Christmas Lolita Collection Redux!

They're baaaaaack!

That's right! It's been years since I first drew the Christmas Lolita collection and well, let's just say I've been chomping at the bit to revamp these designs. Not only has my art changed drastically since then (in terms of color, anatomy, facial features etc.) but my knowledge and experience with lolita fashion in general has been expanded greatly. To say that the old dress designs are "lolita inspired" would be generous. :-P

The cards are available at My Sister's Closet in Vancouver, British Columbia for $5.00 each. Proceeds of each card sold go towards the Battered Women's Support Services. Gorgeous cards (if I may say so myself) for a great cause!

Reindeer Lolita: If there's anything that I've picked up from working on these cards, it's getting creative with mixing Copic marker colors and making new ones. It's pretty apparent in that deep red on the ruffle trim of the dress. But yeah, her hair and antlers are adorable. ^_^

Christmas Tree Lolita: Remember what I said about creating different shades of color by mixing Copic markers? It was most apparent in this card when I had to create a shade of green that I didn't have the Copic marker color equivalent of to the...Crayola marker. (Oh, those old days of yore. :-P) Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with how the coloring on the Christmas Tree Lolita turned out. Fact: this card sent me out on a goose chase searching for a sparkly blue gel pen. Yeah, I still love gel pens. Deal with it. XD

Angel Lolita: When I first did these Christmas cards six years ago, I sold them at craft fairs. One of the things that stood out most to me during these craft fairs was a woman asking me if I did any cards of dark skinned girls. Sadly, I did not. That was then, this is now. One of things I wanted to focus on during my "quest for improvement" was diversifying my characters not only in terms of avoiding "Same Face Same Body Syndrome" but in adding more variety to my skin tones. It's surprisingly hard to find coloring tutorials specializing in darker skin tones (at least on DeviantART) but I've been able to apply a few techniques from other coloring tutorials to create different skin tones for various ethnicities. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how the Angel Lolita turned out. Her hair though, oh man, that hair...it must've taken me 45 minutes or so just to color it because I'm insane like that. :-P

Santa Lolita: Here's the final card of the series! (For now, at least. I went crazy and did like 10 different designs, both old and new. I could only do so much before my deadline would creep up.) If there's one thing I wish I could fix about this card, it would be that first layer of color for the skin. I really should've refilled the ink on that E000 Copic marker. >_< But it's not too bad. There's still a lot to love about the Santa Lolita and this card in general. :-)

Madison

Okay, three guesses as to why I bestowed the name "Madison" upon this girl. (Hint: it happened as a result of researching different piercings. Okay, maybe that was a bigger hint than I thought. :-P)

Anyways, she started out as an initial coloring practice but I like her design so much that I'm just gonna have to give her the full body portrait treatment. :-)

My Little Alternaponies: Bonus Pinkamena

DISCLAIMER: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and its characters belong to Hasbro and Lauren Faust. This deranged reinterpretation is my brainchild.

I told you I had one more drawing planned in this mini-series of sorts planned out, didn't I? 

It's been too damn long since I've last drawn anything cyber (be it goth or punk) related and it just meshes so well with Pinkamena aka when Pinkie Pie takes a break from happy hardcore centric raves and gets her stompy industrial dancing boots on.

Not gonna lie, I am pretty tempted to turn this into a cosplay reality. 

News! Glorious News! (And It's Freakin' Massive!)

WHEW! 

This last week has been quite the whirlwind week for me and yes, it totally has something to do with the title of this journal entry so let's cut to the chase and reveal the freakin' massive news of the glorious variety, shall we?

Freakin' Massive News of the Glorious Variety the First!

After an embarrassingly long delay, I've finally made myself a proper Facebook fan page! Please be a dear, check out the page and give it a good ol' like. That is if you want to, of course. ^_^

Freakin' Massive News of the Glorious Variety the Second! (And trust me, it's massive!)

A month or so ago, I went downtown to get my art looked at. I can officially say that said place downtown was My Sister's Closet. It's a fantastic second hand boutique fully owned and operated by the Battered Women's Support Services with all the profits going straight to said organization along with many other awesome local charity organizations. They also have the Women Artisans program that not only helps local female artists get exposure and financial independence but also goes towards BWSS themselves. It's a program that I'm beyond proud to be a part of.

Yup, you read that right. My artwork, comics, buttons, greeting cards, original sketch cards and bookmarks are officially being sold in a store.

I can't even begin to describe how psyched I am for this. :-D

My Little Alternaponies: Subcultures Are Magic

DISCLAIMER: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and its characters belong to Hasbro and Lauren Faust. I'm just having fun and twisting them to my very whim.

