Oh man. The last week or so has been one snarling ball of frustrations for me. While it kicked off to a good start with my completion of Marshall Van Druff's Animal Drawing Crash Course at the LAAFA, I find myself sweating at home trying to catch up with work while Truffles, one of my new ratties, struggles with the same illness that took Candy. On top of that, it appears that my scanner is going belly-up and, well, I need a break, peeps.

On top of this mess was the whole art thief sideshow, which, if you haven't caught up on that, there's a short version of the shenanigans here.

So anyway, the aforementioned animal class went great! Marshall is one of my favorite teachers and he's always encouraging without being insincere. I learned a lot and I hope it makes my gestures feel more solid - sometimes too loose is no good. Here are some samples from the class and the zoo alike:





I've also taken up needle felting for during those times when I just don't want to be at my drawing table or on Photoshop. I know that I'm supposed to be working on goodies for CTN this fall but, well, I rationalized that this time would have been spent farting around on the internet, so better to be actually creating something than not? *whip crack* ALL RIGHT! I'LL GET BACK TO DRAWING! ;)

This is my second ever piece, a little version of Cookie, my currently oldest rattie and Candy's still-living partner in crime. She's a character and she needed to be felted!







This should be obvious, but it's Appa from Avatar: TLAB. My talented friend Iku asked me to make her one when she found out that I was starting to take up felting and I figured this would be a great way to learn construction and felting in general.











His face still bugs me but overall I am happy with him! Next on my roster is baby Appa, Flammie from Secret of Mana and maybe a certain anthropomorphic tampon. The nice thing about felting is that I've designated it as my hobby, meaning, absolutely no rules or deadlines. It gets done when it gets done the way I want it done!

Thinking of doing some custom layouts on this dreary, black blog space but that will have to wait for another time. Talk to you guys soon <3

UPDATE: I'm done with this issue. I've talked to the blog author and to some of the people directly involved. Life is goin' on!

Hey peeps! I am sorry for the gap in updates. There has been good news and some sad news in the last month or so. The good news is that I have a new job and they let me use actual paints there. Can't argue with that! As a result, I have some watercolor/marker beasties to show you, but I can't give ya more context than that.











The sad news I was referring too before was that one of my rats, Candy, passed away this week from a sudden and aggressive onset of pneumonia. I was going to post a drawing of her, but it's not ready just yet. She fought hard and for a time I thought we would beat the microbes back, but it was just too much ._. Sometimes I wonder why I keep getting rats when I know that their life span is so short, though Candy left us before she was even a year old. I hope that now, her lungs are no longer heavy and her tummy is finally full <3.

Yesterday was brother's birthday, so I drew his dog, Moxie, was when she was a puppy. I've actually been wanting to do this for a while but I figured I had an excuse, what with him aging and all. Can you tell what breed she is?

So if you've caught wind of The Last Unicorn Art Show that's opening this week, you should totally go to it. Why? Because I can't get to Chicago and you have to go and take lots of pics and give Peter S. Beagle a big hug for me, that's why!

I was fortunate enough to be asked to do a piece for the show ;) They didn't have to ask me twice, hells yeah! I decided to try doing an *actual* papercut this time, rather than a digital one and let me tell you, they are not one in the same. Oh my God, the mess. The frustration. The do-overs and the 'it's still not quite right why isn't there an undo function?!'. But oh, the joy of having a little tangible unicorn to hold ^_^



Sadly my digital camera quit on me (the second one this year) so I do not have any decent pics in focus of the final piece, aside from what I could scrape up here. :/ If anyone is at the show, please snap a few good pics! With luck, this piece will not come back to Berekely and it will help raise some moo-lah for charity.





I ended up calling the piece "Careless Sea Foam", a nod to one of the first lines of The Last Unicorn book. Be sure to check the white caps next time you're by the sea... you never know.



Thanks for looking as always!

Remember how I said that my blog needed more color? Well, it also needs more sexy.

Here is some sexy.



Studies! I am liking watercolor more these days and cold, mean vectors less... :x


I dunno if I can give this much context but I can tell you that it's for a book that you should definitely buy this year ;) Each participant got to choose a dessert for our babe's theme and you'd better believe I chose peppermint! Aside from it being one of my favorite flavors, it means that I get to draw stripes and I love stripes as much as I love boobies. Combine the 'em and it's pretty much perfection!

