Merry Christmas!!!

This would have made for a lengthy Facebook post, and I haven't posted on here for awhile, so seems like it all works out!!    =-)


I just wanted to write and say, a genuine THANK YOU to everyone that has been a supporter of my art in 2015. The artistic opportunities I have had this year were mind boggling, certainly ones I never would have seen myself being asked to do. Donating art baskets for the community, having my art displayed at the library, teaching two more classes at the library's teen anime program and being asked to participate in their comic con,  and all the commissions I was asked to do this year!!!  It's the first year that I sold my art out of state (went to New Jersey, all because someone from tumblr commissioned me!!),  and I had my biggest ever order that I worked on over the last two months, which included Christmas cards and several 8x10 drawings. I am certainly not saying any of this to brag or boast... I am completely humbled, and it is only because of people believing in me and liking the kind of art that I do that makes it possible. I have the lowest self confidence ever, and so when people ask for my work specifically, it completely boggles my mind. I never take it for granted, and it makes me want to work harder to put all of my heart into the work I create.

Thank you for being a fan, for being a customer, for being a friend. Thank you for your support of my art in 2015!!!

Many wishes for a blessed Christmas!!!

-Stasia-Chan '15

Highlights from Inktober!!! =-)

Hey guys!!!  =-)    Sorry for the delay in putting up a new post. Things have been extremely busy and stressful lately!!  

Since inktober ended a few weeks ago (the end of October), I have been wanting to do a quick post to highlight some of my favorite sketches from the month!!  But I had to finish up coloring a few of them, since that was my major goal for inktober!  But everything is finished now, and so I am going to share my favorites with you!!!   =-) 

This chibi of Sailor V in a fifties inspired outfit was a favorite from the first day of inktober!! ^^ 

 My "fifties mania" has been running rampant in my sketching lately, and that's OK!!!  This chibi of Maryellen Larkin from "American Girl" was really fun to color, and it had been awhile since I'd drawn eyes that big!!! 

I think the hands turned out badly on this one, but I really liked pulling out all my orange and red markers to color this autumn themed sketch. And I had fun using my Staedtler fine tip markers for the designs on her dress!!   ^^

About six or seven of my inktober sketches were centered on a little pig that ends up flying away in a hot air balloon, and then makes it back home again. These were two of my favorites from that little storyboard session... It was funny drawing all those gushing tears on the piggy in the drawing on top, and also funny to make Alice-Chan the bad wolf!! The bottom drawing was the final picture in the series, and I liked drawing and coloring a happy ending for everyone.   ^^

I'm always happy to draw anything Clintasha related!!! Sweetest Day seemed like a good opportunity...   ;-) 

These three pictures you see above are more fifties frenzied drawings... I really can't seem to help myself lately in this area, but it's a good thing!!!  ;-)    The top drawing was especially fun because I really just sat down and let the pencil do what it wanted... and the end result was kind of cool!  The center and bottom drawings are both supposed to be the same girl, and she's a possible character sketch for a project I hope to make happen... I've been meaning to sit down and look into fifties names for a few character sketches. I like her design right now, but I'm not quite satisfied with her hair color, and I need a few more lessons in coloring white anime hair!!!  xD

We were watching "Charlotte", and anime   by Key Animation ( we LOVE their anime!!!), and I was in love with how funny and cute Ayumi was right from the start. So I decided to try fitting her in my inktober sketches!!  

And of course, it's ALWAYS fun to draw Ponyo!!!!   =-)  

My final drawing from inktober was probably my favorite... Nao Tomori, one of the lead characters in the "Charlotte" anime was just such a strong character presence from the start, and I just knew I had to draw her and get it out of my system... but that only made me want to draw her more, haha!!!  It's all going to be a matter of finding the time to do some more sketches of her!!!  



And now... if you made it all the way through this post, I have a few sneak peeks for you....

 This is one of my Christmas card designs!!!   I'll be making prints from the card designs for all our cards this year, but I haven't been showing them yet because I like Christmas surprises!!   =-)  I've done four designs in all, and this will be the one that I send to our "fandom" friends.   =-)    I drew a Baby Groot Christmas card for one family last year and they just loved it, so I wanted to do something like that again, but a little bit different.

This, is a very, VERY rough sketch from a commission I am working on for a customer!!  This whole drawing is an 8x11.5, and will also be made into prints for their Christmas cards!!! Since sharing this with the customer a few weeks ago, the piece has been adjusted a bit and inked, and I am ready to start coloring soon!!!!  I have been trying to lay out a few more of their commissions so that I can ink them and get the basic colors started on those as well, so there has been a lot of art to keep me busy!!!

