Monster updates

So I have been (as of late) a bit unsuccessful in doing the 30-Day Monster Girl Challenge, but I'm back on the bandwagon.

So far I'm on Day 9 - Demon, and I finally managed to do a piece I'm actually happy with.  Granted, the rest I've been hammering out as really, really, loose sketches, and I actually took a bit of time with this one and am glad I did.

Others that I don't absolutely hate:

Octo-Maid:

Mermaid:

Slime:

I think while I want to keep practicing my more realistic, concept-arty style so I can get better at it, I really do enjoy this looser, more graphic approach as seen in the Demon sketch.  Eh, perhaps if I ever get as fast doing more rendered stuff as I am with the graphic stuff, I'll make the switch over.

In other news, I did another illo for the M+S blog which I'm pretty pleased with:

And I'm working on a new comic idea (titled  "The Siren's Song"), hopefully in time for Zine Fest, as well as some new tie designs (maybe in time for APE), and a new shirt idea or two. Yay!

Condriano

"Condriano" Acrylic on wood

After a few weeks of being completely swamped with ye old retail job, silkscreen printing, and stuff for the gallery, I finally got a bit of a break to do some work for myself.

I did the initial design in my sketchbook, then used it as reference to bang out this painting in a night.

In other news, I think I'm going to be nutso busy until the end of the year.  I've got a small group show at a shop in the Haight next week or so, we've got the Alternative Press Expo on October 1+2 (stop by Monkey + Seal, booth #532), I'll be live painting on October 8th from 1-4 at Flax, I'm also doing Open Studios at Big Umbrella on Oct 8+9, I'll be live screenprinting at Urban Bazaar on October 16, and I'll be part of a show at Eth-No-Tec on October 29th.

Pretty crazy, but it's a good crazy, so I'm excited for October. Oh yeah, I also quit my job at the retail spot, and tomorrow is my last day!  Time to do the scary dance of doing art for a living 100%.  Nutso!

10/17/10

This is a quick sketch that I did while at APE, day 2.  It's going to eventually be a bird with a huge egg on the beach, and the bird is going to be saying "My anus hurts."
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And yes, I do know that birds don't push eggs out of their anus (they push it out of their cloaca).

10/16/10

I painted this on Saturday, but after being up for 36 hours, I decided to sleep instead of posting this.  Whoopsie.

The text reads "Hmmm, this grass tastes of the faint, nutty aroma of ass"

10/15/10

Comic for APE, last part!  Tomorrow is the big day, so we hope to see you there!  If you didn't know, we're totally bringing it this year with a new comic (this crappily drawn gross, offensive, weird one), a total of four shirts(!), new postcards, our prints, the ties, live painting, and a raffle!  Hells yeah.  See you there!

10/14/10

More cuss words in this one.  By the way, there is some waaaay more f-ed up, twisted stuff in the actual comic, but if you want to see that, you gotta stop by APE (or eventually buy it from my webstore).

10/13/10

Once again, comic from the new dealy I've got coming out at APE.  Viewer discretion is advised.

10/12/10

I've decided to post a part of my newest mini-comic I'm putting out at APE everyday leading up to the big show itself.  Here's the first part.  Also, if you're reading this with a youngster, I might suggest stop doing that, at least for this upcoming week.

10/11/10

 

Same piece from yesterday.  I jumped into using Levels to darken the composition to get the values closer to what they should be.

I then started the process of cleaning up the light/shadow edges a bit more and started on rendering the figure a bit more.  That's all I really had time for today, and I realized that I probably won't have time to keep working on this until after APE, but I'll finish it at some point!

100th post! Illustration Friday - Wrapped

It's a wrap for the wrapped rapper.

So this is about 5 days late, but with all the craziness last week getting ready for the SF Zine Fest, I think I have a valid excuse for waiting on this one.

Anyhoo, E and I have decided to really step up our game after all the great feedback we got from the Zine Fest. I think that if people had come to the zine fest really expecting to spend money (like people going to APE or Renegade do) we would have done even better.

Eve even sold one of her Illustration 1 paintings! Seriously, how many students sell the VERY FIRST assignment of Illustration 1 done in gouache? Not many, I'd expect. Anyway, I sold a painting, a few prints, and Eve made up some nice digital reproductions of her paintings. We ended up doing fairly well, and we're weighing our options about attending APE as an exhibitor this year. We shall see if the budget allows.

It was really great to see people that I haven't seen in a while, and it was awesome meeting tons of great new peeps! I managed some sweet trades (esp. Cough zine #6 and Sean Logic's Myspace Swindle zine - both highly recommended and done by cool-ass people) and our bookbinding workshop was an overwhelming success.

Anyway, we've been overhauling our Monkey + Seal site, so go check it out, as I'll probably be blogging over there much more than over here. Updates go up there MWF. Peace!