Awwww, I messed up!

Okay...so the moly exchange stuff is going awesome...I got into the first exchange that I really wanted, Monsters, woo-hoo, and then I started my own theme, Wonderland. (Did my links work this time? Hope so). Anyway......I got so excited about starting these exchanges that I jumped in too fast, I think, hee hee, and instead of concentrating on one book at a time I started two at once. What I should have done is worked out all the stuff in the Monster book and then moved on to the Wonderland stuff, however that did not happen. I started them both at once, sketching in one then the next one, then inking one and then inking the next one...So my entry in the Wonderland book is done, see the previous entry for picture, however when I got to the color portion of my monster book I had a brain fart and fudged it up! Dammit!! So last night, I spent the evening trying to fix my major blooper....and to be honest it wasn't that bad...where I had used colored pencil with Wonderland, I used ink pens with the monsters and I just plain didn't like it. I wasn't happy with the colors or the technique I was using and I wanted to start over, however there are 10 artists involved in the monster exchange and so my pages are limited, I am not to exceed three pages, so I had to go over what I already had. How in the hell to do that, hmmmm? So I used some india ink and watercolor and painted over the top of my pages. It's definitely a night scene now, hee hee. I re-drew my characters on watercolor paper and will attempt to glue them down over the tops of my flub :) Hopefully that works because at this moment in time I'm not sure how to fix mistakes in the molies.

So here's the moly with the background re-painted. At this point it's still missing one of the monsters and you can't see some of the curly-swirly night wind I've going but this is as good as it gets for now :) More to come later.

I AM ADDICTED!!!

To what you ask? At least my mother will before she jumps to conclusions, LOL, just kidding. A couple of weeks ago, I managed to stumble across something known as "moly x"

I, of course had no idea what that meant, and immediately went out exploring. Moly X is simply this...a Moleskine Exchange. Moleskine being a specific brand of sketchbook, and the exchange being something started by Mr. Marty Harris (MrtyHrrs1 over at flickr). Any-hoo, I have found myself completely addicted to this group and in the space of two or more weeks signed up for four, let me say that again, four exchanges!!! I have no will-power *sighs* Essentially what this is, is a group of artists from around the world, they set up a topic, a blog, and swap sketchbooks with each other. I draw in theirs, they draw in mine, and by the time it's full, I have art from around 4-10 or so other artists and a sketchbook that's traveled the world. How Effing Cool is that???

So I wanted to share what I've been working on for that, because god-forbid I work on only one project at a time, right? What kind of sense does that make? Keep in mind that these are just my contributions at this point...I'll post more on the moly exchanges as they start picking up here in the future. Just for reference, the black rectangle in the image below is where my name and address are located...I didn't feel all the blogging world needs to know my apartment address.

So these two pages here, are my intro pages...these are for the exchange I started :) which basically means, I posted the topic and asked other artists if they wanted to join. My choice was to do "scenes from Wonderland" that way people could pick to use scenes from Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass, I also wanted to make it as non-specific as possible so people had the freedom to go a little crazy with it. So the above pictures, like I mentioned before, are my intro pages, meaning that they are there to serve as a reminder of who's book you are working on....I also used the next two pages in my book to write down the title of the exchange, and the names of everyone participating. Which brings me to the three pages of my entry... I really wanted to do a scene with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb, of course I had no idea which part in the story they took part in, since it's been so long since I actually read the story....so I looked it up :) And was immediately smitten with the scene in which Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb do battle....so here it is, my interpretation of the twins doing battle...

What about the other three exchanges I'm involved in, you ask? Well as of right now, two of them are still recruiting more members, so there's nothing to post for those except that one will be a portrait group and the other's topic will be different for each member of the group...I'm still trying to decide on the theme for my personal book. Any suggestions, readers???

The last group that I'm in, is actually the first one I joined...and it's theme is Monsters! Woot!! I of course, did cutesy monsters...and while they are getting colored in, you will have to wait a little longer to actually see them.

Thanks for reading :)

I HAVE BECOME ADDICTED!!!

To what you ask? At least my mother will before she jumps to conclusions, LOL, just kidding. A couple of weeks ago, I managed to stumble across something known as "moly x" I, of course had no idea what that meant, and immediately went out exploring. Moly X is simply this...a Moleskine Exchange. Moleskine being a specific brand of sketchbook. Marty Harris (MrtyHrrs1 over at flickr) started this awesome exchange, that I have found myself completely addicted to. Essentially what this is, is a group of artists from around the world, get together and swap sketchbooks with eachother. I draw in theirs, they draw in mine, and by the time it's full, I have art from around 4-10 or so other artists and a sketchbook that's traveled the world. How Effing Cool is that???

So I wanted to share what I've been working on for that, because god-forbid I work on only one project at a time. What kind of sense does that make? Keep in mind that these are still works in progress and only have artwork in them by me.... but, oh well, take a look:

Side Projects

I thought I would designate a post this time around to a little side project I've been working on. It's something I've had a lot of fun doing and hope to do more of. Storyboarding. Let me give a little background about how I got started with this.

My boyfriend happens to be ridiculously good at rhyming. Weird sort of talent, but quite entertaining, none the less. I'm not sure where he got it from, whether it's an acquired skill or just natural talent, but it never ceases to amaze me, the ease with which he can create goofy slogans or funky little songs off the top of his head. Sometimes I look at him and think, this man is truly gifted, I have never known anybody to be able to create things like that on a whim. Other times, he'll drive me crazy with the constant singing of said goofy songs, specifically when he's at his computer perusing the gamer sites and I'm trying to work on my latest and greatest idea, it's in those moments when I'm trying to concentrate that I realize, he really does take advantage of such an "e-ville" gift. But his timing is always impeccable, it's always the moment just before I'm ready to snap and turn into the bratty girlfriend that he whips out another funny one liner, and honestly, how can you do anything else but laugh?

So it's because of this unnatural talent, that I've put him to work on a children's book I've had "in the works" for over a year now. The pictures have all been roughed out, but I am not really a writer and needed loads of help getting a script together. So we made a deal. He would write me a story and in exchange, he put my skills as an ar-teest to good use on a side project of his.

[Side note: In addition to writing short stories (and goofy little ditties) he's really involved in 3D modeling and video games. I don't know how he does it, but he has a way of creating these amazingly detailed stories or situations. The man has so many concepts and ideas floating around in his head, that I constantly find myself envious of his imagination.]

Anyway.....he asked me to help create concept sketches and storyboards for an animated short he wants to create for Halloween. It's a really cute concept, so I jumped at the chance. I won't tell you the full story, let's see if you can figure it out, but take a look at what I've come up with so far: