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Comicpalooza and Denver Comic Con 2013

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The past two weekends I exhibited at both Comicpalooza and Denver Comic Con. Needless to say, I’m exhausted.

Comicpalooza 2013

Overwhelming is the only way I can describe every aspect of Comicpalooza. The amount of support for my work by the Houston community grows beyond what I can even possibly conceive. The entire convention I couldn’t escape from either chatting with people and/or getting commissions done.

I also gave E.K. Weaver a piece of fanart of TJ & Amal which I’m stupid happy that she likes it. On Saturday night I participated in the Live Art Event and watercolored a Stalk from Saga to be auctioned for charity.

Goodies I got:
- Original inked art of faun ladies by my friend Chris Beaver
- Titty Time! Vol 1 by Amanda Lafrenais
- D,O.G.S. of Mars from artist Paul Maybury 
- The Bottom Floor by Karina Farek/Dilfosaur
- Local Heroes by Keith Quinn
- BF-38 Franky figure!!

Goodies I traded:
- Moon Deer & Deer Bird by Shakusaurus
- Iron Man by Karina Farek/Dilfosaur
- Bubblegum, LSP, & Marceline by SeaHorseSpaghetti
- Ice King & Jake buttons from Chelsea/Radtastical
- Freya/Faun lady button from Kaleigh/Kalo

Denver Comic Con 2013

Denver Comic Con was my first convention outside of Texas after doing them for three years. To be honest I was pretty nervous. In Houston I have so much support that I was worried about going somewhere fresh and feeling alien. In the end it was totally a needless worry. So many people were still supportive and wonderful. I did about just as well as Comicpalooza.

It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a con. Sometimes I have a hard time finding guests I’m interested in, but there I almost had too many people I was flipping out over. 

I met Dee Bradley Baker which really means the world to me. He’s the voice actor for Viewtiful Joe who is probably my favorite character from my favorite video game. He makes the character who he is. I’ve wanted his autograph more than anyone else’s for nearly a decade. He was hilarious and a joy to chat with. I’m pretty surprised I held back sobbing afterwards, I was just so happy. As one of the biggest Viewtiful Joe fans out there, it was such an honor.

Chatting with Andy Runton, the creator of Owly, was a big highlight too. His personality matches his work. He’s just a super sweet guy and lovely to talk with. There were other random fun things like chatting with Amy Reeder, listening to Jamal Igle critique a colorist, and getting a Big Barda from Fiona Staples.

The con was even more special for Robert. Two of his all time favorite creators were there, Farel Dalrymple (who I also very much admire) and Dan Parent. To top it all off, TwoMorrows publishing was there, which we have a stupid amount of their books and magazines.

Robert and I road tripped this con too which is an 18 hour drive from Houston. It was all fun and well other than the night driving up there it was storming like a bitch in Oklahoma and Kansas. Then when we checked the news upon arriving at the hotel, it said there were a ton of tornadoes specifically in the areas we were driving through. WHAT FUN!! Glad to know pissing myself driving through that wasn’t unreasonable.

But the weekend was so much fun. Seriously, I’ve been to a butt ton of a cons so it’s some pretty big words claiming this as my favorite convention I’ve attended. I’ve already purchased my table for next year! 

Goodies: 
- Big Barda by Fiona Staples
- Owly shirt and button by Andy Runton
- Band Vol. 1 by Erin & Christine Humiston
- Kitty sticker and magnet by Crystal Carpenter
- Colorful lady pin by Kit Seaton

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Bring It On Conventions & Huge Etsy Update

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It is time for me to rock out the coming conventions, and I am ready for them. My two biggest conventions are coming up this month and both are back to back. Comicpalooza in Houston is in a week and a half and Denver Comic Con happening a week after that.

I’ve been working hard to get some nice stuff going for them. I finally got a huge banner made for my tables, so you can find me more easily! I’m so excited to finally have one.

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I also got a buttload of nice prints of my more recent work. I took a chance with these and finally used an online service. Now I’m totally sold on using Catprint as my printer. Their prices are insanely reasonable and the full bleed looks amazing. Getting these in the mail was like it was my birthday.

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All the prints and also some originals are now listed on my Etsy shop!

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All New Youtube Channel!

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youtube

So I’ve been uploading some of my progress videos on youtube and editing the way it looks. And now I have a little collection of videos. I’m going to keep posting my videos regularly and I’m hoping to maybe make some ones that are actually tutorials one of these days. So check it out! You can click here or the image above. Be sure to subscribe!

Let me know if you have any thoughts!

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Oh my Glob and Adventure Time Tribute WIP!

