Convention Excitement and New Website Update

Sorry for the radio silence everyone! It's been a mixed bag of bothersome snow, overtime at work, and health issues :< However I am happy to report, if you haven't seen it on my Facebook page yet, that I have secured a booth at Virginia Comicon's 2 day event this November 22nd- 23rd! In what spare time I can manage to grab I've been writing lists, working on the next Alencia book, working on prints as well as button and sticker ideas, and even figuring out how to get my hands my on a standing banner to bring to conventions! I'm SO excited by the possibilities for cons this year. I still won't get to attend as many as I would like due to my full time job but it just makes the ones I can attend that much more special.

I'm also hoping to snag a table for Nekocon this year. I was very impressed with how far Neko's Artist Alley had come since I last tabled there in 2010. While fan art is still prominent there were so many original comic creators (and crafters!) that it made my heart sing! At last one of my most accessible anime conventions has become more welcoming to original content creators. However I have to wait till the first week of May to register so fingers crossed!

In the mean time here is a sneak peek at a work in progress print I'm currently painting:

Also you may have noticed in the previous post that I have been tinkering with wordpress in an attempt to get a blog/portfolio site together as a main hub for my artwork. Well Wordpress has not worked out for me, but instead I've started a site using SquareSpace. I'm still working on getting my domain name attached to it but GoDaddy is not as user friendly as I would like >_> And while I have figured out how to do this in the past I'm still having trouble so please bare with me. Until then you can see my new site (with this blog attached to it!) at Francesca-rowan.squarespace.com/ I'm really loving the interface and that fact that I could import my entire blog over to it. I'm going to start experimenting with updating the blog from my website so we'll see how that goes but I might hold off so folks who have stuck to this blog so long can still enjoy my updates without missing anything. But when/if I start doing blog updates from there I'll give this blog a heads up so no one misses it.

Speaking of missing updates, if you follow me on Facebook be sure to follow these instructions so you can keep seeing updates from the pages you like (otherwise Facebook will try to corner us into paying for people to actually see our updates. I'm thinking about breathing some life into my google+ page or making a new one. Would anyone be game for that?)

So as I go on I'll be sure to share more peeks at con goodies as I make them. Stay tuned and as always, thanks for sticking with me! <3

2013 Art in Review

Decided to follow suite with Jingles and post my own 2013 art summery. It feels like ages since I've done any prop making but I'm hoping to get back to work on my Alencia statue soon. I just picked up this awesome book and I'm ready to take another go at it.

I'm hoping to barrel through this year doing more and learning more~

December Doodles

Hi all! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday! I've been really busy at work but now that the holidays are winding down I'm looking forward to some early spring cleaning and getting more work done! In the mean time here are a few things I've done lately.

A drawing done for my friend Seir of her beautiful ball jointed doll who seems to have a life of her own.

A little WIP drawing of a mori style girl. I've been really into 'Dark Forest Mori' and 'Strega' styles recently and even picked up some great wardrobe pieces today. I love the layering of textures and fabrics as well as the darker nature themes. More on that soon.
I've got some more work coming up but most needs to be scanned. In the mean time here's a tl;dr to do list for myself:

+ Finish setting up online store (photos and descriptions, take inventory)
+ Finish branding research and set up
+ Set up website, hosting and domain name
+ Finish second Alencia book
+ Choose conventions to show at and set up registration and plans for attending said cons.
+ Get house cleaned up and sorted

Lots of work to do...

Colored Pencil Alchemy

Greetings everyone!
I was going to wait until the weekend to post but I thought I'd give you an early Labor Day treat. I realized recently that I hadn't posted any of the more time consuming illustrations that I had done for my Elder Scrolls Art Book project so I thought I'd share one with you today.

This one is of my Skyrim favorite, Merion the Lioness. She's not very good at Alchemy, and can only really make basic healing potions, so here she is slaving over an Alchemy table trying everything in her inventory to gain stats or make something she can at least sell. For this one I decided to use some earthy brown paper I picked up at Micheal's on clearance. I was eager to try some lighting effects with colored pencils and ink for contrast. I'm quite happy with it. I used this paper for a few of the illustrations so far but I will also be mixing it up with some watercolor and digital illustrations as well.

Stay tuned for more! I have a three day weekend coming up. Which means lots of time for working on projects so I'll have more to share coming up!

