Autumn Serenade

Well, the ELEU Autumn Harvest/Dia de Los Muertos piece is thankfully finished.  I'm now officially half way thru the 6 paintings I have to have done before my hiatus ends in November.  As much as I love that I'm getting to spend my break painting, I have to admit I'm getting a bit tired physically.  I have to paint at night like I would if I was still working.  The house goes into such a state of disarray when I'm working that I have to spend my entire hiatus getting things back in order. . . which as I'm sure everyone knows, is a full time job it's self.

Anyway.  This piece was a lot of fun.  As I stated in the last post where I introduced it, color comps were a pain in the butt, but in the end that extra three days it took to finish them was worth it.  Details of the show's official opening reception are still vague but I'll post details here and on Facebook once I know more.  What I can tell you is this:  the painting, which I've entitled "Autumn Serenade" will be on display at ELEU Salon in Burbank, CA from Friday, September 13th, 2013 thru November 2013 and will be $275.  If interested, contact ELEU Salon for more information.

As I'm sure my followers have noticed, I like to make my paintings a bit personal.  This one is no different.  Fun personal things hidden/represented in this painting are not that hidden really.  The little boy and girl are representing my husband and I.  We will be celebrating our first anniversary on Halloween so Autumn is very special to us.  Specific references are:  The mariachi is left handed.  That is probably only something musicians would catch and think I made a mistake on.  It's not a mistake.  I redrew the entire composition when I realized I made him a right handed player.  Not only does it help the flow of the piece, it wouldn't be my husband if he was a right handed player (yes there is a difference and left handed guitars are very hard to find).  Second, I totally made the scarecrow girl a grunge girl on purpose and she's totally wearing a Pearl Jam t-shirt.  I always wanted one of those "Alive" t-shirts.  The little Jeremy stick figure is totally awesome.  There aren't too many hidden things in this one actually.

Everything else is there for story purposes or just because it felt right.  There is a church yard in the Background as that's where the little mariachi boy came from.  If you get out a magnifying glass you can actually see decorative bunting strung just behind the cemetery entrance.  The crows were fun and although they look more like robins or sparrows than crows I really like the design and will probably do a few mini paintings of them cause they're just cute.

Up next?  I have one week to complete a Macross/Robotech themed piece.  I've got the concept and after taking today off to try to catch up on sleep, I'll be sketching and hopefully color comping that one before the end of the day on Friday the 13th!

Can't believe it's halfway thru September already!!

Official Bats Day in the Fun Park™ Sugar Skull for Dia de los Murcielagos

Officially Licensed Bats Day in the Fun Park™ Sugar Skull

This year is the 15th annual Bats Day in the Fun Park outing happens to fall on Cinco de Mayo, as such, the people who organize the event chose to market the outing with a Day of the Dead theme.  This year Bats Day is also being referred to as "Dia de los Murcielagos" (which is obviously just the spanish translation of Bats Day).  Since my followers all know how much I LOVE drawing sugar skulls I contacted the people who organize the event and asked them what measures and permissions I would require if I wanted to make a special limited edition sugar skull for my table that was reminiscent of their logo.

Let me just say Noah K. and the rest of the organizers have been a pleasure to work with on this.  I submitted a proposal which included what I wanted to make, how many of each proposed piece I was planning on making and a rough sketch of my idea to them.  Happily they agreed to my proposal and after I signed the proper licensing agreement paperwork, I got into full swing with production.

Official Bats Day™ Sugar Skull Hair Clips.  Limited Edition of 25 pairs.

Official Bats Day™ Sugar Skull Digital Archival Print.  Limited Edition of 25 prints all signed and numbered.

Official Bats Day™ Sugar Skull Earrings.  Limited Edition of 25 pairs.

As you can see, I chose to stick with what I know in the form of merchansise.  There are three limited edition items that will be available at my Boogervampire.com table (table 19 if you were curious) this year: hair clips, earrings and a digital archival print (numbered and signed).  Each of the limited edition items are only being released in a run of 25 and will be available at the table on May 4th for the Black Market event.  If for any reason there are some left over, I've been granted permission to sell the remaining items in the Crypt of DOOM once Bats Day Weekend is over.

(Sorry for the Instagram bombing.  I haven't had space to set up my good photo rig since my husband started a new custom GI Joe vehicle project in my work space and I don't have the heart to tell him to move his project just so I can take pictures for the blog.)

Also, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you already know about the two new mini paintings I'll have available at the table.  For those that don't let me introduce you to a couple more cranky Candy Corn and an irate Rainbow Layer Cake.

Candy Corn 2013; Gouache, 2"x3"; 2013

Rainbow Layer Cake; Gouache 3"x2"; 2013

Both the mini paintings are framed in adorable little mini frames. Still determining pricing for everything, but anything new that doesn't sell at Bats Day will be available in the Crypt of DOOM shortly after.

