I'm siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick.

So I'm lying here on my free, old-lady style, cream and creamy green-colored loveseat, talking to my roommate about how much it sucks being sick. She's got a killer sinus infection, and I've got a killer case of the too-stupid-to-dry-off-before-going-to-sleep-while-it-was-damned-cold-and-managed-to-contract-something-horrible-but-don't-know-what-exactly-because-I-don't-have-health-insurance-so-can't-actually-ask-a-professional-and-have-to-basically-just-tough-it-out-and-hope-for-the-best. I'm a big believer in the "Just toughin' it out" method, but Linny [the aforementioned roommate] is a big believer in drugs. After two nights of keeping my boyfriend up with my coughing and nose-blowing and general sickery, I decided to give him a break by going out into the living room and trying to nap here... Especially since I felt awful for kicking him in the face, inexplicably. Linny, who works night shift and is also having trouble sleeping due to the evil, evil phlegm monster, was in our living room watching Avatar:The Last Airbender and immediately started pressuring me into taking Niquil. Linny's basic arguing method is the doooooo iiiiiitttt method, except she's exceptional at it and I've pretty much been conditioned to give in within an hour in most cases. Wow. Niquil frickin' kicked my ass. I took the shot of Niquil at the beginning of the episode where our ragtag bunch of heroes gets drawn into a swamp and meets a bunch of swamp-style water-benders and was stone-cold knocked-out in the most uncomfortable position imaginable on this itty-bitty love seat by the time Aang started chasing -spoilers- Toph and a flying pig. And I STAYED asleep. AND I DIDN'T SUFFOCATE. I don't know what the heck is in Niquil to make it work, but... Good job to whoever figured that crap out. Anyway, speaking of not having health insurance... My job!

I've been doing some pretty cool things for work that will never see the light of day, so I figured I'd show a couple of them here whenever I feel like it. I only had this idea like.... last week, and I'm definitely not at work right now on account of being pretty damned feverish so the only things I've got to show are..... the following. Since they're saved on my hard drive and not the server.


That is the cover for a nail art brochure that was scrapped on account of not being clean.


That's an illustration I made for a 50's-themed collection of nail polish that we're coming out with. The drawing was scrapped on account of being too terrifying.


This image actually was used in our blog in celebration of the Chinese New Year, but I felt like sharing it because while it is incredibly simple, I did it, damn it. And I'm gonna say so.


There's more, but I figured that's enough about work for now. I'll upload some stuff here and there as I get around to it.



Lately, Billy's been bugging me about how I haven't been doing as much personal art and that I've been only doing work art and... well... He's right. But so what? Sure, what I do at work isn't what I really like doing but... By the time I get home, I've done so much of it that I'm just too tired and don't want to do any more. But he does have a point, so I have been trying to at least get around to doing SOMETHING once a week, especially if that something is make a shirt for the woot.com derby. Now, the illustration that follows was originally for the woot derby, but I didn't finish it on time because we decided to spend the weekend with Billy's mom on Mother's day instead of doing something responsible like 'conserving fuel' or 'finishing artwork.' I feel like it was well-worth it, honestly. But I at least got the basic lineart finished so... Y'know... Here it goes.



And just so it's known, I inked that digitally which I absolutely HATE but I had to do on account of the fact that I pretty much only had time to work on the 'inking' while I was at work on my lunch breaks [at which time I pretty much only had my laptop available to me] and at Billy's parent's house while he was sleeping before we went to brunch for his mother. ... Either way, no scanner in sight and not really ideal scenery for inking. I did also finish the pencils for another design which I'm hoping to ink the proper way if I ever get around to it.


Given that there's only so many hours in a day that I can use to try and sleep away this fever, I'm hoping I manage to get myself to do something between pass-out sessions. I've got a feeling anything I'd make in this state would be entertainingly awful. Whoo!

Dream big.

So I've been coasting along the road of life for the last couple of months with much more ease than I'm accustomed to... Which is why it wasn't really a surprise when I managed to hit a delicious disaster of a bump. I'm not going to mention what's going on, only what I've discovered because of it.

