scribbles & sketches

"two lights to guide her by"
2009
pilot rollerball, micron pigma, copics, jellyroll pes, and opaque white ink in a moleskine journal.

drawn earlier this year, began inking about a month ago-with tweaks all along the way. these are characters from my on-very-long-hiatus webcomic, but i had an itch to draw them that day.
i didn't erase my pencil lines. if you look around ferdinand, you can still see some of it by his wings.

another difference is that i did not pencil in much of the background. i just had the moon and path roughly lined out. the rest i sketched in with the rollerball.
why is it purple? because that was the one i had that day, i.e. it was the first one i grabbed. it was the first time i drew with a rollerball, freehand, and didn't make any major mistakes.

yes, the bird is glowing in the dark. that's something i've always had in mind for his character and never had a chance to illustrate (or the skills to properly show it.)

x-posted to lj & dA

Blue Canary: Caffeine Fix by ~bluecanarykit on deviantART

First page of a 6 page story originally drawn for my ashcan comic for last year's cons. Polished it up with a splash of color and it will be in this year's Nightgig Sampler. Wish this DA things weren't so small on my lj, though. i'd like for the preview to be bigger. *shrugs*

Apologies to Tim & madscott for my delays. sorry to be the last to turn her pages in. *hides head in shame* Blame all printing delays and some such on me.

Now, i have to draw a new 6 page story to replace this one (can't sell the black and white right by the color verison!) and, if i want another ashcan, 2 more stories. I better get crackin'!

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My wacom tablet started acting up yesterday. The eraser nib worked, the wacom mouse worked, the pen nib on my stylus would not.  However, i talked with wacom tech support tonight and they are shipping me a new one. Yay!

drawn 2-6-07
pencil on paper

cover for the ashcan comic i've been working on.
one of amelia's hands need work and i need to draw ferdinand, he doesn't look right.
yes, that's a pair of horns and batwings on the soda can she's holding. possessed soda machines tend to do that. 6^)P
fyi-odile is drinking water.

a week from tomorrow i'll be on a plane heading towards florida for MegaCon. i'll be at the nightgig booth with tim, madscottand jocelyncee. looking forward to this! gotta finish the ashcan though! i have one more story to finish thumbnailing and draw. the cover image is from that story. stop by booth red 5 (the minute i heard that jocelyncee and i started doing star wars references: "this is red 5, i'm going in!" "red leader, this is gold leader." we're such geeks.) and visit us! pick up a copy of the ashcan comic!

i've asked my fellow Nan Grant winners to contribute anything they wanted (ads, art previews, short story, etc.)and it should me awesome.

i'm also going to CAPE again this year with girlwithoutfear. yay! i loved CAPE and i'm excited to go. i just hope it doesn't conflict with memphis in may, for hillarygayle has commanded that i go. 8^)

and back in december, i started a comicspace site for myself.
comicspace is like myspace for comic creators, fans and folks in the comic industry. they just enabled the feature to allow you to post comics there. i'll be posting something there soon.  in the meantime f-list, go check it out!
i'm avoiding myspace like the plague, but i love the site. it's easy on the eyes. i'll post here when i post a comic there.

- drawn 20 June 2005 -
colored 28 June, 2006

look familiar?
still playing with copics.
i just wish i could show these to ken. i hate working on art and not being able to get his feedback...*sigh*
i'm not too happy with the color of her outfit, but... *shrugs*

pen & ink
finished 4-30-2006

this is the last vignette for the collaboration between me and alice. look familiar? like a pencil sketch from earlier...
just a note: i hate how the tree in the background turned out, but oh well. not everything can be perfect.
the deadline on the quilt that we are working on has been moved back & will be entered into a different contest, mostly so she can focus on the one using ken's art. also, because i have only now finished this. mostly becuase i was trying to make it too complex. orignally, amelia and ferdinand would be singing at court, we'd see the king and courtiers in the background. then, i thought about the wilderness, surrounded by her fellow minstrels in the caravan. alice thought i was overthinking it, plus none of the other vignettes has any other people besides amelia and ferd.

the quilt with ken's art is looking great. she has to finish tomorrow so she can get the entry photos postmarked by tomorrow.
go check out her blog to see the progress. i wish i could show it to ken...

alice & i have also been getting ready for cape. i found a 14x17" portfolio so i can bring the current blue canary pages i've worked on.  it just feels strange...to go have a mini-adventure and not be able to tell ken all about it, that i can't call him while i'm gone.

i, myself, am ok to some extent. some days i'm myself again, but i feel guilty when i am. other days, i just seem to mope around. i'm restless and indecisive. i'm so unsure of things that i really can't think too straight. i guess what mostly describes what i'm going through is confusion. i don't know what to do now. i know i'm waking up everyday, doing what i need to, "putting one foot in front of the other," as my mother would say...i just feel a bit lost doing it. *shakes head* it's hard to describe...i can't find the words at times.
most of all, i wish ken was still here with me.

