A Commission Experiment!

SO MUCH ART IN THIS ENTRY!
SO MUCH!!

So with Heroes over, my credit card is getting wrung out for all that it's worth. As a result, I did something I should have done BEFORE the show and offered single inked and greytoned marker character sketches (with no bg) for $75 a pop. That are on vellum, like the rather popular little Batgirl pic I did here.

That specific piece went for $200 on auction this Sat at Heroes. So yeah, not a bad deal. I only recently started selling my originals, as they are starting to take up too much room in my studio, so these are to be pretty rare, frameable pieces that whoever bought will have the one true, original copy of. To make toning easier with the markers, as they are done by hand- I also am coloring said commissions digitally in the more 'traditional' Paigey-style as I need to do a practice run to map out where my shadows are going to hit. So yay!
The catch: For the time being, I only had 5 slots open for this offer, which was announced over my Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts. Also, I was only doing fictional characters, not portraits. So no pics of people's wives, girlfriends, kids, etc. Sorry but too many egos get wrapped up in those kind of pieces and it infringes on my process. So revisions and progress shots ain't happening. You get what I'll give you, but if you're a fan of mine and pick a character that plays to my artistic strengths (boobs are aways a good start ~__^ ) I assure you you'll like what you get. Not saying I'll never do portraits of real people ever again, but that's not for this offer. I wanted to get these done quick and dirty. 
The experiment was a rousing success, with all five character slots being scooped up and payed for (the MOST important part!) in less than a week. 
I definitely want to do this again- it was A LOT of fun and I got a chance to put my own twist on some characters I wouldn't have otherwise thought to draw on my own. I'm steadily trying to build that trust/reputation with my artwork that if you give me something to draw, I will rock the shit out of it.

So anyways, onto all the awesome commissions everyone got!!

Big Barda
"I'm not so bad. A little rough, maybe --
but once you get to know me --
I can be a real pussycat."

Lady Death
"Queen of all that's dead or dying, baby..."

Columbia, from Rocky Horror Picture Show
"It was great when it all began, I was a regular Frankie fan..."

Storm
"The elements marshal their infinite might at my beckoning!
Power seethes in the roiling clouds! Now, at my command -- STRIKE!"

A Baltimore Pinup Girl
“I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore.
You can look far and wide, but you'll never discover a stranger
city with such extreme style. It's as if every eccentric
in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas
in Baltimore, and decided to stay.” 
-John Waters

And an extra bonus piece!!

Baltimore icons
Mister Boh of National Bohemian Beer
and the UTZ Potato Chip Girl
"Oh Boy!"

I've got a couple more Baltimore-centric ideas for pinups- my friends and fans in Baltimore (my hometown) are VERY kind to me and I always like to do a little extra for them. Think I may pump those out before Baltimore Comic Con in September and see if I can get some postcard sets made. Which I will certainly also post to etsy. We'll see what my schedule looks like, as I have A LOT on my plate for the next couple months.

Sketch Dump!

So I'm going a bit crazy with some sketching the last few nights, and figured I'd share some of what I've been working on! 

I've simultaneously got both colors and the background sketch going on with my Derby Dazzler vs. Hellfire Club commission. (See earlier progress shots here!) The guy who got it has been super-cool with letting me do what I want at my own pace. Commissions for portraits, which I usually do, are fun and rewarding but they're usually for a specific deadline (birthday/wedding) and some people can get very touchy over likenesses. And revisions, revisions, revisions. Oye. But yeah, people seem to really dig my versions of comic characters, now if only *someone* would give me a job doing that. 

::POINTED SIGH:: 

 This is the kinda stuff I want to do more of. <3

MOAR X-Men Redesigns:

More X-Men redesigns. This is alt.model Psylocke in her British body,
I'll be drawing her Japanese body as well. 

Another X-Redesign: DJ Nightcrawler.

I'm also in 10-week crunch time for my most favorite/important comic convention of the year: beloved Heroescon in Charlotte, NC! YAY!! Last year was my first time and I had an absolute BLAST! Now I'm coming back and I'll have Little Asian Sweatshop and Maria Danalakis in tow as we vend from our BIG AWESOME GIANT BOOTH! Woot!! 

I'm hoping by the time Heroes rolls around the Sweatshop and I will have a prototype of the *DRESSES* we plan to start making together that will feature fabric designed by me! I'm figuring out how to make an omnidirectional fabric swatch to get printed now- and drawing little pinup girls and accompanying elements. My first fabric is going to be luchadora (Mexican wrestlers) themed. I know- random! But it's definitely fun to draw! Hopefully even more fun to wear! So excited about this!

A fierce little luchadora.

More luchadoras and some ideas for elements, like a bell.

