Oof,sorry for the lack of art updates. I've slowed down since I lost a fight with a city bus and have thus fallen behind on the stuff that pays the bills. There is some good news though in that I've been confirmed to be a booth babe at the Axiotron booth at MacWorld this January!

What does Axiotron make, you say?

These.



That's Emma Coats demo-ing there and I will be joining her! I'm so completely giddy, I have been dying to try these things and now I get to draw on one for a whole week. So if you're gonna be at MacWorld in a month, do stop by and say hi!

As promised, a showcasing of some of the talented artists who have tried out the Papercut Tutorial! It's amazing how something as simple as a subtle texture can put energy into a piece :) So here we go, in no particular order:

Lauren Marten did a lovely 3-part series of a mermaid and an adorable goldfish! Check out the coral textures she used and the hidden octopus! WIN!



Ztoical of deviant art (I don't have your real name hon!) made this gorgeous holiday pic (love the firey reds on those rich blues, YUM!)



I spied this beauty on Gnarfdeath's blog, some of the sexiest shape and linework I've seen in a while. RAWR! Looks like a beauty right out of Monster's Inc or from the darkest closet at Foster's Home ;)



Jabberworks from the UK Children's Book Writers & Illustrators blog posted their take on the technique. (Maybe they can give me some advice as my own book project is ramping up!) Isn't this little guy completely rad, scary adn adorable all at the same time?! I want to start playing around with cut magazine collage pieces too!



Finally, Lea Hernandez took a crack at the technique with this vibrant cutie. I hope she doesn't mind that I posted a WIP ^__^;;



And lastly, the updated "nice" version of my Christmas Card. I sent both to press and will start mailing 'em out in t he next couple weeks! Which card will you get? Well, have you been naughty or nice, hmmmm?



OH YEAH! If anyone else has tried the tutorial, please drop me a line so I can feature your work here! WOO HOO!

Omigosh, thank you all so much for the comments and kind words about the tutorial! A few people have already contacted me to show me the artwork they created using the tutorial, so I will be sure to link to them in my next post. Right now it's late and I'm just dropping off a quickie!

So here's the concept for my Christmas Card this year. The title is:

"Naughty or Nice, You're Still Getting a Lump in Your Stocking"



...I'm starting to wonder if I have some issues. ^_~

I'm not planning on printing out this version just yet - my family is my primary audience for the printed cards so I will literally have to clean this one up a bit before I do a small run. Anyone know of any print houses that will do a run of 50 cards or less?

Whoah Nellie, I finally got that Digital Paper Cut tutorial done! Now you can all do that thing I do, maybe you'll take it a few steps further than me and share what you discover, hmmmm? ;)







Feel free to download or link to these images but don't go cropping the copyright info or anything sneaky like that. That's so full of FAIL.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

I'm still alive! See?



Did you know that I gained 6 pounds in 3 weeks while I was away? No? One look at my photo album would tell you why. ;) I don't have much more to show other than me being a cupcake vampire, but there are some bright prospects for freelance at least. NDAs never make blog updates easy.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to watch the Sox finish off the Rockies in game 3. Suck it, Rockies ^___^

P.S. Oh yea, finally got my eyebrow pierced! Now my face is hella cluttered, with the glasses too. Which is why I only drew the brow ring this time.

Art retreats KICK ASS. Check out "the band shot"!



It was completely rad to rub elbows with some of the best fantasy/sci fi illustrators around and be schooled by their oil paint prowess and I would have new art to show ...except that I spent the week sleeping in, roasting marshmallows, playing frisbee, getting lost on back roads and eating out instead of creating art. D'oh!

More goodies will follow. Keep an eye on my Flickr gallery for more retreat photos.

...and my time at the Frog is done!

All I have to really say is "reprise the theme song
and roll the credits!"

Here's some stuff I did at The Frog about a year ago. I'll upload more goodies once they clear their street dates, so figure, another year from now? X_x









Wheee, back to packing! *bounces*

Feelin' cheeky!



This is for a friend who said he was feeling Post-It envy. Well, envy not, this is for you. There's a billion icky tangents in this comp but I've decided to take my mental vacation a few days early. I can deal, can you? ;)

Oh yeah, I wear glasses now (most of the time). I can't believe how much I was missing up until this point, holy crap! Sweet, sweet clarity!

P.S. Stripes are hawt.

Pucker up, ya little minnow!



I'm not as stoked with this one as I was about the Butterfly Kid, but when deadlines come to call, ya gotta answer with dignity, poise and heart-shaped bubbles.

