Oh My!

I haven't blogged in ages!!! But I found this adorable pic over at http://fyeahqueervintage.tumblr.com/ while browsing the internets for inspiration. I really wanted to share it. Enjoy!

SvD: Christmas hasn't left yet.

December is never a very productive month for me when it comes to work, but once January rolls around, it's time to start fresh. I've been spending a lot of my time working on layouts and designs for two comics, one of which, is Santa versus Dracula.

I don't want to go into detail at the moment but I'm working on finished pages for one particular scene. Since I'm starting with page 107, I had to work out a lot of things so I wouldn't have to go back and change these pages in the future.

This page here is a shot of Santa's "Headquarters", as I like to call it.

Happy New Year!

Angel of Doom

I drew this pic a few years ago and I never got around to finishing it. It was half inked when I picked it up again the other day. I inked it over and colored in. Didn't focus much on the background, just focused on the lighting and color.

Playboy artist Doug Sneyd

I had the pleasure of meeting Doug Sneyd at the NY Comic Con this past October. With a purchase of his Unpublished book, I got to have my face drawn in the book by Doug himself. =) =)

We had a pleasant conversation while I sat there and he drew me. Such a nice guy. He even drew the Playboy bunny ears on me. (Also heard he would draw boobies on request, lol)

Santa vs Dracula: Debbie Design 1

Little miss Debbie wants to be a vampire. She's one of the original characters in the comic.

Rainy Day version 2

The top image has the original shadows, but I like the image without it too. O__o

Rainy Day version 1

I was working on this image for a while. After taking a few months break, I finally went back to it but for some reason, out of all things, I had a hard time with her shadows. =/

I might go back and work with it some more so I'll be posting again soon.

Hot Painting!

Yup, this is a true story. This little incident happened a few years ago and I always thought it was funny. I decided to make it a single panel comic inspired by the comics Playboy publish.

I also included a close up because I work larger than the final size of the image I post, so a lot of detail go unnoticed. Well, I think it goes unnoticed, like the sweat drops on my friends back. (Yes, I'm the one with a shirt on.) =P

Santa and Dracula designs

So, here's Santa versus Dracula again. It's been a while but the project is going forward. More details soon, but in the meantime I've been redesigning the main two characters. Santa is redesigned to be a bit softer and more jolly. Dracula didn't change too much other than the color of his clothes and his character being a bit darker.

Any more changes and the animation will be completely different!

Lurking in the dark

Guess I've been in a Halloween mood. I had a specific image in my head but it wasn't easy to get on paper. Took me a while to get the look I wanted. The creature had arms at one point but it wasn't helping the illustration, so I removed them. Yup. Much better.

Sokora Refugees Volume 3: Blix

Yeah, it's been a long time since I actually drew this picture. It was back when I was actually working on Sokora Vol.3. The succubus, Blix (that's her name) was going to be featured in vol.3. She was a design I really liked, so I always wanted to go back and make her a full illustration. I started coloring it a few months ago, but it got out of hand for me. I went back to it a few days ago, organized my layers and finished it right up. This one, I'm happy with.

Halloween Girl

I sat to draw and this happened. Made it a Halloween theme and broke it down into the steps on how I develop a picture. The entire image was drawn on the computer using a Wacom Tablet and Paint Tool Sai.

I start with little rough thumbnails to see if the picture will interest me in continuing.

If I like it, I zoom in and add a some detail, developing the character a bit more.

Liking where it's going I take the small sketch and enlarge it. Now I do rough clean up, working out finer details. At this point I start thinking about colors. Since her bloomers look like a pumpkin, I'll stick with the typical orange and black Halloween themed colors.

Once I get the inks, I'll make changes if necessary if certain lines don't make up or if angles seem off. This particular image worked out pretty well so i didn't spend too much time on it. From beginning to end, I think I spent about 4 hours working on this image.

I start the coloring only working with 3 layers. A flat base color, the shadows and a layer for highlights and added detail. Sometimes I'll add a 4th or 5th layer for tweaking, but I'll usually combine them and keep it at a minimum.

