After Comic-Con, we did Disneyland.
Comic-Con is cool. Disneyland is EPIC.
Pretty, huh? It's a place where you can dance with the princesses.
Guys guys guys!!!
Comic-Con was AWESOME! San Diego was beautiful and the panels were amazing. The exhibitions were cool too. OMIGOSH I'm an action figure!!
Comic-Con had lots of cool stuff like that. Where else can you take pictures like this?:
Awesome.
A list of numbers, to give you an idea of what the conference was like:
Number of people in attendance: 140,000
Number of hours to wait in line to see the new Tron preview: 9
Number of Starbucks and pretzel vendors: 54
Number of stabbings with a ball-point pen: 1
Number of people dressed up as Dr. Horrible: 12
Number of people dressed up as the Mad Hatter: 26
Number of people dressed up as Storm Troopers: Like a million
Number of people dressed up in 3 strips of duct tape and a teeny tiny pair of panties: 1 (and trust me, you are imagining it way cuter than it really was.)
Number of incredible artists: Like a trillion
Number of stupid things I said to incredible artists and professionals and publishing people because I've lost all my social skills because all I've been talking to lately is Mr. Lampshade and Mr. Sofa and they only talk back sometimes: Like a trillion jillion. Let's not dwell on this.
And now, time for a guessing game! Get them all and you win--
Nothing! Welcome to the life of the starving artist. Try anyways.
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Fandom is cool. Here's some fan art I did for The Last Airbender. Katara and Zuko, Love Forever. OMIGOSH they're bending the elements into a HEART!!! <3<3<3 This is romantic.
But wait! Zuko and Katara never hooked up! What gives??
Fandom. It's awesome. Airbender fans have started an internet meme, creating relationships and scenarios that never happened in the show! For example, if you wanted Zuko and Katara to get together, you're a Zutara. If you think Katara and Aang had it, you're a Kataang. And if you're glad Zuko and Mei got together, you're a Meiko.
The midnight showing of "The Last Airbender" brought tons of fans. Tons of cosplay. (This is short for "costume play". If you didn't know that, congratulations! You're not a nerd!)
Kyoshi warriors
Even Aang and Zuko! Shaved head and arrows and scars and everything. Combustion Man, Princess Yue, and, um, Harry Potter also made appearances. Isn't it weird (and kind of cool) how story can be so strong it almost becomes sentient?
Anyways, the reason I'm posting all this is COMIC-CON!! I'm leaving for it in, like, one hour! Instead of packing I decided to draw some fandom picture. And I'm so, so excited to see all the neat costumes, the talented story people and artists whose blogs I goo over every day. I hope I find you all.
A logo i've been wanting to do.
Last week I said goodbye to my sister, who will be gone for the next 18 months. She's off to serve a religious mission to Boston.
I'm going to miss her. I once mentioned I was looking for a cameo brooch, and she spent all day searching until she found the perfect one and bought it for me.
She's always doing nice stuff like that.
Boston is very far away and exotic. I've learned a lot about Massachussetts these past few weeks. Like it's north of Maryland.
WHO KNEW?? Also, they have lobster there. I've never had lobster but I bet it tastes neat. Like eating a great big bug!
Their best-kept secret is the monster that lives in the waters there.
It's the terror of Cape Cod.
A MASSIVE LOBSTER NAMED BIG AL!!
It's about the size of the Disneyland castle and it's called Big Al because it has a face like Al Capone.
It also has teeth that shame the Dune Worm! When it catches lobster boats it tears them apart like twigs in a wood chipper.
One day, though, the lobster hunters will catch Big Al.
8 Comments on The Legend of Big Al, last added: 7/14/2010
I did this picture 4-ish years ago. It's the first post on this blog.
I decided to try the design again:
She's, um, doing a fan dance or sumfing
This was going to be an inspirational post on how improvement staves off artist's depression...but now I'm depressed because it's not as good as it should be. O_O
This sort of backfired. Here's the picture anyway!
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Shout-out: If you are interested in story & staging techniques, there's no better blog than the Seven Golden Camels, Mark Kennedy's blog. He's a Disney story artist and goes above and beyond the common story & art stuff. Check it out!
