Holidays 2012

And another year down in the books. 2012 was definitely a VERY productive year full of new merch and new techniques for art. It also marks my first full calendar year as a work-at-home freelance artist, manga letterer and housewife! I also produced my second artbook, had a wildly successful solo art show, printed my first wave of tshirts, helped forge my best friend's independent design house, and had my first podcast interview. I have lots of fun new projects planned in the new year, and really look forward to 2013!

At Chris and Cass's Christmas Party during the White Elephant gift exchange-
Me: "I got booze!"
Everyone: "YAAAAYYY!!"

My beloved husband Phil and I in his hometown in Missouri over Christmas

A low-key New Years Eve at my in-laws

While in Missouri visiting my in-laws I was able to get A LOT of stuff done without my computer- lots of inking and painting on vellum. So glad I packed some stuff to work on!

A portrait of one of my favorite couples- Paul and Chelsea!

A Playing Card Queen with burlesque fans!
She is currently for sale HERE.

Some progress shots:

the sketch!

Inks on vellum!

I like inking on vellum a lot- it's not for everyone but it's def worth a try.

Painting with paint pens!

I ink directly on the vellum. A lot of my digital stuff I'll clean up in illustrator/photoshop. I was away from my computer though so I just went gung-ho on this piece. I flip back and forth but always do the inks on top (tracing my pencils) and the colors and whites on the back. I also use prismacolor grey markers for shading, either on top when shading colors or on the back if just using markers on the straight vellum. As I am perfecting my methods I hope to take part in more gallery shows where I can showcase my work to even more potential fans. 

Ooooh!!! I'm INTERVIEWED on a PODCAST!

Hey kids!! Want hear me spout some verbal diarrhea for over an hour??

Thank you to the awesome guys at One-Of-a-Kind-Workshop podcast for being my first ever podcast interview! If you can get thru all my irritating verbal tics and stutters, I talk about some quasi-interesting stuff.

As I told Fenny as we were live-texting our reactions to what I said to each other: "Even I'm getting tired of hearing myself.  Waitaminnit... JESUS CHRIST IS THIS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE AROUND ME??? D:"

(Fair warning: I consumed an entire bottle of wine during this interview. The more coherent I get, the drunker I am. Go figure.)

Give it a listen:

Click here to be taken to the OOAKW site.

November 2012- Lil Bub and lil' bags

Hey! Sorry I haven't updated in a while! Been busy this past month with some varying projects, Thanksgiving, lettering away at some manga, attempting to regularly go to the gym and trying to actually be social n' stuff. Which I know, weird...

Selfie in the bathroom of Double Down Saloon

I also got to meet a CELEBRITY this month!! 

Being internet cat sensation and most amazing creature on the planet-
Lil' Bub!

There was a meet n' greet to a roomful of cooing girls (myself included) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn at the BARC (Brooklyn Animal Rescue Center) where Lil Bub was selling 'kisses' for a dollar and 30% of all sales of Bub merch went to the center.  So I bought a tshirt and tote and got to hold her tiny polydactyl paw. It was magical!

As for projects I am working on lately, I just recently completed some new designs for my best friend Fenny's design house Little Asian Sweatshop, and we've got some crazy stuff planned! We've finally started figuring out how to utilize the Spoonflower website- which if you haven't heard about, is a really cool printer of direct-to-garment REAMS OF FABRIC.

Luchadora Fabric!
Drawn by me, designed by Maria Danalakis!

Little Asian Sweatshop and I have BIG PLANS for 2013, including Paigey-designed bags and even apparel further down the road. We're concentrating first on a line of make-up/pencil/stash bags with matching liners and zippers.

Little Asian Sweatshop already has Luchadora makeup/pencil bags in stock
on her etsy site!!

And we're already taking the bag design a step further with art that I am composing with the intention of being on the bag from the start, including these tattooed sailor mermaids:

Be sure to keep an eye out for this and future bag releases!!

I have a lot more bag designs planned, and also hope to get some of my other artist friends on board with their own via LAS once we've perfected the method for creating these. Then we plan to move on to purses, totes and eventually even apparel including dresses and tops! Very exciting!

Shiiiirts!! Check it out!

Check it out!! I've got a limited run of my 'Oh Boy!' Boh & UTZ shirts for sale at my etsy store!

ORDER HERE!!!

Be sure to pay attention to the size listings when ordering- I only have a very limited run of these right now.

Art dump! October 2012 Edition

Just a few pics I was working on this past month!

A gift for my husband Phil Balsman, who turned 34 this month!

A commission for an 11 year old fan named Kayla
from her mother for her birthday.

A birthday present for my BFF Fenny of Kira from her
most favorite movie ever, Xanadu.

 And two fierce warrior wimmens!

Red Sonja- for fun!

Taarna from Heavy Metal, cuz I felt like it.

