Katie De Sousa paints stuff.

Riot work..

2011-06-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hey all, sorry for the lack of updates lately, I've been busy with work! Here are a couple of the paintings I've been doing for Riot :)

There are many more but some of them I cannot show yet, and some of them are on my other computer, which is all packed up and in storage while I'm moving down to california :)

Also I've been in a number of League of Legends Art Spotlights~

I'll do my best to update more often, I'd like to livestream again but I probably won't get a chance to until I'm settled in California, which may be a few weeks, or months!

Note: If you've e-mailed me in the past little while please forgive me for being slow to respond, I'm actually going to do a FAQ post because I'm getting a lot of e-mails where people tend to ask the same questions about art. That will probably be next week because I have so many paintings to do this week!!! aaah!!

*goes back to work*

<3 <3 <3 thanks for looking!

Moar LoL Art

2011-03-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some classic skin splash art paintings I did that were released in the latest patch for League of Legends!

Twitch

Katarina

Here are a couple more, I cannot take full credit for the ones below because I was sent paintings that someone else started and was assigned to finish and clean them up. I wish I could credit the original artist but I don't actually know who it was! :P

Annie

Evelynn

Thats all for now, GG!

League of Legends

2011-02-25T10:46:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone! Sorry for the absence, I've been quite busy since last Nov.

I don't have time to write a long blog entry, and I probably wouldn't write one even if I had time, I'd rather play the sims or something. Besides, art blogs are for the pictures, not the writing (at least this one is). So here is some art~

These paintings were done for Riot Games, for the game League of Legends (which is awesome and I'm still really addicted to it)

Both paintings have been released, and luckily the awesome dudes at Riot are cool with me sharing my work here on my blog. :D

High Command Katarina is a skin for the character Katarina, whom I never really play because I'm too scared to play assassin characters. Ranged DPS or support for me please!

Karma's beautiful lotus skin, I was so happy when Riot showed me this design, LoL was in serious need of some awesome Geisha skins! Karma, with her fans, was so perfect for it!

That is all for now, though I've done like a gazillion more paintings for LoL, I'm so excited for them to be released so I can share them. :D

photo studies

2010-11-10T10:35:00.000-08:00

Just a couple studies I did recently, referenced some photos I found on the interwebs. I need to find time to do some master studies, and maybe some more film-still studies... those LOTR ones were crazy fun. :3

I'm still working on the Cho and Sona piece, I'm recording the whole thing so it's taking a lot longer than normal... every little while I have to stop and merge/save the video which takes a billion years. :P

Teatime WIP

2010-11-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Work in progress of a painting featuring Cho'Gath and Sona from League of Legends :)

Lux

2010-11-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

I did this one a couple weeks ago when the new League of Legends character, Lux, came out... just my interpretation :3

Unfinished & Morgana

2010-10-28T09:04:00.001-07:00

This one shall remain unfinished forever. I had something entirely different in my mind when I was painting, and completely failed to capture it. Maybe next time I'll be more successful :P

The piece below is a sketch of Morgana from League of Legends, my current video game obsession.

Ceramic still life

2010-10-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

quick still life I did today to practice shiny ceramic surfaces :)
Photoshop CS3 as always~

Bird is the word!

2010-10-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not having much to post lately, above is a study of some parrots, I'm currently working on a project that requires me to do a whole lot of bird studies.

I did post a League of Legends piece on DA recently though... http://yumedust.deviantart.com/art/Miss-Fortune-183257422

good times! anyway, i'm making good use of this huge pack of col-erase red pencils i bought a little while ago, i really missed drawing with them, they're lovely :D

studies

2010-09-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Just some studies from LOTR :)

spaghetti

2010-09-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

A still life I started with the ingredients for my supper.

Unfortunately, well before I could finish, I was completely ravenous and had to ruin my set-up to cook the spaghetti. I'll have to remember to eat before I paint next time...

Photoshop CS3

Commander

2010-09-05T19:47:00.000-07:00

Commander Shepard strikes again! I did a painting of my character from the original Mass Effect after I had played it, so I thought I'd paint something for ME2. Sadly I only had time for a quick-ish portrait thing (which is sloppy around the edges, whatevs).

Someday I'd like to paint something inspired by Dragon Age, by far my favorite game out of Bioware... though damn ME&ME2 are good competition.

(PS I went paragon, though I liked the scars so I put them in the painting)

china garden

2010-09-01T14:10:00.000-07:00

WIP of an environment study... not much to show yet.

sketch

2010-08-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Having a lot of fun with this one.... :)

In the wind

2010-06-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

A doodle I did last night when I couldn't sleep. Photoshop CS3, 2 hours.

P.S. I think I might switch to wordpress when I remake my website, hmmm...

Doodlething

2010-05-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

Just a doodle done last night, tried using a poser 8 model for reference. Man it took like two whole days just to figure out how that program works, though honestly I still don't really know wtf I'm doing in it...

photoshop CS3

Farah taking a short rest

2010-05-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

Yay I've finally finished! This one took a lot of effort to because I was so intent on painting all the little tiny details that you don't even see when it is displayed web-sized. It was worth it though! Here is a link to the piece on DA because picasa/blogger likes to add nasty jpg artifacts to my images: http://yumedust.deviantart.com/art/Farah-taking-a-short-rest-165396721

Details details

2010-05-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

Oh god the details on this thing nearly killed me. If no one hears from me again it is because I died while trying to color it, LOL~ XD

commissions and experiments

2010-05-19T08:53:00.000-07:00

New commissions, similar style to the oblivion piece I did, I'm having a lot of fun doing style exploration right now.. hehe~

Both done in Photoshop CS3.

thanks for looking :)

EDIT: Agh, does anyone know why blogger likes to JPG compress the hell out of my images? :(

Refreshing Rains

2010-05-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

So about a week ago I uploaded this piece to DA and was pleasantly surprised to receive a Daily Deviation award for it.. awesome!

It was something that I painted for fun in my spare time and maybe to express a little love for The Elder Scrolls 4. :D

I'm sure some people recognize the (dark seducer) armor from oblivion/shivering isles, which is what my woodelf character typically wears. I thought I'd illustrate her enjoying the spring rains, inspired by the refreshing weather here in Montreal, ah I love spring~!

I kind of failed in several points, the lillypads are probably all on the wrong planes, the background lacks accurate perspective, and the helmet she is holding looks like a weird spikey coconut (but where would she get a coconut in a temperate zone!?). All in all this was a fun change of pace (or style rather) and a nice stress reliever. :)

P.S. A lot of people on DA thought the helmet was, well... something else. Minds in the gutter I say, minds in the gutter. Tsk tsk.

Concepts

2010-03-09T19:10:00.001-08:00

Hello, hello. Just a quick update before I go to bed. I've been sketching like mad the past few days planning out some large oil paintings. Above are a few sketch concepts, some extremely rough. I prefer the first and last, something about the middle one is a little... hmm. I don't know, there is either something there that shouldn't be, or something not there that should be. I haven't quite figured it out... yet.

I'm almost finished my portrait of Emily, last week was a hardcore marian work week so not a lot of oil painting was accomplished. This week Infinite Ammo is at GDC so I have a bit of time to do some personal painting and hopefully also get the last of my commissions out of the way.

I started a new portrait today, something from my imagination, with a lot of purple, pink and blue. I'll snap photos as soon as it starts looking like something.

I think that is all for now. Goodnight beloved blog readers!

oil progress!

2010-02-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

Not much to say today, just showing my progress of Emily's portrait. I'm working half from a photo and half from imagination. I'd love it if I could work from life, but she is not here to sit for me, and I doubt she would stay still if she was. Maybe I can get my slightly older but still younger sister Mel to sit for me sometime. :D

Anyway, I'm finished the grisaille, I'm impatient to start on the colors but I am way too busy right now, and also I have to wait for the layer to drryyyy. That'll take about a week. Maybe in a week I won't be so busy!

Anyway, it's supper time! Spaghetti! Wheee!