Hmm, I wonder if I can use this as this year's Christmas card too...? Three cheers for double-dipping! Big thanks to Vear, Tom, Rez, Liana and Juan for lending their eyes and opinions to this piece throughout the process!

Unrelated: I am officially SOLD OUT of my art books, both Sketch or Swim and Don't Flash the Octopus. Phew! I have no plans for reprinting these titles, so big thanks to everyone who picked one up while they were available! Guess I'll have to figure out a new volume to put together...

Ok! So I can tell you about what those ghostie sketches were for. I have been working remotely with 3 other people around the country (none of whom I have met in-person yet!) to create a vertical slice demo of an indie Xbox Live game called...

Ghost Chef!



We're going to be pitching it to publishers at GDC next week, so fingers crossed for us! I only had around 50 hours to put into it over the course of the last couple of months, so though the pace was intense, it felt very productive and I think we were able to pull it all together well.

I got to have a hand in every part of the process, starting from the game designer's asset list and visualizing all parts of the game, from the characters to the props to the background and even some input with the layout of the kitchen stations by noodling with SketchUp for the first time, which is so easy to use compared to my tragic experience with Maya 5 in college. ;_; Regrettably we ran out of time before GDC to flesh out the best part, being the unlockable story vignettes, but that's for later on I guess.

So here's some process stuff and a special bonus plushie that I commissioned the always amazing Lana Crooks to create to help promote the awesomeness factor of culinary spirits!













Big thank you to Abby Goldsmith, our talented animator who busted her arse to meet the crazy deadlines and bring so much life to all characters, singing food items and tentacles of doom!

So now I catch my breath, organize my 'folio and throw myself into the unforgettable chaos of GDC. See you guys later!

Dudes, my blog needs more color. Here is some color!

I had a run of bad luck this week, so with some new found free time I whipped up Little Goku here for a character styling challenge run by Luigi Lucarelli. Normally Goku's all perky and stuff but today he's just plain sick of your sh*t. ;)

I need to do more fan art. Sometimes just restyling an existing character is like a calming cruise control sort of thing for me; just play with shapes and color and push personality!

Off I go to down another beer and hash it out on the Wii.

OMG YIPPEE!!



I was nominated for a Kreativ Blogger Award by none other than the lovely Brianne Drouhard, fellow unicorn fanatic, RPG nerdette and all-around unstoppable ball of talent. Thanks girl!



There's a catch to this of course! As part of the rules for the Kreativ Blogger award, I have to nominate the next 7 Kreativ Bloggers, and then list 7 random things about myself... right, like you guys wanna know more junk about me but, rules are rules.

So I nominate, in no particular order:

Bill Presing: You've seen his beauties, but did you know that he also makes a mean avocado pie? If a bunch of people start randomly asking him for the recipe, it will confuse him and that will be awesome. ;)

Sarah Forrester: Her work is adorable, full of life and sincerity. Look no further for some of the most expressive critters you'll find online.

Lauren Faust: This woman is on fire! Her own doll ine just launched and she's the new big cheese for the next My Little Pony line. Talk about livin' the dream!

Eric Favela: I recently met him at CTN and just gawked helplessly at his work. He's works at Blue Sky and his characters just make me melt.

Chris Vear: The only person on earth who is more patient with vectors than I am XD Be sure to check out his canyon piece


Shane Corn: An incredibly productive and inspiring character artist that I look up to!

Daniela Stijleva: Color, character and motion - her artwork has it all. I love her landscapes of the city, she really captures the light and the atmosphere of the Bay Area.

So uh, I guess now the random facts?

1. I'm a girl. I know it sounds redundant but I keep coming across blogs that refer to me as a dude. What's it gonna take, peoples?!

2. I don't mind the sound of nails on a chalkboard, but licking a popsicle stick sends chills down my spine and makes me cringe.

3. I walk all screwed up. It's sort of a lost cause at this point - I originally walked toe-to-heel, which gave me scoliosis and now my left foot sticks out to the side after a bad ankle injury a couple of years ago. That's what I get for not bothering with physical therapy.

4. My favorite things to draw are horses, boobies and fat, round animals/creatures/things. In fact, no matter what it is I am going to draw, I always start by drawing a circle, even if I never build on it. I think of it as like winding up for a pitch.

