Pretty Pretty Pin Ups!

New store is now open! Now I just have to add the link to like everything I have online. Worth it though. I am adding to it as I go. I have a calendar's worth of images I am drawing in Illustrator right now. I was having so much fun doing them for other people I am now doing them for me. It has been a blast working on them. So check out what is there so far, remember it is still being added too for now and I need to make a banner for it.

Pretty Pretty Pin Ups at Zazzle

There is also a box for it over on the side of the blog.

Art Process

Hey there everyone! Hope your summer is going well, no one has been fried like an egg or anything have they? Can not wait until this heat wave has passed. Summer is really not my favorite time of the year. It has however allowed me to get caught up on things since I refuse to go outside. I was working on a commission last night and decided to make a post out of it. I am going to share a bit of my art process with you guys. Ready, here we go!

First, I draw a sketch of what I am going to draw and then I scan it into my computer:

It is just a quick pencil sketch done on some white paper, nothing fancy at all. So after it is all scanned in I open up Adobe Illustrator and get my layers set up. In the first layer I place the image I scanned in and lock it. I use the layers above it to draw the linework and color and shade. The next three images show you a bit of what I mean:

 

This takes about and hour or so to do, depending on how bad of a perfectionist I am being. It really is a lot of trial and error and finding out what works best for you. Now here is the final product after I have smoothed out lines and added shading and all that fun stuff:

 

Pretty cool huh? There are a ton of tutorials out there in internet land. I learned a lot from them and also just messing around with the program. I prefer to use Adobe Illustrator to draw with instead of Photoshop. Still messing with the whole digital painting thing in Photoshop. But, this is mainly how I do most of my digital illustration stuff. Hope you like my little show and tell, I know it isn't very detailed in information but I wasn't writing a tutorial.  Until next time, stay cool and try not to melt!

Author:

Kiamichi

More Pin Ups

I am taking commissions on them for a while through Fiverr. You can also go through here and Paypal if that is more convenient. $5 a pic. If you want something more elaborate it will cost more, as is it's basic black line art with out too many details, colored of course, with a simple background color. So here is the newest one I have done:


Pin Up Commission 2 by ~luksicreations on deviantART

I am having lots of fun doing these. Been wanting to for a while but life and other things were more of a priority. Now I have the time so full speed ahead!

Hats and Girlie Pics

Just a few things I have been working on. Still doing random drawings to pump up my portfolio, which is always fun, but also going to start selling some prints so I have been drawing for those too. If I get enough money together I would really like to transfer some to canvas. Also been doodling on some hats. Was hoping to get them painted and heat set for the weekend but I don't think it's going to happen cause of time. So some quick pics and then I am off to finish things up for the show at the Funky Hair Ranch in Edmond on Saturday!

Have a nice weekend! If you are in the area hope you stop by the show!

Today's Best Award Winner from Zazzle!

Ice Cream Dream iPad Speck Case by LuksiCreations
View other iphone 3 cases

Pretty cool huh. Second one I have ever gotten there. I just finished this last night too!

Puppy Love

Done in Illustrator CS3. You know how your first crush can go. You like him/her, they think you have cooties. This is my version of that.

Author:
Kiamichi Goodbear

Merry Christmas! Have some bacon!!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday with their friends and family. It's been pretty laid back here. Everyone is all warm and comfy in their flannel pajamas and fleece blankets. Coffee is flowing because the adults here all need caffeine to function. Plus, I got this awesome present from Santa:

Love it!! I got a Major Award!! I was just saying last night while watching A Christmas Story that it would be awesome to get that lamp and that I would forever love whoever was able to procure one for me. So happy to get this, you have no idea. I am such a nerd.

I also have been busy drawing things up. I am also offering custom silhouettes in the Etsy store, if you are interested. Here is my ode to pork, because who doesn't love bacon?

 

I have a warped sense of humor. I have also made a wall pattern of the background and will be putting it on items in the Zazzle store, the individual little pig will be on items as well. The whole thing will be sold as posters and maybe some other items as well. More to come so check back often!

Author:

Kiamichi

Last Vector Practice

Deciding to go ahead full steam and offer this type of service in the Etsy store, or you just contact here as well. Prices are as follows:

Single Portrait: $30

Couples: $40 ($10 for each additional person)

Full Body Portrait: $50

Black and White Line Art: $15

Here is the last practice image I worked on, I worked on this off and on cause I have been kind of nursing my hand from all the sewing I had done before Deluxe. First I will show the original image and then the vector image. Enjoy!