So, I'm off at the end of the week for my grand vacation... the vacation that's so packed full of stuff to do that I won't have much time to relax. YAY! I'll start by heading to Philly for all of 12 hours, driving to western MA, then to Salem, then fly out from Boston to Los Angeles then finally back to San Fran. So uh, it might be a few weeks before there's more stuff to see on here is all I'm sayin'. ^__^;

Post-it quickie!



I was going to do this epic post-it series before my last day at work and give the whole grand mosaic of memories as a parting gift to my friend, to say thank you for sharing the moments with me. But the further I got into this, the more exhausted I became and the more worried about taxing the friendship, so maybe it's time to just keep what I have and give this project a rest.

Never underestimate the versatility of white-out; it's not just for mistakes anymore!

Update: I gave these to him in person. They were well received :)

Because nobody ever suspects the butterfly...



This is one of two illustrations for Mike Mattesi's newest character design book, which is due out next year. Yes, this image is disgustingly cute. No, I didn't have any say in the subject matter. I'm sorry if it - hey wait, not I'm not! Stuff like this is gonna pay my rent! ^_~

I tried to push the drybrushing technique this time, who knew that the dissolve brush actually could be used for the purposes of good? The second image should be up tomorrow, early this week at the worst. And holy crap, I am so going to bed now.

I just took inventory and realized that I have less than 50 copies of Sketch or Swim left! Oh noes!







Wanna help me find homes for them? ^_~ Drop an email to Cre8vSteph@yahoo.com if you'd like one. They're all signed and numbered n' stuff and there were only 200 of them printed. $10 includes shipping and entitles you to a few PugFish pins too!

New stuff coming this week btw!

'Nuther Post-It Series! I started doing sequentials it seems, now if only I could get past 2 panels...

Holy crap! I need to give some serious props to Lauren Faust and Deanna Marsigliese! Lauren was kind enough to feature my version of Mars on her blog and Deanna
wrote an awesome review of my book. You ladies are more rad than anyone has a right to be, thank you so much for taking the time to do that ^_~

While we're at it, props go out to Mustin, The OneUps and Final Fanboy - The OneUps played a very successful show at PAX this weekend and Mustin was spotted wearing one of my PugFish pins on his bass strap. PugFish will invade the dorky music scene ever so slowly, one nerd at a time! Do check out their music, if you like and understand all of the video game references that pop up in my artwork then you will love their music!

Not a lot of new art in this post but I can offer another Schala doodle.



I have my share of projects ramping up in the next few months, ranging from my first children's book to a character design for Mike Mattesi's newest book. I am also happy to announce that I will be "back in the saddle" as it were, designing My Little Ponies once more. So hopefully there will be many much eye candy to post after my extended vacation from all things Froggy.

Galaxy Girls FANARTZ!



Visitng Lauren's Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls booth at SDCC was one of the highlights of the Con for me, and after she introduced Mars to me I kept having little images of her as a digital papercut popping into my mind. So here is the result of that venture. Mars has been my favorite planet since I was little and when I found out that Lauren's Mars was an artist, well, that just sold me. ;)

And now back to the work they pay me to do. Le sigh.

A moment for Popke

Odds are you've already seen this on my website, in my art book or somewhere else online, but it's getting re-posted here.



Popke (Pop-kee) is the red-eyed rascal on the left and she passed away tonight from a complication with mammary tumors. Rattie owners are all too familiar with those. .__. It's strange, because I haven't had Popke with me in over a year; my father is taking care of her and her sister (Puddin') in Boston because I thought it too risky to fly them out to California. Surgery wasn't an option with Popke (my Dad was unable to provide the aftercare) so we opted to keep her happy until things started to get tough for her. She was perky and ever-vigilant for Yogies right until the end.

I miss her little happy tail thrashes when you petted her lil head just right...

Despite a back injury I've been nursing for 4 days, I feel like the luckiest girl in the world today, because I have freaking awesome friends who bring me groceries, cupcakes, songs and prayers. You're all too damn nice for your own good <3

So, having a lot of time on the couch means I have a chance to wander into the depths of my laptop's hard drive and find old but entertaining sketches like this:

Betta Pug and closed-mouthed Cuttle Pug and Blow Pug!



Myself and a co-worker as Purple and Brown... and he's got a case of pink-eye. Happens.

Post Its!

Since all the cool kids are doin' it, I started doodling on Post-Its at work with whatever office supplies were within arm's reach.


I like markers. Lots.

Oh yeah, then there's this. Explains all the kitties, huh?

