Wednesday, December 30, 2009

2009 Recap and Looking on to 2010

2009 has been an awesomely productive year for me! Let's recap, shall we....?


Phil and I on New Year's Eve, 2010


January 1st 2009- I was asleep at 8pm, as I was very sick with the flu. Phil woke me up to give me a kiss at midnight. I always had this superstition that the way you spent New Year's Eve was a reflection on how you were going to spend the rest of the year, hence me usually trying to have as much fun as I can with as many friends as possible when the year switches over. This year's rather understated festivities however were no reflection of how cray-zee the rest of 2009 would pan out.

January 9th 2009- My FIRST SOLO ART SHOW! "Hips, Lips and Pencil Tips", my first ever solo art exhibition at the Ottobar in Baltimore was host to well over 50-some of my friends from my homestate of Maryland. Former high school classmates, co-workers, Charm City Roller Girls, tattoo artists and even fans from out of state came to join in the drinking and merry-making. I made lots of sales, including one fella who bought the framed copy of the Gutter comic book issue cover right off the wall!

February 6-8th, 2009- New York Comic Con table at Artist Alley!! With the help of my friend and fellow pin-up artist Amano Jyaku, I got to invade NYCC's Artist Alley and with but a quarter of table space charm the pants offa the comic book community! ~__^ I met the illustrious, inspirational Molly Crabapple for the first time, who is headmistress of Dr Sketchy's Anti-Art School, which for those not in the know is the most kick-assedly awesome cabaret life drawing event ever! Check the website- there might be one going on in a city near you! I also got to meet the one and only Method Man, which was hilarious to behold as I was completely star struck and calling him 'Mr. Method Man' like a giggling school girl. I also got my first ever limo ride, had my first weirdo con stalker who recited the Joker monologues from Dark Knight to me and ate both cow tongue and intestines! What a fun weekend!

March 8-14, 2009- Walt Disney World vacay with Phil, Fenny and J!! My first ever adult vacation! It was great fun and MUCH needed, though I did gain like 7 pounds. :T

April 1st 2009- My 2nd year anniversary of moving to New York City! Best decision of my life! Never before moving here would opportunities such as the ones presented in the last 2 years of my life have happened while still living in my parent's basement in Baltimore. For the first time in my life I feel accepted, supported and comfortable with being myself and doing what I want. I've never happier than I have been living here. It's insane. It's like everything crazy and off-the-wall you could possibly have an interest in there's a strong, welcoming subcultural presence here for. And to an obsessive-compulsive like myself, It's been nuts going out to different events and meeting shit-tons of people and seeing and learning all kinds of new amazing shit. Like, to live here you really need to accept the fact, especially as a 'settler' here, that this city is huge, living and will never truly be yours. The best you can hope is to grab hold and ride as long as you can. This city is so much bigger than me. It continually blows my mind that I walk down the same streets Mick Jagger sings about and go to work everyday two mere blocks from Times Square, where countless movies and tv shows have taken place. It's surreal. I mean, I have friends here now that have lived here their entire lives and had no idea of the stuff I've dragged them to even existed. Which blows my mind that they can take such an amazing place like here for granted, because I was starving for creative outlets like this when I lived in Maryland in my parents basement smoking my dreams away in an ::ahem:: dead end mall job. 9__9 But I digress, yeah living in NYC is amazing and the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I have my boyfriend Phil to thank for it.

June 11th- Dos Equuis Party, after joining up with Molly Crabapple's merry band of Art Monkeys as a sort of 'Associate Member', I was invited to take part in the Dr. Sketchy's room as part of the Dos Equuis's Most Interesting Academy series of parties. This was perhaps the most surreal experience of my life, the party took place at this school-like building in the financial district of NYC. It was 6 floors, with several rooms, including a giant dance floor where ?uestlove was DJing, a pool where they were giving out bikini's to swim in, a lounge, a Tesla coil with a guy in armor zapping music, a marching band, free beer and coffee drinks. It was nuts. And that was all the stuff I didn't see. I was on a floor that was set up like a school, with different classrooms, including a dojo where karate guys were doing demos and board-breaking, a culinary entomologist who had various freeze-dried insects on crackers for consumption (I ate 2 scorpions!), a drum circle, a barbershop giving out free fades and the room we were in which was a Dr Sketchy's setup with models the Bambi Killers and Amber Ray and Darenzia. This whole event had to cost a few million. It was nuts. And in the middle of a recession, no less. And the punchline? It was only open for an hour and a half before the fire marshall shut it down. Oops.