Other news in my life include having recently turned 26 and having a total breakdown (I feel incredibly old now), getting to go to the "American Girl Place" in Columbus, OH, and buying Maryellen for my birthday (the only downfall is that she is sooo cute, and all her collection is sooo cute, that I want to spend all my art money on more of her cute clothes and fifties stuff!!!), reorganizing a little bit at a time in my house this week, being involved as assistant stage manager for our community's upcoming Christmas play, and starting to feel a wee bit panicked overall about the upcoming holiday rush... And so!!!   =-)


I'll end with a picture of me and my Maryellen doll... don't I look older???

-Stasia-Chan '15

Some of My Favorite Manga References

Let's face it:  we're totally living in a day and age where you can download any artistic reference pictures you want from the internet.

We live in an age for technology... everyone has smartphones or tablets on their person at all times, and so if you're stuck in an artistic bind... can't remember how far apart to space manga eyes? ... you google it, and BOOM! A million pictures and tutorials will pop up from all over the world. That is pretty amazing, right?

And, it's just easier most of the time to keep all of your reference/art ideas stored on your smartphone or device. Most of these are pocket size, or can be carried in your purse or art tote. I'm guilty of this myself... I have a huge folder on my tablet that I use for saving art inspiration ideas, pose references, color schemes, etc... So I'm not against it. But I was sketching out some ideas for fifties themed girls this past week, and I happened to pull out one of my favorite Manga reference books for a reference on drawing sweater texture. I keep most of these books right by my desk, in a drawer for easy access, but I don't use them as much as I should!! I've kept that book on my desk the rest of the week, just looking over some of the poses and texture ideas again, and so I thought it might make an interesting blog post to share some of the tutorial books and authors I have used and enjoyed learning from over the years!!!

By the way, I am a VERY big fan of teaching yourself to draw just by looking at your favorite manga or anime characters. That's exactly how I started out!  But, you need to get a little more in depth in your study and progression of the manga art style. It's unique for a reason, and just drawing your favorite characters, while it will help you get started, won't teach you everything you need to know. I'm just throwing out a list of the top three artists whose tutorial books have helped me (and you probably will be familiar with at least one or two of these!), but if you go to the art section in Barnes and Noble, you can now find dozens of manga art teaching books, whereas before, they were few and far between. So if you don't like one artist's style or way of teaching, find one that works for you!!  Manga art is about VARIETY!!   =-)



1. )     Chris Hart is the artist whose tutorial books I first started checking out from the library. He has several different ones available!! Now, this is a side note, but I've learned over the last few years that a lot of artists don't care for Hart's work anymore. It's hard to figure out the reasons why, but my understanding is that people don't like that the art styles in his books are not consistent with each other. This is because Hart does not do all the tutorials and poses himself, but with a team of other artists. That's never bothered me, because, as I said before... manga art is about variety!!  Not every style of manga art has to have the same style to be manga. And the genres are always changing! But anyway... when I first started really getting into this art style, I checked out tons of his books from the library and just did my best to follow along with the guided drawings. I own a few of his books as well! And he's always coming out with more!!  =-)

 "Manga for the Beginner: Chibis" was one of the first books I pored over , and I ended up buying it! This book is all about chibis. Chibi types, chibi houses, chibi pets... Super cute and lots of fun things to try drawing!!

 "Manga Mania: Shoujo" I also ended up buying. The art styles definitely vary in this one, but you get a lot of variety in things to draw, from princesses to sci-fi warriors... all in the shoujo "girl" style.

I don't own this one, but I was first to check it out from the library a few years ago when it came out! "Manga for the Beginner: Kawaii" is one of my favorite books of his, ever. I didn't know a lot about the kawaii style until going over this book and learning to draw the style myself.  This book also has a bonus section that focuses on the "Moe" style of shoujo as well!!

I'm always looking for good romantic poses to use, and this book has a lot of helpful references.

Above is an example of one of the "Moe" tutorials in the Kawaii book. How cute!!!  ^^

I can't remember what book this is from, but I know it's one of his female character centered books. A lot of variety in poses to try!!



2.)   Mark Crilley. If you are in the manga art world at all and haven't heard his name come up, you must be living under a rock. Considered the #1 manga artist and YouTube guru in America, Crilley had success with a few of his own manga series before putting out his first tutorial book, "Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley".  He also has a YouTube channel and is faithful in uploading a new tutorial video once a week, which is impressive, considering that he's got to be one busy guy! Mark's approach to manga art is fantastic, and while the pictures in his tutorial book might look daunting at first, the approach he takes with giving the guidelines is easy for anyone to follow and practice!

I own the first book, "Mastering Manga". It has many helpful references inside!!!  Here are a few below..

