I designed the 2016 International Nerdlesque Festival poster!

Happy to announce that I'm doing the art for The 2nd International Nerdlesque Festival this April 1st and 2nd in NYC! I had so much fun at the 1st one two years ago that I offered to do the artwork for the next Fest- and here I am! The last festival had so many amazing performances, I was thoroughly impressed. I highly suggest that if you are a fan of pop culture, nerdy stuff and sexy burlesque performances you should def come out to this show! I will also be vending at the festival both nights, so if you come out be sure to swing by my table and check out all my pinup goodies! 

The final versions:

Friday 4/1/15 at Webster Hall

Saturday 4/2/15 at Le Poisson Rouge

Progress pics:

My inspiration for the flyer came from 80's arcade art. I've been a fan of this type of art all my life, a good chunk of my adolescence was spent at the local arcades they had in the Maryland suburbs.

Some of the art I collected for inspiration.

I tried to break down the elements of my favorite pieces- limited palettes, rounded borders and starbursts were definitely takeaways. Even still I would love to do more artwork in this style. I think it's criminally under appreciated nowadays- there's such a masterful incorporation of stripes and geometric shapes. Total retro-futristic stuff going on. Love it. I still have so much to learn about harnessing it's aesthetic for my own work.

My initial sketch. I knew right off the bat that I wanted a Statue of Liberty figure with a burlesquey/sci-fi spin- adding a bubble helmet, torch scepter and upgrading her stone tablet to a electronic one.



After I got my initial sketch down, I scan it into Photoshop and adjust proportions and posing. I then lighten all my linework to a non-photo blue, and print out the sketch on bristol or card stock copy paper. I then start a second more refined drawing on top of the blue lined sketch, refining my linework and starting to focus on the fine details like her hair, face, and the flow of the dress. The benefit of the blue lined printout under the drawing is that it's eraser-proof, so it's almost like an analog save. There have been too many times in my history of drawing where I thought I should erased something and do it better, only to find out that the version I drew 2-3 erases ago was perfect and I should have just left it alone. When I draw I use a 2H pencil for my layouts (the H stands for hard, it gives a lighter line on the paper) and then go back in to details with an HB pencil (which is somewhat darker, the B stands for bold).



After I have my pencils where I want them, I take a sheet of vellum and tape it over top of my pencils so I can start inking. I tend to always use Micron pens- I've used them since high school and they're one of my favorite brands. They're easy to get ahold of and reasonably priced, plus it's just what I'm used to working in. 

Left- inks right after scanning, Right- inks after cleanup

After I finish inking I scan Space Princess Statue of Liberty into my computer, usually at 300-400 dpi and open her up in Photoshop. Make sure she's whatever size you need her to be- for this poster I will be working in 11x17". Here I start to clean up the linework- erasing any screw ups I may have made on the actual inks and use the Level Tool (Ctrl + L) to bump up the contrast so the lines are more clear. I also go in with the Dodge (set to Highlights at 20% exposure) and Burn (set to Shadows at 50% exposure) tools to eliminate any shadows from scanning the vellum and to darken any fine lines that were starting to grey out. Once I get my line work clear enough, I go to Image > Adjustments > Threshold to make the linework all a sharp, solid black. This may require some adjustments of the slider bar and you may even need to go back yet again and color in some lines that have gaps in them. Once I feel happy with my inks I start my coloring process.

**Depending on how tight my deadline is- I may go even further with cleaning up my inks by importing them over to Illustrator and vectorizing them, then individually adjusting each Bézier curve with the Pen tool. I actually have a segment on how I do this here on Natalie Kin's It's a Draw! video tutorial series. However be warned, it can easily add at least another day to your work and I only suggest it for very clean, open, graphic drawings free of any textures like hatching, stippling, etc.



Wee! Coloring time! So now that our inks are all pretty and sleek and flat black, I start making my layers for coloring. For such a simple palette, I only really worked in about 10 layers for the figure, which I laid out in this GIF:



One of these days I'll break down my coloring methods even further, but that's a progress blog post for another day.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯



Now for the HARD PART.



After I got my figure and my palette sorted I started sketching out in Photoshop what I want the actual poster to look like. At the time I didn't have all the information of where the Festival was being held, or when, or any of that good stuff, so I concentrated on the upper 2/3rds of the poster. This is usually how I lay out all of my posters- scribbling in an inordinate amount of layers, squashing and stretching elements to make them fit in various spots. I have to laugh when people think the hardest part of the poster for me is drawing the main figure, when drawing cute girls is (for me, at least) second nature at this point. It's actually all the typography, design elements and general composition that drive me to beat my head against the wall.



Then I start designing my type! For this part, I open up Illustrator and start looking at fonts (of which my husband and I have about 26,000…). I eventually settled on using two that reflected the retro sci-fi feel I was going for and started building my elements and configuring them into something that starts to resemble my initial poster sketch. (This is a good article on combining fonts.) I tend to build my posters in Photoshop rather than entirely in Illustrator, which people like my husband find mind boggling, but it's what I'm most comfortable in and I feel it's more organic. Plus I'm more familiar with making things look how I want to in Photoshop versus Illustrator. I still however import the elements and type I built from Illustrator- I NEVER use the type tool in Photoshop. It's bush league. You can't scale, kern or properly space your type without it looking like ass. So you shouldn't either, so please do yourself a favor and learn how to use Illustrator if you're going to be dealing with type.



After a couple of days of arranging, then staring, then rearranging, then staring some more I finally got my poster to look like the design I had in my brain and was super pleased with the result. These two last pics are of the early draft before I got all of the proper info- which you can see at the top of this entry. I hope that if you're in the NYC area you'll come by for what is going to be a super fun and amazing show. I went to the first one and was thoroughly impressed (hence why I wanted to be part of the next one!)

Process: Making shrink plastic magnets

 One of the things that I try to do when I sell stuff at my convention tables and online store is have a wide variety of items at different price points, so anyone who wants a piece of my artwork can walk away with something. Shoot, even if you're broke you can still walk away with a killer postcard with my website on it- for future reference when you're *not* broke.  ::nudge:: ;) I also make it a point to put my art on not only prints and pieces of frame-able art, but also on products which become part of the customer's life that they can take with them on their day. 

A magnetic front door is a great place to take inventory on finished packs as I make them.

 A staple of my merchandise selection for the past few years has been my magnet sets. I usually package them in 2 character sets for $10 each and they are cut, cooked and assembled by me in my 'free time'. I've been messing around with shrink plastic since I was a kid playing with Shrinky-Dinks in the 80s. My mom, a retired seamstress- even helped me as a small child sell my first Shrinky-Dink jewelry (under the eponymous banner of 'Paige's Cute Things') when she would go to sewing shows. I distinctly remember my mom handing me over my earnings afterward and getting a jolt of greedy excitement. It was just a few bucks but that satisfying feeling of receiving money for something I enjoyed doing was something I would chase for the better part of my life.

 I rediscovered the awesomeness of shrink plastic a few years ago after I started selling my work at conventions. Looking for new ways to present myself, I came across printable blank sheets of shrink plastic paper and went to town creating jewelry such as necklaces and brooches. One of my first pieces of jewelry, my roller derby girl necklace, landed me my first interview and product review on a roller derby blog. I even sent a giant shipment to the gift lounge of the Oscars back in 2009 to be touched by and given away to real, live *famous people*. It was pretty neat. Aside from jewelry, I also sold them as magnets- but it being the early days of conventions I didn't know what I was doing. Instead of packaging the magnets as sets I would have them all loose on a giant magnet board I clumsily propped up on my table, which would get knocked into and pushed off the table as customers would grab the magnets they wanted. It was a bit of a mess. Especially in-between shows when I had to put them away stacked in tupperware containers where unprotected they could chip and break. But still they sold well, even better than the shrink jewelry- I think because they are something EVERYONE can use and appreciate. Shoot I even know people with kids who like to play with them on the fridge while sitting on their kitchen floor.