June 24th- The birth of this very blog! At the urging of my coworkers at my dayjob, combined with the declining popularity of Myspace and the inaccessibility of my Facebook profile to non-friends, I finally broke down and got a blog to be used as my hub for all things Paigey. It's been great so far, especially since I added the Clustrmap feature, which counts how many visitors and shows where in the world each visit comes from. I am overjoyed to see visits from so many places in the world!

July 11th 2009- My table at Artists & Fleas Indoor Designer Market in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Though I barely made any money the one day I had a table I met some really sweet folks and got a good reception of my work. It was also my first foray into my side-project of Shrinky-Dink jewelry and accessories, which is paying off awesomely and has so far been very well-received.

Aug 3rd- My very first interview with online roller derby publication Fracture Magazine!! So excited! I accomplished one of my 2008 New Year's resolutions! I think I came across Fracture through one of my friends in Charm City Roller Girls via Facebook. Seeing they had a gallery for derby bout posters, I submitted mine and got hit back by the site owner asking if I'd be interested in an interview. Ummmm.... YES!!

Aug 9th- Beautiful Woman show at the Paul Vincent Studiosin Hoboken. My first group art show out of Maryland, I was invited to take part in this show by my friend Lau Klohe. I had 4 pieces- OMGWTFBurlyQ, Bettie Blue, Miss Mary Jane and Swing Shift Cinderella. A very cool space full of amazing pieces, my only wish was that it wasn't so damn hot and muggy when we went- we could've stayed longer otherwise!

Sept 9th- 1st session of Drink & Draw NYC. While me and my friends were at first skeptical that Khary Randolph's NYC chapter of Drink and Draw would turn out decent, since the legendary LA chapter set the bar really damn high- we were pleasantly surprised that it exceeded our expectations and we would continue coming back. It's going on it's 5th month now and the creative talent that shows up is stunning. Even better is that such a sizable chunk of the people who show up are comic artists or in the animation industry, there's something I prefer to the company of these types of artists to the so-called 'fine' artists. I think it's the talent to pretension ratio. Comic and cartoon artists are way more talented in my opinion than alot of the people calling themselves fine artists out there and are usually some of the most down-to-earth type guys and gals in the art business that you'll ever meet. If you have a chance to make it out to one of these, I highly suggest it. And shoot, if there isn't one in your area, start one up! It's not complicated or structured, just get some artists together at a bar to draw and shoot the shit, it's that easy!

Sept 10th- My Miss Mary Jane figurine is up for sale on PatchTogether.com! Miss Mary Jane started out in 2007 as a little doodle I sketched out during lunch at my day job shortly after I moved to New York. I used to smoke ALOT, about 3-4 years ago and had kicked the idea around in my head for awhile. And it just came out one day, and I took it to finishes and it became one of the more popular pieces in my portfolio. A girl back in Maryland even got her tattooed on her arm by a friend of mine who's a tattoo artist. It's always a bit of a 'test' with those who see it, as it's about a 60-40 split between those who think she's a broccoli girl/ the Jolly Green Giant's wife and those who realize she's a girl made out of weed. It's kind of like my little test to see who's a stoner. Though as soon as anyone realized she's a weed girl everything starts falling into place- the green tint to her skin, the hair texture, the plastic baggy hoodie with the multicolored seal/zipper. I entered her into Patch Together's ongoing design contest primarily for $hits and giggles. I'm a big fan of MissMonster (missmonster.com) and have both her Foo Dog and Tentatiger toys, and thought I'd give a shot submitting and thought nothing of it. I was accepted and started getting votes and after it was approved for preorder I was all 'Oh crap- this is real now.' Especially once I saw the sculpts start to take shape. Seeing my artwork interpreted as a 3D sculpture and ultimately having my own toy out on the market is so surreal and awesome at the same time, and this is definitely not the last collaboration I plan on doing with Patch Together. The journey of making Miss Mary Jane into a toy has been a tremendous learning experience. The sculptor I worked with- Miller, has done an amazing job and had nothing less than the utmost patience with my 8 million revisions going back and forth. Kudos and high fives all around!

