Thursday, July 24, 2008

Bookmark #5- Patrick

I just finished coloring book mark #5 of Patrick.

Photobucket

Next up is the star of Clayton Chronicles, Clayton himself :P Then it will be Rose the barmaid and Ankia in Egyptian wear.

Also: My Bristol Board just arrived! :D I can start the comic pages after/during the bookmarks! *o*

Clockwork Queen Sticker Design

Here is the sticker design I finished yesterday:

Photobucket

I'd like to put a URL underneath the title but I'm not sure if it should be my DA address or this blog. I'll decide later.

Still no sign of my bristol board. I think I have to wait 10 days so tomorrow will be a week. Not really worth complaining tho, it gives me time to work on this stuff :D

More to come!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A DA facelift, bookmarks and stickers

I decided to make a new ID for my Deviantart page today:

Photobucket

Or see it here with commentary! The colors remind me of Magnito now that's done but that's not a bad thing.

I've got batch 3 of the Clayton Chronicles bookmarks drawn and inked. This is the next four in the series. I think that will be all for now, I don't want to make too many for now. Next I'll be doing about 4 or so Clockwork Queen bookmarks and a sticker. The sticker will be a chibi version of Sarah Winters (as a robot) with a little gear for a halo then it will say "Clockwork Queen" underneath it. I have it drawn and inked already, I just need to scan and color it and put the title underneath it. I'm really excited. I plan on making the stickers through Paper Forest eventually.

Well I better head off now, I can hear a storm coming outside : / I hate summer storms but we do need the rain...

Monday, July 21, 2008

CC: Book Marks batch 2

I am on fire with these book marks! :D

Today I colored the Ashley and Legarna bookmarks that I posted the line art of in my DA gallery a few weeks ago. I used the same coloring techniques as the last pair of bookmarks and I really like how they came out :)

Photobucket

Again the bookmarks printed out on cardstock came out lighter than they look on the computer but I still like them. These ones came out a little thinner and slightly taller since the file I was working with was bigger.

Photobucket

I've got some designs for book marks of some of the male characters next.
Stay tuned!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Clayton Chronicles: Revving up

Today I colored a pair of bookmarks I had drawn of Misaki, the snow leopard swords-woman, and Vespa the sorceress via PhotoShop.

I was really proud when I drew these and seeing them colored now is really exciting to me. I never really had a coloring style for the computer so I was really happy with the results of today's 'experiment' in computer coloring. I used to rely on the dodge and burn tool too much for making something seem three dimensional so this flat method of coloring is a huge improvement.

Photobucket

Here is a screen cap of how the colors look on the computer.
When I printed them they came out lighter, but still nice.

Photobucket

And here is a montage of Clayton Stuff that has been going down lately.

Photobucket

After my new bristol board arrives, more work will be done on the pages for Clayton Chronicles. 8D Hopefully some more work on Clockwork Queen too. Fingers crossed with school coming up.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Hero Time

I've been doing some more comic work lately and I decided to take some time to talk about the people who inspire me as an artist, and who I greatly admire.



Amy Reeder Hadley (Tentopet)
http://www.tentopet.com/

I first saw Amy, or 'Tentopet' over at the Manga Academy website back when I was a fledgling comic book artist in early high school. I had thought her work was pretty awesome but my admiration for her really grew when right before I started college. I picked up a copy of "Fools Gold", her OEL Manga. (OEL means Original English Language, a term used for western artists who do manga). I really admired her style as it was a mix of realism with a playful twist. She put a lot of detail into her work and made things like freckles and sewing machines seem interesting. Right now she has just finished work on Madame Xanadu issue #1 with Vertigo. I was a bit skeptical about her switch from Tokyopop to Vertigo but I think she has certainly grown as a artist. The detail and hard work she puts into her comics makes me proud of her, and I aspire to be at her level one day. Even with all this work to do she still has time to give back to the art community by doing YouTube video tutorials. I personally find these very informative and inspiring. Her website also has earlier tutorials that are equally useful.


Marty Le Grow
http://sadwonderland.deviantart.com/

I first read about the work of Marty in an issue of Anime Insider in 8th or 9th grade. I remember sitting in the waterford crystal shop where my mom worked one afternoon and seeing this tiny article about a book called Bizengahst. The article described this girl who pitched an idea so awesome that Tokyopop scooped her up for a big book deal. I was in awe as she was living my (then) dream. I found her Deviantart page and followed her work on the book. I bought the first volume as soon as it came out and I loved it. It greatly appealed to my then heavily gothic sensibilities and I found the story fascinating. (The series is now on book five, coming out on the 15th of July.)
Marty was everything I wanted to be. She went to and graduated from the school of my dreams (Savannah College of Art and Design), did comics for a living with a hugely popular company, she wore and made elaborate costumes and got to go to conventions to show them and her work off. I still greatly admire her to this day, and I'm very excited to see how Bizenghast will end and what series she will do next. Her snaky humor also never fails to amuse :)


Bettina M. Kurkoski
http://www.dreamworldstudio.net/main_v7.html

The first thing that attracted me to the work of Bettina was her amazing coloring skills. She uses copic markers, which happen to be a personal favorite tool of mine. At Nekocon 2006 I had the opertunity to meet her. We talked about markers (as she had just bought a ton of ink refils) and she cheered when she found out I used them and prefered traditional media. She even looked over my portfolio and gave me tips when she didn't have to. I'll never forget how nice and friendly she was. She even gave me a hug X3
Here I am (in the black lolita dress, lol) standing next to her. She was there promoting her manga "My Cat Loki"
Photobucket

As fun as this post has been, it's getting really long now ^^; I'll do another Heros post in the future, it was fun sharing my heros and why I admire them so much.
I hope you all find some inspiration from these fantastic female artists!

Stay Steamy!