A year or so ago, he also put out a second book, simply titled, "Mastering Manga 2". It's a step up from the first book, and a helpful reference as well!

3. )  Irene Flores may not be as well known as the first two, but she's put out several books already and all of them are very helpful! Her first two books are titled "Shojo Fashion: Year One" and "Year Two". I've checked out "Year One" from the library several times, and bought "Year Two" a few years ago for my birthday. I LOVE using these as a reference, especially when referencing fabrics and textures. In following her books, you're surprised to find how easy she makes things look!

 I own "Year Two" of her Shojo Fashion series, and it's one of the best books I've bought and used the most.

Most of her guidelines revolve around drawing clothing properly, from textures, to wrinkles, to pleats and creases... But she also throws in tips for character design, and there are also many nice poses you can reference from!

By the way, she draws children ADORABLY.

I recently borrowed her latest books, "Shojo Fashion Boys" from the library, and this is a GREAT reference book if, like me, drawing guys is still intimidating to you. Lots of great guidelines to follow here, and this is a book I am definitely interested in purchasing for more reference use!



So, these are the artists whose reference/tutorial books have been the greatest help to me, and I am always learning!!  Have you heard of these artists? Do you keep up with their work? If not, I hope I've given you some new reference ideas to choose from!!   =-)


-Stasia-Chan '15

Inktober, My Biggest Marker Piece EVER, and A Kawaii History Lesson!!

IT'S INKTOBER!!!!!    =-D 

Yay!!!!  I have been so excited for this after participating my first time last year.  <3  Starting on October 1st, the idea is just making it a point to doodle something every day. It can be as big or small as you want it to be, as long as you're drawing one thing every day for the whole month. It's a fun project!!!  I still have my little sketchbook I bought for Inktober last year, and I'm excited to use it again!!  I've been going through seeing what I doodled last year, and the majority of my doodles were done backstage in the dark, while I served as stage manager for "The Crucible"... for drawing in the dark, there are actually a few salvageable ones, LOL!!   ;-)

I FINALLY finished this piece this week!!! Hmm... Now that I think about it, I'm not sure it qualifies as my biggest marker piece ever... My Charlotte's Web and Rei Hino pieces were about the same size. I guess this one feels bigger because there a lot of little details?  Anyway, this was super fun to work on, and I found myself pulling it out when I just felt like I needed to relax a bit. Marker coloring is usually very relaxing to me!!! I think this would be a great picture to offer as print. I don't see myself parting with the original... I love it too much!!!  <3


It's no secret to most people that I'm a big history buff. And after touring Colonial Williamsburg during our vacation last week, I've really had history on the brain. And that makes me think of a lot of things I would love to draw that are about history or that might encourage others to become interested in history! I've been brainstorming and I would really love to do little 8-10 page "chapters" of manga about something in history... for example, the fifties housewife (because this is something I've been very interested in lately).  However, we all know that I'm pretty ADHD when it comes to sticking with one project in art, so...  xD     I think this would be my ultimate goal in achieving something with history. A few other ideas I've had are to do sketch cards titled "Humans of History", and give them a bit of narrative like the "Humans of New York" photographs. Also, to make some "Historical Fun Fact" note cards that you can buy in a set and then send the historical fun to your friends.  Anyway, those are just some ideas... they sound a bit scatterbrained, even to me!  I'd really love to make this happen in the future though, and so I'm always researching and writing down ideas... I think I hold myself back a lot of times. I think I have a good idea, but then I talk myself out of it because I think that it sounds silly to share with others. I'm not good at getting people interested in my art because I'm shy and just hold back in advertising to people what I'm doing most of the time... I know I need to put myself out there more!!


It's a busy weekend for us here, so I'm even more excited about Inktober, because this will keep me doing some art every day, even on the busy ones!!!  

-Stasia-Chan '15

Watercolor Play

(Hey! Two blog posts in one month??  The world must be ending!)   .... (See what I did there?? ;-o )


Hello again, art friends!!

So, I think I've mentioned before that watercolors are really not my forte. But I've also mentioned that I would really like to improve with watercolors. For many reasons, but the two main reasons for me are: 1, I find it relaxing to lay paint down on paper, even if the turn out isn't the best... xD   And 2, because most watercolor blends well with Copic Marker, and if I could get a feel for watercoloring, I might be able to save some on marker expense.

Sooo...

My biggest problem in watercolor has always been not being able to mix a nice skin tone. And that was frustrating, because most of my drawings need a smooth skin coloring!!! I watched this awesome tutorial by Megan Carrigan, a famous Disney art watercolorist, on how to properly mix skin color. And I had been making the mistake of trying to mix white and pink or yellow to get a peachy color for skin. So after watching her tutorial (which wasn't even very long or complicated!),  I decided to sit right down and try what she was doing, AND IT WORKED!!!!   I was very excited. The tutorial I watched was here...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1LOsq-uh9M


Anyway, I had sketched this piece of Sailor Mercury from one of the manga volumes. It was sketched on watercolor paper, and so it seemed like a good subject to try watercoloring again.