Sept 26th- GirlsDrawinGirls.com table at NY Anime Fest. So by this time I had joined up with an all-female art collective of about 40+ super talented pinup artists based primarily in Southern California called Girls Drawin' Girls, of which I am at this point the sole East Coast member. Two of the founding members came out to New York from LA to exhibit for GDG at New York Anime Fest, and I offered to help out at the table and show them around the city. I was left to handle the table completely on my own Saturday afternoon/evening as the poor girls weren't used to the insanity/retardation of an anime con, which I barely was myself, seeing as the last one I went to was back in 2002. When I cosplayed. So... yeah. Either way, I rocked the spot and made a bunch of sales and generated interest in the group when otherwise it would've been a bit of a loss for them. Hopefully I'll get to come out to San Diego Con in 2011 to help them out with their table and rock even more sales.

October 3rd- Blood Dumpster's 'Salon' show in TriBeCa. My first group show in New York City and I couldn't even make it as I had previous plans already of attending the New York Burlesque Festival with my best friend Fenny and her husband J. Blood Dumpster, another art collective I joined up with, is NYC based and a bit more varied with their artwork, as I am the only comic book inspired pin-up artist. They're a bunch of cool cats and super nice people and hope to do more with them in the coming year.

October 10-11- Baltimore Comic Con! No need to reiterate- you can see my con report here!

October 30- My 29th birthday! And so starts my last year of my 20's.

November 7-8- King Con Brooklyn! No need to reiterate- you can read my con report here!

November 11- Drink & Draw w/ my fellow Kubies! No need to reiterate- you can read all about it here!

December 16th- Drink & Draw December Edition. This time I ended up coming by myself and met up with a couple friends, and met some new ones as well! Had some great conversations with Kyle Baker and Alberto Ruiz, two artists whose work I've followed/idolized for years, so getting to talk to them as people in such a relaxed setting was kinda surreal but insanely awesome.

Looking on to 2010:
~I'm planning on attending at least 5 conventions as an exhibitor in the New York/Baltimore/DC area: namely Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Fest, The B in BK (a Barbie show-LOL!), New York Comic Con, KingCon Brooklyn, Baltimore Comic Con and SPXpo.
~As I'm turning 30 this coming October (eep!), I'm planning on taking better care of myself. One of the first plans of action is to lose 40 pounds by my 30th birthday. Now that I've written it for you all to see, it's become real. If you see me with a piece of cake between now and Oct 30th, feel free to slap it out of my hand. ;)
~Getting my etsy store in gear. By you know, actually USING and UPDATING it.
~Trying out this Livestream thing while doing art. It seems neat.
~Getting enough art accumulated to have a new artbook available. Even better if I can have it put out via my pal Alberto over at Brandt Studio Press.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Vote for Ballsy's Design!

My boyfriend and frequent collaborator, Phil 'Ballsy' Balsman has a design on PatchTogether.com for his character Black Metal minigod Olaf Thundarsson to be made into a toy!

Click the pic to go to Olaf's design page!



Register and vote for Olaf!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Gruss vom Krampus!



Took a little break from the pre-Holiday commission and freelance craziness to draw a little sumpin-sumpin for fun, being a chick version of Der Krampus. Krampus, if you don't know, is the Germanic Anti-Claus who accompanies Santa on his route to punish the bad kids, usually by birching, making out with your mom and putting you in his basket to dump you into the fires of hell. Leave to us no-nonsense Germans to scare the ever-loving shit out of kids in the attempt to make them good people. He was alot more popular in the early 20th century, people even sent out Krampus cards, which there is a fantastic collection of in the book The Devil in Design.


Click to see this at Amazon.com!


There are some places in Europe where December 5th is Krampus Day, and they have terrifying parades in his honor.



My art pal Miss Monster recently did an awesome t-shirt via Woot.com that's still available, it was actually what inspired me to do a Krampus of my very own.

