Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a merry merry Christmas!
Ahhh, the holidays. Lots of festivities, family, friends, and COOKIES! I did some pretty crazy amount of baking this year. The year of cookie experimenting with new recipes. Nothing better then watching the people you care for eating the cookies you bake.

Had to take a picture, they were so pretty. And yummy. You can find the recipes I used here:
Gingerbread Cookies
Russian Tea Cookies
Peppermint Chocolate Chip
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Best part was having to sample all the cookies. My cookie quota this year has been filled. Good thing the new year is right around the corner.

One of the best parts about being an artist is the ability to make really personal handmade gifts.


One fun idea to add to gifts are hand painted ornaments :)  Paint images that make you think of the person and then top them by hooking the ornament to the wrapping.



My favorite handmade gift was for my little brother. We grew up playing Zelda so I decided to hand paint a wooden box with Zelda illustrations. Many days, many hours, were spent after work on this gift and I loved how it turned out (so did he, Yay!). Painted using acrylic and colored pencils.

Can't believe Christmas is over already. So much energy and time preparing for one day... I say it should at least be a three day event. Can't wait for the new year, I predict lots more art and more fun changes coming this way.

~Cheers~

Sac Con Report

Happy Holidays! Sac con was Amazing. So much art love and creative people all rolled up in a one day event in Sacramento. I wasn't sure what to expect but there was a great turn out and I had the opportunity to talk with so many art enthusiast and anime lovers. Even met a guy who use to work for Pixar and he bought one of my art pieces!! And he can quote from the Hogfather (EXTRA exclamation points inserted here!)

A really big thank you to everyone who stopped by my table to say hello. It was great to see familiar faces and chat with friends.

I was even busting out some sketch commissions that day. My new trend is drawing a new fanart piece after each convention (all the fandom and cheer gets to me that I just need to revisit some nostalgic anime and show it some love).

This convention it was Utena, which means I will probably do an Utena marathon while working on the piece.

I am pretty messy sketcher, but it helps the creative flowing by not worrying about perfect lines. Here is a preview of the updated linework:

Working title for it is "Breaking Castles", because sometimes you have to let things break before you can let change in. My plan is to add in a crumbling castle and some merry-go-round horses.

-cheers!-

***EDIT:  December 20th

The final of this piece can be found here:

Breaking Castle by *DarkSunRose on deviantART

Gobble, gobble, gobble...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I certainly ate WAY to much this year, so worth it. Wanted to do a quick update of a few art pieces in the works. Plus, testing out drawing a few of my Dresidian characters, Navar and Raza.

In case people wonder why Navar doesn't get with the hot cambion minion, turns out he doesn't wear the right tie....

Work in progress piece. Raza is a fun strong female character. Knows what she wants, doesn't try to hide it or excuse it. "I am what I am. Took awhile to accept it myself but once I did, no turning back." Has a thing for men of the cloth and playing up human perception of demons (for laughs).

I swear I'll finish my Swan piece....

I.F. - "SCARY"

Click to see larger version

Illustration Friday's theme for SCARY...
First thing that came to mind are some of the ladies I see on Halloween.They can be scary! I tend to be in the overdressed crowd.

Have a Happy Haloween! 

-Cheers!-

FUEL

and in the LAND of TEA, there was an addict
Who drank TEA all day long
And even wore TEA

Because there shall be non other then the greatness of TEA
And so, there were TEA birds and TEA clouds
And it was a good day



Did I mention I love Tea? Have you drank this stuff? It's amazing!
Quick 2 hour illustration created for Illustration Friday.

Theme: FUEL,

The Horrid Queen

The Horrid Queen poster by *DarkSunRose on deviantART

One day, as I was suppose to be doing work I had this sudden need to start writing. So I opened a text document and let it flow.

It took me two days and many edits but I finished the tale. I am still working on my Dresidian project, but I felt it was important to start with a smaller goal to work myself up towards bigger dreams. And hopefully I can improve my illustration towards story telling.

Here is the first, a poster of sorts, to get the ball rolling after completing the text work.

Look for "The Horrid Queen," because it is coming soon!

The Swan Dance

Thought my next piece fit nicely for Illustration Friday "Scattered".

As her wings touched the reflection upon the water, 
it was as though a hundred swans scattered upon the surface.
 until they fluttered away below the lake's surface

And the wizard looked upon his prize. And plotted.

Flipped

PLAN B - Flipped by *DarkSunRose on deviantART

Recently completed a commission for the comic Plan B. This was a great piece to work on as I had fun with two of their characters and their facial expression. One of great worry and the other of ..well, the character always looks like he is amused by his own private joke. In the comic, they are actually one in the same person, or that is...one is in the other mind, hence the title "Flipped".  I added layers of textures to give it an old vibe.

Next project to color is my Outer Sailor Senshi piece:

PLAN B - Sketch

Working on a commission for the comic Plan B, check out the work! You'll go mad with science.
Sketch, sketch, sketch, in your face. With or without speech bubble?

-AND-

 

Madusa's lady

Turned to stone, Madusa's lady stands in stone. The birds her only witness.

Outer Sailor Senshi sketch

Thought it would be fun to do a follow up fanart of the outer Sailor Senshi.

-cheers!-

Art update

 

Starting on a new piece for Record of Lodoss -dance-

The live stream can be viewed here. You can see how slow I work at times

...and make mistakes. Haha!

 Mean while, my Ursula piece is complete! 

Ursula by *DarkSunRose on deviantART

Sketch Dump

"Now I got her boys!"

Ursula sketch I might take further.

Happened upon the Camelot series on Netflix. Merlin is pretty hot.

Illustration Friday - "Launch"

I'm excited to participate with I.F. this week! The theme is "Launch" and I realized my Father's Day gift to my Dad was perfect for this topic.

Dad & I launching Zelda II

It depicts my most fondest memory of watching my father play Zelda. For hours, we would sit together as we battled to save the princess, it was how we bonded.

That bonding moment launched my path into loving video games, which in turn launched the direction for wanting to become an artist.

Love you Dad!

VHD and SM fanart

Two fanarts in the works. I'm more into doing original work but after Fanime I was inspired to revisit two old anime series I was into. The first is from Vampire Hunter D, the scene with the three sisters. Oh yeah! And the last is from Sailor Moon, only I wanted her to look like she had more attitude. And yes, Venus has a whip. You know all those hearts they keep showing her with in the series? A cover up for her whip like tendencies.

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time,

in a land far away....

New project!

In my spare time, in between work and illustrating, I've been working on a fun project which requires me to create characters!

Looking into pixel art and animating sprites. Taken an animation class which is a nice step but I am looking forward to trying it out on subjects that interest me more. Like princesses, dragons, and burly old cantankerous Scottish men who drink tea.

Here are a few of the concept pieces:

 

Grand St. Stompers, part 2

Continuation of the album cover, working with color! I have times where I need to scrap color I've been working from and just start from the beginning.  Hard to do but necessary.

I am including this piece in Illustration Friday as the coloring has definitely been a "journey" as well as all grand adventures should include a train ride -cheers-

 

 

Newsletter graphics

One of the fun parts of working at my day job is helping to create the newsletter images each month. Which means I get to practice with Illustrator! I have started to feel a lot more comfortable with designing with this tool. I am use to hand drawing everything (working with lines) so my brain had to make a switch to drawing with "shapes" and then molding into the desired form.

Here are some of the images, you can see where I was still awkward with shapes in the earlier ones. Starting with my most recent:

A header and a closure image.

A mix from two different newsletters. 

For some reason Font is really intimidating for me. I think it's because I am working with someones hard work (the font) and wanting to use it appropriately. I am pretty sure font experts will laugh at my attempts but here they are. I have fun, like the growth image, where I can illustrate off it.

And my earlier ones. Learning, learning, learning. So much more to improve on. I think I kill myself at times with all the different software knowledge I have in my head. I want to do it all! Hopefully I can do more like my April Bunny.

I wish everyone a happy April and bunny month!

Grand St. Stompers

The end of March already? Time sure does fly. And I'll tell you I've been a busy bee. Much to share, many plans in the works,  and it's all a matter of kicking my butt and posting it now.

I'm in the middle of working on another album, this time for The Grand St. Stompers. Working with layout is an interesting back and forth process between working with a band's vision and melding it with your own artistic input. I try very hard to bring what they have in mind to light. Sometimes this means having to get over my own stubburness of direction, sometimes this means finding ways to work with my limitations of what I can draw - And boy, album works gets you to draw things and expand on content I never thought I'd draw. Happy that I have! Pushes me a lot and I need that.

Trains are pretty awesome, but it was certainly something I've never drawn before. Thankfully they provided reference pictures for me to work from  - an epic looking toy train. Not only did they want a train, but they showed me posters of Mucha and I KNEW I was going to have fun.  Panel time with whimsical lines.

Here is the evolution of where I started and where I am at now:

Layout version 1

Layout version 2

Layout version 3