Work in Progress: Interlude

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a great holiday.  I know I've eaten way too many latkes this year...so I'll be throwing my scale out the window until the whole holiday thing is over.  I don't even dare to step one little toe on it.  New Year is coming up, super excited to have a nice clean slate to start things over again. 2012 better be a good one. *shakes fist*  A year of positive change and new hope for the future, that's the only resolution I ever make, mostly  because I can never keep any of the other ones I make.*giggles*

Anyway, I've been busy these last few weeks getting my one shot manga done before the middle of January.  I have just two pages left to screen tone, and I'll be very happy once it's done and sent off because another idea for a story has popped into my head, making it very hard to focus on anything much else. I feel like I'm going to explode with it if I don't get it out soon. Stranger still, is that I'm having dreams about it, which has never happened in the past in any of the stories I've done before.  Maybe that's a good sign, who knows.

I have managed to get some line art done for other drawings when I've needed a break from toning the comic.  This drawing here is a little prize for someone on Deviant Art.  I hold Kiriban, which on DA means when you reach a certain amount of page views and someone takes a screen cap of it and notes it to you, they win a drawing.  Two people won this time, I have yet to fully get to the other, but I have a new fondness for drawing couples and I just could not resist this charming couple.  Did I mention that I love pointy ears as well? I do! So another bonus score for wanting to draw this.I still don't know what colours I'm going to use, but, if anyone has some suggestions I'm quite open to hear them.  Only took an hour to ink, but three days just to find the right reference to use for them.  I do hope she likes it when she gets it.*crosses fingers*

Oh! Before I dash off to tone more pages, I shall be opening a paper doll contest soon!  I'm just finishing working out the details of the rules and what not, so stay tuned and I'll be posting about that in a short while.  The prize will be your own personalized paper doll. 

Happy New Year my dear wonderful friends, may this year be a bright and happy one!  I'll be catching up with all of you this weekend, so expect to see me Christmas ghosting your lovely blogs. Have a creative week!

May All Your Christmas' Be White

Not in my usual styling, but it was certainly fun to break away into something new.  I've always loved poster designs from the 1920's and '30's with their stark contrasting and minimal lines...adds to such a visual delight.  I got inspired to draw this from a stamp I found in an art magazine, and I thought it would be fun to draw!  So I just went for it.  I love the old time, "Christmas Carol" mood this has to it, and I just fell in love.
 I forgot to use my circle templates, to make sure every line was as crisp as possible, but you know, I kinda enjoy the slight off-ishness(is that a word?!Hm, for now I guess it is...*giggles*) of them.  I like seeing little imperfections in art, shows that a human hand actually made it.
This only took about an hour or so to complete, normally, it takes a week for me to finish any illustration.  It took a lot of black ink though.

Christmas and Chanukah are at the same time this year...I'm so looking forward to all the yummy, delectable treats and loads of Latikahs awaiting!  Eek, and Eggnog Lattes as well...mmmm..I think I need one now.  Ohhh, I love this time of year!  What are some of your favourite treats to fix this time of year, my dear friends?

"Christmas is a time of giving.
It is a time of wrapping gifts and making cookies...
a time of presents, tucked in secret places...
and of children waiting.
It is a time of toys and drums and dolls...
a time of holly and lights...
and golden tinsel
and green pine boughs.
It is a time of stars and midnight...
and soft prayers whispered in the dark.
Christmas is a time of family...
and good friends meeting once again.
It is a time of song and caroling...
and silver sleigh bells jingling in the snow.
For some people, Christmas is a time of remembering...
remembering other happy days filled with laughing voices...
and other treasured times, now past.
But for everyone, it is a time of magic...when troubles melt
and once again the world is young.
It is the time above all others, when peace my visit earth and find a dwelling place in every heart.
Christmas is a time of giving...
a time of hope...
a time of joy.
Christmas is a blessed time....
of love."
From "Christmas Is A Time Of Giving" by Joan Walsh Anglund.

I know it's early still, but Merry Christmas my dear blogger friends...may your New Year be bright!  Love to you all!  Have a creative week!

