Threadless Pinup Contest

So Threadless has a Pinup design contest right now, which I couldn't *not* enter. Even though I've never entered anything on Threadless before. It's running from Jan 30th- Feb 20th and my piece is up for voting until this coming Friday February 10th. So please vote for me and give me as high a score as you see fit (*cough* 4-5 *cough*).

If I win I get a nice little amount of money that I can use to pay my COBRA and some ghastly credit card debt. And my art will be on a shirt that you can buy, which is exciting and has never happened before. I may even submit more art to Threadless, as people have been asking me when I'm going to put my art on tshirts. May as well get paid for it, instead of paying for it.

Also please vote for me because right now I'm losing out to a Photoshop brush that's actually of another dude's painting which this entrant is trying to pass off as his own work, which is SO NOT COOL. I dont mind losing if it's to a worthy opponent, but so far pretty much all of the other entrants are swiping, tracing photographs of models (like Bettie Page), using 3D programs like Poser, using licensed characters or brands, using clip art or it's just... well... BAD. Anatomically, compositionally, like not even student work. Like NO ONE would want a shirt with that on it and Threadless would be fools to think it would sell (or in some cases- not get sued). Being someone who worked professionally on tshirts for over 4 years I reluctantly have learned a few things about designing tshirts, and now that I'm not in that hectic, stressful environment where I am no longer designing with a gun to my head I can sit back and let the last few years worth of knowledge that was crammed into my skull properly marinate. Anywho, if all works out and I win I hope to try and get a few more shirts done thru Threadless in the future and hopefully help bring it up to the higher standard of cool shirts that it was when I was too intimidated to enter. Cuz there is a lot of riff-raff on that site right now.

VOTE HERE:

http://www.threadless.com/submission/399173/First_Mate

Thank you!!

Plugging Away...

Hi everybody! Not too much to report. I've had 2 weeks in between finishing the lettering of Airgear #24 and starting Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex #3 to focus on some personal projects and long overdue commissions. Here's a couple peeks into what I've been up to:

Gotta love the roller derby commissions!

Inking a portrait for tattoo artist Cyn Rudzis,
who did my Wonder Woman tattoo.

My Christmas present from beloved husband Ballsy also came in- a new iMac since my old one of 6+ years was starting to choke up on me. So nowww I have BOTH of them hooked up and ready to go- and it's looking to be a pretty sweet little set-up. My old iMac (on the right, below) will be used for internets, music and movies; while my new silver iMac will do all of my graphics work, including Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Beloved husband even got this cool app called Teleport, which allows you to control both computers with one mouse and keyboard. It even makes a cool 'fwoosh!' noise when you go in between screens.

Ground control to Major Pum...

I'm also getting heavily back into my merch and crafting game. Now living the freelance lifestyle my social calendar is at the mercy of an irregular ebb and flow of fundage so I am looking to make as much money as possible at the events I'm planning to attend this year. (Side note: I have now added a calendar of what events I'm actually attending this year to the side bar of the blog.) Plus I just *love* making things. It relaxes me and fills me with a sense of pride. ^__^ So yeah, the first event of the year I'll be selling at is the March 10th bout for Charm City Roller Girls at DuBurns Arena in Baltimore. I'm totally catering my merch to the audience and trying to come up with ideas for stuff that will tie in with the themes for the event. Yay sales. When it's stuff I actually CARE about and can stand behind, I love being a salesperson.

Making magnets of the CCRG 'mascots' Ballsy
designed for his bout poster a few years back

I've also been churning out hair flower designs for Little Asian Sweatshop so quickly that poor Fenny can barely keep up! Here's a few she cranked out this week!

Versatile red bandana flower!
Great for bikers, rockabillies or gangstas!
(See? VERSATILE!)

For all you Anglophiles out there:
The Union Jack flower!

And the 'crown jewel' of LAS-

(at least for now...)

Fenny and I have broken NEW GROUND in hair flower technology!
For all you Portal fans, the glowing
GLaDOS personality core flower! 

Be sure to visit the Little Asian Sweatshop and check out all the cool stuff we've got on the way!

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!' >^_^<

Epic wedding video is epic.

Ok, ok- one more wedding entry and I PROMISE I'll post more artwork!!

I just *have* to share the AMAZING movie GEBBS Wedding Films 

shot of Phil and I's wedding day.

(be sure to FULL SCREEN this baby!)

Please check out more of GEBBS's films at his website! He is available for hire!!

Getting back in my groove!

Now that all the wedding craziness is over I can get back to focusing on my artwork and working fulltime freelance from home! For practice I did two new pinups!