Speaking of the event (not that I've stopped since January) if you decide to swing by the Anaheim Double Tree Suites to check out the Bats Day Black Market on May 4th, you can also check out the "May the 4th be with you" themed "Haunted Mansion meets Star Wars" tribute show in the same location.  I do have a new piece, which I mentioned a couple of posts back.  I still can't show you any images of the whole piece, but be sure to check back on Monday, May 6th to check out the post devoted to my painting "Help Us Master Gracey, You're Our Only Hope".  (I always have way too much fun coming up with the titles.)

What I will tell you about the piece is this. . . it's got a certain squat little trouble making droid in it and I finally got to use the neon red gouache I've had for a while but didn't know what to do with it.  ;)

Just in case you're thinking of turning out for the event, here's the details:

Where: Doubletree Guest Suites Anaheim Resort/Convention Center | 2085 S. Harbor Boulevard | Anaheim, CA 92802

Full details at the Bats Day Website.

Pagan Spring @ ELEU Salon in Burbank, CA

And finally, something NOT Bats Day related!  I'm participating in a small group art show at a Salon/Gallery in Burbank, CA thru the end of the month of May.  If you're in the area swing by and check out the awesome "Pagan Spring" themed artwork.  Since I've been so busy getting ready for the convention I submitted the Medusa series, including the never seen before in public "Soul" Medusa.

Busy Bat!

The fruit of our labor, with fancy display racks.  Left to right: New Buttons, Frankenbunny mini painting, and cabochon necklaces (wip).

Greetings followers of the Blog!

Well, things are in full swing as I (and my partner in crime for this adventure, Natasha) are trying to get the Bats Day Blackmarket items ready for the big day.  I've decided to make a few more little cabochon necklaces, 4 more big cabochon necklaces (including a test run of the "He's So Dreamy" painting as a necklace), and about 60 pairs of earrings (15 of each of the 4 sugar skull designs).  Once I realized that this year's theme was Dia de los Muertos, I figured it was probably a good idea to stock up on all my sugar skulls.  I'm also hoping to make a few more mini paintings before the big day (if I'm not too tired after work) in addition to the 40 pairs of hair clips (once again, 10 pairs of each of the 4 sugar skull designs) I still have to make.  I'm also planning on taking a few of my larger (8x10 inch) original paintings that I have hanging around the house still to the Blackmarket, so you could get lucky and take an original home.  Since I felt bad about neglecting the blog again, I thought I'd drop a few WIP (work in progress) photos on you so you could see that I haven't just been sitting on my laurels.  Sorry for the lame cell phone pics, but I got lazy and didn't wanna charge the fancy camera's batteries.

Close up of the new buttons on their display card.

Close up of the necklaces sans cabs.  So MANY!!

The cabs while they cure.  Hoping to get at least 6 more done before Bats Day!

First time trying a cab with the "He's So Dreamy!" painting.  Looking cute!

Only a third of the earrings we're making. 

In other news:  I got word via newsletter from Spoonflower that they've reactivated the Wrapping Paper option!!  I guess Christmas was just a beta test period, so if you're interested in Boogervampire Cupcake and Frankenbread wrapping paper, they're back up and available!!

Little Things

Key L-eye-me Cupcake!!

Well, I had grand things in store for this post, but alas, they fell thru.  I had wanted to do a large scale comic about my adventures at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con (in the same vein as my journal sketches), but the con was so exhausting that I found myself needing nearly two weeks to recover.  Good news, I got what I went for and the short story is that it took 3 whole days for me to get into the line at the Hasbro booth to buy it because soooo many people wanted the My Little Pony Exclusive this year.  Silly Bronies.

Anyway.  What have I been up too the last three weeks. . . not drawing in my Journal, that's for sure.  I now have too many days to make up.  But I have been tinkering around with new stuff for the Etsy Shop.  Shall we take a look-see?

First up (and if you're a Facebook Follower, you've already seen some of these):

Soul Sista Medusa.  She's having delusions of Pam Grier.

The original has been framed in an orange frame exactly like Marie Medusa's Lime green one!

So I've been wanting to add some Medusa's to the "Hair Style" series.  I've been seriously wanting to do an afro inspired style for a while now.  At first she was going to be more of an innocent hippie with a daisy in her hair, but the more I thought about possible names, the more I thought of Pam Grier and how AWESOME she is.  Since Medusa's kind of a mean, bad ass type woman that wouldn't take any crap from anyone (cause she'd turn them to stone), I thought big 70's shades, hoop earrings and a "Coffee" inspired necklace would be much better "Afro" accessories.  Unlike the other Medusa's in the series thus far, I changed up the color scheme a little.  I knew I had an orange frame that was exactly like the lime green one I framed the "Marie Antoinette" Medusa in, so I wanted to make sure the background, scroll and accessory colors complimented the frame.  *Fun fact. . . found out by accident last Halloween that this frame actually fluoresces under a black light.*

Next:

Test coaster.  Not quite finished, but far enough along to share.  Coaster number two in the works next to it.