Illustration Friday: Vanity

Blogging again so soon...I'm so happy!  Doubly happy too...I just managed to get this done in time for Illustration Friday's topic this week. Huzzah!  A very quick ink sketch that was all done in three days, which is fast for me.   If I had added any colour at all, it would have taken me much longer to finish. (Psst...sorry to my lovely lady readers out there, that the poor girl on the left has nothing on.) 

It's been a very long time since I've done a straight black and white illustration.  I mostly stick to using a sepia coloured ink and leave the black just for comic work.  So, this was a fun deviation to do. I also had a lot of help from Coral DRAW...I'm getting addicted to touching things up digitally now.

I might as well explain some of the symbolism I've used here.  I wanted to incorporate the idea of twin vanity goddess', though on the surface to appear to be beautiful and their lips dripping with honeyed words of how gorgeous the person they are dwelling in is, they are actually ladies of the underworld.  They stand ready to wither away the most tender hearted of people.  The two mirrors that each of them hold distorts the viewers perspective of how they see themselves, to the point of despair. 

Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, stands for the impossibly too thin female figures of the fashion magazines.  Thus, why some of her bones show through her pale skin and she wears little or no clothes.  On her top hat, much like the Mad Hatter's, display the numbers of the so called ideal dress size of 2 and 0.  Though, Aphrodite's mirror, not matter how thin the on looker to this mirror gets, will always lie, showing the figure of a pig instead. 
I hope her hungry looks gets across on her face...I really wanted that to show.  This idea for Aphrodite came from the movie "Devil wears Prada", where the model's never eat or eat a cheese cube to keep from passing out.

Narcissus, the goddess who loves only her own beauty, has much of the same effect as her twin on those who dare look through her mirror.  They love only themselves, and cannot tear their gaze away from their own visage that they waste away or begin to indulge in risque relationships.
I got this idea from noticing a young teen aged girl on the bus, who spent the entire trip looking at her self and preening into her small hand mirror.  She even managed to walk down the street after she got off, still looking in her mirror.  I sort of laughed at that...what teenager doesn't do that? *giggles*

Well, that was rather a dark trip wasn't it?  I'll post something a little less, um, dark next time.  I took a lot of inspiration from Takaya Miou , who is one of my favourite manga illustrators of all time.  I tend to visit her website and blog a fair bit.

That's it for now.  Thanks for coming by and paying a visit my lovely friends, I wish you all a creative week!

Tiny Beauty: Zoanthia

This was a commission for a good friend, Muffin , on Deviant Art.  It's her own original character that she draws a lot.  I feel a little bad that she had to wait longer than usual, normally it takes only two to three days to finish a paper doll, but, I've been working hard on completing my short story.  It's my first time working with in a tight deadline date, and I really want to make sure I make it.  Plus, my order of the mini-brads is late.  I've been trying to hunt down brads locally, but that has proven really frustrating.  Amazon.com I'm so grateful to, that have everything!  Saved the day!  Now this little lady is set for her plane flight to merry old England where she'll be happily reunited with her lovely mummy.

My own mum has been so kind as to design and make my doll boxes for me. Sakes, that woman has been working really hard with doing research, making a master template and putting them together.  Which sometimes is a frustrating process when it comes to sticking the designs on.  She once stayed up til 4 am trying to fix a problem box!   I'm so grateful to her...more than I could ever express.  She's been such a great help, I really wish I could pay her for all her hard work. 

Here are some of the designs she's been working out....


These were the first two ideas prototypes she made.  They were later scraped because the packaging was a little too tight and there were some major problems in trying to get the coverings I picked to match up.  It also turned out that it would be too weak to travel through the mail.

This is the final design prototype for the box. It's on a hinged lid, which is much sturdier and is easier to open....and also much easier to match the patterns up.  I created  as well, a monogram stamp to seal the tissue paper and to go on the back of the dolls, and, a little Thank You note card that will carry my business card along with it.  I'm quite happy so far with the results.

The drawing that appears on the front of the box.  Took me at least three months to come up with something I felt really satisfied with. Took a lot of tinkering around in Coral DRAW to get it just right.

I'd love to hear your opinions on what you fine, and lovely friends think of this.

