Aisleen Romano

Day 16 : Inspiration - Paul Dini and Bruce Timm

2012-02-16T12:50:00.002-05:00

I think Batman Animated was one of the first shows I watched where I noticed the artwork. So clean! So fluid! So well structured! In college, my professor Brian Ralph re-exposed me to these two guys and I fell in love with their art. Then I forgot about them until my good friend Cory Lewis told me to look up Bruce Timm. So, my biggest influence are these two guys. I re-learned how to draw thanks to them!

Day 13, 14, 15

2012-02-15T15:40:00.001-05:00

Day 13 : Comic

I totally SUCK AT THIS. This comic one really held be back and now Im 2 days behind. Does it make any sense? No. Is it stupid? Of course! I don't make comics! Rage and anger! I hate it!

Day 14: Favorite Fairy Tale: Little Mermaid

Ok, I didn't look up reference. I was going to draw Ursula all original but it turned out Disney-like anyway. I don't really have a favorite story...I just really wanted to draw a big sexy lady! That, and I love underwater stories....

Day 15: Family Portrait

This is my current family status. Hooray! We love our kittens. This one got rushed so no color mboo.

Day 11 and 12

2012-02-12T19:18:00.000-05:00

Day 11: Turning point in your life: Bedbugs

Having bedbugs was my worst fear for years. Then I got them and I basically couldn't function lol. The turning point would be that it made me realize how amazing of a boyfriend I have (staying up until 4 am doing 15+ loads of laundry to clean ALL the things), and how much I loved him! Honestly though, there should be a support group for people who've had them, because it messes you up BAD. So bad.

Day 12: Most recent accomplishment

I am tired of drawing myself! So I drew my two new kittens instead :D The smaller girl, Violet, and her bigger brother Dash.

Day 10 : Favorite Candy : Chocolate

2012-02-10T12:46:00.000-05:00

I love chocolate! And I don't much think drawing food is fun so....another food lady!

Huzzaaah

Day 9 : Favorite TV show: Eastbound & Down

2012-02-09T12:42:00.001-05:00

Ok so I don't HAVE a favorite TV show. But I have a lot that I loooove. And I figured this would be a great chance to draw Stevie again! Wearing all black to express his rage.

God hes amazing. Steve Little, I love you so much.

Day 8 - Favorite Cartoon Character - Eddy

2012-02-08T12:55:00.000-05:00

Its impossible for me to pick one, so I picked the one most dear to me. I could go on and on about how perfectly amazing the designs for this show are. When you design a character down to the TONGUE and FINGERNAILS, animate personalized blinks, stylize to a point where every shape can be pushed and pulled to create emotion, you've pretty much created perfect characters.

I could write an essay on this show.

Eddy is such a little sack of flab and anger, I love drawing him! I'm super rusty though, its been a while since I've drawn EEn'E.

Day 7 - Favorite Word

2012-02-07T12:43:00.000-05:00

I'm a classy, classy lady.

Day 4, 5, and 6.

2012-02-07T02:47:00.000-05:00

Day 4: "Favorite place" which just so happens to be anywhere in my pjs cuddling with my boyfriend.

Day 5: "Best Friend" : I don't have 'best' friends anymore, I'm not in kindergarten. BUT I DO HAVE A CHINGU! SERENA! I drew her like I remember back in college. Which was almost ten years ago!

Day 6 - Today: "My favorite book character, that cannot be a movie." Luckily, my two favorite books haven't been made into movies (and I hope they never do!), so I was able to choose between either Thief of Always by Clive Barker, or Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite. Of course....knowing me, I went with Lost Souls. Ghost will always hold a special little place in my heart, and Ghost and Steve are my favorite fictional couple. I didn't have enough staying-awake power to draw Steve, so maybe tomorrow.

Day 3----Favorite Food - Cake

2012-02-06T15:32:00.000-05:00

I drew so many cakes before I was like: drawing food is booooor-iiiiing. So I made a cake lady! IT COUNTS. I will draw the rest of my themes today! So get ready for more posts!

Day.....3!

2012-02-05T17:15:00.001-05:00

Sooooo I've already failed this challenge. But! My home computer is DEAD. It no longer turns on. I'm on my work laptop updating!

Since I can't scan or work on my cintiq at the moment, I'll post my 'day 3' topic, my favorite food, in PICTURE FORM! I'll actually do a drawing of it tomorrow when I have access to my cintiq at work.

My favorite food: CAKE!!

I made pomegranate and chocolate petit fours for my friends Michael and Natalie's wedding party! I started them on my day 3 of this drawing challenge....so it counts, right?

edit: I forgot to post the recipe! Here it is!

Day 2 Favorite Animal: Comet

2012-02-02T12:57:00.002-05:00

Comet will always be my favorite animal!! He was so sweet, I miss him everyday. So I decided to do a quick sketch of him!

Hes my little sweet guy. Miss you Comet!

MONTHLY CHALLENGE

2012-02-01T15:41:00.001-05:00

A friend at work passed this around the other day (Thanks Renee!), and I REALLY need a boost, so I decided to try it! Yes I know February only has 28 days. This year has 29! And I will go into March :3

Day 1. Myself:

Heres me in my big head, giant bottom portion, thick legged, self portrait! Tomorrow.....MY FAVORITE ANIMAL. Stay tuned.

Fashion

2011-12-30T03:27:00.000-05:00

For someone as poorly dressed as I am, I sure have a lot of fashion magazines and books. I love fashion! They're great reference books for designing. I finally got some new art materials and was itching to use them so I doodled up an images based on an Elsa Schiaparelli dress:

Hope everyone had a good holiday! And have a happy New Year!