Coasters.  When I posted the sugar skull print set in the Crypt of DOOM, a couple of fans started asking when I was going to make coasters out of them.  I thought they were nuts.  How the heck does one make coasters?  Who do you go to to have them made?  And could I sell something with my art work on it that I didn't personally make myself on Etsy and feel morally okay with it?

Well guess what?  It's EASY!!  I checked out a few tutorials online and found that I didn't really need a whole lot to make a decent set of coasters.  Since the test coaster went well, I'm going to move forward with creating the full set of 4.  Hopefully I'll have that up in the shop before next weekend.

And then:

The multi-bat sketchbook was a test.  That one will stay with me, the others below will be in the shop soon.

On the left, two unlined/sketch Moleskin journals, on the right 3 lined journals.

Another Crypt of DOOM follower contacted me once about putting my artwork on Journals.  I'm pretty sure she was referring to the sugar skulls, but I was tossing the idea around in my head the other day and though it might be fun to give it a go!  And it gave me an excuse to get out my block cutting tools and make a custom stamp (which I haven't done in forever).  I looked up custom Moleskins on Etsy, and there's a ton of them.  But what I didn't see a whole lot of was black ones.  I thought a simple image of bats in a fun, bold color might be interesting to try.  Of course every one is different due to it being a hand made stamp and sometimes the block printing ink went on thicker than others, but hey, they're handmade!  And, it was a fun escape from the pen and pencil (stylus and computer?).

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Another Year Wiser

Whelp, it's my birthday.  What do I have to show for it?  A couple more gray hairs have been added to the streak at my temple. Although I normally try to hide this patch with some completely unnatural hair color, every two years or so I let my hair grow out so that I can get back it's natural moisture and strength. On the plus side, to the gray hair con side, I'm now 15 pounds lighter which means I can fit back into some of my older jeans!  (Translation:  I don't have to go buy new ones!)

The last month has been relatively uneventful.  With no hard deadlines looming on anything I've gotten a little lazy.  Not sure if that's a good thing, since I was nearly pulling my hair out while I ran all over the place getting the "Just Desserts" show ready and some would argue I could use the break, or if it's a bad thing. (Speaking of, Monkeyhouse just asked me if they could extend the show til July.  You can see the show online by clicking here.)

Most of the things I have been working on I can't post online yet.  Some of them have to wait until after Halloween.  But be sure I'll be doing a HUGE post after Halloween chock full of Voodoo Doll goodness.

I've started my first personal Monster Kid painting (translation: not created for a group show of some sort).  I still have no idea what to call that series of paintings, but as it grows I think I might have to figure something out soon.  Monster Kids just sounds lame.  I digress.  This painting goes back to one of the first monsters in the series, the Creature from the Pink Lagoon and I've been dying to do this painting for a couple of years now.  Found the perfect frame on Etsy about a year ago, so I've kind of been working backwards on it.  Got the frame, then got it matted, and now I'm doing the sketch so that I can size it to fit in my mat since I knew exactly how I wanted to present it

Then, when I wasn't procrastinating on my voodoo doll project, or my Creature painting, I had my first sugar skull commission thru Etsy.  I don't normally do commission work due to my work load from my day job, but since it was sugar skulls representing the client's kids, I thought I'd give it a shot.  Got to try a couple ideas I'd been tossing around in my head for future skulls, namely trying to make a boy skull, incorporating a diamond into a skull, and of course, fire.  The client was gracious enough to let me post the finished skulls here on the blog and on my Facebook Fan Page.

Frida Sugar Skull Redux

 Greetings all!

I found myself a bit overwhelmed and down in the dumps this week.  As a result my brain is more scattered than usual and I find myself procrastinating on the things I'm supposed to be doing.  What you see above is what I chose to do instead of starting my "Just Desserts" show piece.  I have a solid monster concept, but I just couldn't bring myself to sketch it out this last week.

So while I was frantically hitting refresh on my e-mail browser, I decided to listen to a friend of mine who suggested that my first Frida Khalo inspired sugar skull wasn't as cute as my previous ones.  Not only did I discover she was correct, but I also discovered that as I drew more of the sugar skulls, they started to become more detailed.  I had high lights on high lights!  So I took this one back to basics.  I used the first as inspiration, but simplified both the design and the rendering of it.

Now that I've gotten the re do out of my system, hopefully I'll be able to focus on what I need  to work on now.

Fantastic Frida

Fantastic because she's FINALLY FINISHED!

Had some trouble with color on this one.  Note to self, stick to three color schemes or do better planning earlier on.  After many different tries this was the one I settled on.

Work, as usual has been interesting.  A lot to get used to even when you have "down" time between boards.  Revisions were nice to do though.  Got to work with two new directors doing revisions for them and it's nice to work on both sides of the storyboarding process.

. . .and I ramble.  Enjoy Frida and have a safe and happy Independence Day!