Oh! A very happy(I know it's early) Thanks Giving to all my wonderful American Blogger friends!  I hope you guys stuff yourself silly with good food and good friends and family! 

Happy creative week everyone.

Illustration Friday: Scary

Okay, okay doesn't spark any terror does she? *giggles*  Aw shoot, I really liked the theme for this weeks Illustration Friday and I wanted to give it a try.  But I find that I just can't do good scary art...in fact, the only thing that I find scary is the "dream magic" I tried to put in her left hand there. Must find books on how to illustrate magic spells next time.   I hope this is still acceptable for IF this week.  This is Queen Mab...the dream faerie.  In her left hand she holds good dreams in the form of a hummingbird and in her right is her nightmare stick, ready to wave over her poor sleeping victim. Mwahahahacoughcough....Anyway...

Quite happy with the outcome of this little drawing, was meant to be just a pen sketch but I decided to add some colour and it was a good chance to practice painting a sky, not something I do often.  I'm still amazed that the bluish colour of the sky complements the rest of the colouring on the drawing...I love those happy accidents.

So a little bit of a ramble here, sorry to have been gone from my blog for a bit...yikes.  Time passes too quickly.  I did have a special post today on a tutorial about screen tones, but I can't find it anywhere on my laptop at the moment.  My crap-top ate it and is now laughing at my futility in trying to find where its hidden the file.  I think this thing is my friend...but oh no ...it's not.  I think it enjoys giving me grief all the time. Grrr... As soon as I find it, I'll post it. 

I hope all of you had a safe and fun Halloween on Monday.  I went out and bought some of the treat bags of chocolate bars on sale today. Yay!  There was fireworks going on in my neighbourhood till 2 am,  so didn't get much sleep at all that night, but it was fun to watch all the cute little kids go up and down the streets with their bags of treats.  Brought back lots of good memories of when I was little and dressed up as E.T. for two years in a row. I loved that costume till it fell apart, literally. *giggles*

Happy creating everyone! My love to you all.

What a surprise to get!

Hey everyone! I got a very pleasant surprise on Sunday, I logged onto my my deviant art account , which I had not been able to get to in a few weeks, to find out that I got a Daily Deviation on one of my drawings! Which explains the 2000 plus messages that were in my inbox when I logged in. I nearly fainted.

Mine is the sepia coloured sketch in the middle there.

Here's the full drawing: Titled "Angelique"

A Daily Deviation is hard to get on a place as big as Deviant Art...there's about 12 million people on DA and someone else who likes your drawing enough to get it featured on the front page of the site, kinda has to make a sales pitch to a designated gallery moderator as to why the piece deserves to be on the front page in the first place.  So, I'm really happy and honored to get noticed!

And it helped me get two sales on my paper dolls...yayyy! I'm hoping it will bring in some more commissions as well.  Fingers are crossed.

Just wanted to share this with all of you here.  I have a tutorial all ready for my next post...get ready for lots of pictures.  I always love to share my process with others.

Happy creating everyone!

Two page comic preview: In Softness

I have started a short 12 page comic(manga in Japanese) story.  I have most of it inked and it's just a matter of getting it toned now.  Two pages are done, and I thought I'd give you lovies a little preview of it.  Since I seem to be failing at getting any publisher to even consider me or respond in that matter, I'll be self-publishing when this story is all finished. Yay!

Here's page one, the cover....

Annnddd...page two....

The story is about a young woman trying to cope with the loss of a loved one and cherishing some fond memories.  Sounds a wee depressing, but I hope to make an emotional impact with this. Love to hear your thoughts on this. ^_^

If anyone is at all interested in seeing a small tutorial on how to use traditional screen tones(which are like a grey scale sticker similar to zip tones of olde), I will gladly put one up. *wink*

I've been really pushing at this publishing thing, I've been out of work for almost five months now, I used to arrange flowers...which offered me a perfect opportunity to get really creative with improving my art skills...but man, this marketing stuff and pushing to publishers is no easy matter like I thought. Ha!  

Again, I want to thank all of you for your wonderful comments here...they really mean the world to me. ^_^

Happy week all!