Original Image:

Vector Painting:

 

This one was challenging because of the hair and all the little details in the clothing. Had tons of fun with it though, the more challenging the better!

I hate coming up with titles to things

I really do. It never goes well. If I could leave everything Untitled and then just put a number after it I would. It's agonizing to me. I mean, it took me a 8 years to think of a name for my daughter (mind you I started thinking of it when I was 10) and my oldest son was almost born nameless cause we couldn't figure out what to call him until three days before he was born. I suck at it. Same thing with blog titles, art piece titles, facebook status updates, the list can get quite long. Don't even get me started on usernames for forums and other things. It makes my head want to explode. I think this is why I can't make my mind up on a decent logo and banner too. I have loads of them, just can't decide which one fits me the best cause I am really all over the place. I am a creative hurricane. I have a point in all this, I really do. It has to do with the vector painting project I am doing this week. I have another one to post today. The title sucks. Fair warning has been issued. Beware. This one is another random image pulled from some random image search I did when researching Japanese Harajuku fashion, cause I really just love it, so much insanity and cute, I adore it. Anyhow, the image is a girl with a large stuffed doll. Hence the mindblowingly awesome title of "Doll Girl", yeah, amazing isn't it. Ok, enough with the sarcasm, on to the art!

Original Image:

Cute huh, I also obviously have something for girls with pink hair. I think it may be time for me to rock the pink hair again myself. If anyone knows the source of the image, let me know. I don't have it.

The Vector Painting:

It was particularly fun drawing the tights. I love stripey things. I think I am getting the hang of this pretty well. I paint like this with acrylics all the time. Not much difference with the drawing tablet other than the fact that it's cleaner and I don't have to worry about my kids dumping my paint on the floor as they run screaming through the room.

Well, that's that. More to come. I have at least 3 others that I want to do. Then I have some original illustrations I need to finish up and get posted as well. I am having some fun with these at the moment though. Enjoy!

Vector Painting Practice

I am going to be practicing my vector painting this week so I will be posting my efforts here when I am done with them. This is the first one I have done, took me about 7 hours. Found the image on tumblr and will try and find the source, if anyone knows alert me so I can credit their photo. It is a very colorful photograph and that is the reason why I used it to practice on. So here is the original image:

Pretty isn't it. I really love her pink hair, I had hair that color once. It's fun! Now, here is the image I drew in Illustrator:

  I think the hair and the decorations in it took the most time. Also you have to remember to draw things in a certain order, or rearrange your layers after you group your paths, it is a lot more brain work doing digital art than people realize. You really have to think out each step, not that you don't have to do that when doing art by traditional methods but I think you realize it more when you are working on the computer.

Now the reason I am doing these little practice runs, I am going to start selling portraits and taking on commissions to do digital portraits for people through Etsy and Deviant Art. I decided I needed to do some dry runs before I worked on any for money. Always good to hone your skills. This should be an interesting week!

Star Wars Bunch

I made this for my son. Originally it was just a black and white coloring sheet I made for him to color in. Then I decided to color it in as well, cause I love to color. I think I may print these off as ACEO cards, but I don't know. I am a little iffy on the whole selling fan art thing. I think I am going to look into it more so I don't step on any legal toes.

Still working on new items for the upcoming Deluxe Show. Really excited! Also working on some digital cards and dolls to sell in the Etsy and Zazzle stores. Those should be up within the week, hopefully, time willing. Will be updating with new illustrations and such throughout the next few weeks. Have a lot to share!

Star Wars and Ice Cream

Things have been a little hectic, working on a project and it's kind of taken up a lot of time, hence the long wait in between posts. Here are a few pieces I am working on and will be finishing once I am done working on the current project I have to do. I will definitely post more about this project once it is completed, but until then I kind of have to just say that I am busy and some things are on the back burner until it gets completed.

So I am going to preview for you my Ice Cream Dream and Star Wars Bunch illustrations. I will also show you my extremely messy work space. I try to keep it clean, but it never stays that way.

I am going to finish this one up in Illustrator later. I really can't wait to work on it more cause I think it's cute and silly. It basically sums up my love of frozen dairy products. YUM!

