Derby Dazzler vs. The Hellfire Club goons

Just finished up this wicked beast of a private commission for a fellow who loved my derby version of Dazzler so much he wanted to see more. (See her and the rest of my X-Men redesigns here!) This was definitely an instance of having a commission piece that if you give me an open timeframe and let me just do what I want you will get something awesome. It took me a little over a month and a half of off-and-on working with very little guidance from the guy who ordered it- he just wanted an action shot with Dazzler and I kinda took that ball and ran with it, adding in the Hellfire Club goons and various background elements. I'm trying to get away from portraits a bit as customers tend to get overly involved in the process which hinders the creativity of the piece and get more into character pieces where I can just cut loose without worrying about likenesses and waiting to hear back during the process. Once I got the idea for this piece in my head I was all "I'm really gonna hate myself in a month..." but I HAD to do it. There were just way too many things I love coming together. Plus me doing a piece with an actual background? Craziness! That was actually what took me the longest. Check out my progress shots below!

Sketching!
I tend to sketch out the elements separate and then lay them on top of each other digitally in Photoshop to make sure they line up and adjust any wonky anatomy issues. I'll then print it out on a low opacity setting to use as guidelines when I re-draw it and tighten up the linework. 

Tight Pencils!
Drawing over top of my lightened roughs, I start cleaning up all those stray lines and start refining the figures. 

Inking!
I recently revisited the old technique I learned at Kuberts of inking over vellum and forgot how much I prefer it to lightboxing my tight pencils onto a piece of bristol, as when I lightbox the original I tend to lose the organic feel of the piece and subtle linework tends to get lost in the reproduction.

More inking!!
I love drawing men's leg hair. It's a weird drawing fetish.

Colors!
I tend to work in with about 20 layers when I color, treating each major element like a big Dagwood-style sandwich- I start with my linework, then add the flat color underneath, then start working up from the flat color with each 'level' of shadows and highlights. I tend to color in flat chunks, almost like an animation cel.
You can also see that I changed the colors on Dazzler's pads halfway through to make her stand out more from the Hellfire Club.

Adding the background and special effects!
When I'm 90% done is my least favorite part of working on something. It just gets so grinding and you spend most of the time looking for all the little details you missed. XP

This was super fun to do, and I got to expand a little on my own make-believe rendition of the X-Men universe. What's funny is in my version of the X-Men, Dazzler is probably one of the tougher, more in-shape characters on the team, which in regular continuity is quite the opposite.

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!

Roller Girls and X-Men

Last weekend Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop and I officially started our 2012 Season of selling with our first vending event of the year: The Charm City Roller Girls Double Header Bout in my hometown of Baltimore! It was a rousing success and it was great to see some of my Maryland friends at the show! This was also another show where we were able to accept credit cards via our Square readers- it makes a HUGE difference in sales. People are more likely to buy higher ticketed/multiple items if they don't have to part with their cash. Especially at stuff like this where there's other businesses like food stands that prefer cash.

Speaking of which- I also hadn't been to a CCRG bout in about 3 years- and as someone who went to their inaugural bout back in 2005(?) I'm super proud to see how far they've come! No more roller rink bouts! It was at night in an arena! And there were FOOD stands! With PIT BEEF AND BRATS!! :d YUM! And beer! And a guy selling gourmet marshmallows! Crazy! So I'm super proud of my home league of roller girls! And what an awesome bout to watch as well!

Fenny and our table (with sparkle table cloth upgrade)!
Right in the main foyer as you walked in-
we could even watch the whole bout from our seats!

Me! Yay!

The spread! I forgot my display fixtures so I
couldn't put out as many necklaces as I would have liked.
We still had a great-looking table regardless.

We also did specially-designed Little Asian Sweatshop flowers for the four CCRG teams: 

Night Terrors flower! Royal blue & black!

Mobtown Mod's target flower!

Speed Regime camo!

Junkyard Dolls hot pink zebra print!

Also! I dunno if you saw my last entry (see below), but I've started drawing for myself a little bit to allow some no-pressure 'practice time' between commissions ands major assignments so my skills stay sharp. So I've been drawing these X-Men redesigns of basically what the team members would look like if I was handed the title and told to go to town and remake the comic with my own little spin on the characters. Which if we TRULY want to indulge in the fantasy of for a second- I would co-write with one of my favorite comic writers ever, the awesome, awesome Adam Warren. ::wistful sigh:: GOD THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.

I already drew Rogue and Dazzler, who had one of my favorite rivalries in the 80's over who would end up 'dating' Longshot. (The Wolvie/Cyclops over Jean drama is pretty damn played, IMHO.) But anyways! Here's the designs for both Jean Grey and Gambit.