And this picture above is right after I mixed skin tones and tested them.... Once I got the light consistency I wanted, I was shocked how good it looked after I applied it!!!!  I was so excited!!! I love learning new art abilities.. It feels like leveling up in a Mario game or something!!!   <3

The picture below was the finished watercolors. While I thought it looked nice, I knew that adding more depth to the colors would make it even nicer, and I also wanted to give the bubbles more of an edge. But I was afraid to try adding more with watercolor, because it looked nice enough that I didn't want to risk messing up if I didn't really know what I was doing  (and I probably don't xD).

But, I have used Copic and watercolor before, and so I added extra shading and detail with marker!

The finished version really seems to pop now with the added color from the Copics. I didn't touch up her skin much, just added a touch of shade here and there because I didn't want to lose the original color.  I'm very proud of this one, because I really worked to make the watercolors nice and even, and it turned out way better than I imagined!!!

So after I finished this, I decided to try a second one, again with a sketch taken from one of the manga books, this time using Mini Moon as the subject.

My process for this picture was pretty similar to the Mercury one, and so below is the final version after applying Copic!

These have been my projects over the last few days... and learning the new watercolor tips has helped already, because I've been able to apply it to some secret Christmas surprises for people. ;-)  I'm also enjoying using my new watercolor pens that hold water in them... very nice and very portable. We're getting ready to take a family vacation this week, so I'm excited to take these brushes with me and try some painting on the trip!!  ^^

It's always fun to learn something new!!!  I'm excited to start another drawing soon... maybe Sailor Saturn or Sailor V next... I've been on a Sailor Moon kick recently, it seems!!!  ;-)

-Stasia-Chan '15

The Screenshot Challenge

Things have been really busy most of the summer, so there wasn't a lot of time for serious art. But I finally got a break last week, where I got to spend almost the whole week drawing and catching up, and so I decided to finally do something I've been wanting to do for a long time:   A screenshot challenge!!!

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is really a thing or not. But I had this cute screenshot of Rei Hino from "Sailor Moon" saved on my tablet, and I thought it would be fun to try drawing it to see how close I could get to the original. And then I just finished watching the first season of "Sailor Moon", and so that kind of inspired me to go ahead and do this challenge.

                                                          This is the screenshot I used!!




   

The pencils and inking on this piece were fun to do.  I decided to use watercolor paper, since I wanted to color it with markers and know that watercolor paper doesn't make the colors bleed over as much.

My version ended up being more of a close up than the original screenshot, so I had to change a few things in the layout of the background. Some of the coloring was tricky, like the tree behind her, and also the building and sky we see in the distance has a purplish wash over the whole area... which is something I don't normally try to do, but looked really cool!!!

Once I got close to being finished, some of gray tone Copics started to get really streaky... because this paper is more durable and sucks in the ink, and also because there was so much gray area to be colored. So I was really upset... I had come this far and it was looking so nice, and I didn't want to leave it streaky looking!! So I pulled out my Prismacolor pencils and started trying to blend over top of the streaked gray areas. It took A LOT of blending, but I got it to look just like the marker, and so that is what I used to finish the sidewalk and street behind Rei!

 This is what the finished version looked like before I added a little bit of shading to her jumpers and skin...

... and then here is the final version with just a tad of shading. I decided to not go too heavy on the shading, since there was none in the screenshot!!!

This was just something really fun to do. I think that I could have gotten a bit closer in a few spots, but overall, I think I did a nice job, because this was something I was really into doing. When you're really into a project, you're going to do your best on it!!   =-)


Oh, and since we're talking about screenshots, here's another screenshot picture I did earlier this year, and just got around to coloring!!  This one is on regular sketch paper, so I colored it with Prismacolor pencil. I'm really satisfied with the blending on this, and that it looks so nice and smooth!!! 

I'm going to be working on another screenshot picture soon!!!  In the meantime, I'm working on a few other things that I've been wanting to catch up on, like my Alice in Wonderland picture, and some of my "Little Women" sketches. I'm also trying to sell some of the art that I have sitting on my desk taking up space, like sketch cards and a few cups that I did. I'm at a point right now where there isn't much going on and so I can focus a bit more on some of my forgotten art and not feel like I'm neglecting other stuff!!! 

Have you ever done something like the screenshot challenge?   If so, I'd love to hear about it or see it!!! 


-Stasia -Chan  '15