tora.ILLUSTRATION

new book cover

2011-09-02T16:14:00.001-07:00

Just finished a new book cover and set of website additions for Gray Wings Press. Check out this wonderful book!!

www.graywingspress.com

the fun continues

2011-07-16T19:09:00.001-07:00

Fun with the Cintiq! Top is an image I did for my friend Angelina (I'm making custom art nouveau profile pictures a thing) and the bottom is a painting I did off a picture I took of my brother and sister in-law (and a detail shot). Good times.

Wacom love

2011-07-07T18:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the best husband EVER (in all the world) I am now in possession of a Cintiq 21UX, the very latest model of the very coolest digital art tool EVER (in all the world) and am thus the happiest person EVER (etc).

Oh yeah. That's the one.

Said best husband EVER (etc) had to go and buy a seperate cord to connect it to my laptop (mini DVI to regular DVI in case anyone cares) and then we had to figure out how the heck a two-monitor setup works (with a panic moment on my part when we mirrored the displays and then thought we couldn't undo it....turns out we had to just run the mouse over to the second screen) and then there was a brief flirtation with despair when I realized that the damn thing is just enormous and I have nowhere to put it - but after all that, I did a quick speedpaint and was super happy with the results.

I have no excuse not to art every day now. Like, none. On the other hand, I have to retrain my body to work using my entire arm - also a good thing, but might be harder than I thought.

But on the whole,

SQUEE!

animation backgrounds

2011-04-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

So...the reason I haven't posted for a long time is because one of my friends from college, a hugely talented guy named Tim, asked me to help him out with these backgrounds for an animation. I had a blast working on these and happily Tim has given his permission for me to post some for people to see!

All of these backgrounds were drawn by other (obviously very talented) people on Tim's team, and in a few cases inked by them. I colored all of them and inked most of them as well.

These three represent the seedy school where the main characters go. I referenced Invader Zim!

This is the interior of an alien ship. I used a photo of a lava lamp for the ceiling.

These three represent a dark alien world. Blade Runner was the main inspiration here.

I wish I could tell you guys more about the story - it's awesome! But you'll just have to wait and see if the show gets made. ^_^ Working on these was a lot of fun and really helped me out in terms of realizing my potential - I had always seen coloring as a weak point of mine so it was amazing to see that I could do stuff like this!! Many thanks to Tim at WackyandZany for the opportunity and hopefully the animation will be a huge success!

upcoming vacation

2011-02-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

Take a look at the picture 'cuz that's where I'm going!!

That's right - a delayed honeymoon and first vacation in years! My husband and I are going to Hawaii with my in-laws, and it's going to be fantastic. So I'll be out of town and not posting for two weeks, starting Monday. Right after the Hawaii trip we're hitting Emerald City Comic-Con, so I'll have pictures to post after we come back.

Really looking forward to it!!!

a family of trees

2011-02-11T19:43:00.000-08:00

Control yourself, take only what you need from it

A family of trees wanting to be haunted

"Kids" by MGMT

Quick mess-about with color and shape. I was sick of drawing, so...designing instead? This image or something like it has been knocking around in my head for a while now. Made with a mixture of vector silhouettes and photoshop brushes.

DED sketches

2011-02-02T10:58:00.001-08:00

Some more from the DRAW EVERY DAY resolution! It's fun to just sketch whatever fandom is in my mind at the moment.Lisbeth Salander, from Steig Larsson's Millennium series. The Swedish films are fantastic, I really recommend them.
A Big Daddy and some Little Sisters, from the Bioshock video game franchise. Rough sketch, obviously.
A more finished and polished sketch of myself and my husband as a Sister of Battle and a Crimson Fists Space Marine from the gaming world of Warhammer 40k. This is the first in a series of Valentine's pictures I'm going to do, starring the two of us in our favorite fandoms. (This is his favorite, not mine. lol)

tali'zorah nar rayya

2011-01-20T21:38:00.001-08:00

Fanart of Tali from Mass Effect! Trying out a new style, driven by lighting, texture, and pattern. It pretty much kicked my ass, but I like the results. And it's good to know I can still make my vectors look like I want them to without using a gradient mesh (which I never formally learned to use). Screw that omni-tool, though, man. It sucked.

audrey nouveau

2011-01-17T00:06:00.000-08:00

My cousin liked my art nouveau-style portrait on Facebook, so I made her one.

THE BUTTERFLIES, THEY IS ATTACKING

...murder-flies?

another self-portrait

2011-01-12T21:43:00.001-08:00

Been sprucing up my deviantART page...here's an image I just finished for my bio-pic. I've been sitting on the sketch for a long time, waiting for an opportunity to use it.

sketches, etc

2011-01-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

Been going strong on my New Years' resolution: to DRAW EVERY DAY! w00t! (Henceforth under the tag DED.) Some bits and pieces: face studies, Chef Ramsay, and a self portrait ala Mucha.

Having a good time with this decision, have noticeably improved in mood...

villain's tea

2010-12-21T17:27:00.000-08:00

Just a bit of fun: Gru (Despicable Me) and Megamind (Megamind) swapping stories with their minions on a lazy afternoon. Because surely, if there were supervils, they would get together once in a while to compare notes, amirite??

Blue pencil on sketchbook paper.

so have a buddha

2010-11-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

I had worked on stuff since September, I swear. I just can't post most of it until it's published, if ever. In recent days I have been in somewhat of a rut...trying to find and attend a figure drawing workshop in Portland is really frustrating, especially when you have no car, and the classes I can afford are community-college level, and nothing interests me there - it's more or less arts-and-crafts rather than real art classes. (Said classes featuring titles like, "So Now You Can Sew!" Lol). And doing art at home is just a bust; there is NO space. I would have thought that my SF apartment was the epitome of no space, but apparently the ante can be upped...

So, yeah...I feel pretty low these days.

On the bright side, I am not yet as round as Buddha.

new websites up

2010-09-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I made a lot on design gigs in the last month and a half, which is wonderful (and much-needed, since my husband was a full-time student this summer). Check out these flash websites I made for clients!

Gray Wings Press

Small press publisher located in Clackamas, Oregon.

Better Than Baklava

The creative works of Heidi Abualhaija, who makes the best baklava I have ever tasted in my life.

I've learned a LOT about flash websites making these, and have moved up to Actionscript 3.0, which is, to put it mildly, a bitch. But my skills now extend to paypal buttons, comment forms, and the all-important XML functionality. Whew. Still having trouble with transitions and the like, though.

It is painfully obvious that my own site needs a redo. God knows when I'll get to that.

Currently, I'm working on a bunch of illustrations for an newly-created apps company called Metagate. I'll be posting art from their projects as soon as the various apps are publicly available.

And summer ends...

design for local business

2010-08-05T18:55:00.001-07:00

I've been doing a lot of design work for local business lately - I have two websites to finish by the end of this month! *squee* In addition to teaching myself Actionscript 3.0 for Flash from the ground up, I've been keeping busy with the following projects:

One of my most exciting collaborations has been with Maureen Hovenkotter, a lovely woman who has just written her first novel. I designed the book cover for 42 States of Grace, which is available to purchase on Amazon.com, as well as working on the logo for her publishing company, Gray Wings Press. Yay, published work! Hers is the first website I am working on this month.

My coworker, Heidi, is an amazing woman who owns her own wholesale baklava business, Better Than Baklava. (And let me tell you, this is the BEST baklava you EVER had.) She also teaches cooking classes and designs her own line of adorable children's hats. These illustrations were done for a website I'm making for her - the second big project for this month.

I continue to tweak designs and create new signage for Cindy, my boss at Cravin' Raven Organic Bakery. This coupon was based on a previous design of mine that I did for self-promotion.

This is a series of logo variations done for a local bike business called Bumblebee Bicycle. The owner, Quentin, gave me a huge jumping-off point of reference ideas, and we refined the designs down to the one you see here.

So far all of this has been done at a very low "local business" rate, but I feel confident in raising my rates after this set of designs; I feel that I've really taught myself all the skills I need for website design (although that is continuing education!), and I have quite a lot of experience now in meeting the clients' needs when it comes to small business. Huzzah!

pics for friends

2010-08-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the dearth of posts recently - as you'll see, I've been busy.

These are just a few images I did for friends:

Allison and Jordan are a lovely couple who will be getting married soon. They are some of my favorite customers at the bakery where I work my day job. Both of them are social workers.

Scott and Amy are friends of my boss (and now my friends, too!). Amy owns her own pet-sitting business, so I drew them a "family portrait" with their four pets.

I went back to an anime sort of style for these...not sure why I felt motivated to do that, but I did. Maybe I'm swinging back around to not hating anime??

let them eat cake

2010-04-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

Custom cake toppers I designed for my wedding. Me and my fiance, David. These little guys are Mighty Mugg figurines painted over with gesso (to cut the shine of the plastic) and acrylic. I designed both figures front and back in Illustrator first. I really love the shape language in already existing Mighty Muggs (I'm getting quite a collection!), so that was my inspiration for these figures. And yes, they are still fully poseable =D

More shots of these on Facebook.

where did I go?

2010-03-01T13:23:00.000-08:00

hey guys,

Just wanted to let people know what was going on with me and where I've been. Planning my wedding, that's what. A ridiculously complicated endeavor that, along with a workaday job, has left little time for drawing. After the honeymoon, though, my self-promotion begins in earnest.

I've been doing some design work, including more work for Cravin' Raven bakery, signage for a landscaping company, and of course my own wedding invitations. Taking art jobs where I can find them.

My fiance and I tie the knot on Beltaine - May 1, 2010. Wish us luck and happiness!

octopus's garden

2009-11-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade

He'd let us in, knows where we've been

In his octopus' garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see

An octopus' garden with me

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm

In our little hideaway beneath the waves

Resting our head on the sea bed

In an octopus' garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around

because we know we can't be found

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade

We would shout and swim about

The coral that lies beneath the waves

(Lies beneath the ocean waves)

Oh what joy for every girl and boy

Knowing they're happy and they're safe

(Happy and they're safe)

We would be so happy you and me

No one there to tell us what to do

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden with you.

"Octopus's Garden" by the Beatles

I did this piece for my sister's birthday. Octopus's Garden is her favorite song in Beatles Rock Band. ^_^

commissions

2009-11-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

I need to make some extra money AND keep drawing...(I have a few things in the pipeline, but really have been shamefully lazy art-wise, apart from all the design work for Cravin' Raven.) Would there be any interest in commissions? Let me know!

cravin' raven

2009-10-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today, something very special.

Ladies and gentlemen, I just cashed my first legitimate check for illustration and design work!!!

ZOMG!!!

So....amazing, yes? I've been working full time at my day job at Cravin' Raven Organic Bakery in Portland, saving up money for my impending wedding, and it's been pretty awesome. The owner (and my boss), Cindy, is so cool. Since I started working at the bakery I've been doing various design projects for her. Here are a few things:

So far I've streamlined the logo, drawn the mascot in a number of different poses, created gift certificates, menus, open and close signs, labels, informational signs, and catering brochures. By and large, though, the biggest thing I've done for Cravin' Raven is our website. Thank you once again to Gordon and that Flash class!

------> Visit www.cravinraven.com! <------

I did the whole thing - graphics, art, site design, coding - and INCLUDING photography. Either Cindy's camera is the best there's ever been or I missed my calling as a food photographer. Mmm...food.

Anyway, while I've sort of put my "art career launch" on hold (wedding planning + full-time job = no money and no time) it's been great to keep my hand in with these projects. I love Cravin' Raven!

engage!

2009-07-28T21:13:00.001-07:00

The invite to me and Admael's engagement party, front and back. Just a fun little thing I threw together for the nerd cred. XD

Text reads:

Worf: "Captain, a Romulan warship is decloaking off our port bow. She is arming phasers."
Picard: "Thank you, Lieutenant. Raise shields. Arm phasers and photon torpedoes."
Picard: "Helm, prepare to execute Picard maneuver zero-three. On my mark!"
Picard: "Engage!"

And you know what the first thing my darling fiance said to me when he saw this?

"Honey, Romulan warships have DISRUPTORS, not phasers!"

*facepalm*

EDIT: Also engagement-related: a sneak peek at our engagement photos is up at Jessica Hill Photography's blog. Check it out here!

website update

2009-06-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to say that ToraIllustration was updated today. Don't forget to refresh! And suddenly I have more decorative work up than anything else (and that's excluding the Idiomatics series)! WTF? Time to get back into the children's book game. I have several ideas for projects that will supplement my current work in a much-needed way. Just need to get inspired! In the meanwhile, I'm considering breaking off the decorative work into its own site. I already have the design and the name all prepped...in my head.

I spent the better part of this morning and early afternoon doing an online job-hunt for some non-illustration work, admin assistant or something along those lines, for the summer. Need to get some money flowing for an apartment and mailers. The first master list of children's book publishers and agents I want to submit to has been compiled. Finding venues for my editorial and decorative work might be a bit harder.

Not much else happening at the moment, unless you count nearing the end of watching all of Star Trek (TOS), including the films. Good times! Live long and prosper, friends.

Graduation and Spring Show

2009-05-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

Five years of hard work, sweat & tears came to an end this Wednesday. I am now officially gradjumated! lol

It was a really stressful week and I'm glad it's over, but that's not to say it didn't have its highlights. Getting to see all my friends from college again was absolutely wonderful. It might be the last time for a long while for some of us. Still, the Internet is a marvelous thing, and I have every hope of keeping in touch with most of y'all. ^^ Weirdly enough, the one person I thought for sure I would see - my old roomie, Andrea - I didn't set eyes on once, and we were at the same places at the same times. That's what we get for being in different departments, I suppose...

The Spring Show portfolio review went well too, I thought. Every reviewer had nice things to say about my work, and only a few critiques. YAY! I'm just beginning to become accustomed to thinking of my work as professional grade, but that was confirmed for me at the show. I was really pleased. (Understatement!!) Three pieces of mine got into the show - well, four actually, but two were for the same project. The St. Nick Christmas card was one, Jabberwocky another, and the last two I didn't even submit - which was WEIRD - the "Dude, Where's My Flying Car?" editorial cover and spread. My teacher must have submitted those! I wish he had asked for nicer JPGs, because they showed up on the big screen with my name, class number, etc. still along the bottom! Mortification...Also, for that particular piece, they credited "Melissa Buker." *facepalm* My legal name is, of course, Marissa...

All in all it was a satisfying week, but very stressful. Now I can look forward to a well-deserved week or two of chilling out before I begin the process of promoting myself in earnest.

future world 2

2009-05-13T18:24:00.001-07:00

The companion cover to the spread I posted last.

future world

2009-05-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

Here's something I completed today: a spread for an article in Popular Science called "Dude, Where's My Flying Car?" about the technology of the future (where is it??). Among the things mentioned in the article: flying cars, jetpacks, fission energy, and advanced AI. And I am never drawing a geodisic dome again.

There's a companion cover for this article which will be coming along eventually. Probably sometime next week, since my weekend is shaping up to be pretty busy - in an awesome way. Hanging with my good friend on Friday, D&D on Saturday with my boys, and Star Trek (IMAX!) on Sunday. Booyah!

Wishing all of you a great weekend!

stretchy safari

2009-04-30T22:39:00.001-07:00

A design for an illustrated box. I knew I wanted to do safari animals, but the dimensions of the box gave me the idea to stretch their heads out, like certain African masks. I did this very quickly, still some mistakes to fix and stuff to work on...

april flowers (on the moon! and also not)

2009-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here's the work I did before traveling last week. The first two images were for Decorative Illustration; they are designs for an Easter or Spring-themed napkin and placemat. The bottom is the final for the Editorial Illustration project for the article, "Firm vows to grow first flowers on the moon" (sketches below).

progress sketches

2009-04-01T11:46:00.001-07:00

Haven't posted up many sketches lately, so here's a set I did yesterday for an editorial illustration. The article is called "Firm vows to grow first flowers on the moon" and you can read it here.

The sketches on the bottom focus on the reflections in the astronaut's helmets. In one, the astronaut is holding a sprig of flowers; in the other, he sees fields of flowers leading to a glass dome. On top, we have an astronaut watering flowers on the lunar surface; the fourth is the Apollo astronaut's famous bootprints with little flowers growing around them.

idiomatics

2009-03-22T18:21:00.001-07:00

Designs for a series of any-occasion, die-cut greeting cards called "Idiomatics." I worked these up this last week over my Spring Break. Each card is based on an idiom (figure of speech).

website changes

2009-03-01T23:45:00.000-08:00

So I spent all of today (after sleeping in a bit) revamping ToraIllustration.Com. It's spiffy new! Basically I just streamlined the whole thing, got rid of the animations, made the gallery less busy, took out older illustrations, etc. There's still some stuff I think I could do, but basically it's done with.

The one thing I struggled with was the size of the site. At the moment, it remains 1024 x 768, and I think that's okay for most people. 800 x 600 is just so small. The thing is, I can't just size it down, because Flash does weird things and my art gets warped (not horribly so, but noticeably). The load time is also a little on the heavy side, because my art, being vector, looks really crappy at anything other than max .JPG size: all the crispness of the line gets completely lost. So that's something else to mess with.

But! The bio and contact pages are all new (with actual content now yowza!) and the gallery is much less confusing (I think) so hopefully the site is more or less good to go. So remember to hit the Refresh button on your browser the next time you head over there, and let me know what you think.

robot world

2009-03-01T13:11:00.001-08:00

Here was a project for Editorial Illustration on an article entitled "Robot Population Explosion." Interesting stuff. I researched actual robots being made today and used them as the basis for the robots in this design.

You can't really see it well, but my favorite part of the whole illo is the ad for HAPPY BOT CLEANER, which is the yellow square with the circular robot head enclosed in a sunburst shape...

coffee chicas

2009-02-24T18:39:00.001-08:00

Sticker designs for Decorative Illustration. This project was fraught with frustrations, not the least of which is the color settings on my new computer. This image needs tweaking before print.

First of the new term

2009-02-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

Here is the first of my work for the final two classes I am taking, Decorative and Editorial. It's nice being at home to work, since I don't have to run errands to the degree I did before, and not having to physically go to class frees up my time even further. It feels right that I am in charge of my own time and working for myself, so to speak. It makes me feel confident about this career path again...XD

The first is a t-shirt design for self-promotional purposes, which I am actually going to be creating (I bought my t-shirt transfers already from Epson; just need to make sure I have enough ink for my printer). Love it. The other two are editorial; the article was about cow manure being turned into energy.

Back from the holidays

2009-01-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well, the move from SF went off with barely a hitch, and it was a snowed-in white Christmas in Portland, Oregon; something I never expected, but actually really enjoyed. I've been shamefully lazy in terms of work, but kept my hand in with various drawings that my mom commissioned. (Every time I go to my parents' place, it's "You've gotta draw me this!" and "You need to paint me that!" Yeesh. Reminds me of Stephen Kloepfer's dire warnings about family intruding on art time.) But now it's time to find some jobs.

Luckily, I am aided in this by my new computer ("and there was much rejoicing") and a new copy of Adobe CS4, which I expect to show up any day now. (Student price at New Year: $385. Holy crap!) I got a great deal on the computer, too; it's a Macbook, high-end in specs but it has a white casing, which made it very cheap. I also got the AppleCare protection plan, a free laptop case, and a copy of iWorks, which reminds me so much of Appleworks. (Old school!) But I'm looking forward to using Pages instead of Microsoft Word, since it has page layout capability similar to InDesign, but for word processing.

All this totally wiped my bank account, of course. Luckily, everything is so cheap here! I don't miss SF at all yet...

Onward to the workforce!

holiday hiatus

2008-12-13T18:09:00.000-08:00

So, the computer I was using freaked out again, so I re-installed Windows on it. Unfortunately the copy of Windows didn't contain any of the proper drivers for the computer to use to connect to the Internet. So I now have no internet access, except via my boyfriend's computer.

That and the fact that I am moving in a few days means:

HIATUS!

The ToraIllustration Blog will return after the holidays. Happy holidays to everyone!

omg!busy

2008-12-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't posted in quite some time...it's a combination of factors. Okay. First of all, the image below for Snow White/Rose Red will be updated today; it went through several changes since I posted it, and is now in a state of reasonable finality. So check back later, if you want to.

My move back home to Portland is imminent, so I've been dealing with all the arrangements that hadn't yet been made. Boxes have arrived (ordered off the internet this time; very reasonable prices at Costco and U-Haul) and I'm fairly certain we have enough...Also, major surprise last week, when all of a sudden it turned out that I had to pay rent for December after all. So much for my "new computer" money. Speaking of a new computer...

The computer I've been using, David's old one, freaked out and had a virus (or several) and I'm still trying to deal with fixing it. The computer steadfastly refuses to update from Windows Updater (Automatic Updates is totally vanished/disabled no matter how I try to turn it on) and so I've been running virus scans nonstop and just deleting whatever new ones pop up with each scan. Luckily, I think - THINK - I am finally coming to the end of it. Apart from the occasional pop-up, everything now seems to be working just fine...*crosses fingers*

So...in the face of everything, there hasn't been any new artwork, merely corrections to old stuff in preparation for the finals next week. After which packing will be frenzied and nonstop.

white & red

2008-11-23T15:20:00.001-08:00

Here is an illustration for the fairytale "Snow White and Rose Red," the original(ish) version. Snow and Rose live in a cottage in the woods. One winter, they are visited by a bear. They take him in, brush the snow off his coat, and let him lie in front of the fire. They shelter him all winter. Of course it turns out the bear is an enchanted prince! (Of course!) When he regains his real shape, the prince marries Snow and Rose marries his brother. Good times all round. (There's also a lot about an ungrateful dwarf and stuff, but that's nothing to do with the illustration...)

I think I might redo Rose Red, just so you can see her face. But not this week. =)

Edit: Fixed it! And made other changes too...

sketchdump: tigers

2008-11-23T15:10:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I draw tigers a lot.

another day, another design

2008-11-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here's another design I've finished this week...this one is obviously a birthday card. Although it's too late for my sister's birthday, which was on the 16th. Sorry, sis!

Anyway, this one and the previous post (the sympathy card) haven't been critiqued in class yet, so changes may be made and this version you're looking at might not be the final one.

I applied some edge to the shapes in Photoshop, just to add a little definition. But I might have to play with it some more. Unfortunately American Greetings is on campus in just a few hours, so I have to stop for now and print it out, on the off chance that they're looking at portfolios. We shall see.

sympathy card

2008-11-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

Here is something I just finished today, a "sympathy" card (I guess) for my cousin's husband Pete, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. It's really hard to come up with a good concept for a sympathy card. I was surprised to find that I wanted to fall back on the old "flowers" idea, but I tried to make it special with good drawing and strong concept.

The white flower represents hope.

site update and st. nick

2008-11-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

I made another update to the website today, and added the last four illustrations I did to the gallery. Included are different layouts for the Dragonflower poster design (see previous post) and this new piece, a Christmas card featuring the European St. Nicholas, with both front, back, and utility view. I have plans to overhaul the site over winter break, just to make it a little smaller and more manageable, and without the animation transitions.

Some say that the tradition of leaving shoes out for St. Nicholas to fill with toys and treats dates back to Norse mythology. Children would leave their shoes out for Odin, the All-Father, and fill them with hay or grain for his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir. When his steed had eaten his fill, Odin would leave gifts or food in the shoes as a thank you. I grew up with the story of St. Nick and the shoe-stuffers taking place largely in a Dutch/Netherlands context, and so I have made it a wooden shoe in the illustration.

a bit of a departure

2008-11-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

Here is the poster design I've been working on for the last 3 weeks; it's a bit of a change from the usual, and I'm a bit ambivalent about it. That's what you get for trying to impress someone and trying to be someone you really aren't...

It's also rather a composite; although originally designed to be this way, it actually looks better as separate designs. (Dragons as one, the girl as another.) I do like it design-wise, but I think it's tending too much toward realism, and suffers as a result. It felt very labored and probably looks that way, too.

Bleh...

life and sketches

2008-11-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

So...not much going on this week except work, work, and more work (and by that I mean homework). Here are a couple of sketches that might be made into illustrations at some point...I'm finishing up two new illustrations at the moment; one is a poster design with dragons and the other is a die-cut Christmas card design.

I'm also getting ready for the move back to Portland, which will be happening on the evening of December 19th. We've booked the movers to come haul our boxes away; they should arrive a few days after we do. But we still have to pack and clean the apartment; sometime soon, we'll be scheduling a pre-move inspection by our management to see how much (if at all) we can mitigate the dents in our security deposit. I'm not expecting much back, since my dearest darling boyfriend dropped a hot iron on the carpet a year ago...

It's also time to start thinking about sending some samples to reps, or so my teachers assure me. I admit I was a little freaked out about the idea at first, but now it just seems a natural progression. Finding the right people might be tricky, however, and also finding the time to send stuff out. We shall see...

whoohoo!!

2008-11-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

OBAMA WINS!!!!!!!!!!!

A random pic for the happiness.

octo attack!

2008-11-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Another finished illustration. I posted the sketch some time ago...This is one of the few times when a sketch that I doodled just for fun was turned into an illustration. Usually I sketch for illos with the deliberate intent of making them illos...so...this was a nice change of pace.

It was awesome to do because it prominently features my favorite things: overlapping circles, finicky surface detail, and cephalopods...

I know, I know, it's another vignette. But damn it, I just love to design around the edges of things! >.>

something different

2008-10-29T13:14:00.001-07:00

Something from my Sci-Fi Illustration class. It's meant to be an album cover and was (loosely) based off the myth of Daphne and Apollo.

I felt the need to do something non-children's book for once, just to show people that I could. I used to be QUITE MORBID, you know.

It's true.

doodles and stuff

2008-10-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Just a few more sketches for no reason. I like the kid playing as a Jedi... and I'm not sure where the ramen label came from.

Lately I've been doing some work for the animation company WackyandZany Productions, which I'm very excited about...I'll have to ask if I can post up those sketches or not under the NDA I signed. Probably.

And, in happy news, I am going today to pick up my ordered copy of Adam Rex's book Frankenstein Takes the Cake!! Whoohoo!!

website update

2008-10-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Just updated ToraIllustration.Com; added some text and the new Illustrator artwork to the galleries (and to the latest image viewer on the homepage).

Still have to to make some tweaks to the illustrations, but what I have for now is up for view.

Enjoy!

rapunzel

2008-10-16T15:42:00.001-07:00

Another one finished this last week. Not as awesome as the previous one, I must say. I didn't quite feel the love with this piece...

little red and the wolf

2008-10-12T13:06:00.001-07:00

I was going to wait to post this, but I just couldn't. =)

I finished this in a day.

sketchdump: creatures

2008-10-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

New sketchdump! Full of happy weirdness...
This one is a mutant chicken. I drew it in my Sci-Fi Illustration class while watching one of Stephen's delightfully strange films. There was a computer that wanted a baby, and...all kinds of bizarre. So I guess it's not surprising that what I drew was freakalicious...

This next one will be familiar to any Doctor Who fans out there...a Dalek! Whoohoo! This sketch will likely be incorporated in an illustration I was thinking of making, a Dalek propoganda poster type thing. "EXTERMINATE!" (For those of you who haven't seen Doctor Who, definitely check out the new series. It is guaranteed good stuff. Season 4 just finished and they're taking a rest year, so it's a good time to catch up...DO IT! I command you!)

And finally...I like to end these sketchdumps with a good sketch, to show you people that I can draw nice things, occasionally... (I'm actually a little sensitive about my messy sketchbooks, so...bolster my ego with positive comments or something.) This is, again, a nerd picture...fan art for Dungeons and Dragons. It is a crossbreed: half T-Rex, half Red Dragon. Why? Because it's awesome.

Hope you enjoyed this batch of sketches...

sketchdump: cephalopods

2008-10-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be starting a series of sketchdumps...here is the first. Its theme is Cephalopods! because I love them. Nothing more fun to draw than a cephalopod. Try it.

This first one is a picture of a character from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. It's Laughing Octopus! She's totally my favorite. I can't resist villains that giggle uncontrollably. So...yeah. She's called that both as an homage to a former villain and because she could disguise herself like an octopus, but...I think it would be hilarious if she carried around an actual octopus...so...I'm weird. I call my version of the character Giggly Cephalopod.

The next image is one that I will hopefully turn into an illustration (with some tweaks, and redrawing, of course). I can't really explain this one except to say that sometimes, I need to draw something that shows up just how insane and meticulous I am. And sometimes, I just need to draw an octopus. Bingo.

I hope you enjoyed these sketches...

Note for all sketchdumps: these sketches were created using Prismacolor Col-Erase pencils in blue or red, and desaturated and cleaned up in Photoshop. Small irregularities are probably due to Photomerge, since I draw on an 11x14" pad and my scanner is only 9X12". All fan art of characters is fan art only; characters belong to their respective owners/franchises/whatever.

another new illo

2008-10-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

Here is the final of "The Princess and the Pea;" at least, it's final for now. I got a lot of comments on it that were a little disappointing, but such is the way of critique among artists with different styles. Like "Jabberwocky," this was a bit of a hassle in terms of technique, but now that I have it all worked out, subsequent illustrations will be easy street.

Last night I went to the Illustration Dept's "Pizza-folio Night" for the second (and likely last) time. It was awesome to hang out with all my classmates, old and new, and just chat and exchange tearsheets and cards. I think I was pretty successful; every single one of my tearsheets was taken, and 3/4 of my business cards! People absolutely loved the minicards from Moo.Com; many took two or three at a time. They are so awesome! But now that I've told everyone about them, it's less unique for me...lol. But the night was great. Best of all, Chuck had good things to say about the pieces I was showing. Yay!

I've already accepted an offer from a senior ADV student to work on an ad campaign for Ricola. It's going to be a lot of fun!

snicker-snack!

2008-09-29T11:04:00.001-07:00

Here is the finish of my illustration for "Jabberwocky." It was a bit of a rocky process; I had to scrap the inked stage of the drawing (shown in a previous post) and go back from scratch in Illustrator, because I couldn't get a live-traced version of the lineart to colorize the way I wanted. So I created a new system to make my own outlines of different weight. Hopefully you like the way it turned out!

Also: sorry for the watermarks now appearing on the art on this blog. Unfortunately, the Orphan Works act still threatens the copyright of artists' work, and until the bill is completely scrapped like the trash it is, I'm going to watermark my work.

tech joys and woes

2008-09-27T11:52:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been an interesting week. My computer is dead.

But! I got a new printer. My Epson Stylus 1400! It's glorious! It's enormous! And it's sitting in my room as we speak! Booyeah! Seriously, this thing is gargantuan, and HEAVY, too. It's too big to fit under my desk, so we put it on the floor in front of my boyfriend's shelving unit. It works beautifully, and best of all, the ink cartridges are separate, so I can buy them singularly if need be.

So...that kind of mitigates the computer thing...a little...

Luckily for me, I've been depending more and more heavily on my boyfriend's old laptop, and so when the crash came I didn't lose any of the stuff I've been working on; it was all on his computer (which is now effectively MY computer, at least until I get a new one). I still plan to look into data recovery to get my files back, most notably my folders of reference material and my digital files of older pieces. But the tiny disk size of my former computer actually worked as a plus for me in this case; there wasn't much on the drive that I need or want at this point. So it's just a matter of taking it to Geek Squad or whatever.

Still, it's troublesome...

After some quick work downloading programs onto my borrowed laptop, it's been working out just great for the art stuff. So that's nice. I've been marathon-ing Illustrator for the past three days to finish the two pieces I posted before. They should be done by the end of the week.

No sun without rain, they say...

new drawings

2008-09-21T14:02:00.001-07:00

Here are two new illustrations I'm working on at the moment, inked and ready for color. One is for "The Princess and the Pea" fairy tale; the other is for Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky." The latter was especially fun; being a nonsense poem, I could extrapolate all the details and basically make up the whole story in my head. We know that our little squire wins the day in the end...

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

I want to galumph...

oppose orphan works

2008-09-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I wanted to post a follow-up to my previous posting about the Illustration Partnership's blog on the Orphan Works legislation. If you don't already know, the Orphan Works act is one which threatens the future of illustrators and all image-makers by threatening our rights to our own work.

I sincerely and earnestly extort every one of you to oppose this harmful legislation and to write your representatives of Congress to protest its consideration for law. Those of you not living in the US can also help by sending letters of protest. THIS WILL TAKE LESS THAN TWO MINUTES OF YOUR TIME.

Please follow this link and select a letter to send to your Congresspeople to oppose this legislation!

Email congresspeople with one click!
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/
(Non US-citizens please click the special link at the top of their page.)

fall semester begins

2008-09-10T23:50:00.000-07:00

Well, the semester has started, which should give me the impetus to work on this blog a little. I have things to post, to be sure, but my computer has decided to leave me in the lurch, so I have to flashdrive all that stuff over to this other computer I'm working on (my boyfriend's old laptop). Not to mention spiffy up the layout, because this is just bare-looking. New illo in the works for that...

If you have not yet, everyone should check out the Illustrators' Partnership's blog dedicated to the Orphan Works issue. Stay informed on this very, very important issue, and for godssake write your congresspeople!

welcome to the jungle

2008-08-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got around to starting this art blog. It's been a long and crazy summer, but I'm proud to say that I met my main goal for it: my professional website, http://www.toraillustration.com, is now up and launched. w00t!

Although the Blog link on the website isn't yet updated, it will eventually lead to this page.

It's been a long time since I've used a blog template like this; I'm used to coding my own blog. (My pathetic, never-updated excuse of a Livejournal doesn't count; I just use it to keep in touch with other friends...) So expect a spiffier layout and stuff, once I get the hang of this Blogger thing. This weird minimalist one isn't really my style.

So...the future marches on!