Cyber-Kei Cutie V. 3.0

Aaaand here she is once again! The Cyber-Kei Cutie! If she isn't ringing any bells, I last drew her all the way back in 2011 (and before then back in 2007!). 

I feel like this is gonna be one of those images I'll return to every four years (that seems to be the time intervals on this one) just to see how far I've come art-wise. Expect a collage of all three images to come soon.

Anyway, it's funny; as I was colouring her last week, someone had asked me what her name was. In all the times I was drawing and revamping her, the thought had never occurred to me to bestow a name upon her!

What would you lovely folks name her? :-)

Nia Polly Tina

Why lookee here! It's the first completed piece of 2015! 

I may not see you but I totally know you're doing a victory dance in my honour. :-P

Anyway, as you can see, my art's developing one helluva sweet tooth. If this doesn't make you crave ice cream (let alone neapolitan ice cream) just a little bit, I'll be kinda shocked.

Useless fun fact: this took me three tries to scan in because I'm super meticulous like that. :-P

Baby Loves Her Bubble Tea

Okay, show of hands, who here remembers my character of yore Baby?

Well, I was kinda hit with the urge to draw her again recently. If you came to the Vancouver Comicon a few weeks back, you might've seen me coloring away at something. This sketch card was that something.

You can definitely say I was inspired by old school lolita and street snapshots from those "Fruits" magazines from Japan. I even tried to channel the blase expressions from those old shots. Hope I hit the mark!

Bloodwork

God, I wish I could scrape up a better title for this one. :-P

Oh man, this is like a culmination of all the things I love to draw: bunnies, lolita fashion, medical themes and copious amounts of blood. Hooray!  I'd be a horrible liar if I said my new nurse lolita dress wasn't a driving influence behind this piece.

I highly doubt this will be the last time I draw anything containing bunnies, lolita fashion, medical themes and/or copious amounts of blood.

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. :-)

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. 

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...

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 9: Loli Safari

Apparently, Day 9 of Sketchavember was driven by my unrealized desire to see more wild animal prints and safari themes in lolita fashion. Who knew? ;-P

Heh, the execution of her face and the coloring seems more blatantly anime than usual. Methinks it's the hair. FYI, the blouse is largely inspired by one I own in real life. It totally reminds me of piano keys.