Eudora Finch

2010-02-19T11:54:00.000-08:00

A quick character portrait. I've been texturing (for Marian/Infinite Ammo) like crazy all morning, it's refreshing to paint something for fun in between semi-monotonous work (texturing is sometimes a little tedious).

This took about 45 minutes in photoshop. Something for fun, she started looking like my sister Mel, but then ended up not looking like her at all. Well, maybe she still does very slightly around the eyes. I named her Eudora Finch, just because.

I'm working on an oil painting of my other sister, Emily. It's... coming along. I'll post photos soon. I'm attempting the, whats it called, flemish? technique. The one with a billion underpaintings. Bouguereau's technique was something like that I've read. Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun with the dead layer/grisaille layer. I'm kind of in crunch time on Marian so I'm not sure when I'll get around to working on it again... I'm sure I will eventually. :)

I have this amazing plan to someday in the future, when I have spare time, and when I'm done all the oil paintings on my list of paintings that need to be painted before anything else, to paint a portrait of my oblivion character. She's a wood elf, and she's pretty rad. For those interested she uses swords and bows, super sneaky, not much of a magic user other than illusion. I've restarted my oblivion characters so many times, but they all turn out to be the same one.

I think it's lunchtime now, huzzah! I love lunch.

Study

2010-02-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

A quick photo study done in painter X. Reference used (thanks http://almudena-stock.deviantart.com/). I used the Flat Smeary Oil brush, which I have never used before but I found I like it enormously.

For some reason I'm always prouder of the work I produce in painter. I feel like photoshop hinders my learning sometimes, I know how to cheat in it with textures and fancy brushes, I don't do things the hard way enough. Not that cheating is always an evil, it's extremely handy, especially when one has deadlines to meet. It's just so satisfying to paint something with one brush, on one layer.

Also, I know you can do all that fancy stuff in painter too, I just don't know how! Which is a good thing, I'm not tempted to cheat in painter because I find it so confusing to use more than one brush, lol.

Aaaanyway. There are some updates on the Infinite Ammo blog featuring my texture work on Marian. check it out! It's pretty cool stuff :D

Aneria the dead girl

2010-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

To the left is a recent commission I did. The character belongs to a Megan F. who is super sweet and patient. This character is dead, as you probably deduced given the autopsy scars and greyish complexion. She was super fun to paint, I want to paint more dead girls now, hehe!

Reference was used for this. I should always use reference, though sometimes I just get lazy and sloppy and don't. Bad Katie. Bad.

I Recently read the novel Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford. It was cute, clever, and very funny. It's about Jane Austen if she were living among us today as a Vampire. Since both Jane Austen and Vampires are pretty hot right now you really can't go wrong!

Though I have a message for the author, if he stumbles across my blog, people DO like Fanny Price... :(

Until next time!

Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!

2010-01-14T13:35:00.000-08:00

Ahahaa! Back!

My trip is over, I'm glad I got to extend it so long, I wanted to spend more time with my dad, I'm glad I got to.

Here is a doodle I did today of Leela from Futurama, which is hands down one of my favorite shows. I don't think she was intended to be drawn realistically.... her nose connects to her eyeball. That doesn't make structural sense at ALL. Oh well!

This was sketched in between work and commissions... with an Intuos 3 because I forgot my Cintiq tablet pen in NB. I'm such a chump. I'm glad we have an extra tablet here though, otherwise I'd be pretty screwed.

In other news, I watched an amazing movie recently called 500 Days of Summer. I loved it. It was clever and funny and a very different sort of "love" story... I recommend it to anyone who doesn't know what to watch for movie night :)

Princess and the Frog was incredible as well. Just awesome. Seeing a Disney princess movie again made me insanely nostalgic, it was brilliant.

I think I'm the only one on the planet who has not seen Avatar yet, but I have already decided I will love it because the previews are so amazing. I have to convince Ian we should go this weekend. Wish me luck! :P

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-22T16:31:00.000-08:00

A painting I did today while livestreaming. This was a christmas ornament given to me by my step-grandmother, who is probably the kindest and sweetest human being I have ever encountered. The painting took about 3 hours, it was so much fun. I need to paint still life a LOT more.

I direly need to remember when painting still life not to move so much, I skew my perception of what I'm painting and that leads to a horrid mess. My poor reindeer was fundamentally flawed through the whole process until the end when I managed to salvage her.. somewhat. ;D

Today I received my christmas gift from Ian, he took me to Cirque Du Soleil's Alegria here in Montreal. It was incredible. My mind is splattered all over the bell centre because it was completely BLOWN by the performance. Love Cirque Du Soleil. Love love love.

P.S. You can watch the video of this painting on my livestream account. http://www.livestream.com/katiedesousa

That girl.

2009-12-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

A portrait of that elf chick I've been spamming you folks with recently.

I don't really have any news, or a whole lot of new art I can post, though I've actually been writing a lot lately. It's the kind of writing that will facilitate more drawing in the near future, so it is allowed. :D

Back to work!

You are mine now, little one.

2009-12-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

A character who, until now, was extremely hard to capture. I've been doodling him for about a month now and this painting I whipped up in about an hour is the closest I've gotten to him.

I am fairly certain his name will be Alarik, but that could change.

P.S. I have been doing work for Infinite Ammo's Marian project recently, I will see what work I can share with you all.. :)

Endings and Beginnings.

2009-12-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Something awful happened while I was away. My grandmother passed. I didn't know her particularly well, she didn't speak English, the only time we spoke was through my dad. I always hoped that I would get to know her, I planned to learn more Portuguese, and speak to her some day. I think this is a good lesson about procrastination... and priorities. I cannot speak a word of Portuguese yet and unfortunately the time I had to know her ran out. I am very sorry for that, moreso I am so sorry for my dad... his mother meant the world to him, just last year my older brother passed away, I can only imagine how it feels to loose a child one year and then a parent the next. Unbearable comes to mind.

Sadly, we also lost our neighbor, James Scott. He was elderly, he and his family were affable happy people and were always really kind to us. We were poor when I was younger and they would actually get us Christmas gifts even though they had grandkids of their own to spoil. He will be missed.

This season has been pretty grim for me so far, but I do have to say it is beautiful here in Montreal. I'm so happy to be home, but the flight here was probably the worst experience on a plane in my life. The short of it is this; I didn't sleep the night before my 8am flight due to cramps, those cramps persisted throughout the 6 hour trip, the heater was broken in the plane, and I brought my dog.. who on the first trip didn't make a noise, but going home she decided to BARK THE WHOLE TIME. The old snooty french couple beside me made it VERY obvious they weren't impressed. So I stayed hunched over petting my dog for about 6 hours to keep her quiet. I fed her a whole freaking bag of treats but only when we got to the apartment did she decide to quiet down. In fact she went right to sleep when we got home. Tired out after all the barking I suppose.

This post is titled endings and beginnings, and I do have something new to share with you. This is part of something much bigger, something I have been working on for quite a while now. This is, I guess, page one.

Elf designs

2009-12-09T18:45:00.000-08:00

Just a couple quick character doodles and a concept I did today.. I'm still on vacation, I was supposed to fly home to Montreal today, but thanks to the huge snowstorm my vacation is prolonged until Friday! :)

Take care everyone <3

Vacation

2009-11-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

Hey guys~ This is an update to say that I am leaving on vacation today!! I won't be checking messages super regularly until I get back on the 15th.. sorry!

I hope everyone's autumn has been superb~ take care <3

*hugs*

P.S. I got a twitter recently http://twitter.com/katiedesousa

wood elf doodle

2009-11-17T12:59:00.001-08:00

Just a doodle today between work and my new addiction to Dragon Age Origins (bioware I love you so much, you have no idea).

Thank you all for the wonderful comments on my oil studies, I started another one in class, a woman in a dress, and my teacher scolded me for choosing something too easy. "You could paint that with your eyes shut using your left foot!" she said, LOL. I'll have to pick something more challenging next time. I'll have to go outside my comfort zone of ladies in dresses, haha. I am scared, but excited. I'm not sure what I will try though, maybe something with animals? Or architecture, I'm sure either would drive me crazy because I suck at them equally. :D

Anyway, back to drawing.

New oil study...

2009-11-12T08:10:00.000-08:00

Hey guys~! here is a new oil study I did. I'm really disappointed with the face and hair, I didn't put enough effort in and I think the colors are... weird or something. Anyway, this was to practice painting cloth in oils. It took around 6-9 hours and was done during my painting class. This was referenced from a stock photo by http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/ (who has amazing stock photos!!)

For some reason I dislike taking my time and really putting a lot of effort into "studies". If I can get the gist of what I am painting that is usually good enough.. Maybe I should work on that... :P

Lately I've been working on a couple magic cards, and I've recently been working on Infinite Ammo's Marian project (concept art, art direction) with another great artist lady named Ashley Dumonchelle (http://dumonchelledraws.blogspot.com/).

Anyway, better get back to work! <3

Arabian fantasy character commission

2009-11-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

To the left is a commission for a lovely girl who has supported my art and commented for a long time... she is so sweet! She asked for a Talim sort of character, and this was SO fun~ I recorded the entire process of this so hopefully I can put it up on Vimeo at some point.

Lately my digital work has been less realistic, I think I've been using my realism fuel up during oil painting class, hehe.

I hope I have time to do some oil painting on my own soon.. I've been wanting to do some surreal-ish work with figures. I love paintings that don't have specific meanings, but are still harmonious and beautiful when viewed. I want to paint things that can send a different message to everyone who sees it...

I don't know if I'll have time this month. Nov. is packed with work, and next month I'll be travelling SO much, eek.

Anyway.. here is the new love of my life!!

I'm not sure if she is entirely pomeranian, or if she is a pom/chihuahua mix, but I know that she is ADORABLE. <3

Super sexy commission!

2009-10-29T15:50:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I got to draw something super sexy pinup style.. haha it was so fun. I made her quite stylized, I really had a great time painting her.

I effing love my cintiq, I was drawing today on it.. drawing is so much easier. Painting is the same, but drawing is so much easier for me. No idea why, maybe I draw better when I see my hand? Drawing requires more precision than painting. I think so anyway. :)

Painting classes are still going amazing. One of the ladies who runs the place was interested in a wacom tablet, and was asking me about them. Since I have a spare intuos now that I have my cintiq I offered to give it to her.. she was super happy, I can't wait to see what she does with it!

I have some AWESOME NEWS... but it has nothing to do with painting. I adopted a dog this week from a shelter, and I LOVE HER. She's the most brilliant little girl ever, I can't believe anyone would have abandoned her. She's a tiny little pomeranian/chihuahua mix, she's an adult (almost 2 years the shelter folks said) and she is tiny. 5lbs soaking wet. She's such a happy funny dog, and so well behaved. She sleeps on a little blankie beside my desk when I'm working, and follows me everywhere. It's too cute. I'll post pics of her soon~!

[edit] ugh.. does anyone know why blogger is compressing my images like a mofo?? Look at the horrible jpeg artifacts, they aren't in the picture I uploaded! Or are they.. *goes to check*... No they aren't!! Why blogger, why!?!

oil study

2009-10-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Heeey guys!

I haven't been very active, I've been working just not posting!

For now I thought I'd show my first oil painting from the classes I'm taking... it's a study of Jacob Collins' "carolina". Ugh, it looks better IRL, how the hell do you take good photos of paintings?

I'm onto my second painting, I'm finding oils are getting along with me better, I've started using liquin as my medium. I likes. My next painting might be finished tomorrow.. if I work fast enough in class! I really LOVE oil painting though, the hours just fly by and I forget to eat or get up and stretch because I'm having so much fun! Though at the end of the day I feel cramped and hungry LOL.

Anyway, I will have some commissions to show soon... take care everyone *hugs*

Back in action.

2009-09-15T08:53:00.001-07:00

Well almost.

I'm happy to finally be moved into our new place here in Montreal! My Fiancé got a job here, if anyone was wondering why I move around so much, this time wasn't my doing! lol. I'm happy to be here though, Montreal is amazing! It's so beautiful. People, in general, look way classier here, it's pretty neat (though it scares me away from going outdoors in my jammies... I guess I'll have to start getting dressed more often).

Though I'll share the one negative thing I've noticed since I've been here, and that is NO ONE CAN DRIVE. I think it's just common practice here to just drive as fast as you want, do u-turns wherever you feel like it, and also get pissed off and honk at the annoying pedestrians who try to cross the street. Last weekend Ian and I took a cab home after doing some groceries and at an intersection our driver got pissed off at the car infront of him because they weren't letting him turn (I think?) so he actually got out of the car and went to their window and yelled at them.

Though you know... come to think of it I don't think it's just driving. In the supermarket people are constantly running into me with shopping carts. Maybe because there is MORE people here it seems worse, I do live downtown, it's usually quite crowded. Maybe that's it.

Anyway, other than that, Montreal is gorgeous. I live near a fine art museum so hopefully next weekend I'll have time to check it out!!

Sorry for no new art updates, I'm just itching to get back to painting after going so long without it, and also becuase Ian got me a cintiq 12WX just before we moved! I haven't painted anything with it yet, just doodles testing it out, but this week I'll get to use it for reals! :D

Busy Busy

2009-08-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
I am just updating to say I have been not able to reply to as many comments, notes or emails lately, my boyfriend and I got some exciting news and we may be moving to a new province VERY soon if everything works out. I'm busy finding a new apartment, relearning french and trying to find someone to sublet our current place... oh golly and then the actual moving part is soon to come. So I'm just letting people know that if you've e-mailed me or whatever and I haven't replied I will soon!

Thanks for the patience!

Princess coloring book

2009-07-27T17:19:00.001-07:00

I watch a lot of art blogs, and two artists that I really admire did these coloring book pieces where you take a coloring book picture and color it like a classical painting. The artists are Ryan Wood and Sam Neilson. (click their names to see their pieces)

The coloring book page I used is here.
I used this painting by W. Bouguereau as my inspiration for the colors.

It was just a fun exercise, about 2-3 hours, you can actually watch the video of me painting this if you'd like! It's on my livestream channel: http://www.livestream.com/katiedesousa

2-3 hours I think.
(it isn't refined because it was just a little fun speedy painting thing)

P.S. Today I found some nice wooden art panels! I bought 2, a 12x16 and a 11x14. I've just finished gessoing the 11x14 and then I'm going to sand it down super smooth and see if I can plan something to paint on it!! :)

Livestream in 10 mins (3PM central time)

2009-07-27T12:50:00.001-07:00

Hey guys!
I feel like doodling a little test thing.. it will involve a disney character! I saw some classical renderings of disney princess coloring book pages and I wanted to try it! Gonna try to use painter for it :)

Also I think my procaster is fixed now.. I tested it today, so that's why I'm doing this, the last stream was cut short!

Check it out at 3PM (which is in like 10 minutes) http://www.livestream.com/katiedesousa

New stuff!

2009-07-25T17:24:00.000-07:00

I went to the art store today... I got 2 new paint colors! Cerulean and Veridian. OH YEAH. New brushes, a new pencil, AND A KNEADED ERASER.

I get way too excited when I buy art supplies. I feel like a woman buying lingerie... excited makes sense, but why do I feel sexy? O_o

I'M GONNA PAINT A MUTHAFLIPPIN STILL LIFE! YEAAAH! I wish I could slow-motion high-five someone right now. I'm having way too much fun oil painting.

First I must finish painting the bedroom, we got more blue paint, and that needs to be done! I also got curtains... yes! They're gorgeous! Maybe I just like buying stuff?

Sorry for the pointless entry with no art, I just had to share my excitement. WOO.

Moar Practice!

2009-07-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

Another oil practice done today.. about... 2-3 hours I think?

Just testing bright colors and intense contrast, something fun and cute!

I'm going to pick up some india ink this weekend I think so i can start playing with doing my "lineart" with it.

I wanna thank everyone for coming to my livestream, it was really fun! Too bad procaster died... I'll have to figure out why that was.