This cute lil' sailor girl, titled 'First Mate' I did as an exploration of different coloring techniques, including a limited palette (there's only 7 colors which is VERY limited for me!) and halftone shading. I might try and see about getting her printed as a tshirt somewhere, since now that I am liberated from my old dayjob of designing tshirts I can actually explore techniques I learned there at my own pace and on my own artwork.

This next piece I did is a portrait of one of my favorite characters from all time, Angel from Rock & Rule. This actually started out as a doodle in a sketchbook from about 2 years ago that I came across last week and decided to breathe new life into. For me coming up with the bare concept of a piece is the hardest part, which I why I so rarely just sketch. I have to have some sort of idea already in my head. But yeah, I lucked out with this little piece where I was able to fix it up and take it to finishes. Which is quite a feat for me with any Rock & Rule fanart as that movie's art style is what I ultimately want my own art to be like and the challenge was to draw the characters without the piece being derivative. I think I did pretty ok, it's like a weird marriage of both my and R&R's styles.

In non-drawing creativity I've been flexing my design muscles as the unofficial Art Director and VP of Marketing for my BFF's DIY company Little Asian Sweatshop, designing flowers and pimping her etsy store out to the masses. My husband Phil is also revamping her whole logo/branding scheme and it looks frigging adorable.

Some of the new hair flower designs I've made are ON SALE NOW!

Click the links to be taken to the etsy listing!

Black and White Chevron Geometric Pattern Mod Rose Hair Flower Fascinator

Black and White Mod Rose Hair Flower Fascinator

Burgundy Ombre Damask Pattern Rose Hair Flower Fascinator

And my personal favorite:

Baltimore Maryland Crab Mini Hair Flower Fascinator

(which is also available as a boutonnière!)

I have lots more flower designs in the works for Little Asian Sweatshop, some pretty high concept! Be sure to bookmark the store and check back on the regular!

Call me Mrs. Ballsy! ;D

Woo! Holy cow!! What an amazing week in Las Vegas!!

In case you missed the big news- my boyfriend of 6 years and dearest friend and fellow Kubert School Alum for 12, Phil 'Ballsy' Balsman and I tied the knot on Dia de los Muertos- Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2011 at 4:30pm by Elvis at the Viva Las Vegas Chapel in Las Vegas, NV.

Check out the full ceremony!

We were joined by family and friends for an amazing week of merriment and debauchery, including my BFF Fenny (of Little Asian Sweatshop) as Matron of Honor and Phil's BFF Ben Dale (of Ben Dale Done That/Little Knight) as Best Man.

Our wedding was a mixture of everything we love: Rockabilly music, retro lounge culture, Dia de los Muertos imagery, fancy cocktails, Elvis, all under the lights and spectacle of Las Vegas. We had a total of 44 guests, which is a sizable crowd for a destination wedding who all dressed in the theme I had suggested of 'retro spooky cocktail' or 'what you'd wear to Vincent Price's funeral'. The ceremony (as you can see above) was quick, fun, sweet and never took itself too seriously. The Elvis was fantastic and everyone working at the chapel was so excited to see such a turnout. The ceremony was followed by a lovely reception dinner at Nob Hill Tavern at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. Everyone had a great time.

Phil's suit was pieced together with basic separates from JC Penneys, but then dressed up with a black skinny tie, black and white creepers from TUK Shoes and a vintage red brocade Palm Beach dinner jacket we borrowed from our friend Stacey of Atomic Cheesecake Studios, who also took our fantastic engagement photos. His boutonnière was made by Little Asian Sweatshop out of Red Dead Redemption playing cards.

My dress was the Ivory Duchess halter silk sundress purchased from Vivienne of Holloway, with a skeleton cameo corset in white by Louise Black, from Project Runway over top of the bodice. I added more black lace to the dress hem and neckline to give the illusion that it was all one unified piece and hand applied over 350 black diamond Swarovski rhinestone crystals to the dress and corset myself to give it extra dazzle. I also rhinestoned my Little Asian Sweatshop hairflower and bouquet, which like Phil's boutonnière was also made from Red Dead Redemption playing cards. I also wore black John Fluevog mini-heeled maryjanes with black fishnets, black lace gloves and a black chiffon petticoat.

 

Our cake topper was a set of Dia de los Muertos skeleton bride and groom figurines (from MexicanSugarSkull.com) I had given to my grandmother after we had gotten engaged. She let me borrow them and my mom painted them to resemble our wedding ensembles. The cake was vanilla ganache with chocolate cake inside. Super yum! Fenny and I had prepared the favors ourselves and my mom meticulously packaged them- for the female guests I had made resin brooches with skeleton artwork that I hand rhinestoned and Fenny had made her infamous poker card hair flowers, but with an added twist of them having skull beads in the middle to be on-theme. They were a definite hit. For the fellas we gave Elvis sunglasses and a Jose Pulido Elvis Calavera sticker.