Last Tuesday I took a tour through the Salt Lake County Building. It's a pretty cool building.
It has a clock tower! The tour included going up into it! Man I was so excited. I don't think the tour guides had ever seen anyone so eager beaver.
They definitely hadn't seen anyone take a picture of the elevator wall.
This'll make a great texture.
It was 13 floors up, all stairs. I loved the bronzey, burgundy green colors of the brick and metal.
On the way we toured the roof, too.
Thanks everyone for the nice comments on the last post. You guys are awesome.
Here's s'more 30-min speedpaints! Can you guess what movies/shorts these are from? I tried to make them harder this time. Like a lot harder. Just in case some of you feed on animation art. *coughcoughADRIANcough* Good luck!
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12 Comments on Speedpaint guessing game 2, last added: 6/24/2010
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There's a Victorian dance called the Entwine. It's danced with a long sash and is a lot like an open waltz. The lady and the gentleman take dance position, each holding the end of the sash, and the gentleman tries to "catch" the lady around the wrists in a series of turns and promenades and twists. The lady ducks and spins. If she eludes capture within three minutes' time, she wins! It's a really fun and competitive dance.
Ok. I made that up. I made it all up. But there is a reason for this post!
I don't talk much about my story work, but this is pretty exciting. Some of you may know that these past few years I've been working on a big writing project--a YA (young adult) Victorian re-telling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. WELL, a few months ago it was accepted by Greenwillow books and is going to be published! I feel very lucky for the talented story people who've helped me to really improve it and make it shine, including my agent and editor
My roommates are so dead meat.
My youngest sister is really good at CLUE. Like, obscenely good. She always wins in just a few turns. I think she has x-ray vision or something.
Since she's turning 16 this month, she's hosting a huge CLUE-themed party and she asked me to design characters for it. SUPER FUN! Here they are.
Prof Plum is my favorite. He's such a hottie.
Confession: I'm a wimp. A big wimp. I can't watch movies where the bad guys slither/crawl/have more than four legs. And then there are movies that play with your mind. Those are the worst.
Me after watching "The Prestige"
Last weekend my sister sat me down and made me watch an episode of DR. WHO and I swear I have never been so freaked out in my life.*
*Um...season 3 episode 10, in case you're interested.
It was about these weeping stone angels (the sort you'd find in graveyards)--but they weren't
actually angels--THEY WERE ALIENS! !!! ! !!! They had evolved into creatures with the perfect defense mechanism: if you looked at them, they didn't move. Like mario ghosts. So you think they're stone until you turn away, and then the aliens attack and SUCK YOU INTO THE PAST AND THEY LIVE OFF OF YOUR POTENTIAL YEARS ENERGY!!!
!!!!!!
So when you first see the statue, it looks like this:
Turn away, and look back, and it looks like THIS:
And then after you BLINK YOU GET THIS!!!
AAAAAAAH!!!!!
The episode ends with shots of famous statues, and Dr. Who's voiceover:
"Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and DON'T BLINK!"
My friends and family know what I like. Here's what they gave me for Christmas and my birthday. Coloring books! Nice ones, too, with nice linework. This is important.
The Christmas Carol one had watercolor paints attached. (!!!!) I had to try it.
It turned out really good.
Still, I missed the feeling of the wacom beneath my fingers.
Duchess Rowena, poisoning the king. She's such a baddie.
Undo button and layers. I think I'm addicted.
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Smart people with Photoshop (or Illustrator): Is there any way to turn a texture into a swatch? So you can use it with the gradient tool, like a regular color? Please tell me there is.
Just a quicky. I love Mary Poppins :)
So lately I've been sketching at the zoo. It's all right I guess. Always nice to get out where the furniture doesn't talk to me.
The zoo's been kinda having a rough time. Their animals are dropping dead. I'm okay with animals dying, I guess. They die in the wild all the time. The difference, though, is that in the zoo they don't get poached or eaten alive. Instead they die of lame stuff. Like, swallowing a mitten.