There are no rules. You can do literally anything at all as long as you want to and refuse to accept that there are pre-existing roadblocks that you have to bypass. Nobody in this world knows what they're doing and are pretty much just doing their best to convince you that they've got it all under control while panicking massively in their own mind. We're all just people dealing with the same stupid problems from different sides of the situation. What in this world says that you need to go to school to become something if you've already got all the knowledge without it? Who says the stars are too far away to be reached? Who says we can't all grow up to be happy? We all have such a limited amount of time on this earth and the people who have managed to build empires and become successful are not gods-they're merely other people. There's nothing special or scary about them that makes them any different from you. If you want it, go ahead and get it. We're all on the edge of dying at any given point anyway and I, for one, would like to go out thinking I had a good run; not go out thinking 'well damn, ain't that just another fuckin' thing.' Don't ever let anyone convince you that you CAN'T do something. Especially you.

Crazytown sombrerolicious!

Man, things have been super duper ridiculously crazy go nuts university for me, lately! So, on top of getting a killer new job... I moved! ... And so did my boyfriend! ... And my friend! .... And of course my roommate, but that's less surprising since we got a place together and obviously had to move at the same time but literally ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE MOVED ON THE SAME WEEKEND. It was friggin' NUTS. And exhausting. Seriously, I was about a billion percent sure that I was going to die after the four-and-a-half millionth trip up the stairs. Oy. But as a result of trying to unpack all places at once, the fact that I have the most stuff out of all of my friends and no extra place to store it because I'm not in contact with family or able to afford storage units or whatnot, and a desperate desire to spend all possible moments with Billy, who previously lived a couple of hours away and was only able to come down most weekends which made me miss him massively the instant he wasn't within sniffin' distance.... My place is kind of a wreck. Yesterday I got to work from home which was great because it means it was kind of the first day all month that I've actually spent a substantial amount of time at my house. After I was done diligently actually doing the work that work prescribed [NOW WITH KUNG FU RESPONSIBILITY ACTION!!!] I built two pieces of furniture that were previously housed in IKEA boxes! [Man, I had not been to IKEA before last year and HOLY CRAP WHERE THE FRICK DO I GO WHEN I'M IN THERE?!?!? Seriously! It's like you get lost in some kind of crazy hypnotic maze and by the time you leave you've got a tummy full of taters, a cake pan shaped like a horse, and seem to have misplaced all the funds in your wallet!!! EVERY FRIGGIN' TIME!!!] So... Y'know.... More progress. My place is shaping up nicely with the few moments that I actually get to spend here and set shit up and whatnot. Once it's officially all together, I plan on hosting a Tuesday night art... Fight? YES. It rhymes. But every Tuesday night, my pals and I are going to be here makin' art and probably food. Also, I've decided JUST NOW that I need to start drawing Batman once a week in addition to whatever it is that I end up doing on Tuesday night arts which will include bookbinding and printmaking very soon because I'm suuuuuuuuuuper in the mood to do those things. HERE'S A BATMAN.

I LITERALLY just drew this. Kind of was inspired by saying I wanted to draw some Batmans. Obviously this is an in-progress kind of deal but it'll have to do for now since I've got to leave soon to hang out with my sisters and FINALLY meet my niece! Juliette was born in December some time but between everyone assuming that someone else had told me, me crashing my car, getting attacked by a whale shower caddy, and working a whole bunches... I haven't gotten to drive down to Delaware to see her yet. I'm kind of interested to see how this goes down since my two sisters and I are not on good terms with one another and we're all varying degrees of batshit crazy. Eh, whatever. At the end of it Billy and I are going to go see Paul, so hopefully that'll make up for any poopie parts they've got in store. SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

I'm a big kid now!