Sculpting up a Storm

Hello everyone! April is going by so fast! Its' already almost May! My iMac screen is still broken so I've not been doing much digital work, as well as stalling on working on comics since I won't be able to properly digitally tone them as I'd like to. However I'm hoping to get it all fixed soon.
In the mean time, here's what I've been cooking up so far:

+Crafting/Prop Making

I've been continuing work on my 'Amulets of the Devines' series. The latest one being the Amulet of Mara; goddess of love, compassion, and marriage. This design has complicated knot-work involved and I drew myself out a map of what I had planned to do, but still ended up leaving out details on the largest piece. However I did go back and tweak it several times so it came out a lot better than it did in early photos I took. I'm pleased that I'm learning to go back and fix things rather than just accepting them. I know I'll end up with better results this way.

My 'map' of the details of the amulet.


Early shot of the main part of the amulet.


Before cooking.


After cooking. Make sure you don't leave sculpey in the oven too long... like me...


Luckily some gesso and paint cleared up the burnt parts.


At first I was going to join everything with wax thread but then changed my discision to using chains and links instead. I think it will look better, and be easier to wear for it. I still might shorten the chain depending on how my 'Agent of Mara' cosplay goes but for now, it is done. 5 Amulets down, 4 more to go! Then I will be working my way up to some other prop making projects.

I've also started making some little dolls based on Homestuck sprites. I'm currently making a Roxy Lalonde doll for a friend of mine, and one for myself of my fan troll. Here's some shots of Roxy:


Back to working on comics; stay tuned!

Of Eladrin and Amulets

Hey Everyone!
I'm back from Megacon and finally settling back into regular old life again :P I'm securing another second job (and possibly one full time job if the stars align in my favor) so I've been busy since getting back. However I did have a super fun awesome time and even got to see some old friends.

Here is the illustration I got to give to Wil Wheaton of his D&D Character Aeofel.



And here is the autograph I got from him too. The whole thing was a proud moment for me and I'll never forget it.


Next is an inked sketch from my sketchbook. I was having fun drawing my Dovakin, Merion, while waiting for the plane to arrive. This scene is from a quest in the game where she discovers this powerful book and while looking at it realized it was made of various kinds of skin (blood samples from each race of elves was needed to open the container it was in so looking back it probably didn't have human skin on it) but when you open the book you can choose which 'path' you follow and it levels you up in a bunch of stats. I reached a whole new level just from reading it :P But then it disappears...



Upon getting home I had to do some inking with my brush once more. I dearly missed inking with it while I was gone. Ink brush withdrawls anyone? Also added some Typography for fun and tried to make Merion look a bit more scratched up and weather-worn.



ALSO managed to find the perfect beads I had been looking for for my Amulet of Dibella. I tried in furious vain last night to sculpt the little leaves that are meant to be strung with the beads but I just couldn't get them right. The amulet itself is sculpted smaller than it looks when worn by a character. I think it looks too big and garish in the game so I made it smaller. But now with the leaf charms it's backfiring on me. I can't make them to scale no matter what I try. The leaves will not look exactly the same I'm afraid. I'm going to come back to it and try again later. For now this is my 'simplified' version of the Amulet of Dibella.



Next will be the Amulet of Mara! One of my favorite items, and diety, in the game! Also one of the more complicated pieces but I'm confident if I pace myself with sculpting it I can make it look as nice as the original. I'd like to make it as part of an 'Agent of Mara' cosplay one day. The priest robes aren't too complicated and I can pass around the little Mara pamphlets from the game :P Here's a peek!

Updates!

I can't believe it's August already. Where has the summer gone? Granted I'm pretty ready for fall :P

I just wanted to let everyone know what's going down as things are changing a lot in the world of Fran.

1. Comics
Right now I have a three page update for OMN waiting to be looked over and hopefully put up tonight. I didn't tone or color it like I had planned to because I was invited to take part in a Steampunk Anthology comic by a friend of mine so I'll be trying my hardest to finish up a few pages of comic for that. I'm really excited about it and did a little coloring test to see what kind of style I'll be doing it in.