Milestones

Summer 2007
My first summer as a New Yorker

On this day 5 years ago I moved to NYC to live with the man I love, carrying out one of the single best and scariest decisions of my life. It was scary because the risk was so high. If it all went well- I'd be living a dream come true. I'd be where I belong. But if it failed, I'd be chewed up and spit out and would have marked the second time in my life I had to crawl back to the primordial suburban ooze from whence I came. I had never lived on my own before. To go from the safety of my parent's basement, tucked away in a Maryland suburban cul-de-sac to the biggest, brightest, craziest city in the United States. The mythology of it makes my head spin. The city where songs have been written, movies have taken place, shows have been filmed, universes have been built upon. I have had a love affair with New York City since the first time I visited in high school for some art field trip. We only went to the Met and saw the Rockettes, but God, I wanted to stay. Thank God we didn't go anywhere near the Lower East Side. I'd have run away with the gutter punks. One of the times I went during Kubert School I kept one of the subway tokens I didn't end up using and strung it on a shitty shotbead chain around my neck. Almost like a promise to myself. Or some sort of totem. That was 1999. I rarely took it off. I thought I lost it while attending Dragon*Con 2004 and was so unbelievably upset. It showed up again though and it is one of my most precious pieces of jewelry. I still wear it everyday. Moving to NYC has allowed me to pursue my dreams of being a career artist in ways I would have never dreamed possible. This city has enabled me to make connections and friendships with amazing, creative, DRIVEN people who continue to inspire me. Had you told me 8 years ago that my life would be as it is now I'd have laughed in your face. I had thought the most I could hope for was getting full-time at Hot Topic and a studio apartment behind the local Target with my burnout boyfriend at the time who I had to MAKE get a job at Starbucks. My sole confidante was my supposed best friend, who sabotaged any attempt to better myself at every turn. It's a testament to my gumption that with all the setbacks I suffered at her hand that I still emerged as driven as I am. I was told on a daily basis that I was wasting my talents. Spinning my wheels in the mud. That there was more for me out there. Moving to New York was the new start I needed. One by one I severed connections to those that dragged me down and I am so much better for it. I now have real, true friends that support me along with career success that has been a long time coming in a city I love with the man of my dreams. 

YAY!!!

So yeah, there's that. But also! Another big thing that happened just yesterday, being that I got my *first* big article written about my artwork in a major comic book blog, being ComicsAlliance which is one of my favorite comics news blogs. And I'm not even being all ass-kissy, I really do love CA. Like, if you have a free afternoon, read Chris Sim's Remedial Batmanology. It is perhaps the funniest thing I've read in the past 5 years. Also I'm a fan of anything Bethany Fong writes. She and I have very similar world views. But yeah the article is awesome and it coming out was a complete, amazing surprise to me. Shoot, if anything I was figuring I would have to do at least 5 more X-Men redesigns before I popped up on any radars. A ComicsAlliance article about Ross Campbell's Jem & the Holograms redesigns were actually what inspired the project to begin with. I'm also super-glad to see the comments aren't terrible. They're actually all pretty glowing. I know I shouldn't look but I can't help it. It IS really reassuring.




Haha, but yeah sorry I got all sentimental and TL;DR on you. You probably just wanna see some art, huh?

Cyclops!
“Energy blasts, huh? Here’s one from a pro!”
I think Cyclops gets a bad rep. I think people think just because you're a leader you gotta be square, which doesn't have to be true. There's plenty of cool leaders of teams (Hannibal of the A-Team for instance). And a guy can play it super straight and severe and still be cool. Cyclops is a very necessary member of the X-Men. Plus he's one of the more iconic members of the X-Men. I've always loved the visor. So with my version of Scott I wanted to really play up the old 'Slim' nickname, and what better way to accentuate how skinny a guy is than by putting him in a tailored Mod suit. I also modeled his looks a lot from old pictures of Michael Caine from stuff like Get Carter and The Italian Job. Just super cool, like you never ever see him sweat. Plus I wanted him and Jean to really LOOK like they're supposed to be together. Like they come as a set.   

I'm also working on a private commission featuring an action shot of my Dazzler redesign. It was too fun not to pass up. Right now I'm just finishing up inks, but you can check out some progress shots I took of the piece so far. I'm having her skate against a team of Hellfire club Goons- much like her first appearance!

Commissions and Marketing!

This past week I finished two big commissions and I'm sketching out a third and I did a whole bunch of marketing/promo for Little Asian Sweatshop! So yeah! Keeping busy!!

Portrait commission for tattoo artist Cyn Rudzis,
in trade for my Wonder Woman tattoo

Roller derby portrait commission for
Kansas City Banked Beauties member Ms Kara Whiplash 

I'm pretty proud of these two new commission pieces. I think it really shows what I can do when I don't have the customer meddling so much in my creative process and actually trusting me to deliver them a top-notch illustration. My commissions are still for the most part closed, with a few exceptions if the money's good or it's a project that sounds particularly fun and non-stressful. I'm trying to figure out a new price point for them since I'm now freelance and can actually focus more with a quicker turnaround in between lettering books. I've also got a lot of other drawing projects I'd like to do as well though once my plate is clear, including various fanart, fabric designs for dresses and I'm actually kicking around the idea of a semi-autobiographical webcomic way way further down the road. I know, freaky. Like, try and take all the random little anecdotes and stories from my life and make them into 1-2 page vignettes that are basically all the stories and tangents I go off on while drunk/stoned but in illustrated form. Part of the appeal for me doing this is that there's no continuity to worry about writing wise, and it's the sort of format I can do as a webcomic. And I can voice my opinions and philosophy on life, and share some of my silly stories about things and eventually do enough of them to collect into a book. Plus the CATHARSIS. My God... This is def something I want to put on the backburner for AWHILE. But once it gets going it could be really cool. We'll see.