Phil's big splurge for the wedding was the hiring of videographer Michael Gebben of Gebbs Wedding Films to film the whole day for us and edit it down into a 5-10 minute sweeping, hi-def, widescreen, emotionally manipulative movie. He basically ninja'd around us all day with his fancy camera and got lots of cool shots of us. The movie hasn't been finished yet- but from what little I saw of the shots it looks gorgeous. Here's a quickie behind-the-scenes shot of us after the reception at New York, New York.

Seriously can't wait to see it. 
Our Best Man Ben was saying how after it's done 
we should record a DVD commentary track for it.

Our biggest concerns with the wedding were mostly that we had to plan alot of things sight unseen, since we live in NYC and the wedding was in Vegas. Fortunately my brother had been married 3 years prior in Las Vegas at the same chapel by Elvis but on April Fools Day (yeah my family is awesome). I had gone to FIVE WEDDINGS that year and his was by far the most fun, also I cried like a baby. My mother had even pulled Phil and I aside after the ceremony and told us that if we wanted to have a wedding like that she was all about it. So we at least had SOME idea of what we were going to do for the wedding. Also from a logistical standpoint Vegas made the most sense. My family is from Maryland and Phil's family is from Missouri, yet we both live in New York City. Rather than have the organizational and financial nightmare of having family and friends come to NYC, we figured we'd make it fair to everyone and have our wedding in Las Vegas, therefore not giving any preferential treatment to anyone and it being a sort of vacation for everyone. One of the big things about Vegas however, is how much each casino does NOT want you to leave it's enclosed gambling geosphere. Which is crazy considering how frigging GORGEOUS it was out in the desert in early November (especially when NYC had seen the seasons first slush hit the day before we left). Something else that really drove me nuts in Vegas was the sheer lack of any sense of urgency the cab drivers had taking you from point A to point B. You could get a cab pretty easy in front of a hotel, but GOD HELP YOU if you were off-Strip and had to get a car called. You'd stand there waiting for about 30 minutes before one would roll up, which if you're a bride on a tight timetable made for a VERY STRESSFUL time. Especially being a New Yorker- is this what they mean when they say us East Coasters are all hi-strung? I also had an AMAZING itinerary of stuff planned that was also located off-Strip (or just further down Strip towards Fremont Street) which I never got to do, including eating at The Peppermill, drinking at Frankie's Tiki Room and going to the Atomic Testing Mueseum and Pinball Hall of Fame. Herding 40+ people in cabs to places I've never been and not entirely sure everyone would like would probably take 2 hours just to get everyone there, then to get back to the hotel room would probably take another 2 hours. I eventually realized into the 2nd day of being there that there were plenty of bars and gathering places within the confines of the MGM itself, and that truly important thing about the week wasn't where we were going to be (as long as it was comfy with a well-stocked bar) but that everyone was there having a good time and hanging out.

It may be a cop-out but my favorite moment of the wedding day started once the wedding party all got into the limo and headed to the chapel and lasted til the end of the night. It was the first time in a year I no longer had to worry about wedding preparation and finally just went with the moment. It was here and went off without a hitch. I even got genuinely choked up was when we rolled up to the chapel and I saw so many of my friends and family all hanging out front, dressed in their retro spooky cocktail best with giant smiles all waiting for Phil and I.

The funniest moment had to be during the ceremony while Phil and I were having our awkward slowdance. Elvis was singing 'Love Me Tender', Phil and I are remarking on how utterly awkward and queer it was to be slow dancing under hot spotlights (especially since we have never danced together, nor have I ever slow danced with anyone before) and over behind my shoulder in the first row of pews, my giant 6'3" 350 pound dad is visibly sobbing in his Elvis sunglasses. It was just such an amazing scene.

The only thing totally a mystery to us was how the Nob Hill Tavern was going to handle our reception. I knew the restaurant was still going to have other patrons in the dining room and I was so worried it would be a disaster. Which would be further from the truth, Nob Hill really went above and beyond to make sure we had everything we needed. Dinner was delicious, the staff was friendly and the space was much more intimate than I had imagined and there was plenty room for people to walk around and socialize with the other guests.