 I've had some concern from well-meaning but misguided people in my life who don't understand why I would want to tell my 'secrets' of how I make my products. Honestly, there's a few reasons for this. Making these magnets and other shrink plastic accessories is one of my more labor-intensive processes of creating merch. If anyone else is crazy and determined enough to get themselves elbow-deep into doing all the things I have to do to make these then by all means- go for it. I just ask that you are as generous with your processes as I have been with mine and perhaps we can all learn from each other. Also I am not threatened by other people having similar merch as me- since I believe people are buying my magnets and merch because it's features my artwork, not simply because it is a magnet or a bracelet, etc. I mean really, if you're that hard up for magnets just to have magnets- there are plenty of places you can get some for way cheaper. I also wanted to share my processes so that people can see exactly how much work goes into making them- this is one of my products which is almost 100% assembled by me, all I buy are the blank sheets, magnets and packaging materials. Some products like my stickers (Stickermule), prints (Overnight Prints) and artbooks (lulu) I pay to be produced by an outside company who then sends me the product that I sell. Though if I *did* have a print shop of my own I'd be a very happy girl, haha. Really though it's just nice to be appreciated for the hard work I do making the products I sell and hopefully this will educate people on my processes, whether they are simply curious as to how I make all this stuff or want to try their hand at making their own shrink plastic creations.

My process:

Step 1: print

Step 2: cut

Step 3: cook

Bonus video:

Step 4: spray

Step 5: glue

Step 6: attach

Step 7: wrap

Step 8: admire

If you want to get some of my magnets for your own, check out my convention schedule to see if I'm coming to your town! If I'm not, or you're a hermit like me- be sure to check out my etsy store!

Progress pics on some comics-inspired pieces

After a super-stressful and work-intensive last couple of months, I'm happy to take a step back and chip away some less demanding pieces for art shows, future merch and the like.

Wonder Woman

After having several customers at various shows in recent years ask me for Wonder Woman merch I *finally* sat down and drew everyone's favorite Amazon. This of course being a chibi version I plan on using for mini prints and magnet sets- so keep a lookout!

Original inks on vellum- colored with paint pens and colored pencil.

Blue lined pencils.

Inking on vellum!

Coloring with paint pens!

Supergirl

Since I tend to do my chibi pieces as two-packs I figured I'd draw Supergirl as well to go along with my Wonder Woman. I decided to go with the more casual animated version, since that seemed more fitting to my style and I think encapsulates the character's personality better.

Supergirl original inks on vellum!

2nd pass of pencils on top of rough blue lines.

Color progress.

Ladytron 
 I drew Ladytron from WildC.A.T.S. for an upcoming art show- From Spawn to Saga: Image Comics at 22 at the One-Shot Gallery in St. Marks Comics, NYC. I've always been a big fan of the character visually and thought she was criminally underused in the comics she was featured in. However as visually arresting as she is I can totally sympathize with any artist having to draw her, because MAN WHAT A NIGHTMARE. Personally I've never been a fan of drawing tech. I'm also pretty sure I haven't drawn anything this 'futuristic' in 12-15 years. Fortunately I had some ball-jointed dolls to look to for reference which helped greatly.

Digitally colored version. What I love about Ladytron is that she's basically a bionic Brody Dalle.

Inks.

Toned vellum version that will be on display at the art show.

Tattooed Sailor Girl 
What was originally going to be the artwork for this year's Visionary Tattoo Arts Festival poster is now going to the poster for the 2015 show. Which I'm actually totally fine with as they are going to use the teaser poster I put together back in February for the official poster for this year, and I have the poster for next year already like 85% finished. Either way, I'm playing with coloring the original inks for the sailor girl for the now 2015 poster because doing stuff like painting my originals is strangely relaxing for me. I dunno.

Also, my new addiction:

I'm pretty sure I now have this instead of blood.

Stickers, cosplayers and progress videos! Yay!

Hey guys! Lots of random, neat stuff going on at the Paigey labs. Thought I'd share it with you!

~I got my very own cosplayer!! Super awesome cosplay chica Jennifer Rose dressed up as my Rockabilly Rogue from my X-Men redesigns (that I still want to draw more of, but alas...) at this year's Dragon*Con! She NAILED IT! I'm already plotting to steal her sweater clips. Apparently she'll be at NYCC and I really hope to get a picture or two with her- cuz OMG! :D

~Also after returning from Baltimore Comic Con I decided to reinvest my profits into some fun new merch, this time around being my first sets of full color, all weather vinyl stickers (a la Stickermule.com). So far I've got my chibi Bride of Frankenstein made and I've got my Miss Mary Jane on a pipe and my Nurse on a pill coming super-super soon in sticker form. I'm super happy with Stickermule's stickers. They look great and have this nice rubbery matte texture that's unlike any stickers I've really seen around. The prices are also reasonable, there's low minimums so you don't have to buy a BAZILLION stickers with each order and the shipping was way fast. There's a wide variety of product as well. I highly suggest them for your sticker needs.

