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.

Woohoo, COMICON SWAG!

Hurray, I can now announce what YOU can get if you stop by the Girls Drawing Girls booth at San Diego Comicon! Luscious prints! Buttons! Jewelry! Our new Sugar and Spice Book!

I will have prints, a GDG-exclusive button and THIS:

24 pages, full colour and only available in limited numbers at Girls Drawing Girls booth 5628.

I will be at BOOM! studios booth (2743) during comicon drawing Muppet Show con-exclusive sketch covers, but if you buy a sketchbook and bring it over to Boom!, I will sign it and throw in a free sketch and a Ltd edition button NOT available anywhere except from me. 

A fine addition to your collection of hot retro chickie-babes sketchbooks.

Girls Drawing Girls stuff and other sundries

Various bits and bobs done for Girls Drawing Girls weekly themes.

 Random caricature practice.

Contribution to the Dueling Banjo Pigs blog.

I recently joined Girls Drawing Girls, which has finally spurred me into making time to do some show pieces and the excuse to draw pretty girls with impunity.

These are two pieces I did for their Sugar and Spice show, coming in July

Now, some other odds and sods:

Free Comic Book Day!

I'll be appearing at Floating World comics this coming Saturday to pimp the comic-y love that is FCBD.
BOOM! are making available Mark Waid's 'Irredeemable' and Jesse Snider/Nate Watson's 'Toy Story' as their freebies this year, but Floating World are going to have free posters of my stuff to sign and very limited quantities of Muppet Show #4 as a blank sketch cover. Buy the comic, I draw the cover character of your choice!

So if you're local, drop in and paw some awesome books!

Art cardage

Couple of art cards done for the Paediatric Oncology Treasure Chest Foundation's big art card auction.
If you're artsy and wish to donate, drop them an email!

C2E2 roundup

The inaugural year of C2E2 (Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo) is over. McCormick Place is a fantastic con site and the space was great. HUGE. The attendance wasn't quite as high as most of us were expecting. Initially we wondered if it was just the HUGE SPACE and very wide aisles making the crowds look smaller than they really were, but being the con's first year, I guess not as many people came as people might have hoped. BOOM!'s best day was Sunday - when kids under 12 got in free. Monsters Inc and Toy Story trades sold out and Muppet Peter Pan & Incredibles also sold VERY very well. Yaaaaay!
So what did I do this past weekend? Lots of these:

(heh-heh... please ignore the Tiana pin-up and the super-deformed She-ra girls, that's just my portfolio...)
In fact, according to my waiting list notes, I did a grand total of 188 sketch covers over 3 days. Give or take a few. It was a great big blur. After crunching some numbers, here are the results of the popularity character poll:
Most popular request - Kermit. I am fine with this, because I never get tired of drawing that frog.
2nd most popular - Animal. He was most popular on Friday, but overall he nudged out Piggy by one cover. She will not be happy to hear this.

Another request I had a few times was to draw Muppet versions of attendees. This was really fun. This gentleman was the first one to ask.



Several others followed, including one little customer who made for instant 'd'awwwwwww' all around and was the star of many Tweets.

I got to meet some lovely people and fellow BOOM! creators, including the smashing Jesse Blaze Snider, writer of Muppet Snow White and Toy Story for BOOM! He asked for a picture and I absolutely had to oblige. His dad is.... pretty well-known.

We subtitled it "Separated at Birth".

ps - for those wondering why their comments don't seem to show up, I have comments on 'moderate' to keep the spam out. I also don't check nearly as often as I should, so don't worry, your comments WILL get unlocked.

Where the attempts at Magic happen

My workcrib - it's what all the cool artists do and if I do it, I'll be cool too, right?


Ye olde drawing board(looking a LOT tidier than usual because I just finished pencilling an issue). Old Disney friends will recognise quite a few toys up there.
The red and yellow blob on the shelf is the ComiCon 07 My Little Pony special. Super-Pony, yaaaay!
Note the home-made Muppet model screencaps. I don't trust anything Muppety that's not drawn by Michael Frith, so I go straight to the DVDs ;)


Computer corner. This is Eve, the second workstation Scott has built for me over the years. The Eve rug on the floor is a lot dirtier than it looks since a certain dog showed up. On the window sill are the My Little Pony collection (shut up) and various vintage ornaments (and Spooky).
On the wall - my treasured hi-res scan of Chris Sanders' original Lilo watercolour.
Don't ask how I got it.


The lesser-used corner of the room since I got the Cintiq. Both the lightbox and the folder shelf are ex-Disney and at the back is basically my archives and ephemera collections. Work in progress.
Next to the lightbox is a pile of stuff waiting to be framed. Luv my art.

Emerald Con 2010- a roundup

I spent a fabbo weekend in Seattle with all the guys at Boom! for Emerald City Comic Con.
I got to meet some folks and get some smashing art. I especially enjoyed meeting the fabulous Brittney Lee, who looks like she should have wings of gossamer, live in a toadstool house and sup the nectar of flowers.
I wanted to get Kate Beaton's book, but you couldn't get NEAR her booth for the crowds. This is what happens when famous webcartoonists offer post-it doodles for a buck.

Boom! had a fantastic weekend and I finally got to see my Monsters Inc. and Muppet Peter Pan trades. Looks MUCH nicer on the glossy paper stock and each book has a full cover gallery, so go buy 'em! By the end of the show we'd sold out of MI trades and only had 2 Pans left, so thank you everyone for stopping by and buying some fun stuff!

