let summer begin!

my brain was already in full summer mode a few days ago (which is bad because I only finished my last paper at, oh, 5:30 this morning) but nevertheless! Here is some new artwork; a short comic and some sketches. I’ve been really obsessed with detail lately, having read Will Eisner’s A Contract With God and Craig Thompson’s Blankets– both artists are less about the screentones, which I have used a lot in previous work, and more about details in the lineart. It’s fun to sit and see how many perfectly straight lines you can draw.

…wait, is that not fun for anyone else?

Onward! here’s a short comic, featuring one of my old characters:

I went to Books of Wonder with Mike the other day and picked up A Practical Guide to Wizardry, and this is what happened:

Lolita-fashion inspired:

another old character gets a makeover:

Also here’s an obligatory Paula Deen drawing in honor of Mother’s Day:

Until next time! I’m freeeeeeeee, finally!

Mini-comic finished + summer illustration project

So, I did choose to continue the comic I started last time, after all (hence the really subtle title). As to an official title for the comic… um… yeah I don’t know. I’m terrible with titles. It can’t be as blunt as THE BREAKUP HOMG or as stupidly shoujo and melodramatic as HEALING THE HEART.

the working title right now is “Paper Trail”.

I’ve posted the first few pages last time, but I’ll post the entirety of it here. Hope y’all enjoy reading it! I’m going to make more mini-comics.

Last summer, I did the 30 day drawing challenge, which, while I did not finish, I got through a majority of. This summer my project will be to illustrate His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. I don’t know whether I’m going to go chapter by chapter, or two illustrations per chapter, or a conglomeration of it. I love those books beyond anything else; they’ve helped me more than any other books I’ve ever read, and this summer is a great time to make an homage to them.

Here’s the comic:

In other news:

• today is beautiful
• I am not stressing about finals… yet
• I am excited for the summer like WHOA
• I am working on a new crochet project
• A good chocolate croissant can bring a world of joy
• Kyoto cherry rose tea is heavenly
• SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER SUMMER
• Neyrelle and I entered the Paula Deen website giveaway sweepstakes.
• The NYC buses flash their destinations in all-caps, so I read them in Billy Mays’ voice. I realized this morning crossing the street that I kind of miss Billy Mays.

Oh, also, this lovely new tea shop just opened up on St. Mark’s Place, between 1st Av and Av A. It’s called Graffitea, and if you’re in the area, it is so worth checking out. Alice and Ilana are wonderful and their tea selection is amazing and delicious. SO YOU SHOULD ALL GO. THEY ARE NEW. GIVE THEM BUSINESS.

See you next week!

self-deprecating comics and a few Lolitas

Glad I got back into the swing of scanning and uploading my drawings again, and glad I’ve taken time to do some more drawings/comics! I went to MoCCA Fest this weekend, and apart from meeting the lovely Betty Felon of Fashion Tips From Comic Strips, I also chatted with quite a few artists and got some inspiration. If you guys are up to reading about it, I blogged it here (ps: follow me on Tumblr for the frequent Paula Deen/Hayao Miyazaki/random writing/comics reviews spam)!

On to the drawings! I don’t think my mom ever wanted me to become a comics artist, but oh well! Here’s what the rest of the kids in my college have been up to:

I am also prone to fits of raeg. For previous raeg, see here; same reason, same problem:

In contrast to the RAEG, have some lolitas:

I thought about how much high school sucked in my psych lecture (we were going over SPSS… I probably will have no idea how to do the statistical analysis when it comes time. But my data suck anyway. I can never become a researcher, alas) :

Last, but not least, have a comic of the Boy:

Paula’s Kitchen From Hell

The muses must be smiling down upon me (either that or I finally realized that I will have more hours to draw if I don’t sleep, and in my insomniatic delirium I produce masterpieces) but OH MY GOD a new blog post in less than a week after my last one! What is this world coming to?!

I’ve only just begun to re-realize how good it feels to draw for yourself and to just break loose and have fun. Forget how much those pens cost (I think I’m more productive when I use a fine-point Sharpie than when I use my “good art pens”) and give in to your imagination.

Except in my case my imagination looks something like this:

It’s the Butter Queen herself, with Saladfingers to boot! This should not be surprising, seeing as how every time Neyrelle and I get together for dinner we end up  quoting Paula from this video: 

You’re welcome. It will now be stuck in your head forever. Here’s some visual reference for Neyrelle’s and my tea parties:

I have to give the boy some credit; he puts up with me making Saladfingers noises at him. For that, he gets a drawing. But no, really (also I was in dire need of perspective/background practice and I have a pretty good memory of what his cafe looks like) :

Alas, the right wall doesn’t bend like that. Next time, wall, NEXT TIME I will get you for sure!

Neyrelle and I stayed up all night watching Avatar, The Last Airbender, one lovely night during spring break. I love Toph!

On Saturday, Mike and I went to lunch, to Tokyo Rebel (where I gazed and touched and cried blood and tears because I haven’t made nearly enough to afford one of those gorgeous Lolita dresses yet) and then to a bagel place where we sat down and drew self-portraits of each other. I adore his use of color and his collage work; GO LOOK AT HIS ART RIGHT NOW.

Last, but not least, a preview: I’m currently working on a new comic for class (and by Thor, it will be finished this time) and was playing around with this character’s outfit:

If I’m this productive within the next week and can manage ANOTHER update, it will be a miracle. Here’s hoping. Hope you guys have a lovely week! Don’t forget to get your eight hours every night, as I’m sitting here yawning my head off in the computer lab and desperately wishing I had a cup of strong tea.

