October 2013 Update

Hellooooo out there!! 

I have not been back in here in a VERY long time. I decided I needed to give you a quick update on what has been happening in my own little corner of the universe.

First, my personal freelance business has really picked up!! This has been incredible and I've received orders and commissions from people outside my friend and aquantance circle!

I had to put a cap on taking any more commissions for the month of October because I got so busy!

Now granted, I had also picked up 2 other short term side jobs while doing this, so my time has been limited.  But had I not capped it, I still would have had to put off some of the incoming requests.  Those lovely people are waiting patiently for me to finish up and take on their projects in November. It's been a really interesting fall! I'm so thankful that people are coming to me to help create their vision. 

This is an underpainting of a book cover I'm working on.  Such a cool opportunity!

2ndly, I've sort of dropped into the world of Disney and shoes....

What in the world?

Random, right?

For the month of November, I've recieved 2 requests for painted shoes and multiple requests to recreate scenes and characters from Disney films.  Hey, there are worse things than getting to paint your most favorite things in the world, right?? haha!  I'm loving working on those and it puts me in my happy place.

That pretty much sums it up, I don't have a lot of spare time right now and actually I'm liking it.  Sure I'm tired and I try to take quick naps here and there, but I'm so friggin PRODUCTIVE!!  :)

I'll leave you with a quick sketch I did last night while I was literally waiting for some paint layers to dry.  

Have a great week everyone!

The Paperman illustration

Hey guys!

I do have something to show you that was finished up over Christmas as a commission :)

I don't know how many of you might have seen the Pixar short "The Paperman" but I've heard it's really really great.  In all reality, what Pixar short film isn't great? exactly.
One of my good friends approached me about recreating an image of the two main characters he'd found.  He and his significant other had seen the film together and instantly fell in love with it, it was sort of "their movie" so to speak.

The original image was found online and if anyone knows where I can link back to the artist, please comment or message me (I believe it was from a Tumblr account).

Anyway, this is my version of that image.  It was done in cool grey prismacolor pencils on a warm grey canson paper.  I loved the feeling of being able to take the neutral tone of the paper and add in my own darks and highlights.  It's much different from working light to dark.

Hope you guys like it!

I may do some more Disney fan art on here, I really do love drawing different characters. :)

Disney Vinylmation

Hey guys!

I'm still alive!

I've just started the design work for a really exciting project, Vinylmations!  The first one is going to be more like a mural than a specific character or object but the theme is going to be Disneyland :D (of course)

I don't want to get into too much detail yet, as I'm just in the beginning stages of it and I don't really want to get my ideas out there before I start working on it.  A lot of people work on Vinyls and I want mine to show mine at it's completion - not that I'm so famous everyone will be dying to copy me LOL but I do want to keep the design safe.  I will be taking progress pictures to show you though when I do post the finished one.

To start off with, and to not leave you without any eye candy, here's a pic of the very beginning of my design process.  My friend bought be this sketchbook at Walt Disney World last year and it has the coolest stencil attached to the back! So much easier than trying to find a pattern online or having to take a straight picture for the right dimensions.

just make sure you have it right side up - the hands are different ;p

Here's a quick pic of the two large vinylmations I have.

The purple paint can be very easily painted over with a white base.  The green looking one, however.... is Glow-in-the-dark!
Whatever surface you DONT put paint on will show through and glow in the dark or under a blacklight.  You better believe this is being put to use in my design. ;)

Thats it for today! Hope you guys have a great rest of the week and weekend!

So excited I want to cry! New Little Mermaid attraction at Disneyland!

I know this really isn't illustration related, but I have to share this with you guys because it involves my favorite animated film. 

As a HUGE Disney lover, I eat up any information on anything new coming out of both the Imagineering and Animation departments.  The parks have always been such a great retreat for me to get out of the troubles of the day (or year!) and let myself be immersed in a land of story and excitement. No one can do it better than Disney.  No one!! I mean honestly, think about what you feel as you walk under the railroad tunnels into the beginning of Main Street. With a view of victorian era buildings bursting with gorgeous storefronts, wonderfully themed music surrounding you (Hello Dolly is my favorite!) and a Castle waiting for you to boot! How can it get better?


With THIS!

 (All attraction images are from recent Dateline Disney articles)

The Disney Parks blog released another video this week of the soon to be opened attraction (June 3rd) based on The Little Mermaid! Can I even relate to you guys how excited I am that she finally has a credible attraction? Probably not! haha Most have been meet & greet type set ups and there was (now Pixie Hallow) a fountain section on Main Street at the Disneyland resort that was themed beautifully to the film, but it deserved it's own attraction.  Now, finally!, after 20 years... its Here!

Here's the video from the park's blog :)

You can bet I'll be standing in line with a giant cheesy grin on my face for no matter how long it takes!

Although I wish that Ariel had been able to be placed in Disneyland park itself, she was gifted with a gorgeous building made specifically to house this attraction. The talented imagineers did such a wonderful job with details.  Oh! did I mention part of the color scheme is TEAL? I think the artists snuck a peek at my color pallets haha! The animatronics are gorgeous like you saw in the video, there is a huge mural in the loading area, and at night the stain glass windows are lit to reveal incredible underwater scenes. I just really can't say enough about how well everything has gone for this, there have been a lot of attractions in the last oh ... 10 years! that haven't gone so well for Disney.   I was really hoping this one wouldn't follow suit.  Good Work Disney!

I can't guarantee this won't be the end of my excitment on this haha! It opens just a few days before I get to go to the park in June! So I will for sure be sprinting to this attraction and of course... what would complete the package? An Ariel souvenir! ;P

http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/dateline-disneyland

  I'll be sure to take some pictures and share :)

Bye!

First post of the New Year: Vinylmation!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a safe and happy time celebrating :)

To kick off the new year with posts, I felt it appropriate to show you one of the Christmas presents I received that will be one of my new projects.  To start, my sister and I LOVE going to Disneyland (well, really who doesn't??) and as fun as the princesses and characters are, my favorite thing about the park is the theming and Imagineering that goes on within it. I could pour over those "Art of..." books the park publishes about attractions and lands for hours on end. That being said, anything "art" related to the parks I sorta go gaga over :)
Well my sister surprised me this year with one of these babies:

Its a blank DIY Mickey Vinylmation!

Now I'm not really a Mickey person, I have to say.  The guy's cool and there's always something to be said about what he represents to the Walt Disney Company, but I'm not going to have my entire kitchen branding red pants with yellow buttons. Do you really want to pour your tea out of a spout stemming from a pair of pants? ermmm....No Thanks.

ANYWAY! The thing about these Mickeys is that you can do whatever you want to them! The shape doesn't really matter, it's all about the design element(s) you chose to put on them. For this guy, I'm brainstorming about Disney Memories in the parks. So original right? Considering the entire marketing campaign this year is "Let The Memories Begin". But my memories will never be the same as anyone else's and unlike the campaign, this one will last for a very long time.

I'm going to be using acrylic paint and some sculpted elements added to it. Not sure when this will actually be taking place because I really want to flesh out these concepts before I start painting. I want this to be a really cool show piece and not just an experiment that goes to crap.  So wish me luck!


Do Something Creative Today!