Raw Artist CATALYST show 2/3/2011

The show was great and I am very thankful for the opportunity.

Here is the video for the event.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RAWartistsTV#p/u/57/muJc1bRDwKA

New 2011 creations

These illustrations were done for RawArtist show I was featured in. I was given a great opportunity and here are the results of that. It was a great experience and it lit a fire under me that is still going.

Somewhat New Art

It's 14 days before San Diego Comic-Con and I find myself awaiting new inspiration. I hope to find a lot of great books by great artists. I've also noticed that I have been lagging on this blog and as well on my artwork. I hope to produce more work in the next few months but for the mean time here are some things I've done in the last few months.

El Mas Fino

My first attempt at customizing a Munny. I will follow up with a back story and character drawings of El Mas Fino.

MST Truck 7 B&W

Here is a new t-shirt design done for a customer. One color black on orange safety t-shirts. I will post t-shirt when printed.

Sweet Aria

Just in time for for comic-con here is some more gradient mesh work. The hair took some time but I feel it was well worth it. Enjoy.

My Dream Car

I've been wanting to illustrate this car since I first saw the concept sketches back in 2005. I was waiting to work on my skills so that at the very least I would be able to do it some justice. Well last week I decided it was time to take a crack at it.

The illustration was based on a picture I took of the car about 3 or 4 months ago. Done in Illustrator CS3 with some gradient mesh plus simple gradients.

Cheesy Goodness

I am becoming more familiar with the gradient mesh and I am liking it quite a bit. This is my latest piece done for practice. More to follow soon.

Relaxing Nicole

Just a little something to loosen up the old vector skills.

Purple Haze

So I am trying to stay busy during slow times and I have decided to add car illustrations to my portfolio. I am really excited about this and couldn't wait to share this. The following image is done for a self promotional postcard I intend to have printed and pass around to all the local body shops and trucking companies currently around me. Maybe one or more will want me to design a t-shirt for them. *Fingers crossed* Sometime soon I will have some new pinups posted, but in the mean time hope you enjoy the cars.

T-shirt design

I designed this t-shirt comp for a heavy transport company.

Rose Queen

I thought I'd submit my latest piece on here. This piece is something I have been wanting to do for quite some time now and finally got around to doing it. In the coming months you will see more vivid colors from my work. I've been in that kind of mood, I want my pieces to pop (As much as I hate this expression). I promise to post more stuff soon.
-Mas Fino

R.I.P. Mike

In 1998 I picked up a Wizard Magazine just through sheer curiosity of what was happening in recent comics. As I flipped through the pages towards the back of the magazine there was an advertising for an upcoming comic. That comic was FATHOM by an Artist named Michael Turner. I was so used to the way comics were done before that I was floored by what I saw. The lines he used were perfect and the women he drew were so beautiful that I knew I had to meet this man.

Fortunately at the time I was living in San Diego and I decided to attend the yearly Comic-Con. That year I was able to meet him and shook his hand. Unfortunately, being the person that I am I was never able to say what his work meant to me or how he inspired me to start a career in art. I left that first convention and bought a sketch pad and pencils. And that was also the start of a tradition I have had for over the last 10 years. Over the last years I have gone to comic-con hoping to have a full conversation with Mike. But over the years I have just become more and more like a teenage girl with a crush on a pop star. Each year that passed I stood in line to get an autograph and each year I was only able to muster a simple thank you. The closest I came to a full conversation was I really love your work and a giggle.

Now it is with great sadness and a huge lump in my throat that I have to say goodbye and final thank you. You have left too soon and you will be sorely missed by all of us. Your art meant the world to me and I shall forever be grateful and honored to have been your fan. Rest in Peace dear friend.

Coach Potato

I drew this one a long time ago and finally finished it in illustrator. I am thinking of doing a series of these. Possibly in the coming months I will.

2 Drinks too many

Night out drinking with Britt and i sketched this. My lines are smoother in an intoxicated state, so I decided to keep the line art and took it into illustrator.

A Few Too Many

Here is my latest drawing. It was actually very pleasurable to do this one. It's been a long week at work, so doing this piece has actually been a welcomed change from the world of direct marketing. I hope to add more of these within the coming month. I need to catch up on my my goal of one finished illustration a month for 2008. So hopefully I'll have more interesting pieces in the coming weeks.

Aging Animation

So recently, I finally convinced people at work to let me do an illustrated ad for one of our ads. The turn around was short and I had to come up with something quick and easy. I did a simple illustration of a woman's head and finished her up in illustrator.
The animation is simple where her wrinkles disappear with sparkles around her face (um, yeah not completely my idea). But in the end the ad didn't turn out too bad.

Random Thoughts & Drawings

This year is a few weeks old and I have lots of plans for it. I have four drawings coming up and i feel very excited about it. Here's a few random images I have been working on. More details on this upcoming year's plans on another day. Maybe when I get more idea of what I think I am going to do.. hahahaha

Sketch Dump

I've been sketching a lot lately and thought I'd share some of it. I will most likely make vector versions of the mermaid and the boxer girl. With a few refinements.

Chica Girl Steps 1-5

For fun I thought I'd try a new way of vector illustrating one of my drawing. I also thought I'd share a step by step view of how I do it.

STEP 1: I scan in the drawing and create a template layer. I use this layer for reference. Images are dimmed to 50% so I can see what I am doing. Also went ahead and sampled some colors from a picture of a whose skin tones I liked. (Okay I thought she was cute so I used her.)



STEP 2: I start laying out the flat colors that I am going to use. These aren't the final colors because I can change them at any time I want. Also I do not have to be quite exact on the placement on the shapes, just a general idea.



STEP 3: On this step I started putting in the shadows and some highlights. These are your darkest shadows and lightest highlights.



STEP 4: Here I started working on the outline that will be the top layer of the drawing. Each color has a separate outline, just in case I want to make the outline a darker shade of the flat color. In this example I just used black, but just in case I change my mind I can do so without re-drawing all the outlines.



STEP 5: I started drawing in the eyes (mainly cause she was freaking me out without a face) and small shadows around the eyes.