blog thingys. I like that you can comment friends randomly. More ppl read lj and you can post pics here easily. dammit.

These are my pumpkins! Guess who!