To Zazzle, or not to Zazzle?

So I've been trying to figure out a way to market these images I have been making. I tried CafePress because it was familiar and I knew it was free and blah, blah, blah, but I recently discovered a site called Zazzle that does pretty much the same thing. Only I think the products on this site might cost less, and I think the site itself is a little more user-friendly.

So far I don't have much going on, and some of the changes I posted haven't shown yet, but check it out anyway and tell me what you think: This is my Zazzle store.

We'll see how things go with this. Don't forget to tell all your friends what a hilarious and witty and talented and beautiful artist I am, so they will visit my blog and buy my things and make me famous.

Hair with a body!

But only the one body because I haven't done the other two yet. Remember this post? I did some dabbling and did some versions of this character. See, the idea is a Robin Hood story but with all of the main characters' genders reversed. So Robin, and his sidekick, and Will Scarlet, are all in this case ladies. And Marian is a nice man named Arion. And so forth.

So I present for your viewing pleasure, the knife-wielding, booby-trap building Wilamena Scarlet.

This was the first version of Wil. I did it the other day, but I wasn't hugely pleased with it, so I did another version with a modified outfit.

She's essentially the same in both of them, but I find I'm still not completely satisfied. I feel like I wanted an image somewhere between the two, but I can't tell what that would be. It could just be because I haven't had good, solid anatomy practice in a while so my figures are getting all skewampis. We'll say it's that.

Again, pardon the quality. I still have not figured out the greatest and best system for editing yet. Boo, Utah, for depriving me of my usual resources!

The Curious Case of the Floating Head

So because of my anxiety sometimes this thing happens where I get all floaty and detached from my body and it feels very uncomfortable. This state happens periodically, thankfully not terribly often, but it's very bizarre and makes me feel even more awkward and anxious and cranky. But I decided to make a picture about it because that's how I roll. I call this bizarre condition Balloon Head, although in reality it's really my head and my shoulders and most of my ribcage that feel like they're trying to detach from the rest of my body.

It's not the best editing I've ever been able to do, but since I still don't seem to have a scanner and had to do this from a picture I took from my phone, I'd say it's not too bad.

Today I am

I thought it might be fun to do a series of things that I always wanted to be but never will be. Sometimes I get nostalgic for being a kid and knowing that I was going to be whatever the heck I wanted to be when I was old. I was a doctor, I was a dancer, I was a princess, I was the first person on earth to make contact with extra-terrestrial life. I was the archaeologist that discovered the thriving undersea civilization of Atlantis.

Needless to say, I have not done any of those things, and some of them are getting more and more unlikely (though I still have hopes about the Presidency).

So today I am an astronaut. I may not be these things I dreamed of, and still sometimes do, but I most certainly can pretend in a way that is much more socially acceptable at my age than actually pretending.

She's about to have some regrets.

Also for your viewing pleasure (and what is this sentimental kick I'm on today? What's that about? I took my Prozac this morning, right? RIGHT?) I have a little drawing I did this afternoon after I was awake much of the night worrying about my mistakes and fears and things that will set me back in life.

This is not actually very normal for me. Usually I have it more together, in spite of the general dropping-out-of-school and two-prozacs-a-day thing. And last night my worries weren't anything terribly awful--just regular old irresponsible me, putting things off and forgetting about them until they sneak up on me all of a sudden and ruin my night and keep me awake until four-ish. I always remember these things in the middle of the night.

Anywho, I tried to divert my thoughts to something more productive, and came up with this. For all those times you feel this way, I give you my fear.

The moral of the story is that I did it in ballpoint pen and can I just tell you how much I miss that particular medium? I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Ah, the making of marks. How it soothes my brains.

On a similar, but not as personal/sentimental/way-too-much-information note, I also used my pen to do what I do best with pens. I did a zombie. I think she's precious.

This is not necessarily my barbed satire about cheerleaders in general. I mean, I don't particularly have a fondness for them, but this was not a commentary about my dislike for them. I just thought it would be funny.

Beyond the Sea. Or close enough.