Holy crap, I got a big girl job doing stuff that I totally dig doing! I've got to admit, after the debacle with Nijah directly after Panera I was a bit skeptical that work was really working out for me. I considered becoming an old-timey railroad robber or spaceship instructor or parasite wrangler but those positions all seemed not to currently be available. I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when this new job not only turned out to be with a totally swanky company [ http://www.misacosmetics.com for those interested], but also doing something awesome! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you are now reading the blog of someone who is, quite unexpectedly, an art director. Awesome.

You know what else is awesome? CHRISTMAS. My family raised me Jewish, and did a pretty crappy job of it. If we decided to celebrate anything, it was by buying a pack of Matzos during Passover and eating it alongside our toast and possibly remembering to light a candle at least one of the nights of Channukkah while possibly being given gelt or nothing or a coat and continuing to ignore each other. Now, I am very proud of my roots despite not identifying with the religion or the people at all but goddamn does being a Jew suck.
This holiday season I elected to spend time with Billy and his family and celebrate Chrismas for the first really real time in my life. I was so excited! I couldn't sleep at all Christmas Eve and am STILL just going around and shouting CHRISTMAS!!! from time to time. Billy's family is fun to be with, and they provided me with enough trail mix and clementines to cause me to develop a very serious trail-mix-and-clementines dependency. That stuff's friggin' tasty.
By the way, the second best gift I was given is a heart necklace with a triquerta carved into it. The best gift was two weeks straight of Billy. <3

Also, my friends and I participated in a pollyanna for each other and in true "I'm a brokeass" style, I drew the gift for my polly.



Yes, this is why I was practicing reflective lighting on crazy child-faces.

Fireflies!!!

One day I woke up and said "hmm. I don't think I've done anything with reflective light for a while..... LET'S DO THIS THING!!!" ... So I did.




Now.... I am definitely aware that I may have gone a teensy-weensy bit overboard while doing this, but... I have a couple more projects I'm working on that will really help me refine this skill. Honestly, I just wanted an excuse to draw something that looked freaky as fuck, and we all know that me drawing children is terrifying. What's weird is that I actually like kids... So I'm not really sure why they're pretty much the scariest things I ever draw but... Eh.

This image was also colored entirely in Photoshop, as opposed to my lovely, lovely Painter. The main reason being that my computer has had problems with Painter crashing lately, and I need to reinstall it.... But I don't quite remember where I put my install disk soooooooooo.......... Poop berries. It's probably somewhere real clever like... In the bag that I keep the rest of my computer accessories and my CS4 disks but I am far too lazy to search for mere moments. No, instead I feel compelled to spend many hours slaving away in front of a program with which I am slightly less competent.

It's really funny to me, actually, that in high school I pretty much exclusively used the Adobe suite of products, but when I went to college... I switched to Painter. I think the reason is that I was able to get a copy of Painter 10 online for $35, and the adobe products were locked into a key server that meant I was only going to have access to them temporarily. I figured it was probably best not to get too used to something that I wasn't going to have around forever and instead, become a master at the one I actually did own: Painter. I was literally the only person in college that I know of that was using Painter, so when I had to figure out how to do something.... Actually, I kind of had a lot of fun doing it. I think I came up with some of the most bizarre methods of doing things and honestly I don't even remember what they were any more, but I always made them work. I also really love the brush controls in Painter, and how it duplicates the effects of traditional mediums quite nicely.

Recently, though, I've been getting re-acquainted with Photoshop and it is one of the best ideas I've ever had. Why? Because it got me a job! I've been unemployed for a bit due to some complications at my old new job that resulted in me not gettin' paid. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeah. Don't worry about it. What's important is that a combination of randomly deciding to start using Photoshop again, coupled with the super high-quality portfolio that UArts required me to make landed me a job as a receptionist/artist at Misa Cosmetics, a pretty rad nail polish company. The art portion is mostly going to be Graphic Design, photo editing, and product photography but... Hey! It's something! I am sooooooooooooo freakin' psyched it's just ridonkulous.

You know what else? I am sooooooooooo freakin' hungry it's just ridonkulous. I think I'm going to go make a totally pimped out veggie burger with a bun that's been grilled with garlic butter, topped with garlic herb mayo, extra sharp cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and a hint of ketchup. Successes like this are worth celebrating with copious amounts of soy.

