Things I Love Thursday: True Romance

With the recent and incredibly sad news on the death of film director Tony Scott, I figured I should pay tribute to the director of True Romance (my 3rd favorite movie of all time) in the best way I know how- with some good ol' Paigey fanart. Sucks that so many of the fanart-type pieces I've been doing lately are in reaction to someone involved dying. :\

I (heart) Baltimore Mini Prints

FYI! My I (heart) Baltimore mini print sets have been sent off to the printer and should be on-hand next week! I will have them for sale here on my blog as well as my etsy store. I will also be selling them at my artshow/book release party upstairs at the Ottobar in Baltimore the night of September 7th (FB event page here) and at Baltimore Comic-Con, Sept 8-9. 

You can also up until September 7th, get this set FREE with the pre-order of my newest art book, "Thanks For Your Support!". Click here for further details!

"Thanks For Your Support!" Pre-Order

Check it out, all! My 2nd artbook "Thanks For Your Support!" is almost out!

The cover!

Pre-order your copy TODAY for $25 (plus $6 shipping)!

I'll even throw in some free *mystery* gifts!

Preorders are closed!

But you can still order my book at my etsy store!

The first page!

It's a 6x9", 56-paged softcover with full color interiors, a foreword by my friend Kevin Slaughter and an index featuring notes on each piece! It's like a REAL BOOK! Includes my famous pinups, flyers and fanart. Picking up right where my first volume, The Art of Paigey left off- it is basically a continuation of the 'Greatest Hits' album of Paigey artwork.


Want a sneak peek?


Created with cinemagr.am

Comes signed- if you want me to make it out to anyone in particular let me know!

***Also! If you place your order before Friday September 7th, you will get a FREE copy of my I (heart) Baltimore mini-print set! A $10 value!***

Will you be in Baltimore for Baltimore Comic Con September 8-9th? If so I'm having a solo art show
upstairs at the Ottobar on Friday September 7th from 9pm-1am to celebrate the release of "Thanks For Your Support!" and to kick off my *5th* year of professionally selling at Baltimore Comic Con (which I will be working Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th!) Lots of books, original pieces, and merch (including flowers by Little Asian Sweatshop) will be on sale, as well as fun stuff like a photo booth and a raffle to win a Miss Mary Jane figure!
Facebook event page here!

Kevin Slaughter thinks you should pre-order too!

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.

Aftermath: HeroesCon 2012

My 'Mrs. Batman' outfit- I'm the housewife of  The Batcave!

Whoosh. Whatta weekend. HeroesCon 2012 has come and gone, and it was my first major show of the year as well as my favorite to go to. This was my 2nd year attending and it was awesome to see so many friends and fans both old and new alike at such a fun show.
So much going on! I had gotten a huuuge exhibitor table with my friends, including my BFF Fenny of Little Asian Sweatshop, pinup superstar Maria Danalakis, beloved husband Ballsy and NYCBFF Christy Sawyer and had all sorts of cool trinkets and doodads for sale.

Me, Fenny and Maria

There aren't enough nice things I can say about Heroescon. Everyone is so dang nice, it's run super professional and the guests and level of talent that attends is amazing. Since my first visit to Heroes last year, this show has been a fantastic example of a con done right. Was so happy Fenny and Maria had a good time, as this was their first Heroes and they attended purely from word of mouth (specifically, mine).

Our booth!

There were a few personal 'experiments' this go at Heroescon for me- I *did* try to sit down and sketch at the show on Friday. I really did! Buuut unfortunately my sales suffered as I wasn't standing up and addressing customers and giving myself presence on the floor. I think that people were afraid to disturb me and feel like they're being rude. Plus I can't see what's going on in front of me as my head is down. Apparently y'all would rather engage in conversation with me than watch me draw. Which I'm actually totally fine with. Drawing at cons sucks. I'd much rather give someone a solid piece of art that has my full attention that was created in the comfort of my own home. Plus I have a rather unique situation of hawking my wares at a show, in which I'd actually say sales and engaging in conversations is my secondary strong suit behind creating the actual art. Several other artists I know have enough of a draw from their art to have people search them out, versus me, who is usually reeling people in with my crazy outfits and gift of gab and only after that do they realize that all the cool stuff in front of me on the table is of my creation. So Sat and Sun I focused purely on sales.

My convention obsession: Table Feng Shui

Another experiment was getting an exhibitor booth versus Artist Alley tables. The space was fantastic and very roomy, however with the high partitions and giant tshirt booth in front of us our visibility was somewhat lacking as opposed to AA which was very open and allowed you to see across the entire showroom floor, which allows for things like vertical banners to really work in your favor. Also since we were on the exhibitor side of the con, we were grouped among the more retail-heavy booths such as the aforementioned tshirt booth, back issue bins and wholesalers, which doesn't attract the type of art collector-heavy audience having a table in AA has, as they tend to have a very strict budget and a tendency to bee-line. Which is also something to say about Heroes- usually AA is segregated to some back corner of the show much like a leper colony. But not Heroes, here AA is a major draw.

