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!