Aftermath: New York Comic Con 2012

Made *quite* the splash this year!

Oh New York Comic Con, you and I have such a checkered past. You are the Catwoman to my Batman, the Fujiko to my Lupin- you seduce me with your delightful insanity and crazy outfits and promises of wild adventures only to totally burn me after I finally give in to the idea of us being together. If you weren't in my own backyard I wouldn't even consider us a possibility, as the cost of attending for an out-of-towner I imagine is ludicrously expensive. But yet- I've attended every year since you started 6 years ago and have seen you evolve from a total mess of Fire Marshall shutdowns and hand-written pro-badges to what may well be the first year you've finally gotten your shit together.

"All the world is waiting for yoooou---!!'

I attended this year's NYCC with not the highest of expectations- the show has basically become the east coast's answer to San Diego Comic Con, which though I've never attended myself, has notoriously become a total over-crowded mess less about comics and more about focus groups and test markets. Even the Artist Alley, which has been pushed further back into the corner every year, was outright separated from the con- to the point of no longer even being in the same building! I was outraged! Talk about a leper colony! How COULD they DO this to us?? Even when I got to the actual show on Thursday I had my reservations- bag checks? K-9 officers? Ha-RUMPF! 

Well, I must say- NYCC did eventually win me over. Sure the floor was insane and the seas of people you had to go thru to get from Point A to Point B made even the shortest distance an hour-long trip, but I have to say that what they did with Artist Alley was actually a pretty good move. By separating it from the spectacle of the main exhibition hall and giving it it's own huuge exhibition hall of it's own, Artist Alley itself almost became it's own show. It was easily the size of MoCCA fest or other smaller shows, plus the somewhat lengthy hike to AA from the main exhibition hall provided a nice filter of people who were at the show because they actually give a shit about the medium and those who just want to see cars, booth babes and video games. Not to say it wasn't crowded in AA, but it was def more manageable than everywhere else at the show. I definitely want to look into tabling at AA next year for NYCC. Hopefully I won't have the trouble I did two years ago trying to land a spot.

Wore my Wonder Woman outfit on Friday, which is always a good time!
(Photo: Steve Bunche)

Wonder Wooooomannnnn!
(Photo: Steve Bunche)

Since I was table-free and wandering the show, I figured I'd bust out a couple costumes as well. Friday I wore my tried-and-true Rockabilly Wonder Woman outfit that's always a crowd pleaser, though this was I think the first year I wore it while walking around. I found a corner in the hallway leading to AA that I chilled at for about 2 hours and got lots of pics snapped and even wound up on a news blog or two!! I also was easily recognized by lots of friends and saw lots of folks I hadn't seen in awhile. But awesome as the reception was for my WW costume was, I hadn't expected such an AMAZING a response as I got for the costume I wore Saturday!

Retro Power Girl!
(Photo by Bethany Fong of Comics Alliance)

My concept drawing of my Retro Power Girl costume!

Saturday I wore my Retro Power Girl costume, which I had been working on for the past month and had been planning on doing since right after my wedding last year. Why my wedding? well- the dress, you see, is actually my *wedding dress* repurposed for the costume! And there must have been some leftover bridal mojo left in it, because the reception for my outfit was a bananas! I really wanted to wear another superhero costume in the same vein as my WW outfit, and seeing as how PG and myself have some similar... endowments, she seemed a logical next choice. However, not wanting to wear her actual costume as I don't want my ass hanging out, I opted for a retro version and once I incorporated my wedding dress into the costume it def took a Marilyn Monroe turn. Which is is a look I've played around with before. It was pretty funny too, as I didn't wear my glasses or contacts and had my normally black hair under a blonde wig- a lot of people didn't recognize me! So I had to go up to my friends and say hello- and only then did they realize it was me. Which was pretty fun! Everyone loved it! I couldn't have been happier- I felt like Cinderella! ^_^  Quoth the ever-awesome Chris Sims on Twitter (who's movie reviews on Comics Alliance are SO getting a TILT entry...): ".@PaigeyPumphrey's pin-up Power Girl outfit got into Best Cosplay Ever like five times this weekend." Like here, oh and here! Which I have the fantastic Bethany Fong to thank for, I was lucky to run into her so many times over the weekend and talk about how cute our outfits are. Me n' her- kindred spirits. I also managed to get on The Beat thanks to my friend Torsten! Probably my top NYCC experience however was getting to spend some time with my artistic hero AMANDA CONNER- who LOVED my costumes and even invited me to chill behind her table with her a bit. So beyond thrilled to have spent some time with her, as a fellow female comic artist she is like my Michael Jordan. ^_________^; Many thanks to Steve Bunche for helping out with this spectacular meetup!

