Studying Up on Retro Cartooning

Always looking to keep my work fresh I'm constantly keeping my eyes peeled for new inspiration. Like a fancy new liquor I can splash in the martini shaker of my brain, sometimes I find something in the back of of my cabinet shelf that's been there all along, hiding in plain sight, covered in dust and cobwebs. I mix it in with my regular favorites and holy crap- where was this deliciousness my whole life? 

'Gee, willeckers!'
Self portrait in the pie-eyed
style of 20s-30s animation.

I plan on doing a whole 'family portrait' in this style
for eventual 2013 Christmas cards. 

So hey guess what- that thinly-veiled analogy I just used of liquor is actually about retro cartoons, particularly those of the 1920s. I've always been a fan of old cartoons, especially since my first artistic interests laid in the animation industry. I fortunately have SUPER supportive parents as well, who were totally feeling my artistic obsessions (especially since these interests were nice and quiet and solitary when I was a kid) and would point me in the direction of pretty much anything animation-related they came across. In particular the old Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies and Fleischer cartoons of their youth and then eventually I moved on to the more obscure works including those of Osamu Tezuka (Unico), Richard Williams (Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure) and Nelvana (Rock & Rule). Even during vacations to Disney World as a child my parents would enroll me in children's animation classes while they were getting to ride Splash Mountain. 

'Cutie Patootie!'
A flapper pinup in the 20's style.

As I got older my interest shifted from animation into comics but I still wanted to keep the clean aesthetic and line economy of traditional 2D animation and I've been chasing that look ever since. And being a big fan of the concept of 'climbing your artistic family tree' for inspiration, I've been researching the works of Ub Iwerks and Max Fleischer, two of the founding fathers of animation. I remember watching so many of these cartoons as a kid and being engrossed in the adorable creepiness.

Fleischer's Bimbo in "Bimbo's Initiation"

Part 1 of "The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story"

The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story... by CarlStallingEnthusiast

I hope these inspire you as well! I hope in the near future to have my pie-eyed portraits available as a commission option!

Surrender, Dorothy! and new Miss MJ

Finished the pencils for the Wizard of Oz piece on Cortes's Art Studio Livestream last week! You can see the archived footage from the evening here on the site! Fair warning: there's a lot of footage, split between several videos and I think if you want to start at the beginning you have to start at the bottom and work up.

Here's the first segment where I go thru my sketchbook! You can see the rest of the night here!

Was super-duper fun, can't wait to be on again!

I also drew up a BRAND NEW pic of Miss Mary Jane, finally! :D

Heads up! Livestream with CortesNYC on 2/12/13

Hey guys! I'm gonna be drawing LIVE on the internets with CortesNYC and TameekaTime next Tuesday night! Be sure to drop by and say hello!

CortesNYC’s livestream channel HERE.

Boot the Foot: Mondo Gecko

I was recently invited to take part in my art pals Beast Wreck and Skummie's new art blog Skumm Beast presents Boot the Foot, which has several artists interpreting their favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle characters in their own unique way. My first piece, of April O'Neil is up and now my second, of Mondo Gecko the 80s-tastic skateboarding lizard is posted as well. You can check it out along with a small quesstionnare regarding my history with the beloved franchise.

Paigey bags at Little Asian Sweatshop!

 If you are familiar with my work and follow my blog/social media posts, you know that my best friend Fenny runs a little design house on the side called Little Asian Sweatshop that I frequently supply art and product ideas for. It's about a year old now and we've come up with some really awesome, fun products that have gotten amazing reactions. Even getting love from websites such as boingboing, sogeekchic and Fashionably Geek. It's very exciting, and I  love seeing my artwork on items that have functionality and go beyond something you see in a book or on a screen or put on your wall.
 We recently began branching out into designing accessories involving custom printed fabric from Spoonflower.com, starting with simple pencil/makeup bags featuring my artwork! So far we've got three Paigey bags available at the Little Asian Sweatshop etsy store- Luchadoras, Sailor Mermaids and UTZ Girl. But we plan on doing A LOT more, including new types and sizes of bags and eventually even toys and apparel once we figure everything out.

Sailor Mermaids!

UTZ girl bag!

Inside the UTZ bag is potato chip fabric!

Luchadoras!

GET THESE BAGS AND MORE HERE!!! (CLICKY-CLICKY)

Boot the Foot: April O'Neil

I was recently invited to take part in my art pals Beast Wreck and Skummie's new art blog Skumm Beast presents Boot the Foot, which has several artists interpreting their favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle characters in their own unique way. My first piece, of April O'Neil is up and you can check it out along with a small quesstionnare regarding my history with the beloved franchise.  

Check out the full entry HERE!

I highly suggest checking out all the cool artwork involved!!!

Here's some sketches of the other characters I'm working on for future entries, including:

Mondo Gecko!
My all-time favorite action figure.

Irma! (and eventually Vernon)
Cuz no one else wanted to draw them!

Holidays 2012

And another year down in the books. 2012 was definitely a VERY productive year full of new merch and new techniques for art. It also marks my first full calendar year as a work-at-home freelance artist, manga letterer and housewife! I also produced my second artbook, had a wildly successful solo art show, printed my first wave of tshirts, helped forge my best friend's independent design house, and had my first podcast interview. I have lots of fun new projects planned in the new year, and really look forward to 2013!

At Chris and Cass's Christmas Party during the White Elephant gift exchange-
Me: "I got booze!"
Everyone: "YAAAAYYY!!"

My beloved husband Phil and I in his hometown in Missouri over Christmas

A low-key New Years Eve at my in-laws

While in Missouri visiting my in-laws I was able to get A LOT of stuff done without my computer- lots of inking and painting on vellum. So glad I packed some stuff to work on!

A portrait of one of my favorite couples- Paul and Chelsea!

A Playing Card Queen with burlesque fans!
She is currently for sale HERE.

Some progress shots:

the sketch!

Inks on vellum!

I like inking on vellum a lot- it's not for everyone but it's def worth a try.

Painting with paint pens!

I ink directly on the vellum. A lot of my digital stuff I'll clean up in illustrator/photoshop. I was away from my computer though so I just went gung-ho on this piece. I flip back and forth but always do the inks on top (tracing my pencils) and the colors and whites on the back. I also use prismacolor grey markers for shading, either on top when shading colors or on the back if just using markers on the straight vellum. As I am perfecting my methods I hope to take part in more gallery shows where I can showcase my work to even more potential fans.