Some more Schala fanartz, whipped up between asset creation at work. Those Zeal kids... such drama queens.



So how's my new site lookin'guys? Did everyone manage to find the sub-galleries OK?

Eek! I am a featured artist on characterdesigns.com! Please check out the site, it showcases a bunch of talented character designers working in all fields as well as a whole slew of well-lit life drawing reference photos! Hong busts his arse to put all this stuff online for artists to use, so mad props go out to him :)

I'm sorry I haven't had much new artwork to show, call it Comic-Con burn out I suppose. I promise more goods as soon as I can!

Book pre-orders! Just $5 (plus shipping...!)


I am taking pre-orders for my first ever book! It's 7x7'', 24 full-color pages (28 if I have a few more late nights) and will ship beginning July 24th. Did I mention it's signed and numbered too? WOO HOO!

It features a year in art from my lil brain, and a couple surprises too. So drop an email to Cre8vsteph@yahoo.com if you would like one for just $10!

...and now to go finish the contents of this book O__o;;

Pre-Comic Con confidence breakdown! Woo hoo!



Something fluffy to look at while I sweat bullets, lose sleep and make my masseuse very rich. My book is going to be PWNed by all the big dawgs in a couple of weeks, I really hope I can handle the big ol' slice of humble pie headed my way.

Urp.

A bit of silly fan art!



I don't think I quite nailed the Paper Mario style I was after, but I only had one evening to work on this. Mmmm... circles... so many circles...

More sketchies, some monsters, a few gestures and the usual brain farts. I picked up the copics for the first time in years and forgot how satisfying it is to actually drag some ink over paper. Then the damn things dried out on me. Looks like it's Tria markers for the next round!

I know, I've been a bum about getting my site up. But here's the reason for the delay!



Was it worth the wait I hope?

I've got the green light to post some older work that was NDA on the new site, so I offer a taste of my first ever adventure into the realm of vectorized characters. I think these were done in late 2005 and they taught me a crapload of what not to ever do in Illustrator.


One of them is dressed in a Halloween costume I wore in college, another is loosely based on the (now ex)girlfriend of one of my ex-boyfriends. Not sayin' who is who. ;)

All that's left to do is cut the site into Dreamweaver-friendly chunks and offer a virgin sacrifice to the Gods of web browser compatibility... and maybe an offering to the Gods of java script too. I should have things up mid-week if I don't end up sick or bogged down in freelance this weekend. So enjoy your holiday cookouts, guys X_x

So my two web layouts succumbed to the heat of passion the other night and I woke up to find this wrapped in swaddling cloths on my doorstep... All in all, it's close and I like where it's going. Now comes the hard part of making the resume and contact pages work out. The shop will be an external link and you will be able to by Tampy thongs there ;)



Oh, I also forgot to upload this stuff before - holla back, Chrono Trigger fans!




Finally, this lil character seems to get a lot of reaction out of people - the stewardess on the flight back from London stopped serving her lil cups of soda to look at her and someone special to me also singled her out in my sketchbook. I s'pose she's another (vain) self portrait of me as a kid, but it sure beats the embittered one I did back in 2003.



...and I'm off to bed. Did I mention I also have a sketchbook here? I'm just your average net art whore, playin' all the fields she can ;)

Ok, so the new portfolio site will be up in a couple of weeks, but until then, here is a little slide show of my recent works. Enjoy and drop me a line!

Cre8vSteph@yahoo.com

My front page gallery on Conceptart.org just went up! HOLY CRAP!

I couldn't clear the NDAs with Hasbro, so all I had to add up there was some older stuff (which makes me really nervous, I feel so out-ranked up there!). I want to add a couple of my newer pieces up there... any suggestions?

Crap, now I really have to get my website fixed...

Mwahaha, I have stooped to the level of fan art! It ain't Mozart, it's this guy here. or for those of you too lazy to click a link, here's his mug:



This is neither a digital papercut nor a painting, it's something kinda lost in between. I might push this in one direction or the other, or I might just move on to the next idea. Either way, in true idiot fan girl fashion, the man in painting has been sent this image and I pray he doesn't think I'm too retarded. ;)

Showering at the Pond



When our water main burst, I nearly had to shower at the company gym last week. This is why I opted to be smelly for a day instead.

If you are getting tired of the self-indulgent scribbles, I do have a more finished bit of fan art in the works, a homage to the lovely folks at Steamcrow. I have to stop socializing to be able to finish it though and with the weather all super-nice and new friends in my life, that might be difficult for all the right reasons.