Lord of Evil and his Daughter

2011-12-18T20:31:00.001-05:00

This one is for my buddy, voice of Marceline's dad Lord of Evil, Martin Olson! Happy to be able to give you something for the holidays dude!!

[edit] Forgot to upload the sketch! D'oh!

Christmas Cards

2011-11-15T14:20:00.000-05:00

Here are the cards I painted up this weekend! I JUST sent them out to print, so once they come back and they're ok, I'll be selling them :)! I will also be selling the originals...in case anyone is interested. Let me know! Thaaaaanks guys!

Keepin' busy

2011-11-06T22:48:00.000-05:00

I made some more ornaments on my day off! Trying to keep my mind busy and thinking about things other than my cat.Its working! Kinda lol.

Anyways, two new ornaments up in the shop at the SpooyPress Store :

Fleece mushrooms with wooden buttons and:

Fleece birds with fleece leaves in their beaks!

Cards will hopefully be up next week. Hope you enjoy them!

Comet 2007-2011

2011-11-05T14:28:00.001-04:00

My dear sweet cat, the gentlest and nicest cat I've ever met let alone owned, had to be put down two days ago. I think the hardest part was that it happened so fast and he was so young. 4 years old, he came down with lymphoma and quickly declined; he was fine on Sunday, I took him to the vet Wednesday, and my boyfriend and I put him down on Thursday. He was hospitalized until we found out it was cancer and he only had a short while left, and most likely painful at that. I've never had to put a cat down myself, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. He'll be with me always and I'll never have another cat like him! He headbutted and cuddled like no one else. I'll miss you, little guy.

On the slightly happier side, I'm selling some art, ornaments, and garland to try and raise some money to help pay our large vet bills. It stinks its so much money when we weren't able to take him home, but we made him comfortable and thats what matters.

First up is this original painting in a hand-painted plastic frame:

Then I have this mushroom ornament:

And also a garland for hanging on a tree or mantle place! Sadly, it is not double sided so keep that in mind if you purchase it.

These are all available in my shop here: SpooyPress Store

And I will be making and posting more as I get the time an energy to make them! Im hoping to do Holiday Cards as well. Thanks for reading all of this, it means a lot! :)

Pumpkins

2011-10-13T18:04:00.000-04:00

Eh....Not super happy with this one, but did it in my breaks at work! Hooray for doing art!

Vampire

2011-10-12T15:46:00.000-04:00

I don't know when i switched to drawing naked girls posing for a camera. But I did. And its SOOoooo much fun! Go cute naked ladies!

I'm trying to do more artwork in my free time at work, like when I get in and at lunch. So this is done in about an hour, quickly, during lunch time.

witchy

2011-10-07T01:39:00.000-04:00

Just something I doodled at work in my down-time and colored at home. The end!

Self Poooortrait

2011-10-03T01:15:00.000-04:00

Its about time I updated my icon to actually look like me. I have long hair and I wear dresses now! And I've gotten a little more...uh...curvy is a good way to put it. I need to exercise but oh my god do you realize how TIRING and exhausting that is?! Screw that noise. I like cookies.

APE!

2011-09-29T00:28:00.000-04:00

For those of you going to A.P.E. this weekend, let me know! I'll be going with my boyfriend Chris and a whole mess of awesome friends. So many great artists to see! I don't have a table (maybe next year!), but I'm up for free sketches to whoever says hi to me lol.

Sorry no art this post either but....APE! So excited!!

Birdgirl

2011-09-05T15:54:00.000-04:00

An old color mock up I did of an even older sketch:

More old work sketches:

My Old Job

2011-09-02T02:12:00.000-04:00

I try not to talk about work in 'public.' It's not usually a good idea, almost kind of rude; best to keep those things to myself. But I just wanted to say, I really freaking miss the crew I used to work with. I think that speaks for a work place when I can honestly say I miss being in that fume filled building given the conditions we had. It's really a shame such an awesome group of people got broken up like we did, because if we were given a healthy environment full of encouragement and support we would have really been something great. I just wanted to get that off my chest and give a shout out to all the DE people saying I miss you! And hope where you're working now is worthy of you! And if you're not working yet, don't worry. You've been through war and you've only come out stronger for it! Love you guys, you're all like family. Hugs all around!

And for those of you who didn't work with me, here are some things I've never posted. A lot of our projects got canceled, and towards the end our best game got squashed. I've never been more proud of something I've worked on from scratch, and not been more proud of a crew of co-workers and friends!

Here are concepts for Summer Camp, my most favorite Wii game to concept for.

HI PAUL

These were cut scenes for the game; they would scroll on screen.

HI PAUL

Heres our Logo/Loading icon

Some assets :

These were the individual textures I painted for each character. We had 19 in total and 44 images for each character (eyes and mouth separate) so that makes 836 little paintings I had to do. It took me weeeeeeks! But the end result was worth it, the animators were able to use the individual textures to animate the characters talking. Neat! I made them into gifs while I worked on them to check out how smoothly they ran together, but it made for funny gifs too...

This is the cover to a canceled golf game. Click it for SUUUUPER DETAIL

Characters for a canceled pirate tower defense game

These are concepts for a canceled tower defense game

Thats enough lol. This is just a small bit of what I worked on for 3 1/2 years that never saw the light of day. THE END.

KICK!

2011-09-01T17:36:00.000-04:00

LIVEWIRE! KICK!

Trying something new

2011-08-25T01:42:00.000-04:00

I tried taking a screen capture of myself drawing in PS. Cuz I like watching others do it, I thought Id be a copycat and do it too! Heres the video for this doodle. Its only my second one (the first one saved corrupted...boo!), so if you have any suggestion on how to make it better let me know! Youtube compressed it to hell and the program I used recorded it slow....so I had to double the speed. And its really small....I have to figure out how to make it better. But. Here it is!