In other news I've been submitting tips and singing praises of my best friend Fenny's company Little Asian Sweatshop to various nerdy/geeky fashion websites and gotten some nice returns!! So far we've gotten press from So Geek Chic, Boing Boing, and Fashionably Geek! 

We're also going to have this ad in the program
for the upcoming games for Chesapeake Roller Derby.

Hello 2012!

Got a lot of stuff cookin' in 2012!

2011 is done! Holy crap, what a year! I frequently used the word 'tumultuous' to describe my goings-on. So many personal milestones and the stressed out times leading up to them- my wedding, a new job, a new lifestyle as a professional freelancer working from home to boot! The new vocation of freelance letterer for manga imprint Kodansha Comics is starting to hit it's stride, I already have my first published lettering work out- Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex book 2: Testation and I'm currently juggling Ghost in the Shell's third book as well as the 24th volume of Air Gear. So so beyond happy to be involved in comics as part of my now dayjob, and to spend all day with my beloved husband Ballsy who works freelance from home as well. And we don't even get on each other's nerves or anything, which is impressive when we sit back-to-back with each other in our home office for hours at a time. Nope, we just blast through season after season of tv shows on Netflix and listen to Bachelor Pad radio all day. We are truly living the dream.

Color sketch/progress shot of my new art book cover- 'Thanks For Your Support!'
Get it? Support? Yuckety yuck. ;D

2012 is laid out before me with more opportunities than ever to share my creations with you and I'm already setting up events well into the year alongside my BFF Fenny's company Little Asian Sweatshop, to deliver a one-two punch of awesome artwork, accesories and hopefully later in the year... *apparel*! Ooooohhh! So far on tap we are going to be vending the March 10th bout for the Charm City Roller girls at DuBurns Arena. I haven't been to a CCRG bout in a couple years so I'm super excited to attend. We also have solidified plans to have a *MASSIVE* corner booth at Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina in late June that we will be sharing along with a few friends. We also plan on attending the NYC Psychobilly Luau again with a vengeance, hopefully this year it won't be during an awful heat wave. Then in September I'm hitting Baltimore with a double-whammy of a release party for my second artbook, titled 'Thanks For Your Support!' at The Ottobar and yet another booth this time at Baltimore Comic Con. I'll send out reminders as these events get closer. There will hopefully be plenty more events that I be involved in, we're always looking out for vending opportunities. Here's to an awesome 2012!

Loki sez 'Happy Mew Year!' >^_^<

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!! :D

First off let me just say:
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! XD



SO IT'S OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL: As of Friday, September 2nd 2011- I have put my two weeks in at Freeze (aka the Tshirt Mines, aka Art Jail, aka my hellish tshirt design job I've been at for 4 1/2 years that was going nowhere), because I will be officially working for Kodansha manga as a freelance letterer! That's right, all- I can *finally* say it.
I *OFFICIALLY* work in comics! XD

This is a HUGE step in the right direction. It will also give me the opportunity to do more stuff for myself once my schedule regulates- more commissions, more projects. I'm hoping to actually start getting my comic together actually DOING the damn thing down the road. What's the old saying? Freelancers work 16 hours a day for themselves instead of 8 hours a day for someone else? But this is sooo much more satisfying of work. Plus I get to have my name on my work and I've got way more control over my incoming money. More work equals more pay! What a concept!
So EXCITED to no longer work in the fashion industry, even if I was in the lower rungs. The entire industry is rotten from the top and full of the worst people. No trends, no buyers, no style guides, no whims, no 'I don't liiiike purple!', no 'that isn't funny enough', no verbage, no Walmart, no cubicles, no snotty fashion bitches in the elevators, no $12 Midtown lunches....
It's just me and the letters.


'Like a fart in the wind.'

I'm not supposed to disclose exactly what I'm working on yet, but it's pretty high profile. My mom actually knows what it is, if that says anything. As of tonight I've finished 40 pages of a 276 paged book that's due at the end of September. Slowly building up my sound effect library. Only 1 approved sound effect font for this particular comic so I've gotta stretch and squash it a bajillion different ways. Once I'm done my final two weeks at Freeze and I'm free to work my full freelance schedule getting the pages done will be a snap. Plus I get to work alongside my most favorite person in the world, my future husband Ballsy. Speaking of which, these next two months leading up to the wedding are gonna be crazy!! And afterwards? Things are gonna be awesome. ^__^