And here we are at my most recent works! I was feeling an overwhelming urge to draw the Mane Six not only as humans but as if they were all heavily involved in some alternative subculture. In my mind, this is what they would totally be...

Pinkie Pie is a candy raver all the way! As you can see, she obviously put on a few pounds since the last time I drew her. Turns out I like the idea of a chunkier Pinkie Pie and drawing more than just one body type. Variety's a fun, fun thing. :-D

For Fluttershy, I imagine she'd be a bohemian hipster of sorts swearing by all things organic, free-range, fair-trade, environmentally friendly and vegan. In this instance, she's finally worked up the bravery to go to Coachella. She's just holding that joint for the guy in the beer garden, honest!

Rarity would so be a lolita. Class, beauty, elegance and extravagance for life! Oh, and those shoes totally are the Jeffery Campbell unicorn heels.

First, I imagined Twilight Sparkle having a bend towards the gothic side of things (hey, that interest in magic and spells had to manifest itself in some way. ). Once I started work on her, I had to figure out what sort of goth she'd be. Too low maintenance and practical to be a cyber goth or Victorian goth but not quite glamour-obsessed to be a Romantic goth or Medieval goth. Then Wednesday Addams' iconic black dress and the geekier side of goth culture came to mind and I knew where I had to go from there. Friendship is Witchcraft, indeed!

How I could I resist giving Rainbow Dash a maginificent, bad-ass mohawk? Clearly, I had Wendy O. Williams on the brain as I was drawing her. Other than raver!Pinkie Pie, punk-as-fuck!Rainbow Dash probably took the longest to color. (So. Much. Plaid. And rainbows!)

At first glance, rockabilly might seem like an odd choice for Applejack because we've been so acclimatized to the sexy, glamorous pin-up girls that dominate the public conscience of the subculture. However, once you realize that rockabilly stems from "hillbilly rock", then it's not so weird to see Applejack in the high waisted shorts and bandana. Personally, I think she ended up looking a lot like Lurleen Lumpkin from "The Simpsons". :-P

This was such a ridiculously fun series to draw. So much fun that I already pencilled and inked one more addition to this series...and I'm plotting maybe at least two more. We'll see. 

Which pony do you wanna see make it into this bizarre mini-series of sorts? Where would you sort them? I'm all ears. 

Drunken Karaoke Madness: Wanda Style!

Okay, by a show of hands, who here remembers Wanda and her big-ass glasses?

Well, here she is again with some slightly less big-ass glasses rocking some B-52's after one too many mojitos.

Why yes, I was feeling a mighty need to hit up a karaoke bar while drawing this. :-P

Alien She?

Drew this all the way back in the winter. Had a bizarre urge to draw some ruffly old school lolita threads on a really tall, freakishly distorted girl who may or may not be an alien.

Or maybe she just loves wearing her sclera contact lenses a lot. Who knows?

The truth is out there...

Brushing Off the Dust ad Cobwebs...

So, uh...it's been quite a while since I last logged on here, yes?

Did you all miss me? (Or even notice I was absent. :-P)

It's obvious that quite a few things have changed around here site-wise like this whole new journal system, for instance. So strange and so new! But yeah, I should probably cut to the chase and offer up some kind of explanation as to why I've been so distant from this blog (and DeviantART) and just posting art in general. 

As you might recall from a journal entry eons ago, I decided to take a hiatus of sorts from doing the artist alley/convention tables to go back to school and focus on improving my art. To say that this past year has been insane would be amassive understatement. Without going into too many long and winding details, I've experienced both triumphant, extraordinary highs and tumultuous, devastating lows. As a result, I hadn't been creating or posting as much art as I would've liked to. I mean, I still do plenty of drawing (life drawing classes help BIG TIME. Never pass down an opportunity to go to a life drawing session, guys!) but I guess I was so hellbent on improving my art that I became overly critical of everything that landed on the paper. In a weird way, I became scared of drawing. I had forgotten for a while that drawing was supposed to be something that was (GASP! Shock of all shocks!) FUN. 

Now that I'm getting into a much more calm and stable frame of mind, I've been rediscovering my joy of drawing. Be it pencilling, inking or coloring, once I get into a good creative groove, there's nothing that can stop me! Hell, I've even noticed some (dare I say the magic word?) improvement in my recent pieces. It might not've seemed noticeable at the time but looking back on my work then and comparing it to now, I feel like my coloring has been improving (I've been paying more attention to little things like light and shadow), my body shapes are becoming more varied, my anatomy is coming along bit by bit. Yes, hands are still a snot to deal with but they're coming along. 

Bottom line: I feel like I'm finally ready to share with you guys some of my newer pieces.

Sure, I'm always open for critique (what aspiring creative isn't?) but most of all, I hope you enjoy them.