 I may look cool as a cucumber her, but inside my
fangirlish 'squeeeeee's are DEAFENING.
(Photo: Steve Bunche) 

Me with Amanda's version of Power Girl!
(Photo: Steve Bunche)

So yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by how well NYCC went this year- even though I couldn't make it out to any after parties aas I was too poor and tired I still got to spend some quality time with almost everyone and meet some new friends and fans.

The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe- REDUX Edition blog

I had the honor of taking part in the The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe- REDUX Edition blog, which was quite a thrill for me as I am a HUUUGE fan of the book series, which was a giant influence on my childhood obsession with character design. By the time I found out about the project and got ahold of the moderator it was pretty slim pickens, most of the 'cool' characters on the list had been rifled thru, leaving a lot of D-listers and what I like to call the 'single-pagers', which were always the most awesomely lame weirdoes the Marvel U circa the 80's had to offer. I fortunately was able to grab the last girl, being Her, the female counterpart to Adam Warlock, or who I lovingly now refer to as 'Giant Gold Bitch' and chose the awesomely weird Aelfyre 'Whitey' Whitemane, whom I remember even from my childhood as being such a strangely designed character. Plus it's such a departure from my usual pinup art, it was definitely a fun exercise. 

Be sure to check out mine and several other awesome reinterpretations of characters at the 

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe- REDUX Edition blog!

Her! See the actual entry here!

Whitey! See the actual entry here!

And now I ramble:

I love stats, I love character lineups, I love comparing power levels and surmising whether or not so-and-so could take on so-and-so in some whirlwind street fight. It fills my nerdy little heart with glee. The combination of the OHotMU, the Who's Who in the DC Universe series and various sourcebooks for tabletop roleplaying games I collected over the years resulted in me just spending hours upon hours alone at my parent's dining room table as a kid creating multiple characters and universes of my own design. All thru junior high I had stacks of RPG sourcebooks and stacks of character sheets, but sadly no one to play with. ::insert sad violin:: It wasn't until high school that I found enough sorta-like-minded individuals to get a Vampire: The Masquerade game together. Unfortunately the only way I could get them to play was if I was the DM/Gamemaster/Storyteller and totally threw out the actual dice-rolling process of the game (I know, blasphemy. I think they figured the lack of dice made it less nerdy?). Since everyone I played with had gotten themselves so wrapped up in creating their character, if there was even a possibility of that character getting killed and rendered unusable I could kiss being able to play at all goodbye. So I counted my blessings and just found creative ways to work story arcs where characters got really fucked up, but didn't necessarily die. I think that was a major mistake on my part however with running an RPG, as it gave the player characters (PCs) way more control than they should be allowed. But alas I was young and naive and had a spine made of spaghetti. These game sessions happened about once a week for about 3-5 hours apiece, and each 'Chronicle' (major storyline) lasted about 3 months. We even made different mix tapes for the characters and overall story atmosphere to get my brain going. (Which I still do to this day, but now it's playlists on iTunes.) It was creatively exhausting, writing all these open-ended stories for the PCs to navigate thru and then the times we actually played it would be even more physically exhausting acting out all these characters on the spot. I was seriously performing some sugar and soda-fueled one-woman show shit at that poker table in my parents basement. (I'm sure if I nowadays was a fly on the wall witnessing my antics I would cringe so much at the embarrassing wannabe theater-kid-ness of it I'd collapse in on myself like a dying star.) I apparently did 'such a good job' of DMing that once any of my players decided to step up to the plate and host a session they backed out at the last minute, which was quite a disappointment to me as sweet Christ it's an exhausting job. I have no idea how I did it. So many of the NPCs (non-player characters, essentially supporting cast and extras that were portrayed by me) I created for RPG sessions I still plan to use for my magnum opus comic Pearly Whites, though they have drastically evolved with the times. During my heyday of RPGing back in 10th-12th grade I probably had a backlog of easily over 100 NPCs, not including repeat characters who had multiple alternate universe versions depending on the story. I was so wrapped up in gaming I almost failed Desktop Publishing my Senior year of high school, which would have caused me not to graduate. Oh, the irony. Lookit me now! ;P
Even before all that I had started to make my own awful, derivative-as-hell superhero team and had about 10 pages worth of a fully colored, fully lettered comic back in the 7th-8th grade when I first started really getting into comics (which for a kid that young even I must admit is pretty impressive) which I carried around with me in one of those chincy plastic portfolio books with the clear plastic pages and worked on every chance I got. I had even made my own Handbook-style character entries in the back as a guide that I typed out with a TYPEWRITER and even drew in little fake 'action shots' (that were so totally swiped from everything I could get my hands on, but hey I was only in 7th grade and just learning...) that I had to format my typing around by hand. I probably had about 6-8 completed entries in that book, all illustrated with the original art gluesticked in, with fully realized origin stories. It was awful yet totally charming at the same time and I wish I still had them somewhere so I could show you but I'm pretty sure none of it survived my 'I'm gonna destroy everything remotely embarrassing because I have an ego made of sugar glass'-phase I had in high school. Sometimes really I wish I could go back in time and shake the ever-loving shit out of myself.
Nowadays my more intensive character creation processes has been temporarily retired to my stacks of private sketchbooks, filled with scrawlings that would remind you of some sort of OCD-riddled crazy person. The movie Seven comes to mind. Hopefully with the self-imposed projects I'm planning to inflict on myself in the near future I can actually flex those creative muscles again.