5. My favorite gaming console is still SNES, after all these years and many consoles later.

6. When I was little I was going to be a whale trainer when I grew up, then an animator, then I realized that I hated actually animating so then I was going to switch my major to biology in college but stuck with illustration. Now I draw animals and continue to love nature shows.

7. I love the smell of wet pavement in the summer and chlorine. The wet pavement makes me think of summer thunderstorms and the chlorine makes me think of the swimming pool I had growing up. No, I do not have a substance abuse problem. Now show me to the nearest bottle of bleach.

Finally, some culinary spooks. They have a reason for being, I will show you more of that after GDC in March. :)

So here's a idea that I've been sitting on (hyuk, hyuk) for a while and recently tested out at art conventions and shows.

Presenting Tampii and her line of women's undergarments: Tampii Cramps your Style!





I have a few dozen left from the first test run for sale in my Etsy shop. Once I make back cost, I will move on to the next design in the series. In case you can't tell at a glance, the idea is that Tampii, the world's happiest wad of cotton, adds some whimsy to that time of the month by acting out various euphemisms for, well, rebooting to ovarian operating system.

In this first design, she's Ridin' the Cotton Pony in full cowgirl garb! While she is factory-made, I also hand silk-screened the logo splootch in each crotch so that you don't have to worry about staining your new panties. I did it for you!

...this will either lose me a ton of friends and clients or gain me some. I am prepared to take that risk. ;) Cute and WTF are two of my favorite things in the world.

So if you can, stop in the old Etsy shop and pick up a pair! <3 Photo creds go to the wonderful Emily Jo Manning!

Thank you to everyone who shared good thoughts about my Dad! He is recovering just fine and is already his old self again. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome for all of this. :)

To continue with happier thoughts, here are some more critters from a while back!

The skinny eel-like thing is a character from Asian mythology who is said to have birthed the Milky Way by swimming across the sky. The fatty lump over there is Abaia, a Melanesian river god of sorts who protects all of the fish in lakes in rivers. And the goldfish is a goldfish ^_~



Here are some random myths, one of my favorites being the Salmon of Wisdom! He lives in a well in Ireland and if you can catch and eat him, you will gain its knowledge.



And finally, something out of my own head, the FumbleBuck. This is what happens when you combine a bumble bee and a hummingbird.



In a month or so I can show you the indie Xbox game I have been working on - it's been really fun so far and I'm working with a super small team of two other ladies and a programmer, so I've been able to be very hands-on and we've all been able to share ideas mutually. Can't ask for better than that! I've been able to do characters, environments and props for this little game, so it's nice to not get too hung up in one area over another ;)

For Dad:





My brother and I got a gift for this past Christmas that was, well, less than worth celebrating. My father shared with us that he had cancer and he underwent surgery this morning to treat it. The wonderful news in all of this is that the procedure went well and the doctor said that it has not spread to other parts of his body, so he is more than likely cancer-free now. <3

Now, the people who know me best know that I am a bloody pessimist. My father is the polar opposite and I wish I could have inherited his outlook on life! The way he shared this bad news with us was just amazing to me. He was calm, matter-of-fact and explained what the various test results meant, what his prognosis would be with each of his treatment options and seemed so accepting of his condition. I, of course, went straight to my room and cried but later thanked him for the way in which he broke the topic to us. Information is second only to attitude in cases of illness.

I asked him how he could be so calm in the face of something so scary. His response was (and I am paraphrasing here) "Well Steph, the way I see it, this might upset my life in the future, or I can let it upset me now. I'm not going to let it take away what I have now."

This one's for you, Dad. Thank you for the positives you bring into my life and for the strength you share with me. There's a box of delicious petit fours in the mail for you to aid in your recovery (nothing beats a good petit four!) and a big hug waiting for you when I can schlepp across the country again.

Hello and Happy (late) New Year! I have some more mind barfing to show you. Turns out my laptop is not the ideal artspace afterall and I have resorted to using actual paper, pen and watercolors to sketch while I've been spending the last few weeks at my father's house in Salem. So I drew what was most available - his dog, Cookie. ;)

I think these ones are my most favortie. They're probably and inch tall in real life. :)



A page of sad Cookies, though she is rarely ever sad.