<p>&amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;gt;T</p>

Ta da! The future is now!

Watercolors

2011-08-05T23:20:00.000-04:00

I did this sketch on the train coming home from work and I wanted to color it up. I tried watercolor....but its been so long I seem to have forgotten how! I gave it a shot though. Hopefully I'll get around to doing more paintings and I'll get back into the swing of it.

Train sketchies

2011-07-15T03:23:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to sketch while I wait for the train to and from work. I tried drawing ON the train, but it moves around too much and all I get is junk. Messy messy junk. So heres what I did the past few days! Not much, but I'm easing myself back into drawing. Sloooowly. I also am forcing myself to use my cintiq, a tool I so far don't much like, but I know I'll eventually love it. Its taking some getting used to though I wanted to practice inking/drawing over my sketches. I'll try to do more of it!

Happy 4th of July USA!

2011-07-04T14:02:00.001-04:00

Hope everyone one in the USA has a great 4th! Me and my boyfriend Chris went to Mussel Rock Beach last night and watched the sunset while lighting up sparklers. Im lame and really like sparklers! I also made cupcakes this weekend; chocolate cupcakes with Earl Grey tea and filled with chocolate ganache and topped with cream cheese frosting. Also edible little gold star sprinkles I love. Today we're going to the Redwood City fair/parade/fireworks. Sorry no artwork to post, I've been busy with house work, yard work, and work work. Sometime soon though Im sure ;) !

Cintiq!

2011-06-13T02:49:00.001-04:00

I'm still getting use to my cintiq...its not at a good height for me to draw and my arm gets tired really fast. I'm going to think about investing in a new desk and cintiq arm for it. Maybe, one day lol.

Here are some things I doodled, and I colored that Rainbow Brite picture from before. Boop!

ALSO! Girls Drawin' Girls is coming out with their new book, The Way Nature Made Her, and I'm in it! My Deadly Nightshade illustration will be in there. Please, if you're interested in the book pre-order! It will help all the girls cover the cost of printing the book and will help us make more books. So check out the awesome girls who are apart of it and hope you'll pre-order. You can get them at SDCC too I believe, so you can view them live there if you're going to be attending. Yay books!

I haven't posted art in months and all I got are these lousy sketches

2011-06-04T17:36:00.001-04:00

My cintiq is on its way to my house! So hopefully...once I get it I'll post more digital stuff. I really prefer traditional over digital, but I should keep up both skills while Im at home. So I need to stop being lazy and now I wont have an excuse with a cintiq at my desk!

Anyways. I haven't drawn in ages so I'm really really rusty. These are my sketches from the train I take to work every day:

I have a bad habit of turning the book upside down cuz Im a lefty and its easier to draw on a surface :/

Random Livewire!

Over at the Girls Drawin Girls blog, the new theme is Rainbow Brite. So I did some quick designs and Im hoping I get unlazy enough to do an illustration for it.

Im thinking of putting stuff up for sale. Maybe I will make some nice originals in frames or something :)

Interviews!

2011-04-27T23:08:00.000-04:00

We made it to San Francisco! After 6 days in a U-Haul with my boyfriend and cat, we're now spending our days and nights in a hotel until we move into our apartment this weekend. I can't wait to be done moving from NJ to CA! It'll be such a nice relief. One major downside is that the commute to work is much worse than we thought when we chose our apartment. D'oh!

Anyway, I have two interviews up! One is on Girls Drawin' Girls and the other is in Chinese on LeewiArt. I wish there was an English version, but they translated it and I don't see the original anywhere! Ah well. Hope you like them!

So far I'm really enjoying my job at Zynga. The work is enjoyable and everyone there is so sweet! Its just as fast paced as Digital Embryo so luckily I'm set up for the pace of the studio. I'll try to post some work I did once its up online and I get an OK from my AD!

I'm still without all my art supplies, so no art for another week or so. Raspberries!

San Francisco!

2011-03-25T17:30:00.000-04:00

My boyfriend Chris, my cat Comet and I are moving! To SF! We have three weeks to make the entire move so we're stressed right now, but soon we'll be settled and I'll be back to blogging.

I've gotten a job at Zynga, which from what I've heard is a kickass place to work. So I'm really excited! Yay!

Patterns

2011-03-19T23:28:00.000-04:00

I was in Princeton today and I picked up some really nice patterned paper for super cheap! Im going to try to use them as backgrounds or as mats for paintings. I've also scanned them all in so I can use them digitally; as brushes, as texture, as backgrounds etc.. I put them in a zip in case you wanted to download them as well! They're here: patterns.zip and they're all 300 dpi. They're not in a tileable format but they can obviously be made into them. There are 9 patterns and the zip is about 145 MB. I'm going to try making my own patterns too, especially when my cintiq arrives in the mail :)

Heathen Hammer

2011-03-11T00:51:00.000-05:00

This is for Girls Drawin' Girls with the theme of favorite song lyrics! So I drew a picture based on one of my favorite bands, Týr, a viking metal band. The lyric is "Hold the heathen hammer high with a battle cry, for the pagan past I live and one day will die." Hit the link here to see the finished piece over at the blog !

I won something!!

2011-02-28T01:42:00.001-05:00

I got FIRST place in the Shanda and LeewiArt contest! I won a cintiq and prize monies and a trophy and a certificate! The contest was for: "“□□ and Its Friends” 2010 Shanda Games Creative Cartoon Competition is jointly held by Shanda Games and leewiART International Computer Graphic (CG) Art Promoting Organization, with the objective to design international standard cartoon figures to represent all FLASH, web and casual products of Shanda Games." And I entered these characters posted way back here: Contest designs

Considering it was judged by Stephen Silver, Tom Bancroft, and Florian Satzinger, along with some amazing talent, I'm kind of shocked I got in the top five, let alone first. There were some other amazing entries as well so I'm really happy about it! And a big zazz-filled thanks to Jarrod and Chris for critiquing my work before I submitted it. Yay!