If you wanna know more about Santa's cloven birch-beating pal, check out his entry on Wikipedia!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Drink and Draw Social Club NYC: November Edition

So I've been hitting up the New York chapter of Drink and Draw, put on by the uber talented mofo and swell guy Khary Randolph which meets up on a Weds night every month at a local bar in the city and fills up with about 40-some odd artists who like to, well... drink and draw. There's also socializing, networking, sketchbook browsing and handshaking involved as well. Since I'll be hitting these up on the regular I figured I'd share a few shots from this past November session at Local 269 about 3 weeks ago. Being a huge fan of the legendary LA chapter that started it all, I'm super excited to be part of such an awesome community of artists. This is the sorta shit I could only dream about doing before I moved to NYC, truly amazing.








Friends in my pics:
Phil Balsman
Kevin Mellon
Ben Dale
Jemal McClary
Alberto Ruiz
Kyle Baker

The December session is going to be this Weds December 16th at Local 269 in the Lower East Side if you're in the area, it goes from 6:30 to 10:30, but the space is small so I suggest getting there a little early.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Shots of my stuff during GirlsDrawinGirls.com interview at CTN Expo

The art collective I'm a part of- GirlsDrawinGirls.com, which is a group of female pin-up artists, attended the CTN Animation Expo in California two weeks ago and had some of my prints, buttons and necklaces for sale. All which you can see on this cool little interview they had with indieanimator.com.

indieanimator.com On-Location: @CTN ANIMATION EXPO - GirlsDrawinGirls.com from indieanimator on Vimeo.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

TIME.com King Con Coverage!



Time.com sent out a video journalist to cover King Con a month ago. You can see me real quick working my table before the '40 Year Old Virgin' guy.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Ed Emberley taught me how to draw

Edward Randolph Emberley (born October 19, 1931 in Malden, Massachusetts) is an American artist and illustrator.
Emberley is best known for his work with children's books. In particular, Emberley has contributed illustrations to instructional books for drawing. From an educational standpoint, Emberley believes that everyone can learn to draw. His instructional drawing books for children present simple step-by-step instructions and often employ the numbers, letters, and shapes with which early elementary-school-age children are beginning to familiarize themselves. His book Ed Emberley's A.B.C. uses this style of instruction exclusively, presenting a single letter-based drawing for each letter of the alphabet.
Emberley has illustrated or contributed to over 50 books. Many of the books were published in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Emberley has experienced a renaissance with adults who fondly remember using the books in their youth, and are now purchasing them for their children (or for themselves).


As a kid, I hung out at the library, mostly because it was one of the only public places my over-protective parents would allow me to roam beyond eyesight. The kids section and the art/comics section were my stomping grounds, and I must have gone thru all the books there at least three times over. Even back then I barely had the attention span for any books without pictures, and ever since I was old enough to look at things I've been a visual person. But one of the things I got that I was OBSESSED with, and caused quite a sum of late fees, was the Ed Emberley's How-To-Draw Books. These were like, my artistic bible growing up. He breaks stuff down SO SIMPLY that literally ANYONE can draw this stuff, and it's perfect for kids who want to draw, cuz it helps them make SENSE of all the crazy scribbles they do, and learn basic structure and how to use simple shapes to make a picture. I mean,look at this:



Even if you 'can't even draw a straight line' you can follow Ed's instructions. And for the record, hardly ANYONE can draw a straight line, regardless of their artistic skill. That's why rulers are so popular.

Look how simple that is. And after you draw all of the things he shows you, it arms you with the basic artistic ability to break stuff down that you see in real life into simple shapes and then build them back up into a picture on paper. Which is, essentially what an artist does.



Here's a review I found of Ed Emberley's Make A World book, that they recently reissued, which was my favorite by far. Honestly, this book changed my life. It makes anyone capable of drawing SO MUCH STUFF, that it's like your imagination just pours out onto the paper. At least it did for me.




How to Draw a Werewolf, from The Big Book of Weirdos. He was my favorite. I'm actually gonna get a tattoo of him sometime next year or so.