I've decided to do the comic on watercolor paper with ink and inkwash, and then color flat colors under it in photoshop. This will allow me to have the black and white versions of the comic that I like doing, while providing the book with colored pages that they require. Long time followers might remember this gentleman as he's a hint to what story I'm adapting for this book :)

2. VA Comicon
The Alencia fan art contest ends on the 4th, and any entries I get will be formatted into the book, and it will be sent off to get printed. I am SUPER excited! Also a bit nervous as the con gets closer and things around me get more hectic. But I'm too excited to let the nervousness last too long :P

3. Side Projects
My media studies for the most part are on hold but in their place I've been doing a "30 day monster girl challenge" on tumblr. I've been using it as a character design/media excercise and it's been going well so far. Click the link there to follow the tag on my art tumblr. It will resume after the comic anthology is done (as that deadline is pretty close).

4. Kale
After sitting down and thinking it over I've decided I'm going to restart my Kale story. The first issue, while being an important early mile stone in my comics career, doesn't allow me to take the story in the directions I'd like to. So I'm working on completely rewriting it, and already I'm seeing a massive improvement. I'll bring more news and behind the scenes look at the story as I work on it.

Okay that's all I have for now. Keep an eye open for an OMN update either late tonight or tomorrow!

Commission Unveiling!

Hello everyone!

It is time to unveil the commission I've been working on for the past few weeks.

Done entirely on Photoshop this piece features Suine Hallock as a pony surrounded by a collection of toys and action figures. It was a really fun project to work on and it let me brush up on my digital coloring and drawing skills. Suine was great to work with and I enjoy his videos so be sure to watch them! You can see more of his videos at the Pop Culture Network.

Offering

Hello all!

I have returned from my emergency trip to my Uncle's funeral and started back at work. I've been busy with that, trying to get portfolios printed for job applications and things are feeling stressful and at times overwhelming. To combat this I treated myself by picking up a copy of Skyrim that was on sale (Don't worry, I will be limiting my playing time). So as an offering of being absent and artless while I sort things out, here is a portrait of my character, Ciel DreadHawk.

Done with non-photo blue pencil, Pocket pentel brush pen, and PhotoShop CS5.5

Watercolor Practice

A small watercolor painting I’ve been working on and off since the holidays. My character Alice from a comic that me and Ryan want to work on in the future. It’s not hugely important for us to get done soon so it might pop up in the next few years. Otherwise I’ll just keep drawing her for fun. I tweaked the colors to be brighter and more vibrant since my scanner ate them. I also forgot when I painted it that I wasnt' going to give her a pink nose anymore. Awell. It was fun to work on and I learned a lot from it.

Cold Press Illustration board, Mechanical Pencil, Watercolors, Colored Pencil, (8 3/4”x5 1/8”) 2011-2012.

Goat Steed

So during my senior year in college me and friends started all going to the gym together as motivation to get healthy. One day we went the weather ended up being so nice we couldn't bare to stay inside so we hoped in my friend's car and drove to Maymont. Maymont is a beautiful estate with parks, a petting zoo, animal inclosures, ponds, and lovely Victorian buildings (and horse drawn carriages!). We had a great time walking around (those hills make a good workout) and took loads of reference photos. While walking around I took lots of photos of goats and a great appreciation of them was born. As was the in-joke that if I could have a mighty steed to ride around on I would want a giant goat. References to Thor's goats were also made.

This comic page is pretty much word for word a story I made up as we walked around that day. My friends featured in the last panel are Reach and Seir.

This is pretty much the result of having too much fun with comics, and friends. No regrets. And I really do suggest everyone go visit Maymont if they ever find themselves in Richmond, VA.

Concepts from Chaos

Hello again everyone! I've been going through my sketchbooks to see if I have any meager offerings for you and I've found a few.

A sketch of Alencia and Theolyn from a month ago. I've been slowly building their world and I've been looking at ideas for noble formal wear for Alencia's home town of 'Argate.' I'm trying to combine medieval costume with Indian Saris. I think the mixtures of fabrics, in both textures and patterns, will blend nicely with the cuts of the costumes. I'll post more of those as I go. (Pen on sketchbook paper.)

Some character concepts for a character from a comic project I'm working on with my partner in crime, Ryan Moody. (ballpoint and brush pens on sketchbook paper.)

Another concept from my Alencia stories, she tries to exorcise this demon from a family's home but it instead ends up following her around and terrorizing her. His appearance may change by the time he finally ends up in the comic but this is the closest to what's in my head I was able to draw so far. Research for him is fun as it includes watching the Paranormal Activity movies, and episodes of 'Paranormal State.' (Reference used here. Blue pencil and brush pen on sketchbook paper, colored in Photoshop CS5.5)

And here's a large poster I did as a Christmas commission. The client asked for their nephew as a super hero. We brainstormed on concepts and I created the costume for him. The poster is meant to look like the cover of a comic book. The font is "In a Flash" by Walter Velez.