Update on the paintin

2011-02-18T12:56:00.001-05:00

I finally picked up my easel from my parents house so I could work on this properly. I repainted pretty much the whole thing a few times. I'm still not really happy with it, but its getting there! Proportions are a little off but they're better than they were by far. Natural light vs. studio light!

Sketchin in my moleskin

2011-02-10T14:38:00.000-05:00

Some sketches I've done in the past week or so. I like drawing outfits I want for myself, like cute skirts and dresses!

I drew guys for the first time in ages too! Dudes.

just a quickie!

2011-02-08T10:45:00.000-05:00

Just a quick sketch I did last night. Not too keen on how her face came out, but I like her boobies.

Hearts

2011-02-05T16:11:00.000-05:00

I haven't water colored in I think a year or two. So I'm really rusty! I fought with it the whole time I painted this. I never thought I'd like gouache better lol but I do! Maybe I'll re-do this one in gouache one day. I took the pose from my life drawing sessions, from a model who is awesome.

Girls Drawin' Girls!

2011-02-02T16:17:00.000-05:00

I got into Girls Drawin' Girls! This is my first submission for the theme, Alice in Wonderland.I wont be posting them both places from now on, so if you wanna keep up with me on GDG go join them! Its an awesome group of talented ladies that draw sexy women. Great group, Im proud to be apart of it!

Oil Painting

2011-01-31T10:47:00.000-05:00

Heres a WIP of the oil painting I'm working on. Its in the super early stages, but I'm having a lot of fun with it. I haven't used oils since 2004! So its taking some getting used to.

Tracy Morgan

2011-01-30T14:18:00.002-05:00

I'm currently working on a freelance project that is soooo much fun!! When it's up and running, I'll post my work for it. Until then you get the sketches I do while I'm waiting for feedback.

I realized when I was done inking this that I wasn't supposed to ink it, I was supposed to outline it in colored pencil. OOPS. I'm going to re-do this one anyway cuz Im not happy with it, but figured I'd post it anyway for a before and after.

I never realized how much Tracy Morgan looks like Homer Simpson.

Tophers

2011-01-25T19:20:00.001-05:00

I love this faaace! Quick painting studies of my boyfriend to prepare for an oil painting I'm doing. Can you tell I need to practice painting cloth?

30 Rock

2011-01-21T16:32:00.001-05:00

My boyfriend and I have been watching the entire series from the start, but they don't have season 5 on Netflix yet so I'm holding off watching the new ones until they come out. In the meantime, caricatures!

Jack McBrayer and Judah Friedlander as Kenneth and Frank. I'll try not to be lazy and do the whole cast!

Practice

2011-01-17T14:27:00.000-05:00

Just a sketch to bulk up my environment skills!

And these are designs for a personal project I'm working on with two awesome dudes.

Unicorn!

2011-01-16T13:53:00.000-05:00

Drawn for Andrea, who looooves the unicorns! I had a lot of fun drawing this one.

"Keeeeeenny!"

2011-01-13T09:57:00.003-05:00

I drew this way back when I found out Eastbound & Down season two was going to take place in Mexico. I just found it and colored it up! If I had known Stevie would have a much much more awesome entrance scene in Season 2, I wouldn't have drawn something so tame.

I love you Stevie Janowski.

edit:

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention, I added new SpooyPress links to the side, including a store I've had for like a year and never put up here. Oops!

Aaaand More!

2011-01-10T17:05:00.000-05:00

Done for a chance to be in an erotic art show in Seattle! I dunno if it'll get in since its not very 'erotic' but we'll see. Either way, it will be up for sale!

More....

2011-01-08T15:58:00.001-05:00

I am posting a lot! Hope thats ok. Just have another contest I finished up here: Sketchoholic Drawing Contest - Skelanimals where the theme was...Skelanimals :) So I chose a mermaid. Im no good at animals lol. If you're a member, please vote for me! I could use Painter 11.

Markers and white out!

Another contest

2011-01-07T16:39:00.000-05:00

This is a WIP from another contest I'm entering. I'm trying to get better at digital coloring, and I loooove painting faces so it seemed like a good fit. Any crits are welcomed!

Atreyyyuuuu

2011-01-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

I've been reading The Neverending Story, like I've been meaning to do for years. Atreyu is green! Or maybe I took olive green too literally! Anyway, I felt the need to draw the little ten year old cutie face. Just a quick doodle to get better at digital coloring.

Doodles and Sketches

2011-01-04T22:26:00.001-05:00

These are just some old doodles I found in the sketchbook I brought with me to CTN X ::

Last three are from life, from the best model ever and the last of this famous guy who I forget...he noticed I was drawing him though and I stopped lol.

These are more waiting room doodles.

Contest...DONE!

2011-01-03T18:42:00.001-05:00

I'm finally done with this contest! Phew! My entry is here: Shanda Games and I hope its what the judges are looking for! The requirements were to draw at least 3 characters with one turnaround and one group view. But I decided to do 3, then two bullies, and turnarounds for all of them. With just a tablet to ink this stuff, it took a while. Hope you like em :)!

Cookbook

2010-12-29T13:36:00.000-05:00

These are some quick spot illustrations I'm doing for a family cookbook I'm putting together. It wont be for sale since some of the recipes we've gotten from online, but its just something to have all our recipes in one spot. Its a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun too!

100 posts!

2010-12-27T18:32:00.001-05:00

Well, 104 posts actually but I didn't catch it at 100. So I'll yay now! 100+ posts over 4 1/2 years. I should probably post more lol.