For more information:
Ed on Wikipedia
Ed Emberley search results on Amazon.com
Ed Emberley.com (requires Flash)
Make A Word: The Film (upcoming documentary on Ed Emberley's book)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Aftermath: King Con Brooklyn (11/7-8)


Hi hi! So yeah, last weekend was King Con Brooklyn, which was quite a success! Was an intimate SPX-like convention, basically an entire artist alley, which was nice because it basically became a meet-and-greet for fellow NYC artists. I made back my table money in sales, which is all one can truly hope for when getting a table at a con. You always end up taking a loss somewhere- be it traveling, paying for product to sell, food to eat, etc, etc. It was super-cool since it was primarily local peeps in attendance, I actually got some recognition from being at other local events around the city and from plastering my stickers and postcards are around town. It was especially funny when someone recognized my cards from the Thai restaurant in Long Island City, Queens that I sometimes go to after work to pick up dinner. I've been dropping them off, thinking nothing of it. It's nice to know there is actually some sort of payoff in running around town with a heavy purse full of self-promotional material. My space was also very awesome. I had an 8' table up against the 'wall', which was actually a wall made of about 3 rows of church pews, so I was able to sit quite comfortably during the two long 10am-7pm days of the convention. I do love going to comic conventions and working my table, meeting fans and fellow creators- but I am also VERY relieved this was my last con for the year. As much as I love doing them, they certainly take alot out of me. Especially since I only leave my table when I ABSOLUTELY have to. XP All the talking, pitching, conversing, getting excited over things and humoring the occaisional weirdo while fun in short bursts can definitely become exhaustive over an 8 hour shift. I usually end up going straight home after the con is over for the day and throwing my jammies on. But I'll be able to rest up for MoCCA Fest in April, which will be my next convention appearance! More on that as it gets closer!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Miss MJ is DONE, son!

Huzzah! After 3 months of getting people to vote, order, and agonizing over revisions and getting the word out, the Miss Mary Jane toy is finished and ready to go!

You can order her here!!









So excited!! Beyond awesome that they were able to make the hoodie clear! I can't suggest PatchTogether.com enough- if you've got a toy concept, and about 150 friends who'll vote for it to put it into production, and some willing buyers, definitely go for it and submit a design concept. This whole endeavor that started out as a late night bout of 'I'll just do this for shits and giggles and see what happens' has transmogrified into something so much bigger and awesomer than I could have imagined. Seeing my artwork interpreted as a 3D sculpture and ultimately having my own toy out on the market is so surreal and awesome at the same time, and this is definitely not the last collaboration for a toy I plan on doing with them. The journey of making Miss Mary Jane into a toy has been a tremendous learning experience. The sculptor I worked with- Miller, has done an amazing job and had nothing less than the utmost patience with my 8 million revisions going back and forth. Kudos and high fives all around!

As a little sneaky-peaky preview, I wanted to share some doodles from my sketchbook of my next character I wanna submit to Patch Together to be made into a toy. She's a rollergirl and her name is Laika Phenomenon. Her design will be much more upfront and simplified, since she will be drawn with the intention of being made into a toy from the get-go. I also like how thick I'm making her. I want big boobs and big hips, and definitely a little gut. I think she'll probably also do better in sales as I plan on making her smaller, thus a better price point, and there's more of a universal appeal for a roller girl figure (moreso I'd say, than for a girl made of pot). In fact, I'm pretty sure there are no roller derby girl toys as of yet. I'm hoping to submit her as a design for the beginning of the upcoming year.



Also! This weekend I will be at King Con in Brooklyn! If you're in the NYC area by all mean come by, I've got a table and will be hocking my wares!


King Con in Brooklyn: Nov 7-8

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Miss Mary Jane Final Sculpt and some upcoming appearances!

Hey hey hey!!! For those who haven't seen her yet- the final sculpt of Miss Mary Jane is up on Patchtogether.com! She looks awesome! I can't wait to see her in person! And contrary to the picture, she *DOES* have her hoodie and it *IS* clear. Just finishing up final revisions on the paints and then I think we'll be good to go with the final unveiling!
You can still order her here at the PatchTogether site!