Jean Grey!
“You and I are quits now, X-men. Our paths will cross no more. My destiny lies in the stars.”
For Jean I wanted her to be what I envision to be like the hottest redheaded sexpot ever (seriously, like who DOESN'T want to do her in the X-Universe?), which I concocted as a combination of Dolly Read in Beyond The Valley of the Dolls, Daphne from Scooby Doo and a pinch of Marsha Brady. I also loved all her 60's outfits and I've been interested in the Mod style for a bit. I even worked in a subtle 'X' pattern on the dress.A lot of folks say she could easily be Mary Jane from Spider-Man, which while true- I'd actually make MJ taller, skinnier and her hair darker/flatter. More high fashion model-y. 

Gambit!
“Everyone can relax! Gambit has returned...”
I have a confession: I cannot STAND Gambit. He's just a gimmicky douchebag who's supposed to come off as this slick ladies man but it really just comes off as sleazy. Like you'd contract VD standing within 3 feet of him. I *tried* making Gambit cool and psychobilly, which I think would lend itself to the card suit theme I tried working into his look. It's hard to see but I have card suits on one set of knuckles and  'NOLA' on the other. If I had cared more I would have had a jacket/shirtless version that shows all his tattoos, cuz I imagine him covered with lots of old school tats having themes like playing cards, NOLA, being a thief/criminal, etc. Gambit's basically that skuzzily attractive guy who never bothered working on a personality because he got away with being so gosh darn handsome all the time. But if you stand within 3 feet of him you run the risk of contracting some form of VD. So yeah. 

I'm going to open up a gallery on the top menu of the blog here soon for all of these redesigns so you can see them together. I've been getting some nice little bits of exposure for these on Tumblr and the like thanks to blogs like Fashion Tips From Comic Strips, which focuses on the fashion found in the comic world. One of my faves, always cool stuff on there! Highly suggest it!

Next up I'm gonna try and draw up Cyclops, whom I have a pretty fun idea for (think 60s Michael Caine).

This may or may not be a ploy to get traffic. 9_9;

Hey hey hey! So my insanely awesome year of the Paigey Roadshow is starting to gear up! Got lots of new merch cooked up and I'm excited to be vending at some all-new, all-different venues, including some roller derby bouts and concerts in my home state of Maryland alongside my BFF's store Little Asian Sweatshop. The first up in my adventures is in two weeks- Charm City Roller Girls Home Season Double Header on Saturday March 10 from 5:30-10:00 at Du Burns Arena in Baltimore. If you're in the area, I suggest you check it out! CCRG helped me get my first exposure in the art world when I did derby portraits and bout posters for them back when they first started up.

Speaking of all-new, all-different- I'm taking a little art time to myself for the next couple weeks and doing some redesigns of the characters that got me into comics in the first place, being the Uncanny X-Men. These versions of the characters have been running in my head for awhile so why not draw them? Trying to have a callback to the X-Men of the late 80's when everyone had different looks and everyone had their own unique presence in the team. And lots and lots of COLORS!

Rogue!
“You look as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”
My version of Rogue still has the Carol Danvers/Ms Marvel powers (obviously) and since she's super strong and near invulnerable with the power of flight, she doesn't see the point in working out as crazily as some of her teammates, hence her being a little curvier. Plus she's from the south and eats fried everything. And she's voiced by the chick who did her voice in 90's X-Men, because that is my definitive Rogue voice.

Dazzler!
“Call me Dazzler, darlin’. That’s my name — and that’s what I do. Dazzle people.”
My version of Dazzler (one of my all time have comic characters) is a roller derby girl, obviously a lead jammer. And she probably sings in a band or something when she's not playing derby. I imagine her as one of those effortlessly cool girls who has a zillion awesome projects going on but can't hold a day job to save her life. So you always end up paying for her beer. One of my fave details I came up with was the mirrorball helmet, and the runs in her opaque blue tights were fun to figure out how to draw (esp the blown-out crotch, which is always the first to go with me at least). 

I've got ideas for the rest of the core Blue/Gold team as well, which I'll put up as I finish. I'm actually working on a Gambit next. Which should be fun, cuz I DO NOT LIKE Gambit, so this will be my attempt at making a Gambit I like while still making him recognizable as Gambit.

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!' >^_^<

Aftermath: Baltimore Tattoo Convention/ Small Press Expo

This past weekend (Sept 11-12) was SMALL PRESS EXPO down in Bethesda, Md! Yet another Maryland con where I can crash at my parents house or with Fenny my BFF (thus saving on expenses), SPXpo is an independent comic convention- no big 2 here! I had a 1/2 table where I set up a more pared down selection of my wares since I had sold through so much at Baltimore Comic Con 2 weeks previous.



