"On Air" out now!

Yaaay, I finally did it! My first self-published sketchbook/artbook is now available at lulu.com.

It's 32 pages - not huge, but I packed them chock-full of 2008 art and sketches, most of which have NOT been shown online.

Sketch

I've had Sketchbook Pro on my computer for yonks, but I rarely use it. It seems to be one of those programs used by people who actually HAVE a staff job in animation and get to work on a Cintiq all day. Lucky ratbags ;p

I has an Etsy.

Amy's getting off her arse and selling ORIGINAL art, whoda thunk?
All right, original art AND some OOAK Pixar pics, shut up ;p

I did these Pixar chibis ages ago and rather than just let them gather dust, I put them in some frames and hope they'll find good homes.

Lil Princesses

Playing with a colouring style and reducing some of our girls to little girls.
(Those official godawful 'Baby Princesses' are revolting).

Blurgh, sez my sketchbook

Commission for the Roxy Group theatre company. The art director said he wanted something nice and retro with a White Christmas twist. I had a LOT of fun doing this.

Bill & Sparky

Random shtuff - Labor Day ed.

If you haven't looked at my Flickr lately, I recently spent a week in Springfield IL, helping my mother-in-law clean out the home of her late parents. These two old dears were incurable packrats(like most of my husband's family ;)) and as well as uncovering heaps of old photos and family history, I also saved a mountain of vintage ephemera from the dumpster.
Unfortunately, I didn't get much drawing done. Make that none. Bad me :/
I'm now finally starting to filter through the stuff and use it for some inspiration...


I found a stack of old school photos of my mother-in-law's classmates from 54-56. Some priceless expressions on these kids.


We went to Oregon Zoo a few weeks back. Just a couple of toon birds adapted from the sketches.


There's an old 50's band-aid commercial with a plethora of kiddie Oooohs and Aaaaahs!

Badcrumble concepts

Just a couple of test-colour pieces for my Badcrumble story. I tried inking with a brush-pen on this one, going for a slightly more Bruce Timm-ish look, but I think I'll stick to inking with grey Pitt pens for the final version - I think they blend better with the Copic shading.

Browns

Whipped these two up for Art Jumble:



Other randoms from the journal..

I heart my brown book

Bought a new art journal a couple of weeks ago.. another one to add to the at least THREE other sketchbooks being filled. But I am determined that this one will be just free-forming stuff. Whatever enters my head or I see something interesting, I will comment on it, just for myself.
Plus, brown paper + white paint pen = win.

The book is a Cachet Earthbound sketchbook. Not exactly on the cheap end of sketchbooks, but it's the only non-bleached recycled paper sketchbook I could find and it looks pretty good.

Character dailies

This is Vasilij and Sefi. They hope to represent Serbia in next year's Eurovision.



Barry was the fertile half of a double-yolker. It made him a bit... sensitive.

Cawfee Sketch

Doodling to the ipod. I want to set myself a task where every day, I create a new character sketch from scratch.
Beatnik Cat here seems like a good start. His name is Tarquin.

Wuv Wosie

You know, I've decided that Painter 9 and I just aren't going to get along. I'm sure it could do everything I could ask of a digital paint program, but the interface and menus are too damn bloated and complex and badly-organised.
If I do any more of these, I might try doing them hard-copy with markers and pens. Try drawing a reasonably straight line free-hand with a tablet.

I got my copy of Dream Worlds the other day. Ooooooooh. Drool, baby, drool. If you get no other artbook this year, get this one. Hans has finally shown me the light on how to do frame layouts properly.

Copic Rock

Well, one doesn't just go and add several dozen new copics to one's collection and then not USE them!
This is Badcrumble, a punk band to which we shred away on Rock Band.
I've done these guys once before over here, but I've decided that markers suit them better.



These are 3 of our other Rock Band characters who form the band 'The Cheesecake Factory' - Miki(drums), Rosethorn(lead guitar) and Obsidian (vocals).
I did these and mocked them up into unofficial Rock Band trading cards just for giggles, but I decided the original artwork looked kinda neat on its own.
Again, all Copics and Pitt ink pens.

The passage of Me

I love the smell of memes on a Monday...
Draw yourself as a teen


Back then I muscled on DESPITE being a total dork. Now, I CHOOSE to be a total dork.

Ollie

We all read the same blogs, we all feel the sadness.



Goodbye Ollie. Hope you're having roaring good times with Frank and Marie again.
Funny. When Steve Irwin died, I sent him in the other direction.

Oh teh Drama

In the world of vintage radio drama, there are women and there are broads.
But when it comes to the crunch, both have one solitary tactic that is as reliable as the tides.