Here are some designs I did for a contest. I'm out of practice on turnarounds, so I hope its not too noticeable! I just have 2 more turnarounds and I'll be done. Sweet.

Commissions

2010-12-21T18:51:00.000-05:00

I'm opening up commissions for anyone who'd like one, comment here or email me at aisleenr at gmail.com ! They would be along the same line as the last 4 paintings I posted on the blog. Starting around $50 and going up.

Heres a super old Luna Lovegood painting! I'm selling some art as well, this one included, so if theres something on my blog that you'd like let me know and we'll talk! Thaaaaanks :D

Portfolio stuff

2010-12-09T15:57:00.000-05:00

Im currently working on stuff for my portfolio I was told to change when I was at CTNX. One of the things I needed was more character expression sheets and poses. So I'm doing some colored more final stuff along with expressions. Huzzah! I like the sketch a lot better, but I usually do soooo...yeah!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T14:01:00.001-05:00

Happy Food Day America! Im at my parents house baking and cooking. Excitement! I made pumpkin cake balls again, apple turnovers, and we're cooking brussel sprouts, turnips, potatoes, and turkey with fresh pickles, peas, and apple cider. Yay for food day!

CTN X is over and it was really amazing. I posted a bunch of photos after the jump!

Harry Potter hands!

$2 for this photo

Cheeks! And the sketch he drew for me:

Phil Rynda and the sketch he drew for me:

Andy Ristaino! Andy and Phil were both really nice guys, Im so glad to have met them! Heres Andys sketch :

Ovi Nedelcu (back there ...in the back) and the sketch he drew:

Noah Klocek and John Nevarez and their sketches in that order:

Stephen Silver and his sketch:

Drake Brodahl, who was totally one of the sweetest guys we met there. I was amazed he knew my blog! His work is isanely good, Im kicking myself for not buying a print. Heres the adorable sketch he drew for me!

Damon Bard

Peter de Seve

Sketches by :

Pascal Campion

Nidhi Chanani

Zar! I love her stuff.

Brittney Lee

Disney Studios!

Phineas & Ferb studio

Overall it was a really great time and a great con. Can't wait to get back there next year! I got a lot of great crits and advice and I'm ready to get back to arting. I hope to have a table then too, so I gotta get workin.

P & F again!

2010-11-17T15:50:00.003-05:00

I decided to make Jeff his own gift...so heres another one :)

Phineas and Ferb

2010-11-17T09:20:00.000-05:00

Another gift for awesome dudes named Dan, Jeff and a sweet lady named Teresa. Hooray!

gift!

2010-11-15T17:51:00.001-05:00

A gift for a super awesome dude named Martin. Hope he likes it :)

got lots of free time all of a sudden

2010-11-11T22:09:00.001-05:00

I haven't drawn in about two months...that is very bad. I'm trying to learn how to draw again. I think I need to completely re-learn caricatures which really sucks :/

I drew some doodles while sitting in a waiting room for seven hours. It was brutal.

I'm still chugging away at my sister's doll! I've added a top hat since she requested one, and added his dead rose. The coffin he'll stand in is almost done too, I just need to find a lamp to light it with.

I'll be going to the CTN Expo in Burbank, CA next week! I'll be in LA from the 18th to the 22nd, and it'll be my first time on the west coast and in CA. I'll have cards, phone charms and prints on me so if we magically happen to run into each other my dear internet, you may have free things. I'm excited to get out there and meet everyone, including people from Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks, BlueSky, Headless Productions, etc. It's gunna be awesome! I will take many photos of all the celebs, and post them here for you to just scroll past!

Happy Halloweeeeeeen!!!

2010-10-31T00:41:00.000-04:00

Hooray! I love Halloween. Every year I try to make something to bring to work, and this year I made 'Pumpkin Pie' cake balls in the shape of pumpkins. The recipe made over 50 so it was time consuming! But totally worth it. And I love sugar cookies, so yeah.... My boss took the last photo, one of each all together. Yay food!

And heres another update on my sister's doll. His hair is mohair and I threaded his face. Just needs his clothes and dead flower!

Update!

2010-10-25T00:28:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update on my sister's doll. He's standing on his own now! All baked and ready for sanding. I'll hopefully have it done for you by Halloweeeeen :)

And for more Halloweeny things, heres my favorite gravestone. From the Kingston cemetery in NJ.

Birthday!

2010-10-20T18:51:00.000-04:00

This is a gift for my sister's birthday, and it's super late! So I'm gunna try to post in-progress shots so at least she can see what its looking like. This is only half sculpted, and I kind of blind baked it so I can work on the trickiest (the feet) part more easily. He'll have stitches in his mouth and he'll be holding a dead rose. I swear it'll look like something soon sistoh!

And because I haven't posted drawings in around two months, here are some old scrapped designs I did for my job. The trees I guess might be a little boring, but i had a lot of fun drawing them :)

Todd Tolensky

2010-09-07T19:59:00.001-04:00

Just some quick doodles for the challenge I'm hoping to finish by Oct. 4th, for the Comicon Challenge over at the GameArtisans site. I picked Todd Tolensky, cuz I love skinny pasty white grungy boys. I do. I chose between him and Nightcrawler cuz I love Nightcrawler a whole lot...but I just can't think of anything good enough for him. So I'm trying Toad and I'm going to age him up. We'll see how long it takes before I forget to finish this!

back-logged!

2010-08-18T01:35:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a bunch of errands like mailing packages and packing up prints and sending postcards and actually DOING work I should of had done already! It's a good thing.

These are designs a friend asked for a year ago and because I am completely awful, I just finished them. I am sorry I suck so badly Alex!!