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Last Saturday was the OH MY GLOB! Adventure Time & Video Games show, and I am still on an excitement high from it. Truth be told I initially got fairly depressed because of finding out about the show far too late to have a piece in the gallery show itself. I mean really, how likely is it that there’ll be another show so spot on something that’s so dear to me?

Regardless, I still asked about it anyway, but ended up snagging a vendor table at the event! While I may not have been in the main show, having the table was an incredible experience as well. Honestly I feel I was able to display my work and contribute just as much anyway. There was a lot of excitement and enthusiasm for my work, and that means so much to me. It was like the perfect crowd. Laid back and awesome nerds with damn good taste. I mean really Broken Satellite was performing in the room the vendors were in. I must admit though, my heart still sank every time someone went “why aren’t you in the show!?”

The pieces in the gallery itself were great too. My favorite was easily Don Bam!’s Tom Kenny tribute. The colors were amazing and when first looking upon it I just went “OHHH OHHHHH!!!” just getting so excited by the background that’s subtle yet so iconic. Tom Kenny is certainly a big part of what I love about Ice King, so it really pinged my heart! I also met some cool people like Johnathan Martel.

Look at this beautiful Marcy necklace I got that was handmade by Yamin Cespedes. I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch him with an Ice King one in the future.

I had a great time, met a lot of cool people, and looking forward to a future show like this that I can properly participate in.

Now to some other fun stuff!

Last year I sketched out this Adventure Time tribute art I scribbled in my sketchbook, but graduation time was coming near so I wasn’t able to continue it. The Oh My Glob show was the perfect excuse to revisit it and give it a nice watercoloring job.

Months later when I popped open the sketch again there were a few things I thought needed some adjustments and I forgot beloved BMO. SHAME ON ME. The left is before tweaks, and right is after.

I wanted to give the background a dark color to make the brightness of the characters pop, so once I finished them I gave it a scan just in case if something went wrong. It was a good thing too because some people preferred the white version!

And then finally the colored background! The piece is 13″x17″ and looks incredible in person. It took a bit before I could come back to the picture to finish it, but I’m almost glad I had to because my watercolors have gotten far more vibrant lately and I think it works well with these guys.

I also uploaded videos of the process.

Sketching

Inking

Watercoloring

Between that rockin’ show, watching some more Adventure Time, and playing through Hey Ice King Why’d You Steal Our Garbage, I am having a ridiculous Adventure Time high. There will definitely be more I’m sure.

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Good Things

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Last week when I was needing to make some posts, the ISP that I use had a connection problem with my website and I couldn’t access it! So if you have AT&T and haven’t been able to access my website for the past week or so, that’s why. But all is well now and I have some fun news!

Last week was the official launch of Space City Nerd‘s zine and I had the honor of doing the cover. Jesus is a great guy and did a fantastic job bringing it together. Also my good friend Meredith Nudo wrote an article in there!

The zine is of general nerdery. Comics, video games, and more. For those in Houston you can find it available at Domy Books, Third Planet, and be sure to add their facebook page for further retail locations it can be found at.

Lately I’ve been working on character art for the upcoming RPG Card Game CRONE. I’m about 80% through the character art and will show off those girlies once I finish them. I’ll also be doing some illustrations for promotional art. But in the mean time you should check out the website, and add it on tumblr, twitter, and facebook.

THIS SATURDAY I’ll be a vendor at the Oh My Glob! Adventure Time and Video Game art show! I was pretty bummed out to find out about this show far too late to submit anything into the gallery show itself, but I’ll have some of my work to sell for the night. So COME AND SEE THIS AWESOME SHOW!! and come say hi to me.

My convention list that is featured on this site is pretty solid as to what I’ll be exhibiting at this year. The only convention that isn’t confirmed at all and wont be for a while is Fandays.

Also I’m sorry if comments keep becoming unstable on here. It’s a little frustrating figuring out how to set the comments up to be functional. Unfortunately just having it open for anyone to comment leads to an insane amount of spam in my inbox. Seems kinda silly to keep having to spam 500+ messages and most often there aren’t any comments left for me. SO NOWWW what you can do is either sign up to be a member of this site to comment or use OpenID. OpenID is pretty easy. Just use the profile URL of a site you use, and it’ll prompt you to authorize it. I hope this works out ok for now. ♥

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Staple! 2013!

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Look at these all new 11″ x 17″ prints that are ready for Staple! Independent Media Expo this weekend! It’ll be my first time attending/exhibiting at this con so I’m looking forward to it. I’m also hoping this’ll be the last convention that I wont have a comic to be pushing on you all!

Here’s a run down on my commission prices for the con are inked – $15 and portraits watercolored – $25.