In other news, this weekend (Nov 7-8) is King Con in Brooklyn! I'll be there all day Saturday and Sunday, hocking my wares and chatting it up. If you're in the New York City area- come on out to the Brooklyn Lyceum in Park Slope! Tickets are only $7 a day or $10 for the weekend!
Also next week I will be attending the NYC Chapter of Drink & Draw Social Club's November session at Local 269 on Weds, November 11th. Me and a few or my artist friends will be kicking back with some beers and drawing some ridiculous shit.
I also put in my application for a half table at New York Comic Con 2010 yesterday. Applications opened at 12:00 noon, and I was on there at 12:01. They're doing at first-come, first-served for alot of the up-and-coming artists in artist alley, and they're apparently wanting to play up the diversity, so hopefully I'll get in there. I've got big plans if I'm accepted. ::fingers crossed::

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Aftermath: Baltimore Comic Con 09

Whew! What a weekend! Though off to a rough start that included a NYC Megabus that was two hours late, an almost-riot outside said bus once it arrived, barely 5 hours of sleep and an hour and a half ordeal getting to the Inner Harbor because of the Baltimore Marathon (which would otherwise taken 15 minutes), the convention was a success! Saw alot of friends, worked my networking mojo, sold alot of stuff and ate delicious, delicious crabcakes Saturday night. Also got alot of compliments on my retro pinup ensembles I wore, many even mistook me as a Bettie Page cosplayer. I always dress up for conventions, so I can work as basically my own 'booth babe' but instead of the fans talking to a paid representative of said company/artist, they actually get to talk to the artist herself with me. Plus with my 6+ years of retail experience I feel I get the best response from 'customers' when I'm standing at their level, making eye contact and greeting them as they enter my 'store', aka the front of my booth. There's so many times going to comic cons as a fan that I've found myself in Artist Alley and have a whole 'Don't look in their eyes!' moment. I hate when artists are pushy pitchmen over their work, I've left Artist Alley way too many times with books and ashcans and such I didn't even want in the first place, that I've been guilted into buying or taking, that I end up throwing away only days later. I try to just be friendly and personable, and barely even mention my work, even though it's displayed all around my table. I let my work speak for itself, and I only talk about it to folks that seem interested. As it should be, I'd much rather 20 people take my card of their own free will with them back to their house than see 100 cards I've pushed on people end up on the floor or trash can. I have also decided I don't like doing con sketches and probably won't advertise doing them, at least at the convention. I do like the smaller headsketch format with markers, and I may take orders at the con and do them after the con and mail them out, but as far as doing them on-site this will probably be the only time. It infringes on my ability to network and bring customers to my booth, let alone speak to anyone while getting work done in a timely manner, plus usually the getups I wear to cons involve alot of shaping undergarments, which tend to get very uncomfortable when sitting and drawing. And I only got one on-site sketch request the whole weekend, which kind of discouraged me from the idea. I'll probably just take requests before a con and do them from the comfort of my own desk at home if I do them again. But yeah, Brooklyn's King Con is in less than a month (Nov 7-8, to be exact), so I'll get to work my convention skills yet again.

Me and Ballsy at the Artist Alley table

Friday, October 9, 2009

This weekend: Baltimore Comic Con!

Hey all! I'll be at Baltimore Comic Con this weekend- so if you're planning on going stop by booth #143 in Artists Alley!



Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Mary Jane Preview, Pt 2


Mary Jane Preview Pt 2
Originally uploaded by iampaigey
Miss Mary Jane preliminary sculpt preview, part 2. A final round of revisions and I think we can fully unveil her, and I am soooo excited. You can still get her at the reduced price of $50 before her sculpt is revealed- click here to go to her pre-ordering page. That's less than the price of an eighth of weed, which lasts like, what- a week? This will last you FOREVER!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

'Sugar come by, and get me high...'