Hugs <3

More oil practice

2009-07-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Another oil practice, done yesterday. About 2 hours, photo reference used! Again 8x10.

Sorry it looks sloppy, this was a quick one. I did learn some things though!

1. How to do a charcoal transfer, not hard! I just drew the lady on a piece of paper, coated the back with charcoal and laid it against my painting surface, and went over my lines with a stylus and presto! A lot easier than a "cartoon" would be... punching little holes in the drawing, oh man that would be tedious.

2. Brown lines are better than black. For me anyway, I did the lineart in brown this time and liked how it looked.. :3

3. I need to stop referencing from my monitor LOL. I cannot match those colors, as you can see her skin is VERY pale because I was referencing my glowing screen. *fail*

Though I already knew this, I was again feeling the need for more paint colors, cad red, cad yellow, ultramarine and alizarin crimson are a good start but I think I need a cerulean and a veridian to throw in the mix.

I'm off for now, but I leave you with a really awesome wedding video: http://outspokenmedia.com/online-marketing/the-power-of-the-unexpected/

Best wedding ever courtesy of the internets.

Making progress

2009-07-22T10:37:00.001-07:00

Aaaah. Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my last journal, I replied in the comments but again, THANKYOU!

I really appreciate all the encouragement and information you guys are giving, really it makes the whole fine art world seem a lot less scary. If I could bake you all banana bread I totally would because banana bread is awesome and you guys deserve it!

Yesterday I actually got a lot done, I almost finished painting my bathroom, and I did a quick bouguereau study! It's 8x10 and took like... er... 3 hours? Off and on during the afternoon. It was mainly to test out how to do my drawing underneath the oils. I did a sketch in pencil, and then "inked" over it with acrylic paint (obviously inked maybe isn't the best verb because I didn't use ink but oh well!) I used black paint and then erased my pencil when it dried. Then I did an acrylic wash of a bluish grey color over the surface, when it all dried I just began painting with oils. I like this method a lot, though I can see how it would be difficult if you don't have a reference to go on... I do think this method suits me though. I can make my references digitally, either paint them in photoshop or take reference pictures... or like.. both. Dan Dos Santos has this awesome way of photomaniping his reference so it's really close to his final piece, and then he just bases his oil painting on it.

I think I will do the linework much lighter next time, the harsh black is visible under my oils (you can still see some of the lines through her skin!) though in bigger paintings I will probably lay the oils on a little thicker :D

Anyway, here are some color doodles I did today... each took like 30 mins at most... the moth/cocoon one kept me up last night, as well as one with a mermaid that I haven't sketched yet.. I'll have to do it later because I have some work to get done :)

Thanks again guys, hugs all around!

Bluuee

2009-07-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

Oooh it's been a while since I posted anything. Sorry. I've been playing with oils and I'm very lazy when it comes to scanning/photographing stuff.

As a side note I need to convince myself to PRACTICE MORE. I want to get better with oils, but also I'm kind of scared of this real media thing? A contemporary artist life seems amazing, painting what I want to paint and having gallery shows and all that stuff... because I think people would like what I like painting, and sometimes I'm just not in the mood to paint landspeeders or dwarves or whatever for collectible card games. As greatful as I am for the work I just... I just want to paint my own stuff most of the time. It's a little soul crushing not to.

Is it possible to thrive selling originals and prints?! AH it's so scary to even think of turning down work... but if I could live like that... ooh mama.

I read and follow so many art blogs, people going to these awesome shows of these awesome artists, and it sounds so amazing but scary. I'm such a shy little noob, I've never really been to a gallery show and I feel like I'm hiding under a rug but I've still got stars in my eyes.

I've been talking with people on DA lately, honestly my watchers are awesome, SO open and willing to share info. I've been on a one-woman-expidition all over the web for as much info as I can find, I've been reading books on classical drawing and painting, and playing around as much as I can, and I do feel like I'm improving.. but it feels like... what then? If I paint some awesome stuff... what do I do then? I HAVE NO IDEA! Really, I'm drawing a blank... maybe I should hire an agent (well not really), because for some reason the LAST idea that ever pops into my head is the one that involves talking to people "irl". Is that what people do? Seriously I would have no idea how to go from "person who paints stuff and has that stuff just sit and collect dust in their apartment" to "person who paints stuff and sells stuff at gallerys and awesome stuff like that".

Really I think the internet has ruined the way I function in normal life. E-mails and forums are my native habitat, going out to talk to people.. at...places... my brain is finding it hard to comprehend how to do such a thing.

Anyway, sorry for the whiny post, I'm speaking from my ass... I believe. You see I fell off a ladder today and onto a paint can, and then onto a cold unforgiving tile floor. My ass is severely bruised from the paint can (and floor) so I think I'm channeling that pain into a whiny blog post.

OH WELL. Attatched to this entry is a not-so-amazing stylized doodle I did in like an hour.. aaah her face is weird? I kinda like it though :D

P.S. Did anyone watch EVO 2k9? DAIGO FTW. Ian and I watched and when Justin chose Balrog we were like whaaat? I totally knew Daigo would win though, he is a robot after all.

Sketchdump

2009-06-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

I have quite a sketch dump today, I have been drawing a lot from reference, stock photos and such so I will post some of them. Also a couple of my oil sketches, I'm still getting used to them. :)

All of those were referenced from some stock photos on DA.

First was from ref, middle was just a doodle from my head, last is a WIP or... kind of test referencing bouguereau.

Last is a rendition of my boyfriend and I in space with robot suits. So far it's my favorite real media piece.

Livestreaming is going really well, it's so fun!! Sometimes it gets lonely to paint all day but now I can have a chatroom of people to keep me company xD!
I've been watching streams too, Jana's and Jen's are very good :)

Zombie Livestream and Commissions

2009-06-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

This is a WIP from my last Livestream.
I will be finishing this picture today on livestream at 2pm central time~!

http://www.livestream.com/katiedesousa

In other news, I'm offering some rather cheap commissions, go here for more info.

April and Umbria

2009-06-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Here is the piece that I've been working on... to be honest I liked the messy sketch better. I think my work looks too "digital" sometimes, kind of uninspiring. Plus I hate how the parasol turned out, oh my. Aaanyway, apart from that, and the dress, and the headpiece, I like it. I really like the face.

Next is a commission done for a very sweet client. I actually did a lot of this in painter! I think working in real media has unintentionally made me better with this program, possibly because it works more like real media :D

I like the colors in this one.

That's all I have to show atm, I've been reading a lot, I picked up Classical Drawing Atelier and Classical Painting Atelier by Juliette Aristides. For someone with no formal training like myself the books are really interesting. Unfortunately I'm not in the position to go to an art school (I'd have to move etc.) but there is a Bouguereau workshop at the Academy of Realist art in Toronto. I'm going to try to make it to that! I love his work.. though I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce his name (boo-shur-oh?)

Face

2009-06-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Close-up of the piece I'm working on... there is a parasol in the painting and it's giving me some trouble. I wish I hadn't left my parasol in NB, I could have used it as a reference! Drat. Anyway, I wonder if I can finish this in time for the Exotique5 deadline... which is in like 4 hours I think o_o;

2009-06-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Working on one of the sketches I posted. :)

Sketchdump

2009-06-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a bit, and haven't done any "finished" art (outside work stuff). I have been doing these little sketches, little concepts, though.

Lets get started, feel free to click on these babies to see them bigger, though there isn't any point as there is no detail in them! :P

Left: Color concept for a piece I may do... inspired by Alice's adventures through the looking glass.
Centre: A fencer girl, no real story, I just like women with weapons in victorian-esque clothing. Looks a bit Granado Espada-ish.
Right: Color concept for a commission, I've gotten into the habit of doing these really sketchy color concepts and then painting a whole new image based on it.

Left: A girl reading a trashy romance novel. :D
Right: Random? I really like the greys, they make the dark hair and red lips "pop".

Left: Just a doodle, Pinks and blues and purples and turquoises.
Right: Greeeen. I like this one a lot.

