Lion and Baby

So... an update. About a month ago I waved the white flag on my graphic novel. Being a full-time mom doesn't leave much time for drawing and anyone who's ever worked on a comic knows that creating a comic is very time intensive. Despite working on the book whenever I had a spare moment, I was just getting further and further behind schedule and more and more frustrated. When I realized it was going to take me over a DECADE to finish at the slow pace I'd gotten to, I knew it was time to give up.

I will of course continue to post new art here on the blog, hopefully a little more frequently. This painting is of my newest little nephew (yay!).

I also apologize for my over full e-mail inbox that has been rejecting mail this past month. I'll be posting a new artist address as soon as I get it set up.

Royal Family

That lucky little baby has a lot of presents.

Graphic Novel Updatelicious

Here are a couple (non sequential) pages from my graphic novel. I left out the dialogue because... well... I'm not about to spoil the story, but I left the bubbles in because they are an important part of the composition.

Happy Friday.

Goth Girl and Goth Owl

This is for the Drawergeeks topic, Goths. It needs some polish it probably won't get, but I was happy that it only took me about an hour to do. I'm even happier that I have something to contribute to Drawergeeks this time round. I've missed some great topics.

Taking care of my daughter eats up a lot of drawing time and pretty much obliterates blogging and e-mail time (although I can't think of a more delightful distraction.) However, I am still working on my graphic novel and although slow going, progress is happening. Next up, blogwise, is new graphic novel art, so stay tuned.

Wee Babies

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years. Two of my cousins also had babies in 2008, this sketch of our little ones was a Christmas present for them.

Tattoo Design

I don't usually take on much commission work these days, but I made an exception for Travis Chasez, who wanted to create a tattoo for his wife based somewhat on this old post.

Hope everyone had a turkeylicious Thanksgiving!

Wicked Witch of the Wild West

When I told Stephen about the current drawergeeks topic, witch, he started thinking about other genres of witches. As in "what would a modern day storybook witch look like?" This train of thought made me think about how we live in Texas... so here's a western witch. I imagine she has vicious flying farm animals as minions.

Anne Boleyn

A big thank you to those of you still checking the blog. I'm working on that mom/artist balance.

We've been watching The Tudors and it inspired me to paint the unfortunate Anne.

Miss Havisham and more...

Yay! Getting a post up! The top sketch reminded me of Miss Havisham, so I added the veil. I'm not a huge Dickens fan, but I am a huge Miss Havisham fan. She's crazy in all the best ways.

As for my graphic novel, below are colors from one of the opening sequences. I'll be posting more character designs soon.

I'm currently working on a font for the book. Anyone out there ever successfully create a font for comic purposes? Any tips? I found this interesting tutorial here.

Sjoukje

My Grandma.

Go Team Mom and Dad!

So with a teeny baby you can't exactly go dancing or to concerts or to movies, so Stephen and I have instead been running around the magical land of Warcraft. Whoo! So if you ever see a little gnome mage and human rogue kicking some bad guy butt, buff us!

And hey, check out my buddy Eric Henze's blog. He worked on WOW.

Also, check out Michelle Gorski's blog, who inspired me to do this post, with her post.

Aaaand, Flight 5 is out! YEAH! Hope you enjoy my story "The Changeling" and also all the other super fun stories in it. Be sure to take a peek at the preview.

And lastly, here's a quick sketch of Hellboy for drawergeeks. Go surliness!

Strawberry Shortcake

Another quickie for a drawergeeks. Never was much of a Strawberry Shortcake fan when I was little, but she makes for a fun topic.

Joker

So most of my daughter's naptimes have been devoted to working on my comic, but that leaves the blog abandoned. So today, here is a quick take on the joker... which also happens to be the drawergeeks topic right now.

Tiny Announcement

So... I may not be posting for a while. But I can't think of a better distraction than a brand new little daughter.

I'll be back though!

Fairy Nudity

Here is a sketch I did yesterday. The colors make me think of a 70's rock poster.

I have noticed lately that when I don't color things several of the comments tend to be "but what about the color?" Initially I found it odd (why does everything need color to be considered finished?), but then I realized I've made similar comments on other people's blogs. I'm guilty of really loving color too, and quite honestly, if I had the time, I'd love to fully paint and render everything I draw. I wonder what the universal appeal of a fully fleshed out painting is compared to a simple line drawing?

Here also is a recent design I've done for the graphic novel. I'll post more novel stuff in the coming months as I complete the final art for the opening sequences. For this street scape, I wanted to develop a "language" of repeating shapes and architectural details that would help identify the city every time the story brings us here. I want all my major locations to have a different sets of dominant shapes/details that will express the prevailing attitude of the place. This city, for instance, should feel cramped, elegant and not entirely welcoming. There is a character who has great influence over this place and it's important for his personality to be evident throughout.

Edit*

I reread this post and wanted to add to/clarify my color musings;

Many people love both line drawings and full color work. However, I have noticed that the general trend in art appreciation leans more strongly towards color work than line work and I wonder why that is.

This is something I have noticed when selling artwork (prints of paintings always sell better than prints of line work), also whenever designing professionally (fancily colored designs always get a better response from the studio folk than sketches) and on blogs.