Mikayla ATC

 

This Artist Trading Card is being mailed to my lovely pen pal Joanna.

Miki and Bosie dressed for this fine wint'ry October cold we have been having here in the New Englandy/Northern states.

Trying out some new pens! I found one black Stylist pen at the library and fell in love... and promptly ordered a box of black and a few individual colored ones. They are really nice for making even my sketches look a little more like complete pieces. Toying with the idea of black with one other color as an illustation style here, I rather like it!

Feedback would be lovely!

I had fun working with this size paper and expect to do more ATCs in the near future! Want one? Email your address to me despoticpetticoat@gmail.com ! Because these are free I will NOT be taking requests as to subject matter. What you get will be completely random- but it is fun! If you don't like what you get you can leave it somewhere for someone else to take. Do you make ATCs? I would love to trade!

Materials: ATC sized Bristol, Stylist Pens

Mikayla Kind of Week

 
 

Both these pieces are from Monday's art lesson.

Mikayla is the main character from my ever-in-the-planning-stages/trying-to-get-off-the-ground comic "Eleison" which will probably reboot... again... in the near future. For real this time, I hope.

Mikayla can see angels. She also has a pet/friend mouse named Bosie. Yes, after THAT Bosie.

Mermaid

 

Mermaids were one of my favorite things to draw as a child. Second only to flowers and princesses, I believe. I spent ages trying to figure out how to draw scales on them without it looking stupid because smooth mermaids just weren't realistic. I remembered that here, obviously, though I found scales are pretty easy to fake with watercolors.

Who knew mermaids were easiest in watercolor? It seems so obvious to me now...

Tobias and Ryan

 

Lately, as far as watercolor sketches are concerned, Toby has been showing up as more of a backgroud than a character. A prop, if you will, like a cardboard cut out or something. This might be because I think of landscapes when I think of him- you know the type. Big ole landscape with little wagons and people going across it to the West. Yes, in my head, Tobias is westward expansion.

Tree Kayla- Possibly NSFW

Made small for minimal shock factor. Click to full view. Nothing horrible, just a little artistic nudity. You wouldn't wear clothes if you were turning into a tree either.

 

Considering she is from a story that features a character named Daphne that runs away from love... it might be a little ironic that recently Kayla has been appearing in paint form as a sort of tree spirit.

Young Tobias and Cara and a Tree

The title says it all. A classic "watercolor mistake", meaning that I have no idea how this happened but am so glad that it did.

TOBYCAT

Joanna, my penpal, and I have been joking about TOBYCAT for some time now. Basically he is my character Toby... as a cat. These drawings also feature: John, one of Joanna's characters and Ryan, who hopefully you know by now.

Art Contest Entry

Entry

Wish me luck! I just barely made the dead line.

The Prompt: using a randomly generated shoujo title, create a summary and dust jacket for the story you imagine for it. I got, amazingly enough "Silent Whisper Library".

My inspiration came from the bad animes of my teen years, the romantic suspense novels of my even earlier years and my current love of steampunk, mad science, silent films and being a librarian. Enjoy!

Ozma of Oz

 

Been (re)reading the original Oz books this summer. Previously I had only really read "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and "The Road to Oz"- it has been really great to FINALLY understand who Ozma is and where she came from! She is definately one of my favorite Oz femmes. ("The Marvelous Land of Oz" made General Jinjur my ABSOLUTE favorite, though I still love Dorothy and Glinda just as much as ever.)

Reading beyond the Deslow illustrated first book was something I was dreading for a long time. I was not sure if I could deal with a blonde Dorothy, but I rather like her BETTER. I love Neil's art nouveau inspired illustrations, being a bit of a Mucha nut myself, and wanted to do a tribute of sorts. So... I drew a vaguely art nouveau Ozma. I love her poppy headdress, it is so pretty!

Nostalgia

 

Kayla and Blair, old characters finally getting a happy ending. ('bout time! Now I can stop worrying about them!)