But, they were really really fun. He asked for a logo based on his adorable cat, and I did a bunch of sketches and he picked which ones he liked. Hope he likes the finals! They only took me long enough :/

And heres an older sketch :

The trick is to wait until they put on a video game.

digital

2010-07-29T01:13:00.002-04:00

Two days ago I was looking at GoodBrush (thank you Cory!) and at his sketches, and it made me want to work on my color and lighting which are both really weak. So I made a brush in PS and got to painting! I'm trying to do little doodles each day in my free time and to reaaally start pushing realistic colors. I stink at those. And also I really really love this brush.

These took about half an hour (I love painting trees):

These I did with photo reference, each took about an hour with 15 minutes not looking at the ref. for fixing (I love painting faces):

So...yeah. I see why digital coloring can be fun!

And heres my last Weekly Jam Session piece, cuz I missed this weeks jam...cuz I was too busy painting in PS...

More cartoony stuff at some point I hope.

Thants

2010-07-25T16:22:00.001-04:00

I was going to draw this funny thing that happened to me, that I only kinda found funny when I was re-telling it. Its about ants. I got home late one night this week only to find my cat had barfed on a throw rug, which normally isn't a big deal cuz he barfs a LOT, but I was feeling really sick and I was exhausted so I took my time going to clean it up. Then I realized the barf was moving because it was full of ANTS. I went outside to shake the rug off over my balcony, and I realized the entire under-side was ALSO covered in ants. I ran to throw it in the dumpster, ran back to my apartment and threw my shirt into the tub because I was sure it was also crawling in ants. Then there was a giant beetle in the bathroom (or something I don't know, it had pinchers!), so I scream/sobbed/stomped it dead, and went into my room to clean up the ants that I could. I was so sick and sleepy and I just couldn't deal with it so I did the only logical thing I could do. I grabbed the garbage, called and asked my boyfriend if I could hide at his house for the night and I left. On my way to my car as I was tossing the garbage bag into the dumpster I missed and the open bag full of cat barf and dead ants fell and hit me in the face.

It was a lot less funny when I got home last night, thinking they were all dead, only to find out these ants BITE and they discovered my mattress! And when I went to bake a cake this morning, the ants were all like "Screw you we're having a fucking party in this bowl!" and I saw the entire under cabinet of my kitchen was crawling with them.

Its not funny any more, but I bet I'll laugh at this in a few years.

-Thanks ants. Thants.

ladies

2010-07-11T20:51:00.000-04:00

My apartment is a mess and I have a lot more important things I probably should be doing, but instead I drew some girls. Boobs!

These are some quick re-draws of life drawing sketches from my favorite model sessions. I mainly just added more detail and cleaned the lines up and went back and stylized a few.

It was a fun exercise! I don't know why they turned into superheros!

Waiting room day

2010-06-10T20:33:00.000-04:00

As per request by the awesome Cory, I went back and re-uploaded the last post with a higher-res photo. I tried to photoshop all the schmoots off the frame, but there was so much! I really need to clean my scanner on the inside...yuck.

Here are some sketches I did while sitting in a waiting room as I was serving jury duty today. I was waiting for about 6 hours in the SAME room, stupidly with nothing to read, until I got called into jury selection. I didn't get picked though, which is good for my wallet but I admit I was a little (very little) disappointed because the judge was HILARIOUS. Oh well. I apologize for the awful Freakazoid and for some things being upside-down. I really like drawing that viking kid I had posted a few posts back, I just feel like such a poser when there are cooler vikings from HTTYD!

Annnnd finally, go check out my best bud's website! Serena Henderson updated her website, which in a feat in itself if you've ever seen the old one. What a major rehaul, its so freakin' cute! Love it to bits chingu :)

Birthday gifts!

2010-06-05T13:59:00.001-04:00

A gift for my Brother-in-law's birthday! I found the frame at the thrift store, its almost an inch deep. I forgot how much I loved doing cross-hatching :B

Stars!

2010-05-09T00:13:00.006-04:00

I had this drawing sitting on my desk for about a week. I did around 10 sketches of it and moved it to my final marker paper. But when I sat down to color it today I realized she didn't look like she was actually moving...so I did about 10 more sketches and ended up with this-

Prismacolor markers, colored pencils, aaand photoshop to remove the stupid face I put on the star. I need to do more sketches before doing finals, I'm glad I spent the extra time for once lol. A little LSP tribute on her dress, and I mainly had The Golden Filter - Hide Me (Clock Opera Remix) on repeat the entire time I drew and colored this. Pretty song! I don't know why everything I'm drawing lately is so disgustingly cute, but I'll fix that with a Stevie Janowski drawing soon enough.

Adventure Time!

2010-04-28T23:36:00.003-04:00

I love this episode, the jiggler is too cute! Mama's supposed to LOVE baby. I need to work on drawing RIGHTEOUS action poses, cuz this is kind of a lame attempt at fanart of the action packed mathematical Adventure Time. Whatever! Its fine. Its fiiiiine. Markers n pencils for this one, and I know Finn's colors are off, I'm just too lazy/cheap to buy more markers.

Lumpy Space Princess is getting drawn next.

Some sketches and the little doodle/idea for the fanart up there:

(Im working on a Stevie Janowski drawing...so thats half EB&D and half AT!)

And heres a WIP of that hippie painting I started. Im probably going start over because I don't know why I painted this on cold press. Its impossible to paint clean lines with cold press and Im getting annoyed at it!

more gifts!

2010-04-26T00:11:00.002-04:00

I hope this post doesn't spoil another surprise lol, but this is for Bridgette's sister Sam. I know how it is being the younger sister so I wanted to give something to both girls. Hope you like it Sam!