Here we have some oil studies, I got some oil paints recently and have been practicing a bit. I'll have to practice a LOT more before I can do anything decent, but it's a start! :D

Anyway, that's all for now. BTW is anyone else disappointed in Sims 3? No body shop!?! Seriously EA, for shame.

Messing Around

2009-05-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

Messing aroounnnd! Last night. Acrylic paints on wood, also my sketchbook. I feel like I have to relearn colors all over again, it's so different from digital color mixing haha... hrm. I should get back to work.

Commission and rambling

2009-05-05T10:51:00.001-07:00

A commission done recently, my those colors were fun to paint! Purple, pink, orange, it's like he has sunsets in his hands. The character design was not my creation, it was from the same individual who commissioned this piece. There is a 3rd commission in the works as well :)

Next week I get to paint murals! Sort of. I was in a charity fundraiser dinner theatre thing a little while ago, and while I was there I brought my sketchbook, one of the ladies loved the faerie I was drawing and asked if I could paint faeries on her daughter's walls~ I'm qute excited, I'll definitely take pictures. I painted the backdrop for the dinner theatre play as well, but I didn't take any photos.

Anyway, I got suggestions from my friend Jen (who is damn amazing, check out her work here) about surfaces to paint on since I'm not fond of the canvas texture. I might go search for some masonite or illustration board very soon x3

Gosh, real media is kind of expensive. I will have to try to sell things I make in order to keep making them. If anyone want Winter Girls feel free to contact me :)

Winter Girls Finished

2009-05-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Winter Girls painting is finished! I'm pretty sure they both look lopsided. Without the use of "flip canvas" I'm lost, and I'm too lazy to drag my painting to a mirror most of the time. I did learn a lot though! Mainly that I hate canvas texture, I'm going to prime and sand the hell out of my next canvas.

Acrylics dry so fast, a long time ago I used to paint with oils, they're so different, I was using acrylic medium to try to slow the drying time a bit so blending would be easier, it was still quite difficult. I need to practice more! I think I'll try acrylics for a while and decide if I want to switch back to oils... I hate the fumes of oils though.

In other news I saw Wolverine, I enjoyed it. Not because it was a particularly good movie, the plot was weird and somethings just didn't flow right. Though I adore Hugh Jackman, and I really liked the intro showing Logan and Victor's history, though not accurate, was great for a movie version! Also you get to see some of the xmen when they're only little teenagers. Aaww.

gtfo flu.

2009-04-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Aaaah. I'm sick. Dammit. I can never tell if it's a cold or a flu, I have aches and pains like a mofo, but no stomach problems, my throat is ok but my nose.. oh man. I've been breathing out of my mouth for a day and a half now.

I have a pretty below-average immune system I think, last year I got sick with a flu/cold at least five times, each time puts me out for at least a week. Sigh.

Anyway, while sick I thought I'd mess around with some real paints on a real canvas that has been sitting around blank for an embarrassngly long time. The result was... fun! It's still in WIP stage I guess? No idea where I'm going with it, it's pretty... animeish I guess. It's fun, I should play with real paint more often. Though I do so wish I had a "flip canvas" and a "liquify" in real life, like I do in photoshop. Mirrors work well enough for flip canvas, but liquify cannot be done. Oh well, it's probably good for me to learn how to fix my mistakes the proper way.

Time to go rest I think.

Spring

2009-04-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the lovely warm weather lately~ this is a WIP probably for the forest book.
I wish the colors here were so vibrant, it's spring but the whole city is grey still, maybe in another month... :)

Going for a more graphic illustration style merged with like.. my own sort of classic looking painting style. If that makes any sort of sense anyway haha, it'll be kind of like my Marionette piece and Tom Thumb.

Monarch

2009-04-16T23:25:00.001-07:00

Aaaah just a photoshop doodle before bed. :D

I'm going to be in a play this weekend, here is hoping I don't fall on my face and embarrass myself! LOL~

Aaah must sleep now~! <3

P.S. I need to clip my nails, it's getting hard to type.

Little Mad Girl WIP

2009-04-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

WIP of a test with painter! Original color scheme and sketch done in PS, refining in painter. I think I'm getting a good photoshop-painter workflow :D

Sorry if it's a bit gruesome, I've been replaying oblivion's shivering isles and it has inspired me~! I actually have retextured faces and a huge set of eyes I made for oblivion I've been meaning to post, I want to finish retexturing the bodies first though. :)

I'm off to go for a walk and get foood, it's +15 here today!!! YAY no more cold!!! *happy tear*

OMG SHOES

2009-04-12T13:22:00.001-07:00

Quick still life study of a pair of shoes I own. I love them so much, but oddly have never worn them? Haha, I think I just bought them because they look cool.. like little tuxedos for my feet! :)

In other news I saw dragonball evolution. It was sooooo bad. Like damn. Many parts were so bad they were funny, but some were just embarrassing.

Anyway! this still life was really fun, I've been meaning to do more studies, I will try to post more~ ^^

Commission and Movies

2009-03-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

New commission for a lovely girl named Mayanda. this was fuunnn, pretty dress and magical wood theme... eee~! She requested the girl be a likeness of her, I hope I succeeded, she was quite happy with the painting anyhow!

In other news, my DA chat was a success! It was so much fun, everyone was so sweet. during the process I got asked about my brushes a lot so I decided to make a pack of them and upload :D You can find the brushes here.

I cannot wait for Pixar's UP.. gaaah May 29th please come sooooon! While waiting for UP I saw Monsters VS. Aliens, it was...eeehh. It was funny. Sadly I think the plot was only in place to thread the jokes together. The story was pretty lame and it didn't make you really feel for any of the characters. I hate to complain about a movie because I'm not the kind of person who typically dislikes things. I didn't hate the movie, I enjoyed myself while I watched it, but I wouldn't want to watch it a second time.

Environment Attempts

2009-03-28T10:34:00.000-07:00

So I've been messing around with environments... sort of, I haven't been using perspective guides, so that's why these sketches probably look awfully wonky, apologies. I think my main aim with these quick things was to try to achieve something with the colors.

P.S. Today I'm doing a Live chat at Deviantart, here is the news article for anyone interested :)

Sci-Fi Lady

2009-03-24T15:42:00.001-07:00

A commission I did recently of a Sci-Fi Lady! She was fun to paint, I even made up a song about her while I was painting. It went a little something like this..

SciFi Laaaady
Oh, SciFi Laaaddyyyyyy
You're just standing there, in your armour, and stuff
Fighting aliens probably
SCIFI LADEH!
I would fight aliens with yooouuu
oooh oh oh OH!

Yeah, I don't know why I'm an illustrator, I should obviously be a songwriter, lol.

Little Firestarter

2009-03-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

Just a doodle today, a dragon who accidentally sets everything around him on fire.

Old man fun

2009-03-13T21:46:00.001-07:00

Ok so here are a couple sketches away from my comfort zone of young pretty girls, haha. Drawing old people is so fun, they look crazy and awesome all the time.

The first painting was mostly done in painter, the second was done in PS. The painter one started in greyscales, I like my values when I paint them, but when I add color it just doesn't look as nice as when I start with colors, like the ones done in PS.

I should draw my dad some time (he's a scowly angry portuguese man, who pretty much looks awesome all the time), though I find it hard to draw some people, especially people I've known a long time, their features don't stand out anymore, honestly I've seen my own face every day for 21 years and if I tried to make a likeness of myself without reference I don't think I could. It's easy to draw strangers though, people whose features are fresh and different than what I'm used to.

Oh I have some good news! My Morrigan piece was accepted into the Dark Stalkers Tribute book! Yay!

Self Portrait

2009-03-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

This one began with me messing with painter brushes again.. as I've been doing a lot lately, still trying to get some brush that I feel comfortable with. I think I've almost got it. What "it" is just... well, I'm not sure, maybe that's why I haven't quite reached it yet. SOON.

The sketch itself was actually stupid fun (not stupid as in.. stupid, but stupid meaning very), it's ME. It looks remarkably accurate in my opinion, though my hair is darker and I always look much more tired, but the hunched-over, bulgy-eyed and blanket-clad traits are spot on. I never realized how much I resembled LOTR's Gollum before this... :D

I'm going to do another one of these very soon, and finish it. Hella fun I tells you!