And a page of sad tampons and frantic ghosts. I can't give the ghosts more context right now, but hey, they exist :)



Oh yeah, I did a dozen or so stickers for the next Little Big Planet DLC pack. Those be my skulls and crossbones in them thar background! I don't think they've announced the rest of the content yet but when they do, I will post them here. :)

Hey guys, there's this little shindig happening next week in LA that I will be at! Check out the CTN Expo! I will have a table sporting some prints, the last of my art books (less than a doezen left!), some jewelry, holiday cards, my portfolio flatbook (for your humbly delicious consideration, potential clients!) and a surprise or two. You can find me at table 22.

I will also be doing a live art demo (time TBD) where you can watch my process and ask how/why I do the stuff I do. Then there's Speed Talent, which is catered towards students and peers alike where I will be wearing a spiffy badge indicating that you can come up to me and ask for a critique on your body of work. Fair warning, I'm very nice but kind of blunt, but don't take it the wrong way - I am approachable and think you are neato and want to see what you've been up to and swap some ideas! One of the best parts of giving critiques is that I get to see many different styles of work and learn through teaching :)

What else is going on? Oh, this and that. Things I can't show you right away but here are some sketches and mind farts as of late.







Hope to see some of you down south next week!

ohai!



I wish I had heaps of new and exciting sketches to post here, but things have been so crazy lately that I do not :( I do have a nice little batty that is now one of the mascots for that facebook app mentioned way back when. More critters from that will be on the way soon.

In other news, I have a new gig with some pretty awesome peeps! Can't say what it is just yet and although it means I have to work from home once again, I am having a great time doing concepts for this project. Mum's the word! It's pretty ironic though that after 5 years of being pretty active on conceptart.org, I finally, for the first time, hold the official title of concept artist. In almost every other job I had I was called an animator, despite the fact that I haven't animated a thing since college.

Anyhoo, this gig will be most helpful in paying off the damage to my car which happened Saturday night - I'm fine and all, I was just a grade-A dumbass and left the empty stand to my GPS in plain sight in a somewhat sketchy neighborhood in SF. Whatever junkie who made off with my GPS put two and two together, smashed my window and snagged it out of the console I had hidden it in. Lesson learned - get a bigger purse and keep EVERYTHING I CARE ABOUT IN IT!

HOLY CRAP! My last post sparked some rumors about what that Chrono Trigger piece is for in a very short amount of time O_o Thank you to everyone across the internetz who shared kind words about my artwork, it brought many smiles to my day! And to those who voiced their honest albeit less-than-enthusiastic opinions... I enjoyed seeing those die-hard fans shit bricks over my style choice ;)

So! As it turns out I can go public with it now, not on the 11th (which was the original release date). The piece is for a poster that will be available with the 1,000 copies of...


CHRONOTORIOUS - the new CD by The Bad Dudes

My friend Mustin of The OneUps put together this album with the help of some of the best game remixers out there (DiggiDis, po!, Mazedude, Alisean to name a few!) and also features the artwork of myself, the ridiculously talented Brianne Drouhard and many more.



Taken from the website:

"15 delicious Chrono Trigger tracks have been arranged for you. But only if you buy the CD album. When the CD is gone, it's gone forever, along with 5 of the tracks. There will be an iTunes/AmazonMP3 release, but it will only fature 10 tracks and won't include the poster and you'll find yourself scouring eBay for a legit copy."

I was super stoked to finally be able to pay homage to what is arguably one of the best video games of all time. <3

Oh, and just to clear up another rumor...



...Steph is short for Stephanie. Yes, I'm a lady... guess it wasn't obvious in all those self portraits on this blog? Girls can be nerdy game artists too!

An especially nerdy post with some video game fan art and actual art!

First, the Ghostbusters sticker set for Little Big Planet released last week and I've already seen these stickers being used in some lovely custom levels! I always have fun whenever Media Molecule comes to call and this sticker set was no different - so much that I actually agreed to do these while I was on vacation in Massachusetts this spring!



I love getting the chance to draw licensed stuff in my own style. Speaking of such, those of you Chrono Trigger fans should know what's going on here!



I can't tell you what wonderful project this was done for - yet - but come August 11th, you'll know! Anyway, the idea behind this piece was this: I had always imagined that when the Chrono Crew first arrived in Zeal that there was a moment of respite and celebration; to have come from the harsh dark ages to a temperate, floating paradise (with some of the BEST MUSIC in the whole game!) was surely worth taking time out to enjoy the scenery!

I remember setting my controller down and listening to the music when I first played the game... with a big smile on my face. So here's my tribute to a great game with an even better soundtrack!

...Alfador and Nu are friends. <3