Dribbling, quivering, grovelling (and sometimes completely fake) waterworks.

Half the time, they have a pistol hidden in their knickers, but this works. Trust the writers of The Shadow, The Whistler, Dragnet, Rocky Jordan, Let George Do It, I was a Communist for the FBI, Inner Sanctum, Gunsmoke and Duffie's Tavern(oh no, sorry, that last one's just me. PAINFUL show >_<).

Not getting your way, girls? Let your spine turn to a limp noodle and bawl. You'll know when you've had the right effect when he throws back the rest of his third scotch and pops you one.

Playing Silly Buggers

Sir Harry Secombe, CBE
Peter Sellers, CBE
Spike Milligan, KBE

All giants on their own in the entertainment world, but combined were the three funniest bastards on the planet. The Goons.

America, you've given the rest of the world... ENDLESS cultural influence. You lot are inescapable. I continue to be amazed that such a seminal show as the Goon Show never really made it to America.
It ended nearly fifty years ago, but it's still one of the greatest comedy shows ever made and arguably the greatest radio comedy EVER. All British comedy as you know it can be traced back to these guys.

I introduced my Midwestern husband to the Goon Show ten years ago and he loved it instantly. He can now impersonate Eccles, Bluebottle, Henry Crun and Bloodnok dead-on(I have to do Neddie and Minnie ;))

Ying tong iddle eye po.

A Girl and her Cat

These two NEVER get boring...

Growing ulcers for Hope

.. and I'm not even ELIGIBLE TO VOTE!



Hillary's face isn't quite right on the standing pose, this is all just practice.
What's Castro doing there? Because it's fun to draw cranky old poops :)

Weekend sketches

Scott was watching Batman:TAS, I was watching old toons on Youtube, so I Harman-Ising'd Scott.
(Also: Van Beuren toons, are those things hysterically bad or WHAT?? :D)



Random 'Turn a scary 60's dessert into a pretty girl' pics.


Playing around with the ink pens.

Sketchdump number whatever...

Two styles - quintessential fifties scratchiness (still trying to nail a good drybrush/rough pastel in Photoshop) and a method completely aping Tracy Butler, because her art is like crack.


Fiddling around with some shading techniques:


Cheesecake of the day:

Morgan

This is Morgs. He's one of my parents' two Australian terriers. He's also a very sick little guy.
On Saturday, he woke up with his legs paralysed and unable to walk. My parents immediately suspected the curse of Eastern Australian dog-lovers - the paralysis tick. Sure enough, a 3-day tick was found on his leg that had been missed and its neurotoxin had hit him big time. He's now in his forth day of veterinary intensive care, completely physically paralysed and suffering aspiration pneumonia (the big side-effect killer). He can't even close his eyes from the paralysis. Luckily, he has around-the-clock care by some amazing vets, without whom he'd surely have died. He's not out of the woods yet by a long way, but I've been worrying about him constantly and felt like sketching him in his normal, ball-of-energy way. Maybe some healing karma will reach him.

Drink n Drawage

Fruits of a Drink n Draw last Sat. night. I had ice cream sundae :)




There was rodeo playing on the bar TV...


Lady watching the NAIL-BITING game of pool in progress.

Oh, and also...

In stores now, the conclusion to Tina's story. I confess it's hard to get excited about it knowing that this is basically it for Divalicious! for the forseeable future. I have some other smaller stories in progress for various Tokyopop anthologies, but to be honest, I'm totally refocusing back on animation, thanks to my fledgling new freelance(for now!) job - Assistant Animator at LAIKA/house's 2D dept.
Small, multi-talented and packed with pet weimeraners, I'm loving it. Maybe if I work hard enough I'll get a desk :)

Postits, let me show you them

Mishmash of some I've had lying around for a while and some I did tonight.
Doodling to whatever is on the radio/ipod is fun :)

Happy New Sketch Dump.

Nothing like starting the new year in yet ANOTHER holding pattern ;)

Waiting for work to start on two separate directions... one of which I REALLY WANT more than the other, but it's all work. Over on my deviantart account, you'll find what's kept me busy thus far - commissions.

But here, have some sketchbook pages!

Went to Portland Library and flipped through a book on extinct/endangered birds. One skill I want to improve on is animal caricature. Can't character-design without it!
I'm pretty happy with the duck, that seems to be in the right direction...


Entry needs more girlz


I've been knitting a lot of socks lately and a diversion of mine is to check out my local yarn stores (or LYS as they're known among knitterati). Mmm, therapeutic...


Just another afternoon at the cafe.