Hope to see some familiar and new faces! ♥

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Ocarina of Time Art Trade + WIP Pictures

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So I finally finished this piece that was a part of an art trade with a friend of mine, Agnes Stelmach. It’s an 17″x11″ watercolor artwork that I’ve been working on and off of for a while. She specifically wanted Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but I included Ganondorf so I’d have a little more fun with it.

I thought it’d be fun to share some of the progress images I have!

Initially I scribbled Link in my sketchbook while I was out with Agnes and she was interested in me finishing it for her. So I scanned it in and added some details and fixed things.

I wanted to make sure to get a background in there, so I decided to make the image based on the final battle with Ganondorf towards the end of the game. However my initial gesture sketch of him wasn’t so great and I had to fight with it a bit.

Finally Ganondorf’s pose pulled together and I spent an amount of time figuring out the details.

I usually sketch on the computer (well in this case in my sketchbook then on the computer) and then I print them out and transfer them with my lightbox onto whatever paper I’m going to use. It seems convoluted but it’s the most enjoyable way to do things for me. When transferring it onto the paper with my lightbox I’ll often use ink, but in this case I did solid penciling with my .3mm mech pencil that I showed off in my drawing tools post. The first thing I tackled was the lighter areas on link.

I spent a good chunk of my time that I worked on Link at Jessi Jordan’s home (Jezzacat on Twitter) during an art jam we had together.

Ganondorf was a little intimidating to start off with all his details. I don’t usually use masking fluid (sometimes I find it more of a pain than helpful) so I wasn’t sure how to approach him. I ended up using one of my fine tipped brushes that I’ve entirely neglected. And wow that thing will be getting plenty of use in the future. I’m silly for never using it.

Here’s a detail shot from the same point as the previous image. This is with all the flat colors laid down. I didn’t do as many fun gradients with him as I did with Link because I was more worried about the details.

After my runthrough of doing flats on him, I added some values to Ganondorf.

Finally the background. First I did the simple designs for the stained glass and its colors. Then I did a huge wash of dark purple.

Once I finished the background I added Ganondorf’s charging lightning then cleaned up some of the details.

I scanned it in and now I’m here presenting it to you! I hope you enjoyed this process post. ♥

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Tools for Lineart

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On Tumblr I was asked about some of the tools I use for my linework, so I’m going to share it here as well! Here’s the Tumblr post.

I’ve never had anyone ask about any of my tools or anything. I’d love to show off anything as far as my working process goes.

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This is what I do for the most basic inking. Faber-Castell india ink pitt pens are my favorite pitt pens. I’ve been using the small sanguine a lot and I’m hoping to get a hold of more colors later.

Also I love the Pentel Brush Pen and I’ve noticed it has been booming in popularity lately too.  It’s an inexpensive pen that uses cartridges and the brush is actual nylon bristles. This pen was suggested to me by Amy Reeder herself!

Faber-Castell Pitt Pens on DickBlick
Pentel Brush Pen on Jetpens

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Sometimes I use my pencil for lining, and there’s a lot of cases where I’ll pencil first and ink when I’m done painting if I think it needs it. Toni suggested the .3 Staedtler mechanical pencil a while back and I’ve been in love with it ever since. It’s very light and because the lead is so thin it keeps me from pressing too hard. However if you’re not careful it can indent the paper. I once lost the first one I had, and I was so frustrated without that I got two more just in case if it happened again. I found the first one again and I now I have three (and I’m perfectly ok with that)!

.3 Steadtler Mechanical Pencil on Jetpens

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These guys aren’t for inking, but I feel they’re worth mentioning anyway since they’re important pens for my watercoloring. My Uni-ball Signo and Sharpie Poster-Paint pens (there are three sizes of the sharpie pens too) are absolutely necessary. The Uni-ball Signos I got because my friend Rammy bought them for me because she loved them so much. I use the Liquid Paper Correction Pen sometimes. It’s not something I specifically bought, but just had around. 

Uni-ball Signo on JetPens
Sharpie Poster Paint Extra Fine Point on Jet Pens & Fine Point

This is all that I use at the moment, but I’m hoping to get into playing with quill pens and brush + ink this year. 

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2012 to 2013

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This past year was an insane one for me. There were big life changes and I feel like I’ve grown as a person and an artist so much.

It was my second year exhibiting at comic book conventions, and it has only been getting better. As funny as it sounds I’ve been building up a bit of a Texas following. When I feel insanely invisible on the internet these days, it’s so refreshing to go to a convention and feel like I’m an artist that means something to people and excites them. They mean so much to me and I hope I can have an amazing career ahead of me that they can follow.

Robert and I moved closer to Houston in a much nicer apartment. While I’d probably much rather be in many other cities, it was a dramatic improvement to move closer to Houston. Already we go downtown and do random fun things more often. It’s inspiring for me to be able to go out and do nice things, and I’m glad it’s far more convenient now. I’m closer to some of my friends and have made new ones. Also we’re in a much bigger and more lovely apartment! I’ll be posting some good pictures of that sometime soon.