It's a nice little family portrait. This one is going to be finished in Photoshop after I ink it by hand. I basically made it for my son, he is a huge Star Wars fan. He wants to take fencing cause it will be like fighting with light sabers. So he will be getting a copy of this to color all on his own once I get it inked.

Here is my laptop. I do everything on it. Everything. I also own multiple USBs and that is where I keep all my illustrations so I have enough space on my laptop to work. I love my laptop.

Yeah, here is my messy desk. It was clean a few days ago, now it looks worse than this. At least I know where everything is, it is a very organized mess. I really need to clean it again.

I am going to attempt to post every Friday from now on. I need to be more consistent. Even if I am busy and can barely check my emails. See you next week, hopefully with something interesting!

Bubblegum Baby

Done in Adobe Illustrator CS3. Another one is the series I am doing on weird holidays. This one is for Bubblegum Day in February. Will be available for prints in my Zazzle store. Please do not use without my permission.

Sugar Shock

Here is what I have been working on the last two days. It took me so long because Adobe Illustrator was being a pain in my butt and crashing. First time it crashed before I could even save anything. Next time I saved things every 5 minutes! So, yeah, those of you out there who are just now delving into the wonderful world of digital art, save your work every few minutes or end up screaming at your computer for your own stupidity. I was so upset at myself the first time that I just went to bed. I posted the line art to this in the previous post, so I am just going to put up the finished piece here in this one. Prints are available on my Zazzle site. This is one in a series I am working on for weird holidays. I think this is for National Candy Month.

I especially like the bon bon and the gumballs. They are my favorite out of the whole thing. This took me about 6 hours, mainly cause I do a lot of back and forth and I had about 17 layers. Each piece of candy was its own layer and group. Plus, I am still just not as quick with digital art as I am otherwise. Mainly because of the whole saving issue I spoke of earlier. Still not second nature to me yet. Really I am just a perfectionist who redoes everything at least 3 times before I am semi happy with it. More to come in this series, next is this cute little ice cream freak or the bubble gum girl, haven't decided yet. Plus more to draw out. Have a really fun Star Wars one I am working on.

Bubblegum and Sugar Attacks

I have a few illustration in the making. They are two in a series I am working on dealing with fun and weird holidays. Potentially they will become a calendar, but I am having some creative issues with a couple of months out of the year, mainly January, April, and December. The rest I have ideas for. I also may turn them into a coloring book as well to sell on Lulu.com but I am still debating that idea. I am going to make them all digital illustrations though and sell prints of them on Zazzle. I also have some digital paper dolls I am working on. I love paper dolls, I used to play with them all the time as a kid.

The girl is for Bubblegum Day in February. I wanted something cute and what is cuter than a little girl with curls blowing a bubble with her gum. The finished one won't have all the black inking on it. The pile of candy is for National Candy Month in June. I may or may not keep it inked in black. I still haven't made my mind up on it yet. Plus the image is sideways, thanks blogger. I will post these up as soon as I get them finished. Hopefully soon cause I am getting frustrated with my lack of time due to crazy family, end of the school year stuff. I also may just finish up my other sketches and then color all of them. Decisions, decisions, decisions. Also, may be making some jewelry soon too. Still thinking on that though.

Blog Mentions! oh my!

I have been mentioned on a blog for the work I did on "The Quilt That Wouldn't Quit". I have never been mentioned on a blog before so I am kind of geeking out a bit. It is nice being recognized for your work. Here is the link:

http://blackthreads.blogspot.com/2010/03/quilt-that-woldnt-quilt-by-cynthia.html
Go check it out!

If you want to see all the illustrations for the book, plus a few concept illustrations for it you can go to my deviant art gallery here:

http://luksicreations.deviantart.com/gallery/#Quilt-Book-Illustrations

Cowboy Aliens from Space Stole my Princess Cake

New illustrations, and yes they are for sale as prints and other items in the Zazzle store. These are just some really cute designs and drawings I came up with for a proposal that didn't come to fruition. I liked them so much I decided to use them for myself since they weren't going to be used otherwise. Such is the way things go when you are bidding for work though.






I especially like the one with all the sugary food. MMMMMMMMM sugary food. Makes me want to make cupcakes. Too bad I am all out of sugar. :(

Still tweaking the new site a bit. Should be up and running soon as long as nothing comes up and eats my money, like evil student loans >_<.