A bit of a tribute to the late, the great, the fabulous John Hughes... whose films inspired ye old story these characters are from.

The words are from Andrea Wasse's "Better Days"- everyone should go listen to her music right now. (Some of it is on Myspace.) Yeah, example two of "Colleen writes down the lyrics to whatever she is listening to as she draws", though this time it is maybe more part of the piece?

Toby Got A Hat

 

Also, I am fairly certain he put on weight... again. He does that.

The Princess

 

... she's in another castle. (And, no, this is not actually meant to be Peach. This is an original character.)

Annie is an Alchemist

 

A sketch that turned out very well. I didn't think this would go anywhere... but it did! Stay tuned for more info and a possible actual story!

Cara

 

She's a "bad faerie" from the same story as Tobias and Ryan. She is a muse, a faerie sweet-heart. She inspires artists and musicians in exchange for their love and their souls.

Theo and Wren

 

 

WIPs, illustrations for a story. Wren is a radish, a rapun, hence the hair.

Ryan has Joined the Party!

The first picture of Ryan (who is from the same story as Tobias) that looks/feels *right* to me.

Ryan is a dancer and a waitress and usually that is what I focus on with her design- but she is also a citizen of a port city, crawling with seafaring folk. This time I decided to bring out some slightly nautical themes in her dress and some serious Boston in her attitude. (Boston is MY city and it reflects in how Gauze, the fictional port city, is in my imagination. I bet it is crawling with whalers.)

So here she is, glaring at Tobias no doubt, with a dufflebag ready to join in on the adventuring.

Tobias

Sorry for the crap quality, this is a webcam shot.

Tobias is an original character of mine from a story I write with a friend. He is one of my favorites, though lately I have been getting very mad at him for eating up so much of my sketchbook and rarely looking the way he ought to. This drawing is a happy exception and possibly the best sketch of him ever.

Theo

I have been taking art lessons/work sessions with Janice, my old dance teacher. This portrait of my knight character (looking way younger, thinner and prettier than I usually like to draw him. I like him more, as a character, when he starts having his midlife crisis.)

Drawn in pencil and colored with watercolors and blue inks, I was trying to capture an almost stained glass feel. (Unfortunately it did not scan well, scanners do not like water colors nearly as much as I do.) If I were to make an all out definitive portrait of Theo it would be a stain glass window.

Not sure how long this took. Fifteen minutes? (The sketching and the coloring happened on different days.)

In the Name of The Moon

I admit it, I have a fairly large soft spot for Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon. (Please note: the characters in this image are (c) Naoko Takeuchi, but the drawing is still (c) Bombshellcat Studio aka ME.) I never liked Luna though, I much prefer boy-cat Artemis. Arty is way more laid back and cool.

This was a bookstore doodle, drawn directly in pen (so please excuse the presence of major mistakes.) This particular piece took only a few minutes to get down. Not sure how fast other people draw, but I always get the feeling that I draw fairly quickly. (I guess the only way to find out for sure is to have a duel?)

More Blair

I actually did these months ago now, but some non-watercolor Blair seemed called for by way of introduction.

The writing in the corner can just be ignored. Sometimes I take down the lyrics to whatever I am listening to on my sketch page. These particular lyrics are from Ben Folds Five's song "Mess". I guess it is a kind of Blair song, but it doesn't have to be seen as part of the piece.

Blair in Watercolor

Every once in a very great while I do a watercolor painting that I actually like. This is one such happy occassion. I think this may be the best picture of my character Blair yet! (I have been drawing him for roughly six years now.)

Blair started his life when I started high school- along with his pals Kayla, Alan, Daphne and Raine. Since then they have starred in high school sitcom sketches, science fiction, westerns, Shakespeare and various historical fiction pieces. They are my "go to" characters when I feel like trying out a new setting or story line but haven't come up with persons to populate them. I like to think of them as a drama club- and all definitions of drama tend to apply.