Aftermath: Thanks For Your Support Release Party!

All dolled up!

The merch table/ art show and photo booth before it got all crazy!

The Friday night before Baltimore Comic Con I had decided to have an artbook release party at The Ottobar for my newest book, Thanks For Your Support! as a way to see all my friends from Maryland who could come out to the art show but maybe couldn't make it (or want to go) to the con. I'm blessed to have friends and family who want to support me and my artwork, but they maybe are not so much into the comic convention scene and if they do venture out to the show I feel bad they paid an entry fee and waited in line just to see me at my table, when I could be absolutely slammed at a moment's notice and have to ignore them to sell artwork and merch. Cuz yeah, as fun and silly as cons are, it's still work for me. I'm also insanely lucky to have the awesomest best friend in the world, being Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop who was more than happy to man my merch table so I could spend time with everyone and her husband J who was awesome to take pictures at a faux-photo booth and around the actual event.

Fenny running the merch table!

BFFs!

Overall the event was wildly successful, I'm definitely gonna try and figure how I can capture that lightning in a bottle for next year, as well as other shows in the future.

Photobooth and event shots by J!

The art! Some of it is still for sale and will be put up on my etsy page!

BONUS VIDEO!

Me being a goober during the 'dance party':

Aftermath: Baltimore Comic Con 2012

Photo by Edward Boren

Last weekend at Baltimore Comic Con 2012 marked my *5th* year vending in Artist Alley as a professional artist! Wa-hoo! 5 years already? Crazy! 

It was also the debut weekend of my 2nd art book, Thanks For Your Support!, as well as my I (heart) Baltimore mini-print set! (Both of which are available at my etsy store!) My BFF Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop and I both had our own Artist Alley tables this year which really showcased all of the awesome stuff we had for sale beautifully and with the extended floorplan we had plenty of room to be comfortable behind our tables.

Overall Baltimore yet again proved to be one of my best shows for the year, and this year in particular it was my best show (financially) ever! Being able to stay at my parent's house a mere 10 minutes away in my hometown of Glen Burnie allows me to save boku bucks in travel expenses, so Baltimore usually ends up being one of my most profitable shows of the year. Also with having such a history in Baltimore as the 'local kid making it in the big city', I also get lots of friends popping by the table as well as fans who have now become repeat customers who make sure to swing by the table every year. I was so busy in fact that I could barely leave to go to the bathroom without getting called back to sign an artbook or say hello to a visitor. It was dizzyingly busy, but then that's how I like it! Cons are such a fun, frantic tornado of friends and fans coming and going for 8 hours straight, once it was all finally over I took my hard-earned con money and had a big ol' 'Treat Yo-self' moment of a dozen jumbo steamed crabs. And OMG they were sooooo good.

I am eagerly looking forward to Baltimore Con 2013! 

I should hopefully have even more exciting new products and merch by this time next year, Fenny and I have some exciting ideas on the horizon!

Getting ready for Baltimore Comic Con!

I drew another UTZ girl pinup!
Time permitting, I would like to get one or two more pieces
done in time for my show at The Ottobar!

So I've got A LOT of stuff coming up in the next couple weeks! I'm having a pre-party for Baltimore Comic Con Friday September 7th at the Ottobar starting at 9pm! You can see the Facebook invite here! It's also the release party for my newest artbook Thanks For Your Support. There's gonna be a Photobooth, a raffle to win prizes like a Miss Mary Jane figure, original art to buy and merch tables set up for both me and Little Asian Sweatshop! It's going to be QUITE the little shindig! But don't fret if yu can't make it, as I will also have a table at Baltimore Comic Con all weekend in Artist Alley at tables AA 213-214!

Artist Alley tables 213-214!
I'll be sharing with Little Asian Sweatshop!

I'm trying to get all of my merch, original pieces and myself in order before the big weekend, so I've been pretty busy the past few weeks and intend to keep working all the way up the the wire.

But anywho, check out all the cool stuff in store:

Original inks from my I (heart) Baltimore postcard
set will be available for purchase!

Ouija Girl inks will be available for purchase!

"Who me?"

Luchadora magnet sets!!

The Three Fates of Baltimore magnet sets!

Working on LOTS of magnet sets! 

Amor Eterno magnet sets!

And what's this?
Nothing I'll have at the show, but just a little sneak
peek at a future project I'm cooking up with LAS.