I had fun, but I'm probably gonna hold off attending as an exhibitor next year. Between saving money for my big venture out to Heroes Con next year, it also wasn't as financially successful as my other tables in comparison, especially those at more mainstream cons. It's funny, I'm in a weird middle ground when it comes to my work. I'm seen as a kind of charming oddball novelty at the more classically defined comic conventions versus almost being daresay a sort of corporate shill lacking the indie cred at the independent shows. Dunno, I kinda got that vibe a bit. I was joking that if I came back next year I would make a Xeroxed comic called 'Monkey Poo Donkey Piss' that was created on a 2 day bender of 3 tabs of acid and Mountain Dew and watch the cash roll in. I did see a few people who recognized me from my work with Charm City Roller Girls which is always nice and from various mailers I send out containing promo postcards to comic shops in the area, which is nice because here I thought I was just shoving them out into a void.



And yes, if you've noticed my upper right arm is considerably more *COLORFUL*, it's because I had spent that Friday at the Baltimore Tattoo Convention getting my Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat tattoo zapped on me by the amazingly talented and inspiring Cyn Rudzis of British Ink in DC.

Laid down the transfer! We're going in!

Outlines! No turning back!!

This was my first ever tattoo convention! It had a pretty cool vibe- and didn't start til 2 and went til midnight! Tattoo folks know whats up!

I sat for 5 1/2 hours- longest tattoo yet! Cyn said I had awesome 'butter' skin that took the ink amazingly well. I also was called 'a rock', a goddess', 'the Baddest Bitch in Baltimore' and 'sat like a champion, not even showing signs of breaking til the last 5 minutes' by tattoo artist/British Ink owner Paul Roe, who is an awesome Teddy boy with the sweetest British accent. I could listen to him tell me great things about myself all day. ;D

Also couldn't get over how GORGEOUS Cyn is- loved her dress. So classy! So well put together! And even better- she was an ABSOLUTE BLAST to hang out with!

So now I guess I've got to beef up on my Kitty knowledge and prepare myself for when I inevitably get quizzed by other fans on her exploits.

Also, EXCITING: I'm going to do an art trade with Cyn/British ink for tattoos! So I can get ANOTHER pinup on my OTHER ARM!!! ::SQUEE!!:: I'm thinking it's probably going to be Angel from Rock & Rule in her street clothes, either with microphone or keytar, in the old school style like Kitty's in. The gears are turning!!!

After SPXpo on Saturday night Fenny and her husband J took me out to a Korean BBQ joint called 'Honey Pig' in Northern Virginia- THAT'S OPEN 24 HOURS! Whaaat??? I've been curious about KBBQ, I've had it a couple times and enjoyed it but I need someone to hold my hand when I dive into a new food culture.

OMG it was SOOOOO delish. We got a ton of food- ribs, pork and a scallion pancake. I also had several shots of rice wine, which knocked me a little on my ass.

Mmmmmmmeat.... ;d

Also! Also! My Maid of Honor present from Fenny finally came!! After several botched attempts at pre-ordering a few different statues, we finally werte able to locate the uber-sexy Rockin Jellybean (one of my fave artists) Invisible Woman statue. OMG soooo hot! She has PANTY LINES!

::Exasperated Sigh::

So yeah. If I have my way, I am never doing what I've done to myself these past few weeks again. Double-stacking projects, weird experimental shit, insanely tight deadlines, my inability to tell people 'No.'. Yeah, hopefully. I mean sure, it's nice to be busy. But when I'm doing all that and have a full time day job it gets to be a bit too much at times. It can lead to be getting a little... TENSE.

Much like this:



LOL- I've always identified with that bit, even as a kid.

But anyways, enough whining! Onto the art n' stuff. :D

Finished the bout poster for Charm City Roller Girl's upcoming June bout, that's an homage to Savage She-Hulk #1's cover by John Buscema. Rather happy with how it turned out. It was fun to get back into doing comic covers, this time with added 'special effects' of pages to add to the validity of it being a comic cover.



Also some progress on the bodycast of Rachel Kramer Bussel for Fancy Sexy Me's launch party next week at Shag.




Almost done! Gotta do a couple more little filler tats, spray it down with a matte enamel and Gorilla glue the pasties on.

Then it gets to be presented at the Punk Rock Peepshow at Shag next Friday May 14th. I'll be coming out for it, maybe I'll see you there?



ALSO! TOMORROW! I'm doing this tomorrow!! I'm COMPETING!! HOLY CRAP I'M NERVOUS!



Check out all the info here!

She's something.... Laika Phenomenon.

Hey everybody!! Laika Phenomenon is up for voting at PatchTogether.com!


Click the pic to get taken to her voting page!



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