Snippets and concepts and a lot of rambling

2009-03-01T13:29:00.001-08:00

Hey guys (and gals)!
Just popping in to show a preview of a piece I did for the darkstalkers tribute book... they've asked those who submit to not post the work until the book is released so that's why it's just a snippet. Mostly painted in Painter, I tried to have fun with a sort of comicbook but still painterly style.. I have no idea what I was doing, it was fun though and I got to play with Painter 11, which is very much like Painter 10 to me.. but I can never tell differences when they're subtle like that. I did gain some knowledge on using the round camelhair brush though... the painter brushes are so complex! I'm always astounded by what it can do, and then i get a little scared and run back to Photoshop (haha). I'll figure it out eventually, I love how creamy painter brushes are, that's something I find difficult to achieve in photoshop.

I've been addicted to Dianna Wynn Jones' book Castle in the Air, I decided to read it after I read her Howl's Moving Castle, which was incredible. Both books are very different from the Ghibli films based on them, but they are just as amazing. I need to get my hands on more of her books now!

I've been reading a lot more since I started going to the gym, I find working out so horribly boring that I bring a book and read while I'm on the ellipticals. Makes going to the gym funner anyway! When I'm doodling though I find myself sketching the characters and scenes, I love it when books inspire me like that... :D

Anyway, along with Miss Morrigan here I've go some news in regards to the Forest book, not huge news, I've just been planning out the book somewhat in between work... I've decided (not entirely set in stone) to have 30 paintings, and descriptions/stories for each that won't be longer than a page, so each piece will have 2 pages dedicated to it, one for the painting and one for the description, or story, and sketches that go along with it. That will make the book a bit more expensive, but I'm not too keen on cramming a full painting and a story onto one 8.5x11-ish page.

I'm surprising myself by how rapidly I've come up with concepts for paintings, I've already planned out half of them, I guess there is no lack of inspiration with this theme!

Here are 2 (very rough) concept sketches. Both done in photoshop, I find photoshop very easy to sketch in because I know the tools so well, i can get color and composition down easily... so anyway, concepts. Whee!

Luna

2009-02-18T00:48:00.001-08:00

Last summer my family had gone to the Azores for a vacation and, sadly, I had to stay behind to work. One day at the end of June I went to my family home with a friend to pick something up, once we had driven all the way there I realized I had forgotten my key (scatterbrain!), and because my family was at the time on another continent we had to find another way in. It being the house I grew up in (for the most part) that was pretty easy for me, I led my friend out back to the deck where I was hoping the door would be easier to open, and I saw something incredible. The entire deck, door and back wall was covered with huge lime green moths! Having never seen a luna moth before, I was floored. There was never a day I wished I had my camera more.

After the shock of these gorgeous creatures wore off (wore off my friend at least, I was still swooning) we started towards the door, it was still covered in moths, and they weren't really moving, so we picked them off the door one by one and put them somewhere safer than in our work area (we had to wrestle the window open and unlock the door and all that). Holding them was so cool, they weren't moving, I later found out they only really fly at night, I guess they sleep during the day, and they were soft and so incredibly cute. I had completely fallen in love with them.

A while after that day on my deck, I decided to see if maybe they would make good pets, sadly these moths, in their adult state, only live for a week. They don't eat, they just procreate and die. It's sad, they're so beautiful, if I could just have them flying around me all the time I would.

About the piece, I can imagine she's the softest thing you've ever felt, I imagine she's a spirit of some sort, or a moth queen, or whatever you like to make of her. Her name is Luna, and she glows, she glows every night for a week and then she is extinguished.

I think I learned a lot with this one, about backgrounds, and colors. While I notice some anatomical issues, her short legs and elongated neck, etc., I'm leaving them. Some were intentional, some were lucky mistakes, but her subtle disproportion makes her unsettling, and I like that.

Painter X, and Photoshop CS3 were used, mostly the latter. Also my Intuos3.

My goodness, the first step has been taken, the first piece for my book is complete! :)

sketchdump

2009-02-16T15:00:00.000-08:00

Looking through my harddrive I found a bunch of sketches I've never shared, sooo i'm posting them now. These are all just random doodles, most of them tests and things. Yay :D

Forest: Seen and Unseen

2009-02-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

Here is the first piece, still in progress, of that personal project I mentioned the other day.

I figured it was about time I made an art book, I've always wanted to and I think I'm happy enough with where my painting skills are at to sell a full book of my work. I thought a while about the book, and decided I didn't want a collection of random paintings, I wanted it themed somehow so all of the art would be united. I really love how Imaginism Studios uses themes for their art books and I decided to imitate that and do a book with a Forest theme.

The Forest suits my project quite well, it's vague enough for me to paint almost anything, but have anything I paint - be it landscapes, creatures, or characters - still fit into the theme. Everything from the familiar groves and backwoods I grew up around to fantastical wooded lands only existing currently in my imagination, and their inhabitants and histories. Yes, that gives me a wonderful excuse to paint many an elf and pixie, but also an opportunity to work on my landscaping and creature painting. Many of the paintings will be accompanied by stories of some form as well, which I'll probably hide until the book is released, along with a good deal of the art. :)

Tutorial Preview

2009-02-10T13:33:00.001-08:00

To the left is a preview of a tutorial I'm working on, it's actually going to be a DVD tutorial and I've recorded myself painting this~! I'll be sure to update when it's all done :D

The painting is actually something I'm really proud of, I think it's probably the most detailed thing I've ever done.

Mmm... vampires.

Another Commission

2009-02-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

I am just pumping these out! *pats self on back* I haven't had this much energy in a long time, wheee! Anyway, this was a commission for rincor.deviantart.com of a personal character. Why do all of my boys have such womanly faces? I wonder if I should work on changing that... but to be honest, I kind of like it! Pretty boys will always have a special place in my heart. A special place between rainbows and unicorns. lol.

I suppose I should update on my work life, Infinite Ammo hasn't decided to make any public announcements, save a few passive aggressive comments by someone, but I am no longer working with the team. For the past 5 months I have slowly been losing faith, every couple months one individual sees fit to choose someone he dislikes and treat them like crap. From blatantly ignoring that person's existence, to name calling, to passive aggressive remarks while pretending to help "solve problems". I have had enough of it, I didn't want to leave during production of Heroes and Villains because I didn't want to leave a project half way through, I wasn't about to screw people over, if they needed my help I would give it, but after I needed a break. However, I was taken off Heroes and Villains, our team "leader" decided to send an e-mail to a different team member so they could tell me.

I feel relieved. I am no stranger to hard work, I started my illustration career at 14 and have busted my ass working my way up, it is not work that wears me down, it is nonsensical drama. Right now I am ecstatic, there are so many things I'd like to do, an animated short, a graphic novel, art books, gallery shows, the possibilities are endless and I feel invigorated thinking about it.
In fact I have a personal project currently developing itself inside my head right now, I will post more this week as I start to flesh it out in the physical realm. I am very excited! Lets hope this one doesn't get lost in a hard drive crash <3

Also I'd like to say working with Volta Concept art studios has been stupid fun, I love working with them. I am constantly tempted to drag Ian to Quebec so I can work fulltime there. Though I'm always tempted to apply at big wonderful artsy studios... but being an independent artist is so much more convenient.

Commissions Commissions Commissions

2009-02-06T11:49:00.001-08:00

So I've really been going to town on these commissions, this week has been great for painting! I'm learning a lot about Painter X, I'm still using Photoshop and don't ever really intend to stop, but I want to get a comfortable workflow using both programs, they work together wonderfully, sketching is fantastic in painter, and details and stuff like color adjustments are best done in Photoshop IMO. I did discover a sweet new brush in painter during these commissions though. :D

I managed to save my steps from one of them too... this is pencil and then painter until the final adjustments.

Rajiniel

2009-02-05T09:54:00.000-08:00

A commission for a good friend of mine, his angel character, Rajiniel.