Lil' bit of Con Ingenuity: standing up all day? Lay down a yoga mat!
Your feet will thank you!

With this being my one convention where I actually have to pay for a hotel room (as it's not in NYC where I live or Balt/DC where my parents live) this is one of my most social conventions. I usually try to save as much money as possible during shows, to the point of not leaving my table and eating only before/after the show (save for the odd granola bar) in the comfort of my own/parent's home (since then it's free, plus I'm exhausted). But there are just TOO MANY awesome people to hang out with at Heroes. Which unfortunately means I'm spending at least one day at the table hungover (hellooooo Sunday!). But it was really fab to hang out with my closest friends (like my table-mates and husband) alongside folks I only talk to online or whose DeviantArt I stalk regularly. Or people who I had NO IDEA I would meet who now are one of my favorite new people to follow online (like the *amazing* dressmaker Vivcore!). 

Us ladies with my husband Ballsy at the Saturday Art Auction!

I also put one of my new experimental pieces, where I ink/greytone/highlight a pinup on vellum that I lay on top of a piece of shaded paper, in the HeroesCon Art Auction. It's their big Saturday night hullabaloo where they auction off artwork donated by various artists at the show to go towards throwing heroes next year. Unfortunately my piece was early in the evening so I missed the bidding, but from what I hear it was one of the first big highlights/bidding wars of the night, raking in $200! Either way it was a lot of fun seeing friends and hanging out and getting shushed when Stan Lee started talking. (Oops. ~_^;)

My Batgirl piece- 'Bat Dat Ass Up'

Overall it was a pretty amazing time at Heroes this year and I'm so glad to see everyone and spend time with folks I don't get to see face-to-face very often. It's really awesome that even when I don't see my friends in comics very often (sometimes for only a few hours over the course of a year) we're able to pick up and hang out like we saw each other yesterday. Eagerly looking forward to attending next year- and this time FOR REAL, we're gonna fly instead of drive. ;)

Here comes an ART Dump!

Just some computer colored versions of the characters I was drawing out in my last entry. 

Batgirl
"Bat Dat Ass Up"

Retro Lum

Leela

There will probably be a few more of these, they're pretty fun to do and are a good way to 'keep myself out of trouble' and deal with pre-convention stress.

Heroes Con prep!

Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC is coming up the weekend of June 22-24th and I am SO EXCITED! 

I will be vending the show at a giant booth just for me, Little Asian Sweatshop, Maria Danalakis and Christy Sawyer. And since I will have a few friends at the table to mind customers and general comings and goings, I will actually attempt at convention sketches this show. I'm kinda playing that aspect of the show by ear, I really want to commit to sitting down at my table and drawing for people but I'm sure I will be slow as all hell and will have a very short list of commissions over the weekend, either out of general disinterest or me just being busy with taking on very few sketches at a time. I'm also making them a little more involved than the average sketch you can buy at a show, as my OCD refuses to let me give anyone any art of mine that looks rushed or hacked. It makes me cringe. Especially once it shows up later on the internet.  9_9;;

So I'm *planning* on initially sketching the piece out on scrap paper, thus removing the performance anxiety of using 1 piece of Bristol for the entire thing and also allowing for the inevitable 2-4 false starts I'll have trying to nail a pose. Then I'll ink it on super heavy vellum and on the flip side tone it it with warm and cool grey markers and white-out, much like an animation cel. This being a bit more involved a process I'm still trying to figure out a price point. 

I was experimenting with a few already-inked vellum pieces I had laying around the office. 

I also dug up some original inks to what would be considered 'classic' Paigey pieces, all but the mermaid inks I'll be hitting with greytone markers and selling off at Heroes, and if they don't sell there I'll have them either on my etsy or at my solo pre-Baltimore Con show in Sept.

I got a headstart on a couple of commissions for people at Heroes already:

DC Comics' Looker sketch

Inks on vellum.

Batgirl sketch

Batgirl inks

A Bettie Page/Lum mashup, just for fun/practice

What I'm pretty excited about is that this method can lend some new life to my 'originals', which I tend to discard to various piles around my work area once they're all scanned in and forget about them. Some of the guys I worked with at my old office job Freeze can attest- when I cleaned out my work area when we changed offices I had a pile of original inks and sketches about an inch high that I hadn't given a second thought to. I've got a pre-Baltimore Comic Con solo show happening at the Ottobar in September and now I think I'll be greytoning and throwing some older work in frames for purchase. Which is good, cuz otherwise it's just taking up valuable space in my Brooklyn apt.