Baby! I know what you need...

2010-04-21T00:04:00.006-04:00

You want your little baby socks for your little baby feet!

First off, to anyone NOT watching Adventure Time religiously, you are missing out on life. On fresh, happy, glorious fun-filled life. Aaaaah the years of waiting were not in vain! For those of you that do watch it, The Jiggler episode score is up at the Frederator Blog! I had asked about the song and checked back later to find the whole thing up. Finn's song...so cute. Fanart will need to be drawn. Much praise to the whole crew for being so damn talented!

But mainly I'm posting to upload a gift I drew for a friend. Bridgette is an awesome little girl who reads and collects everything I do, and is a sweetheart and an aspiring artist on top of it! I heard she likes dragons and I've been itching to draw one with all the HTTYD craze going on. So this ones for you Bridgette!

dusty blog!

2010-04-18T22:10:00.003-04:00

I literally dusted all the dust off of my drawing table and got to drawing today! I mainly doodled so theres not much to show. I'm still trying to find all the work I did the past four months only to keep realizing there is none. Sigh.

Heres a marker drawing and re-design of a hippie I drew last summer:

And a quick sketch I'd like to paint in gouache when I find the time, since I was really inspired to break out the paints recently!

Two of my favorite people and I went into the city for MoCCA last weekend. It was so nice! I mainly went to pick up a Tigerbuttah book because Becky is one of my most favorite artists. I met her and Frank who are both so sweet! At the same table, while Becky was drawing me a cute sketch, Steven Sugar came over and luckily I found out he was selling Rocky Albatross so I got two books of his as well. Lucy Knisely was there too and I got her LJ compilation book. Shes so shy and quiet! It was really a kick in the butt meeting all these awesome artists. Heres the cute sketch Becky did for me because everyone should see it and I hope she doesn't mind me posting (and will of course take down if need be):

So yeah, I would like to practice with a brush more for sure and hopefully have something to show for it soon... such talent these youngins have today.

Bein' lazy

2010-02-18T20:42:00.005-05:00

I haven't done a lot of art lately...I need to get un-lazy!

I did make a doll for my sister's wedding though. I finished it too close to her reception and had to take crappy, rushed photos. So here you go!

And heres a really old doodle I found on my HD. Everything is Illuminated is one of my most favorite movies. Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.

New Year!

2010-01-01T00:44:00.002-05:00

Ending 2009 (starting 2010) with some marker doodles! I got some new prismacolor markers and really wanted to try em out. Im sure there will be a crap load more...I have 3 more days off of work so I'll have pleeeenty of free time. Excitement!

Heathens!

2009-12-21T10:13:00.004-05:00

The Vikings kids I was doodling due to Tyr and who inspired the last post! Basically its just the boy in the NJ kid post....but in Viking-ness. I kinda like him better with the helmet on; hes more fun that way. And he can't see for crap!

And heres some life drawings from my 6 figure drawing classes. Times range from 2 minutes to 10. The dude we had last session would not stop moving, it was infuriating! But I had fun anyway. I used grease pencil for the girl and prismacolor grey markers and brush pen on the guy.

Viking

2009-12-15T01:38:00.004-05:00

Bill Presing is having a contest to win an original piece! And he didnt announce it until last night.....and I forgot about it until like 3 hours ago! So I scrambled to get this done. Markers and colored pencils; I kicked myself for drawing it in blue pencil. Aaaand we shall see. I've been drawing a lot of viking kids lately....probably something to do with all the Tyr I've been listening to.

Anyway, if you can submit to the contest you should! Good luck to everyone!

NJ Kid sketches

2009-12-04T00:48:00.006-05:00

Been sketching this guy the past few days. For some reason I'm starting to clamp up when I use pencil, so I swtiched to pen and that helped a lot. I have no idea why lol. I still can't decide if I like him with his face showing or not...
And a quick Wolverine cuz I like me some X-Men!

Holidays

2009-11-22T23:43:00.003-05:00

Did a Christmas painting this weekend! Also finished up an Elf doll for my mom's birthday. Fully pose-able, made from super sculpy, wire and lots of fabric/wool. I used the technique I learned from Wendy Froud. Soooo it is a little Froud-ish, but thats what my mom likes!

Eastbound & Down

2009-11-03T01:14:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Jarrod, I've now seen this show lol. It's amazing, and Stevie Janowski is my favorite! These are some quick doodles because if you saw this amazing beast of a man, you'd have to draw him too.

I love people with amazing faces! Who also scream at children and make me laugh.

"YOU INVITED THIS MONSTER!"

Aaahhhh good times everyone, good times.

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-10-18T01:58:00.004-04:00

Saw it twice this weekend....probably will go a third time before its out of theaters. It's one of the few movies that didn't turn out to be a waste of money! And worth the few years of waiting. Max was great and Alexander was also pretty adorable with his whining. I'm kind of impressed at how close it was to the book since the book was so short; it really stayed true to the story down to every detail. Go out and see it!

Dudes

2009-09-29T00:02:00.002-04:00

Been listening to a bit of 80s metal lately. Its the NJ kid in me finally breaking out of its dark little cage.

Last 2 boys are re-designs of an oooold character I have, Sam. I really want to go back in and push some of the shapes, so adding that to my to-do list!

Life Drawing

2009-09-22T23:53:00.003-04:00

Me and my friend from work, Cory, went to our life drawing class this weekend! Man, am I out of practice. Cory's wife was sweet enough to ask to see these; the times range from 2 minutes to half an hour, but I don't think I used the full time for any of them except the last one. Sorry for the crappy quality, they're too big to scan and its pretty dark in here...

I know the proportions are a little wonky, but I'll hopefully get back into the swing of it!