It feels great to work on commissions again, for those who have commissions with me, they shall be done soooooon. God how I missed free time.

Anyway, I think this one was a bit of a breakthrough, tried to use painter for it, but at the end I caved and did use some PS. BUT! Painter X was used for the majority of it. Painter X I WILL figure you out. *shakes fist* Anry Nemo is my hero, he's a wizard with the round camelhair. It's sad that he fell off the face of the internet and hasn't posted in ages... :(

Trying to learn painter again makes me reminisce about the days when I used painter solely, weird how that changed. Painter 7 just had brushes like no other version of painter IMO... sigh. I'll get the hang of painter X some day.

Beauty and the failure.

2009-02-02T21:45:00.001-08:00

Commission time! Nothing fancy, was commissioned to create a painting of belle with the enchanted rose like a millennium ago. This took me ages to do because I just couldn't get the right feel or emotion or... something. Each time felt like failure, but failure is just an opportunity to learn something new, and I did learn!

I've been feeling a little uncertain of where to take my art at this point, I have a lot of ideas for things I'd like to do, or techniques I'd like to master, but I guess I have too many ideas and I'm not sure what to do first. I'm working a lot with Volta, it's great, they're probably the best people I've ever freelanced for, and I have lots of commissions to work on, but personally, I'm not sure where I should go with my art. I guess I should just pick something and do it. :D

Anyway, I thought I'd post all my beauty failures here so people can see, haha~

Mermaids Mermaids... steampunk?

2009-01-14T10:56:00.000-08:00

CG Society just had their steampunk challenge, I wanted to enter but I didn't have enough free time before the deadline, I did get to do some quick doodles inspired by the challenge though! Above you can see my steampunkish mermaids, I'd imagine a mermaid in a steampunk world probably isn't a fantastic creature, but more of a mutated fish/human thing. :D

My computer is finiisshhed! Ian and I went shopping on the weekend, I spent more than I planned but... I have a really sexy desktop PC now! For 3Ding and gaming when I get the chance. I managed to download Sword of the New World and play for a little bit, also played a little bit of oblivion, I've never played it before with the settings maxed and anti-aliasing holy moly. It looks lovely with all the mods I got from tesnexus.com.

Infinite Ammo related news, I redesigned all of the characters last night for Heroes and Villains, it was tough to make characters that are still recognizable on such a small screen (iPhone). I'll scan them and post them soon!

Tom Thumb

2009-01-13T18:49:00.000-08:00

This piece was for a friend's artist collab project, more info about that here. My card was 10 of clubs. I mean to spend more time on this but gosh, I just have no time anymore.

Not much else is new, cracking down for Infinite Ammo's game Heroes and Villains, I'll be working with my friend Kylie on the art and animation, she's a dear and super talented. <3

I was supposed to attend GDC this year buuuut for financial and family reasons I cannot go, however I think there will be something set up for Heroes and Hillains, and Alec and Chris will definitely be going to hand out posters and stuff for Infinite Ammo. Posters that I drawed. Which is pretty rad.

Muuaah <3

mmmm green eyes.

2009-01-11T11:40:00.000-08:00

Commission from a lovely girl on DeviantArt, her character Miriam. She was realllyyy fun to paint, especially those folds in the shirt. I usually have such frustration with clothing so I got my boyfriend to snap a photo of me posing with a similar shirt, gosh it helped a LOT. I should do that more often. :)

In other news, today be computer shopping day! I'm so excited, I want to play Sword of the New World again so bad! I know I won't have much time to play because I've got so much work but... even a little will be nice. It's such a pretty game.

Speaking of fun games, Ian and I have been SoulCalibur4ing pretty hard, character customization is amazing. We're getting pretty high in the tower of lost souls, almost at floor 60, but some levels we make custom characters for and we pick equipment based on the stats, not the looks. We have gotten some pretty awesome characters, I'm personally fond of a Sophitia I made who looks like a french thief... hooker, but I use the love weapons (a giant ladle and pot-cover) and well... it also looks like I'm a soup kitchen volunteer. It's amazing. I want to sketch our characters some day. It would probably be the best piece of art I've ever done. Ever. :D

Mold is gross.

2009-01-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

Lots of new (but actually old) art today posted in the gallery section of my site. It's new to you folks, I just haven't posted much in a while.

I have to share something that happened to me today, it was probably the grossest thing that has happened to me in a while so... here we go. This morning my boyfriend and I woke up early to take my little brother to the airport, his holiday visit ended today. I was still very tired, and I mean VERY tired. I grabbed half of a bagel and threw it in the toaster, it toasted and I spread cream cheese on it, I bit it, and that's when I tasted it. MOLD. Oh god, it was nasty, I spit out what was in my mouth and looked at the bagel. How I missed the gross fuzzy white and green stuff on the bottom is beyond me. My god. People always check your food before you eat it. ALWAYS.

Recently I decided to license some of my art to... well anyone who wants to use it. PSP groups and the like, I really wasn't sure before how to go about that stuff, I felt bad not letting people use my art so I let them... but at the same time it sucks not getting payment and rarely getting credit, so I'm trying out Artistic Minds Inc. wish me luck! :)

Anyway, not much else is new. Work work work. Though since my last entry I've decided on getting a new PC instead of the Cintiq.. someday I'll get a Cintiq though. Someday.

Indecision

2009-01-04T23:04:00.000-08:00

Over to the left we've got a commission I've recently finished. It's taking a while but in between work I'm slowly trimming down my list of personal commissions.

In other news I'm at a fork in the road, I'm in need of 2 new expensive things and I'm not sure what to go for. Prong A is a Wacom Cintiq, the 12WX looks amazing and my Intuos is about at the end of its road, the button linked to my eyedropper has actually got my fingerprint pressed into it... into hard plastic. It's pretty neat actually. Another thing about the Intuos is that I really dislike using my wrist to draw, I miss using my shoulder and arm like I do with a pencil and paper, and hopefully a Cintiq would remedy this.

The other path I could take is a new computer. I have my lovely Macbook Pro for my painterly needs, but I need to start doing 3D for Infinite Ammo projects, and for that I use SoftimageXSI, which I need a PC to use. Hrm. A new PC would also let me play PC games again, because lets face it, gaming on a mac isn't gaming at all.

Now I've already ruled out things like Bootcamp on my mac with a windows OS because I don't want to overkill my poor little laptop, I'm on it 24/7 already. A computer would actually be less expensive than a Cintiq as I have a sexy monitor already, and a fantastic boyfriend who can build one for me, all I need to buy is parts!

I guess most signs point to a new PC, but every time I see one of those Cintiq videos I just melt a little.

I just have to decide which one I can afford to wait a bit for... boy this is tough.

A New Year

2009-01-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

Hello dears!
I haven't updated in a little while, December was a tough time for myself and my family because we lost my older brother. It's something very difficult, I've been lucky enough never to have lost anyone close to me before this so it was.. something I can't really explain. My family is doing ok, I flew home for the holidays to be with them, I'm back in Winnipeg now and my younger brother is here visiting. I've got tons of work but we've been able to do some cool stuff, yesterday was a LAN party with some friends and tonight we went to this fantastic Sushi place with my boyfriend and his little sis. Gosh I love sushi.

I have a bit of an update to make, in November Infinite Ammo (the indie game dev team I'm a part of) went to the Montreal International Game summit with our game paper moon and we had a really amazing experience, you can check out our video blogs and download paper moon for free at Infiniteammo.ca, well I've got some more news to share: Infinite Ammo is featured in Play Magazine's Girls of Gaming 6! The art that will be featured is a promotional piece I did for our game Marian. I'm extremely flattered because I think we are the first indie game to make it in GoG!

Check out IGN's trailer for GoG6 (Marian is in it! eeee!)

There is much more info on the Infinite Ammo blog about Marian, including one of my concepts for the in-game look, a Marian Wallpaper, and even a bit of the beautiful music Alec Holowka is writing for the game. Don't feel shy on the blog, we'd love comments there! The team doesn't really read my blog so commenting on the IA blog with your feedback would be super!

I hope everyone had lovely holidays and I wish you guys a really great new year!