The most important lesson I learned from our wedding was that even if you have a 'low key' wedding, you'll still have alot of work to do to make it come together. If anything it being a low-key, DIY wedding means I had to take on alot of tasks myself. The way I am, I personally cannot let myself do something half-assed. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I accept that not everyone shares the ridiculously high standards I have for things and this tends to muddle my ability to delegate tasks. I've always felt that in the time it takes to explain how to do something to someone else, I could have just done it myself. I did accept help from my best friend Fenny and my mother, who are two people who know how particular I am with things and share my OCD-riddled worldview. Fortunately my ideas for the wedding were all realistic and not impossible to do, they just required time and creativity.

---Vendor links---

On Paigey:
Wedding dress: Vivienne of Holloway (dress), Louise Black (corset)
Hair: Sam at Shag Me Salon (style), Nicole at David Alexander (color/cut)
Accessories: John Fluevog (shoes), Little Asian Sweatshop (hair flower/bouquet)
On Ballsy:
Suit: JC Penneys (shirt/pants), SkinnyTies.com (tie), Palm Beach Vintage (jacket), TUK (shoes)
Ceremony: 
Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel
Reception: 
Nob Hill Tavern at The MGM Grand
Videographer:
GEBBS Wedding Films
Photographer:
Glitter Lens Photography at the Neon Boneyard Museum

Soundtrack:

 

More Pictures:

More pics to come soon!!

Wedd-ageddon Prep!

In exactly one week I will be in Las Vegas celebrating my final night of being Miss Paigey and my reemergence as Mrs. Ballsy*!

This being a largely DIY wedding, I along with my BFF Fenny (of Little Asian Sweatshop) and the enlistment of friends and family including Ballsy and my mom, have been working around the clock these past few months making favors, giftbags, the invitations, my bouquet, custom alterations to my dress. Pretty much everything in preparation for the big day on Dia de los Muertos, Nov 2nd. We're already planning a giant blog entry to submit to Etsy/Offbeat Bride/whoever will take us that will be chock full of shameless self-promotion, hotlinks and PR for us and our friends. Phil (aka Ballsy, aka futurehusband) also went above and beyond the call of awesomeness with wedding contributions and surprised me with news that we'll be having our wedding day recorded by GEBBS Wedding Films who also did his sister Holly Moran's amazing wedding video last year! OMGOMGOMG! (You can see Holly's on the Gebbs website front page) We won't be doing a same day edit as our wedding isn't exactly structured in a way where it would be feasible but we should have an amazing video to watch and cherish forevs after the wedding and an amazing opportunity to share and relive our special day for the rest of our lives.

Somehow I'm imagining this:



This week in Vegas just keeps getting crazier and crazier!!

Phil designed the retro-inspired invitation postcard along with Atomic Cheesecake's photos of us.

The Louise Black ribcage corset I'm wearing overtop of my wedding dress. I'm adding black diamond rhinestones to the lace piping along the bones to get a little extra glimmer on me for the big day.

Fenny and my mom collaborated on the bouquet, Fenny created the form, made the poker card flowers out of Red Dead Redemption cards and braided the 'stems', while my mom filled out the rest with silk flowers, beads and dice. I added in rhinestones to the silk flowers for an extra bit of glimmer. My mom had so much fun helping with this she wants to join up with Fenny's Sweatshop and start making more bouquets.

Fenny also made a hairflower for me out of the Red Dead cards- the skeletal face cards work perfectly with the theme of the wedding. I added rhinestones for extra sparkle. I've been going a bit rhinestone crazy- it looks AWESOME in the sun. Like a disco ball!

I'm giving Fenny's poker card hairflowers away to the female attendees as favors. We had a super fun day putting them all together.

I'm also making skeletal resin brooches with rhinestones for all the ladies. I really like the way these turned out, I want to sell these in my own etsy store and at my vending tables at shows once I get back into my crafting groove.

I'm giving the male attendees Elvis sunglasses and these adorable calavera Elvis stickers by Jose Pulido from his Etsy store.

Also if you would like to see the wedding LIVE on webcam- the Viva Las Vegas chapel will have it streaming as it's going on. The wedding itself will be at 4:30pm on Nov 2nd Las Vegas time. East coast time will be 7:30pm. It's a quick ceremony- only 10 minutes long so don't be late! The link for it is here and it will be in the main chapel. Make sure to download the realplayer and familiarize yourself with the site. You can also view the main chapel on earthcam Las Vegas camera #2!

(*Not that I'm actually changing my name or anything about myself! While this is an important milestone in my life, it is not the end-all, be-all of my existence! If anything I'm looking forward to life post-wedding just so shit can get back to normal and I can get back to work without this giant looming party I'm planning stressing me the hell out.)