Remember how I wanted to make comics that one time? And I thought if I could just do it all my artistic problems would be solved forever?

I was not correct. I drafted page 3 and never did a final copy, and now we're at a standstill. But I'm not ready for Tyro and Jonah to die just yet, especially since poor Jonah never even got a chance to be introduced.

So I give you this picture of them in all their monster-y glory, the mermaid and the vampire, who maybe someday will actually get to be a crime-fighting team. And not just a dream baby I have in my mind that is way too complicated to execute.

Sigh.

It all finally dried.

And it scanned reasonably well. There's a teeny bit of blurring from the 3-D elements, like the pearls in her hair, and all that fun stuff.

I like to think she's trying to be nice, and is reaching out to be his friend. I mean, he clearly is in some kind of distress, but it's hard to say for sure whether her intentions are good or not.

Originally I intended for her to be gazing up at him in adoration, because she'd somehow managed to fall in love with him but he had never noticed. But then it came out this way instead, and I have to say I like the ambiguity a little better.

Maybe someday they'll love each other. I miss mermaids.

Did I maybe go to far?

Mostly, did I definitely end up with too much glitter and baubles?

Methinks no.


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Dress projects

So these are some of the dress projects I've been working on lately and thought I would share. Since it was too hard to take them on my body, so I used Molly's body instead.

This is Molly. She's the dress form my mom got for Christmas a couple years ago. Once we gave her a name we realized we really ought to start keeping clothes on her, so here she is in an outfit I made out of draping some fabric and an old shirt of my dad's. (My mom says the shirt is to ratty to use for anything, but I disagree. I will find a project for it someday and it will be amazing.)

This is Molly wearing my yellow dress from an older post. Granted, I made mine in coral with white flowers, and the belt isn't attached, but it's more or less the same. I really really love how it turned out.

And, how cool is this? The fabric is totally this old fabric my grandma had laying around when she died and that we sort of inherited (there are perks to living next door to your grandparents, apart from perpetual cookies and being the favorite) when she was gone. I think that's kind of sweet that her fabric lives on in a totally awesome dress that I designed and made myself.

And this is Molly wearing the white dress I modified yesterday while my mom was making me shorts (which are in turquoise gingham seesucker and rust, respectively). I have always loved this cheap little dress, but it has no always loved me. Mostly it was just uncomfortably short all the time, and this bothered me.

So I lengthened it by adding a purple sating ruffle to the lining and huge eyelet lace to the outer layer. I almost died of cuteness when it was done.

I love this so much. It somehow became even more feminine and adorable once the extra bits were added on. Also, why don't we as a society wear more satin? Apart from the fact that it shed all over me as it was unraveling, it was a delicious fabric to work with and I adore how it feels on my skin.

I also added satin and lace to raise the neckline a little bit. So much delicious satin.

And here's a shot of the lace trim on the skirt. Oh how I love it.

Needless to say (I feel like I use that expression a lot. And then I invariably say whatever it was that didn't need saying), I will be taking both of these dresses to Utah. Along with my shorts.

Work in progress

This is what I'm doing now. I started it yesterday while my mom was put to work in a sweatshop making shorts for me to wear when I go to Utah. (They look fabulous, by the way.) Have I mentioned I have the best mom ever?

Anywho, I'm not finished with this baby yet. It'll take a lot more glitter and sequins before I'm done with it. But have a werewolf! And a mermaid!


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Revised horse

Here is the scanned edition of the flaming pony. I didn't actually do a lot of digital color editing on this one, because it scanned rather nicely. Enjoy.

The horse is a little fat, but we'll say that's what makes him a pony.

In other news, come visit my blog lots and lots. And tell all your friends.

Oh, and I'll be going to Utah for roughly a thousand years to visit my sister. It's going to be amazing. But it will also mean I will have considerably limited access to scanners and the like, so things might get a little sketchy.

The biggest challenge thus far is trying to decide how to pack sufficient projects and also have room for all my clothes. I will have to study this in some depth before I come up with a proper solution.