what has been the hardest so far was going to the wedding of my friend, kellie. it's been planned for well over a year i think. i wasn't going to disappoint her, even though i know she would've understood had i stayed at home. everyone, from jocelyncee to kellie's family were always saying how glad they were that i came, with amazement in their eyes that i did come considering...
and yes, i did cry. especially at the rehearsal...i could feel the tears coming on and excused myself so i would distract everyone. i had a feeling that my tears would draw attention away from the bride, which wouldn't be right since it was her day, not mine. kellie's mom found me and gave comfort. she's really sweet.

why did i go? because i just can't hide from things like this. it's going to hurt, so let's just get it over with now or i may not face it at all. i don't want to hide from things all my life. ken wouldn't want me to do that. i know this.
a lot of times it irritates me when folks say, " it would be what he wanted." how do they know? did they ask?
i know of only a few absolutes from knowing and loving him as long as i did: he wouldn't want me to wallow or to give up, on life and on the things that matter to me most.
but man, no one ever said it would be easy. of course, i never expected it to be, either.

i'll prolly have to go through this all again in july when jocelyncee gets married, but i wouldn't miss it for the world, either. i have to face my pain no matter what.

- drawn 26 March 2006 -
inked 30 March 2006
pen & ink

another vignette for the quilt.
amelia prefers to snuggle near the nightlight than stay in bed.

girlwithoutfear has a rough on how she'll be doing the celtic knotwork on the quilt with ken's art. go check her reality blog to see...

i'm doing better today. visited with alice some.
was going to visit ken's folks, but they were busy tonight. i'll see them on saturday, though.
*hugs* to all for the thoughts, prayers and stuff. it's helping.

-drawn 26 Mar 2006-
pen & ink

i believe that ken would be furious if i gave up drawing out of sorrow and grief. the quilt project with alice continues as planned. that mean's sketches are back up here.
above is one of the vignettes for the quilt.

i drew this tonight at doug & c's house. alice and i had come over to watch movies and just veg.
i find myself sometimes feeling almost like me again-a bit cheery , actually and i feel guilty when i do.
c thought that it's just a normal part of the healing process, that life does go on and that ken wouldn't want me to stay sad.

i realize this, but i still feel guilty. i know that life is about change, you ever go with it or you choose not to, which results in stagnation and death. i just don't know what my future holds anymore. before, i had a pretty good idea.

c said that her mom lost a brother due to a drunk driving accident. he was just a teenager. it's been over 30 years and she still has trouble talking about it on some days. what has happened will always effect me, i just don't know how.

-drawn 2 Mar, 2006 -
pencil on paper

last night, my friend, alice, and i have decided to work on a little project together that features my characters, (it was her idea.) i do the art and she'll turn it into a quilt. not a hokey one, either but a cool art quilt with embroidery, beadwork and embellishments.

why are we doing this you ask? we are thinking of entering the Husqvarna Viking quilting competition, (again, her idea. doesn't she have the coolest ideas?) the theme this year is "Imagine That!" and she said she thought of Amelia & Ferdinand when she read that. 8^D
we are both excited about this! entries have to be postmarked by may 2, so i better get crackin'!
go check out alice's daredevil quilts to get the idea of her stuff. if the link doesn't work, you may have to click on the link in her page to her gallery. a note about how she embroiders: she doesn't put a digital image in the machine and let it work, oh no, not alice. she likes to guide the machine by hand. she gets some really cool textures in the thread that way.

whether we win or lose, if we go to cons and share a booth in artist's alley, then we'll have something to display that represents what both of us do. 8^)

the above sketch is one of the vignettes for the quilt. each one shows Amelia and Ferdinand in an imaginative adventure. This one is for a medieval-like world where Minstrels and Troubadours roam in little caravans entertaining rich and poor alike. i like the lute Amelia has, but i accidently made her left-handed. opps!
( Amelia's Minstrel Costume Design under here! )
off to work i go! guess who has a full-time job again? 6^) now i can at least pay rent.

-drawn 24 Nov 2005-
pencil on paper

taking a break from visiting with family and feeding my face when i drew this. another character idea for Blue Canary. his name is Callen.
it will be awhile before we meet him, let's just say it has lots to do with "Many Gateways" and leave it at that. 8^)

-drawn 6 Nov 2005 -
pencil on paper
image scanned by James Donovan (thanks, James!)

this is a sketch was a commission for James Donovan, one of my fellow volunteers this year at Wizard World Texas. it was awesome. i'll post info about the trip on my real life blog soon.

upon darediva's prompting, i showed my art to my fellow volunteers. James and Dan both wanted sketches. i don't have a copy of Dan's (which he was gracious enough to pay me for! *woah! new concept! getting paid to do art! cool!*) he requested Thor and Storm. i had to hunt for costume references. it wasn't my best sketch, but he loved it and that's what matters.

James said to draw whatever i want and Odile usually makes for neat sketches, so voila! here she is. i think the arms are a bit too long for the body, but i finally got the combat boots right. go me! this sketch was a blast to draw. 8^) definately thinking about volunteering again next year.