While it’s hailing out, have some doodles

Good lord. I promised I’d be updating this blog more frequently once the school year started, didn’t I? Well, that failed spectacularly. -_-

This semester I’ve been juggling three different jobs (freelancing, tutoring and store-clerk-ing) along with all my classes (Chinese is killing me. KILLING ME) and a semi-social life that mostly consists of watching Paula Deen on Friday nights while devouring hamburgers, tea and cookies. Let me tell you, she’s inspired some bizarro illustrations that I am in the process of drawing. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

So in between Paula Deen and class and dancing to Taylor Swift when the store is empty on Fridays and watching all the lights in Manhattan from somewhere in Brooklyn with a boy who loves the Rangers (romantic, right?) I… kind of failed to update. And draw for myself.

But I have a minute now, and I am in the process of getting through a couple more freelance projects… so hopefully I’ll be updating a bit more often. Fingers crossed. By next Wednesday I will probably be tearing my hair out over Chinese and psych lab and updating will be the last thing on my mind, but a girl can dream. The power to stop time would be really handy right about now.

Anyways! Drawings: some fanart (I’ve loved Sakura ever since Cardcaptor Sakura; imagine how excited I was in high school to see her again in Tsubasa); a diagram of how much I am a disappointment to my mother; and lastly a steampunk revamp of an old, old character. In that order:

winter break shenanigans

hello!

I’m terribly sorry I haven’t been updating as regularly as I would like. One would think that winter break, of all things, would prompt more frequent updates! But no, alas.Being home in Connecticut made me sluggish and sleepy, and all I wanted to do was eat and sew things (which I did… more on that in a bit). So while I spent my two weeks home being crafty and the last few weeks being productive (going to work, buying art supplies with Christmas money, painting and doodling incessantly, finding inspiration in all sorts of places) this blog still remained neglected.

Well, I’m blowing off the cobwebs.

I have really gotten into Lolita fashion lately, and while three-hundred dollar dresses are lovely, they are also three-hundred-dollar dresses, to be saved up for and cherished forever. But definitely not garments to be bought on a regular basis. But they are all so pretty! What is a girl to do? Make one, of course. I was lucky enough to score this $5 Charlotte Russe, sweetheart-neckline basic black dress off the clearance rack at the mall, and with a couple yards of fabric, some lace and buttons, turned it into this (also pardon my holey stockings) :

But wait, there’s more! I am also crocheting a sweater to go with the dress, because, as you can see, the cardigan I have on in the photo is too long and doesn’t compliment it in the best way. More on that when I finish.

Now, for actual drawings. I’ve been painting quite a bit:

This was watercolor layered on over Micron pen; I went over it again after I put the colors on to make those black lines nice and crisp.

I really like dry-brushing as opposed to wet brush layering– maybe that just means I’m a terribly impatient person, but I also like the way colors come out when you slather on the shades.

And here are two not-so-recent paintings from the summer that I haven’t scanned and uploaded until now:

I think my drawings of dead people have gotten a little more refined, don’t you?

till next time (hopefully it won’t be over a month!)

cheers,

Wendy

Adventure Time! And other bored class doodles

I have been alternating between hating everyone in physics and hating everyone in world cultures; class has really been a sorry affair so far, but things are getting better. I made a friend in physics and we make jabs at freshman philosophy majors (not aimed at all at the freshman philosophy major who sits behind us and makes allusions to obscure forms of psychoanalysis that he says don’t work, namedrop, namedrop namedrop, Freud Camus Aristotle Sophocles Socrates Aristophanes Sun Tzu Laozi etc.)

World Cultures recitation, however, was lovely on Wednesday. Our TA, Ayako, said she had a treat for us– that we could spend fifteen minutes in class quietly reading from Kenko’s Essays in Idleness and then we would, GASP, get to go outside, enjoy the beautiful weather, and write little diary entries for half an hour, inspired by Kenko’s observational style! I was so happy. Except my happiness was nearly spoiled by the kids in my class who “did not understand the assignment”; “is this going to be on the exam”, etc. DIE. Anyway. Here are some more doodles from class and from late night ideas fueled by chocolate cupcakes and fried sesame seed dough things.

I love the cute stringy |: face style of Adventuretime.

I also still have a fondness for blazers and loose socks, the byproduct of too much anime in high school:

And clothes. I think I saw this somewhere on Yesstyle.com

And a random super-fine pen comic I doodled in writing class.

I hope class is less stab-inducing for everyone else!

Drawing Challenge Day 7: Favorite Movie

Everyone enjoys a good revenge storylined bloodbath with highly stylized violence and lots of chopped off limbs. Bonus points if it’s set either entirely or partially in Japan.

Drawing Challenge Day 3: favorite food

Ah, is there nothing more refreshing in summer (and any time of year) than a cold cup of bubble tea? The silky jasmine (or taro, or peach, or lychee, or almond) flavors sliding over your tongue and the sweet chewiness of tapioca bubbles… Bubble tea has been the centerfold of many a late night gossip session. It is the drink of choice when I’m sitting in a park and pondering over far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells and a prince in disguise (god I do love that movie!).

Some taro bubble tea:

And a few more

More twenty minute doodles! A gypsy fiddler, fancy hatted girl, one of my friends, a mermaid and a steampunk aardwolf. Good requests.