It's been so long.

2008-10-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh. Wow it's been a long time since I've updated my poor blog. Well I DO have stuff to update with... I've just been so damn busy. SO damn busy. I should be busy now but I'm sick and tired of being busy so I'm going to put work aside for a few minutes to share a bit of what's been happening with me.

This year has been a series of gigantic changes in my life, it started off with some harsh life lessons in April and May, and faded into a bit of uncertainty and restlessness in June, but that same month I was given a wonderful gift - a baby sister. In July I went to see her and my mother and I found I had a deeper relationship with a family member than I thought I had.

Over the summer I rekindled a friendship that had been neglected for a couple years, and that brought me to meet a new friend. These friends are Christopher Lobay who I've known for years, and Alec Holowka, an abnormally talented indie game designer. Alec and I had been introduced because Chris had this fantastic idea of me the artist, animator, and avid gamer, and Alec the successful indie game master, working together. So in July I had several MSN and Skype sessions with Alec planning out a project he had started with his brother Ian (who I hadn't met at this point). In August I went to Winnipeg to see these guys, I had decided to move to Winnipeg so I could work with Alec on the game, so August was spent apartment hunting, doing game planning, meeting people and socializing, and working my ass off so I could afford all of that. There were a lot of ups and downs, but on average I think the overall experience was pretty much awesome. Especially when I met Ian.

I know this is an art blog so I'll keep most of the relationshipy-girly-swooning sort of writing for the journal I have sitting beside my bed, but I don't think I've ever met someone like Ian. I don't think I've ever been this happy and peaceful either.

Anyway, back to business! In August Alec Holowka, Christoper Lobay, Ian Holowka, and myself formed a small indie game dev team called Infinite Ammo. We have no funding yet, but so many promising opportunities are ahead of us I'm completely astonished. We managed to finish our first game in like 9 days, it's for the Gamma3D event at MIGS... if you're going to MIGS we'll actually have a booth there thanks to Game on Manitoba! You can come by and play our game Paper Moon, we'll also be giving out free posters that I'll be painting myself ;D

Alright, that sums up enough of the news I've got, so I'll share some art now...

A mer..maid? man? thing. Recorded myself painting this one.

Oversharpened speedpaint.

,
Naija of Aquaria, a doodle for Alec.

A grunge fairy I started a while ago.

Playing around with the concept of an Octopus lady. I won't be finishing this particular sketch but someday I'll paint an octobabe in all her glory. Or maybe a squid. Haven't decided.

A long overdue piece for a charity card game. Dark fairytale theme and my story was Tom Thumb. I actually really like this one.. I decided to experiment with the style, I felt like my work was getting really stagnant and trying something new was wonderfully refreshing. I also learned a lot about painter X during the process. This one will be finished soon, I have a lovely idea for the background I'm anxious to try... but right now I have way too much work. In the next couple days though...

That about does it for now, I've attached my blog to my website so I'll be keener on updating. We'll see how that goes. Anyway.. I guess if I hope to get any sleep tonight I better get back to work.

Doodlies

2008-04-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

A sketch of a froggie girl, not sure if it'll ever get finished :9

phoenix girl... again completion is undetermined.

WIP of a commission~!

Sketch while listening to Feist's "Secret Heart"

Sketch inspired by a cute musical friend of mine :) (no i can't paint guitars... i should have gotten a ref, oh well haha)

2008-03-15T03:48:00.000-07:00

My Commander Shepard~ for the tutorial thing on DA, oh there are errors with the image I know but I can't really spend a whoooole lot of time on it. I can cover the basics of how I paint with it so it's good enough! :)

And this one was just for kicks, wheeee snow~! (I didn't think of it while drawing this, but she looks like the cartoon version of my Shepard!)

Mmmm I'm hungry... *wanders off for food*

Self Portrait?

2008-03-09T04:53:00.000-07:00

Done for CGtalk's daily sketch thread, the theme was Self Portrait: My Evil twin. As you all can see, my evil twin is a zombie. :D
Photoshop and about 3 hours work, used myself as a reference, I don't use references a whole lot, but I should really get in the habit of it since it seems to help a great deal in time and quality.

Haha it's so cool having a picture of myself as a zombie now... I really encourage everyone to draw themselves as something weird looking. I'm using so using this for MSN and facebook!

my kingdom for a title?

2008-03-07T01:45:00.000-08:00

Is it weird to suck at thinking of blog entry titles? I mean, all I'm updating is new art, but naming every entry "NEW ART, FOOS!" seems redundant. I suppose I could switch it up to "NEW SKETCH, FOOS!!" and "NEW W.I.P., FOOS!", and of course the occasional "NEW COMMISSION, FOOS!!!"

...I'm really glad I'm typing this and no one can actually hear my Mr. T voice. It's flipping 7am and I haven't gone to bed yet haaaah okay onto the arts:

Well those two have been uploaded to my DA already, but here they are all the same. The elf was a commission, the space-headset girl is Artgerm's Pepper, for a project on DA run by Imaginary Friends Studio.
I do have a couple new things to show, they're WIPs, but they're new WIPs.

The brown one is a WIP of a new character, he is beautiful like most of my boys, but he is evil. Oh, is he evil. I had a yearning to paint something violent, while there isn't a lot of action (none actually) in the piece, the violence will be quite blatant still. I'm quite proud of his hands so far, though the face, mainly the eye area I think, still needs tweaking, and everything else is still in the sketch stage.

The blue one, well I'm sure some people have recognized the suit even though it's rough, but yes! Mass Effect!! God that game was amazing, I made one hot Commander Shepherd, did I ever. For those curious I got it on with Kaiden Alenko, going to play through again of course for the girl on alien girl action, because if I don't... well.. isn't that like video game blasphemy? Hah. Anyway, the Shepherd sketch will be made into a tutorial (excellent excuse to do some fan-art, non?), as I have deleted mine from DeviantArt because the new update made them broken half the time I was told. Also because they were so old they were very near obsolete, and far past embarrassing. :B

Painkiller

2008-01-30T04:43:00.000-08:00

Only one new sketch today I'm afraid. Another cold decided to stop by and in order to take my mind off of my burning sinuses, sore throat, and headache I decided to sketch a bit. Drawing is like a transient panacea.

Here is a character sketch of a boy who has been molded, scrapped and remolded infinite times in my head. I'm really warming to his look now. It's not just right, but very close. I love his freckles, if he goes through anymore transformations those darling freckles will remain for sure.

sketchydoodledee

2008-01-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted, since december I guess? Wow. Well happy 2008 guys! I have a few sketches to show today~

Elfy girl! I needed to do something with earthy tones -- so many of my recent pieces have been cold and blue.

Character sketch of an elf lady in a silly project of mine. :)

A girl and a wil'o'wisp~ I love wil'o'wisps, maybe I'll get a chance to finish this sketch. Thinking about my workload though, that chance is getting smaller and smaller... :0

snow day!

2007-12-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

Oh man it's been like a snow week. Though I don't actually have a real job so I didn't get to not go anywhere because of the snow... hum. Anyways, new art~

This one was a commission done for someone on DA :)

Aah that WIP I submitted a little while ago was finished and I submitted it the other day to DA and my website~

A new WIP that started as a portrait sketch but then I decided to make it.. bigger xD

Commission, WIP, and some sketches

2007-11-29T06:47:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, here's a commission I finished recently, it's been on my site for a little while, figure I may as well post it here.

Aaannd here is a preview for a personal painting. Which will sadly be put on hold again because I have work to do. :< (I started it in like... august or something. srsly.)

Aaand heres some sketches. First is of a mer... thing. Someone suggested a mermaid of my own creation and I guess I got a little carried away. The second is of a character I neglect, Raya. Oooh poor thing.

thanks fer lookin <3

New ArtBlog~!

2007-11-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

I've migrated on over to BlogSpot from LJ for my art-journaling endeavours. Why? Dunno, I just did. The grass seemed greener over here.

So anyway, here is where I'll be uploading all of my finished work, and all the other art that won't see light anywhere else... like these: