Tuna & Wulfe Art Trade

Hey Guys!

I had the pleasure of meeting the sweet and incredibly talented Tuna Bora at the Nomad Gallery in December and her piece really stood out and grabbed me! I loved the energy in the wind-up pose she captured; the simplicity packed with attitude; the overall silhouette and style--all of it was so delightful I instantly loved it! That's why I was so ecstatic when she decided to so very generously GIFT me this very piece!! I was struck with excitement and giddiness at hearing this and soon we both agreed to do a trade:

Since Tuna's character was winding up to throw a snowball, confidently blowing bubble gum and ready to sock it to some poor fellow on the other end, I decided to draw Kayli as the target of the assailant, taunting away in her usual goofy self. This was done in blue pencil, brush pen and watercolor (the latter is a medium I've recently started teaching myself but desperately need more practice at). I wish I did a scan of just the clean inks, which became toned down after adding the colors, and I tried adding some artsy paint splatters but I hope it doesn't look like a mess...

Anyway, I think Tuna's piece takes the cake. She makes it seem easy as pie! ^__^

~Genevieve

Puppy Love

Hey Guys!

Sorry this blog has been sort of quiet lately. I have a ton of projects on my plate so things have been busy for me. Last night I was learning some watercoloring techniques through some of Bill Presing's tutorials, in preparation for an art trade I'm doing for my talented friend, Tuna Bora. I feel Presing is a master at what he does, and I adore his watercoloring skills and style! He's a very inspiring artist to many who know him! ^_^

Although this isn't the piece I am doing for Tuna, here is a Kayli-chibi I sketched up as practice. Like the song goes, "And they call it, Puppy Love."

Hope you guys like! ^__^

~Genevieve

The Mighty Nomad Gallery

I'll be in LA this weekend--actually, my flight leaves in about 5 hours! XD I'm so excited! I'm really tired right now--it's 2:48am--and I wish I could sleep but I have to finish some work for EA before I take off. Argh... must... fight off urge to... ZZzzzzzzz...

Getting this got me all peppy, though!*points above* A flyer/postcard that went out from Craig Harris on The Mighty Nomad Gallery this Saturday from 5-9pm! (On the lower half you'll find Kayli in all her boobtasticness. Hehehe!)

~Genevieve

The Mighty Nomad Gallery Preview

Hey Guys!

I've finally finished my painting for The Mighty Nomad Gallery! Making its debut on December 5th, 2009, this approximately 25x30" framed giclee print on Hahnemuhle Museum Etching paper takes after the gallery's seasonal theme of "Snowball Fight." I enjoyed the two ideas for titles that Joe came up with: first was, "They can Still See You!" and the second, "Yer Killin' Me Here, Lady!" Both of which make the angry rabbit in the center a main character of sorts! ^__^

If you're in the Los Angeles area and would like to see the piece in person, as well as the works of many other talented artists, the gallery info is here:

The Mighty Nomad Gallery

December 5th, 2009

6:00-9:00 p.m.
Los Angeles Meeting and Event Center
10601 W. Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90232

Click here for more details.

Here are some samples, though the following tiny images don't really do the actual piece justice. Also, Joe made the update on the IITS Blog before I did so I am going to be lazy and just copypasta his clever quips straight from his post (Thanks Joe!!). XD Enjoy!

(Click the images to see the larger version!)

Kayli is ambushed on her way to deliver some treats to her forest friends. Her enemies? Gordo, Manty, and... inexplicably, a trained baby arctic seal.

You can almost see a cross-section of Kayli's head,
revealing cob web covered gears... slooowly turning.

(thick Brooklyn accent)
"Yer killin' me here, lady!"

Hardworking patriots doing their part or opportunistic squirrels profiting from the bravery of the field mice? You decide.

The resistance is, in fact, futile.

Babs & Buster: The Final Chapter

If you're interested, yes... the framed print is available for purchase. Please contact me for further details after the show. At some point in the future, I may opt to make smaller sized, high-quality prints available in a limited print run. I'll post more information here as it becomes available.

Hope y'all have a Happy Turkey Day!!

- Genevieve

APE '09

Wheee! APE is approaching this weekend Oct. 17th - 18th at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco! Islands in the Sky (Keno's Lair Comics) will be at Booth 410A. Please feel free to stop by and say hi if you're attending! Compared to the hustle and bustle of Comic Con and even Wondercon, APE's gonna be a pretty relaxing show, methinks! ^__^

~Genevieve

Cat's Meow, Wix.com & CGHub

Hey Guys!

Some friends have been asking if they could see some of my animations. I wish I had time to finish all my animated projects I started while I was back at the Academy, and even more that I've dreamed up after that. (Someday I will get back to them, I swear!)

The only actual finished piece (and by that I mean gotten to color, since I have many pencil tests and animatics lying around that are rather embarrassing) is a very old short called Cat's Meow. I initially did this intending for it to fulfill my homework assignment of "Push and Pull." But I ended up polishing it further.

I apologize to most of the Academy peeps out there who have seen this waaaay too many times at the shows and are sick of it. m(-_-)m

I joined a site called CGHub.com. It's similar to CGTalk and ConceptArt.org but feels easier to navigate and has more networking features. So far, the members there seem cool and eager to give feedback. I've posted some of my art there, mostly things you've seen already on this blog, and old stuff from my website.

Speaking of my (seemingly ancient and forsaken) website Charicreatures, it's strangely dysfunctional at the moment due to pictobrowser. =( This led me to look around for quick and easy Flash Portfolio Website Builders, since I no longer have the time to make one from scratch. I found one that I want to share, called Wix.com. It's easy to build a free and fancy (but not too fancy so that it takes forever to load or find your way around) Flash site. The coolest thing is that it's highly customizable: you can add your own images anywhere; you can change the parameters, such as speed of animations, type of page transition, etc. in any Flash element on the template, and there are many types of templates to fit your needs.

~Genevieve

Messin' Around

Meh. Crappy sketch, being random and just messing around with some new brushes I found today, trying to get a more painterly feel and mostly just playing around with colors.

Does anyone have painting tips on how to find the best colors to sculpt light and shadow? I want to learn how to make it second nature to "see" light as different colors instead of my usual 2D approach of simply taking the lighter and darker versions of a base color. I'm trying to study this more... *furrows brow in thought*

Update: It's 4am and I am still wide awake, taking a crash course on color theory. I've dug up notes my mentor has given me and numerous helpful websites while actively painting as I learn. It's quite fun playing with color and finding how they harmonize; it's clear I've never been too strong with colors as I've always focused on linework and 2D cell shading. Over the years I've begun to regret my weaknesses and fear of color so I feel the need to force myself into it if I'm ever going to improve.

~Genevieve