Tales from Internet Grandma

This morning, encouraged by being able to revive this old blog, I was having a dig through my archive drive (it's name is Snoopy!). While being slightly overwhelmed at HOW MUCH STUFF I'VE MADE on my various computers since 1997, I was delighted to find these little gems, which I thought I'd share. 

See, I started my internet journey on Windows PCs and stuck with them until I moved to California and was finally convinced to adopt a Macbook. I spent a considerable amount of my free time in the 00's making pixel art, a most addictive activity! That included desktop icons.

So here is a batch of Win icons I made in 2004. I consulted my stash of 50's Good Housekeeping magazines to find the best of the kitschiest 50's food to try and fit in a 32x32 pixel square.

I may share some more Internet Grandma items from my archives, there's some good stuff in there :)

Well. Greetings, old AND new Internet. Thought I'd brush this old thing off, mend a few things, trim some fraying ends off and give it some wellie!
There's been a lot of art I've wanted to post on IG but the square format just won't work for it. I deleted FB years ago, abandoned Twitter last year, Devart is a dumpster fire of AI, I can't even get into my old LJ any more to gather anything I might have had worth keeping there and Tumblr is a bit too much of a reblog firehose for me these days, more like a digital hoard, where I share shiny things other people have made.

Kinda be nice to have a MACRO-blog again, with less emphasis on THE CAREER and more on everyday brainfarts that need more than 120 characters.

While I'm waiting for any of of the 3 big projects I'm working on to come through with material ANY DAY NOW, I've been trying to do some loosen-up doodling every day or so, looking up stock pose models and seeing what I can adapt them to. This is today's.
I'm not a HUGE Mermay person but it's never a bad time to draw a fishy redhead.

Cheers

Darn kids, get off my rink

Replace the skates with crutches and make me 30 years younger... and very very little has changed.

April 22

Playing with two new shiny programs: Above, Painter Sketch Pad
Below, Photoshop CS5 and a 1961 Bride & Home magazine.

Corel Painter Sketch Pad

This comes with the current range of Wacom Intuos tablets.
Holy crap, this is a truly beautiful, SIMPLE sketching program.
This belongs on the Ipad, if they can only get those styluses a LITTLE more pointy...

Let the Ruination of Health Begin!

It's that time of year, campers..

CON SEASON!
This year James Silvani and I are on an epic quest to see how many con tables we can snag at the last possible minute :)

First up - Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle.
I will be at table M12 with Cars artist Allen Gladfelter while James rocks the Boom! kids booth with custom Darkwing Duck sketch covers.

Two weeks later, James and I will be at table B5 at C2E2 in Chicago.
It's the con's second year and the growth is remarkable.

We'll be selling original art, sketch cards, prints, books and sketch covers :)

We're still waiting to hear from Wondercon and Heroescon, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here's a pic of Boo in a panda suit.
Made for my smashing editor at IDW.

Winter cleaning

Nothing like digging through your HD for something else and finding a page of digital doodles you totally forgot you did!

Brown Book roundup

Mishmash of stuff. First batch is from Drink and Draw night in LA during Long Beach

And a Batgirl, because Silvani ordered me to:

Con roundup - 2010

It has been an amazing year. The work has been hard and very stressful sometimes, but on the other hand, I have got to meet some incredible people and make some new lifelong friends.

But enough of that, you want to see ART, right? Have a nice big backlog of CON SKETCH COVERS!

These are all a big mishmash from New York Comic Con, Toronto FanExpo and Long Beach Comic Con.

Awwwww

Ironically, Animal has a bigger vocabulary

Markers were running out by now!

Inspired by a rather slick pair of cosplayers

Holy crap! Presented for autographs, lovingly bagged and boarded.

Muppet/Who mashups NEVER get boring.

For Samad, webmaster of Pixar Times

This never stops being funny.

Coming up with new introductory threats was all part of the fun.

A fan at NYCC presented these magnificent works in progress. 

Ducktales SDCC variant by me.

Dashing!

Oh shush, it's awesome.

Couple of James Silvani's sketch covers. The man's versatility is astounding.

Two of the better Gonzo mashups I did.

Two of the WEIRDEST Muppet mashups I've ever done.

Another of James'. Some fans don't care if the cover sketch bears no relation to the actual comic ;)

Ha! Remembered to get a photo of it this time!

Normally I find Statler and Waldorf pretty boring to draw, but this fan suggestion was priceless.

Long Beach ComiCon!

I love it when I forget to spread the word...

I'll be at Long Beach Comicon this Halloween weekend. Usual time and place: every day, all day, BOOM! Kids booth, drawn' sketch covers. This time I am joined by James Silvani who will be pumping the first ever DarkWing Duck sketch cover!
So Darkwing fans, come one come all, and if you come at the right time, you can also meet DWD creator Tad Stones.

