Back in May '10 I was interviewed over Memorial Day weekend by my good friend Tameeka Ballance, who is a videographer and runs a blog called Tameeka Time that features art videos (including graffiti by my former dayjob boss man Cortes) and Jersey Shore recaps (if you're into that sort of thing).
Give my girl some love and go on over to her site to check out more videos!
Check out the full Paigey coverage over at Tameeka Time here!!
So with my self-imposed commission blackout on the horizon, I've started playing around with some of the stuff I want to experiment with. One of the things I wanna work on is alot of new merch ideas for my tables at comic conventions! My 'NYC BFF' Christy gave some awesome ideas and links to places for really cool jewelry supplies.
Here's some of the stuff I've been working on with that:
There's rings, necklaces, charms for earrings and zipper pulls, magnets, brooches and little tin stash boxes!
I'm still figuring out the process of making everything, but I'm super excited about the rings and stash boxes!! I hope to have a ton made for MoCCA and Heroes Con coming up!
I'm also working on another project where I'm taking these little wooden coffin boxes and I'm going to paint them black, decoupage some artwork on them, add embellishments like beadwork and glue in some red velvet on the inside.
I'm drawing some vampire girls special just for this project!
A mock-up to check the sizing- looking good so far! I'm also going to add artwork to the sides as well!
Finished art!!
Next one I'm doing is a Lady Blacula!
Not sure exactly how much I'm going to charge for these yet. I need to make the first one and judge on that how big of a pain in my ass they are to make and price them accordingly.
The words 'holy shit' do not cover the enormity of awesomeness that was this weekend. Baltimore Comic Con kicked SO MUCH ASS this year that when all was said and done I was exhausted, had almost started crying like 3 times (for good reasons) and my face hurt from smiling so damn much. And I dressed up as Wonder Woman!
On a half-assed whim I had gathered a red top, yellow cinch belt and my electric blue Mode Merr skirt together and had decided it looked like a Wonder Woman costume if I had some way to get the stars on the skirt. 'What a simple, fun, easy costume this will be!', I thought, harkening back to my days as a cosplayer. After ruling out patches and iron-ons I decided that the best way to apply the stars was painting. Friday night before the con. At my parents house. After I got into Maryland from the bus which was an hour late. Simple, fun and easy right?? Ha! So after 5 hours of painting I finally finished at 1am.
It was totally worth the hard work though, it was very well received and my table/artwork got alot of extra attention from people coming by wanting to snap a pic of me. I was basically my own booth babe. Sometimes I do get the semi-patronizing 'you did these all by yourself?' from random passerby, but also I kinda take that as an off-handed compliment at the same time. I'm like one of those deep sea fish with the dangly light- I lure folks over to the table, then chomp on them with my art.
The *BIG* thing that happened this weekend was two of my artistic heroes, Eric Powell (The Goon, those awesome Nashville Rollergirls bout posters) and Dave Johnson (Drink & Draw Social Club founder, too much awesome shit to list) both came to my table to specifically say hello to me! Holy crap!! Like really, I almost cried I was so happy. I also went by the legendary Adam Hughes and his lovely wifey Allison Sohn's table to say hello, as I know Adam a bit from the convention scene for a few years and Allison and I go back to her being my life model at Kubert School.
With Adam Hughes
With Dave Johnson
Wish I had thought to have gotten a pic with Eric Powell and his uberhot roller derby girlfriend Rambo Sambo. :/ I was a bit star struck and wasn't thinking clearly as all of this was going on.
I was also interviewed by a pop culture blog called Jam Packed Productions that was going through artist alley on Sunday and talking to some of the artists. My segment begins at the 5:39 mark. My best friend/manager/sales associate/PR agent Fenny Lin also makes an onscreen appearance and yeah, wow, I knew my shirt was what I call one of my 'Boobie Shirts', but this may very well be the 'Boobiest of Boobie Shirts'. Cuz WOW. Thanks Pinup Girl Clothing!
I'm kind of starting to see myself as almost like the Christina Hendricks of the comic book industry.
Can't think of why exactly. 9_9
And I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came by and chatted, picked up a card to check me out later or even bought something, I super appreciate it! Next up for me will be Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Md on September 11th and 12th. I will also have a HUGE NEW TATTOO by then a well- of KITTY PRYDE. *Squee!* So excited!
Hey Maryland/DC fans!! I'll be returning to my home state for a solo art show at Saints & Sinners Tattoo on Friday August 6th from 6-9, then probably getting drunk somewhere in Fells Point with a bunch of friends I don't see enough!
I will have original art for sale! I will also have prints, artbooks, jewelry, magnets, buttons and coveted MISS MARY JANE toys available for purchase! Please come out and buy them! ^__^
In other news, been VERY busy lately. Summer in NYC has hit full-tilt. Schedules are being booked. I got shit planned for the rest of the year. In the next 5 months I'll be doing 2 art shows (NYC and Baltimore) and 4 conventions (SPXpo, Baltimore Comic Con, New York Comic Con and King Con Brooklyn). Thusly, commissions are closed until at least the end of the year. (I'll be making a few small exceptions, but otherwise, sorry.) I'll be focusing on more 'personal' work, including stuff I will have available for purchase as prints later on. I really want to get into more fan art type stuff, especially with so many of my favorite comic book titles becoming movies and tv shows. I've also got an idea for a pretty involved project that I want to start at the end of the year that if I'm able to pull off will be really, REALLY cool, and will involve alot of other awesome artists as well.