- vine charcoal, compressed charcoal, grease pencil, and brush pen -

(also voting is still open on the toys! )

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-08-28T00:25:00.003-04:00

Heres a little doodle I farted out. This movie is gunna rock so hard...

Danny Cooksey

2009-08-26T01:21:00.000-04:00

I have a little celebrity crush on the guy. Hes just so NEAT looking and his voice is so so awesome. I've had his song Stag on repeat for hours. Days even. I just wish there was a way to buy his music, cuz I have money to give him!

So I've been doodling him a bunch (again) and trying to get his face right (again). It's really hard because he has this awesome awesome nose that Im finding impossible to get down. His face shape is totally amazing and I will never tire of it though.

And here are some Livewire sketches, cuz I was watching some Batman Animated recently. I know the colored paper one is boring, but I was just inking a super super quick sketch so see how it would look on pastel paper. Not sure if I like it...

Also eep, I have a list of things to draw for people that I need to do. Apologies in advance!

Candy Rot

2009-08-20T20:29:00.003-04:00

A new cavegirl! Drawn for a joint blog with my friend Serena.

Also, did anyone else catch the new ep. of Flapjack, "K'nuckles and His Hilarious Problem?" Ghostshrimp just might draw my favorite expressions ever to be created by man.

Marker and Pencil colors

2009-08-16T03:45:00.004-04:00

Just some doodles and colors of sketches. I kinda like drawing the amazon/cavegirl-type ones, so Im working on some more too.

Im trying to get into a local life drawing class starting in September. Its for 8 weeks and I could use the class so badly, but Im not sure if there is room left. Heres hoping!

hippie

2009-07-19T02:03:00.001-04:00

Been in a hippie sort of mood! One day I'll draw better poses and upload them.

Just a quick something before bed.

Zombies

2009-07-16T01:33:00.003-04:00

Zombies for another 'weekly' challenge! Guy in the middle is Casual Business Zombie. And then this random Super Hero girl, because I was sent some awesome Bruce Timm refs and well...I need to practice some more.

Hah hah! Dangly parts.

scribble scrabble

2009-06-28T23:39:00.003-04:00

Natasha Levitan, from these awesome 'how to cook' videos on a website that I lost the link to.

I was trying to see how close I could get a likeness without using reference. Theres a bunch I didn't post...but here are the ones that are the least offensive!

Also, Im sorry Serena, I'll draw a better 'you' next time!

something totally different

2009-06-26T21:57:00.004-04:00

For years my dad has been asking me to paint a picture of his garden and I finally did for this Father's Day. I don't like painting realism; it's not fun, its frustrating and aggravating and takes too much concentration for someone who'd rather draw cartoons. But I think that's what I need right now. I've been slacking in my life drawing and painting, which is kind of scary to me. This is the painting I gave my dad :

It took me so many hours I can't count, many re-paintings of the same spot, and at one point I just ditched the reference photos and painted from memory. Heres a painting I found in my old portfolio, one I did three years ago in about an hour:

Overall I think its a lot better than the first one, maybe not lighting-wise, but color and technique for sure. It really made me realize how far I've fallen with my observational skills. Yikes. Time to get back into the paints and head outside!

And work-wise, we were looking at the WiiWare game LostWinds as an example of what 40 MB can do. And man is that game amazing. Visually gorgeous, fun and interesting because most of it is trial and error, and control-wise really awesome. More games that utilize the cursor aspect of the wiimote, in a non-frustrating way, would be greatly appreciated.

Jam

2009-06-20T14:17:00.004-04:00

Woooooooaaaaaaaah! Serena, the awesome animator/illustrator, finally posted some of her work to her blog. Check it out, shes crazy good!

And also here are some doodles done for our joint blog, Weekly Jam Session. Actually its more like our 'Yearly' Jam Session. We try to pick a topic and draw it, but they're sorta all turning into the same thing. Whatever!

These were done with brush pen, prisma color and copic markers, colored pencils, and white out. I'll probably draw more tomorrow if I have time while not doing Fathers Day fun things. I want to draw more non-boring poses and the like.

Self Portrait

2009-06-18T20:05:00.004-04:00

This is how I look, according to my best friend Serena. I have a hump, buckteeth, a hoof arm and a claw arm, walk with a cane, wear one sneaker and drag a high heeled clad foot behind me, I have a half mask to hide the rest of my face (like its actually hiding anything), and the best part, a fat ponytail. Thats when you have a ponytail made up entirely of neck fat.

I'd have included some quotes, mainly the ones about how everyone at work is grossed out when I walk in the room, but I don't need to offend anyone. I'm already offending all the hoof and claw armed people of the world...

Extreme close-up!

2009-06-02T00:41:00.008-04:00

Time for some fun. Its been a very not-so-fun weekend, so I wanted to just let rip.

Heres some stuff I drew a few weeks ago:

Here are some more quick drawings from the Barnes and Noble sketches:

And heres my guilty little secret: drawing explosive vomit and diarrhea for laughs!

This ones called the "Vomiting through your teeth on a first date," suggested by Serena.

This ones the "Nighttime Surprise Volcano"

The "Squirter"

The "Fancy Dinner Poop You Thought was a Fart"

The "Water Fountain"

The "Angry Revenge Shotgun" The "Didn't Make it in Time"

Good times, guys. Good times.

Thief and the Cobbler

2009-05-19T23:50:00.002-04:00

Tack, mending one of Yum Yum's shoes. This is one of my favorite movies but only with the sound off. I'm trying to stick to my traditional roots so I don't forget how to paint, so I kind of forced myself to finish this as its been sitting on my table for weeks. Looking at it now I can see the lines are a little wobbly...but that's ok, that's what practice is for!

Done in watercolor, gouache, microns on some very crappy card stock.