Hey all! Sooooo effin' busy this past month. It's crazy. Trying to get outstanding commissions done, get my Shrinky-Dink inventory in order, have some small semblance of a life and I've got two comic convention appearances coming up, being:


Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 10-11


and


King Con in Brooklyn: Nov 7-8


SUPER-excited about both. Haven't worked an Artist Alley table since February at New York Comic Con, though I did do a 6-hour stint at New York Anime Fest this past Saturday at the Girls Drawin Girls table, which was fun and good practice, but anime cons are too high-maintenance and draining for me to deal with on the regular. I think the last pure anime con I went to was Katsucon 2002(?), and that was as a cosplaying fan, and yeah, do not have the patience for hyper-active weeaboos anymore in my old age. Give me the crotchety old alcoholic curmudgeons of a comic book convention anyday. Not to say I didn't meet some swell people this weekend, there were some nuggets of sweet sanity in an otherwise big-eyed, cat-eared, dog-collared maelstrom of Hamtaro dance parties and impromptu fake sword fights.

Shot of me at the Girls Drawin Girls table at NYAF:



Oooh-wee, do I LOVE my 5-minute weave!! ;)


Oh! But in other BIG NEWS- I got the preliminary sculpt pics of my Miss Mary Jane resin figure that I'm getting made through PatchTogether.com!!! They look AWESOME!!! They asked me if there were any modifications that needed to be made, which I pointed out to them, so we're waiting to see how it goes. But because you guys are so very dear to my heart, I'm gonna share a sneaky-peeky with you. ~__^



The buddy hair texture and baggy/hood turned out PERFECT! They even got all the little leaves in there! I still can't believe she's gonna be real, it's so crazy that I'm gonna have a toy based on my own work. Shoot, after Christmas I'm gonna definitely submit another design for sure! But yeah that's about it. I'm taking the weekend off for New York Burlesque Festival, I'll be sure to post a link to pictures, as I'm sure it will be QUITE THE TIME.

And I leave you with the song that inspired the original artwork for Miss Mary Jane herself:

Thursday, September 17, 2009

New Necklaces and a High School Mixtape

First off, got some new necklaces on the market. Not yet on my etsy storefront, cuz I've been busy. Also got more of Ballsy's line, including the first two of his monster series- which so far includes the Wolfman and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy are soon to follow.



And with that I leave you with the music I enjoyed during my formative years (being high school). Not much else worth posting. Hope you enjoy!


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones


Monday, September 14, 2009

Lots of exciting news!!!

Hey everybody!! Got alot of exciting news to let you know about!!

First off, Miss Mary Jane is up for pre-order at PatchTogether.com!! She's going for $50 before they start sculpting her, but once she hits her initial 20 preorders she'll jump up to $60 a pop! So if you're absolutely certain you want one before you see the sculpt, here's your chance to get her on sale. There's only 8 slots left at this discounted rate as of right now, so get on it folks! I'm so excited to see how she turns out!



Also, my roller derby necklaces have been reviewed by my pals at FractureMag.com. Super-nice little write up, you can get your own either directly thru me or thru my etsy.com store over there on the lower right hand side of this here blog. I'm hoping it'll get the attention of some more roller derby leagues who'd like some necklaces for their merch booth. FYI- I offer bulk discounts! Also look for some of my necklaces to be on sale over on the west coast at the LA Derby Dolls' next bout at the GirlsDrawinGirls booth! I'm also starting to get some of my fellow artist friends involved in my jewelry/accessories/magnet making empire as well, and have started my first offshoot brand of accessories featuring illustrations from my boyfriend Phil 'Ballsy' Balsman. Look for more artists' work in the following months!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Work it.



Finally took some product shots of my roller derby necklaces, and also opened up my etsy store finally, which you can check out here or by scrolling down and seeing on the right panel over there. I haven't done much to it yet to personalize it, I plan to, just been mad busy, as always. So excited about my accesory line- my necklaces, the Derby Girl in particular, are also going to be sold at L.A. Derby Dolls
bouts via the Girls Drawin Girls merch table. They'll go for $10 each and will be available in a variety of colors. So excited to expose my art to a whole new coast. Also sent some out to my buddies at Fracturemag.com for their product review. Hopefully that'll drum up more interest in other derby leagues carrying my products. I'm also working on new images to make into jewelry and I'm even getting my boyfriend Phil's artwork into the mix, with hopefully his own offshoot line as well. Also doodled up a cute little redhead, named Cherry. I'm planning on some accessories of her as well.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Welcome back, Space Girl