Bad news, buckaroos. Looks like I won't be counted among New York Comic Con's Artist Alley this year. Finally after 6 months of waiting, delays and anticipation June 1st rolled around and I was told... NOTHING. Cuz no one from NYCC sent me anything. Meanwhile I'm reading tweets and status updates from friends and peers on their acceptance and rejection from Artist Alley. So finally after a day of watching my inbox in agony (and got help you if I got an email from you- I cursed out way too many random emails about sales and reminders) I finally emailed the NYCC folks to ask where my notification email was right before I went to bed. And the next morning after I got up and got to my desk at my day job, I finally had seen that it came through as a reply to my inquiry.... and it was the ever-so-awesome 'we regret to inform you...' So yeah. I had to EMAIL them to find out I was rejected. How shitty. So yeah, the rejection letter made mention of other options, including something about a small press area. I emailed to find out more about this, and recieved a price list. So yeah, the 'small press option' is a 6' by 8' square of unfurnished concrete on the con floor. No tables. No chairs. For NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Ugh, so yeah. That's not happening. Maybe if NYCC had gotten their shit together a little sooner and had told me I wouldn't have an Artist Alley table I could've maybe gotten some of my friends together, maybe even organized a big group table. But on top of everything else I've got going on between now and then I can't do something like that in such a small amount of time. So yeah. Oye. Apparently Reed Expo subscribes to the same silly school of thought many people uninvolved in comics seem to have- THAT WE MAKE ALOT OF MONEY. Unfortunately that's not the case, especially for people who could consider themselves 'small press'. Either way, I'm ok with this. Sure I was initially a bit miffed but I'll make it work. I kinda wish I knew exactly what kind of criteria it was that that didn't let me make the cut, whether it was that I still hve yet to be published-published or that my name happened to be on the wrong spot of the dartboard. I still think it's kind of suspicious that there seems to be alot of New York artists shut out of Artist Alley tho, could it be that they're favoring out of state people because they have deals with the hotels in the area? Hrm. Anyways, I *will* be at New York Comic Con this October, but I'll be hoofing it. In a cigarette girl costume. With a tray of merch. Originally if everything had gone smoothly I would be at the table and my best friend Fenny would be wearing a cigarette girl costume and walking around the con for me handing out promo stuff. But now it looks like we both will. I'm still figuring out exactly what we'll be carrying and how we'll be selling larger items like my Miss Mary Jane toys. Which oh yeah- I finally got!!! (Yay!!) I still also have tables secured at Baltimore Comic Con, SPXpo and King Con Brooklyn. But yeah- like I said, GOOD NEWS! Miss Mary Jane shipped last week and everyone got theirs! Including me and my 10- one to keep and 9 to hock at conventions. I already sold 2, so if you see me with one at my table you sould snatch it up! I actually wish I had gotten more of them to sell for myself. I have a feeling these are gonna go rather quickly once my convention rounds start up in August.
Doesn't she look AWESOME? The skin turned out a little more neon than I had expected but overall I think she looks pretty great. I'm trying to rally to get her restocked, and if at all possible do another colorway. This also has worked up my appetite for MORE PAIGEY TOYS. If you get a chance PLEASE VOTE for my rollergirl Laika Phenomenon (you see what I did there?)
As far as I know there's no other derby toys/action figures/figurines on the market, especially one not as authentic- I tried putting as much detail as I can into the figure, from her mouthguard to her padding to the bloody band-aids and bruises. For those of you just joining us, this is actually my second figure with PatchTogether, my first- Miss Mary Jane, is due to be shipped at the end of the month. She's currently out of stock, but on her page you can vote to have her restocked. You can also see the quality of work the sculptors do and and how good of a job they've done with interpreting a 2D illustration into a 3D figurine. I still need votes to get it made, and then once it gets enough votes it'll be available for a discounted pre-order sight unseen while they sculpt it. Once it hits 20 or so pre-orders then they start sculpting and offer it at full price and will work with me on getting it to look perfect. I know with Miss Mary Jane it took about 6 revisions so they are very serious about doing the artwork justice. Then it will be on sale for about a month or two and then the sales will be closed and it will go into full production and ship out to customers. I'm hoping with the final product Laika will be about 8.5" tall with some sort of base. I'll be sure to let you know when it goes up for sale as an actual toy. It hasn't been up a full 24 hours yet and is already at a third of the votes it needs. Every vote helps though! If Laika does especially well I might have to make up some teammates for her. ;D
Finished the box label art for my Miss Mary Jane figure with Patchtogether.com. Those of you who ordered her when she was available should see her in your mailbox sometime late March/ early April. Hopefully just in time for 4/20! If you didn't have a chance to order her, click here to register and vote for her to be restocked at Patchtogether.com! I do have a small surplus of figures that I bought to sell at conventions this year. I may also put one or two up on eBay. I'm hoping the box design removes all doubt that she is a broccoli girl. I've had to point it out to soo many people that she's a weed girl. I kinda beat the pot motif to death on the design. You can't see it on most computer screens, but I also have white pot leaves all in the background behind her. What I love is the 'I Dream of Jeannie' influence on the logo.
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!
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!
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::