I didn't get to see much else of the con because quite frankly, I was SWAMPED all weekend by sketch-seekers and lovely people saying hello. Boom! had the prime anchor location right at the con entrance and I probably missed seeing SO much cool stuff because my head was bent over my sketchcards. I started by doing little pencil sketches for free with book purchase, but after a while people kept eyeballing a little rendered card I did of Kermit and asking if they could buy it. So after a while I decided to just take commissions for the sketchcards. Boy, did a queue build quickly and didn't diminish until the end of the con! But the response was fantastic, I got to make a bit of cash and Boom! moved a LOT of books that weekend with 3 artists in attendance (me, Toy Story artist Nate Watson and Cars artist Alan Gladfelter.
When you get bear-hugged by your CEO, you must be doing something right.

Animal was far and away my most popular request, followed by Kermit and then Beaker.
But one person got rather creative and started something...

He asked for Death as a Muppet. I can NEVER resist a mash-up ;)
I took a quick snap of it before he collected it and we went our merry ways. The next day someone came up to the booth saying 'I got word that Amy did a Muppet Death, does she have a picture?" He had not MET the guy who got Death, but somehow word got around. He was delighted and immediately commissioned a Delirium.
God dammit, I hate it when another series presents itself.

But my ultimate geek-out moment was this: There I was, sketching away and I detected someone looking on. I heard a cheery "hello!" and looked up to see a smiling lady eagerly beaming back. She said she thought my work was lovely and she was so thrilled to see the classic Muppets being seen and loved by kids again. I said thank you. She mentioned she'd just done a puppeteering workshop in Seattle. Something in my head whispered ''Old on... why does she look familiar?" It must have registered on my face because she said "I'm Karen Prell, I played Red on Fraggle Rock!"

(pen drops from hand, leaps to feet)
Amy: *breath* EEEEEEEEEEEE!!! OHMYGAHD SUCH AN HONOUR TO MEET A REAL OLD-SCHOOL MUPPETEER!!! (or rambling fangirl words to that effect)
She indicated the gentleman in the natty hat with her who again, looked vaguely familiar to me for some reason.
"Oh, and this is Jeff Pidgeon from Pixar Story Dept!"
Amy:(fangirl volume rocketing to eleven) EEEEEEEE! OHMYGAHD I'VE FOLLOWED YOU ON FLICKR FOR AGES OF COURSE I KNOW YOU!!
Camera came out in record time (Nate also dropped his sketches in a cloud of dust and came over when I told him) and we had a lovely chat about adapting Muppets and Pixar to comics and they went away well-stocked with Boom! Kids books.



So yes. Excellent weekend, I came away all fired up to make my trip to C2E2 next month even better. And more well-organised. My liver is glad to be home.

Conning

So, whassup?
I'll be at Emerald City Con next weekend. Boom! Kids will have an entire booth all to ourselves, so come check out the AVALANCHE of stuff me and my Pixar/Muppety colleagues have been doing! There'll be several of we creators there, so come say hi! :)
I'll also be seeking out certain people to fangirl and possibly buy some bitchin' prints for my wall.
I will also be at C2E2 with Boom! on April 16-18, for all you midwesterners.

Boom! goes mah brain

So, I guess my little handful of followers have noticed my updates are a little sporadic. There's a reason for that... THIS:

These are all the variant covers I've done from 2009 to the present. Bear in mind, these DON'T include the 9 covers for the two titles I drew cover-to-cover (Monsters Inc. 1-4 and Muppet Peter Pan). No wonder I'm bloody tired!
There are 3 other covers I've done which I can't reveal yet - 1 Nemo, 1 Toy Story and 1.... secret Boom!/Disney title I can't talk about yet but which is super cool ;)


These are the 4 covers I did for Muppet King Arthur (currently in release). My intention with them was to make a set that would form a really awesome gatefold. This is literally the first time I've strung them all together. Not bad!
I also designed and made the logo on the end. Once upon a time, I was a liiiittle obsessed with illuminated manuscripts. When I went to the British Museum, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

So what's on my desk right now? Drawing Muppet Show issues 4-7, with script by (who else?) Roger Langridge. After that - well, that's up to the whim of my editor. And he is a man of many whims. It won't be NOTHING, I know that much.
I am so lucky to do what I do.

Sketchdump

Scott bought me Sketchbook Pro 2010 for my birthday :)
Unfortunately, I had the trial already and it wasn't working with my Cintiq.
he sat down and wrangled up some new drivers and service packs and voila, it worketh!
And all was good.
So I'm trying to doodle a page of sketches of whatever each day, just to chill.
Last night I threw on Teenage Gang Debs as inspiration.

Back in the flow

I'm trying to make sure I draw something everyday and to not try and make everything perfect.

Productivity!

More Cintiq prac. One sketchy, one paint-y.

parrot time!

Happy New Year to one and all!
Yes, I have been extremely quiet. I have been nose-deep in Boom! comics all year and for that I really can't complain. 2009 was quite frankly a fantastic year for me, work-wise, and 2010 is looking to be more of the same if my editor is to be believed ;)
I celebrate the new year a little artistically wobbly, due to my newly-acquired Cintiq 21UX. It is huge and shiny and I love it even though it'll take a little getting used to after ten years on my loyal and still-working Intuos tablet.
But that's what sketches like this are for - practice.

Delicious fingers go in here.

It's like a sketch, innit...

Pretty girls and kittens make everything better.