Sailor Moon vs Cherry Pie Comic

Introducing, Cherry Pie! :) But wait... is this the end of Cherry Pie?

Justin Weber and I came up with these gags together after watching some nostalgic English dubbed episodes from Sailor Moon season R. <3

Sailor Iron Mouse

Chuuu!

Copic Drawings

I love how portable copic markers are. For these drawings, I printed copies of my line art and took them on the road with me. I wound up coloring one on an airplane and the other at a library. I felt like a kid with a coloring book and a box of crayons! It was fun and relaxing.

 I like having copies of the line art in case I want to try different color combinations, and also to try out different opacities for the lines. Howl and Sophie's lines were reduced to 60% opacity. Doesn't it kind of look like pencil? I like how soft it came out. 

Anime Fusion 2012

Dennis Lo and I... waiting for hoards of fans to arrive.

Anime Fusion was a brand new convention this year. It was a wee bit small, but a fun time nonetheless! I was happy to be table-mates again with my friend, Dennis Lo. We set up our comics and prints early each day, then sat and watched the flow of costumed con-goers drift by. Dennis would occasionally pick on them, for fun.

Super Sailor Moon stopped by our table

I got to do a couple of commissioned pencil drawings. It's such a pleasure to do commissions-- especially when traffic around the table is slow. I love that there's been so much room for interpretation in all of the commissions I've done! It's a special feeling knowing that a person doesn't just want a drawing of a character; they want your style and the spin that you can put on it!

My Human Fluttershy

 A guy asked me to interpret Fluttershy as a human. She's a pony character from the new My Little Pony Series, called Friendship is Magic. It's very popular, because it's a fun and sweet show! The ponies are a cute anime-influenced style. This guy told me that he always gets a new drawing of Fluttershy done at each convention he goes to. I love the idea of collecting drawings from all sorts of artists with the same subject matter! How fun is that? It demonstrates a lot of love and devotion!

Conventions can feel long when you're sitting for hours with little sleep and little coffee, but afterward, you look back and it seems that it all just flew by. This artist alley was full of great talent and personalities. I was psyched to meet local artists Doua Jai Yang and Meng Wang, to once again see Leandra Cota, and to be neighbors with Kaycie Dunlap, who I fatefully met just under a week prior! Kismet, huh? Jen Reihm was there, too- sporting her Derpy Hooves costume and her perfect Fuu (Samurai Champloo). Thank you all for making the con colorful, fun, and inspiring! <3

Women of Adventure Time

For Anime Fusion, I whipped up some little Adventure Time stickers! I had the inked drawings sitting around in a sketchbook, just waiting to become something more. Flat colors are simple and fun to do, so it was a breeze. <3

Commission Examples

Pencil

Ink

Markers

These are some sketches that I did up to represent commissions that I can offer while at conventions. They're 3.5 x 5 inches, and the paper is from a nice little Strathmore pad. I suppose it's kind of a strange size... I'll probably just chop that extra half inch from now on and make it 3 x 5.

I tried out some new things on these sketches. First, I used 2B pencil in conjunction with yellow mechanical pencil lead. I think I like it? Not sure yet. It's nice to work with, but in the end maybe it doesn't look as clean as straight up graphite. I did the inking with a pitt pen and pentel pocket brush, because I'm still debating whether it would be a good idea to bring my india ink and quill pen to artist alley. I wouldn't want to spill anything! And lastly, Strawberry Shortcake was colored with copics, prismacolor, and tria markers. Markers are such a new thing to me! I only recently acquired a decent amount of them, so I'm just now starting to color things. I'm a marker newbie!

Princess Serenity

It always feels good to sit down with watercolors. Photoshop is magical for painting, but even with a cintiq, the feeling isn't quite as satisfying as having paint on paper. So~ here's Princess Serenity of Sailor Moon! Minus her poofy sleeves. I figured, the sleeves are detached from the dress, so she must have to put them on separately. So, as she's getting ready at the beginning of the day, or in the evening, winding down, she may look like this. Or hey- maybe some days she doesn't feel like wearing poofy sleeves! Here's the lovely model who was the inspiration for this piece- Saraqael.

PB and Marceline Doodles

Katie and I dressed up as Marceline and Princess Bubblegum at the Sci-Fi Fantasy convention CONvergence a few days ago. I've got Adventure Time on the brain!

Princess Tutu

Princess Tutu, in all her loveliness. <3

I started this piece with the intention of doing a simple flat color style, like below. What I envisioned as the end result wound up as only a stepping stone in the process. ^^

Tifa

A cute lil' portrait of Final Fantasy 7's kick-butt heroine, Tifa. :)

Snow Angels

Some romantic winter fan art for one of my favorite Final Fantasy couples. <3

Safe with Tuxedo

"Oh, Tuxeeedo!" *sigh!*

Whenever I make a Sailor Moon fan art, my inner 12-year-old SCREAMS with joy. <3 "You can draw!!!" she says! Talk about a pick-me-up.

Prelude to a Kiss

...because I love love. ♥ 

Giggling Girl and a Love Note

I love doing fanart of well-loved characters. It's fun, and it's a great way to practice my coloring while reaching out to fellow fans! I've been coloring so much lately though, I've neglected my figure drawing. Like going a long time without exercising, I can feel it. Time to do some figure drawing "push ups"!

You Make Me Smile

Tifa and Vincent. This was a fun little illustration for Katie. She loves this couple, but it's not a canon pairing, so there needs to be more artwork celebrating them! <3

Midnight Escape

I'm so happy that I made this piece turn out! It's my first digital background ever. Suddenly, I see a door opening... to a whole new world, where I can strive to establish mood and atmosphere with color. *sigh!*

Community!

This week I did a couple quick pieces to submit into contests on deviantart. They turned out to be quite fun and refreshing! The first is some final fantasy 7 fanart. The theme of the contest was "sports". My sport is clearly the amiable game of flirting. ;)

The second is a comic collaboration. I responded to the first panel, which said only "yo." I decided to whip out the Deleter screen tone on this one. It really screams "I am manga!" doesn't it? I have mixed feelings about patterned screen tones... but I'm happy with how it looks in this instance. :)

Cutie Yunie

Phew! This piece has been in the works for too long! I spent a whole lot of time drawing a neat background for it, but I decided not to use it because I wasn't comfortable coloring it... but that's ok! I like her as a cut-out. I think I'll do some more characters like this while studying up on my color theory and how to integrate characters with backgrounds! *Determined nod* And it will be quicker, that's for sure! There are too many other things I want to do to let myself get stuck! =D And hooray for cuteness! It makes me feel good. <3

Victory Dance!

Dance, Vincent, Dance! I made this a couple weeks ago when I was feeling a little low. Making this serious Final Fantasy character do something totally unlike himself helped to raise my spirit. :)

And yes, I was lazy on his gun. Wait-- you didn't notice? Yeah, I mean-- it's actually a boomerang. He, uh-- he left his gun at home. Because who needs a gun at a dance party? Let's be reasonable!

A Moment With You - FF7

Yay! More Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core Fan Art! I just love this couple-- they make me happy 'cause they're so sweet! Aaaah! Perfect targets for my sugary touch, if I do say so! And I do say so. So... that's that. <3 

I'm learning how to sketch directly into the computer better. Also, I'm becoming more comfortable with achieving the gentle shifts in color that I want!