Usually when I get to the end of finishing a piece, I'll show it to someone to get opinions, for me its always dynamaito. Other artists might point out suggestions in color, composition and details. But its always the non-artist that gives the most interesting feedback, like "the body looks weird," or "I can't tell what's going on in the picture..." Never take offense, but always take it into consideration, it'll make you a better artist in the long run.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Everyone loves boobs! Whether its for a woman's pride, a man's attraction, a child's comfort, or an infant's nourishment, nobody wants anyone's breast to go the way of cancer. In my family, both of my grandmother's were breast cancer survivors.

This pic was done for the comic strip I illustrate, My Cage, (which will unfortunately have its last run on oct.31.) On October 10, 2010, all Sunday strips distributed by King Features Syndicate will be colored pink for breast cancer awareness month.

For more information, visit www.comicsgopink.com . You'll also be able to donate money to any breast cancer research organization of your choice!

Remember get those boobs checked early and if you don't have any, I'm sure you know someone who does.

It's a fight worth fighting for.

Peace!

Updates

Okay, so I don't update as often as I like. These things do take time and its amazing how much gets in the way of my "catching up" time.

For one, Rapunzel is done! I'll update with that again once all the pages are up. Here's a panel to keep things interesting.

Second, my page on Estrigious has been revised as an online portfolio, so a lot of my work is a bit more organized.

Until next time! (I'll be catching up.)

Mel

Anniversary Strip

Maybe it's the hot weather that makes it hard to keep up with work and such...Anyway, I made this little mini strip for my anniversary. A gift to my hubby. Thought I'd share it since it wasn't too personal. ;)

Santa vs Dracula designs: The Hunchback/Igor

Santa vs Dracula is coming back. After working on the 8 page comic for Zuda and the the animated preview for Aniboom, Ed and myself are going to finally work on the entire story for SvD. In the last few weeks, I've drawn new character designs, drew up some mock covers and even did rough thumbnails for all 144 pages.

Here we have 2 designs for The Hunchback/Igor. I drew them as they might have been two different characters, but in the end, we stuck with one, The Hunchback with the unicycle. I figured since he was hunched over so much, he might need support, so I chose a unicycle peddled by his front arms. :p

More designs coming up!

...and we're back!

It's been rough the last couple of weeks for various reasons, including the heat wave that keeps my laptop from running properly....but I'm back for a steady stream of updates!

Just yesterday the My Cage website was updated with new (and exciting) info! From now on, on a weekly basis we'll be featuring web exclusive strips that won't be printed in newspapers, or rather strips that were rejected because they couldn't get past the censorship.

Our Sunday strip also featured many characters from the webcomic community, so you can get links to the sites where the individual characters are featured in.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Next update Wednesday!

Doctor Who?

So I've been watching the new season of Doctor Who with Matt Smith. It's been okay so far and I'm still getting used to the new Doctor but I really miss David Tennant.

Sometimes TV shows and movies inspire the creativeness in oneself and well, lately I haven't able to indulge in hobbies, but when you mix Rob, Doctor Who, inspiration, and hobbies, you get something like this:

Rob, ("Dynamaito" over at chromaengine.com), always had a knack for video editing, something I've always enjoyed seeing from him. It was a hobby of his back in the old days when he used to do it with VCR's. O__O!! Nowadays he does it on PC with Vegas Video. Fun stuff! He used clips from the Doctor Who series with David Tennant and the song 'Ghost of You' by My Chemical Romance.

Anyway, I thought I'd share his video because I miss David Tennant and I enjoy watching Rob's videos. =)

Thinking Process

Just a drawing I did to practice my line work and colors. I didn't think the whole illustration through, so I'm a little stuck now. I made two set of shadows and now that I have the flat colors down, I want to leave her flat. =/

I'm gonna work on the back ground outside her window. Maybe that'll help steer me into a direction for the rest of the illustration.

Computer Mice

I swear, you think think idea would have been done to death but honestly I haven't found anything like it.

Okay, so I'm obsessed with figure design....I got this idea from 2 seconds of the movie Wall-e, where he gets tossed into a dumpster and computer mice scurry away. GENIUS! I totally want one but alas, nothing like it exists.

Anyway, I think it's safe to say I was influenced and came up with this design. Simple idea, but with modifications. I submit the design to Patch Together in hopes that, with enough votes, it could be make into a figure...so that I can own one myself.

So check it out, sign up and vote! =D