Drawings: Superhero Chicks Part II

As promised, I have more girly superhero drawings! (I used the same colouring technique for these ones that I used in Part I.)

First I drew Harley Quinn, one of my favourite characters from Batman: The Animated Series. HQ was once the Joker’s psychiatrist while he was an inmate at Arkham Asylum. Instead of curing him, she falls madly in love with him and becomes a villain herself. HQ was only supposed be in one episode, but her character was so greatly received that she was written into the rest of the series (and has her own comics and toys) and she has gained a big fan following. (I think that HQ’s character was inspired by Cyndi Lauper, because her voice and bubbly personality are so similar.)

My friend Anna wanted me to draw her favourite superhero, Black Canary, so here she is! I have to admit that I didn’t know anything about BC, so I had to look up her backstory and costume reference. BC fights crime in Gotham City with martial arts, and her deafening Canary Cry. I think she rocks because she fights crime in fishnet stockings!

The third drawing I did isn’t a superhero, but she’s still awesome. I drew Emilie Autumn, violindustrial singer-songwriter. EA is one of my favourite musicans, and I think she wears the most fabulous outfits ever! (Some of you might remember the EA doll I made for myself a few months ago — I luff her!). I have tickets for her show in November, so I’m super excited! ^_^

I still have Poison Ivy, Batgirl and Sailor Moon in the works, so stay tuned! ^_^

Etsy: Monthly Commission Mosaic

These are the custom commissions I made for May & June 2008:

1. Baby Strawberry Parfait Deer, 2. Strawberry Milkshake Deery Deer, 3. Pink Alice In Wonderland Deer, 4. Red Woodland Baby Deer, 5. Brown Woodland Deer, 6. Custom Commission: Pullip Kitty Cape - Black & Dark Pink, 7. The Little Mermaid #2, 8. Custom Commission: Pullip Kitty Cape - Black & Dark Pink

Sticker Contest: I won!

OMG, I was one of the winners in the sticker contest over at the Valley of the Dolls forum! :O My photos are going to be made into stickers with the Valley of the Dolls shop name on them, and used on their packaging (like this one)! I’m so flattered and honoured! I actually didn’t realize there was a prize — I thought being chosen to represent VOTD’s shop was prize enough, but I found out I got to choose one Pullip, so I chose Another Queen. ^_^ (She’s a limited edition, designed by Pullip’s creator herself, Mango Park.) My Another Alice is quite happy to have another Wonderlander join the group! ♥

My entries for the contest are below. Contestants could enter as many times as they wanted — there were over 400 entries this year! If you can log-into the VOTD’s forum, take a look at the other fantastic entries that won too. ^_^

If you’re interested in purchasing a Pullip Doll, Valley of the Dolls is an excellent shop (I’m not just saying that either — I buy all my Pullips there ^_^), and they even have a shop here in Los Angeles (which I keep meaning to make a trip to)!

Drawings: Superhero chicks!

This week I drew two of my favourite girl superheros for fun. My plan is to take the time to draw more (like Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, etc…) I tried a new colouring technique this time. Instead of doing the flat layer of colour thing, I decided to colour them in properly. It took me much more time, but I think they look pretty good this way, especially Wonder Woman, since she’s so colourful and vibrant. I tried to make my line really clean this time around, because I wasn’t too happy with my messy lines in my previous drawings. (I was once a clean-up artist, so I really should try to keep my skill up.) Now that I look at them, I think they look like animation cels with that white background! Anyways, without further ado, here’s:

Wonder Woman…

…and Catwoman!

Drawings: Alice and the Geisha

Sketchclub didn’t have a theme this week (not that I’m good at keeping up with it anyways…), but I decided to draw my own stuff this week anyways. I always start off with a Col-Erase pencil (in this case I used the colour pink), and when I have sketched everything out, I clean-up my sketch with a blue ball-point pen. Then I did the usual thing of adding a layer of colour over top of my drawing in Photoshop. This is what I came up with:

Alice’s Shock

In this scene, Alice has just fallen down the rabbit hole in pursuit of the white rabbit. She tries to go through a small door to chase after him, but she’s too big. Alice drinks a shrinking potion (to get through the door), but when she’s shrunk, she realizes that she’s forgotten the key on the table, so she finds a piece of cake (in my case a chocolate chip cookie), takes a bite and gets bigger again. She grows way too big to get through the door and begins to cry. Her teardrops create The Pool of Tears, which whisks her through the door and off to Wonderland. (For the Alice fans, you might notice that this drawing is in homage to John Tenniel’s version. ^_~) When I added the layer of blue to the drawing, I decided to add a bit of white to Alice’s eyes and pink to her cheeks to really enhance her look of shock.

Sad Geisha

Okay, I have to admit it: I *love* Geisha’s. I love them for their aesthetic value, and I love their dedication to their artistic lifestyle. One of my Flickr contacts (mboogiedown) is always posting absolutely gorgeous photos of authentic Geisha’s (Geiko’s) and Maiko’s, and it’s such a delight to peer into this secret world. It’s really hard *not* to appreciate the beauty of these women. Geisha’s wear a kimono (which can consist of over 10 layers of fabric), all held together with an obi (the large “belt” that is tied around their waist). They also wear geta (wooden sandals) which can be almost a foot high off the ground, so their body movement becomes quite limited and restrictive. However, when they do have to move around to dance, they can get quite expressive poses with simple shapes like the tilt of a head or a bent arm (like this photo or this one). I love playing around with these shapes while I’m drawing Geisha’s. This drawing is also a commentary on the life of a Geisha. I will never know what it is like to dedicate my entire life to mastering the arts 24/7, but I can just imagine that you’d have to sacrifice a lot. I think there is such a beauty to Geisha’s, yet I think there is an incredible sadness about them too. So, my Geisha is feeling sad as she lets beauty fall away.

I guess I have Geisha’s on the mind more than usual because of the Hannari: Geisha Modern documentary premieres in the next couple of weeks. It’s playing at a theatre near me, and I plan on dragging my husband to it. ^_^

If you would like to read more information about Geisha’s, the Immortal Geisha site is great for information (for instance, did you know that the first Geisha were men?) and they have a great forum, too. If you’re looking for a great read, pick up Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki, a true biography written by a real Geisha who lived in Kyoto. Her story is fascinating, and she hopes to squash the common stereotype that all Geisha are prostitutes… a stereotype that is held up as fact in the well-known Memoirs of a Geisha book by Arthur Golden. Even though the life of Sayuri is practically stolen from Golden’s interview with Iwasaki, I still think it’s a good book, and the movie is gorgeous.

Paintings: Zombuki sisters ♥

I recently completed these two acrylic paintings of Hanami and Ume, the Zombuki Sisters. I kept the Hanami painting for myself (because I own Hanami), and I sent the Ume painting to Brigitte (because she owns Ume. Brigitte is also the mastermind behind the Zombuki customs). A few weeks ago Hanami sauntered off to spend some time at the “Zombuki Spa”, getting minor changes to her face-up. When she came back, she was even more gorgeous than I thought she could be! I was so pleased with Hanami’s new changes, that I decided to make something as a thank-you for Brigitte. That’s when I thought of making two paintings of the sisters. I thought it would be fun to make a set of paintings that match when they are side by side (they mirror each other, and the blue/turquoise gradation (that is hard to tell in pics) matches in the background), but they will forever be apart, just like Hanami & her sister Ume. Awww. ♥

[Hanami is on the left, Ume is on the right.]

[Strange Sisters #5, by pbrigitte]

Here are some close-up shots. It’s hard to tell in these pics, but their eyes have a silvery/shiny layer of paint over them.

Here are a few in progress shots:

[First concept sketch]

[First I draw out the preliminary sketch, then I draw directly on the canvas exactly what I'll be painting. ^_^;]

[Next I just fill it in! I start painting their faces, and then their hair, and after Hanami & Ume are all painted in, I decide on the colour of the background.]

[They're almost 1/2 done in this pic. There's my reference pic of Ume, and Hanami thinks this work is very tiring, so she takes a nap. ^_^]

[And after all that painting, they're finally done!]

More pics here!

Etsy Plush Team: Scavenger Hunt Contest

Plush Team is celebrating its one year anniversary by hosting a scavenger hunt contest! The goal is to find “PT Stitchy”, the Plush Team mascot hidden in participating Plush Team Etsy shops. There are 16 hidden PT Stitchy’s in total. Once you’ve found them all, email Redmag with each item listing number.

The game starts today, and ends on June 6th. The winner will be announced on June 9th, in Plush Team’s blog.

These are the participating shops:

abbydid
absolutelysmall
beetlegirldesign
casienipper
christinaward
followthewhiterabbit
furwillfly
moogancreations
moonscreations
pattihaskins
siansburys
slcstudio
squirrelmomma
weirdbuglady
yummypancake
zzbeadz

This is what PT Stitchy looks like:

And this is the grand prize!

[My Blueberry Deer is a prize, too! ^_^]

Personal Project: Creating my own Muse in plush form

This post is all about Mei Li. She is my Muse in plush form.

I’ve been wanting to create my own personal muse for a while now, and this week I was finally able to bring my design to life!

The first time I started thinking about what my own muse would look like is when I bought The Faerie’s Oracle tarot deck a couple of years ago (by one of my favourite artists Brian Froud). The deck comes with 66 cards that are beautifully illustrated, however, the zero card is completely blank. This card is called “The Guide”, and it is left blank with the intention of the owner completing it with their own personal muse. I never knew what to do with this card — what did my muse look like? What if I got it wrong? Looking back I’m not surprised that I didn’t know at that time. I would not be on my own personal art journey until a few years later, when my husband and I moved to the States. Then, just a couple of weeks ago when I was working on Plush Team’s favourite childhood plush project, an idea for a plush design popped out at me. I immediately had to draw her out. I knew that she was a white rabbit spirit girl, with white hair and grey skin.

[She's the one with the heart on her chest.]

Mei Li represents my muse, a white rabbit zombie girl. Mei Li used to work in a turn-of-the-century travelling carnival. You know, the type with fire eaters, a freak show, exotic animals and trapeze acts. Her act involved acrobatics and white rabbits. Mei Li’s act was quite good, but the ringmaster kept pressuring her to make her performance more and more dangerous — for the enjoyment of the crowd (and to fill his pockets). Mei Li didn’t like the ringmaster too much, but unfortunately life as a carnie is limited, and it leaves a strange little girl with really no other options in life. Mei Li agreed to increase the risks in her act, but something went terribly wrong and suddenly Mei Li’s life was over. But for some reason, she remained in this world as a wandering ghostly zombie girl. Mei Li took interest me when I was just a little girl. Maybe my clumsiness reminded her of herself, or my love of rabbits. Whatever the case, this strange little zombie girl has been my inspirational muse ever since.

I decided to name her “Mei Li”, after some of the Mandarin characters (梅李) that are used to make my name, Emily. I made sure that I used the Alice In Wonderland fabric, and put the white rabbit on her front, to really keep with the theme. (Alice is on her back.) And of course she needed her own White Rabbit buddy! I chose to give her hair buns to represent rabbit ears. ^_^

[Here are a couple in-progress shots. Lucky insists on sitting right next to me as I work. ♥]

I used a new technique on her that I’ve been dying to use on a plushie! (Well, it’s not really new, but I haven’t used it on dolly plushies yet.) I gave her smokey eyes and blushed cheeks using pastels, and applyed them with q-tips. I’ve used this technique on my doll customs (you can really tell on my Holly). It gives it a really neat look that you can’t get with fabric or thread.

Mei Li is now on display with my other favourite toys. ♥

[Oh, now that we're all finished, it's time for a nap! ^_^]

Etsy Plush Team: Favourite Childhood Plush

This was my second project with Plush Team. We had to create a plushie based on our favourite childhood plush. This was a very fun challenge because it gave me a chance to pull out my old toys that have been stored away for far too long.

My most favourite childhood plush was a rabbit puppet. As you can see (in the pic below), she has been well loved. I loved her because she was a rabbit (my favourite animal as a child), and she was a puppet so I could easily bring her to life (foreshadowing a future career in animation, perhaps!). I named her Jessica Rabbit (*not* after the curvy lady in Who Framed Roger Rabbit — I named her at least 5 years before that movie was released!), but rather she was named/inspired after my brother Jesse. I was almost 3 when my baby brother was born, and I guess either by jealousy or love (or both!) shortly afterwards I took on the persona of a rabbit — “Jessica Rabbit” that is, for the duration of a year when I was a little girl. I would *only* answer to the name “Jessica”… at home, school, etc. I was quite adamant that I was Jessica Rabbit (I was really a bunny living as a human), and I would even sign my paintings as “Jessica Rabbit” (while some kids in my preschool couldn’t even write their own names — I bet the teachers loved me! lol). So, my childhood plush Jessica Rabbit is quite a meaningful toy to me, and now, years later I’m still finding that rabbits are influencing my life to this day! ^_^

Anyways, why don’t I show you what I made! ^_^ This is Baby Rabbit. I tried to used the same colours on her body that were in the original plush, and I wanted to make her look handmade, so I added obvious stitching with dark brown thread where I could. I wanted the design of her face to be similar to the original, so I gave her a prominent nose, with a stitched nose and frowning mouth. I didnt’t have eyes like the original plush has, but I thought these red button eyes were really cute for her. I thought about making her ears fall backwards behind her head, instead of forwards, but I like her ears perked up, and her ears are flexible enough that they can be folded backwards, stand up at attention, or folded down in a relaxed pose.

Jessica and Baby Rabbit meet in a momentous occassion. They instantly become friends, and Jessica assumes the role of mother. ^_^

She is now available for sale in my Etsy shop. Wooden mushrooms can be purchased at Craftsty’s shop.

Plush Art Show: Crammed Organisms — book cover revealed!

The book cover has been announced for the Crammed Organisms 2008 plush show! I think it’s so pretty with the wood grain background, and the super cute art by Kill Taupe. It will be a limited edition soft cover book of 5000, measuring 8×8 inches, with 130 colour pages. It will be available for pre-order at the end of May 2008 on the Crammed Organisms website. The first 500 pre-orders come with a limited edition print set, featuring 10 unique pieces from some of Crammed Organisms artists. Hooray, I can’t wait to see it!