Last Post Before Vacation!!!

So I'm going to be gone for two weeks on vacation. I'm bringing my sketch book along, so while (hopefully) I'll be getting a lot of doodling done, I won't be able to upload anything.  I'm going up with my boyfriend Brian to visit his family in Maryland and Ohio, and then some of my family in Virginia, hitting up Baltimore and D.C. while we're up there. It'll be good times!  I'm excited to take a good long break with no work to do (I finished up all of my stuff for work, which was why I haven't posted anything in a while).  It will be nice.

But anyway, I spent today doing this little number for a friend of mine from high school. She recently joined Facebook and didn't have a profile picture. She also HATES pictures of herself, so I know one wouldn't be coming anytime soon. In high school we always wrote stories (it's what we did for fun..I know we had no lives) and we came up with characters of ourselves that we wrote the stories about. So I offered to do a sketch of her character she could use for her profile pic. Her name is Akage, and her main character trait is 'pyro' hence the flames. I did this in Illustrator, but I played around with colored line work, which I really like. I don't do that too often but I think I'll start. 

So yeah. That's it for a while, but hopefully after I come back I'll have lots of stuff to post. See ya real soon!

They call him Sherman, Sherman, Sherman, quicker than lightning....

Yay! New character for you guys today. His name is Sherman, and he's a young harbor seal. Special bonus for today! Quick Photoshop rendering! Not the smoothest thing I've ever done but it's been forever since I've painted a character in non-flat color, so it was a good getting re-acquainted exercise. I think, total, I spent...oh...about 3 hours on this, probably less since I started doodling while I watching T.V. and it took a while for me to find him. Plus I was watching 'Next Food Network Star' so I kept getting wrapped up in the competition. Down to the final three! Nail biting time. Anyway, back on subject, Sherman actually started out as a lion cub but I went in a different direction. Obviously. :)  Hope you guys like!

Students of the Royal Academy of Her Lady Tangerine

I'm on a person roll! I was doodling some more, again, thinking about the fact that I NEVER do people and the ones I did the other day actually weren't too terrible, so I decided to do some more. I came up with these three girls. They're a little more anime, but that's OK every once in a while. I don't mind. 

The blonde is Amy. She's the leader of the the three friends. She's the smart, go-getter, does well in school, class president, good at sports, gets along with everybody type. However, her drive to succeed often leads her to over-extend herself, which can lead to some pretty sticky situations. Debate team practice and the homecoming game all in one night?! How will she pull that off?

The black-haired girl is Dominica, but you better call her Dom or she'll hurt you.  Her overly-girly name lead her to tom-boy tendencies as a child, but she's gradually learning that sometimes being a little girly is a good thing.  She enjoys pranks and punk rock, and is the drummer in her own garage band, which she put together with some guys at school.  She could care less about studying and learning but she's naturally good at math and enjoys it a little; not that she'd admit that to anybody. Despite her who-cares-about-grades attitude, she gets along with the adults and can often talk herself out of getting into too much trouble.

The brunette is Mayweather, but everybody calls her May for short. She is the quiet, shy, bookish one. She spends her days reading and enjoys learning as a hobby. She hopes to one day be a chemist in the medical field.  While she's normally very withdrawn, she has a secret addiction to sugar which makes her go on some pretty intense sugar high benders, where she often hits a toy store and splurges on teddy bears and Nerf guns. She's an awesome shot with those rubber darts. 

I'm also including the sketch because when I do vector art a lot of times I just show the finished product, and I wanted to start showing the originals occasionally as well.

Bookworms Galore!

Sorry for the absence. I got a large outside project and a bunch of work projects at the same time so I've been pretty swamped for the past two weeks. I was on a good roll with the posts too.

Anyway,  I was looking through my posts and I noticed that I never ever draw people. Like, ever. So I decided to doodle a couple last night and this is what I came up with. The guy started off as a mime and turned into a snarky college kid. And then I just wanted to draw a girl so I did.  They're in two different styles, and I'm not sure which one I like best.

High On A Hill Sat A Lonely...uhhh...Goat..

I decided to keep my Mary Blair inspired streak going for a little while longer and did another little character sketch. This was inspired by the goats in 'It's A Small World', with a little bit of my own touch.  I know that these aren't exactly portfolio pieces, but they're giving me really good practice in color and going really simple and sweet with my characters.

Doodles and Such Milestone!!! Hooray!

It is official: I have out-posted my blog for 2008!  25 posts people, more more than last year. And it's only July! 

How much more will I post....?

Frankly I have no idea. But hopefully a lot more! You should, like, ya know, keep coming back and check it out! 

(And I am well aware this is post number 26...so it's that many more over last year's post count!)

Deery Dear Deer

I've been really wanting to do a Mary Blair-esque piece for a really really really long time. I recently (like...last week) got introduced to this webcomic called 'Tiny Kitten Teeth', and they hand-paint every panel in watercolor and guache. They are also very inspired by Mary Blair (among other things). Anyway, they're awesome and you should check them out.

http://www.tinykittenteeth.com/

So, they got me inspired to take a crack at the Mary Blair thing FINALLY and this is what I came up with. Nothing too special or different, I was trying my hand at it in Illustrator. This took me about a half hour to do. I like it. It's not EXACTLY Mary Blair but it's inspired by.  :)