Friday, December 30, 2011

New Cintiq!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holidays! Hopefully with lots of homemade food and time with loved ones!:)
   I haven't gotten a tablet in five years or so, so when I picked up my checks from my old job I was able to afford one. Even better, with the help of my parents I was able to afford a Cintiq 12wx! After a few hours in between visiting family, here is my first Cintiq Photoshop piece! Its a portrait so I could start basic and move up. My difficult time transitioning from traditional to digital is over (well...mostly...it will still take practice.lol.)!

Portrait (from online--minus part of the makeup brush):
My version:
Enjoy the rest of the holidays everybody! See ya on the other side!:)

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Twisted Fairy Tales Anthology

I have been working on a project lately and haven't really shared too many of the details yet. But last night when I sent everything off, I have been given the go-ahead to share some character designs from my story for the Anthology to kind of be a teaser of sorts. I have been working on a Twisted Fairy Tales Anthology with a group of artists from Savannah College of Art and Design. We each chose a fairy tale or folk lore and put our own twist on it...I chose Alice in Wonderland. My synopsis is a drugged Alice is held at a house with a group of other drugged child hostages and has developed Stockholm Syndrome for her captors...The Queen of Hearts, The Hatter and the customer, Chester Shire (Cheshire Cat)...all a part of Operation: White Rabbit. But what happens when Alice starts hallucinating white rabbits that urge her to kill her so-called friends? You'll have to buy the book when its published to find out...
    On that note, here are some of the character designs I did in my sketchbook...
-Chester Shire...(starting design)
He is known as the man with no face and is always drawn in silhouette(links disappearing body to Cheshire Cat).

-The Hatter
He is an awkward cross between Napoleon Dynamite, Michael Cera and those guys who shouldnt wear trapper hats, but do. He's essentially a nerd that follows orders, but isn't quite all there.

-The Queen of Hearts
I made her a drag queen because I figured who has more charisma and who is more in charge than an awesome large and in charge drag queen who know what she wants?

-White Rabbit
These are the first two designs. The rabbit starts out somewhat creepy like the bottom circled design, gets creepier like the top, right hand drawing and the creepiest design will be revealed in the book...but I will say this, I combined the features of a realistic rabbit, an old doll and a horror clown for the last design...so it is sure to give anyone nightmares...or at least think twice in the dark.

-Alice (first design)
Here is the first design of her...she changed more or less by the end, but overall I wanted the style of the story to be creepy but elegant at the same time.

-Alice (final color)
This is the final color design of Alice...look for her on the cover with everyone else's characters as well. I'll let you know about the book's progress as we work on getting it published. Thanks for reading!:)




Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Crossroads

So over break I haven't uploaded work because I am working on pages for an Anthology. The deadline is Christmas so I am trying to be as productive as possible over this break...turns out I am more productive at night...hello nocturnalism (probably not a real word but oh well). As I have been working I have been thinking about my future career...I feel somewhat at an impasse. What I am torn between is story and visual development...I can't rest on both. I work on story because I love it, yet I want highly illustrative pieces and to dive into color, layout and background and character development, yet when I focus on that, I feel pulled back to story and wanting to draw every thing out and become one with the characters and situations. At this point, I have decided I am going to develop both...work on the programs I need to learn, develop my digital illustration more, and improve my storytelling and my whimsicality...I'll probably end up flip flopping forever, but what can I say, I love it all...if there is anything I have learned in my life, it is that visual storytelling is my passion and I will never stray too far from it. Thanks for reading and I will try to upload some work soon!

P.S.--Since there is no art update, here is a picture of my cat, Simba, in the laundry to entertain you.:)
Until next time!