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been posting much, been super busy, got alot of unfinished stuff I'm working on all at once. A couple commissions have rolled in, along with a piece I'm working on for the upcoming artbook that my new friends Girls Drawin Girls are putting together. It's a fun concept, it being, obviously , a group of female artists who all draw girls, it's an artbook featuring all girls, all with the theme different desserts. I got 'tiramisu' as my theme, so I'm drawing up a Strawberry Shortcake-meets-loligoth-meets-burlesque chick in lots of brown andcreme stripes and frilly layers. Also got my first bulk purchase order of Roller Girl necklaces from my old pals the Charm City Roller Girlsthat I've been filling out, along with 'generic' roller girls necklaces for my Artist Alley table at the upcoming Baltimore Comic Con. I'm also working on new artwork that will work better as jewelry, with more of a 'hanging' or 'floating' composition. I noticed alot of my artwork that I've already created features characters standing on a ground plane, which looks cool when it's on a square piece of paper, but as a piece of jewelry it looks kinda awkward. At least to me. So yeah, I'm drawing some new stuff that will be specifically for my line of accessories.

Including, this adorable new lil' Space Girl:



Which I'm working into jewelry, along with an even *newer* version of the Roller Girl necklace! I'm hoping the Roller Girl necklaces does especially well at Balt Comic Con with the new derby movie Whip It coming out the week before.



Progress:



I'm also working on packaging for the jewelry/accessories I'm doing, here's a prototype for the derby girl necklaces. Working retail for 6 years taught me the importance of good presentation and merchandising, plus I'm not going to be able to stand over every jewelry purchase and make sure each person visits my blog/twitter/facebook/etc, so some clever packaging at least leaves a calling card of sorts and will hopefully drive some more traffic and interest over to my other art.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

VOTE to make my art into a TOY!

OH DAMN!!! This is it, folks- vote for my Miss Mary Jane design to be made into a limited edition TOY by Patched Together. That's right- A TOY. They do awesome stuff- my friend and fellow artist Miss Monster has already gotten two awesome toys made from her work that you can see here (check out her 'concepts'). OMG, let's make this happen guys!

Click here to go VOTE!!


Art Show: Beautiful Women: An Interpretation of Beauty

On Sunday August 9th me and Phil made the hot and humid trek out to Hoboken, NJ to Paul Vincent Studios to see the show Beautiful Women: An Interpretation of Beauty, which I had 4 pieces in. My friend Lau was nice enough to give me the hot tip on the group show going on, and I was able to just slide in before the deadline.The space is really cool, it's in a group of warehouses that are rented out to various creatives. You could hear bands practicing in the adjoining spaces outside.



The four pieces I had up were Bettie, Miss Mary Jane, OMGWTFBurlyQ and Swing Shift Cinderella.



Unfortunately it was SO DAMN HOT and about to storm that we could only stay for about 2 hours, but I hope to work with Paul Vincent Studios again, they were super nice and very professional. And had Magic Cookie Bars. Om nom nom.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

My 1st ever interview, courtesy of FractureMag.com!

I recently got interviewed by Fracture Magazine, a super cool online magazine about roller derby and the subculture built around it. It's my first ever interview, so I'm a little rambly, though I also go on and on in real life anyways, so it's pretty honest. ^__^

Check it out right here!!!

Friday, July 24, 2009

Derby Charms- Wave 2


Derby Charms- Wave 2
Originally uploaded by iampaigey
Spent a good chunk of tonight after dinner making multicolored roller derby charms. Plan on making lots more in the next couple weeks. Let me know if there's one you want- I'll be selling them via mailorder as well as at Baltimore Comic Con in October- $10 each, plus $2 shipping. Lots of fun, I'm kicking around some ideas of art and designs I can do that would be just for jewelry.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Scarlett Takes Manhattan book signing at MoCCA



Went to the Scarlett Takes Manhattan book signing /documentary viewing at MoCCA on Tues 7/21 where I met up with a bunch of Dr Sketchy's peeps for hangouts and free wine/cider. Was very fun, and good times were had by all. Even got to hang out after at Fred and Molly's swanky new pad and have discussions ranging from Marxism to Ninja Turtles.
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