The latest casualty was their little baby giraffe. *sniff*. After it died, I arrived at the zoo, sketchbook in hand. (Because as any artist knows, the best kind of animal is the one that doesn't move.) Conversation between me and the ticket guy:
TICKET GUY: Have you seen our new little Siamese crocodile?
ME: Oh--no--but I heard your baby giraffe died! That's so sad!
TICKET GUY: Yeah. Anyway, our Siamese crocodile...
I felt kind of bad for bringing it up. He probably had been getting flak from everyone about it. But honestly, I don't know what they were trying to pull. A crocodile is NOT cuter than a giraffe!
Here was the giraffe (in honest-from-life sketches):
Yeah, and here was the Siamese crocodile:
It didn't even have two heads! /cheated
Giving a shout-out to a storyboard artist's blog I just discovered--
Erik Benson! Check it out. He is super funny!
Now then, what'd be nice...
We'll start with raspberry ice
And then, some cakes and tea
Order what you will--there'll be no bill!
It's complimentary!
Did it drive anyone else crazy that Mary and Bert never got their food? I mean--free food! I'd be gorging myself!
I have a sister named Mary who's so much fun, she really does make life a jolly holiday. So this picture is for her. Luv you Mar!
By popular vote:
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Detachable arm? Sparkly pet gater? Sign me up!!
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So you may have heard that Andrew Lloyd Weber has written a Phantom of the Opera sequel. (!!!) COOL, huh!
Or...is it?
CONTENT WARNING: If you liked Phantom of the Opera, you'd better stop reading this. Like, right now.
Dude, I'm serious.
No, I really am.
Ok, but don't shoot the messenger!
So the sequel, "Love Never Dies," takes place ten years after Phantom. Christine and Raoul are married now, and have a son, Gustav. The Phantom has quit the opera house and now--get this--runs a freak show on Coney Island.
Not making this up. Keep reading...it gets better.
Anyways, so while the Phantom is living posh in NYC, with the help of Meg Giry (You remember her? Christine's friend? Had mebbe...3 lines?), Christine and Raoul aren't doing so well. It turns out Raoul is a drunken, gambling scoundrel who has frittered away all their money. Geez Christine. These men you pick out...
So, Christine and Raoul arrive to America in hopes that Christine's awesome singing will save the fam. When the Phantom finds out they've come, he's all over that because he's serious in love with Christine. And she is seriously in love with him.
Yes. Gustav is their child.
Don't stop reading! It gets better!
The Phantom makes a bet with Raoul that Christine will sing for him at the freak show, thus proving that she still loves the Phantom. She does (ha! of course!) and Raoul leaves in disgrace. Everyone is madl
Up where the smoke is all billowed and curled
'Tween pavement and stars is a chimney sweep's world
Where there's hardly no day, and hardly no night
Things half in shadow, and halfways in light
O.O I LOVE the world created in those lines!
Church sketches. Uper fun.
I drew these on the Trax. I haven't yet mastered the art of Drawing People So They Don't Notice You. It's unsettling to draw someone with big noses/cranky expressions, and then when they get up for their stop, see your sketchbook and tell you that you're awesome. Serious artist guilt. Maybe I should move to a meaner city?
...Nah.
Sidebar voting for Barbie's next career has ended! It was a close one between Crocodile Hunter and Chimney Sweep (both worthy careers), but in the end, Crocodile Hunter won by one vote. Huzzah! Already I'm thinking of the ways to draw her, all of which involve scads of cadmium red. Right now things are tight with deadlines, but I won't forget. Promise.
Also bless you four people who voted her as a storyboard artist...my heroes...
Q: What do you get when you leave the roommates alone for five minutes?
This. This is what you get. Poor Dr. Doolittle.
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^^There was a brass plate inside that little turret with words, but no one knew what they read. I'm guessing it's a hidden treasure map or something cool like that.
8 Comments on Inside a clock tower!, last added: 6/26/2010
12 Comments on Speedpaint guessing game 2, last added: 6/24/2010.png)
13 Comments on DON'T EVEN BLINK, last added: 6/1/2010
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But here's the real question...Who's gonna feed the monkey?
I'll miss the old strudelcookies site. Good luck with your new Story-monster site.