A niece for my horses

Or, actually, a horse for my niece. I finally got around to drawing a horse picture, and here's the rough version of the original I just took with my phone. Tomorrow I'll scan it and give it the proper color treatment.

Instead of it breathing fire, I thought I'd just make all of its hair be fire instead.

I think I'm getting the hang of combining marker and pencil a little better. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Creature Sunday

So today is a day of making monsters. Apparently. My mood hasn't been super magnificent today and maybe that reflects a tad in the hairy, scary companions I made for myself.

Oh, technically the guy with the axe was from last week.

Oh, and I added a tie on one of the wolves because it was Sunday and I was in church. And also because my mom was a little scandalized.

So, without further ado, I present from the little green sketchbook: two werewolves, a guy with an axe, and several zombies.

Yeah, sometimes I have hard times. But I have to confess, I think my wolves are a little adorable.

What I've done today

Essentially what I've done today is run out a first draft of a short story. And then I drew a picture about it.

Neither one is really quite where I would like it to be, but here's the picture anyway. Mixing colored pencil and marker is tricky. I'm not sure I've quite gotten the hang of it yet, but it seems like a good idea to try.

So that's what. Maybe when I've had some time apart from the short story I'll even be bold enough to let you read it.

Maybe.

Zombies, zombies, who doesn't love zombies?

Who indeed. I happen to be quite fond of them myself. Totally un-sexy, completely monstrous, and delicious to draw in a flurry of scribbly lines.

I'll confess the zombies in the first version of this picture were probably a little more awesome than these ones. But since this picture is about the rainbow-clad redhead kickin' zombie trash, and not about the zombies, I think that's an acceptable loss.

Happy Birthday to Hannah P. on the 2nd of June. Too bad I'm a bad friend and didn't make you a sweet picture until almost a week later. Ahem.

But I did make a literal mountain of cookies, so I hope you can forgive me.

Okay, last one for the night.

But seriously my sister and I just had this conversation. She insists that I'm always writing crazy things to her that make no sense, but I swear this is not the case. It definitely is her phone's fault. Rude.

The kraken! Aaaaaaagggkkkk!

So it was my friend's birthday yesterday, and she had a barbecue today to celebrate. I did not attend because a) I am a bad friend, and b) I was emotionally and physically exhausted. So I told her over text that if I left my house I might actually turn into the kraken, which sometimes lives in my belly and makes terrifying noises and moans and groans and makes a ruckus when it feels so inclined.

Rather than liberate the kraken, I decided to remain safely at home. And I reminded her that no one wants the kraken at a party. This is why.

It just gets weirder

So last night I had this dream about this giant spider. I really, really hate spiders. A lot. So when I google-image-searched "spider" so I could get the anatomy sort of right, I almost barfed all over my mom's iPad because those things are just not right. So many legs. So hairy. So eeeeeevillllll.

But this is essentially what happened in my dream. I proudly present, My Story About the Guy With a Spider, in Two Parts.

Hair!

Which I'm pretty sure is the name of a musical. But I was doing some plans for some character mock-ups and quickly discovered that the biggest obstacle in creating these women wasn't the wardrobe, or the face, or the height or body shape. Those are all pretty easy to fake, and pretty flexible as these things go. It was the hair I was having such a hard time with! So I did some little heads and some little hairs. I'm not sure which my favorites are yet, for the most part, but I do know which ones I don't like. So I might still have to do some fiddling around.

But all in all I think they're a good start.

And, as promised, I give you the scanned Happy Insomniac. I try not to look at it, since it gets creepier every time. Don't have nightmares tonight, heh heh.

This is real life

Although I'm happy to say that, while I sometimes feel like this, my hair has never actually quite gotten to that level of terrifying.

I can't vouch for the rest of it, though.

Tomorrow (today) I'll scan this and it won't just be a sketchy picture from my phone. But in the meantime, fellow insomniacs, enjoy.

And don't stay up too late wondering exactly what it is The Happy Insomniac is so pleased about...