I had two gallery shows at my school. And Holy shit I graduated. I’m done! I can friggin’ start my career full time finally. I’ve been long ready for it.

I’ve been noticing some further evolving of my own personality. I’ve turned into a lover. I just want to be kind and love on everyone as much as I possibly can. I enjoy randomly doing little things or leaving kind words to make someone feel good. I’ve also come to learn, thanks to Tumblr and its batshitness, that no matter what the situation there is never any need to deliberately disrespect someone for any reason. No matter how people feel, think, or what they like, there is never any need to disrespect someone. Another thing that has made me happier as a person is not associating with people that have more of a negative impact on me than positive. People that wrong, frustrate, or disrespect me just take up the space that I could have someone else to love on and support with all my heart.

Spring was a bad time for me art wise. My continuously building insecurities that blossomed from the community shift to Tumblr was eating me alive. I hit rock bottom just about constantly. I couldn’t handle this change to a website where nearly nobody communicated and any time I had art to share it was mostly overlooked (or outshined). I was very bad about basing my artistic self worth on how much people “cared.” The weird thing about all of this is I was a very confident artist that never had any of these sort of problems prior other than occasional normal ones. Funnily enough, after having watched Avatar the Last Airbender in the Summer for the first time, I became very inspired to focus on self improvement because of the character Iroh. I finally decided it was time to get out of this stupid rut that was nagging the back of my head and get control of it. I knew it was solely because of Tumblr, and as a result I’ve kind of disconnected myself emotionally with the website. It worked too!

Despite it being an eventful year I still managed to make a lot of work. In 2011 I picked up watercolors for the first time and that has really clicked with me ever since. I’m still working on my technique with it, but it has been a miracle worker. Through it I’ve enjoyed coloring a lot more, so I’ve been able to focus more on color schemes. I’ve also been working harder on my compositions in general, and making sure to keep a background in mind. I know I still have a long way to go still, but I know my artwork improved dramatically this year and I’m so thankful for that.

I have noticed that I’ve grown very fond of animals. They’ve been a big source of inspiration for me suddenly. I think it has been somewhat gradual since we brought home our first pet, Brucey. We love our little bird and I think he has given me a new perspective on animals. I would always make the excuse that I couldn’t draw animals to never draw them, but now I really do want to draw them fairly regularly and get good at it!

When I indulge in some sort of media (books, TV series, etc) that I adore now I become very inspired to create something also spectacular. It makes me more invigorated work work on my stories. This was an amazing new shift in what I got out of stuff in the end.

Some things I enjoyed this year were:
- Y the Last Man
- Movies: Hotel Transylvania, Wreck-It Ralph, Dredd, and The Hobbit
- One Piece (I finished the second half of the series this year)
- Parks & Recreation
- Saga
- Indie Game: The Movie
- Sword and Sworcery

2013 I know is going to be a promising year. I already have a few jobs to work on. RAMMY IS VISITING IN FEBRUARY!!! I’m planning on exhibiting at my first convention out of state, Denver Comic Con. Already lined up for some awesome guests at Texas conventions such as Bruce Boxleitner (actor of Tron) and J.M. DeMatteis (Co-writer for JLI). 2012 was a bit of a dead year for me guests wise so I’m super excited.

Here are some of my goals for the coming year:

- Further strengthen backgrounds, compositions, colors, concepts and watercolor skills
- Buy & try quill pens and brushes for inking
- Get better at drawing animals!
- Start my webcomic
- Make a zine (with Rammy & Karniz, on my own, with friends, OR ALL OF THE ABOVE)
- Put together an elf costume
- Read more BOOKS
- Go nuts with conventions since they inspire me so much
- Take an Art League Houston course
- Visit my Grandmother
- Start and finish Face the Music (8-issue mini series written by Meredith Nudo)
- Keep a regular schedule of updating my website’s blog

2012 was a fantastic year, and I’m revved up to make 2013 an awesome one too. Bring it on Year of the Snake. It’s my year!

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Tumblr Pins + Custom Sketch Card Giveaway!

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Recently I put a set of One Piece pins in my Etsy, but due to them not being snagged I’m doing a big giveaway! On Tumblr two lucky winners will get a set of 9 One Piece pins featuring all of the characters plus a custom sketch card of their choice. You can find the details of the giveaway on the post here. There are FIVE DAYS LEFT for the giveaway! So reblog and like away!

In celebration of the giveaway I have also listed the original watercolors of the characters that I used for the pins! The set of pins will also be on sale for $5 for the duration of the giveaway. You can find it all in my etsy shop!

Good luck!