Bride Stickers are now available on my etsy store!!

~I'm getting some of my original vellum inks of the art I did right before Baltimore Con together and have been finishing them in that weird technique I've been doing where I color them like animation cels. Here's some quick videos and process shots!

Also: haha, I'm a dork. 

…so I totally ‘ship’ Wanda Woodward from Cry-Baby with Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. I mean they’re like MADE FOR EACH OTHER. They’re both SO HOT AND SO MEAN.  Wanda could have moved to Cali after the events of Cry-Baby and met up with Hill Valley’s most loved degenerate somehow and.. and…. Hey! Where are you going???

I'm down with OTP, YEAH YOU KNOW ME.

Cake the Cat and Fionna the Human!

"It WAS a date! There was singing and junk!"

Scrambling to get some new art together for Baltimore Comic Con in a couple weeks! I'll be in Artist Alley with Little Asian Sweatshop and Maria Danalakis Art!

My *6th* year attending in Artist Alley!

 Did some more chibi-pairings that I use for mini prints and magnet sets! I managed to get the above Fionna and Cake from Adventure Time art to the printers in time for Baltimore Con, so I'll have 5"x7" mini prints of these two for the show! Also doing two more pairings- which I should have magnet sets of but unfortunately won't have prints in time, of Tex Avery's Red Hot and The Wolf, and of my absolute hero in life Pee-Wee Herman and Miss Yvonne, the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppetland!

"Oh Wolfie!"

SCREAM REAL LOUD!

 It is as I feared, though. I draw two Pee-Wee's Playhouse characters and now I want to draw EVERYONE.

The Visionary Tattoo Arts Festival!

Check it out, all! I did the flyer for the Visionary Tattoo Art Festival going on in July at Asbury Park, NJ and will also be a guest artist all weekend and will be vending my wares as well as Little Asian Sweatshop's. I hope to see you there!

I completed this flyer in about a week and a half, the deadline was pretty tight with the shop that runs the show getting approval for it to go on later than normal because of damage to the beach from Hurricane Sandy. So this is the 'unfortunate' result of me being bad at time management and artwork negotiations/consultations with friends who are fans whose enthusiasm for my work is contagious. Especially when they're feeling my ideas and give me lots of creative control. Before I've put pen to paper I've promised them (and myself) the moon and stars because you know, I'm THE Paige Pumphrey! I can do MAGIC! AND it involves impressing a subculture from which I at one point in my life felt excluded from? Oh MAN, ALL THE BUTTONS.

We wanted to make the branding of the Festival more light and beachy and family-friendly as opposed to previous years where it had a more 'come out and get some nails in your dick/metallll wooooooo!' vibe. After being shown examples of the beautiful facade of the Convention Hall, with it's Victorian sea monsters and copper plating, I was inspired to make the design an early 20th century/Victorian themed beach poster. Looking at the works of JC Leyendecker, an all-time favorite artist of mine, as well as the art and feel of the Battleship Bay area of Bioshock: Infinite (which my husband has just arrived at in the game) I knew I had quite an undertaking. My clients also really liked the layout of my Saints and Sinners flyer for my artshow a couple years back- of having two characters framed by very detailed typography. We chose a sword-swallowing mermaid and the Asbury Park mascot Tillie (who is similar to the Coney Island funny face) in old-timey swimwear to be the 'hosts' of the flyer.

Rough sketches of the mermaid and Tillie.

Tight pencils.

Inks. (Scanned in Photoshop.)

Flat colors.

Slowly starting to lay out the flyer. Originally I was going to use Victorian clipart to save time, my husband however looking over my shoulder suggested it would look soooo much better if I drew all the filigree and framework out. Begrudgingly I agreed with him.

Printing out what I had at 40% opacity, I drew out all the elements by hand- the banners, the gold railing, the sun-shaped caption for the date. I even added a sea monster as a call back to the building facade.

Scanning the sketches for the elements, I traced and built them out of vector shapes in Illustrator, then ported them over to Photoshop for placement on the actual flyer. You can notice some of the changes elements went through during the process.

Coloring in all the elements individually, adding shading, texture and slowly figuring out my palette. In the end the only clipart I ended up using was the background filigree and the seashells on the the gold railing.