Man, it's really cold right now.

Now, it is no secret at all that I am crazy head-over heels ga ga goo goo butterflies up in the sky in love with the most wonderful man in the universe:Billy. And if it was a secret before, well.... Uh.... Surprise? Where the junk have you been living? I mean, seriously... He's just about all I talk about aside from my cat and how darned cold it is right now. Anyway, his birthday was this weekend and I am beyond grateful he managed to be born so.... I conjured up this little number for him.




Anyone who knows him, obviously knows that the pirate is, in fact, the most realistic portrayal of Billy ever to have been created. I'm serious-aside from the entire month of December [during which he dons a Santa hat], Billy wears a pirate hat all year-round, usually has a ducky or two on his person, and is the jolliest crazy bastard you've ever met. He's also got this really awesome dog named Rowdy, but that's only partially as important. I absolutely LOVED making this piece, and it is actually the first one that I've completely colored in Photoshop without even a little bit looking at Painter. I'd definitely say that it was an interesting experience, and I understand why it's so popular but.... seriously... Painter rocks. I really want the latest version, but I've got to replace my xBox before I go spendin' money on other, more productive things like art programs.

Also, this week I re-discovered my shrinky-dinks. Good lord, they are pretty much the most awesome art supply ever!!!!!! I will probably make an etsy account sometime in the near future and make billions of dollars off of Shrinky-Dink crafts.

Double also, I'm really good at making cake!

END OF LINE.

[Totally want to see the new Tron movie. :D ]

Let's go for a ride.

Man. It's been one hell of a week for me. Heck, it's been one hell of a year... But the year isn't over yet so I'll wait 'till the end of it to figure out how it all went. News of the week, though, is that I quit my job. Yes, nearly a year and a half after becoming employed at that wretched hellhole of a torture dungeon Panera Bread, I finally managed to snag a space somewhere else and quit. I'm not sure I'll like this job that much since it's not something I've ever even considered doing before, but I'm hoping that it will at least pay the bills... Something Panera consistently failed to do. I'm finishing up my training for them this week before heading off to North Carolina for my second wedding ever, whereupon my return I will immediately begin working. I'm going to be nervous as hell until that first paycheck comes in, though... I'm kind of down to my last $5, which I borrowed from a friend to keep enough gas in my tank to get around. Basically the only good thing to have come from the bread mines are some really, really good friends that I would go completely mad without.

I think of all the horrible things that Panera did to me, the worst was kill my spirit. But I got it back, now... And I've been up to no good.




Most of it involves this guy. And yes, I know that turning your neck a bit to see something is a bit cruel of me but... well... I'm lazy. And working on something. Specifically, I'm working on a book about an adventure that this guy has. Interestingly enough, he was created late one Panera morning while dreading the horrible harpy shriek of the ovens, demanding to be tended to and have their guts constantly stuffed with an endless stream raw dough. A couple of months ago, I got the ability to doodle back sort of suddenly. I started losing myself in ink splotches and scribbles and those spirals and squiggles you make when your pen isn't working because after quite a few months of being ignored... Well... My pens weren't really working. Actually, now that I think of it I should probably go and clean those suckers out. Anyway, I squeaked out a tiny little drawing of an extremely excited bunny kid wearing a pair of pajamas and, for some reason, couldn't let him go. Maybe it was because he looked like he could take on the world and I wanted so terribly to do so myself at that moment, or maybe it's because I thought his smile was goofy and it got me going a bit... Or maybe it's just because he was in some secret part of my head, waiting for the moment to escape... Whatever the reason, the night he was made was the night I found his story and just couldn't stop thinking about it. I've got some more sketches, some comp pages, and half of a pencilled page but... I think I'll keep stringing you along for a bit before giving them up. In the meantime, here's another shirt I entered into that contest. This one's called "oh, shiiiiiiip..."




I'm really enjoying thinking in positives again. :)