I hope you all had a great holiday, and look forward to the new year! See you in 2012!

Megalocks

A warm up brush pen drawing from this morning. A friend of mine posted this video on FB today and I was instantly inspired to draw the lead singer of Megadeth, Dave Mustaine, and his amazing hair.

After I eventually finish my Blind Guardian tribute illustration I will have to do a Megadeth one. I first listened to them in high school after borrowing a copy of ‘Youthanasia’ from the base library and falling instantly for it. I’ve been collecting as many albums of theirs as I can since.

I Comic, Therefore I Am.

Hello all!

In the busy hustle and bustle of the holiday season I have finally put together my illustrated guide to my comic work process. I origianly meant this to be a comic but I had so much to say that I figured an illustrated guide would be more appropriate. But it's done and ready for your enjoyment. This is not meant to be a 'how to' guide, this merely shows what I do and why. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Click here to view the PDF---> Fran's Illustrated Comic Process

Seven Thousand and Counting!

Hi everyone! I just noticed last night that the blog count has his over 7,000 views! So to celebrate I drew up a little sketch.

Mechanical pencil on card stock, textures by Hibbary.

I wish I could have done something fancier but I'm really busy with car and job stuff so I'm not gonna have time. (I might revisit it again to make it look more like what was in my head, colored and all.) I am going to cram as much art into my spare time as I can, so don't worry about this blog becoming desolate. Me not drawing is equated to me not breathing ;P

I'd also just to thank everyone who visits my blog (and facebook, and tumblr) and thank you for all the support. I really appreciate it! Coming up I've also got some sketches to post from a gun show/flea market I was helping my dad at last week. There was even a historical reenactor who posed for me so I could draw him! It was very nice of him. So that'll be coming soon. Stay tuned!

Kicking Back

Hello all! I bring you a sketch of Kale before I head of for bed~

I felt like I hadn't drawn her in a long time, but I forgot about the cafe drawing :P Hopefully I can color that some time. I do however have some art/design employment opportunities coming my way so that will eat up some of my time. However developing the comics will continue. I just get to do something other than sell glasses for a bit. I'm looking forward to it. Wish me luck!

---- Done with non-photo blue pencil, 0.1 Staedtler pen, on printer paper.

Piggy Back Ride

Playful warm-up drawing of Theolyn giving Alencia a piggy back ride. Her foot was sprained and is wrapped up while it heals for a few hours (the healing process accelerated by a spell).

Done with non-photo blue pencil and brush pen.

Photo Reference from google used for pose.

Universe Building Ahoy

Hello everyone!
I've been pretty busy lately. I started a new job and have been working on comics. Also learned to drive and got my driver's license :D

I'm gearing up for a collaboration in the future involving Alencia so I'm putting together an information packet about her universe and it's rules. One part of it was a height chart comparing Alencia and Theolyn. I put some flat colors on it and illustrated their weapons that they carry on them (not including Alencia's cooking knives).



Well I've got more work to do! More to come!

Grey Snow

I just posted some old digital comic pages over at my art tumblr so I thought I'd share them here too:






These are pages of a comic I started working on last year; the first page is still in the rough stage and is incomplete. They are based on an introduction for a character that my good friend Ian Davison (El Goro of the podcast ‘Talk Without Rhythm’) wrote for a story idea we were working on together. I’m still hoping to see this project out the end, even if it will most likely take quite a few years to do.

This was my first time working on a comic completely digitally. I learned a lot doing it and I think I will continue to do it this way for this project. I’m hoping to finish the introduction comic for this character, do an introductory comic for another character in the story, then start the whole story from the point that they first meet.

Needless to say this will be on the back burner for a while...

Brown Paper Drawings

I've been drawing in this wonderfully cheap brown paper sketchbook I got from Mainart back in Richmond, and I'm having a lot of fun with it!


My character Alice, a rabbit girl who works at a Maid Cafe. She's part of a story me and Ryan are working on. One of many.


A more somber drawing of my super hero (wannabe) 'Spork Bunny' after what looks like a tiresome battle.

More to come!