Kytstique

For the #MRVLKATS Twitter-palooza

Influence Map

Fun thing going around Deviantart right now.
My artistic epiphany took place when I saw Belle dancing with the Beast in that ballroom. I'd always loved Disney, but THAT'S when I knew I wanted to be a Disney artist.
Muppet Babies and Sailor Moon  each inspired several years worth of artsy bollocking around in my younger years. I drew Jill Barklem-esque mice constantly when I was 11. I still have the sketchbooks (eek).
Chris Sanders has continued right where Freddie Moore ended off with his luscious little gals and although I find R Crumb a thoroughly obnoxious human being with some really odious attitudes, I will love his art forever and he inspires me to want to draw a (semi-accurate!) autobiography someday.

Toronto Fanexpo

Another month, another con!

I will be in Toronto for Fanexpo Canada this coming Friday-Sunday. My first Canadian convention, exciting :)
(Suggestions for good watering holes in downtown Toronto welcome!)
As always, I'll be at the BOOM! kids booth where fellow artist Travis Hill and I will be sketch-covering all weekend long on Cars, Muppet Show and (possibly) Toy Story.

In the meantime, here's some new sketch cards playing around with some luscious (bright!) Holbein watercolours.

Comicon 2010 Roundup

Yes, it DOES take 48-72 hours to recover from Comicon.
I hadn't been to SDCC since 2007 and I had completely forgotten how mofo-ingly HUGE it is.
But in between the non-stop sketching at BOOM! kids from Preview night to end of the day on Sunday, I did manage to get out and embarrass myself to a whole bunch of wonderful, amazing artists.
The ever-classy Chris Sanders, Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera were both utterly charming, David Colman, Stephen Silver, the Fleet Street guys, Jeff Pidgeon and Josh Cooley. Bumped into the sweetly elfin Brittney Lee at the Gallery Nucleus booth. *sigh* Some day I'll have a piece in a show there. So much cool art.
To say I spent a little money there would be... well, a huge fat whopper. In addition to a pile of inspiring books and sketchbooks, my luggage was augmented by one My Little Pony, Lotso, a Tribble and I TOTALLY would have added She-ra, but that would have required jettisoning clothing.

I had a trio of superstar sketch troopers around me - Alan Gladfelter, Travis Hill and Roger Langridge (Most Robbed Nominee of the Eisners and I will shout it from the damn rooftops)

I met heaps of utterly lovely people and many great conversations were had as I ground through sketch after sketch of Kermit, Gonzo, Piggy, Swedish Chef, Boo, Sully, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Ham (The Toy Story covers were so popular I ended up pinch-hitting for Travis so the poor bastard could take a rest)
Huge shoutouts to:
Shannon Watters, Boom! editor and booth babe who acted as our formidable den mother and administrator of bathroom breaks and trail mix.
Katie Hayden, Boom!'s people wrangler and assistant to the CEO. We feared for your sanity, honey, but you can't keep the tiny shark down.
Chris, Chris and Jason, my editors. Luv u guys.
The absolutely darling couple who visited us several times in various forms of cosplay. They bestowed on me my FAVOURITE souvenir - The Ellie Badge. MINE!
(I won't post their photo to protect them from being bothered at future cons ;))
Super-writer Seanan McGuire and Tara O'Shea, who introduced me to Paul Cornell (!). He said he knew my Who art (!!) and really enjoyed it (!!!!!)

I also got to spend half a minute in an elevator at 2am with Joss Whedon. For 2am, when minds are a little fuzzy, he was very very cool and happily chatted about Avengers. eee!

FAMILIAR FACES with Amy and Roger!

(Yes I look really really sweaty and brainfried. It was Sunday afternoon when that was taken and I was surviving on Cheezits and comic bag fumes. When he rocked up, I squealed like a 4-year-old. But seriously, you haven't lived till you've hugged a Frog)

My old editors and friends-for-life, Aaron Sparrow and Bryce Coleman.
These two men, along with Darkwing Duck artist James Silvani are on my tiny list of people I'll do anything for in this world.
(Flash cameras hate me. Stupid expression, but normal lighting here)

Okay, art time! Online reputations WILL catch up with you at cons, so I did quite a few Doctor Who mashups.

 And of course, Miss Piggy as Lady Gaga. Separated at birth, I swear.

A rare Pixar mashup and an extremely adorable one.

Roger and I did these sketches for a Cystic Fibrosis charity auction.
Even in the high-pressure, on-the-spot environment of con sketches, Roger's pieces are still sickeningly polished.

The new sketchbook went down pretty well and is now available for purchase on Lulu! And hey look, if you buy a copy of On Air as well, you'll get free shipping. C'mon, free shipping is the ultimate deal-sweetener, let's do this!

All in all, a crazy, exhausting but awesome times with other crazy, exhausted, talented people. Hopefully back next year!

Bonus photo for Who fans: This guy was just plain awesome for not only being one of the VERY few Eleven-with-fez cosplayers I saw, but the Psychic Paper sealed it.